http://www.mdpi.com/journal/education Latest open access articles published in Educ. Sci. at http://www.mdpi.com/journal/education http://www.mdpi.com/2227-7102/2/2/91 This article explores how young people (aged 12–18) in the four Visegrad states of Poland, Slovakia, Hungary and the Czech Republic are constructing their identities, particularly their sense of attachment to their country and to Europe. This generation is of particular significance, in that they are the first generation for many years to have been born and socialised in wholly independent states that are in a relatively peaceful and stable state. Data was collected through 41 focus groups, conducted in 11 different locations in the different states, and were analysed in terms of the degree of enthusiasm expressed for civic institutions and cultural practices related to the country and to Europe. Two particular areas were identified: the sense of generational difference and the ways in which different groups created “other” communities, within and without their country’s borders. These parameters allow us to distinguish the significant communities that these young people are creating in order to make sense of their social and political worlds. http://www.mdpi.com/2227-7102/2/2/91 Mon, 21 May 2012 00:00:00 CEST Education Sciences 2012-05-21 2 2 Article 91 104 2227-7102 Controversies and Generational Differences: Young People’s Identities in Some European States 2012-05-21 doi: 10.3390/educsci2020091 Alistair Ross http://www.mdpi.com/2227-7102/2/2/77 Global food security and sustainability, animal welfare, dietary health, and socially just relations of food production have become prominent societal issues. They are of particular concern for young people as their lives progress towards becoming independent consumers and citizens with the capacity to shape food systems of the future. This paper examined the role of the Food for Life Partnership programme in promoting young people’s engagement with food-related citizenship education in secondary schools. The research consisted of a two stage study of 24 English schools. We surveyed experiences and attitudes of students and staff, and recorded programme activities. The results presented a mixed picture. Staff reports and monitoring evidence showed much successful implementation of programme activities across the whole school. However, there was less evidence of positive student behavioral change. Amongst a range of possibilities to account for the findings, one explanation is the organizational challenges of delivering a complex and ambitious programme in the secondary school setting. This suggests the need to develop food citizenship programmes that combine long term institutional reforms alongside focused interventions with specific groups of students. It also highlights the case for ensuring a place for food related citizenship on the educational policy agenda. http://www.mdpi.com/2227-7102/2/2/77 Mon, 21 May 2012 00:00:00 CEST Education Sciences 2012-05-21 2 2 Article 77 90 2227-7102 Engaging Secondary School Students in Food-Related Citizenship: Achievements and Challenges of A Multi-Component Programme 2012-05-21 doi: 10.3390/educsci2020077 Mat Jones Narges Dailami Emma Weitkamp Richard Kimberlee Debra Salmon Judy Orme http://www.mdpi.com/2227-7102/2/2/57 This study undertook a five month qualitative investigation into technology use amongst twelve high school social studies students in two different sites in the Midwestern United States. This study examined students’ use of technology and its relationship to three dimensions of citizenship in a global age: understand global events, issues, and perspectives, participate in global networks to communicate and collaborate with global audiences, and advocate on global problems and issues to think and act globally. Collecting data through semi-structured student interviews, online-threaded discussions and document analysis, I triangulated findings, and employed a qualitative approach. The study finds a relationship between student participants’ use of technology and their serving as engaged citizenship in a global age. In using technology, students accessed international news and information, joined global networks to communicate and collaborate with global audiences, and produced digital content for international audiences. http://www.mdpi.com/2227-7102/2/2/57 Fri, 18 May 2012 00:00:00 CEST Education Sciences 2012-05-18 2 2 Article 57 76 2227-7102 Investigating Student Use of Technology for Engaged Citizenship in A Global Age 2012-05-18 doi: 10.3390/educsci2020057 Brad M. Maguth http://www.mdpi.com/2227-7102/2/2/56 After launching the journal Education (Basel) we became aware that this title has been used by another publisher as a printed journal. Since only seven papers have been published so far, we decided to change the journal title to Education Sciences and move the seven published papers to Education Sciences. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause. http://www.mdpi.com/2227-7102/2/2/56 Wed, 16 May 2012 00:00:00 CEST Education Sciences 2012-05-16 2 2 Editorial 56 56 2227-7102 Publisher’s Note: Education to Education Sciences 2012-05-16 doi: 10.3390/educsci2020056 Shu-Kun Lin http://www.mdpi.com/2227-7102/2/2/54 The field of curriculum studies has become increasingly sensitive to the “effects of global flows, transnational connections, and transcultural interactions” ([1], p. 43), and an international dialogue has begun to take shape between the European bildung-influenced tradition of Didaktiks and the Anglo-American psychologised Curriculum Studies tradition. As it stands, the dialogue has concentrated on a comparative analysis of the traditions at the level of general curriculum theory or Allgemeine Didaktik (see for example, [2]), and has rarely, if ever, drilled down into an area of subject-specific pedagogy or fachdidaktiks. This special issue seeks to address this directly, by encouraging a dialogue between various regional and national traditions of history education or Geschichtsdidaktik. [...] http://www.mdpi.com/2227-7102/2/2/54 Fri, 23 Mar 2012 00:00:00 CET Education Sciences 2012-03-23 2 2 Editorial 54 55 2227-7102 History Curriculum, Geschichtsdidaktik, and the Problem of the Nation 2012-03-23 doi: 10.3390/educ2020054 Robert J. Parkes Monika Vinterek http://www.mdpi.com/2227-7102/2/1/45 This study examined the relationship between home Internet access/parental support and student outcomes. Survey data were collected from 1,576 middle school students in China. Data were analyzed using descriptive analysis, independent-samples T-test, and regression analysis. Results indicate that students who had home Internet access reported higher scores than those without home Internet on all three dimensions: Computer and Internet self-efficacy, Attitudes towards technology and Developmental outcomes. Home Internet access and parental support were significantly positively associated with technology self-efficacy, interest in technology, perceived importance of the Internet, and perceived impact of the Internet on learning. Findings from this study have significant implications for research and practice on how to narrow down the digital divide. http://www.mdpi.com/2227-7102/2/1/45 Mon, 05 Mar 2012 00:00:00 CET Education Sciences 2012-03-05 2 1 Article 45 53 2227-7102 Digital Divide: How Do Home Internet Access and Parental Support Affect Student Outcomes? 2012-03-05 doi: 10.3390/educ2010045 Jing Lei Jingye Zhou http://www.mdpi.com/2227-7102/2/1/33 This paper argues that women’s participation in the public and their access to senior leadership positions is defined by cultural and belief systems in a society. It draws upon a study of Women College heads of women-only colleges, in a region in Pakistan, to unveil the discursive dynamics in that societal context where complex factors interact to determine what is acceptable in that culture. This has implications for women’ roles and determines their practices as college heads. The study also unveiled the culturally-informed strategies adopted by these women professionals to exercise their role as college heads in the presence of multiple cultural constraints. http://www.mdpi.com/2227-7102/2/1/33 Fri, 02 Mar 2012 00:00:00 CET Education Sciences 2012-03-02 2 1 Article 33 44 2227-7102 Women, Educational Leadership and Societal Culture 2012-03-02 doi: 10.3390/educ2010033 Saeeda Shah Umbreen Shah http://www.mdpi.com/2227-7102/2/1/22 From ancient times, the history of human beings has developed by a succession of steps and sometimes jumps, until reaching the relative sophistication of the modern brain and culture. Researchers are attempting to create systems that mimic human thinking, understand speech, or beat the best human chess player. Understanding the mechanisms of intelligence, and creating intelligent artifacts are the twin goals of Artificial Intelligence (AI). Great mathematical minds have played a key role in AI in recent years; to name only a few: Janos Neumann (also known as John von Neumann), Konrad Zuse, Norbert Wiener, Claude E. Shannon, Alan M. Turing, Grigore Moisil, Lofti A. Zadeh, Ronald R. Yager, Michio Sugeno, Solomon Marcus, or Lászlo A. Barabási. Introducing the study of AI is not merely useful because of its capability for solving difficult problems, but also because of its mathematical nature. It prepares us to understand the current world, enabling us to act on the challenges of the future. http://www.mdpi.com/2227-7102/2/1/22 Fri, 06 Jan 2012 00:00:00 CET Education Sciences 2012-01-06 2 1 Article 22 32 2227-7102 AI and Mathematical Education 2012-01-06 doi: 10.3390/educ2010022 Angel Garrido http://www.mdpi.com/2227-7102/2/1/1 This paper examines perspectives and perceptions of democracy of pre- and in-service teachers as well as teacher-education academics in Australia in order to develop a robust and critical democratic education. Using data from an on-line survey the paper presents the quantitative analyses, and the qualitative responses of contrasting understandings of democracy, citizenship and the role of education in the promotion and development of an active and thick democracy the paper critiques the neo-liberal (thin) democratic discourse of contemporary Australian academic research that suggests that the Civics and Citizenship Education project only requires some augmentation highlighting issues like sustainability and globalization while ignoring social justice issues. It begins by outlining the concepts of thick and thin democracy, and revisits the state of civics and citizenship education (CCE) in Australia. It is argued that while the pre-service teachers in this study may have a more critical and thicker understanding of democracy that is mirrored in the views of their teacher-education professors, the practicing teachers, on the other hand, have largely adopted the mainstream neo-liberal discourse, presenting a tendency to view democracy in a very narrow or thin way that may impact on their classroom practice. The paper concludes with recommendations related to what a thick democracy might actually look like in school education. http://www.mdpi.com/2227-7102/2/1/1 Wed, 21 Dec 2011 00:00:00 CET Education Sciences 2011-12-21 2 1 Article 1 21 2227-7102 Rethinking the Thinking on Democracy in Education: What Are Educators Thinking (and Doing) About Democracy? 2011-12-21 doi: 10.3390/educ2010001 David Zyngier http://www.mdpi.com/2227-7102/1/1/4 Computer-based learning facilitates a shift from externally controlled to self-directed learning. Universities and other educational institutions are challenged by these developments and must react appropriately to meet the requirements of education. The term e-learning has been coined to describe a wide range of diverse learning and teaching strategies based on the use of electronic devices. Recently developed concepts in the science of education and learning provide appropriate frameworks for novel e-learning scenarios. The present review introduces strategies and concepts for the implementation of e-learning in academic and non-academic programs and gives an overview of current e-learning activities in pharmacology. http://www.mdpi.com/2227-7102/1/1/4 Mon, 08 Aug 2011 00:00:00 CEST Education Sciences 2011-08-08 1 1 Review 4 14 2227-7102 E-Learning in Pharmacology and Pharmacy 2011-08-08 doi: 10.3390/educ1010004 Thomas Efferth http://www.mdpi.com/2227-7102/1/1/1 On the face of it, contemporary educational research is significantly different in order and kind from the period after WWII when the esteemed American education psychologist, Harold H. Abelson (1948) [1], wrote his essay, “The Role of Educational Research in a Democracy.” The current conditions under which educational researchers labor foreground national and global challenges are quite unlike those he outlined in that heady post war period just prior to its descent into the Cold War. Since Abelson’s progressive reading of the upward arch of the first half of the Twentieth Century’s educational research history, unprecedented global movements of people, money and ideas, revolutionary and expanding modes of communication, and expediential growth in knowledge production and dissemination have broadened and complicated educational research, let alone practice and policy. [...] http://www.mdpi.com/2227-7102/1/1/1 Fri, 11 Feb 2011 00:00:00 CET Education Sciences 2011-02-11 1 1 Editorial 1 3 2227-7102 Education: A Journal for Its Time 2011-02-11 doi: 10.3390/educ1010001 James Albright