Angle and rotation: Effects of different types of feedback on the quality of response

The study compares the levels of response to angle/rotation problems presented on screen with a Logo microworld with the levels of response to similar problems presented on paper. Pairs of children aged from 9 to 11 who had little or no experience of Logo completed the problems in about 40 minutes. Pairs of children completed the problems over a period of eight weeks. The responses, classified using the SOLO taxonomy (Structure of Observed Learning Outcomes), suggested that the effect of the immediate feedback of the screen turtle heading was to inhibit moves to a higher level of response compared to those levels of response reached when responding to paper tests.     

Comparative Education in a Microcosm: Methodological Insights from the International Schools Sector in Hong Kong

Many studies in the field of comparative education take national education systems as the basic unit of analysis. The present paper has been conceived within this tradition, but has a different angle of approach. It focuses on 47 international schools in a small territory. Some of the international schools were grouped into larger systems but others were free-standing institutions. The focus of the paper thus lies at an intersection between cross-national and intra-national comparisons. It makes methodological observations on the nature of comparisons that are possible within such a microcosm, and on the conceptual lessons that can be derived from such analysis.     

International influences on African educational development

This paper examines some international influences on formal education in Africa. It concentrates on the nature of influences since Independence, and points out that links following old colonial routes remain strong, but have been supplemented by American and international agency ones. China and Russia are less influential, although the last decade has witnessed increased activity. Finally, the paper notes, the flow of ideas is predominantly a one-way process. African educators are influenced by dominant ideas in other continents, but the reverse flow of thought is very slight.     

Education and Socio-Political Transitions in Asia: Diversity and Commonality

This article sets a framework for this special issue of the journal by providing an overview of the topic and a commentary on the ways in which the papers in the special issue may be linked to the theme and to each other. The article is built around the identification of diversity and commonality. On the one hand, the Asian region contains countries with widely varying circumstances and socio-political transitions; but on the other hand are a number of common patterns. Among the commonalities are colonial transitions, interrelationships between education and economic changes, and transitions involving international forces and the changing role of the state.     

The irrationality of rationalized program development

Conclusions The core of our argument rests in the nature of the relationship between regional and provincial educational authorities and local schools/communities. In the present situation the relationship is ambiguous. On one hand, the province and the boards issue guidelines and demand that local schools develop programs in conformity with them. At the same time the schools are urged to be innovative and to develop programs to meet local needs. Although the drafters of guidelines apparently see no contradiction between these two directives, we, and many practitioners we have talked with, do.It is our position that the local school/community should be primarily accountable to the community it serves for developing learning environments that fairly reflect the community's educational values, expectations, and priorities. The school should be accountable to central authorities for proper expenditure of monies and for observing basic standards of honesty and fair play in its operations. Finally we wish to stress again the importance of providing help rather than advice to developing programs. Advice coming from a source that in the recent past was primarily a legislative and policing agency cannot help but be construed by school practitioners as a thinly disguised directive. Even if this were not the case, advice is of limited value to people who lack the resources and technical expertise to implement their educational ideas. Real help, in the form of needed resources, technical services, and expert consultation, might inject a new spirit of goodwill and cooperation into what has been at best a guarded relationship between the schools and central educational authorities.OISE