Every child has the right to learn. Yet for far too many, that right remains unfulfilled. Poverty, environmental shocks, conflict, displacement, disability and discrimination continue to keep children out of school or stuck in classrooms without meaningful learning, or disrupt learning altogether. This is especially true for girls and other…

This chapter covers the 50 years from the inception of the Japan Overseas Cooperation Volunteers (JOCV). It explores the growth and diversification of JOCV as well as its expected returns to Japanese society. Stakeholders nationwide made many efforts to establish and develop JOCV, assisted by increasing domestic internationalization. As Japan's…

The primary purpose of the Test of English for International Communication (TOEIC®) is to measure the everyday English skills of individuals, who speak a first language other than English, working in an international environment (ETS, 2015a, 2016a; Powers & Powers, 2015). The TOEIC also has six secondary purposes: (1) to verify the current…

This essay is part of a collection of short essays solicited from authors around the globe who teach religion courses at the college level (not for professional religious training). They are published together with an introduction in "Teaching Theology and Religion" 18:3 (July 2015). The authors were asked to provide a brief overview of…

The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has led to the frequent closure of school buildings in most countries in the world and has interrupted the school attendance of at least 1.2 billion students in 2020 and 2021. Although many education systems are adapting to varying degrees, the pandemic is showing that countries' current learning infrastructures…

This paper scrutinizes decentralization of education with reference to some countries around the world. We consider discussion on decentralization to be complex, critical and broad question in the contemporary education planning, administration and politics of education reforms. Even though the debate on and implementation of decentralization…

Throughout the world, young children are introduced to some form of nursery rhymes. In Japan, the first type of rhyme a child encounters is called "warabeuta"--songs created through play. The English translation fails to accurately capture the degree to which "warabeuta" include body movement, touch, and interaction with other…

The Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR) has been increasingly used to inform language policies and teaching practices in Japan. The Japanese Ministry of Education proposed in 2011 that objectives of English curricula at the secondary education level ought to be stated using the "Can do" schemata of the CEFR and…

In the past few decades, especially since the 2008-09 economic downturn, the faculty of American colleges and universities has undergone a far-reaching transformation. Multiple factors, mainly extraneous to the campus itself, are reshaping higher education, and as a result a reprioritizing of the internal allocation of resources is occurring. The…

The Biennial Report presents a selection of UNESCO-UNEVOC's activities during 2014 and 2015. The activities contributed to UNESCO's sectoral priorities and programmatic objectives and assisted Member States to provide equitable, inclusive and quality education and promote lifelong learning for sustainable development. Importantly, the selected…

This paper introduces the characteristics of early childhood care and education (ECCE) assessment and identifies current challenges and changes in the assessment of ECCE in Japan. There are differences in assessment between ECCE and elementary school education. Assessment in ECCE is used to focus on making better plans, improving the understanding…

Successful education systems are those that promote leadership at all levels, thereby encouraging teachers and principals, regardless of the formal positions they occupy, to lead innovation in the classroom, the school and the system as a whole. This report summarises evidence from the OECD Teaching and Learning International Survey and the OECD…

"Lesson study" is a professional learning approach in which teachers work together to: formulate goals for student learning and long-term development; collaboratively plan a "research lesson" designed to bring to life these goals; conduct the lesson in a classroom, with one team member teaching and others gathering evidence on…

These are exciting and challenging times for English language curriculum development for school-age learners. The global reach of English has spurred a rethinking of its role in education and, consequently, a rethinking of how to teach it. The accounts in this volume represent differences in educational systems, language teaching traditions,…

Describes a typical day in a Japanese third-grade classroom, focusing on the need to address social and academic growth. Shows how although students work in groups of 6 or 7 and take on responsibilities as a group, students' individualism is not suppressed. Describes the teacher's goals of developing students' thinking skills, ability to express…