The ‘traditional’ university model has been transformed globally, fueled by disruptive technologies, new learning platforms, increasing fiscal austerity, and the rise of knowledge economies. The Bologna Process, a European initiative intended to streamline higher education standards and qualifications, offers modernized, innovative pathways to learning including shortened degree timetables and a three-cycle system. Now comprised of 48 participating countries, the initiative has had a significant impact across global higher education. This volume examines the issues central to the Process as told from the viewpoints and experiences of stakeholders who have been involved with it at various stages of progression.
Table of Contents
1. The Global Canvas for The Bologna Process 2. The Bologna Process as a New Paradigm for Reform 3. The Social Dimension: ‘Education for All’ as a Bologna Challenge 4. Mobility as a Pillar of the Bologna Process 5. Bologna and a ’Europe of Knowledge:’ Pathways to Building a European Dimension of Education 6. The Bologna Process and the Promotion of an Innovation Culture 7. The Bologna Process and the "Process" of Reform and Revolution 8. Vectors and Vision for the Future
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Piro, J. (2016). Revolutionizing global higher education policy: Innovation and the Bologna Process. New York : Routledge/Taylor & Francis.
Every three years the world awaits the results of the Programme for International Student Assessment or PISA, the rankings of school systems overseen by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). Nations around the world look eagerly and apprehensively to see where their students rank on these tests of competence in, mainly, science, math and reading. This book provides a window into PISA and its power. What exactly is PISA? How are its tests developed? Who takes the test? What countries tend to outperform and which underperform? What do countries learn from PISA? Why is PISA both revered and feared? And, most importantly, does PISA improve education globally?
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Reviews:
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Joseph M. Piro provides an informative account of the most important global education testing regime of our times: The Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA). His book is a must-read for anyone interested in education policy and politics as it copes brilliantly with keeping the balance between being a compendium and a critique at the same time. It explores why we strive for comparisons, how the OECD has become the epicenter of education, what PISA means for different countries – including the US – and many more fascinating issues. Take a look inside!
— Kerstin Martens, Professor for International Relations, University of Bremen, Germany
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Piro (Long Island Univ.) examines the impact of the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) on education globally. Citing the key PISA watch-phrase—"PISA assesses the extent to which fifteen-year-old students, near the end of their compulsory education, have acquired key knowledge and skills that are essential for full participation in modern societies"—and PISA's commission by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), he posits that PISA’s primacy arises from international "'aspiration' convergence," ranking fever, and the media microscope. Following a history of international comparisons, Piro outlines questions about PISA that arise from differences in culture, language, gender, student sampling, and test administration. PISA is seen as a global convener that hastens curriculum flattening worldwide, as a standardizer that creates homogenized educational policy, and as an agitator used to advocate specific educational reforms. The author discusses the promises and perils of borrowing best practices; brain, development, and motivational research connected to PISA results; and PISA's future role. Piro concludes that "how PISA will continue to find, focus, and fix its position in the landscape of global education will be most compelling and instructive to watch." Summing Up: Recommended. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty; professionals.
― CHOICE
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Piro, J. (2019). The Primacy of PISA: The world’s most important test and how it’ s changing education globally. Bloomsbury Publishing.