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This paper focuses on the state of the art for recognition of prior experiential learning in European universities. Although recognition of prior learning and prior experiential learning have been officially stated as being important aims by national ministers of education in their Bologna Process communiques, implementation in the majority of countries is moving rather slowly. The paper discusses assessment and accreditation of prior and experiential learning (APEL) as a political aim in European higher education and describes examples from France, the UK, Norway and Estonia. The final section includes an overview of the main obstacles for wider application of APEL, ending with conclusions and recommendations for action. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to present a descriptive overview of patterns and labour market outcomes characterising the labour market entry in Estonia compared to the EU countries. The assumption that labour market institutions and educational systems have an impact on the labour market entry process makes up the starting point for the formulation of the hypotheses. The hypotheses have been formulated on the basis of the comparison between the educational systems as well as labour market institutions in Estonia and in the EU countries. The paper draws upon data from the Estonian Labour Force Survey (ELFS) 2002 and from the 1997 ELFS’ macro level data about the EU countries. The paper will present evidence concerning differences in labour market outcomes between new entrants and experienced workers. Based on macro level data, the analysis will attempt to empirically identify distinct country clusters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we try to unravel some of the unintended and intended academic effects associated with post-Soviet educational reforms by focusing on three cases: Estonia, Latvia and Russia. We have chosen this comparison because a unique ‘natural experiment’ in the three countries allows us to compare the changing academic performance on an international test of a largely similar population in the three countries—Russian origin students attending Russian-medium schools—subjected to three variations of post-Soviet reforms. We find that relative to students in Russia, Russian-medium students in the Baltics made significant gains in the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) test. In Latvia, these appear to be an unintended effect of somewhat ‘softened’ state language policies, the conditions surrounding minority rights, and the general context of maintaining social cohesion. In Estonia, the (later) relative gains of Russian students appear to an intended effect of locally grown educational (and language) policies and increased, more effective cooperation with Russian medium schools to further improve PISA performance in a relatively high scoring, PISA-focused country. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In this paper, we develop a multi-level comparative approach to analyse Trends in International Mathematics and Science Survey (TIMSS) and Programme of International Student Achievement (PISA) mathematics results for a country, Russia, where the two tests provide contradictory information about students’ relative performance. Russian students do relatively well on the TIMSS mathematics test but relatively poorly on the PISA. We compare the performance of Russian students with different levels of family academic resources over the past decade on these tests compared to students with similar family resources in Russia’s neighbours and to Russian students studying in Latvian and Estonian Russian-medium schools. These comparisons and interviews with educators in Latvia and Estonia help us understand why students in Russia may perform lower on the PISA and to draw education policy lessons for improving international test performance generally and Russian students’ PISA mathematics performance specifically. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Since the 1980s, growing globalisation and economic restructuring coupled with expansion of tertiary education contributed to tremendous change in the labour market entry process in Europe. Most previous studies have been quantitative, concentrated on the supply aspect and analysed the role of education as the explanatory variable of youth labour market outcome equations. By contrast, the demand aspect has gained less attention. In this paper, using Estonia as a case study in both perspectives – employers’ practices and graduates’ experiences – are combined to answer the question: how employers use information provided by tertiary education credentials in the recruitment process. Semi-structured interviews with the 15 biggest employers and focus groups consisting of 63 recent graduates comprise the base data of our study. The results reveal that it is useful to examine the mechanisms why education affects recruitment processes separately among service providers and goods producers as well as in different stages of recruitment (pre-selection, getting a job offer). In all sectors, the educational credentials were used in the pre-selection process as a screening device. However, in a job offer, service providers emphasised the role of credentials as signals of trainability while for goods producers credentials informed employers about their job-specific skills. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article aims to study the adoption of national curricula by vocational teachers. In the paper, we review the process of vocational education and training curriculum reform in Estonia over the last 20 years, and, in particular, the introduction of national curricula. As teachers should be considered the key agents of curricular change, we look at how teachers have perceived the changes and make sense of them. The analysis of qualitative interviews with 24 vocational teachers in Estonia revealed very different perceptions towards the process of reforming vocational education and training curricula. Resulting from the analysis, five categories of teachers were identified: enthusiastic innovators, constructive-critical innovators, normative adopters, norm ignorers and bitterly disappointed. The Everett Rogers theory of innovation diffusion as well as the concept of ‘sense-making’ has been made use of when explaining the uneven adoption of curriculum change among teachers, and different reactions to potential changes in their work practices. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper investigates ethnic educational inequality in Estonia focusing on second-generation Russians. In Estonia, contrary to many other European countries, the overall educational attainment of second-generation immigrants has, compared to their parents, diverged from the educational attainment of the native population. Our results from logistic regression analysis indicate that the odds of Russians continuing in general secondary and higher education are lower compared to native Estonians. Parental economic, cultural, and host country specific resources do not account for ethnic differences in educational transition. Adolescents’ own language proficiency and citizenship have a strong impact on educational decisions. We conclude that the Estonian education system contributes to the emergence of ethnic differences. While basic and secondary schools function in either the Estonian or Russian languages, the curricula in public higher education institutions are taught mainly in Estonian, which might lower expectations of success amongst Russian adolescents. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

After the re-establishment of independent Estonian statehood in 1991, Russian lost its privileges as the dominant and official language in Estonia, and Estonian continued as the only official language. This paper attempts to map the position of a Russian-speaking teacher within the sociological categories of power and language, based on the analysis of legislative acts and strategic documents within the domain of language policy and language legitimization practices in historical retrospective. The main focus of the study stresses an attempt to elaborate on to what extent the low self-efficacy of Russian-speaking teachers as the agents of legitimization of the Estonian language in Russian-speaking schools, and their low position in power relations within the Estonian education system, can be explained in the categories of power and language, as conceptualized on the basis of the social theory of Bourdieu. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper presents an up-to-date overview of language policies and practices in Lithuania, paying particular attention to the latest developments that have taken place in national educational contexts. Against the background of recent socio-demographic changes in the three Baltic republics, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, it analyzes issues pertaining to educational measures chosen in support of both Lithuanian and other locally used languages. In tracing re-evolving individual multilingualisms amongst majority and minority populations around EU accession, it will be shown that these are symbolic of changing orientations, which are socially, politically and economically motivated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]