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Erasmus mobility has become an important feature of higher education in Europe and beyond, with the potential to generate significant changes at individual, institutional and systemic levels. More than three decades after the foundation of this successful program, evaluations reveal that, despite notable progress, several aspects of the Erasmus student experience can be further improved. Based on the lived experiences of Erasmus alumni, in this article, we explore recurrent challenges that emerge in educational mobility and how they could be better addressed. Three key dimensions are identified in the qualitative accounts of former Erasmus students and analyzed in light of previous research: mobility preparation, institutional support for integration, and recognition of study abroad.

Purpose: Flattering emails are crucial in tempting authors to submit papers to predatory journals. Although there is ample literature regarding the questionable practices of predatory journals, the nature and detection of spam emails need more attention. Current research provides insight into fallacious calls for papers from potential predatory journals and develops a toolkit in this regard. Methods: In this study, we analyzed three datasets of calls for papers from potential predatory journals and legitimate journals using a text mining approach and R programming language. Results: Overall, most potential predatory journals use similar language and templates in their calls for papers. Importantly, these journals praise themselves in glorious terms involving positive words that may be rarely seen in emails from legitimate journals. Based on these findings, we developed a lexicon for detecting unsolicited calls for papers from potential predatory journals. Conclusion: We conclude that calls for papers from potential predatory journals and legitimate journals are different, and it can help to distinguish them. By providing an educational plan and easily usable tools, we can deal with predatory journals better than previously. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Classroom management is a vital aspect of teaching that greatly affects students’ learning experiences, particularly in secondary schools. This review paper examines the various strategies teachers use to maintain order and promote effective learning. In Pakistan, where classrooms often face challenges like large sizes and diverse student needs, teachers employ a range of techniques to keep students focused and engaged. These include establishing explicit guidelines, utilizing interactive teaching techniques, and fostering a positive environment. The article helps to find out the answers of these research questions: (1) how do different classroom management strategies impact student engagement and academic performance in secondary education? (2) To what extent do teacher preparation programs contribute to the development of effective classroom management skills for teachers working in diverse classrooms? The assessment also highlights the importance of teacher preparation programs and policies that support effective classroom management. It means that by understanding and implementing tried-and-true management techniques, educators can create a learning environment where every student has the opportunity to succeed. Since effective classroom management changes over time, it calls for ongoing effort. Enhancing the learning environment can be achieved through incorporating evidence-based practices, theoretical insights, and a thorough understanding of each student's needs. It encourages students' empowerment, academic advancement, and the growth of their interest in learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study examines the call for Nigeria becoming one of the twenty most developed economies by the year 2020, as it relates to development planning in Nigeria using the educational system as a unit of analysis. It aims at examining the relevance of this call within the context of existing facilities in the Nigeria educational system--both material and human--from the point of view of academic planning. It adopts a historical research methodology of analysis using purely secondary data drawn from statutory documents and other sources. The study observes among other things, a worrisome disposition of the country's educational system in terms of worsening commitments of stakeholders to the maintenance and expansion of existing facilities and poor funding of this sector by the public authorities. Thus, the study believes has seriously imperil the country's readiness for the Vision 20:2020 as education remains the bedrock of any form of national development. The study therefore suggests, among other planning strategies, an improved funding for education, and a deliberate effort at improving the status, motivation and the overall conditions of service of teachers which it is hoped, will help in reversing this ugly trend in the Nigerian educational system if the vision 20:2020 is ever to be realized.

The objective of this research is to examine: 1) the background in doing the curriculum enrichment; 2) the stages in managing the curriculum enrichment, and 3) the implications and the management of the curriculum enrichment. It is qualitative and naturalistic in nature with a case-study approach and, an interpretative analysis was made on the empirical data using a reflective-interpretatif method and a theory of analysis of spiral data. The results showed that 1) the curriculum enrichment was made by an educational institution, related to the excellence program, and its implementation was based on the academic experiences and tried to apply ideas of modernity; 2) teachers were very dominant in doing the changes and also in making the analysis, in determining the indicators of the curriculum materials for "MAN I Unggulan" Tulungagung, and anything was are based on the decision of the educational institution as the implementing manager; 3) since the curriculum enrichment is competence and professional needs, in terms of the learning activities and the learning results, the supervision and control should be integrally considered. The implication of the curriculum enrichment in "madrasah" is the improvement of the competence in the science and technology without ignoring "iman" ("faith"), "Islam" and "ihsan" (good deed).

In 1983, the National Commission on Excellence in Education released its now famous report, "A Nation at Risk," which warned of "a rising tide of mediocrity" in American schooling. Sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education but largely written by a group of prominent academics, "A Nation at Risk" invoked a crisis so far-reaching in its impact that it still governs the way we think about public education 30 years later. Many of our current policies, and the assumptions that underlie those policies, are attributable in significant part to the way in which the report framed the debate. If the next generation of educators are to forge their own path, they will need to get out from under the long shadow of "A Nation at Risk." The report, published years before many young teachers today were even born, was groundbreaking in emphasizing the importance of education to economic competitiveness and the failings of American schooling in comparison with international competitors. It presented a utilitarian and instrumental vision of education, and argued that schools, not society, should be held accountable for higher performance, and that performance should be measured by external testing--assumptions that underlie the state standards movement in the 1980s and 1990s and persist today in federal policy through No Child Left Behind. "A Nation at Risk" has not been ignored in previous accounts of American educational history: it is often cited as a critical document. In this article, the author examines, in more detail than previous work, the creation, rhetoric, and reception of the report, as well as its profound effect.

The COVID-19 pandemic revealed significant gaps in institutions' ability to maintain education under crisis conditions, which is now commonly referred to as Emergency Remote Teaching (ERT). A critical analysis of the literature reveals that ERT is a label that does not differentiate adequately between the different ways ERT manifested worldwide and over time. In this conceptual paper, we analyze empirical research on remote teaching conducted over single, double, and three+ learning terms. Our analysis shows not only multiple possible phases of remote education but also different stages, scopes, and pathways between them. The proposed model in this paper can be used to analyze current literature, ground future research, and serve as a foundation for developing protocols and practices to proactively maintain education when exigent circumstances demand remote teaching over the short-, mid-, and long-term.

Background: This paper builds on the growing focus on learning about teaching science with digital technologies, and the relationship between different elements that constitute teacher knowledge and how these are captured and understood during teacher education program. Purpose: The aim of the paper is to capture and understand how student teachers integrate digital technologies into their science teaching. In the paper, research on Pedagogical Content Knowledge (PCK) is used to inform the discussion of Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK) the integration of technology into the teaching of a particular science content. Content Representation (CoRe) as a reflective tool is modified to a Technological Content Representation (T-CoRe) to stimulate 24 primary student teachers´ reflections on how to integrate digital technologies into science teaching. Design and methods: After completing the T-CoRes, the student teachers participated in group discussions that aimed to stimulate a deeper reflection on how and why they integrate digital technologies into their science teaching. The data consist of student teachers´ completed T-CoRes (n = 12) and audio recorded group discussions (n = 6) to provide examples where the student teachers reflected on knowledge components of TPACK, both separately and integrated. A qualitative content analysis was performed to identify examples of participants' understanding of how to use digital tools when teaching a specific science topic. Results: The results demonstrate that the T-CoRe helped student teachers to reflect on their teaching of science with the use of digital technologies and made explicit the ways in which technology, content and purpose are closely linked in teaching. Conclusion: The practices and processes highlighted in this paper will help to inform the involvement of student teachers in capturing and developing a knowledge base for using digital technologies in their science teaching.

The current internationalization trends in higher education and educational language policies impel universities to plan their provision of foreign languages. Often, universities are developing language policies, redesigning their foreign language programs and seeking to foster bilingual or multilingual strategies within graduate and undergraduate programs in order to respond to these trends and to students' new needs for a solid education in an increasingly interconnected world. Drawing on Johnson's heuristics of language policy analysis [Johnson, D. C. (2009). Ethnography of language policy. "Language Policy," 8, 139-159], this paper will share how explicit as well as implicit policy is being created by different agents at the largest state-funded higher education institution in the southwestern region of Colombia. The paper will then locate the initiatives for the teaching and learning of English and other foreign languages within the discourses that circulate around English as "lingua franca," "academica" and "economica." It will contend that although the goals for foreign language learning as a requisite for the internationalization of the University are shared by different policy agents, the ways to approach these goals represent different and often conflicting views on micro policy and planning.

Post-secondary institutions are required to complete a variety of quality assurance activities including external program review, a process of inviting external reviewers from outside the institution to provide constructive feedback on all aspects of an academic program. While external program reviews have been completed for decades, there has been little work to ensure that meaningful change occurs as a result. Assessment of outcomes at the department level are limited and research specifically considering external academic program review as a primary quality assurance activity is scant. Each of these limitations is even more significant when considered at the institutional level. From our experience, there is minimal consideration in research or practice to ensure that external review recommendations have an impact on educational planning at the institutional level. To help address this concern, in this paper we describe an approach involving secondary research and thematic document analysis that can be leveraged to enhance institutional decision-making processes by uncovering institutional themes evident across external reviews. We suggest that our approach may be helpful for other higher education institutions striving to make sense of program review recommendations from an institutional perspective.

When policy is made in a particular area, not only does one have to decide what to do but why he/she is doing it. Any plan for action is like a house of cards. At the bottom, there are assumptions. They hold up the next layer, which is the definition of the problem. At the top is the response, what is to be done. If any of the lower cards is not stable, the whole thing comes tumbling down. In this short discussion, Ralf St. Clair looks at a position paper that sets out to answer the question of what is to be done. "Making Skills Everyone's Business: A Call to Transform Adult Learning in the United States" (MSEB) (United States Department of Education [USDoE], 2015) (see ED558793) is a statement from the Federal government office that administers funding for adult education and adult literacy programs throughout the United States. Many of the suggestions in the paper are exciting and innovative, creating real opportunities to develop adult literacy and learning in the United States. But, as this discussion reveals, not all the cards are as stable as they should be.

Proposals for legislative change to the regulatory framework of higher education in England, as envisaged in 2011, were delayed, but a comprehensive "operating framework" was designed and a Register of providers created. The Green Paper published in November 2015 includes proposals influenced by the recent work of the Competition and Markets Authority, including the plan to encourage easier and quicker grant to alternative providers of degree-awarding powers and university title. It is recognised that this is likely to lead to the failure of some of these newcomers. For the first time a need to make provision for students to be "taught out" if they are unable to complete their qualifications at the provider they have chosen. This paper looks at the background to this current trend away from reliance on the stability so far of the publicly-funded university and at the implications for students needing "protection" if providers fail.

The purpose of the present study was to investigate the effectiveness of Lebanon's Education Reform Strategy and Action Plan (LERSAP) set in 2011 as a form of the educational reform the curriculum underwent through focusing on promoting and employing the information communication technology (ICT) tools. The LERSAP was launched to equip teachers with the expertise and competencies adopted to bridge the disparity between the 1997 curriculum guidelines, general and instructional objectives on the one hand and the curriculum implementation, textbooks, and pedagogical practices on the other hand. The general objectives, introductions, instructional objectives, and activities for grades 3, 6, and 9 of the Lebanese English language curriculum were analyzed using the qualitative design implemented to serve the purposes of the study and to build on the approaches that inform about the theoretical/conceptual and empirical literature on education in Lebanon. The findings of the study indicated that the synthesis of the extant literature underscored the positive effect of the ICT tools in general and that of the WebQuest, Wiki, Google Drive, and Window Live Movie Maker models in particular on improving the pedagogical practices of the teachers and on enhancing the learners' skills as well as increasing the motivation of the learners.

Born in the digital world, children cannot imagine life without mobile devices and technologies, which contributes to the transformation of the education system. Mobile devices allow getting information on the Internet anywhere and at any time, the methodology of teaching subjects changes accordingly, the educational process becomes interactive. Mobile technologies and devices have an effective didactic and methodological potential, which requires targeted training of future teachers for their use in teaching activities. The purpose of the paper is to theoretically substantiate and develop a model for forming the readiness of a future mathematics teacher to organise mobile learning for schoolchildren. To create a model of future teachers' readiness for mobile education of schoolchildren, system-activity, personality-oriented and analytical approaches were applied. Analysis and generalisation of the research results of domestic and foreign scientists on this problem are the main research methods, as well as conceptual and terminological analysis and pedagogical modelling. The paper substantiates the relevance and necessity of purposeful preparation of future mathematics teachers to organise mobile education of schoolchildren. The concept of mobile learning of schoolchildren is clarified, its main features are determined. The readiness of future mathematics teachers to organise mobile learning of schoolchildren is considered as a set of motivational, personal, theoretical, activity and reflexive components, which allowed us to systematise and model the process of training teachers for this activity. The model presented by the author, the main components of which are conceptual, content, activity and reflexive blocks, reflects the peculiarities of a future mathematics teacher's readiness for mobile learning of schoolchildren. The developed model will allow us to reach a higher level of training of mathematics teachers, providing personal and professional development of students.

This paper is concerned with long term strategic planning in higher education and focuses on Ontario's strategic mandate agreement (SMA) sector planning framework. In 2012, the province initiated its new SMA planning process by requiring all higher education institutions to propose their own strategies for their academic visions, missions, and objectives. The proposals submitted by Ontario's universities furnish the empirical content of this paper: a historically unique, comprehensive and comparable set of documents capturing institutions' self-understanding and plans for their respective futures. Using concepts from organizational theory, content analysis of universities' SMA proposals reveals divergent strategies, both in terms of institutional administrative responsiveness to the SMA process as well as the academic (i.e., education and scholarship) content of the submissions. In addition, two further sub-themes are analysed: proposals for experiential learning and so-called town-gown connections. Both themes also reveal very different visions amongst institutions. In general, the proposals appear to be independent of institution type and community size/location. Setting the stage for future research, the paper concludes with policy discussion of: (1) the possibilities for institutional diversity in the context of policy discourses on institutional differentiation; and (2) implications for system planning given the structure and process of Ontario's ongoing SMA framework.

This paper argues for effective sequencing of mathematics content to aid transition from junior (Year 7 to Year 10) to senior mathematics (Year 11 to Year 12) curriculum in Queensland, Australia and provides a tool for sequencing the mathematics content. Planning templates and samples are available to schools; however, it is imperative for teachers to understand the processes that underpin planning. This paper provides a step-by-step systematic sequencing of mathematics concepts. The premise is that depending on the level of assumed prior knowledge and skills students recall and apply, teachers can start teaching from any level. The study draws from constructivism to develop a planning tool that can be adapted to all mathematics subjects and levels, help identify conceptual relationships and skills from lower to upper levels and provide students with the opportunity to build their mathematical knowledge.

Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) services are critical points of intervention for children impacted by trauma. Intervention Mapping was utilised to develop an initiative for trauma-informed organisational change in ECEC. This paper describes how the research team understood the need and opportunity for the program using Intervention Mapping Step 1. This included: (i) convening a planning group, (ii) conducting needs assessment, (iii) describing the context for intervention, and (iv) establishing program goals. Benefits, challenges, and recommendations on using Intervention Mapping for program development in ECEC settings are discussed.

Paper aims: This study identifies fundamental characteristics for developing a paper-based thesis (PBT), providing some recommendations to researchers who decide for this academic research report. Originality: This paper contributes to the literature by providing guidance to develop PBTs, which has been attracting researchers' interest because it demonstrates publication capacity and potential as a researcher. Additionally, it is still not entirely clear which issues and countermeasures researchers should address when choosing the paper-based structure. Research method: The authors searched for articles of PBTs already published, institutional documents (e.g., regulations for conducting PBTs in Brazil and abroad) and journal papers concerning this subject. A content and document analysis were conducted in the papers and PBT internal regulations, respectively. Main findings: Results indicate five main factors that impact the success of a PBT approach: (i) the initial planning for this academic model; (ii) alignment between the articles and the thesis/dissertation; (iii) research design construction; (iv) copyrights requirements; and (v) issues regarding co-authorship. Based on that, the study also builds some guidelines to structure a robust PBT. Implications for theory and practice: Our recommendations might be meaningful to scholars and researchers bring more theoretical, empirical, and structural robustness when developing a PBT final document. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present paper posits that in culturally diverse societies such as Brazil the value of cultural diversity within higher education institutions, faculties, and students has begun to gain momentum as a relevant dimension in the assessment of quality, performance, and productivity. In order to develop this argument, it first reviews the supporting literature, offering an overview of the institutional structures of higher education in Brazil and its quality assessment practices. It then analyses how multicultural aims may or may not have been articulated in the assessment of performance and productivity in Brazilian higher education policies, as gleaned from the National Plan for Education (Presidency of Republic, 2014), and recent debates around curriculum reform. It discusses the extent to which higher education policies in Brazil have tried to tackle the twin objectives of enhancing performance while also valuing cultural diversity and inclusion in their quality control strategies. The study may have global implications; as international mobility increases societies around the globe should be prepared to value both performance and diversity in their assessment exercises and curricular policies. [This paper was presented at the 14th Higher Education Reform Workshop 26-28 September 2017, Hiroshima University, Japan.]

Following lockdowns in 2020 owing to COVID-19, schools needed to find a way to ensure the education of their pupils. In order to do this, they engaged in digital learning, to varying extents. Innovations emanated from all school staff including, for example, teachers, leaders and teaching assistants. Some were already innovating in this area and brought forward and implemented digital strategies, while others engaged with digital learning for the first time. While research is emerging about the effects of the pandemic restrictions on pupils and staff in relation to key issues such as mental health and educational attainment, very little is known about the impact on school leaders' strategic planning processes. To address this gap, this paper draws on a UK Research and Innovation funded study adopting a strategy as learning approach to report on 50 qualitative interviews with school leaders to examine digital strategy in English secondary schools, before, during and after July 2021, when restrictions were lifted in England. It draws on strategy as learning literature to evaluate if schools have changed their strategic planning for digital learning, as a direct response to having learned and innovated during the pandemic. The paper concludes that there is evidence that digital innovations during the pandemic have changed the ways in which leaders think about their digital strategy, thus supporting a strategy as learning approach. However it also concludes that although there is ample evidence that the pandemic has changed the way many schools view digital learning, for some schools, there remain persistent barriers to digital integration and planning. These emanate both from material and cultural considerations, as well as leader vision and belief in digital learning.

In this position paper we present a theoretical model on how to support teachers to develop a "didactic spatial competence" (DiSCo). We define DiSCo as: Based on proven experience and science to have the ability to plan and design teaching and learning in a variety of learning spaces; to implement teaching and learning, act and react in a variety of learning spaces and to evaluate, reflect and transform both pedagogy and the learning space. In the paper we argue that a Didactic Spatial Competence (DiSCo) can be used to frame the complex relationship between learning spaces and teaching. DiSCo concerns to plan for teaching and learning in a variety of learning spaces that support the pedagogical ideas; but it also entails implementing, that is to critically reflect over and use affordances and meaning potential in various learning spaces, to have agency and competence to act and react during teaching and learning in various learning spaces and maybe first and foremost; to use the space in a meaning-making process together with students -- that is to create a place for learning. Furthermore, it includes a reflective and evaluative part.