This book is about textbooks, textbook quality and quality standards of textbooks. From a theoretical point of view, in the light of Bahtin's theory of speech genres, school textbooks are seen as a specific, complex genre, defined by the addressee. At the same time, this approach requires us to see textbooks as a cultural product. From an educational point of view, textbooks are, according to Vygotsky's theory of cultural development, a key socio-cultural aid to cognitive development in school years. Forty-three quality standards are operationally defined and explained. They can be used for compiling textbooks, for textbook accreditations, for textbook evaluation and for selection by teachers.

This book take readers through the step-by-step process of how to create, implement, and assess project based learning (PBL) using a classroom-tested framework. Also included are chapters for school leaders on implementing PBL system wide and the use of PBL in informal settings.

The 2007–09 international financial crisis underscored the importance of reliable and timely statistics on the general government and public sectors. Government finance statistics are a basis for fiscal analysis and they play a vital role in developing and monitoring sound fiscal programs and in conducting surveillance of economic policies. The Government Finance Statistics Manual 2014 represents a major step forward in clarifying the standards for compiling and presenting fiscal statistics and strengthens the worldwide effort to improve public sector reporting and transparency.