The Global Search for Education: What Israel Did
Feb16

The Global Search for Education: What Israel Did

“The convergence of different studies showing steady improvement indicates that indeed a real change in teaching and learning has occurred and students have improved.”– Michal Beller Israel is among the group of countries that made the largest improvement in all subject matters in the PISA test since the year 2000. The Program for International Student Assessment (PISA), a triennial international survey, aims to...

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The Global Search for Education: Japan
Sep20

The Global Search for Education: Japan

 “Ours is now a knowledge based society, which requires education to strengthen higher-ordered inquiry, creativity and communication beyond ready-made knowledge and skills acquisition.” — Professor Manabu Sato  Many consider Japanese primary and junior secondary level education to be exceptional, yet Manabu Sato believes the quality of his country’s senior secondary and higher education is questionable....

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The Global Search for Education: Finnish Math Lessons
May23

The Global Search for Education: Finnish Math Lessons

 “We believe that students need to develop self-confidence and trust in their ability to do math, and it is the solving of real-life, simpler problems that gives them the ability to engage in more difficult, abstract tasks.  Only the procedural understanding acquired in this manner will empower students to solve the test problems.”  — Cecilia Villabona  Research has sought to understand why more boys than girls...

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The Global Search for Education: More from Canada
Sep27

The Global Search for Education: More from Canada

 “Good Teachers are critical.  It is an absolutely vital factor.” — Dr. Ben Levin  “The U.S. cannot improve its education system for all or even most children by keeping its present focus on charter schools, more testing, teacher evaluation and union bashing.  None of those feature in the best-performing countries.  There must be a focus on helping all schools improve, combining pressure with lots of...

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The Global Search for Education: What Do We Value Most?
Aug31

The Global Search for Education: What Do We Value Most?

 “We need to focus on the kind of human beings we want to have and the kind of society in which we want to live” — Howard Gardner   photo courtesy of Harvard University.  What do the 81.5 million students in this country believe their families value most? Money? Success? Happiness? Knowledge? Power? Celebrity? Truth? A Healthy Planet? Good Work? Engaged Citizens? A Cultured Society? What should the 81.5 million...

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