Improving the professional knowledge base for education: Using knowledge management (KM) and Web 2.0 tools

Improving education systems is an elusive goal. Despite considerable investment, international studies such as the OECD Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS) project and the McKinsey Report How the world’s best performing schools come out on top indicate that improving teacher quality is more important than increased financial investment. Both reports challenge governments, academics and practitioners to adopt new ways of sharing and building knowledge. This paper makes the case for national education systems to adopt tried and tested knowledge management and web 2.0 tools used by other sectors and highlights the neglected potential of teacher educators as agents for improvement

Agriculture and Nutrition in Bangladesh: Mapping Evidence to Pathways

Background: Although much work has been done on the theoretical links between agriculture and nutrition, there is limited understanding of the evidence from observational and experimental research studies on the impacts of agriculture programs on nutrition outcomes. Objective: To assess the emphasis of the literature on different agriculture–nutrition pathways in Bangladesh. Methods: Twenty databases and Web sites were searched, yielding more than 2400 resources that were pared down through an iterative, eliminative process to 60 articles. These articles were then rated for quality and mapped to 1 of the 6 agriculture–nutrition pathways. Results: The body of evidence reveals gaps in knowledge in all of the pathways, but especially in the areas of agriculture as a source of livelihoods, and women’s role as intermediaries between agriculture and good nutrition and health within their household. Conclusion: More research is needed on the links between agriculture and nutrition in country-specific settings, particularly as regards the role of women. Nutrition-related outcomes, such as dietary diversity and women’s empowerment, need to be measured more explicitly when evaluating the impact of agricultural production systems and development initiatives.Department for International Development (DFID)UKAI

Economics of nuclear power

This paper is the fourth in a series of 8 that make up the evidence base for SDC report 'The role of nuclear power in a low carbon economy'.Publisher PD

EPM

v. ill., diagrs. 23 cm