Despite the good intentions of art educators to have students seek and represent knowledge and consciously use language to describe what they see, the things educators think they should see and the signifiers that come out of their mouths (and through their bodies) always reveal that there is something else going on--between them, the teachers,…

It is very common for people in politics and the media to make assumptions about what happens in history classrooms. Too often these preconceptions are based on little more than anecdote, examples from the Internet or memories of what someone experienced at school themselves. In this article, Catriona Pennell reports on an empirical study that set…

Research indicates that there are two primary aims of the higher education institution: (a) scientific and scholarly inquiry, and (b) the instruction of students (Veblen, 1918). This aim has been reified consistently for nearly a century. By 2002, the pursuit of higher education had reached record levels. However, more recently, public confidence…

This article analyses the construct validity of the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme's Theory of Knowledge course in the light of claims that it is a course in critical thinking. After discussion around critical thinking--what it is and why it is valuable educationally--the article analyses the extent to which the course aims,…

A total of 12 European countries with significant Roma populations are taking part in the Decade of Roma Inclusion, 2005-2015 (the Decade). Each of these countries developed a Decade Action Plan with the aim of eliminating the marginalization and discrimination of Roma in the areas of housing, health care, employment and education. Nonetheless, as…

In this article, we discuss Christoper Small's concept of musicking in order to explicate his understanding of music as a practice and the implications of such an understanding for today's general music education. Our main argument is that, armed with Small's concept of musicking, we can deal with music in its full social-cultural…

In 1910, Victoria established an elite form of state secondary education that remained essentially unchanged until the introduction of a progressive curriculum during the late 1960s. This radical and voluntary curriculum introduced child-centred learning and personal development skills to state secondary schools. Many state secondary music…

This article considers the significance of Boyer's work on general education for Christian colleges and universities. After beginning with a synthesis and analysis of Boyer's vast body of work on general education, this article then identifies the challenges facing those concerned with renewing the general education program in Christian…

Informal science education is a broad field of research marked by fuzzy boundaries, tensions, and muddles among many disciplines, making for an unclear future trajectory (or trajectories) for the field of study. In this commentary, I unpack some of the hidden dimensions, tensions and challenges the five articles raise or point to implicitly in…

In the past 20 years, scholars and practitioners have committed to measuring the cognitive outcomes of education. In this chapter, the author assesses the movement that focuses on cognition, to the exclusion of other outcomes. An identity-based framework is offered as an alternative.

With the ever-pressing twenty-first century demands, such as the need for new knowledge generation and application, schools today are aware of the necessity to change their structures, processes and practices to be relevant. In Singapore's centralized education system, the Ministry has introduced several decentralization initiatives in the hope of…

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to attempt to examine the aims and objectives outlined in the formation of Islamic education in Indonesia. This study also looks at the development of Islamic education in general and the various approaches taken by the Indonesian Government. Design/methodology/approach: This study has mainly used a library…

Reforms of the size and scale to which Race to the Top States have committed, require unprecedented planning, oversight and problem solving to implement. Although many factors influence the outcomes of these reform efforts, performance management is a key structural element in realizing "sustainable reforms" that are durable and…

Parents, educators, advocates, and state policymakers alike want excellence in teaching and learning every day for every educator and student. The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) gives states renewed authority as well as leverage to make this vision a reality. The role of state boards of education in this process cannot be underestimated. State…

This article examines the purposes of education with a particular focus on young people with severe learning difficulties (SLD). The topic is explored with reference to a specific case, whereby some of the key findings of an evaluation of the first year of "The Greenside Studio", an English special school's vocational teaching resource…