The main aim of this chapter is to analyse parents' perceptions of children's assessment in primary school. Understanding these perceptions may shed light on their knowledge of assessment and involvement in their child's education. The sample population consisted of one hundred and eighty eight Spanish parents (N=188) of students in third grade in…

This study uses The Third International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) data to compare students from Hong Kong with students from the US on the mathematics achievement and on a series of family background factors such as mothers' expectations, parental education, presence of study aids, living with different family members, and…

This longitudinal study of 320 US schools explored the importance of the principal to the development of programs of school, family, and community partnerships. Schools rated the degree of support from the principal for school-wide efforts of family and community involvement and provided data on principal turnover. Analyses also explored other…

South Korean students outperform the US and other industrialized countries in science and math during the school years. A multiple-factor psychological model provides a comparative framework to discuss the home and school factors that appear to explain achievement differences based on the Third International Math and Science Study (TIMSS).…

There has been a slow but steady accretion of findings on doctoral assessment and examination processes over the past decade and a half. The study of Australian PhD examination reported here draws on the written reports on 301 theses across all discipline areas. Text categories identified in the reports are linked to other data including the…

Earlier research by Mullins and Kiley (2002) [Studies in higher education, 27(4), 369-386] reported on the processes that experienced examiners go through when they assess research theses. Since that study two further studies have been undertaken, interviews with novice Australian examiners, reported here, and the analysis of approximately 100…

The merger of art schools into academic institutions and the consequent proliferation of higher degree courses in the visual arts has created pressure for these courses to justify that their research content 'measures up' to more traditional research practices. This study aimed to identify the parameters for PhD examination and research practices…

As illustrated in an earlier iteration of this study, the 'Ways of Knowing' thesis of Jurgen Habermas suggests that there is a consistent pattern across discipline areas by which knowledge is revealed and further negotiated, and that this is an important thesis for a project attempting to identify and define patterns of research higher degree…

This paper investigates relationships between candidate and examiner characteristics, the texts of examiner reports on Ph.D. theses and examiner recommendations made on theses. The data were related to 804 examiner reports on 301 theses submitted at three Australian universities. Thesis topics ranged across ten Broad Fields of Study or discipline…

The study reported here used the OECD scenarios on the future of schooling to probe the views of a sample of educators identified as having the potential to influence education policy formation in Hong Kong. The results indicated that among this sample, there were multiple perspectives on the future of schooling and these were related to the very…

The New Zealand interviews were conducted with seven high profile educational policymakers and the following themes emerged from a thematic analysis of the transcripts: the need to understand the nature of educational policy change and the role of all parties within it; the importance of training educational leaders for the future; and the need…

The Phase I survey study of this project indicated that the 24 Korean educational leaders predicted the "Extended Market Model" (Scenario 2) to be the most probable scenario of the future school while they believed that schools as "Focused Learning Organizations Scenario" (Scenario 4) was the most desirable model. In-depth interviews were then…

This chapter overviews the schooling for the future (SFF) study in its entirety including both the survey, Phase 1, and the interviews, Phase 2. It develops the historical background of how this SFF study grew out of and interfaces with the larger OECD/CERI schooling for tomorrow (SFT) project directed from Paris. Further, it details how the six…

This chapter overviews the reforms taking place in the education sector in Mexico at the present time and how the results of the survey and interview phases of this "Schooling for the Future" study interface with these reforms. The results of the interview round of this study indicate that in Mexico there is still very much a "top-down" approach…

A purposive sample of 10 senior educational policy leaders was interviewed for this Phase 2 of the study from across the US. Interview participants argued the need for: (1) more clearly defining the purpose and value of public education to the communities served; (2) the development of new stakeholder partnerships to accomplish this end; (3)…