Bringing the Science of Team Training to School-Based Teams

Teams are ubiquitous in schools in the 21st Century; yet training for effective teaming within these settings has lagged behind. The authors of this article developed 5 modules, grounded in the science of team training and adapted from an evidence-based curriculum used in medical settings called TeamSTEPPS®, to prepare instructional and administrative personnel for teamwork and to enhance their teamwork skills. The resulting 5 modules, available for download on the American Psychological Association website, are collectively called Teach Teamwork and include: Introduction to Teams and Teamwork, Communication, Mutual Support, Situation Monitoring, and Leadership. In this article, the modules and supplemental materials are described, along with recommendations for implementation.     

Leading a school through change – principals’ hands-on leadership strategies in school reform

Principal’s hands-on strategies reflecting their theories of changing have a substantial effect on the development of their schools and on how the large-scale reform takes root. The study explores five comprehensive school principals’ leadership strategies during a large-scale school reform in Finland. The principals’ strategies in the middle of reform acknowledged the process nature of leading and involved coherence-making. The inclusive and learning-oriented strategies were applied quite consistently in terms of the horizontal, but not so much in the vertical coherence-making. Exclusive strategies we used to decrease teachers’ workload. Principals’ theories of changing seem to focus on creating and protecting teachers’ opportunities for meaningful learning.     

Parents’ own school recollections influence their perception of the functioning of their child’s school

This follow-up study set out to examine whether parents’ recollections of their own school would predict their degree of satisfaction with the functioning of their child’s school. A group of academically educated and vocationally educated parents with a child in preschool (N=391) were asked to think back to their primary school days and evaluate their school; these parents were then asked to indicate their satisfaction with the functioning of their child’s school once the child had reached the first, the third and the fifth grade. The parents’ recollections were found to influence their degree of satisfaction: among the academically educated respondents, the parents with relatively positive recollections showed higher levels of satisfaction than the parents with relatively negative recollections did; and among the vocationally educated respondents, the mothers with relatively positive recollections indicated higher levels of satisfaction than the mothers with relatively negative recollections did. It was suggested that parents’ recollections may be seen as an experience-based component of their general attitude towards education.     

Gestaltungsmerkmale und Effekte ganztägiger Angebote im Grundschulbereich

Zusammenfassung Ganzt?gige schulische Angebote spielen in der aktuellen Debatte um eine Bildungsreform eine zentrale Rolle. Erwartungen an ihre erzieherischen und leistungsbezogenen Wirkungen werden hier zun?chst theoretisch auf dem Hintergrund der Schuleffektivit?tsforschung diskutiert. Empirisch werden — erstmals repr?sentativ für Deutschland — p?dagogische Angebote und Schülerleistungen an Grundschulen mit und ohne Ganztagsangebot verglichen. Basis ist eine Sekund?ranalyse von Daten der internationalen Grundschul-Leseuntersuchung IGLU in Verbindung mit einer nachtr?glichen Schulleiterbefragung. Schulen mit ganzt?gigen Angeboten verfügten demnach über ein breites Spektrum von p?dagogischen Ma?nahmen, wobei in Ganztagsschulen mit systematischem Konzept die kognitive F?rderung relativ stark gewichtet war. Effekte auf das Niveau des Leseverst?ndnisses oder dessen Zusammenhang mit der sozialen Herkunft fanden sich nicht.      

The way ahead for Finnish comprehensive school? Examining state-level school administrators’ theory of change

A significant body of evidence shows that the goals of educational reforms are seldom fully achieved. Some research suggests that the problem lies in state-level curriculum reform work that lacks a sufficient understanding of the educational reality. However, views and perceptions among the central architects of the reforms have not been thoroughly studied. This study provides an insight into these views. The data comprise 23 semi-structured interviews with officials from the Finnish National Board of Education (FNBE) who conducted the Finnish Comprehensive School Core Curriculum Reform (2013–2014). FNBE officials’ perceptions of the triggers and aims of the reform—considered as their ‘theory of change’—are explored with qualitative analysis by identifying issues they wanted to preserve or react to, and the issues that should be worked towards and positioned as goals in the future. The results show that there is a somewhat shared theory of change among the architects of Finnish curriculum reform. The chief issues considered as things to react to were related to society, whereas the most common aims were related to pedagogy, such as moving away from traditional teaching towards pupil-centred collaborative learning. However, the theory of change was complex and included possibly contradictory elements.     

Students’ genre expectations and the effects of text cohesion on reading comprehension

This study raises the question what makes school texts comprehensible by analyzing whether students’ genre expectations about literary or expository texts moderate the impact of different forms of text cohesion on reading comprehension, even when the texts are similar regarding their genre. 754 students (Grade 9) from comprehensive schools read one of four text versions with similar content, but different degrees of local and global text cohesion. The four more or less cohesive texts were introduced as literary texts (part of a story) or as expository texts (newspaper article), although the different genres were only purported and the texts contained both literary and expository passages. Reading comprehension was assessed with multiple-choice-items, semi-open, and open-ended questions. Results demonstrate that global cohesion was profitable for reading comprehension with expository expectations, but not with literary ones. Local text cohesion and both forms of cohesion in combination did not interact with students’ genre expectations and had no main effect on comprehension. When students reading skills and prior knowledge were considered, the interaction was still apparent. Moreover, students with lower levels of reading skills tended to profit especially from texts with global cohesion, whereas the readers with higher reading skills achieved equal means in reading comprehension irrespective of the degree of global text cohesion. The findings are discussed with respect to theoretical aspects of text–reader-interactions, cognitive and emotional components of genre expectations, and the composition and instruction of comprehensible school texts.     

Formatives Assessment im Leseunterricht der Grundschule – Implementation und Wirksamkeit eines modularen,materialgestützten Konzepts

Definitions of formative assessment include assessment, feedback and differentiated instruction as key components. We investigated the effects of prepared teaching materials designed to support teachers using learning progress assessment (LPA) to give feedback and adapt differentiated instruction. We also examined to what extend this modular approach can be implemented in regular reading lessons in third grade. In a three-group design all teachers (N?=?44, N?=?945 students) employed a computer-based LPA tool, while teachers in two conditions additionally received prepared feedback material (FB) or feedback and reading instruction material (FB+FM), to support the implementation of the different components of formative assessment. Over the course of one schoolyear, we assessed the implementation outcomes using questionnaires as well as students’ reading achievement and further student outcomes. While acceptability is high, teacher ratings of feasibility are low. In comparison to the LPA group, the additional support in form of prepared materials had no effects on student outcomes. Results are discussed regarding the question of how teachers can optimally be supported in using formative assessment.     

Mainstream university pedagogy in feminist perspective

This article analyses university pedagogy by contrasting mainstream pedagogy and feminist pedagogical thought. The data consist of two textbooks, and we investigate what kinds of teaching, learning and knowledge the textbooks construct and what kinds of student and teacher positions they suggest. The inquiry shows that learning in the textbooks is seen as a strictly defined, hierarchical process and that ideal teaching stresses methods over content. The power of knowledge is not discussed, nor are gender, sexuality and other differences. Academics are seen as professional teachers who master teaching methods, and students are framed as customers. An assumed human sameness, marketisation of education, emphasis on vocational benefit and ‘pathos of the new’ were found to be themes guiding mainstream pedagogy. We suggest that feminist pedagogy can offer an alternative approach, one enabling a critical analysis of the power of knowledge and an awareness of differences among students.     

Building a more robust conception of early career researcher experience: what might we be overlooking?

Two decades of research into early career researchers has highlighted the interaction of a constellation of influences in making sense of their experiences. Such research largely draws on either quantitative or qualitative traditions. While both traditions explore similar phenomena, research questions are often framed differently and use different methods. Interestingly, there are few studies in which design integrates quantitative and qualitative processes. In this paper, we describe such a design in which we examined post-PhD researcher agency, social support and intention to remain in or leave the academy. The quantitative analysis highlighted two profiles representing variation in intention to remain based on the interaction of community and supervisory support. The qualitative analysis, while supporting this finding, suggested other influences as well. Examining these other influences in-depth led to a more robust representation of the interplay of personal life and work in relation to intention to remain. We concluded work-related factors are insufficient to explain intention to remain. We suggest future research in this area should explore what other factors may be overlooked in understanding (a) intention to remain and (b) early career researcher experience more broadly. Finally, we propose research designs integrating both quantitative and qualitative processes may prove fruitful in future research, not just in this area but more broadly.