For this assignment, you will choose a topic that interests you (PK-12) and research the similarities and differences between the U.S. system of education and one contrasting system of education in another country. A detailed description of the assignment will be posted on canvas. You will submit a draft of the paper, which I will read and provide you with feedback. You will revise your paper and resubmit within a given time frame. Multiple revisions may be required.
Comparative Education Paper
Objective of Assignment: The objective of this assignment is to provide you the opportunity to compare and contrast issues related to education in the United States and one other country of your choice. The paper will be between 7-9 pages and will have 4 or more resources for the bibliography.
Step 1: Choose a country that you would like to contrast to the United States. Next, read through the topics below and choose 3 topics upon which you will compare and contrast the US and your country of choice.
Culture in the educational system (national values)
Gender equity
Purpose of education
Access to education (who receives an education?)/barriers to education
Overall equity in education (ie: who is in AP classes, are students tracked college bound vs. technical school)
Access to global citizenship education
Access to international programs (IB)
Curriculum national/state/local
Student motivation
Student achievement overall
Student achievement rural vs. urban
Teacher preparation/training
Step 2: Begin researching your chosen topics. Read journal or other scholarly articles, books, magazines, Country Reports, etc. Surf the Internet do not use Wikipedia and MBU Grafton Library to locate resources.
Step 3: Read and synthesize the information from your research. List similarities and differences between the US and your chosen country. Give a brief historical, geographical, and cultural description of each country. You can use the template below to organize your information.
Begin with an introduction of the issues you chose to focus upon.
Give a brief introduction of the history of education in the United States.
Give a brief introduction of the history of education in the country you choose.
Conduct a contrastive analysis.
Summarize similarities between US and country of choice for each issue.
Summarize differences between US and country of choice for each issue.
Write a conclusion of your findings to summarize your research.
Step 4: Write your first draft of this paper. This paper should demonstrate the depth of your research and contrastive analysis of the US and country of choice. Submit your first draft by the due date stated in the syllabus.
Step 5: Make any revisions and submit your final paper by the due date.
More information about the format of this paper:
Follow APA format (go to the site below for guidance) https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_citation/apa_style/apa_formatting_and_style_guide/general_format.html (Links to an external site.)
You do not need a running head or abstract for this paper (see APA format for information about this). You do need to use in-text and reference page citations correctly using APA format.
Paper should be typed with standard margins and 12 point font
Include references (at least 4) in the paper
Some useful websites:
https://en.unesco.org/ (Links to an external site.)
http://www.oecd.org/pisa/ (Links to an external site.)
https://nces.ed.gov/timss/ (Links to an external site.)
https://timssandpirls.bc.edu/ (Links to an external site.)
https://acei-global.blog/2014/03/06/15-facts-on-education-in-developing-countries/ (Links to an external site.)
https://nces.ed.gov/ (Links to an external site.)
