Patterns of school-to-work transition in Ireland and Scotland in 1979-1991 were compared by using data from the annual Irish and biennial Scottish school leavers surveys. Unemployment among school leavers in both countries increased rapidly over the study period. A comparison of both respondent groups' educational experiences, educational…

This study examined the characteristics of part-time students at the University of Calgary (Alberta, Canada) and Athabasca University (Alberta, Canada), an open admissions undergraduate distance education university. Also called adult students or non-traditional students, part-time students have been viewed as a homogenous group despite marked…

The learner-centered approach to second language education is presented as one that takes into account the learning goals, subjective needs, and culturally-based expectations learners bring with them to the language classroom. First, both formative and current trends in learner-centered language teaching are examined, and the principle of active…

This paper defines benchmarking and its relationship to quality management, describes a project which applied the technique in a library context, and explores the relationship between performance measurement and benchmarking. Numerous benchmarking methods contain similar elements: deciding what to benchmark; identifying partners; gathering…

The focus of this paper is to further understanding of the distribution and the effects of an expanded conception of opportunity to learn on student mathematics achievement. In addition to descriptive statistics, a set of two-level hierarchical linear models was employed to analyze a subset of the restricted-use National Education Longitudinal…

The perceptions of cooperative education held by the students, teachers, and employers participating in cooperative education programs in Ohio and Ontario, Canada, were examined through six parallel case studies conducted in one urban, suburban, and rural school in each country. Data were gathered through site visits to each school, participant…

Texts of conference papers and summaries of colloquia on computers and second language learning are presented, including: "Computers, Language Learning, and the Four Skills" (summary of a session with Steve McGuire, Albert Dudley, Patricia Thornton, Paul Jaquith, Jay Lundelius, Steve Tripp); "Creating Your Own Software--The Easy Way" (Steve…

This guide is designed for Ivatan (Ibatan) language training of Peace Corps workers in the Philippines, and reflects daily communication needs in that context. It consists of: phrase lists for a wide range of daily activities and needs; a list of targeted core language competencies, at three proficiency levels, for those daily activities; an…

The report describes an Ontario (Canada) project to establish standards for the written and oral languages of its natives, including two language families and 13 languages still present in the province. The project has two streams: (1) a series of language conferences intended to establish consensus within an entire community regarding standard…

Intended as a resource for both trainers and trainees in early childhood development and education, and based on the principles of active learning and participatory training, this five-part training pack encourages the incorporation of active learning materials in training and invites cooperation in adapting participatory training materials to…

This document consists of four papers presented during a symposium on work force issues moderated by Jan DeJong at the 1996 conference of the Academy of Human Resource Development (AHRD). "Rethinking the Ties that Bind: An Exploratory Study of Employee Development in Utilities in Canada and the United States" (Michael Aherne, David…

Experiences in teaching a first-year reading course in the intensive English program at Kansai Gaidai Junior College (Japan) are discussed. In the period described, there were six classes of 16 students each. A proficiency-oriented approach incorporating a learner development component was adopted to facilitate the transition from traditional…

The study reported in this paper represents the first stage of a five-year project aimed at improving the quality of teaching and learning in undergraduate mathematics courses for science and engineering students. Students were surveyed about their confidence in their mathematics background, their confidence with current mathematics topics, and…

This pilot study was conducted with a sample of 25 female administrators. Fourteen of the participants are employed in Alabama public schools, while seven work in international schools in the United States, and the remaining four are administrators in international schools in Mexico. The international schools in the study are listed in the…

This collection of 12 papers commemorates the retirement of Bernhard Adams. Adams had a 30-year career at the Bochum University Library (Germany) and advocated innovation and automation in libraries. The papers are: (1) "Gemeinsame Wegstrecken: Bernhard Adams zur Ehre" ("Common Milestones: In Honor of Bernhard Adams") (Harro…