Educated By Initiative

Download or read book Educated by Initiative written by Daniel A. Smith and published by University of Michigan Press. This book was released on 2009-11-12 with total page 248 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "This body of research not only passes academic muster but is the best guidepost in existence for activists who are trying to use the ballot initiative process for larger policy and political objectives." --Kristina Wilfore, Executive Director, Ballot Initiative Strategy Center and Foundation Educated by Initiative moves beyond previous evaluations of public policy to emphasize the educational importance of the initiative process itself. Since a majority of ballots ultimately fail or get overturned by the courts, Smith and Tolbert suggest that the educational consequences of initiative voting may be more important than the outcomes of the ballots themselves. The result is a fascinating and thoroughly-researched book about how direct democracy teaches citizens about politics, voting, civic engagement and the influence of special interests and political parties. Designed to be accessible to anyone interested in the future of American democracy, the book includes boxes (titled "What Matters") that succinctly summarize the authors' data into easily readable analyses. Daniel A. Smith is Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Florida. Caroline J. Tolbert is Associate Professor of Political Science at Kent State University.

Download or read book Improving How Universities Teach Science written by Carl Wieman and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2017-05-22 with total page 179 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Too many universities remain wedded to outmoded ways of teaching science in spite of extensive research showing that there are much more effective methods. Too few departments ask whether what happens in their lecture halls is effective at helping students to learn and how they can encourage their faculty to teach better. But real change is possible, and Carl Wieman shows us how it can be brought about. Improving How Universities Teach Science draws on Wieman’s unparalleled experience to provide a blueprint for educators seeking sustainable improvements in science teaching. Wieman created the Science Education Initiative (SEI), a program implemented across thirteen science departments at the universities of Colorado and British Columbia, to support the widespread adoption of the best research-based approaches to science teaching. The program’s data show that in the most successful departments 90 percent of faculty adopted better methods. Wieman identifies what factors helped and hindered the adoption of good teaching methods. He also gives detailed, effective, and tested strategies for departments and institutions to measure and improve the quality of their teaching while limiting the demands on faculty time. Among all of the commentary addressing shortcomings in higher education, Wieman’s lessons on improving teaching and learning stand out. His analysis and solutions are not limited to just one lecture hall or course but deal with changing entire departments and universities. For those who want to improve how universities teach science to the next generation, Wieman’s work is a critical first step.

Download or read book Stealing the Initiative written by Elisabeth R. Gerber and published by Pearson. This book was released on 2001 with total page 134 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book uses eleven recent California initiatives and referendums to provide readers with a set of analytical tools and examples that will help them better understand real politics. It clarifies the public consequences, and studies the great variations of what happens to initiatives that win on Election Day and withstand judicial review. Research is presented in an effective and efficient manner, along with key factors that lead policy actors to implement and enforce initiatives and referendums fully, partially, and not at all--a social phenomenon that affects our lives in fundamental ways. A wide range of policy areas cover tobacco tax, transportation, legislative spending provision, term limits provision, open primaries, and bilingual education. This book also includes varied conclusions about how to reform the initiative process to improve direct democracy. For citizens who want to understand and/or increase their role in government.

Download or read book Initiative-centered Politics written by David McCuan and published by . This book was released on 2005 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Do we have a system of "too much democracy?" Has the rise of ballot measures in the United States somehow assaulted the practice of democracy across the nation? In this volume, contributors take stock of how the initiative process has fared thus far, while positing future directions for direct legislation. The rise of direct democracy across states and localities has shown how the initiative process is essential to public policy throughout the country. This volume brings together a diverse group of scholars presenting direct democracy research across high-use and low-use states and across issue dimensions at all levels of government. It will be invaluable for all who are interested in direct democracy. "A timely volume, this book addresses a movement that has greatly changed American politics... Summing up: Recommended." -- CHOICE Magazine

Download or read book Initiative written by Joshua Spodek and published by Greenwich Lane Books. This book was released on 2019-05-21 with total page 258 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Initiative, Spodek presents a practice-based method, not ideas or abstract principles but a sequence of concrete exercises that will lead you to discover and develop passions and take initiative-even if you don't yet know what you want to take initiative on.

Download or read book Global Perspectives on Work-Based Learning Initiatives written by Talbot, Jon and published by IGI Global. This book was released on 2018-10-05 with total page 369 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The purpose of education has been debated in recent years, especially surrounding its curriculum and structure. In order to fully understand this discussion, the relationship between education and the labor market must be explored. Global Perspectives on Work-Based Learning Initiatives is a pivotal reference source that provides vital research on recent progress in selected countries across the globe in educational programs designed to better prepare students for the workforce through the use of work-related learning. While highlighting topics such as degree apprenticeships, integrated learning strategy, and economic development, this book is ideally designed for education administrators, professors, business and education professionals, academicians, researchers, and graduate-level students seeking current research on the relationship between the education and labor market.

Download or read book The Tourism Education Futures Initiative written by Darko Prebežac and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2016-04-29 with total page 415 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: As the world faces many serious challenges informed, courageous and mindful leadership is needed for a better future. The Tourism Education Futures Initiative (TEFI) is the collective effort of a group of innovative, thoughtful and committed scholars and industry leaders seeking to provide vision, knowledge, and a framework for tourism education programs that promote global citizenship and optimism for a better world. This book consolidates some of TEFI’s work as it seeks to be the leading, forward-looking network that inspires, informs and supports tourism educators and students to passionately and courageously transform the world for the better. It makes the case for why change is needed, and how tourism educators can respond to that change with strategies and values-based tools. The book contains papers published in special TEFI issues of the Journal of Teaching in Travel & Tourism (JTTT), which question and explore some of the most important theoretical, conceptual and practical issues facing tourism education now and into the future. The book concludes by integrating the special issues’ key contributions with a brief conceptualisation of education futures before it outlines TEFI’s framework for action over the coming years. Tourism educators worldwide will find that this volume serves two important purposes. On the one hand, it challenges educators to think both critically and proactively about tourism education, while on the other sharing examples of teaching and learning tools that seek to prepare our students for the future and to be global citizens that live lives of consequence. This book is a collection of articles from the Journal of Teaching in Travel and Tourism.