The world is slowly moving out of the worst economic crisis of our lifetimes. With productivity, innovation, investment and trade not yet at full steam, the recovery still bears risks. It is also becoming clear that economic growth is not enough to foster social progress, particularly if the growth dividend is not shared equitably. Indeed, the social cost of the crisis continues to weigh heavily, with more than 46 million people out of work in OECD countries and relative poverty affecting millions more. In many countries the gap between the richest and the poorest is widening, youth unemployment remains high, and access to social services remains elusive for many. The world is looking for ways to spur economic growth in a more inclusive manner. The OECD contributes to this effort by developing the evidence and tools that policy makers can use to formulate new policies to achieve this goal.
This edition of Education at a Glance provides ample evidence of the critical role that education and skills play in fostering social progress. In addition to the usual data sources used for generating the OECD Education Indicators, this edition also draws on the rich database on skills provided by the 2012 Survey of Adult Skills, a product of the OECD Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC), published in October 2013 (OECD, 2013a). Together with the 2012 data on the learning outcomes of 15-year-olds from the OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA 2012), published in 2013 and 2014 (OECD, 2013b and 2014a), and 2013 data on lower secondary teachers from the OECD Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS 2013), published in June 2014 (OECD, 2014b), we now have the richest international evidence base on education and skills ever produced. And with our newly developed, web-based research tool, Education GPS, all this evidence is easily accessible at the click of a mouse.
Teacher empowerment requires investing in teachers' right to participate in the determination of school goals and policies and the right to exercise professional judgment about the content of the curriculum and means of instruction. Implications of this conception and the kind of school leadership it requires are discussed. (Source:ERIC)
Two central questions should arise for anyone who attends to the rhetoric of empowerment that is being used in current discussions of improvement of teaching as a profession: (1) What is teacher empowerment? and (2) Toward what ends are teachers to be empowered? Discussions of teacher empowerment have proceeded as if all of those who use the term were in agreement, when even a cursory review of what has been written on the subject reveals that this is clearly not the case. In the literal sense, to ize or license. It is also to impart or bestow power to an end or for a purpose. An obsolete definition ng back into the history of the word, is to gain power or assume power over.1
ize or license. It is al ng back into the history of the word, is to gain power or assume power over.
When I recently returned to my department after a decade in administration, I looked forward to reconnecting with former olleagues, getting to know the grad students, going to lectures and colloquia, teaching undergrads, and yes, even serving on departmental committees. But when I moved into my faculty office and began my work schedule, I had only one question as I looked around my department: Where did everybody go?
The Public Policy Forum has organized a series of roundtables to discuss strategies to better connect First Nations, Metis and Inuit businesses and communities with affordable financing and new sources of funding. Our goal is to develop a series of concrete recommendations to help inform a comprehensive strategy that enhances First Nations, Metis and Inuit access to capital. The first roundtable was held in Toronto, with the focus of discussions being access to large-scale commercial financing. Our second roundtable was held in Vancouver and considered where capital can be better leveraged for First Nations, Metis and Inuit communities.
The main task of the Working Group on Adult Learning of the INES Labour Market, Economic and Social Outcomes network is the development of indicators on Adult Learning for publication in the annual volume “Education at a Glance” of the OECD. As part of this task, a list of 18 policy goals/issues in the domain of adult learning have been identified through broad consultations. After identifying the policy goals a theoretical framework was developed in order to be able to systematically select indicators for monitoring them. The theoretical framework is based on a systemic approach, identifying context, input, processes, output and outcome of the system of Adult Learning. The policy goals to be monitored and the theoretical framework constitute the basis for the definition and selection of a list of indicators which might be published in EAG. The third element in the development of international indicators is the existence of comparable data of good quality. The paper includes a list of 44 indicators which are practical to publish with existing data sources or with data sources likely to become available in the near future. The coverage of the policy areas is uneven, reflecting both the focus of existing data sources and the difficulties of some data gathering exercises.
Background/Context: Past research has examined many factors that contribute to the blackwhite achievement gap. While researchers have shown that teacher perceptions of students academic ability is an important contributing factor to the gap, little research has explored the extent to which teacher perceptions of students academic ability are sustained over time or the extent to which teacher ratings of students social and behavioral skills are related to their perceptions of academic ability. The current study focuses on whether teacher perceptions of students academic ability and social and behavioral skills differ by student race and the extent to which ratings at the beginning of the school year explain racial differences in perceptions of academic ability at the end of the year.
Purpose: There are two research questions addressed in this study: (1) To what extent do kindergarten teachers rate black and white students academic ability and social and behavioral skills differently? And (2) to what extent do test scores, fall teacher perceptions of students academic ability, and social and behavioral skills explain racial differences in teacher evaluations of students academic ability in the spring of kindergarten?
This chapter examines how the three most common types of engagement found among adolescents attending high-performing high schools relate to indicators of mental and physical health.
The Ontario Undergraduate Student Alliance (OUSA) recognizes the importance of attracting more international students to study in Ontario, as articulated by the Ontario government in its Open Ontario Plan. In a competitive global environment, international students enable the province to train and retain highly skilled individuals, provide access to a greater pool of talent, diversity and ideas, and contribute to the economy. This paper provides an overview of six areas of significant importance to undergraduate domestic and international studen are in need of greater attention by institutions and the provincial government.
Despite research interest in the motivations, experiences and challenges of Ontario postsecondary students who have transferred from college to university, there has been too little in-depth quantitative analysis on these topics. This study contributes to the literature by documenting transfer between York University and Seneca College – two institutions whose strong partnership has encouraged a high volume of transfer in both directions – over a period of 12 years (2000-2012).
My first boss, the chairman of my department when I was a young lecturer, was Wilfrid Harrison. Even though there was approximately 40 years’ difference between our ages, I would have described Wilfrid as a friend.
He was a distinguished and influential figure in many ways: the first person to be appointed a teaching fellow in politics alone at an Oxford college, a former editor of Political Studies and a founding member of the Political Studies Association – which still awards a major prize honouring his name. He was also the founding professor of the department, at the University of Warwick, in which I spent 35 years.
When Wilfrid retired, properly and traditionally at the age of 65, he sold all his books, severed all substantive contact with universities and devoted himself to his wife, his daughters, his dogs and his cooking (my memories of the latter are centred on the observation that whisky and cream seemed to feature in all his dishes).
This article reports on findings from a scan of 465 policies relevant to the handling of cyberbullying in 74 Canadian universities. It first assesses the commonalities and differences in the policies. Second, it considers how their various lenses—a human rights perspective versus a student conduct perspective, for instance—can affect the directions and outcomes of university
responses. The majority of the policies reviewed were codes of student conduct and discipline, policies on electronic communication, and policies on harassment and discrimination. Most of the policies outlined complaint procedures and possible sanctions, but relatively few addressed prevention of unacceptable behaviours. Only about a third made reference to “cyber” behaviours, suggesting that the university policy environment is not current with the information and
communication technologies that permeate the daily lives of university students and faculty.
The central goal of the Canadian residential school system was to ‘Christianize’ and ‘civilize’ Aboriginal people, a process intended to lead to their cultural assimilation into Euro-Canadian society. This policy goal was directed at all Aboriginal people and all Aboriginal cultures. It failed to take into account the devel-opment of new Aboriginal nations, and the implications of the Indian Act’s definition of who was and was not a “status Indian” and the British North America Act’s division of responsibility for “Indians.” In the government’s vision, there was no place for the Métis Nation that proclaimed itself in the Canadian Northwest in the nineteenth cen-tury. Neither was there any place for the large number of Aboriginal people who, for a variety of reasons, chose not to terminate their Treaty rights, or for those women, and their children, who lost their Indian Act status by marrying a person who did not have such status. These individuals were classed or identified alternately as “non-sta-tus Indians,” “half-breeds,” or “Métis.” In different times or different places, they might also identify themselves by these terms, but often they did not. Instead, they might view themselves to be members of specific First Nations, Inuit, or Euro-Canadian societies. For the sake of clarity, this chapter generally uses the term Métis to describe people of mixed descent who were not able, or chose not, to be registered as Indians under the Indian Act. It should be recognized that not all the people described by this term would have identified themselves as Métis during their lives, and that the histo-ries of these people varied considerably, depending on time and location.
Jobs paranoia is widespread in Canada. Elementary pupils are coming home after receiving the “job talk” from their teachers, typically emphasizing the importance of getting good grades so they can get into a high-quality university – rarely a college, a polytechnic institute or an apprenticeship program. Parents worry about enrolling their children in the “right” schools and academic programs. There is growing concern about the transition from school to work. News media, television programs and movies offer tales of underemployed university and college graduates, intense competition for decent jobs and chronic youth unemployment.
In a recent blog post in Inside Higher Ed, Joshua Kim explored the value of telecommuting, rightly suggesting that
the proven success of online education means that one need not be physically present to do a job well. “What we’ve
learned from online education,” he wrote, “is that with a combination of thought, investment and a willingness to
make data-driven continuous improvements, distance is not a barrier to quality.” And he closed by asking, “Should
the champions of online learning also be advocating for telecommuting?”
It is absolutely the case that teaching remotely and doing it well is possible, particularly if professors accept that
teaching online requires the mastery of new skills, an awareness of online pedagogies and best practices, a
commitment to valuing those in digital spaces as much as we value those physically in front of us, and, in some
cases, more time. And Kim is right to imagine that using the “methods and tools” of online education can help us
improve productivity in workplaces that accommodate telecommuters. Certainly, tools like Slack and the Google
suite have enabled synchronous collaboration among remotely situated parties.
This report presents the findings of a one-year study of the creation and implementation of a new Français course at the University of Ottawa, offered as a pilot project in 2012-2013. The course was created at the request of francophone first-year students from regions of Canada where the French language is in a minority context. These students reported experiencing difficulty in bridging the gap between the literacy skills they acquired in secondary school and the academic literacy skills
required of them to succeed in the mandatory foundational French courses (FRA courses) and other courses taught in French (Lamoureux et al., 2013).
This report examines some of the key issues surrounding the education of First Nations, Métis and Inuit students and proposes a governance framework that school boards can use to improve student results.
The clearest and most consistent message received by the Steering Committee through its working group reports and submissions from the wider community is that, as the University of Toronto seeks to respond fully and faithfully to the challenges issued by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada (“TRC”), our focus must be on concrete action. The Steering Committee (the “Committee”) is of the same mind. Therefore, this report will be framed around a series of ‘calls to action,’ mirroring the work of the TRC itself.
James Ryan sets out to explore what he calls inclusive leadership through a presentation of his understanding of this practice and critical examinations of relevant research and practices. This very readable and practical book offers insights into one of the most challenging issues facing leaders in schools in the United States, Canada, and Europe at the beginning of the 21St century: the increasingly complex nature of student diversity. Its strength lies in the ways leadership is redefined as being more than a collection of managerial strategies employed by individuals in positions of authority to achieve pragmatic goals. Instead, Ryan explores the multifaceted nature of successful leadership practices in schools whose student bodies represent diversity in ethnicity, race, class, gender, and ability. His intention is to demonstrate how effective leadership works in such settings, to explore obstacles embedded in existing leadership practices,
A large majority of first-time international graduate students are master’s and certificate students. • Over three-fourths (77%) of first-time international graduate students in Fall 2015 were enrolled in master’s and certificate programs; however, shares vary by country/region of origin and field of study. • First-time Indian (91%) and Saudi Arabian (80%) graduate students were most likely to pursue master’s and certificate programs, while South Korean (47%) graduate students were most likely to pursue doctoral programs.
This report maps learning outcomes associated with three Ontario advanced diploma programs in Business (Accounting Administration, Human Resources Administration, and Marketing Administration) in order to determine whether these credentials are equivalent to baccalaureate degrees in an international (European and American) context. In so doing, it draws on recent discussions of learning outcomes in both Ontario and the European Higher Education Area (EHEA), particularly with regard to the Bologna Process. It also provides more information for current Ontario debates about the positioning of the three-year advanced diploma.