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Objectives: Sleep‐wake disorders are common in the general population and in most neurological disorders but are often poorly recognized. With the hypothesis that neurologists do not get sufficient training during their residency, the Young European Sleep Neurologist Association (YESNA) of the European Academy of Neurology (EAN) performed a survey on postgraduate sleep education. Methods: A 16‐item questionnaire was developed and distributed among neurologists and residents across European countries. Questions assessed demographic, training and learning preferences in sleep disorders, as well as a self‐evaluation of knowledge based on five basic multiple‐choice questions (MCQs) on sleep‐wake disorders. Results: The questionnaire was completed by 568 participants from 20 European countries. The mean age of participants was 31.9 years (SD 7.4 years) and was composed mostly of residents (73%). Three‐quarters of the participants reported undergraduate training in sleep medicine, while fewer than 60% did not receive any training on sleep disorders during their residencies. Almost half of the participants (45%) did not feel prepared to treat neurological patients with sleep problems. Only one‐third of the participants correctly answered at least three MCQs. Notably, 80% of participants favoured more education on sleep‐wake disorders during the neurology residency. Conclusions: Education and knowledge on disorders in European neurological residents is generally insufficient, despite a strong interest in the topic. The results of our study may be useful for improving the European neurology curriculum and other postgraduate educational programmes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Announces the winners of the annual European Academy of Andrology awards. Aim of awards; Best papers published in 1997 and 1998 issues of 'International Journal of Andrology'; Objectives of exchange fellowships.

The paper provides an overview of qualifications in the German construction workforce and draws comparisons with the situation in the British construction industry. The German system of general education and vocational training is outlined. Data from a variety of sources are used to describe both the stocks and the flows of qualifications in the German construction workforce. Particular attention is paid to vocational qualifications, such as apprenticeships and the Meister qualification. Key findings are that the majority of German construction workers are qualified up to apprenticeship level, and that most of these employees have achieved a general schooling certificate from at least a lower secondary school prior to their vocational training. These factors are taken as signs of strength of the German construction workforce. Comparisons between the stocks of qualifications in the construction industry in the two countries suggest that intermediate qualifications of the apprenticeship type are far less prevalent in the British construction workforce. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article compares the differences in the U.S. and European economy and how this leads to different focuses for European and U.S. economists. The U.S. market for professional economists employed in academia is large and competitive. Similarly, the market for journal publications is thick and informative, working as a screening device that permits the quality of papers to be determined by where they are published. These professional journals take an author's capability to treat issues in a formalized way within the existing paradigm as a low-cost screening procedure that restricts an otherwise potentially huge supply of papers. In Europe, the situation is drastically different. Each (small) nation had its own separate market for academic economists. These markets are not especially competitive. As entry and exit of academics and students is restricted by the differences in language and various institutions (like differing old-age pension schemes), government can interfere heavily in academia without facing high cost. These market differences have systematic implications for research and teaching, and on the role of economists in the political sphere.

Discusses human resource management and human resource development in central and eastern Europe (CEE). Importance of the labor policy and strategy within the two contending economic systems; Names of journals dedicated to these two economic systems.

This paper is based on current studies within the O.E.C.D. Directorate for Scientific Affairs on problems of educational development. More particularly, the data used in this paper derive from a more general study of problems posed by the expansion of secondary education in O.E.C.D. countries, which will be completed by the Organisation in the near future. The views expressed in the paper are those of the authors. The paper was originally presented at the Ghent Meeting of the Comparative Education Society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper follows the development of international cooperation in Europe in the field of the teaching of history from the end of the Great War to the beginning of the 21st century. The impetus for this arose from the traumatic shared experiences and memories caused by the events of the years 1914–1918. The aim was to use education in schools to prevent circumstances that might lead to the incitement of feelings of enmity towards other nations. From the year 1925, the official date of the establishment of the Casarov declaration of the Unity of states to the second world war there were few if any successes in this. However immediately at the start of 1946 UNESCO took charge of these initiatives as a direct result the interwar attempts. In reality European cooperation was soon to be hampered for almost half a century by the bipolar separation of Europe and the world. A deeper level of cooperation began to develop in western Europe in the 1960s and 70s and also the beginnings of the first steps towards cooperation between East and West. A further impetus was of course provided by the fall of the communist regime in Europe and today’s cooperation is many-sided. Nevertheless a true wholly European history text book or curriculum is still a long way away. It appears that supranational regional textbooks are much more efficient. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal de Pharmacie Clinique is the property of John Libbey Eurotext Ltd. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Aims: How future doctors might be educated and trained in order to meet the population and system needs of countries is currently being debated. Incorporation of a broad range of capabilities, encompassed within categories of management and, increasingly, leadership, form part of this discussion. The purpose of this paper is to outline a framework by which countries' progress in this area might be assessed and compared.Methods: Key databases and journals related to this area were reviewed. From relevant articles potential factors impacting on the incorporation of aspects of management and leadership within medical education and training were identified. These factors were tested via an online survey during 2013 with six members of a European Association of doctors who promote medical involvement in hospital management, including members from countries less represented in the health management literature.Results: A framework for analysing how management and leadership education is being approached within different systems of healthcare is developed and presented.Conclusions: More systematic work across a wider range of countries is needed if we are to have a better understanding of how countries within and beyond Europe are approaching and progressing the education of doctors in management and leadership. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper addresses the international and internal digital divides that exist across and within the European member states according to the educational attainment of their populations. Our results suggest that even for those European countries that are outperforming their counterparts in terms of digital development, such as Finland, some internal gaps still remain and need to be addressed. In other countries, as in the cases of Malta, Spain, and Portugal, the divides are a matter for concern. These findings would probably be overlooked if we worked only with aggregate levels, as is usual. Consequently, this paper draws attention to the importance of complementing cross-country analysis of the digital divide with an assessment of internal gaps. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Psychiatry is the largest medical specialty in Europe. Despite efforts to bring harmonisation, training in psychiatry in Europe continues to be very diverse. The Union Européenne des Médecins Spécialistes (UEMS) has issued as from 2000 a charter of requirements for the training in psychiatry with an additional European Framework for Competencies in Psychiatry in 2009. Yet these have not been implemented throughout Europe. In this paper, the diversity in training throughout Europe is approached from different angles: the cultural differences between countries with regards to how mental health care is considered and founded on, the cultural differences between people throughout Europe in all states. The position of psychotherapy is emphasised. What once was the cornerstone of psychiatry as medical specialty seems to have become a neglected area. Seeing the patient with mental health problems within his cultural context is important, but considering him within his family context. The purpose of any training is enabling the trainee to gain the knowledge and acquire the competencies necessary to become a well-equipped professional is the subject of the last paragraph in which trainees consider their position and early career psychiatrists look back to see whether what they were trained in matches with what they need in the working situation. Common standard for training and certification are a necessity within Europe, for the benefit of the profession of psychiatrist but also for patient safety. UEMS is advised to join forces with the Council of National Psychiatric Associations (NPAs) within the EPA and trainings and early career psychiatrist, to discuss with the users what standards should be implemented in all European countries and how a European board examination could ensure professional quality of psychiatrists throughout the continent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to investigate, from a generational perspective, the effect of human capital on individual earnings and earnings differences in Germany, France and Italy, three developed countries in Western Europe with similarconservativewelfare regimes but with important differences in their education systems. Income inequalitiesbetweenandwithineducation levels are explored using a two-stage probit model with quantile regressions in the second stage. More precisely, drawing upon 2005 EU-SILC data, returns on schooling and experience are estimated separately for employees and self-employed full-time workers by means of Mincerian earnings equations with sample selection; the sample selection correction accounts for the potential individual self-selection into the two labour force types. Although some determinants appear to be relatively similar across countries, state-specific differentials are drawn in light of the institutional features of each national context. The study reveals how each dimension of human capital differently affects individuals’ earnings and earnings inequality and, most of all, how their impacts differ along the conditional earnings distribution and across countries. In the comparative perspective, the country's leading position in terms of the highest rewards on education also depends on which earnings distribution (employee vs. self-employed) is analysed. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

European education agendas have emphasized the importance of early childhood education in providing the foundations for lifelong learning. Central to the success of early childhood education is the quality of provision, with the workforce being key. While qualifications levels are frequently cited as important for the quality of provision here we ask questions of the attitudinal competences required to work in early childhood in two countries: England and Hungary. This paper presents a mixed-method study that considers the attitudinal competences perceived as needed by early childhood students and how these are acquired. We focus on the role of love in early childhood education and the contrasting perceptions and experiences in England and Hungary. In Hungary love is spoken about freely, but in England managerialist and entrepreneurial discourses are creating tensions with more emotional dispositions of being caring, supportive, and empathic that early childhood practitioners uphold. In Hungary, early childhood educators are given relative autonomy in their professional roles and love is a key characteristic. We consider historical, philosophical, and political developments in the two countries to shed light on how English and Hungarian perspectives have diverged, while exploring opportunities that comparing perspectives offers for the further professional development of early childhood educators. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Objectives: This paper explores education-, income- and occupational class-related inequalities in risky health behaviours including into models all three factors together as well as their interactions, which has not been undertaken by previous studies analysing socioeconomic status (SES) related differences in risky health behaviours.Methods: Our data source is the special module "Social Inequalities in Health" included into the European Social Survey Round 7 (ESS R7) and conducted in 20 European countries. We run nine separate multilevel binomial logistic regression analyses for all the risky health behaviours with all our independent and control variables including country as the second level random intercept. Into all the models we also included interaction terms to consider possible moderating effects of separate independent variables.Results: Education and income emerged as factors most consistently related to risky health behaviours, but occupational class differences were also found to be significant: eating vegetables or salad less than once a day and being daily smoker is positively related to lower SES as measured by all three indicators; eating fruits less than once a day is related to lower income and occupational class, while drinking alcohol at least several times a week is positively related to higher education and higher income; being physically active for less than 3 days per week is positively related to lower education; patterns of heavy smoking and binge drinking are inconsistently related to SES variables. We also found considerable regional variation, especially in fruit and vegetable consumption, being physically active and alcohol consumption patterns.Conclusions: Without careful theoretical consideration linking SES and risky health behaviours, education, income and occupational class cannot substitute each other in the study of SES-related differences of health behaviours, as assumed in the larger part of research on the subject. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the role of occupational resources (field of occupation, socio-economic status, and income) in the odds of having a highly educated partner, having a partner with lower education, and staying single. The analysis of the EUSILC 2013 data demonstrate that women with better jobs and higher incomes have higher odds of living in a homogamous union with a highly educated partner. The data also show that if high resource women do not live with highly educated men, they are less likely to marry down compared to women with fewer resources and are more likely to stay single. Furthermore, the analysis demonstrates that women working in female-dominated professions are more likely to marry down and that the effect of the field cannot be explained by fewer personal resources. We also tested the idea that the link between individual resources and living arrangements is moderated by the female employment rate. We demonstrate that women are more likely to partner down in countries with higher female labor force participation. However, this tendency does not hold for high-income women. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As part of teaching and learning in small, rural schools, we investigate teaching and learning approaches in multi-grade classes. This introduction to four papers of a special edition, each of which documents practices in a different area of Europe, presents the background of the discourse on teaching mixed- or multi-age classes and provides information concerning the context of teaching in rural schools. As a synthesis, we outline a didactical framework of the mixed-age teaching approaches derived from the four papers and discuss the possible implementation of these approaches in the classroom. Finally, we propose to lead the rural education discourse away from the rural–urban antagonism to a more integrated view of dealing with heterogeneity in the classroom in general. The teaching approaches presented in this introduction can add to the theory of adaptive teaching. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

STUDY QUESTION: What is the recognition of clinical embryology and the current status of clinical embryologists in European countries, regarding educational levels, responsibilities and workload, and need for a formal education in assisted reproductive technology (ART)? SUMMARY ANSWER: It is striking that the profession of clinical embryology, almost 40 years after the introduction of IVF, is still not officially recognized in most European countries. WHAT IS KNOWN ALREADY: Reproductive medicine has developed into a sophisticated multidisciplinary medical branch since the birth of Louise Brown 37 years ago. The European Board & College of Obstetrics and Gynaecology (EBCOG) has recognized reproductive medicine as a subspeciality and has developed a subspeciality training for gynaecologists in collaboration with the European Society for Human Reproduction and Embryology (ESHRE). However, nothing similar exists for the field of clinical embryology or for clinical embryologists. STUDY DESIGN, SIZE, DURATION: Aquestionnaire about the situation in clinical embryology in the period of 2012-2013 in the respective European country was sent to ESHRE National representatives (basic scientists only) in December 2013. At this time, 28 European countries had at least one basic scientist in the ESHRE Committee of National Representatives. PARTICIPANTS/MATERIALS, SETTING, METHODS: The survey consisted of 46 numeric, dichotomous (yes/no) or descriptive questions. Answers were obtained from27 out of 28 countries and the data were tabulated. Data about the numbers of 'ESHRE Certified Embryologists' were taken from the ESHRE Steering Committee for Embryologist Certification. MAIN RESULTS AND THE ROLE OF CHANCE: In 2012, more than 7000 laboratory staff from 1349 IVF clinics in 27 European countries performed over 700 000 fresh and frozen ART cycles. Despite this, clinical embryology is only recognized as an official profession in 3 out of 27 national health systems. In most countries clinical embryologists need to be registered under another profession, and have limited possibilities for organized education in clinical embryology. Mostly they are trained for practical work by senior colleagues. ESHRE embryologist certification so far constitutes the only internationally recognized qualification; however this cannot be considered a subspecialization. LIMITATIONS, REASONS FOR CAUTION: Data were obtained through different methods, by involving national embryologist societies and cycle registers, collecting information from centre to centre, and in some cases by individual assessment of the situation. For these reasons, the results should be interpreted with caution. WIDER IMPLICATIONS OF THE FINDINGS: This paper presents the current status of clinical embryology and clinical embryologists in Europe and is an important step towards implementation of clinical embryology as an officially recognized profession. STUDY FUNDING/COMPETING INTEREST(S): None. TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER: No. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper suggests an analysis of data concerning 306 educational project proposals submitted for European funding in 2013. Several fundamental questions regarding the role of the evaluation for achieving European ideas and goals when financing projects in education area are posed and answers have been provided. The hypothesis that the actual assessment confirms the objectives of the EU is discussed against the alternative that this assessment changes the focus of EU funding. Another natural question that finds an answer in the present work is "How to plan the preparation of the project proposal with a view to optimize its effectiveness and the expected results?" The data is analysed by the methods of histogram analysis, principal component analysis, cross-covariance, correlation and variation analysis, Hilbert's transform, as well as graph's theory techniques. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to highlight some of the basic traits which have defined Scandinavian education ever since the century. At the same time, we will point out some influences exerted by the values and principles of Scandinavian education on the appearance and development of folk art schools in Romania in the interwar period. Through the contribution of Bucharest"s Monographic School run by D. Gusti, the principles of the Scandinavian school principles were adapted to the Romanian century cultural space and education, and their influence has endured even to the present day. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is an increasing demand for highly skilled workers in all advanced industrialised economies. Although most jobs require occupation-specific skills to carry them out, it is widely recognised that generic skills are ever more needed by job seekers, to increase job opportunities and maintain employability; this applies to all sectors of the economy, from selling cars to undertaking marine research. Several recent European Union strategy documents emphasise the importance of generic skills. However, the apparent mismatch between the skills sets that employers seek and that job seekers offer remains a major challenge. This paper focuses on perceptions of and attitudes to generic skills training for university graduates intending to gain employment in aquaculture, fisheries or other marine sectors and presents the results of a survey administered to academics, industry representatives, students (at different stages of their academic career) and graduates. The various respondents regarded most of the 39 generic skills under investigation as important, with none classified as unimportant. However, students undertaking different types of degree (i.e. B.Sc., M.Sc. and Ph.D.) prioritized different generic skills and the level of importance ascribed to generic skills training increased as students progressed in their university careers. On the other hand, university staff and other employers were fairly consistent in their choice of the most important generic skills. We argue that there remains a need to place generic skills and employability attributes and attitudes at the centre of the higher education curriculum. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the world prepares to commemorate the centenary of the First World War, it is timely to discuss meaningful learning activities that students of nursing could be engaged in to encourage them to reflect on the nurse's role then and now. Several films and television series about the war and featuring nursing have already been aired. No doubt there will be many more stories to come. Such stories have the potential to do more than eulogise nursing for students and practitioners. Stories, such as The crimson field, have potential to stimulate serious contemplation about values and cultural practices that have remained constant or have changed and to assist students to develop and articulate values that will be fitting for contemporary practice. Recently, excerpts from the series were examined with a group of nursing students and key learnings were found. These are shared in this paper for the benefit of educators planning to utilise public discourse as triggers to engage nursing students in discussions about nursing values, nursing history and representations of the profession. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The field of logistics education is rather colorful. The range of possible topics is huge and so each curriculum has unique approach towards which topic areas to emphasize and which to treat briefly or even omit. There is only little effective standardization in logistics education. This study examines the content of 42 undergraduate logistics curricula in Europe via cluster analysis, with a goal to propose a typology of logistics curricula. The findings define the spectrum of logistics education in four clusters, ranging from „business administration" with little focus on most specific logistics topics, through „interdisciplinary logistics management" and „modern transport management" to „logistics engineering" with a strong quantitative and technology approach. However, a problem remains that curriculum title does not always reflect actual profile. A typical title "logistics management" might in one case contain various engineering elements, but in another none at all. Such findings point out the need for curricula boards to decide, if trying to cover the entire scope by „one-size-fits-all" program is the best option or if more distinct focus is needed. In both cases this decision needs to be intentional, agreed and clearly communicated to avoid confusing students and society. Furthermore, the study points out the need to refine standards of competences in logistics, especially for logistics engineering. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

“New” school inspections are essential parts of “evidence-based governance” concepts and have been implemented by many European countries as a major strategy to assure and improve the effectiveness and quality of their education systems. However, national inspection systems vary in their composition and in their contextual features. Using online survey data from approximately 2300 principals in 7 European countries, the paper explores the role of “accountability pressure” as an element for understanding the operation of inspection systems. The results indicate that principals who feel more “accountability pressure” are more attentive to the quality expectations communicated by inspections, more sensitive to stakeholders’ reactions to inspection results, and more active with respect to improvement activities. However, also the number of unintended consequences is increasing with pressure. Inspection systems in different countries are seen by school leaders as applying differential degrees of “accountability pressure”, which is reflected in system-specific amounts of improvement activities. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Diverse schools have become the norm throughout much of what is considered the West. Many urban classrooms feature few white European children but are located in nations dominated by Eurocentric epistemologies and discourses that oppress minority students by devaluing their cultures. Most European scholarship fails to analyse cultures of whiteness in educational settings. This paper addresses this gap by documenting cultural discourses of whiteness infusing a diverse primary school classroom in Amsterdam. Discourses reflecting white cultural norms of order, time, cleanliness, and Western and Christian superiority dominated a classroom containing only one white Dutch child. These discourses contribute to diverse students' explicit racialization while promoting the supremacy of white Dutch culture. They are both assimilationist and exclusionary, suggesting that many students, because of their backgrounds, will never be considered fully Dutch. Findings are of relevance to all nations dominated by white cultures with large populations of students of colour. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In this paper Merry examines in detail the continued – and curious – popularity of religious schools in an otherwise ‘secular’ twenty-first century Europe. To do this he considers a number of motivations underwriting the decision to place one's child in a religious school and delineates what are likely the best empirically supported explanations for the continued dominant position of Protestant and Catholic schools. He then argues that institutional racism is an explanatory variable that empirical researchers typically avoid, though it informs both parental assessments of school quality as well as selective mechanisms many mainstream religious schools use to function as domains of exclusion. He then distinguishes between religious schools in a dominant position from those serving disadvantaged minorities and argues that the latter are able to play a crucially important function other schools only rarely provide and hence that vulnerable minorities may have reason to value. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This short paper recognises the growth in emphasis in work-based learning as Europe moves forward on economically driven life-long learning. We support such a move and point to issues which still need to be resolved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article analyzes different types of shadow education, providers, customers and research trends, focusing on Asia, Europe and the U.S. Topics discussed include educational activities administered outside of formal schooling across countries, organisation of shadow education, and country differences in labels.

The article focuses on the sixth general conference of the Comparative Education Society in Europe, which was held in Italy on June 4 to 9, 1973. The theme of the event was "Recurrent Education. Some working papers discussed include the following: survey of recurrent education's position and prospects; strategies of recurrent education; technological aids to comparative studies of universities and implications of recurrent education for upper-secondary education. Some speakers were Denis Kallen, R.L. Plancke, Giuliana Limiti and Sixten Marklund.

Despite the significant emphasis placed on incorporating 21st century skills into the educational framework, particularly at the primary level, recent scholarly works indicate considerable variation in the implementation of these skills across different countries and regions, suggesting a demand for further research specifically focusing on primary education. The indications of the Digicomp framework and 21st-century skills in Europe have outlined the key competences for lifelong learning needed for all citizens, including teachers and students. In this perspective, Education plays a fundamental role in ensuring that citizens acquire the required skills. The objective in the common European framework is clear: to initiate a transition from the culture of knowledge to the culture of competence. Nowadays, technological advancement allows the researchers to create and combine different frameworks with the perspective of an even more tailored, and engaged education, some examples derived from the implementation of Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR), in the combination of Gamification and AI, or the development of Intelligent Tutoring Systems (ITS) to foster and create an even more personalized learning and teaching. Following these premises, in this paper, we want to point out new research reflections and perspectives that could help researchers, teachers, educators (and consequently students) to reflect on the introduction of new technologies (e.g., artificial intelligence, robot tutors) and on how these can affect on human behavioral development and on the acquisition of new skills and competences (Specifically: Creativity, Critical Thinking, Problem Solving, and Computational Thinking) for the educational context. The analysis carried on, suggests a perspective on how creativity, critical thinking, and problem-solving can be effective in promoting computational thinking, and how Artificial Intelligence (AI) could be an aid instrument to teachers in the fostering of creativity, critical thinking, and problem-solving in schools and educational contexts. • Point out new research reflections and perspectives on the introduction of new; technologies (e.g., artificial intelligence, robot tutors) in educational context; • Outline activities and lines of research on Creativity, Critical Thinking, Problem Solving, and Computational Thinking; • Propose solutions to be able to implement AI and new technologies for the development of skills in human behavior; • Suggestions for implementing technologies in the school context; • The fundamental role of the network of schools in the European context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A large literature has theorized about the importance of skill formation systems for labor market outcomes. Focusing on twenty two European countries, this paper establishes that countries differ in the strength of the pathways that connect educational credentials to the occupational structure. Pathway strength matters for the quality of occupational matching, for employment and earnings, and for the earnings gap between well matched and less well-matched workers. Systematic country differences matter most clearly in their implications for the average strength of linkage between educational credentials and the occupational structure. The strength of the association between local linkage strength and labor market outcomes may also vary by country or across the various country clusters that have been identified in the institutional literature. However, the considerable within-country heterogeneity in the cross-country rankings of individual pathways implies that one needs to look within countries to understand pathway structure and its connection with career progression and labor market outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the characteristics and variety of digitization training initiatives in North America and to a lesser extent, Europe, and the growing development of credit-bearing courses and programs within higher education relating to digitization, with a specific focus on librarianship. Information was collected in response to an inquiry posted in late July 2004 on the ARLIS, JESSE, and DIGLIB listservs, supplemented by ongoing perusal of these sources, Web searches, and suggestions from colleagues. It also briefly discusses the benefits and challenges associated with the development of digitized library resources, and the need for greater attention to professional development for those working in digitization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Political science has long viewed education as an instrumental factor in developing support for democracy and beneficial for democratization. However, governments, both democratic and authoritarian, have substantial control over the curriculum and develop education institutions with the specific aim to instill in students the norms and values that underpin the regime. With this in mind, this study asks, does the effect of education vary by the political regime in which education was undertaken? We use a quasi-experimental approach exploiting European compulsory schooling reforms, implemented under both democratic and authoritarian regimes, to answer this question. We find that education has no effect on principle and functional support for democracy, but that education's effect on satisfaction with democracy is conditional on regime type. For those educated under a democratic regime, education led to greater satisfaction with democracy, whereas those educated under an authoritarian regime became less satisfied with democracy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although formal childcare is considered a key social investment policy to combat inequality, available research indicates that in most European and other high-income countries parents with lower socio-economic positions are less likely to use formal childcare. As the literature on the underlying causes of this so-called Matthew effect has not yet converged, this article is the first to assess whether educational gradients in formal childcare uptake can be accounted for by micro-level employment potential and work–family attitudes in 14 European countries and Australia. Complementing available research on supply-side factors such as policy design features, this study indicates that a large part of the educational gradients in formal childcare uptake persist after controlling for socio-demographic background variables, employment potential, and work–family attitudes as micro-level predictors. However, this study also shows that a considerable part of the educational differentiation in formal childcare uptake reflects differential employment potential. This finding turns attention to policies other than childcare to enhance labour market outcomes for lower educated groups, which in turn might attenuate the Matthew effect in formal childcare. Furthermore, a positive relation between individual-level work–family attitudes and the uptake of formal childcare is also identified as a partial explanation for educational gradients in formal childcare uptake. Although the explanatory power of work–family attitudes as an underlying determinant of the Matthew effect is more limited compared to employment potential, such variation in the acceptance of maternal employment and formal childcare should also be considered in the design of inclusive work–family policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

CommFABnet is a European Commission-funded project aimed at significantly improving the information flow between European research projects in the fields of food, agriculture and fisheries, and biotechnology (the so-called bioeconomy) and stakeholders, such as businesses, policy makers and European citizens. This includes children and young people, who are the target group of an educational toolkit that is being developed by the British Nutrition Foundation, a partner of the CommFABnet project, for use in classrooms across Europe. This paper focuses on the development of the educational toolkit, and in addition outlines the role of educating and inspiring young people in the science communication process, and how other networks or projects can learn from the CommFABnet model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Pedagogická Orientace is the property of Pedagogicka Orientace and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Growing ethnic and cultural diversity within Europe has brought increased attention to the impact and inclusion of immigrant populations and has also presented societies with valuable opportunities for intercultural learning between diverse groups. Using the International Civic and Citizenship Study data from 24 European education systems, in this paper we explore whether fostering an atmosphere of inclusion in schools relates to select attitudes and behaviours typically associated with an inclusive society, particularly among immigrant students. Our study is able to tease out some of the differences related to social class among immigrant students, opening up important avenues for discussion and future research. According to our findings, first generation immigrant students from higher socio-economic status backgrounds tended to have significantly more negative attitudes toward their resident country. Findings also collectively suggest that local-level practices, such as improving immigrant student participation in schools and positive relations between immigrant students and teachers, could be significant factors in fostering an inclusive society. Based on these results, we describe several education policies and practices that can promote greater inclusion, such as encouraging increased civic participation within the school and community, and providing a forum where students can contribute to school governance. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Is there a date signaling the beginning of a new era? As regards Europe, at least, a potential candidate is the year 1992 - the year of the Maastricht Treaty - which marked the beginning of EU's expansion, thus investing the term "globalization" with a new meaning. But 1992 is also the year that marked a significant, symbolic change in the Hellenic Higher Education system: it is the year in which women were first permitted to join the Military Academy of Greece. My paper will therefore trace the trajectory of female cadets at the Hellenic Military Academy, focusing on the relation of gender to educational institutions that traditionally resist change (such as the Academies of the Armed Forces), and examining the extent to which the process of globalization has influenced both the cadets' own perception of the role of the contemporary Army Officer, and the very notion of a "proper," "feminine" career. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The governance of higher education has been changing across Europe, most notably in response to the reform agenda that has been pervading many higher education systems. This wave of reforms has given enhanced visibility to external stakeholders, which has been often received with contrasting views. Some regarded it as a factor that would undermine institutions' mission, while others viewed it as a rhetorical change, which would hardly have an impact on institutional life. In this paper, we analyse the introduction of external stakeholders in governance and quality assessment processes by looking at the Portuguese experience, and more specifically at their contribution to the implementation of internal quality assurance systems. We use empirical data collected from four higher education institutions under the framework of the IBAR project, subsumed in the form of barriers to and good practices for the implementation of policies and procedures for quality assurance. The results suggest that although the presence of external stakeholders has become more visible, it is yet to be fully reflected in the way institutions are governed or the way in which they manage their internal quality assurance processes and mechanisms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents the models of the intercultural curriculum in Europe, today; it points out that explicit intercultural curricula are not part of the mainstream European educations systems. The author denounces also the attack to multiculturalism done by some European governments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to address the problem of job satisfaction determinants of higher education graduates across six selected study domains. Design/methodology/approach – Based on the theoretical considerations, derived from human capital theory and signalling theory, the authors formulate the model explaining job satisfaction as a broad measure of labour market success. Explanatory variables include various socio-demographic characteristics as well as market environment and process of learning, modes of teaching and study programme characteristics. Data used in the analysis comes from two special surveys of European research projects REFLEX and HEGESCO. Principal component analysis method and OLS regression were used to estimate model parameters. Findings – The results of our research show the important role of characteristics of educational process, as well as individual graduates’ early work-related experience in predicting job satisfaction. Differences in job satisfaction determinants across domains may be to some extent explained by the differences in the labour market characteristics for graduates in given discipline. Variety of education-related characteristics taken into account in the empirical analysis of determinants of job satisfaction is a key valuable contribution to the research in the field. Originality/value – Research findings indicate the areas of potential actions aimed at improving future job satisfaction which can be undertaken by higher education institutions’ management bodies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the past two decades regional agreements have become more significant in educational and training. This paper situates and analyses the European Higher Education Area (EHEA), the Bologna Process and the Lisbon Strategy and explores their influence on the integration of higher education systems in Mercosur (the Southern Common Market of Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay and Venezuela). Mercosur is still a customs union, and the project of integrating higher education is at an early stage. Lacking organically established regional bodies, coordination of integration in Mercosur has focused on summits and meetings of officials. However, in a context of unequal maturity in regional integration, there is emerging evidence that the EHEA project is influencing the reforms of national systems of higher education and even Mercosur’s model for a regional area of higher education. A nascent Europeanization of higher education systems in the Mercosur region is emerging, by-passing Mercosur’s regional structures. The formulation of policies has been permeated by policy transfer from Europe to national territories within Mercosur. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The world is increasingly developing towards complex and chaotic behaviour. Enterprises are challenged to establish flexible but trustworthy structures of doing business within global instability. We need to educate our students today for coping with such chaotic patterns in their professional future. As an example, the student-run Europe-wide organisation ESTIEM is offering the 2-week Summer Academy (SAC) to develop the communication skills corresponding. It also means among other aims to strengthen mutual trust through interaction of the students. In 2011, one of the SAC took place in Serbia. About 15 students attended it from all over Europe. In the paper, three of these students report on their experiences as a set of suggestions of how to develop further engineering and economics teaching towards international trust and stability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents an overview of the history of Spanish as a Foreign Language, from its beginnings in the late fifteenth century to the twentieth century. It is the first survey of its kind published in English. It shows that we are well informed about the broad lines of development, but that much remains to be done in some areas, particularly in analysing the materials used to teach Spanish and their connection to the European pedagogical tradition. Much less is known about who the learners of Spanish were throughout Europe. It seems that the students of Spanish in Northern Europe, for example, had specific learning goals which were probably not the same as the learners of Spanish in France. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We analyse the gender training gap (i.e. the disadvantage of women in receiving work-related continuing training) based on individual data from the first wave of the Adult Education Survey (AES). The interaction of gender and education, we argue, has been overlooked in previous work. For only one of 22 European countries do we find a statistically significant training gap for women with a university degree—but in six countries, we find a statistically significant and sizeable training gap for women without a university degree. Multilevel analysis supports the results and shows that institutions are linked to the chances of training. In particular, a system of vocational education and training geared towards firm-specific skills enhances the female training gap. Overall, our paper shows that the widespread perception of a disappearing gender training gap is premature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: In Europe, energy and climate policies started to take shape from the 1990s onwards culminating with the ambitious 20–20–20 climate goals and the Low-Carbon Europe roadmap 2050. The European Commission empower the importance of achieving the objective of the recast Directive on energy performance of buildings (EPBD) that new buildings built from 2021 onwards will have to be nearly zero-energy buildings. The general belief is that the energy performance optimization of buildings requires an integrated design approach and cross-disciplinary teamwork to optimize the building's energy use and quality of indoor environment while satisfying the occupants' needs. In this context, there is a substantial need for professionals such as architects and engineers specifically trained and educated in integrated design approach and trained to work in cross-disciplinary teams. To be able to push forward the development, it is essential that educational institutions foster professionals with such knowledge, skills and competences. An initiative toward this direction is the EU-project of IDES-EDU: “Master and Post-Graduate education and training in multi-disciplinary teams”. The paper describes the necessity of more integrated and cross-disciplinary approaches to building design through state-of-the-art of the building sector and educational initiatives in the participating countries in the project, and through theory of design processes. The paper also communicates the results of newly developed cross-disciplinary education established by fifteen different educational institutions in Europe. Finally, the paper explains and discusses the challenges encountered during development and implementation of the education across different professions and countries. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The present paper-from a vantage in Bulgaria, and focusing in significant part on this country as an iconic example of the 'post-socialist freefall' and its dystopia on European capitalism's neocolonial 'new periphery'-is a revised version of an earlier chapter in Hill (2013). It was originally written as a 'post-socialist' supplement to perspectives on austerity capitalism, education and fightback as analyzed in that volume. The revamped paper comprises an Introduction and six main sections, the first three contained in installment 1 of the article here, Sections 4-6 in a second installment to appear in the next issue of JCEPS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present paper discusses the components of language teachers' awareness, which should differ qualitatively and quantitatively from that of language learners and users. It is argued that especially teachers of English, the European lingua franca, should develop plurilingual awareness to train learners to become multilingual citizens. This awareness involves crosslinguistic, metalinguistic and psycholinguistic knowledge concerning multiple language acquisition. Apart from that, teachers should ideally be multilingual themselves. The paper reports on a survey carried out on over 230 pre-service and in-service Polish teachers of English. It compares their levels of plurilingual awareness relative to their teaching experience, bilingualism/multilingualism factors and the level of L3-Ln languages known. Their awareness seems to be linked with both teaching experience and multilingualism, but it is higher for multilingual teachers proficient in several languages. The paper also presents a qualitative study in the form of a guided interview on a focus group of five in-service teachers. This provides in-depth insight into how they understand plurilingual language teaching. Finally, conclusions are drawn concerning changes in teacher training that would enable teachers to promote plurilingual approaches in class. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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In this paper it is presented the evolution of schooling and education process in Europe from Antiquity to modern times. Education is one of the most important elements of social life, and it has a great impact on it. The article presents the main sociological theories of education which are the functionalist theory (Emile Durkheim) and the social conflict theory (Max Weber). The following chapter presents the historical evolution of educational systems in Europe from Antiquity till the modern times emphasizing on the most important stages and reforms. In this article there are presented the strong links between the process of education and the other aspects of social life and the way they influence each other. The emergence of public schooling systems and its evolution is presented along with the main reforms and public policies. The steps taken for the massification of education and the reforms that led to the increased access to schooling is presented in a strong relation with the social classes that had existed in different historical periods. The foundation and the evolution of higher education institutions - namely the Universities, are presented along with their impact on the social life in Europe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: At the present time, higher education institutions dealing with education for public health in Europe and beyond are faced with a complex and comprehensive task of responding to global health challenges. Review: Literature reviews in public health and global health and exploration of internet presentations of regional and global organisations dealing with education for public health were the main methods employed in the work presented in this paper. Higher academic institutions are searching for appropriate strategies in competences-based education, which will increase the global attractiveness of their academic programmes and courses for continuous professional development. Academic professionals are taking advantage of blended learning and new web technologies. In Europe and beyond they are opening up debates about the scope of public health and global health. Nevertheless, global health is bringing revitalisation of public health education, which is recognised as one of the core components by many other academic institutions involved in global health work. More than ever, higher academic institutions for public health are recognising the importance of institutional partnerships with various organisations and efficient modes of cooperation in regional and global networks. Networking in a global setting is bringing new opportunities, but also opening debates about global harmonisation of competence-based education to achieve functional knowledge, increase mobility of public health professionals, better employability and affordable performance. Conclusions: As public health opportunities and threats are increasingly global, higher education institutions in Europe and in other regions have to look beyond national boundaries and participate in networks for education, research and practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]