Spring
2001 Spring
2001
1. What's New at ERICACVE.ORG
2. New Vision for High School Career-Tech Education
3. Recent Books on Adult, Career, and Vocational Education
4. Evaluating the ERIC System
5. What Are the Advantages of Having a Document in ERIC?
Each week, ERIC/ACVE staff submit abstracts of new journal articles and documents for inclusion in the ERIC database. A new feature on the ERIC/ACVE website makes it possible to look at these “in-process” abstracts before they appear in the database or paper indexes. Search “In-Process Abstracts” using most ERIC database fields, including full text of the abstract; limit to just journal articles or documents; or browse our most recent weekly additions: http://ericacve.org/abstracts.asp.
Other recently added features on our website:
New Directions for High School Career and Technical Education in the 21st Century. Information Series No. 384 by Richard L. Lynch. Order No. IN 384, Price $8.50. Order from Center on Education and Training for Employment, Center Publications, 1900 Kenny Rd., Columbus, OH 43210-1090. Available online (PDF format): http://ericacve.org/mp_lynch_01.asp
A new vision for vocational education should be part of comprehensive reform of the high school in the United States. This paper identifies and describes new directions for vocational (or career and technical) education in high schools at the beginning of the 21st century. It synthesizes thought and opinion of a variety of stakeholders, gathered through interviews and a review of documents and research that have influenced policy.
The paper begins with an historical overview of high school vocational education in order to understand the present condition of the field, depicting the turn of the 21st century as a crucial crossroads at which important decisions for the future must be made. Forces influencing high school career and technical education at this stage are described: the new economy, public expectations, new cognitive science research about learning, and a variety of school reform movements. The purposes of high school career and technical education are identified as—
• Providing career
exploration and planning
• Enhancing academic achievement and motivation to learn more
• Acquiring generic work competencies and skills useful for employment
• Establishing pathways for continuing education and lifelong learning
The importance of early childhood and middle school years in laying the foundation for high school and beyond is emphasized.
The remainder of the paper elaborates four themes for the new career and technical education: career planning and development, high school reform, upgrading of vocational education, and the K-14 model. These themes are discussed in terms of six components, four that contribute to student achievement (high school majors, contextual teaching and learning, work-based learning, authentic assessment) and two that relate to the organization of schools and school systems (career academies and tech prep).
Aldridge, F., and Lavender, P. The
Impact of Learning on Health. Leicester, England: National
Institute of Adult Continuing Education, 2000. Key findings of a British study
found such benefits as confidence, new friends, and new employment or volunteer
work, personal discoveries, insight into relationships, and improvements at
work.
Crysdale, S. et al. On Their Own? Making the Transition from School to Work in the Information Age. Montreal, Quebec: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 1999. Examines the factors responsible for the difficulties being experienced by many young Canadians trying to find permanent jobs in a growing economy and explains how Canadian youths can make the best use of the opportunities offered by academic and other programs to find a satisfying life in the work force.
Evans, N., ed. Experiential Learning around the World: Employability and the Global Economy. London, England: Jessica Kingsley Publishers, 2000. This comprehensive study explores the chronological and geographical expansion of the assessment of adult and experiential learning in the United States, Canada, France, Scotland, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa.
Hyland, T. Vocational Studies, Lifelong Learning and Social Values: Investigating Education, Training and NVQs under the New Deal. Brookfield, VT: Ashgate, 1999. Examines the New Labour policy on lifelong learning in Great Britain, including the University for Industry and the New Deal initiatives and the issue of upgrading the British vocational education and training (VET) system to match those of European competitors.
Miller, M. E., and Cook-Greuter, S. R., eds. Creativity, Spirituality, and Transcendence: Paths to Integrity and Wisdom in the Mature Self. Westport, CT: Ablex Publishing/Greenwood Publishing Group, 2000. Contains 11 papers on such topics as creative writing as a spiritual practice, the dark side of creativity, limitations to artistic creativity, art and meditation in recovery from cancer, and lifelong learning and the good life.
Pucel, D. J. Beyond Vocational Education: Career Majors, Tech Prep, Schools Within Schools, Magnet Schools & Academies. Larchmont, NY: Eye on Education, 2001. Provides a rationale, model, and procedures for establishing career majors as organizers for curriculum and to identify the courses to be part of career major programs, tech prep programs, academies, and magnet schools.
Stern, D., and Wagner, D. A. International
Perspectives on the School-to-Work Transition. Cresskill, NJ:
Hampton Press, 1999. Provides a policy update on the school-to-work transition
in a wide range of countries, including Australia, Canada, Denmark, Germany,
Japan, Mexico, the Netherlands, Russia, Sweden, England, Wales, and the United
States. Also includes a comparison of youth labor markets in 23 countries.
by Susan Imel
In September 2000, the Office of Educational Research and Improvement (OERI), U.S. Department of Education, issued a contract for an 18-month evaluation of the ERIC system. During its 35-year existence, ERIC has broadened its scope, audience, and functions, but it has not had an increase in its funding base. The 16 Clearinghouses and 3 central support components operate on a total combined budget of approximately $10 million. The evaluation, which is being conducted by the American Institutes for Research (AIR), will be used by OERI for strategic decision making about how ERIC should be structured in the future. It is based largely on problems, questions, and recommendations in five commissioned papers that examined ERIC’s mission, structure, and resources; the use of technology in the ERIC system; ERIC user services; ERIC products and information dissemination; and ERIC database and operational procedures. The papers were finalized in April 2000 and are available at http://www.eric.ed.gov/papers/index.html.
As a part of the evaluation, AIR will be developing a profile that will compare ERIC to two other federal initiatives that provide access to information sources: PubMed (medicine) and AgNIC (agriculture). The profile will compare characteristics such as mission and primary focus, target audiences, number and categories of current customers, extent and scope of database content, products and services, use of web-based technology, and levels of funding. OERI plans to use the results of the comparison for making recommendations about future ERIC program directions.
Another task that is being undertaken in the evaluation is an analysis of ERIC customer demographics, their information priorities and interests, their objectives for using ERIC, and their assessment of ERIC functions. The Clearinghouse has been working with AIR staff on this task to ensure that they have the information they need about our customers. We provided them with the results of the Customer Satisfaction Survey conducted via the ERIC/ACVE website during November 2000, for example.
The evaluation will also analyze the cost effectiveness of introducing web-based technologies into ERIC database operations. This task will address the objectives of (1) reducing time lags in getting information into the database and increasing the overall efficiency of database operations, (2) increasing customers’ ability to access readily all relevant information resources, and (3) increasing the ability of the ERIC system to analyze continually the supply of and demand for information resources by subject area, topic, and category (e.g., research, curriculum).
The results of the evaluation should prove useful in setting future directions for the ERIC system. The Clearinghouse is cooperating with AIR to ensure that the kind of information needed for the evaluation is available. If you have questions about the evaluation, please contact me. I can be reached via e-mail at imel.1@osu.edu, toll free at 800/848-4815, ext. 28606, or by writing to Susan Imel, ERIC/ACVE, 1900 Kenny Road, Columbus, OH 43210-1090.
Publicity. Your work is
announced and publicized to the worldwide education community in Resources in
Education (RIE), on the ERIC website, on widely available
CD-ROMs, via online systems such as OCLC, and through computer networks at
thousands of colleges, universities, schools, and other educational
organizations.
Retrievability. ERIC catalogs, indexes, and abstracts your document,
making a permanent record that is available to interested readers by author,
title, subject, institution, and many other data fields.
Dissemination. Documents accepted by ERIC are reproduced and
disseminated on microfiche, in reproduced paper copy, and electronically,
according to the permission granted on the reproduction release form.
Availability. ERIC documents are always “in print.” ERIC
documents are stored on microfiche, from which copies can be made on an
on-demand basis. Interested persons may purchase copies through the ERIC
Document Reproduction Service (EDRS): http://edrs.com.
Our clearinghouse collects materials related to the fields of adult, career, and vocational education. It does not cost anything to submit materials aside from postage. Also, ERIC does not pay royalties for materials it accepts.
Documents may be submitted in either paper or electronic form. To submit documents by mail, please send them to the Acquisitions Coordinator, ERIC/ACVE, 1900 Kenny Road, Columbus, OH 43210-1090. Each item should include a reproduction release form. The form can be obtained from the clearinghouse’s website at http://ericacve.org/repro.asp or by calling 800/848-4815, extension 26991. Materials can be sent by e-mail to chambers.2 @osu.edu. Please contact us if you have any questions.
This project has been funded at least in part with Federal funds from the U.S. Department of Education under Contract No. ED-99-CO-0013. The content of this publication does not necessarily reflect the views or policies of the U.S. Department of Education nor does mention of trade names, commercial products, or organizations imply endorsement by the U.S. Government.