In Q&A Pam Hook reflects on what drew her to SOLO taxonomy and why she is so motivated to develop its classroom-based use to enhance student learning. She explains what SOLO is and how it can help students to articulate their learning outcomes, understand the learning process, and set new learning goals over time. I also asked her to highlight…

Looking in classrooms is one of the most basic requirements of school improvement, and yet it is one of the least practised skills of teachers and one of the most contentious methods of educational researchers. When it does occur, it is difficult to agree on what to look for and even more difficult to agree on what is seen. This paper outlines an…

In this commentary 26-year Ontario district teacher, Jeff Stickney, begins by surveying balanced approaches to large- and small-scale education reforms: contrasting linear alignment with more complex ecological models, drawing on recent work by Andy Hargreaves (2008; Hargreaves & Shirley, 2012). Next, through a brief case study of School…

In this commentary, Rosita Ulate Sanchez states that Venezuela, like other Latin American countries, begins the 21st century by confronting realities that require changes in its learning and education systems. The purpose of Venezuela's education system is to generate social renovation and economic development. It seeks to achieve this through…

The authors of this article strongly advocate for a change to the current Australian model of primary education in order to, among other things, establish the concrete practicalities of systematic mathematics thinking thereby limiting the "re-teaching" time required of secondary school mathematics teachers; bring a clear focus to the…

The renewal of quality assurance in Australian higher education comes at a time when the higher education sectors in Australia and around the world are experiencing a number of key challenges. These include: ongoing decline in public funding of universities; the massification of higher education and demand for it during global recession;…

This commentary was stimulated by Yeping Li's first editorial (2014) citing one of the journal's goals as adding multidisciplinary perspectives to current studies of single disciplines comprising the focus of other journals. In this commentary, I argue for a greater focus on STEM integration, with a more equitable representation of the four…

In this paper, I propose a renewed look at how teaching assistants (TAs) are being prepared to fulfill their duties in higher education. I argue that the apprenticeship model of learning that is currently in use be replaced by the more holistic workplace learning approach. Workplace learning theories take into consideration the complexity of the…

In the EU commitment to alleviating the high rates of poverty in Europe there is widespread agreement among policy-makers that it is crucial to include the voices of those who are living in poverty in order to fight exclusion most effectively. Similarly, those studying ways to address poverty and inequality are increasingly required to seek…

In his 2008 bestseller, "The Post-American World," Fareed Zakaria argued that the most significant development of the early 21st century is not, as others have predicted, the inevitable decline of the United States as the world's super-power but rather "the rise of the rest." In subsequent works, Zakaria and many others,…

This document describes one model for supporting learning. It introduces the idea of essential entitlements and variants and places the support needs of students with disabilities or learning difficulties alongside the particular arrangements made for every student's learning. Introductory sections propose the idea of technical college…

In this article, the author responds to the recent article by Lynne Bianchi commenting on the Donaldson report, "Teaching Scotland's future" (Donaldson, 2011). He agrees that the Donaldson report has indeed been a catalyst to drive change across the entire landscape of initial teacher education (ITE) in Scotland. In fact, not only ITE:…

Proposes a framework for writing and evaluating scripts for narrative educational television that is aimed at producers and screenwriters and addresses essential elements of effective educational program design. Motivational factors are discussed, the target audience is considered, educational objectives are described, and examples from the Open…

Describes a four-stage working model for implementing cooperative learning and changing patterns of teachers' behavior based on a model developed over 6 years in 14 secondary schools in Israel. The stages involve learning what to do, learning how to do it, expanding the change process in the school, and institutionalizing the change. (SM)

In a previous study it has been suggested that there are six stages that adults move through before they feel ready to participate in higher education, and proposed a chain-of-response (COR) model to describe the process. In this study we examine the reported experiences of nine adult entrants during the second year of a work-related degree…