Browse by: "2006"

Skills are key to a better job and a better life. Yet acquiring them is often most difficult for the people who need them most: those trapped in low-paid jobs with hard working conditions. Innovative experiments throughout OECD member countries show that barriers to skills acquisition can be overcome. A wide range of actors from government, business and civil society have joined efforts and embarked on initiatives that indeed fill the gap between labour market policy and vocational training, and workers’ weaknesses and employers’ evolving needs. There are rich lessons to be learned from the experiences of Belgium (Flanders), Canada, Denmark, the United Kingdom and the United States, which are investigated in this book.

This publication reveals a number of interesting examples of innovative programmes using ICT that can increase access to learning out-of-school youths and adults. The papers show that ICT can be one way -- but by no means the only way -- to improve pathways to learning. It can do this by tailoring learning to the needs and preferred learning styles of the disadvantaged, and it can make learning more interesting by providing immediate feedback. A third message is that just as adult learning itself has been the under-funded and under-appreciated Cinderella of the formal learning spectrum, so the application of ICT within adult learning has tended to lag behind much of the rest of the education system. The present volume provides some cautionary remarks on the recent past and opens up some significant opportunities for the future.  

This study features a collection of eight case studies of exemplary cases from secondary schools as well as international literature reviews and policy analysis related to formative assessment – the frequent assessments of student progress to identify learning needs and shape teaching.  It examines such issues as benefits and barriers for using formative assessment, policy frameworks and implications, and formative assessment in practice.  Achievement gains attributed to formative assessment are reported as being quite high, but it is not yet practiced systematically.  This book makes the case for use of formative assessment and shows how it can be put into practice.

Drawing on data from the OECD’s Programme for International Students Assessment (PISA), this report examines the performance of students with immigrant backgrounds and compares it to that of their native counterparts. As well as providing information on countries’ approaches to the integration of immigrants, it looks at other factors that could influence immigrant students’ performance – such as their attitudes to school, their motivation and learning strategies as well as their social background and the language spoken at home – giving valuable implications for educational policy.

Drawing on material presented at the OECD Programme on Educational Building's conference in London on "Creating 21st Century Learning Environments," this richly illustrated book presents the latest in innovative design for schools and analyses needs for the future.  It does this through a series of thematic analyses, presentations, and school visits. The conclusions summarize planning and construction issues and make suggestions for the construction industry.

This publication is part of the project on Education Development for Students at Risk and those with Disabilities in South Eastern Europe. This project was carried out by the OECD within the framework of the Stability Pact for South Eastern Europe. It contributes to the countries' efforts to adjust their education reforms to the EC principles as outlined in the EU "Detailed Work Programme on the Follow-up of the Objectives of Education and Training Systems in Europe". More specifically, the countries’ efforts focus on the objective of widening access to quality education and ensuring equal opportunities for all. The respective country reports are supplemented by a general overview on the situation of special needs education in South Eastern Europe.

La mondialisation a suscité plusieurs tentatives de réforme de l'enseignement supérieur en Amérique latine. Malgré ces efforts, la région reste marginale au regard des centres internationaux de recherche et de diffusion du savoir. Cet ouvrage représente un pas important pour remédier à cette situation. Il examine les défis auxquels l'Amérique doit faire face pour devenir un centre de savoir reconnu mondialement. Cet examen passe par l'évaluation du développement de l'enseignement supérieur en Amérique latine par rapport à plusieurs facteurs tels que les cursus, les réseaux éducatifs, et la mobilité des enseignants et des étudiants. A partir d'études sur l'enseignement supérieur conduites dans sept pays – l'Argentine, le Brésil, le Chili, la Colombie, Cuba, le Mexique et le Pérou – cet ouvrage dégage les éléments susceptibles de favoriser la présence de l'Amérique latine sur la scène mondiale.

La personnalisation de l'éducation peut signifier maintes choses. Elle pose en outre des questions essentielles quant aux objectifs et aux possibilités de l’enseignement. À quels défis politiques faudra-t-il répondre pour favoriser un enseignement plus personnalisé ? En quoi les sciences de l’apprentissage -- et notamment les recherches récentes sur le fonctionnement du cerveau -- peuvent-elles nous éclairer quant aux orientations à prendre ? Quelles sont les contraintes imposées par les acteurs clés des systèmes éducatifs -- les enseignants, les parents et les employeurs notamment -- et comment y répondre ? Ce nouveau volume de la série « L’école de demain » répond à toutes ces questions. Il rassemble les contributions d’experts venus d’Allemagne, du Canada, du Danemark, de la France et du Royaume-Uni.

Personalisation of education can mean many things and raises profound questions about the purposes of and possibilities for education. What are the policy challenges to be addressed in furthering personalisation? What do the learning sciences, including burgeoning research into brain functioning, have to contribute in pointing the way ahead? What are the constraints imposed by key stakeholders in education systems – including teachers, parents and employers, and how should these be met? Such questions are addressed in this new volume in the OECD's Schooling for Tomorrow series, with contributors from Canada, Denmark, France, Germany and the United Kingdom.