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…

International surveys are increasingly being used to understand nonacademic outcomes like math and science motivation, and to inform education policy changes within countries. Such instruments assume that the measure works consistently across countries, ethnicities, and languages--that is, they assume measurement invariance. While studies have…

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…

Drawing from an ethnographic project on the subject of "Swedish as a second language" (SSL) in three linguistically diverse upper secondary schools, the aim of this study was to investigate how three SSL teachers, one from each school, discursively constructed SSL, and whether and how they legitimated their role as SSL teachers, in…

The changing of the English profile to English as an International Language (EIL) has broadened the definition of competent users of English around the world to include the ability to shuffle between English in local contexts (Canagarajah, 2013). However, Thai EFL learners continue to show an inability to understand and use English in…

As the United States experiences greater income inequality, more and more students experience an early science achievement gap. This study tested several competing theoretical models of early science achievement with a longitudinal sample of 14,624 children who were followed from kindergarten entry to the end of 1st grade. To understand why and…

The Languages Ladder--a new framework for accrediting language proficiency--is a core element of the National Languages Strategy. This paper presents Asset Languages, the system being developed by Cambridge Assessment to implement the Languages Ladder, aiming to set it apart from existing qualification frameworks by accrediting clearly defined…

One of the ultimate goals of policy makers is to enable citizens to take advantage of a globalised world economy. This is leading them to focus on the improvement of education policies, ensuring the quality of service provision, a more equitable distribution of learning opportunities and stronger incentives for greater efficiency in schooling.…

The purpose of this booklet is to document cross-national patterns of adult learning, and in particular the unequal chances to participate in adult learning. In so doing, an effort is made to identify important motivating factors for participating in adult learning. The specific objectives of the booklet are to: (1) make available the…

This report focuses on secondary schools and a variety of youth projects in eight countries--Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Ireland, Japan, Korea, Norway, United Kingdom--so as to provide a better understanding of what motivates youth to learn. The text is based on reports prepared by experts appointed by each participating country, in addition to…

In many countries around the world there is a current focus on the restructuring of education systems in a bid to increase the "quality" of the educational experience for pupils in order to raise their academic achievement. However, the definition of quality as expressed through policy may not always accord with the aims and aspirations…

This study examined five student characteristics with the expectation that if interactive characteristics could be established, attitudes could be improved by assigning students to classrooms with the appropriate degree of openness. It was hypothesized that some pupils might be happier in a traditional, or structured, environment. Five variables…

International comparisons of American education have become so popular and widespread in the reform debates of the last several decades that many of the current centerpieces of the American reform movement were shaped through evidence and speculation on what other more educationally successful nations were doing that the U.S. was not. The current…