The development and implementation of the EQF, as a meta-framework for the promotion of transparency, quality assurance, mobility and mutual recognition of qualifications, has given rise to some difficulties. These are due partly to different definitions of competences, skills and knowledge. Taking the German-speaking countries as an example, the…

During the last decade several professional standards describing competencies for teaching staff in secondary and higher education have been developed. Not all these standards are considered fruitful by the relevant professional communities of teachers and teacher educators. In this article we analyse the experiences with the Dutch standard for…

Since the early 1990s, the central government of China has been gradually privatizing early childhood education. As the main precursor of this large-scale reform in the country, Shenzhen has witnessed several innovative as well as radical changes. The existing public early childhood settings in the city were therefore forced to transform into…

Peer observation is increasingly a feature of higher education (HE) practice. We argue that the principal drivers of quality assurance and professional development apply online as offline, given the growing importance of e-learning and related teacher development needs. Currently, discussion is largely restricted to traditional classroom-based…

The What Works Clearinghouse (WWC) provides online reports to the public about the scientific evidence for educational interventions. The quality of these reports is important because they effectively tell the non-scientific community which programmes do and do not work. The aim of this brief review is to assess WWC's report on a clinically…

Introduction: This paper draws on the results of studies undertaken between 2004 and 2007 as part of Project REVISTAS, supported by the European Commission's ALFA Programme. Method: A variety of methods was employed over the life of the project, including analysis of directories, a survey of universities in the region believed to be offering…

This paper summarises some English research findings related to educational inequality, particularly in inner urban schools. It documents how differences related to relative poverty are reflected in patterns of educational attainment as revealed by national tests results. It considers and evaluates how the issue of educational inequality in…

Traces the development of faith-based postsecondary institutions in British Columbia, Canada, that offer programs of a duration that is equivalent to at least one semester of full-time study. The programs they offer are not restricted to religion, but all institutions bring an explicitly religious perspective to their curriculum. Institutions are…

This paper analyses the rationale for the creation of multimedia texts, in the context of learning English in an economically and socially depressed context. Issues of implementation of macro-level language policies in a local context are particularly stringent when the macro-level approach is rendered impracticable for some reason (e.g. cost,…

This paper presents a brief overview of Qatar University's history since it was started in 1973. Its primary focus is on the various small, but important, steps taken by the University to address the needs of quality assurance and enhancement. The Qatar University Reform Plan is described in detail. Its aims are to continually improve the quality…

This article traces quality assurance and evaluation (QAE) developments in Finnish compulsory schooling. The central question is this: Is there a Finnish model of QAE? We conclude that it may be a rhetorical overstatement to speak about a specific Finnish 'Model' of QAE in a strong sense. However, neither is it valid to conclude that what happens…

Teacher evaluation has emerged as a major focus for reform at the highest levels of education policymaking, and for good reason. Most evaluations are based on scant evidence of actual effectiveness, produce inflated ratings, and provide teachers with little useful feedback. This paper offers policymakers and practitioners important "lessons…

This proceedings volume of InCoTEPD 2018 covers many ideas for handling a wide variety of challenging issues in the field of education. The outstanding ideas dealing with these issues result in innovation of the system. There are many innovation strategies resulting from recent research that are discussed in this book. These strategies will become…

Importing quality higher education resources is the core mission of a Chinese-foreign joint initiative in higher education as well as the key to improving the level of the cooperation initiatives. The paper reviews the history and current situation of the introduction of quality higher education resources through Sino-foreign cooperation in…

Racial and ethnic identity development have been important topics in counseling psychology research for the last four decades. At present, however, there appears to be some confusion and debate regarding the quality of theory and measurement in the topical area. The present article serves as an introduction to this Journal of Counseling Psychology…