Measuring the professional learning environment of schools: Linkages to school effectiveness and effects

This study is a conceptual and empirical extension of a variety of recent investigations that have attempted to establish linkages between and syntheses among school environment characteristics and school effectiveness. Of particular interest was the extent to which the adult professional learning environment characteristics of schools can be conceptualized, operationalized, and linked to multiple indices of school effectiveness. The development and construct validation of a measure of teachers' perceptions of structural and cultural factors enhancing their learning in the school environment is described for a large sample of teachers in elementary, middle, and secondary schools. Implications for future research and theory development on school level environments are discussed.     

Examining organizational learning in schools: The role of psychological safety, experimentation, and leadership that reinforces learning

This study draws upon theory and methods from the field of organizational behavior to examine organizational learning (OL) in the context of a large urban US school district. We build upon prior literature on OL from the field of organizational behavior to introduce and validate three subscales that assess key dimensions of organizational learning that build upon and extend prior education research: psychological safety, experimentation, and leadership that reinforces learning. Data from 941 teachers across 60 schools in this urban district suggest that organizational learning is an underlying condition which is expressed by teacher perceptions of subfactors of psychological safety, experimentation, and leadership that reinforces learning. Implications for adopting the conceptual framework and methods employed in this research for studying organizational learning and school change are discussed.     

Leadership,partnerships, and organizational development: exploring components of effectiveness in three full-service community schools

Full-service community schools are viewed as an approach to improve educational opportunities and outcomes for underserved student populations. The realization of these goals, however, is not guaranteed. According to Richardson’s (2009) research-based model of highly effective community schools (HECS), the effectiveness of full-service community schools depends on 3 interrelated components: leadership, partnerships, and organizational development. This qualitative case study uses the HECS model to examine different levels of effectiveness among 3 full-service community schools in an urban district in the eastern United States. The article concludes with a discussion of the implications of Richardson’s model for practice and research.     

Learning style,sense of community and learning effectiveness in hybrid learning environment

The purpose of this study is to investigate how hybrid learning instruction affects undergraduate students' learning outcome, satisfaction and sense of community. The other aim of the present study is to examine the relationship between students' learning style and learning conditions in mixed online and face-to-face courses. A quasi-experimental design was used and 140 sophomores were recruited in this study. Students' learning outcomes, satisfaction, sense of community and learning styles were measured. Results showed that students in a hybrid course had significantly higher learning scores and satisfaction than did students of the face-to-face courses. The result also indicated that students of hybrid learning classrooms felt a stronger sense of community than did students in a traditional classroom setting. Analysis of learning style indicated that learning style had significant effect on learning outcome in the study group. Accommodator learners had higher e-learning effectiveness than other style learners. Possible reasons of results were discussed.     

Learning and organizational effectiveness: A systems perspective

The challenge for leaders today is to create and develop the capability of their organization. Leaders must perceive and manage their organization as a dynamic, open system where learning is the core competence underlying innovation, growth, and sustainability. Creating a culture of learning is the first work of leadership. This article presents a practical framework in which to consider organizational effectiveness, emphasizing the critical role of systems thinking and learning theory in organizational development.     

Staff development for effective secondary schools: A synthesis of research

While recent work has synthesized some empirically supported characteristics of secondary school effectiveness, the role of staff development in establishing such characteristics has not been examined. Using a framework which categorizes these characteristics within three critical dimensions of staff development, a process of configurative mapping is carried out from the reported outcomes of staff development studies in order to illuminate associations between staff development studies and effective school variables. Two consistent patterns emerge from which broad guidelines for the conduct of staff development are described. Constraints identified by the literature in targeting staff development towards the creation of the characteristics of an effective secondary school are also discussed.     

Factors for differential developments in organizational learning: a case for Hong Kong schools

This paper attempts to classify Hong Kong schools along four possible stages of development framed in a dynamic model of organizational learning. Factors governing the development of 67 sampled primary and secondary Hong Kong schools are compared and contrasted. Interviews with the concerned principals in diverse phases of progression further illuminate leadership mentality accounting for the observed variations in organizational outcomes.     

School Innovation in Science: Improving science teaching and learning in Australian schools

School Innovation in Science is a major Victorian Government initiative that developed and validated a model whereby schools can improve their science teaching and learning. The initiative was developed and rolled out to more than 400 schools over the period 2000–2004. A research team worked with 200+ primary and secondary schools over three years, supporting them in developing new initiatives in science, and monitoring the impact on school and classroom practice, and student outcomes. The research effort underpinning the development phase included the development and validation of a set of components describing effective teaching, the refinement of a school and teacher change strategy, the development of instruments to monitor teacher classroom practice and a variety of student outcomes, and the development of insights into the change process using questionnaires, observations, and interviews across four years. This paper describes the project and its major outcomes, and raises a number of issues concerning the nature of school and teacher change, pedagogy, school and community, and student learning, and the way these interact. A number of research issues are raised by the size and developmental nature of the project, the range of research methods, and the different audiences served by the research. The issue of sustainability of such system‐wide change initiatives is discussed.     

职业院校在组织学习过程中的障碍及其消除

办学环境的复杂变化使得组织学习成为职业院校办学过程中的重要环节．但职业院校在组织学习中并不是一帆风顺的。存在着各种各样的学习障碍。本文分析了职业院校组织学习的过程、每个阶段的学习障碍及障碍消除的策略。     

小学开展研究性学习的尝试与探索

本从理论和实践两方面论证了小学生进行研究性学习的可行性，指出了指导小学生开展研究性学习的自主性、个性化、生活化、活动化、激励性等原则，并从实践中总结出在小学开展研究性学习的的基本途径及注意事项。     

Evaluating school inspection effectiveness: A systematic research synthesis on 30 years of international research

The present study summarized research on school inspection of the last 30 years to provide an estimation of its effectiveness and to identify factors influencing inspection effectiveness. Following a systematic literature search, k = 30 inferential statistical studies on school inspection were coded. Due to the large variety in the analytical strategies used in the studies, the findings were synthesized in a systematic review. Twenty-four percent of the n = 222 effects of the k = 16 control group studies indicated positive and 18 % negative inspection effects. The majority of effects (58 %) was not significant. The most consistent positive inspection effects resulted for standardized achievement tests in Mathematics and in the mother language. Perceived accountability pressure and the perceived quality of the inspection were two of several factors that influenced inspection success in the k = 16 comparison group and correlational studies. The findings highlight new avenues for school inspection research and practice.     

School context and instructional capacity: A comparative study of professional learning communities in rural and urban schools in China

This study examines the teaching gap between rural and urban schools in China from the perspective of teacher professional learning communities (PLCs). Drawing on in-depth interviews with 36 primary school teachers, the study finds striking disparities between rural and urban schools in the working of Teaching and Research Groups (TRGs). These disparities in TRGs result in divergent patterns of instructional capacity building in rural and urban schools. The evidence shows that teaching and teachers are strongly shaped by the school organizational context. It suggests that strengthening school-wide PLCs is an important way of narrowing the rural-urban teaching and learning gaps.     

Power,involvement, and organizational effectiveness in higher education

Focusing on theoretical and empirical relations among power variables, faculty job involvement, and college organizational effectiveness, this study found that power behaviors variously affect one's sense of job involvement and overall effectiveness of one's college. In particular, influence was found to be positively related to involvement and to effectiveness, while coercion was found to be negatively related to effectiveness but not related to involvement. These findings suggest that empirical integration of divergent normative theories is useful for understanding how academic administrators might behave to improve the performance of their institutions and provide support for earlier studies which have used the empirical model used here.     

Architectural design and the learning environment: A framework for school design research

This article develops a theoretical framework for studying how instructional space, teaching and learning are related in practice. It is argued that a school’s physical design can contribute to the quality of the learning environment, but several non-architectural factors also determine how well a given facility serves as a setting for teaching and learning. Supporting evidence for this argument is drawn from research on school climate and organisation, as well as from the author’s study of three open-plan high schools. Facilities design, educational practice, school culture, and student learning are found to be interrelated aspects of a school’s total learning environment.     

Knowledge structures for integrating working and learning: A reflection on a decade of learning technology research for workplace learning

Designing intelligent services for workplace learning presents a special challenge for researchers and developers of learning technology. One of the reasons is that considering learning as a situated and social practice is nowhere so important than in the case where learning is tightly integrated with workplace practices. The current paper analyses the experience of more than 10 years of research intending to offer intelligent services through capturing and leveraging knowledge structures in workplace learning. The reflection looks at results of several European research projects that have promoted this view. From this analysis, I arrive at a dichotomy of guidance versus emergence that describes how the technologies foregrounded one or the other, and what the effects of these design choices have been. I derive conclusions for dealing with this design trade-off in terms of conceptual, technological and empirical research.