JITE v42n2 - From the Editor - The Joy of Summer

Volume 42, Number 2
Summer 2005


FROM THE EDITOR


The Joy of Summer

Summer is an exciting and joyful time for a variety of reasons. For some of us, summer offers the gift of time to engage in research and writing. For others, summer offers the excitement of beginning to "shape" a new group of students who are entering alternative teacher certification programs. These competent technicians will soon be taking on new professional identities as career and technical education teachers. Still others of us are updating curriculum or designing new programs at both middle-secondary and post-secondary levels. Finally, some of us are pursuing leisure activities and "recharging our batteries" for the busy fall days ahead.

Whatever your summer circumstance, this issue of JITE aims to peak your professional interest. We have selected pieces we believe have value in defining and developing our profession for junior industrial teacher education faculty as well as for the more experienced teacher educators. The "At Issue" piece was selected for its upbeat, motivational content.

In this Issue

This issue of the Journal of Industrial Teacher Education provides four diverse manuscripts from the field of industrial teacher education that offer a mix of research and conceptual pieces. First, Gregory C. Petty, University of Tennessee and Roger B. Hill, University of Georgia, investigated workers' and supervisors' self perceptions of occupational work ethic as measured by the Occupational Work Ethic Inventory (OWEI). Implications are drawn from this study for improving career and technical education and training and preparing students or trainees for the world of work.

Next, Richard D. Lakes, Georgia State University, offers an examination of the ways unemployed young adults make meaning of their employment futures, and how critical work education might be positioned to help clarify their uncertainties in life.

In the third featured article, Shauna A. Scribner, Southwestern Illinois College, and Marcia A. Anderson, Southern Illinois University, investigate whether novice drafters' spatial ability to visualize 3D projects and identify 2D representations is influenced by instructional methods or the students' learning style. The researchers offer recommendations to educators in technical education programs and to those helping students develop spatial visualization.

The importance of identifying suitable and capable subject matter experts (SMEs) to assist in the development of technical curriculum is the focus of the research supported in part by the National Science Foundation and conducted by Joseph Sterling Mattoon, an independent education and training consultant. One result of this study is a survey tool to aid instructional designers select a SME when they need subject matter support in curriculum development.

The "At Issue" section, written by Marcella G. Prater, Charles Backes, and Randy McElvey, all from Valdosta State University, offers a glimpse into the lives of new teachers in the area of Trade & Industrial education who are willing to teach the "craft."

Following is the Journal's "Bits and Pieces" section which contains information for submitting articles to the Journal and how to become a member of NAITTE.

JZB