In his proposal for comparative education, Marc Antoinne Jullien de Paris argues that the comparative method offers a viable alternative to the experimental method. In an experiment, the scientist can manipulate the variables in such a way that he or she can see any possible combination of variables at will. In comparative education, or in…

In this study, international research collaboration (IRC) and international research orientation (IRO) have been studied at the micro-level of individual academics from the university sector (N = 8,466, 11 European systems). Both were studied cross-nationally, cross-disciplinarily, and cross-generationally. This study differs from most existing…

The purpose of this study was to determine whether individuals' perceptions of parental involvement and home environment in music vary with nationality (Brazil/United States) and time frame (past/current). Past and current students from selected community music programs in the United States and Brazil completed the PI-HEM (Parental Involvement and…

A wealth of research suggests that youth whose parents use corporal punishment are more likely to engage in antisocial behavior during childhood and adolescence. Questions remain, however, about: (a) whether this relationship extends reliably to samples outside the US and Canada; (b) whether corporal punishment is associated with antisocial…

Purpose: This paper aims to explore the influence of wealth, transparency and democracy on the number of universities per million people ranked among the top 300 and 500. The highly ranked universities in the world tend to be concentrated in a few countries. Design/Methodology/Approach: ANOVA was used to test the differences between the two groups…

The aim of the current study was to determine Finnish and Dutch three-year-old preschool children's physical activity (PA) levels and how levels vary across gender, location, time of day and social contexts in both countries. A modified version of the Observational System for Recording Physical Activity in Children-Preschool (OSRAC-P) was used to…

This article focuses on analysing the effect of educational differentiation policies of OECD educational systems on socioeconomically disadvantaged students, based on data from PISA 2009. The analysis is conducted on the basis of a definition of two subgroups of disadvantaged students: those that achieve high scores, and those obtaining scores…

The aim of the study was to explain the difference between the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2009 reading results for Finland and Estonia using characteristics of teaching and learning, and characteristics of the overall development of these countries. PISA data were collected via a reading test and student questionnaires…

The purpose of this study was to examine the connections between national culture and student achievement. Using Hofstede's six cultural dimensions and the two dimensions from the World Values survey, we conducted multiple regressions to determine the most significant predictors of student achievement as measured by the 2009 Program for…

This study compares the inquiry competence of the 8th-grade students participating in the science and environmental education program GLOBE in the Czech Republic with a sample of students of the same age not participating in the program from the Slovak and Czech Republics. Inquiry competence is analyzed as a set of variables representing students'…

Academic career paths in Europe are heterogeneous, and the chances for early career researchers to become a permanent member of the academic profession differ from country to country. In some countries, the employment prospects are very insecure. It is asked whether contract conditions at universities influence the chance of taking over a mature…

This article provides evidence about differences in the recent tertiary education expansion in Austria, Germany, the Czech Republic, Poland and Slovakia. Focusing on these differences, we have examined private returns to tertiary education acquired before and after the tertiary education expansion. We compare these returns as follows: Austria with…

The purpose of this study was to examine learning strategies accounted for mathematics achievement across Turkey and neighboring countries. Turkey, Bulgaria, Greece, Azerbaijan, Russian Federation, Israel, Serbia, Romania and Jordan were involved in Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA 2009) study. Since other neighbors of Turkey…

Romanian scholars, and others, have decried the quality and quantity of scholarly productivity from Romania. However, Romanian scholars face challenges of both tradition and resources as they try to westernize their higher education system. We analyzed data from two sources to compare Romanian scholarly productivity to that of other countries from…

Selective and comprehensive school systems vary in both the degree and timing of selection. To study the consequences of such variation, cross-national comparisons are usually undertaken. Given that cultural differences between countries affect pathways and outcomes, apportioning causal influence in such studies can be difficult. In 1970s Britain,…