Like many who entered the teaching profession in the 1970s, the author entered a profession that was in transition. Over the more than 30 years she spent in the classroom, the author has had a front row seat during this evolution. It has been a roller coaster ride at times, but she believes our schools will emerge stronger for it. Who we teach,…

Since MIT and Harvard started edX, their joint experiment with free online courses, the venture has attracted enormous attention for opening the ivory tower to the world. But in the process, the world will become part of an expensive and ambitious experiment testing some of the most interesting--and difficult--questions in digital education. Can…

The introduction of a new mandatory policy for the teaching of English at the higher education level in China, College English Curriculum Requirements (CECR, published in 2004), had the intention of modernising and improving the quality of English teaching at the tertiary level in China. The policy had a focus on student-centred approaches to…

Over the past decade, a small revolution has taken place at some of the world's leading universities, as they have started to provide free access to undergraduate course materials--including syllabi, assignments, and lectures--to anyone with an Internet connection. Yale offers high-quality audio and video recordings of a careful selection of…

The "Multiple Intelligences, Curriculum and Assessment Project" at University College Cork was a collaborative project carried out between 1995 and 1999. The key research question focused on whether Howard Gardner's theory of Multiple Intelligences could be applied to, and enhance, aspects of curriculum and assessment at primary and…

This paper examines teacher education in Latvia and ways of developing it in the context of the Common European Educational Area (the Bologna process). It examines current models of teacher education in universities and other higher education institutions, as well as ways of developing these in different types of higher education institutions. It…

Describes the Constructive Discipline model as a preventive positive approach for managing behavior problems in school settings. Compares Constructive Discipline with traditional discipline approaches and stresses the need to clarify discipline policy, provide considerable staff support, and make allowances for individual student differences in…

A look at the evolution of Cameroon's preservice secondary teacher education notes the inadequacy of Cameroon's sole institution for secondary teacher education. Formal and nonformal models of secondary teacher education are described. Issues of selection of models, initial education, and teacher certification are discussed; government policy and…

Largely following the advice of loans from the World Bank, many Latin American countries decentralised education to the state, municipal and local levels. Such decentralisation was part of an effort to provide universal access to primary education with massive investments near one billion dollars per year during the 1990s. The rationale was simple…

This article describes the shift from English to Filipino (Tagalog) as the language of instruction in elementary social studies education in the Philippines, focusing on the Philippines Department of Education's efforts to implement pre-service and in-service teacher training programs to expedite the change. In 1974 the Department of Education…

This report, containing both English and Portuguese text, describes the historical background and current state of preschool education systems in Portugal, and presents recommendations on guideline consolidation in the implementation of a common preschool education policy. Part 1 of the report, "Historical Background," discusses the…

This directory abstracts more than 180 projects funded during Fiscal Year 1996 by the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Special Education Programs, Research to Practice Division. Projects developed under four major program areas are described: (1) research; (2) technology, educational media, and materials; (3) serious emotional disturbance;…