The Education Scotland publication, "External Quality Arrangements for Scotland's Colleges, Updated August 2013," specifies that Education Scotland will produce a number of subject-based aspect reports each year. These reports complement, in a subject-specific context, the generic evaluations of learning and teaching in Education…

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…

This essay explores the role of UNESCO, the World Bank, and the US Agency for International Development as key international actors shaping teacher development in Palestine. The argument presented is that international influence, particularly through donor-funded projects, combined with limited capacity within the Ministry of Education and local…

This article details the findings from a qualitative study that explored the ways individuals who work with early childhood education (ECE) practitioners in professional development settings influenced those practitioners' understandings of early childhood policy and early childhood systems. Defined as individuals who work in the professional…

In this article, the author describes a role-playing activity on tar sands and the proposed TransCanada Keystone XL pipeline. In this activity, students take on the characters of six key stakeholders invited to an imaginary public hearing to discuss whether or not the State Department and President Obama should approve the Keystone XL pipeline.…

The "Race to the Top" competitive grant program initiated a wave of teacher evaluation reform, which scholars and policymakers have long identified as critical to improving teacher quality and student performance. State boards of education (SBEs) and state education agencies (SEAs) took different approaches to these reforms, and as a…

Teaching Practice is presumed to be key to professionalization of teachers, although very little research has been done on its effectiveness. This article seeks to show the views of stakeholders on the effectiveness of Teaching Practice in Zimbabwean primary schools. A case study which is largely qualitative was found appropriate. A sample of 84…

This article explores the idea of distributed instructional leadership as a way to understand instructional leadership practice in comprehensive high schools. Our argument is that distributed leadership analyses allow researchers to uncover and explain how instructional improvement in high schools occurs through the efforts of multiple individuals…

The aim of this research is to investigate the intergenerational changes that have occurred in Australian Jewish day schools and the challenges these pose for religious and Jewish education. Using a grounded theory approach according to the constant comparative method (Strauss 1987), data from three sources (interviews [296], observations [27],…

The purpose of this paper is to describe a process for teachers, administrators, and families to examine existing structures that support inclusion in their schools and in their children's schools. This research study used Appreciative Inquiry to show how stakeholders can take a more active role to support education reform. History has proven that…

In a school with a transparent data culture, frequent, low-stakes Data Conversations happen all the time. Although most schools engage in Data Conversations at times, there are some specific strategies and "listen-fors" that can assist educators in making these conversations more productive, such as developing a low-stakes set of…

In this article, we present a mixed-methods study of 2 schools' elementary science programs including outdoor instruction specific to each school's culture. We explore fifth-grade students in measures of science knowledge, environmental attitudes, and outdoor comfort levels including gender and ethnic differences. We further examine students'…

Purpose: In recent years, the literature on program evaluation has examined multi-stakeholder evaluation, but training evaluation models and practices have not generally taken this problem into account. The aim of this paper is to fill this gap. Design/methodology/approach: This study identifies intersections between methodologies and approaches…

High school improvement initiatives often focus on specific intervention strategies, programs, or priority topics (e.g., dropout intervention, dual enrollment, freshman academies). However, research shows that systemic and sustainable improvement can be achieved only when initiatives are implemented with consideration for the broader education…

Over the last two decades, considerable progress has been made in establishing and implementing robust, comparable quality assurance processes throughout much of the European higher education sector. However, concerns persist over degree portability and recognition as current systems are rooted in national contexts. In particular, specialised…