Considerable efforts have been made to better understand how global trends toward standards-based reforms have emerged in national education systems. Less well known, however, is the unfolding of standards-based reforms within and across federal education systems. In federal systems, national governments do not make policy unilaterally, but rather…

In the present scientific era which prefers evidence-based educational research and methodological gold standards, 'rigour', 'discipline' and the 'systematic' serve as standardising and homogenising concepts and as powerful identifiers of 'normal science' in the context of historical and cultural contingencies. These concepts serve to construct…

This paper uses two high-profile cases of alleged plagiarism in doctoral theses to discuss the debate on academic malpractice in the German context. The two cases received intense media attention which led to a hitherto unseen interrogation of academic standards in higher education and of the integrity of the research community. The paper analyses…

Competent use of the Internet to locate information is an important skill for today's youth. Yet, many lack the knowledge and dispositions to engage in the processes necessary to effectively and efficiently find information on the Internet. As a result, various countries have incorporated references to the processes of online inquiry within their…

University professors' views of nature of science play an important role when guiding undergraduate students into the culture of practicing physicists. While these topics have a long-standing tradition in U.S. curricula they are not part of German educational standards or curricula. Additionally professors' views--in contrast to those of their…

In this paper, we present a study, which models and measures the competencies of higher education students in business and economics--within and across countries. To measure student competencies in a valid and reliable way, the Test of Understanding in College Economics was used, which assesses microeconomic and macroeconomic competencies. The…

Implementing programs for gifted students requires solutions on multiple levels of the education system. In this article, Heinz Neber suggests streamlining the topic with five interacting, systemic levels. Each level requires its own definitions and clarifications. These should be coordinated and prioritized according to prominent goals and…

This report projects Northern Ireland's skills base through to 2030 and compares this to a number of Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries. The report shows that on current trends Northern Ireland will continue to lag many other countries on a number of measures of learning and skills in 2030. These shortfalls can…

Exclusive boarding schools in social environments where the meritocratic norm is prevalent are faced with a tension between parents' desire to give their children a head start in the competition for educational qualifications, social prestige and jobs on the one hand and the powerful social norm of advancement by merit under conditions of…

What is known about places we have not been to before we learn from maps, geographical magazines, or maybe travel reports. Ordinarily, this information is for granted without reflecting on its origin and underlying theoretical premises. Usually, this lack of reflection does not appear as problematic. However, what can can be learned from the fact…

Up to the publication of the results of Germany's first participation in the PISA study in 2001, there had been no national educational standards in Germany's 16 federal states. In the aftermath of the discussions about the disappointing outcomes, Germany's federal states decided to develop national standards, yet focusing on "core…

It is often assumed within much of the academic literature and by many of those working in higher education that universities across Europe are homogenising, converging around an Anglo-American model as a result of neo-liberal pressures and the aim of creating a single European Higher Education Area. However, drawing on an analysis of 92 policy…

In this paper, I analyze how recent calls to internationalize publication behavior affect research practices at an automotive engineering department in Germany. Automotive engineering is a field with traditionally rather scarce publication activity and strong connections to industry. Substantial authority to define suitable research problems and…

National and international large-scale assessments (LSA) have a major impact on educational systems, which raises fundamental questions about the validity of the measures regarding their internal structure and their relations to relevant covariates. Given its importance, research on the validity of instruments specifically developed for LSA is…

Purpose: The study of the problems hindering improvement of the system of training through standardization of qualification requirements is relevant because, in a globalized system of teaching staff and high rates of migration, not only national but also international requirements for employees should be considered. This increases the…