The National Association of State Directors of Career Technical Education Consortium (NASDCTEc) career clusters initiative was designed to research and foster development of curicula and assessments for each of 16 broad occupational groupings known as career clusters. These clusters encompass a broad range of careers, ranging from agriculture to…

This study investigates the information needs of faculty and graduate students in agricultural and biological sciences. Qualitative research methods, interviews and focus groups, were used to examine what types of information these scholars need for their research, teaching and learning, how they seek that information, and perceptions. The…

In this paper I report on a research project designed to address the question of how the policy of continuous enrolment has been working in practice in the AMEP (Adult Migrant English Program), the national English language program offered to newly-arrived migrants to Australia. Managers, teachers and learners from around Australia were…

The percentage of urban teachers who leave the profession within the first 5 years is more than 50%; inadequate preparation is often cited as a cause of urban teacher attrition. This article explores a qualitative study regarding teachers' perceptions of their experience of and preparation for teaching in urban schools. Data from teachers in urban…

Women farmers are underserved in agricultural education and technical assistance. Long held social constructions of farming women as "farmwives" and in some cases "the bookkeepers" rather than farmers or decision-makers influence the direction of most educational programming delivered through extension programs in land-grant…

The National Languages Strategy, published in the UK in 2002 offers all primary school children an entitlement to learn a Modern Foreign Language (MFL) by 2010. The supply of adequately trained teachers is one of the key determinants of the success of this initiative. This paper presents findings from a study involving 18 teacher education…

On August 5, 2006, more than 300 South Carolina National Board Certified Teachers[R] (NBCTs) assembled in Columbia at a policy summit to address the vexing problem of recruiting and retaining accomplished teachers in high-needs schools. Before this summit, the NBCTs read a number of background papers and research summaries. During the summit, they…

In 2004, National Centre for Vocational Education Research (NCVER) developed a national Indigenous VET research strategy in partnership with the former Australian Indigenous Training Advisory Council. The research strategy provides a comprehensive program until 2006 to fill the major gaps in knowledge identified through a midterm review of…

The Texas Education Agency's Social Studies Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills results show an achievement gap between males and females for every criteria on every test given since 2003. The most dramatic achievement difference is in the area of "traditional" U.S. History. The Texas results mimic a gender gap reported by College…

Numerous research studies have shown that science methods courses based on constructivist approaches can enhance teacher knowledge and confidence in ways that foster more positive attitudes to the teaching of science. However, a critical part of reflective practice is the opportunity to observe competent professionals practising their craft.…

This study documented the ways in which the spontaneous narratives of a focus group of young children reflected the ways in which these children constructed meaning about their world and their place in it. Participants were six kindergartners who engaged in extended episodes of imaginary, dramatic play and produced complex descriptive narratives…

This article presents the development process of a consumer-oriented, illustrative benchmarking tool enabling consumers to use the results of environmental life cycle assessment (LCA) to make informed decisions. LCA provides a wealth of information on the environmental impacts of products, but its results are very difficult to present concisely…

What are the most significant factors that motivate and inhibit faculty with regard to teaching in online environments? And what are the specific kinds of experiences that underlie and explain the importance of these factors? One goal of this study was to add to understanding of these issues, but the primary purpose of this study is determining…

In an attempt to capture the diverse experience of undergraduates at the University of Washington (UW), the authors designed and conducted the University of Washington's Study of Undergraduate Learning (UW SOUL), a longitudinal study that tracked 304 students (about five percent of the entering freshman and transfer class) through their…

Purpose: The major purpose of this paper is to examine how gender differences impact the enactment of careers. An additional goal is to examine whether, as suggested by recent conceptualizations, careers are indeed becoming more boundary less. Design/methodology/approach: This paper is based on the results of two in-depth qualitative studies (n =…