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As academic interest in Chinese complementary schools has grown, insufficient attention has been paid to the role and experiences of teachers working in these schools. This paper has drawn from accounts of Chinese complementary schoolteachers in London, together with the author's personal experiences of working as a teacher in one such school. The paper analyses recent changes in the demographic of these schools and also the changing discourse field that surrounds them. The discussion then progresses to consideration of the impact of these changes upon Chinese complementary schools, especially with regard to teachers' experience. This paper examines the pattern of professional training that exists among this growing segment of teachers, identifying issues for the future. The paper asks why it is that so many teachers who bring very positive commitment and engagement to their professional role do so in the face of poor funding and pay. Finally, the paper focuses on new challenges for teachers in their classrooms with the aim of providing directions for future development and research.

During the last twenty years there has been a significant growth in the training of overseas students especially within the European Union. This development has been paralleled by the emergence of off-shore medical schools in the American hemisphere. These facilities are to be found in both traditional established universities as well as less robust institutions. This review will deal specifically with students trained within established universities far from their own communities. It will concentrate particularly on the European Union where there are now more than 20 such English Parallel courses. The review considers the experience of students studying in a foreign culture with different teaching and learning norms. It suggests the need to develop support networks and to encourage the emergence of specialist cultural advisors with links across the European Union to ensure that the specific needs of such students should be considered for when they return to their home communities. The long-term benefits of building a trans-European medical workforce are also discussed briefly.

Chinese higher tourism education witnesses 32-year continuous innovation and exploration since the reform and opening policies. And it has gained many successful experiences in the aspects of talents cultivation mentality, nurture target, subject construction, curriculum arrangement and training module. However, it suffers the shortage of tourism professionals in tourism management. Disjunction between college education and market demand is one of the important reasons. Many-year teaching reform proves that tourism experimental teaching centre is able to encourage students' innovative idea and practice ability to realize seamless connection of talent cultivation and market demand. What's more, experimental teaching system can not only offer basic education for undergraduates, it also designs connectional experimental teaching system based on collaborative education between undergraduate and graduate education. It possesses basic dimension, professional dimension, comprehensive dimension, innovative dimension and dynamic dimension with the feature of basic recognition experiment, professional ability cultivation, disciplinary application innovation and industrial application development. Hence it is expected to train practical and innovative talents of different levels for tourism industry and offer an example and reference for graduate's innovative education in major of tourism management.

This paper argues that teaching psychology for non-psychologists influences psychology's public image and the basis of collaboration between psychologists and non-psychologists. Therefore, designing psychology curricula for non-psychology students and professionals is an important task of psychology departments that deserves attention. For guiding the design process, we propose considering five criteria. Curricula for non-psychologists should be (a) specific to the profession of the target group, (b) specific to the needs and (c) work processes of the target group and (d) limited to the professional field of the target group. Although psychology curricula for non-psychology students need to be limited regarding its breadth, they should (e) maintain the depth and multi-perspectivity required for understanding psychological phenomena. Discussing these criteria should help raise awareness for the role of teaching psychology to students of academic disciplines and professions other than psychology.

The systemic, ecological, family-centered approach (FCA) has been shown to be the most effective approach to follow worldwide. In Spain, however, the expert-centered approach remains in force and determines the actions of professionals. The objective of this study is to present the training needs perceived by professionals in six early intervention (EI) centers in Spain in which a research process was introduced, namely, the FCA. Two focus groups were held. The needs stated by professionals were for more knowledge about the philosophy of the approach: supervision, learning in reference centers, and exchange sessions with families as the most appropriate training methods; the observation of role models; collaboration between professionals and the trainer as effective instructional designs; and organizational aspects such as training within the work day. A discussion of the results is carried out in the context of current literature and the practical implications are explored.

The article deals with the content of training Masters in National Security at the UK universities. The problem of the state's national security in the context of the state's general development and the realization of its national interests has been actualized. It is noted that maintaining the national interests of any state world provides an adequate response to the challenges and threats of today, namely the implementation of an effective national security policy. It is found that the UK's national security strategy lists all the key threats that the government believes are threatening the state. Terrorism has been the top problem since the terrorist attacks in London in 2007. The proliferation of nuclear weapons and other types of weapons of mass destruction causes much anxiety, too. The UK strategy also includes threats such as transnational organized crime, global instability and conflictogenity (in the Middle East and Africa), global climate change, energy shortages, poverty, etc. The conducted research proves that the UK seeks to identify and eliminate such threats as transnational organized crime, global instability and conflictogenity, global climate change, energy shortages, poverty, etc. The UK National Security Strategy is based on such key values as human rights, the rule of law, a lawful and responsible government, justice, freedom, tolerance and equal opportunity for all. As a result, the UK universities aim to diversify professional training of specialists in national security incorporating into the field such areas as peace or war studies, conflict studies, terrorism, insurgency, etc. The content of professional training for national security specialists, namely masters, provided by King's College London, the University of Leeds and Coventry University are characterized by the following features: adherence to the nation-wide principles of national security, the conceptual diversity of degree programmes (national security studies; peace and conflict studies; security, terrorism and insurgency), focus on humanities, profession-oriented compulsory modules, a wide range of optional courses, flexible combination of study and work and personal commitments, research challenges, taking into account the dilemmas and challenges of globalization and integration, promotion of human rights, etc. The relevant recommendations have been singled out to improve the content of professional training for such specialists at Ukrainian universities.

Design aesthetics is playing an important role in design education, as well as design practice. Certain biological signals can reveal people's attitudes toward design works. This study used eye movement data to examine the effect of design aesthetics and professional background on viewing strategies of design proposals. Participants were asked to observe 12 excavator design proposals while their eye movement data were recorded. Experiment was designed and conducted. Through a series of statistical analyses, the results showed that design aesthetics had main effect on dwell time and fixation count in different areas of interest. The most appealing design proposals obtained more fixations and longer duration than the unappealing ones. Besides, professional background significantly influenced the scan paths of design proposals. The comparison of viewing sequences showed that industrial design students were more flexible, while engineering students followed the similar viewing sequence.

Given that over 5 million K-12 students in the U.S. public school system are classified as English learners (NCES, 2017), many policymakers and school leaders recognize that public schools need ethnically and linguistically diverse educators. But about 80% of teaching staff are white (Williams, Garcia, Connally, Cook, & Dancy, 2016), and only 13% speak another language in addition to English. To bridge this gap, some school districts have turned to bilingual paraeducators (sometimes called paraprofessionals or teacher aides) to support students' learning -- and to cultivate the next wave of licensed teachers. In 2012, the Northern Nevada English Learning Initiative, a consortium of education entities in and around Washoe County, Nevada, received a grant from the federal Office of English Language Acquisition to develop and implement professional learning for paraeducators to work effectively with English learners. Through this initiative, local school district staff and university faculty collaborated to develop a program to boost paraeducators' teaching skills. Specifically, paraeducators participating in the initiative learned about second language acquisition, inquiry-based science, and other district programs and priorities, including the Common Core State Standards, specific assessment tools, Positive Behavioral Interventions & Supports, and social and emotional learning.

Paraprofessional training is essential for high quality special education services. Yet, educators may struggle to select appropriate materials for paraprofessional training. A review was conducted of 26 paraprofessional training materials using a rubric designed to evaluate the alignment with federal legislation and professional standards, and use of research-based adult learning methods. Results indicate many training materials aligned with federal legislation, but varied in their content focus, alignment with paraprofessional standards, and use of adult learning methods. Based on results of the review, three paraprofessional training materials reflected high quality training. Features of paraprofessional training materials, recommendations for practice, suggested improvements to training materials, limitations, and future research directions are discussed.

Global corporations are characterized by a large number of employees and geographically dispersed offices. Moreover, the competitiveness in the global market requires them to invest in their human resources to be able to remain a step ahead of competition. Implementing large scale classical education in such environments is challenging and costly. Mobile e-learning (m-learning) allows users to tailor their professional training and education to their needs and time constraints. However, in self-paced education, it is very hard to keep user retention and engagement. To achieve the latter, we have designed and developed an m-learning platform for corporate environments based on the triggering persuasive technology principle that try to incite users in regularly using the platform. We have evaluated the application in-the-wild in corporate environments of differently sized companies with 300 users. Users were subjected to three different conditions: no triggering, simple regular triggering, and adaptive triggering. The results show that the use of adaptive triggering in m-learning increases user engagement as well as course completion rates more than simple regular triggering and no triggering.

In this research, a combination of both quantitative and qualitative approaches is used to identify different market segments in the education industry. To solve the research problem, an exploratory approach to data mining is used and, using a series of interviews with experts, the factors affecting segmentation are identified. Then, using the clustering method (in the form of specific two-step and K-means algorithms), customers are clustered and features of each cluster are identified. This research is based on data provided by a large Iranian research and education company. After examining the clusters identified in both methods, it is determined that the clusters provided by the two-step algorithm are more in line with the organizational and market reality of the business. Finally, the marketing mix model is used to formulate strategic approaches and actions.

Through the opinions expressed by 20 Spanish faculty members, this article describes the key elements of a blended learning training programme on disability. Qualitative evaluation was carried out using semi-structured group interviews and open-ended written questionnaires. Satisfaction with the training programme was analysed and its strengths (such as the suitability of blended learning and the inclusion of face-to-face sessions in which students with disabilities talked about their experiences) and weaknesses (such as the need for more training hours and more face-to-face sessions) were identified. As outlined in the conclusions, both the strengths and the weaknesses detected taught us valuable lessons, prompting us to think about possible actions that could be taken to ensure more effective faculty training.

The high rates of comorbidity with substance use disorders in general psychiatry patients demand enhanced competences from psychiatry residents in addiction medicine. The aim of this article is to improve knowledge, skills and attitudes in psychiatric residents in treating patients with comorbid substance-related disorders (SUD). Four seminars with all residents on relevant and actual knowledge on substance-related disorders and a small group experience of five sessions on improving skills and attitudes in dealing with patients are described and evaluated quantitatively and qualitatively. Both quantitative evaluations show that seminars and small group experiences are highly appreciated. Concerning the seminar, residents appreciated, in particular, to study and present selected up-to-date literature and the positive learning environment. The small group experience resulted in sharing feelings and thoughts about patients with SUD and mutual support. The results show that the goals of these two methods of education have been met. This means that these two methods can be integrated in the training of residents in psychiatry to increase knowledge, skills and attitudes concerning addiction.

This paper reviews the findings of a professional task force from the Association of Outdoor Recreation and Education (AORE), which explored the feasibility of and support for a credentialing system for students and young professionals aspiring to a career in the outdoor industry. The task force used initial public discussions to design a survey, which was then sent to AORE members. The quantitative and qualitative data revealed an almost 50% division in favor of/against a credentialing system. In general, younger professionals and students expressed more interest in a credential than seasoned veterans did. All respondents identified similar challenges to a credentialing system: cost versus benefit, assessing and evaluating the qualifications, and a lack of value-added (a sense that there are already too many credentials in the industry). Although credentialing can signal a unified profession that agrees on the professional competencies required for effective professional practice, our findings indicate the outdoor industry is not yet there.

A joint student and professional practitioner seminar used distance technology to allow remote experts to present to, and remote practitioners to participate in, a university-based learning experience. Participants were professional practitioners from the US Fish and Wildlife Service who were mandated to receive training and on-campus graduate students in environmentally focused programs who were enrolled for credit. Seminars providing training in high-demand or cutting-edge topics may be especially valuable to practitioners outside the university in business, agency, or organization positions, if they can attend as distance learners. Such classes create opportunities to bring students and professionals together to interact with expert presenters, who may present from distant locations. Presenters model expert thinking for students and engage them in discussions in which they practice such thinking. Students gain additional insight into their field of practice by observing interactions between practitioners and presenters, as well as by working directly with practitioners, in discussions and, potentially, in assignments. As a result, at little cost to any participant, students are engaged in authentic learning that is not regularly available in a classroom setting and practitioners gain access to a series of experts as well as access to student views and, potentially, student work. Instructors must relinquish considerable control of some aspects of the learning environment, but as mediators can increase the value-added aspects of sharing the class with professionals. Professional programs seeking to prepare students for professional practice often combine both more traditional classroom learning and experiential learning during thesis preparation, service learning or internships. Seminars such at this provide a valuable addition to this mix.

In recent years, major universities and governmental and nongovernmental organizations around the world have been engaged in discussions about implementing the principles of lifelong learning as fundamental principles of individual education. Until about a decade ago, adult education in Montenegro (whose development resembled that of adult education in the other republics of the former Yugoslavia) was characterized by the founding of workers' or people's universities; establishment of training centers at major companies and factories; and continued professional training, which included part-time enrollment in traditional universities. In other words, adult education was treated as an integral part of the formal education system but was not included in the state budget for education. Over the course of the last ten years, Montenegro has lost its old system of adult education, but it is still quite far from establishing a new one. Tellingly, no strategic document pertaining to adult education in the country recognizes the University of Montenegro as having a major role in lifelong learning. This essay problematizes the place and role of the university within the system of adult education and offers a comparative analysis of the development of the concept of lifelong learning at the university level in Europe.

Racial Profiling has been recognized as a serious problem that affects many segments of our society and is especially notable in law enforcement. Governments and police services have pronounced that racial profiling is not acceptable and will not be tolerated. They have gone to great lengths in trying to eradicate racial profiling through prosecutions on the punitive side and training on the pro-active side. However, education in this area is problematic both in content and in the willingness of participants to take part in this type of training. Often people who are ordered to take these courses feel that they do not need to be told how to be sensitive to the issues. In an attempt to give a Police Foundations class an opportunity to understand the problems and issues surrounding the concept of racial profiling, I developed a series of interactive exercises. These exercises, the process of their implementation, and their results are described in this article.

This paper describes the redesign of a faculty development program at a large public university that transitioned from weekly face-to-face meetings to a version that reduced seat time by half. Focus is on course development activities in which individual faculty began designing and developing their online courses. Survey data was collected and analyzed from two "pre-revision" and two "post-revision" versions of the faculty development program to assess the satisfaction with the course and perceptions about faculty course development progress. Results indicate that faculty expressed a higher overall satisfaction with the "post-revision" program and expressed stronger perceptions about their ability to develop their online courses. This is attributed to three reasons; first, there was a balance of autonomy and support; second, an emphasis on adult learning principles to support content creation; and third, a shift from individual to community. Implications for practice are shared and recommendations for future research are proposed in the conclusion. (Contains 4 tables.)

This analyses of the paper show to develop innovative educational projects through teacher training. The starting point is "learning communities", which is a project to change educational practice. It has a long history in Spain. This project is generated according to the assessment process in order to change practices required by Miguel Hernandez School, located in Castro Urdiales, Cantabria. The University of Cantabria oversees the teacher training and organises training meetings with the teachers and volunteers involved in the transformation, such as learning communities, interactive groups, literary gatherings, etc., in order to improve innovative practices. The main success of this process is that the teachers, as they see the positive results of the implementation of these measures, have increasingly asked for more training in this area, because they have come to realize that they are contributing to offering better education for their students through their own professional training and intervention. In order to change educational practices at school, teacher training must be a main priority in any innovative projects.

Online distance education (ODE) has become pervasive and can potentially transform pedagogical practices across primary, secondary and university-based educational systems. ODE is considered a flexible option for non-traditional students such as adult learners and home-schoolers, and a convenient way to deliver remedial courses. ODE is also a feasible and attractive option for rural schools, which educate 29% of all K-12 students in the United States, and often struggle to provide advanced courses and attract highly qualified teachers. This paper presents qualitative data from both cohorts of a two-year, randomised, controlled research study of online distance learners in US rural high schools. Course providers in K-12 environments often rely on the teacher-facilitator model, which assigns a local staff member in the role of on-site facilitator to operate equipment, distribute instructional materials, and answer questions. In order to address issues of isolation and interaction, and to attend to the local context, our study aimed to develop a learner-centred model of social support at the local, small-school level that emphasises communication and interaction. This expanded role links the local classroom environment more closely with the online environment. The responsibilities for ensuring student success are distributed between online instructor and facilitator: a form of hybrid learning. [This article was originally published in "ALT-J: Research in Learning Technology," v18, n3, p193-205, Nov 2010.]

The paper examines the level of library automation and virtual library development in four academic libraries. A validated questionnaire was used to capture the responses from academic librarians of the libraries under study. The paper discovers that none of the four academic libraries is fully automated. The libraries make use of librarians with background training in computer applications coupled with in-house and sponsored conferences and workshops. Again, none of the automation and internet equipments in these four institutions is assessed to be adequate. The paper recommends that parent institutions should give priority to the development of library automation and virtual library development through internet connectivity by voting adequate fund to this project. (Contains 7 tables.)

How do ESL teacher-candidates grapple with beliefs about language during their professional training? In this article, we present the findings of a qualitative research study conducted in a large eastern Canadian university Bachelor of Education program. As Johnson (2010) has recently noted, despite extensive research and theoretical work that stresses the importance of functional conceptualizations of language based on social practice, much ESL teacher training still revolves around the skills needed to transmit antiquated notions centered on descriptions of phonology, morphology, syntax, and grammar. This study identifies five key factors that influenced how the teacher candidates in this study thought of language: prior beliefs, interaction with peers, the course textbook, lectures, and the teaching practicum. We found that our participants demonstrated willingness to consider language as social practice and argue that this tendency can be strengthened in particular through the integration of teacher-training course content as it pertains to functional conceptions of language with the practicum experience.

Knowledge and skills for global health program design, implementation and monitoring is an expectation for practicing public health professionals. Major health education professional organizations including American Association for Health Education (AAHE), Society of Public Health Education (SOPHE) and International Union for Health Promotion and Education (IUHPE) participated in the 2008 Galway Conference to develop standards and quality assurance systems for enhancing workforce capacity in global health education and promotion. To help promote the health of all people, eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) were ratified by United Nations (UN) Member States to be achieved by 2015. Heads of state met at the General Assembly and the Secretary General reported worldwide progress concerning the achievement of MDGs during the summer of 2010. This article presents implications of MDGs for public health professionals including the topics of child and maternal mortality and women's reproductive health, HIV/AIDS, malaria and other major diseases, and environmental sustainability. Specifically, this article also discusses how health education specialists can contribute to the achievement of MDGs 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8, due to their unique professional training and demonstrated competencies. (Contains 1 table.)

Partnerships for Autism through Collaborative Community Choice and Empowerment (Project PACE) was developed to empower parents and professionals (e.g., general or special education teachers, therapists, social workers, school counselors, psychologists) through training and education. Project PACE was designed to provide participants with basic facts about individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and strategies for working with these individuals utilizing collaborative partnerships. Once trained, participants themselves became trainers who presented the program to community agencies, schools, and parent support groups. This article describes the project planning phase, the implementation phase, and the evaluation phase (i.e., lessons learned). Results of this study suggest that Project PACE provides a cost-effective training model that allows parents and professionals to collaboratively develop, maintain, and improve services for individuals with ASD. (Contains 2 tables.)

Globalisation and social changes in Slovenia, especially the formation of an independent country, adoption of the new constitution and implementation of a multi-party political system have caused changes in the education system as well ("Bela knjiga o vzgoji in izobrazevanju v Republiki Sloveniji," 1996, p. 5). Razdevsek Pucek (1997) indicated that a teacher's need for education and constant professional training has unquestionably risen in the period of curricular reform that is with the implementation of the nine-year primary education programme and after it. In the theoretical part of this paper, we will show some basic changes in primary education system that came with the curricular reform and the fact that every school reform is undoubtedly connected with teacher education and goes side by side with changes in contents and methods of teacher training. We are going to pay a special attention to the demands that have influenced the need for teacher education since the basic aim of the research was to determine the extent to which (if any at all) teachers of the first, the second and the third cycle felt the need for further education that is the additional professional training and to specify the possible differences. While comparing the methods of education of teachers in the first, the second and the third cycle, we have also considered their age and level of education. Additionally, we were interested in what the most common obstacles teachers face are when they are deciding for education (limited time, costs, conditions imposed by the institution and age) and what the motives that influence their decisions for education are (promotion at workplace, desire for personal growth, level of education and need for knowledge). The research includes a non-random pattern of teachers in two primary schools in the municipality of Maribor. We used a descriptive and non-experimental causal method of empirical pedagogical research. (Contains 8 tables and 6 footnotes.)

Inner-city schools located in high poverty communities often operate with insufficient resources to meet the educational needs of students. Community residents serving as paraeducators offer the dual benefits of expanding instructional capacity and fostering family-school relationships, provided they are appropriately prepared and incorporated with professional staff. This paper introduces a community partnership model for preparing members of the local community to serve as paraeducators and for fostering their working partnerships with professional school staff. A theoretical rationale demonstrating the significance of this model for students from low-income and ethnic minority backgrounds is presented, and key elements in establishing it are discussed. The application of the community partnership model for preparing paraeducators is illustrated through a case example, the Reading Partners program. Future directions to empirically advance the community partnership model are presented. (Contains 1 figure and 1 table.)

D. Wayne Osgood, E. Michael Foster, and Mark E. Courtney examine the transition to adulthood for youth involved in social service and justice systems during childhood and adolescence. They survey the challenges faced by youth in the mental health system, the foster care system, the juvenile justice system, the criminal justice system, and special education, and by youth with physical disabilities and chronic illness, as well as runaway and homeless youth. One problem is that the services these vulnerable populations receive from these systems as children and adolescents often end abruptly as they transition to adulthood, even though the need for them continues. Youth must leave systems tailored for clients their age and, if they are eligible for further services at all, enter adult systems that are not equipped to address their needs. One exception is the special education system, whose services extend into early adulthood and are designed for individuals' needs. The authors review current public policies directed toward vulnerable youth in transition and find problems in four areas: eligibility criteria that exclude youth from services that might benefit them, inadequate funding for transition services, a lack of coordination across service systems, and inadequate training about young-adult developmental issues for service professionals. The authors then discuss policy options that can help create a developmentally appropriate and socially inclusive system of support for vulnerable youth. Among the options are strengthening all programs for youth in transition, improving the existing systems of care for children and adolescents, addressing the loss of access to services at the age of majority, and coordinating today's multiple systems into a single coherent system. The authors see heightened governmental interest in better supports for vulnerable young adults, both through expanding the federal role in their lives and through improving coordination of the systems that serve them. The Fostering Connections Act of 2008, for example, extended services to adolescents in foster care from the age of eighteen to the age of twenty-one. (Contains 60 endnotes.)

The paper examines the professional training of Principals of secondary schools in Nigeria. The study observes that teaching experience appears to be the major yardstick that is being used currently to promote teachers to the rank of school Principals in the country. After drawing experiences from some other countries on how Principals are trained and appointed, the paper concludes that teaching experience should not be the only yardstick for appointing Principals of secondary schools in Nigeria. As school administrators, the principals need to be formally trained before they assume administrative positions. The paper therefore suggests that the National policy on Education should be amended such that potential principals would attend mandatory leadership courses at the National Institute for Educational Planning and Administration (NIEPA) before they assume managerial positions. It further proposed that NIEPA should expand its programmes to provide the opportunities and avenues for such training.

In the process of choosing and designing professional learning, the needs of some students tend to get overlooked. Due to lack of federal legislation and requirements, gifted students are often forgotten by the educational system at large, and district professional development catalogs omit an ongoing understanding of this population. The needs of culturally and linguistically diverse students are often overlooked as well. Together, these trends create a big hole in professional learning opportunities to support gifted students of color. This paper discusses standards in gifted education and suggests that case studies are a good way to highlight critical issues related to meeting the needs of these unique students. It presents guidelines for professional learning, including: (1) Take a pulse; (2) Create a safe zone; (3) Provide training that is uniquely tailored; (4) Share culturally relevant information; (5) Lead courageous conversations; (6) Engage culturally diverse families; and (7) Encourage collaboration and capitalize on strengths.

Research relevance is determined by the need to enhance teacher education, consolidate teachers' further professional and personal development, increase the prestige of the teaching profession. The article focuses on enhancing professional training of teachers in the European countries under the conditions of lifelong learning. Based on the study and analysis of researches by Ukrainian and foreign scholars and some statistical information, the peculiarities of teaching and teacher training have been justified. Mentoring has been described as a way of transferring experience, knowledge, abilities and skills from one age group to another, or from one person to another. It has been found that mentoring aims to provide support and promote self-realization in professional activity. Lifelong learning has been defined as a programme for thinking and activity development. The statistical data on the needs of teacher development and thematic demand and supply in lifelong learning have been analyzed. It has been emphasized that modern trends in the development of lifelong learning for teachers in the EU countries include consolidation and rationalization of organizational structures with the purpose of developing the national systems of postgraduate teacher education based on scientific principles of organization and management theory, as well as orientation towards reaching the balance between the interests of all participants, partners, central authorities of education management, regional and local education authorities, school administration, teachers; stimulating innovative activities of teachers, etc. It has been concluded that taking into account European experience in organizing lifelong learning for teachers will allow Ukraine to enhance professional training of teachers, professionalization in self-education, their reflexive practice of searching for effective ways to integrate the latest technologies into the education process.

Contemporary public management in Brazil is undergoing a great deal of transformation. From the year 2008 the Brazilian Federal government has been investing in policies and planned actions that aim to expand access to Higher Education. This paradigm shift was possible through the understanding that the agenda of public problems required trained professionals with appropriate skills, able to propose plans, programs and elaborate projects, fostering the evolution and consolidation of Brazilian democracy. The changes in contemporary Brazilian public management have permitted the debate amongst researchers in the Higher Education sphere, evolving to what is conventionally known as the Public Field. This field integrates views that deal with contemporary processes that aim to change public management either at the state or non-state level, in its various dimensions, seeking to innovate teaching and research in the area of public policy. This article aims to reflect on the specific academic issues related to Public Field Education in Brazil. It also aims to promote an epistemological understanding related to the intellectual diversity present in this area. It considers the assumption that a multidisciplinary approach, characteristic of field courses, generates new experiences and knowledge, making a difference in the formation toward a critical view of reality in which the students are part. In order to conduct the research, a comparative analysis of experiences developed in recent years was proposed. It is seen that the curricula must converge, aiming to educate the manager who understands this phenomenon and the needs of contemporary society, who is able to recognize and work with the rights of citizens, as well as be present in the relations between state and society, with responsibilities of integrating public policy programs, optimizing the use of public resources, being able to redesign programs and projects in order to monitor and evaluate public policies.

This work illustrates the psychometric properties of the Italian version of the Questionnaire for Professional Training Evaluation, designed and validated by Grohmann and Kauffeld. This 12-item questionnaire provides for the evaluation of different training outcomes, is time-efficient, applicable to several professional contexts and shows sound psychometric properties. In order to test the Italian form, we carried out two studies. In Study 1 (N = 125), an exploratory factor analysis led to a two-factor solution accounting for short- and long-term training outcomes. In Study 2 (N = 122), a five-model comparison was performed. Although at first a two-factor solution seemed to emerge, confirmatory factor analysis found the best fit in a six, inter-correlated, first-order factors model (satisfaction, utility, knowledge, application to practice, individual organizational results and global organizational results). Relationships with learning transfer, transfer quantity, type of training, training methodologies and individual variables--gender, age and tenure--are explored. Limitations and research and practical implications are discussed.

Schools and education systems are being challenged to improve the evaluation of teacher professional development, yet there is a lack of practical tools for doing so. This article describes the development and validation of a new instrument to assess teachers' perceptions of the impact of professional development. This instrument, designed to be time- and cost-effective, was theoretically grounded and, as evidenced by the results reported in this article, psychometrically sound. The instrument was completed twice (examining different types of professional development) by 393 teachers. The results for both data-sets demonstrated a strong factor structure with good internal consistency for all scales. Further data analysis indicated that the scales could effectively distinguish between the experiences of different groups of teachers. The finalised instrument, named the "Impact of Teacher Professional Development Questionnaire," is presented in full, and the practical advantages and limitations of the instrument are discussed.

Policy and legislation internationally advocates curriculum access and inclusion for pupils with special educational needs. The individual education plan (IEP) process, which focuses on individual planning for pupils with special educational needs, has been mandated as a means of achieving this goal in many countries. As a concept it has been challenged in terms of its potential to perpetuate difference which is antithetical to inclusion. As a practice concerns have been raised regarding its development, implementation and review. In the Republic of Ireland (ROI) IEPs have been legislated for but not enacted. Nonetheless policy guidelines promote use of the IEP process and state funding supports teacher professional development in this area through an award-bearing model. This article draws on a mixed methods study to evaluate the impact of this award-bearing model on teachers' professional learning, in the context of IEPs. Findings indicate enhanced teacher expertise for supporting curriculum access for individual learners. However collaborative practices to support contextualisation of learner goals into class planning and practice need to be addressed. This article argues for teacher educators to focus on enhancing teacher leadership and capacity building within schools to ensure that curriculum access is achieved within an inclusive environment.

Limited research exists that examines factors influencing student affairs professionals' attainment of the professional competencies that are expected of them. The study described in this article analyzed student affairs professionals' survey responses to determine which demographics, pre-professional experiences, and educational experiences impact their attainment of the American College Personnel Association (ACPA) and National Association of Student Personnel Administrators (NASPA) professional competencies. Findings revealed there are disparities between the attainment of professional competencies based on certain factors, especially gender, education level, and type of degree.

This study investigated the implementation of best teaching practices by science graduate teaching assistants [GTAs] (3 chemists and 2 biologists) in five inquiry-based, interdisciplinary chemistry-biology experiments during a six-week professional development (PD) program, Engage PD. Additionally, we examined GTAs' experiences in implementing specific PD aspects. The PD program took place as the GTAs taught sections of biology and chemistry laboratory courses, each comprising five interdisciplinary experiments. The PD aspects included defining expected learning outcomes, subject-matter knowledge, relevance to real-world and chemistry-biology connections, and other active classroom teaching practices. Data were collected through classroom observations, reflection questionnaires, and individual interviews. Findings indicated that 57% of the PD aspects investigated were implemented in the five interdisciplinary experiments. Results also revealed GTAs' initial areas of struggle in implementing specific PD aspects. Perceived implementation difficulties were attributed to individual perceptions and beliefs, and contextual factors. Through practice, continuous feedback, and reflections, most GTAs overcame the hurdles and refined their teaching. Findings imply the need to design training PD programs that offer mentoring and support to GTAs and future faculty in implementing teaching innovations. The teaching context and reflection prompts are helpful in identifying areas of difficulties and how to improve.