Discussion #12

Explain how the privatization of higher education in the Netherlands is contributing to the process of de-professionalisation and de-skilling of the faculty.

What are the benefits of viewing education as a “knowledge economy,” from soley a business perspective? Are there any disadvantages?

DQ#11 NGO Provision of Basic Education

Rose explains in the text that “Completion rates in Ghana’s School for Life programme is 91 percent, compared with 59 percent in government schools. Similarly, in Bangladesh, figures are 94 percent and 67 percent, respectively.” In which ways are NGOs better able to satisfy the needs of a marginalized population, thus acheiving greater completion rates? What can government schools learn from this?

Social exclusion will continue to be a problem once students complete alternative education programs. What exit strategies can NGOs provide to ensure that a student’s educational opportunites do not end once they complete the program? What transitional integration programs can be implemented so students can gain value from their education?

 

Discussion #9: A third industrial revolution

How could teachers incorporate social manufacturing, like Quirky and Shapeways, when teaching STEM in the classroom in order to engage students and develop their 21st century skills? How could they use these programs to create a cross-disciplinary connection between STEM and business/entrepreneurship?

Tony Hsieh, founder of Zappos, says that by making “…their employees happiest they will attract the best people.” Corporations in Silicon Valley have also realized how important it is to make work a happy culture, by offering trainings like The Energy Project and 20% of their paid work time to complete any project they’d like. How can educational administrators incorporate similar techniques in keeping talented teachers happy and motivated in order to maintain high-quality teachers in the field?

DQ#8: 21st Century Competences

According to the article, besides teaching 21st century skills, teachers are expected to possess these skills themselves. Even if policy dictates the implentation of these skills, research conducted by SITES shows that classrooms do not yet foster the learning of these competences. How can stakeholders and policymakers ensure that their teachers are highly qualified? What innovative pratices or policies can be implemented to help provide them with these skills?

For the implentation of these 21st century competences, which approach should be taken? Why?

a) adding them to the existing curriculum as new subjects

b) integrating them as cross-curricular competences

c) a new curriculum with less traditional structure

DQ#7 The Great Mismatch

Some career fields, like journalism and graphic design, lend themselves to freelance work. Websites like oDesk help to market the individual in a single, globalized market for labor. Which career fields will most likely help individuals be on the “winning side” of a globalized market? Which types of jobs are unlikely to be found in a global market? Will this create degree trends for students studying at the university level?

Spain’s unemployment rate has soared to 25.1% (Eurostat). As a result of the economical crisis, Spain’s policymakers have ” … set innovation as one of [the] main lines of action for economic growth, and in this sense [have] developed an ambitious agenda called the State Innovation Strategy (E21) with a primary emphasis on technological innovation, business innovation financing and internationalization of innovation.” (http://www.socialinnovationeurope.eu/node/1925)

Is there a positive side to an economical crisis? How do policymakers contribute to the innovation? How is policy innovative?

Interesting idea inspired by economical crisis: euro-free economy: “In Barcelona… time banks… allow people to trade their services in hours without the involvement of money…these experiments aim to take communities back to a time when goods and services were bartered.”

(http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/in-spain-financial-crisis-feeds-expansion-of-a-parallel-euro-free-economy/2012/08/27/53ed3552-e00f-11e1-a19c-fcfa365396c8_story.html)

DQ#6 PISA and TIMSS

How does PISA affect and influence educational policy around the world in order to reach the goal of quality education that helps all students reach their potentials? What factors do policymakers compare in different educational systems when evaluating effectiveness?

Shanghai, Korea, Hong Kong, Finland and Singapore are among the top scoring countries in the 2009 PISA examinations. Why are 4 of these countries in the Asia-Pacific region? Does the home background (books at home, exposure to words) play a role in influencing student success in these countries? Are there other factors?

According to the PISA exam girls do better in reading than boys in every country that took PISA assessments and boys do better in math than girls….and science is equal. How do you think gender influences subject mastery and how can the learning from these findings improve educational best practices?

DQ#5 – IB Programme

The number of authorized programs (of any 3) has increased from 2,641 in 2007 to 4,095 in 2011. Do you forsee continued growth, and if so, will there be competitors? How may the increase in access to IB prgramme affect or dilute the brand that IB has built with its past “elite” members? What problems may the programme face in order to meet the same standards as a high-quality product when increasing access to IB?

Recent studies confirm that IB DIploma Programme graduates have a higher grade point average and graduation rate than non IB students. Why? How might this programme contribute to higher success in a college setting?

DQ# 4: Analyzing the differential impact of the Bologna Process

1) Compare and contrast sigma and delta convergence. Give and example of two countries you feel would have sigma convergence. Give an example of a country that would have a delta convergence in relation to the Bologna Process model.

2) Which countries do you feel have a similar cultural, institutional, and socioeconomic context? What are the advantages of sigma convergence? Do you feel that there are any disadvantages to a sigma convergence?