The International Handbook of Research on Teachers and Teaching provides a fresh look at the ever changing nature of the teaching profession throughout the world. This collection of over 70 articles addresses a wide range of issues relevant for understanding the present educational climate in which the accountability of teachers and the standardized testing of students have become dominant.
The U.S.-Japan bilateral task force was tasked with addressing the following questions: (1) How do Japan and the United States educate and train engineers, and what are the major similarities, differences, and trends? (2) What are the superior practices that have been developed by each country, especially approaches that could be adopted by the other country? (3) Are there areas in which expanded U.S.-Japan cooperation could help to improve engineering education in the two countries and around the world? The joint task force was organized by the Committee on Advanced Technology and the International Environment (Committee 149) of the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS), and the Committee on Japan (COJ) of the National Research Council (NRC). Committee 149's work was supported by member dues, and the COJ's work was supported by the United States-Japan Foundation and the National Academy of Engineering. The joint task force was chaired by Mildred Dresselhaus of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Sogo Okamura of Tokyo Denki University. Japan and the United States are two of the leading nations in the world in engineering education and practice. Their systems for training and educating engineers display marked contrasts, resulting from the very different economic and cultural environments in which they have developed. The joint task force used a "lifelong learning" approach in examining the two countries' systems, exploring differences and similarities in K-12 education of future engineers, undergraduate and graduate education, as well as continuing education of working professionals. The panel also explored two important issues that will affect engineering education in both countries in the future: the need to educate and train "global engineers" who can work effectively in international contexts, and the potential for information technology to transform engineering education in the future.
The Third International Mathematics and Science Study is the largest and most ambitious study ever undertaken by the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement. Forty-five countries collected data in more than 30 languages. Five grade levels were tested in the two subject areas. This report describes the science achievement of seventh and eighth graders, emphasizing the results from the eighth-grade assessment. Results are presented for the 41 countries that completed all the steps necessary to appear in this report. Singapore was the top performing country at both grade levels, with Colombia, Kuwait, and South Africa performing at the lowest levels. Perhaps the most striking finding was the large difference in average achievement between the top-performing and bottom-performing countries. Results provided a chain of overlapping countries, with most countries having an average achievement similar to that of a cluster of others, but with large differences between the top and bottom of the chain. In most countries and internationally, boys outperformed girls at both grade levels. The majority of eighth graders in nearly every country indicated that they liked science, but not all students had positive feelings about the subject. Home factors were strongly related to achievement in every participating country, but relationships between science achievement and instructional practices were less clear within and across countries. Six appendixes present information on study methodology and selected achievement results for some countries. (Contains 61 tables, 23 appendix tables, 19 figures, and 1 appendix figure.) (SLD)
This book covers the seven-year project involving China, Germany, Japan, Singapore, Switzerland, and the US, to show how collaborative research can help expand worldwide knowledge of education.