Systemic Change for School Improvement

Despite the nationwide emphasis on school improvement, the complexities of accomplishing desired systemic changes have been given short shrift in policy, research, training, and practice. This article focuses on the problem of expanding school improvement planning to better address how schools and districts intendto accomplish designated changes. Specifically, weframe and outline some basic considerations related to systemic change, and, to encourage a greater policy discussion of the complexities of implementing major school improvements on a large scale, we propose a set of policy actions.     

Quality in Inclusive Preschool Classrooms

Research Findings: Quality of care for preschool children in inclusive and noninclusive classrooms was examined in two studies. In Study 1, comparisons across a large sample of classrooms (N = 1, 313) showed that inclusive classrooms were higher than noninclusive classrooms in global quality as well as on two dimensions of quality (Activities/Materials and Language/Interactions). In Study 2, a more diverse sample of 44 classrooms (20 inclusive and 24 noninclusive) did not reveal differences on the global measures of quality but did show a difference on a measure of teacher–child interactions. Teachers in inclusive classrooms had higher quality and more appropriate interactions with all children than did teachers from noninclusive classrooms. Ratings of perceived severity of children's disabilities were not related to any of the measures of classroom quality in either study. Practice or Policy: Both studies suggest that including children with disabilities in regular preschool classrooms does not result in lower quality programs or in less adequate teacher–child interactions, particularly for children with mild to moderate disabilities. Results illustrate the importance of continued education for early childhood professionals on high-quality teacher–child interactions. Faculty in personnel preparation programs as well as policymakers need to continue to promote high-quality interactions between teachers and children.     

Mediation of Consultee's Conceptual Development in New Teacher Groups: Using Questions to Improve Coherency

This qualitative study applied methods used in discourse analysis to investigate how a consultant's questioning supported the goal of group consultation to empower beginning teachers to become effective problem solvers in their work environment. The focus of the study was on the process of questioning and communicative coherency as the group evolved over the course of the school year. The participants in this study were 7 White elementary school teachers in their first year of teaching. There were 12 sessions held over an 8-month period. The investigators found evidence of a parallel process between the coordinate consultation process and coherency in consultative discourse, such that as the coordinate process developed and improved, so did the coherency of group discourse. Implications for practice, training, and future research are discussed.     

Toward Expert Thinking: How curriculum case writing prompts the development of theory-based professional knowledge in student teachers

The present paper explores what, and how, student teachers may learn about theory and practice from writing cases, and examines some pedagogical features that may contribute to these results. Drawing on data collected from our course "Principles of Learning for Teaching", including student cases from outline to final drafts and students' course reflections, we found that students' successive case drafts demonstrated a development from naïve generalizations to sophisticated, theory-based explanations of the issues at play in their cases. In particular, we suggest that students' cases demonstrated some of the moves that Berliner (1986, 1991) identified as characteristic of more "expert" thinking about teaching. We propose that reading theory in context with writing cases, that sharing cases with peer readers, that specific, theoretically grounded, and concrete feedback from instructors, and that providing multiple opportunities for revision may have been most useful in helping student teachers learn to think like a teacher.     

Beyond hard outcomes: ‘soft’ outcomes and engagement as student success

This paper questions current policy discourses that equate student success with hard outcomes like retention, completion and employment. It offers another view, one that uses ‘soft’ outcomes and student engagement literature to widen our understanding of student success. In the paper, we first draw on literature to explore student engagement, usually understood as a means to achieve success, and ‘soft’ outcomes as acceptable student outcomes, as success. We present possible indicators for these forms of success and a matrix of factors which influence such success. We then examine these ideas using data gathered from a project that investigated success as experienced by post-school foundation learners in Institutes of Technology and Polytechnics in Aotearoa/New Zealand. The findings suggest that the ideas have value. Finally, we identify some implications for teachers, arguing that, contrary to some current views, all four quadrants in the matrix are the business of teachers.     

Educational Publishing in China: Status Quo,Problems and Counter Measures

In China, educational publishing is devoted to publishing mainly textbooks and teaching materials. For a long time, education publishing has dominated others in China’s publishing industry. However, after entering the new century, especially in the last 2 years, there has been the impact of changes in the College-Entrance Examination, the Invitation to Bid for Compilation and Publication of Textbooks, government procurement and Scientific and Technological Advancement for supplementary books. Therefore, publishing for education has been losing its previous major role and dominance. For making a leap forward and breakthrough in educational publication, we must open up a new train of thought for the development of educational publishing, we need three distinct transformations: first, change in publishing mode from extensive to intensive growth. Second, transformation from variety-scale to market-scale expansion. Third, transformation from being just a provider of content to one providing both content and services.     

Comparison of Alternative Channels in Cross Media Publishing

This paper attempts a direct comparison of the available alternative channels that can be employed in a cross media publishing scheme. More precisely it examines the content, the publishing speed, and the rhythm of the publishing channels. Interesting conclusions are drawn concerning the characteristics of each channel. A new publishing channel is proposed in order to allow newspapers to directly compete with radio and TV channels.