The focus of this study for the European Commission Joint Research Centre Institute for Prospective Technological Studies (IPTS) was to make an inventory of the existing cases in formal education where a curriculum or syllabus is shared across borders (e.g. state, national, linguistic and cultural). Formal education was defined as school sector, vocational education and higher education.
The aim was to look for valuable experiences in order to identify innovative approaches and opportunities, undiscovered up until now, in order to better understand how to take advantage of the potential of cross-border content for educational goals in the European Union’s policy context.
The study was conducted in three parts.
- The first involved scoping and classifying cross-border syllabi/curricula initiatives and their drivers.
- This was followed by a detailed case study of the US Common Core State Standards Initiative and its impact on OER. These two parts are brought together in this final report and the research findings and the issues they raise are discussed.
- Finally, the report identifies potential areas for investigation to leverage synergies between cross-border syllabi/curricula and OER in the context of formal education in the EU.