Educational discourse is becoming increasingly globalized. This trend is particularly pronounced in the area of assessment, where notions of accountability, comparability, and competition have become prevalent in many countries. Scholars have critiqued this trend. They contend that global assessment discourse provides educators with…

This article presents the implementation of an assessment model for generic competences in K-12 enabled by open educational practices. It showcases a digital competence assessment model that outlines the design of competence assessment scenarios constructed by means of a collaborative process involving teachers from six European countries,…

Evaluation systems of various types are an integral part of a country's education policy space, within which they are supposed to have the basic functions of enhancing accountability and supporting school development. Here we argue that in a crowded policy space evaluation systems may interfere with each other in a way that can have unintended…

By analysing five separate OECD reviews of evaluation and assessment practices with Norway and Sweden as cases, our study illustrates different ways in which a specific international educational reasoning is blended into more context-based national education policies and, as such, works in parallel with internal reforms and agendas. It is evident…

In this article, different inspection models are compared in terms of their impact on school improvement and the mechanisms each of these models generates to have such an impact. Our theoretical framework was drawn from the programme theories of six countries' school inspection systems (i.e. the Netherlands, England, Sweden, Ireland, the province…

In many ways, mathematics classrooms in Finland and Sweden are very similar to what would be considered traditional classrooms in the United States. Classes begin with checking homework and questions, followed by the teacher giving instruction in the new material, and end with students working on their new assignment. There are also interesting…

This paper discusses the most relevant issues concerning teacher evaluation in primary and secondary education by reviewing the recent literature and analysing current practices within the OECD countries. First, it provides a conceptual framework highlighting key features of teacher evaluation schemes. In particular, it emphasises the importance…

A study was launched in an educational setting where giftedness is not officially recognized o explore intellectually gifted students' experience of family background and support, their age and means of identification, the degree of support received in school, and the understanding they experienced from a primary to a tertiary education level. In…

In this commentary, the author discusses some of the issues she finds interesting from a Swedish perspective, and also makes some comparisons between the systems. The English and Swedish education and assessment systems have some fundamental differences, but also similarities. Some are becoming even more evident after learning about the…

This article takes the subject of visual arts in Sweden as the point of departure in a discussion of how, with the help of portfolios, assessments may extend to include both the unpredictable and the ambiguous. The notion that assessments of learning outcomes must be either limited to superficial knowledge or completely arbitrary is shown to be a…

The Swedish school system comprises: (1) Pre-primary school (Forskola), typical age 1-5; (2) Preschool class in the compulsory school (Grundskola) typical age 6 (participation voluntary); (3) Compulsory school, typical age 7-16, grades 1-9, and (4) Upper secondary school, 17 programmes (4 mainly academic, 13 vocational), typical age 16-19, grades…

Recognition of new demands in Swedish education during the 1960s led to selection of eight principles to be considered in educational facilities planning. These principles concerned (1) freedom of students to change schools, (2) availability of school space for nonschool functions, (3) flexible use of spaces for varied student activities, (4)…

This review focuses on distance education research in Norway, although studies in Finland, Denmark, and Sweden are briefly mentioned. Examples are given of distance education projects from the 1970s to the present. Research in distance education has a more continuous tradition in Norway than in the other Scandinavian countries, and evaluation…

This article examines how to interpret reading problems among individuals with a home language (L1) that is different from the language of instruction in school (L2). A tentative model is proposed where the various factors involved in L2 reading are specified, providing guidelines for assessment strategies. (Contains references.) (CR)

Tries to develop a method for empirical evaluations of the impact of a school system on measurable cognitive and affective outcomes in students. Concentrates on the Partial Least Squares (PLS) methodology, and illustrates the potential of PLS for system analysis. (BW)