A decade of education reform in Thailand: broken promise or impossible dream?

This study addresses the perceived gap between the vision of education reform in Thailand embodied in its Education Reform Law of 1999 and the results of implementation a decade later. Drawing upon opportunistic data obtained from a sample of 162 Thai school principals, we analyze trends in reform implementation across schools in all regions and levels of Thailand’s K-12 education system. The results suggest that a decade following the formal initiation of education reform, changes in teaching and learning, ICT implementation and school management systems have yet to engage the nation’s teachers to a substantial degree. The lack of results is linked to a reform strategy that has emphasized top-down implementation and a cultural predisposition to treat change as an event rather than as a long-term process.     

Students’ perceptions of the flipped classroom model in an engineering course: a case study

The flipped classroom model is an innovative educational trend that has been widely adopted in the social sciences but not engineering education. In this model, an active instructional approach shifts the educational strategy from a teacher- to a student-centred approach. The purpose of this study is to compare the learning outcomes of engineering students attending a flipped-model section of the Dynamics of Structures course with students attending a traditional, lecture-based section of the same course taught by the same instructor. The results confirm previous research showing that test scores in the flipped course sections were slightly higher than traditional sections. Although the improvement in test scores was statistically insignificant, student statements indicated that the flipped model promoted a deeper, broader perspective on learning, facilitated problem-solving strategies and improved critical-thinking abilities, self-confidence and teamwork skills, which are needed for a successful engineering career.     

Forest School in an inner city? Making the impossible possible

The Forest School approach to Early Years education, originally developed in Scandinavia, is influencing learning outside the classroom in England. An inner city primary school in Yorkshire investigated the nature and purpose of Forest Schools in Denmark, through a study visit, prior to developing their own Forest School in the midst of an urban landscape. The views of staff and parents were sought and findings suggest that the ethos and intention of Forest School were positively welcomed. The results demonstrate the need to create further opportunities for teachers, children and parents to be involved in Forest school activities together.     

Learning English from signed English: an impossible task?

A sample of elementary school- and high school-age deaf students in special education programs in the Australian state of Queensland using Australasian Signed English (ASE) took the Test of Syntactic Abilities (Quigley, Steinkamp, Power, & Jones, 1978) and wrote a story in response to a wordless picture sequence. Several analyses of the students' test scores and of the written language of their stories were undertaken. It was found that classroom use of ASE was of benefit to these students in developing English and telling a story in writing, but that there were complex aspects of syntax that required special teaching. The implications for the use of Signed English systems and the teaching of English to deaf students who use Signed English communication are examined.     

Tolerating intolerance? Parental choice and race relations ‐ the Cleveland case

In 1987, Cleveland Local Education Authority (LEA) allowed a child to transfer schools to one where the vast majority of children were white. Four years later, a High Court judge ruled that the LEA was correct to do so. His judgement made it clear that the 1976 Race Relations Act did not govern the 1980 provisions for parental choice of school. This paper looks at the implications of this case. After detailing the events leading up to and including the judicial review, it examines first, the legislative framework for parental choice of schools and its place in Conservative Party education policy, and second, it explores the history of school admissions in racial terms. Following this, three themes arising from the Cleveland case are highlighted: the increased levels of juridification affecting education, the deracializing of the debate on school organization and curriculum, and the roles of individual parents and the state in educating children. The paper concludes by focusing on the need for more participative structures within the education system. These changes would help to ensure that moves towards a segregated educational system do not occur by default, but that the matter is fully and publicly debated.     

Are women engineers in Lebanon prepared for the challenges of an engineering profession?

This study investigates the status of women engineers in the Middle East, considering women engineers in Lebanon as a case study. The author investigated the following questions: What are the influences behind females’ decisions to choose engineering as their major course of study? What are the motives behind this decision? What are the perceptions of females regarding the essential skills for a successful engineering career? An online survey consisting of Likert-scale items was completed by 327 female engineers who graduated from universities in Lebanon and now work in various locations around the world. A genuine interest in the field appeared to be the main influence in the participants’ decisions to choose engineering profession. The potential for professional growth was the leading motivator for choosing engineering. Although participants reported that they possessed adequate theoretical knowledge and technical skills before graduation, in the actual practice of engineering, they noted weaknesses in creativity and innovation.     

Educational Research in Central and Eastern Europe: A Diverging Tradition?

The article discusses the characteristics of educational research in Poland and other countries in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) under communism, and the implications of the post-communist transformation of the region for the future of educational research. It is argued that the political, economic, and social structures which characterised the countries of CEE shaped relationships between the various actors in education, and also determined the role and character of educational research. The legacy of hierarchy and mistrust between the different stakeholders in education and the research culture which corresponded to this have subsequently acted as a barrier to innovation and change. However, there are now signs of a growing public demand for more effective educational development. Educational researchers could have a useful role to play in developing more informed educational policies. Résumé L'article examine les caractéristiques de la recherche en éducation en Pologne et dans les autres pays d'Europe centrale et orientale sous le communisme et les conséquences des transformations post-communistes de la région pour l'avenir de la recherche en éducation. L'auteur développe l'idée que les structures politiques, économiques et sociales qui caractérisaient les pays de l'Europe centrale et orientale ont façonné les relations entre les divers acteurs dans le domaine de l'éducation et ont ainsi déterminé le rôle et le caractère de la recherche en éducation. L'héritage de la hiérarchie et la défiance entre les différents détenteurs d'enjeux en éducation et dans la culture de recherche correspondante ont par conséquent fonctionné comme un obstacle à l'innovation et au changement. Toutefois, il existe aujourd'hui des signes de la croissance d'une demande publique en faveur d'un développement éducatif plus efficace. Les chercheurs en éducation pourraient avoir à jouer un rôle utile dans le développement de politiques éducatives plus éclairées. (Traduction: Claude Carpentier, Sciences humaines et sociales, Université de Picardie Jules Verne, Amiens)     

Re-inventing ‘Europe’: the case of the European dimension in Greek-Cypriot geography and history curricula

‘Europe’ has been increasingly ‘invented’ and ‘reinvented’ in discussions about education, curricula and identities over the last five decades. The ‘European dimension in education’ was a term increasingly used by the European Union and the Council of Europe to denote their educational policies encouraging national educational systems to endorse a European dimension in order to prepare young people for an increasingly integrated Europe. However, it has also been a contested term in academic writing, as some researchers critique the elitist, exclusionary and Eurocentric educational implications it may have; others welcome its pedagogic and intercultural potential. This article presents the findings of a content analysis of the history and geography curricula and textbooks used in state Greek-Cypriot primary schools and explores the possibilities of using the European dimension as a tool to alleviate ethnocentrism and traditional pedagogies in these curricula and textbooks, by presenting the application of some principles which have been used for the development of a curricular intervention in the two subjects.     

Great Expectations? Variation in Educational Plans of Students in Post-Socialist Eastern Europe

Using all available waves of the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) from 1995 to 2011, this study examines the factors influencing educational expectations of students in five Eastern European countries (Hungary, Lithuania, the Russian Federation, Romania, and Slovenia). We consistently find across countries and waves that parental completion of a college degree, better material well-being of the family, and being a female are positively associated with students’ expectations to complete college. Furthermore, we find that students who come from more advantaged families are more likely to have formed their academic plans by the eighth grade compared to their disadvantaged peers.     

Truancy in Europe: Does the type of educational system matter?

Truancy is known to: Hamper academic achievement, predict a range of school-related problems and cause early school leaving. Hence, the development and implementation of measures to tackle truancy are considered as important strategies to prevent early school leaving in Europe. Despite this, there is almost no comparative research which studies variation in truancy rates. This article relies on PISA 2012 data from 24 European countries to empirically answer two questions: (1) To what degree do truancy rates vary cross-nationally? and (2) Do these differences in truancy rates relate to characteristics of the educational system? We found that between-country truancy rates varied more than differences in early school leaving. Moreover, even after taking into account control variables such as economic development and youth unemployment rates, the ways in which educational systems select and group pupils are closely related to truancy rates.     

Is student-centered pedagogy impossible in Hong Kong? The case of inquiry in classrooms

Hong Kong has been actively promoting a student-centered approach to teaching since the 1980s. Despite this effort, students in Hong Kong still tend to be traditional learners who rarely experience and gain from real student-centered learning. While teachers hold a “quantitative” concept of learning and focus on transmitting declarative knowledge to students (Biggs and Watkins, Classroom learning: Educational psychology for the Asian teacher, 1995), students generally practise “rote learning.” Constructive learning models such as inquiry remain little used by students in most Hong Kong classrooms. This article reports a study that examines the feasibility of implementing inquiry method in Kong Kong’s primary classrooms. It analyses the implementation and some outcomes of an inquiry-based project conducted in two local primary schools—a traditional elite Catholic school and a progressive, less-privileged school. Finally, it discusses the contextual factors as well as cultural issues on teachers’ perception and implementation of inquiry in teaching. These factors include the following: impacts of prevailing ideology in the community of Hong Kong, and the top-down policy-making and management by the government.

Mozart: an anomaly in the history of music?

Mozart's work is quite unique on account of its quantitative and qualitative fullness within a short life. The explanatory patterns offered for this phenomenon range from a concentrated process of musical socialization, which comprised an exclusive preoccupation with music, to the specific fact of his travelling activity at that time (approx. 10 years of Mozart's life); to his good fortune in receiving, as a natural accompaniment in life, a musical education which was focused exclusively on high standards and enabled Mozart to become acquainted with almost the whole of the central European intelligentsia; to a consciously economic way of working which helped him to translate his experience of life into a work of art. These circumstances, which are ideal from the point of view of production, determined as they were by exceptional talent and by the environment, seemed to be so improbable to succeeding generations that the history of the reception of Mozart displays not only a reaction from a non‐academic perspective, but also designed a variety of diverging explanations for the (literally) unbelievable circumstances. This is probably why, ever since the start the nineteenth century, writings about Mozart have been not only contradictory, but have in part also provided no answers whatsoever to those questions which played such a major role in the biography. Consequently, the anomaly is valid not only for the process of production but also for that of reception.     

Advancing the scholarship of teaching and learning: Reflective portfolio inquiry in higher education ‐ a case study of one institution

Abstract

At a time of intense interest in third level teaching in the Ireland, the UK, and the US, this paper describes an effort underway at University College Cork (UCC) to foster a new kind of scholarship, a scholarship of teaching and learning. Although impelled by the announcement in 2001 of an award for Excellence in Teaching at UCC, the project was framed by ideas first outlined by Ernest Boyer (1990) in his provocative book, Scholarship Reconsidered. This paper describes how Boyer's concept of a “scholarship of teaching” was implemented at UCC through a reflective portfolio inquiry process; presents the value and meanings staff say they find in engaging in a portfolio process; and, concludes with a consideration of the sometimes sobering institutional implications of this work. This case study of an institutions experience is one contribution to an evolving genre currently being invented: a new way of capturing and conveying the knowledge of teaching.     

Pre-service teachers’ perceptions of the Internet and online courses: the case of an American Pacific Island University

Offerings of online courses continue to increase in higher education settings, as institutions attempt to meet students’ (and faculty members’) increasing demands for online access. How do pre-service teachers perceive online education? This paper reports the results of a questionnaire-based survey addressing this issue. The questionnaire focused on the degree to which teacher candidates consider the Internet useful for coursework, and their level of preparedness for taking online courses. The participants were pre-service teachers (N = 237) enrolled in education foundation courses at the University of Guam. This paper discusses educational implications of the results, and makes recommendations for future research. The results from this study may guide teacher education and its efforts to optimise online courses and, at the same time, support the University’s commitment to ensure that teacher education prepares its pre-service teachers to apply and integrate technology in their own future teaching.     

Relationships,variety & synergy: the vital ingredients for scholarship in engineering education? A case study

This paper begins with the argument that within modern-day society, engineering has shifted from being the scientific and technical mainstay of industrial, and more recently digital change to become the most vital driver of future advancement. In order to meet the inevitable challenges resulting from this role, the nature of engineering education is constantly evolving and as such engineering education has to change. The paper argues that what is needed is a fresh approach to engineering education – one that is sufficiently flexible so as to capture the fast-changing needs of engineering education as a discipline, whilst being pedagogically suitable for use with a range of engineering epistemologies. It provides an overview of a case study in which a new approach to engineering education has been developed and evaluated. The approach, which is based on the concept of scholarship, is described in detail. This is followed by a discussion of how the approach has been put into practice and evaluated. The paper concludes by arguing that within today's market-driven university world, the need for effective learning and teaching practice, based in good scholarship, is fundamental to student success.