This study discusses the self-assessments of over 22,500 students on a set of 12 can-do statements that are taken from the Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR). The students' endorsement or negation of the statements reflects their sense of self-efficacy in English reading, writing, and listening. Their self-efficacy beliefs are compared…

The purpose of this study was to investigate the communicative strategies used by two effective first grade teachers whose students came from lower SES communities marked by a high incidence of school failure. One school was in Akko, Israel and one was in New Jersey in the US. In both settings, the teachers taught lessons in a language that was…

Purpose: There is a tendency to assess educational systems in terms of their efficiency in gaining high scores on cognitive skills. Schools perform, however, also a socializing function. The whole policy debate tends to ignore the impact of educational systems on attitudes or democratic values. This contribution focuses on the impact of the…

Grouping similar students together within schools ("streaming") or classrooms ("tracking") based on past literacy skills (reported by parents), family socioeconomic status (SES) or reading attitudes might affect their reading achievement. Our multilevel analysis of the reading tests of 208,057 fourth-grade students across 40…

Introduction: Nowadays, language and intercultural competences have become core employability skills in many fields, supporting the development of other skills which emphasizes the necessity for specific pedagogic approaches in developing online learning materials and courses that would develop learners' language competence and other relevant 21st…

This edited volume presents innovative current research in the field of Science Education. The chapter's deal with a wide variety of topics and research approaches, conducted in a range of contexts and settings. Together they make a strong contribution to knowledge on science teaching and learning. The book consists of selected presentations from…

This handbook presents a wide range of research on adults who have low literacy skills. It looks at the cognitive, affective, and motivational factors underlying adult literacy; adult literacy in different countries; and the educational approaches being taken to help improve adults' literacy skills. It includes not only adults enrolled in adult…

Surveys in low- and middle-income (LMI countries) reveal persistently low levels of learning among children in disadvantaged communities. Against this background, our synthesis of ethnographies aims at a fresh interpretation of classroom practices to clarify instruction-related barriers to literacy attainments. The review focuses on the period…

The authors examine the factors influencing mathematics homework interest for Chinese students and compare the findings with a recent study involving U.S. students. The findings from multilevel analyses revealed that some predictors for homework interest functioned similarly (e.g., affective attitude toward homework, learning-oriented reasons,…

To identify ways that national culture, school characteristics, and individual attributes impact the victimization of students in Grade 8, data from the United States and three East Asian countries (i.e., Japan, S. Korea, and Taiwan) were compared using the 2011 Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) and Hierarchical Liner…

The use of the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) across nations, cultures, and languages has been criticized. The key criticisms point to the linguistic and cultural biases potentially underlying the design of reading comprehension tests, raising doubts about the legitimacy of comparisons across economies. Our research focused…

The purpose of the current study is to explore the effects of learning strategies on Mathematical Literacy (ML) of students in higher and lower achieving countries. To address this issue, the study utilizes PISA2002 data to conduct a multi-level analysis (HLM) of Hong Kong and Israel students. In PISA2002, Israel was rated 31st in Mathematics,…

This article provides a 24-year update on the 10 standardized tests used most frequently with children and youth by school psychologists. Data were acquired from 64 countries through an international survey, with one respondent from each country. The informants were solicited due to their expertise in the area of assessment. The data from the…

If the quality of an education system can never exceed the quality of its teachers, then countries need to do all they can to build a high-quality teaching force. "Teaching Excellence through Professional Learning and Policy Reform: Lessons from around the World," the background report to the sixth International Summit on the Teaching…

Enormous variation exists among nations and regions in their inclusive education provisions. In addition to comparisons based on policy documents and figures, in-depth and contextually grounded comparative studies involving qualitative data based on stakeholder experiences are needed, especially between western and Asian regions or nations where…