Enhancing the pedagogical value of multimedia products in higher education

Abstract

In higher education settings two aims of multimedia development and use are: to enhance student learning by changing the nature of the curriculum experience, and to improve the teaching environment. This paper proceeds from the premise that the involvement of academic developers in the production of multimedia projects has the potential to enhance the pedagogical value of the final product. The evaluation of multimedia projects is considered in relation to five issues: conceptual need, students, medium, integration, and relation to existing products. Also presented are associated questions which can be used to explore each issue, and corresponding techniques which can be used to answer those questions. Suggestions are made for ways in which academic developers might create opportunities to work on multimedia development, and specific journals are suggested to assist developers in becoming familiar with the field.     

Quality Control in Education: — The Span of Control Controversy ‐Some Practical Considerations

This article gives the background to the introduction of a statutory system of staff appraisal in schools in England. It explains and provides insights into the various stages of the appraisal process from a management perspective. It begins from the premise that a manager is responsible for the performance of staff which he or she manages. Finally, it discusses a number of issues which are problematic and which need to be resolved if a staff appraisal scheme is to be successful from both the individual's and the school's viewpoints.     

The Relationship Between Organization and Management in Schools

Vice-principals’ role and their relationship with principals are of paramount importance in shaping the effectiveness of school management, particularly after the implementation of school-based management (SBM) worldwide. This paper reports primarily on prior studies on the vice-principalship and suggests a framework to help explain the different working relationships between principals and vice-principals. The framework is a matrix based on three dimensions, namely status, roles and management tasks. The framework was then examined through an illustrative case study. What emerged was that the framework provides a powerful means to explain the different combinations of relationship between principals and vice-principals.     

Mentoring Matters: An Exploratory Survey of Educational Leadership Doctoral Students’ Perspectives

There is limited research on quantitative differences between men and women’s experiences in doctoral programs. We aim to fill that gap by sharing findings from a web-based exploratory survey of perceived gender differences on quality mentoring in educational leadership doctoral programs. According to survey results, there is limited statistical significance in terms of gender differences in programmatic supports and scholarly progress. However, women experience feelings of self-doubt due to negative experiences with advising and mentoring, including difficulties making connections to a quality mentor. Furthermore, both female and male participants shared common definitions of what constitutes quality mentorship and believed mentorship was important, but lacking in varying degrees. Finally, all participants agreed that their educational leadership preparation programs should provide additional support in terms of writing and research development. Participants also shared important recommendations for strengthening mentoring experiences as well as future research methods and foci.     

Content and Context of the Administrative Internship: How Mentoring and Sustained Activities Impact Preparation

As universities prepare educational leaders for twenty-first century schools, the quality and authenticity of the internship experience require both the strengths of university faculty and the expertise of practitioners to create authentic experiences that seek to bridge the theory-to-practice divide. One mechanism to achieve this is through quality mentorship by school- and central-office-based personnel during the internship experience. A central aspect of this professional relationship is the ability for the mentor to provide access to quality activities that will prepare the aspiring leader for his/her first administrative position. This exploratory study examined language utilized by interns in their time logs as well as information gleaned from preliminary surveys of both interns and mentors upon completion of their experience. Findings revealed the complexity of language analysis and revealed a need for understanding activities of interns and interactions with mentors in a contextual fashion.     

School Governors: An LEA Perspective

The article relates the experiences of one large comprehensive school in its first year as a member of a pilot Local Resource Management (LRM) scheme. It considers some of the difficulties, the training implications and some of the advantages and disadvantages which have already come to light. Some advice is also given to other schools which are likely to be involved in such schemes as soon as the ‘Baker Bill’ becomes law.     

The Headteacher as Manager: A Personal View

This article contributes to the growing debate around how we understand and develop multi-agency leadership in children and young people's services. Bringing together a range of inter-disciplinary research, it presents a framework for multi-agency leadership development, which, it argues, is well theorised, multi-level and versed in key field skills that educational leaders need in complex environments. The framework comprises six elements: complexity and culture (underlying concepts); multi-professional groups and inter-organisational partnerships (operating levels); and organisational consultancy and professional supervision (field skills). These elements are discussed, the practical implications of incorporating them into professional development provision for educational leaders are examined and some provisional conclusions are reached.     

Getting emotional: a critical evaluation of recent trends in the development of school leaders

Emotion is a growing focus for contemporary thinking about leadership in public policy and corporate arenas. In British education systems, three imperatives are evident: the idea that transformation is essential; leadership succession in crisis; and, more recently, that leaders must be able to run organisations that address the emotional well-being of staff and students. Viewed as a key outcome of schooling, its importance is mirrored in school leadership, especially professional development. This article considers whether this represents a step-change in leadership development praxis or is, instead, an invasive form of emotional engineering redolent of long-established orthodoxies of control and domination. If so, it is argued, leadership development as the advocacy of emotional acumen presents moral technology as a new form for intervening in leaders' emotional selves, thereby distracting them from addressing fundamental aspects of education for which they are primarily responsible.     

The role of school leadership in the implementation of the Transition Year Programme in Ireland

Introducing an educational innovation into any school context involves some challenge to existing practices. Transition Year is an innovative, optional, one-year programme taken by approximately half the 15–16-year age cohort in schools in the Republic of Ireland. Based on data from an extensive study of TY operating in six different schools, programme co-ordinators and school principals are identified as having key roles in the successful implementation of TY. However, exercising the collegiality both roles demand goes against established cultures of isolated individualism in Irish schools. Furthermore, maintaining TY's coherence and integrity in the face of threats from more established programmes offers particular challenges. For this innovation to be successful, active curriculum leadership by school principals is seen as crucial. The paper interrogates the evidence through the lens of the 2008 OECD study on school leadership and poses questions about the relevance and value of the OECD perspective.