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Computer Education

Computer, electronic device that can receive a set of instructions, or program, and then carry out this program by performing calculations on numerical data or by manipulating other forms of information.

Computers are playing an increasingly important role in education, for both the teacher and the student. Their use enables each student to develop at his or her own pace and makes the whole learning process more flexible.

Since their arrival on the market in the late 1970s, desktop computer systems have revolutionized business. Computers can also aid the research and compiling aspects of school projects, and many teachers now incorporate the machines into the learning process. A primary advantage of computers is the amount of information they offer via networking to a wide range of databases.

Religious Education

Religious Education in Schools, instruction in schools in or about religious faiths, their history, and their followers. Practices across the world vary, but in Britain religious education (RE) must be taught in all state-run schools by law. Pupils must receive a grounding in the basics of Christianity. They must also gain some understanding of the other major faiths practised by members of the British population. These religions include Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism, Islam, and Judaism.

In Europe, the connection between schooling and Christianity dates from the Middle Ages (see Education, History of). During the Victorian period, the majority of schools in England were Church of England, in which the scriptures were taught and education was conducted along Church principles. Since the Education Act 1944, in Britain, RE—or religious studies (RS), as it is sometimes called—has been compulsory in law, but it remains outside the National Curriculum. This means that the specific content of lessons is not laid down by central government. Instead, it is agreed upon by locally run bodies called Standing Advisory Councils for Religious Education (SACREs). RE lessons in Church-run schools (see Religious Schools) are an exception. These schools, although maintained at the government’s expense, retain control over their RE syllabus. Private schools are also free to determine their own syllabus.

RE has changed significantly since the middle of the century when straightforward Biblical study was dominant. According to government inspectors this form of lesson is still common. But educational ideas have changed, as has the cultural make-up of Britain. Pupils are encouraged to look at many aspects of religion, with a more philosophical emphasis, and not just at Christianity. Schools might organize visits to mosques, temples, and synagogues and arrange for leaders of different faiths to discuss their beliefs with children. Younger pupils often study major festivals such as the Jewish Hanukkah, the Hindu Diwali, and the Muslim Id (see Islamic Festivals).

The multi-faith, non-doctrinal view of RE taken in Britain appears to be unique. Most other countries in Europe treat the subject as a matter of near-indoctrination. Members of different religions are given access to the classroom. In some cases, notably France and the United States, the education system is avowedly secular and no religious education takes place in school. Most Commonwealth countries have not taken on the British model of religious education, although there are similarities in New Zealand, where the curriculum includes religious and moral education. There is no statutory religious education in Canada.

RE in Britain faces a number of problems. It is seen by many pupils and teachers as a low-priority subject, even though it is compulsory. Evidence from official government inspectors suggests that many schools have failed to teach RE thoroughly, if at all, and there is an acknowledged shortage of RE teachers in Britain.

The complicated status of RE brings further difficulties. Many religious adherents continue to see RE as a “confessional” matter of faith, rather than as a topic of analytical study. The Christian emphasis in RE is resented by non-Christian groups who argue that their children will become confused about their own faith. Some Christian parents, in turn, complain about the study of Hinduism and Islam, for example. Parents who object to the current framework can withdraw their children from RE lessons (and also from the daily act of collective worship, another requirement of the law). Individual schools can also, if they wish, opt out of the legal framework and, with the backing of their SACRE, devise a religious programme more suited to the religious background of their own children, who, for example, might be largely Muslim. Some minority faith groups prefer to teach about religion in separate, after-school classes and in some cases they even establish their own, full-time, privately-run schools on religious lines.

International Standards Education

Education, International Standards in, international comparison between school systems. Such comparisons are useful in describing a narrow range of performances, although, in their present state of development, they do little to explain, in ways that could help policymakers nationally, the reasons for the differences that such tests reveal.

The main cross-national comparative studies of learning achievement have been carried out under the auspices of the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA). Other major studies have been international versions of the United States’ National Assessment of Educational Progress programme. These International Assessment of Educational Progress studies are known as IAEPs.

The 14 international studies of this kind that have been carried out between 1960 and 1995 have been predominantly concerned with levels of literacy, mathematics, and science. A unique feature of these studies, or at least most of them, is their use of common assessment instruments (questionnaires) to record learning achievement in specific areas. These are applied to national samples of students of the same ages or school grades in the countries concerned. However, several technical problems arise in establishing valid comparisons between school systems of different countries.

The first problem concerns the sample of school students to be tested. Testing is expensive and samples tend to be small. Much, therefore, depends on the composition of the samples. For example, students from private schools were not included in French studies. Such an exclusion would have had a marked effect in the United Kingdom (which did not, in this case, take part).

The second problem arises from the nature of the questions used in the tests. Different countries have different syllabuses that place different emphasis on different aspects of the school curriculum. Although, through international cooperation between those responsible for developing the questionnaires that incorporate the tests, every effort is made to establish common ground, it is inevitable that the questions will suit some national systems better than others. In the 1991 IAEP assessment study of mathematics, for example, 30 per cent of the questionnaire was devoted to “number and operations”. In response to questions about the emphasis placed on this area, Israel described it as representing 10 per cent of its goal in mathematics, while Switzerland accorded it 50 per cent. In the area of “algebra and function”, however, the percentages were reversed.

Problems of this kind make comparisons between the quality of different education systems difficult to measure. The results of such comparisons do not give an explanation for the differences that emerge. However, information collected at the time of the testing confirms that, unsurprisingly, above-average performance is related to the amount of time spent on silent reading, to the emphasis on storytelling in the early years of school, and, above all, to the level of access to books. On the other hand, there did not seem to be any close connection between the length of the school year or class size and the results achieved.

Comparisons between standards achieved at different ages in different areas of the curriculum in different countries are in principle difficult to make and in practice have so far provided little reliable evidence. Fresh efforts are being made to improve the quality of that evidence in relation to science and mathematics, subjects which, unlike languages, have a degree of consistency of approach internationally, thereby enabling comparisons to be made with some confidence.

Audio-Visual Education

Audio-Visual Education, planning, preparation, and use of devices and materials that involve sight, sound, or both, for educational purposes. Among the devices used are still and motion pictures, filmstrips, television, transparencies, audiotapes, records, teaching machines, computers, and videodiscs. The growth of audio-visual education has reflected developments in both technology and learning theory.

Audio-visual education emerged as a discipline in the 1920s, when film technology was developing rapidly. A visual instruction movement arose, which encouraged the use of visual materials to make abstract ideas more concrete to students. As sound technology improved, the movement became known as audio-visual instruction.

Educators at that time viewed audio-visuals only as aids to teachers. Not until World War II, when the armed services used audio-visual materials to train large numbers of people in short periods of time, did the potential of these devices as primary sources of instruction become apparent.

In the 1950s and 1960s developments in communications theory and systems concepts led to studies of the educational process, its elements, and their interrelationships. Among these elements are the teacher, the teaching methods, the information conveyed, the materials used, the student, and the student’s responses. As a result of these studies, the field of audio-visuals shifted its emphasis from devices and materials to the examination of the teaching-learning process. The field was now known as audio-visual communications and educational technology, and audio-visual materials were viewed as an integral part of the educational system. Today it is converging with information technology in education through multimedia materials and Internet services.

Teacher Education

Teacher Training, education and preparation of individuals enabling them to become professional teachers. Although anyone aiding another individual to learn is in a sense a teacher, special skills and abilities are necessary to succeed in the teaching profession.

Ancient and medieval societies lacked institutions offering instruction in the principles and practices of teaching. Those intending to become teachers were required only to demonstrate a knowledge of the subjects they desired to teach. During the Renaissance, some teachers such as Vittorino da Feltre in Italy, Johannes Sturm in Germany, and John Colet in England gained wide recognition for their learning and ability to teach, but the training of teachers was given little attention. It was not until the rise of democratic principles during the 17th and 18th centuries, with their assertion that the political, social, and economic development of nations could best be achieved through the education of the individual citizen, that measures were taken to establish institutions to provide teacher training.

The earliest-known educational institution to offer a systematic programme of teacher training was the Institute of the Brothers of the Christian Schools, which was established in 1685 at Reims, France, by the French priest St John Baptist de la Salle. In the 18th century other such institutions were begun in France and Germany. A government-sponsored school established in France in 1794 was the first to follow the principles of the philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Rousseau believed that educators should concern themselves primarily with the mental and physical development of their pupils and only secondarily with subject matter. This principle was later adopted in a number of teacher-training schools throughout the world. One important educator who applied and developed the pedagogical theories of Rousseau was the late 18th-century Swiss educational reformer Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi.

An important advance in teacher-training theories and methods was made in Prussia early in the 19th century with the application of the views of the educator Johann Friedrich Herbart. He stressed the study of the psychological processes of learning as a means of devising educational programmes based on the aptitudes, abilities, and interests of students. Important contributions were made to teaching theory in the 20th century by the Swiss psychologist Jean Piaget and the American psychologist Jerome Bruner.

Special Educational Needs

Special Educational Needs, arrangements for the identification, assessment, and making of any special provision for children whose learning difficulties or disabilities mean that they will require additional help in order to achieve their full educational potential. Such difficulties may arise from physical disabilities; problems with sight, hearing, or speech; a learning disability; emotional or behavioural difficulties; or a medical or health problem. Other children may have more general difficulties with reading, writing, speaking, or mathematics which will require extra support. Provision to meet special educational needs may take place in ordinary or special schools.

It has been estimated that about 20 per cent of children will have some form of special educational needs during their school careers. For the vast majority of children, such needs will be met by their current school—with outside help if necessary. But for a small minority (in the United Kingdom, around 2 per cent of children), the special educational needs may be of a severity or complexity which requires the local education authority (LEA) to determine and arrange special educational provision for the child. In the United Kingdom this will usually involve a statutory (that is, formal) assessment of the child's special educational needs and the seeking of advice from a range of services to ensure that the assessment is as accurate and comprehensive as possible. There has been ongoing debate about the number of children with special educational needs and the proportion of children so identified will vary from area to area.

At the heart of the work of every school and every class lies a cycle of assessing, planning, teaching, and review of the needs of all children. Such general arrangements in a school will take account of the wide range of the abilities, aptitudes, and interests which every child brings to school. The majority of children will learn and progress within these local arrangements. But those who have difficulty in doing so may have what is termed special educational needs (SEN).

A child may be described as having special educational needs if he or she has a learning difficulty which calls for special educational provision to be made for him or her. A child is regarded as having a learning difficulty if he or she: has a significantly greater difficulty in learning than the majority of children of the same age; has a disability which either prevents or hinders the child from making use of educational facilities of a kind provided for children of the same age in schools within the area of the local education authority (LEA); or is under five years and falls within the definition given above or would do so if special educational provision was not made for the child (Part III, Education Act 1993).

The definition of a learning difficulty does not include children whose difficulty has arisen solely because the language or form of language in the child's home is different from the language in which he or she is or will be taught.

Special educational provision for a child over the age of two means educational provision which is additional to, or otherwise different from, the educational provision generally provided for children of the child's age in schools in the area or educational provision of any kind for a child under the age of two.

In practice, learning difficulties may arise from a physical disability, a problem with sight, hearing, or speech, a learning disability, emotional or behavioural difficulty, or a medical or health problem. The extent to which these difficulties affect a child's ability to learn and make progress at school will be affected by a variety of factors, including the school's resources, the availability of additional help, and the stage at which the difficulty is first identified.

Nursing Education

Nursing courses normally require good secondary school or college grades. Training is traditionally based in hospitals, though in some countries such as the United Kingdom and the United States there is now more emphasis on college-based training. A typical course lasts three years and involves general training in medicine as well as practical experience by working with patients under the supervision of senior nurses. The level of medical education required of a nurse varies from country to country; the United Kingdom, for example, is noted for the particularly high medical content of its nursing education. At the end of the course the student nurse takes examinations, administered either by the public health body or nursing councils depending on the particular country, in order to receive a licence or state registration. Once licensed or registered, he or she is free to practise the profession in any country which recognizes the qualification, although many countries reserve recognition for their own qualifications exclusively.

Many of the varied duties of a nurse are technical in nature, ranging from taking blood pressure to managing complex life-support systems in intensive care units. In addition, however, a nurse must be a teacher, counsellor, and manager, concerned with promoting and maintaining the health of patients, as well as caring for them when they are ill.

Nurses have both dependent and independent functions. The former are those that must be carried out under the orders of a licensed physician or dentist, including such duties as administering medication and changing dressings on wounds. Independent functions are those that nurses carry out based on their own professional judgement. Such duties include bathing patients, positioning them to prevent joint contractures, teaching people how best to care for themselves, and providing nutritional counselling.

Apart from hospitals, general practice surgeries, and clinics, nurses work in nursing and residential homes, occupational health services, hospices and residential care homes, the pharmaceutical industry, the prison service, universities and schools, on leisure cruise ships, or for the armed forces.

Nursery Education

Nursery Education, term universally applied to the education of children aged two to six before they enter primary school. The ages of the boys and girls depends on the admission requirements of the nurseries and schools, the availability of places in the area, and the educational policy of the country.

Most nurseries and playgroups operate policies of learning through play, and activities are informal and flexible to suit the needs of young children. Sand, water, and paint form the basis of many learning exercises. Storytelling, nursery rhymes, and the development of early literacy and numeracy skills are also an important part of the curriculum.

State and private nurseries in the United Kingdom are staffed by qualified teachers and nursery nurses. Playgroups are run by workers with qualifications in the education of young children, helped by parents and volunteers.

But in developing countries nurseries are either non-existent or very few in number.

Most of the nurseries established in the latter half of the 19th century were supported by charitable organizations. Both in Europe and in the United States, the day nursery movement received great impetus during World War I, when unprecedented numbers of women replaced men in industry. In Britain, France, Germany, and Italy nurseries were established even in munitions plants, under direct government sponsorship.

As studies of children revealed the importance of the early years in physical, social, emotional, and intellectual development, the nursery school movement gained momentum in Britain and other European countries.

Home Education

Home Education, the education of children at home by their parents or carers, rather than at school. Home education was quite common until the introduction of universal schooling in the 19th century. Thereafter, a very small number of children continued to be educated at home, including such notables as Bertrand Russell and Yehudi Menuhin. The number has steadily increased, certainly since the 1970s, especially in Western Europe, North America, Australia, and New Zealand. Although accurate figures are not available, home education is almost certainly most prevalent in the United States, where at least half a million children have some experience of it. In the United Kingdom, it is estimated that up to 10,000 families educate their children at home.

The right to educate at home has always been protected by law in England and Wales. Section 7 of the 1996 Education Act states that all children should receive a full-time education “either by regular attendance at school or otherwise”. Similar laws apply in Scotland and Northern Ireland. Home educators are not required to have any post-school qualifications. Parents who wish to withdraw a child from school must simply inform the head teacher, who in turn must inform the local education authority (LEA). The LEA has the duty to intervene in home education only if it appears that a child in its area is not receiving an education in accordance with his or her educational needs. In the past, legal wrangles between LEAs and home educators were common, but over the past two decades LEAs have gradually become more tolerant, in some cases even supportive. While laws in most other English-speaking countries vary, in practice very few parents are actually prevented from educating their children at home.

Home-educated children divide into two broad groups, those who have never been to school and those withdrawn from school. Home educators might be motivated by the conviction that school cannot offer an education geared to an individual child’s needs, by concerns about negative social aspects of schooling such as peer pressure and bullying, or by religious or moral values. In general, parents receive very little support, and have to supply all educational materials themselves, including books, scientific equipment, and computers. There is also the loss of an income to consider, which is particularly difficult for single parents. Home education organizations and networks, both national and local, provide support, especially for parents new to home education.

The main advantage of home education is one-to-one teaching, which allows parents to adapt to their children’s individual learning needs. Children of all ages are educated at home, some going on to take General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) or other examinations. In general, academic achievement compares favourably with school. There are obviously reduced opportunities for mixing with other children of the same age, and parents usually go to great lengths to ensure adequate social contact. They are helped by networks of home educators who provide opportunities for social mixing, for both parents and children. Home-educated children who return to school or start school for the first time appear to experience little difficulty, academic or social, in settling in.

Home education is now more widely accepted as a viable alternative to school. It is likely to expand further as more parents work from home; as advances are made in information technology and computer-linked learning; and if schools become more supportive and flexible, for example, by allowing for part-time attendance.

Educational Psychology

Educational Psychology, field of psychology concerned with the development, learning, and behaviour of children and young people as students in schools, colleges, and universities. It includes the study of children within the family and other social settings, and also focuses on students with disabilities and special educational needs. Educational psychology is concerned with areas of education and psychology which may overlap, particularly child development, evaluation and assessment, social psychology, clinical psychology, and educational policy development and management.

In the 1880s the German psychologist Hermann Ebbinghaus developed techniques for the experimental study of memory and forgetting. Before Ebbinghaus, these higher mental processes had never been scientifically studied; the importance of this work for the practical world of education was immediately recognized.

In the late 1890s William James of Harvard University examined the relationship between psychology and teaching. James, who was influenced by Charles Darwin, was interested in how people's behaviour adapted to different environments. This functional approach to behavioural research led James to study practical areas of human endeavour, such as education.

James's student Edward Lee Thorndike is usually considered to be the first educational psychologist. In his book Educational Psychology (1903), he claimed to report only scientific and quantifiable research. Thorndike made major contributions to the study of intelligence and ability testing, mathematics and reading instruction, and the way learning transfers from one situation to another. In addition, he developed an important theory of learning that describes how stimuli and responses are connected.

Educational Broadcasting

Educational Broadcasting, use of radio and television to assist teaching and learning.

Pioneers of wireless telegraphy (radio), such as Marconi, working 100 or so years ago, believed the new technology would soon be put to useful purposes. Shortly after it was set up in 1922, the British Broadcasting Company, later the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), began to see how it could use “wireless”, as it was first called, to assist learning. John Reith, who, as a public service broadcaster, aimed to “educate, inform, and entertain”, set up the first National Advisory Committee on Education in 1923 and appointed a Director of Education, a school inspector, who, in 1924, wrote an article in the BBC's programme listings magazine the Radio Times, proposing a Broadcasting University.

The earliest experimental broadcasts to schools emanated from Glasgow and London in 1924 and by the autumn of that year regular secondary school and adult education broadcasts were in place, with regular supporting publications coming soon after. A new weekly publication, The Listener, began publishing transcripts of educational talks from 1929 and developed into a magazine until 1991, when it ceased. As the services grew, education officers were appointed to liaise with the educational world and to advise on policy. Separate Advisory Committees for School and Adult Education were set up and, for the latter, a Group Listening movement was encouraged. During the 1930s the whole system flourished, with most subjects on the curriculum treated. Mathematics was, interestingly, an exception.

Among initiatives at this time were new ways of learning, emphasizing a more imaginative, child-centred approach. Programmes in Gaelic and Welsh were introduced for children in Scotland and Wales. In the early 1930s it was not thought appropriate to make broadcasts for younger pupils. However, largely because of improved broadcasting practices, using drama and music in place of straight “talk”, such broadcasts quickly became successful later in the decade. History and foreign language teaching series were firm favourites.

Education Postgraduate

Education, Postgraduate, courses of study in colleges and universities, professional schools, and other postsecondary institutions offered after completion of an undergraduate curriculum. Specific programmes of postgraduate education usually require a baccalaureate or bachelor’s degree or its equivalent as a prerequisite for admission. Education beyond the undergraduate years is often directed towards preparation for entrance into a profession such as law, medicine, or dentistry, in which advanced training is necessary for recognition as a practitioner. Although some professions, such as engineering or teaching, require only a baccalaureate degree for entrance, further education is frequently needed for advancement.

Postgraduate study ranges from courses emphasizing intensive training in a specific aspect of professional practice to degree programmes of several years' duration, either in an academic discipline or a professional field. Many professions also require periodic postgraduate study in order to maintain certification for practice.

Graduate schools generally award master's degrees or doctorates to those who have satisfactorily completed prescribed courses of study. A year is usually required to obtain a master's degree, which demands the acquisition of a higher level of knowledge than is needed for a baccalaureate. The doctoral degree involves a longer period of study and requires participation in and summation of some type of original research, as well as written and oral (viva voce) examinations.

The demands for specific courses of postgraduate study change with the needs of society. In most developing nations, for example, professional training in engineering and the health sciences is in great demand. Preparation for a career in medicine represents one of the most intensive curricula, as a medical degree requires at least four years beyond the baccalaureate, and entry into a medical speciality can require four or more additional years of study. Most postgraduate students require funding of some sort. In the United Kingdom a certain number of postgraduate grants are provided by research bodies, such as the Economic and Social Research Council or the Medical Research Council. Highly competitive scholarships are also sometimes available to support students from industry or from developing countries.

Education Physical

Education, Physical, instruction in various kinds of physical activity to promote the physical development and well-being of the individual. Physical education is generally taught in schools from nursery to secondary level, and in some countries, including Britain, is a compulsory part of the curriculum. It involves organized sports, gymnastics, dance, athletic activities, swimming, and outdoor and adventurous activities. The United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) considers physical education programmes an important part of its mission.

The nature of physical education and sport today has been influenced by many cultures. For example, in ancient times, physical education consisted of gymnastics to improve strength, agility, flexibility, and endurance. The Greeks considered the human body to be a temple that housed the mind and the soul, and gymnastics kept that temple healthy and functional. Eventually, structured gymnastic and callisthenic exercise was abandoned in favour of sports.

Traditionally, the objectives of physical education have been categorized as either promoting “education of the physical” or “education through the physical”. Education of the physical focuses on the actual development of the body and physical skills rather than any results that can be achieved through physical activities, while education through the physical emphasizes the acquisition of physical skills and bodily development, as well as nurturing emotional, intellectual, and social skills in the process. The latter approach utilizes carefully selected physical activity as a medium through which desirable objectives can be met.

Education Multicultural

Education, Multicultural, educational approach that celebrates the cultural diversity of contemporary society. Its basic premise is that by exposing all children to the social and cultural customs of ethnic minority communities living in their country, they will have a greater understanding and tolerance of people from different backgrounds This article deals only with multicultural education in Britain.

The concept of multiculturalism in schools is part of a continuing debate about how to address the inequalities among different ethnic groups that exist in the education system, as well as how to engender tolerance and understanding between them. For decades, British educational theorists have been split between multiculturalism and anti-racism, the latter being a more direct challenge to racist structures in society. Since the publication in 1999 of the Macpherson Report into London’s Metropolitan Police Service’s handling of the murder of black teenager Stephen Lawrence, the concept of “institutional racism” has superseded the previous debates.

The introduction of multicultural education in schools was largely a response to this threat of separatism, coupled with the impact of academic studies contending that black children’s low achievement could be tackled by developing curricula that reflected cultural diversity. The white Eurocentrism of learning materials was challenged, leading to the introduction of more images and stories of black people in books and the celebration of Asian and Caribbean festivals. Ethnic minority storytellers, musicians, poets, dancers, and theatre groups were frequent visitors to schools, and teachers or parents cooked food from different countries. The teaching in mother tongue or community languages was also introduced in some schools.

Education Military

Education, Military, training of the officers and enlisted (or conscripted) personnel of a nation's military and naval forces. The goal of such training is to equip members of the services with the basic skills and discipline needed for appropriate action under the stress of combat. Qualified personnel may receive more formal education to enable them to advance professionally.

Current trends in military education reflect rapid changes brought about by technological innovation and are geared to national security requirements. Advanced courses taken at civilian colleges and universities play a major role in supplementing the educational experience of selected personnel (primarily officers). In the United States, integration of women into the service academies was begun in 1976. On fulfilling their mandatory obligations or on retiring from the services, many embark on civilian careers in management or in professions requiring the skills acquired in the services.

In the United States, the Reserve Officers Training Corps (ROTC) programmes in high schools and colleges prepare students for commissions in the Army Reserve. The United States Military Academy is a four-year engineering college whose graduates are commissioned into the Regular Army. Corresponding service institutions are the United States Naval Academy, the United States Air Force Academy, the United States Coast Guard Academy, and the US Merchant Marine Academy (see Merchant Marine of the United States).

The US Department of Defense maintains the National Defense University in Washington, D.C., which trains senior officers and selected civilians in theories and procedures relevant to national security.

Medical Education

Education, Medical, process by which individuals acquire and maintain the skills necessary for the effective practice of medicine.

To train as a conventional doctor in the Western world a person needs to have achieved a good level of understanding in the sciences (for example, physics, chemistry, biology), either at senior (high) school or at college. Medical schools are usually part of a university (although not all universities have medical schools) and they offer only a limited number of training places in any one year. This results in fierce competition for places, with only the best students being admitted.

Most medical schools offer a training course of between three and six years in duration. The curriculum is traditionally divided into two parts: a preclinical course in which the basic science of how the human body works is studied; and a clinical course in which the student is introduced to actual patient care in a hospital. The former is usually taught in science departments at the university and the latter at a hospital affiliated with the university.

The preclinical course involves such areas of study as the gross and microscopic appearance and connections of the human body (anatomy), the organization and basic functions of different types of human cell (cell biology), the function and underlying biochemical processes of parts of human cells (biochemistry), the integrated functions of tissues, organs, and body fluids (physiology), the principal actions, distribution, and elimination of drugs in the body (pharmacology), the general principles underlying disease processes and such disease-related micro-organisms as viruses, bacteria, and parasites (pathology), the defence mechanisms of the body (immunology), and the structure and function of genetic material in living and infected cells (genetics).

The clinical part of the course involves medical students working with experienced doctors in general practice and hospitals to learn family practice and general medicine, and such specialized areas of health care as surgery (removal, reconnection, or transplantation of parts of the body), obstetrics (pregnancy and childbirth), paediatrics (diagnosis and treatment of childhood complaints), gynaecology (diagnosis and treatment of ailments of the reproductive system), geriatrics (diagnosis and treatment of ailments suffered by elderly people), and psychiatry (diagnosis and treatment of mental ill-health). During this time, medical students observe and learn from doctors working with patients on the wards and in specialist clinics, and gradually, under their supervision, become involved directly in the provision of health care (for example, diagnosis and administration of therapy).

Students have to pass examinations in all of these different aspects of the course, which take to form of written, practical, and oral tests. Upon graduating, they received a Doctor of Medicine (MD), Bachelor of Medicine (BM), or an equivalent degree. New doctors swear the Hippocratic Oath (or an equivalent professional statement) to adhere at all times to high standards of medical practice and ethics, and to protect the right of every patient to life, dignity, and confidentiality.

It is usual for “junior” doctors to serve at least one year as an “intern” or “house officer” and to have responsibility for both diagnosing and treating patients in hospital. At this point they choose to move away to a new hospital. Such a post, however, is considered to be an extension of their training with overall responsibility for their work resting with the senior colleagues supervising their work. In most countries, “junior” doctors often complain that they work excessively long hours for relatively poor pay (that is, relative to other professionals after several years of training).

During his or her time as a junior doctor, an individual must decide whether to work in general or in a specialist branch of medicine. If the latter, the doctor applies to work with a particular specialist and his or her team, and once accepted embarks upon a training course which lasts for several years; the training being obtained largely by the experience of working with other more experienced doctors in the group. During this time, he or she is called “registrar” or “intern” and the training culminates in both written and oral exams set by an official body in that subject (for example, the Royal College of Pathologists or the Royal College of Surgery in the United Kingdom, both of which decide whether a doctor is sufficiently knowledgeable and able to practise as a specialist in that particular area of medicine). If successful, the doctor is awarded “membership” of the college.

It is important that doctors keep up with medical progress (the results of medical research concerning new forms of diagnosis and treatment). Most often this takes the form of reading medical journals and books, attending conferences, and discussing medical matters with other specialists in the same or different fields. More recently, doctors have been able to communicate with one another and receive the latest medical information using the Internet (often referred to as the “information superhighway”), which can link computers used by doctors in different hospitals and/or general practices around the world.

Some doctors, especially those in general practice, choose to incorporate such unorthodox medical techniques as acupuncture or reflexology (see Complementary Medicine) into their medical practice and offer these to their patients, where appropriate, usually in parallel with more conventional treatments; these are seldom offered as an alternative to conventional Western medicine. So popular are some of these unorthodox methods that some medical schools are now offering training courses in these topics for both trainee and postgraduate (that is, experienced, practising) doctors.

Education Vocational

Education, Vocational, types of education that have a specific relation to working life. Vocational education is closely related to, but not identical with, the concept of training (or vocational training), which tends to focus on learning specific skills that are required in particular workplaces. Vocational education is, therefore, clearly distinguishable from academic (that is, general or liberal) education, which is concerned with the intellectual and moral development of individuals and has traditionally been associated with access to a variety of knowledge-based disciplines.

Vocational programmes for students completing compulsory education in England can be divided into two kinds—those that are work-based with varying degrees of off-the-job teaching (now known as modern apprenticeships) and full-time programmes mostly in colleges of further education that are oriented to broad occupational fields such as engineering and business administration. Provision for vocational education in Scotland is through national and higher national qualifications based in colleges, with relatively few following a work-based route. Since 1998 Scotland has, at least in terms of qualifications, gained a fully unified system that does not in theory distinguish between academic and vocational learning. What characterizes all countries, particularly those that make up the United Kingdom, is the assumption that vocational programmes are more appropriate for those with lower levels of attainment in general education.

The professional/vocational distinction also distinguishes forms of higher education such as engineering, accountancy, and pharmacy from the various alternatives to academic or general education for which a student can opt at the end of compulsory schooling.

Vocational education differs in both status and meaning according to the national tradition of which it is a part. Whereas in all countries of continental Europe vocational education includes substantial elements of continuing general education, it is only those countries following the German tradition that base it firmly on apprenticeship (or what is referred to in Germany as the “dual system”).

Conversely, British vocational programmes are usually followed only by those with low prior achievements in general education. Unlike in continental European countries, students choosing vocational programmes are frequently assumed to lack both the ability and the motivation to continue with their general education. There are significant differences in the approaches to vocational education of the different countries within the United Kingdom, and the tendencies referred to are far more marked in England and Wales than in Scotland. Provision of vocational education in Scotland has, since the early 1980s, been made through qualifications such as the Scottish National Certificate, which includes vocational and general education modules. With the “Higher Still” reform programme, introduced in 1998, Scotland has one of the few genuinely unified systems of general and vocational education.

Design Education

Design, specific plans, drawings, or instructions that contain all the necessary information for the manufacture of a product, process, or system. Design can also refer to the particular physical embodiment of a product or device. Additionally, the term can mean the process of converting generalized ideas and concepts into a design as defined above.

“Design” as both a noun and verb is a popular, and often misused, term for a wide range of activities and outcomes. It can be both process and product. The difficulty of defining “design” is compounded by fashion and trends. The more popular it becomes, the more it seems to be applied to new activities and outcomes, not always correctly, in order to convey messages of quality, value, status, inventiveness, exclusivity, skill, and modernity. One may refer to the design of supersonic aircraft, mobile phones, art works, television programmes, new cities, computer software, jewellery, clothing, food, packaging, and signs. The list could take up several pages—even the outputs on the way to these finished products (the sketches and prototypes) can be considered as designs.

Design activity has had a significant impact on society and culture. Its relationship with mass production has brought design into the homes of people around the world in the form of tools, television, furnishings, consumer goods, and toiletries, among other things. The 20th century saw a dramatic increase in the number of people who earn a living from the professional practice of design. Today, designers can be found occupying prestigious posts in many areas of the manufacturing and service industries, particularly where products need to meet the varied preferences and needs of a mass market. Increasingly, designers are employed in information design, where the products are digital and delivered to homes, workplaces, and mobile phones via computer technology. Games, Web resources, and services are challenging consumer artefacts as the main subjects of design today.

Designing is a process that helps us to be critical of the world as we find it and to do something to change it. It takes us from “what is” to “what might be”. Designing is a process of deliberate intervention and at a simple level we all do it. Expert design requires an ability to combine knowledge and skills with motivation. Clearly there needs to be expertise in the specialist field, which might be rooted in the arts, material sciences, human sciences, and so on; there needs to be skills of an investigative or creative nature; and there needs to be motivation, which might vary from a personal motivation to a salary. Design is sometimes referred to as a problem-solving activity. This is an error, because very rarely can a definitive answer to a design problem be provided. Design problems do not lend themselves to being “solved”. Design is a process of resolving complex and often conflicting factors, where defining the problem can be as difficult as generating ideas.

Most professional design tasks begin with a brief. The brief outlines, from the client's point of view, the job to be undertaken, with its parameters and timescale. It enables focused discussion to take place between various specialists, and a redefinition of the brief often results after a period of investigation. Many innovative products have resulted from creative interpretation of design briefs. Marketing data, analyses of competing products, and ergonomic research may all contribute to the articulation of a brief.

Designers tend to progress through a series of stages in which the solution (or a number of options) is progressively defined with increasing levels of detail. The design process contains sequences of iterative (repetitive) cycles of activities. The construction of tentative proposals is followed by testing, modifying, testing again, and so on. It is for this reason that industrial designers make so many models. Design ideas are quickly modelled in two dimensions (by drawing and sketching) and in three dimensions (in various materials). Such models facilitate examination and evaluation by other specialists, by managers, or even by the public (in special “user trials”), as well as by the design team. Following this sketch modelling, further material, costing, or production research is incorporated into the creative development in order to assess the feasibility of the most promising ideas. Only then can robust models or prototypes be built for final evaluation by the client or senior management. A full specification and costing of the product will precede manufacture. Planning and project management are also vital skills. Large corporations such as Sony, the Japanese electronics giant, may have hundreds of industrial design projects running simultaneously.

Deafness Education

Deafness, most simply defined as an inability to hear. This definition, however, gives no real impression of how deafness affects function in society for the hearing-impaired person. The condition affects all age groups, and its consequences range from minor to severe. Profoundly deaf people have a hearing loss so severe that they cannot benefit from mechanical amplification, whereas hard-of-hearing people often can benefit, to varying degrees, from the use of such amplification.

Increasingly, the philosophy of total communication is being followed in schools and classes for deaf children. This philosophy encourages the combined use of whatever communication methods are appropriate to the deaf child, including speech, lip-reading, signing, Cued Speech, finger spelling, art, electronic media, mime, gesture, and reading and writing. Finger spelling is a system in which hand shapes and positions correspond to the letters of the written alphabet, so that finger spelling can be called “writing in the air”. Sign language (SL) is a language based on gestures, lip and eyebrow movements, and grammatical rules. Most countries have their own sign language, each as different as the languages spoken by the hearing are, and many with different dialects. Probably the most widely used is American Sign Language (ASL), which has no grammatical similarities with the English language whatsoever and takes a lot of its vocabulary from Old French Sign Language. British Sign Language (BSL) is used in the United Kingdom, Indian Sign Language in India, New Zealand Sign Language (NZSL) in New Zealand, and so on (see Sign Language).

The signs in SL are word-like units with both concrete and abstract meanings. Signs are made by either one or both hands, which assume distinctive shapes and movements. Spatial relations, directions, and orientation of the hand movements, as well as facial expressions and body movement, make up the grammar of SL. A number of invented (that is, not native languages) manual communication systems use the sign vocabulary of SL in combination with other hand movements to approximate the syntax and grammar of Standard English (see Paget-Gorman Sign System). Cued Speech is a system in which eight hand movements indicate the pronunciation of every syllable being spoken. It is a speech-based method that supplements lip-reading. Oral communication is the term used by educators to denote the teaching of speech as an expressive skill to deaf children. It means that speech and lip-reading are the only means of communication used for the transmission of thoughts and ideas.

Blindness Education

Blindness, complete or almost complete absence of the sense of sight. It may be caused by any obstacle to the rays of light on their way to the optic nerve, or by disease of the optic nerve or tract, or of that part of the brain connected with vision. It may be permanent or transient, complete or partial, or in effect only in low-light conditions (night blindness). The World Health Organization defines “profound blindness” as the inability to count fingers at a distance of 3 m (10 ft) or less. Visual defects are one of the most common causes of disability in the world.

Different eye conditions create different problems. Very few blind people see nothing at all; a minority can distinguish light from dark but nothing else; the majority possess varying degrees of useful vision. Some have no central vision; others have no side vision. Some see everything as a vague blur; others see a patchwork of blank and defined areas. Some see best in sunlight, others prefer twilight. All this means that no two blind people see the world in the same way, so some blind people can see enough to read this encyclopedia, though they might have difficulty crossing the road.

The first printing in raised letters on paper was introduced by Haüy in 1784. He used the italic style of type, embossing the paper with large and small letters set in movable type by his pupils; other styles of type were tried later. Because of the large size of type required, however, the books produced were bulky and expensive. The only system of line type (type characters consisting of embossed lines) in current use is based on outlines of the roman letters; it was invented by William Moon in England in 1847.

In 1821 a French army captain, Charles Barbier, invented a system of point type, a code based on groups of dots. Louis Braille adapted Barbier’s system, using groups of one to six dots. A conference of workers for blind people held in London in 1932 to standardize point systems adopted an alphabet known as Standard English Braille, which is the original Braille alphabet with a few modifications. The Braille system is now used throughout the English-speaking world and has been adapted to most other languages, including Chinese. Braille also devised a system of point characters for musical notation.

Among the early appliances to aid blind people in writing was the grooved tablet, a sheet of metal or board grooved in small squares. The paper was placed on the tablet, and the pencil, guided by the grooves, indented the paper, forming a large, square handwriting that could be distinguished by both sight and touch. Modern methods include the use of the typewriter for correspondence with people who can see and the use of tablets for guiding the writer in the formation of Braille characters. In addition, the Hall Braille writer, a modification of the typewriter, embosses Braille characters on the paper instead of printing visible letters.

Deaf blind people, with or without the ability to speak, have other special needs; their rehabilitation usually requires home teachers.

Adult Education

Education, Adult, any organized and sustained learning programme designed for and appropriate to the needs of adults. Usually, adults need to fit in study alongside other domestic and work responsibilities; they bring a diversity of experience to their studies; and they study voluntarily. “Adult education” is an inclusive term covering all types of education and training activities for adults—formal and informal, whether offered by schools, colleges, universities, voluntary organizations, industry, or public service bodies.

Adult education takes different forms in different places at different times, reflecting the different social functions given to adult learning, and the different groups with access to opportunities. In ancient Greece, Athenian society was organized to enable a small class of people to pursue learning as the central vocation of their adult lives. However, adult learning was not then seen to be universally useful. In Denmark, adult education was central to the regeneration of a poor agrarian economy, inspired in the 19th century by the Danish poet and educator N. F. S. Grundtvig, and built on the development of and support for active and participative democracy. That commitment to popular participation and social justice remains central to adult education in the Nordic countries. In Britain, “adult education” has often been taken to mean part-time studies that do not lead to certification; in the United States, it is seen as a generic, all-inclusive term. However, in more than half the world, it is synonymous with adult literacy, with programmes of reading and writing for people with no initial schooling.

By the 1980s millions of adults were participating in formal or informal opportunities for learning, yet adult education was almost invisible to policy-makers. In public debate, education was interpreted as schools and universities, and training was concentrated on new, young entrants to the labour market. However, changes in the structure of the economies of industrial states have made lifelong learning more central to social policy. Demographic, technological, and industrial change, the emergence of information economies, and of global markets combine to make lifelong learning vital to international competitiveness. This has led to a demand for credit-bearing courses, for opportunities to have recognized the learning that adults have previously achieved. It has led to the need for qualifications that are transferable, and to the need for modes of study flexible enough to be fitted round the other pressures on adults’ lives (see also Education, Vocational).

Because industries now have a shorter life, and because there is a high level of international mobility, there are pressures for qualifications to be harmonized. In Australia, with 40 per cent of professional workers coming from abroad, the new national qualifications system has been built around the National Office for Overseas Skills Recognition. In South Africa, the new South African Adult Basic Education and Training strategy is based on a qualifications system, with a clear competence statement for every standard. Similar measures are part of the policy frame of the European Union, too.

Adults now make up the majority of participants in post-compulsory education in Britain and the United States. Their participation is increasingly in qualifications-bearing and work-related study. The prospects are that they will demand and get increasingly adult-friendly structures in which to study. In Britain, though, an increased commitment to vocational opportunities for adults has been bought at a price, with weakened public commitment to courses offering learning for its own sake.

Structure

Education in Nepal is structured as school education and higher education. School education includes primary level of grades 1-5, lower secondary and secondary levels of grades 6-8 and 9-10 respectively. Pre-primary level of education is also available in certain areas. Six years of age is the prescribed age for admission into grade one. A national level School Leaving Certificate (SLC) Examination is conducted at the end of grade ten. Grades 11 and 12 are considered as higher secondary level. Higher Secondary Education Board (HSEB) supervises higher secondary schools which are mostly under private management. Previously these grades were under the university system and were run as proficiency certificate level. Though some universities still offer these programs, the policy now is to integrate these grades into the school system.Higher education consists of bachelor, masters and PhD levels. Depending upon the stream and subject, bachelors level may be of three to five years' duration. The duration of masters level is generally of two years. Some universities also offer programs like M Phil and post-graduate diploma.Legally, there are two types of school in the country: community and institutional. Community schools receive regular government grant whereas institutional schools are funded by school's own or other non-governmental sources. Institutional schools are organized either as a non-profit trust or as a company. However, in practical terms, schools are mainly of two types: public (community) and private (institutional). A third type of school is the schools run by the local people enthusiastic towards having a school in their localities. They do not receive regular government grants and most of them do not have any other sustainable financial source. Supported and managed by the local people, they can be thus identified as the real community schools.Except one, all universities/academies are publicly managed and are supported by public source fund. However, public universities also provide affiliation to private colleges. Two academies of higher education are single college institutes whereas other universities have constituent and affiliated colleges across the country.

Administration

The Ministry of Education is the apex body responsible for initiating and managing educational activities in the country. The Minister of Education, assisted by the State/Assistant Minister, provides political leadership to the Ministry. The Ministry, as a part of the government bureaucracy, is headed by the Secretary of Education and consists of the central office, various functional offices and offices located at the regional and district levels. The Central Office or the Ministry is mainly responsible for policy development, planning and monitoring and evaluation regarding different aspects of education.With a purpose of bringing education administration nearer to the people, the Ministry has established five Regional Directorates and 75 District Education Offices in five development regions and 75 districts respectively. These decentralized offices are responsible for overseeing nonformal and school level educational activities in their respective areas. Regional Directorates are mainly responsible for coordinating and monitoring and evaluation of education activities and the District Education Offices are the main implementing agencies. NCED is an Apex body for teacher training in Nepal. There are 34 Educational Training Centers under NCED to support the teachers in pedagogical areas. ETC Sunsari, ETC Dhulikhel and ETC Tanahun/ Educational Training Center Damauli, are the leading training center under NCED. NCED was established in B. S. 2050 but it could not take speed much until Arjun Bahadur Bhandari was appointed as an Executive Director. Now it is running in full fledged and implementing "Teacher Education Project" to train the pre-service and in-service teahcers throughout the country.

Education in Nepal

Modern education in Nepal began with the establishment of the first school in 1853. However, this school was only for the members of the ruling families and their courtiers. Schooling for the general people began only after 1951 when a popular movement ended the autocratic Rana family regime and initiated a democratic system. In the past fifty years, there has been a dramatic expansion of educational facilities in the country. As a result, adult literacy (15+) of the country was reported to be 48.2% (female: 34.6%, male: 62.2%) in the Population Census, 2001, up from about 5% in 1952/54. Beginning from about 300 schools and two colleges with about ten thousand students in 1951, there now are 26 thousand schools (including higher secondary), 415 colleges, five universities and two academies of higher studies. Altogether 5.5 million students are enrolled in those schools and colleges who are served by more than 150 thousand teachers.Despite such examples of success, there are problems and challenges. Educational management, quality, relevance, access are some of the critical issues of education in Nepal. Societal disparities based on gender, ethnicity, location, economic class, etc. are yet to be eliminated. Resource crunch has always been a problem in education. These problems have made the goal of education for all a challenge for the country.

International

Education in the Developing WorldWorld map indicating Education Index (according to 2007/2008 Human Development Report) In developing countries, the number and seriousness of the problems faced are naturally greater. People in more remote or agrarian areas are sometimes unaware of the importance of education. However, many countries have an active Ministry of Education, and in many subjects, such as foreign language learning, the degree of education is actually much higher than in industrialized countries; for example, it is not at all uncommon for students in many developing countries to be reasonably fluent in multiple foreign languages, whereas this is much more of a rarity in the supposedly "more educated" countries where much of the population is in fact monolingual.Universal primary education is one of the eight Millennium Development Goals and great improvements have been achieved in the past decade, yet a great deal remains to be done. The Overseas Development Institute indicates the main obstacles to greater funding from donors include: donor priorities, aid architecture, and the lack of evidence and advocacy. Furthermore, demand in the developing world for improved educational access is not as high as one would expect as governments avoid the recurrent costs involved and there is economic pressure on those parents who prefer their children making money in the short term over any long-term benefits of education. Recent studies on child labor and poverty have suggested that when poor families reach a certain economic threshold where families are able to provide for their basic needs, parents return their children to school. This has been found to be true, once the threshold has been breached, even if the potential economic value of the children's work has increased since their return to school. Russia has more academic graduates than any other country in Europe. A lack of good universities, and a low acceptance rate for good universities, is evident in countries with a high population density. In some countries, there are uniform, over structured, inflexible centralized programs from a central agency that regulates all aspects of education.Due to globalization, increased pressure on students in curricular activities Removal of a certain percentage of students for improvisation of academics (usually practised in schools, after 10th grade)India is now developing technologies that will skip land based phone and internet lines. Instead, India launched EDUSAT, an education satellite that can reach more of the country at a greatly reduced cost. There is also an initiative started by the OLPC foundation, a group out of MIT Media Lab and supported by several major corporations to develop a $100 laptop to deliver educational software. The laptops are widely available as of 2008. The laptops are sold at cost or given away based on donations. These will enable developing countries to give their children a digital education, and help close the digital divide across the world.In Africa, NEPAD has launched an "e-school programme" to provide all 600,000 primary and high schools with computer equipment, learning materials and internet access within 10 years. Private groups, like The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, are working to give more individuals opportunities to receive education in developing countries through such programs as the Perpetual Education Fund. An International Development Agency project called nabuur.com, started with the support of former American President Bill Clinton, uses the Internet to allow co-operation by individuals on issues of social development.

History

The history of education according to Dieter Lenzen, president of the Freie Universität Berlin 1994, "began either millions of years ago or at the end of 1770". Education as a science cannot be separated from the educational traditions that existed before. Adults trained the young of their society in the knowledge and skills they would need to master and eventually pass on. The evolution of culture, and human beings as a species depended on this practice of transmitting knowledge. In pre-literate societies this was achieved orally and through imitation. Story-telling continued from one generation to the next. Oral language developed into written symbols and letters. The depth and breadth of knowledge that could be preserved and passed soon increased exponentially. When cultures began to extend their knowledge beyond the basic skills of communicating, trading, gathering food, religious practices, etc., formal education, and schooling, eventually followed. Schooling in this sense was already in place in Egypt between 3000 and 500BC.Nowadays some kind of education is compulsory to all people in most countries. Due to population growth and the proliferation of compulsory education, UNESCO has calculated that in the next 30 years more people will receive formal education than in all of human history thus far.

ProcessCurriculum

An academic discipline is a branch of knowledge which is formally taught, either at the university, or via some other such method. Each discipline usually has several sub-disciplines or branches, and distinguishing lines are often both arbitrary and ambiguous. Examples of broad areas of academic disciplines include the natural sciences, mathematics, computer science, social sciences, humanities and applied sciences.Learning modalitiesThere has been work on learning styles over the last two decades. Dunn and Dunn focused on identifying relevant stimuli that may influence learning and manipulating the school environment, at about the same time as recommended varying teaching strategies. identified individual talents or aptitudes in his Multiple Intelligences theories. Based on the works of Jung, the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator and focused on understanding how people's personality affects the way they interact personally, and how this affects the way individuals respond to each other within the learning environment. The work of David Kolb and Anthony Gregorc's Type Delineator follows a similar but more simplified approach.It is currently fashionable to divide education into different learning "modes". The learning modalities are probably the most common.Visual: learning based on observation and seeing what is being learned. Auditory: learning based on listening to instructions/information. Kinesthetic: learning based on hands-on work and engaging in activities.It is claimed that, depending on their preferred learning modality, different teaching techniques have different levels of effectiveness. A consequence of this theory is that effective teaching should present a variety of teaching methods which cover all three learning modalities so that different students have equal opportunities to learn in a way that is effective for them. Guy Claxton has questioned the extent that learning styles such as VAK are helpful, particularly as they can have a tendency to label children and therefore restrict learning.TeachingTeachers need to understand a subject enough to convey its essence to students. While traditionally this has involved lecturing on the part of the teacher, new instructional strategies such as team-based learning put the teacher more into the role of course designer, discussion facilitator, and coach and the student more into the role of active learner, discovering the subject of the course. In any case, the goal is to establish a sound knowledge base and skill set on which students will be able to build as they are exposed to different life experiences. Good teachers can translate information, good judgment, experience and wisdom into relevant knowledge that a student can understand, retain and pass to others. Studies from the US suggest that the quality of teachers is the single most important factor affecting student performance, and that countries which score highly on international tests have multiple policies in place to ensure that the teachers they employ are as effective as possible. With the passing of NCLB in the United States (No Child Left Behind), teachers must be highly qualified. In Pennsylvania, this means the teacher must hold a bachelor's degree, be licensed in their subject area by having a valid PA teaching certificate, and demonstrate competency of the subject in their core content area.TechnologyTechnology is an increasingly influential factor in education. Computers and mobile phones are used in developed countries both to complement established education practices and develop new ways of learning such as online education (a type of distance education). This gives students the opportunity to choose what they are interested in learning. The proliferation of computers also means the increase of programming and blogging. Technology offers powerful learning tools that demand new skills and understandings of students, including Multimedia, and provides new ways to engage students, such as Virtual learning environments. Technology is being used more not only in administrative duties in education but also in the instruction of students. The use of technologies such as PowerPoint and interactive whiteboard is capturing the attention of students in the classroom. Technology is also being used in the assessment of students. One example is the Audience Response System (ARS), which allows immediate feedback tests and classroom discussions.Information and communication technologies (ICTs) are a “diverse set of tools and resources used to communicate, create, disseminate, store, and manage information.” These technologies include computers, the Internet, broadcasting technologies (radio and television), and telephony. There is increasing interest in how computers and the Internet can improve education at all levels, in both formal and non-formal settings. Older ICT technologies, such as radio and television, have for over forty years been used for open and distance learning, although print remains the cheapest, most accessible and therefore most dominant delivery mechanism in both developed and developing countries.The use of computers and the Internet is in its infancy in developing countries, if these are used at all, due to limited infrastructure and the attendant high costs of access. Usually, various technologies are used in combination rather than as the sole delivery mechanism. For example, the Kothmale Community Radio Internet uses both radio broadcasts and computer and Internet technologies to facilitate the sharing of information and provide educational opportunities in a rural community in Sri Lanka. The Open University of the United Kingdom (UKOU), established in 1969 as the first educational institution in the world wholly dedicated to open and distance learning, still relies heavily on print-based materials supplemented by radio, television and, in recent years, online programming. Similarly, the Indira Gandhi National Open University in India combines the use of print, recorded audio and video, broadcast radio and television, and audio conferencing technologies.