Rating scales are ubiquitous in the social sciences, yet may present practical difficulties when response formats change over time or vary across surveys. To allow researchers to pool rating data across alternative question formats, the article provides a generalization of the ordered logit model that accommodates multiple scale formats in the…

This report presents a holistic approach to understanding and comparing vocational education and training (VET) systems. The approach has been developed jointly by a group of interdisciplinary VET researchers over a 5-year period as part of Cedefop's research on the future of VET and has been reviewed several times. The framework introduces 50…

The Schwarz or Bayesian information criterion (BIC) is one of the most widely used tools for model comparison in social science research. The BIC, however, is not suitable for evaluating models with order constraints on the parameters of interest. This article explores two extensions of the BIC for evaluating order-constrained models, one where a…

Since the 1950s in the USA and a bit later in Europe, researchers have started publishing results of systematic research on the learning of older adults. Some have also contributed to constructing theoretical definitions within this theme of research. The perception of older adults as potential learners is a widely shared paradigm. However, there…

The last two decades have witnessed an increasing intensity of quality management in higher education institutions and quality discourses which were followed by debates about and attempts of evaluating the efficacy of quality management in the sector. Accordingly, the article presents a SWOT analysis of impact evaluation of quality management in…

This study investigates perceptions of European and Chinese stakeholders on doctoral education (DE) in China and Europe, particularly the cooperation between the two sides. Data were collected through online and paper survey from both European and Chinese stakeholders (N = 946). The results provide insights for policy-makers, university…

Across the globe, from the very wealthy continents of North America to Europe to Australia, the phenomenon of migrant and immigrant students outperforming native students are observed and documented. Even within the same race, achievement differences are being observed. What might account for the achievement success of one group of students over…

Striving to be more representative in their answer to the question, "What is German," many programs are expanding their curricula to include the history and perspectives of Black Germans and Austrians. Through discussion of a course on "Die afrikanische Diaspora im deutschsprachigen Europa," this article argues that examining…

This article discusses the tension between quality assurance and quality enhancement in engineering education at a programme level. It acknowledges that accreditation has evolved for many years, but does not agilely support innovation or implement changes in educational programmes. Existing quality assurance systems, institutional collaboration…

The analyses described in this paper permitted an evaluation of whether capacity-building professional development practices were related to early childhood intervention practitioners' reported use of capacity-building family-centered practices. This was ascertained by structural equation modeling for two different types of family-centered…

The article presents the results of a research into Ukrainian state and university language policies, and a Ukrainian university community's potential to become multilingual in terms of its foreign language proficiency and attitudes toward multilingual tertiary education. The results allow assuming that Ukrainian state acts and university…

This study examined the relationship of emotional intelligence (EI) to jobs requiring emotional labour in a sample of 6,874 participants from eleven countries or geographical regions. In particular, the current study examined the relationship of a mixed model of EI, as measured by the Emotional Capital Report (ECR), to emotional labour identified…

The present study investigated (a) how a latent profile analysis based on representative data of N = 74,868 4th graders from 17 European countries would cluster the students on the basis of their reading, mathematics, and science achievement test scores; (b) whether there would be gender differences at various competency levels, especially among…

Four financial models of massification of higher education are discussed in this essay. They are American model, Western European model, Southeast Asian and Latin American model and the transition countries model. The comparison of the four models comes to the conclusion that taking advantage of nongovernmental funding is fundamental to dealing…

Describes reorientations related to education innovation policies and discusses the development of a transformational school policy that gives schools a greater opportunity to become strategic organizations. A shift in paradigm for educational policy is examined, and comparisons between western European and U.S. policies are made. (71 references)…