Through intellectual and financial support, the Deloitte IFRS Consortium hopes to accelerate the integration of IFRS into school curriculums. This involves offering course materials, classroom guides and case studies, as well as providing access to other Deloitte resources. Participating schools have the opportunity to provide input in the direction, goals and resources of the program, including:

* Participation in periodic Webcasts to share leading practices in the classroom
* Involvement in defining the academic needs that need to be addressed by materials
* Access to Deloitte IFRS information resources, publications and training sessions – including support and guidance from experienced Deloitte professionals

Universities that wish to participate in the Consortium will be asked to provide feedback and input about the program. (There is no cost for institutions to participate in the Deloitte IFRS University Consortium.) IFRS teaching materials and resources will be made available to all colleges and universities.

The IFRS University Consortium continues Deloitte’s longstanding practice of assisting higher education in activities that benefit students, business and society.

source:
www.deloitte.com

But now, with physicists across the country pushing for universities to do a better job of teaching science, M.I.T. has made a striking change.

The physics department has replaced the traditional large introductory lecture with smaller classes that emphasize hands-on, interactive, collaborative learning. Last fall, after years of experimentation and debate and resistance from students, who initially petitioned against it, the department made the change permanent. Already, attendance is up and the failure rate has dropped by more than 50 percent.

M.I.T. is not alone. Other universities are changing their ways, among them Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, North Carolina State University, the University of Maryland, the University of Colorado at Boulder and Harvard. In these institutions, physicists have been pioneering teaching methods drawn from research showing that most students learn fundamental concepts more successfully, and are better able to apply them, through interactive, collaborative, student-centered learning.

The traditional 50-minute lecture was geared more toward physics majors, said Eric Mazur, a physicist at Harvard who is a pioneer of the new approach, and whose work has influenced the change at M.I.T.

“The people who wanted to understand,” Professor Mazur said, “had the discipline, the urge, to sit down afterwards and say, ‘Let me figure this out.’ ” But for the majority, he said, a different approach is needed.

“Just as you can’t become a marathon runner by watching marathons on TV,” Professor Mazur said, “likewise for science, you have to go through the thought processes of doing science and not just watch your instructor do it.”

Another proponent of the new approach is Carl Wieman, a Nobel Prize-winning physicist who directs a science education initiative at the University of British Columbia.

In an article in the education journal Change last year, Dr. Wieman noted that the human brain “can hold a maximum of about seven different items in its short-term working memory and can process no more than about four ideas at once.”

“But the number of new items that students are expected to remember and process in the typical hourlong science lecture is vastly greater,” he continued. “So we should not be surprised to find that students are able to take away only a small fraction of what is presented to them in that format.”

source:

www.nytimes.com

The FPA is planning to run two other courses later in the year. They are designed to “explore the impact and influence of pornography on young people’s attitudes to sex, safer sex, their sexual development and relationships”.

There are fears among some social workers that teenagers who have access to pornography are learning too much, too quickly about sex and seeing women as only linked to sex.

An FPA spokesman said: “Increasingly, young men are saying that they get much of their sex and relationships education from pornography.”With most young people using the internet and mobile phones, pornography is more accessible than it has ever been.

“Professionals working with young people sometimes struggle to know what is legal, and how and whether to support young people using pornography.
“This course provides factual information about the types and availability of pornography, looking at what is legal and what is not.”

But it has also raised concerns among family values groups who argue that bringing pornography into the classroom makes it acceptable. Norman Wells, from Family and Youth Concern, told The Daily Mail: “It is a strange kind of logic to say that because there are so many sexual images all around us, we need to talk about sex more.

“Groups like the FPA fail to appreciate that talking freely and openly about sexual matters can break down young people’s natural sense of reserve and encourage casual attitudes towards sexual intimacy. “We shall never be able to counter the pernicious influence of the pornographers by yet more sexual conversations.”

source:

www.telegraph.co.uk

He said: “Teaching is much too focused on an academic, esoteric and mechanical version of art. We are not encouraging use of imagination and thinking out of the box nearly enough.

“When you’ve got to write 200 words on something so that it can get marked, I think it becomes rather trite. I understand why they have to do it but it seems there could be other elements to teaching it. It’s too restrictive.”

Fortunately his children had two “crazy parents who let them do anything”, he said, but he feared many were being put off the subject.

Art, he added, was by its very nature difficult to mark.

Turk has first-hand experience of that. Tutors at the Royal College of Art refused to give him a degree after his MA show, which consisted of an empty studio consisting of nothing but an English Heritage-style blue plaque stating: “Borough of Kensington, Gavin Turk, sculptor, worked here, 1989-1991.”

Their dismissal did him no harm as he went on to be collected by Charles Saatchi.

He has helped launch a not-for-profit project called the House of Fairy Tales which aims to help children and others experience art in a more hands-on fashion.

For this week’s London Art Fair the House has produced a portfolio of prints on the subject of fairy tales by 23 artists, including Sir Peter Blake – who designed the Sgt. Pepper Lonely Hearts Club Band album sleeve – Turner Prize winners Jeremy Deller and Rachel Whiteread and sculptor Cornelia Parker.

Turk said all its contributors agreed that the teaching of art needed a shot in the arm.

source:

www.telegraph.co.uk

The expansion of an investigation would put pressure on the schools to further disclose their inner financial workings as the I.R.S. undertakes a major effort to learn more about whether academic institutions are improperly using their nonprofit status to avoid paying certain taxes.

The expansion, while not yet certain, “is on the table,” Lois G. Lerner, the I.R.S.’s director of exempt organizations, said in a brief interview. As part of its current investigation, which began last October, the I.R.S. sent unusually detailed questionnaires to 400 private and public universities and colleges about their executive compensation policies and their business activities.

While the institutions are not obligated to respond, not doing so can potentially lead to an audit. The investigation is modeled upon similar scrutiny of hospitals that began in 2006 and has prompted audits, legislative hearings and stricter tax-filing requirements. The idea is to give the I.R.S. a clear view of how the business of academia operates in the 21st century. “Universities are really part of a rapidly evolving sector, and as sectors evolve and the economy evolves, we’re going to periodically take a hard look,” Douglas H. Shulman, the I.R.S. commissioner, said.

Despite their tax-exempt status, universities and colleges are still sometimes required to pay certain taxes. Under its review, the I.R.S. is looking at whether universities and colleges are properly paying any special federal taxes owed on transactions, investments or businesses that are unrelated to their core nonprofit activities.

The I.R.S. is also scrutinizing whether the large endowments held by universities and colleges are properly paying taxes due on income related to debt financing. Universities have invested in hedge funds in recent years, and the I.R.S. is looking at whether they are properly paying taxes owed on income produced by hedge funds that engage in leveraged, or debt-financed, investments. Some endowments have tried to avoid the unrelated business income tax on leveraged entities by dealing with offshore hedge funds, a move that has drawn scrutiny from Congressional regulators.

The expansion, which Ms. Lerner said might take the form of a new questionnaire, would most likely touch on offshore issues as well because intellectual property and its commercial applications are often held in overseas tax havens.

Source:

www.nytimes.com

More than 135,000 failed to achieve even one C grade last summer.Nearly a third of these schools expect to remain in the doldrums at least until 2010 – putting them at grave risk of closure, according to figures obtained under the Freedom of Information Act. Last year, just 47.6 per cent of candidates finished compulsory schooling with a basic mastery of the three Rs and three other GCSE subjects or their vocational equivalent.

Results were up on 2007 but progress is half what it needs to be if ministers are to meet a 53 per cent Treasury target set for 2011. The figures also showed that 21 per cent of pupils failed to achieve a single C grade in any GCSE subject, although five per cent achieved C grade standards in vocational qualifications deemed equivalent. At the other end of the spectrum, one in seven schoolchildren – 14.2 per cent – achieved three A grades at A-level.

source:

www.dailymail.co.uk

Most of England’s 150 education authorities have not referred a single teacher to the General Teaching Council for alleged incompetence since the disciplinary body was set up in 2001. “We have had a variable pattern of referrals from employers for cases of alleged serious professional incompetence with multiple referrals from some local authorities and none from others,” said Keith Bartley, chief executive of the GTC. He said he could not give an accurate number of incompetent teachers still in classrooms.

The inquiry, commissioned by the GTC and the Government and carried out by the National Centre for Social Research, will report later this year. The figures provoked fury from opposition MPs and sparked concerns that inadequate teachers remained in the classroom. “If we are to drive up standards, we need to be confident that we have excellent teachers in all of our schools,” said David Laws, the Liberal Democrat schools spokesman. “We cannot have a situation where incompetent teachers are kept in the system. When an underperforming teacher is dismissed, this must be reported.”

The statistics show there have been 155 referrals, with 64 of those concluding in a competency hearing. Of these, 10 resulted in teachers being struck off and 10 in suspensions. Twenty-three teachers were given conditional registration orders on the grounds they did not appear before a disciplinary hearing again, and six were reprimanded.

Mr Bartley added: “If there is any evidence of inconsistency of approach or anomaly in the patterns of referral, we want to understand what needs to be done to bring about greater consistency of approach and an appropriate level of referrals.”

Of the teachers found guilty of incompetence, one – Adrian Pantry, of Carlton le Willows School in Gedling, Nottinghamshire – failed to stop pupils banging on tables, chanting and throwing objects during his lessons. Joan Lambert, of The College High School in Erdington, Birmingham, failed to evaluate pupils’ work and also left school without consent to attend a faulty cooker at home. A third, Calvin Lambert, of Godley Community Primary School in Hyde, Manchester, failed to plan, assess or mark pupils’ work.

The GTC has also held 494 hearings for alleged professional misconduct – of which 97 resulted in teachers being barred, 69 in suspensions and 136 in conditional registration orders.

source:

www.independent.co.uk

source:

www.independent.co.uk

The aims of the preparatory conferences are to address adult learning challenges in each region, build partnerships, promote innovative approaches and develop recommendations for the future. Countries covered by the Arab States conference were Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, Mauritania, Morocco, Oman, Palestine Autonomous Territories, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Syrian Arab Republic, United Arab Emirates, Yemen, Djibouti, Somalia and Malta.

Representatives were there to discuss relevant key issues in youth and adult literacy, learning and education in the region and sub-regions; share good practice and innovations; identify challenges; review, amend and validate the regional synthesis report which had been prepared on the basis of national reports; and develop recommendations for future strategies.

During the conference, Abdel Moneim Osmane, Director of Unesco’s Beirut office, said adult education concerned not only those unable to read and write, but also those who had been educated, reported La Presse of Tunisia.

“Adult education must no longer ignore even those with a high level of learning,” Osmane said. “Continuing education must be lifelong, so adults can enrich their knowledge as necessary and be within reach of new information. It’s just as vital to master new technologies and fight against digital illiteracy.”

Mohamed Ghemari, Director of foreign relations and cooperation of Isesco, the Islamic Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation which co-organised the event, said it was not by chance the conference was being held in Tunisia which was recognised for its efforts in adult education. For Isesco, at the heart of problems was illiteracy “nourished by the marginalisation of girls and the enormous gap which benefits the urban environment to the detriment of the rural”, La Presse quoted him as saying.

Mongi Bousnina, Director-General of Alecso, the Arab League Educational, Cultural and Scientific Organisation, said despite all efforts illiteracy persisted, and the Arab world counted 66 million people unable to read and write, a number predicted to rise to 70 million by 2010. Out-of-school children would number 27 million by 2025.

The conference was due to produce a report to be synthesised with those from all five preparatory events to form the Global Report on Adult Learning and Education (GRALE).

At the opening session of the conference delegates held a minute’s silence for victims in Gaza, reported La Presse.

source:

www.universityworldnews.com

Adam Herrman disappeared from his home in Towanda in 1999. His disappearance came to life last week when authorities acting on a tip searched the empty lot where his adoptive family’s mobile home once sat.

State Sen. Jean Schodorf, the Senate assistant majority leader, said Friday she had asked Don Jordan, secretary of the Kansas Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services, to look for any signs that authorities had needed to take Adam out of the home and whether the state played a part in his disappearance by not acting on them.

source:

www.topix.com/education