Academic researchers who seek to publish their work are confronted daily with a barrage of e-mails from aggressive marketing campaigns that solicit them to publish their research with a specialized, often newly launched, journal. Known as predatory journals, they often promise high editorial and publishing standards, yet their exploitive business…

The distinction between external assessment and internal assessment underpins a major reform to vocational qualifications underway in England. To be approved by the Department for Education, vocational qualifications must now include a minimum proportion of external assessment, regardless of subject. This paper discusses the nature and…

Gert J. J. Biesta is a widely known and respected scholar in the field of education. He has published a large number of articles, books, chapters and other work. He is currently professor of Education in the Department of Education at Brunel University London. This interview with Biesta touched on a wide range of topics. This article is a…

The Educators Evaluating the Quality of Instructional Products (EQuIP) Rubric for science is a new tool for science educators that provides criteria by which to examine the alignment and overall quality of lessons and units with respect to the "Next Generation Science Standards" ("NGSS"). The rubric criteria are divided into…

With its October 2014 day-long conference on competency-based education and Higher Education Innovation Challenge (HEIC), the New England Board of Higher Education (NEBHE) is creating a space in which New England states and institutions can wrestle with the critical issues driven by abundant information. The HEIC lists multiple areas where the…

The present article responds briefly to the comments, in this issue of "Educational Researcher," of Petrosino and of Robinson to the "Propagation of Misinformation About Frequencies of RFTs/RCTs in Education: A Cautionary Tale." The authors emphasize that the context of how the quality of education research is perceived both within and outside the…

There has been much concern about standards in British higher education in the last few years, as the number and percentage of students graduating with good degrees has increased. In 1997, 53 per cent of graduating students were awarded 2:1 or 1st class degree; in 2008 the figure was 61 per cent. How then are standards maintained? There is, of…

Academic peer review is widely viewed as fair, equitable, and essential to academic quality. Successfully completing the process through publication or award is widely deemed as one of the most rigorous and prestigious forms of scholarly accomplishment. Despite this sentiment the academic peer review process is not without fault. It is criticized…

In this position paper, NCVER's Managing Director, Dr Tom Karmel, argues that the submission of vocational education and training student data should be mandated as a condition of registration for all registered training organisations, including private providers. This will ensure a comprehensive data collection that gives a realistic view of…

In this article, the authors offer an account of a free-ranging discussion highlighting common features of psychology provision and that considers the differences between two departments and two distinct programmes. The discussion took place between ERASMUS partners during a Teacher Exchange visit to the University of Wroclaw, Poland, in March…

In defining quality of higher education, competences achieved by graduates are interpreted as essential criteria. There are two political processes in education dealing, among other issues, with competence development: the Bologna Process in European Higher Education Area and a global process--the United Nations (UN) Decade (2005-2014) of…

Government supervision over the quality of higher education by means of evaluations, examinations and verifications, or accreditations is a common international practice in terms of monitoring and controlling the quality of higher education. Many countries stipulate by law that institutions of higher education must submit to evaluation by the…

Despite limited scientific study on ADHD coaching as an intervention for adults with ADHD, the field of ADHD coaching has grown significantly and gained popularity in recent years. ADHD coaching is becoming a bona fide profession where one must advance through a rigorous training process, in order to be certified as a professional ADHD coach.…

The article by David Stoesz and Howard J. Karger, "Reinventing Social Work Accreditation," is misleading and erroneous in its assumptions, makes unsubstantiated assertions, and demonstrates an ideological shallowness on the part of the authors in their understanding of social work education, the Council on Social Work Education, and the…

"All journeys have secret destinations of which the traveller is unaware" (Martin Buber). All learning results in learning outcomes of some form, planned or otherwise, but the term is now widely used to refer only to those learning outcomes that predetermine what those outcomes will be--the "intended" or "specified" learning outcomes of the…