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This article focuses on analysing the effect of educational differentiation policies of OECD educational systems on socioeconomically disadvantaged students, based on data from PISA 2009. The analysis is conducted on the basis of a definition of two subgroups of disadvantaged students: those that achieve high scores, and those obtaining scores that are significantly below the average for their country. Educational systems are classified in four models following the classification proposed by N. Mons. Results show that the more integrated the educational system, the greater the number of disadvantaged high achievers, and the lower the number of disadvantaged low achievers.

When investigating the association between brain tumors and use of mobile telephones, accurate data on tumor position are essential, due to the highly localized absorption of energy in the human brain from the radio-frequency fields emitted. We used a point process model to investigate this association using information that included tumor localization data from the INTERPHONE Study (Australia, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Israel, Italy, Japan, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden, and the United Kingdom). Our main analysis included 792 regular mobile phone users diagnosed with a glioma between 2000 and 2004. Similar to earlier results, we found a statistically significant association between the intracranial distribution of gliomas and the self-reported location of the phone. When we accounted for the preferred side of the head not being exclusively used for all mobile phone calls, the results were similar. The association was independent of the cumulative call time and cumulative number of calls. However, our model used reported side of mobile phone use, which is potentially influenced by recall bias. The point process method provides an alternative to previously used epidemiologic research designs when one is including localization in the investigation of brain tumors and mobile phone use. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aims to conduct a bibliometric analysis of the articles about values education in the Web of Science database. To this end, analyzes were provided of 254 articles deemed suitable for the analysis from the articles collected from the database. Bibliometric analysis was performed for the most used keywords, the most used words in the abstract, the most cited authors, the most cited countries, the most cited journals about values education via the VOSviewer program. Furthermore, the articles' publication years and languages were identified. Values education, values, education, moral education are the most used keywords. Data, level, and program are the most commonly used words in the abstract. The most cited writers (cocitation) in values education are Lovat, Thornberg and Kohlberg. According to both co-citation and citation analysis of the most cited journal, it is the Journal of Moral Education. The countries that are most cited are the United States, Australia, and England. Even though the first study in this field was conducted in 1970, the majority of researches were performed in 2019. The publication language of the articles has been discovered to be predominantly English. It is assumed that the findings obtained would provide the researchers with a general framework in this field. Suggestions for further studies are brought in as a result of the study.

Secondary school level quantum physics (QP) courses have recently been implemented in the national curricula of many countries. QP gives opportunities to acquaint students with more recent physics and its applications and to discuss aspects of the nature of science. Research has shown that QP is a challenging area for students. Because the inclusion of QP in national curricula is rather new in most countries, it is interesting to compare QP curricula from these countries to make the choices by curriculum designers visible. In this study, we provide a detailed overview of QP courses from fifteen countries. We collected and analyzed official curriculum documents to identify key items present in most curricula. Our inventory identifies a shared current core curriculum of QP which contains the following seven main categories: discrete atomic energy levels, interactions between light and matter, wave-particle duality, de Broglie wavelength, technical applications, Heisenberg's uncertainty principle, and the probabilistic nature of QP. We also found differences in the focus of the listed topics of certain countries, which indicate different views on teaching QP and might inspire curriculum designers struggling with QP. For instance, challenging items like QP interpretations or epistemological aspects of QP are taught only in a few countries. Although research suggests that epistemological aspects help students to comprehend novel QP concepts, many countries do not explicitly include these in the curriculum. We provide reasons and suggestions for this.

The study of variables related to the use of ICT in the classroom is a topic of interest that has been frequently researched. In this paper, after examining the importance of teacher training in explaining the use of ICT in the classroom, we focused on analysing the weight of variables related to teaching practices and the organisational context of schools, which are variables that are less frequently addressed in the literature. To do so, a secondary analysis was carried out using data provided by the Teaching and Learning International Study (TALIS 2018). Specifically, we worked with a sample of 3,918 principals and 64,899 teachers from a total of 3921 schools in 21 countries. A multilevel binary regression model with random intercept, fixed coefficients and a two-level structure with teachers at level 1 and schools at level 2 was used. The results indicate that the presence of ICT in the classroom is associated with self-efficacy in teaching and the cognitive activation of students and with the organisational aspects of the school, which are scarcely addressed by the existing literature on this topic of interest, such as school climate, educational innovation and cooperation among teachers. Based on these results, we reflect on possible ways to promote the use of ICT in the classroom.

Teachers across the circumpolar north often share similar experiences working in small communities in remote areas with distinctive cultures and livelihoods. However, teacher education programmes tend to be universal, ignoring an ecological understanding of teaching. This paper describes the findings from a desktop study investigating the specific demands made of teachers working in rural schools and the implications for teacher education in supporting them to develop the necessary self-efficacy for this role. The results indicate that attention to specific teaching and teacher competences is required but that this must be undertaken with an awareness of the importance of place-based education.

Background: Educational qualifications and literacy skills are highly related. This is not surprising as it is one aim of educational systems to equip individuals with competencies necessary to take part in society. Because of this relationship educational qualifications are often used as a proxy for "human capital". However, from a theoretical perspective, there are many reasons why this relationship is not perfect, and to some degree this is due to third variables. Thus, we want to explore the net relationship between educational attainment (harmonized according to the International Standard Classification of Education, ISCED) and literacy skills, and how much skills vary within education levels across countries. Methods: We use data from 21 countries from the Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies 2012. This paper compares the literacy skills of adults who achieved different levels of educational attainment across countries. Given the high degree of educational differentiation in most countries, we do this using a more differentiated educational attainment variable than what is commonly used. In our analyses we firstly adjust for factors that are likely to affect access to education and the acquisition of educational qualifications and literacy skills, such as parental education and language and migration background. In a second step, we also take into account factors affecting skill development after initial formal education, such as occupation and skill use at home. Results: We firstly find a high degree of heterogeneity of skills across countries for equivalent education categories. Secondly, we find skill similarities for equivalent education categories classified at different broad education levels, sometimes even breaking the hierarchical order of 'higher education entails higher competencies'. Conclusion: We conclude that ISCED levels cannot be taken as a cross-nationally comparable proxy for human capital in terms of literacy skills, and that education has to be harmonized in a substantively more meaningful way in future adult literacy surveys.

Distributed Leadership is a conceptual and analytical approach to understanding leadership that is focused on interactions between leaders and those they lead with the goal of driving instructional improvement and improving student outcomes by developing high-quality teaching and an educational culture that enables all students to thrive. This article provides an overview of the state-of-the-art research available on distributed leadership. As new social and educational demands emerge, leadership responses need to be reformed at all school levels to ensure a school's ability to provide a high-quality education. These transformations must be promoted from within each school center. The author describes and covers a deep review of the literature between 1981 and 2020. The source data for this research, (321 articles), is derived from SCOPUS, Biblometrix Studio, and VOSviewer. The terms and their clusters were illustrated on graphs, and density maps were utilized. General recommendations are provided and challenges are identified for the incorporation of DL changes into the management of schools. The findings show that the literature refers explicitly to DL, wherein there are a number of interesting insights provided by theoretical articles. A conclusion is given with recommendations for further multidisciplinary research at the intersection of the fields in order to show the holistic landscape of this field. [Note: The volume number 2 and the issue number (6) shown on the PDF are incorrect. The correct citation for this article is v4 n2.]

Several studies have been published on disengaged test respondents, and others have analyzed disengaged survey respondents separately. For many large-scale assessments, students answer questionnaire and test items in succession. This study examines the percentage of students who continuously engage in disengaged responding behaviors across sections in a low-stakes assessment. The effects on calculated scores of filtering students, based on their responding behaviors, are also analyzed. Data of this study came from the 2015 administration of PISA. For data analysis, frequencies and percentages of engaged students in the sessions were initially calculated using students' response times. To investigate the impact of filtering disengaged respondents on parameter estimation, three groups were created, namely engaged in both measures, engaged only in the test, and engaged only in the questionnaire. Next, several validity checks were performed on each group to verify the accuracy of the classifications and the impact of filtering student groups based on their responding behavior. The results indicate that students who are disengaged in tests tend to continue this behavior when responding to the questionnaire items in PISA. Moreover, the rate of continuity of disengaged responding is non-negligible as can be seen from the effect sizes. On the other hand, removing disengaged students in both measures led to higher or nearly the same performance ratings compared to the other groups. Researchers analyzing the dataset including achievement tests and survey items are recommended to review disengaged responses and filter out students who are continuously showing disengaged responding before performing further statistical analysis.

The quality of national education depends on many factors, which traditionally include adult literacy, the total share of students receiving general, secondary vocational and higher education, the level of the material and technical base, etc. Based on these factors, a list of leading countries by the level of education is formed. The authors believe that in the short term it practically does not change, the leaders retain their positions, the lagging countries rarely get out on top positions. However, the world changes, new trends and tendencies determine the constant change and improvement of quality criteria. The authors suppose that the process of digitalization of the economy will play a significant role in this process. New technologies and processes will undoubtedly update the picture of the leaders of the modern educational process. Here, the countries occupying second positions can claim the role of leaders. These aspects determine the relevance of this study. In this regard, the purpose of the work is to perform a comparative analysis of the quality of education and the level of competitiveness of the leading countries in the context of the growing digitalization process. The research methodology is based on a systematic and structural-functional approach. The representativeness and reliability of the research results are based on the use of general scientific and special methods, including analysis, synthesis, modeling, extrapolation, content analysis, historical analysis, and others. Based on the world ratings of the quality of education, the authors' own rating of the best national education systems was compiled. Moreover, the authors noted that this rating also differs little from the rating of countries' competitiveness on the world stage. The main reasons for distinguishing the leading countries include the existing stage of development, the standard of living of the population, investments in education and science, and other reasons.

In this study, we investigated factors predictive of disconnection, or not being in education, employment, or training (NEET), among young adults with at least a 2-year college degree. We also explored the extent to which disconnection influences civic participation and well-being among NEETs with and without college degrees. The authors used 2012 and 2015 Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) data from the Survey of Adult Skills in the Program for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC) for 29 countries, including the United States, along with US 2012 data from the Education Longitudinal Study of 2002 (ELS:2002), collected by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES). Results highlight that college-educated individuals whose parents have low levels of educational attainment actually have a higher likelihood of becoming NEET relative to college-educated individuals whose parents are more highly educated. Study findings also emphasize the influence of economic and geographic differences (country-level for OECD and county-level for United States) on NEET rates, in addition to the extent to which mothers have a higher likelihood and fathers have a lower likelihood of being NEET relative to their childless peers and the influence of country-level family leave policies on the odds of being NEET across the OECD. College field of study also emerges as an important influence on disconnection across the 29 OECD countries in the study, but not in the United States separately. Finally, comparing results for college-educated NEETs and NEETs without degrees, we found that higher education appears to reduce the likelihood of community disengagement and reports of poor health among NEETs across the OECD countries. However, this is not the case within the United States where NEETs are less likely to be engaged in their communities and more likely to describe themselves as in poor health regardless of their educational attainment.

The authors use the location-based, augmented-reality game "Wayfinder Live," which one of them designed, as a case study to analyze urban play. Acknowledging the difficulty of defining urban play, they expand existing approaches to the topic by drawing on current theories about interfaces, assemblages, and coding in such fields as media and cultural studies, game and play studies, and urban studies. They consider "Wayfinder Live" as an interface--a site of both connection and translation--for urban play, one that encourages its players to test a given city's physical and social boundaries. They argue that the game offers a fruitful, if always contingent and contextual, framework for analyzing digitally mediated urban play.

Purpose: A fundamental assumption of the apprenticeship model is that there are benefits to both employers and individual learners. This study offers a broad conceptual interrogation of this inherent assumption underpinning the apprenticeship model. Approach: This study combines analysis of literature and available data and draws upon apprenticeship systems and practices in ten nations: Australia, Brazil, Denmark, Egypt, England, Finland, Germany, India, Malaysia and South Africa. Results: For individuals, incentives to undertake apprenticeship may be linked to the process and outcomes of learning, such as the appeal of learning through doing; the opportunities for occupational socialization; the possibility of progression to employment or to additional education; and learning while earning. The analysis of incentives for employers shows a range of reasons related to their short-term interests and the needs of the production processes, technologies, and associated skills; longer-term benefits for the company's staffing strategy; and the opportunity to make a contribution to the wider education and economic systems. Despite all the potential incentives, many firms consider apprenticeships too costly, risky, and complex to justify the investment. However, firms that are making decisions as part of an umbrella associations are more likely to coordinate their skills investment strategies around collectively beneficial outcomes. Conclusions: The links to the labour market and specifically to employers are a key challenge for sustaining apprenticeship systems, as well as for the task of researching them. As such, policy maker (and researcher) consideration of apprenticeship should take account of the capacity and commitment of employers. Another key challenge for apprenticeship is related to the relative attractiveness of this pathway for individuals. What is clear from this study is that the development of a strong apprenticeship system requires the buy-in of both employers and individual learners, and as such the necessity to identify and implement incentives effectively cannot be underestimated. Governments can play a key role in realizing the potential incentives for both employers and learners, thereby yielding benefits for all parties engaged in apprenticeships.

The present study aims to determine the relative efficiency of 28 countries participated in PISA 2015 and TALIS 2013 based on student performance and teacher quality, and to sort the countries according to their efficiency scores by using a super efficiency model. Moreover, this study attempts to reveal important improvements countries must make in terms of teacher quality to have better results for student performance. Using data of 28 countries from TALIS 2013 for determining the variables of teacher quality and PISA 2015 for student performance, a data envelopment analysis was performed. Four negative attributes of the teachers were included as input variables and students' performance on reading, mathematics and science as output variables in the analysis. According to the research findings, the most efficient countries on the basis of the determined inputs and outputs are Finland, France, Japan, South Korea, Norway, Singapore, while Brazil, Bulgaria, Chile, Czech Republic, Denmark, Iceland, Italy, Latvia, Netherlands, Portugal, Slovak Republic and Spain are inefficient. The potential improvement is required for all input variables, but its amount varies by country. However, a higher rate of potential improvement is needed for developing countries whose populations are younger.

Education is the core of the factors that improved people for a better lifestyle and increases the level of society' development. Quality education is one of the most vital goals of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) due to actualizing these factors. Using relational network data envelopment analysis (DEA), which have three interrelated substages, this current paper computes the educational economy efficiency of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries bearing in mind the characteristics related to SDGs. The contribution of our study is the use of a novel approach to computing the educational economy efficiency using relational network DEA with GAMS. Even though some interesting differences reveal in the efficiency of the countries, the findings show that countries with high-efficiency scores are clustered around countries like Latvia, Slovenia, and Korea.

The COVID-19 outbreak has had a significant influence on all aspects of society, and it is necessary to comprehend the responses of various stakeholders as well as the challenges that higher education has encountered in the aftermath of the outbreak. This study systematically analyses the measures taken by higher education stakeholders in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and the challenges faced by higher education in the post-COVID-19 era. To analyse the actions taken by higher education stakeholders and the challenges that remain, this study critically analyses government policy documents, reports from international organisations and perspectives of experts in the field of higher education, studies from Chinese journals, and international scientific literature. While stakeholders responded quickly during the outbreak, providing financial and material assistance, developing online learning, and facilitating international student mobility, the study finds that these measures are insufficient when compared to those in other sectors, and higher education stakeholders' responses to COVID-19 have been fragmented, uncoordinated, and fraught with conflict and ambivalence. The study finds that higher education during the COVID-19 pandemic faces multiple challenges, with COVID-19 exacerbating inequities in educational access and educational achievement due to uneven educational infrastructure and resource allocation. The availability of infrastructure and the lack of preparedness of faculty and students have dimmed large-scale experiments in online education. Future international student mobility patterns may need to be restructured.

The prevalence of autism/autism spectrum disorder (ASD) has been increasing across the world. Previous studies in Norway reported, that the prevalence rate for 0-10-year-old children is 1 in 166, and in the case of 11-year-old children it is 1 in 125. Moreover, another nationwide study discovered that 1 in 192 males and 1 in 695 females between the ages of 1-16 years had autism in Norway in the year 2016. This study is underpinned by the data from the National Patient Registry (NPR) for registered incidences of autism/ASD (ICD-10: F84.0 Childhood autism and F84.5 Asperger syndrome). The results show that the prevalence rates of autism/ASD in the capital city of Oslo increased from 2012 to 2016 and the number of children with autism/ASD doubled during this period. Furthermore, in 2016 the results revealed that that 1 in 349 males and 1 in 1594 females between the ages of 1-5 years old had Autism/ASD. Similarly, among the age group of 6-16 years, 1 among 157 males and 1 among 544 females had autism/ASD in the capital city of Oslo in 2016. These findings suggest a 'school-age-effect' in the increase of prevalence rates among the school-age children compared to the preschool-age children. In the following study, the results are presented and discussed along with some suggestions for the educational and healthcare authorities.

Introduction: The prevalence rates of bullying vary significantly across countries and continents. Specifically, UNESCO estimates that the prevalence rates vary from 22.8% (CentralAmerica) to 48.2% (Sub-Saharan Africa). Recently these differences among countries andregions have been attributed to culture- and country-level variables. Thus, the first purpose ofthis study is to examine the comparability of bullying in schools across countries. Secondly, across-cultural comparison of the latent mean scores of bullying is implemented. Method: The data of 286,481 adolescent students (M=15.78, SD=0.29) from 32 countrieswere analyzed using multilevel confirmatory factor analyses (MLCFA) and multigroup factoralignment. Results: Results indicated that the meaning of bullying is equivalent within and between cultures. However, cross-cultural differences in bullying are apparent. East Asian countries havethe lowest latent means of bullying, while Southeast Asian countries have the highest means.Anglo-Saxon, Eastern European, Mediterranean, South American, and Middle East countriesdisplayed rather higher scores. Discussion and Conclusion: These findings underscore the existence of cross-cultural differential responding in bullying measures. Further, the implicit role of culture as an importantvariable that determines the rates of bullying is underscored.

International businesses face a difficult task when trying to decide where to place or expand a business that could be located anywhere in the world. Each country is a complex system of human capabilities, technical systems, [infrastructure bases, laws, cultures and economic systems. How can a company know which country is best for it today, and even more importantly, which country will grow into an appropriate location for future business opportunities? Several studies offer insights into how to make site selection decisions (O'Farrell & Wood, 1994; Papadopoulos et al., 2002; Rothaermel et al., 2006) but the complexity of the data required makes initial analysis across many countries problematic. Most businesses, trying to predict an ideal country or sequence of countries to enter, are left to simple rules of thumb or decision models using limited criteria (Górecka & Szalucka, 2013; Alexander et al., 2011). A wide variety of country data of varying reliability and efficacy are frequently used (Rahman, 2003). Many of the largest companies have developed specialized teams with sophisticated models for site selection. However, for smaller companies finding reliable, consistently measured data they can interpret and analyze in ways that provide useful insights is a challenge. This article introduces the Social Progress Index, launched in April 2013 at the 10th annual Skoll World Forum held at the University of Oxford (The Origins, 2015). The Social Progress Index is unique because it is the most comprehensive framework developed for measuring social progress and the first to measure social progress independently of GDP or other economic variables (Porter, 2015; Keohane, 2015). Three cases have been chosen to demonstrate the usefulness of the Social Progress Index for site selection in three very different circumstances.

Background: Data from the Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC) revealed that countries systematically differ in their respondents' literacy, numeracy, and problem solving in technology-rich environments skills; skill levels also vary by gender, age, level of education or migration background. Similarly, systematic differences have been documented with respect to adults' participation in education, which can be considered as a means to develop and maintain skills. From a psychological perspective, motivation to learn is considered a key factor associated with both skill development and participation in (further) education. In order to account for motivation when analyzing PIAAC data, four items from the PIAAC background questionnaire were recently compiled into a motivation-to-learn scale. This scale has been found to be invariant (i.e., showing full weak and partial strong measurement invariance) across 21 countries. Methods: This paper presents further analyses using multiple-group graded response models to scrutinize the validity of the motivation-to-learn scale for group comparisons. Results: Results indicate at least partial strong measurement invariance across gender, age groups, level of education, and migration background in most countries under study (all CFI > 0.95, all RMSEA < 0.08). Thus, the scale is suitable for comparing both means and associations across these groups. Conclusions:Results are discussed in light of country characteristics, challenges of measurement invariance testing, and potential future research using PIAAC data.

This article reports an analysis of the relationship between women's increased participation in higher education and other recent social changes over the last four decades. To date, women's increased involvement in higher education has been studied as either a force for or a consequence of other sociocultural changes. Drawing on data from key international data sets and with a focus on a range of Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD) countries, this article details an exploratory factor analysis of women's higher education participation and a range of other variables identified as indicators of or mediators for social change. This analysis reveals the existence of four underlying factors showing the structural interrelationship between the variables.

The old myth about the ability and variability of potential in children is a comforting myth, for those who are uneasy with the degree of inequality they see and would rather seek to justify it than confront it. The myth of inherent potential helps some explain to themselves why they are privileged. Extend the myth to believe in inherited ability and some can come to believe that their children will inherit part of a greater potential. These beliefs create and sustain inequality in society and allow for the creation of levels of ignorance in populations. This article uses insights from social geography and the sociology of education to examine how the myths are sustained past and present. It notes that countries with the highest degree of income inequality and the most unequal education systems have the worst outcomes for young adults, and these are the countries in which eugenic notions of inherited ability are resurfacing.

Access to current research materials, pedagogical best practices, and relevant knowledge has become problematic as journal subscription costs have increased. Increasing delays in the traditional publication timeline, coupled with high subscription costs, have resulted in a diminished ability for IS faculty and their students to access the most relevant research in a timely manner, an issue felt most acutely in developing nations. As IS educators seeks to increase the dissemination of their work and ensure that students have the most updated knowledge, one option is publishing in open-access (OA) journals. However, a lack of knowledge, inconsistent quality perceptions, the presence of predatory journals, and publication fees have negatively affected IS researchers' support for OA publishing. This study surveyed 68 IS scholars and found that IS scholars do not publish in OA journals due to concerns about fees, quality, prestige, and impact factors. This study found more similarities than differences between junior- and senior-level IS scholars, with junior faculty members placing more emphasis on the speed of publication than their senior colleagues do. By understanding the underlying reasons that IS faculty are favoring OA options, the study hopes to shed light on the reliance on traditional journal publication models that restrict the distribution of intellectual property. If the OA approach were embraced by more journals, IS faculty members and their students benefit through expeditious access to relevant content to support faculty professional development, instruction, and research.