Search results

This introductory chapter introduces standards and standardisation as concepts of outmost relevance to current educational practice and policy across the world, and frames them historically, empirically, as well as theoretically. Furthermore, it gives an overview of how the book is structured and how it can be seen to contribute to the wider field of research in education. The chapter starts by introducing the concepts before it provides the reader with a background description of the broad discursive landscape of policy developments, as painted by educational policy research. Subsequently it describes how standards and standardisation have been theorised within educational research, and concludes with a presentation of the different contributions.

This paper aims to describe the growing popularity of international schools in China. Two types of international schools are discussed: independent international schools that only foreign passport holders can attend (e.g. Shanghai American School), and international programs in the public system that both foreigners and Chinese nationals can attend (e.g. International Experimental Class, No. 1 Middle School, Wuhan).

A comparative analysis is carried out of the historical context, mission, curriculum, students, teachers, governance and tuition of two sample schools (one sample from each type of international school in China).

Analysis reveals similarities, differences, and challenges each school experiences. Examples of recent cross‐cultural collaborative efforts aiming to alleviate these challenges are then identified, including the discussion of a third sample school, the Nansha College Preparatory Academy in Shenzhen.

This paper provides insight into how international education is evolving in China, and how cross‐cultural collaboration can be employed to support growth and improvement of international education in China.

Purpose – The purpose of this chapter is to examine how the exploration of metaphors of learning and teaching can contribute to the professional development of teacher candidates and teacher educators.

Approach – The chapter draws on the author's experiences as a teacher and teacher educator to illustrate ways in which metaphors of teaching offer deeper understandings of the personal and social dimensions of teaching and teacher education practices.

Findings – Metaphors and other artifacts by the author and teacher candidates are examined to illustrate how metaphors have been be used to story experience in teacher education.

Research implications – Imagining and re-imagining metaphors provide a solid foundation for the preparation and development of teachers. Engaging teacher candidates in the identification and development of their metaphors of learning and teaching contributes to their development into teachers able to understand the experiences of their students and adapt their teaching to enhance student learning. The exploration of metaphor can also help teacher educators to better understand their professional identities and practices.

Value – Teacher educators are uniquely positioned to help teachers explore how their teacher images inform practice and to analyze these images to enhance personal professional knowledge and teaching practices.

In the United States, policy discussions of teacher education in relationship to teacher quality have tended to focus more closely around debates about the nature of teacher preparation and the need for quality teachers to possess advanced degrees or certification. The field is in need of an array of indicators – a set of powerful, well-researched indicators that can be applied to large public universities as well as small regional private colleges, from university-based programs to “alternative” programs and to more “hybrid” programs. These indicators need to be relevant for teacher certification across a variety of age-ranges and developmental stages. In this chapter, we build on a growing conversation about practice in teacher education and efforts on the part of researchers to identify key features of powerful teacher education. We propose that quality teacher education is designed around a clear and shared vision of good teaching; it is coherent in that it links theory with practice and offers opportunities to learn that are aligned with the vision of good teaching; and it offers opportunities to enact teaching. While these features are supported for the most part by growing consensus in the literature (National Research Council, 2010; NCATE, 2010), there is also an emerging empirical base that provides support for the value of these features as well.

This study aims to provide a complete understanding of academic research into higher education for sustainable development (HESD).

This study utilizes a systematic review of four scientific literature databases to outline topics of research during the UN’s Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (DESD).

This study compares research trends and United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization’s (UNESCO’s) strategic perspectives, worldwide topics and the number of studies. The results show that the research trends did not match UNESCO’s perspectives well and that researchers’ focus on popular events led to the variation between the numbers of articles each year. In summary, the findings indicate that most researchers base their topics on environmental issues, and research trends indicate the need for the integration of HESD.

This study provides a systematic review of higher education for academic research into sustainability, and it has implications for researchers and educators by identifying the gaps between the research conducted and the UN’s policies during the DESD.

This study attempts to offer an integrated view of HESD and to understand the bias of research trends during the DESD.

This longitudinal study assessed student perceptions of sustainable design issues in the context of an accredited interior design program. Although literature exists documenting the integration of sustainable strategies into interior design curriculum, more analysis is needed to determine the impact of program experiences on students’ attitudes.

Over a four-year period, a questionnaire was administered to 245 freshmen in an introduction to interior design survey course and to 122 seniors enrolled in a professional practice in interior design seminar. In addition to statistically analyzing category responses between the two subject groups, the authors also looked for patterns in responses within each subject group.

Results indicated that the seniors were significantly more aware of the term “sustainable design” than the freshmen were. Understanding the students’ perceptions of more specific principles including life cycle thinking, environmentally and socially responsible materials sourcing and sustainable design practice required a more nuanced discussion. Although statistical significance of differences between the two groups was small to moderate throughout the survey categories, the seniors tended to be more deliberate in their responses.

This study is the first of its kind to conduct a longitudinal investigation of an interior design student body from freshman through senior cohorts regarding perceptions of sustainable design. Findings from the large sample size provide direction for interior design programs and form the basis for further study.

The purpose of this paper is to explore perspectives of academicians in leadership positions in Indian business schools on the sustainability of management education institutions in India.

Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 20 respondents including directors, deans and vice-chancellors of private and public sector institutions offering management programmes across India. The interviews were audio recorded and transcribed verbatim for analysis.

All the respondents strongly supported the need for building sustainable management education institutions. Different factors affecting sustainability of institutions that emerged from the interviews included focus on local context and inter-disciplinarity, visionary leadership and culture, country specific curriculum and pedagogy, sustained industry-academia collaboration, faculty orientation, training, retention and growth. On the basis of the factors identified, a directional proposition with the perspective of blue ocean strategy is proposed.

There is a vast scope for exploring issues, challenges and strategies for building sustainable management education institutions. Literature in this field in the Indian context is very limited. This paper is one of the few attempts to study perspectives and experiences of leaders in Indian business schools on the sustainability of their institutions.

This study responds to identified challenges of poor work-readiness of many graduates and the inadequate relation between education and work. Through students' perspectives, the study examines the extent to which selected South African universities are supporting their students in developing employability skills and the influence of such employability support on students' enhanced employability.

Through purposive sampling, information was obtained from a sample of 402 final year students at two universities in South Africa. After an exploratory factor analysis, 34 of the 35 items on the questionnaire successfully loaded for further analysis under seven components.

South African universities that were analysed are adequately engaging their students with two of the six employability development opportunities (EDOs), while students' engagement with the other four is only to a fair extent. EDOs are found to jointly influence students' employability. The curriculum has the highest influence, followed by personal development planning, career development learning and work experience. Real-world activities and extracurricular activities were not found to influence students' self-perceived employability.

Beyond identifying skills that graduates are expected to possess, which dominate the discussion and debate on graduate employability, this study elucidates the role of universities in providing support structures – EDOs – that enable students to establish an appropriate connection between theory and practice. It provides insight into the employability potential of South African universities and increases the universities' awareness of what they can do to ensure the production of work-ready graduates.

This paper aims to report on the evaluation of a curriculum development project that took place in the Department of Psychology at the University of Sheffield. The project, funded by a Centre for Excellence in Teaching and Learning (CILASS), sought to embed information literacy development in a Level One module using an inquiry‐based learning pedagogical approach. Students worked collaboratively to find news stories that were purportedly based on real psychological research and then searched for the related research paper. They reflected on this task and the differences between the two sources as part of the assessed work for the module.

The paper synthesizes the results of a number of evaluation instruments (questionnaire, information literacy competency test, focus group, student reflective work) to examine staff and student perceptions of the inquiry task, and how effective the task was in building students' information literacy. A “Theory of Change” evaluation methodology was used to define the scope of evaluation activities.

The SCONUL Seven Pillars of Information Literacy model is used to structure the findings from the various evaluation methods. Students developed their knowledge of, and ability to search, appropriate academic resources, although they demonstrated a preference for searching via Google Scholar over Web of Knowledge.

Students demonstrated through their reflective comments that they had developed significant abilities to compare and evaluate news stories and journal articles, although they reported a lack of confidence in these abilities. Postgraduate tutors thought the inquiry task was successful in developing students' information literacy and both students and staff responded positively to the ability to choose topics of interest to investigate.

The export of accountancy education to South East Asia has grown rapidly for a number of Australian universities. This study describes the experience of one university in establishing both a twinning degree programme and a completely off‐shore degree programme in accountancy. Using a case study methodology, the perceptions, experiences and actions of those managing such off‐shore programmes are related. The philosophy underlying off‐shore programmes, together with the pedagogical approaches used, are discussed. Initial concerns about dealing with the anecdotal stereotype Asian student have been addressed, and the Asian students have, in general, achieved comparable results to the Australian students. Some modifications to the degree programmes have been made to allow for local differences but the fundamental principle of offering the same degree as that offered in Australia has been strictly adhered to.