Leadership for team learning: the case of university teacher teams

Teacher team involvement is considered a key factor in achieving sustainable innovation in higher education. This requires engaging in team learning behaviors that should result in new knowledge and solutions. However, university teachers are not used to discussing their work practices with one another and tend to neglect any innovation in their tasks. Team leadership behavior is often considered essential for stimulating team learning behavior, but it is unclear how this transpires. Therefore, the present study explores university teacher team members’ perceptions of team learning behavior, their assigned task, and leadership behaviors in their team. Interviews were conducted with 16 members of different teacher teams at a university of applied sciences. Findings included that the vast majority of the team learning behaviors only involved sharing ideas; engaging in constructive conflicts and co-constructions was not observed. Only a few teams combined all three team learning behaviors. In these teams, members observed that existing methods and solutions were no longer adequate, with leaders appearing to combine transformational and transactional behaviors, but operating from a distance without actively interfering in the process. Furthermore, these team members shared leadership behaviors while focusing on the team as a whole, instead of solving problems at individual level. This strongly indicates that task perception and specific vertical and shared team leadership behaviors play a role in stimulating teachers in seeking controversy and co-constructing new knowledge.     

Education and poverty in rural China

We analyze household and school survey data from poor counties in six Chinese provinces to examine the effects of poverty, intra-household decision-making, and school quality on educational investments (enrollment decisions) and learning outcomes (test scores and grade promotion). Unlike previous studies, we use direct measures of credit limits and women's empowerment. Drawing a distinction between the effects of wealth (measured by expenditures per capita) and credit constraints, we find that the former improves learning while the latter reduces educational investments. We find evidence of a story of gender bias in which academically weak girls are more likely to drop out in primary school while most boys continue on to junior secondary school. Women's empowerment reduces the likelihood of dropping out but does not affect other outcomes. Finally, our measures of school quality have some effect on the duration of primary school enrollment but not on learning.     

Accelerating the development of formal thinking in middle and high school students IV: Three years after a two-year intervention

Three years after the end of a two-year intervention program intended to promote formal operational thinking, the achievement of students initially 11 years of age was tested by their results in British National examinations, taken at age 16. Although the intervention was set within the context of science learning, the effects were found in science, mathematics, and English. In contrast to results reported earlier for the older cohort aged 12 years initially, where the boys showed greater achievement than girls in science and mathematics, here the effect was limited to girls. In comparison with control classes the effect sizes were science, 0.67σ mathematics, 0.72σ, and English, 0.69σ. Although half of the students showed increased achievement in science, which was consistent with the Piagetian model used in the intervention, the achievement of some in science, mathematics, and English was not associated with gains on Piagetian tests above those of control students. These results were attributed to aspects of the intervention methodology intended to enhance metacognition. The distinction between intervention and instruction was discussed in relation to normative data on Piagetian development in adolescents.     

Immediate Effects of a School Readiness Intervention for Children in Foster Care

Research Findings: School readiness is a strong predictor of adjustment in elementary school and beyond. Children in foster care are at particular risk for academic and social difficulties in school. Limitations in self-regulatory skills and caregiver involvement among these children might contribute to a lack of school readiness. This study presents the immediate effects on school readiness of a targeted, short-term intervention designed to improve children's early literacy, prosocial, and self-regulatory skills during the summer before kindergarten entry: Kids in Transition to School. Using a randomized controlled trial design, we assigned 192 children in foster care to either an intervention or services as usual comparison condition. Multimethod, multi-informant assessments were conducted immediately prior to and following the completion of the intervention. The results from structural equation modeling indicated that the intervention had significant positive effects on early literacy and self-regulatory skills. Practice or Policy: An efficacious, short-term, readily scalable, theoretically based intervention targeted at specific vulnerabilities for children in foster care may help to improve the school readiness and eventual school adjustment of these children.     

Evolution of Novice Programming Environments: The Structure Editors of Carnegie Mellon University

Abstract

Beginning in the early 1980s, the Computer Science Department at Carnegie Mellon University developed and used three generations of novice programming environments. The focus of these systems was to apply, advance and tune structure editor technology in support of the teaching and learning of computer programming. The use of these pedagogical systems in Carnegie Mellon's introductory programming courses provided feedback and inspiration to guide the projects. This paper tracks the evolution of the programming environments and courses, documenting important lessons and discoveries about novice programmers and the environments that support them.     

Metacognitive monitoring: an obstacle and a key to effective teaching and learning

Actions speak louder than words. Teachers may verbally agree with curriculum change but seldom do their statements match up with their classroom practice and, as a result, the intended curriculum is never fully implemented. The study described below reports on how primary and secondary teachers’ statements of belief, otherwise referred to as expressed beliefs, influenced the implementation of a new science curriculum. Through the methodology of educational criticism the results revealed that teachers made use of a set of expressed beliefs to influence the direction of the science curriculum. Teachers’ expressed beliefs were categorized into four subsets: platonic expressed beliefs, organizational beliefs, associated beliefs and transitional beliefs. The outcome of this study provides leaders in educational reform with an understanding of the influence of teachers’ beliefs in the direction of curriculum change.     

The logic of mass higher education

Abstract

The distinguishing characteristic of postsecondary education in the past half century has been expansion ‐ the emergence of mass higher education worldwide. Now, many industrialised countries educate forty percent or more of youth in postsecondary education, and developing countries are rapidly expanding as well. Mass higher education brings with it certain inevitable changes in higher education. Among these are a diversification of academic institutions, less homogenous student populations, alterations in patterns of academic work and of the academic profession itself, an increase in managerial control of academic institutions, and, recently, a reliance on distance methods of delivering instruction. These changes are part of the logic of mass higher education, and will be increasingly apparent in the 21st century.     

Re‐negotiating autonomy and accountability: The professional growth of developers in a South African institution

Abstract

This paper considers the professional growth of academic developers from a South African perspective. Locating themselves within broad political, institutional, academic and student dynamics, academic developers attempt to influence interpretations of quality, professional autonomy and accountability, academic literacy and Africanization. Capacity‐building in academic development which is aligned with teaching and learning processes within institutions and supports institutional transformation and redress, is emphasized. Using an interactionist model of participation between developer and those participating in development initiatives, the authors focus on both the contestable notion of the term ‘development’ and the need for authentic engagement between academic and academic developer.     

School leadership for equity: lessons from the literature

Responding to Thrupp's [2003. “The School Leadership Literature in Managerialist Times: Exploring the Problem of Textual Apologism.” School Leadership & Management: Formerly School Organisation 23 (2): 169] call for writers on school leadership to offer ‘analyses which provide more critical messages about social inequality and neoliberal and managerialist policies’ we use Foucault's [2000. “The Subject and Power.” In Michel Foucault: Power, edited by J. D. Faubion, 326–348. London: Penguin Books] theory of power to ask what lessons we might learn from the literature on school leadership for equity. We begin by offering a definition of neoliberalism; new managerialism; leadership and equity, with the aim of revealing the relationship between the macropolitical discourse of neoliberalism and the actions of school leaders in the micropolitical arena of schools. In so doing, we examine some of the literature on school leadership for equity that post-dates Thrupp's [2003. “The School Leadership Literature in Managerialist Times: Exploring the Problem of Textual Apologism.” School Leadership & Management: Formerly School Organisation 23 (2): 149–172] analysis, seeking evidence of critical engagement with/resistance to neoliberal policy. We identify three approaches to leadership for equity that have been used to enhance equity in schools internationally: (i) critical reflection; (ii) the cultivation of a ‘common vision’ of equity and (iii) ‘transforming dialogue’. We consider if such initiatives avoid the hegemonic trap of neoliberalism, which captures and disarms would be opponents of new managerial policy. We conclude by arguing that, in spite of the dominance of neoliberalism, head teachers have the power to speak up, and speak out, against social injustice.     

Science mapping the knowledge base on educational leadership and management in Africa, 1960–2018

ABSTRACT

This review of research employed science mapping to analyse the intellectual structure of the knowledge base on educational leadership and management in Africa. The review analysed 645 Scopus-indexed documents on EDLM in Africa published between 1960 and 2018. Meta data associated with these documents were analysed using the VOSviewer software. The complementary use of citation and co-citation analysis determined that 95% of the African literature in EDLM has been published since 2000. Geographical distribution of African scholarship was highly skewed with South African scholarship accounting for 74% of the corpus. Citations analyses also identified highly cited scholars and documents within this literature. Analysis of the intellectual structure of the African EDLM knowledge base identified four main Schools of Thought. Three of these were comprised primarily of Africa-based scholarship and determined to be 'distinctively African' in terms of topical foci. The ‘research front’ or most current topical trend in this literature concerns leadership for educational and social transformation. Recommendations are made for building capacity among African EDLM scholars as well as for next steps in advancing the literature.