Background: Research suggests that students and teachers often tend to diverge in their perceptions of instructional practices that are part of their everyday classroom experience. This might include differing views about assessment and feedback, or the effectiveness of task design. Accordingly, there is a need to understand as much as possible…

In Austria, segregated German language support classes (GLSC) were introduced in the school year 2018/19 to intensively support students who had previously little or no contact with German, the official language of instruction. These classes have been widely criticised; however, a formal evaluation of their effects has yet to be published. In…

The increasing availability of non-formal education in the form of Open Education Resources (OERs) and Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) gives rise to the questions of how such education can be formally recognized for credit. Prior Learning Assessment and Recognition (PLAR), and Qualification Frameworks are fields of practice actively engaged in…

Taking the students' perspective, Education Policy Outlook 2018: Putting Student Learning at the Centre analyses the evolution of key education priorities and key education policies in 43 education systems. It compares more recent developments in education policy ecosystems (mainly between 2015 and 2017) with various education policies adopted…

It is all too common, given the considerable day-to-day challenges facing those involved in education, to focus on the here and now rather than look further afield. The authors of this article have been fortunate enough to see "primary science" in a wide range of international settings, from Nigeria to Chile, North America and Canada,…

An Austrian elementary teacher in a Tyrolean mountain village, who spent a year in the United States learning about the education system, provides her viewpoint on Austrian education in an interview. The teacher discusses the Austrian tracking system as a principal means of achieving educational quality. She believes that as long as the Austrian…