The present contribution illuminates the initial developments in the adoption of Complex Instruction in Germany, where the implementation of the approach has just begun. It gives insights into a teacher education project, a theatre project, and a planned project at secondary schools.

In this paper, we present didactical, technical, and interaction design aspects of a learning environment for training academic text reading skills in higher education that is currently being developed. The concept is built on experience gained from a gamified learning environment for academic abilities in the domain of German orthography…

Imparting 'literary competence' (understood here as a combination of skills involved in engaging with 'texts' of various kinds, among them film) has always been a core concern within German critical pedagogy. This article presents 11 aspects of literary learning, covering subjective involvement and the development of a text within the imagination;…

Teachers are the most important school resource. In every country, teachers' salaries and training represent the greatest share of expenditure on education; and this investment in teachers can have significant returns. Research shows that being taught by the best teachers can make a real difference in the learning and life outcomes of otherwise…

Within a learning family, every member is a lifelong learner. A family literacy and learning approach is more likely to break the intergenerational cycle of low education and inadequate literacy skills, particularly among disadvantaged families and communities. The selection of case studies presented in this compilation show that for an…

This is the 2011 edition of a biennial series of compendia describing key education outcomes and contexts of education in the Group of Eight (G-8) countries--Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the Russian Federation, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The report is organized into five topical areas: population and school enrollment,…

Is content literacy exclusively a U.S. phenomenon? In this installment we report on the state of content literacy from four international perspectives. Descriptions of content literacy from Ireland, Sweden, Germany, and Bulgaria offer insights into (a) the value policymakers may be placing on reading practices for content learning, and (b) the…

This paper will describe pedagogical approaches for re-purposing an open educational resource (OER) designed and produced by the Deutsche Welle. This free online program, "Deutsch Interaktiv," consists of authentic digital videos, slideshows and audio texts and gives a contemporary overview of the culture and language in Germany, Austria…

This paper describes the theoretical framework and the main objectives of the European Comenius project MuViT -- Multiliteracy Virtual. The project engages primary pupils across the world in multilingual and audiovisual reading and writing processes through the use of information technology resources to enhance multi-literacies, plurilingual…

Whether in flight from conflict, with the hope of building a better life, or to seize a social or economic opportunity, people have been crossing borders for as long as there have been borders to cross. Modern means of transportation and communication, the globalisation of the labour market, and the ageing of populations in OECD (Organisation for…

For the first time in its three-year history, the United States Board on Books for Young People's (USBBY) Outstanding International Books list includes foreign titles coming from publishers with U.S. distributors, as well as those acquired by U.S. publishers. The selection committee read 380 books published in 2007, narrowing down the best of…

Describes a program initiated in East Germany in l962 to identify and remediate specific reading disabilities in elementary school children. Compares aspects of the program with those of programs in other nations. (FL)

This paper describes the Reading Recovery program implemented at a special needs school in Kiel, Germany. The program is intended to offer primary-grade pupils a second chance to obtain reading and writing skills. The highly structured reading program involves isolation of difficulties, work on word structure, learning consonant-vowel combinations…

The 2000 and 2003 international studies of the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) among all Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries presented disappointing results for Germany's fifteen-year-old students' reading skills. These studies pointed out two necessities for future reform: to extend the…

Educators and governments are paying increasing attention to international comparisons as they seek to develop effective policies to improve the performance of their education systems. Data from the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) are useful in revealing best practices across the world. Current data show that the United…