With international exams (PISA and TIMSS) producing results every three or four years, there is near continual talk of East Asian dominance in mathematics education. Beyond the reporting of scores, some studies have compared mathematics teaching in these countries with U.S. instruction. However, researchers are not (usually) grade school math…

Professional library education in New Zealand and Australia has developed independently, with different structures for entry-level qualifications. Both countries face challenges in continuing to offer high-quality programmes, in part due to the distribution of students relative to the providers. This paper outlines the LIS qualifications and…

This article contends that opposition to professionalization has been led by writers from the United Kingdom and Europe who tacitly assume the (continued) presence of institutions that were a feature of the British context in the 1970s and early 1980s, and that still exist in modified form today. Most of these institutions are absent in the…

The significance of effective leadership and management for successful school and student outcomes is increasingly being recognised. This has led to consideration of the nature of preparation and development required to promote good leadership. There is now widespread acknowledgement of the need for specialised training for school principals. This…

This article is an exploration of the emerging narratives on learning and teacher education in the United States and Hong Kong, as found in official policy statements and curriculum documents. Particular attention is given to Hong Kong's initiative in implementing an interdisciplinary liberal studies curriculum, and the continued professional…

The issue of teacher effectiveness has risen rapidly to the top of the education policy agenda, and the federal government and states are considering bold steps to improve teacher and leader effectiveness. One place to look for ideas is the experiences of high-performing education systems around the world. Finland, Ontario, and Singapore all have…

In an effort to find best practices in enhancing teacher effectiveness, the Alliance for Excellent Education (Alliance) and the Stanford Center for Opportunity Policy in Education (SCOPE) looked abroad at education systems that appear to have well-developed and effective systems for recruiting, preparing, developing, and retaining teachers and…

As the industrialised world shifted to an interdependent and global society, formal schooling was quickly recognised as a major factor in achieving a knowledge society of lifelong learners capable of transforming and revitalising organisations. Teachers were encouraged to engage in learning together to improve teaching and, by extension, improve…

In early 2009, Education International conducted a study amongst its member organisations on education in correctional settings in their respective countries. Findings reveal that education in correctional settings and the conditions of teachers working in them vary greatly between regions. Generally speaking, in most regions, but specifically in…

This article explores two beginning Canadian teachers' experiences of professional development in literacy education. Differences and parallel tensions between the Canadian teachers' and my own experiences as a teacher and teacher educator in Pakistan were identified through narrative inquiry. The significance of this article is found in the…

In the past 15 years, numerous reforms and initiatives in many countries in the Asia-Pacific region have aimed to change education and promote new learning to prepare the new generation for the future. Unfortunately, despite good intentions and huge investments of resources, many of these reforms have been found to be ineffective and…

Research shows that professional learning can have a powerful effect on teacher skills and knowledge, and on how well students learn. To be effective, however, professional learning for teachers needs to be conducted in the ways that it is in many high achieving countries--continuously, collaboratively, and with a focus on teaching specific…

Where the continuing professional development (CPD) process is being increasingly articulated and circumscribed by policy and central specification, the initial year of teaching may significantly shape career-long expectations of CPD. This article contrasts the early experiences of beginning secondary teachers in Scotland and Hong Kong and the…

In this article, the author describes how middle schools can prepare young people for the challenges and opportunities of the 21st century. Integrating 21st century skills deliberately and systematically into middle school education will empower educators to accomplish many of the elusive goals they have tried to reach for years. Twenty-first…

This paper explores the ideas of teacher educator Lillian de Lissa, who established the Kindergarten Training College in Adelaide in 1907 and spent the following 40 years in early childhood teacher education in Australia and the United Kingdom. I argue that de Lissa's enduring concern was the construction of early childhood teachers' professional…