Do school context,student composition and school leadership affect school practice and outcomes in secondary education?

This study examined effects of school context, student composition and school leadership on school practice and outcomes in secondary education in Flanders. The study reveals that relations between school characteristics do exist and that it is possible to explain an important part of the differences in mean effort and mathematics achievement of schools by means of these school characteristics. Furthermore, it was found that school size positively affects school outcomes and that its effect is mediated by school practice characteristics like the amount of cooperation between teachers, which affects school climate and outcomes. School leadership did not affect the school practice much, perhaps because of a lack of a strong educational leadership in most of the Flemish secondary schools. However, the student composition of schools seemed to be very important for school practice, as well as for school outcomes. Nevertheless, the study revealed that schools can affect the outcomes of their students independently of their student composition and context by means of school practice.     

Rural and Urban Differences in Student Achievement in Science and Mathematics: A Multilevel Analysis

Recent educational research has demonstrated rural/urban differences in achievement and success in higher education. However, in order to assess the rural school's impact on student outcomes, rural/urban comparisons must be made after accounting for student background variables. Researchers have begun to question the generalisability of the effective school model for urban, suburban, and rural schools, given substantial differences in their social and organisational environments (Hannaway & Talbert, 1993). The purpose of this research study was to examine differences in student achievement between rural and urban schools in Western Australia, after controlling for student background variables. By using multilevel modelling techniques, this study demonstrated that the location of the school had a significant effect upon student achievement, with students attending rural schools not performing as well as students from urban schools.     

Intergenerational learning practices—Digital leaders in schools

This paper explores the management and outcomes of a specific model of intergenerational learning, concerned with student digital leader support in a number of secondary schools in England. A local educational partnership set up a student digital leader project late in 2011, which aimed to develop a range of skills and outcomes for both the digital leaders themselves and for a potentially wider variety of personnel within the schools. Five schools were involved in the project. The student digital leaders shared their digital technology expertise with others with less developed skills, including teachers and managers in these schools. The study reported in this paper explored ways that the digital leader initiative was implemented, identifying and analysing outcomes and issues arising. Evidence from informants and from the analysis of benefits arising indicates that the student digital leader initiative led to a variety of positive outcomes. A key finding and conclusion is that this form of initiative has involved some students who tend not to be involved in other leadership or school-wide activities. The initiative enables these students to contribute to the community, rather than just receiving from it; students become active contributors to, as well as receivers from, the educational system.     

Changing roles in sustaining successful charter school leadership in high poverty schools: Voices from the field

Effective educational leadership is essential for the success of schools and ultimately student achievement. The impact of school leadership may be even more pronounced in charter schools. Due to current and unprecedented growth, unique design, and complexities of political, financial, and governance issues they face, there is a need for more highly qualified charter school leaders and perhaps even “differently” prepared leaders. In this qualitative study, the authors documented the characteristics and skills of two successful, sustained charter school leaders who retrospectively described their evolved and evolving roles over twenty five years. Each transformed high-poverty, low-performing schools with at-risk populations and led with vision, passion, and a relentless desire to positively influence their organizations and ultimately improve student success in their communities. Although many of their skills and characteristics fall within existing theories, such as situational leadership, transformational leadership, and distributive leadership, they embodied a level of dedication and commitment to the original communities in which they founded charters lasting over a quarter of a century. The findings suggest that founding a charter school and seeing it through to success over time may more closely resemble missionary work than traditional school leadership.     

Achieving ethnic minority students' inclusion: a Flemish school's discursive practices countering the quasi‐market pressure to exclude

The purpose of this paper is to identify how ethnically diverse schools can discursively maintain a good reputation. Reputation allows attracting the mixed student population necessary to achieve inclusion or closing the gap between the attainment of ethnic majority and minority students. In semi‐market educational systems where students are free to attend the school of their choice yet education has no market price, the share of ethnic minority students functions as one of the main indicators of a school's educational quality. Ethnically diverse schools are thus perceived as offering lower quality education. Based on the case of a highly ethnically diverse, inclusive secondary school in the exclusive Flemish secondary educational semi‐market, we found that a positive reputation could be achieved through three related discursive practices: affirming the high‐quality education of the school, redefining the relation between students' ethnic diversity and educational quality and reconstructing ethnic diversity as an educational resource.     

小学教育师范生信息化教学能力培养策略研究--基于西部某地方师范院校的抽样调查

本研究以西部某地方师范院校为依托,采用问卷调查法对小学教育师范生信息化教学能力开展了调查研究,结果显示:小学教育专业师范生信息化教学能力水平总体偏低;师范生年级之间的信息化教学能力差异较大;信息技术相关课程的学习经历对小教专业师范生信息化教学能力有重要影响。针对上述问题,结合抽样访谈尝试性提出了小学教育师范生信息化教学能力的优化策略,主要包括:丰富课程设置,完善培养模式;实施目标分层,满足各年级学习需要;更新观念,提高师范生对信息技术的认识;完善学校设施,创设良好的学习环境;加强教师队伍建设,培训教师信息化教学应用能力。     

From Noncompliance to Columbine: Capturing Student Perspectives to Understand Noncompliance and Violence in Public Schools

The paper reviews a number of ethnographic studies of students in U.S. secondary schools to help understand the causes of a range of student behaviors from minor non-compliance to lethal violence. Based on these studies, as well personal experience, the authors suggest that educators and educational researchers approach and understand student perspectives on school life. Such perspectives often reveal the logic of non-compliance, and show that aspects of school structure and practice can exacerbate or contribute to violence. Student non-compliance and alienation can escalate into violence if the student view is not regularly consulted in schools.     

美国“中学学生参与调查”及其启示

美国"中学学生参与调查"以"学生参与"为核心调查内容,用以描述、理解全美中学教育活动中的学生参与情况,并为教学变革和学校改进活动提供信息。"中学学生参与调查"启示我们,应重视从学生的角度理解学校环境和教育改革,构建过程与结果并重的学生评价体系,并且应将大规模改革与基于个别学校调研结果的学校层面变革规划结合起来。     

从选拔性教育到选择性教育:英国基础教育的价值取向

20世纪80年代末,英国开始在基础教育阶段实行择校政策,试图在保证教育公平的原则下促进教育的多样化,主张"有差异的平等",承认所有学生具有不同的天赋并且使每个人达到优秀和成功,在提出多样性学校选择范围的同时,提出所有学校取得成功的政策目标,强调好学校必须发挥示范和带动作用,与本地区其他学校、地方教育管理部门和企业界合作,改造薄弱学校,推动整体教育水平的提高,达到均衡发展的目标。这一政策在取得效率与公平方面迈出了一步。     

Learning with portable digital devices in Australian schools: 20 years on!

Portable computing technologies such as laptops, tablets, smartphones, wireless networking, voice/stylus input, and plug and play peripheral devices, appear to offer the means of finally realising much of the long heralded vision for computers to support learning in schools. There is the possibility for the technology to finally become a ubiquitously invisible component of the learning environment, empowering children to attempt feats well beyond their current capabilities. These technologies are finding a place in many schools, and there has now been over two decades of research conducted into their use in schools. What is now known about implementing portable computing technologies in schools? What should educational leaders take from this research before making decisions about the technologies used in schools?     

Exploring diversity through ethos in initial teacher education

This paper considers whether there is value in introducing student teachers to schools of different ethos as part of their initial teacher education. A 2-year study of undergraduate post-primary student teachers at a university college in Northern Ireland reveals that encounters with schools of different ethos can help student teachers to understand differences between schools and their visions of education, as well as correcting misunderstandings and challenging stereotypes. It is argued that as a result of experiencing diverse examples of ethos, student teachers may also be helped to understand the complexity of schools as organisations and to position themselves and their professional practice within wider debates about the aims of education and schools as communities of practice.     

Managing Reform: Lessons from Urban High Schools

ABSTRACT

American high schools present an extremely difficult, nearly intractable setting for serious educational reform efforts. Yet such efforts can succeed. This article reports results from a survey of 179 urban comprehensive high schools that were successfully implementing change programs based on effective schools principles.

All schools encountered problems of implementation. Larger‐scale, instructionally‐oriented, and longer‐lasting programs induced more problems. Problems were only moderated, not eliminated, by good‐quality planning.

Given the problem‐richness of change efforts, the major determinant of successful implementation was good problem‐coping. It was made more likely by the presence of consensus (shared vision), support of key stakeholders in and out of the school, planning quality, external assistance, and administrative time spent. Case studies showed that the presence of an empowered change management group aided all these critical factors.

Schools with the most impact (defined as student outcomes, teacher improvement, and organizational improvement) had focused on teacher or organizational changes to begin with, coped with the inevitable problems well, had internal and external constituencies supporting the change effort, and sustained the work for a longer period of time (typically 4‐5 years).

The key variables appear to form a coherent causal network. Implications for change management are drawn.     

Just add hours? An assessment of pre-service teachers’ perception of the value of professional experience in attaining teacher competencies

This study compared pre-service teachers’ perceptions of their professional competencies at two campuses of a large regional teacher education university, where one campus provided students 22% more hours of professional placement in schools and related educational settings. Students who had experienced more hours in schools and such settings were more positive about their, ability to apply their knowledge of students and how they learn, classroom management, professional knowledge and practice, and community engagement; however, when students felt well supported during professional experience, such differences diminished. Additional hours were not associated with pre-service teachers’ perceptions of their ability to apply subject content and teaching; plan, assess and report; and effective student communication. Researchers argued that this pointed to the crucial role of good classroom mentors in teacher professional experience but also the value of students’ tertiary teacher education in preparing them for classroom teaching.     

Do Your Homework! Investigating the Role of Culturally Relevant Pedagogy in Comprehensive School Reform Models Serving Diverse Student Populations

Like the African proverb, ‘It takes a village to raise a child’, many educational researchers charge that it takes a comprehensive school reform to raise student achievement. With the passing of the No Child Left Behind legislation in 2002, national officials authorized the Comprehensive School Reform program to support low performing schools as they struggled to improve student achievement. As a result of this national effort, an increase in implementation of comprehensive school reforms is occurring in schools serving predominantly diverse student populations in urban areas. Therefore, this article explores the framework of comprehensive school reforms and challenges stakeholders to do their homework by investigating whether the school reform allows for the implementation of culturally responsive educational experiences for students.     

Students and school characteristics related to elementary school students' views of the nature of science

The purpose of this study is to investigate student- and school-level factors that help to explain the difference in the nature of science (NOS) views. Overall, the design of this study is correlational. The sample consisted of 3062 students enrolled in the sixth, seventh, and eighth grades of elementary schools in Turkey. A hierarchical linear modelling was selected as a modelling technique. This study has established the importance of the student's socioeconomic background, learning approaches undertaken, self-efficacy, and motivational goals in the formation of their NOS views. The findings reveal that quality of both the physical infrastructure of schools and the educational resources in schools, parent educational levels, student achievement, self-efficacy, experience of meaningful learning, and learning goal orientation are positively related to different dimensions of student NOS views. Additionally, performance goal orientation and rote learning approaches have a negative relationship with different dimensions of student NOS views.     

Improving educational outcomes & reducing absenteeism at remote villages with mobile technology and WhatsAPP: Findings from rural India

Reduction of teacher and student absenteeism, together with consistent teacher support and training, are critical factors in improving the quality of education in rural India. As part of an ongoing project involving schools and educational centers in rural areas spread across 21 Indian states, this study investigated how implementation of two simple, accessible technologies could not only reduce absenteeism but also increase teachers’ effectiveness and improve student performance. In addition to students and teachers, key stakeholders included educational coordinators who provided support and monitoring regarding use of WhatsApp and two additional apps designed specifically to support simple educational improvements. In our study we coded and analyzed nine months of messages (n?=?8968), both photographs and texts, posted by 26 participants. The number of text messages related to attendance was strongly positively correlated with frequency of interactions between coordinators and teachers. Our approach resulted in increased teacher and student attendance, as well as improvements in lessons and other planned educational activities. This model functions well in rural settings where there is poor internet connectivity and lack of supporting infrastructure. Remote schools can easily adopt this tablet-based model to reduce teacher absenteeism, improve teaching techniques, improve educational resources, and increase student performance.     

实习生对理论性知识的认识及其对职前教师教育的启示

本研究通过对14名实习生的访谈,了解了他们经历实习后对大学所学理论性知识作用的实际认识。研究将理论性知识分为三类:学科内容知识、教育方法类知识、教育原理类知识。访谈发现:实习生普遍认同学科内容知识的价值;关注教育方法类知识但大多不能从大学的学习中受益;本科生对教育原理类知识的价值认可度低,硕士生的认可度相对较高。可见,教育原理类知识和方法类知识更易和实践脱节,但这种脱节并非不可避免。大学和中小学在教师培养过程的沟通与合作、实习生本人的反思意识与能力以及对不同理论性知识的合理定位,对沟通教育理论和实践具有重要作用。     

校际合作网络经营模式及其案例分析

校际合作网络经营是学校经营模式的一种,主要任务是运用网络集成、整合、配置等技术手段,有效地使用联盟合作学校的课程、师资、教学技术、管理技术等教育教学资源到自己学校的教学、教育和管理中,提高学校教学、教育和管理的效率、质量和水平。学校之间实施网络经营,开展网络合作与交流,有助于拓宽学校视野,有助于提升学校的办学水平。     

Accounting for Variation in Science and Mathematics Achievement: A Multilevel Analysis of Australian Data Third International Mathematics and Science Study (Timss)

One of the most consistent themes evident in the literature dealing with rural education is that of rural disadvantage. Much research and literature indicates that students from rural schools receive an education that is inferior to that of students from larger urban or suburban schools. Of the matrix of factors reported to lead to that disadvantage, geographical isolation and the extent to which it restricts access is reported to result in rural schools not having the same standard of resource allocation as urban schools where access is not a problem. This study addresses the issue of resource availability in rural and urban Australian schools and includes the variables: students' attitudes towards science and mathematics and career aspirations of these students. The analysis includes socioeconomic status and gender of these students and investigates how these variables relate to student achievement. Do students in rural schools have the same educational opportunity as students in urban schools? In this study a multilevel model is used which takes into account the classroom level variance in student achievement as well as individual variance and school level variance.     

Selecting Teaching Practice schools across social contexts: conceptual and policy challenges from South Africa

In a country like South Africa, as in many other countries around the world, there is an imperative to prepare student teachers for a wide variety of social contexts, as part of breaking the cycle of disadvantage for poor learners. This article explores the challenge of placing student teachers for their field experience in schools that differ greatly in terms of their social and educational conditions. Drawing on interviews with teacher educators at one university, the article argues that criteria for identifying suitable schools for Teaching Practice do not easily support placements in schools in difficult conditions. Conceptual models of teacher education are explored, with a view to developing a model that supports teacher preparation for diversity. Policy recommendations are offered to support the preparation of excellent teachers for all schooling contexts.