High stakes examinations can have profound implications for how science is taught and learned. Limitations of school science such as the 'cookbook problem' can potentially be addressed if high stakes assessments target learning outcomes that are innovative. For example, less mindless procedural engagement and more thoughtful consideration of…

In the face of ongoing school budget cuts, increasing student numbers and national educational policy environments that demand more from schools, like it or not, school leaders are being forced to be much more market-oriented in their thinking and ways of being than at any other time before. A school is an important site for social development,…

In this provocative volume, Chester E. Finn, Jr., and Brandon L. Wright argue that, for decades, the United States has done too little to focus on educating students to achieve at high levels. The authors identify two core problems: First, compared to other countries, the United States does not produce enough high achievers. Second, students from…

America's fragmented, decentralized, politicized, and bureaucratic system of education governance is a major impediment to school reform. In this important new book, a number of leading education scholars, analysts, and practitioners show that understanding the impact of specific policy changes in areas such as standards, testing, teachers, or…

Innovation is essential for the education sector. The ways in which curriculum decision making is organised reflects different implicit approaches on how educational systems pertain to promote innovation in education. Curriculum holds an outstanding place when seeking to promote innovation in education, as it reflects the vision for education by…

The New Social Studies movement was an effort by social scientists to reform US social studies/history curriculum at all levels during the 1960s and early 1970s. In the end, more than 50 different projects attempting to revitalise social studies were developed. Many of the projects focused on inquiry-based teaching practices and curriculum.…

This article examines the ways in which the development of alternative initial teacher education programs in England and Canada over the last two decades serve to challenge some of the taken-for-granted assumptions underlying established models of initial teacher education in both jurisdictions, and also to broaden the pool of people who have…

The extent to which an overseas student teaching practicum avoids the problem of assimilation inherent in traditional programs of school practice for preservice teachers is addressed, based on experiences of Memorial University of Newfoundland and its branch campus in Essex County, England. (Author/LB)

Since the mid-1990s, government policies in the USA, Canada, England, and Australia have promoted the need to produce an ICT skilled workforce in order to ensure national competitiveness in globalised economic conditions. In this article, we examine the ways in which these policy intentions in 1 state in Australia were translated into a…

This book presents a selection of papers from the international, interdisciplinary conference of the World Association for Case Method Research & Application. Papers are categorized into seven areas: (1) "International Case Studies" (e.g., event-based entrepreneurship, case studies on consumer complaints, and strategic quality…