During 1980, many Western countries launched public administration reforms. These reform waves also blew over to many Asian countries. With the advent of globalization and the rise of knowledge-based society, education and innovation are regarded as the driving forces behind social and economic growth and development. To enhance the national…

Understanding the nature of science (NOS) has emerged as a core curricular goal since at least the 1960s. While science education reforms around the world have shed light on various epistemic and social underpinnings of science, how science curriculum documents portray the nature of other related disciplines such as mathematics and engineering has…

In recent years, governmental policy changes have exerted significant impact on the structural transformation, role diversity and commercialisation of national quality assurance agencies in many nations. Due to policy change, ongoing structural transformation and emerging roles, four national quality assurance agencies in Australia, Japan,…

This book examines some of the major higher education reforms and policy shifts globally, particularly in the light of recent shifts in quality and standards-driven education and policy research. It critiques the neo-liberal ideological imperatives of current higher education and policy reforms, and illustrates the way that changes in the…

Vocational education and training (VET) is a major policy topic for countries all over the world, who are eager to learn from the best examples where participation in VET is high and youth unemployment is low. Policymakers want to know how strong VET systems manage challenges like rapid technological change, matching labor market demand for…

The Trend in International Mathematics and Science Study reveals how the math and science achievement of students in participating countries compares with that of their international peers. Since 1995, the results have been surprising and disappointing for some countries. Astonished and disappointed by such outcomes, scholars and educational…

Indonesia always continually failed international assessments even though many efforts have been made. The results of PISA 2012 put Indonesian students in the worst position. In contrast, East Asian countries' performance well in mathematics, reading, and science. Indeed, Singapore has the best performance in the Southeast Asia region even in the…

Long seen as adaptive, responsive, and flexible higher education institutions in the face of educational, economic, and social changes, the American community college model has been adapted in many parts of the world. However, the extent to which the American community college model could be successfully adapted and implemented depends on the…

Our schools have been experiencing three overlapping waves of technology adoption since the mid-1980s: the personal computer lab wave, the online learning wave and the digital classroom wave. In this position paper, I tried to explain why we are now at the onset of the digital classroom wave, why it will cause great changes in education and why…

The Research Institute for Higher Education (RIHE) at Hiroshima University established a program of research on the Changing Academic Profession (CAP) in 2005. The first conference of this new project was held in Hiroshima in February 2011. This conference was organized by the Research Institute for Higher Education, Hiroshima University, Japan in…

This paper presents a descriptive analysis of education reform in selected Southeast Asian nations between 1995 and 2007. It reports the results of a purposive survey of elite informants comprising scholars and educational leaders involved in education reform in Thailand, Malaysia, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore. The paper addresses two main…

Due to changes from centralization to marketization, Taiwan's university governance must increase its effectiveness. The purpose of this paper was to introduce trends in and issues of Taiwan's university governance, describe university governance in the United States, and draw implications that Taiwan's university governance needs to learn from…

The nature of higher education is by no means fixed: it has evolved over time; different models of higher education co-exist alongside each other at present; and, worldwide, there are demands for higher education to change to better help support economic growth and to better fit changing social and economic circumstances. This book examines, from…

As the industrialised world shifted to an interdependent and global society, formal schooling was quickly recognised as a major factor in achieving a knowledge society of lifelong learners capable of transforming and revitalising organisations. Teachers were encouraged to engage in learning together to improve teaching and, by extension, improve…

This paper views seeking the optimal balance between state strengths and the scope of state functions for "good governance" as the formation of a homogenization-heterogenization matrix of policy initiatives in different social settings. Homogenization refers to a global tendency for institutional changes and governance framework to…