Common Core Of Knowledge Research Articles

Can elementary school students really benefit from using video games at school

Can playing video games improve expected learning outcomes for elementary school students? To address this question, we examined relationships between the knowledge and competencies that students developed through video gaming and the common core of knowledge and skills covered in France’s education competency framework. We used an experimental design to investigate elementary school students who played a serious video game. The results reveal associations between playing Food Force and the key competencies described in the competency framework, and more particularly, that this type of serious gaming can help students develop these key competencies.

The role of education in advancing the lobbying profession

While lobbying is not usually viewed as one of life’s higher callings, those who engage in public policy advocacy are essential to the workings of any representative system of government. As a lobbyist, I view myself as a skilled professional who understands governmental processes and is fully aware of the laws that govern my profession. However, a profession is not just a group of individuals and requires a collective infrastructure. This article advances the proposition that, for lobbying to be considered a profession, a structured-educational program that teaches a common core of knowledge is critical. The Association of Government Relations Professionals (AGRP) has successfully sponsored its Lobbying Certificate Program (LCP) for a decade. This LCP has demonstrated that the essential knowledge base needed to be a lobbyist can be taught in a program operated by the professional association representing lobbyists in the United States. Using the faculty resources of the profession and the academic community, the LCP enables AGRP to provide a significant benefit to both new and experienced lobbyists while both furthering the professionalism of public policy advocates and producing significant revenues for AGRP. The article discusses the limitations of the LCP and argues for it to be sanctioned by the US Congress.

Establishing Teaching as a Profession

The National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE) celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2004. In those 50 years, NCATE has become a learning community, growing and evolving as the knowledge base in teaching and learning has evolved. NCATE starts its second 50 years with a record 690 institutions in its system as accredited institutions, candidates, and precandidates. The central question at hand is a decision teacher educators must make. Will we move forward toward increased professionalization by working collectively to shape an increasing consensus on a common core of knowledge as it is explicated through professional standards? Or will we retreat to “private universes” in which we teach our own conceptions of knowledge about teaching and learning? In that case, the government will decide, in typically narrow fashion, what must be taught and, in some cases, how it must be taught. To avoid that future, we must work together as a profession to bring our differences to the table. NCATE is the teaching profession’s vehicle to do just that, and we look forward to working with institutions ready to make that commitment.

A National Survey of Special Education Teacher Preparation Programs Regarding Their Inclusion of Family Focused Components of the CEC Common Core of Knowledge and Skills

This study examined the practices of universities and colleges throughout the United States with regard to the inclusion of family issues courses in their teacher preparation programs. Data were collected from 101 institutions offering graduate/undergraduate/associate degree and/or certification programs and specialization in both early childhood and mildlmoderate areas of disability. The manner in which family issues were incorporated into the programs of study, the time involved, and the extent to which the CEC Common Core of knowledge and skills was emphasized were of primary interest. Results indicated that most early childhood programs required one or more separate courses in family issues; however, most mild/moderate ones integrated this content within the general special education curriculum, spending approximately 1 to 2 hours per semester in related discussion. The need to train teachers in effective communication/consultation skills, to foster constructive relationships, and to engage in responsive collaboration with parents on planning educational programs received highest priority in the reported programs. Cultural and environmental influences on learner characteristics, knowledge of family diversity and dynamics relative to developing instruction, and involvement of family in assessment and as members of the educational team reflected the lowest levels of concern by the participants in the study.

Collaboration: Staying on the Bandwagon

Collaboration is one of many bandwagons in the parade of educational reform rhetoric. The Journal of Teacher Education (Ashton, 1992) devoted an issue to the topic of partners in school restructuring in which collaboration was an inherent theme. In school restructuring, writers often see collaboration as either a conduit for educational reform (West, 1990) or a critical component of the change process (Fullan, 1993). Collaboration is in the dialogue on creating communities and cultures of professional teachers. In these settings, writers see teachers as leaders who collaborate with each other (Lieberman, Saxl, & Miles, 1988). Teachers' roles will evolve to include becoming problem solvers, change agents and collaborators (Darling-Hammond, Bullmaster, & Cobb, 1995). Collaboration reflects the notion of the school as a community (Sergiovanni, 1994; Wehlage, Rutter, Smith, Lesko, & Fernandez, 1989) characterized as opportunities for one-on-one interactions based on common values and expectations, commitment toward interpersonal caring and support to promote meaningful education, and organization structures allowing and fostering opportunities for colleagues to meet and work together (Louis & Kruse, 1995). The word community derives from the Latin word communis meaning common or sharing. Collaboration between higher education and public education agencies has gained attention as a way to create effective field-based teacher education programs (Darling-Hammond et al., 1995). Schools and universities have developed and implemented a number of successful models (Fountain & Evans, 1994; Starlings & Dybdahl, 1994; Welch, Sheridan, Wilson, Colton, & Mayhew, 1996). The growing number of standards from professional organizations mandating partnerships and opportunities for preprofessionals to develop collaborative skills reflects the importance of collaboration between public and higher education. The National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE) standards mandate collaboration among higher education faculty, school personnel, and other education professionals to design effective preprofessional preparation programs to improve the quality of education in schools (NCATE, 1995). The American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education (AACTE)'s comprehensive survey suggests the need for redesigning state policies encouraging greater collaboration between teacher preparation programs and state education agencies (Yff, 1996). The Holmes Group (1995) espouses the creation of schools and professional preparation programs in which preprofessionals and professionals can work together. Collaboration is one of five elements in a core of knowledge all educators (Holmes Group, 1995). The U.S. Department of Education's Office of Educational Research and Improvement (OERI) developed a guide for developing educational partnerships that defines collaboration and describes steps for creating collaborative partnerships (Tushnet, 1993). The Council for Exceptional Children (CEC), a professional organization in special education, recognizes the need for partnerships between higher education and public education. The CEC has included collaboration in its professional standards as a necessary component and skill in its common core of knowledge (CEC, 1995). Some (Pugach & Johnson, 1995) mention collaboration in terms of serving students with special needs, including students culturally or ethnically different as well as students with disabilities. A growing number of students are at risk for academic failure because they do not fit the dominant Euro-American culture of schools (Natriello, McDill, & Pallas, 1990). Welch and Sheridan (1995) suggest that no single agency can meet the needs of an increasing number of children and youth with various educational, social, and medical problems and at risk of not succeeding in school or in society. Thus, a growing need for educators to collaborate with others within the school (Welch & Sheridan, 1995) and with social and health agencies outside the school (Bucci & Reitzammer, 1992) exists. …

Virtual Reality: Movement's Centrality

The profession of physical education must refocus on the centrality of the study of human movement. Physical educators have too long diluted the basic field rather than emphasize the common mission of understanding human movement and the contribution it makes to human physical and mental health. Ten principles are set fourth to aid in, “Reclaiming and Transforming Physical Education”: (a) Emphasize the uniqueness of human movement; (b) put first things first in establishing a common core of knowledge for all professionals; (c) appreciate the “web of connectedness”; (d) enhance communication between and among professionals; (e) take control and responsibility for ethical action, (f) act on principles; (g) appreciate diversity; (h) uphold standards of fairness; (i) facilitate the collective production of practical and theoretical knowledge; and (j) transform physical education by anticipating and creating change.

Training Psychologists for the 21st Century

What is the future of training in educational and school psychology as we move towards the end of the 20th century? Are we adequately preparing trainees for the rapidly changing demands that face them? Is there a common core of knowledge and skills in applied psychology which should be reflected in a generic pattern of training across the different disciplines in applied psychology? As links between countries become closer, particularly in Europe, how can we ensure that professional training is 'equivalent'? In this article we review the training and role of educational psychologists in England and Wales and suggest some options for the future. We believe that, despite the considerable and well-documented achievements in educational psychology research and practice, radical changes to the current system of training in the UK are needed in order to prevent educational psychology as a profession from becoming increasingly marginalized.

Knowledge Importance in Rehabilitation Counseling

The perceived importance of knowledge areas underlying rehabilitation counselor credentialing was examined. A common core of knowledge with differences across respondent characteristics was found.

The CEC Common Core of Knowledge and Skills Essential for All Beginning Special Education Teachers

The CEC Common Core of Knowledge and Skills Essential for All Beginning Special Education Teachers

An Artifact from the 19th Century Schoolhouse: The McGuffey Reader

David E.Vocke is professor at Center for Professional Teacher Education at University of Texas at Arlington. The McGuffey Readers are repre sentative of schoolbooks used in a typical one-room school in middle border states during late nineteenth century. While other textbooks could certainly be found in rural schools during this time period, it has been suggested that McGuffey 's Readers were most popu lar and most widely used; a total of 120 million copies were sold between 1836 and 1920 (Westerhoff, 14). Swanson contends that half of school children in United States used Readers be tween 1836 and 1900. Such figures sup port notion that students in middle border states were likely to encounter Readers during their formal schooling. Fuller, in The Old Country School, states that Readers served as core of one-room school curriculum and were suited to times and needs of rural Mid westerners. The series of Read ers, which provided students with the best writing in English language (17) gave provincial schoolchildren a com mon core of knowledge. William Holmes McGuffey compiled first four Readers between 1836 and 1837. By 1845 there were six Readers in McGuffey series, but fifth and sixth Readers were developed by McGuffey's younger brother (Westerhoff, 70). Over years there were numerous reprintings and revisions but McGuffey had no hand in editions after 1857. The original editions of Readers contained material McGuffey gathered from other schoolbooks and from selections of Standard literary works, including Bible (Westerhoff, 45). His purpose in compil ing texts was to teach English and correct moral behavior through stories that schoolchildren read aloud. McGuffey suggested that students retell each story in their own words and answer questions at end of lesson. Spelling and vocabulary words, as well as rules for reading, can also be found in Readers. Schoolchildren were expected to prog ress through series of Readers during course of their formal schooling. As Gulliford points out, however, before 1870 children who attended regularly in primary grades achieved reading level ofMcGuffey's Third Eclectic Reader (51). Westerhoff suggests that most rural schools were able to get by with only first two in series (57). In McGuffey and His Readers, Wester hoff maintains that changes in various editions of Readers were repre sentative of changes that were taking place in public school curriculum. He earnestly contends that revised empha sis in each new edition signaled decline of influence of traditional Protestant values and rise of secularism and middle-class civil religion (19). Although a bit strident in his compari son of two editions, Westerhoff clearly distinguishes between themes of McGuffey's original collections and revised 1879 edition: By 1879, theistic, Calvinist world view so dominant in first editions

Primary knowledge, medical education and consultant expertise.

We have studied the knowledge of students and clinicians that they actually used to follow up four problems in general medicine. Some unexpected similarities and differences in their readily accessible or primary knowledge were found in groups from first-year clinical medical students to consultants. There is no linear increase in the quantity of primary knowledge with experience, but qualitative changes are very much more important. At all levels individuals show a remarkable dissimilarity in the knowledge they use to solve clinical problems, so that the bulk of personal knowledge used is individual. Comparatively rarely do people use the same knowledge to solve any one clinical problem. However, there is evidence of a general tendency towards increasing uniformity in knowledge as a result of the medical school years. After houseman level, individuality increases again. These changes result in consultants achieving an identical profile to first-year clinical medical students in terms of the extent to which their primary knowledge bases are held individually or in common. These findings suggest that consultant expertise is actually based on individual experience rather than a common core of knowledge. The influence of medical school in providing such a common knowledge base is (1) limited and (2) reversed by clinical practice. The results suggest the necessity for increased vocational and practice-oriented components in medical education, particularly in postgraduate education.

Nutrition support practice: a study of factors inherent in the delivery of nutrition support services.

The purpose of this study was to determine the degree of intercorrelation among dietitian, physician, and team nutrition support functions. Eight hundred and eighty dietitians and physicians were asked to respond to a questionnaire describing nutrition support functions as reported in the literature and validated by a panel of nutrition support physicians and dietitians. Two hundred and fifty-four completed questionnaires were included in the study, 84 from physicians and 170 from dietitians. Intercorrelations among function statements were subjected to factor analysis. The magnitude and consistency of factor loadings suggest that nutrition support is not perceived as independent components, but as a comprehensive pattern or structure. However, there was one important difference in perception. The sample tended to have an "enteral" orientation to the dietitian role and a "parenteral" orientation to the physician and team roles. The data support the contention that all members of nutrition support teams need a common core of knowledge and a set of highly developed process skills which can best be attained through an integrated, rather than segmented, approach to team training.

The Organization of Statistical Instruction in Colleges and Universities

With the rapid inicrease in the number of departments of statistics 2at colleges and universities, it seems appropriate at this time for the statistical societies to give serious consideration to the present status of course programs for students majoring in statistics and in addition to review offerings of course programs in statistics of a purely service nature. Also it would seem desirable to consider ways of improving such programs and possibly even attempt informal agreement on some common core of knowledge which statisticians graduating with bachelor, master and doctoral degrees might reasonably be expected to have.