In order to provide clinical utility for research of how art therapists perceive clients' inner change, the authors created a structured observational framework. This note-taking and assessment consist of five themes and sub-themes: Therapeutic Alliance, Creating, Affect-Awareness, Self-Awareness, and Ego-Strength. The framework was designed to be…

Educational discourse is becoming increasingly globalized. This trend is particularly pronounced in the area of assessment, where notions of accountability, comparability, and competition have become prevalent in many countries. Scholars have critiqued this trend. They contend that global assessment discourse provides educators with…

Calls for increased monitoring and evaluation of education policies and practices have not, so far, included widespread and consistent assessments of the inclusiveness of education settings. Measuring inclusion in education has proven to be a challenging exercise, due not only to the complexity and different uses of the concept, but also to its…

The aim of this article is to illuminate and discuss evaluation and evaluation systems in relation to the pace of change. It is argued that evaluation promotes and accelerates change. The article will thus contribute to a critical scrutiny of evaluation as a societal phenomenon and as a widespread practice in education. To accomplish this aim, the…

This article focuses on the assessment procedures of Norwegian PhD theses as viewed by external members of evaluation committees from three countries with different examination systems; the USA, the UK and Sweden. Their viewpoints give useful information not only on the pros and cons with the Norwegian system, but also on the strengths and…

The article outlines a programme theory for the Swedish school inspection. The theory has a format of 'if … then … because', whereby the last term states one or more generative mechanisms behind the reactions to inspection, and the former terms imply what the inspectorate does and which reactions it receives. The assumptions of the theory are…

In many ways, mathematics classrooms in Finland and Sweden are very similar to what would be considered traditional classrooms in the United States. Classes begin with checking homework and questions, followed by the teacher giving instruction in the new material, and end with students working on their new assignment. There are also interesting…

This paper discusses the most relevant issues concerning teacher evaluation in primary and secondary education by reviewing the recent literature and analysing current practices within the OECD countries. First, it provides a conceptual framework highlighting key features of teacher evaluation schemes. In particular, it emphasises the importance…

Our aim is to describe open-ended case studies for learning real-life problem solving skills, and relate this approach to conventional, closed-ended decision case studies. Teaching methods are open-ended cases in agroecology, an alternative to traditional strategies that lead students through prepared materials and structured discussions to…

The aim of this article was to outline the basis for an introductory course to higher education focusing on students' approaches to learning and the role of teaching in higher education. The framework is a discussion on contemporary literature on approaches to learning. In the article experiences are also reported of developing and implementing an…

To make sense of and learn about work environments, people actively construct their own knowledge and share stories of their experience. Telling stories is particularly challenging in a transient organization where people are hired on a voluntary, temporary basis. Such is the case of a nonprofit music festival organization in Sweden, which is…

The monograph presents, from the disabled consumer's perspective, a description and critique of independent living and attendant care services in Sweden. First, a brief description of Swedish welfare policy as it applies to the population as a whole is presented. Next, services available to people with disabilities are described with emphasis on…

The Swedish school system comprises: (1) Pre-primary school (Forskola), typical age 1-5; (2) Preschool class in the compulsory school (Grundskola) typical age 6 (participation voluntary); (3) Compulsory school, typical age 7-16, grades 1-9, and (4) Upper secondary school, 17 programmes (4 mainly academic, 13 vocational), typical age 16-19, grades…

When studying different types of returns to education, educational reforms are commonly used in the economics literature as a source of exogenous variation in education. The Swedish compulsory school reform is one example; the reform extended compulsory education throughout the country, in different municipalities at different points in time. Such…

Research on teacher ethics and the moral dimensions of teaching has contributed to extensive and valuable knowledge, which has sometimes led to constructive syntheses of positions. Four research problems which have been elucidated are discussed in this article: the relationship between care and justice, the conflict between the ethics of virtue…