The PIRLS 2011 international database includes data for all questionnaires administered as part of the PIRLS 2011 assessment. This supplement contains the international version of the PIRLS 2011 background questionnaires and curriculum questionnaires in the following 5 sections: (1) Student Questionnaire; (2) Home Questionnaire (Learning to Read…

Developmental educators are often familiar with the benefits of learning communities and with the importance of incorporating research-based best practices into their developmental studies courses. Faculty may be less familiar with the educational applications based on the concepts of emotional intelligence (EI). Faculty at College of the Mainland…

In this article has been extracted from a longer paper by the same name that came about in response to the Badman Review of Elective Home Education (Badman 2009). The first part briefly discusses the Badman Review. The next looks at the misunderstandings that can occur once concerns are raised in home education. Finally there are case studies…

Increasingly, countries around the world are promoting forms of "critical" citizenship in the planned curricula of schools. However, the intended meaning behind this term varies markedly and can range from a set of abstract and technical skills under the label "critical thinking" to a desire to encourage engagement, action and political…

Conductive education (CE) is widely reported as having a range of benefits. In the last two decades, it has expanded internationally. Educational psychologists may well encounter parents requesting this specialist intervention which is not normally offered within Local Authority special needs provision, for children with cerebral palsy and other…

This article is an account of a return to education course set up to cater to the needs of recovering heroin addicts in a Dublin rehabilitation project in the summer of 2008. It begins with a brief outline of the HSE Soilse rehabilitation and recovery programme and the rationale for seeking association with the Department of Adult and Community…

This article offers an analysis of the dimensions of consensus on education using Diane Ravitch's statement: "The single biggest problem in American education is that no one agrees on why they educate." The interesting problem is to determine which consensus on educational issues varies, whose consensus it is, and how and why it varies. The author…

Paulo Freire argued that learning should be conversational, accessible, and centered on the experience of the participants. Freirean theory remains strong in adult education and has implications for human performance technology applications in such areas as online learning in terms of design, accessibility, and content, as well as performance…

Present-day Russia is characterized by a resolute transition to the innovative path of development in all spheres of economic and social life, and that includes the sphere of education. The processes that took place in Russian education in the 1990s, which can be characterized as a time of "precipitous innovation," were, to some extent,…

The issue of teacher effectiveness has risen rapidly to the top of the education policy agenda, and the federal government and states are considering bold steps to improve teacher and leader effectiveness. One place to look for ideas is the experiences of high-performing education systems around the world. Finland, Ontario, and Singapore all have…

Problem-based learning (PBL) is an educational method that identifies a problem as a context for student learning. Critical-thinking skills, deductive reasoning, knowledge, and behaviors are developed as students learn how theory can be applied to practical settings. Problem-based learning encourages self-direction, lifelong learning, and sharing…

Patterns of identification for special education services across three cohorts of students in kindergarten through third grade before and after implementation of a schoolwide, three-tier reading prevention model in one large school district are reported. The first cohort of students represents a historical control group that did not participate in…

Recognising both the complexity of skills policies and the potential for peer learning, the OECD has developed a global Skills Strategy that helps countries to identify the strengths and weaknesses of their national skills systems, benchmark them internationally, and develop policies that can transform better skills into better jobs, economic…

The purpose of this study was to evaluate and determine how special education teachers perceived the effectiveness and impact of NCLB and IDEA on the academic achievement of high school students with disabilities. The purpose of the "No Child Left Behind Act" (NCLB) and the "Individuals with Disabilities Education Act" (IDEA)…

Using a causal-comparative research design, this study investigated the effectiveness of Differentiated Instruction Support Inclusion Services on fifth grade regular education and gifted students' Reading/Language Arts achievement. The study analyzed and compared the achievement of the regular education students who received no inclusion support…