Practical work is an essential component of science education. However, insufficient approaches towards practical work can limit the potential it has for promoting both students' motivation and situational interest. One suggestion to solve this problem is to use alternative forms of lab instruction which are both motivating and easy to comprehend.…

This paper presents a review of twelve studies on the effectiveness of international service-learning projects. The purpose of this review is to analyze, through the use of themes, the goals and issues affecting outcomes of such programs in order to evaluate the current uses of international service-learning within multiple fields. International…

Europe's knowledge economies need high-level skills, the capacity to innovate and to support democratic societies. In this perspective, the main objective of this study is to provide a comprehensive analysis of the relevance of higher education and how this is promoted in various countries in Europe and beyond. The evidence, conclusions and…

The country case studies are part of the empirical data collected for the "Promoting the Relevance of Higher Education" project. Before presenting the case studies, this introductory chapter describes how the 8 case studies were selected, the case study methodology, and provides an overview of the interviewed organisations and experts.…

The purpose of this single-case study was to evaluate the effects of a peer-tutoring intervention on the text production skills of three third graders with severe learning and speech difficulties. All tutees were initially able to produce only very short stories. During the course of the treatment, higher performing classmates taught them how to…

Nowadays cyberbullying prevention programs such as Surf-Fair can significantly reduce cyberbullying but little is known about necessary and sufficient conditions of their effectiveness. Case Study 1 followed three successive waves of implementation of Surf-Fair in one German highest-track secondary school in a pre-post design. Results show no…

This study sought to identify preservice teachers' perceptions of their student teaching abroad experience and its effectiveness in preparing them to be globally competent educators upon completion of their student teaching as well as two years after. Findings indicate that they perceive their experience to have been both advantageous and…

The UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning (UIL) has published a second edition of "Harnessing the Potential of ICTs: Literacy and Numeracy Programmes Using Radio, TV, Mobile Phones, Tablets and Computers." This compilation of case studies from all world regions presents promising literacy and numeracy programmes that use information and…

Despite all intentions in the course of the Bologna Process and decades of investment into improving the social dimension, results in many national and international studies show that inequity remains stubbornly persistent, and that inequity based on socio-economic status, parental education, gender, country-of-origin, rural background and more…

Different technologies have been used for decades to support adult education and learning. These include radio, television and audio and video cassettes. More recently digital ICTs such as computers, tablets, e-books, and mobile technology have spread at great speed and also found their way into the teaching and learning of literacy and numeracy…

In 2004 the German state of Bavaria introduced a new compulsory subject of computer science (CS) in its grammar schools ("Gymnasium"). The subject is based on a comprehensive teaching concept that was developed by the author and his colleagues during the years 1995-2000. It comprises mandatory courses in grades 6/7 for all students of…

Educational effectiveness research often appeals to "value-added models (VAM)" to gauge the impact of schooling on student learning net of the effect of student background variables. A huge amount of cross-sectional studies do not, however, meet VAM's requirement for longitudinal data. "Contextualised attainment models (CAM)"…

This article contains an analysis of policies aimed at increasing the participation of adults in higher education (HE) in seven countries (NL, DK, SE, UK, BE Flanders, DE and the state of California in the USA). In order to maintain their economic competitiveness, many countries have developed policies to increase the participation of adults in…

This paper presents a rationale for utilizing HPS to teach physics and the NoS developed in the course of a project funded by the European Union. A core feature of this approach is formed by the development of historical case studies for the use in lessons. Furthermore, the learners' perspectives are explicitly taken into account. Teaching methods…

This paper describes the potential of long-term co-operation between science educators and science teachers concerning the teachers' continuous professional development, based on Participatory Action Research in science education. The discussion is based on a six-year case study observing a group of about ten German chemistry teachers by chemistry…