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South African Journal of Education
versión On-line ISSN 2076-3433
versión impresa ISSN 0256-0100
S. Afr. j. educ. vol.31 no.4 Pretoria ene. 2011
An examination of university-school partnerships in South Africa
Judith Mutemeri*; Rajendra Chetty
The purpose of the study was to examine university-school partnerships in the process of teacher education. The research question that guided the study was how teacher educators partner with schools in teacher training. A qualitative study was preferred because the aim was to gather information and opinions on how teacher educators trained student teachers as well as to provide a forum for pre-service student teachers to air their views about how they were trained. Twenty- six lecturers and nine student focus groups, purposively sampled, participated in the study. An interview was used for data collection and Holliday's thematic approach was used to analyse the data. The research revealed that there was a weak partnership between teacher education and schools. The study recommends the creation of third spaces in teacher education which involve an "equal and more dialectical relationship between academic and practitioner knowledge" in support of student teachers' learning.
Keywords: mentors; partnership; practice teaching; skills development; student teacher learning; third spaces
The major purpose of the research was to examine university-school partnerships in pre-service student teacher training in South Africa. Experiences with student teachers over the past few years have revealed that they persistently express disenchantment about the worth of theory in practice. There is a general belief among student teachers that what happens at the university during lectures has little relationship with what pertains in the classroom. It is therefore important to harness both teacher education and school efforts in order to enhance student teacher learning. In this light a closer cooperation between teacher education and schools becomes imperative.
The university-school partnership is central to teacher training. Student teachers should not only complete their programme with adequate and appropriate skills, but should also view their practice teaching experience as a continuum to their training and an integral component of their development as teachers. The prioritization of learning experiences of students in higher education is currently under the spotlight with debates, amongst others, of work integrated learning and the theory/practice nexus, hence the significance of this study of the university-school partnership.
Conceptual framework
The teacher education-school partnerships are premised upon Goodlad's (1991:10) conclusion that "any teacher education programme created or conducted without the collaboration of surrounding schools is defective". Teitel (2003:45) argues that the separation of coursework and practice creates problems in transfer and in implementation within schools and this may result in under-preparedness of the newly qualified teacher. The European Commission (EC) (2007:1) suggests that "in the growing complexity of society and the demands on the educational system, schools should play an active and central role in developing teaching methods, improving the quality of teaching, and extending knowledge about teaching and learning" in teacher education. The EC argues that the relationship between teacher education institutions (TEIs) and schools has often been one-sided, in which the school is the passive recipient of trainee teachers and in which most power lies with the TEIs. The foregoing correlates with Zeichner's (2010:90) argument that under the traditional view of practice teaching, schools are expected mainly to provide a place for education students to practice teaching and they are usually not provided with the kind of preparation and support they would need to implement a more active and educative concept of mentoring. The danger of this view is that it reinforces the dichotomy between the school and the university instead of an integrative approach to teacher training where the school is viewed as an essential contributor to the programme.
Coble and Williams (1998) posit five guiding principles for an effective teacher education-school partnership:
Increased time for pre-service teachers to experience earlier, longer, and more intensive field-based placements in the schools, connected to method classes and mentors at the school sites;
Jointly crafted professional development programmes for student teachers;
Increased communication between public schools and higher education for the purpose of sharing and disseminating good practices;
Generation and application of research and new knowledge about teaching and learning; and
Joint involvement of university and school personnel in curriculum planning and programme development.
According to Coble and Williams (1998:2) there is a wide range of existing relationships between universities and schools, from simple episodic transactions to complex on-going partnerships. Cortada (1995:3) argues that what distinguishes between these polarities is the value-added to university-school relationships as they grow from transactions to partnerships. Henderson (1990:4) provides a conceptual framework for understanding the structure of what is meant by the term 'partnership', what characterizes successful partnerships, and some of the general benefits derived from developing strategic partnerships. There are two dimensions of partnership style relationships described by Henderson (1990); they are partnership in context and partnership in action.
Partnership in context is the degree to which the university and schools believe that the partnership will be sustained over time. The key indicators are longevity, stability, and interdependence between the partners. There are three domains that help define the context of a successful strategic partnership, namely, a) mutual benefits; if a partnership succeeds, it will be because both parties have something to gain, b) commitment; partnerships require a long range view as well as a willingness, over time, to relinquish some organizational controls in favour of operationalized shared governance, and c) predisposition; developing strategic partnerships as a means to achieve improvement in teacher preparation and development is a significant departure from past practice (Henderson, 1990).
Partnership in action is the ability of the partners to influence policies, processes, and programmes that affect the operational performance of the partnership. The key indicator is the ability to affect the day-to-day working relationship of the partners. Henderson (1990) asserts that there are three major principles that help define successful partnerships. The first principle is shared knowledge. Partnerships ultimatelysurvive on a deep foundation of shared knowledge between partner organizations. University-school partners must understand the environment and culture that affect how the other works if they are to support and influence each other in critical areas. The second principle is dependency. In every partnership there are distinctive competencies and resources, so that if the partnership fails, each member of the partnership loses. Successful university-school partnerships learn how to manage an environment where each holds critical cards tied to the other's success. The third principle is an organizational linkage. Successful partnerships are characterized by formal and informal linkages at all levels in the organization.
The EC (2007) has suggested aims of partnerships between teacher education institutions and schools. While the aims and efforts of partnerships could varydepending on circumstances and the context of institutions, the EC has proposed three elements that are crucial, namely, a) improving methods for teaching and learning; b) raising the quality of teachers; and c) developing knowledge about teaching and learning through research. For sustained relationships both parties should benefit from the outcomes of partnerships. The EC (2007:5) has postulated benefits for the school, teacher education and for the students. The benefits for the school are:
Involvement in the initial education of new teachers;
In-service development of staff within the school;
Increased capacity for innovation and knowledge development through support from teacher educators and through student-teachers' development and research activities; and
The feedback of the outcomes of educational research into the reality of the schools.
The benefits for teacher education include:
Opportunities to relate the curriculum of teacher education more closely to the complex reality within the school;
The provision of a realistic learning environment for student teachers; and
Opportunities for realistic and relevant research questions and assignments for student teachers.
The benefits for student teachers are:
An involvement in the reality of the schools. This would help to reduce the practice shock sometimes experienced by students when they go out for practice teaching;
A more realistic view of the profession and the demands that it places on teachers; and
An involvement in a wider variety of activities, better reflecting the breadth of the profession.
Coble and Williams (1998) are of the view that although partnerships between schools and teacher education need to be addressed at policy level, partnerships are not an aim in themselves; they are a means to improve the quality of teacher education and to support innovation within schools and school development.
Teitel (2003:3) suggests the concept of professional development schools (PDS) as a special case of teacher education-school collaboration in which the experience in partnership formation provides rich backgrounds for the efforts to 'grow' PDSs. PDSs can be seen as places in which to resolve the tension between schools and universities. They are creative ways to bridge the gap and avoid the theory-practice dichotomy (Stoddard, 1993:43). For teacher education, PDSs provide an opportunity to create a venue for literal praxis, the development of teaching skill and practice in context. PDSs provide an opportunity to bridge the gap between the abstract and the authentic in the preparation and development of student teachers (Teitel, 2003).
Zeichner (2010) argues for the rejection of binaries such as practitioner and academic knowledge; and theory and practice, arguing instead for the creation of new hybrid spaces for integrating what are seen as competing discourses, in new ways where an either/or perspective is transformed into both/also point of view. In other words, a third space is concerned with the creation of hybrid spaces in teacher education programmes that bring together school mentors and teacher educators and academic knowledge in new ways to enhance student learning. Contrary to the traditional disconnection between teacher education and schools and to the valorisation of academic knowledge as the authoritative source of knowledge for learning about teaching in traditional university models of teacher education, third spaces bring mentors and academic knowledge in less hierarchical ways to create new learning opportunities for student teachers. Creating third spaces in teacher education involves an equal and more dialectical relationship between academic and practitioner knowledge in support of student learning. Gorodetskyand Barak (2008) are of the view that third spaces in school-universitypartnerships in teacher education encourage a more egalitarian status for participants than conventional school-university partnerships. Examples of hybrid spaces that could be created in teacher education include, a) bringing mentors and their knowledge into campus courses and field experiences; b) incorporating representations of teachers' practices in campus courses; and c) mediated instruction and field experiences where method courses could be school based.
A post-modern qualitative research design was used. Phenomenology was chosen as a research strategy since it focuses "on the ways that the life world; the world every individual takes for granted - is experienced by its members" (Holliday, 2007:16). It also offered a descriptive, reflective, interpretive and engaging mode of inquiry from which the fundamental nature of the relationship between teacher education and schools could be elicited from respondents. The major aim was to examine and describe the partnership between teacher education and schools from respondents within their natural context. That is, a "seeing through the eyes of the respondents" (Nieuwenhuis, 2007:51) so that the partnership between teacher education and schools could be described in terms of the meanings that they have for the respondents.
The research sites included the largest provider of teacher education in four provinces - Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal, the Eastern Cape, and the Western Cape. Purposive sampling was conducted to adequately capture the heterogeneity of institutions especially after the restructuring in higher education. As a result the major variable of size and different configurations in the higher education scenario post-1994 were taken into account. The aim was to ensure that the conclusions adequately represented the range of variation.
Purposive sampling was used to select both student teachers and lecturers. Respondents were selected on the basis of some defining characteristic that made them holders of the data needed for the study. The main criterion for inclusion was the level of study of the teacher education students. The sample comprised of BEd 4th year pre-service student teachers and the lecturers in the 4th year programme. The major reason was that BEd final year students had experienced three years of teacher training and it was assumed that they were in a better position to give informed comments on how the partnership between teacher education and schools (where they did their practice teaching) impacted on their learning. On the other hand it was also assumed that lecturers of BEd level four students had the knowledge and experience pertaining to the collaboration between teacher education and schools. Sampling decisions were therefore made for the explicit purpose of obtaining the richest possible source of information to answer the research question. Twenty-six lecturers and nine focus groups with a total of 61 final-year undergraduate student teachers participated in the study.
The principal means of data collection was the interview. Interviews were preferred as a tool for data collection because they allowed the researchers to tap into the experiences of teacher educators and student teachers. Interviews provided rich data that gave "solid material for building a significant analysis as participants' views, feelings, intentions, actions as well as the context were revealed" (Charmaz, 2006:65). Questions were tailored to fit the respondents' knowledge, degree of involvement and status as illustrated in the interview matrices, Table 1.
Face-to-face interviews were conducted with lecturers and it provided an opportunity to voice their personal opinions about how they trained student teachers. The foci of the interview were organization of practice teaching, mentoringand student teacher supervision. Focus group interviews (with an average of six per group) were carried out with student teachers. The focus group interview was based on the assumption that group interaction would be productive in widening and diversifying the range of responses, activating forgotten details of experience and releasing inhibitions that could otherwise have discouraged respondents from disclosing information (Niewenhuis, 2007:90). In the focus groups, student teachers were able to build on each others' ideas and comments to provide an in-depth view of data. The foci of the student interviews were practice teaching organization, mentoring and practice teaching supervision.
The validity of interview question items was ensured through a pilot study that was carried out with both lecturers and student teachers who were not part of the sample. The exercise was important as it provided feedback on whether the interview questions "sounded right" and also if they were understandable (Brace, 2004:164). Validity was considered to be a relative term that referred to credibility of explanation, interpretation and conclusions made (Maxwell, 2005). Maxwell's (2002) realist approach to validity was used as a guide in monitoring issues of validity. In addition to providing an accurate record of what respondents expressed, the digital recordings were a proof that determined if the respondents made particular statements during the interview. To overcome descriptive validity threats like omission, we used observer comments to note non-verbal cues and as a result captured whole meaning of interview information. Interpretive validitywas gained through seeking to understand information from the respondents' perspective in their contexts. An effort was made to maintain the interpretations 'experience-near' (Maxwell, 2002), i.e. based on the immediate concepts employed by interviewees through employing two verification techniques. Through respondent validation, i.e. member checks, we solicited feedback about collected data in order to verify the accuracy of interpretations and conclusions from participants. Dialoguing the knowledge is what Henning (2004:149) calls communication as validity, i.e. checking whether respondents agreed with the researcher data. Wealso sounded our understanding of transcribed interviews with respondents to verify whether our interpretation of what they had shared with us was accurate.
We relied on Holliday's (2007) thematic analysis as a means of organizing data. Holliday (2007:93) argues that "taking a purely thematic approach, in which data is taken holistically and rearranged under themes which emerge as running through its totality, is the classic way to maintain the principle of emergence".
Hofstee (2006:112) contends that all methods have limitations. In qualitative inquiry, the issue of bias and generalizability are often questioned, especially the argument that personal experiences, beliefs and value laden narratives are subjective. However within the postmodern qualitative research framework, subjectivity is strength because truth is relative. To that extent "no story can have more credibility than any other, all stories are equally valid being so validated by the community that lives by them" (All About Philosophy Series, 2009). The sample was limited. However, we echo Zientek's (2007:962) assertion that "such samples can yield some insights when sample characteristics reasonably well match those of a targeted population".
All four institutions that formed the sample granted approval for the research project.
In data presentation themes are used, namely, a) organization of practice teaching, b) mentoring, and c) student teacher supervision. In presenting data we were mindful, however, of an ethical issue about guarding against misrepresenting, distorting or deleting findings which have been provided in good faith by respondents. Arguing along the same lines, Cohen, Manion, and Morrison (2008:462) are of the opinion that some "researchers feel that it is important to keep the flavour of the original data, so they report direct phrases and sentences, not only because they are often more illuminative and direct than the researcher's own words, but also because they feel that it is important to be faithful to the exact words used". In the same manner, in presenting data, an effort was made not to distort respondents' meanings by retaining and quoting actual spoken words. This is further coupled by the fact that the post-modern qualitative paradigm celebrates multiple interpretations.
Data from lecturers
Organization of practice teaching
In all four institutions, student teachers go out for about six weeks in a year and 24 weeks in four years for practice teaching. Responding to adequacy of time allocated for practice teaching, the data reflect a divide among lecturer responses - there was an equal balance of opinion that time allocated was adequate and that practice teaching time was inadequate. For instance, the respondents voiced the sentiment that they did not,
believe it's adequate ... we are not doing students any good. Students should be spending a semester or a full year. They need to experience what teaching is - students go out there it's like play teaching.
The observation was that "if the teaching practice is only to develop teaching skills then it's not enough". As a follow up, lecturers were asked whether practice teaching served its intended purpose; to which the majority did not think so. The sentiment expressed was that it depended "on the school they are in and who is mentoring them and it depends on how the school is running and the degree of freedom they are given to develop themselves".
Teaching practice supervision
Responding to the question about how supervision was organized and implemented, the argument advanced by 40% of lecturers was that it is inadequate:
We arrange to see them two times per session and once the two times is over we don't go back. So I don't think that we are really serious about it, maybe we need to rethink about how student teaching practice can be done.
About 80% of the lecturers expressed the sentiment that student teachers should have someone knowledgeable on the spot, i.e. during practice teaching. Data reveal that, however, there were challenges in certain schools because as argued by lecturers,
Some of the schools are so dysfunctional that there is hardly any supervision if you just leave them in the school and expect the school members of staff to do it. Their standards are very different to yours even if you have workshops it's still very different,
- that is, university standards and school standards remain incompatible.
Commenting about the support student teachers get from subject or Grade teachers, 75% of the respondents were concerned about the capacity of mentor teachers: "you see the mentor teachers don't have any training of what we expect from teachers in mentoring our students ..." Examples of sentiments expressed were: "most of the schools still emphasize rote learning rather than learning and understanding ..."; "And so if our students go out to schools teachers tell them no, no, no there is no time for all that nice stuff ... teach them what they have to know and get on with the job".
Responding to how the situation could be resolved, the need to train mentor teachers was emphasized especially with the observation that in some cases schools award teachers "strange" and "unrealistic" marks, "even in the range of 90%". The belief was, "So there is a lot of work that needs to go into that in terms of mentorship training".
University-school partnerships
Responding to the question on how universities collaborated with schools, 60% of the lecturers were of the opinion that there is a lot that needs to be done in this regard. Comments expressed included: "We don't liaise with mentor teachers from our side at this university, we don't. What happens is that we send students into the schools with the knowledge that the teacher will know what to do". It was believed that it is important to have "structures in place for students to meet with mentors and things like that".
Half of the sample of lecturers felt that despite workshops and seminars and other incentives given to mentors, no positive changes seemed to have been realized in the quality of student support. The sentiment expressed among the respondents was that
... it's not building incentives, its creating links between university and schools. There should be a reciprocal relationship where both parties benefit. You need to develop an understanding that the school is but an extension of the university in order to have a better understanding of the dialectical relationship between theory and practice.
Asked about how teacher educators linked with the mentor teachers, 65% acknowledged that they still had a lot to do within this area as the practice was simply to appoint students to good mentors: "At some schools they have willing mentors. At other schools they have appointed mentors; this is at gun-point because the principal says you have to have a mentor." There was a general belief among respondents that students "are sort of left to their own devices and lecturers just pop in for the evaluation and out they go. They don't even talk to teachers or something like that".
Data from student teachers
Organization of teaching practice
While some of the student teachers were of the opinion that practice teaching was well organized, the majority believed that some improvements could be made. For instance a concern was expressed among the latter group that "the previous year we went to a school again and they didn't know that we were coming. They [lecturers] make us feel bad. We had to apologize and it puts us in an awkward situation". It was evident that in some instances student teachers were sent to schools without prior arrangements and confirmation from the schools. Students were generally dissatisfied with the administration of practice teaching -
administration should be done much more earlier than its done: I feel it should be done the previous year already so that the school that you are going to can be notified on time and that you can start preparing yourself for that school as well.
An interesting observation was that the majority of respondents believed that time spent on practice teaching should be extended. The argument was, "we should actually spend more time in schools to be able to see what goes on in there so that we have a realistic feel of what goes on in the classroom". Almost all the respondents believed that practice teaching was a brilliant idea but the concern was in the
way in which we are presented to the schools. Sometimes some schools don't want us in actual fact. They don't want us...when the social atmosphere is not conducive you don't learn. And I think it should be emphasized to the schools that if you do not want students don't take them. At the end even if the crit comes you are anxious, you are tight. It's not a learning environment anymore.
Some students strongly believed that
they [lecturers] need to evaluate the teachers that they are sending us to because some of the teachers we get sent to are horrible. Teachers like ... we don't learn anything from them. So I think they need to evaluate the teachers that we get sent to so that we get to tutor teachers that are what we should be, what we are aiming to be.
Respondents expressed concerns about their attachment to nonchalant mentor teachers -
well another thing with practice teaching is that it is not organized in the sense that you are just being dropped in a school whether the teacher that you working with is helpful or not.
Practice teaching supervision
Pertaining to practice teaching assessment, the majority of the respondents believed that "it would be a lot better to have tutor teachers correct us and not the lecturers"; "there are a lot of areas in which the institution will have to up on," were some of the comments expressed. The general sentiment was,
they should give us to the tutor teachers to evaluate us. But the schools must be more informed of what the university requires of us so that when they judge us, evaluate us, they know what to evaluate us on. It is not just a tutor-teacher thing. There should be a clear structure that the school needs to know that this is what is required from the student teacher.
In all the focus groups, the students indicated that most of their mentor teachers had a poor idea of the aims of practice teaching, that they viewed students as apprentices that needed space to practice, that they did not read the information provided by the university and that teachers complained that the documentation was so thick that they were "put-off" reading it. Students commented that "the handouts that were issued to mentor teachers were put in drawers because it's not applying to them. It's not telling them this is what we expect you to do".
Partnerships between teacher education and schools
Data suggested that there was an ineffective relationship between universities and schools. There was a general sentiment expressed by respondents that schools were not welcoming to them and in some schools they experienced very strained relationships during practice teaching. This argument was countered by others in the focus group that defended the friendly and accommodating teachers that were willing to assist them in the schools. However, students indicated that there are teachers in almost every school who are unwilling to share their classrooms and time with the student teachers and it is these teachers who do not do valid assessments of their teaching practice.
Skills development
The majority of the students expressed concern that the areas they were lacking in, like work plans and work schedules, are some of the items that school principals requested immediately when they started their practice teaching sessions. A large majority of students felt that they were not trained to have these documents in place - "what impression will we be giving if we sort of hand in this half piece together - what we sort of think is - we are going to look like idiots". The general belief was that the aspects in which they had limited capacity, were considered to be among the most important in the schools - "so it is part of what's left off, and as students getting in their final year, we realize how important they are".
School teacher knowledge
A further concern expressed by student teachers was the area of assessment:
another scary thing is that you go into the schools and teachers themselves are not sure about assessment, the differences between a learning programme and a learning area ... we are also worried that if we go into a school with some idea of assessment and the school is doing it differently and they might prescribe to me how its done but when the department comes for assessment it will be all wrong. It puts like pressure on us because you kind of panic and think are we going to make it or what?
In an effort to create a third space in teacher education, there was a faculty that had invited teachers from a local school to work in their programme. Teachers were included in the teaching of methodology courses. While there was a general appreciation of the whole idea, some students however, believed that the arrangement was not serving its intended purpose. The sentiment expressed was that, "Yes it's cool for us to know what is happening within her class because it is reality, something that we can learn from her, but she does not bring it back to theory". Asked whether the visiting tutor teacher was attached to a member of staff, the reply was, "no, no one even knows her name". In other words the lecturer's expectation in terms of content coverage was not clarified and teacher educators did not build on the experiences shared by visiting teachers.
University-school partnership
While most universities acknowledge the integral role played by schools in teacher training, in practice the issue of partnership lags behind. The partnership scale ranges from weak to no partnership at all as evidenced by the lecturer who acknowledged that "at this university we don't liaise with schools. We don't." Data suggest that the relationship that pertains between some TEIs and schools is one-sided, the school is the passive recipient of trainee teachers and almost all the power lies with the TEI. Gorodetsky, Barak and Hadari (2007:27) reiterate that even in the current wave of school-university partnerships in teacher education, universities continue to maintain hegemony over the construction and dissemination of knowledge and schools remain in the position of practice fields where students are to try out the practices provided by the university. Such an arrangement is however, fraught with weaknesses as Zeichner (2010:90) argues that it is very common for mentor teachers to know very little about the specifics of the methods and foundation courses that their student teachers have completed on campus, and teacher educators often know very little about the specific practices used in the classroom where their students are placed. There is much validity in this feeling of ignorance with regards to school practices as is evidenced in the implementation of Outcomes-Based Education by teacher educators who never had experience with the approach, yet they trained students to use the approach in schools.
Reading through transcribed data, it is evident that communication between some TEIs and schools were not always optimal. Lecturer expectations and the role of the school during practice teaching were not clearly communicated to mentors. As a result more often than not, schools had negative perceptions of TEIs and vice versa. The European Commission (2007:1) policy stresses that the contribution that a TEI can make to a school's programme of continuous professional development for its staff, the contribution that student teachers can make to school development, or the contributions that school staff can make to teacher education have not always been recognized, leading to wasted opportunities.
The taken for granted assumptions about school roles in teacher education
Data suggest that 60% of teacher educators took for granted the role of the school in teacher education without making deliberate and clearly spelt out links with the schools with regards to teaching practice. According to Ross, Brownell, and Sindelar (1999) schools and universities must critically examine the core assumptions that guide how they do their work. Both schools and universities must be open to new ideas regarding their goals and operating structures, and they must be open to the possibility of redefining existing roles. Hence, Zeichner (2010:92) suggests the use of a third space as a lens to examine various kinds of boundary crossing between campus and schools that could be effectively enacted. Data suggest that 65% of teacher educators were of the belief that certain components of teacher education were supposed to be imparted by schools where students do their practice teaching. These included record keeping and classroom management.
However, leaving some skills to be learnt at school during practice teaching was one of the issues that teacher education students reacted to with strong emotions. Student teachers felt that it is these aspects that they are left to go and learn at school that make them very uncomfortable as they tend to lose confidence when they get to schools. Student teachers argued that
if all we needed was learnt at school, then why should we waste huge sums of money for courses that would not benefit us; we would rather go straight into the schools and learn from there.
Levine (2006:31) contends that "one of the unfortunate consequences of teacher education's retreat from practice and practitioners is that graduates are not being adequately prepared for the classroom". Although there is a growing consensus that much of what student teachers need to learn must be acquired in and from practice rather than in preparing for practice (Darling-Hammond & Bransford, 2005), there is much disagreement about the conditions for teacher learning that must exist for this learning in and from practice to be educative and enduring (Zeichner, 2010:91).
It was evident that there was a clash of expectation between some teacher educators and schools as far as the level of skill development in teacher education students was concerned. For instance some schools expected to receive knowledgeable and skilled student teachers while some lecturers expected student teachers to go and acquire certain knowledge and skills from the schools. However, in reality, teachers feel that the teacher education departments must not abdicate their responsibilities in teacher preparation. This was confirmed by a few lecturers who believed that, "... in most schools teachers do not trust them enough in their second year to say teach my class". It was evident that with the clash of expectations the student teacher was caught in the middle and hence was a victim of circumstances beyond his/her control. It light of the foregoing it was concluded that the teacher educators have taken the school role in the teaching and learning of student teachers for granted without making a deliberate link and clarifying the role of the schools in the process.
Conclusion and recommendations
Data reveal that there is poor collaboration between universities and schools. It is evident that university practice is still characterized by the traditional 'application of theory model' where prospective teachers are supposed to learn theories at the university and then go to practice or apply what they have learnt in schools; a practice that, instead of emphasizing on university-school partnerships, widened the gap between theory and practice. Links between teacher educators and practising teachers need to be strengthened. Higher education institutions have an important role to play in developing effective partnerships with schools and other stakeholders to ensure that their teacher education courses are relevant to the realities of the school context and that good classroom practice is the corner-stone of the teacher education programme. To this end teacher educators should possess practical experience of classroom teaching and should have attained a very high standard in the skills, attitudes and competencies demanded of teachers. There is evidence in the study that many teacher educators have spent minimal time in classrooms, while others have spent over two decades in the university without any opportunity to return to the classroom to inform their practice or appreciate the current realities that the student teachers and mentor teachers face in schools.
It is argued that the old paradigm of university-based teacher education where academic knowledge is viewed as the authoritative source of knowledge about teaching needs to change to one where there is a non-hierarchical interplay between academic and practitioner expertise. This new epistemology for teacher education may create expanded learning opportunities for prospective teachers that would better prepare them to be successful teachers and more importantly, ensure that the new teachers do not deepen the crisis in public schooling in South Africa.
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Zeichner K 2010. Rethinking the connections between campus courses and field experiences in college and university-based teacher education. Journal of teacher education, http://jte.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/61/1-2/89. [ Links ]
Zientek LR 2007. Preparing high-quality teachers: views from the classroom. The American Educational research, 44:959-1001. [ Links ]
Judith Mutemeri is a Teacher at the Midlands State University, Zimbabwe. Her research interests are early childhood education and teacher education.
Rajendra Chetty is Professor in the Faculty of Education and Social Sciences at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology. His research interests are quality issues in teacher education and commonwealth literature.


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I noticed a tweet come down this evening from Marcus Gilbert who said he's recovering quickly this offseason and nearly back to form. This is good news as he looks to be our starting LT next year.
@MarcusGilbert88: Great field work today! Almost back to full speed with my shoulder! Couple of more weeks

subset: commoncrawl


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|Technology Wizard
Hi! I'm Technology Wizard (also known as Tech), and I've been around on Wikia since February 2011. I am fairly knowledgable about wiki coding and editing, so please feel free to ask me for assistance for those things.
What do I do on Wikia? I tend to involve myself in many aspects of a wiki at once: as a wikifairy, wikignome and a wikiwizard. I enjoy improving content to maximum quality. Sometimes, you might just see me reverting vandalism or removing spam.
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The Japanese government is not a huge fan of Russell Brand, according to his popstar wife's tweets.
The British comedian was deported from the country while trying to see Katy Perry at a concert in Tokyo, according to the famous couple's Twitter accounts.
"So…my husband just got deported from Japan," Perry tweeted to her seven million-plus followers on Sunday. "I am so. sad. I brought him all this way to show him my favorite place."
According to Mrs. Brand, the funnyman got the boot because of crimes he committed "priors from over 10 years ago." Brand has not been shy about his past with heroin abuse and according to a 2006 interview with The Guardian, he had been arrested 11 times.
It's unclear what exactly happened to Brand, as Japanese authorities have not confirmed the deportation or Perry's comments, the AFP reported.
"We don't make comments on such a matter because of privacy concerns," a Tokyo immigration official said.
Still, the comedian made light of whatever situation he was in, Tweeting pics and funny tidbits from his alleged holding room. "Planning escape from Japanese custody. It's bloody hard to dig a tunnel with a chopstick," he tweeted.
Perry was also quick to support her Japanese fans, despite the mishap.
"...But of COURSE I ♥ my Japanese fans & the show #MUSTOGOON no matter the daily aftershocks or husband kidnappings! #it'snotrightbutit'sokay," she wrote.


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Practice opened: March 8
Spring game: April 15
Key losses: Gone is All-America quarterback Pat Devlin and his 3,032 passing yards and 22 touchdowns. So is receiver Philip Thaxton, a Grafton High product who ranked second on the team with 47 catches for 515 yards and five TDs last season. On defense, cornerback Anthony Walters had seven interceptions as senior, while fellow DB Anthony Bratton ranked second on the team with 99 tackles and had 12 pass break-ups.
The buzz: The Blue Hens will have to find a worthy Devlin successor if they're to repeat last year's success, when their 12-3 season ended with a loss to Eastern Washington in the FCS championship game. A trio of QBs looking to replace Devlin saw action in the spring game, including Trevor Sasek, who threw for 199 yards and a TD as Devlin's redshirt freshman backup in 2010. Andrew Pierce returns after rushing for 1,655 yards and 14 TDs and averaging 123.6 all-purpose yards per game as a rookie, while linebacker Paul Worrilow is back after making a team-best 113 tackles as a sophomore.
Practice opened: March 25
Spring game: April 22
Key losses: JMU loses leading rusher Jamal Sullivan, who had 716 yards and five TDs as a senior and led the Dukes with 90.4 all-purpose yards per game, as well as quarterback Drew Dudzik, who threw for 1,282 yards and five touchdowns. But Dudzik was supplanted as the Dukes' starter late in the season, and second-leading rusher Scott Noble (380 yards, three TDs) and leading receiver Kerby Long (283 yards, two TDs) are both back.
The buzz: A Dukes offense that was lackluster in 2010 (17.7 points per game) will be more experienced, as will a formidable defense that allowed just 14.7 points per game last year, when JMU closed a 6-5 season with back-to-back wins. Dae'Quan Scott, who emerged late in the season as a dangerous running threat at quarterback, returns for his sophomore season. Pat Williams, who led the Dukes with 101 tackles as a junior, is back at linebacker, as is fellow linebacker Stephon Robertson, second on the team with 90 tackles a first with three forced fumbles as a redshirt freshman.
Practice opened: April 7
Spring game: April 30
Key losses: Wide receiver Desmond Randall played in all 11 games as a senior, making 28 catches for 256 yards. Senior DB Dominic Cusano had 50 tackles.
The buzz: The Black Bears, three seasons removed from their last playoff appearance, return their leaders from 2010's 4-7 season in just about every meaningful statistical category. Leading rusher Pushaun Brown (650 yards, five TDs) is back, as is quarterback Warren Smith, who threw for 1,861 yards and nine touchdowns as a junior, and top wide receiver Derek Session (580 yards on 50 catches). Donte Dennis also returns at linebacker after leading Maine with 108 tackles as a junior.
Practice opened: March 31
Spring game: April 30
Key losses: Quarterback Kyle Havens, who threw for 2,692 yards and 20 touchdowns, is gone, as senior tailback John Griffin and Anthony Nelson, the CAA student-athlete of the year in 2010 who had 61 catches for 830 yards and four TDs and led UMass with 113.5 all-purpose yards per game.
The buzz: UMass, in its CAA last season before joining the Mid-American Conference, loses valuable elements from last year's 6-5 squad but returns some key pieces, most notably linebacker Tyler Holmes, the reigning CAA defensive player of the year who had 110 tackles, five interceptions, five sacks and 12 tackles for loss and was named a first-team All-American by The Associated Press, The Sports Network, the American Football Coaches Association and Phil Steele. Also back are leading rusher Jonathan Hernandez, who had 938 yards and nine touchdowns, and Julian Talley, the Minutemen's second-leading wide receiver and top punt returner in 2010.
Practice opened: April 6
Spring game: May 7
Key losses: Quarterback R.J. Toman threw for 2,414 yards and 15 TDs as a senior, while Terrance Fox had 80 catches for 821 yards and seven touchdowns and a team-best 101 all-purpose yards per game.
The buzz: New Hampshire gave up just 16.5 points per game in last years' 8-5 season, which ended with a loss to Delaware in the second round of the playoffs, and defense appears to again be the strength of a Wildcats team looking to make its FCS-best eighth straight postseason appearance. Matt Evans, who posted a whopping 156 tackles as a sophomore, is back, as is fellow linebacker Alan Buzbee, who had 86 stops as a sophomore. Leading rusher Dontra Peters (707 yards, seven touchdowns) also returns and will play behind six offensive linemen with significant game experience.
Practice opened: March 25
Spring game: April 23
Key losses: Deron Mayo spent just one season as a defensive end at ODU, but his impact was a big one – 70 tackles, 12 for loss, and a team-best 6 1/2 sacks. The good news: That's about the only loss of a note for a team in just its third year of FCS play.
The buzz: The Monarchs, who have gone 17-5 in their first two seasons, begin their first full year of CAA play. Leading the charge will be senior quarterback Thomas DeMarco, who threw for 2,756 yards and 23 touchdowns last year, and wide receiver Reid Evans, a former Phoebus star who caught 55 passes for 616 yards and six TDs. ODU also returns its two leading tacklers (Craig Wilkins, 74 stops, and Ronnie Cameron, 72) and one of the nation's best kicking games. Jonathan Plisco, out of Woodside, ranked second in the nation with 44.3 yards per punt, while Colby Goodwyn, out of Phoebus, was third with 29.8 yards per kickoff return.
Practice opened: April 1
Spring game: April 30
Key losses: The Rams lose four of their top five tacklers, including linebacker Matt Hansen, who had a team-best114 tackles, with eight stops for loss. Also gone is cornerback Jarrod Williams, who had a team-best four interceptions.
The buzz: Though depleted defensively, Rhode Island returns most of its offensive weapons from a team that improved to 5-6 in 2010 after winning one game in 2009. Quarterback Steve Probst returns after throwing for 1,876 yards and nine touchdowns and rushing for 600 more yards and seven scores, as does Ayo Isijola, who had 455 rushing yards and three TDs. Leading receiver Anthony Baskerville (48 catches, 500 yards, three touchdowns) is also back.
Practice opened: March 14
Spring game: April 9
Key losses: Linebacker Eric McBride, who had a team-best 119 tackles and defensive lineman Martin Parker, who had 96 stops and 13 1/2 tackles for loss, are huge losses on defense. Leading rusher Tyler Kirchoff, who had 547 yards and six touchdowns, is also gone.
The buzz: Former Hampton player Latrell Scott's first year as head coach of the Spiders was a tough one. Aaron Corp, a victim of a nightmarish injury scenario during the Spiders' 6-5 season who still led Richmond with 645 passing yards in just five games, is back. Corp is joined by leading receiver Tre Gray, who had 38 catches for 478 yards and two TDs. Linebacker Darrius McMillan, a former star at Phoebus, is the leading returning tackler (89 tackles, five for loss, two sacks) on a defense that will be without its top three tacklers on a team that won the FCS championship in 2008.
Practice opened: March 31
Spring game: April 30
Key losses: Chris Hart, who threw for 1,013 yards and nine touchdowns and had another 518 yards and a TD rushing, is gone, as is Hakeem Moore, who led the Tigers with 129.8 all-purpose yards per game.
The buzz: There's not much of one for a team that went 1-10 and 0-8 in the CAA in 2010, but the Tigers do have some key returnees, including leading wide receiver Erron Banks (40 catches, 334 yards) and second-leading rusher Tremayne Dameron (477 yards, five TDs). Defensively, the Tigers look to improve from the unit that gave up 34.5 points and 357 yards per game last year, returning leading tackler Jordan Dangerfield, who had 96 stops at safety, as well defensive end and sacks leader (four) Matt Morgan.
Practice opened: March 14
Spring game: No spring game
Key losses: Do-everything threat Matt Szczur has moved on to the Chicago Cubs, and Chris Whitney is also gone after throwing for 2,241 yards and 22 touchdowns and rushing for 606 yards and 13 scores in his last season. Also gone is all-purpose yardage leader Angelo Babbaro, along with leading rusher Aaron Ball and leading tackler Marquis Kirkland.
The buzz: Four of the top tacklers for the Wildcats, the 2009 FCS national champions who went 9-5 and lost to eventual national champion Eastern Washington in the playoffs, are gone, with the lone returner being junior defensive back James Pitts, who had 84 stops in 2010. The Wildcats' top four yardage producers are also gone, with 6-3 receiver Norman White, who had 886 yards and 11 touchdowns, a rare returning offensive weapon for a team that does have an experienced kicking game. Villanova has become a perennial playoff threat but will have to reload in some key positions while continuing to field questions about potentially joining its football program in the Division I ranks.
Practice opened: March 18
Spring game: April 16
Key losses: Quarterback Mike Callahan threw for 1,659 and 10 touchdowns after finally getting the starting nod as a fifth-year senior. The Tribe's second- and third-leading rushers, in Courtland Marriner and Terrence Riggins, are also gone, as is second-leading tackler Evan Francks (82 tackles).
The buzz: William and Mary's 8-4 season ended abruptly in the second round of the playoffs, but the Tribe is poised to make another, longer postseason run in 2011. Leading tackler Dante Cook (111 tackles) is back and at his natural position, outside linebacker, with the return of middle linebacker Jake Trantin, who made 90 stops in 2009 before missing all of last season. Senior tailback Jonathan Grimes and his school-record 5,445 all-purpose yards also return, as do William and Mary's top two receivers. Assuming senior quarterback Michael Paulus, who threw for 883 yards and four TDs when Callahan was hurt last year, fully recovers from offseason shoulder surgery, the Tribe has the potential to defend its 2010 CAA title.


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Valparaiso University head coach Keith Freeman took over as the sixth head coach in the history of the Valparaiso University Crusader women's basketball program prior to the 1994-1995 season.
The school's all-time winningest coach, he enters the 2011-2012 season with a record of 276-226 (.571) at Valpo. Beginning his 24th season of coaching women's collegiate basketball overall, Freeman owns a 405-273 (.597) lifetime mark. Freeman has led the Crusaders to more than 50 percent of the school's victories during the program's history.
Over the past 13 seasons Freeman's squad has recorded 18 or more victories eight times. With his exceptional overall mark, his teams have won more than two-thirds of their games at the Athletics-Recreation Center, compiling a 150-72 (.676) home record since he took over the program.
On Dec. 4, 2010, Freeman won his 400th collegiate victory as a head coach, a 59-52 overtime win against Coastal Carolina.
Freeman won his 250th game at Valpo on Jan. 3, 2009, an 86-43 triumph over Youngstown State. That same season he led the Crusaders to a fourth place finish in the Horizon League, and the Brown and Gold hosted a quarterfinal game in the Horizon League Tournament. It marked the first time Valpo had hosted a conference tournament contest since 1995.
When Valparaiso moved to the Horizon League prior to the 2007-2008 season, Freeman left the Mid-Continent Conference as the league's all-time winningest coach. He coached more games, 381, than any other coach in the league, and his 229 victories were tops in the Mid-Con as well. In addition, Freeman's .601 winning percentage ranked fourth in league history.
The 2006-2007 season saw Freeman lead his Crusaders to a 20-11 record overall, Valpo's fifth 20-win season in school history, and the fourth under his guidance. His squad finished second in the Mid-Continent Conference on the season, the seventh time in 10 years the Brown and Gold finished either first or second in the league.
The 2005-2006 campaign saw Freeman post his 200th victory at Valparaiso, a 65-31 win over UMKC on Dec. 30, 2005.
Freeman led the Brown and Gold to its first outright Mid-Continent Conference title in school history in 2001-2002, while also leading the Crusaders to the Mid-Con Tournament title game. In addition, he orchestrated the biggest turnaround in the nation in 2001-2002 when comparing records to the previous year, and was named Mid-Con Coach of the Year for his efforts as Valpo finished 26-7.
Valpo made its first postseason appearance in school history in the 2002 Women's National Invitation Tournament, advancing to the quarterfinals after defeating Michigan and Ball State, both on the road. His Crusaders earned a home contest in the quarterfinals against Houston as well before ending their tournament run. Freeman was a finalist for the Women's Basketball Coaches Association 2001-2002 Coach of the Year award for his efforts during the season.
The following year, 2002-2003, Freeman guided the Crusaders to their first Mid-Continent Conference Tournament title, and the Brown and Gold's first appearance ever in the NCAA Tournament as Valpo faced Purdue in the first round.
In 2003-2004 Freeman led Valpo back to the NCAA Tournament for a second time. This time the Crusaders threw a scare into nationally-ranked Kansas State in the first round as the program registered the fourth 20-win season in school history. Freeman also surpassed the 300-win plateau for his career when the Brown and Gold defeated Oral Roberts at home 65-47 on Feb. 16, 2004.
Freeman also led the Crusaders to the Mid-Continent Conference Tournament championship game in 1999-2000, one year after winning a share of their first ever Mid-Continent Conference regular season title. That season also marked the year Freeman became Valpo's all-time winningest coach when the Crusaders defeated Illinois State on the road on Dec. 19. He also won his 100th game on the Valpo bench on Feb. 10 of that season against UMKC. His 200th career coaching victory also came at Valpo as he led the Crusaders to a victory over Prairie View A&M one year earlier.
Freeman was named Mid-Continent Conference Coach of the Year for the 1997-1998 season after leading Valpo to a 14-2 conference record and a second place finish. It marked the second time Freeman received the honor, as he was voted 1995-1996 Mid-Con Coach of the Year as well.
He has guided numerous outstanding student-athletes while at Valparaiso, including 23 All Mid-Continent Conference selections, seven of whom were named to the league's First Team. He had nine players named to either the All-Newcomer squad or the All-Freshman team, including the Newcomer of the Year during the 2001-2002 season. Freeman also instructed the league's Sixth Woman of the Year during the 2006-2007 campaign.
In three seasons coaching in the new conference, Freeman had a First Team All-Horizon League selection as well as a Second Team All-Horizon League pick. He also had a Horizon League All-Newcomer Team member for the first time in 2008-2009, a feat duplicated in 2010-2011. In addition, Freeman also has had three players voted to the Horizon League's All-Academic Team and has he had 24 players named to the Horizon League Academic Honor Roll in the fall and/or spring semesters for having at least a 3.20 cumulative grade point average.
Freeman guided the first player to reach the WNBA from Valparaiso as well as the Mid-Continent Conference. Marlous Nieuwveen played with the Los Angeles Sparks during the 2005 season.
Freeman has international coaching experience as well, having led an Athletes In Action (AIA) squad in Poland and Germany. During the summers of 2005, 2006, and 2007, he also conducted an AIA clinic in Poland. In 2007 the clinic had more than 300 participants attend the event.
In addition, Freeman has run a coaching clinic at Valparaiso University every fall for the past 16 years. He has had some of the top collegiate and high school coaches on campus to present to other area coaches.
Freeman arrived at Valpo from Saint Joseph's College in Rensselaer, Ind., where he was the head women's basketball coach from 1990-1994, compiling a stellar four-year record of 85-28. The Great Lakes Valley Coach of the Year in 1991-1992, Freeman's team won the Midwest Regional Championship, advancing to the Elite Eight of the NCAA Division II National Tournament. The Lady Pumas won the GLVC Championship and were ranked as high as fifth nationally.
Third on the all-time wins list in Saint Joseph's women's basketball history, Freeman's teams were consistently ranked in the nation's top-20 throughout his tenure.
Freeman also served as Athletics Director at Saint Joseph's during the 1993-1994 academic year and as Assistant Athletics Director from 1991 to 1993.
Prior to his years at Saint Joseph's, Freeman was the head men's basketball coach at Huntington (Ind.) College from 1985 to 1989. Freeman took over the Huntington program at age 21, making him one of the youngest college coaches in the nation.
Huntington College was also Freeman's basketball home from 1983 to 1985, during which time he skippered the women's basketball team. His 1983-1984 squad won the National Christian College Athletic Association National Championship and finished runner-up in District 21. Freeman was named head women's coach at age 19, and he held the distinction of being the youngest collegiate coach during the 1983-1984 season.
During his two seasons as women's coach, Freeman compiled an impressive 44-19 record and was named District Coach of the Year in 1985 when Huntington won the NCCAA District 3 Championship.
Freeman graduated Cum Laude from Huntington College in May of 1986, earning a Bachelor of Science degree in business administration. He also completed his Master of Business Administration at Ball State University in August of 1987.
Actively involved at Valpo, Freeman also is a member of the WBCA.


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Check out the news this week:
The Associate Press reports that there are increasing numbers of homeless and poor people in Silicon Valley. The piece almost sounds like something I would write:
Simply put, while the ultra-rich are getting even richer, record numbers of Silicon Valley residents are slipping into poverty. "In the midst of a national economic recovery led by Silicon Valley's resurgence, as measured by corporate profits and record stock prices, something strange is going on in the Valley itself. Most people are getting poorer," said Cindy Chavez, executive director of San Jose-based Working Partnerships USA, a nonprofit advocating for affordable housing, higher minimum wages and access to health care.
That will come as no surprise to people who lived through the last tech boom in San Francisco and are struggling to live through this one. Great wealth does not trickle down around here; it sucks up housing, drives up costs, and creates homelessness and poverty for the most vulnerable:
The causes for the growing disparity are complex, but largely come down to one thing: a very high cost of living. The median home price is $550,000, and rents average just under $2,000 a month for a two-bedroom apartment in this region that is home to many of the nation's wealthiest companies including Facebook, Apple Inc., Hewlett-Packard Co. and Google. For a family of four, just covering basic needs like rent, food, childcare and transportation comes to almost $90,000 a year, according to the nonprofit Insight Center for Community Economic Development. "The fact is that we have an economy now that's working well only for those at the very top," said Lawrence Mishel at the Economic Policy Institute in Washington, D.C. "Unless we adopt a new approach to economic policy, we're going to continue going down this path, which means growth that does not really benefit the great majority of people in this country."
Meanwhile, there's a new study out, using a new approach to economic data, that shows that almost a quarter of all California residents live below the poverty line. The raw data, which is a bit thick, is here. There's a state Senate report on it here. Sen. Leland Yee (D-SF) held a hearing on the data — but uncovering the facts, while valuable, isn't going to get anyone off the streets. And I don't understand why this isn't on the front page of every major newspaper in the state.
Before my trolls tell me that I hate the rich, let me repeat: I don't hate anybody and I don't blame rich people for what this country has created. That's the fault of the policymakers who, since Ronald Reagan too office in 1981, have allowed the United States to embrace increasing social inequality.
Great wealth can make a country, well, wealthy. But if it's allowed to stick entirely to the top, then if can do more harm than good.
And the reality is that, particularly in the South and the West, tax policy is designed to help the wealthy at the expense of the poor:
The fact is, the more the poor are taxed, the worse off they are, whether they are working or not. We all pay a huge price for this shortsightedness. Medicaid payments, food stamps, disability benefits — all of these federal programs swoop in to try to patch up a frayed safety net.
In other words, it's not the Invisible Hand of Adam Smith causing the poverty in California. It's not laziness that causes poor people to live on the streets. And it's not just happening in San Francisco.
Now, some of the people who like to comment on this blog suggest that poor people just move somewhere else, that it's too expensive to live in San Francisco and that's just the way it is.
That's a bit of a harsh approach, and undermines the entire idea of a city as a community, where people of different income levels can live. But it's also impractical; one of the reasons people come here, besides the weather and the scintillating level of intellectual dialogue (present company excluded) is that there are jobs here. Oh, and most poor people can' t just pack up, hire a moving van, relocate to another city, pay first and last month's rent, and live on savings until they find a new job.
There was a time when the federal government taxed great wealth, and used the money to invest in cities, building (and subsidizing) housing and infrasructure and funding jobs programs. Much of that is now gone; revenue sharing is a ghost of the past, eliminated in the Reagan era.
So now we have almost a parody of American economic news: The New York Times reports that the Dow Jones Industrial Average is setting new records, and on the same page notes that the numbers of homeless people and people living in poverty are also setting records.
This is by far the biggest issue, the most serious crisis, facing the country, and (unlike wealth) it trickles down to every level of government. And it seems as if nobody is paying attention.


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Houma-Thibodaux diocese in Louisiana receives new bishop
Comments Off on Houma-Thibodaux diocese in Louisiana receives new bishop
Houma, Louis., Sep 23, 2013 / 10:10 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Pope Francis appointed Bishop Shelton J. Fabre head of the Diocese of Houma-Thibodaux today, and accepted the resignation of Bishop Sam G. Jacobs, who had turned 75 in March.
Bishop Fabre had served as the auxiliary bishop of New Orleans since 2007.
"Bishop Fabre for me has been a true brother in ministry. He has been a great coworker in the ministry of this archdiocese, and I have a great deal of respect for him and for the way in which he lives out his ministry as a bishop," Archbishop Gregory M. Aymond of New Orleans said Sept. 23.
"I will sincerely miss him and our ministry together. At the same time, the people of the Diocese of Houma-Thibodaux are very blessed to receive a loving and gentle shepherd who will walk with them and lead them in the ways of Christ."
He will be installed as Bishop of Houma-Thibodaux on Oct. 30.
Bishop Fabre was born in 1963 in New Road, Louis., and after high school entered seminary for the Diocese of Baton Rouge. He studied at Saint Joseph Seminary College in Louis., and then received a masters in religious studies from the Catholic University of Louvain.
He was ordained a priest in 1989, and served at several parishes, as well as head of the diocesan Black Catholic office and in the tribunal. He was then appointed auxiliary bishop of New Orleans, and consecrated on Feb. 28, 2007.
Bishop Jacobs, who is Bishop Fabre's predecessor, had served as head of the Houma-Thibodaux diocese since 2003.
The Diocese of Houma-Thibodaux covers 3,400 square miles in south-east Louisiana, and is home to some 120,000 Catholics, who comprise 59 percent of the local population.
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/catholicnewsagency/dailynews-us/~3/hnb8M580T-k/


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Brahva you are one of the biggest morons in this community. I am playing since 2005 and have never seen such a looser like you
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Ban Red-Kit from all servers. Joins just to teamkill whole squad
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The biggest moment in a poker tournament is what is known as the "all in" moment. Each player starts with the same amount of chips and the goal is to win the chips from the other players over the course of many hands of poker. Usually toward the latter part of these tournaments, someone decides that they have too few chips to stay in much longer but they have a great hand and so they move all their chips into the center of the table, calling, "all in". It is at that time that reality sets in. Either this is the hand that changes the night for better or this is the time that you head home with nothing. Going all in is a risky move.
This past weekend the youth of our church went on their first ever youth retreat to Myrtle Beach. They had some work they did helping the hosts and they had some fun time also, but they had a lesson from one of the leaders asking them if they were all in. The analogy used was different though. They were near the pool and as you know, most people ease into the pool. Usually they get in up to their knees and get a feel for the water before deciding to go all in. These guys were in to the knees with God in their role as Christians. Many of them said that they believed and had even made a decision to become a Christian but none of them had committed to that all in moment. Let's face it; this can be scary.
Are you all in? As a Christian, have you decided to test the waters by coming to church and attending a class and even giving regularly? Some of you are thinking, "what do you mean, test the waters, I thought that was all in?" Sorry, but it is not. Church is only a small part of being a Christian, but for most, it has become what identifies us as Christians. God wants more from us than a couple of hours a week. He wants us all in.
Jesus said that if we want to follow Him, we should take up our crosses as we follow. Crosses are hard to carry. I am not talking about those gold ones around the neck. I am talking the wooden ones that they hang you on with nails. Now Jesus did not expect us to literally carry crosses, but rather to realize that this walk He took was His all in moment when He carried His cross up the hill to die for the sins of the world. And if all he would have done was to talk about it, He could have been like most of us who are only testing the waters or making safe bets that won't put us out of the game or vault us into the lead.
Christians should be different in everything we do. Not "Bible thumpers" who yell out at every one that they are going to hell, but living examples of the Bible that was written to show God's love for the world. Our marriages should be stronger than most because they are modeled after the one that God designed. Our work ethic should be better because we work as if God were our boss. Our friendships should be better because we want to be friends that stick closer than a brother. Our faith should be our guide because we trust God and show it in the way we act in every aspect of our lives. Reading our Bibles should not be something that we don't have time for, but rather something that there is always time for. Praying for others should be habitual and joyful and worship should show in our faces as we celebrate the King of Glory as our Savior every chance we get. And oh yeah, our willingness to do the tough things for others should never come into question as we carry our crosses so that others might be saved.
Right now I am thinking of a list of places that I need to double-check to see if I am truly all in. We don't stay all in all of the time. But we must be willing to fearlessly accept the fact that we have gotten back into the shallow water or are only making safe bets and we must be willing to dive into the deep or push the whole stack of chips and go all in. Its your move. Will you go all in or are you bluffing? Will you take the plunge into the deep water or play it safe in the kiddie pool? Come on…Go all in.


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Just like the characters they portray and the real-life professionals they honor, we decided to go big (instead of go home) with this one and rank the most awesome nurses portrayed on TV over the years, starting with #12 and ending with our choice for the most amazing TV nurse of all.
Character: Samantha Taggart
Played by:Linda Cardellini
TV show: ER (appeared 2003-2009)
Ranking: 12
Why she's here on our list: Sam is a tough, independent single mom trying to raise her son on her own, while trying to make it in the ER. Her character ultimately swims – not sinks – throughout a series of crises both within and beyond the walls of Chicago's fictional County General Hospital.
Continue reading "The 12 All-Time Greatest TV Nurses"


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The objective:
Write a method called removeEvens that removes the values in even-numbered indexes from a list, returning a new list that contains those values in their original order.
For example, consider a variable
list1 that stores values { 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 }
If the following call is made:
LinkedIntList list 2 = list1.removeEvens();
Then --
List1 { 2, 4, 6 }
List2 { 1, 3, 5 }
Restrictions: You may not call any methods of the class other than the constructor.
You may not create new nodes nor change the values stored in data fields.
You must solve it by rearranging the links of the list.
The greatest trouble i have with this problem is that I can only work with the two lists at hand and can't create any new nodes or a like. I'm having a hard time trying to think how I could get the program to actually loop through the list and change up the links
So far I have made two test cases to check - if the list either has no data, or has only one data.
My Question: How can I loop through the initial list A, and relink all the nodes without actually creating new nodes, without calling other methods, cannot change the datafields. How can i rearrange the links for any number of # data in a list. Any pointers will be greatly appreciated! I just can't wrap my mind around this one when it deals with X amount of data beyond 1 data set.
public LinkedIntList removeEvens(){ LinkedIntList b = new LinkedIntList(); b.front=front; // Points list B to front. if(front == null) { // If list is empty, output notice. System.out.println("The list inputed it empty"); }if(front.next == null){// If list has one value, give it to list B and remove from list A. front = null; }else{ // If the list has two or more values, do this. front = front.next; b.front.next = b.front.next.next; while(front.next != null){ } } return b; } }


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Find a Park
View Statewide Map
2 Parks Found
Jonathan Dickinson State Park
16 distinct natural communities create the mosaic that is Jonathan Dickinson, the largest state park in Southeast Florida. Rare environments as well as the pristine Loxahatchee River make this park a unique spot to explore by foot or water.
16450 S.E. Federal Hwy.
Hobe Sound FL 33455
Marjorie Harris Carr Cross Florida Greenway
Occupying more than 70,000 acres of land formerly known as the Cross Florida Barge Canal, the Greenway is a 110-mile linear park that is more than a mile wide in places. It hosts more than 300 miles of trails of all types — paddling, hiking, mountain biking, equestrian and paved multi-use.
8282 SE Highway 314
Ocala FL 34470


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For 20 years, Dick Bueschel published a series of articles in The Coin Slot/Coin-op Classics magazines listing slot machine serial numbers. It was amazing how much information he was able to glean from the numbers provided to him by collectors. In the late 80s, collector Ed Zimmerman started compiling the numbers into a master list. After Dick passed away and the end of the magazine articles, input to the list tapered off and, by 2000, it had fallen by the wayside. COCA missed an opportunity to make a significant contribution to the hobby by not picking up and continuing the serial number list. Let's hope it doesn't happen with the Trade Stimulator files and all the hard work Bill has put into that.
Ed indicates that since 2000, there has been virtually no interest in the list, but he has agreed to allow it to be freely distributed provided it is not used for profit. It was almost lost forever, but we are indebted to Ed for saving it and making it available to us today.
Concerning the list:
Ed has had it converted into a modern version of Excel (.xlsx).
Not all the serials that appeared in the articles made it into the master list: although there are 87 pages of Mills numbers, there is less than 1 page of Jennings numbers (not counting the Royal Family, which is listed separately).
There are very few dates, and most of them are year only; clearly, as collectors sent in serials, they did not check/include dates on inspection stickers inside the machine (when submitting serials to the Registry, be sure to INCLUDE dates for the machine, if available, but do NOT guess or estimate dates).
The list does not include the text of the articles (and Dick's insights) which accompanied the number listing.
Dave has a copy of the list and plans to eventually incorporate it into the registry.
In the meantime, if you would like a copy of the master list, send me a PM with your email address and stating that it is for personal use only and will not be sold or otherwise used for profit. I will send you a ZIP file; inside are 15 Excel files by machine manufacturer.


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Nursing is a much sought-after profession, and the nursing program admission process is highly competitive. In order to help our students enter this dynamic healthcare career, Albion College and Oakland University have formed a partnership for students committed to this profession.
This partnership will allow Albion students who wish to pursue nursing to have the excellent liberal arts education that Albion provides along with the ability to become a registered nurse about a year after graduation. Albion students take a series of prerequisite courses, each requiring specific grades, and take three nursing courses at Oakland University. These courses are available on-line and most students take them during summer break. Students are still eligible to complete a major of their own choosing.
Students will also complete an application to Oakland University's program, along with a personal interview. And since Oakland University has three start times during the year, there is flexibility as to when the student begins the program. Once there, students take 12 calendar months worth of nursing courses and participate in clinical experiences. The student will then graduate from Oakland University with a bachelor of science in nursing (BSN) degree and is eligible to sit for the NCLEX exam.
Albion Courses to complete:
Please see the Institute for Healthcare Professions for more information on this program, along with the grade requirements and other advising information.


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Rob Hanes Adventures Returns with Issue 13
In keeping with the comic-book adventure series' tradition of connecting with real world current events, issue 13 will touch on the Arab Spring uprisings
Randy Reynaldo, writer-artist of the long-running independent comic-book series, Rob Hanes Adventures, announced that the next issue of the title (#13) will be released July 2012 through his WCG Comics imprint. Images of the cover and selected interior pages are available at this link.
Inspired by classic globetrotting adventure comics like Terry and the Pirates and Buz Sawyer but set in the modern day—with frequent dashes of light-hearted humor reminiscent of The Spirit—Randy's work on Rob Hanes Adventures has remained a standard-bearer for breezy, fast paced action-adventure along the lines of Indiana Jones and James Bond, and the work of cartoonists like Alex Toth and Darwyn Cooke.
Rob Hanes Adventures #13 will feature two complete stories: "Crime Takes a Holiday" and "Not Your Father's Private Eye."
In "Crime Takes a Holiday," Justice International private investigator Rob Hanes goes on vacation in the French Riviera. However, when he discovers that an international crimelord named Nicolai Korda is also in the area, Rob interrupts his plans for some long-overdue R & R to investigate what his longtime nemesis is up to!
Then, in "Not Your Father's Private Eye," Rob gains notoriety when he is the subject of a print and online news magazine article about modern-day private investigators while on assignment in a Middle East country on the verge of regime change. Set in the fictional Middle East kingdom of Koman that has been frequently used in the series, the story echoes the real-life upheavals that have occurred in the Middle East over the past year.
As in all stories in the series, both adventures are complete and self-contained in the issue. While a cover price has not yet been announced, the issue is anticipated to be 28 black-and-white pages with a full-color cover.
"I know it's been a long time since the last issue, but I'm glad to say I'm back on track," said series creator Randy Reynaldo. "The time I spent preparing the recent trade paperback that collected the series' early adventures took up more time and energy than I expected, but I'm excited to be working on all-new stories."
Launched in 1991 as part of the era's storied wave of small press black-and-white comics, Rob Hanes Adventures has developed a dedicated following for bringing a modern sensibility to the spirit of the classic adventure strip genre, while series creator Randy Reynaldo has developed a reputation for his continued long-running work on the series and his solid black and white art, reminiscent of Milton Caniff and Alex Toth.
In addition to the 12 issues of Rob Hanes Adventures that have been published to date, two trade paperback collections of earlier work from the series also remain available. This includes a 144-page trade paperback called the Rob Hanes Archives, funded by a Xeric Grant, which collected the series' original zine run, and the more recent 140-page Rob Hanes Adventures, Volume 0, that collects four issues from the series' earlier run under the title, Adventure Strip Digest.
Rob Hanes Adventures has been reviewed, spotlighted and featured in industry print publications like the Comic Buyer's Guide, Comics Retailer, Comic Book Marketplace, Diamond Dialogue, and Previews, and online at comicbookresources.com and Newsarama. Issue 10 was included in Tony Isabella's 1000 Comic Books You Must Read (Krause Publications, 2009). For more information about the series, visit WCG Comics's website at wcgcomics.com.
- 30 -
Below: Large size scans of the cover and selected pages from Rob Hanes Adventures #13.


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Get DVD Talk Feeds
The DVD
Neverland is presented in an anamorphic 2.35:1 transfer that
varies in quality throughout the film. When this transfer is
good, it is really good, but unfortunately does not stay
consistently so for the entirety of the film. Most of the time,
detail is incredibly sharp, blacks are deep, flesh tones are
accurate, and colors are vibrant and bright. There are times,
however, when this transfer shows signs of graininess, a bit of
murkiness, some slight shimmering, and even a bit of softness in
places. A few instances of dirt and spots on the print show up,
though they are barely negligible. Edge enhancement is also
present, but not very significant, and luckily there are no signs
of pixelation or other digital artifacts. The fantasy sequences
are where this transfer really shines. Colors come across
beautifully and shadows and lighting are expertly displayed. This
transfer, nonetheless, does a rather fine job of showing off the
film's beautiful cinematography. If it could only have been a bit
more consistent, this transfer could have been a spectacular
visual presentation.
The audio on this disc is presented in a Dolby Digital 5.1 format
that faces the same issue as the film's transfer. When this track
is good, it is great, but it has trouble maintaining
that high quality throughout the entire film. Dialogue is clear,
crisp, and always discernable. Spatial separation across the
front channels is excellent. And Jan A.P. Kaczmarek's Academy
Award®-winning score is both incredibly enveloping and
intricate. The surround channels not only help to push this score
throughout the film, but also become surprisingly active during a
few key scenes. The fantasy sequences, in particular, really give
this track a chance to show its muscle with some very nice
surround effects and even a little bit of powerful low-end. The
inconsistency, however, that keeps this track from being even
better comes from a fair amount of level fluctuation. The biggest
discrepancy comes in the center channel as dialogue changes
levels more than a few times. It never becomes such a problem
that speech is inaudible, or even hard to hear, but it is
certainly a noticeable difference. Just as is the case with the
visuals, if not for the slight inconsistencies in this track, it
could have made for an excellent audio presentation.
While the amount of extra material packed into this disc is
impressive, the actual features are not quite as enriching and
insightful as I would have hoped.
The first, and
best, extra feature is an audio commentary with Director
Marc Forster, Producer Richard Gladstein, and Writer David Magee.
The trio seems to get along swimmingly as they tell about many
aspects of the production. They tell a few interesting anecdotes
from shooting, explain how certain scenes were created, and of
course bestow lavish praise on the talented cast. They also talk
about how closely the film is based on Allan Knee's play
"The Man Who Knew Peter Pan." While it would have been
great to hear more about how closely the film is based on the
true story of J.M. Barrie, the three participants are very chatty
and charismatic, making for a very entertaining and insightful
Also included on this disc is a 15-minute behind-the-scenes
featurette called "The Magic of Finding
Neverland," which has the
potential to be a great look inside the making of the film, but
really comes across as more of your typical EPK fluff. There are
interviews with most of the principles, clips from the film, and
some behind-the-scenes shots, but mostly this is more of a
promotional featurette rather than something that really adds
anything to the film itself.
The next two features suffer from the same EPK-style shallowness.
"Creating Neverland" is a very short
look at how the fantasy sequences were created for the film. It
probably has the most interesting behind-the-scenes visuals of
all the extra features, but its brief runtime doesn't allow for
much depth. "On the Red Carpet,"
however, is almost a complete waste of time. The short featurette
simply shows the cast and crew arriving at the film's foreign
premiere. There are a few brief interviews with some of the stars
(and, for some strange reason, Hillary Clinton), but this is
mostly just a chance to watch the filmmakers and actors pose for
the camera.
We also have three deleted scenes (with optional
commentary by Forster, Producer Richard Gladstein, and Writer
David Magee) that run almost three minutes long. Though brief,
these excised scenes are interesting to watch with or without
Forster telling us why they didn't end up in the final version of
the film.
There are also just over 5-minutes of outtakes
included on this disc. Most outtakes reels end up being not all
that funny or full of in-jokes, but these clips have a few truly
comical moments in them. There are flubs from most of the cast,
including the hilarious plan Depp and Forster conceived to
lighten the mood during the tense dinner sequence. Despite its
frivolity, this is one of the more enjoyable features on the
Finally, we have three trailers for Dear
Frankie, National Treasure, and Miramax's 25th
Final Thoughts:
There have been so many stage and screen versions of "Peter
Pan" over the years that the character has become indelibly
ingrained in our cultural milieu. We'd all love to be
Peter Pan and fly off to a land where nothing matters except
having fun and being young. The impression we get from Finding
Neverland is that playwright J.M. Barrie lived in his own
personal Neverland for much of his life, and in it he found
creativity, inspiration, and companionship. These are the
qualities that come across so beautifully, and powerfully, in
Marc Forster's film, and they are precisely the reason it's a
film worth watching more than once. With a very nice audio-visual
presentation and an insightful commentary track, the only thing
that keeps this disc from being highly recommended is the lack of
depth in most of the extra features. The quality of the film
itself, however, is reason enough for this disc to be a worthy
addition to your collection.


text:
Online Library
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This is an online library with publications related to child protection, including legislation, professional guidance, research reports and toolkits. Please use the filter function to adjust your search or try out the Document Galaxy for a more intuitive search.
2018 - Data and Analytics Section, Division of Data, Research and Policy in UNICEF HQ
This UNICEF document is the first thematic report assessing performance toward achieving the SDG global targets that concern children and young people. It assesses the world's performance to date, focusing on 44 indicators grouped into five...
Terre des hommes Regional Office
1027 Budapest,
Bem rakpart 50. T.1,
Phone: (36 1) 266-5922


text:
A new report shows that not only do extra pounds hurt kids' health, but they also hurt schools' finances.
The report, "The Learning Connection: The Value of Improving Nutrition and Physical Activity in Our Schools," summarizes a number of studies showing that poor nutrition, inactivity and extra weight can have a negative effect on student achievement and that each year schools may be losing significant funding due to these problems.
Although the report cautions that more research is needed, it highlights research that shows schools with a high percentage of students that aren't routinely active or don't eat well had smaller gains in tests scores than other schools and that well-nourished students who skip breakfast perform worse on tests and have poor concentration. The report also states that children not getting adequate nutrients have lower test scores, increased absenteeism, difficulty concentrating and lower energy levels. It adds that physical activity programs are linked to strong academic achievement and that students participating in daily physical education have better attendance rates, a more positive attitude about school and superior academic performance.
The non-profit Action for Healthy Kids (AFHK), a public-private partnership of more than 40 national organizations and government agencies that represent education, health, fitness and nutrition, released the report earlier this week.


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Sweet Jumpin' Jeebus on a Pogo Stick!
In addition to the multitudes who had already bailed early on the season (Glaus, Wells, likely Overbay, Thomas) and those who were never healthy (Ryan, Romero, Chacin), we now have word that Shaun Marcum is toast for the final week of the season (knee surgery), and that A.J. Burnett had to be scratched for today's 1:05 matchup with the Yanks for personal reasons.
We probably shouldn't really care at this point in the season, given that the playoffs are a faint memory tucked far back in our soul somewhere with all of our other hopes and dreams that have been crushed. But we'd still really like to see this team on the plus side of .500, and doing that with a glorified Syracuse Chiefs roster is going to be a bit of a challenge.
UPDATE, 12:55 - Frank Thomas is in the lineup, though possibly not at his usual full speed lightning-quick first-to-third pace. Also, Curtis Thigpen gets another start at first. We kinda wanted to see John-Ford Griffin get some time at either first of the outfield, if only to get a last look before he scampers off to be stuck at AAA in someone else's system.