Category Archives: Education

by Pisana Ferrari – cApStAn Ambassador to the Global Village Leonardo da Vinci had a voracious and prolific creative talent, says the author of this article, and today’s models of assessment and methods of teaching are not receptive, or conducive, to creative impulses and disruptive, rebellious thinking. The article offers an interesting reflection on “the …

“Would Leonardo da Vinci have excelled in our “myopic” school system?”

by Pisana Ferrari – cApStAn Ambassador to the Global Village About 32 million unique online vacancy postings from seven EU countries (Czech Republic, France, Germany, Spain, Ireland, Italy, UK) have been collected by the European Centre for the Development of Vocational Training (Cedefop) and processed through big data and machine learning techniques.(1) Skills intelligence is …

“EU agency analyses 32 m online job offers to map skills most in demand”

by Pisana Ferrari – cApStAn Ambassador to the Global Village Education is changing to better cater to Gen Zers’ specific needs, e.g. their wish to be the “architects” of their educational experience and to engage with the world as it changes. At Bennington, “pop-up” courses have been set up on  “fast-breaking issues of the day” …

“Pop-up courses and self-designed majors:  how education is to changing to become more appealing for Gen Zers”

by Pisana Ferrari – cApStAn Ambassador to the Global Village Translation quality is crucial in International Large Scale Assessments (ILSAs) as meaning shifts, which are language-driven, and perception shifts, which are culture-driven, can affect the psychometric properties of test items and thus compromise comparability. At the recent NCME conference in Toronto our CEO Steve Dept …

“Translation, test adaptation and linguistic quality assurance procedures in International Large Scale Assessments”

by Pisana Ferrari – cApStAn Ambassador to the Global Village In a recent Helchinger report post, Jeremy Taylor and Laura Hamilton give educators/teachers/school principals precious tips on how to look for (and choose) assessments that measure Social and Emotional Learning (SEL). (1) The “SEL Assessment Guide”, developed by Casel, gives detailed information about SEL competencies …

“How do you measure Social and Emotional Learning?”

cApStAn Linguistic Quality Control is thrilled to co-chair a coordinated session at the NCME (National Council on Measurement in Education) conference in Toronto this week. The symposium “Test Adaptation, Translation errors, and Linking across Languages in International Large Scale Assessments” (ILSAs) will be held on April 8th and is co-chaired by Kadriye Ercikan, Vice President …

“National Council on Measurement in Education conference in Toronto, Canada”

by Steve Dept – cApStAn partner The cApStAn Linguistic Quality Control team was in Vienna recently for the first National Project Managers’ meeting of the 8th cycle of PISA (the OECD’s Programme for International Student Assessment). There were 88 confirmed participating countries/economies and 140 locales (language/region combinations) represented, and over 250 attendees. cApStAn is the …

“1st National Project Managers meeting for OECD PISA’s 8th cycle”

A cApStAn delegation consisting of Emel İnce (lead project manager for TIMSS 2019), Shinoh Lee (Operations Director) and our CEO Steve Dept received a warm welcome at IEA (International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement) last Thursday the 28th of February. An incredibly constructive meeting with IEA Amsterdam director, Andrea Netten P.h.D. and project team David Ebbs, Lauren Musu, Jan-Philipp …

“Translation and verification for international studies – IEA meeting”

Multilingual assessements will be a hot topic at ATP Innovations in Testing 2019 (March 15-20, Orlando, US) as there is a growing awareness of the need of a robust translation/adaptation design when administering tests in multiple languages. Advances in test adaptation and state-of-the-art translation technology have changed the paradigm. cApStAn has organized, coordinated and supervised …

“Planning to go international with your tests and assessments? Don’t miss our session at ATP 2019”

by Pisana Ferrari – cApStAn Ambassador to the Global Village Educators “should not dismiss” the role that classic literature can play in developing empathy: by understanding how great novelists put themselves into the shoes of characters who are completely unlike themselves, students can learn to do the same with their neighbours from a different walk …

“Can reading literature help develop empathy? The opinion of cognitive scientists.”

by Pisana Ferrari – cApStAn Ambassador to the Global Village “When something is a national priority, like language education, it transcends party lines and politics; language is non-partisan because of the positive impact it has on ALL individuals.” So reads the announcement for the 2019 edition of US Language Advocacy Day (LAD) (1), which took …

“US language education community advocates for government support”

by Pisana Ferrari – cApStAn Ambassador to the Global Village Results from the latest “Trends in Mathematics and Science Study” (TIMMS), run by the IEA For Education, have revealed a correlation between confidence in a subject and performance, and that lack of confidence could put a student off pursuing a subject to a higher level. TIMMS 2015 …

“Want to boost Maths? Bring in more female teachers…”