The PISA project has steadily increased its influence on the educational discourse and educational policies in the now 70 participating countries. The educational debate has become global, and the race to improve PISA-rankings has become high priority in many countries. For governments the PISA-test is a high-stake test. Governments are blamed for…

As in most states, New York does not currently have a state-level protocol for collecting data about schools' objectives or methods for offering online courses. The goals of the study conducted by the Regional Educational Laboratory Northeast and Islands' Northeast Rural Districts Research Alliance (NRDRA) were (1) to create a survey tool capable…

This "Stated Briefly" report is a companion piece that summarizes the results of another report of the same name. The goal of the study conducted by the Regional Educational Laboratory Northeast and Islands' Northeast Rural Districts Research Alliance (NRDRA) was to provide information about how and why high schools in the Greater…

Rhode Island educators believe that implementing a fair, accurate, and meaningful evaluation and support system for support professionals will help improve student outcomes. The primary purpose of the Rhode Island Model Support Professional Evaluation and Support System (Rhode Island Model) is to help all support professionals do their best work…

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…

Purpose. The purpose of this study was to discover how coach training experts define coaching and what they would identify to be the essential components of a coach training program for mental health professionals. Methods. A panel of nine experts, through an iterative Delphi process of responding to three rounds of questionnaires, provided…

This action guide is intended to assist in the reading of and reflection upon "Learning by Doing: A Handbook for Professional Learning Communities at Work, Second Edition" by Richard DuFour, Rebecca DuFour, Richard Eaker, and Thomas Many. The guide can be used by an individual, a small group, or an entire faculty to identify key points,…

This paper reports on a collaborative action research project that directed attention to the opportunities Physical Education presents to develop learning associated with three of the key competencies detailed in the New Zealand Curriculum; thinking; managing self; and relating to others. Three teachers in one secondary school explored the…

To evoke public emphasis on the professional skills training in vocational education, the Ministry of Education (MOE) in Taiwan has recently focused on the certificate of information skills. However, the lack of a systematic and institutionally certified instructor training model within Taiwan not only varies the quality of certified instructors,…

Nearly 10% of American students are identified as "Limited English Proficient" (NCELA 2011). To serve this diverse population of English Language Learners (ELLs), teachers need proven instructional strategies. One prevalent approach is sheltered instruction, defined as "teaching content to English learners in strategic ways that…

This study examined high school teachers' and students' perceptions, attitudes and actual practices of continuous assessment. The participants of the study were 41 teachers and 808 students in Injabara General and Preparatory, Tilili General Secondary, Mengesha Jembere General Secondary, and Dangila Preparatory schools in West Gojjam, Ethiopia.…

This article reviews the discourse of mission in large distance teaching and open universities, in order to analyse the theories of development and social justice that are claimed or may be inherent in them. It is suggested that in a number of cases the claims are unsupported or naive. The article goes on to set out the nature of Amartya…

In this article, mathematics teachers in the United States were asked what constitutes a high-quality mathematics lesson. The returned responses varied greatly. This same question was asked of Japanese teachers also. For a clearer picture both American and Japanese teachers were directed to comment on videotaped mathematics lessons taught in both…

Learning through inquiry is a widely advocated pedagogical approach. However, there is currently little systematic knowledge about the practice of inquiry-based learning (IBL) in higher education. This study examined descriptions of learning tasks that were put forward as examples of IBL by 224 university teachers from various disciplines in three…

The present study examined pre-service teachers' knowledge of issues related to multiculturalism and diversity before and after taking a multicultural education course. Data from 38 degree students in an urban university in the southwest of Finland were analysed using a mixed method approach. The results indicate that pre-service teachers'…