This article discusses issues concerning the spread of data-driven educational technologies in Brazil. Here, as elsewhere, educational technology continues to be promoted optimistically as the bearer of a panacea for historically-rooted social problems. Whilst some of these technologies have indeed contributed to important widening-participation…

After an exponential uptake in Europe over the past 2 decades, content and language integrated learning (CLIL) is being increasingly adopted in South American countries, where it has been "embraced quickly and enthusiastically by stakeholders" (Lasagabaster & Doiz, 2016, p. 1). Although valuable lessons can be learned from the…

This paper aims to identify elements that will help with the process of thinking through curriculum issues based on the concept of open architecture. We argue that this concept can be an interesting driver of practice and debate concerning curriculum development in different contexts. More generally, we seek for viable public education that is…

This article explores how social movement co-governance of public education offers an alternative to neoliberal educational models. The Brazilian Landless Workers Movement (MST) is one of the largest social movements in Latin America. We describe one of the many schools that the MST co-governs, the Itinerant School Paths of Knowledge (Caminhos do…

Research in the learning sciences is often motivated by the goal of shaping a better future through design. Architects and urban planners share this goal, and the history of their more ambitious designs provides clear examples of how attempts to build the future can turn out. After discussing similarities and differences between design in the…

Contributions from and innovation in science and technology over many decades have resulted in dramatic improvements to American lives, including enhanced living standards and life expectancy, better access to information and connectivity across the globe, and increased access to and affordability of consumer goods. The analysis in this report is…

The Brazilian government has been fostering innovation through policies aimed at transferring technology from publicly funded science and technology organizations to the market. One response to this initiative has been an attempt by some universities to transform themselves into entrepreneurial institutions. In this paper the authors use a…

Despite impressive progress in education enrollments in recent decades, Brazil continues to face important obstacles to overall quality and secondary school completion rates that restrict the nation's ability to produce a skilled workforce. Vocational and Technical Education and Training (VET) is a key element in the strategy to more quickly…

With current manifestations of globalization creating local problems, including widening equity gaps, increased environmental destruction and burgeoning poverty, many policymakers, civil society, organizations and educators are seeking models of education that promise social justice and a democratic public sphere that reflects more than democracy…

"Changing Schools" places educational and social aims at the centre of a discussion of educational change. It draws on 14 case studies to explore school change which is oriented towards social justice and democracy. In an age of global mobility, economic polarization and unprecedented environmental and cultural challenges, the education…

Do some forms of student (and school) assessment hinder the introduction of innovative educational practices and the development of innovation skills in education systems? This report focuses on the impact of high-stake summative assessment on innovation and argues that it is possible to reconcile high-stakes assessments and examinations through…

Health-related popular articles are easily found among media sources. With the increasing popularity of the internet, medical information--full of misconceptions--has become easily available to the lay people. The ability to recognize misconceptions may require good biomedical knowledge. In this sense, we decided to use articles from the internet…

The level of funding made available for pedagogical innovation, a function of external policy context, is important but not sufficient for effecting lasting change in higher education teaching.

For a long time, university-business relations were a matter of individual, informal and intermittent contacts. Once the innovation process picked up speed, businesses began asking more from universities (longer-term co-operative research, for example), and governments placed university-business interaction at the centre of their innovation…

Twelve United States Agency for International Development (AID) education projects were evaluated between 1980 and 1981. Four were in Asia (Philippines, Nepal, Thailand, Korea), two in Africa (Kenya, Nigeria), four in Latin America (Colombia, Brazil, Paraguay, Ecuador), and two in the Near East (Jordan, Afghanistan). The evaluations measured the…