This book is devoted to an increasingly important educational problem in the modern societies: school achievement and failure. School failure is presently a problem in developed as well as in developing countries. In the Spanish and Portuguese speaking countries in Europe and Latin America, school achievement and failure is consequently an important topic of political, social and scientific dis…
The term ‘capacity building’ has come into common usage in twenty-first century international development. While the term means different things to different people, it is often used to describe an infusion of knowledge or skills to help ‘build’ a government’s or institution’s ability to address key development challenges. However, like other well intentioned interventions from the …
The practice of inclusive education—or inclusion—within general education classrooms is becoming more prevalent within early childhood settings. To successfully deliver classroom curriculums, promote learner growth, and meet the goals of all students served within inclusive settings, teachers must have a basic understanding of the unique learning needs of all students, including those with …
For decades the health of children and adolescents has been a topic of interest in all parts of Europe. And there is quite a consensus that schools are the most appropriate setting to promote health. Childhood and adolescence constitute key stages for learning and adopting a health-related and active lifestyle which includes physical activity and sports. The book describes a new approach to enh…
In the United States, preschool education is characterized by the dominance of a variegated private sector and patchy, uncoordinated oversight of the public sector. Tracing the history of the American debate over preschool education, Andrew Karch argues that the current state of decentralization and fragmentation is the consequence of a chain of reactions and counterreactions to policy decision…
Malcolm Langford, Marit Skivenes and Karl Harald Søvig (eds.).
Education in Scotland is markedly different from what happens in the rest of the UK - with a different National Curriculum, school boards to oversee school management and a General Teaching Council which has been in existence since 1965. Whilst there are many examples of successful and innovative practice in Scotland, the system is quite often not recognised as different by writers who talk abo…
The Australian Academy of Science has had a long standing interest in the provision of science education to Australian school students. Recognising that skills and attitudes in science are acquired at an early age, the Academy in 1994 launched a major program in science education at primary school level under the title Primary Investigations. Since science teachers at primary and lower secondar…
"Catastrophes and natural disasters lead to numerous problems in the education of children and teenagers, who present as the most vulnerable subjects in the communities affected. Often, in these circumstances, adults (educators, teachers, parents) do not know how to respond to their needs, reactions and feelings. What do we need to know about childhood trauma? What answers should we give to chi…
In an effort to improve student achievement, thousands of US schools have adopted school reform models devised externally by universities and other organizations. Such models have been successful in improving individual schools or groups of schools, but what happens when educational reform attempts to extend from one school to many? Through qualitative data from several studies, this book explo…
This volume brings together new scholarship by Indonesian and non-Indonesian scholars on Indonesia’s cultural history from 1950-1965. During the new nation’s first decade and a half, Indonesia’s links with the world and its sense of nationhood were vigorously negotiated on the cultural front. Indonesia used cultural networks of the time, including those of the Cold War, to announce itself…
Advocates of inclusive education argue that the social inclusion of students with special educational needs (SEN) increases when they are educated with typically developing peers. However, research indicates that this is not apparent for all students with SEN. Students with social, emotional and behavioural diffi culties (SEBD) are often socially excluded. To understand the situation of th…
The main objective of this Research Topic is to determine the conditions that place students at risk of school failure, identifying student and context variables.In spite of the fact that there is currently little doubt about how one learns and how to teach, in some countries of the “developed world,” there is still there is a high rate of school failure. Although the term “school failure…
Few things make Japanese adults feel quite as anxious today as the phenomenon called the “child crisis.” Various media teem with intense debates about bullying in schools, child poverty, child suicides, violent crimes committed by children, the rise of socially withdrawn youngsters, and forceful moves by the government to introduce a more conservative educational curriculum. These issues ha…
Social networking, blogging, vlogging, gaming, instant messaging, downloading music and other content, uploading and sharing their own creative work: these activities made possible by the new digital media are rich with opportunities and risks for young people. This report, part of the GoodPlay Project, undertaken by researchers at Harvard Graduate School of Education's Project Zero, investigat…
This open access book examines the educational conditions that support cultures of exploration in kindergartens. It conceptualises cultures of exploration, whether those cultures are created through children’s own engagement or are demanded of them through undertaking specific tasks within different institutional settings. It shows how the conditions for children’s exploration form a web of…
This open access book presents a qualitative longitudinal panel-study on child and adolescent socialisation in socially disadvantaged families. The study traces how children and their parents make sense of media within the context of their everyday life over twelve years (from 2005 to 2017) and provides a unique perspective on the role of different socialisation contexts, drawing on rich data f…
Play is a ubiquitous and universal aspect of early childhood. Although it may take different forms throughout development and across cultures, decades of research have found play to be related to important, positive outcomes. Play provides children with valuable cognitive, emotional, and interpersonal learning opportunities. It can act as a mode of communication for young children and allows th…
This book is open access under a CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 IGO license. The Early Years analyzes the development of Latin American and Caribbean children and makes a compelling case for government intervention in what is instinctively a family affair. Spending on effective programs for young children is an investment that, if done well, will have very high returns, while failure to implement such program…