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We study the effect of educational attainment on family formation using regression discontinuity designs generated by centralized admissions processes to both secondary and tertiary education in Finland. Admission to further education at either margin does not increase the likelihood that men form families. In contrast, women admitted to further education are more likely to both live with a partner and have children. We then pre-register and test two hypotheses which could explain each set of results using survey data. These suggest that the positive association between men's education and family formation observed in the data is driven by selection. For women, our estimates are consistent with the idea that, as increased returns to social skills shift the burden of child development from schools to parents and particularly mothers, education can make women more attractive as potential partners. [Funding for this report was provided by The Strategic Research Council, the Research Council of Finland, and Palkansaajasäätiö.]

This synthesis report is based on a survey carried out during 2022 with Cedefop's reporting network ReferNet. It makes an important contribution to understanding the magnitude of early leaving from VET (ELVET) in those European countries where relevant data are available, and the mechanisms and support measures countries employ to measure and monitor the phenomenon at national and regional levels. The report puts special focus on the main factors leading to early leaving from initial VET as reported by EU Member States, Norway and Iceland. It details the support measures teachers, trainers, school principals and companies providing work-based learning received to overcome the challenges society faced due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine. This research is part of Cedefop's pioneering work within the VET for youth team to support policy-makers and VET practitioners tackling early leaving from VET in Europe. For more than a decade, Cedefop has led research, promoted peer learning through its policy learning fora, and developed and managed online toolkits to benefit learners at risk of dropping out, early leavers from VET and young NEETs. The VET toolkit for tackling early leaving and the VET toolkit for empowering NEETs offer a platform of intervention approaches, good practices and interactive tools designed for both policy-makers and VET teachers and trainers. The community of ambassadors tackling early leaving from VET, created and coordinated by Cedefop since 2017, plays a vital role in enriching and disseminating the toolkit resources. The findings of this survey feed into Cedefop's project on Tackling early leaving from VET. It aims to support EU Member States and the European Commission in the implementation of the Council recommendation on pathways to school success (Council of the European Union, 2022) and the achievement of Education and training 2030 strategic target to lower the rates of early leaving from education and training (Council of the European Union, 2021).

This report describes how entrepreneurship competence is embedded in vocational education and training (VET) in Finland. It complements existing knowledge with examples of methods, tools and approaches that can help policy-makers, VET providers and other stakeholders build better entrepreneurial learning ecosystems. The report is based on the research of the Cedefop study "Entrepreneurship competence in VET." It is part of a series of eight national case studies (Spain, France, Croatia, Italy, Latvia, Austria, Sweden and Finland) and a final report. [Dmitrijs Kulšs was responsible for the publication and research conducted under the project. Fondazione Giacomo Brodolini Srl SB (FGB) was contracted for research and services.]

We study whether autonomous schools, which are publicly funded but can operate more independently than government-run schools, affect student achievement and school segregation across 15 countries over 16 years. Our triple-differences regressions exploit between-grade variation in the share of students attending autonomous schools within a given country and year. While autonomous schools do not affect overall achievement, effects are positive for high-socioeconomic status students and negative for immigrants. Impacts on segregation mirror these findings, with evidence of increased segregation by socioeconomic and immigrant status. Rather than creating "a rising tide that lifts all boats," autonomous schools increase inequality

Principals (policy makers) have debated the progress in U.S. student performance for a half century or more. Informing these conversations, survey agents have administered seven million psychometrically linked tests in math and reading in 160 waves to national probability samples of selected cohorts born between 1954 and 2007. This study is the first to assess consistency of results by agency. We find results vary by agent, but consistent with Flynn effects, gains are larger in math than reading, except for the most recent period. Non-whites progress at a faster pace. Socio-economically disadvantaged white, black, and Hispanic students make greater progress when tested in elementary school, but that advantage attenuates and reverses itself as students age. We discuss potential moderators.

The feedback between vocational education and training (VET) and the labour market can provide important input for the review and renewal of qualifications. A feedback loop that is based on learning outcomes helps provide deeper insights into what is required on the labour market, what is offered in training provisions and assessed at the end of a learning programme. The aim of this study is to contribute to strengthening the quality and relevance of qualifications and completing the feedback loop between education and the labour market. It examines methods of collecting data on the match/mismatch between qualifications and labour market requirements, including analysis of how achieved learning outcomes are applied and perceived in the labour market (for example methods of collecting the experience of employers with holders of these qualifications). This report addresses the following two questions: (1) which data already exist in the countries, providing insight into the relevance of qualifications to employees, employers and other labour market stakeholders?; and (2) how can survey methodology be designed to systematically capture the experiences and appreciations of employers as regards the content and profile of qualifications? To what extent, based on limited testing, can scalability of the methodology be achieved?

Individual teachers, administrators, and parents made tremendous efforts to continue educating the Commonwealth's children between March and June of this year. But no amount of dedicated individual effort could have overcome fundamental challenges: weak guidance to districts from the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) against a backdrop of deficient knowledge and sophistication statewide with regard to virtual learning. Digital education has been empirically proven to be most successful when schools prepare and follow best distance learning practices. However, the Commonwealth lacks even the minimum technological infrastructure for virtual learning, as exemplified by districts scrambling to obtain electronic devices and internet connections during the school closure. It is encouraging that Governor Baker and the DESE have described a fall 2020 return to brick-and-mortar schooling--with appropriate health measures to maximize safety--as a significant priority. The present challenge is how to implement this much-needed return to school, optimally balancing the importance of in-person schooling with the countervailing importance of protecting against the virus. The following paper contributes important insights, based upon careful review of other countries that have already successfully reopened their schools. [Foreword written by David S. Clancy and Dr. John G. Flores.]

Validation and guidance help individuals, organisations and Member States adapt to career challenges and create successful lifelong learning systems. However, little is known about how they are linked in practice and how this connection can be made more efficient. Building on Cedefop's expertise in the two areas, this study -- based on analysis of 13 practices from 12 countries -- explores how coordination between career guidance and validation of non-formal and informal learning can be improved. Results point to three factors: (a) comprehensiveness: provision of adequate information and guidance before a decision to undergo validation is taken, throughout the entire validation process, as well as after it; (b) coherence: use of common qualifications or competence standards, occupational standards or other reference frameworks in all the stages of the practice to identify, document and assess skills; and (c) quality of staff, resources, competences, and tools used. The study concludes with policy recommendations on how to improve the link between guidance and validation.

When does a community create and sustain a truly innovative "next generation" high school that not only remains innovative, but also relevant? According to the Carnegie Corporation, this means seizing the opportunity to redesign schools to promote personalized learning. So far, much work has gone into retooling many of these (reform) elements individually. Many states, districts, and schools have made essential progress in changing teacher preparation and professional development to help talented educators enter and stay in the classroom. There have also been pushes for interventions like additional learning time, new curricula, and new technology, much of which has been shown to have a significant impact on student achievement. However, applied individually, each of these fails to get schools and school systems where they need to be to serve every student. This white paper will explore the issues through the perspectives of several members of the Atlantic Rim Collaboratory, who are attempting to share ideas and concepts on system redesign, by examples of schools that are making deep learning a priority through technology and by examples of initiatives and schools that have made personalized learning and mastery the focus of what they do. All these approaches are important for they become part of a comprehensive whole that can drive meaningful change. [For "Innovation and Deeper Learning: Model High Schools," see ED604591.]

This research paper is the fifth in a series produced as part of the Cedefop project The changing nature and role of VET (2016-18). Based on comparative analysis of labour force survey data from 2014, the report analyses the vocational effect on labour market and education outcomes, asking whether any advantages conferred by vocational qualifications in early career would be offset by disadvantages later in life. The report explores the functioning of the safety net and the diversion effects across countries, demonstrating how these vary considerably with the specific institutional structure of schooling and work-based training. The results indicate that VET graduates are potentially sacrificing the longer-term gains associated with further education in favour of short-term benefits. [This research was carried out by a consortium led by 3s Unternehmensberatung GmbH and including the Danish Technological Institute, the Institute of Employment Research (University of Warwick), the Institute of International and Social Studies (Tallinn University) and Fondazione Giacomo Brodolini. The Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training (BIBB) in Germany is supporting the project as a subcontractor.]

In a highly competitive global landscape, occupations are transformed, new jobs are created and the skills needed for the labour market are constantly changing. European countries are looking at redefining VET [vocational education and training] to respond promptly to such challenges and take advantage of the opportunities ahead. They are reforming to modernise their VET systems and strengthen the relevance of their national qualifications in an international context. This publication explores national responses to globalisation in 15 countries and five economic sectors. It aims to understand how European and international initiatives help VET renewal across Europe. It shows how countries' reactions are embedded in their national traditions but also depend on their interactions with European, sectoral and multinational players that provide training and award qualifications. [The research was carried out by a consortium led by IBE Educational research institute and 3s Unternehmensberatung GmbH.]

The digital revolution and automation are accelerating changes in the labour market and in workplace skills, changes that are further affected by fluctuations in international and regional economic cycles and employment opportunity. These factors pose a universal policy challenge for all advanced economies and governments. In the workplace, people seek to acquire contemporary and relevant skills to gain employment and retain transferable skills to maintain employment. The central purpose of this paper is to investigate how other nations or regions are dealing with these issues. What approaches are they taking to understanding the mix and dynamics of the skills attained by individuals and, more broadly, the totality of skills that in aggregate constitute a highly capable and adaptable labour force, one that supports firm viability and greater national productivity. This research has examined a range of initiatives and approaches being developed or in use in selected countries, including the United States, Singapore and New Zealand, and agencies/organisations; for example, the European Commission and the Skills for the Information Age Foundation. In doing so, it showcases the good practices used to ensure that occupational-level skills information remains current and widely accessible. [For "Identifying Work Skills: International Case Summaries. Support Document," see ED579875.]

During the past year, Wisconsin state legislators debated a series of bills aimed at closing low-performing public schools and replacing them with privately run charter schools. These proposals were particularly targeted at Milwaukee, the state's largest and poorest school district. Ultimately, the only legislation enacted was a bill that modestly increases school reporting requirements, without stipulating consequences for low performance. Nevertheless, the more ambitious proposals will likely remain at the core of Wisconsin's debates over education policy, and legislative leaders have made clear their desire to revisit them in next year's session. To help inform these deliberations, this report addresses the most comprehensive set of reforms put forward in the 2013-2014 legislative session. Backers of these reforms are particularly enamored of a new type of charter school represented by the Rocketship chain of schools--a low-budget operation that relies on young and inexperienced teachers rather than more veteran and expensive faculty, that reduces the curriculum to a near-exclusive focus on reading and math, and that replaces teachers with online learning and digital applications for a significant portion of the day. Rocketship proposes that its model--dubbed "blended learning" for its combination of in-person and computerized instruction--can cut costs while raising low-income students' test scores (Rocketship Education 2011). The call for public schools to be replaced by such tech-heavy, teacher-light operations comes from some of the most powerful actors in local and national politics: the major corporate lobbies, including Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce, Americans for Prosperity, and the Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce (MMAC). It is these groups, rather than parents or community organizations, that provided the impetus for legislators to consider proposals for mass school closure and privatization in Milwaukee. This report evaluates the "blended learning" model of education exemplified by Rocketship and seeks to understand how the "school accountability" legislation debated during the most recent legislative session would likely affect Milwaukee schools. This briefing paper also explains how such proposals might fit within the broader economic agenda of both local and national corporate lobbies. Above all, the report questions why an educational model deemed substandard for more privileged suburban children is being so vigorously promoted--perhaps even forced--on poor children in Milwaukee.

Differences in teacher quality are commonly cited as a key determinant of the huge international student performance gaps. However, convincing evidence on this relationship is still lacking, in part because it is unclear how to measure teacher quality consistently across countries. We use unique international assessment data to investigate the role of teacher cognitive skills as one main dimension of teacher quality in explaining student outcomes. Our main identification strategy exploits exogenous variation in teacher cognitive skills attributable to international differences in relative wages of nonteacher public sector employees. Using student-level test score data, we find that teacher cognitive skills are an important determinant of international differences in student performance. Results are supported by fixed-effects estimation that uses within-country between-subject variation in teacher skills.

A strong VET system is increasingly seen as essential to overcoming the current economic crisis in Europe. VET is seen as a powerful tool to assist in balancing labour market inefficiencies, increasing youth employment possibilities, and reducing skills mismatch. Its inherent flexibility and closeness to the labour market place VET in a good position to contribute to a faster economic recovery and long-term sustainable development. However, crucial for this role is continuous and systematic VET renewal that assures its relevance for the labour market. This publication explores 15 European national approaches to feedback mechanisms between VET and the labour market. It illustrates the diversity of solutions currently applied across Europe and how they are embedded in national traditions and education philosophy. The study asks three fundamental questions: how inclusive are national mechanisms for feedback between the VET system and the labour market; how responsive are existing mechanisms; and how transparent? Three annexes provide: (1) Case Studies; (2) List of interviewees; and (3) List of experts responsible for the country overviews. Bibliography and references are included. [This paper is the result of a team effort reflecting the work of a research consortium led by Jörg Markowitsch from 3s Research Laboratory who together with Tanja Bacher, Carol Costley, David Etherington, Gerhard Geiger, Günter Hefler, Jelena Helemäe, Triin Roosalu, Ellu Saar, Auni Tamm, and Odd Bjørn Ure conducted the research and fieldwork and drafted the report. This work was carried out under Cedefop's service contract No 2011-0161/AO/ECVL/JB-IPS/Cooperation Labour market--VET/007/11.]

Teacher selection, retention, and evaluation form a contentious policy knot. This paper: (1) reviews the recent history of teacher labor markets; (2) describes the teacher selection, preparation and retention policies of three countries that successfully reformed their systems; (3) proposes a different theoretical guide; and (4) reviews key teacher survey data and a large, current experiment in teacher evaluation. Based on this evidence, it then proposes a more promising experiment in teacher selection, preparation, and assignment. This proposed experiment offers an opportunity to overcome some cultural and institutional character flaws. It would systematically select, train, and place our most capable teachers with our highest-need children and families. It deliberately limits turnover and limits costs in several ways.

Linguistic diversity in the Nordic countries has several dimensions. One main division is between what the majority group thinks it is about versus what the minority group thinks it is about. This paper examines the situation in Finland and Sweden, noting implications for linguistic diversity. Finland and Sweden contain five main varieties of Swedish and Finnish: majority Swedish; Swedish Finnish and Meankieli (two varieties of minority Finnish in Sweden); majority Finnish; and Finland Swedish in Finland. In both countries, linguistic diversity is in many respects about the legal right to receive instruction in the mother tongue. Sweden has promoted active bilingualism for all migrant students during the last 3 decades. This paper focuses on the following: Finland (Suomi); Sweden (Sverige); migration patterns in Finland and Sweden; language contact patterns in Finland and Sweden; and differentiated outcomes of linguistic diversity in Finland and Sweden. It notes that through the slowly improving status and prestige in Sweden of Swedish Finnish, there is greater willingness among both Finland Swedes and Finns in Finland to connect their language policies to that of Swedish in Finland. (Contains 41 references.) (SM)

Current educational reforms encompass increasing freedom of parental choice. Parental choice is seen as a stimulus for school improvement and school quality control. One of the central thoughts behind freedom of parental choice is that the quality of education will increase when the educational system has to act using market mechanisms, in which the principle of "demand and supply" prevails and where competition becomes a major feature of the educational system. This study focused on the relative importance of parents' reasons for school choice, hoping to provide insight into how reasons for school choice are imbedded within cultural contexts. Data were gathered regarding the reasons 244 Dutch and 244 Finnish parents choose schools. Results show that people from both countries emphasize social education as a leading reason for choosing a school and that academic achievement and religious values are seen as least important. It is recommended that research on reasons for school choice should pay more attention to social factors influencing school choice than to issues of academic achievement. (Contains 21 references.) (RT)

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) is an intergovernmental economic organisation with 35 member countries, founded in 1961 to stimulate economic progress and world trade. The Organisation for works with countries to develop skills strategies tailored to specific needs and contexts. The Organisation prepared a global skills strategy outline over the period 2011 to 2013. Each national skills strategy country project offers a tailored approach to focus on the unique skills challenges, context and objectives of each country. Each project leverages OECD comparative data and policy analysis, fosters collaboration across ministerial portfolios and levels of government while engaging all relevant stakeholders--employers, trade unions, and civil society organisations. In its paper "Towards an OECD Skills Strategy" (OECD 2013), the OECD sets out the main issues which must be addressed by efficient and effective policies for skills formation and skills use. The majority of material in each of the 13 case summaries presented here has been lifted mostly verbatim from original sources. These sources are stated at the beginning of each case summary. [This document is an added resource for the report "Identifying Work Skills: International Approaches. Discussion Paper" which can be accessed in ERIC at ED579874.]

Papers from the proceedings of the 14th Annual Conference of the Bulgarian Comparative Education Society was submitted in two volumes. Volume 1 contains papers submitted at the conference held in Sofia, Bulgaria, June 14-17, 2016. Volume 2 contains papers submitted at the 4th International Partner Conference of the International Research Centre (IRC) "Scientific Cooperation," Rostov-on-Don, Russia. The overall conference theme was "Education Provision to Every One: Comparing Perspectives from Around the World" and included six thematic sections: (1) Comparative Education & History of Education; (2) Pre-service and In-service Teacher Training & Learning and Teaching Styles; (3) Education Policy, Reforms and School Leadership; (4) Higher Education, Lifelong Learning and Social Inclusion; (5) Law and Education: Legislation and Inclusive Education, Child Protection & Human Rights Education; and (6) Research Education: Developing Globally Competent Researchers for International and Interdisciplinary Research. The book contains a Preface: "Bulgarian Comparative Education Society: 25 Years of Being International" (Nikolay Popov); an Introduction: "Education Provision to Everyone: Comparing Perspectives from Around the World" (Lynette Jacobs) and papers divided into the respective thematic sections. Part 1: "Comparative Education & History of Education": (1) Jullien: Founding Father of Comparative and International Education Still Pointing the Way (Charl Wolhuter); (2) Presentation of Marc-Antoine Jullien's Work in Bulgarian Comparative Education Textbooks (Teodora Genova & Nikolay Popov); (3) "Teach Your Children Well": Arguing in Favor of Pedagogically Justifiable Hospitality Education (Ferdinand J. Potgieter); (4) Theory for Explaining and Comparing the Dynamics of Education in Transitional Processes (Johannes L. van der Walt); (5) Nordic Internationalists' Contribution to the Field of Comparative and International Education (Teodora Genova); (6) International Research Partners: The Challenges of Developing an Equitable Partnership between Universities in the Global North and South (Karen L. Biraimah); (7) Providing Books to Rural Schools through Mobile Libraries (Lynette Jacobs, Ernst Stals & Lieve Leroy); (8) South African Curriculum Reform: Education for Active Citizenship (Juliana Smith & Agnetha Arendse); (9) Universities Response to Oil and Gas Industry Demands in South Texas (USA) and Tamaulipas (Mexico) (Marco Aurelio Navarro); (10) Goals That Melt Away. Higher Education Provision in Mexico (Marco Aurelio Navarro & Ruth Roux); (11) How the Issue of Unemployment and the Unemployed Is Treated in Adult Education Literature within Polish and U.S. Contexts (Marzanna Pogorzelska & Susan Yelich Biniecki); (12) Contribuciones de un Modelo Multiniveles para el Análisis Comparado de Impactos de Políticas Educativas en la Educación Superior (Mirian Inés Capelari) [title and paper are provided in Spanish, abstract in English]; and (13) Internationalization, Globalization and Relationship Networks as an Epistemological Framework Based on Comparative Studies in Education (Amelia Molina García & José Luis Horacio Andrade Lara). Part 2: "Pre-service and In-service Teacher Training & Learning and Teaching Styles": (14) The Goals and Conditions of Qualitative Collaboration between Elementary Schools and Community -- A Challenge for the Professional Development (Jana Kalin & Barbara Šteh); (15) South African Heads of Department on Their Role in Teacher Development: Unexpected Patterns in an Unequal System (André du Plessis); (16) Do Teachers, Students and Parents Agree about the Top Five Good Teacher's Characteristics? (Marlena Plavšic & Marina Dikovic); and (17) Personality Traits and Learning Styles of Secondary School Students in Serbia (Gordana Djigic, Snežana Stojiljkovic & Andrijana Markovic). Part 3: "Education Policy, Reforms & School Leadership": (18) Routes into Teaching: Does Variety Aid Recruitment or Merely Cause Confusion? A Study of Three Different Programmes for Teacher Training in England (Gillian Hilton); (19) The Status of Teaching as a Profession in South Africa (Corene de Wet); (20) Initial and Continuing Professional Development of Adult Educators from an Educational - Policy Perspective: Rethinking from Croatia (Renata Cepic & Marijeta Mašic); (21) Educational Reform from the Perspective of the Student (Claudio-Rafael Vasquez-Martinez, Felipe Gonzalez-Gonzalez, Jose-Gerardo Cardona-Toro, MaríaGuadalupe Díaz-Renteria, Maria-Ines Alvarez, Hector Rendon, Isabel Valero, Maria Morfin, Miguel Alvarez); (22) Leadership and Context Connectivity: Merging Two Forces for Sustainable School Improvement (Nylon Ramodikoe Marishane); (23) Approaches to In-servicing Training of Teachers in Primary Schools in South Africa (Vimbi P. Mahlangu); (24) Social Justice and Capacity for Self-development in Educational Systems in European Union (Bo-Ruey Huang); (25) Social Justice and Capacity for Self-Development in Educational System in Japan (Yu-Fei Liu); and (26) Emotions in Education Generated by Migration (Graciela Amira Medecigo Shej). Part 4: "Higher Education, Lifelong Learning & Social Inclusion": (27) Ambivalent Community: International African Students in Residence at a South African University (Everard Weber An); (28) Internationalization of Higher Education Institutions in Latvia and Turkey: Its Management and Development during the Last Decade (Sibel Burçer & Ilze Kangro); (29) Lifelong Learning: Capabilities and Aspirations (Petya Ilieva-Trichkova); (30) Where Have All the Teachers Gone: A Case Study in Transitioning (Amanda S. Potgieter); (31) An Overview of Engineering Courses in Brazil: Actual Challenges (Alberto G. Canen, Iara Tammela & Diogo Cevolani Camatta); (32) Multiculturalism and Peace Studies for Education Provision in Time of Diverse Democracies (Rejane P. Costa & Ana Ivenicki); (33) Social Inclusion of Foreigners in Poland (Ewa Sowa-Behtane); (34) An Autistic Child Would Like to Say "Hello" (Maria Dishkova); (35) Research Approaches for Higher Education Students: A Personal Experience (Momodou M Willan); (36) Social Networks Use, Loneliness and Academic Performance among University Students (Gordana Stankovska, Slagana Angelkovska & Svetlana Pandiloska Grncarovska); and (37) The Personal Characteristics Predictors of Academic Success (Slagana Angelkoska, Gordana Stankovska & Dimitar Dimitrovski). Part 5: "Law and Education: Legislation and Inclusive Education, Child Protection & Human Rights Education": (38) An Exploration of the Wider Costs of the Decision by the Rivers State Government in Nigeria to Revoke International Students' Scholarships (Elizabeth Achinewhu-Nworgu & Queen Chioma Nworgu); (39) Strategies for Improving the Employability Skills and Life Chances of Youths in Nigeria (Elizabeth Achinewhu-Nworgu, Steve Azaiki, Shade Babalola & Chinuru Achinewhu); (40) Examining the Role, Values, and Legal Policy Issues Facing Public Library Resources in Supporting Students to Achieve Academic Success (Elizabeth Achinewhu-Nworgu, Steve Azaiki & Queen Chioma Nworgu); (41) Peer Exclusion at Physical Education (Gorazde Sotosek); (42) Exclusion and Education in South Africa: An Education Law Perspective of Emerging Alternative Understandings of Exclusion (Johan Beckmann); and (43) Educational and Social Inclusion of Handicapped Children. Polish Experiences (Anna Czyz). Part 6: "Research Education: Developing Globally Competent Researchers for International and Interdisciplinary Research": (44) Observations about Research Methodology during 15 Years of Presenting Capacity-Building Seminars (Johannes L. van der Walt); and (45) Using a Play-Based Methodology in Qualitative Research: A Case of Using Social Board to Examine School Climate (Anna Mankowska). Following the presentation of the complete conference papers, the following abstracts are provided: (1) Project-Based Learning in Polish-American Comparative Perspective (Marzanna Pogorzelska); (2) Teaching and Researching Intervention and Facilitation in a Process of Self-reflection: Scrutinity of an Action Research Process (Juliana Smith); (3) Investigating Perceptions of Male Students in Early Childhood Education Program on Learning Experiences (Ayse Duran); (4) Teacher Professional Development and Student Achievement in Turkey: Evidence from TIMSS 2011 (Emine Gumus & Mehmet Sukru Bellibas); (5) The Usage of CBT and Ayeka Approach at the Kedma School (Yehuda Bar Shalom & Amira Bar Shalom); (6) Factors Affecting Turkish Teachers' Use of ICT for Teaching: Evidence from ICILS 2013 (Mehmet Sukru Bellibas & Sedat Gumus); (7) Application of Big Data Predictive Analytics in Higher Education (James Ogunleye); (8) The Pursuit of Excellence in Malaysian Higher Education: Consequences for the Academic Workplace (David Chapman, Sigrid Hutcheson, Chang Da Wan, Molly Lee, Ann Austin, Ahmad Nurulazam); (9) Challenging the Value and Missions of Higher Education: New Forms of Philanthropy and Giving (Pepka Boyadjieva & Petya Ilieva-Trichkova); (10) The Effects of Major-changing between Undergraduates and Postgraduates on the Major Development of Postgraduates (Jinmin Yu & Hong Zhu); (11) Spotlight on Canadian Research Education: Access of Doctoral Students to Research Assistantships (Ewelina Kinga Niemczyk); (12) Regulation or Freedom? Considering the Role of the Law in Study Supervision (J. P. Rossouw & M. C. Rossouw); (13) The Subjectivity-Objectivity Battle in Research (Gertrude Shotte); and (14) Interdisciplinary Approach to Teaching Chemistry: Electrochemical Biosensors Case Study (Margarita Stoytcheva & Roumen Zlatev). A Name Index is included. (Individual papers contain references.) [For Volume 2, "Education Provision to Every One: Comparing Perspectives from around the World. BCES Conference Books, Volume 14, Number 2" see ED568089.]

Selected papers from the 1980 World Congress of Rehabilitation International Meeting on the participation of disabled people are presented. The papers address the rights of the disabled, the organization and functions of consumer groups, the impact of consumer involvement on rehabilitation and related services, social implications of the consumer participation movement, and the coming together of the disabled throughout the world. Titles and authors include the following: "Self-Determination of Handicapped People" (M. Fritsch); "The Right to All Types of Information" (K. Karlsson); "The Right to Work: A Political Issue" (B. Lindqvist); "Consumer Groups: Their Organization and Function" (A. Simpson); "Organizing an Action Group" (J. Simkins); "Trade Union Participation" (L. Maguire); "Handicap Councils: A Swedish Experiment" (L. Gardestrom); "Participation of Handicapped People in the Planning, Implementation and Management of Rehabilitation Services" (P. Blommestijn); "Policy Issues in Independent Living Rehabilitation" (D. Galvin); "Higher Education Opportunities" (K. Konkkola); "The Disabled Consumer Movement: Policy Implications for Rehabilitation Service Provision" (J. Derksen); "Towards Full Political Participation" (B. Carlsson); and "Disability Rights Issues: The Role of Advocacy in Government (E. Fiorito). (SW)

Three measure of English language proficiency (a partial dictation [Cloze] test, a text-reading and recollection test, and a story-telling test) were administered to three groups of college-level students (Finns, Swedish-Finns, and Swedes). The results are analyzed in several articles presented here: (1) "The Comprehension of Function Words and Content Words in Partial Dictation" by Hakan Rignbom, (2) "Speech Rate and Pauses in the English of Finns, Swedish-Speaking Finns, and Swedes" by Jaakko Lehtonen, and (3) "Investigating Communication Strategies" by Rolf Palmberg. In a concluding article, Ringbam summarizes some findings. Swedish Finns, being accustomed to encounters with a language other than their own, seem to develop comprehension of English most easily. Swedes exceed Finns in spelling errors, but Finns have a lower articulation rate; this reflects the differing emphasis on writing and speaking skills in two educational systems. The only difference in communication strategies among the three groups lies in the Swedes' greater use of paraphrase. These and other findings suggest a complex of factors affecting second language proficiency, including cultural conditions and relatedness of first and second language. (JB)

The effect of Finnish language experiences on the way native speakers of English evaluate errors made by Finns in producing English was examined. The study was designed to show the role of the criterion of acceptability in the evaluation process and to establish some of the sociolinguistic and psycholinguistic factors that may affect the acceptability scale of a native speaker. Study variables include: age of the native speaker, whether the speaker is American or British, marriage to a Finn, length of stay in Finland, the amount of Finnish used, and whether the speaker teaches only practical skills or practical skills and another area such as literature or history. The Quirk-Svartvik method of measuring variations in acceptability, involving an operation test and a judgment test, and a test measuring interference from Finnish were administered. The results show a disagreement with regard to acceptability, unacceptability, and dubiousness of the test sentences. The six sociolinguistic variables produced statistically significant information. The effects of the four most influential variables of nationality, amount of Finnish used, length of stay in Finland, and field of teaching are described. (SW)

This article describes the principles for planning an experimental teaching-learning system of the comprehension of English social and behavioral scientific texts at the university level. Results from a related evaluation study are also presented. The study was undertaken because of the unsatisfactory development of foreign language teaching and learning among the students of the University of Jyvaskyla whose main subjects were other than foreign languages. The foreign language teaching of the faculty is analyzed as a hierarchy of goal setting, methods planning, and evaluation. Four subsystems were identified: the foreign language examination board, the faculty of the social sciences department, the teacher, and the student. Three approaches to goal setting were considered: a trait-referenced approach, text-referenced approach, and needs-referenced approach. Instrumental objectives in reading comprehension of a foreign language text and measuring comprehension are discussed. Results of the first trial of the reading comprehension course are examined. The evaluation of the course focused directly on the student's subsystem (learning results, appropriateness of the needed initial level in English, and coordination of the course with the rest of the study program). (SW)

Errors made by Finnish university students in the use of the English article were analyzed using two types of error analyses: a traditional type of error analysis to provide an overall view of the errors found in students' compositions; and a multiple-choice test devised on the basis of the findings and shortcomings of the first test. With the first test, the number of correct responses are unknown, but with the second test, the errors are compared with the correct uses of the article. For the first test, data were collected from literature examination answers provided by 90 students of English from all levels of study. The second test was given to 45 first-year students of English, and test items chiefly represented generic and unique references, as well as other frozen uses of the article. Errors are described in terms of: (1) the total number of errors classified according to linguistic categories, (2) hierarchy of difficulty based on relative frequencies in test two, (3) errors classified according to the strategies employed by students, and (4) hierarchy of difficulty based on the strategies employed by the students. Strategies included omission of "a" and "the," addition of "a" and "the,""a" instead of "the," and "the" instead of "a." Defects in the present teaching system and suggestions for improvement are offered based on the findings. (SW)

Finnish visual verbs and the corresponding terms in English are examined to reveal similarities and dissimilarities in the two semantic fields on the basis of translation equivalence. The contrastive analysis describes how the vocabularies of two genetically unrelated languages interpret the visual activity of seeing and looking, and what kind of aspects the terms indicating vision reflect of that visual experience. The verbs are divided into three main categories: verbs expressing the faculty of sight, perceptional seeing, and intentional seeing. Within these main categories, the verbs have been further classified into subcategories on the basis of their semantic properties. All of the Finnish subcategories of perceptional seeing have corresponding categories in English. One category which is not represented in the Finnish field concerns the idea of failing to see something. English perceptional verbs appear to be generally more specific than the corresponding Finnish terms. The quantity of verbs of intentional seeing exceed the number of verbs of perceptional seeing in both languages. (SW)

This discussion of Finnish orthography notes the regularity of the language in the relation of spelling and sounds. Finnish orthography has been depicted as having no inconsistencies in the spelling; it is phonological or phonemic. The principle of phonological spelling involves two requirements: (1) the actual phonological condition, and (2) the principle of the linearity of the segments. Contrast is made to English orthography, an example of an inconsistent spelling convention. Weak points of Finnish orthography, especially as regards children's learning of reading and writing, are considered. Cases where the spelling of Finnish deviates from its "convergence to pronunciation" concern those cases where there is linguistic information in speech that cannot be conveyed by writing or where writing does not display all the phonological variations in the language. The adoption of many foreign words wherein the relation of letters to sounds deviates from the native system, is described. Implications of Finnish orthography for foreign language learning are also addressed. (SW)

A project designed to gather information about similarities and differences that may be important for teaching English to Finnish learners, and, to a certain extent, for teaching Finnish through English, was conducted through a systematic comparison of the two languages and an analysis of instances where the two languages come into contact. In the early stages of the project the major emphasis of the grammatical studies has been on contrasting grammatical surface structures in the two languages on the basis of translation equivalence. In addition to contrastive analyses, the project has also included error analysis, textbook analysis, and the study of certain aspects of language acquisition. Early phonological studies of the project have been different from the traditional framework of contrastive analysis. More recently, traditional contrastive analysis has been expanded to include contrastive discourse analysis. In this phase, the language user's communicative competence as a whole is the object of study, and attention is paid to all linguistic, psychological, and sociological parameters that are involved in the communication process. Theoretical considerations are addressed in the analysis. (SW)

We consider the question whether pupils from the lower social strata perform better in private government-dependent schools than in public or private-independent schools, using the PISA 2000 data on European high schools. In the eighty's, Coleman and Hoffer (1987) found in the USA that the performance of these pupils was better at religious schools than at comparable public schools. Dronkers and Robert (2003) found in PISA-data for 19 comparable countries that private government-dependent schools are more effective then comparable public schools, also after controlled for characteristics of pupils and parents and the social composition of the school. The main explanation appeared to be a better school climate in private government-dependent schools. Private independent schools were less effective than comparable public schools, but only after controlling for the social composition of the school. As a follow-up we now investigate, again with the PISA-data of these 19 countries, whether this positive effect of private government-dependent schools differs between pupils from different strata. We use various indicators to measure social strata: social, cultural and economic. We expect that the thesis of Coleman & Hoffer does hold for private government-dependent schools, because in these 19 countries they are mostly religious schools, which have more opportunities to form functional communities and create social capital. But for private independent schools, which due to their commercial foundation are less often functional communities, this relation is not expected to hold. However, the results show that public and private schools have mostly the same effects for the same kind of pupils and thus mostly not favor one kind of pupils above another kind of pupils. But private government-dependent schools are slightly more effective for pupils with less cultural capital. However, private independent schools are also more effective for pupils from large families or low status families. (Contains 4 tables, 12 notes and a list of 25 Literature Resources .)

Globalization is an evolving concept characterized by economic, technological, social, and political dimensions. Vocational education and training (VET) practitioners and the VET system must make more conscious efforts to lead thinking about the social dimension of globalization. The mission of Australian VET today is largely couched in economic terms--to ensure a skilled work force capable of helping the country's industries become globally competitive. In Australia, much of the debate about globalization has focused on economics and technology, and the social and political dimensions of globalization have largely been side-stepped. The Australian education and training system has worked very hard to ensure that technology is pressed to the service of VET rather than falling for the trap of technological determinism. The challenge is not so much to invest in the technologies but to more quickly and effectively apply the technologies for the purposes of vocational learning and for using them to transact VET business. The following issues related to the social dimensions of globalization remain vitally important to the development and delivery of VET: access; Australian cultural identity; and community. Australia's VET practitioners and leaders must support a community-building purpose for VET and work to enhance the stock of social capital in their communities. (MN)