Higher education's rapid expansion is paired with growing social expectations of its benefits and concern on its teaching quality. In response to these, institutional/national surveys based on an array of theories are widely used in universities for quality assurance, enhancement, and benchmarking. This paper reviews three major types of…

This note reports the results of a Delphi panel priority setting exercise for English education research. An initial item-generating survey of 75 English education academics and teachers worldwide was conducted; a thematic analysis of responses generated 31 potential priorities for future research. An adapted Delphi panel consisting of 44 English…

Australian universities have been actively engaged in transnational education since the 1990s. The challenges of assuring quality have seen a changing regulatory framework increasingly designed to ensure equivalence of standards wherever a course of study is offered and however it is delivered. Transnational Higher Education has grown…

Mathematics education is highly regarded as a research field within our region, especially when compared to other fields within the broader education discipline. The field has been relatively cohesive, well organised and internationally influential in a universally strong field. Mathematics education research has developed and evolved in…

Research and scholarship into educational effectiveness research (EER) is comprehensively reviewed from the UK, The Netherlands, the US, Cyprus, Belgium, Sweden, France, Germany, New Zealand, Australia, and other societies, dating from the field's origins in the 1970s. Issues include its history, methodological and theoretical advances, scientific…

In March 2004, Stephen Ball and others presented a symposium at the conference of the British Educational Research Association (BERA) on the necessity of theory in educational research. Like Ball, I have observed that theory, not just social theory, is a difficult space and one that divides researchers (those comfortable with theory and those less…

Using a content analysis approach, this article shares the results of scholarly adult education study on museum and library adult education and learning as represented in peer-reviewed publications over the past 60 years. Findings show a paucity of studies in general, but particularly around libraries. The majority of publications on libraries…

The perceived benefits of Wellness Education in University environments are substantiated by a number of studies in relation to the place, impact and purpose of Wellness curricula. Many authors recommend that Wellness curriculum design must include personal experiences, reflective practice and active self-managed learning approaches in order to…

This introductory article reviews trends in research in intellectual disability in Australia and reports on a workshop of the Research and Development Advisory Committee of the Department of Community Services and Health, that identified knowledge gaps and key issues. A coherent programmatic research agenda, characterized by interaction between…

Analyzes 50 recent Australian vocational education and training research studies using an organizational theory framework to assess the degree of organizational and socioeconomic complexity. Finds that most explore the familiar (organizational) domain and only three investigate problems involving both organizational and socioeconomic domains.…

As my playful title suggests, I am referring to the process where the statement, "send reinforcements; we're going to advance," is said to have become, "send three- and fourpence; we're going to a dance." This quotation springs to mind when asked to think about how research gets picked up and recommendations from research are…

In 1994, the Government of Norway initiated a major restructuring of the non-university sector. Almost one hundred vocationally-oriented institutions were amalgamated to create twenty-six comprehensive, autonomous colleges. Nursing education was completely reorganized. Once offered in specialized schools closely linked to hospitals, nursing became…

This paper examines how educational comparisons might be used by the educational practitioners, and how the educator can contribute to the comparativists' work. Currently, it is argued, a gap exists between comparative educational study and the theory and practice of education. This leads to three areas of need. First, professional comparativists…

A theory postulating nine dimensions of effectiveness in U.S. higher education institutions was tested in an Australian sample. Findings suggest that administrators should use caution when extrapolating from results in at least the Australian context. Areas for future research are also suggested by cross-cultural comparisons. (Author/MSE)

Current research into youth transitions in Australia documents an increasingly individualized process in which significant numbers of youths are deemed at risk of not making a successful transition from school to work. Many theorists are questioning the applicability of the linear model of transition to current conditions. Other theorists are…