Education Commons^™

Improving Student Effort On A Learning Outcome Assessment: Benchmarks, Options, And Results, Michael T. Roberson, Thomas Erekson

EKU Faculty and Staff Scholarship

Mission-driven accreditation standards were established by AACSB in 2003 and updated in 2013, and these standards required accredited business and accounting programs to establish and assess student learning outcomes. This approach was a major change for AACSB accreditation, so beginning in 2003 universities were given a few years to design and implement their Assurance of Learning (AoL) programs. The result has been an array of measures to assess student learning outcomes. All too often, however, the AoL programs were stand-alone efforts to comply with the standards for assessment and were not linked to meaningful continuous improvement processes.

Assessing basic business …

Turning Teachers Into Action Researchers In Their Classrooms, Dusty Columbia Embury, Laura S. Clarke

EKU Faculty and Staff Scholarship

Action research is often called the teacher’s research and often feels like a common sense approach to solving problems, but not all pre-service teachers begin careers knowing how to use this methodology to improve their own practice. This article offers a rationale for teaching pre-service teachers the skills and action research methodology as a tool for professional improvement based on the experiences of the authors engaging in a reflective process for teaching. While not generalizable, it is hoped that lessons learned may be applied by other faculty in teacher education programs.

First In Reform: The Adoption Of Common Core State Standards In Kentucky, Richard E. Day

Curriculum and Instruction Faculty and Staff Scholarship

On February 11, 2010, in an unprecedented joint meeting, the chairs of the Kentucky Board of Education, the Council on Postsecondary Education, and the Education Professional Standards Board signed a resolution directing their respective agencies to implement the Common Core State Standards in English/language arts and mathematics. This act formalized Kentucky’s commitment to integrate the nascent standards into the state’s public education system – the first state to do so. This article will trace the antecedents to Kentucky’s adoption of the standards as one expression of the late 20th century/early 21st century “corporate school reform movement” as manifested in the …

Free Textbook Distribution Process In Sindh, Pakistan: A Study Of Stakeholders Perceptions, Wasim Qazi Dr., Khalid J. Rawat, Shams Hamid, Halah C. Simon

Curriculum and Instruction Faculty and Staff Scholarship

Placed amongst the lower middle income countries (The World Bank 2010), a large segment of the population of Pakistan is unable to afford the expenses on basic amenities including education. In year 2003, the Government of Sindh, initiated a free textbooks scheme. This study investigates the transparency and efficiency of distribution process; examines the challenges and opportunities of the procurement and delivery process; and assesses the perceptions and feedback of the stakeholders. The study was conducted in all the districts of Sindh Province. The data were collected through analysis of documents, field survey, focus group discussions and interviews. The study …

Role Of Private Sector In Higher Education Of Pakistan: Predicaments And Insights, Wasim Qazi Dr., Halah C. Simon, Khalid J. Rawat, Shams Hamid

Curriculum and Instruction Faculty and Staff Scholarship

The nationalization of industry and education in the early 1970s resulted in the deterioration of private sector with minimal investment in this field. This continued into late 90s with Pakistan recording comparatively low public spending on education as a percentage of GDP . Thus the government of Pakistan, in an effort to enhance intellectual capital and enrollments, established the Higher Education Commission (HEC) assigned to evaluate, improve and promote the higher education and research culture in both public and private sectors in Pakistan. Since its establishment in 2002, the HEC has “undertaken a systematic process of implementation of the five-year …

Rehabilitating Closed Schools: A Daunting Challenge For Pakistan, Wasim Qazi Dr., Khalid Jamil Rawat, Shams Hamid

Curriculum and Instruction Faculty and Staff Scholarship

There are 6034 non-operational schools in Pakistan's southern province of Sindh further complicating the work of the donor agencies; more than half of these non-operational schools (3843) only exist on papers. These shadow schools exist only to usurp international aid earmarked for education. Our research shows that proximity to the population; unavailability of teachers; and lack of infrastructure are some of the fundamental causes driving the closure of more than thirteen percent of schools. Our position is that a large number of these schools can be rehabilitated but that requires a three-phased plan. If implemented, proposed plan would enhance transparency …

Teacher Perception About Implementation Strategy Of B.Ed Teaching Practice In Real School Classrooms: Issues And Challenges, Wasim Qazi, Khalid Jamil Rawat, Muhammad Yousuf Sharjeel, Shila Devi

Curriculum and Instruction Faculty and Staff Scholarship

Teaching practice is the core component of all pre-service teacher education programs. Through teaching practice, a novice teacher is assumed to have inculcated a supposedly viable pedagogic experience to transfer the core competency of the subject knowledge to students in real classroom situation. This study encompasses the challenges and issues that the novice teachers experience at post-training level of their B.Ed programme of studies. The investigations also enlighten the gaps that the trained teachers have shared with the researchers. The study highlights the extent to which the on-training components of teaching practice is reflected in the attitude of the trained …

A Synthetic Teaching-Learning Model: A Contextualized Study, Wasim Qazi

Curriculum and Instruction Faculty and Staff Scholarship

The paper aims at institutionalizing instructional technology with a view to improving the quality of education. The conceptual framework developed in this paper reviews the existing status of training programs in light of the suggested initiatives of education sectors reforms (Ministry of Education, Government of Pakistan -August-2003). It has been argued that major purpose of imparting professional training to teachers and administrators should be directed towards improvement of quality of education. In stating the problem the malaise underlining the teaching-learning process has been identified as a core issue. The teaching-learning process which is the hallmark of quality of education has …

Sustainable Teachers' Development: Exploring The Effect Of Follow-Up Support An An Element, Wasim Qazi

Curriculum and Instruction Faculty and Staff Scholarship

A professional development program with built-in follow up support mechanism was offered during years 2004-06 in selected districts of Pakistan. The training reportedly had sustained impact on teachers’ attitude toward teaching. This paper investigates the role of follow up support as an element of sustainable teacher development, and the part of teachers’ learning they could have implemented over the period after the end of project. Data was collected through classroom observations, interviews with these teachers and the head teachers of these schools, and analysis of lesson plans and reflective journals maintained by the teachers. Findings affirm that the follow up …

A Phenomenological Interpretation Of John Dewey's View On Education, Wasim Qazi Dr., Khalid Rawat

Curriculum and Instruction Faculty and Staff Scholarship

Education in our times is promoting nihilism. The reason for this conclusion is that modern education is largely knowledge based and asks the learner to learn ideas that have nothing in common with the reality of the learner. Knowledge, on the other hand, does not enjoy absolute value, and, to say that a person who has more knowledge is more valuable is wrong. John Dewey’s criticism on traditional education is equally valid for modern education, for modern education is not performing its functions properly. The function of education is to establish a strong relationship between learner and Being. However, modern …