In this article we examine the book "El estudio de la naturaleza en la escuela" by the Danish pedagogue Vilhelm Rasmussen (1869-1939), published by Editorial Labor in Barcelona in 1933, and its influence on the pedagogical standpoint of Margarita Comas Camps (1892-1972). Comas, who translated the book into Spanish, was a member of the…

Assessment News first announced the launch of the New Zealand Assessment Institute (NZAI) 4 years ago, and this current article looks at how NZAI has progressed, highlighting its key publications and activities from 2021. This update should be of use to teachers and school leaders who want to explore assessment more deeply, gain practical tips, or…

While social values outside of academia are changing from nationalism to globalization, much of English studies remains entrenched in nationalist discourses. Editor Bruce McComiskey and his contributors argue that English studies must shift from a national (petrified, zombified) to a global (cosmopolitan, planetary) orientation in order to remain…

In light of socio-political dynamics at play in contemporary Thailand, higher education (HE) is becoming an important site for citizenship learning. This article interrogates priorities and practices of civic/citizenship education in Thai universities. Data was collected through in-depth interviews with leadership in five public universities…

Today's schools are challenged to find strategies to guide curriculum and instruction that meets the needs of an increasingly diverse student population. Universal Design for Learning (UDL) is a research-based framework that guides educators to reduce barriers to learning. The purpose of this qualitative case study was to explore the leadership…

Despite millions of dollars spent annually on professional development (PD) for teachers, most training proves ineffective in changing teacher practice or improving student outcomes on a large scale. The ineffectiveness comes from a lack of content specificity, poor training design and delivery, misalignment of local needs compared to external…

Technical approaches suggesting that systematically produced, generalized, and scientific knowledge are the most solid foundations for practice present significant challenges for the social work profession, in which the decisions faced often are not technical but rather moral, requiring the application of ethically based and intuitive skills.…

In this essay, Oded Zipory assigns a different meaning to presentism in education: one that signifies respect for the present, especially for the actual student in his here-and-now. Zipory suggests that the key component of such a presentist pedagogy is interest and argues that focusing on children's current and possible interests instead of, or…

Drawing from my experiences as an American-Israeli Jewish woman in social work academia, I use this paper to reflect upon the ways in which the Council on Social Work Education's newly-mandated anti-racist and anti-oppressive paradigms are problematic for the future of the social work profession. While it is important for social workers to address…

The array of different philosophical positions underlying contemporary views on competence, assessment strategies and justification have led to advances in assessment science. Challenges may arise when these philosophical positions are not considered in assessment design. These can include (a) a logical incompatibility leading to varied or…

This article examines the US experience with school inclusion, highlighting effective policies, practices, and school reform efforts. Specifically, it reveals how a case-by-case assessment of whether a child can be included works against the goal of full inclusion. Despite this policy limitation, inclusion is moving forward, especially when guided…

Authors begin by a synthetic historical review of the emergence of the philosophy of education up to the present day. It follows a presentation of the results of recent meta-analyses on the topics, problems, guidelines and relevance given to the philosophy of education (PE). For this purpose, several paths were chosen: one, more empirical, focused…

This article shares the key feature of a successful general education curriculum reform effort: the creation and approval of Guiding Principles that governed both the process of reform and the design of the curriculum. The author pays special attention to the role of Guiding Principles in shaping the design and content of curricula. The Guiding…

The unpredictable nature of the COVID-19 pandemic created unprecedented challenges including a need for new curricula, pedagogy, and more accessible forms of professional development (PD). A gap in research exists regarding professional development of educators. This qualitative study used data collected from two surveys, a focus group, and a…

Students not only vary in their skill level and preferences for academic content, but also in their social-emotional skills, development, and learning. This diversity in the classroom can pose instructional challenges, but it can be also an asset. It presents the opportunity for students to learn from and with one another, gain an understanding of…