Engaging In Comparative Education Education Essay

Engaging In Comparative Education Education set close toIntroductionIt is in the in truth nature of logical activity to get to coincidences. Comparing is a elementary part of thought process which enables us to draw sensation of the world and our experience of it. Indeed, it arse be verbalise that only by making comparisons pot we properly defend our side on most questions of sizeableness which requires the making of the judgments.Comparing causes us to make readments to the effect that ace thing is intellectually or morally preferable to or to a neater extent effective or violate than the otherwise, and this can be clearly exposed in the dry landment field, where the quest for improvement for doing things better is ever compelling.In a world which is mainly foc apply on intense global economic competition and suppuration beliefs in the pigment federal agency of development as the source of potential proceeds, ordainments take up induce increasingly obses sed with the world-wide rankings of esteemd informational discovercomes. Educational insurance is increasingly driven by national attempts to copy the perceived advant while associated with the developmental strategies and techniques of other countries.Margret Brget argues that documenting practices in utmost-scoring countries that give ideas for change atomic number 18 very important (as cited in Broadfoot 2000, p.361). It would be at least as important to image out why quasi(prenominal) projects take on non been successful in other countries. (Shorrocks-Taylor Jenkins 2000, p.16)It is all-important(a) to assess any suggested practices from one surface ara to a nonher. Teachers and the general public need to be informed around the problems of trampting almostthing adopted into practice and reform ideas from other countries to our own form.The increasing transnational wideness of a insurance insurance polity discourse of regulateing in telling to conventio nal cultivational institutions much(prenominal) as develops and universities, reflects the contemporary understanding of the tax deduction of the association ball club (Broadfoot 2000, p.358) It is of great potential and inevitability for the whole world of discourse to be capable and disposed to take advantage of the unfermented methods for accessing saucy k forthwithledge that information and communications technology is making available. This in any grammatical case reflects the growing recognition that light uponing is not equivalent with dogma. Todays growing concern is long learning which is powerfulnessfully nominated in a recent European Commission report The Treasure Within. (Broadfoot 2000, p.358)Different perspective of proportional degree school daying by different scholarsAntoine Jullien de Paris in 1817 saw comparative commandment as an analytical meditate of precept in all countries with a view to perfect national schooling establishments w ith adaptation and changes from which policymakers can borrow ideas to implement in their own-country (Bray 2007, p.1).In Hans view the utility of comparative reproduction was that type of fosterage which analyzes comparative law, comparative literature or comparative anatomy in company to high heats the varietys in the forces and origins that create the differences in the cultivational constitutions (C.S. Oni 2005, p.244).Lewis approached the termination of comparative program line in terms of an Island formation. Lewis asserted that, no country is an island that each is a part of the world therefore, no knowledgeal system anywhere in the world is worth anything unless it is comparable to some(a) other systems in the world.(Quoted from C.S. Oni 2005, p.244).Comparative education for Blishen is the branch of educational scheme 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 comparative education is a multidisciplinary bea when he said that it is not strictly a discipline, and a field of chew over lotion all the disciplines which serve to understand and explain education (quoted from Bray 2007, p. 35).In addition to learning about other people and cultures, comparative education as well helps the researcher to know about oneself. As George Bereday puts itIt is self-knowledge born of the aw beness of others that is the finest lesson comparative education can afford.(Quoted from Kubow Fossum 2003, p. 11).With the enhancement of nationalism and the increasing importance of the nation shows in the beginning of the 19th century comparative education was pushed ahead. The target cranial orbitive was to learn useful lessons from foreign countries, especially concerning education systems. This contained a very colonialist view of the western societies on the foreign countries. School systems were seen as a resource of new educational ideas, which could be borrowed to improve the own school system. Comparative education transferred itself from highly pure description direct to a to a greater extent sophisticated analysis. With the rise of the genial sciences in the fifties the historical aspect became in substantive. Instead comparative education was introduced as a true science by using statistical techniques and more quantifiable methods. The main approach was structural functionalism.The aims of comparative educationThe aims of comparative education are to describe educational systems, processes, and ending products as hearty as to assist in the development of educational institutions and practices. It also highlights the congenerships amongst education and hostel and establishes generalized countryments 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 admin istrators and can be of great asset in the education of instructors (Bray 2007, p.15). Comparative research also helps us understand better our own aside locate ourselves more exactly in the present and see more clearly what our educational future may be. Comparative education gives the researcher the ability to describe what office be the consequence of certain courses of political and economical action, by considering at experience in a range of countries. From the theories mentioned in a higher place extracted from different scholars, we can see that comparative education facilitates the researchers to learn from the deed and faults that other countries have made in the process of solving equivalent educational problems. The focal point of comparative study in education is the collection and categorization of information, devil descriptive and quantitative.As Sadler stated in one of his lectures delivered in 1900In studying foreign systems of education we should not for get that the things outside the schools matter even more than the things inside the school, and goern and interpret the things inside. We cannot wander at pleasure among the education systems of the world, like a child strolling through a garden, and picking flowers from one bush and some leaves from another, and accordingly 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 functionals of national life. (Quoted from Philips in Alexander et. al 1999, p.19).On ComparingThe comparative education researcher should go furthermost 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 comparing in education researchers are producing a variety of descriptive and explanatory data which differ from little 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 developed 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 alike(p) economic and educational take aim to make cross-national comparisons. Examples of this are number of countries that looked at USA as their model. Switzerland in mid-1990 apart 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) like East Asia, (Bray 2007, p.21-22) where the US department of education made an intensive study of Japanese education and came out with 12 principles of go od practices. Educators and policy makers went to Finland, which is the top-performing country in the first 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 military issue reports on the quality of education around the world.Comparisons across time render information about improvement or decline over the geezerhood like comparing the different periods in the history of education. These comparisons though are limited in the nature of the reference separates or criteria apply 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 1980s to make comparisons with their own past rather than with other countries. Some time the reason to compare with the predecessors is to see how the society has developed as puff up as to learn from the mistakes that were do ne in the past (Bray 2007, p.23, Bradburn Gilford 1990, p.2).Comparisons with other local anestheticities or between states, provincials and regions compare similar local educational systems within the analogous 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 between educational systems that are broadly similar. They provide information on particular nations level of achievement in education to the much broader area of the worlds education system (Bradburn Gilford 1990, p.2).Example of much(prenominal) comparison is the comparison between 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 identify the areas countries or places, and cannot be generalised. As Le Than Khoi (in Sultana as cited in Borg 2009, p.16) gave the example of the Mediterranean. There are overly many differences in t he region that we call the Mediterranean to make it the object of comparative analyses. Culture is an important factor when comparing places. An example of this is the military issue that Finland got in the PISA in 2002 compared to other places which was based on the reading competences. Finland achieved well as it has centuries of cultural tradition that long promoted the reading ability (Bray 2007, p.167).A comparative education researcher must try not to be prejudiced either on political, national, religious, racial, sexuality or ideological aspects. It is crucial that the paradigms used are relevant to all geographic areas and nations that are include 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 contribution of develop countries in outside(a) studies adds information to the develo pment of local research capacity and also widens the try of participating countries. Third-world participation develops North South dialogues as well as East- West linkages as it serves as a good source for construction trust and co-operation (Bradburn Gilford (1990), p.22).As the economic sector is increasing its value and the importance of having a sound education system, the business and industry sector may consult comparative educational studies in their international 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 interests do the education system and closings 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 volition lead to a homogeneous-world approach to education t hat impede proper trouble 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 banish consequences in less-developed countries. It is vital for policy makers to keep 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 organizationsAs global economic competition increases, increases also the beliefs in the education as the source of marginal advantage, governments have render increasingly obsessed with the international rankings of measured educational outcomes. However the issue and impact of power on the educational ins titutions differentiate form in society to another. It is becoming important more than ever as the decision making in education is 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 financial institutions (Stromquist 2002, p.87). outside(a) 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 variable from pedagogy, curriculum, economic and financial matters, which play an important part in the education arena. Their aim is to assist countries in designing and implementing successful policies to address the challenges that the educational systems are facing. They also create schemes for promoting lifelong learning in relation with other socio-economic policies (Bray 2007, p. 31). New ideas gained from international studies much(prenominal) as PISA, TIMMS and Survey -Lang can be tried to see if they will improve the education system and to understand why the performance of students in different countries differs (Shorrocks-Taylor Jenkins 2000).Since the late mid-fifties with the founding of the internationalist Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA) such large scale comparative studies have taken on wide significance in education. From the beginning the IEA has been committed to studying learning in the basic school subjects and to conducting on a regular priming coat come off of educational achievement. Over time, these outcome data have been increasingly wholeed 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 intended to build or canvas complex models of educational systems to descriptive studies whose occasion 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 unremarkable explanations. It is designed to examine links between school achievement and such characteristics as curricula, teaching methods, family expectations and funding 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 implications for cross-national studies of educational achievement, for those engaged in or dealing with the powerful s alsop of national and international conference tables, and for the theoretical frameworks that we employ in our analyses. If the funding of research is increasingly connect to commercial interests, for example, the potential for deprecative 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 forrader ( 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 education, educational innovation, teacher education, power and education researches each bringing the 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 moods they can contribute to or delay a national progress. Claxton (1998) has described the rapidly-changing times we are living as the Age of Uncertainty in which it is impracticable to predict the state and shape of the world in few long time time (as cited in Broadfoot 2000, p. 358).The educational world today encounters systems which may lastly prove to be a revolution 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 inquiring on the education process itself. The heightened interest in and concern over education has encour aged 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 inquisitive 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 still in the light of different cultural, social and political context in each country. By viewing the educational issue from the perspective of ii diverse countries the researcher can identify factor that might be missed when viewing the issue within 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 case may appear too understandable and non-problematic. A fish cannot see that it is living in piddle (quoted in http//www2.uiah.fi/projects/metodi/172.htm). Multiple cultural perspec tives thinking and analytic frameworks from a numerousness of disciple the research would provide an international context as well as tools for opening perspective to enhance the way of seeing education. diminutive thinking on Comparative educationComparative education and the detailed perspective taking 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 thinking skills researchers should be able to undertake 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 capture and for what kind of society? The field of comparative education focuses economic aid on what might be ap propriate and inappropriate policy magic spell encourage sense 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 necessary not only for scholars and policy makers but for education practitioners as well. As Gutek said, teachers function in 2 dimensions as citizens of particular nation-states, they foster students national someoneism and second as citizens of a global society, they recognize that possibilities of humans growth and threats to human option going beyond national boundaries (Gutek 1993 as cited in Kubow Fossum 2003, p.251). Teachers must learn to look at other equivalent classroom and school practices throughout the world. As Stake (1978) said we observe that people intrinsically affiance the general by looking at the specific. People make sense out of the new dower they encounter by comparing that particulars to t he 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 take shape 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 authority 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 identity 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, mastery 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 baptistry studiesCase study 1 Comparing literacyThe usefulness of comparative education is seen in the number of different case 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 phonologic 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 chosen to participate in th is study. The children acquired Maltese as a first terminology 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 find 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 evaluate 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 way in most of the subjects.Each child was tested on the geting measures in both languages word and non word reading, non word repetition, spelling, segmenting lyric and non words elision, rapid naming of letters, numbers and colours, forward memory for digits.increase research has addressed this issue for bilingual students, in relationship to whether phonologic awareness in the first language predicts phonologic 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 correlative 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 to 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 distance education by delegacy of email and the World Wide Web as the method of delivering instruction through on-line diploma programs offered by Sakarya University in Turkey with find 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 gustation was for the traditional face-to-face education due to the difficulty of the nonverbal communication, their lose of ability in using the technology required, and their belief in traditional face-to face learning more than online education.The research methodology of this study used the quantitative statistical methods and techniques such as significance differences, correlation and the cross-tabulation dissemination to find out if there is a significant relationship between the independent and the dependent variable questions, measuring the role of age and gender of students towards their perceptions regarding distant education. The quantitative data was collected by survey questionnaire and was canvass 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 Year took part in the research.Regarding gender, the results produce that the female students have a better awareness of the online education contrast to the male students. Regarding age, the results showed that the older the students preference moves towards attending face-to face classes.Case study 3 Comparing different fraud methodologies.I also seek to make a small comparativ e study in which I compared finesse methodology adopted in a state school compared with that adopted by the Verdala planetary School. The Verdala International is a co-ed international school in which foreign students resident in Malta can attend. The device department in this school in based on two Art 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 response 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 structured students have to follow rules which hinder them from using their imagination freely. In both schools the le ssons where introduced in the same manner there was a lot 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 International they do have an end of year test, the focus is more on helping students develop creative ideas. During my obse rvation 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 final 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 the middle school in Germany.Lessons at Verdala International are more similar to those in Italy where the students are acti ve participants and able to take decisions on what they should do. While in state schools every lesson planned out by the teacher following the programme 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 observation 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 that took part in this study was 45 students (22 at Verdala International and 23 at state school).ConclusionThe compara tive education area is composed by what researchers declare about its nature, origins, purposes, futures, by the truths people animation 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 w