Infusing disability justice in general education teacher preparation settings: An imperative for inclusion

Drawing on critical literacy as a theoretical framework, this paper explores how a children’s book writing assignment designed to center the experiences of underrepresented communities in children’s literature contributed to shifts in awareness among predominantly White teacher candidates. The study occurred at a large urban university in California and included 77 participants who all participated in a required Literacy Methods course in a teacher preparation program. Teacher candidate surveys and critical content analysis of candidate-authored books revealed that candidates: (1) selected topics to write about because they had a personal connection to the issue or because of its relevance to their students; (2) created books that evidenced their ability to apply traditional literacy concepts through a critical lens, (3) evidenced a deepened understanding of representation and diversity in children’s literature. Findings highlight the importance of critical literacy experiences in teacher preparation as a way to develop teacher candidates’ critical lens. Implications include the importance of integrating critical literacy with traditional literacy content – it is not something “extra;” the need for a critical perspective to be an integral part of Teacher Performance Expectations and standards; and the need for ongoing professional development for both teachers and teacher educators.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to assess the effectiveness of a new general education program at Qatar University (QU) in achieving English writing and critical thinking outcomes. Design/methodology/approach – Collegiate Assessment of Academic Proficiency (CAAP) test was used as direct assessment tool to identify the extent to which QU students are making progress with respect to general education outcomes, and how well QU students perform compared to US students on general education outcomes that are measured by the CAAP test. Findings – Findings show evidence that students make progress in English and critical thinking during their QU educational careers. However, QU students lag well behind their US counterparts in writing skills, but they performed relatively better in critical thinking and essay writing. Research limitations/implications – The sample of students tested was limited to students who met certain criteria. Therefore, the sample was neither representative nor random and does not reflect the performance of the entire student body. English is a second language for most QU students, and cultural differences as well as students’ high school preparation and quality of faculty at QU add to the complexity of the study. Practical implications – Research finding may have implication on the general education program curriculum plan, assessment process, assessment plan and tools. It may also trigger comprehensive review of courses addressing writing and critical thinking skills. Moreover, the findings will have impact on institutional total approach and support to retain and enhance some of the cornerstone skills that general education program promise to achieve. The pilot study, results and findings can have implications on similar GCC general educations programs that focus on English writing and critical thinking skills. Originality/value – This original pilot study indicates a need for improvement of internal assessment processes and reconsideration of general education program courses contributing to skills examined. It also provides evidence on students’ performance on two important generic skills, both are important for QU and its stakeholders. The study’s findings are of broad interest to assess the efficacy of internal assessment at international institutions using an internationally available standardized test.

In the context of rapid economic development, qualified personnel provision is of decisive importance in achieving planned national goals and strategic objectives. The physical education and sports sector is not left without attention. In the context of personnel shortages and the need to introduce practice-oriented training, the state, having initially established strict requirements for admission to work only for qualified citizens in all types of professional activity, began to introduce an optional option for admission to work for students, starting with teaching staff. Thus, options for employment of students receiving higher education were established at the legislative level. However, for adult students receiving pedagogical secondary vocational education, the legislator has established optional options for hiring, but only for the implementation of educational programs of preschool and primary general education. Considering this decision to be insufficiently substantiated, the authors propose to review the established approaches to the admission of adult students mastering secondary vocational education programs in the field of physical education and sports, adjusting the optional option by supplementing it with educational programs of basic and secondary general education, as well as additional general educational programs.

This study highlights the efforts of Indiana University East to make substantive changes to its general education program, resulting primarily from state mandates and legislation, on an extremely aggressive timeline. While fraught with challenges, these legislative mandates also presented opportunities for the institution to make necessary and impactful improvements to its general education curriculum, policies, and procedures that may not have occurred without the looming deadlines and requirements of the legislation. Indiana is one of several states that have enacted and implemented similar legislation, causing curricular and procedural change in general education programs throughout the nation. While often difficult to manage, these legislative measures can be viewed as opportunities at institutions, like Indiana University East, that desperately needed general education reform.

All education systems in the world are designed to guide people in learning a culture, moulding their behaviour in the ways of adulthood, and guiding them towards eventual role in the society. It is the platform that provides and facilitates knowledge creation and transfer. The purpose of this paper is to examine the general education programme currently being implemented by three universities in Malaysia. They are Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM), University of Malaya (UM) and Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM). It discusses the purpose, the structure and the content of general education. It also tries to answer questions such as how much time is allocated to general education subjects; when do the students take these subjects; concentrated or spread; are the subjects freely elected or offered as a compulsory programme or loose series of elective courses, and what are the courses that are considered to be under general education. Finally, the paper concludes with some suggestions for improving general education programme.

This study investigates the impact of the extension of the duration of general education on educational opportunities and labour market performance. Taking the example of the Polish education reform of 1999, which we treated as a natural experiment, we used a regression discontinuity design and estimated the effects of an additional year of general education on the relative opportunities for rural and urban children to obtain secondary general, secondary vocational, or tertiary education and on their wages. Although the impact was quantitatively small, a shift towards increased enrolment in general education programmes was observed. Whereas prolonged compulsory education translated to higher wages for basic and secondary vocational school graduates from rural areas, it did not do so, for those from urban areas.

This study documents one teacher candidate's conceptions about the inclusion of children with special needs in the general education classroom and how these conceptions changed over time. The study illustrates which experiences contributed to an individual's evolving understandings and changing attitudes towards inclusion. Throughout a 15‐week literacy methods course, the researcher collected data in the form of observations, interviews, course reflections, and other written assignments. Using grounded theory and constant comparative methods for analyzing data, the researcher discovered how a teacher candidate struggled to understand the purposes and goals of inclusion and was resistant to the idea of teaching students with disabilities. Class readings and course discussions appeared to heighten feelings of frustration and concern; however, making connections between course activities and actual classroom teaching practices and reconsidering the role of the teacher in inclusive classrooms assisted the teacher candidate in forming a commitment to teaching students with disabilities. Findings raise questions and offer possibilities for how to prepare teacher candidates for inclusive classrooms.

The paper explores the nature of the administrative contract, its unique features and application possibilities in general education. The aim of the study is to analyze how the administrative contract can be applied in the general education of Latvia, emphasizing it’s importance in managing the responsibilities of pupils and institutions. The results show that these contracts provide a framework for clarifying the responsibilities and rights of educational institutions, pupils and parents. The content of the administrative contract can be characterized incategorized under two parts: mandatory and optional. The mandatory part provides an agreement on learning in the general education program. It’s content derives from the specifics of the educational program and educational institution’s daily practice, respectively determining the obligations in the learning and nuture processes, as well as informing and delegating responsibility in case of problematic situations. The optional part allows agreement onfor any additional services or support from the educational institution, for example accommodation in a service hotel etc. The contract is signed by the educational institution, one of the learner’s parents and also by the learner (from the age of fourteen). This contract may be particularly effective in offering support measures to pupils and for those dealing with disciplinary issues. In addition, incorporating administrative contracts in education may significantly contribute to overall management within an educational institution. This approach offers a novel solution for improving pupils’ outcomes and handling administrative challenges. The study’s findings highlight the importance of rethinking traditional administrative practices in education, so as to include administrative contracts as an innovative tool for fostering both better educational experiences and cooperation between school and family.

University students now attend a variety of general education courses to provide a foundation and broader perspective of knowledge across disciplines in Hong Kong. Among the variety of learning activities in such general education programs, students may have undergone different facets of transformation in university life. Students voluntarily prepare E-portfolios targeting the GE Student Outstanding Award and a campus-wide GE Eager to Share award scheme, with award levels through the General Education Office. While students make many instances of gained knowledge and skills in the structured curriculum, evidence of learning transformation through both the curriculum and cocurricular activities are analyzed and discussed from these E-portfolios.

Reconceptualizing Literacy and Disrupting Whiteness: Multiliteracies Autobiographies in Teacher Education

Most elementary music instruction in Ontario is delivered by generalist teachers, despite a rigorous provincial curriculum that is challenging even for well-trained music specialists. Elementary pre-service teacher candidates approach music methods courses with a range of musicianship and musical experiences. For most of them, music education concluded after the middle school years, and at best it continued through secondary school. Some teacher candidates approach the music methods course with anxiety and fear, as they struggle with memories of music education that was ineffective, superficial, or in some cases even abusive. As they perceive a gap between their level of musicianship and that which is needed to support professional music educatorship, some teacher candidates reject the possibility of developing any musical or pedagogical skills before the course even begins. The primary goal of the author’s elementary music methods course is to reconnect elementary generalist teacher candidates with the music in their lives, and to empower them to engage in musical thinking and action. This one-course journey begins and ends with the teacher candidates’ exploration of their musical histories through the creation of visual, textual, or performative narratives. As they examine the sometimes long-forgotten troves of their musical and educational experience, they open themselves to discovery and learning in and through music, and clear pathways to the possibility of music education in their professional futures.

Teaching Problem Students Jere Brophy, Author The Guilford Press, New York, 1996 * Teaching is a formidable task, and teaching with academic and behavior problems is an even more formidable task. Each day teachers pay attention to a myriad of variables that have power to mold and shape the minds of their students. In the best of circumstances, are ready to learn when they come to school each day. In reality, many are not only unprepared but unable to learn. In turn, some teachers are unprepared and unable to teach the wide variety of placed in their classrooms. Many teachers do not know the variables they can effect with these and often leave them floundering their way through their school history. In this book, Jere Brophy offers teachers and prospective teachers a rich data-based resource that will prepare them to teach even the most challenging students. This book consists of 466 pages that are divided into 6 sections and 16 chapters. The first section consists of SS pages comprising 3 chapters of an overall introduction to the principles and techniques for managing classrooms and coping with problem students (Brophy, 1996, p. xi). The bulk of the text consists of the next 4 chapters that together contain 12 chapters. These sections address methods of teaching with a variety of achievement, hostility, role-adjustment, and social relationship problems. The final section comprises only one chapter (9 pages) that largely contains the author's reflections on the Classroom Strategy Study (CSS) that forms the backdrop for this text. The book ends with a 23-page appendix that provides a detailed description of the CSS, a set of references, and a subject index. Brophy's book is a significant contribution to the professionalization of education. Teaching Problem Students is written for general educators not special educators, and it provides professors in general education programs with a new and welcome resource. Brophy shows general educators how to be prepared to teach who are difficult to teach, and I believe that this marks one of its most significant contributions to the field of education as a whole. Though not at length, Brophy acknowledges the essential role of special educators and provides general educators with systematic and data-based methods they may use to teach who are difficult to teach. One of the most powerful aspects of the book is that 12 chapters contain lengthy excerpts from teacher interviews. He labels these excerpts as statements made by highlyrated and lower-rated teachers. Upon reading these excerpts, one can observe teachers' understanding of students' behavior. For example, lower-rated teachers tend to be highly critical of their students, they tend to punish freely, and communicate little regard for effortful and systematic observations of students' behavior. The higher-rated teachers communicate an array of pedagogically sound options they use to work with who exhibit low achievement, passive aggression, hyperactive, distractible, immature behaviors, and more. Upon reading these excerpts, one may observe one's own thinking and the thinking of peers and colleagues. In Brophy, we have an authority in general education presenting examples of both appropriate and inappropriate methods of teaching who are especially difficult to teach. He certainly acknowledges the behavioral challenge these present in the classroom setting, and he provides readers with alternative ways of thinking about these students' behaviors that will assist and affirm their efforts to be thoughtful and creative teachers. …

being developed in colleges and univer sities all over the country on a variety of different bases-focusing the student's at tention on the Far East, India, or the Far East and India in one course, or all of Asia in one course. My personal belief is that a course of lectures dealing with foreign societies or cultures had best deal with one culture area at a time, in order to save the student from hopeless confusion and superficiality. The present article describes the prac tice and the philosophy of a course at Harvard University on the History of Far Eastern Civilization, given since 1936 by Edwin O. Reischauer and myself. As will soon appear, the philosophy of this effort is idealistic, the practice realistic. Thus we aim ideally to give the citizen-to-be a view of East Asian history, culture, soci ety, and current problems. (The course is at the sophomore level under the program of general education but is also taken or audited by upperclassmen and graduate

Meaningfully engaging faculty in assessment presents a continual challenge for general education administrators. Faculty perceptions of assessment—including that assessment serves no purpose other than “checking a box” for accreditation and that it conveys little benefit to the instructor—often hinder instructor engagement. A low-cost assessment mini-grant program can overcome these misperceptions, increasing faculty engagement with both the assessment process and the general education program. In this article, a general education administrator describes the structure, delivery, and results of an assessment mini-grant program, and three faculty members share how their participation in the program shaped their teaching and improved their perceptions of—and engagement with—general education assessment.

This study was designed to examine the influence of gratitude enhancement program on preschoolers' aggression perceived by their teacher and mother. The subjects in this study were 40 four-year-old children in kindergarten in U city. This study employed a pre/post-test control group design, and so all subjects were assigned to an experimental group(gratitude enhancement program) or comparative group(general education program according to the year curriculum). Preschoolers' aggression was measured by the teacher and mother of the subjects and the collected data were analyzed by independent and paired t-test. This study also computed Cohen's d to estimate effect size of gratitude enhancement program on preschoolers' aggression. The findings of this study were as follows. Firstly, gratitude enhancement program and general education program were all effective in reducing preschoolers' aggression(aggression against things, verbal aggression and total aggression) perceived by their teacher except of aggression against others. But gratitude enhancement program was more effective than general education program in reducing these sort of aggression. Meanwhile, only gratitude enhancement program was effective in reducing preschoolers' aggression against others. Secondly, gratitude enhancement program was effective in reducing preschoolers' aggression(aggression against things, aggression against others, verbal aggression and total aggression).