R.E. Anderson – författare

What factors affect creativity and the generation of creative images? What factors affect the ability to reinterpret those images? Research described in this book indicates that expectations constrain both of these attributes of creativity. Characteristics of the imagined pattern, such as cohesiveness or its psychological goodness, also affect image generation and reinterpretation. Other evidence indicates that images can be combined mentally to yield new, manipulable composites. Cognitive models encompass the research and extend it to fields as diverse as architecture, music, and problem solving.

What factors affect creativity and the generation of creative images? What factors affect the ability to reinterpret those images? Research described in this book indicates that expectations constrain both of these attributes of creativity. Characteristics of the imagined pattern, such as cohesiveness or its psychological goodness, also affect image generation and reinterpretation. Other evidence indicates that images can be combined mentally to yield new, manipulable composites. Cognitive models encompass the research and extend it to fields as diverse as architecture, music, and problem solving.

This book presents some of the results from the second stage of lEA''s study of Computers in Education (CompEd). lEA, the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement, conducts international comparative studies focussing on educational achievement, practices, and policies in various countries and education systems around the world. It has a Secretariat located in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. lEA studies have reported on a wide range of topics, each contributing to a deeper understanding of educational processes. The CompEd study is a project that sheds light on the way computers have been introduced in education and on how they are being used across the world today. The study proceeded in two stages with data collected for stage 1 in 1989 and for stage 2 in 1992. Results from both stages have been published in a variety of publications. This book reports about a special part of the study. Student achievement and school processes come into being in the context of the structure and the policies of national (or regional) education systems. The variety found in the CompEd results led us to ask how much might be explained by differences in these national or regional contexts. That is the reason the CompEd study took the initiative to invite the countries participating in the study, as well as some other countries that have had interesting developments in the domain of educational computers, to write a chapter describing their policies and practices regarding computers in education.

This text reports on the policies and practices regarding computers in education in 20 countries, representing Northern America, Asia and both the Eastern and Western parts of Europe. The editors have analysed and reflected from several perspectives on the richness of the national reports resulting in chapters on curricular, (in)equity and education paradigmatic aspects of the introduction of computers in education. The volume is a spin-off of the international comparative study of the use of Computers in Education (CompEd) conducted by IEA, the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement. The variety found across countries in the CompEd results led to the question whether this might be explained by differences in national contexts. For that reason, the initiative was taken to invite countries participating in the study, as well as some other countries with interesting developments in this area, to report on their policies and practices regarding computers in education. A collection of country profiles of a technological innovation that invaded their education systems is provided.These profiles provide baseline information against which recent developments on information and communication technologies in education can be studied. The book is therefore of importance for all those in charge of policy-making and implementation in this area and it provides background information for researchers and graduate students, both in the area of information and communication technology in education and comparative education.