In 1997, The National Institute for Child Health and Human Development, appointed a National Reading Panel (NRP). The NRP findings, released in 2000, summarized the effectiveness of a variety of instructional approaches in reading. In turn, the NRP report, despite disputed inconsistencies, became the basis of the 2001 legislation, "No Child…

Traditionally, challenges such as how to sustain district reform, how to build a leadership pipeline, how to create an integrated project, or how to best intervene with struggling students would be resolved with a team of "experts" developing a solution in isolation of the stakeholders involved. By contrast, design thinking centers on the…

Much has been written about globalization and the challenge of preparing young people for the new world of work and life in times of complexity and continuous change. However, few works have examined how globalization has and will continue to shape education in the East. This volume discusses education within the context of globalization and…

This innovation configuration offers a set of quantifiable indicators of instructional excellence in mathematics. These indicators are related to improved achievement in mathematics and can be used to improve teacher competencies. The innovation configuration is offered as a means of evaluating and aligning teacher preparation and professional…

Background: Despite years of intense criticism of contrastive (intercultural) rhetoric, theoretical debate, and controversy, there has been a recent resurgence in the number of high quality pedagogical studies concerning the teaching of intercultural rhetoric in university writing classes for East-Asian (Chinese, Japanese, and Korean) writers.…

In this chapter, the authors consider Paulo Freire's construct of critical consciousness (CC) and why it deserves more attention in research and discourse on youth political and civic development. His approach to education and similar ideas by other scholars of liberation aims to foster a critical analysis of society--and one's status within…

This paper questions notions of individualism underpinning technocratic approaches to education that marginalise indigenous and migrant peoples' knowledges in tertiary education. Focusing on New Zealand ("Aotearoa") with its colonial and immigrant history, its Maori and Pacific Islander citizens, the authors ask whether education, as its…

It's no secret that American higher education is facing a daunting set of challenges. While public opinion surveys show that the public thinks a collegiate education is more important than ever, states across the country are reducing financial resources for their public colleges and universities--which are, in turn, eliminating programs or raising…

This article examines administrator perspectives of innovative services for the inclusion of young children with disabilities in regular preschool classrooms in China. Twelve directors from 12 pilot inclusion preschools in Beijing participated in this study. Qualitative interview results revealed the following subthemes: definition, advocacy,…

Many faculty members in science departments are experiencing pressure to improve their courses, particularly with respect to the ways in which students are taught and assessed. The purpose of this article is to provide some insights and practical ideas on how curriculum change can be brought about--how motivated individuals can become agents of…

When the Maori goddess, "Hinetitama", asked the Maori god, "Tane", who her father was, he replied, "Uia ki nga pou o t whare ... Ask the posts of your house". This traditional Maori (indigenous people of New Zealand) story implies a cultural teaching pedagogy that utilises the "marae" (a Maori building…

Singapore has a high performing school system; its students top international tests in maths and science. Yet while the Singapore government cherishes its world class "brand", it realises that in a globally competitive world, its schools need to prepare students for the twenty-first-century knowledge-based economy (KBE). Accordingly,…

Democracy is at the core of the beliefs, values and principles of Pedagogy-in-Participation, the pedagogical perspective of the Childhood Association which is based in Portugal. Thus, it is proposed that early childhood education centres should be organised for democracy to constitute, simultaneously, an end and a mean, i.e. to constitute a…

In 1963, the University of Sussex inaugurated an innovative Early Leavers Scheme in response to two government reports which confirmed that it was still the norm for talented working-class children to leave school aged 15 or 16 and indicated that the hopes of the 1944 Education Act were as yet unfulfilled. This article explores what the scheme has…

This article focuses on Enquiring Minds, a three-year curriculum development project funded by Microsoft as part of its Partners in Learning programme and run by Futurelab. The article suggests that the project is best understood as an example of a new type of "curriculum entrepreneurialism" that is impatient with the traditional…