The Self-Determination Theory argues that individuals are optimally motivated when their three Basic Psychological Needs (BPNs) are satisfied, which can be influenced by the learning environment created by the teachers. Student-centered frameworks are permeating worldwide. Thus, the study aimed to evaluate the effects of pedagogical models-based…

This article focusses on the evolution of the school governance model in Spain since the 1980s. In Spain and elsewhere in Europe, the state's monopoly over education has softened and new forms of educational governance have emerged. This has resulted in the decentralization of decision-making authority to individual schools, municipalities, and…

Purpose: This article presents a conceptual synthesis of the international literature on inclusive education while expanding upon, and incorporating, the articles in this special issue. The authors present their 3P model (philosophy, policy and praxis) and relate each paper in this special issue to different aspects of their model.…

The objective of this study is to contribute to Quality Management Systems (QMS) and their impact on schools in the Basque Country, Spain. Specifically, it analyses two models: the EFQM Excellence Model, which originated in the business world, and the Integrated Quality Project (IQP) Model, which has a humanistic focus and arose from an…

This study seeks to address the main difficulties encountered by principals when carrying out their leadership role. A total of 100 principals from infant, primary, and secondary schools in the province of Alicante (Spain) were interviewed. The results show that the respondents were more affected by external problems and difficulties inherent to…

Recent evolutions, such as pervasive networking and other enabling technologies, have been increasingly changing human life, knowledge acquisition, and the way works are performed and students learn. In this societal change, educational institutions must maintain their leading role. They have therefore embraced digitally enhanced learning to…

Background: Large-scale cross-national studies designed to measure student achievement use different social, cultural, economic and other background variables to explain observed differences in that achievement. Prior to their inclusion into a prediction model, these variables are commonly scaled into latent background indices. To allow…

This study addresses academic literacy in content and language integrated learning (CLIL) secondary education. More precisely, this paper focuses on attempts to meet modern standards for language competences set in areas like Europe, where the notion involves multilingual academic competence. The study centres on new proposals for language…

The present study tries to identify the "picture in mind" that students' have about defining, proving and modelling. We access to it through external representations of their mental representations; in particular, from the way in which these representations are expressed in written form (sentences and situations). In the study we have…

The research presented here aims to show the results obtained in Spanish, Basque and English languages for a bilingual community--the Basque Country (in which two official languages coexist)--and in which a bilingual school education system has been established with three linguistic Models and classified as A, B and D (as the letter C is not…

The territories where Catalan is traditionally spoken as a native language constitute an attractive sociolinguistic laboratory which appears especially interesting from the point of view of language-in-education policies. The educational system has spearheaded the recovery of Catalan during the last 20 years. Schools are being attributed most of…

We are delighted to welcome you to the International Conference on Education and New Developments 2013, taking place in Lisbon, Portugal, from 1 to 3 of June. Education, in a global sense, is a right since we are born. Every experience has a formative effect on the constitution of the human being, in the way one thinks, feels and acts. One of the…

Reports ongoing research analyzing types of educational innovation created by schools in Seville, Spain, to address diversity issues. So far, schools are not fully integrated, and teaching practices have not changed very much. The schools most experienced with integration are more innovative. Classroom organization and management have become more…

Relates the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child to education policy by comparing policies in Argentina, Chile, and Spain. Uses case studies in these countries to propose a framework that reveals some possible obstacles to the implementation of children's rights. (SLD)

Compares the effectiveness and practicality of discrete academic disciplines to interdisciplinary curriculum approaches for elementary secondary education. Interdisciplinary curricula from France, Spain, and Italy are used to illustrate various ways of combining individual subjects. The author considers the interdisciplinary curriculum model…