The Institute of International and Comparative Education, Beijing Normal University has offered a Masters Program in Educational Leadership and Policy (Comparative Education) for the last four years and it attracts students from around the world, with substantial support in terms of scholarships, from the Chinese government. Beijing Normal…

The United States has long struggled with the challenge of educating children experiencing extreme disadvantage, including the poor, ethnic and racial minorities, English language learners, and foster children. In this article, we argue that solutions to this problem lie not to the east or west, but to the south. Specifically, we offer the…

In 2006, a (new) German standard for test reviewing was passed (Testkuratorium, 2006). There was already a European standard in place (European Federation of Psychologists' Associations, 2008). This article presents the German standard for test reviewing and explains how the German test review system was derived from demands in the German standard…

In this article, the characteristics of five test review models are described. The five models are the US review system at the Buros Center for Testing, the German Test Review System of the Committee on Tests, the Brazilian System for the Evaluation of Psychological Tests, the European EFPA Review Model, and the Dutch COTAN Evaluation System for…

The boundaries between vocational and academic post compulsory education have been blurred by students combining vocational and academic studies and by students transferring increasingly between the two types of education. Institutions are also blurring the boundaries between the sectors by increasingly offering programs from two and sometimes…

The Chinese National Quality Course Plan is a large-scale project by the Ministry of Education, which has led to the production of more than 12,000 courses from some 700 universities since 2003. This paper describes in detail the purpose of the project and how it is organized at all levels, including how individual courses get selected at…

The development of the European Qualification Framework (EQF) as a means of assessing the relative status of qualifications across the EU is described, together with its fundamental design characteristics, particularly the adoption of a "learning outcomes" approach. Ways in which it may be implemented, and possible difficulties in this,…

The 2-year probationary experience of new teachers was described by the McCrone Report as scandalous and led to the development of an induction standard (as part of an emerging framework or continuum of standards for various stages of teacher development) with related structures of support for beginner teachers in Scotland provided by schools and…

The roads of incoming information to the US higher education system about the Bologna Process are varied and numerous. They include not only the on-line and traditional trade press, but also conferences of national organisations. Whether anyone remembers much of that information, on the other hand, is an open question, as a limited survey…

The Bologna Process is one of the major developments to have taken place in higher education in recent centuries. It has had an impact beyond European borders and repercussions in other parts of the world. Ibero-America has also sat up and taken note, even though scholars agree that there would be difficulties with its direct implementation in the…

This article provides a critical examination of a variety of approaches to induction focusing especially upon Australia and other Pacific Rim countries. The question of the purposes induction serves for graduate teachers, experienced teachers and education systems is addressed in terms of whether it is a technical exercise which preserves the…

Since the beginning of the 20th century, integration with the Western world has been a determining driver of higher education policies, as well as many other policy areas in Turkey. Becoming a signatory country of the Bologna Process in 2001 brought a new impulse to the higher education policies in this direction. The Bologna Process reforms…

Where the continuing professional development (CPD) process is being increasingly articulated and circumscribed by policy and central specification, the initial year of teaching may significantly shape career-long expectations of CPD. This article contrasts the early experiences of beginning secondary teachers in Scotland and Hong Kong and the…

The article stems from an international partnership between two faculty members from a British university and an American state college. This partnership has developed through years of collaboration in the field of early childhood education, resulting in the sharing of best practice of both countries and the research of the two authors. Each has…

Postgraduate training in multicultural studies is developing through a Council of Europe program. A multicultural studies project is developing short curriculum modules on multicultural studies that can supplement existing curriculum in several subjects and develop teaching strategies for multicultural student bodies. (AM)