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"Educational Improvement"
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Collaboration and networking in education
This text provides a theoretical background to educational collaboration, drawing on research and theory in policy studies, psychology and sociology, leading ultimately to a typology of networks. This theoretical base is tested in the discussion of a number of case studies referring to specific initiatives.
Book
Strengthening the Research Base That Informs STEM Instructional Improvement Efforts: A Meta-Analysis
We present results from a meta-analysis of 95 experimental and quasi-experimental pre-K–12 science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) professional development and curriculum programs, seeking to understand what content, activities, and formats relate to stronger student outcomes. Across rigorously conducted studies, we found an average weighted impact estimate of +0.21 standard deviations. Programs saw stronger outcomes when they helped teachers learn to use curriculum materials; focused on improving teachers’ content knowledge, pedagogical content knowledge, and/or understanding of how students learn; incorporated summer workshops; and included teacher meetings to troubleshoot and discuss classroom implementation. We discuss implications for policy and practice.
Journal Article
Professional learning networks: From teacher learning to school improvement?
Professional learning communities are promising for teacher learning and improving the quality of education. In the past decade, there has been a shift in focus from within-school to cross-school PLCs: Professional Learning Networks. Knowledge of the underlying working processes of teacher learning in PLNs is scarce. This is even more complicated for PLNs, because of organizational, geographic and professional boundaries. The purpose of this study is to explore how PLNs can function to meet their objectives and what challenges they face in their aim of achieving sustainable teacher learning and school improvement. We applied a qualitative case study design. Data were collected by means of interviews with PLN participants and external coaches, logs by external coaches, and yearly observations by the researchers. Results show how the PLN context influences the outcomes in terms of teacher learning, PLN products and application in their schools. Findings show how leadership, the perception of a shared goal, structured activities, collaboration, and facilitation and support especially appear to influence outcomes. PLNs face additional challenges in relation to within-school PLCs, in terms of knowledge transfer from the PLN back to participants’ own schools and the network as a whole. This should be acknowledged and acted upon before PLNs are even established.
Journal Article
The importance of a collaborative culture for teachers’ job satisfaction and affective commitment
Prior research has shown the importance of collaborative culture as well as teacher job satisfaction and commitment in navigating complex school improvement processes. This study investigated the relationship between collaborative culture, affective commitment, and job satisfaction of teachers taking both collaborative cultures in the entire school, as well as in informal subgroups, into account. Survey data of 760 teachers, nested in 136 subgroups and 13 secondary schools, were analyzed using multilevel path analyses. Results show that collaborative culture in the informal subgroup is positively related to teachers’ affective commitment and job satisfaction and that affective commitment is a mediator. The collaborative culture at the school level was not a significant predictor. School leaders need to be aware that there are, to some extent, subgroups within the school which develop their own collaborative culture through social contagion processes which impact job satisfaction and affective commitment to a greater extent than the school-level culture.
Journal Article
Data-Driven Improvement in Prekindergarten Classrooms: Report From a Partnership in an Urban District
In 2014-2015 and 2015-2016, a metropolitan school system in the southern United States embarked on a unique mission to improve the quality of its public prekindergarten programs through a partnership with a group of developmental researchers in an iterative, data-based venture. Data on 407 children in Year 1 and 433 in Year 2 (who were enrolled in 26 classrooms and extensively observed) are presented from the first 2 years of the ongoing partnership. All children were 4 years of age. Variability in classroom practices, measured empirically, and variability in child outcomes provided the means to examine the relations between children's gains in academic and social-emotional areas and major areas of classroom practices. Lessons learned, the eight identified significant practices, implications, and next steps in the partnership are addressed.
Journal Article
Weaving and stacking: How school districts craft coherence towards continuous improvement
Using qualitative case study methods, we examine how educators describe continuous improvement and craft coherence for implementation. We find that educators attempted to build system-wide improvement capabilities, taking into consideration theories of action for continuous improvement and managing change given the realities of their local contexts. We identify educators’ orientations for crafting coherence as a mechanism by which they attempt to integrate improvement strategies to their local contexts. Two bridging approaches to crafting coherence were found: weaving and stacking. By using the notion of developing coherence as craft, we extend the field’s understanding of how leaders attempt to create shared meaning and practice throughout educational systems that are complex and dynamic. We discuss the implications for research and practice.
Journal Article