Austria

Posted on June 1, 2012 by | Leave a comment
Language training program to be extended (in German)
The Ministry of Education (25 May 2012)

Since the 2006-2007 school year, students with a first language other than German have participated in language training courses at school. These courses have been offered to groups of more than eight (8) students for eleven (11) hours per week. For this purpose, the Government has provided 440 posts, equivalent to 9,500 hours of work and costing €23.9 million (approx. $30 million). Because evaluations have indicated the program’s positive impact, the Austrian government will invest a further €47.8 million (approx. $60 million) in the project up to 2014.

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Germany

Posted on May 30, 2012 by | Leave a comment
Public school or private school? – Two educational researchers discuss (in German)
Otto, J & Spiewak, M.  Die Zeit (18 May 2012)

Two educational researchers, Heiner Barz and Manfred Weiß, are interviewed and discuss whether private schools create divisions in society or are pioneers of school reforms. The researchers, who have opposite opinions about private schools, argue about performance of pupils, PISA results comparing private and public schools, social equity, and school funding.  According to Weiß, “Private schools are not better when you consider the composition of the student body. Therefore, OECD has recently come to the conclusion that private schools are not the solution to raise the performance level of a country.”  But, Barz retorts:  “It’s not so simple. Schools must do more to teach than knowledge. Equally important is the school climate, cooperation with parents, the satisfaction of the students.”

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Singapore

Posted on May 30, 2012 by | Leave a comment
Five Days in a Learning Nation
Schleicher, A. Today (25 May 2012)

Andreas Schleicher sums up and distills lessons arising from his visit to schools and educational institutions in Singapore as a Visiting Professor.  According to Schleicher, “If I had to summarise what I learned in one sentence, this is a story about political coherence and leadership as well as alignment between policy and practice; about setting ambitious standards in everything you do; about focusing on building teacher and leadership capacity to deliver vision and strategy at the school level; and about a culture of continuous improvement and future orientation that benchmarks educational practices against the best in the world.”  But, according to Schleicher, Singapore can learn much from the rest of the world as well.  For example, Singapore could learn how to unleash greatness from Finland and overcome social disadvantage from Ontario, Canada.

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England

Posted on May 30, 2012 by | Leave a comment
Democracy at risk in education?
Merttens, R.  Open Democracy (28 May 2012)

Debate around English educational policy makers plans to adopt aspects of policy from Singapore, mostly due to Singapore’s continued and consistent performance in testing (especially Mathematics), abound.  Ruth Merttens, a professor of primary education and the Director of the Hamilton Trust, argues the importance of local and national context when looking to apply policy across borders and warns against the adoption of policy that undermine the strengths within the English approach to teaching and learning.  Regarding memorization, for example, she writes, “I and many others in education enthusiastically advocate both a greater emphasis on memorisation and rote-learning within the mathematics curriculum, and also for more time in the school day to be given to mathematics. However, we are aware that this focus on memory runs counter to prevailing cultural mores, where the need to ‘learn things by heart’ is increasingly diminished by the ubiquitous presence of hand-held and ever-accessible technology. Control of these cultural behaviours is not, alas, within the remit of schools.”

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Canada

Posted on May 25, 2012 by | Leave a comment
Response: Factors Behind The Success Of Ontario’s Schools — Part One and Part Two
Ferlazzo, L.  Education Week (21 May 2012 & 22 May 2012) 

What’s going on in Ontario’s schools?  Part One contains responses to this question from a teacher, an administrator, and two parent leaders; Part Two includes contributions from Professor Michael Fullan, a professor emeritus at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education of the University of Toronto and current special advisor to the premier and minister of education in Ontario, and readers.  Professor Fullan writes, “Unfortunately some countries in a hurry to address the issues get the solutions wrong.  I call these mistake ‘wrong drivers for whole system reform’.  Drivers are policy and strategy instruments designed to ’cause’ improvement in the system.  A wrong driver is one that does not work; a right driver is one that does produce improvement.  In our work on system reform we have been sorting out what drivers work and which ones do not.  This is our conclusion: excessive accountability, individualistic strategies designed to increase human capital, technology and ad hoc policy solutions waste valuable time and resources and often make matters worse.”  Other respondents point to support for teachers and involving students in the creation of assessments as reasons for the success of Ontario schools.

The following video provides an overview of some of the items discussed in Part One and Part Two of “Factors Behind The Success of Ontario’s Schools”:

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Norway

Posted on May 23, 2012 by | Leave a comment
A new strategy for lower secondary school (in Norwegian)
Ministry of Education (15 May 2012)

For the first time in 40 years, the Ministry of Education has released a white paper on strategies for developing lower secondary education in Norway. The aim is to enhance motivation and learning outcomes for all students. The strategy plan runs from school year 2012/13 through 2016/17.

The curricula for the following eight new electives will be ready in June:
– stage and performance
– media and information
– production of goods and services
– physical activity and health
– design and redesign
– practical research
– practical technology
– international cooperation

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New Zealand

Posted on May 23, 2012 by | Leave a comment
Editorial: Size matters, but excellence even more so
New Zealand Herald (17 May 2012)

While it acknowledges that class size matters, the New Zealand government has adopted the position that the quality of teaching is more important.  Leveraging on the research findings of the Grattan Institute report that raising teacher quality is more effective than reducing class size, New Zealand would allow class size to increase so as to save money to boost teacher quality.  All trainee teachers will be expected to possess a post-graduate qualification, and teachers will be assessed under a new performance management system.  Performance-based pay might be a possibility under the new measures to be adopted.  Despite the government’s stance, parents and unions remain worried about the proposal.

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India

Posted on May 20, 2012 by | Leave a comment
‘No detention’ policy works
Thomas, L.  The Hindu (18 May 2012)

The “no detention policy” in the Right to Education (RTE) Act “is one clause [of the act] that a majority of the teachers resent. It states that until class VIII, no child can be held back or expelled from school.”  Teachers believe the policy creates a “lackadaisical” mindset in their students, for the students have developed, in the teachers’ opinion, an attitude of “why study when there’s no fear of failing?”  RTE was enacted because of India’s extraordinarily high drop-out right, but “blindly following the ‘no detention policy’ will not help. Schools must offer bridge course for slow learners, but there is little focus on that. Classes with large student strength also make it difficult for teachers to offer extra care and attention to slow learners.”  Still, teachers find the “no detention” policy problematic, as some students are having difficulties passing examinations.

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Australia

Posted on May 20, 2012 by | Leave a comment
Principals warned off test boycott
Topsfield, J.  The Age (15 May 2012)

Principals have been warned not to encourage students to boycott NAPLAN, the standardized tests for Years 3, 5, 7, and 9 in reading, writing, language conventions, and numeracy.  Opposition to the test has been building, as groups like Say No to NAPLAN have expressed concerns about the examinations.  The move to boycott by principals takes advantage of provisions in the program that “the tests are not compulsory and parents have the right to withdraw their children on the grounds of philosophical objections or religious beliefs.”  The testing authority’s response to this tactic:  “Parents do have the right to withdraw their children from the tests, but we emphasise that principals are not to actively encourage students not to participate,” adding that ”we would consider that quite inappropriate for obvious reasons.”

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The Netherlands

Posted on May 15, 2012 by | Leave a comment
Pilot to prevent segregation of schools (in Dutch)
Besturenraad: Center for Christian Education (April 2012)

Segregation of students with different ethnic backgrounds in schools (leading to what is called “white” and “black” schools) is a problem in a number of Dutch cities; segregation is hard to tackle as parents are free to choose a school for their children. The Dutch Department of Education has implemented a number of pilot projects to increase cooperation between these schools and to have students with different backgrounds work together.

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