Individuals are typically identified as gifted largely on the basis of competence in limited contexts, but their performance in the real world, both as children and adults, often lags far behind their competence. Thus, the identification of the individuals as "gifted," however useful in theory, is much less useful in practice. This…

This study investigates the acquisition of normative knowledge and values about democracy by North Korean refugees in the United States through everyday experiences and academic concepts. Drawing on Vygotsky's sociocultural theory, which posits that knowledge is socially constructed and forms the basis of a society's culture, an analysis is…

School leadership plays a significant role in the success of a school through its effects on teachers' efficacy.Empirical studies of school leadership in South Asia are limited. This study seeks to address this gap. The author examines teachers' perceptions about how school principals play their role in high-achieving and low-achieving community…

Learning to be tolerant is important in multiethnic societies. Based on the premises that tolerance is built through dialogue and that nowadays much informal learning takes place in social media, this paper explores the reactions of young people when they receive racist memes through social media, and how they dare to express their opinions(or…

The UK's 2016 decision to exit the European Union and the discussion surrounding it indicate that public understanding of British identity has important consequences, one way or another. Defining British identity will be an important task in the years to come. The UK government not long ago provided some guidance on the matter of British identity…

Julian Le Grand, a well-known economist, identifies two types of public sector employee: knights (with altruistic motives) and knaves (with self-interested motives). He argues that the quasi-market, predicated on the assumption of knavish behaviour (or agent self-interest), is the most effective way of directing school managers and teachers…

We cannot pretend to educate young people for citizenship and political participation without teaching them to understand and use the new media, which are essential means of expressing ideas, forming public opinions, and building institutions and movements. But the challenge of media literacy education is serious. Students need advanced and…

Civic learning is increasingly recognized as important by the higher education and workforce communities. The development of high-quality assessments that can be used to evaluate students' civic learning during the college years has become a priority. This paper presents a comprehensive review of existing frameworks, definitions, and assessments…

This paper developed a Democratic Classroom Survey to measure students' perceived democratic environment of the classroom. Perceived democratic environment is one of the most important variables for understanding classroom activity and indeed any type of group activity, but actually measuring perceptions in an objective manner has been…

Raising standards in education has been the mantra for educational stakeholders in England for the past two decades and has informed national, regional and local agendas for school improvement. In the relentless pursuit of finding solutions to pedagogical problems, action research has been promoted as an effective strategy. Informed by an…

Identifies and explores educational issues related to Lawrence Kohlberg's work never systematically addressed by the author himself. Suggests that these issues could be developed into a contextualised theory of transformation. That theory could help make manifest Kohlberg's vision of a democratic school run by students and teachers. (MJP)

Studies show that participatory management in the business field tends to improve employees' attitudes and performance, to lower costs, and to increase production. This paper describes the process of setting up democratic decision making in the welfare field. (SDH)

The problems of education stem from system design, not faulty operation. Traditional education is based on autocratic principles, or order without freedom. The innovative Individual Education design, based on democratic principles, gives students control over their own learning and promotes the development of responsibility, respect,…

This paper is about myths in general and the "myth" of Democracy in the United States of America in particular. Myths have a number of definitions among which legendary stories containing some elements of fact but wholly untrue can be cited as the basis for the establishment of commonly accepted beliefs. Myths can be functional in the…

The Japanese model of business management and Total Quality Management principles being applied to higher education as well as businesses are often ineffective because of the application of packaged ideas without consideration of the subtleties of individual organizations. The cowboy model of teamwork stresses the individual's role and better fits…