This paper critically reflects on the challenges associated with academic standards in a postgraduate certificate in academic practice, which involved the wider academic community of the institution. It is underpinned by a socio-cultural constructivist view that suggests standards do not exist independently of assessors, but are co-constructed by…

Academic advising, if done effectively, can play a significant role in supporting student retention. However, as a relatively new field in South Africa, there is limited locally contextualised research into advising interventions and their effectiveness. So, there is a need for evidence-based approaches that will lead to more intentionally…

Straddling conventional education system boundaries between adult learners and children, and between employment-related and social benefits, family literacy programmes are not well recognised or supported in New Zealand's policy and funding environment. In this article, I reflect on my personal experience of redesigning the Whanau Ara Mua…

The minimum requirements for teacher education qualifications (MRTEQ) draws attention to the complexity of teaching as an activity that is premised upon the acquisition, integration and application of different types of knowledge practices or learning. As such, all initial teacher education programmes in South Africa should be designed such that…

This article presents an Australian perspective on the issue of standards-based education and the place of students of English as an additional language (EAL) who are working within mainstream schools. Beginning with an overview of the various standards documents that impact the lives of teachers and their students in mainstream Australian…

In 2012, Oxfordshire County Council commissioned the National Literacy Trust to deliver a two-year campaign, the Oxfordshire Reading Campaign, to address falling Key Stage 1 literacy levels in the county's primary schools, which were amongst the worst in the country. The aims of the campaign were to increase the proportion of children reaching the…

This article considers how TUNING-compatible programme profiles could be developed in the Russian Federation in the context of: on-going reform of the higher education; introduction of the new generation of Federal State Educational Standards (FSES); development of the new professional standards; implementation of a system of public accreditation…

The use of standard-based assessment, grading and reporting tools is essential to ensure that assessment meets acceptable levels of quality and standardization. This study reports the design, development and evaluation of a standards-based assessment tool for the instructors at Sultan Qaboos University, Sultanate of Oman. The Rapid Applications…

Using a unique European data-set, we investigated the significance of five higher education programme characteristics for the labour market position of the graduates: the academic versus discipline-specific character of the competencies generated; the standardization of these competencies; the combination of working and learning; the…

This paper presents some of the major issues raised in Education International's preliminary analysis of the overall PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment) 2009 study. Some of these issues are: (1) PISA has serious limitations. The study does not cover the full curriculum, focusing on a narrow set of subject areas, neglecting such…

The key aim of this paper is to introduce a standard-based model for adaptive e-learning platform for Mauritian academic institutions and to investigate the conditions and tools required to implement this model. The main forces of the system are that it allows collaborative learning, communication among user, and reduce considerable paper work.…

In 1998, the Australian Research Council provided funding for a three year research project to develop professional standards and assessments for the English teaching profession. The project team is a consortium of researchers from three major universities together with the two national English teaching associations and representatives from state…

We present a dialogue about the current context for educational leadership preparation that draws upon worldwide thought and discussion. We examine some of the significant developments and a new conceptualization of educational leadership, and we link these developments to implications for preparation of school leaders for the future. These…

This document presents the norms and standards for computer education in India through distance mode, including the Masters in Computer Applications (MCA) and Bachelor in Computer Applications (BCA) programs. These norms and standards were considered and approved by the Distance Education Council, Indira Gandhi National Open University (India), at…

Student evaluation methods (pass-fail vs. traditional grading) for Britain's honors curriculum are discussed. The British educational tradition concerning the honors degree is outlined, and the rationale for grading is examined. It is recommended that pass-fail grading based on specified learning outcomes be adopted for educational and practical…