Cross‐national Comparisons in the International Successful School Principalship Project (ISSPP): The USA,Norway and China

This article provides a cross‐national perspective on successful school principalship in three countries derived from an analysis of case studies in the International Successful School Principalship Project (ISSPP). The ISSPP aims to investigate the characteristics, processes and effects of successful school leadership across eight countries (i.e. Australia, Canada, England, the United States, China, Denmark, Sweden and Norway). Examples from the USA, Norway and China (Shanghai) were selected to illustrate cross‐national differences related to the societal purposes of education, the structure and funding of different national educational systems and the influence of particular governmental educational policies (i.e. accountability‐oriented policies) on the leadership practices of individual school principals. Variations in selection criteria and research procedures were also noted. Recommendations for further research using a cultural framework include analysing multiethnic schools to identify culturally specific leadership practices as well as developing further ISSPP case studies in non‐Western contexts.     

When does a nation-level analysis make sense? ESD and educational governance in Brazil,South Africa,and the USA

International policy analysis tends to simplify the nation state, portraying countries as coherent units that can be described by one statistic or placed into one category. As scholars from Brazil, South Africa, and the USA, we find the nation-centric research perspective particularly challenging. In each of our home countries, the effective influence of the national government on education is quite limited, particularly in fringe and emerging areas of education such as Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) and Climate Change Education (CCE). This essay explores how nation-level comparisons are and are not useful for international research on ESD and CCE. We consider several layers of decentralized governance, but ultimately come to the conclusion that ESD governance in our respective countries is polycentric rather than decentralized. We discuss the implications of this idea for cross-national policy research on ESD and CCE.     

Stability of Country Rankings Across Item Formats in the Third International Mathematics and Science Study

Multiple‐choice, short‐answer, and extended‐response item formats were used in the Third International Mathematics and Science Study to assess student achievement in mathematics and science at Grades 7 and 8 in more than 40 countries around the world. Data pertaining to science indicate that the standings of some countries relative to others change when performance is measured via the different item formats. The question addressed in the present article is the following: Can the instability of ranks in this case be attributed principally to item format, or are other important factors at work? It is argued that the findings provide further evidence that comparing student achievement across countries is a very complex undertaking indeed.     

中国数学教育国际比较的研究范式

数学教育国际比较的研究范式是指研究者在从事数学教育国际比较时所遵循的基本规范.不同的研究者从事研究的目的、方法会有所不同,从而会形成不同的研究范式.中国的数学教育国际比较已基本上形成了“现实—理论—实证”、“理论—实证”、“实践—思辨”3种研究范式.     

Needed: Reincarnation of National Defense Education Act of 1958

This paper reviews the historical and current response of the United States to threats to its world leadership in scientific endeavors, with particular attention to the National Defense Education Act of 1958. The current status of the United States in mathematics, science, and engineering education is reviewed with respect to K-12 student achievement, K-12 teacher quality, numbers of degrees granted, and other indicators of international competitiveness. Concluding that we are a nation in peril, recommendations are made to enhance the likelihood that the United States will retain its preeminent position in science and technology and, therefore, provide for the national defense and economic wellbeing of citizens in an information age and global economy.     

Primary Teachers' and Students' Understanding of School Situated Design in Canada and England

Research in Science Education - How do teachers in primary schools translate curriculum requirements for teaching design, within technology frameworks, in their primary classrooms? We call...     

Transnational comparisons of teacher expectation of mathematical functional ability in early years and Key Stage 1 pupils – a study undertaken in Hong Kong and England

The dominance of Asian communities in international league tables such as those produced by The Program for International Student Assessment, which monitors competence in literacy and numeracy, has resulted in a policy discourse from the English government of failing schools, deficit curricular and ineffective teachers. This in turn has led to a re-defining of the National Curriculum framework for pupils educated in England with greater focus given in the Early Years curriculum to Mathematical functions particularly those associated with skills in counting; understanding and using number; calculating simple addition and subtraction problems and the understanding of shape, space and measure. Drawing on research carried out in Hong Kong and England this article offers a cross-cultural comparison of the expectations of Early Years Teachers in terms of the capabilities of early learners in achieving elements of number competency. The study of teachers’ expectation is a neglected field in research when applied to compare intercultural achievement. In identifying divergent national expectations, the current panic over what constitutes an appropriate maths curriculum is critiqued and recommendations made for further exploration into teachers’ expectations as to the age and stage at which elements of the maths curriculum are introduced in English schools.     

The role of achievement strategies on literacy acquisition across languages

We examined the importance of children’s achievement strategies in different literacy outcomes in three languages varying in orthographic consistency: Chinese, English, and Greek. Eighty Chinese-speaking Taiwanese children, 51 English-speaking Canadian children and 70 Greek children were assessed on measures of phonological awareness, rapid automatized naming, reading fluency, and spelling. The children’s use of a task-focused versus task-avoidant achievement strategy in the classroom context was rated by their teachers. The results indicated that the teacher-rated task-focused behavior was a significant predictor of spelling and to a lesser extent of reading fluency and that its effects were comparable across languages.     

从非谓语动词自身比较中掌握非谓语动词

章主要从非谓语动词本身,它们的比较和在从句中的变换讨论了非谓语动词的作用,以达到确切理解句意、准确表达思想的目的。     

Cognitive assessment of competent and impaired reading in Scottish and Brazilian children

This is an individual case study combined with subject sampling which compared the reading performance of good and poor Brazilian 4th grade children with Scottish children of equivalent reading competence and age range. A measure of efficient performance -- low error rates and fast vocal reaction-times for correct responses to words (of varying familiarity, regularity and length) and non-words (of varying length) -- was obtained and used as a basis for the identification of inefficiencies among the subjects whose results were outside the main range. Competent reading in Brazilian Portuguese and Scottish showed similarities in regard to time processing and error rates for the reading of words and non-words and mainly differed in terms of the generality of the regularity effect and of the rate of letter processing of words and for non-words. In what concerns impaired reading, in both nationalities there were examples of pure phonological dyslexia and of impairments affecting both lexical and non-lexical processes with a bias to the phonological pattern. In contrast to the Scottish sample, no cases of predominant morphemic dyslexia nor ambiguous cases were found among the Brazilians.