Michael H. Romanowski

Revisiting the Common Myths about Homeschooling.

(2006). Revisiting the Common Myths about Homeschooling. The Clearing House: A Journal of Educational Strategies, Issues and Ideas: Vol. 79, No. 3, pp. 125-129.

Common Arguments about the Strengths and Limitations of Home Schooling

Today in American culture, few people are unfamiliar with home schooling. Most either know someone who home schools their children or have heard of a family that has selected this increasingly popular alternative to public and private school education. By all accounts, the movement has been growing steadily over the past few years. The U.S. Department of Education estimated that approximately fifteen thousand students were home schooled in 1984, with that number increasing to between two hundred thousand and three hundred thousand students in 1988. Currently, it is estimated that between 1.2 and 1.7 million students in

Student Obsession with Grades and Achievement

Michael H. Romanowski is a professor in the Center for Teacher Education at Ohio Northern University. He teaches courses in the social foundation of education and social studies education. His writings appear in various scholarly books, journals, and education magazines. espite the many unpredictable characteristics of classrooms, there is one guarantee. That is, the majority of college-prep, uppertracked students are obsessed with getting good grades. Students become intense as they zero in on achieving the sought-after-at-allcosts A grade. Though this obsession occurs in degrees and is expressed in different ways, there is little doubt that many students are in an unrelenting race for good grades and achievement, and the consequences affect the way students view school, teachers, learning, and themselves.

The Qatar National Professional Standards for School Leaders: a critical discourse analysis using Habermas’ theory of knowledge constitutive interests

Qatar is in the midst of a massive educational reform, Education for a New Era. Influence by neoliberalism, one principle of the reform is the development of a standards-based system including the adoption of the Qatar National Professional Standards for School Leaders. This paper examines Qatar’s professional leadership standards using Habermas’ knowledge constitutive interests (KCIs) as a theoretical framework. The paper places professional standards within the context of neoliberalism and findings provide a deeper understanding of how the KCIs are embedded in the professional standards. An argument is made for using Habermas’ KCIs in the preparation of school leaders.

Integrating ethics into the chemical engineering curriculum: The Qatar University experience

Qatar is growing at an unprecedented rate due to the utilization of its vast gas reserves. The countrys wealth stems from oil, gas and petrochemical industries. Engineers are in high demand in all specializations and Qatar University (QU), Qatars only national university, provides the country with the highest number of engineering graduates. For engineers, whose occupation allows them potential for positive or negative societal impacts, it is critical that their decisions involve sound ethical judgment, hold paramount the safety, health and welfare of the public, and perform services only in areas of their competence. This ethical responsibility is considered and enhanced in the teaching of ethics in their engineering curriculum. In this paper, a review of current practices in teaching ethics in engineering at QU is given. Chemical engineering selected as a case study. The aim of the study is to review current practices, identify gaps and make recommendations to the college to enhance the ethics education in the engineering curriculum at QU.

Is School Prayer the Answer

Long after the students have returned to the hallways of Columbine High School, the nation continues to look for answers to the problems of violence and killing in our public schools. Shootings in towns like West Paducah, Jonesboro, Edinboro, Springfield, and Littleton have forced the nation to search for someone or something to blame for the vicious killings and the pure disregard for human life. At one time or another, weak gun control laws, the breakdown of the family, the entertainment industry, and school gangs and cliques have all served as scapegoats for the violence in today’s young adults. But as we wait and watch for the next shooting, we engage in a time of soul searching and wrestling with this incomprehensible violence. Many have concluded that the solution is legislation calling for stricter gun control laws and stiffer penalties for the offenders, while others call for metal detectors, meshed book bags, armed police, and other security measures in an attempt to make schools and students safer. Because parents are often targeted for blame when students have problems, some have suggested that parents be held accountable for their children’s behavior or that social agencies provide help for families and parents with troubled teens. Conservative Christian groups, among others, have called for a school prayer amendment, sparking as much controversy as the violence itself. The idea of school prayer as a means to curb violence forces us to ask

The skills and knowledge needed for principals in Qatar’s independent schools: policy makers’, principals’ and teachers’ perspectives

ABSTRACT Research indicates that principals play a significant role in schools influencing student achievement and teacher effectiveness. This is particularly true in times of educational reform. Qatar has been engaging in a significant educational reform since 2004. This study examines the knowledge and skills needed for effective principals from the perspectives of policy makers, principals and teachers working in Qatar’s independent schools. Interviews with 3 policy makers, 21 principals and 82 teachers in focus groups indicated the knowledge and skills needed by principals are already embedded in the National Professional Standards for School Leaders but participants indicated a concern as to the degree these are implemented by principals in Qatar’s schools. More importantly, a large majority of all participants specified a need for principals to develop leadership knowledge and skills regarding working with diverse faculty, students and parents. Recommendations based on these findings are provided in order to develop more effective principals in the context of Qatar’s independent schools.

Reading social stories in the community: A promising intervention for promoting children's environmental knowledge and behavior in Jordan

ABSTRACT Traditionally, education in various forms has been used as a tool to change values and behavior in children regarding the environment. This study reports findings from the We Love Reading Program that utilizes the reading of Social Stories in various communities in Jordan to address the environmental problems of Jordan. Results indicated the effectiveness of this informal educational intervention showing a significant increase in childrens knowledge about environmental issues and a positive change in behavior related to electricity and water consumption and littering, as reported by parents. The authors provide several recommendations on how Social Stories and appropriate curriculum can be used in schools and community to create awareness in students regarding environmental issues.

Social Justice and the Engineering Profession: Challenging Engineering Education to Move Beyond the Technical

This study investigates faculty and students’ perception of the significance of social justice in the engineering education program in an Arab Gulf nation. In light of the expanding ethical education of engineers stated in the Accreditation Board on Engineering and Technology, the study collected interview data from 9 faculty and 20 students from different departments of a large engineering college in the Middle East. The interviews center on participants’ understanding of social justice and related issues that engineers face and the importance and integration of social justice within the engineering program. Findings suggest that there is a lack of teaching about social justice with a direction toward a technical trivialized education. However, we argue that all of these approaches lead to and open possibilities for a new language and discourse in engineering education, widening the ethical education of engineers.