analysis
Key Data on Education in Europe 2012
New website for better policy making in education and training
Up to date research and information on the economics of education, tailor-made to the needs of busy policy makers, is now available on the re-vamped website of the European Expert Network on Economics of Education (EENEE). The network supports reforms and identification of investment priorities in the area of education and training.
Running now in its eighth year EENEE is an EU Think Tank sponsored by DG Education and Culture. The expert network aims to contribute to the improvement of decision-making and policy development in education and training in Europe. EENEE's core task is to advise and support the European Commission in the analysis of economic and financing aspects of educational policies and reforms. A further key service provided by EENEE is the promotion and dissemination of research on the Economics of Education in Europe. The following new services can be found on EENEE’s website:
- A new series of "Policy Briefs" - two-pagers on important research topics written in a way digestible for busy policy-makers; the first two are on "The Cost of Low Educational Achievement in the European Union" and "Class Size: Does It Matter?"
- Analytical reports commissioned by the DG Eduaction and Culture, including titles such as "Financing Lifelong Learning" by Falch/Oosterbeek, "A Policy Agenda for Improving Access to Higher Education in the EU" by Veugelers, "Non-Cognitive Skills and Personality Traits" by Brunello/Schlotter, and "The Cost of Low Educational Achievement in the European Union" by Hanushek/Woessmann).
- There is an extensive list of literature references to the economics of education, organized by topics, that is should be useful to anyone working in the field.
Eurobarometer: Attitudes towards vocational education and training
Vocational education and training, which nearly half of all Europeans choose to enrol in after their compulsory education, has a generally positive image among most age groups, linked to the high quality of training on offer and the strong job prospects that this brings. However, only 27% of young people aged 15-24 say they would recommend it to their peers, which shows that more needs to be done to improve the image and attractiveness of vocational educational and training within this crucial age group. These are among the key findings of a Eurobarometer survey on "Attitudes towards vocational education and training" presented by the European Commission. The survey was conducted through face-to-face interviews with 27 000 people across all the Member States. Country-by-country findings are available
Protecting Children in the Digital World
In order to better assess what has already been done and what further steps might be necessary, the report – responding to the call in Point 6 of the 2006 Recommendation – analyses the implementation and effectiveness of the measures specified in the 1998 and 2006 Recommendations in the Member States. The report has been prepared on the basis of information supplied by the Member States in response to a questionnaire. It complements several actions in the Digital Agenda for Europe.
European indicators and ranking methodology for university third mission
The aim of this project is to generate a comprehensive instrument to identify, measure, and compare Third Mission activities of HEIs from a wide perspective. This will be achieved by creating indicators on Third Mission activities and by giving a new approach on the concept of ranking methodologies.
here is a growing recognition around the world of the role universities can play towards economic growth and social development in the modern "knowledge society" as lay out by the Lisbon Strategy. University activities have traditionally been understood as two missions: teaching and research. However, more recently policy makers have been keen to encourage all the other contributions of universities to society, their Third Mission.
While several ranking systems exist for the First and Second Missions, the Third Mission lacks any cohesive methodology. E3M will address this need.
First, a set of standard indicators for three dimensions of the Third Mission that we believe to be indicative of the Third Mission as a whole will be developed and validated. These dimensions are Continuing Education, Technology Transfer & Innovation and Social Engagement. Second, a ranking methodology will be created to assess the performance of European Third Mission providers, benchmarking excellent practices, and helping to create a common European area of higher education institutions. These tools will be built into a web based platform to provide access for project stakeholders, along with a range of case studies of excellent providers.
E3M will involve several leading European Higher Education networks to ensure a broad and sustainable dissemination of the project's outputs. The project will enable Third Mission providers to assess their own performance, share best practices and build relationships with other European Third Mission providers. This will lead to more effective and efficient services being provided to society and industry as institutions seek to improve their standards, improving the quality of their lifelong learning provision and other services. Funding bodies will be provided with a tool to understand Third Mission performance, rewarding excellence and rectifying lower standards.
Teaching Programming towards the Early Development of Analytical Structural and Critical Thinking
cMinds aims to deploy information technology, and specifically visual programming concepts, as an avenue for developing analytical, structural, and creative thinking among elementary school children through blended learning activities that can be integrated into existing school curricula as complementary educational tools.
Analytical thinking is a transversal learning skill that can help an individual develop experience and excel in wide areas, academic, social, civic, and professional. It facilitates skilled reading, writing, reasoning independently of the thematic area, problem solving, evaluation of values, and informed decision-making. It helps individuals set goals, develop alternatives, and identify sound courses of implementation.
Despite the applicability of analytical thinking throughout an individual’s lifetime, development of the skill in early life in the context of school curricula in primary schools is not representative of its importance. Current teaching avenues mainly deploy math, which provides a general theoretical background. However, the interest of children in math education may lag behind other subjects as children do not see direct links to everyday life. Interestingly enough analytical thinking is missing from early formal technology education. This is predominantly a result of teaching approaches that follow dry presentations and exercises. Current teaching practices fail to leverage the inherent link between technology education and creativity, which emerges when children are encouraged to find innovative solutions through brainstorming and problem solving sessions.
nformation technology provides a new medium for developing analytical thinking through programming concepts: it is precise, structured, step-wise, and requires the setting of goals, exploration of alternatives, and evaluation of implementation approaches in a typical problem solving, project-based methodological structure. Learning activities that explore programming concepts may serve as complementary tools for developing critical thinking in the context of science education curricula. Finally, the technology offers additional advantages, such as the option of visual solutions that can be tailored to inspire children’s curiosity, promote creativity, and increase motivation.
Activities will encourage children to analytically break down selected themes and visually demonstrate solutions that are the result of collective, creative problem solving and will take into account computer literacy levels in the selected age group. The objectives more specifically are:
- To develop age-appropriate inquiry and project-based didactical methodologies promoting analytical and structural thinking and the development of independent minds in wider inclusive, collaborative educational environments
- To develop proof of concept learning activities on the deployment of programming as an educational tool that motivates analytical thinking. The activities will encourage children to set goals, explore alternatives, evaluate solutions, and iterate for optimization. Learning design will ensure quick early results instilling a sense of success and encouraging further engagement. Individual work and class collaboration will demonstrate how different solutions may work better for different individuals
- To build a collaborative school network through which children and teachers can share ideas, findings, know-how, and good practice recommendations
- To validate methodologies and learning activities through their deployment in real life educational settings in several countries, including Greece, the Czech Republic, Romania, and Sweden
- Finally, to reach a wide range of stakeholders and to promote the integration of proposed methodologies and learning design into school curricula through targeted dissemination and adoption strategies
DIsclaimer: This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. This communication reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.