Search

The article highlights the integrated and less fragmented post secondary music curriculum advocated by Claire Detel. The author stated that the hard-boundedness that Detels wants to change is a significant problem for music education, thus music teachers need to work to make its boundaries more supple. In addition, music teachers need to carefully think about the kinds of dispositions it requires in order to flourish, to have interdisciplinarity benefit from music education. However, the author contradicts the claim of Detel that specialization and fragmentation are to blame for flagging support for the arts, since the reasons for the problem are more complex than his suggestions.

Virtual reality software has evolved to create ever more realistic virtual environments. Sophisticated virtual education laboratory experiments are now possible. Some educators and researchers question the value of hands-on laboratories relative to virtual laboratories. Researchers have investigated students' acceptance of virtual laboratories and the relative effectiveness of virtual laboratories compared to traditional hands-on laboratories. Research results indicated that students' attitudes toward virtual laboratory experiments are positive, and researchers found virtual laboratory experiments to be as effective as or more effective than traditional hands-on laboratories. However, researchers have not measured simulated laboratory effectiveness for all standard education laboratory goals. Simulated laboratory technology will be part of science education, but how to introduce laboratory simulations and the appropriate role for simulated laboratories remains a subject of debate. Are virtual laboratory experiments acceptable substitutes for hands-on laboratories in secondary education? To explore this question, laboratory goals and effectiveness criteria must be defined and measured for secondary education. This paper explores the goals and effectiveness of virtual and hands-on education laboratories. This paper also outlines the arguments for and against the replacement of traditional hands-on labs with simulated laboratories in secondary science education and makes a case for using laboratory simulations to supplement rather than replace traditional hands-on laboratories. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a commentary on writing papers on pedagogy for the "Journal of Planning Education and Research (JPER)." The topics of pedagogy articles published in the journal include conceptualization of issues related to planing education, assessments of the state of planning instruction and curricula, and accounts of courses or teaching innovations. Authors need to go beyond planning literature and consider learning theories in their papers.

The article focuses on the World Bank's Education Sector Policy Paper, which highlights issues and trends in the development of education. It examines the relationship between education and development. The significance of education can be shown in the following ways: education as a basic need; education as an instrument to support programs designed to meet other basic needs and education as an activity that sustains overall development. Meanwhile, a set of problems that affects educational development include equality in educational opportunities; internal efficiency of educational systems; management of educational systems and source of funds for education.

A call for papers for the periodical "Decision Sciences Journal of Innovative Education" is presented.

The rapid advancement of technology and the ever-changing global landscape have presented unique challenges and opportunities for educational systems worldwide. The introduction of the BANI (Brittle, Anxious, Nonlinear, Incomprehensible) framework as a response to the volatile and unpredictable nature of contemporary environments has further emphasized the need for innovative approaches to education. This paper explores the innovative development of educational systems within the BANI environment, focusing on the integration of emerging technologies, pedagogical strategies, and learner-centred approaches. The paper begins by providing a comprehensive overview of the BANI framework and its implications for educational systems. It highlights the key characteristics of the BANI envi-ronment, including its inherent brittleness, anxiety-inducing nature, nonlinearity, and incomprehensibility. The formal model of interaction between projects and the BANI environment can assess innovation project value for future optimisation. Furthermore, it elucidates the potential consequences of neglecting to adapt educational systems to these volatile conditions, emphasizing the importance of innovation in education. Drawing upon recent research and theoretical frameworks, the paper explores various innovative approaches to educational development in the BANI environment. It discusses the integration of emerging technologies, such as artificial intelligence, virtual reality, and augmented reality, into teaching and learn-ing processes. Moreover, it investigates the implementation of learner-centred development strategies that foster critical thinking, problem-solving skills, creativity, and adaptability. The paper addresses the role of educators and institutions in supporting innovative development within the BANI environment. It emphasizes the need for professional development programs that empower educators to leverage emerging technologies and implement learner-centred approaches effectively. Key management of innovative project principles in the BANI environment is defined in the paper. Additionally, it highlights the significance of collaboration among educational stakeholders, including policymakers, administrators, teachers, students, and parents, to foster an ecosystem that nurtures innovation in education. The paper discusses potential challenges and ethical considerations associated with the innovative development of educational systems in the BANI environment. It explores issues related to equity, privacy, data security, and the digital divide, emphasizing the importance of responsible and inclusive approaches to educational innovation. Contributes to the existing literature by providing insights and recommendations for the innovative development of educational systems within the BANI environment. By embracing emerging technologies, learner-centred pedagogies, and collaborative efforts, educational systems can better prepare learners to thrive in uncertain and rapidly changing contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to identify secondary teachers' perspectives regarding educational supervision as well as the role of the inspector in convincing teachers of his/her applied supervisory method. The previous viewpoint has given way to a new one that believes in the developmental supervision method, as this new method stems from the supervisor's ability to anticipate the future and stay current on educational developments in the professional development field. This includes the ability to forecast future educational needs for the organization and the administrative direction of education. In addition, the developmental supervision method comprises the presentation of educational innovations and their incorporation into study programs, content, practices, and means, as well as the target audience. The goal is to prepare in advance for new roles and tasks to instill a sense of seriousness in the educational process and propel it forward. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of Education Research (1680-6360) is the property of Angle Publishing Co., Ltd. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This paper examines Bauhaus School (1919–1933) innovation and relevance today. The School is a landmark in the history of design as a discipline and the development of design education. The School was also a workplace, commercialising Bauhaus-designed products. While drawing global interest in its innovations, the School faced resistance in Germany because it challenged conventions. This problem raises the questions: How did the School-workplace generate innovations amid the calamity of post-war Germany, and what is the significance of the Bauhaus for post-pandemic education and workplaces one hundred years on? The concept of 'transgression' is used to understand innovation at the Bauhaus School-workplace. Haraway discusses transgressive practices that disrupt established knowledges, moving ways of thinking and doing in new directions. Analysis of workplace learning research reveals that three interfacing dimensions make up innovation: (1) workplace environments, (2) the culture-order that facilitates innovation, and (3) learning in practice in authentic settings. This qualitative case study reports on how Bauhaus innovation emerged at the intersection of these key dimensions. There are surprising commonalities between the Bauhaus approach to innovation in challenging times and contemporary thinking about supporting innovation which are relevant to education, particularly STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics) education, and workplaces in a world affected by the COVID 19 pandemic. Thus, encouraging people who challenge boundaries, rules or 'the way things are' can support innovation. This paper addresses a gap in workplace learning research on interrelated dimensions of innovation which the Bauhaus recognized. The study also offers an innovative approach to the examination of innovation across time and space whereas most contemporary studies of innovation focus on the present. Further, conceptualizing innovation as transgression offers a new way of thinking about innovation in design and in the workplace. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With some of the propositions from the literature on 'policy enactments' as a backdrop, this paper addresses the circulation of a research policy innovation and its effects on the knowledge territory of an unlikely profession. Specifically, I show how the Research Excellence Frameworks' impact policy in the UK was an object first managed by policymakers but later released as an object of concern for professional academics, including philosophers. I follow 'impact' through texts, events and testimonies about its doings with a special interest in its creation, its polemical encounter with philosophers, its management and issues about its definition and the assessment criteria used and experienced by philosophers. I conclude with some remarks on the effects that the circulation and writing of impact case studies had on producing a social valorisation and attachment to impact, even amongst philosophers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The outbreak of COVID-19 has triggered a worldwide upsurge in online education. This paper first reviews the actions implemented by Tsinghua University in response to COVID-19 as an example. Based on the experience, the paper further discusses how to turn the 'forced innovation' happened in the pandemic into an 'anti-pandemic dividend' that could expedite the transformation of higher education, through institutionalizing and normalizing the actions taken under the outbreak. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Function-Based (FB) representations of complex systems play an important role in Biologically Inspired Design (BID) by easing the knowledge interchange among biologists, engineers and designers. Many representations have been proposed by scholars over the years, but none of them has ever become a clear favorite. As a matter of fact, each model represents the system from a distinctive perspective. This paper explores the effects of these different representations as creative stimuli for students in order to obtain recommendations for fostering innovation in education and training practices. After introducing a selection of FB models for BID, the paper describes an experiment designed to allow a quantitative comparison of the outcomes of a BID design challenge among undergraduate students attending a course on methods and tools for conceptual design. An analysis of the results of the experiment is followed by the authors' reflection on directions for educational development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Universities of applied sciences (UAS) have a strong mandate to carry out research, development and innovation (RDI) activities in collaboration with local stakeholders. Geographical proximity is one of the key factors for the creation and success of RDI activities because of the positive balance between costs and benefits of local knowledge transfer, but they also depend on the networks of individual staff members. This paper aims to explore how maintaining and developing purpose-built and individual RDI partnerships during the COVID-19 pandemic has been managed. An enhanced conceptual framework for assessing contextual dimensions of the RDI activities beyond academic entrepreneurship as business ventures has been developed. The paper focuses on a single case study drawing on semi-structured research interviews investigating how the swap to remote working have affected RDI activities at Tampere University of Applied Sciences, one of the biggest UAS in Finland with intense regional linkages. The contribution of the study is twofold; firstly, the paper introduces an expanded theoretical approach for assessing the external and internal factors having an impact on the RDI activities beyond academic entrepreneurship. Secondly, by testing the proposed framework, it shares insights and good practices derived from empirical evidence, namely binary data and semi-structured interviews revealing experiences of RDI personnel and project managers involved with different phases of RDI process, for optimising high-quality innovation support, knowledge transfer activities and co-creation of new knowledge in exceptional circumstances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reflects upon and discusses the case of a participatory action research project in a public school in Nepal with the aim of exploring the possibilities for participatory approaches to contextualised teaching and learning. We discuss how research-degree students and school stakeholders involved in participatory needs assessment identified the need for contextualised teaching and learning and the participatory and generative model of contextualised teaching and learning we initiated in response. However, at the end of three different participatory action research (PAR) cycles, we came to an understanding that, for sustainable pedagogical reforms, even buzz words like 'participatory' and 'shifts in perspectives' have some limitations. In a bureaucratic schooling structure, like that in Nepal, pedagogical innovations for contextualised teaching and learning have to negotiate pre-structured schooling cultures, and therefore, any change in individual and group perspectives has to be accompanied by a shift in regular schooling design, from linear closedness to ecological openness. Otherwise, the innovations for contextualised teaching and learning are unlikely to be sustained in the face of the dominant practice architecture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, a site ontological approach to practice seeks to understand how educational development can be accomplished through the practices of 'middle leaders' - educators who exercise their leading 'between' the principal and the teaching staff. Analysis of two vignettes of leading in extraordinary circumstances untangles the web of interrelationships, conditions and practices that comprise middle leading in schools. The discussion focuses on how middle leaders' practices are enabled and constrained by practice architectures, and how their leading is ecologically arranged with other educational practices present. It is argued that notions of 'best practice' are an idealised but erroneous myth that often provokes educational development to be practised in homogenised or pre-packaged ways that do not necessarily serve the needs and interests of schools. We conclude by suggesting that best practice might be better conceptualised as site based practices, uniquely realised in response to local issues and concerns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Teoría de la Educación. Revista Interuniversitaria is the property of Ediciones Universidad de Salamanca and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Learning design is growing in importance but is not yet widely adopted by teachers. This paper describes the development of a scenario‐led learning design process, divided into two stages, which was implemented with over 500 teachers altogether from 15 European countries. Activity theory is used to explore the contradictions that arose when such changes were introduced into the established activity system of lesson planning. Data were collected through interviews and questionnaires from a small sample of participants including national coordinators (stage 1: n = 8; stage 2: n = 13) and teachers (stage 1: n = 13; stage 2: n = 23). These participants perceived that the scenario‐led learning design process, involving a wide range of stakeholders, was collaborative, supportive and innovative (compared to previous lesson planning practices). However, a number of contradictions were identifiable between: (1) the shift to collaborative learning design from teachers preparing their lessons alone; (2) the new tools and the existing rules of the national/regional education systems; (3) the time required to both understand and implement learning design, and the impact of competing demands. This paper discusses the challenges faced when attempting to scale‐up European school teachers' development of digital pedagogy. The structured (yet flexible) approach was welcomed and the tools promoted teacher reflection but, as commonly noted, the complexity and time‐constraints were major issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses the contribution of international studies on educational effectiveness in the light of 4 papers presented at the new ICSEI Methodology of Research and Effectiveness (MORE) Network in Barcelona in January 2005 and published in this issue of the journal. A brief historical overview is used to provide a context for these papers and a number of themes are identified in relation to the secondary analysis of international datasets such as TIMSS and PISA. The value of creating a new international teacher observation and feedback instrument to facilitate collaborative international research is discussed. In addition, the paper discusses the value of comparative studies of education policy in different national systems using the example of a high profile study of successful countries (in terms of PISA 2000 results) initiated by the Deutsches Institut für Internationale Pädagogische Forschung to inform a review of the German system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This perspectives' paper highlights some of the learning from the seminar that the author considers to have particular relevance for improvement practitioners and for investigators seeking to maximize the usefulness of their investigations. The paper discusses the learning under four themes and also notes the future learning needed to enable faster and lower-cost improvement and innovative methods for this learning. The four themes are: describing and reporting improvement interventions; the theme of increasing our certainty about attributing effects to implemented improvement changes; the theme of generalizing the learning from one investigation or improvement and the theme of learning for sustainment and scale-up. The paper suggests ways to build on what we learned at the seminar to create and enable faster take up of proven improvements by practitioners and healthcare services so as to benefit more patients more quickly in a variety of settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the history of human thought, Confucius' thought is prominent in Chinese philosophy. The value of Confucius' philosophical thought has transcended space and time and influenced the social life of China, Vietnam, and the world. In general, Confucius thought in particular and Confucian ideas became the ideology of the feudal class during its development through feudal dynasties in China and many other Asian countries, including Vietnam. The report describes the educational philosophy of Confucius. The article clarifies the limitations and existing values in the educational innovation of Vietnam today. The paper uses dialectical materialism methodology and synthesis, analysis, and comparison methods to explain the system of views on education, educational objects, educational program content, and educational plans to educate people in socio-political and moral ways to stabilize society. The article also clarifies Confucius's thoughts as the man who laid the foundation for the development of Confucianism in Chinese history. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to relate the recent technological revolution 4.0 and the necessity for development of innovation in the educational institutions. In relation to the urgency for a debate on the topic this paper will have two main objectives. Firstly to focus on outlining the most widely discussed contemporary issues with the management of innovations in the sphere of education. Secondly, to investigate the necessary conditions for successful innovation in Education. The paper will refer to several policies for successful development of innovations in Bulgarian schools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Identity has been widely understood in Western societies as a specular construction that operates simultaneously both from within and from outside oneself. However, this process is fiercely changing in a world in which almost every human action is mediated by information and communication technologies. This paper, from a theoretical perspective, aims to discover the main educational implications of this change. For that purpose, we first consider the traditional meaning and process of forming the self in Western culture. Afterwards, we identify and describe the mechanisms for the construction of the self in our current context, highlighting the fact that technologies, in themselves and regardless of the use we make of them, hide implications. Taking this into account, we show to what extent the current development of the self presents shades, conflicts and tangible risks from an educational perspective. We finally conclude that it is essential to promote an education on technology that goes beyond the use regulation in which, up to now, it has been solely focused on. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite a long historical French presence in Vietnam, only 0.5% of Vietnamese people speak French today. As in other countries of South East Asia, language instruction in Vietnam has mainly focused on English for several decades. This paper provides an overview of a project called Trench bilingual classes'. The main aim of the study is to analyze the benefits and the challenges identified by local teachers and researchers who have been involved in this program. The data are extracted from a corpus of 62 out of 468 papers written in French and presented during the annual Seminar on Action Research organized from 1999 to 2009 in Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam. The analysis of this discursive resource illustrates an overall acknowledgment of the positive outcomes of the program. However, in concordance with studies of English language teaching in Vietnam, the pitfalls identified in our corpus indicate that the major challenge is the implementation of a learner-centered and an action-oriented pedagogy in an educational context generally qualified as traditional. By providing new insights on bilingual education in Vietnam, our study will contribute to the current debate regarding the sustainability of innovative language curricula and multilingual education in the Asian context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article comments on the Educational Sector Policy paper of the World Bank. The paper explores the educational problems in developing countries. The author compares it with the 1974 paper of the Bank, claiming that the present paper is more clear in terms of recognizing the complexity of the social and political forces at work on the educational scene in developing countries. However, he criticizes the paper's view of the purposes of education. He suggests that it lacks diachronic perspective on the processes of growth and adjustment in the past.

This paper reports on an iterative design‐based research project to develop an online design tool (the Learning Designer) to support "teachers as designers." The aim is to evaluate the potential of the tool to develop and support a knowledge‐building teaching professional community. The Learning Designer was embedded and evaluated through international online "design challenge" events, and a series of MOOCs, providing both quantitative and qualitative data. Findings indicate that the Learning Designer enables an online community of teachers from across the K‐12, further and higher education sectors (~400 per day) to build and share their developing knowledge of learning design, and that this would be strengthened by further functionality to support collaboration and peer review of the learning designs created. The research shows how digital technology could bring about large‐scale improvements in teacher professional development of TEL. The paper concludes with users' priorities for new features to mobilise community knowledge via large‐scale professional development of teachers as innovative TEL designers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The free-market is commonly presented by its supporters as the best environment for introducing innovations. This paper challenges the universality of this contention by arguing that free-market dynamics cannot provide the appropriate conditions for significant educational changes. By adopting the perspective of systems research, I claim that the degeneracy characterizing free-markets lodad educational systems with extreme resilience to changes. Based on Barabasi's network theory, I argue further that introducing change is extremely difficult due to the need to invest extensive effort in identifying specific sources of power (i.e., hubs) and removing them. Thus, this paper suggests that despite the prevalent image of public institutions as highly conservative and stagnant, it might be interesting to investigate their potential as sources of innovations that are no less radical than the alternatives proposed by free-market ideologues. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses the experience of a teacher and her Year 6 class (10-11 year-olds) over a school year, while participating in a pilot project introducing Personal Digital Assistants as a learning tool. The intervention was initiated and supported by the local City Learning Centre, which was concerned with how best to use technologies for learning, and the teacher was prepared to take risks to learn how to use the technology and apply it within the national curriculum. This paper focuses on the roles the teacher played in designing, managing and mediating multi-modal approaches to teaching and learning, while meeting the curriculum requirements. Her creative approach was rewarded with high levels of student engagement, motivation and autonomy across the class, and higher than expected results in the national tests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Past and present research has provided evidence to support the claim that technologies for teaching and learning must be pedagogically sound. However, educational technologies are also part of a complex process involving the people in the implementation of the innovation. In this paper, I review existing research and explain what both of those claims entail for educational technology. In the remainder of the paper, I discuss the research agenda related to the need to provide evidence that technology innovations are successful in the implementation process. Implications of this three-part model as well as a discussion of the importance of technological pedagogical content knowledge conclude the paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The goal of this paper is to explore the design and implementation of early years educational policy in England in the period 1997-2004. First to be described are the innovations in policy (i.e. the promise), followed by the 'evidence base' for new policy (i.e. the research), the delivery of new services (i.e. the achievement), and finally the tensions and gaps which remain (i.e. the shortfall). The paper will focus on evidence concerning expansion of services and on the benefit of early years education on children's development. It is argued that early years education in England has been transformed through the following: integration of education and care at local and national level, the introduction of the Foundation Stage Curriculum 3-6 years and its birth-3 years supplement, and the firm focus on families as well as children in the delivery of services. There are, however, gaps and tensions to be resolved before the overall vision can be achieved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a letter from the editor of "Comparative Education" concerning the February 2009 issue. The issue discusses the potential and impact of international collaboration in the areas of research, performance assessment, policy formulation, and international development cooperation. Papers in the issue include a paper concerning how international quality assurance and evaluation mechanisms are influencing policy formulation worldwide and a paper about the impact of educational innovations in Japan.

A brief introduction to this special issue of Educational Research and Evaluation is given. Current trends in the analysis of longitudinal data begin with a model for change within the individual, as in latent growth modeling or multilevel modeling of individual growth data. This individual-level model can then be nested within a higher order model for variation in individual-level parameters. The 5 papers within this special issue each present unique contributions to the study of individual growth models in educational research and will contribute to a greater awareness of innovations in growth modeling procedures among educational researchers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study discusses a design-thinking approach for a virtual exchange intended to introduce pre-service teachers to global collaboration and empowered learning through the use of educational technology. Principles of design-thinking (i.e., empathy, ideation, and testing) were aligned with broader educational goals of culturally responsive practices and metacognition. Findings suggested that participants in the study (n = 36), pre-service teachers in the US, drew on individual strengths, cosmopolitan interests in global partnership, and problem-solving strategies to leverage educational technology to achieve learning goals. This paper contributes valuable insights, and recommendations for practice, about how to conduct virtual exchanges in higher education and K-12 learning settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Improving the governance is one of the priorities of the reforms in the area of higher education in Russia. Radical reforms and massive democratisation of the sector in the last 25 years resulted in accumulation of many development issues: the quality of public services, the efficiency of public spending and the modes of interaction between state, society and institutions. Supervisory boards are the latest addition to the landscape of the university governance. The paper discusses the legal framework of the supervisory boards in Russia, analyses how it relates to the best world practices in the sector and how it reflects in the actual composition of the boards and affects the roles they accomplish at the universities. The paper concludes with the discussion of the areas of concern in the current boards’ practices and suggests how they can be improved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a review pertaining to assignment problem within the education domain, besides looking into the applications of the present research trend, developments, and publications. Assignment problem arises in diverse situations, where one needs to determine an optimal way to assign n subjects to m subjects in the best possible way. With that, this paper classified assignment problems into two, which are timetabling problem and allocation problem. The timetabling problem is further classified into examination, course, and school timetabling problems, while the allocation problem is divided into student-project allocation, new student allocation, and space allocation problems. Furthermore, the constraints, which are of hard and soft constraints, involved in the said problems are briefly elaborated. In addition, this paper presents various approaches to address various types of assignment problem. Moreover, direction and potential paths of problem solving based on the latest trend of approaches are also highlighted. As such, this review summarizes and records a comprehensive survey regarding assignment problem within education domain, which enhances one’s understanding concerning the varied types of assignment problems, along with various approaches that serve as solution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article informs that the March 2006 issue of the journal "Educational Media International" contains articles taken from papers that were presented at the International Council for Educational Media conference in Vienna, Austria in October 2004. It also informs that all the papers in the issue were peer reviewed and some of the conference papers were not recommended for publication by the reviewers. It hopes to explore digital media and the role of technologies in educational development in the next issue.

The purpose of this paper is to portray how vital are pedagogical innovations as tools in successful international teaching and learning and in successful communication between teachers and students. In addition, to portray how pertinent pedagogical innovations are in the communications between the students and professors as well. Furthermore, we will illustrate several practical examples of successful international pedagogical innovations. Methodology - we will provide examples of successful implementations of innovative teaching and learning with statistical data (student evaluations). What differences occurred after the implementation of a pedagogical innovation and especially how much improvement happened after the implementation of an idea? Furthermore, how do we measure success and improvement? Moreover, we will provide examples of successful international teaching and learning innovations and analyze cross - cultural comparisons between the American and Latvian educational systems. Originality of the research - pedagogical innovations are one of the main tasks in developing successful human relations, especially between the professor and the students. In addition, it is vital that the changes during the process of knowledge exchange relate and correspond to the social changes in society and relative within the system of comprehension of new knowledge in the current generation. We will show that the essence of international educational innovations is portrayed as the main trends of this process are discussed. Moreover, we will share our successful implementation of our innovative teaching and learning experiences; in particular, comparing the Latvian and the American educational systems (ISMA University in Latvia (School of Management & Information Systems) and Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT)) as examples of identifying and summarizing innovative initiatives. Especially examples of successful innovations with positive impacts and positive feedback. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research indicates that self-efficacy in teaching is a key issue for carrying out good teaching practice. The aim of this paper was to examine the relationship between teachers’ self-efficacy in information and communication technologies (ICT), their strategies to evaluate information, their digital competence, and use of ICT at school. A sample of 332 teachers participated in a survey. The teachers answered self-report questions and responded to a multiple-choice test on digital competence. Structural equation modelling was used to test a hypothesized model of the relationship between self-efficacy in basic ICT, self-efficacy in online collaboration, strategies to evaluate information, digital competence, and the use of ICT. The analysis confirmed that the empirical data supported the hypothesized model. Significant factor loadings and positive relationships between the factors were found. Overall, the factors in the model explained 41% of teachers’ digital competence, 49% of their self-efficacy in online collaborative, and 36% of their use of ICT at school. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

International statistics show that Jamaica's level of innovation is very low. Various factors facilitate the process of innovation and there is a view that a high degree of education is required for effective competition today's globalised economy.This is paper focuses on the educational system as a skills building platform for fostering innovation in the Jamaican society. It adopts the view that improving Jamaica's competitiveness can be answered in great part by addressing the level of innovativeness amongst its youth. Whereas various studies exist on providing innovation education students at the tertiary level, very few seem to address foundational skills at the early education levels which can lay the platform for the innovation skills that can lead to the development of new technologies, products and processes. This is paper makes the contribution that given that a significant number of Jamaican youth do not access tertiary education, innovation and entrepreneurship education should be established within the educational system at far earlier levels to develop the creativity, problem solving, curiosity and other skills that will provide a good foundation for building the effective human capital necessary for an innovative, competitive economy. The paper is intended to stimulate discussion amongst educators, employers and the private and public sector on the need to foster an innovation mindset amongst our youth so that we can bolster the future competiveness, productivity and economic growth of Jamaica. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Innovation is a crucial subject among higher education institutions where engaging techniques have been used to enhance the teaching and learning process. For this reason, this study sought to determine what and how teachers applied innovative techniques to enhance student learning, retention, and academic performance. It used a descriptive research design with questionnaires and descriptive statistics like frequency counting, percentages, and ranking to obtain and analyze the data. The findings showed the top three teaching strategies as using audio-visual aids, doing oral presentations, and peer mentoring while majority of the students felt at ease learning from teachers who used audio-visual tools, PowerPoint presentations, peer mentoring, and team teaching. It also revealed that students considered speaking and presenting in front of the class as less appealing. Issues encountered included passive students, the lack of students' interest to explore, a loss of general interest, inadequate time for planning, a lot of paperwork, and scarcity of resources for teaching and learning. Finally, results identified that innovative techniques should foster a positive attitude toward learning, teach students habits for success, provide creativity, encourage independent learning and collaborative learning, develop language convergence, and expand the source of information. Behavioral problems could exist as difficulties encountered on the implementation of teaching methods, but these could be remedied by improving these methods and instilling values among the students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a descriptive analysis of education reform in selected Southeast Asian nations between 1995 and 2007. It reports the results of a purposive survey of elite informants comprising scholars and educational leaders involved in education reform in Thailand, Malaysia, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore. The paper addresses two main questions: What have been the main obstacles to education reform in Southeast Asia? And is there anything unique about the process of educational reform and change in Southeast Asia or anything different from processes reported in the Western literature? Although the paper finds more similarities than differences in the process of education reform in Southeast Asia, the author notes distinctive obstacles to reform in these societies. These differences are linked to a cultural explanation of educational change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes the diffusion and determinants of innovations in secondary education. First, the diffusion path of five clusters of innovations in secondary schools is described. Second, the determinants of the adoption of these innovations are analyzed. The findings show that size is one of the main determinants of share of innovations in a school. Other determinants are competition, school type, and teaching method. These should be factored in innovation in public sector education. This paper explains why. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of the study is to identify the patterns of change in higher education institutions. It examines the contexts of the changing quality assurance mechanisms used by the different types of higher education institutions in England, Japan, and New York State between 2001 and 2007. The paper argues that there were no clear patterns of institutional change in terms of speed, intensity, extensiveness, momentum, trajectory, and consequence between centralized and decentralized institutions and public and private institutions. The study suggests three points for explanation why institutional types do not shape certain patterns of institutional change. The first point is that institutional change heavily relies on agents' interactions. The second point is that the ideas of centralized or decentralized and private or public per se are becoming ambiguous in the market or market-like systems. The third point is that the relationship between the central authorities and the institutions is far more significant than the types of institutions in the formation of particular patterns of institutional change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper argues that underlying the links being made between the need for educational change in responding to the knowledge economy is an evacuation of the content of curricula and a misplaced emphasis on 'genericism' and experience. As an alternative the paper draws on ideas from Durkheim, Vygotsky and Bernstein to make the case for the 'differentiation of knowledge' and in particular the differentiation between school and everyday knowledge as a principle for a future curriculum. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

At a time when questions are being asked about the identity and purpose of academic development, this paper seeks to address these questions within the context of one country in which educational development has been actively supported. This study considers a narrative of the complex and contradictory reality of educational development in the United Kingdom based on the perceptions of heads of educational development. Based on a survey of over 40 institutions, the paper highlights the growth of educational development centres and considers their staffing, institutional location, role and responsibilities. It also seeks to explore some points of similarity and difference with trends in other countries. A l'heure ou des questions sont posees au sujet de l'identite et des visees du developpement pedagogique, cet article cible ces questions du point de vue d'un pays au sein duquel le developpement pedagogique a ete soutenu activement. Cette recherche examine l'historique de la “realite complexe et contradictoire” du developpement pedagogique au Royaume-Uni a partir des perceptions de directeurs de centres de developpement pedagogique. Se basant sur un sondage de plus de 40 institutions, l'article met en lumiere la croissance des centres de developpement pedagogique et examine leur localisation institutionnelle, leur role et leurs responsabilites. L'article cherche aussi a explorer les similitudes et les differences avec des tendances observees dans d'autres pays. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing on what researchers and professionals in the field internationally report, this paper reviews educational technology as an emergent field. The review reveals the continuum of perspectives on what the field is, and how it is bounded or fragmented. The paper describes the field from two perspectives: the professional and scholarly and considers how the forms of knowledge differ and overlap in each domain. It posits some dichotomies which may frame the field such as science/ social science and positivist/ post-modernist. Finally the paper provides conceptual frameworks for distinguishing fields from each other and suggests what the categorisation of the field might mean, especially considering its emergent status in a rapidly changing context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]