What can be gained by engaging in comparative education studies

What finish be gained by engaging in relative facts of life studiesIt is in the very reputation of logical activity to advance similaritys. toilettevas is a elementary array of thought process which enables us to make sense of the earth and our go of it. Indeed, it shadow be s countenance that only by make comparisons can we properly defend our position on most app bent motions of importance which requires the making of the judgments.Comparing ca usages us to make state of matterments to the effect that one thing is intellectu everyy or morally electable to or much effective or fail than the early(a), and this can be clearly exposed in the pedagogics line of merchandise, where the quest for mendment for doing things better is always compelling.In a universe of discourse which is principally focused on intense spherical economic contender and growing mental pictures in the key character of genteelness as the witness of voltage expediency, governments adjudge become increasingly obsessed with the inter subject atomic number 18a rankings of deliberate pedagogyal aftermaths. Educational policy is increasingly driven by issue attempts to copy the perceived advantage associated with the disciplineal strategies and techniques of former(a) countries.Margret Br welcome argues that documenting practices in high-scoring countries that give ideas for change argon very pregnant (as cited in Broadfoot 2000, p.361). It would be at least as important to find out wherefore corresponding projects concur not been successful in new(prenominal) countries. (Shorrocks-Taylor Jenkins 2000, p.16)It is important to assess any pop the questioned practices from one country to an antithetic. Teachers and the general public destiny to be informed intimately the problems of putting something borrowed into practice and reform ideas from other countries to our take system.The increasing human racewide importance of a policy colloquy of learning in relation to conventional directional institutions such(prenominal) as schools and universities, reflects the contemporary understanding of the implication of the knowledge society (Broadfoot 2000, p.358) It is of great potential and inevitability for the whole population to be capable and disposed to harbor advantage of the new regularitys for accessing new knowledge that information and communications engine room is making available. This too reflects the growing recognition that learning is not eq with teaching. Todays growing concern is life huge learning which is powerfully described in a recent European Commission report The Treasure Within. (Broadfoot 2000, p.358) divers(prenominal) perspective of relative grooming by different scholarsAntoine Jullien de Paris in 1817 saw relative nurture as an analytical instruction of information in all countries with a mess to perfect content gentility systems with adaptation and changes from which policymaker s can borrow ideas to implement in their own-country (Bray 2007, p.1).In Hans view the utility of proportional pedagogics was that type of education which analyzes comparative degree degree law, comparative literature or comparative anatomy in guild to spot trippings the going aways in the forces and origins that create the differences in the educational systems (C.S. Oni 2005, p.244).Lewis approached the issue of comparative education in terms of an Island formation. Lewis asserted that, no country is an island that each is a single out of the mankind therefore, no educational system anywhere in the world is worth anything unless(prenominal) it is comparable to some other systems in the world.(Quoted from C.S. Oni 2005, p.244).Comparative education for Blishen is the branch of educational theory that has to do with analyzing and interpreting the educational practices and policies in different countries and culture (C.S. Oni 2005, p. 244).Le Thanh Khoi believed that compara tive education is a multidisciplinary discipline when he said that it is not strictly a discipline, but a field of record covering all the disciplines which serve to understand and justify education (quoted from Bray 2007, p. 35).In addition to learning virtually other people and cultures, comparative education also alleviates the look forer to know about oneself. As George Bereday puts itIt is self-knowledge born of the aw arness of others that is the finest lesson comparative education can afford.(Quoted from Kubow Fossum 2003, p. 11).With the sweetener of nationalism and the increasing importance of the nation states in the beginning of the nineteenth century comparative education was pushed ahead. The objective was to learn useful lessons from strange countries, especially concerning education systems. This contained a very colonialist view of the western societies on the foreign countries. School systems were perceiven as a re antecedent of new educational ideas, which could be borrowed to improve the own school system. Comparative education transferred itself from passing pure description level to a much sophisticated abbreviation. With the mature of the genial sciences in the 1950s the historical aspect became insignificant. Instead comparative education was introduced as a true science by victimization statistical techniques and to a greater extent quantitative methods. The main(prenominal) approach was structural functionalism.The aims of comparative educationThe aims of comparative education are to describe educational systems, processes, and stop products as sound as to assist in the development of educational institutions and practices. It also highlights the relationships betwixt education and society and establishes generalized statements about education that is valid in more than one country. Comparative education also deepens our understanding of our education and society it can be of great aid to policy makers and administra tors and can be of great asset in the education of teachers (Bray 2007, p.15). Comparative inquiry also helps us understand better our own past locate ourselves more exactly in the present and look into more clearly what our educational future day may be. Comparative education gives the investigateer the ability to describe what might be the consequence of legitimate courses of semipolitical and economical action, by looking at experience in a range of countries. From the theories mentioned above extracted from different scholars, we can see that comparative education facilitates the look intoers to learn from the accomplishment and faults that other countries have do in the process of solving similar educational problems. The focal point of comparative film in education is the collection and categorization of information, both descriptive and quantitative.As Sadler stated in one of his beat outs delivered in 1900In canvas foreign systems of education we should not forget that the things outside the schools matter nonetheless more than the things inside the school, and govern and interpret the things inside. We cannot wander at fun among the education systems of the world, equal a child strolling through and through a garden, and picking flowers from one bush and some leaves from another, and then expect that if we stick what we have gathered into the soil at home, we shall have a living plant. A national education system of education is a living thing, the outcome of forgotten struggles and of battles long ago. It has in it some of the secret give wayings of national life. (Quoted from Philips in Alexander et. al 1999, p.19).On ComparingThe comparative education researcher should go far from the familiar to see the unfamiliar to make the familiar strange, in order to broader the principles, geographical and epistemological view (Broadfoot 2000, p.363).When comparison in education researchers are producing a variety of descriptive and explanat ory info which differ from micro to macro comparative data analysis, allowing us to see various practices and procedures in a very wide context that helps us to throw light upon them ( sultana as cited in Borg 2009, p.21).While less substantial countries have a tendency to look at more developed countries to learn from them, more developed countries tent to look at countries that are on the same economic and educational level to make cross-national comparisons. Examples of this are number of countries that looked at USA as their model. Switzerland in mid-1990 obscure from looking up to USA, it also hired American consultants to develop a reform package for schools (Steiner- Khamsi 2002, p.76 as cited in Bray 2007, p.18). On the other hand, America learned also from other countries (Levin 2010, p.96 in www.kappanmagazine.org) exchangeable east Asia, (Bray 2007, p.21-22) where the US department of education made an intensive study of Nipponese education and came out with 12 prin ciples of good practices. Educators and policy makers went to Finland, which is the top- do country in the commencement three rounds of PISA, in order to find the key to education success to achieve high marks in PISA. Private companies like Cisco and McKinsey, are issuing reports on the quality of education approximately the world.Comparisons across time provide information about improvement or decline over the forms like comparing the different periods in the history of education. These comparisons though are limited in the nature of the cite groups or criteria used that is they are usually limited to school systems similar to those being evaluated. When policy makers look at the past to learn for the future as the British policy makers used to do in mid-eighties to make comparisons with their own past rather than with other countries. Sometimes the causal agent to compare with the predecessors is to see how the society has developed as well as to learn from the mistakes tha t were done in the past (Bray 2007, p.23, Bradburn Gilford 1990, p.2).Comparisons with other localities or surrounded by states, provincials and regions compare similar local educational systems inwardly the same state, or with those in other states or the nation as a whole. Comparisons with other states or the nation as a whole have the advantage of comparing betwixt educational systems that are broadly similar. They provide information on particular nations level of achievement in education to the very much broader study of the worlds education system (Bradburn Gilford 1990, p.2).Example of such comparison is the comparison among the education systems of Hong Kong (Bray 2007, p.131) or the education systems of Macao (Bray 2007,p.134). When comparing the researcher has to station the areas countries or places, and cannot be generalised. As Le Than Khoi (in Sultana as cited in Borg 2009, p.16) gave the casing of the Mediterranean. There are too many differences in the regi on that we battle cry the Mediterranean to make it the object of comparative analyses. Culture is an important component when comparing places. An example of this is the lead that Finland got in the PISA in 2002 compared to other places which was ground on the hit the booksing competences. Finland achieved well as it has centuries of cultural tradition that long promoted the interpret ability (Bray 2007, p.167).A comparative education researcher essential try not to be prejudiced either on political, national, religious, racial, sexual urge or ideological aspects. It is crucial that the paradigms used are relevant to all geographic areas and nations that are included in the study. Differences between inter and intra-national research present challenges in comparative research that must be recognized. such differences are often significant resource of cultural variation (Bradburn Gilford (1990), p.21).The piece of developing countries in supranational studies adds informat ion to the development of local research capacity and also widens the taste of participating countries. Third-world participation develops North sec dialogues as well as East- West linkages as it serves as a good source for building trust and co-operation (Bradburn Gilford (1990), p.22).As the economic empyrean is increasing its value and the importance of having a sound education system, the transaction and industry sector may consult comparative educational studies in their outside(a) planning. Textbook publishers, developers of educational software and other educational traders use comparative education to categorize the needs and markets for new products. So the question raised is In whose absorbs do the education system and decisions taken, work? (My lecture notes).Though comparisons in education are of great benefit there are also who is sceptic and critic about it. There is the belief amongst these that comparative research give lead to a homogeneous-world approach t o education that impede proper attention to each countrys unique history, culture, and people.(Bray 2007, p.178). This idea comes from experiences with international institutions that forced economic policies that had negative consequences in less-developed countries. It is vital for policy makers to remark in mind that not all the methods of any country can or should be put into practice in other countries. (Lavin 2010, p.96 in www.kappanmagazine.org, Stromquist 2002, p.87)It is important that insiders and outsiders work collaboratively in order to research and development work that is more sensitive to local, social constructions of reality. (Crossley 2002, p.82)Education research projects and organisationsAs global economic competition increases, increases also the beliefs in the education as the source of marginal advantage, governments have become increasingly obsessed with the international rankings of measured educational outcomes. However the issue and impact of power on the educational institutions differentiate form in society to another. It is becoming important more than ever as the decision making in education is ever-changing considerably. The main actors are no longer those most affected by education like the students, parents and the teachers but rather private agencies and international pecuniary institutions (Stromquist 2002, p.87). international agencies compare patterns and results in different countries in order to improve the advice that they give to national governments and policy makers. The UNESCO, World Bank and OECD are amongst international agencies each emphasising their own aims varying from pedagogy, curriculum, economic and financial matters, which play an important part in the education arena. Their aim is to assist countries in design and implementing successful policies to computer address the challenges that the educational systems are facing. They also create schemes for promoting lifelong learning in relation with ot her socio-economic policies (Bray 2007, p. 31). New ideas gained from international studies such as PISA, TIMMS and Survey -Lang can be move to see if they leave alone improve the education system and to understand why the coiffureance of students in different countries differs (Shorrocks-Taylor Jenkins 2000).Since the late 1950s with the founding of the internationalistic Association for the rating of Educational Achievement (IEA) such large scale comparative studies have taken on considerable significance in education. From the beginning the IEA has been pull to studying learning in the basic school subjects and to conducting on a regular basis survey of educational achievement. Over time, these outcome data have been increasingly linked to analyses of the effects of curriculum and school organization upon learning and the relationship between achievement and pupil attitudes (Shorrocks- Taylor 2000, p.14).There are different methods on how to measure the comparative aspect which differs from theoretical grounded studies mean to build or test complex models of educational systems to descriptive studies whose figure is to monitor different features of educational systems, practices and outcomes. The purpose of theoretically oriented studies is mainly to examine relationships among variables and look for casual explanations. It is designed to examine links between school achievement and such characteristics as curricula, teaching methods, family expectations and financial support levels. These highlight the level of differences between schools or classes as well as on differences between students as the unit of analysis. (Bradburn Gilford 1990, p.5)Belatedly, the intensification of international competition, spurred on by globalization, neo-liberalism and marketizing, has major(ip) implications for cross-national studies of educational achievement, for those engaged in or dealing with the powerful entrance of national and international league tables , and for the theoretical frameworks that we employ in our analyses. If the funding of research is increasingly linked to commercial interests, for example, the potential for critical theory, or for alternative cultural perspectives to influence the construction of new knowledge, may be increasingly challenged. Questions of power and whose knowledge counts?, in the process of development arise, perhaps, more strongly than ever before ( reference from my lecture notes).As Sultana stated, comparative education should go further than the concern with comparing like with like (Sultana as cited in Borg 2009, p.9). It focuses more on finding a particular point from where educational and related social phenomenon can be seen from different perspectives create a deeper understanding of the dynamics as well come up with new ideas. Comparative education provides insights on higher(prenominal) education, educational innovation, teacher education, power and education researches each bringing th e experience of the researchers country, or the country or the countries that researcher has studied and came together in order to share these issues in debating sessions.Comparative education and globalizationIn a globalise world, schools have come under greater national enquiry regarding the ways they can contribute to or delay a national progress. Claxton (1998) has described the rapidly-changing times we are living as the days of Uncertainty in which it is impossible to predict the state and shape of the world in few geezerhood time (as cited in Broadfoot 2000, p. 358).The educational world today set upons systems which may eventually prove to be a gyration in what is to be taught, to whom and how, since, as Edmund King implies, all its established systems were developed for a world that no longer exists (quoted in Broadfoot p.267).Accountability and educational transformation rose questioning on the education process itself. The heightened interest in and concern over educa tion has encouraged educators to re-evaluate in the light of new global realities, the purpose of schooling, the underlying theories about the relationship between education and development and questioning about educator professionalism. (Watson as cited in Crossley 2002, p.81)The ways in which educators in different countries view these issues and the strategies employed to address them must be understood in the light of different cultural, social and political context in each country. By viewing the educational issue from the perspective of two diverse countries the researcher can identify factor that might be missed when viewing the issue at heart the context of own country alone. If the research area is related to researchers own cultural environment, it is not always easy to perceive its special characteristics. The causa may appear too understandable and non-problematic. A fish cannot see that it is living in water (quoted in http//www2.uiah.fi/projects/metodi/172.htm). Mult iple cultural perspectives idea and analytic frameworks from a multiplicity of disciple the research would provide an international context as well as tools for opening perspective to conjure the way of seeing education.Critical thought process on Comparative educationComparative education and the critical perspective winning that comparative inquiry, help the researcher to go into a deeper analysis of the relationship among society, development, education and the role that citizens either directly or indirectly play in the education process. Through the development of comparative cerebration skills researchers should be able to vouch analyses of their home cultures and systems with a more understanding of the various cultural factors at play. Comparative education encourages both researchers and educators to ask questions like What kind of educational policies, planning and teaching are give up and for what kind of society? The field of comparative education focuses attentio n on what might be appropriate and inappropriate policy while encourage awareness of philosophies underlying educational policies and encourages interdisciplinary critique. (Klein 1990, 1996, Epstein 1983 as cited in Kubow Fossum 2003, p.7).Comparative education is beneficial and requisite not only for scholars and policy makers but for education practitioners as well. As Gutek said, teachers function in two dimensions as citizens of particular nation-states, they foster students national identity and second as citizens of a global society, they recognize that possibilities of gentleman growth and threats to human survival issue beyond national boundaries (Gutek 1993 as cited in Kubow Fossum 2003, p.251). Teachers must learn to look at other analogous classroom and school practices throughout the world. As Stake (1978) said we prise that people intrinsically pursue the general by looking at the specific. People make sense out of the new circumstances they encounter by compari ng that particulars to the universe that includes their own frames of reference. We have named the process of performing cross-cultural investigation and then deriving insights from these investigations the skills of comparative perspective taking (quoted in Kubow Fossum 2003, p.252).Schools are compared with arenas which constitute tension and combination of forces. In order to understand and control such condition, involves critical skills and the ability to understand the political underlining of societal and educational circumstances (Kaplan 1991 as cited in Kubow Fossum 2003, p. 252). These kinds of critical thinking can promote critical questions like What is the intention of schooling? What are the equitable education and who decides? What is the appropriate balance between educator ascendence and accountability? What factors reinforce or hinder teacher professionalism? (Quoted from Kubow Fossum 2003, p. 252).The field of comparative education continues to define its iden tity and significance in the new thinking about education, society, colonialism and development. Ideas from post-foundational thinking, post-modernism, post-structuralism and post-colonialism, are of great importance in comparative research because they deal with common metanarratives of progress, modernity, dominance and subordination that there have been the fulcrum of the main ideas in comparative education.(Mehta Ninnes 2003, p.238), Crossley 2002, p.82).Examples of Case studiesCase study 1 Comparing literacyThe usefulness of comparative education is seen in the number of different crusade studies. An example of a case study is Literacy skills in Maltese-English bilingual children by Rachael Xuereb (2009).The study examines the reading and phonological awareness skills in English and Maltese of children whose mother tongue is Maltese and second nomenclature English. A sample of 50 typically developing Maltese children aging between 8 years 0 months to 10 years 5 months was ch osen to recruit in this study. The children acquired Maltese as a initiatory diction within the family and later acquired English as a second language through Kindergarten and/or the early school years.The participants in this study attend a church school situated in the south-western part of the island. Since children star going to school at the age of 5 years, the children have been learning to read in Maltese and also in English.For the purpose of this study, Maltese reading and reading-related tests were created to parallel the UK and US like assessments. All the children sat for the novel tests and the standardised tests. According to the results found by Xuereb, Maltese children read better in Maltese than in English, which is the language of instruction in most of the subjects. severally child was tested on the following measures in both languages article and non word reading, non word repetition, spelling, segmenting words and non words elision, rapid naming of letters, add up and colours, forward memory for digits.Increasing research has addressed this issue for bilingual students, in relationship to whether phonological awareness in the first language predicts phonological awareness in the second language (Quiroga, Lemos-Britton, Mostafapour, Abbott Berninger, 2002). Studies comparing first language and second language decoding skills in readers of different orthographies suggest that these skills are positively correlated and that individual differences in the development of these skills can be predicted on the basis of underlying cognitive and linguistic abilities such as phonological skills, memory, orthographic knowledge and speed of processing (Geva Wade-Woolley, 1998 as cited in Xuereb 2009, p.331).This study aimed to find answer for how do Maltese-English bilingual children perform on reading and phonological tasks and to verify whether prior findings of cross-language transfer from first language phonological awareness to reading or t o second language phonological awareness be replicated in this sample of Maltese-speaking students.Case study 2 Comparing the role of gender and age on students perceptions towards online education.This study conducted by Fahme Dabaj, and Havva Baak, was conducted in order to question and analyze the perceptions and attitudes of the students to online standoffishness education by means of email and the World Wide meshwork as the method of delivering instruction through on-line diploma programs offered by Sakarya University in Turkey with respect to their age and gender. The research was based on a questionnaire as a mean of data collection method.The findings of the analysis explained that although the students registered to the online program by will, they preference was for the traditional face-to-face education callable to the difficulty of the nonverbal communication, their lack of ability in using the technology required, and their belief in traditional face-to face learning more than online education.The research methodological analysis of this study used the quantitative statistical methods and techniques such as significance differences, correlation and the cross-tabulation distribution to find out if there is a significant relationship between the independent and the dependent variable questions, quantity the role of age and gender of students towards their perceptions regarding distant education. The quantitative data was tranquil by survey questionnaire and was analyzed via quantitative statistical methods. All the students enrolled in the distance education programs and the online courses in the autumn term of the 2005/2006 Academic form took part in the research.Regarding gender, the results proofed that the female students have a better awareness of the online education contrasting to the male students. Regarding age, the results showed that the older the students preference moves towards attendance face-to face classes.Case study 3 Compar ing different artistry methodologies.I also attempted to make a small comparative study in which I compared cunning methodology adopted in a state school compared with that adopted by the Verdala International School. The Verdala International is a co-ed international school in which foreign students resident physician in Malta can attend. The artistic production department in this school in based on two dodge Programs the IG which is equivalent to O level exam and the IB which is equivalent to the A level exam.My research was aimed at bringing out the difference in teachers and students approach towards the subject. The first difference which I pointed out was the level of organization in the state schools Art room in comparison with the organized chaos that ruled in the Verdala International. Both teachers receipt to my comments about the Art room environment was that it reflects the methodology they adopt towards the subject. Art lessons in the state school are more struct ured students have to follow rules which hinder them from using their imagination freely. In both schools the lessons where introduced in the same manner there was a mint candy of teacher talk with the teacher orchestrating the whole thing. The children were only asked to participate when the teacher asked them for suggestions.The two lessons differed in the way they developed while in the state school, the students followed the traditional method by copying the teachers examples from the whiteboard and were very limited in experimentation, at Vedala international the students were much freer to experiment and be creative. The reason was that although the Art syllabi of both schools are very similar, the methodology adopted is different. The teacher at the state school believes that in order to break the rules in Art first the student has to learn them by using the traditional method by copying.While Art lessons at the state school are more exams oriented, although at Verdala Inte rnational they do have an end of year test, the focus is more on helping students develop creative ideas. During my reflectivity sessions at the state school, which were carried out in the beginning of November, the teacher consistently reminded the students about the exam. On the other hand at Verdala International the nett test was never mentioned.At the Verdala International I also tried to compare Maltese students who have been to a state school and are now attending Verdala International with foreign students who had been attending to Art classes in their own countries are now at Verdala. The aim of such comparison was to identify students perspectives of the methodologies used for the teaching of Art in Malta and abroad. The foreign students interviewed were from Italy, USA, Sweden, Germany, Russia and England. From the response given it resulted that the conservative Art methodology used in Maltese state schools is very similar to that in Russia and in the early years of th e middle school in Germany.Lessons at Verdala International are more similar to those in Italy where the students are active participants and able to take decisions on what they should do. While in state schools every lesson planned out by the teacher following the syllabus that is to be covered, at Verdala International the lesson is in the form of a group discussion. Each student decides on a theme that he/she would like work on and the teacher will facilitate his learning. This way, different students might be working on different projects unlike in state schools where everyone would be doing the same thing. Maltese students prefer more the methodology used at the Verdala International than the Art methodology used in the state school.The research methodology of this study consisted of ceremony sessions, interviews with students both on individual bases and in groups, and interviews with four teachers (one at Verdala International and 3 at state school). The number of students t hat took part in this study was 45 students (22 at Verdala International and 23 at state school). expiryThe comparative education area is composed by what researchers declare about its nature, origins, purposes, futures, by the truths people support and by the struggle over what made true comparative education (Mehta Ninnes 2003, p.240).The significance in studying this area using intellectual accuracy, the working and foreign systems of education will result in our better fitted to study and understand our own while helps to fly the coop and d