School effectiveness or the horizon of the world as a laboratory

The present paper aims to provide an account of the genesis and development of a collection of scientific work that has received strong international recognition – the paradigm of school effectiveness. It shows how this theory, based on the design of measurement tools, has gradually influenced educational management and policies in promoting the effectiveness and quality of educational systems. In mobilising allies, setting up laboratories and extending its networks into major international organisations, school effectiveness research has contributed to the emergence of a new form of governance of education systems at a European level and to the promotion of new assessment methods of research in education.     

The Attrition of Change: A Study of Change and Continuity

In this article models and theories on effective schooling are reviewed. Modelling is based on the various disciplinary oriented approaches to educational effectiveness. As such production functions, instructional effectiveness models and integrated, multi‐level educational effectiveness models are discussed. Various conceptual and formal representations of facilitation across levels are seen as the most interesting area for further model‐driven research. In the second part of the article four organization theories are discussed, all of which are seen as specific interpretations of the rationality paradigm: rational control theory and bureaucratic structuring; contingency theory; public choice theory; and retroactive planning. A fifth theoretical perspective, chaos theory, as applied to organizational functioning, looks more like a complete anti‐thesis of rationality, but can nevertheless be related to the emergence of ordered patterns and to organizational survival. Core mechanisms or theory‐embedded principles that follow from these theories are, respectively: proactive structuring; fit; market mechanisms; the cybernetic principle; and self‐organization. Further analysis of these principles leads to the conclusion that the cybernetic principle of evaluation feedback and reinforcement is the most interesting one, both from a theoretical and practice‐oriented perspective. Throughout the article hints and suggestions are provided for future, more theory and model‐driven educational effectiveness research.     

Using SERVQUAL to Measure the Quality of the Classroom Experience

Over the last three decades, higher education institutions have found themselves using vernacular that was once chiefly found in business disciplines, such as value‐added and competitive advantage. With the rising costs of tuition, newer‐generation students are seeing themselves more and more as customers and universities are beginning to adopt customer‐centric strategies and missions. However, even with this paradigm shift, little research has been done to extend traditional service management concepts to educational settings. This research attempts to bridge this gap by applying the SERVQUAL scale, a well‐validated and widely used service operations construct, to the classroom environment. The findings show that the SERVQUAL scale exhibits both reliability and convergent and divergent validity; in fact, in these regards, it outperforms traditional student assessment scales. Moreover, the scale can explain significant amounts of variances in student‐related outcome variables such as satisfaction and learning. This innovative approach to measuring classroom service quality does indeed show that students can be viewed as customers and has far‐reaching implications to all stakeholders in the delivery of higher education.     

教育政策研究范式及其方法论探析

研究教育政策的研究范式具有重要意义。教育政策研究范式是具体的研究要素即研究主体、研究内容、研究过程及研究方法与研究方法论的有机结合。研究方法论包括直接方法论和间接方法论:直接方法论包括如何收集资料和如何分析资料两方面,它对教育政策研究范式起着直接的支撑作用。间接方法论是间接支撑教育政策研究范式研究的方法论,主要指的是西方传统的方法论即经验论、先验论和实践论,以及现象学、解释主义、批判理论、建构主义和符号互动等五个西方范式方法论。新范式方法论也为教育政策研究范式提供了间接方法论基础。     

我国教育公正研究30年:进展与思考

教育公正是广受学界关注的一个教育问题。30年来,我国教育公正的研究经历了缓慢起步、迅速发展和深化稳定三个阶段,在教育公正的理论、教育公正的现实和教育公正的比较等方面取得了不少有价值的研究成果。未来我国教育公正的研究,在目标上需要摆脱对西方理论路径的依赖,创生和发展本土教育公正理论;在内容上需要关注教育的内部公正问题,注重人的发展公正的研究;在方法上要加强实证研究,使教育公正的研究范式走向多元化,以提高研究的实效。     

Human Research and Complexity Theory

The disavowal of positivist science by many educational researchers has resulted in a deepening polarization of research agendas and an epistemological divide that appears increasingly difficult to span. Despite a turning away from science altogether by some, and thus toward various forms of poststructuralist inquiry, this has not held back the renewed entrenchment of more narrow definitions by policy elites of what constitutes scientific educational research. The new sciences of complexity signal the emergence of a new scientific paradigm that challenges some of the core assumptions of positivism, while offering the potential to develop a new kind of social science that demands both rigour and imagination in coming to understand the emergence and behaviours of social systems and the subsystems that comprise them. The language, concepts and principles of complexity are central to the development of a new science of qualities to complement the science of quantities that has shaped our understanding of the physical and social worlds. Accomplishing this task promises to 1) open up new investigations that have thus far been beyond the purview of scientific study, 2) allow the study of social phenomena as fully embodied, or at least as more robust models than those represented in the abstracted empiricism upon which the sciences of quantities are predicated, and 3) allow for more coarse‐grained explanations and predictions of social phenomena to be legitimated as scientific. Both educational research and educational practice stand to gain from this expansion of the scientific repertoire to include rigorous and imaginative investigations of phenomena characterized by change and transformation.     

外语教学的范式转换与外语教育技术的学科理据分析

文章立足于学科建设的元理论高度来探索和考察外语教学学科和教育技术学科的学科交叉和发展问题。认为信息技术与课程整合研究的发展,使外语教学形成了新的教育信息化教学范式。按照库恩的范式学说,新范式的形成和转换意味着一门新学科的形成。实践证明,以计算机辅助外语教学为主要研究内容的外语教育新范式,构成外语教育技术学科成立的前提和理据。     

Collaborative Action Research in Education (CARE)— Reflections on an innovative paradigm

The paper reports on an innovative paradigm which evolved from an educational research project in Sierra Leone. It outlines the paucity and current lack of relevance of educational research in Africa and highlights the need for paradigms that would link research better with policy and practice in education. Any such paradigm needs to be firmly rooted in the reality of a particular African educational context. A summary account is provided of the evolution and establishment of CARE in the educational setting of Sierra Leone. The new paradigm is then analysed in terms of its key elements of ‘collaboration’ and ‘action orientation’, drawing on the literature of qualitative educational research. The paradigm is also analysed in terms of the scope and depth of research it facilitates, and its impact and outcomes with reference to educational practice and policy. The main dimensions of this innovative paradigm are then highlighted in terms of epistemological underpinnings, methodological techniques, ethical guidelines and a catchment literature. Some inherent pitfalls in this emerging paradigm are outlined and implications for bilateral and international collaboration in educational research in Africa are discussed.     

School Effectiveness Research and the Development of Process Indicators of School Functioning

Abstract

Educational systems can quite easily be described in terms of a context‐input‐process‐output model. Likewise systems of educational indicators ‐‐ i.e. statistics on key aspects of educational systems that are of evaluative relevance ‐ can be categorized as context, input, process and output‐indicators. Process‐indicators are the subject of this paper. The rationale for selecting the process‐indicators chosen here was to look for those school‐ and teaching characteristics that are positively associated with educational achievement. The research literature on school and teaching effectiveness is the most relevant for this. An attempt has been made to formulate a comprehensive model of school and teaching effectiveness and to use this as the basis for a list of the most promising process‐indicators. Some of the key process‐variables that are proposed include stimulating environmental factors, achievement oriented policies, educational leadership, amount of instruction, learning opportunities, structured teaching, collaborative planning and evaluative potential of schools. The problems of constructing and using process‐indicators based on these variables are discussed from the perspectives of macro‐, meso‐ and micro‐level applications of educational indicator systems.     

西方质的教育领导研究的兴起及其启示

在国际范围内,教育领导研究已由过去的实证主义独尊,发展为今日的多元范式并陈。其中,质的教育领导研究已成为一股重要的力量。反观我国,教育领导研究的多元范式尚未形成,对质的研究的认识还存在颇多误区。通过回顾国际上质的教育领导研究的兴起以及国内质的研究地位的分析,本文呼吁开展更多扎根田野的质的研究,为教育领导研究探索一条新的方法论路径。     

从教学论到课程论：主体性教育研究主导范式的转向

近代以来,在教育理论领域,对主体性及其教育的探索几乎没有停止过。在我国,20世纪80年代以来,特别是课程改革背景下,主体性教育一度成为学者们普遍关注的焦点。但是由于研究视角、取向的局限性与研究范式的单一化和老化,使得该课题的研究尤其是应用性研究在一定程度上陷入困境。因此,当前主体性教育研究的主导范式必须得到改变。从传统的教学论范式到当代的课程论范式,是主体性教育研究转向的一条可行路径,它与目前我国乃至世界教育理论的研究趋向及教育实践发展的背景相一致。     

Applying Diversity Management Concepts to Improve the Minority Educational Pipeline

The objective of this conceptual article is to investigate existing diversity management paradigms and extend their implications toward the goal of increasing minority representation in management education. We suggest that the existing learning‐and‐effectiveness diversity management paradigm (Thomas & Ely, 1996, Harvard Business Review, 74(5), 79–90), which integrates contributions from diverse individuals, can be utilized in addressing the underrepresented minority shortage at each progressive stage of the education pipeline, beginning with the high school level. We propose and discuss a complex set of solutions that highlight the students’ educational experience, motivation, awareness, and social environment. These solutions target minority underrepresentation with the goal of ultimately increasing the proportion of minorities in the PhD pool and subsequently within the management professoriate.     

An instructional model for web-based e-learning education with a blended learning process approach

Web‐based e‐learning education research and development now focuses on the inclusion of new technological features and the exploration of software standards. However, far less effort is going into finding solutions to psychopedagogical problems in this new educational category. This paper proposes a psychopedagogical instructional model based on content structure, the latest research into information processing psychology and social contructivism, and defines a blended approach to the learning process. Technologically speaking, the instructional model is supported by learning objects, a concept inherited from the object‐oriented paradigm.     

The principals as literacy leaders with indigenous communities: professional learning and research

Recent educational changes in China such as the decentralization policy and the marketization of education have introduced concepts such as performativity, competition and effectiveness to the education sector and they have become part of the educational lexicon. Such policy shifts force more local participation in teacher education programmes and schools are now identified as the prime site for offering relevant professional learning activities to teachers. However, interestingly, research on professional development of teachers in China has not devoted significant attention to the voices of teachers. This paper examines how teachers from seven schools in Guangdong Province view the effectiveness of these school‐based learning activities within the new context of educational change.     

课堂教学文化研究的新进展：兼论主要问题及对策

当前,由于社会转型带来的文化问题的凸显和教育改革深化的需要,课堂教学文化研究受到了前所未有的关注,研究也取得了新的进展和突破：对教学与文化之间的关系有了新的认识,对教学中的一些基本概念和问题有了新的诠释,课堂文化的社会学研究、新课堂教学文化建设等一些新的研究领域得以开拓。然而当前的研究中还存在着诸多问题：基本概念尚未厘清、研究主题孤立分散、研究范式单一、形式化严重,等等。对此应加强基本理论研究,厘清基本概念的意蕴,建立研究对象的分析框架,重视人类学研究基础上多种范式的整合,把握课堂教学文化研究的精神实质,从而彰显本真意义上的课堂教学文化研究。     

论西方教育管理研究范式的转换

西方教育管理理论经历了100多年的历史发展，已经建立了规范的科学研究方法论，取得了丰硕的成果。本文首先探讨了库恩的“范式转换”理论及西方教育管理范式的转换；其次，认为实证主义一直是西方教育管理的无叙述方式；其三，认为后实证主义的研究范式正在改变着西方教育管理的研究范式；最后，对西方教育管理研究的方法论进行了批判性评论。     

教育研究范式的二元思维批判——兼论复杂性研究范式的兴起

研究范式代表着人们认识世界的方式,也是一门学科发展程度最明显的标志。思辨研究与实证研究、量的研究与质的研究等研究范式,对教育研究产生了深远影响,推动了教育科学的发展,同时又不自觉地形成二元对立的研究格局。复杂性科学的兴起,为教育科学研究提供了新的研究范式借鉴,将掀开教育研究的新篇章。     

美国学校效能研究的回顾与反思

提高教育质量是教育改革中持久不衰的话题,20世纪80年代以来,美国经历了新一轮的教育改革高潮,在这个过程中,学校效能研究的开展为这场改革提供了知识基础、政策来源和实践指导,并形成了一种以实证研究为先导的美国教育政策制订的新模式.尽管学校效能研究也不断遭到各方面的批评,但学校效能研究所取得的巨大成果以及它所带来的政策模式的变化,却是众所公认的知识和经验的财富,值得我们学习和参考,其研究中的不足也值得我们借鉴和克服.本文通过对美国学校效能研究的发展历程的回顾和分析,探讨其经验与教训,反思其不足.     

教学资源研发：我国高校教学研究中的教育技术范式——基于国家精品课程相关文献分析

该文关注我国高校教学研究中的范式问题,综述以往范式相关的研究,以我国高校精品课程相关工作的发展为依据,采用内容分析方法分析国家精品课程相关文献,发现教学资源研发已经成为我国高校教学研究中的一种新型范式、一种主要来自教育技术学科的研究范式,并进而探讨教学资源研发范式对高校教学研究与实践的价值和意义     

Kritik der evidenzbasierten Pädagogik

Evidence-based education aims at improving the effectiveness of educational interventions and programs through knowledge on the basis of rigorous scientific research. However, evidence-based education should not be equated with empirical educational research; nor should it be understood as an independent paradigm of educational science, because of its focus on educational practice. The specific notion of how science and practice relate to each other, which is fundamental to evidence-based education, is exposed to a threefold critique, namely concerning the technological conception of educational practice, the supposed abstinence from theory as frame for educational research, and the disregard of communication as medium of educational effectiveness. The last paragraph of the paper presents a reminiscent sketch of an alternative conception of the relation between science and practice as it can be found with some representatives of educational psychology.