In 2006, after nearly two decades of civil conflict and instability, Liberia's physical and governance infrastructure was destroyed and its brutalized population was stricken with high levels of illiteracy and unemployment. The newly formed government of President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf was not able to meet the stringent requirements imposed by the…

Insignificant numbers of college students declaring STEM majors creates concern for the future of the U.S. economy within the global marketplace. This study highlights the educational development and teaching strategies employed by STEM faculty in teaching first-year students in contextualized life science courses, such as animal, plant, and food…

While the focus in Germany was initially on disabled children only, the promotion of gifted and talented children has become increasingly important. Different organisations and institutions, ranging from parents' associations to foundations, offer a large variety of measures catering for the special demands of gifted and talented children,…

Rural subregions of the developing countries are suffering from many physical and socioeconomic problems, including scarcity of basic education institutions. The shortage of education institutions extended distance between rural localities and education institutions. Hence, to curb this problem, this research is aimed to deal with the basic…

This paper analyzes the routes of the evaluation of higher education in Brazil, from 1995 until 2010. In 1995, during Fernando Henrique Cardoso's administration, higher education began a process of expansion through private enterprise. At that time, evaluation had a key role. The focus was the evaluation of courses conducted by the Ministry of…

This nationwide study of 169 business communication instructors examines the following issues: (a) ideal and actual class sizes in business communication courses, (b) delivery modes of business communication courses, (c) types of written and oral assignments, and (d) topics covered and depth of coverage. Findings suggest that business…

This article seeks to answer three central questions pertaining to public-private partnership in early childhood education and care (ECEC provision) in Norway: How has public-private partnership developed during the last four decades? How is public-private partnership understood in Norwegian ECEC policy? What seem to be the future challenges in…

Chapter 1 starts out with a short historical view on "academisation" and "professionalisation," illustrating how much professional higher education (PHE) in Europe has been in flux in the past years. With examples from France and Ireland, the chapter argues how a new spectrum of missions, differences in national organization of…

With the rapid development of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs), the European Union Association (EUA) published an occasional paper in January 2013 on MOOCs for discussion at the EUA Council, and for information for EUA membership. The present paper aims to provide an update on these developments, particularly as they concern European higher…

In East Africa, no other country has witnessed as great a surge in university institutions as Kenya. The intent of this paper is to explore the persistence of the ethnic configurations in the surge of higher education in Kenya, within the context of the country's history. Outlining the major flashpoints in the country's history will be…

For many school districts in the United States, making the transition to the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) is proving to be a challenge at a time when they are already facing many obstacles, not the least of which is dwindling financial resources. A change of this magnitude cannot be made haphazardly; to be successful in its goal of helping…

As he prepares to leave for National American University (NAU), Dr. John E. Roueche, the longtime director of the Community College Leadership Program (CCLP) at the University of Texas (UT) at Austin, is criticizing the direction of the program that he helped develop. Roueche is concerned that at a time when community college enrollment is…

This volume focuses on learning communities at the beginning and at the culmination of work in the major of psychology and reflects a commitment to good practice both within and outside the classroom. Its comprehensive approach attests to the power of learning communities within the discipline and is a fine example of their evolution. In this…

In the social, political, and social humanities lexicon of today's Russia there is probably no word that is in wider and more common use than modernization. What this refers to is the profound and systematic transformation of all the main structures and sub-systems of the social organism, including "education"--one of the most important,…

Distance education and its relationship to emerging computer technologies have together offered many promises to the field of education. In practice however, the combination often falls short of what it attempts to accomplish some of the short comings are due to problems with the technology; others have more to do with administration,…