Mauritius is a multilingual country with English, French and Creole as the main languages, and several ancestral languages which are mainly used for religious ceremonies. Most children speak Creole at home and learn English, French and one ancestral language in the first year of primary school. The educational dropout rate is 40-50% after primary…

The last 20 years have seen immense gains in computing power available to schools and a wide variety of useful educational software and services. Professional development in the computer area, however, has not resulted in the widespread use of computers in classrooms. This article reports on the use of the Charles Sturt University Remote Telescope…

Over recent years the issue of free and open source software (FOSS) for development in less developed countries (LDCs) has received increasing attention. In the beginning the benefits of FOSS for lower developed countries was only stressed by small groups of idealists like Richard Stallman. Now, however, it is moving into the hands of large…

Objective: This study examines the determinants of three types of child maltreatment: physical maltreatment, mental maltreatment, and child neglect among school children in the Kurdistan Province of Iran. The analysis examines the impact of socioeconomic, familial, demographic, and household dynamic factors on the three child maltreatment…

This article is based on the Keynote Address to the European Conference on Educational Research (ECER), Dublin, Ireland, 7-10 September 2005. It argues that we are facing the simultaneous renegotiation of the major post-war social contract (concerning the welfare state) in Europe and the renegotiation of a smaller-scale modern social pact: the…

Theoretical foundation of Response mechanisms in networks of online learners are revealed by Statistical Analysis of p* Markov Models for the Networks. Our comparative analysis of two networks shows that the minimal-effort hunt-for-social-capital mechanism controls a major behavior of both networks: negative tendency to respond. Differences in…

In the last quarter century, China has come a long way toward building a strong contingent of secondary teachers, including English as a foreign language (EFL) teachers. Over the years, impressive progress has been made in strengthening teacher education and raising the educational levels of the teaching force, with the result being a…

This research inquiry explored the factors influencing successful science program delivery among early- and middle-years schools within a rural school division in central Canada. The study is framed by the author's personal inquiry into how psycho-social factors at the classroom, school and school division level influence science program delivery.…

Intercultural competence has acquired an important role in the foreign language classroom. However, we must also come to terms with assessing this highly complex construct if we consider it as a superordinate learning objective. Therefore the components of intercultural communicative competence that go beyond knowledge, especially attitudes,…

The present study examines the possible effects of bilinguality on third language learning among English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners with a focus on reading comprehension proficiency achievement. This study is a longitudinal survey of EFL learners in Urmia University in Azerbaijan, Iran, during 2002-2004. It compared 56 Turkish-Persian…

This paper addresses additional requirements associated with implementing a standard curriculum of Management Information Systems (MIS) in bilingual developing countries where both students and workplace users speak English as a second language. In such countries, MIS graduates are required to develop bilingual computer applications and to…

Practices exist in Nunavut schools that were reported by "Qallunaat" (non-Inuit) teachers in Berger's (2001) study to "work," but that seem to be against historical Inuit culture. In this paper we discuss dangers in using such practices in schools that already erode Inuit culture, and also reasons to consider their use, then…

Purpose: This paper aims to diffuse the concept of a multi-lateral learning process as a means to promote experimental didactics and research (and the cross-fertilization between these two activities) in the field of design of sustainable product-service systems (PSSs) and to consider the university campus as the locus for the design,…

The greening of universities has been on the international agenda for at least a decade. While there has been considerable activity at some universities overseas, progress in Australian universities has been less easily identifiable. Also, the term "greening" has often been taken to apply to the operations of a university, whereas the…

In this paper we analyze the reasons why the teaching of probability is difficult for mathematics teachers, describe the contents needed in the didactical preparation of teachers to teach probability and analyze some examples of activities to carry out this training. These activities take into account the experience at the University of Granada,…