Deck 15: International Education

Question 1

Which of the following statements is most accurate?

A)There are many differences in educational arrangements among nations but few, if any, commonalities.
B)The professional conditions that American teachers face are unique in the world.
C)The United States is unique in its need to incorporate multicultural education in public schools.
D)Despite great variety worldwide among nations, some educational problems and characteristics are virtually universal.

Answer 1

D

Question 2

In which country do more than half of elementary and secondary students attend private schools?

A)The United States
B)Cuba
C)North Korea
D)The Netherlands

Answer 2

D

Question 3

In a UNICEF study of 21 industrialized nations on measures of childhood well-being, the United States ranked

A)near the top.
B)about average.
C)in the top 20 percent.
D)very near the bottom.

Answer 3

D

Question 4

Resources devoted to education tend to be _____________ resources devoted to military forces.

A)greater than
B)less than
C)equal to

Question 5

Scholars have analyzed the findings of international studies of achievement to try to determine which, if any, aspects of instruction are associated with national performance levels in math. Identify the major conclusions of these analyses, and discuss the implications for improving mathematics performance in the United States.

Question 6

Which of the following countries has the most decentralized approach to educational organization?

A)France
B)Japan
C)Greece
D)The United States

Question 7

Which of the following is not true of the bipartite system?

A)It is a modern-day version of the traditional European dual-track system.
B)It separates students into vocational and academic tracks beginning with their first year in school.
C)The academic track is designed for college preparation.
D)It separates students into different tracks after several initial years of "common" schooling.

Question 8

Female enrollment in college has surpassed male enrollment in most countries except _________.

A)Germany
B)Japan
C)the United States
D)England

Question 9

Worldwide, public expenditures for education as a percentage of gross domestic product (wealth produced annually)tend to range from

A)10 percent to more than 35 percent.
B)8 percent to 17 percent.
C)1 percent to 3.5 percent.
D)2 percent to nearly 6 percent.

Question 10

In a 2014 OECD ranking of countries for reading and math achievement among 15-year-olds, the United States placed:

A)1st
B)2nd
C)12th
D)15th

Question 11

A World Bank study has reported that the family socioeconomic background of students is

A)a predictor of achievement only in industrialized nations.
B)generally not a good predictor of achievement worldwide.
C)a predictor of achievement in both industrialized and developing nations.
D)a reliable predictor of achievement only in the United States.

Question 12

Student diversity (differences in race, ethnicity, religion, language, etc.)is least prevalent in schools in

A)England.
B)Japan.
C)West Africa.
D)Germany.

Question 13

From an international perspective, which of the following statements is most accurate?

A)Instructional approaches are remarkably similar from one teacher to another.
B)There is considerable variation in teaching methods among nations.
C)There is significant variation in teaching practices typically used across schools, districts, and regions.
D)There is relatively little variation internationally in the teaching practices most commonly used.

Question 14

Which of the following is not an aspect of education that is shared by many nations in the world?

A)decentralized organization
B)strong relationships between students' social-class origins and their success in school
C)the professional and classroom conditions that teachers face
D)educational challenges posed by multicultural populations

Question 15

In the United States today, the rate of young people attending and completing higher education

A)surpasses any other nation in the world.
B)has fallen below most other industrialized nations.
C)is greater for males than for females.
D)is now surpassed by several other nations.

Question 16

Which of the following statements about male-female school enrollment ratios across the world is least accurate?

A)Enrollment ratios for females are substantially lower than those for males in most countries.
B)Enrollment of females has increased much more rapidly than that of males in some regions.
C)Expansion in the availability of education since 1960 generally has involved both male and female students.
D)Evidence suggests that the low enrollment ratios for females in many low-income countries are generally unrelated to these countries' economic development problems.

Question 17

Based on the information in Chapter 15, which of the following statements is most accurate?

A)The schools of most nations include diverse groups of students whose cultural and religious heritages vary significantly.
B)Only in very homogeneous countries do school populations comprise diverse groups.
C)Students in few countries reflect the diversity found in the United States.
D)The once-rapid rise of diversity in most nations has slowed down in the twentieth century.

Question 18

In the United States, what proportion of people aged twenty-five to thirty-four has attained postsecondary education?

A)nearly 40 percent
B)approximately 25 percent
C)slightly more than 50 percent
D)less than 25 percent

Question 19

According to a study of twelve industrialized nations, how does the United States rank with regard to expenditures on public education (grades 1-12)as a percentage of gross domestic product?

A)first
B)second
C)seventh
D)tenth

Question 20

Chapter 15 describes a number of characteristics of Japanese education that may account for the high achievement levels among Japan's youth, although we are not yet sure which of these characteristics are of crucial importance. Which three of the characteristics do you believe are most significant to Japan's high achievement levels? Describe the characteristics and explain why you think they are important. Can or should the United States try to copy Japan with regard to these characteristics? Be sure to give reasons for your position.

Question 21

Afghanistan, China, Ethiopia and Ghana tend to enroll ________ percent of high school graduates in higher education.

A)less than 5
B)less than 20
C)more than 45
D)more than 70

Question 22

Which country provides the best example of a highly centralized educational system?

A)France
B)Greece
C)Japan
D)all of the above

Question 23

A team of U.S. child-care specialists and civic leaders visited France and studied its early childhood programs. Which of the following was the major conclusion of their study?

A)Although the French system is highly effective in France, different economic, social, and political conditions in other countries make it generally unsuitable as a model.
B)Under close scrutiny, the French system, though highly regarded in the United States and Europe, does not seem as effective as its reputation suggests.
C)So few children are actually enrolled in the French system that the results are not valid for replication.
D)The French system provides a model for preschool child-care that is worth considering for replication in the United States.

Question 24

While industrial nations' postsecondary education graduate rates vary, Ireland, Korea, and Canada provide postsecondary education to over ___________ percent of their young adults.

A)10
B)30
C)50
D)70

Question 25

Which of the following statements is not true of one of the first major studies of the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement?

A)Results show that there is remarkable sameness in achievement levels across nations.
B)Results show that there is a wide range of achievement levels across nations.
C)The United States ranked near the middle of the nations studied.
D)The areas for which achievement was studied are civic education, foreign languages, literature, reading comprehension, and science.

Question 26

Which educational characteristics and challenges are virtually universal?

Question 27

Which of the following is not an aspect of education that many nations share?

A)decentralized organization
B)strong relationships between students' social-class origins and their success in school
C)the professional and classroom conditions that teachers face
D)educational challenges posed by multicultural populations

Question 28

Which of the following aspects of education appears to be most consistent among countries?

A)academic achievement levels
B)instructional methods
C)expenditures on education
D)types of students who attend school (for example, age, gender, class)

Question 29

The International Association for the Evaluation of Education Achievement (IEA), the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA), and the Third International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMMS)published findings of international achievement studies. Discuss the conclusions related to the United States that emerged from analysis of the findings.

Question 30

Which of the following is one important reason for lower academic achievement in the United States relative to other countries?

A)Because of the size of our population, we simply cannot afford to spend as much on education as can smaller countries such as Japan and Germany.
B)Historically, one of the aims of U.S. public education has been to establish educational equity, which sometimes conflicts with producing an educated elite that would compare more favorably with other countries.
C)Students in the United States simply are not capable of performing at the levels attained by those in other industrialized countries.
D)We are not as apt to use standardized tests in this country as are other countries, so our students do not perform as well on them.

Question 31

Based on an analysis of IEA, PISA, and TIMMS findings, which of the following might be the best approach to raising mathematics performance levels in the United States?

A)reduce class size
B)increase the amount of math homework
C)reduce "curriculum differentiation"
D)reduce "tell and show" teaching approaches

Question 32

Discuss Japan's "Nintendo Kids" in terms of how they relate to the rest of the world.

Question 33

For which program is Germany particularly well known?

A)school-based management
B)national curriculum and testing
C)early childhood education
D)vocational and technical education

Question 34

The system that provides a dual-track pattern of education is commonly known as

A)higher education.
B)a vocational-technical program.
C)a bipartite system.
D)a primary system.

Question 35

Describe the early childhood educational system in France.

Question 36

In countries that provide ______________ for most high-school students, more students tend to pursue higher education.

A)vocational programs
B)general academic studies
C)a religious-based education
D)trade schools

Question 37

Government commissions in Japan are considering reforms that incorporate more positive aspects of education in the United States. For which of the following educational goals is Japan particularly seeking reform strategies?

A)to increase math and science achievement
B)to give greater emphasis in teaching to higher-order skills
C)to reduce conformity
D)to increase rates of enrollment in college

Question 38

Why is it not possible to say exactly what a "private school" is internationally or to generalize about the place of such schools in educational systems across nations?

Question 39

Kevin, a high-school math teacher, claims that the U.S. educational system is performing better than has been portrayed in international studies. Which of the following arguments that he makes to support his position is not accurate?

A)The studies show that U.S. performance rates are now increasing rapidly and that in the last few years, we have raised our per-pupil expenditures to a level higher than those of all other industrialized nations.
B)Higher performance in math in other countries may be due more to family and cultural factors than to educational systems and practices.
C)Achievement in U.S. schools has improved during the past few decades, along with a growing enrollment of students from low-income families.
D)The performance of high-achieving students in the United States is similar to that of high performers in other nations.