Number Of Class Hours Research Articles

Undergraduate Higher Education in Europe: Towards a Comparative Perspective

In the past 20 years, knowledge about European education systems has increased enormously thanks to the efforts of official international organisations such as OECD, the Council of Europe and the EC [1]. A number of national bodies, located within or close to universities, have also contributed to the wealth of our present knowledge through research projects and the diffusion of professional journals wholly or partly devoted to higher education [2]. Despite these favourable circumstances, one can hardly say that many significant lessons have emerged from those efforts, perhaps because many of them were restricted to a collection of works which were 'national' in outlook and, therefore, lacked a true and systematic comparative perspective. A more fundamental reason is that it is difficult to be very explicit about what one can learn from international European comparisons of education systems. Are they supposed to yield international 'norms' towards which national systems should converge? Or, less ambitiously, are they only directing the spotlight towards broad directions for change, the implicit lesson for national decision-makers still being that out-of-line situations should be corrected? Within the EC, the thorny question of the sharing of responsibilities between Brussels and the Member States is approached in the new Treaty of Maastricht in a way which acknowledges the full responsibility of the Member States for the organisation of their education systems and restricts Community action to developing the European dimension of education. This stance, which is an illustration of the often advocated 'subsidiarity' principle, does not, however, provide very clear guidelines about what needs to be 'harmonised' at the European level and what can be left to national idiosyncrasies. To take a concrete example: is it worth harmonising the duration of studies to reach a first degree in EC countries, or should a European policy be content with the harmonisation of degrees? To put it in economic terms: is it enough to ensure higher education outputs of comparable quality or should all inputs also be standardised? After the duration of studies has been dealt with, do we go on to harmonise teachers' qualifications and then the number of class hours, and so on? Indeed, it is difficult to draw the line between desirable 'harmonisation' (who can be against 'harmony' anyway?) and harmful 'standardisation' rejected by everyone. With the foregoing considerations in mind, a comparative survey of undergraduate education in five European countries was carried out in 1989 by the European Institute of Education and Social Policy at the request of the French Planning Office (Commissariat Ge'ne'ral du Plan) and the Ministry of Education (Ministere de l>Education nationale). The survey focussed on the following six key points: structures, organisation and content of courses, admissions policies, student flows, teachers and future

Formal education: World survey of schools: Number and type of degrees awarded, curricular composition for first EE degree, and a breakdown of curricular activities are tabulated

The number and type of degrees awarded, curricular composition for first EE degree, and a breakdown of curricular activities are tabulated. The survey results are summarized in three tables. Table I lists the electrical engineering degrees awarded, tuition fees, number of graduates, and the number of class hours required for each degree. Table II shows the portions of class hours spent on different required and elective subjects toward the first degree in electrical engineering. Table III is a breakdown of class hours into lectures, lab work, and other activities. It also indicates the extent to which computers are used.

Family life education in California ninth and tenth grades.

Superintendents , principals and family life education teachers in all California school districts having a ninth and/or 10th grade were surveyed about their family life education ( FLE ) efforts. Responses were obtained from 80% of the superintendents , 45% of the principals and 39% of the FLE teachers who were sent questionnaires. While most superintendents reported the existence of an FLE program in at least one district school, the surveys revealed that less than one-fourth of ninth graders and less than one-third of 10th graders received such instruction during the 1981-1982 academic year. District decisions to offer FLE were reported to be most strongly influenced by school faculty and administrators while the decision not to offer FLE was most strongly influenced by clergy and special interest groups. More than half of the FLE teachers who returned surveys taught FLE as a unit within another course. Teachers generally covered a variety of curriculum topics, with units/courses most likely to address human development, physiology and sexual disease and least likely to deal with value-laden topics such as premarital intercourse, sexual behavior and sexual preference. However, the greater number of class hours devoted to FLE , the greater the chance that these issues were covered in the curriculum. Finally, the data reveal that evaluation of FLE courses was relatively limited in scope and was largely subjective in many schools.

Some New Data on Police Discretion and Training

In 1977, a survey was conducted with 49 police officers in a 55-man department in New Jersey, in order to explore how they determine the real law of the land. A questionnaire was distributed, attempting to tap attitudes on training, and how and why a police officer uses discretion. The data seem to suggest that there are important differences between the opinions of patrolmen and those of senior officers. Discretion is, of course, an indispensable part of police work. Police, however, are making decisions on a daily basis for which their training may be suspect. Much decision-making information seems to be communicated from veteran to rookie. This training is informal, unsystematic, and, in some cases, too brief This study, suggests that much more emphasis — both in number of class hours and in realism — on discretion and discretion training should be taught at police academies. Too often policemen report that boring lectures focus on "book" knowledge, rather than "the real thing. " At the very least, new patrolmen should learn what will probably be a disparity, if not a gulf between formal training and "street" learning. This increased attention to discretion might lessen the shock and disillusionment of some rookies.

Geodetic Engineering Education in West Germany

Considerable division of opinion surrounds the problem of improving the quality and scope of surveying education in the United States. Civil engineering curricula are requiring less and less formal instruction in this subject area. Five technischen hochschulen, or technical universities, in West Germany offer 4-yr professional programs in geodetic engineering leading to a diploma in surveying. The term, geodetic engineering, here embraces the entire spectrum of the geodetic sciences including geodetic surveying, photogrammetry, and geodesy itself. A typical curriculum, that at the University of Bonn, giving the number of class hours per week of instruction in both lecture and laboratory for each course, is presented. Brief comments are made on the curriculum, laboratory facilities, library holdings, and the staff. The registered surveyor in Germany enjoys a high level of professional prestige. He continues a tradition of excellence in geodetic engineering and geodesy that has spanned a century of distinguished achievement by leaders such as Helmert, Jordan, and Kneissl. There is need for expanding fundamental training at the professional level in all phases of geodetic engineering in the United States.

The Law on Higher Education and the Problems of University Geography

AbstractProfessor Ryabchikov, Dean of the Geography Faculty of Moscow University, finds that Soviet teachers colleges are adequate to supply geography teachers to the middle schools, especially in view of a gradual reduction of the number of class hours devoted to geography in those schools. He sees the primary function of university geography as the training of specialized geographers for industry, agriculture and other segments of the national economy. Universities are therefore urged to reorganize their curricula from the present somewhat academic approach to a greater practical and applied content that would benefit graduates in their new jobs. The author calls on universities to strengthen their ties with industry by taking advantage of the Soviet system of contractual research for production organizations.