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Construction programs seeking accreditation from the American Council for Construction Education (ACCE) must now demonstrate student achievement of 20 Student Learning Outcomes (SLO). Part of accomplishing this involves clarifying how the program interprets each SLO. This is problematic because there is no precedent for how this should be done. The overall aim of the research was to establish a model for clarifying the meaning of the 20 SLOs through identifying performance criteria for each SLO. This paper reports on a case study implementing the proposed methodology on a 4-year construction program focused on preparing students for careers in commercial construction management. Details of the multi-phased mixed methods study involving a panel of industry experts to identify the essential performance criteria is presented. The method resulted in identifying performance criteria representing views of industry, alumni, and faculty of the program that aided in preparations for accreditation and provided cause for reflection about strengths, weaknesses, and areas of improvement for the program. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lifelong learning has become a (still) increasingly popular slogan in the field of EU educational policy. Embedded in an international and historical account of the discourse on lifelong learning since the 1970s, this paper describes how lifelong learning has emerged as the central strategy in EU education and training policy, and provides a closer look at the EU’s underlying concept of lifelong learning and its objectives. Based on these illustrations, it provides some critical thoughts on the EU’s use of the term lifelong learning and its lifelong learning principles. Within this context, it calls for cautiousness: is lifelong learning just used as a powerful label, i.e. an elastic concept tailorable to any needs, or is it underpinned by a solid, comprehensive concept and strategy of lifelong learning? Following this line of argumentation, this paper also sets the EU’s lifelong learning policies in the broader light of the highly debated EU convergence policy in the field of education and training. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A recent review essay of three books on effective schooling stated that the literature on school effectiveness largely adopts a functionalist view of society and schooling and the field of inquiry is dominated by a positivist paradigm. The review argued for a sociological analysis of effective schooling. This paper examines from a sociological perspective the nature of effective schooling. The paper draws on case studies of four high schools to analyze their relationship with the social, cultural and policy dimensions oft heir context. A major focus of the paper is on the dilemmas, tensions and issues arising from the interrelationship between each school and its context, and the implications of these for an understanding of effective practices in schools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The importance of tackling economic, social and health-related inequities is increasingly accepted as a core concern for the post-Millennium Development Goal framework. However, there is a global dearth of high-quality, policy-relevant and actionable data on inequities within populations, which means that development solutions seldom focus on the people who need them most. INTREC (INDEPTH Training and Research Centres of Excellence) was established with this concern in mind. It aims to provide training for researchers from the INDEPTH network on associations between health inequities, the social determinants of health (SDH), and health outcomes, and on presenting their findings in a usable form to policy makers. Objective: As part of a baseline situation analysis for INTREC, this paper assesses the current status of SDH training in three of the African INTREC countries - Ghana, Tanzania, and South Africa - as well as the gaps, barriers, and opportunities for training. Methods: SDH-related courses from the three countries were identified through personal knowledge of the researchers, supplemented by snowballing and online searches. Interviews were also conducted with, among others, academics engaged in SDH and public health training in order to provide context and complementary material. Information regarding access to the Internet, as a possible INTREC teaching medium, was gathered in each country through online searches. Results: SDH-relevant training is available, but 1) the number of places available for students is limited; 2) the training tends to be public-health-oriented rather than inclusive of the broader, multi-sectoral issues associated with SDH; and 3) insufficient funding places limitations on both students and on the training institutions themselves, thereby affecting participation and quality. We also identified rapidly expanding Internet connectivity in all three countries, which opens up opportunities for e-learning on SDH, though the current quality of the Internet services remains mixed. Conclusions: SDH training is currently in short supply, and there is a clear role for INTREC to contribute to the training of a critical mass of African researchers on the topic. This work will be accomplished most effectively by building on pre-existing networks, institutions, and methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports on a literature review conducted in the UK for the Design Council and CfBT (Higgins et al., 2005) which looked at the evidence of the impact of environments on learning in schools. We have reviewed the available evidence regarding different facets of the physical environment and provided an analysis based on different areas of effect, including the extent to which different facets interact (positively and negatively) with one another. Our conclusions suggest that, although the research often indicates the parameters of an effective environment, there is an overall lack of empirical evidence about the impact of individual elements of the physical environment which might inform school design at a practical level to support student achievement. However, at a secondary level of analysis, there are indications that environmental change can be part of a catalytic process of school development and improvement. The implications of these findings for Building Schools for the Future will be discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]