Assessing the impact of ISO: 9001 implementation on school teaching and learning processes

2019 ◽  
Vol 27 (3) ◽  
pp. 285-303 ◽  
Author(s):  
Francisco José Fernández-Cruz ◽  
Jesús Miguel Rodríguez-Mantilla ◽  
Ma José Fernández-Díaz

Purpose A growing number of schools are now implementing quality management systems (QMS). As a result, studies are being conducted to assess the educational benefits of these systems and their capacity to identify areas for improvement in school processes and performance. The purpose the present study is to assess the impact of ISO:9001 implementation on teaching-learning processes in the classroom, and in schools with at least three years’ experience of applying this standard. Design/methodology/approach To this end, a questionnaire was administered to a final sample of 2,185 subjects from 80 pre-school, primary and secondary education schools in the regions of Madrid, Castile and León, Andalusia and Valencia (Spain). Findings The results show that ISO:9001 implementation yielded a higher than average impact on teaching-learning processes. Specifically, improvements were observed in the subdomains of tutorials, evaluation and classroom teaching methodologies as a result of implementing this QMS. Originality/value This impact was higher in state-subsidized private schools in Valencia and Andalusia with over nine years’ experience of ISO:9001 in schools with internal funding plans and in those with fewer than 29 teachers on the staff.

2016 ◽  
Vol 24 (3) ◽  
pp. 394-415 ◽  
Author(s):  
Francisco José Fernández Cruz ◽  
Inmaculada Egido Gálvez ◽  
Rafael Carballo Santaolalla

Purpose Quality management systems are being used more frequently in educational institutions, although their application has generated a certain amount of disagreement among education experts, who have at times questioned their suitability and usefulness for improving schools. The purpose of this paper is to contribute to this discussion by providing additional knowledge on the effects in educational institutions of implementing quality management systems. Specifically, this study investigates teachers’ and managers’ perception of the impact that quality management systems have on one essential dimension of schools, the teaching–learning processes, with impact being understood as sustained medium- and long-term organisational change. Design/methodology/approach The responses were analysed and classified into a set of sub-dimensions linked to quality management processes in a total of 29 Spanish primary and secondary education schools that have used such systems for at least three years. Findings The results showed that, according to the respondents, the following sub-dimensions were improving as a result of implementing quality management plans: teaching and learning processes, the analysis of student results, tutoring, consideration of attitudes and values and assessment processes. Conversely, quality management systems did not seem to have a clear impact on the teaching methodologies used by teachers or on family involvement in student learning. In fact, the perceived impact in these sub-dimensions varied among teachers of public and private schools as well as when comparing different regional autonomous communities. Originality/value As the main objective of a school is to guarantee student learning, one of the essential purposes of school quality assurance systems is to perform all the activities aimed at ensuring high levels of student performance.


2016 ◽  
Vol 24 (3) ◽  
pp. 414-437 ◽  
Author(s):  
Satoshi Sugahara ◽  
Hisayo Sugao ◽  
Steven Dellaportas ◽  
Takahiro Masaoka

Purpose This research applies a quasi-experimental research method to investigate the impact of an innovative resource titled “Accounting Exercise” (teaching intervention using physical movement and lyrics) on learning motivation and performance on a group of students enrolled in a first-year undergraduate accounting course in Japan. Design/methodology/approach Five classes were randomly assigned to either an experimental group (two classes) or a control group (three classes). In the experimental group, 90 students participated in a 15-min “Accounting Exercise” at the commencement of lectures over three consecutive weeks. The remaining 133 students assigned to the control group did not participate in the Accounting Exercise. Findings The findings indicate that the Accounting Exercise provided stimuli in maintaining students’ learning motivation. This finding is important for entry-level students where learning motivation has the potential to influence students’ future decisions on major areas of study and career choices. Originality/value This finding is important for entry-level students where future career options are decided. This effect is also believed to contribute to reducing the declining numbers of students in accounting majors.


1998 ◽  
Vol 46 (2) ◽  
pp. 281-302 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jackie Wiggins ◽  
Karen Bodoin

Through collaboration, a music teacher and a researcher attempted to learn more about the teaching/learning processes in one second-grade general music classroom. While some components of the teaching/learning processes that occurred in this music classroom were identified through tins qualitative study, the most important findings were those that emerged during the collaborative process of analysis and interpretation of data. Through active participation in the analysis process, the teacher came to understand the impact of the emergent issues on the teaching and learning in her own classroom and, as a result, made some concerted efforts to change her teaching. Her reactions point to the importance of providing teachers with opportunities to examine their own work and to consider how issues related to teaching and learning processes manifest themselves in their work. They also suggest that unless teachers have these opportunities, discussions of issues related to their teaching may be meaningless to them.


2015 ◽  
Vol 42 (12) ◽  
pp. 1071-1089
Author(s):  
Alan Chan ◽  
Bruce G. Fawcett ◽  
Shu-Kam Lee

Purpose – Church giving and attendance are two important indicators of church health and performance. In the literature, they are usually understood to be simultaneously determined. The purpose of this paper is to estimate if there a sustainable church congregation size using Wintrobe’s (1998) dictatorship model. The authors want to examine the impact of youth and adult ministry as well. Design/methodology/approach – Using the data collected from among Canadian Baptist churches in Eastern Canada, this study investigates the factors affecting the level of the two indicators by the panel-instrumental variable technique. Applying Wintrobe’s (1998) political economy model on dictatorship, the equilibrium level of worship attendance and giving is predicted. Findings – Through various simulation exercises, the actual church congregation sizes is approximately 50 percent of the predicted value, implying inefficiency and misallocation of church resources. The paper concludes with insights on effective ways church leaders can allocate scarce resources to promote growth within churches. Originality/value – The authors are the only researchers getting the permission from the Atlantic Canada Baptist Convention to use their mega data set on church giving and congregation sizes as per the authors’ knowledge. The authors are also applying a theoretical model on dictatorship to religious/not for profits organizations.


2015 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 303-320 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sally Jones

Purpose – This paper aims to to explore power and legitimacy in the entrepreneurship education classroom by using Pierre Bourdieu’s sociological and educational theories. It highlights the pedagogic authority invested in educators and how this may be influenced by their assumptions about the nature of entrepreneurship. It questions the role of educators as disinterested experts, exploring how power and gendered legitimacy “play out” in staff–student relationships and female students’ responses to this. Design/methodology/approach – A multiple-method, qualitative case study approach is taken, concentrating on a depth of focus in one UK’s higher education institution (HEI) and on the experiences, attitudes and classroom practices of staff and students in that institution. The interviews, with an educator and two students, represent a self-contained story within the more complex story of the case study. Findings – The interviewees’ conceptualization of entrepreneurship is underpinned by acceptance of gendered norms, and both students and staff misrecognize the masculinization of entrepreneurship discourses that they encounter as natural and unquestionable. This increases our understanding of symbolic violence as a theoretical construct that can have real-world consequences. Originality/value – The paper makes a number of theoretical and empirical contributions. It addresses an important gap in the literature, as educators and the impact of their attitudes and perceptions on teaching and learning are rarely subjects of inquiry. It also addresses gaps and silences in understandings of the gendered implications of HE entrepreneurship education more generally and how students respond to the institutional arbitration of wider cultural norms surrounding entrepreneurship. In doing so, it challenges assertions that Bourdieu’s theories are too abstract to have any empirical value, by bridging the gap between symbolic violence as a theory and its manifestation in teaching and learning practices.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sinchai Chinvorarat ◽  
Pumyos Vallikul

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to present a novel retractable main landing gear for a light amphibious airplane, while the design, synthesis and analysis are given in details for constructing the main landing gear. Design/methodology/approach The constraint three-position synthesis has given the correct path of all linkages that suitably fit the landing gear into the compartment. The additional lock-link is introduced into the design to ensure the securement of the mechanism while landing. Having the telescopic gas-oil shock strut as a core element to absorb the impact load, it enhances the ability and efficiency to withstand higher impact than others type of light amphibious airplane. Findings By kinematics bifurcation analysis, the optimized value of the unlock spring stiffness at 90 N/m can be found to tremendously reduce the extended-retracted linear actuator force from 500 N to 150 N at the beginning of the retraction sequence. This could limit the size and weight of the landing gear actuator of the light amphibious airplane. Practical implications The drop test of the landing gear to comply with the ASTM f-2245 (Standard Specification for Design and Performance of a Light Sport Airplane) reveals that the novel landing gear can withstand the impact load at the drop height determined by the standard. The maximum impact loading 4.8 G occurs at the drop height of 300 mm, and there is no sign of any detrimental or failure of the landing gear or the structure of the light amphibious airplane. The impact settling time response reaches the 2% of steady-state value in approximately 1.2 s that ensure the safety and stability of the amphibious airplane if it subjects to an accidentally hard landing. Originality/value This paper presents unique applications of a retractable main landing gear of a light amphibious airplane. The proposed landing gear functions properly and complies with the drop test standard, ensuring the safety and reliability of the airplane and exploiting the airworthiness certification process.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Naglaa Megahed ◽  
Asmaa Hassan

PurposeThe present work reviews the impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic on architecture education (AE), with the aim of discussing the interaction and integration of technology-based models.Design/methodology/approachDifferent research methods were used to achieve the research purposes including an online survey, semistructured interviews, observations and reviewing recent literature. The study proposes a theoretical framework to investigate blended learning (BL) approaches in AE, based on the blended teaching–learning continuum, the growth of online delivery mode and technology integration and the gradual responsibility adopted for the current Covid-19 pandemic.FindingsThe study proposes a vision to reimagine post-Covid-19 education and the required BL strategy to provide a theoretical framework that integrates the instructional models required to be investigated by instructors.Research limitations/implicationsThe research findings are based on a theoretical approach not tested practically. A further detailed investigation is required. Thus, the road to reimagining the post-Covid-19 AE is still evolving.Social implicationsAs faculty members, one should take steps toward preparing BL strategies. These strategies present other alternatives to continue teaching and learning while keeping safe in any other emergency in education. In this work, an overview of BL approaches, continuum and related technological and instructional models has been shaped to propose a new vision to post-Covid-19 AE.Originality/valueThis paper responds directly to the initiated call on the pandemic's effect on traditional education by taking a pedagogical perspective. The study presents a holistic BL strategy and proposes a new theoretical and instructional model to design a suitable and balanced BL environment in AE.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Rita Shakouri ◽  
Maziar Salahi

Purpose This paper aims to apply a new approach for resource sharing and efficiency estimation of subunits in the presence of non-discretionary factors and partial impacts among inputs and outputs in the data envelopment analysis (DEA) framework. Design/methodology/approach First, inspired by the Imanirad et al.’s model (2013), the authors consider that each decision-making unit (DMU) may consist of several subunits, that each of which can be affected by non-discretionary inputs. After that, the Banker and Morey’s model (1996) is used for modeling non-discretionary factors. For measuring performance of several subunits, which can be considered as DMUs, the aggregate efficiency is suggested. At last, the overall efficiency is computed and compared with each other. Findings One of the important features of proposed model is that each output in this model applies discretionary input according to its need; therefore, the result of this study will make it easier for the managers to make better decisions. Also, it indicates that significant predictions of the development of the overall efficiency of DMUs can be based on observing the development level of subunits because of the influence of non-discretionary input. Therefore, the proposed model provides a more reasonable and encompassing measure of performance in participating non-discretionary and discretionary inputs to better efficiency. An application of the proposed model for gaining efficiency of 17 road patrols is provided. Research limitations/implications More non-discretionary and discretionary inputs can be taken into consideration for a better analysis. This study provides us with a framework for performance measures along with useful managerial insights. Focusing upon the right scope of operations may help out the management in improving their overall efficiency and performance. In the recent highway maintenance management systems, the environmental differences exist among patrols and other geotechnical services under the climate diverse. Further, in some cases, there might exist more than one non-discretionary factor that can have different effects on the subunits’ performance. Practical implications The purpose of this paper was to measure the performance of a set of the roadway maintenance crews and to analyze the impact of non-discretionary inputs on the efficiency of the roadway maintenance. The application of the proposed model, on the one hand, showed that each output in this model uses discretionary input according to its requirement, and on the other hand, the result showed that meaningful predictions of the development of the overall efficiency of DMUs can be based on observing the development level of subunits because of the impact of non-discretionary input. Originality/value Providing information on resource sharing by taking into account non-discretionary factors for each subunit can help managers to make better decisions to increase the efficiency.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Nathaniel Ayinde Olatunde ◽  
Imoleayo Abraham Awodele ◽  
Bosede Olajumoke Adebayo

Purpose The purpose of this study is to examine the impact of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) on indigenous contractors in a developing economy with a view to enhancing their performance. Design/methodology/approach The study used a purposive sampling technique to select 37 indigenous contractors with ongoing construction contracts in Osun State, Nigeria who provided data for the study. A structured interview protocol was used to elicit the required information from the interviewees and frequency, percentage and content analysis were used for data analysis. Findings The results showed that the critical impact of COVID-19 on indigenous contractors in a developing economy is: time overrun, loss of profit and creation of dispute. Further results showed that other impacts are a disruption in supply of labour, locally sourced materials are with additional cost, the additional cost of implementing COVID-19 protocols, difficulty in sourcing imported materials and absence of new jobs with the corresponding retrenchment of workers. Practical implications The study recommended special palliatives for the indigenous contractors from the government so as to cushion the impact of the pandemic on them, thereby enhance their survival and performance. A special arbitration panel is set up in each state of the federation to look at disputes arising from the aftermath of the pandemic, this is with a view to adequately compensate indigenous contractors with genuine and properly compiled claims. inferring from the findings of the study, it suffices to say that the severity of the impact of the pandemic is very high on indigenous contractors in developing economies, as such a better preparedness strategy could lessen the impact of such pandemic in the future. Originality/value The study is an attempt to unearth the impact of COVID-19 on indigenous contractors with ongoing construction contracts in a developing economy. The study will be of value to construction stakeholders in providing the information needed to devise strategies to minimise the impact of a pandemic on indigenous contractors in future projects thereby enhance their performance.


2018 ◽  
Vol 19 (5) ◽  
pp. 915-934 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gianluca Ginesti ◽  
Adele Caldarelli ◽  
Annamaria Zampella

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to analyse the impact of intellectual capital (IC) on the reputation and performance of Italian companies. Design/methodology/approach The paper exploits a unique data set of 452 non-listed companies that obtained a reputational assessment from the Italian Competition Authority (ICA). To test the hypotheses, this study implemented several regression analyses. Findings Results support the argument that human capital efficiency is a key driver of corporate reputation. Findings also reveal that companies, which obtained reputational rating under ICA scrutiny, show a positive relationship between IC elements and various measures of financial performance. Research limitations/implications The study focuses on a single country; it is not free from the imprecisions of Pulic’s VAIC model. Practical implications This paper recommends companies that are interested to achieve a robust reputation should consider the human capital as a strategic intangible asset. Second, the results suggest that companies with an ICA reputational rating are able to leverage their intangibles to potentiate performance and competitiveness. Originality/value This is the first empirical investigation on the contribution of IC in generating value for corporate reputation. Additionally, the study contributes to the literature on the link between IC and performance by examining a sample of firms not yet explored in prior research.


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