Considers comparative education's relevance to Asian educational development, recommending ways to improve the effectiveness and research base of comparative education. Examines Asia's diversity and comparative education's role in solving common problems. Highlights the Asian and Pacific Programme of Educational Innovations for Development (APEID)…

Analyzes how Western educational models upset the balance between school and life achieved by precolonial Tanganyikan indigenous education. Examines Tanzanian policies, such as Education for Self-Reliance, intended to make elementary education relevant to rural needs by fostering self-employment. Includes statistics on enrollment, educational…

Criticizes university training in graduate programs in West Germany that fail to prepare students to utilize their university knowledge and solve practical problems in their professional positions after graduation. Focuses on training for careers in social work and educational science. Encourages intensive discussion to ameliorate these problems.…

In Northern Ireland there has been a dearth of evidence on the role of further education colleges in relation to educating adults. Given the existence of a system of education based on academic selection, it has emerged that the "losers" in this process grow up to become adults with reduced self-esteem in relation to how they perceive…

The history of (external) quality assurance schemes in European higher education since ca. 1980 is sketched in this article. The three pioneering countries in Western Europe are taken as models of different developments and contrasted with the rise of accreditation in Central and Eastern Europe after 1989. Using theoretical insights, the dynamics…

This study investigated the effects of learning communities on the educational development of first-year college students at a large, urban, highly selective, research university. These communities, known as "clusters," comprised a year long sequence of theme-oriented courses that were team taught and that included interdisciplinary lectures and…

This article seeks to lay out the use and importance of English in Malaysia from the time when the British ruled what was then Malaya to the present moment. When the British came to colonize the country, they brought with them their culture, their language and their beliefs. They introduced the English language as the medium of instruction in the…

This research brief presents an overview of a 2004 study by G.S. Shannon and P. Bylsma entitled "Characteristics of Improved School Districts: Themes from Research" (Olympia, WA: Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction). The authors reviewed more than 80 research articles that investigated the attributes of schools and districts …

Over recent years the issue of free and open source software (FOSS) for development in less developed countries (LDCs) has received increasing attention. In the beginning the benefits of FOSS for lower developed countries was only stressed by small groups of idealists like Richard Stallman. Now, however, it is moving into the hands of large…

In 2001, a program of distance learning was started within Kigali Institute of Education in collaboration with the Rwanda's Ministry of Education. It is an in-service training program that aims to upgrade in-service secondary school teachers and alleviate the shortage of teachers both in terms of quality and number. This program runs parallel to a…

This report depicts the status of telecommunications network development and usage by K-12 educational institutions in April and May of 1996, as described by the heads of educational technology initiatives in each of the 50 states and the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. These data are reproduced in this report as 51 "State Profiles."…

This report charts a brief history of the comprehensive high school in the United States designed particularly to highlight those key decisions that make them what they are. The first and longest part of the paper is organized chronologically into sections with the following headings: 1600-1890--Getting Started; 1890-1920--Basic Reform/Social…

This report summarizes a study conducted during 1993-94 evaluating rural secondary education in Alaska. The six components of the study included: (1) a survey of boarding school graduates concerning how well their educational experience prepared them for college, trade school, and employment; (2) a telephone survey of 800 rural households…

This publication contains an introduction and the 19 papers presented in workshops at a conference that addressed some issues relating to professionalization and the training and professional development needs in the area of adult education. Papers are as follows: "Training and Professional Development in Adult and Continuing Education"…

This report documents the depth of the crisis affecting higher education systems throughout the developing world and shows how developing countries can achieve the goals of greater efficiency, quality, and equity in higher education. A review of country experiences suggests four key directions for reform. First, reform programs should encourage…