Classroom exercises and role-playing activities that culminate in performance are invaluable instructional tools that stimulate active student responses to the aesthetic, emotional or intellectual content of literary texts and, ultimately, enrich a student's learning experience. The basic principles of classroom performance are to provide a…

Poor countries need development programs that are both effective and cost-effective. To assess effectiveness, researchers are increasingly using randomized trials (or quasi-experimental methods that imitate randomized trials), which provide a clear picture of which outcomes are attributable to the program being evaluated. This "Policy Insight"…

Changes in anatomy education over the last two decades have, in large part, led to less emphasis on gross anatomy in the medical curriculum. This has led many to question whether streamlined anatomy courses truly provide adequate preparation for medical practice. Rather than wondering about the effects of these changes, we should be actively…

As the small states that line the Arabian Peninsula spend their billions of petrodollars picking up luxury hotels, first-class airlines, and high-tech weaponry, three of the emirates--Dubai, Abu Dhabi, and Qatar--have been engaged in a high-stakes game of one-upmanship involving universities, American universities in particular. Recent reports…

This study reviews the developments of 9 Chinese top universities supported by "985 Project" during 1997-2005 based on the analysis of a series of scientometric indicators, including the total number of publications indexed by Science Citation Index Expanded and Social Sciences Citation Index, the cumulated impact factor of publications,…

In this article we--as academic developers in two different faculties within a large, research-intensive university--discuss the scholarship of teaching and learning as a strategy for institutional improvement of teaching and learning. We focus on three related issues. Firstly, how can individual engagement in the scholarship of teaching and…

It is neither easy to change teacher thinking, nor is it easy to influence teaching practice by handing teachers the tools to do this in a course. It is suggested in this paper that it is not enough to let teachers who teach take a course on teaching in higher education. The process of influencing teachers' thinking should include working with the…

This is the second "Profiles" report to examine nonprofit education management organizations (EMOs). This report is modeled after the 11 annual "Profiles" that cover for-profit EMOs. While the number of schools operated by for-profit EMOs grew rapidly in the 1990s and is now leveling off, the number of schools operated by nonprofit EMOs has been…

The educational scenario in India country is now passing through an era of renovation and refinement. The school education as well as higher education is included in this rejuvenation, with least consideration to teacher education. Pedagogic changes gained momentum by the inception of nation wide schemes such as MLL, DPEP, SSA and the emerging…

The charter school concept was first introduced in 1991 when the Minnesota Legislature passed the nation's first charter school law. As of this writing in 2009, 40 states and the District of Columbia have charter school legislation. While the specific characteristics and nuances of these laws vary from state to state, almost every state law…

The current study aimed to explore the weaknesses of the junior high school system in Israel, a country whose first junior high schools (Grades 7-9) were established in the early 1970s and whose educational system differs from the systems of Europe and North America in terms of structure, ideology, and control. Based on semistructured interviews…

The introduction of liberal studies is a new curriculum reform initiative in Hong Kong starting from 2009. It is a kind of formal interdisciplinary curriculum built on decades of experiences garnered from the implementation of various integrated subjects with similar nature. Through the method of documentary analysis that brings all official…

This article attempts to analyze the main tendencies of the higher education systems and policies within the Mercosur, a regional bloc composed by Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, and Uruguay. The article discusses some global trends and describes the process of educational integration in the Mercosur as well as the higher education systems of each of…

The South African Qualifications Authority (SAQA) recently commissioned a review of the career development field in South Africa. The review was designed to clarify what SAQA's role might be in assisting learners throughout life to navigate their ways through the complex array of education, training and work opportunities (including, but not…

Employing statistical analysis, this study has made a preliminary exploration of promoting the equitable development of basic education in underdeveloped counties through the case study of Cili county. The unequally developed basic education in the county has been made clear, the reasons for the inequitable education have been analyzed, and,…