The article underlines the historic importance of the treatment of skills development, finally, by the Education for All Global Monitoring Report (GMR) team. Among the many challenges in its analysis are the multiple and overlapping meanings of the word skill, and the consequent difficulties of quantifying and monitoring efforts at skills…

This article explores the potential of mobile learning in adult education with a particular focus on identity formation and self-representation. It draws on the mobile learning experiences implemented within MyMobile--Education on the move, a European project (2010-2012) whose main purpose was to develop guidelines for mobile learning in adult…

This article focuses on individuals emerging from traditional oral cultures with limited education and few economic resources who use mobile telephones to maintain their writing and communication skills, despite the scarcity of reading materials, or a lack of social, economic, political, and cultural incentives. Drawing on two case studies--one of…

This article reports on a study of community participation in School "for" Life, a complementary education programme operating in northern Ghana. The researchers investigated three components of community participation: the nature of the mechanisms used to engage community members as participants in the education process; the actors who…

While great progress has been made by the international community to promote inclusive education for all children, regardless of race, ethnicity, socio-economic status, gender or disability, many countries still continue to marginalize and exclude students in educational systems across the globe. High-stakes assessments in market-driven economies…

In the past 15 years, numerous reforms and initiatives in many countries in the Asia-Pacific region have aimed to change education and promote new learning to prepare the new generation for the future. Unfortunately, despite good intentions and huge investments of resources, many of these reforms have been found to be ineffective and…

The AIDS epidemic presents a complex of issues that require global answers, involving entire societies. The only sustainable solution is to include all sectors of society in a multidisciplinary collaboration, within which the formal education system plays a key role in delivering a comprehensive response to the disease at the national level.…

It is easier to collect data on teachers' qualifications, experience, or training than to get a precise idea of their command of subject matter or their classroom behaviour. However, research consistently shows that "class effect" (the impact on a student of being in one class rather than another) on pupil performance is relatively high,…

As its title suggests, this is an account of "the Second E-Forum on Competency-based Approaches" and summarises the opinions and experiences expressed by the participants. The forum was based on a discussion paper prepared by the Canadian Observatory of Educational Reforms and a series of questions raised by Philippe Jonnaert were used to…

While education is a key to any development strategy, technical and vocational education and training (TVET) is the master key that can transform the world of work and the economy, alleviate poverty, save the environment and improve the quality of life. As students are being prepared to become efficient, skillful and competent workers, they can at…

The information age has changed the economic and social environment in such ways that countries are moving from being "traditional pull" to "technology push" societies. This makes technical and vocational education and training (TVET) policy especially significant as it seeks to promote specialized practical and professional skills for…

In this article, the author describes Cecilia Braslavsky's pioneering work in the training of academics and technical-professional teams in Argentina. She divides the paper into two parts. The first one covers a period (between 1983 and 1993) in which Cecilia, along with other intellectuals from the Latin American Faculty of Social Sciences,…

This article presents the most recent results of a comparative review of early childhood education and care carried out by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). Founded in 1961 and based in Paris, OECD is one of the world's most important sources of statistical, economic, and social data. Based on reviews in the…