Proformacao is a distance teacher certification course aimed at providing training to 27,000 uncertified teachers in 15 Brazilian states. This innovative program organizes human and technical resources for delivering distance education in a cost-effective manner. Different from other institutional systems--which typically employ their own…

Many universities are reevaluating their traditional educational methods and providing pedagogical material through the Internet. Some Web-based systems offer a constructionist learning environment, for example, where students can learn by designing their own objects. Providing effective, convenient technology to support learning is important, and…

After Papua New Guinea (PNG), Fiji is the second largest island nation in the South-west Pacific and the hub of the region. Nearly all Fiji Islanders have either Fijian or Fiji Hindi as their first language, in roughly equal numbers, while the former colonial language, English, with very few native speakers, has retained an important role,…

The aim of this study is that of reaching a better comprehension of the topic of children's rights within educational relationships. In a first stage, we analysed the representational field of children's rights produced through free associations by the two partners who are in conflict in everyday life, namely adults (n=267) and adolescents…

Virtual environments are more and more used in primary schools. One of the most interesting potentialities of these environments is to foster cross-national applications. Yet, this specific feature is not fully exploited. This paper presents a successful virtual learning environment for primary education involving two European countries and…

Government commissions have demonstrated that residential schools' ability to educate aboriginal students was compromised by widespread problems including (a) inadequate curriculum, staffing, instruction time, and parental involvement; (b) racism; (c) prohibition against the use of aboriginal language; and (d) maltreatment. This article uses…

The evaluation of the Department of Educations' life skills program on HIV and AIDS prevention among Grade 9 students in 22 randomly allocated schools in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, showed only a significant increase in student knowledge about HIV/AIDS in the intervention group compared with the control group. No effects were found on safe sex…

Background: Childhood onset schizophrenia (COS) is a rare disorder. Comparative data on the effect of differential age of onset on clinical profile in schizophrenia are very few. Method: Subjects with COS (n = 15), adolescence onset schizophrenia (AdOS, n = 20) and adulthood onset schizophrenia (AOS, n = 20) were compared on socio-demographic,…

Background: The clinical profile of depressive disorder in children and young people in Child Adolescent and Family Services (CAFS), Northampton was studied. Methods: Twenty-five patients who had attended the CAFS over a period of 2 years were analysed retrospectively. Results: The age range of subjects was 8 to 19 years. Majority of patients were…

The VITAE project is a four-year (2001-2005) research study, commissioned by the Department for Education and Skills, conducted with 300 teachers in 100 schools in seven local education authorities in England. The project aimed to identify factors that may affect their work and lives over time and how these factors may, in turn, impact on their…

The paper presents an evaluation of student and tutor experiences in the introductory module of a European Masters programme in e-Learning, Multimedia and Consultancy. The aims and outline of the Masters programme are described, together with the pedagogical approach adopted in the introductory module which explores open and flexible learning…

As educators' awareness of their responsibilities towards ensuring the accessibility of the learning environment to disabled students increases, significant debate surrounds the implications of accessibility requirements on educational multimedia. There would appear to be widespread concern that the fundamental principles of creating accessible…

There has been little research on how a content-based teacher education course can embed effective training in the use of the World Wide Web to search for information and present learning outcomes. To address this gap, the present study documents the experience of 64 pre-service and in-service teachers who completed a web-based group project in an…

The English "Curriculum Guidance for the Foundation Stage" refers to the importance of supporting the development of young children's thinking, a teaching role that Kite suggests should be seen as the major focus for education. This paper draws on data from the Froebel Research Fellowship Project, "Ownership and Autonomy in Early…

Arguing that globalization has been conceived of largely in economic terms this article examines the possibility of a global curriculum in the light of Touraine's assertion that the major global problem is not economic but social: can we live together? I argue that a global curriculum conceived in social terms is possible and that it will involve:…