In this article I make the case that in order to understand what is special and distinctive about education, we ought to approach education from the angle of the teacher. I show that this suggestion goes against a current trend in educational discourse, which is to put learners and their learning in the centre of attention. I argue why such a turn…

"In 2012," European Union Member States committed to implement policies for the "Validation of Nonformal and Informal Learning" (VNFIL). In this article, we examine Austria and Italy and ask how VNFIL policies in these two countries relate to "informal learning" (IL) and how this can be interpreted from a…

Formative assessment has been considered an essential concept for motivating and improving learning. However, implementing formative assessment has been confronted with challenges in Confucian-heritage culture (CHC) contexts such as Hong Kong and Shanghai, where the atmosphere of high-stakes tests dominates at policy and classroom levels. Whether…

This article provides a conceptual analysis of the two domains of global citizenship education and adult education and learning, along with their similarities and differences. It begins by unpacking the ambiguous and contested concept of global citizenship education and proposing a critical vision of it, within a global social justice framework.…

One of the core challenges in self-paced online teaching and learning is a decline in learner engagement -- the amount, type, and intensity of investments that students make in relation to accessing, reading and learning from materials posted by facilitators during self-paced learning sessions. At Hamdan Bin Mohammed Smart University (HBMSU),…

Today, the Common European Framework of Reference (2009), and with it the action-based approach, underlies English Language Teaching (ELT) curricula throughout Europe. However, actual teaching practices are likely to vary according to factors such as the educational level and supra-national differences, including legal guidelines and the level of…

This paper reports on a study conducted in Georgia on the issues of the university sector to implement new strategic principles and standards devised by the National Center for Educational Quality Enhancement (NCEQE) for learning and teaching in higher education. This paper specifically considers the government's institutional relations concerning…

In the high-stakes accountability English educational system, decisions made by government and agencies about curriculum, pedagogy and assessment drive school planning and actions. This paper analyses the drivers for the recent change to French German and Spanish GCSEs and highlights particular areas of the new specification which may damage the…

This paper provides a 'home international' comparative analysis of education policy on social and emotional wellbeing, drawing on the case of the UK and its four distinct education systems of England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland have developed more holistic policy in this area, which stands in stark…

Constructing effective and well-balanced learning groups is important for collaborative learning. Past research explored how group formation policies affect learners' behaviors and performance. With the different classroom contexts, many group formation policies work in theory, yet their feasibility is rarely investigated in authentic class…

This article takes stock of the current trends in research, policy and practice regarding the role of language in the dialogic classroom. The article uses the policies of two different educational jurisdictions as counterpoints to highlight the different ways that oral language can be positioned within primary curricula. It reflects on current and…

Bilingualism is associated with a number of false beliefs, myths and misconceptions, which carry implications for bilingual education and policymaking. While the language used, often in the media, to express such misconceptions may have become more subtle, a negative bias remains and is arguably more difficult to detect and defend against. The…

Many candidates undertaking high-stakes English language proficiency tests for academic enrolment do not achieve the results they need for reasons including linguistic unreadiness, test unpreparedness, illness, an unfavourable configuration of tasks, or administrative and marking errors. Owing to the importance of meeting goals or out of a belief…

Using data from the Council on Social Work Education's Annual Survey, this study captures a baseline snapshot of policy practice education in U.S.-based bachelor of social work and master of social work programs. Results indicate that the nature of students' preparation to incorporate policy change into practice depends on which program they…

In tutoring systems, a pedagogical policy, which decides the next action for the tutor to take, is important because it determines how well students will learn. An effective pedagogical policy must adapt its actions according to the student's features, such as knowledge, error patterns, and emotions. For adapting difficulty, it is common to…