The preparation of cognitively agile principals for turnaround schools: a leadership preparation programme study

The purpose of this study was to examine the ability of two educational leadership university programmes to improve the cognitive agility of their graduates. The research looked to discover whether the aspiring principals exited the programmes with an increased ability to employ cognitive agility – the ability to use the multiple thinking skills of systems thinking, reflecting, and reframing – when engaged in their professional work and solving problems. Both Masters programmes were in School Leadership, offered through the same university department and following the same core curriculum leading to Level 1 educational leadership certification. The results indicate that of the two programmes studied, the Principal Rapid Orientation and Preparation in Educational Leadership (PROPEL) programme, designed to prepare leaders for turnaround schools, produced more cognitively agile graduates than the traditional Master’s programme. The mediating variables of participants’ years of experience and budget responsibility increased the level of cognitive agility of both programme’s graduates.     

A framework for reviewing teacher professional development programmes in information technology

Abstract

There are very few credible frameworks for evaluation of teacher education programmes. The authors advocate the application of a paradigm originally designed for educational software assessment as a framework for reviewing teacher professional development. The framework is based on a situated view of cognition and this ensures an authentic approach. Five commonly observed foci for teacher professional development are considered in terms of the paradigm, leading to consideration of the comprehensiveness of professional development programmes. The analysis is illustrated by discussion of the professional development programme in place in a school. The analysis strongly suggests that a school-focused approach is appropriate for teacher professional development in the information technology area.     

Developing competence profiles for educators in environmental education organisations in the Netherlands

This qualitative study explores the meanings and possible merits of introducing competence profiles for enhancing professional development in the environmental education sector in the Netherlands. It presents the three most important environmental education jobs and their underlying competencies alongside their core professional challenges, as identified by environmental educators and experts in the Netherlands. The jobs are: education practitioner, programme leader, and organisational manager. The core professional challenges for the education practitioner entail: developing demand‐driven instructional programmes and spontaneous, ad‐hoc programmes, and addressing task and goal orientations. For the programme leader, they are acquisition of new projects, quality assurance, and project management; and for the organisational manager, they are human resource management, financial management, representing the organisation and showing its performance. The results of the study should inform educational institutions how to develop relevant programmes for future environmental educators, and for the professional development of environmental educators in environmental education organisations.     

Supported reflective practice: a programme of peer observation and feedback for academic teaching development

The outcomes of the evaluation of a structured, peer-supported teaching development programme for academic staff are reported. Supported reflective practice forms the conceptual framework for the programme, which includes feedback on observed teaching and feedback on reflection. Key themes identified are the effectiveness of the supported reflective practice process, improvements to teaching practice, developing confidence and congruent espoused theory and theory-in-use, ongoing professional development and developing collegiality. Factors that facilitate the programme are explored, including the support triangle, the role of the educational developer in providing feedback and monitoring, and the role of the support colleague. Suggestions for implementation of similar programmes are offered.     

Professional capacity and organizational change as measures of educational effectiveness: assessing the impact of postgraduate education in Development Policy and Management

We tend to measure educational performance by students' attainment in coursework or examinations. In the case of professional education, the impact of the educational programme on the students' own capacities to enhance their work practices, and the wider organizational effects of the students' education and training, are also key ‘products’ of the educational process. This is particularly important with education for Development Policy and Management (DPAM), which is directly concerned with capacity‐building. This article adopts a work‐related approach to educational effectiveness and examines four professional programmes in DPAM—three in Southern Africa and one in the UK. Through the analysis of the results of surveys and case studies, the article demonstrates how a positive learning experience is related to the application of learning at work. However the conditions for applying learning also depend strongly on organizational context, as do the wider organizational impacts of learning. The article presents a broad approach to assessing educational effectiveness in professional programmes which incorporate these factors.     

Developing a postgraduate work-based curriculum using an Intervention Mapping Approach

Advanced practitioner skill development has become an important focus in health service delivery as increasingly complex consumer needs, practice environments and national professional registration requirements impact on professional work practices. Increasingly, work-based or workplace learning experiences are being seen as an effective means for maintaining skill currency across working lives. Currently there is limited literature on pedagogical practices to support the educational and training requirements associated with development across a person's working life. This paper reports on an example of how an intervention mapping framework was used to guide the development, implementation and evaluation of a work-based praxis course for students in an interprofessional, online postgraduate mental health programme. The intervention mapping framework provided a stepped process to guide decision-making and allowed the incorporation of theory and evidence into the course design. This approach provided a stepped process to guide decision-making and allowed the incorporation of theory and evidence into the course design. While the use of the intervention mapping framework is often used within health promotion arenas, particularly for the effective design of health promotion educational programmes, it is argued that this framework can be utilised effectively when developing curriculum for use within higher education programmes.     

Towards accomplished practice in learning skills for science (LSS): the synergy between design and evaluation methodology in a reflective CPD programme

This study was carried out in the framework of continuous professional development (CPD) programmes following a CPD model aimed at promoting ‘accomplished practice’ involving: pedagogical knowledge, content knowledge, pedagogical content knowledge and scholarship of teaching. Teachers were asked to bring evidence about their practice. The context was related to the ‘Learning Skills for Science’ (LSS) programme, which advocates the explicit incorporation of high‐order learning skills into science school curricula. The main goal of the study was to test the evidence‐based LSS CPD model by investigating the impact of its related CPD programmes on participating teachers. The impact relates to teachers’ perceptions about teaching learning skills, teachers’ LSS practice, and their professional influence in the educational system. As part of the evaluation method, we developed a criterion‐based diagnostic tool and a visual representation, designed to assess a teacher’s professional profile and progression according to dimensions of ‘accomplished practice’. The diagnostic tool can be adjusted and tailored to different CPD domains. Results indicated that requiring teachers to bring evidence from practice and students’ learning enabled us to follow teachers’ progress and succeeded to improve their performances towards accomplished LSS practice. The results exemplify a synergy between CPD designed activities and the ongoing evaluation of its impact.     

Moving beyond face value: re-envisioning higher education evaluation as a generator of professional knowledge

Conventional student-led evaluation is now an orthodox feature of the North American, UK and Australian higher education landscape. Increasingly, it is guiding major institutional decisions around educational quality, academic promotion and more recently institutional funding by government. Yet significant research around student-led evaluation has demonstrated that this form of student opinion-based evaluation remains highly fragile and susceptible to multiple forms of influence. This paper argues that student-led evaluation of itself is not sufficiently robust to appropriately inform notions of educational quality or pedagogical capability of academics. An alternative approach to evaluation in higher education is proposed, broadly drawing on the conception of fourth generation evaluation. The model foregrounds academic collaboration in shaping a professional evaluative framework at an activity level (i.e. programme or sub-discipline level) based on an ongoing dialogue between peers and with students, as well as qualitative evaluation of student learning. The model attempts to make tensions and conflicts in the teaching and learning context more explicit and the active focus of evaluative efforts to devise appropriate and sustainable responses to improve the quality of learning and professional practice. This paper presents some preliminary research on the effectiveness of this model in its initial piloting in postgraduate programmes in an Australian university.     

Perceptions of Zimbabwean trainee/educational psychologists regarding the training on their support roles and responsibilities in inclusive education

The study used focus group interviews at three administrative offices (provinces) that house trainee/educational psychologists in order to explore their experiences on how they learn about their support roles and responsibilities regarding the implementation of inclusive education. 13 trainee/educational psychologists from these provinces volunteered to participate in the study. The study used a qualitative design based on a phenomenological perspective and inductive thematic content was used to analyse data. The results indicate that trainee/educational psychologists had known their support roles through master's degree programmes, a single 2016 workshop, personally guided reading and collaborative work with workmates. Their views indicated inadequate training and supervision, and negative feelings towards internship after master's programme, payment of supervisors, continuing professional development points, lack of degree programmes in Master of Science in educational psychology, and location of conferences. The results provide important information about educational psychology in Zimbabwe with important implications for training and policy making.     

The Social Space of Educational Strategies: Exploring Patterns of Enrolment,Efficiency and Completion among Swedish Students in Undergraduate Programmes with Professional Qualifications

The aim of the study was to analyse enrolment patterns, and study efficiency and completion among students in programmes with professional qualifications, using microdata from Statistics Sweden. The programmes were Architecture, Medicine, Nursing, Law, Social work, Psychology, andEngineering (year 2001–2002,n?=?15,918). Using the concepts from Bourdieu’s sociology, data was analysed with Specific Multiple Correspondence Analysis. Different patterns emerged and were constructed as different dimensions of the social space of educational strategies in higher education, patterns of enrolment, efficiency, and completion. The students’ relative positions in the social structure were analysed by the type and amount of their cultural capital. The most important factors for differences between coherent intensive and scattered extensive enrolment patterns were programmes, gender, mother’s socioeconomic index, parents’ education, and type of university. Regarding efficiency, the most important factors were programme and type of university. The factors most important for graduation were gender and type of university.     

Educational assessment in Canada

This article describes the Canadian education system and provincial/territorial, national, and international large‐scale assessment (LSA) programmes that currently operate within this large multicultural country. We highlight the policy implications of LSA programmes within Canada’s 10 provinces and three northern territories, and how the country balances international pressures with the demand for independence in the educational practices of its distinct provinces and territories. The discussion outlines how the systematic use of performance information is institutionalised through two kinds of accountability, ethical‐professional and economic‐bureaucratic accountability.     

Flexibility in higher professional education: A survey in business administration programmes in the Netherlands

In order to develop higher education in theEuropean Union there is a need to increase themobility of students and teachers. Improvingthe flexibility of educational programming isan educational policy in the Netherlands tosupport this development. To get a clearpicture of the operational characteristics ofcurrent educational programmes, theirflexibility and conditions for improvement, asurvey was carried out in Businessadministration programmes in higherprofessional education institutes in theNetherlands. The results indicate that theseeducational programmes are organised in ratherrigid operational formats that seem to restrictflexibility. The issue of developing newoperational models that allow for more flexibleeducational programme formats is discussed.Operations management and educationaltechnology are considered as potential domainsfor a re-engineering of educational systems.     

Professional education as co-inquiry: an evaluation of the learning approach to developing the role of connexions personal adviser

This paper presents an example of using evaluation as a tool for encouraging democratic participation in the development of professional learning and course delivery. The new professional role of Connexions Personal Adviser (CPA) is being clarified and developed through participation of CPAs on a new national training programme, the Diploma for Connexions Personal Advisers, and the approach to evaluating the programme builds on the espoused values and principles of the Connexions Service. Whilst using findings from an evaluation of a specific training programme, the paper advocates a method that could be used on other professional programmes. A theme to emerge from the evaluation has been the identification of a gap between the rhetoric of the national policy and the reality of awareness at local delivery level. These findings have been instrumental in informing future developments and research in particular into the effectiveness of approaches to action learning, and an exploration of strategies to enable the effective transfer and integration of learning from education to workplace.     

Managing Quality Assurance in Higher Education: a Scottish Example

This article outlines the principal parameters of the quality debate in higher education and considers issues and developments from the standpoint of the different key stakeholders. The analysis will be illustrated by the experiences of the University of Strathclyde in developing transnational policies and procedures for the quality assurance of awards and programmes which it provides or validates. Internally, the University of Strathclyde operates within an ethos of academic and financial devolution to its five Faculties. Central steering has been targeted primarily at negotiating understandings and agreements and at promoting reflection, evaluation, monitoring, and the dissemination of good practice. Applying that philosophy to transnational education has presented some interesting challenges. These are discussed, including the development of agreements to guide validated arrangements and modifications to evaluation and monitoring for programmes delivered at a distance. These developments are now an integral part of the approach taken by Strathclyde to the management of quality assurance of educational programmes.     

PROGRAMME EVALUATION METHODS AT THE OPEN UNIVERSITY

The paper describes methodology developed at the Open University to overcome problems of programme evaluation in distance learning systems. Emphasis is placed upon the techniques of contextual evaluation, in which a selection of programmes is examined as representative of the course as a whole. Insights derived from such assessment into student response to educational media are discussed     

Current trends and missing links in studies on teacher professional development in science education: a review of design features and quality of research

This review provides an overview of the the current state of research on professional development in science education. An analytical frame was used, based on what is known about PD from educational research. Clarke and Hollingsworth’s model for teacher professional growth was also used to categorise the studies according to their aims and outcomes. Exemplar studies in each category are highlighted. In total, 44 recent studies were selected, all referring to science PD. The results show an increase in the number of PD studies in science education in recent years. Most PD programmes are aimed at enhancing teacher cognitions as well as classroom practice. Most recently, there seems to have been an increase in programmes that also aim at improving student outcomes through PD. All studies applied most of the characteristics drawn from research on what makes PD effective. However, school organisational conditions were not usually taken into account. Moreover, there has been a very little research on the role of facilitators and their impact on the outcomes of a PD programme.     

School self-evaluation for development: The case for and reflections on a training programme

Abstract

This paper explores the case for schools conducting their own self-evaluation to serve the dual purpose of professional development within schools and accountability demands from external sources. The paper is in three parts. The first outlines the argument and benefits for schools conducting their own case study evaluation of their curriculum policies and practices, indicating how this approach is both similar to and different from external case study of schools. The second describes a training programme designed and implemented by the author to support schools in conducting evaluations that are valid, credible and useful. The third presents the participants' and author's reflections on the training and its outcomes and, through an example from one of the schools involved, illustrates what school self-evaluation looks like grounded in the actual experience of undertaking the process. From the evidence presented, the paper concludes that educational professionals, with appropriate support and training, are more than equal to the task of conducting credible and valid case study school self-evaluations.     

The international market for MBA qualifications: The relationship between tuition fees and applications

This paper explores the relationship between tuition fees charged by MBA programmes and the number of applications to these programmes, using a panel dataset comprising universities from countries across the world. Using Three-Stage-Least-Squares methods for simultaneous equations, we find a two-way relationship between tuition fees and applications: higher application numbers encourage universities to charge higher fees in the future, but higher fees in turn curtail application numbers. We find evidence that higher GMAT scores of existing students increase applications, as do higher post MBA salaries. Meanwhile, university and programme professional accreditations do not impact on student application choices, nor do alumni ratings of programme quality. Published MBA programme rankings appear to have little impact on applications, and where an effect can be identified, it appears that a better ranking discourages applications. Only US News rankings have a significant effect on applicants to US MBA programmes.