In this paper, the author demonstrates how education is presented by Freire as the key both for changing society and leading people toward true humanity. The author’s interest is not to further develop the method that Freire elaborated in the sixties and seventies, but, rather, to show the degree to which his theory is coherent with his vision of what it means to become truly human through social change. Specifically, this article explores whether or not education is the key element to build true humanity through social change. The author first explains how dialogue is a necessary starting point to understand the connection between education and change in the two aforementioned levels. The author presents how Freire considers the way myths in unequal societies play a damaging role due to their crystallization of unfair social structures. Consciousness and conscientization are the key tools to overcome these myths. This awareness at the same time is the essential component of an education for liberation. Finally, the author presents some obstacles to this new kind of liberation. 

Teaching and learning are interdependent terms, and the work of the teacher is to ensure that students learn. Teachers need to be clear on what they mean by learning. Learning is often judged by what students accumulate in content or is based on a student’s mastery of content as revealed by grades. However, for the author, there is more to learning—specifically, the behaviors of the learner. The author proposes a Rubric for Learning Behavior to augment the concept of learning with a concept of the engagement of the learner. In doing so, the author clarified his own struggle to make sense of the relationship between teaching and learning.

Book Review

Understanding of what is children’s deficiency about learning mathematics and their negative feelings about themselves in math classrooms may enable us an essential knowledge for comprehending the failure mathematics in elementary school classrooms. This article presents the studies about the children with learning difficulties in mathematics and the relationship between cognitive development and mathematical disability. Also, some studies are about teachers’ tasks and behaviors in elementary school mathematics classroom and the teacher’s existing or expected role on teaching to children with low-level learning capacity. The review includes an overview of relevant basic researches and theories through clear implications for pedagogy, a discussion of relevant practical research, an examination of some general issues and concerns having important implications in the area.

We are pleased to present this special issue on the contemporary trends and issues of progressive education in China. China is a country not only with massive education, but also with a rich educational history dating back more than three thousand years. With this special issue, the Journal of Educational Policy Analysis and Strategic Research has paid attention to the current developments in theory and practice of China’s education. Four articles and one book review are being published in the current issue reflecting China’s contemporary progressive education from different sides.

In The Way of “Wei Yu” -- An Orientation of Education for the Chinese in the Globalizing World, Professor Zhang Shiya discussed the characteristics of contemporary Chinese education in the context of globalization and internalization. Professor Zhang pointed out that the concept of Chinese includes not only the 56 ethnic groups inhabiting in China, but also Chinese descendants overseas. The author argued that all Chinese people have a common basis of identification: four words, “Zhong He Wei Yu”(center, harmony, position, birth), have been engraved in Dacheng Hall of Confucian temple in Qufu City, Shandong Province. Education for the Chinese Groups advocated by Professor Zhang expatiate a philosophical approach of Chinese culture: rich in individuality, harmony in society and Great Harmony all over the world.

The aim of this research is to analyze the party programs of 15 political parties which have participated in the general election of 2011 on the basis of their educational policies. Document analyzing technique from qualitative research designs is used at this study. Data sources of the study consist of education programs of parties which have participated in the general election of 2011. Content analysis is used for data analysis.

Adult education is considered as a part of non-formal education in Turkey, and its aims, scope and practices have been bound by legislation and regulation. Public Education Centers (HEM) that offer general and private classes on several issues and education institutions for various professions provide adult education and non-formal education. Adult education and non-formal education offers education opportunities to people who never had a chance to be a part of the public education system or who started but later dropped out of school. Most of the non-formal education activities are carried out by the Ministry of National Education at HEMs. HEMs were initiated in 1953 and begun spreading in 1956 with the aims of solving the literacy problem which was common back then, spreading the Turkish national culture, and adopting republican ideals and Ataturk's principles as a part of popular campaigns promoted by the young Turkish Republic. The total number of HEMs in Turkey reached 969 today, where modular education model is applied through "Professional and Technical" and "General" education programs. In this scope, there are modular education programs for fine arts education in the "Graphics and Photography" and "Art and Design" fields. This research tries to collect data by accessing literature on the types, goals and education conditions of fine arts education in HEMs that are a part of the mass education in Turkey.

Curriculum is generally defined based on the philosophical perspectives of the individuals. One of the definitions of curriculum states that curriculum is a field of academic study and research, having an intrinsic research systematic, theory, and tradition. From this perspective, this study is designed as three main chapters. The first chapter consists of the development process of curriculum as a field of academic study. In the second chapter, the period between 1918 and 1938 in the USA, during which curriculum studies have been institutionalized, was described and then the development process of the curriculum history as a field in curriculum studies was analyzed. In the final chapter of the study, the significance of the studies developed around the education history in Turkey within the context of the curriculum history

Research shows that helping international students build support networks by forming new friendships is crucial to counteracting the feelings of isolation, loneliness, and frustration that may arise from studying abroad. Studies have shown that friendships between international students and host nationals benefit the local community rather than just the university by promoting intercultural communication and understanding. Most of these studies, however, have only focused on the friendships between international and domestic students and not between international students and local American or “friendship families.” This study aims to make a contribution to the existing scholarship on intercultural friendship by looking at the expectations and obstacles that structure relationships between friendship families and international students at a research-one public land grant institution. By pinpointing these factors, we hope to take the first steps in developing a set of best practices for ensuring successful intercultural interactions between international students and their friendship families. 

Nowadays for an appropriate way to deal with teaching and learning there is an axiomatic need to accept an integrated-holistic approach both in terms of the way we regard education and of how we practice it. This leads to a two-prong position: First, that education constitutes a dialectic entity and second that approaches to education presently in use are now absolute. That is, education has recently undergone a paradigm shift from a Student Centred Learning approach, which in its own way have replaced the traditional Teacher Centred Instructing approach, towards an integrating holistic approach, bringing education into the new Net Centred Knowing paradigm which is based on cloud computing and represents the goal and objectives of the School on the Cloud project presented in this paper.