The extra-curricular sphere may possess certain qualities that could make it a useful arena for the advancement of education for sustainable development (ESD) work in higher education (HE). Speculation on these qualities and potential functions is examined with reference to research into UK HE practice, including a postal questionnaire survey of…

This paper considers how children learning a second language were supported as active participants during storytelling sessions in an Irish-language immersion preschool in Dublin. Audio-recordings and observations were made of the story sessions once a fortnight over a period of six months. The resulting transcripts were analysed from an…

This paper reports on research into the use of ICT within a one-year initial teacher education (ITE) course in the UK, specialising in physical education (PE). The study examined how the course, which operates in both university and school-based settings, endeavoured to support trainees' use of ICT in PE and then to identify areas where the…

Drawing on the Spirit of Generation Y project and extensions of that project undertaken in 25 Australian schools by the Christian Research Association, it is argued that the approach to religious knowledge by Australian students can be contrasted with their approach to other forms of knowledge by four features. These are diversity of opinion in…

The Alberta Initiative for School Improvement (AISI) is a province-wide partnership program whose goal is to improve student learning and performance by fostering initiatives that reflect the unique needs and circumstances of each school authority. It is currently ending its third cycle and ninth year of implementation. "The Colloquium on…

This article considers educational policy and practice in a preschool and an elementary school in Modena, Italy in terms of their effects on children's transition to and progress in elementary school. The study is based on a six-year longitudinal ethnographic study that involved direct observation of teacher-student and peer interactions. The…

Action learning is being increasingly utilised as a strategy to underpin practitioner focused development and research projects in healthcare generally and nursing in particular. Whilst facilitators of and participants in action learning have a variety of resource materials to guide their practice and participation, there continue to be few…

Educational transformation in South Africa not only brought about Outcomes-based Education and Curriculum 2005 but also a new Learning Area/Subject, called Life Orientation (LO). A major challenge for LO as a new Learning Area/Subject is the preconceptions that exist about it, and the fact that the attitude of school principals is not conducive to…

The purpose of this study was to analyze farmers' experiences with and perceptions of agricultural extension courses and their instructors in Esfahan, Iran. This study is part of a larger project on the development of a competency profile of extension instructors. Many attempts have been made to develop competency profiles for professionals (Shim,…

Skill/competency approaches to workplace-based policy seek to assess and train for discrete individual competencies with the goal of increasing employability and productivity. These approaches have become increasingly prominent across a range of advanced capitalist countries. A substantial critique has emerged over this same period regarding…

In Bangladesh, the system of assessment has always been guided by curriculum though the system only covered learners' ability of memorization and comprehension skills. Other categories of skills in the knowledge like application, analysis, synthesis and evaluation are hardly included in the assessment. Besides, some of the essential qualities such…

To know the age effects in foreign language learning for children in China, we made both qualitative survey on the English teachers, the students and their parents by means of questionnaire; and quantitative survey on the students' scores from junior 1 to senior 2 (5 years) in the secondary school by analyses between those (over 30 students) who…

This research was commissioned by AONTAS-the National Adult Learning Organisation, in partnership with Irish Aid, the Irish Government's programme of assistance to developing countries. To date, a strategic focus on the integration of development education into adult learning has been missing at both State level and across the development…

The Scottish Qualification for Headship (SQH) is a national development programme designed to develop the leadership and management skills, abilities and values of aspiring head teachers. This article first outlines the context within which the qualification is set before describing some previous evaluations on aspects of the programme. Unlike…

Against the wider background of increasing interest in pupil voice, this article gives examples of the student involvement activity in the largest of the National College of School Leadership (NCSL) development and enquiry initiatives: the Networked Learning Communities project. In programme-level research, student voice and participation were…