The agri-food industry is concerned with maximizing global food output while preventing environmental damage. Agricultural education focuses on multidisciplinary, holistic, and integrative approaches that enhance student capabilities to address this complex issue. (SK)

In Zimbabwe, agricultural extension agents took a participatory approach involving farmers in experimentation and research. The attitude changes required for participatory approaches were highly dependent upon personalities and required major changes in planning, training, monitoring, and evaluating. (SK)

Training farmers to care for the environment must address the complex relationship between farming and the environment. The example of maize weeding in France demonstrates the process of decision making on a farm and the need for teaching about complexity and adopting a pragmatic approach to training. (SK)

Contrasts definitions of workplace learning and human resource development and addresses emerging issues that affect the field: professionalization, increased litigation, diffusion, technology, globalization, and reengineering. (SK)

Reviews the history of workforce development in the United States and lists issues to frame public policy: governance structure, funding targets, quality measures, accountability, and data collection. Identifies current legislative initiatives: School-to-Work Opportunities Act, Goals 2000, and National Skills Standards Act. (SK)

Professional preparation of workplace educators must change to deal with substantial challenges. A three-phase model includes initial professional preparation and exploration at the baccalaureate level, advanced preparation and career exploration (work experience and graduate study), and professional leadership and career redirection. (SK)

A collaborative, holistic, and integrated approach to workplace education is needed to deal with a complex workplace and world. Critical elements include financial and organizational commitment to education and training, comprehensive program evaluation, balanced emphasis on worker skills, a challenge to the deficit model, and alternatives to the…

Information technologies are important tools for individual, team, and organizational learning. Developments in virtual reality and the Internet, performance support systems that increase the efficiency of individuals and groups, and other innovations have the potential to enhance the relationship between work and learning. (SK)

Uses Robert Pirsig's ideas in "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance" to explore two ways of viewing quality in higher education: the romantic and the classic. Analyzes historical and contemporary literature on quality using insights of Alfred Whitehead, Pirsig, and John Dewey, urging a vision that is honest and that incorporates caring,…

Describes an expert system designed to simplify evaluation of teacher-authored high school matriculation examination forms for official recognition. Because conventional knowledge-engineering methods were inadequate, a learning-by-example model called the Ordinal Learning Model was utilized. Responses from the system's users during a two-year beta…

Reports on a study investigating the effects of conceptual models (computer graphics and animation) on learning and transfer of code evaluation and generation skills of novice programmers; changes in declarative knowledge during skill acquisition; relationships between the quality of subjects' mental models and performance in skill learning and…

Reports on a study of 29 students of deductive logic that compared instructor-supplied and computer-supplied diagnostic feedback used with computer-assisted instruction programs. Dependent measures included exam performance, class attendance and responsiveness, and attitudes toward the instructor, computers, other students, and the course.…

Reports on a study examining how well several personal variables predict elementary school teachers' use of computers for teaching. Variables examined included innovativeness, teacher locus of control, perceived relevance of computers, and self-competence in using computers. Data on age, gender, and years of computer experience were also…

Examines and compares the ways in which teachers in two school systems in Indiana think about computers and actually use them for instruction. Guidelines are provided that suggest what school systems could do to make a stronger commitment to instructional computing. (Contains eight references.) (LRW)

Discussion of restructured schooling and restructured teacher education focuses on the needed interaction between schools, university-based teacher education, and technology. A school/university partnership between George Mason University and Fairfax County (Virginia) public schools is described that provided field experiences for an educational…