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This book describes the processes and challenges of implementing collaborative practices in School Improvement Networks, focussing specifically on examples from Chile. The Chilean case is significant for other challenging contexts, particularly rural communities, that still seek to implement collaborative inquiry projects.

Background Accreditation in medical education is essential to ensure quality and foster continuous improvement. Since 2003, medical schools in Chile have been subject to a constant accreditation process. Recently, universities have faced new gaps and challenges in establishing new accreditation criteria. These changes highlight the need to understand how institutions have historically responded to accreditation feedback and what improvements they have implemented in their programs. Therefore, this research aims to identify patterns, trends, and differences in institutional responses to accreditation feedback and subsequent quality enhancements on the basis of over 20 years of experience accrediting medical programs in Chile. Methods This study analyzes accreditation data for medical programs in Chile (2001–2024) via a combination of content and cluster analysis. The data were collected from reports from the National Accreditation Commission of Chile, which were standardized and classified into strengths, weaknesses, and improvements. Term frequency analysis, data grouping, and dimensional reduction techniques were used to identify trends and differences between public and private universities. The visualizations and qualitative analysis allowed specific recommendations to be formulated for each identified group. Results Our analysis revealed significant improvements in curricula, faculty development, and accreditation-driven educational processes. The performance of public universities has fluctuated, with peaks of excellence in research and graduate profiles, but they face challenges in maintaining consistent quality. In contrast, private universities demonstrated steady, gradual improvements, particularly in terms of program clarity and curriculum implementation—the cluster analysis identified five distinct groups of universities, each with specific strengths and areas for improvement. The study underscored the importance of structured feedback and responsive improvements in accreditation. Conclusions Accreditation has significantly enhanced educational quality in Chilean medical schools. Although the impact of accreditation is multifaceted, it remains a powerful driver of continuous improvement. Future research should focus on optimizing accreditation processes, developing new indicators of effectiveness, and increasing the credibility of accreditation standards. Tailored quality assurance strategies are needed to address public and private institutions’ specific strengths and challenges.

The stated goal of current education reform is the redesign of education systems in pursuit of quality. Systems that consistently 'come out on top' have excited much interest in uncovering the features that have contributed to their success; notably among these is the preparation of future teachers. Research on teacher education quality assurance processes has begun to provide evidence that common features shared by successful systems include the design of teacher education programmes around criteria such as that set by accreditation requirements, in part because they are intended to help shape programmes' intentions and approach, curriculum design, and outcomes. An important question for the field of teacher education is how to boost the research on diverse approaches' outcomes to improve programme design as indicated by successful practice, while taking into account the role of economic and socio-cultural factors in the process.

Smartphones are recent technologies that combine the capabilities of telephone communications and informatics in small portable devices that allow communications and information processing even at the patient’s bedside [1, 2]. As noted in the general public, these devices have shown significant growth in the international medical community [3], niche where they perform functions that range from undergraduate education to health resource management [4, 5]. Several studies have shown that smartphones are frequently used among physicians, medical students and interns, with overall use rates reaching 80%. iOs®-based systems, such as the iPhone®, seem to be the most commonly used platforms [1, 6-8]. The popularity of smartphones is likely to stem from their versatility. Current devices have a wide variety of functions, which can assist in medical decision making, information searches and educational applications, among other uses [8]. Use in clinical practice seems to be more common among women, people with an interest in new technologies and those with prior experiences with these platforms [7]. Despite this popularity, there is limited evidence regarding the effectiveness of smartphone use in improving academic performance among medical students [9]. While there is a wide availability of applications and resources available for these platforms, only a few randomised trials have addressed their effectiveness in improving academic performance. In 2011, Low and coworkers published one of these studies using objective clinical competence scores as a primary endpoint [10]. The latter trial reported a statistically significant improvement of roughly 15% in the academic performance of students allocated to receive the application. Similar findings were seen in a second, before & after, study that was conducted among Obstetrics & Gynecology residents [11]. Since 2003, a national examination for undergraduate medical students that have completed their internships is carried out in Chile. This exam (Examen Unico Nacional de Conocimientos en Medicina - EUNACOM) is designed to assess the overall knowledge and practical skills that any medical student should attain before practising medicine in the country. Its confection and administration are regulated by law, and its oversight has been delegated to the Association of Faculties of Medicine of Chile (ASOFAMECH). EUNACOM is made of two sections, theoretical and practical, and is considered qualifying to practise medicine in Chile. The contents of both sections are of public knowledge and include 1543 items distributed according to the curricular time spent training in different areas of medicine, with special emphasis on internal medicine and its subspecialties [12]. The theoretical component is evaluated using 180 multiple-choice questions delivered in two 90-min sessions. Additionally, EUNACOM provides professional title validation or equivalencies for foreign physicians who wish to practice medicine in Chile. Given the importance of this exam, several medical schools have implemented preparation courses for their students. However, the methodologies used in the latter courses are heterogeneous, and uncertainty exists regarding the best way in which contents should be delivered. This study aims to determine whether the implementation of a smartphone application designed to assist in delivering key concepts relevant to internal medicine might improve academic performance in EUNACOM.

Latin America faces tremendous challenges, particularly those of development, poverty, and inequality. Education is widely recognized as one of the most critical means of defeating these challenges. Democratizing education, by improving both its coverage and quality, is critical to overcoming the social and economic inequality that plagues Latin America. Ensuring that all children have the opportunity to learn critical skills at both primary and secondary level is paramount to overcoming skill barriers that perpetuate underdevelopment and poverty. A growing body of evidence supports the intuitive notion that teachers play a key role in what, how, and how much students learn. Attracting qualified individuals into the teaching profession, retaining these qualified teachers, providing them with the necessary skills and knowledge, and motivating them to work hard and do the best job they can is arguably the key education challenge. Incentives to Improve Teaching focuses on education reforms that alter teacher incentives and the impact their on teaching quality and student learning. The reforms explored in this volume represent efforts by several countries in the region to increase teacher accountability and introduce incentives to motivate teachers to raise student learning.

This is an impact evaluation of the Technical Support to Failing Schools Program, a Chilean compensatory program that provided 4-year in-school technical assistance to low-performing schools to improve students' academic achievement. The author implemented a quasi-experimental design by using difference-in-differences estimation combined with propensity scores matching procedures to estimate treatment effects. The main findings were the following: (a) the program had positive effects on fourth-grade students' achievement in both language and mathematics; (b) program effect size was 0.23 standard deviations, and not sensitive to control for covariates; (c) there were larger effects for students in the middle part of the students' test-score distribution; (d) after the intervention had ceased, the program impact declined rapidly; and (e) the program reduced grade retention by 1.5 percentage points.

This article provides an empirical context for the role that bi/multi-lingual children and families may play in supporting pre-service and in-service educators engaging difference through a literacy and language situated study abroad internship in Chile. Drawing on data over a 15-year longitudinal study of the program, the authors examine how students and parents navigate serving the role of teacher, whereas the teacher participants navigate a new role as a learner in a context where they, many for the first time, experience being language and cultural minorities.

Nations around the world are experimenting with ways to use salary incentives to recruit and retain teachers, fill vacancies in hard-to-staff areas, and improve student learning. These experiments come at a time when qualified teachers are in short supply and when teaching appears to be a less popular professional choice for young people. Programs in Sweden, England, Chile, Mexico, Singapore, and other countries are examined. Designing salary and incentive systems that motivate teachers to improve their practice is the goal that few countries have achieved.

This article problematises emerging tensions in Chile, in relation to the discourses of early childhood teachers and public policies aimed at improving the quality of early childhood education. The aim of the analysis is to contribute to developing more nuanced understandings of these tensions, through the analytical lenses provided by the concepts of agency, power and discourses in the social construction of professional identity. The paper begins by describing aspects of the current Chilean policy context of early childhood education, and its location in the broader educational system. Tracing recent public policy initiatives focused on improving early childhood education quality; the paper then considers diverse sources of available evidence of early childhood teacher perspectives and responses to public policy discourses. It concludes by contextualising the findings of the analysis in an international literature body about early childhood professional identity.