Having experienced three stages of "preliminary establishment", "rapid and comprehensive development" and "steady development" for twenty years, China's postdoctoral system is moving towards a new one, the stage of "quality improvement and innovation development." Remarkable achievements in the system…

High-stakes testing and accountability implicate failing schools more frequently and more precisely than ever before. Consequently, efforts to turn around these schools have become paramount for educators, policy actors, and community members. Through a synthesis of research on failing schools, this article unpacks the constructs of school failure…

Electrical engineering (EE) curricula in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region have gone through an evolutionary process, and are now approaching a maturity level. In order to address academic and local industrial needs in a unified way, a need has been felt to investigate EE curricula in a way that highlights theoretical understanding, design…

Validation efforts typically focus around what, exactly, is measured by an instrument(s), and whether what is measured corresponds to the theoretical domain(s) originally specified. The authors' goal for this article is to build instruments focused around measuring the mathematical knowledge used in teaching: not only the content that teachers…

This study applied the Theory of Reasoned Action and the Technology Acceptance Model to measure outcomes of general education courses (GECs) under the University of Botswana Computer and Information Skills (CIS) program. An exploratory model was validated for responses from 298 students. The results suggest that resources currently committed to…

In 2001 the Church of England published "The Way Ahead," a confident report on its role in education, boldly asserting that its schools are "at the centre of the Church's mission to the nation" and recommending the establishment of another 100 church secondary schools. In an empirical investigation into the distinctiveness of…

This paper extends the theory of conditional covariances to polytomous items. It has been proven that under some mild conditions, commonly assumed in the analysis of response data, the conditional covariance of two items, dichotomously or polytomously scored, given an appropriately chosen composite is positive if, and only if, the two items…

Following the incorporation of Japanese national universities in April 2004, the ownership of university inventions is now similar to that in the USA. However, in contrast to the USA, joint research projects involving close collaboration with company researchers who are frequently named as co-inventors are common. A large proportion of university…

This article discusses methodological issues in relation to models of quality assurance for higher education. It first traces the historical development of the widely adopted pragmatic model and shows how this model has been adapted by the Higher Education Quality Committee (HEQC) for the South African context. It then sets out some basic tenets…

This article describes the findings of studies conducted on a large-scale, classroom-based performance assessment of literacy for the early grades designed to provide information that is useful for reporting, as well as teaching. Technical studies found the assessment to be a promising instrument that is reliable and valid. Follow-up studies of…

The field of adult literacy in England has a long history, but has particularly developed during the last three decades. Along with the rest of post-school education and training, it has been substantially reshaped by national policy initiatives since the 1970s. During this period it has struggled to assert itself as a legitimate area of policy…

There has been a disturbing decline in the take-up of physics within second-level education in Ireland since the early nineties. Here, an analysis is presented of the main factors influencing the take-up of physics from the perspective of secondary school teachers. The database underpinning the analysis is based on a comprehensive survey of…

One of the ultimate goals of policy makers is to enable citizens to take advantage of a globalised world economy. This is leading them to focus on the improvement of education policies, ensuring the quality of service provision, a more equitable distribution of learning opportunities and stronger incentives for greater efficiency in schooling.…

One of the ultimate goals of policy makers is to enable citizens to take advantage of a globalised world economy. This is leading them to focus on the improvement of education policies, ensuring the quality of service provision, a more equitable distribution of learning opportunities and stronger incentives for greater efficiency in schooling.…

One of the ultimate goals of policy makers is to enable citizens to take advantage of a globalised world economy. This is leading them to focus on the improvement of education policies, ensuring the quality of service provision, a more equitable distribution of learning opportunities and stronger incentives for greater efficiency in schooling.…