Comparative education research is complicated by the difficulty of identifying comparable units across contexts. This paper considers the advantages and limitations of a functional equivalence approach to comparative education. The functional equivalence approach allows us to meaningfully compare the operations that serve each function in the full…

There has been little explication of how university lecturers who are responsible for educating future practitioners approach the complexity and conceptual messiness of 'voice'. There are dangers of objectification if curricula simply foreground the UNCRC and are only concerned with utterances and the need to listen to children. This paper…

The authors of this article, all of whom have been a part of this effort to assess argumentation in literacy-rich science curriculum, have struggled with our attempts to build 3 argument-related assessments--understanding, critiquing, and constructing arguments about scientific phenomena in both oral and written modes. Loosely affiliated with the…

Over the last 20 years, Poland has gone through a major transition process in which the challenges for education in terms of new approaches to learning and teaching have been compounded by broader changes such as the democratisation of structures and processes and the major economic and social changes. This article is a case study that examines…

The Internet is increasingly being used as a tool for communicating and learning in primary schools across many developed and developing countries. The place of social chat as part of online interactions has as yet not been fully recognised as an important component of learning. In this paper, the interactions of students in a Sydney primary…

Our analysis explores the agenda for student learning communicated in interviews with school district officials from four Ontario districts. Using research methods drawn from collective action framing theory, we identified six core frames and one broader frame in the discourse on student learning: (a) measureable academic achievement, (b)…

There is an exponential growth in the number of schools that offer American Sign Language (ASL) for foreign language credit and the different ASL curricula that were published. This study analyzes different curricula in its assumptions regarding language, learning, and teaching of second languages. It is found that curricula vary in their…

The considerable debate in recent years on the aims of citizenship education has not been accompanied by an equally substantial discussion on the educational processes involved. This article puts forward a theoretical framework, referred to as "curricular transposition", for understanding the complex task of realizing normative ideals of…

The role of context in learning has taken on a new significance in recent research in that it might account for the "lost learning" that should result from the school experience, but which does not appear on normative assessments intended to measure learning in areas explicitly valued by society. A naturally occurring microworld, or…

In each era of curriculum reform the prevailing perceptions of what the school curriculum must accomplish define the standard of cultural literacy for our society. E. D. Hirsch believes that contemporary youth lack cultural literacy and that without this knowledge of the fundamental facts of U.S. culture they cannot effectively read or…

Evaluated the "ThinkerTools Inquiry Curriculum," a computer-enhanced, middle school science curriculum, to determine the impact of including the Reflective Assessment Process. Found that students' performance improved significantly on both physics and inquiry assessments. Controlled comparison revealed that students' learning was greatly…

Theoretical issues and practical implications of metacognition for reading instruction are discussed. A cognitive training program is introduced, and the effects of the program on the reading skills of 64 sixth graders are analyzed. Results indicate that the program has the potential for improving instruction in reading comprehension and learning.…

This report describes the background, program implementation, student development evaluation, and recommendations for the SuperStart program of New York City. SuperStart, a comprehensive integrated prekindergarten program, is designed to provide a developmentally appropriate learning environment to enhance the cognitive, social, physical,…

This report describes the background, program implementation, student development evaluation, and recommendations of SuperStart Plus, in New York City. SuperStart Plus, a comprehensive integrated prekindergarten program that serves general education and special education children in the same classroom, is designed to provide a developmentally…

A study examined the effectiveness of existing nursing education programs to prepare individuals in the United Kingdom for employment as community specialist practitioners in the context of public health. The study was designed in three strands as follows: (1) a questionnaire-based source of 52 directors and leaders from community specialist…