The university has to train students in skills which according to the demanding requirements of the job market and social environment are the basis of their competitiveness: specific skills or generic skills cutting across the different degrees. The convergence framework defined by the European Higher Education Area requires the incorporation of…

The Student Outcomes Survey is an annual national survey of vocational education and training (VET) students. Since 1995, participants have been asked to rate their satisfaction with different aspects of their training, grouped under three main themes: teaching, assessment, and generic skills and learning experiences. While the composition of the…

This article describes an innovative project that combined service learning and community-based partnerships to teach macro practice skills to social work students and citizenship skills to primary school students. The partners, a small social work program, several primary schools, and an internationally recognized civic engagement program,…

Thirty-seven students from a suburban community in the southern United States were randomly assigned to receive 30 minutes of additional instruction each day in their usual language arts curriculum or 30 minutes of instruction with the Direct Instruction program, "Funnix Beginning Reading". Instruction for the "Funnix" group…

The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of accountability on the quality of student motor responses during a 10-day badminton unit with female high school students enrolled in a required physical education class. Students in the control class participated in the same learning activities taught by the same teacher as the treatment…

We probed the impact of two teaching strategies, "guided inquiry" and "argumentation," on students' conceptual understanding of the conservation of matter. Conservation of matter is a central concept in middle school science curriculum and a prerequisite upon which rests more complex constructs in chemistry. The results indicate that guided…

Adoption resulting from University of Nebraska-Lincoln Crop Management Diagnostic Clinic (CMDC) field days was evaluated using an on-line survey. Respondents reported significant gains in skills because of CMDC, but the gains were similar across skill areas. Adoption was affected by compatibility with the cropping system, relative advantage,…

This paper is a commentary on three other papers presented at the 1983 American Educational Research Association Symposium on "The Trainability of Information Processing and Problem Solving Skills." The papers focus on certain aspects of the training of complex skills, such as reading, that can presumably be broken down into a variety of skills.…

This review examines the efficacy of curriculum-based measurement (CBM) as an assessment methodology for enhancing student achievement. We describe experimental-contrast studies in reading and mathematics in which teachers used CBM to monitor student progress and to make instructional decisions. Overall, teachers' use of CBM produced significant…

The effects of drawings used to help beginners learn horseback riding were studied, and issues involved in such a study were explored. Two of nine beginning student riders (college undergraduates) were drawn and two were not, while the remaining students made the drawings. Riders rode the same pattern after seeing drawings of themselves and their…

The concept of education "for" the environment is well documented in the literature but is apparently less common in practice. Some of the reasons provided for this rhetoric-reality gap include: the controversial and political nature of the subject, the difficulty of empowering students into meaningful action, the challenge of using…

The liberal education of teachers is based on two types of knowledge: a professional training in education and methodology, and the academic knowledge upon which specific teaching skills are built. This second type develops perception, interpretation, application, and verbal and nonverbal skills. Liberally educated teachers can understand and…

In this issue, we explore how community partnerships to support formal learning and development matter and how they can be created and sustained. In "Research Update," we discuss the results of a new report and poll on 21st century skills that affirms that every student needs a "basics plus" education that pushes beyond core academic knowledge to…

The National Priorities, published in 2001, highlight important outcomes of education in Scotland. National Priority 5 sets a clear expectation that teachers will "encourage creativity and ambition" in their pupils. "A Curriculum for Excellence" (Scottish Executive, 2004) also stresses that pupils need to be able to "think…