Today Singapore is the top or among the top performers in the world on a number of educational metrics. The country boasts the number one ranking in the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), the highly visible and regarded international assessment conducted by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD)…

This paper provides a critical overview of the theoretical and practical questions that prevail in the teaching, learning, and assessment of learners from diverse linguistic backgrounds in Lesotho. It investigates how far exclusion of minority languages affects both assessment and/or educational development of learners whose mother tongue is not…

This paper reviews the work and contribution of one of the most influential comparativists in education--Torsten Husén in the period when he was a co-founder and chairman of the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA) in the 60 and 70 decades of the 20th century. At that particular time, the first major…

This paper discusses Singapore education system as a whole including primary, secondary and high school cycles, and tries to examine the country status in PISA 2015. It also aims to reach various conclusions by examining science and mathematics curriculum, teaching strategies, teacher education of Singapore. The paper discusses the success of…

Education is at the core of South Africa's national development. The National Development Plan recognizes the potential of education to transform individuals and drive attainment of other development goals. The country's higher education system is characterized by low participation and high attrition. This presents challenges for the attainment of…

In this article, I describe two of our field's most notable advancements for students with high-incidence disabilities. The first has been to enhance our knowledge of how to design effective instructional interactions between teachers and students (in both small and large groups) that lead to dramatic increases in student outcomes. The second area…

Why not set up a school in an apartment complex? After all, that is where children reside before and after they attend an actual school, and that is where they are during the summers when their actual school is closed. It is also where their parents are after work. And why not unite this school at an apartment complex with the school attended by…

From a framework of this study, modern society may be explained by a paradigm transformation from ascription to achievement and also from particularism to universalism. According to this hypothesis, Japanese university society has not developed successfully for more than the closed society to the opened society. This paper intends to deal with the…

We study the origins of what has become one of the most radical and encompassing programmes of school reform seen in the recent past amongst advanced countries--the introduction of academy schools to English secondary education. Academies are state schools that are allowed to run in an autonomous manner which is free from local authority control.…

This article reports on part of a study conducted to collate the policies and practices of two successful distance education providers of the developed world with those of a provider in Bangladesh in order to inform a culturally appropriate distance education framework for a developing country. This article also describes an innovative theoretical…

This article, by Jean Ware of Bangor University School of Education, examines policy developments in education in Wales since devolution, and their implications for inclusive and special education. This is set in the context of the demographics of Wales, which, it is argued, have a significant influence on policy and on the nature of educational…

Marc Tucker, President of the National Center on Education and the Economy, presents this compilation of interviews with top Chinese education leaders and international researchers exploring some of the policies and practices behind Shanghai's outstanding performance on PISA 2009 and PISA 2012. The interviews include perspectives from Kai-ming…

This article features the Preuss School UCSD which is considered as unique in a number of ways, among them are its unusual name and requirements for admission. The school was named in recognition of a substantial bequest from the Preuss Family Foundation that was earmarked to establish a charter school on the campus of the University of…

The study is based on the assessment of instructional and administrative strategies applied by principals to improve academic performance of students in schools. This simply means that the individual talents of everyone in school needs to be maximized for the effective benefit of the school, students, parents, and the society at large. It is…

Two areas of growing importance for academic developers are: first, their involvement in the development of institutional and faculty learning and teaching strategies; and second, how to engage students in academic development activity at institutional, department and discipline levels. This paper explores both interests by considering how…