如何操作大型培训演讲会

我们操作大型培训演讲会，一般以项目管理的模式进行，这是我们在实践中通过摸索逐步总结出来的。项目管理的操作流程让我们在一开始就能做到心中有数，能有条不紊地推进整个计划。项目的评估立项是至关重要的。我们曾经就某个项目举棋不定，反复讨论，评估期长达半年之久。当前区域内培训市场的趋势如何？目标客户群体主要是哪些？他们在哪里？在培训方面有哪些具体需求？是否合适选用培训演讲会的模式进行较大规模的动员？他们对这种模式可能的反应如何？这些问题是我们进行立项评估时的一个基本判断。     

Patterns of resource distribution in a decentralized urban public school system

Decentralization in the Detroit Public Schools resulted in the establishment of administrative regions and the sharing of responsibility for resource allocation among regional and central administrators. This study examines the relationship between resource levels (measured by per pupil spending and pupil-teacher ratios) and demographic characteristics of schools in each region. Regression analysis revealed differences among regions, with some allocating more resources to schools in lower-income neighborhoods and others favoring middle-income areas. Variations were also found in patterns of distribution of federal and state compensatory funds. These differences, the study concludes, were the consequence of utilization of different decision rules and responsiveness by regional administrators to different population groups.     

Accountability,autonomy and stress: principal responses to superintendent change in a large US urban school district

This study investigates how principals in a large US urban school district responded to two different superintendents who employed contrasting leadership styles and utilised divergent organisational schemes. We originally conducted interviews with principals in 2007, when the district's superintendent asserted fierce performance demands and limited principals’ site-based discretion in favour of protecting and exerting central office power. We conducted interviews again in 2013 after a new superintendent had relaxed school test score expectations and distributed the central office's previously tight, centralised control into largely self-directing sub-regions. Our findings demonstrate that superintendent change noticeably affected how principals understood and encountered accountability, autonomy and stress. To help make sense of our findings, we employ a three-part conceptual framework drawn from the study of educational leadership. We conclude by considering implications, including the notion that unrelenting stress has become a permanent part of the modern urban US principalship.     

An intensification approach to double-block algebra: A pilot implementation of Intensified Algebra in a large urban school district

Double-block instruction has become a popular strategy for supporting struggling mathematics students in algebra I. Despite its widespread adoption, little consistent evidence supports the attributes of a successful double-block design or the effectiveness of this instructional strategy. In this study, the authors examine a pilot implementation of a double-block strategy—instantiated in the program Intensified Algebra—that combines core algebra content with insights from research on how students learn mathematics and explicit noncognitive supports focused on key attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors essential to student success. The results of the study show that, when implemented with fidelity, participation in the program significantly increased student achievement on the state end-of-course algebra I assessment.     

Analysis of teacher wage incentive programs for promoting staff stability in a large urban school district

This study examines the effectiveness of paying teachers in large urban areas a salary differential, also known as “combat pay,” for teaching at racially isolated or all-minority schools. In a selected sample of seven racially isolated schools (two elementary, three junior, and two senior high schools), “combat pay” was found not to be an effective method for either attracting or retaining high quality teachers. The study also finds that the types of teachers “purchased” with this incentive program are more a function of supply side changes (new, young, inexperienced, probationary teachers looking for employment, or teachers from similar “quality” school sites) than demand side changes (older. more experienced regular teachers attracted to the program because of the salary increment). Alternative uses of these funds for purposes such as reducing class size, improving working conditions, and other nonpecuniary benefits might be more effective in meeting district objectives.     

Changing the culture of a primary school: The case of introducing ICT across the curriculum

Abstract

Teachers and teacher learning are critical and key to establishing, understanding and realizing the possibilities of a learning society One first step in the process requires teachers to place their own learning at the centre of their activities. They must learn how to change, change the way they learn, and learn how to change their conditions of learning. This paper examines some policies and practices in regard to the provision of teacher professional development. Providing opportunities for teacher learning in Ireland has in general been preoccupied with facilitating curriculum reform, supporting organizational change and with easing management concerns. Shifting the emphasis from programme delivery to professional development through personal development is one challenge that has been taken up by the Second Level Support Service. It favours a process that is organic, career long and participant driven. Shifting the emphasis to a more personal and holistic form of development will not be an easy task but is a necessary one if the vision of a learning society and lifelong learning is to become realised.     

Changing from a special school to an inclusion service

Members of the Somerset Inclusion Project and Gary Thomas (professor and reader in education at the University of the West of England, Bristol) discuss the need for schools to become more inclusive in response to the Government's recent Green Paper (DfEE, 1997), which emphasises that special schools need to work in different ways and to provide services to local mainstream schools. The notion that inclusion is right and segregation is wrong led the staff to convert the Princess Margaret School (PMS) in Taunton, Somerset to an inclusion service.     

Change,Changing, and Being Changed: A Self-study of a teacher educator's becoming real in the throes of urban school reform

Set against an organized school reform backdrop, this inquiry features four challenges I faced as a result of working alongside teachers and principals whose urban schools were awarded major school research grants for a 5-year period. In addition to teasing out the origins of the dilemmas I encountered and showing how they impacted my teaching practice, I make two knowledge contributions through my public presentation of this self-study. First, I add a new set of partnered narratives—the stories of teacher educators/teacher educators' stories of self. Second, I extend my research niche to reveal the role I played as a living, breathing dimension of the educational conduit.

Rabbit: What is REAL? Does it mean having things that buzz inside you and a stick-out handle?     

Implementation and evaluation of linked parenting models in a large urban child welfare system

During the past decade, there have been increased efforts to implement evidence-based practices into child welfare systems to improve outcomes for children in foster care and their families. In this paper, the implementation and evaluation of a policy-driven large system-initiated reform is described. Over 250 caseworkers and supervisors were trained and supported to implement two evidence-based parent focused interventions in five private agencies serving over 2,000 children and families. At the request of child welfare system leaders, a third intervention was developed and implemented to train the social work workforce to use evidence-based principles in everyday interactions with caregivers (including foster, relative, adoptive, and biological parents). In this paper, we describe the policy context and the targeted outcomes of the reform. We discuss the theory of the interventions and the logistics of how they were linked to create consistency and synergy. Training and ongoing consultation strategies used are described as are some of the barriers and opportunities that arose during the implementation. The strategy for creating a path to sustainability is also discussed. The reform effort was evaluated using both qualitative and quantitative methods; the evaluation design, research questions and preliminary results are provided.     

The application of various nonlinear models to describe academic growth trajectories: an empirical analysis using four-wave longitudinal achievement data from a large urban school district

This study introduced various nonlinear growth models, including the quadratic conventional polynomial model, the fractional polynomial model, the Sigmoid model, the growth model with negative exponential functions, the multidimensional scaling technique, and the unstructured growth curve model. It investigated which growth models effectively describe student growth in math and reading using four-wave longitudinal achievement data. The objective of the study is to provide valuable information to researchers especially when they consider applying one of the nonlinear models to longitudinal studies. The results showed that the quadratic conventional polynomial model fit the data best. However, this model seemed to overfit the data and made statistical inference problematic concerning parameter estimates. Alternative nonlinear models with fewer parameters adequately fit the data and yielded consistent significance testing results under extreme multicollinearity. It indicates that the alternative models denoting somewhat simpler models would be selected over the conventional polynomial model with more fixed parameters. Other practical issues pertaining to these growth models are also discussed.     

The Teacher and the Computer: a case study of the everyday issues in one primary school

The use of computers in primary schools is developing rapidly and the need for study of the effects has become necessary. In this paper the reactions and experiences of teachers are explored by an information technology (IT) co‐ordinator in one primary school (North‐gate). Issues surrounding the technicalities, the curriculum, and organisation and management are discussed. These issues are subject to varying pressures from new initiatives (i.e. new computers, governmental curriculum directives etc.) but some established patterns are questioned. Reference is made to the directions which Northgate may take in its development and to possible future research avenues based on the evidence.     

The Scottish school history curriculum and issues of national identity

ABSTRACT

The Scottish curriculum operates through broad guidelines that allow a good deal of freedom to shape the curriculum. This article reports the findings of an investigation into the attitudes towards, and knowledge of Scottish history of 16‐year‐old pupils in Scottish schools. The pupils’ responses to questions about aspects of Scotland's past revealed a very large degree of ignorance about important people, events, circumstances and dates as well as a number of misconceptions about major historical aspects. The content of the school history curriculum has an important part to play in the development of a sense of national identity. The findings are discussed at a time when there is a resurgent sense of national identity, with the people in Scotland recently voting in a referendum for the setting up of a Scottish parliament. The minimal place history occupies in the curriculum may partly explain the lack of pupils’ knowledge. There is a lack of detailed evidence on this issue, both within Scotland and from other nations. A major debate about what matters in Scotland's past is needed, for Scotland has avoided establishing a prescribed history curriculum: a well‐informed teaching profession has to make critical decisions about what to include.     

Mainstreaming in an urban middle school: Effects of school organization and climate

Mainstreaming in an urban middle school was examined for three years by a participant observer. It was hypothesized that the school's organization and culture would affect mainstreaming. Findings confirmed this hypothesis. Homogeneity of academic classes and the requirement that students fit into academic groups limited access for special education students to classes where they could function academically as the students did in general education. Criteria for selecting students were not delineated; special and general education teachers communicated informally and irregularly about their students' functioning in mainstream classes; and students received little help with their academic mainstream responsibilities. Students from special education were added to regular classes that were already very large and teacher permission was necessary to include a mainstream student in a general education class. Some school factors facilitated mainstreaming. The principal advocated it and supported its implementation. Special education teachers initiated mainstreaming through their social networks in the school. Heterogeneous groups in minor subjects offered classes with a wider range of ability within which special education students could function, and low track homogeneous classes provided environments that were more like special education classes.