scholarly journals Who owns the knowledge? Knowledge construction as part of the school improvement process

2020 ◽  
pp. 136548022092976
Author(s):  
Lena Glaés-Coutts ◽  
Henrik Nilsson
Keyword(s):  
Student Achievement ◽  
School Improvement ◽  
Knowledge Construction ◽  
Research Literature ◽  
School Level ◽  
Achievement Scores ◽  
National Agency ◽  
Local School ◽  
Cultural Process ◽  
Cultural Processes

When Sweden began to experience a steady decline in student achievement results in PISA and TIMMS, the Swedish National Agency of Education initiated a model of collaboration with Swedish universities aimed at providing support to schools with falling student achievement scores. In this article, we examine how such projects can work at the local school level. Our focus is mainly on how knowledge construction can be realized for teachers and principals; we reflect on whose knowledge is valued, and we explore what role research texts play in school improvement. Working within the frames of both social and cultural processes, we looked at how teachers and principals are provided opportunities to develop and define their own professional understanding of school improvement. We found that knowledge construction of school improvement, as both a political and cultural process, needed to be based on local needs. The guidance of a knowledgeable other in interpreting research literature on school improvement can support such knowledge construction only when the local needs and history are part of the process.

scholarly journals Distortion or Clarification: Defining Highly Qualified Teachers and the Relationship between Certification and Achievement

2010 ◽  
Vol 18 ◽  
pp. 27 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jacob M Marszalek ◽  
Arthur L Odom ◽  
Steven M. LaNasa ◽  
Susan A. Adler
Keyword(s):  
Student Achievement ◽  
Teacher Preparation ◽  
School Improvement ◽  
High Stakes Testing ◽  
School Level ◽  
Highly Qualified ◽  
High Stakes ◽  
Building Type ◽  
Grade Levels ◽  
The Relationship

Recent studies of the relationship between teacher preparation pathways and student achievement have resulted in similar statistics but contradictory conclusions. These studies as a group have several limits: they sometimes focus on student-level indicators when many policy decisions are made with indicators at the school-level or above, are limited to specific urban locations or grade levels, or neglect the potential influence of building type, as defined as the grade-levels serviced. Using statewide data from the 2004-2005 school year, we examined the relationships between school-level indicators of student achievement on nationally-normed tests and proportions of alternatively certified teachers, while controlling for building type and other relevant covariates. Our findings indicate that the relationship between teacher preparation and student achievement at the school level depends on whether the building mixes multiple grade levels (e.g., elementary and middle). The implications of Missouri's policy change for research and school improvement are discussed with respect to the current high-stakes testing environment.  

scholarly journals Collective efficacy: toward a new narrative of its development and role in achievement

2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
T. J. Hoogsteen
Keyword(s):  
Student Achievement ◽  
School Improvement ◽  
Collective Efficacy ◽  
Reciprocal Relationship ◽  
The Body ◽  
School Level ◽  
Collective Teacher Efficacy ◽  
Continuous Growth ◽  
Antecedents And Consequences ◽  
General School

AbstractThe body of collective teacher efficacy (CTE) research has developed considerably since Goddard referred to the school-level factor as a “neglected construct” in the study of schools and achievement. The research base has identified quantitative effects, antecedents, and consequences, all of which support the claim that collective efficacy is important to schools and achievement while also supporting the claim by Goddard et al. that schools should be led in a direction that will develop collective efficacy, which will in turn spur continuous growth in CTE and student achievement. Even with all of this, a gap in the literature remains, and instead of considering the reciprocal relationship between collective efficacy and achievement, the excitement behind the positive outcomes of collective efficacy has led to wider exposure of the concept and, as argued, a misguided attempt to treat CTE as the main catalyst for enacting school improvement. Considering this latter point, general school improvement literature from the realms of leadership and collaboration is drawn upon and connected to CTE research in an endeavor to create a more holistic narrative of collective efficacy, its development, and its role in school improvement and student achievement.

Parents and educators: Partners working together in an inclusive setting

1993 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
pp. 33-49
Author(s):  
Sebastian (Nello) Raciti
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
School Level ◽  
Collaborative Consultation ◽  
Local School ◽  
Participatory Decision Making ◽  
Intervention Plan ◽  
Consultation Model ◽  
Working Together ◽  
The Right ◽  
Contextual Setting

Parents have the right to participate in the educational planning for their child with a disability, however they often need assistance when interacting with professionals to ensure the best programs for their children. Professionals also require guidelines and opportunities to develop appropriate communication skills when interacting with other professionals and parents. This paper investigates the level of participatory decision-making which exists between parents and professionals, and professionals amongst themselves. The present thrust for including children with a disability in mainstream schools is used as the contextual setting for this investigation. Furthermore, the author presents an intervention plan based on the Collaborative Consultation Model to enhance the participatory decision-making skills of parents and professionals at the local school level.

scholarly journals Teachers’ professional collaboration and trust relationships: An inferential social network analysis of teacher teams

2021 ◽  
pp. 003452372110315
Author(s):  
Nina Kolleck ◽  
Johannes Schuster ◽  
Ulrike Hartmann ◽  
Cornelia Gräsel
Keyword(s):  
Social Network ◽  
Teacher Collaboration ◽  
Classroom Practices ◽  
Research Literature ◽  
School Level ◽  
Teacher Teams ◽  
Exponential Random Graph Models ◽  
Network Analyses ◽  
Trust Relationships ◽  
General Network

In recent years, teachers around the world have been increasingly confronted with various expectations concerning the improvement of their classroom practices and school activities. One factor widely acknowledged to facilitate school and classroom improvement is a strong collaborative culture among teachers. As such, teachers are expected to work in teacher teams, to collaborate closely with colleagues, to co-construct classroom practices, and thus to strengthen trust relationships within the team. A growing number of researchers has analyzed how teachers address these expectations. They suggest that there is a link between teachers’ embeddedness in collaboration networks and teachers’ trust relationships. The present study seeks to contribute to the research literature by presenting results of Social Network Analyses (SNA) and exponential random graph models (ERGMs) on teacher collaboration in nine secondary schools in Germany (N = 366 teachers). We investigate how the involvement of teachers in co-constructive collaboration in schools, measured by the amount of team teaching (TT), relates to teachers’ trust levels. Results of our analyses suggest that a high amount of TT is not necessarily related to a higher degree of trust among teachers at the school level. However, a high involvement of teachers in TT is related positively to their being perceived as trustworthy. Furthermore, the emergence of trust relations in teacher networks depends on general network characteristics, such as homophily, reciprocity and transitivity.

scholarly journals Salat Sebagai Basis Pendidikan Agama Islam: Analisis Teori Cliffort Geertz

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ahmad Riyadl Mauludi
Keyword(s):  
Religious Education ◽  
Research Method ◽  
Islamic Education ◽  
Meeting Point ◽  
Cultural Process ◽  
Theory Of Religion ◽  
Cultural Processes

Abstrak: Salat lima waktu merupakan ibadah yang utama dalam Islam. Banyak kemuliaan dan keistimewaan dalam ibadah ini. Perintah wajib dan dilakukan sebanyak lima kali dalam semalam menjadikan salat sebagai ibadah yang sudah melekat di hati umat Islam. Bagi umat Islam yang beriman dan bertakwa, selain dihinggapi perasaan berdosa, meninggalkan salat juga menjadikan pelakunya menjadi tidak tenang. Sehingga dari sini secara tidak langsung salat sudah memberikan manfaat positif bagi siapa yang menjalankannya. Inilah yang dinamakan dengan pendidikan. Cliffort Geertz dengan teorinya Agama sebagai Budaya menempatkan ibadah salat sebagai simbol-simbol sakral yang akan memengaruhi proses sosial atau budaya. Proses sosial atau budaya inilah yang akan menjadi basis pendidikan agama bagi umat Islam dan tentu dengan sebuah pendidikan akan mengubah hasil budi daya seseorang, khususnya seorang muslim bahkan umat Islam. Hal ini menarik bagi peneliti untuk mencari titik temu antara kewajiban ibadah salat tersebut dengan teori yang dipaparkan oleh Geertz. Sehingga hal ini menjadi hal yang perlu untuk dianalisis lebih dalam. Metode penelitian ini menggunakan metode kepustakaan dengan mencari sumber-sumber yang membahas masalah salat dan teori Cliffort Geertz. Abstract : Prayer As a Basis for Islamic Education: an Analysis of The Theory of Cliffort Geertz: The five daily prayers are the main worship in Islam. Lots of glory and privilege in this worship. Mandatory orders and carried out five times a day make prayer as a worship that is inherent in the hearts of Muslims. For the faithful and pious Muslims, besides being infested with feelings of sin, leaving the prayers also makes the perpetrators uneasy. So that indirectly prayer has provided positive benefits for those who carry it out. This is what is called education. Cliffort Geertz with his theory of Religion as Culture places the prayer as sacred symbols that will influence social or cultural processes. This social or cultural process will be the basis of religious education for Muslims and certainly with an education will change the results of one's cultivation, especially a Muslim and even Muslims. This is interesting for researchers to look for a meeting point between the obligations of the prayer with the theory presented by Geertz. So this is something that needs to be analyzed more deeply. This research method uses the literature method by searching for sources that discuss the issue of prayer and Cliffort Geertz's theory. Kata Kunci : Salat, Pendidikan, Cliffort Geertz, Agama, Budaya

scholarly journals An Exploration of the Collaborative Practices within Learning Networks of New Zealand Schools

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Rebbecca Sweeney
Keyword(s):  
Student Achievement ◽  
New Zealand ◽  
Cluster Structure ◽  
Hierarchical Cluster ◽  
Research Literature ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Theory Approach ◽  
Learning Networks ◽  
Collaborative Practices ◽  
Effective Collaboration

<p>This thesis investigates the practices of participants in three “clusters” of New Zealand schools associated with the Extending High Standards Across Schools (EHSAS) project funded by the Ministry of Education from 2005 to 2009. The investigation addresses four questions: (i) What collaborative practices were used by the participants in the EHSAS clusters? (ii) Do the research participants perceive the collaborative practices that they used as making a difference to student achievement? (iii) What do the participants perceive as the benefits and limitations of collaborative practice? (iv) How consistent are participants’ perceptions with research findings in the field? The thesis begins by searching national and international research in order to define effective collaboration. It is argued that across certain relevant studies, the key purposes of collaboration are for teachers and students to learn and improve in order to reach the common goal set by the cluster. Associated practices can be used to build skills and knowledge in teachers, school leaders, and cluster members. Following this, a Grounded Theory approach was used to analyse and interpret data that emerged from the three clusters’ milestone reports and interviews with cluster members. The analysis found that the leaders of EHSAS clusters believed that shared leadership across principals is essential to cluster work, and that a hierarchical cluster structure is the best way to transmit knowledge from leaders to teachers. They also believed that if they shared resources, ideas, strengths and expertise with one another they would then have knowledge that would be useful to teachers wanting to change and improve their practices, and raise student achievement. Despite some of their beliefs being consistent with research literature on effective collaboration, according to the literature, many of the EHSAS leaders’ practices would not have enabled the learning and improvement that they espoused to be leading. The final chapter of this thesis identifies where EHSAS leaders’ beliefs and practices were inconsistent and what this means for future research and the implementation of similar projects aiming to promote collaboration across schools.</p>

scholarly journals Examining the Effects of Students and School Variables on PISA 2012 Problem-Solving Achievement in Turkey

2017 ◽  
Vol 2 (5) ◽  
Author(s):  
Emine Yavuz ◽  
Hakan Yavuz Atar
Keyword(s):  
Problem Solving ◽  
Hierarchical Linear Modeling ◽  
School Attendance ◽  
Hierarchical Linear Model ◽  
School Level ◽  
School Type ◽  
Achievement Scores ◽  
Linear Modeling ◽  
Problem Solving Skills ◽  
Pisa 2012

Problem-solving skills are very important in ensuring effective participation in public life regard and schools play an important role in helping students develop problem-solving skills. The purpose of this study is to determine the student and school level variables that effect students’ problem solving skills using a two-level Hierarchical Linear Modeling (HLM). The data in this study is belongs to 4848 students in 170 schools who participated PISA 2012. Gender, school attendance, openness to problem-solving and perseverance to reach solution variables constituted the student level variables whereas school type, educational resources, dropout rates and student/math teacher ratio variables constituted the school level variables. The findings indicated that all the variables but openness and perseverance have statistically significant effect on students’ PISA 2012 problem-solving achievement scores. The results of the analysis indicate that 54 percent of the variability in the problem-solving achievement scores is attributed to the differences between the mean achievement of the schools. Keywords: PISA; Problem solving; School effect; Two-level Hierarchical Linear Model (HLM) 

scholarly journals Identifying Levers Related to Student Performance on High-Stakes Science Exams: Examining School, Teaching, Teacher, and Professional Development Characteristics

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christian Fischer ◽  
Brandon Foster ◽  
Ayana McCoy ◽  
Frances Lawrenz ◽  
Christopher Dede ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Professional Development ◽  
Student Achievement ◽  
Student Performance ◽  
Science Teachers ◽  
Curriculum Reform ◽  
The United States ◽  
School Level ◽  
High Stakes ◽  
Reform Implementation ◽  
School Teaching

Background: Many students enter into postsecondary education without the college readiness skills that allow them to face the demands of postsecondary education. Increasingly, policymakers and educational researchers are responding to calls for reforming secondary education to provide more opportunity for all students to receive high quality education and to become career and college ready. Purpose: This study attempts to identify levers to increase student performance in secondary education. In particular, it examines relationships of school, teaching, teacher, and teacher professional development characteristics with student scores on high-stakes Advanced Placement (AP) examinations in the sciences.Setting: This study is situated in the context of the large-scale, top-down, nationwide AP curriculum and examination reform in the sciences (Biology, Chemistry, Physics) in the United States. This is an unprecedented opportunity to analyze changing educational landscapes in the United States with large-scale national student-, teacher-, school-, and district-level data sets across multiple science disciplines and different stages of the curriculum reform implementation connected to a standardized and high-stakes student outcome measure.Population: This study analyzes nationwide data samples of the AP Biology, AP Chemistry, and AP Physics population during the first, second, and third year of the curriculum reform implementation. Across disciplines and years, the analytical samples include a total of 113,603 students and 6,046 teachers. Research design: This empirical quantitative study uses data from web-based surveys sent to all AP science teachers. Additionally, College Board provided student- and school-level data for all students taking AP examinations. Data preparation methods included exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis. Associations towards student achievement were analyzed through multi-level ordered logistic regression analysis separately by science discipline and year of the curriculum reform implementation. Afterwards, the results were aggregated through a meta-analysis. Findings: Student performance is not pre-determined by students’ background, leaving roughly 60% of the AP score variance potentially malleable for teacher and school-level factors. In particular, teachers’ perceived administrative support, self-efficacy, teaching experience, and elements of classroom instruction were related to student performance. Notably, teachers’ professional development participation has a small, mixed impact on student achievement. Conclusion: The identified levers for improving student achievement provide a strong rationale for the continued efforts of policy makers to improve school environments and to support science teachers to ultimately both increase student learning and help all students graduate prepared for college and ready for their future careers.

scholarly journals Education Reform, Equal Opportunity and Educational Achievement: Do Trend Data Adequately Report Progress?

2011 ◽  
Vol 19 ◽  
pp. 10
Author(s):  
Robert Charles Knoeppel ◽  
Curtis A. Brewer
Keyword(s):  
Student Achievement ◽  
Education Reform ◽  
Equal Opportunity ◽  
Educational Opportunity ◽  
Educational Achievement ◽  
Reading Proficiency ◽  
Educational Process ◽  
School Level ◽  
Multiple Sources ◽  
Trend Data

Using Kentucky as a case study, the research described in this paper examines efforts to provide equality of educational opportunity.  Standards based educational reform has produced myriad data on student achievement that are used by educators, policy analysts, legislators, and researchers to discern progress.  This research makes use of multiple sources of data(CATS index, reading proficiency, math proficiency) in an attempt to more thoroughly consider progress in attempts to ameliorate gaps in student achievement that have been found to exist as related to local wealth.  Findings from the study show mixed results.  Although local wealth has decreased as a predictor of student achievement in reading, it is still a significant predictor of achievement in math.  Gaps are closing more rapidly at the elementary school level which suggests the need to study the process of education at the secondary level.  Lastly, student demographics, especially students qualifying for free and reduced lunch continue to be a significant predictor of student achievement.  We conclude that changes to state accountability systems that move the unit of analysis from the school to the student level offer the best opportunity to utilize emerging research methodologies that will enable practitioners and analysts to better analyze educational process.

scholarly journals Exploring the Relationships Among Innovation, Collaboration, and School Change in a Mixed Methods

2018 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 1463-1473
Author(s):  
Aneta Hogan Walker
Keyword(s):  
Student Achievement ◽  
School Culture ◽  
School Improvement ◽  
Student Learning ◽  
Learning Outcomes ◽  
School Change ◽  
Research Study ◽  
Achievement Tests ◽  
Student Learning Outcomes ◽  
Mixed Method Research

Continuous school improvement efforts require schools to prepare, organize, and lead change.  This study examined how a school created a context for change by implementing an innovation to improve teaching practices, school culture, and student learning outcomes.  Implementing innovation requires school leaders to understand the process of change to successfully sustain school improvement efforts.  The purpose of this research study was to assess the effectiveness that an innovative hybrid schedule had on improving student learning outcomes and school culture.  This mixed-method research study used data generated by the AdvancEd®’s Stakeholder Feedback Survey, the ACT Aspire® Student Achievement Tests, and teacher interviews. The analysis of this study’s data indicated several factors that facilitated change through the implementation of the innovative hybrid schedule.  The researcher discovered these overall factors related to the benefits of students changing classes, teachers becoming content specialists, collaboration through PLCs and vertical planning.  Additionally, the results revealed that significant change occurred in school culture based on the AdvancEd®’s Stakeholder Feedback Survey.  Additionally, student learning outcomes measured by ACT Aspire® Reading and Mathematics Student Achievement Tests showed a statistically significant improvement in both reading and math.   

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