Capacity building for school development: current problems and future challenges

This article offers a theoretical discussion on the current problems and future challenges of school capacity building in early childhood education (ECE), aiming to highlight some key areas for future research. In recent years, there has been a notable policy shift from monitoring quality through inspection to improving quality through school capacity building in early childhood institutions in the global discourse for quality. Reflecting this policy shift and its implications on school development, ECE in Hong Kong is used as an illustrative example to deliberate the issues of school capacity building in Chinese educational contexts. We identify three challenging contexts: (1) low professional qualification and minimal teacher education resulting in a deficit approach to processional development, (2) absence of school-based professional learning culture for empowering teachers as internal agents of change, and (3) hierarchical culture within a school and between university and school hindering the process of school capacity building. Corresponding to these challenges, we aim to propose two suggestions, including (1) empowering teachers in ECE through school-based professional learning community and (2) promoting authentic external support in the process of university–school collaboration. Finally, we further propose specific directions for future research on school capacity building in ECE in Hong Kong. In doing so, it will contribute to knowledge-based development in school capacity building in Chinese educational contexts.     

Early Childhood Education and Care for Children with Disabilities: Facilitating Inclusive Practice*

In this case study, a co-operative inquiry process was used to facilitate the expansion of inclusive early childhood education and care practices in a rural community in the Midwest. A university and a community researcher first engaged in interviews and site visits, during which they learned how a three-member inclusion team of early care and education professionals initiated changes in practice from self-contained to inclusive special education and therapy. Key practices included responding to families’ priorities, changing roles, and providing integrated services and support for children’s successful transitions into Kindergarten. The second part of the research consisted of action planning during focus groups and community meetings, which resulted in social recognition from the school district, technical assistance through state improvement grant funding, and better preschool options for young children with disabilities. *We gratefully acknowledge partial funding of this research by the Dean's Office at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater and State Improvement Grant funding by the Department of Public Instruction.     

What comes after compulsory education? A follow‐up study on parental expectations of their child’s future education

This paper examines the contribution of parents’ education and children’s gender on parental expectations of their children’s future education and the role of parental perceptions of their child’s competencies in the formation of their expectations. A group of university and vocationally educated parents (N = 418) were asked to estimate the probability of their child entering gymnasium (high school) or vocational education and assess the child’s competencies, first in preschool, and then at the end of the third school year. It was found that the education and gender‐bound differences in the parental expectations were established before the child entered school, and by the end of the third school year the relationships between expectations and competence assessments strengthened and were more uniform among the parents. The findings suggested that the parental assessments of their child’s abilities can be regarded as a potentially important social‐psychological process through which social differences are transformed into the individualized interpretations of the child’s educational prospects.     

Preschool + school + communication = What for educator relationships?

Communication between educators in preschool and school settings has been promoted consistently in research literature and policy as a practice to enhance children’s transition to school. Underlying the practice are the assumptions that communication between educators is (a) a way of building on children’s learning and responding to their diverse needs and interests as they start school and (b) a means of developing positive relationships between educators. Whilst it is an advocated practice, there has been little research about the consequences of preschool–school communication or exploration of the ways in which the practice might support positive transition experiences. This paper specifically addresses what happens for educators as a result of preschool–school interactions. The communication experiences of preschool and school educators reported in an online questionnaire provide important insights into the impact of intersetting communications, particularly on educator relationships. Most outcomes for relationships between educators in preschool and school settings were reported to be positive. However, the results contest the notion that preschool–school communication automatically results in the development of positive relationships; relationships which support collaboration between educators as children start school.     

论大学理念的育人功能

大学理念构成大学的生命，是大学长期积淀的结晶，具有激励和促进作用，发挥着育人的功能。文章经过对大学理念的界定，分析大学理念的形成以及在育人中的功能，赋予大学理念以新的理解和解释，提出了有关大学理念具有激励功能的观点：满足人的精神需要，形成内在动力系统；渗透到教育教学、科学研究环节，变成可操作系统；构成控制系统，规定着人的成长和发展方向。在育人过程中，大学理念通过内化和固化，形成人们的理想和信念，促进人的全面发展。     

“双一流”视域下高校创新创业教育影响因素探究

聚焦于以高校为评价主体的创新创业教育如何描述与分析,以及影响高校创新创业教育发展的关键性因素及其相互之间的关系如何。采用定量研究与定性研究相结合的研究方法,首先,通过梳理和分析美国、欧盟的高校创业评价框架,结合我国创新创业评价现状及“双一流”建设需要,构建我国高校创新创业教育的描述框架。其次,选择12所高校为学校样本,邀请领域专家对样本学校采用该分析框架进行逐项评价,并利用Amos建立SEM结构方程模型,提出研究假设进行假设验证分析,得出以高校为主导的创新创业教育工作主要涉及校方支持、人力资源、过程管理、课程与教学、学生表现、教育环境、社会影响力等七个方面,其中,校方支持是基石,学生表现是落脚点,过程管理起到调节反馈作用,校方支持与社会影响力的作用在整个创新创业教育中逐渐凸显,预示我国高校创新创业教育将逐步迈向以重视“办学理念、国际化视野、服务地方经济”的2.0时代。     

Reforming Teacher Education in Romania

The reform of the Romanian system of initial and in‐service teacher education is facing similar pressures to those experienced by other European countries' teacher education systems. In particular, the drive towards greater professionalization of teaching careers and university training for teachers. In Romania this process has vacillated between continuity and change, following a path marked by hesitations, recurrences, even temporary renunciation, and important acquisitions. At present, the new institutions that have assumed the role of initial teacher training for primary school and preschool, seem to be evolving irreversibly, in accordance with European institutional practices and structures and with the Bologna Process. The system of in‐service training for primary school and preschool has undergone serious reconsideration in recent years. The quality of this process is ensured by a strategy that regulates the existence of a free market for educational services, by the adoption of a transferable credits system, and by the establishment of standards for in‐service training programs.     

Catching them before they fall: a Vygotskian approach to transitioning students from high school to university

University enabling programs, worldwide, generally target high school students who excel at school, or post-secondary students who have underperformed in their university entry examinations. Murdoch University provides an access program for Year/Grade 12 students who are not on a university pathway during their final year of high school. This intervention engages students at a transitional stage of cognitive development to: (a) determine their readiness to move to the next level of their cognitive thinking; (b) facilitate that process through collaborative learning; (c) support and nurture university aspirations and (d) provide a direct transition pathway from secondary to higher education. The influence of Vygotsky's zones of proximal development in the context of this program is discussed, and by comparing the performance of these students in their first year of university with other domestic-entry students, we argue that this enabling program prepares them for successful transition into higher education.     

From silos to solutions: How one district is building a culture of collaboration and learning between school principals and central office leaders

Large urban school districts often struggle with hierarchy, fragmented processes and cultures whereby organisational silos between school and central office staff serve as a major barrier for reaching the desired strategic goals of improving student achievement. In addition, school district staff are undergoing change requiring leaders and staff in these organisations to adapt and build their capacity to support changing demands. However, little attention is paid to how to build the necessary systems and learning environments to support capacity building and leader development. This article reports on an action research study using mixed methods that reveal how central office leaders and school principals break down organisational silos to build a culture of learning using learning organisation principles. Using the Dimensions of the Learning Organization Questionnaire (DLOQ) short form, participants completed questions related to the school district's capacity for learning. Data from the survey and interviews outline key findings that illustrate how the learning organisation framework served as a model to create the organisational conditions and culture to enable support and cooperation for learning, capacity, change and improvement to occur. This action research case study is a look at one organisation's approach to addressing a gap in learning organisation research in the area of learning organisation interventions. In addition, it extends current research on schools as learning organisations with an example of data-informed change in one large school district in the southern United States.     

密切与小学的伙伴关系，实现共同发展——与兰州市城关区小学开发和实施校本课程的经验

社会的快速发展使小学自身和大学教育研究都有强烈的变革需要。小学和大学分别拥有自身的不同形态的知识,需要在博弈的过程中实现相互合作,产生新知识。在这个过程中,大学必须以现代课程理念为指导,积极引领基础教育课程改革,实现自身价值和功能的创新。知识管理的关键是通过与小学建立伙伴关系,在先进教育理念的引领下,使课程结构、内容发生多样化的适应性变异。大学知识要服从教育实践和小学变革实际的要求,在相互砥砺中发展。大学教师要有行动伦理,甘愿成为研究的工具,与一线教师结成密切的伙伴关系。大学与小学共建共同愿景,实现课程管理创新和课程领导。选择领军人物,带动团队发展,创建学习型组织。     

幼师体育教学改革初探

如何使幼师体育教学迅速适应学前教育新课程改革的要求，走进新课程，理解新课程，确立一种崭新的教育观念，改变过去一成不变的教学方法、教学行为和教学手段。探索出具有自身特点的符合学前体育课程改革的教学体系，是目前幼师体育教育要研究的一个课题。     

Reforming Preschool to Ready Children for Academic Achievement: A Case Study of the Impact of Pre-K Reform on the Issue of School Readiness

Research Findings: Policymakers preschool reforms that are to prepare young children for school success have sparked important conversations within the field of early childhood education over how these programs are to ready young children for school. This article presents findings from a case study that examined this issue of school readiness across a collection of pre-k programs. Doing so illustrates how preschool reforms can impact early childhood stakeholders' understanding of school readiness, what it is they do with their students in their programs, and why. Practice or Policy: These findings demonstrate how policymakers' pre-k reforms can tighten the link between preschool and elementary school in a way that prioritizes the goals of K-12 education systems. They also suggest that for those who want to expand the construct of school readiness they should do so in a way that addresses and recognizes the challenges pre-k stakeholders in local contexts face on a day-to-day basis. For policymakers, there appears to be an opportunity and willingness within the ECE community for preschool reform. They should take advantage of this willingness for change by considering policy solutions that value the complexity of the child and of the field of early education itself.     

The road taken: professional pathways in innovative curriculum development

This article describes the phases that teachers went through in their engagement with innovative teaching strategies as part of a school‐based research consortium linked to a university department of education in England. The teachers recorded their experiences and responses in diaries which gave access to their dominant feelings and concerns during the innovation. The diaries were analysed to investigate changes in the entries over time. The six phases were: initiation, novice, concerns, consolidation, expansion and commitment. The analysis also indicates the changing nature of professional support that was important during each of these phases. The conditions that characterized the ‘working space’ created by the teachers are discussed and particular emphasis is given to the fact that they collaborated with each other and with outside agents. Evidence from later interviews is used to suggest that these conditions have had a lasting impact on the schools. Further these conditions are related to the concept of social capital and the school research coordinator exploiting a ‘hole’ in the organization. It is argued that social capital among teachers and school leaders is critical to large‐scale change.     

理想与现实之间:燕京大学教育学科初期创办史论

高厚德教授设想在燕京大学建立一所师资雄厚、设施优良、堪称模范的教育学院,以培养各级教师和教育管理者,并附设各级实验学校,开展教育科学研究。终因校长和董事会存有异见,经费和师资缺乏等,这一宏大的理想在现实中暂时受挫。但是,燕京大学教育学科坚定理想,不断拓展学科发展计划,使之符合大学发展和社会需要,努力争取校方和国外的支持,并增聘教师。20世纪20—30年代,教育系建立了学校教育、学前教育学、乡村教育学等学科体系,包含专科、本科教育和研究生教育的多种层次、多种类型的人才培养目标,建立了幼儿园、小学、中学等完整的附属实验学校体系,基本实现了最初的学科发展理想。燕京大学教育学科初期艰辛的创办史为教育学科的建设提供了宝贵的历史经验。     

(Re)turning to practice in teacher education: embodied knowledge in learning to teach

Contemporary research conversations about the utility of practice theories to professional education support the reconceptualisation of pre-service teacher education in ways that provide strong preparation for continued professional learning. This paper reports on an empirical inquiry that introduced a theoretically informed practice-based intervention in a pre-service teacher education course in order to judge the utility of such an approach for student learning. Innovations within the Study of Teaching programme illustrate the bringing together of pedagogies of observation, pedagogies of enactment, and pedagogies of reflection toward an integrated theory of teacher education that focuses on the teaching body as a central site for research and for the building of preparatory knowledge and skill for ongoing learning. Data was collected from pre-service teachers involved in the programme through video and audio recordings along with individual and focus group interviews, questionnaires and student reflection on video recordings. These were analyzed within an emerging theoretical framework derived from both practice-theoretical literature and international empirical research into core practices. Initial findings suggest that a focus on practice within pre-service teacher education may enhance traditional understandings of ‘practice-based’ approaches that situate the study of practice outside of the university, in school settings. These findings have implications for the ongoing reform of teacher education in increasingly regulated contexts framed in terms of teacher quality.     

The River of Learning: building relationships in a university,school and community Indigenous widening participation collaboration

In this article, findings of a qualitative study of an Indigenous widening participation program are presented. The program, River of Learning, has been in existence since 2010 and represents a powerful collaboration between a rural high school in New South Wales (NSW) Australia, a metropolitan university, Indigenous Elders and non-Indigenous community members. An analysis of the narrative data generated through individual and group interviews with stakeholders provided findings with respect to the program including how it has contributed to the building and strengthening of university and community relationships and how important the interaction with Indigenous Elders and school and university staff is in development of confidence to engage in higher education in the Indigenous students. These findings are discussed and the article concludes with reflections on the learnings generated through such university, school and community collaborations and what these may mean in ensuring greater Indigenous representation in higher education in Australia in the future.     

Physics teachers: a holistic plan for professional education during both the pedagogical stage and the probation year

Despite the Bologna agreement implementation in 2008, teachers' education in Portugal has not changed significantly from earlier practice. The major modification in the requirements of master’s level teacher education programmes was the introduction of a strong component of educational research in a master’s degree; this is designed to replace an educational monograph in the typical 5-year ‘Licenciatura’. Both a professional one-year in-school pedagogical stage and a fifth year as a university student continue to be mandatory, as well as the stage co-supervision of the university and the school. However, existing government regulations imply that in the very near future the full professional education of teachers will have to be complemented with an in-service probation year conducted under the supervision of a school mentor. The current study has been designed to try to determine: (a) how the activities of the probation year should be organised in order to improve this stage of professional education; and (b) how probation years could be used to promote school–university partnerships that could provide for more effective in-service teacher education and/or possible shared educational action research. Drawing on the survey data from pre-service students from four different universities, novice teachers, stage supervisors and school principals, information was collected on the perceptions of the quality and scope of the professional education of future teachers from the beginning of their programmes through their pedagogical stage. A high degree of agreement among all the respondents enables us to point towards the perceived high quality of several components of the teacher education programmes, e.g, teachers’ ability to plan a lesson using different teaching strategies and the high value-accorded school–university collaborations. The results also show the weaknesses of other components, e.g, teachers’ skill with controlling badly behaved students and their ability to capture students’ attention and motivation. Based on these results and on our knowledge about the type of professional support needed to promote teaching practice, we conclude with a holistic plan designed for teachers’ professional education during the pre-service pedagogical stage and the in-service probation year.     

幼儿园卓越教师的专业特质与培养路径

新时代呼唤高品质学前教育,而高品质的学前教育需以幼儿园卓越教师的培养为前提。卓越教师是指能够将专业的精神和科学严谨的态度贯穿于教育教学的全过程,同时具备良好的教学技能与研究性思维,能够形成个人独特的教育思想的复合型、领军型教师。在实践中,卓越教师的专业特质可表征为崇高师德的践行者、课程开发与实施的引领者、创新思维能力的养成者以及独具个人教育思想的教育者这四重角色。卓越教师的培养路径为:以文化理念为核心,塑造教师职业发展的共同愿景;以平台建设为依托,形成教师自主发展的专业共同体;以园本研修为支撑,构建五位一体的教师专业发展体系。     

新时代研究生思想政治教育探析

研究生教育是大学教育的最高层次,是知识生产能力系统化规划化培养的最后环节。研究生教育的自身规律决定了研究生思想政治教育具有特殊性,外部环境的改变致使研究生思政教育不再是大学生思政教育的尾巴,甚至成为大学生思想政治教育的重要时期;研究生思政教育是大学思政教育的标杆,其成效还发挥着传帮带作用。当前,我国研究生思政教育在课程体系、体制机制和专业队伍等方面存在缺憾,构建系统化的理论课程体系,健全体制机制,推动工作队伍向理论化、专业化和高端化发展是强化研究生思想政治教育的必由之路。