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Description
The U.S. and other countries may not be able to replicate Finland’s educational system, but they can level the playing field by making adjustments that contribute to equality in policies, curricula, and pedagogy. Focus on gender-based equity, looking at areas where real progress is being made as well as institutionalized gender inequalities masked by egalitarian values..
Description
Isolationism, colonialism, regionalism and imperialism are all geographically inspired political ideas. They are examples of different ways of thinking about how the world has been, or is, divided politically. Human geography can make sense of why the world has been divided politically in the past and how it is divided politically today.
Description
Do the achievement rankings paint an accurate picture of what’s happening in schools, or is the crisis politically manufactured? Get answers as you analyze common criticisms of national education systems through the lens of three recurring phenomena—achievement envy, the accountability expectation, and access entitlement—and look at approaches to shifting school culture..
Description
Is low student performance the fault of teachers? Consider this question as you study characteristics of students, teachers, curriculum, and culture in the “model” educational systems to see what makes them different (or not) from the U.S. and other middle- or low-performing countries. Look at the elusiveness of quality teachers in the Gulf region..
Description
Accountability culture varies from country to country and region to region, but three common elements appear in most educational systems. Compare and contrast how access, achievement, and a combination of standards and assessments play out in the U.S. and Finland, and look at one notable exception—the consensus culture of Japan..
Description
Investigate the idea that “non-school factors” such as student poverty are among the strongest predictors of learning. Examine how two of the largest of these factors—culture and economics—play out in South Africa, which is experiencing an HIV/AIDS crisis, and in China, where test scores and national economics are thought to go hand-in-hand..
Description
Using the story of the most successful commercial brand in world history, The Cola Conquest is a revealing examination of popular culture in America and the exportation of American commercialism around the globe. Beginning its inquiry in 1895, The Cola Conquest traces the evolution of commercial supply and demand, and how this dynamic was birthed and shaped through a century of mass urbanization and industrialization. An eye opening critique of the...
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As the human population has grown to over 7 billion people, nothing has had to change more than the geography of agriculture. Program five studies the primary relationship between people and the cultivation of land and how agriculture has developed to sustain Earth’s ever-growing population.
50) Looking at China
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Three experts (Michael Berry, Karl Gerth, and Pankaj Mishra) offer different, often surprising, perspectives on contemporary Chinese society.
Description
Which is more important—gaining knowledge or new skills? Is standardized testing the best measure of what someone knows? What is the purpose of going to school—to prepare for college or a career? Address such questions as you probe Americans’ views on education and how it can be improved using internationally comparable information..
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How should we measure academic success? By standardized tests and school grades? By transition and mobility within an education system? See how true success in education is a delicate balance between school factors and non-school factors, which can look quite different depending on the context..
53) Human Geography
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HUMAN GEOGRAPHY: MAKING SENSE OF PLANET EARTH presents human geography’s unique perspective. Human geography focuses on the distribution of places and human traits across the globe and their connection to one another. Presented by acclaimed geographer Alec Murphy this incredible series shot in HD reviews significant discoveries, individuals, and theories that make human geography a cutting edge science in the 21st Century.
Description
Assuming something is “wrong” with schools, how might they be fixed? Analyze how the larger forces of imposition, invitation, and innovation can lead to change through examples from Saudi Arabia, the U.S., and Myanmar, where Buddhist monks have established non-religious schools at their monasteries to remedy the poor quality of government-provided education..
Description
Many business and industry leaders say there is no connection between formal school education—which teaches information, but not skills—and what is needed in the world of work. Investigate renewed global efforts to test whether vocational training can better prepare youth to participate in the emerging technology-driven knowledge economy..
Description
America’s blueprint for mass education has been followed across the globe—yet international student assessments show that achievement varies sharply, with the U.S. and much of Europe typically scoring average, at best. Not surprisingly, this state of affairs has sparked anxieties about an educational crisis. Adding even more fuel to the fire: many cite a growing disconnect between what schools teach and the needs of a rapidly changing market....
Description
Borrowing or benchmarking one national education system against another is not necessarily a remedy or the most useful analytical tool for educational reform, yet these are among the most common approaches. Begin to understand why this approach falls short as Professor Wiseman lays out his general thesis for the course..
Description
In the 21st century, the Earth’s surface is being reshaped and reorganized on a scale unprecedented at any other time in the planet’s history. It is a change directly caused by humans. In program eight Alec Murphy investigates why geographical concepts and insights are critical to the effort to confront the challenges of our ever-changing planet as its population grows to a staggering 10 billion people in the 21st century.
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