Concerns with educational quality have led to the implementation of external school evaluation (ESE), based on the premise that these processes can provide valuable information about schools and, consequently, create conditions for improvement. Improvement is based on the feedback, commonly in the form of an evaluation report, resulting from…

Securing research funding is essential for all researchers. The standard evaluation method for competitive grants is through evaluation by a panel of experts. However, the literature notes that peer review has inherent flaws and is subject to biases, which can arise from differing interpretations of the criteria, the impossibility for a group of…

Across OECD countries, the increasing demand for evidence-based policy making has further led governments to design policies jointly with clear measurable objectives, and to define relevant indicators to monitor their achievement. This paper discusses the importance of such indicators in supporting the implementation of education policies.…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore employment perception of students as a relevant indicator of higher education quality, using blended multi-criteria decision-making methods. Design/methodology/approach: The differential impact of these variables was analyzed in this paper taking a sample of 641 students and six higher education…

Public trust in science and expertise remains a contentious issue. When public trust is analysed, it often simplifies a complex process of information retrieval and interpretation. Questionnaire surveys help us make sense of differences among actors and countries, but they fail to provide a comprehensive analysis of the reasons that lead citizens…

This report on the funding of school education constitutes the first in a series of thematic comparative reports bringing together findings from the OECD School Resources Review. School systems have limited financial resources with which to pursue their objectives and the design of school funding policies plays a key role in ensuring that…

Universities are an important part of the process of change taking place in society. However, this is often overshadowed by these institutions giving priority to technocratic models in the relationship between science and society. In this context, according to Habermas, theories can serve to clarify practical questions and guide praxis into the…

This study focuses on aspects of the Changing Academic Profession survey of 2007-08 that describe the place of faculty in their institutions. The authors examine the following aspects of institutional life: (1) the faculty role in institutional governance; (2) who evaluates their teaching and research; (3) the locus of their loyalties as between…

The HEPS Tool for Schools provides ideas, guidelines and suggested techniques to help schools in their development of school policy on healthy eating and physical activity. There is growing evidence that a comprehensive whole school policy on healthy eating and physical activity can lead to better academic outcomes of pupils as well as promoting…

The purpose of this paper is to show how activating perception, imagery and creativity facilitate the mastery of specific skills of visual arts education. Specifically, the study aimed at answering two questions: How can teachers enhance visual and creative expression?; and What criteria should be used to evaluate specific learning of visual arts…

The study analyses the extent to which the sociological message transmitted by the teachers' pedagogic practice recontextualizes the official pedagogic discourse of the natural sciences curriculum for a Portuguese middle school. Theoretically, the study is based on theories of psychology (e.g. Vygotsky), epistemology (e.g. Ziman) and sociology,…

The Masters level Opportunities and Technological Innovation in Vocational Teacher Education project (project site: http://motivate.tmpk.bmf.hu/) aims to develop the use and management of virtual learning environments in the area of vocational teacher training, drawing on a well established international partnership of institutions providing both…

This article will outline the motives for the implementation of peer assessment as put into action at the first year of the Civil Engineering course of the University of Minho. The implementation of new assessment methods was a consequence of the successful implementation of peer assessment at other engineering courses. During the semester, three…

Policies, commissioning bodies, methods, and criteria for both internal and external evaluation of research at universities in eight countries (Finland, Portugal, United Kingdom, Germany, Italy, Norway, Spain, France) are compared, and the effects of evaluations on the finance, structure, and research problems are examined. (MSE)

Three different approaches to the evaluation of higher education in European and Scandinavian countries are examined: evaluation of a single discipline across institutions (Finland, Norway, Portugal, Spain, United Kingdom, northern Germany); evaluation of several disciplines within certain institutions (France, Germany); and internal evaluation of…