Teaching demands engagement with a diverse world. When teaching about distant places, school textbooks commonly employ mediation devices of comparison, contrast and narratives of change. To what extent are such pedagogical strategies inherently othering? This question is addressed in the context of representations of Japan in English geography…

The Common Core State Standards (CCSS) require students to read and comprehend complex content texts. They specify three dimensions of a text that simultaneously contribute to text complexity across the curriculum: qualitative dimensions, quantitative dimensions, and reader and task considerations. In literacy instruction, recognizing and…

The article attempts to examine the impact of European media education theories and approaches on Russian media education evolution basing on a comparative analysis of Russian and European media literacy promotion strategies in the historical context. This influence resulted in the appearance and development of socio-cultural models of media…

The purpose of this study was to examine and compare key elements of the actions that states and territories are taking to implement the Australian Curriculum, and what innovative processes and products they are using to facilitate implementation. A rubric adapted from a diagnostic tool, developed by Achieve and the U.S. Education Delivery…

Teacher in Australia is determined as an active participant of professional community with high level of collaboration, professional development coherent activities and collaborative learning practice. Thus, teacher quality is one of critical factors affecting student outcomes. The article touches upon the issue of the potential to improve…

The purpose of this paper was to explore how school leaders can create and maintain student diversity in charter schools. Based on a case study of two racially balanced schools in New York City, this study identifies three strategies that the schools' leaders took to create more student diversity: (1) develop curriculum-centred missions, (2)…

The aim of this study is to describe and then contrast the New South Wales Department of Education and Training's model of quality teaching with the Jordanian Ministry of Education's conception of quality teaching, looking particularly at potential differences in interpretation. A content analysis methodology was used. Each perspective has been…

The purpose of this study was to examine and compare key elements of the actions that states in the USA and Australia took to implement the Common Core State Standards or Phase One of the Australian Curriculum, and what processes and products they used to facilitate implementation of these innovations. A rubric adapted from a diagnostic tool,…

The purpose of this quasi-experimental study was to explore the impact of asynchronous discussion on the quality and complexity of college students' arguments. Three different cohorts of students registered in a physical science course in 2009 Fall, 2010 Spring, and 2010 Fall semesters were briefly supported with scaffolding in class and then…

Introducing a course in educational technology is vital especially to pre-service teachers in establishing early interest and long term habits. The initial disclosure and guidance in educational technology will determine the technique of beginning teachers at integrating ICT into their teaching-learning activities. Educators should feel…

Since the mid-1990s, the concept of professional learning communities has arisen in the education field in the West, aiming to improve teachers' professional competency by using collaborative approaches. Western studies indicate that these strategies help teachers achieve professional growth. Schools in China have had a long history of enhancing…

The Educational Policy Improvement Center (EPIC) conducted a crosswalk between the Deeper Learning Skills (DLS) and the Common Core State Standards (CCSS). The purpose of the crosswalk was to understand the ways in which strategies for deeper learning relate to the CCSS. This comparison was not solely or simply an alignment study, although some…

Peer facilitation is proposed as a solution to counter limited interaction in asynchronous online discussions. However, there is a lack of empirical research on online peer facilitation. This study identifies, through cross-case comparison of two graduate-level blended courses attended by Asian Pacific students, the actual peer facilitation…

The purpose of this study was to explore the impact of Digital storytelling (DST) on the academic achievement, critical thinking, and learning motivation of senior high school students learning English as a foreign language. The one-year study adopted a pretest and posttest quasi-experimental design involving 110 10th grade students in two English…

Blended learning is increasingly introduced in classrooms worldwide. Nonetheless, studies are not unanimous as to its impact on student performance and its benefits to enhancing the learning experience. In this article, it is argued that a focused approach, taking into account the particular requirements of the course and the students'…