Beginning in the year 2000, higher education policies all over Europe were transformed by the launching and evolution of the Bologna Process, otherwise known as the process of creating a European Higher Education Area (EHEA). Initially, this process was flexible and informal, which makes the rapidity and scope of the changes it brought about…

This article describes a real-life project currently being conducted in Burkina Faso--the bilingual education continuum--and explains its original and innovative aspects with respect to the teaching methods used and the development and process by which it is implemented in the schools. The article focuses on five main points: the status of…

In 2006, the Chinese government conducted, in the western provinces and a few central provinces, a reform that exempted all rural compulsory education stage students from tuition and miscellaneous fees, in accordance with the measures for implementing the New Mechanism for Assured Funding for Rural Compulsory Education (hereafter "New…

After the implementation of the "two exemptions and one subsidy" (TEOS) policy and between the spring of 2006 and 2007, China's western, central, and eastern regions introduced a new mechanism for guaranteeing rural compulsory education. This mechanism resulted in great changes in the environment for implementing TEOS and, in addition,…

This article reports the achievement of a nine-year program in which students from Xinzhou Normal College participate in semester-long substitute teaching in disadvantaged schools in a poverty-stricken area of Shanxi province. The substitute teaching, which constitutes an important part of the 411 Project by Xinzhou Normal College, takes place in…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to introduce the Regional Centre of Expertise (RCE) on education for sustainable development (ESD) Hyogo-Kobe, and the contribution of Kobe University as a model case. An attempt to develop and implement a new ESD programme in higher education is also reported. Design/methodology/approach: A brief description…

This paper describes the aims, the methods, the stages and the results of the research project "e-University. Information and communication technologies (ICTs) as a factor of change in Italian universities", undertaken between 2003 and 2006 by the Universities of Trento, Perugia and Sassari and the Catholic University of Milan. The…

Organizations have become more dependent on information technology (IT) in the 21st century. But IT implementation and use is resisted in certain sectors of Tanzania, particularly in government-run enterprises. The purpose of this study was to investigate the causes and consequences of resistance to IT development and implementation in the…

This report discusses the most relevant issues concerning using student test results in OECD countries. Initially the report provides an overview of how student test results are reported in OECD countries and how stakeholders in these countries use and perceive of the results. The report then reviews the literature relating to using student test…

Learning outcomes are described as written statements of what a learner is expected to know, understand and/or be able to do at the end of a period of learning. At the beginning of the 90s, a EU pilot project on ECTS showed that study programmes were much easier to compare if they were described in terms of outcomes, instead of inputs. The…

Learning a second language is very difficult, especially, for the disabled; the disability may be a barrier to learn and to utilize information written in text form. We present the SignMT, Thai sign to Thai machine translation system, which is able to translate from Thai sign language into Thai text. In the translation process, SignMT takes into…

What and how much can children learn without subject teachers? In an attempt to find a limit to self organized learning, we explored the capacity of 10-14 year old Tamil-speaking children in a remote Indian village to learn basic molecular biology, initially on their own with a Hole-in-the-Wall public computer facility, and later with the help of…

Emergent research indicates that electronic portfolios (ePortfolios) can have a positive impact on the learning experience, but there are significant challenges--pedagogical and technological--which may limit their effectiveness. This paper contributes to research by providing further evidence about such challenges from the tutor perspective and…

Many current (online) help systems fail because users refuse to use them or, even if they do so, they do not perceive them as helpful. There is an obvious gap between the intentions of the help content authors and the achievement of objectives concerning the perceived usefulness by help users. Problems may be divided into psychological and…

This paper reports on a study of the experiences of teacher educators in the introduction and development of e-portfolios over an eight-year period from 2002 to 2009 at a Swedish university. The study was conducted with 67 teacher educators in order to investigate how e-portfolios have been discussed, designed, used and disseminated during this…