Thesis (D.Ed.) in Education--University of Maine, 2008. / Includes vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 212-217).

Following the attention given by the Jomtien Declaration to the need for partnerships and collaboration in the promotion of educational improvement (World Declaration on Education for All, 1990), developing countries have initiated several partnership programmes with many international donor agencies. These partnerships for educational development in Africa vary in scale, character and context, and the institutional and policy frameworks are now more demanding. The conception and practice of partnership has been a challenge primarily because, how the policy/organisational framework, design and practice of partnerships influence the outcome of such collaborations remains poorly understood. In this study I examined the framework, construction and practice of partnerships using the Japan International Cooperation Agency’s (JICA) educational partnership programmes in Ghana and South Africa as case studies. I studied these two examples of JICA funded programmes in order to determine the opportunities and constraints that such partnerships offer. Data was collected through interviews with 12 key officials using semi-structured questions and the analysis of documents. Such documents as project proposals, monitoring and evaluation reports, minutes of stakeholders’ meetings and newsletters of each of the two case studies were reviewed. Observations of some project activities such as stakeholders’ meetings, training workshops and conferences were also conducted for the purpose of validation. Using the concept of ‘surface and genuine partnership’ proposed by Mkandawire (1996) and Odora Hoppers (2001), data were analysed focusing on the interactive effects of partners on the outcomes of the two partnership programmes. Evidence gathered from this study suggests that while partnerships are key they are often narrowly conceptualised for two reasons: First, the common conception of partnerships as ‘bringing resources together’ with little or no recognition of the interactive effect of partners on their success is limiting. This is mainly because partnership engagement may go beyond the resource agenda to issues of mutual respect, power relations, nature of dialogue and professional as well as interpersonal relationships. Second, partnerships normally focus on supply-driven opportunities rather than stimulating demand among immediate beneficiaries. The need of creating sustainable capacity building systems for teachers in the long-term is imperative however it requires stimulation of demand among teachers who are the potential users of the knowledge and skills offered by such partnership endeavours. Third, I found that the initial model and construction of a partnership becomes less significant if actors practically engage in genuine partnership given that: (1) the principles of pure dialogue will lead to flexibility, which allows reconstruction as the partnership evolves and (2) the practice of shared culture and interest will permit creative use of challenges in devising innovative approaches. The main lesson presented in this study is the revelation that no mater how well intended and designed a partnership arrangement is, its subsequent implementation can adversely be affected by the practices at both the individual and organisational levels. The characterisation of the implementation process of the partnership described in this dissertation is a mixed bag of stimulating and limiting factors. It therefore presents a crucial responsibility to collaborators to deliberately devise mechanisms that will maximise the former and at the same time minimise the later. The significance of this study is that both policymakers and donor agencies involved in partnership arrangements as well as researchers need to rethink the conceptualisation of the term partnership (Oyelaran-Oyeyinka, 2005) and re-examine the policy and institutional context (Azar, Harpring, Cohen&Leu, 2004; Hall, R. 2002) under which such educational development partnership ventures thrive. / Dissertation (MEd (Curriculum and Instructional Design and Development))--University of Pretoria, 2008. / Curriculum Studies / unrestricted

Das postgraduale Bildungsangebot „Nachhaltigkeit in gesamtwirtschaftlichen Kreisläufen – Sustainability 2020“ wird an der Hochschule Mittweida seit März 2012 in unterschiedlichen Entwicklungsstufen auf Masterniveau erprobt. Besondere Herausforderung des weiterbildenden Studiengangs ist es, einer heterogenen Zielgruppe das Studium neben Beruf und Familie zu ermöglichen. Da die Studierenden aus der Berufspraxis kommen, sind zudem Konzepte und methodische Ansätze gefragt, die ein forschendes Lernen und das Erlernen wissenschaftlicher Methoden der Nachhaltigkeit in Verbindung mit der praktischen Anwendbarkeit der vermittelten Kompetenzen ermöglichen. Insbesondere die Einbindung zeit- und ortsflexibler Lernformen sind bei der Gestaltung des Blended Learning-Angebotes in Präsenz, E-Learning und Selbststudium wesentliche Erfolgsfaktoren. Ein Entwicklungsziel bildet zudem die Einbindung von Web 2.0-Technologien in den Lernprozess in definierten Entwicklungsstufen....

Es freut mich Ihnen die dreizehnte reguläre Ausgabe des Praxisjournals vorlegen zu können. Schwerpunkt dieser Ausgabe sind die Beiträge der 2016 abgeschlossenen Lehr-Lern-Projekte der 5. Kohorte im Verbundprojekt Lehrpraxis im Transfer.

The aim of this study is to explore broad relationships between higher education leaders’ experiences in faculty development and cultures of teaching. Research to date has widely neglected to understand how university teaching centers might be effective in shaping academic leaders’ beliefs about teaching and their ability to support effective teaching practices among faculty they oversee. This case study uses the context of a public research university to examine how eight academic leaders (four associate deans and four department chairs) perceive an intensive Teaching and Learning Institute to have informed the methods they use to cultivate a culture of teaching within their respective units. The case also compares these leaders’ perceptions with the perceptions of faculty within four departments overseen by them. To better understand the complex relationship between beliefs, practices, and the formation of culture within complex organizations, the study is guided by a conceptual framework that draws on multiple theories including learner-centered teaching, transformational leadership theory, and organizational theory. Overall, the study found that all eight leaders perceived the experience of the Teaching and Learning Institute to have influenced their teaching in some way. Specific changes these leaders made as a result of their experience connect with learner-centered teaching practices. Similarities across their experiences also included that the Institute affirmed their beliefs and values for teaching, led them to recognize the need for more pedagogical education, exposed them to research that could improve their teaching; and helped them build a community network of individuals with shared beliefs and values across the institution. All eight leaders (to varying degrees) believe they promote a culture of teaching within the unit they oversee. Similarities in their approaches to promoting a culture of teaching include increasing opportunities for professional development of teaching, providing rewards or incentives for teaching or teaching development, leading by example, and creating curricular changes. Leaders reported that they developed these strategies based on trial and error or their own experience, some still sought better ways to promote a culture of teaching. Faculty-participants in each department indicated a number of activities identified with a culture of teaching. Generally, faculty-participants felt more strongly that a culture of teaching was promoted by their departments than by their college or institution. However, more faculty-participants agreed that a culture of teaching was promoted by their department, college, and university than disagreed. Results from this study may be used by teaching center leaders to consider how leaders acquire knowledge about teaching, factors that contribute to faculty perceptions of a culture of teaching, and strategies academic leaders might use to more intentionally promote a culture of teaching within their organizations. / Educational Administration

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This dissertation is a study of the effect of Texas's charter high schools on diploma graduation and General Educational Development (GED) attainment. Utilizing data from the Texas Schools Project at the University of Texas at Dallas, the study follows a cohort of Texas students enrolled as 10th graders in the fall of 1999 and tracks their graduation outcomes through the summer of 2002 when they were expected to have completed high school. The analysis uses case study research and probit regression techniques to estimate the effect of charter school attendance on graduation and GED outcomes as well as the effect of individual charter school characteristics on charter students' graduation outcomes. The study's results indicate that charter school attendance has a strong negative effect on diploma graduation and a strong positive effect on GED attainment. In addition, the study finds that charter schools that offer vocational training, open entry/exit enrollment options, and charters that are operated in multiple sites or "chain" charters have positive effects on charter students' diploma graduation outcomes. Charters that offer accelerated instruction demonstrate a negative effect on diploma graduation. The study finds that charter school graduation outcomes improve as charters gain experience and that racially isolated minority charter schools experience reduced graduation outcomes. The study's results also indicate that Texas's charter high schools may be providing district schools with a means through which to offload students who may be difficult to educate. The analysis finds that districts may be pushing low-performing high school students with attendance and discipline problems into charter schools in order to avoid the effort of educating them and to improve district performance on accountability measures related to standardized test scores and graduation rates. This finding suggests that that competition from charter high schools will not provide much incentive for districts to improve their programs, undermining a central premise of school choice initiatives.

Zu den bedeutsamsten Veränderungen in der europäischen Hochschullandschaft gehört zweifelsohne die stärkere Fokussierung auf die einzelnen Studierenden und deren Lernprozesse. Damit werden insbesondere Herausforderungen der Gestaltung von Lernangeboten und Formen der Leistungserhebung und -beurteilung adressiert. Das Portfolio wird in diesem Zusammenhang seit einigen Jahren intensiv diskutiert, da es sowohl als Lern-, Lehr- sowie Beurteilungsinstrument fungieren kann. Im vorliegenden überblicksartigen Beitrag wird das Portfolio daher mit Blick auf aktuelle Entwicklungen in der Lehr-Lernforschung vorgestellt und dessen Potenzial speziell für die Hochschuldidaktik sowie als Verfahren des formativen Assessments diskutiert.

E-Assessment wird für Hochschulen ein immer wichtigeres Thema. Daher beschäftigt sich das vom Staatsministerium für Wissenschaft und Kunst (SMWK) geförderte Projekt „E-Assessment in Sachsen. Ist-Stand und Bedarf“ mit dem aktuellen Einsatz von E-Assessment an sächsischen Hochschulen und dem Unterstützungsbedarf der Akteur_innen. Auf dem HDS.Forum Lehre 2015 wurde hierzu ein Workshop durchgeführt, um erste Forderungen für bessere Rahmenbedingungen an sächsischen Hochschulen zu sammeln. Der Beitrag fasst die Ergebnisse zusammen und ordnet sie in einen Gesamtkontext ein.

Als übergreifendes Thema berührt der Nachteilsausgleich mehrere Themenbereiche eines „fairen Prüfungssystems“ und wird aus der Perspektive von Studierenden mit Beeinträchtigungen exemplarisch betrachtet. Studienhindernisse und Ansätze für wirksamere Nachteilsausgleiche werden beleuchtet sowie ein abstrahiertes Verfahren zur Schaffung fairer Prüfungsbedingungen benannt. Beispiele und Erfahrungen von benachteiligten Studierenden sowie Lösungsansätze runden den Artikel ab.