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Editorial Improving Schools Pub Date : 2022-07-05 Dr Tracey Allen
Gibbs and Bozaid begin this issue with insight into special educational needs (SEN) and inclusive education. Gibbs and Bozaid pan across teacher insights and attitudes, current challenges, effectiveness of approaches and teacher development needs. This is set within the relatively under-researched region of Saudi Arabia.
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How can critical reflection be promoted in professional learning communities? Findings from an innovation research project in four schools Improving Schools Pub Date : 2022-03-20 Grethe Ingebrigtsvold Sæbø, Jorunn H Midtsundstad
This article presents findings from an innovation research project titled School-In, focusing on school staff’s reflection. Teachers in four schools participated in focus group discussions in the b...
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The perception of stakeholders regarding the outcomes achieved by schools with high or low levels of effectiveness and high numbers of immigrant students Improving Schools Pub Date : 2021-12-16 Nahia Intxausti-Intxausti, Eider Oregui-González, Verónica Azpillaga-Larrea
The aim of this study was to characterize those schools in the Autonomous Community of the Basque Country (Spain) with high numbers of immigrant students in accordance with their effectiveness leve...
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Examining adolescent maltreatment and connections to school engagement Improving Schools Pub Date : 2021-12-14 Laura Mielityinen, Noora Ellonen, Riikka Ikonen, Eija Paavilainen
This article examines how maltreatment experienced by adolescents is related to school engagement. Maltreatment includes physical, mental, and sexual violence along with sexual harassment, neglect,...
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Editorial: Improving schools Improving Schools Pub Date : 2021-11-20 Tracey Allen
Terry Wrigley was planning to author this Editorial to conclude the 2021 volume and to signal his retirement after over 20 years at the helm of Improving Schools. Terry was widely known nationally and internationally for his commitment to matters of education for all, challenging poverty, equalizing outcomes, and reaching into the heart of school curriculum to offer a purposeful and engaging education
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Development of an intervention framework for school improvement that is adaptive to cultural context Improving Schools Pub Date : 2021-10-28 Anna Kristín Sigurðardóttir, Börkur Hansen, Berglind Gísladóttir
The challenge of educational improvement, due mainly to the complexity of educational systems, is well-known. The aim of this study is to provide knowledge regarding the process of change within sc...
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Students as co-researchers in a school self-evaluation process Improving Schools Pub Date : 2021-08-07 Shivaun O’Brien, Gerry McNamara, Joe O’Hara, Martin Brown, Craig Skerritt
School self-evaluation (SSE) or data-based decision making is now a common feature of mainstream education in an increasing number of jurisdictions. The participation of stakeholders including stud...
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Thinking deeply about educational change Improving Schools Pub Date : 2021-07-26 Terry Wrigley
In the early days of School Improvement, everything seemed to hover around building participation and partnership in the teaching staff, and then the wider community (students, other staff and parents). It was quite an untheoretical endeavour, a matter of systematically building trust and collaboration. This remains essential but not enough. Whenever the more complex issues in education are important
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Stakeholders’ perceptions of the quality of education in rural schools in Kazakhstan Improving Schools Pub Date : 2021-07-19 Mir Afzal Tajik, Duishon Shamatov, Lyudmila Fillipova
Since its independence in 1991, Kazakhstan has initiated major reforms to upgrade its education system. However, significant disparities exist in the quality of educational provision in rural and u...
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“Please Miss, Please!”: An observational study of young people’s social and emotional experiences post-transition to secondary school Improving Schools Pub Date : 2021-07-13 Arif Mahmud
The secondary school transition is considered a critical life event by practitioners and researchers alike, and the challenges presented by the pupils during this transition continues to be high-profile in educational, social and political contexts. This study focused on Year 7 pupils aged 11 to 12 years old in their first year of secondary school. Classroom observations of around 120 pupils using
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Comparing sources of stress for state and private school teachers in England Improving Schools Pub Date : 2021-06-23 Jude Brady, Elaine Wilson
Teaching is understood to be a highly stressful profession. In England, workload, high-stakes accountability policies and pupil behaviour are often cited as stressors that contribute to teachers’ decisions to leave posts in the state-funded sector. Many of these teachers leave state teaching to take jobs in private schools, but very little is known about the nature of teachers’ work in the private
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Leader-parent relationships in the early childhood education context: An exploration of testimonial and epistemic justice Improving Schools Pub Date : 2021-06-03 Shirley Eileen Adams, Steve Myran
Countries around the world have increased their focus on high quality early childhood programing. Recognizing the importance of parental and community engagement as a lever for improving child development and learning outcomes, and as a means of addressing social justice challenges, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) (2018) has emphasized the need for more research on
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Conceptualising inclusive education in Saudi Arabia through conversations with special education teachers Improving Schools Pub Date : 2021-05-31 Kathryn Gibbs, Ali Bozaid
In the last decade, inclusive education (IE) has become a trending topic in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. This small-scale, qualitative Saudi study reports on how some teachers view IE in their country and whether students with a disability (autism) could be educated in mainstream schools. Individual semi-structured interviews were conducted and recorded using a smartphone. The analysis of interview
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Finding the heart of a Research-Practice Partnership: Politicized trust, mutualism, and use of research Improving Schools Pub Date : 2021-05-31 Stephanie Lezotte, Sharada Krishnamurthy, Daniel Tulino, Shelley Zion
The assumption that research is out-of-reach, irrelevant, or unusable for practitioners has been a theme echoed throughout academia. Research alliances such as Research-Practice Partnerships (RPP) attempt to alleviate this problem by having researchers, practitioners, and/or community-based organizations form a collaborative partnership that uses research to solve tangible problems of practice. Previous
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About the importance of vision screening by teachers in schools: A study from Tanzania Improving Schools Pub Date : 2021-04-07 Gunvor Birkeland Wilhelmsen, Marion Felder
Intact visual functions are necessary for children to reach their academic potential. In the absence of vision screening, children may have unnoticed vision disturbances and academic challenges may be attributed to other problems, such as learning or cognitive disabilities. Visual problems are detrimental to educational achievement if they are not recognised. This has lifelong consequences for the
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High school students as researchers about their school: exploring its potential for choices and skills Improving Schools Pub Date : 2021-04-01 Ana Cristina Torres, Ana Mouraz
This paper introduces a partnership between researchers in Education Sciences and high school students and discusses the students’ perceptions of the effects of taking on the role of researchers in Education Sciences. These partnerships were established to develop a project in which high school students researched their school’s everyday life in collaboration with academic researchers. The partners
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Causes and remedies for secondary school dropout in Palestine Improving Schools Pub Date : 2021-03-27 Mahyoub Bzour, Fathiah Mohamed Zuki, Muhamad Mispan
This study was conducted to assess the experience and causes of school dropout among public secondary (high) schools in Palestine, and to explore processes to combat this. We identify the factors and illustrate a conceptual model for student dropout from school. This involves diverse factors including family background, teachers, school’s environment, student role. This paper recommends that policies
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Enhancing motivation and engagement within a PBIS framework Improving Schools Pub Date : 2021-03-17 Michael Petrasek, Anthony James, Amity Noltemeyer, Jennifer Green, Katelyn Palmer
A motivating and engaging school environment has been associated with several positive student outcomes. Consequently, schools have an opportunity and responsibility to promote a culture that supports students in developing and maintaining their motivation, engagement, and self-improvement. Efforts to promote such a culture can be embedded within a Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS)
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Leading the flock: Examining the characteristics of multicultural school leaders in their quest for equitable schooling Improving Schools Pub Date : 2021-03-05 Brian Vassallo
The quest for educational leaders to enact social and equitable schooling requires ongoing critical transformations that cannot be alienated from contemporary educational discourses and practices. Enacting social justice and equitable schooling poses an unparalleled challenge on the shoulders of risk-taking visionaries, who meticulously attempt to transmit their believes and values into the daily routine
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The identification of multi-hazard situations in elementary school Improving Schools Pub Date : 2021-03-02 Evi Widowati, Wahyudi Istiono, Adi Heru Sutomo
This study aimed to identify various hazard risks which are related to children in schools. This study used a quantitative descriptive design. The sampling technique used was four stage stratified random sampling, with 329 elementary schools as the sample. The results identified various dangerous situations which are related to children and schools ranging from infectious diseases, natural disasters
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Development and validation of a scale to measure the resilience of schools: Perspectives of young people from vulnerable and challenging territories Improving Schools Pub Date : 2021-02-25 Ana Milheiro Silva, Sofia Marques da Silva
This article presents the development and validation of a scale for young people, which measures the resilience of schools in ensuring the educational pathways of students in vulnerable and challenging territories. This scale was developed within a national-level project, conducted in Portuguese border regions with Spain, which are peripheral contexts with economic, social, cultural, and educational
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Editorial Improving Schools Pub Date : 2021-02-25 Terry Wrigley
The need for active professional engagement in educational change has been a constant issue in the school improvement literature for many decades. The articles in this issue provide an enriched understanding of this question, through research developed in different parts of the world, different school systems, a variety of curriculum areas, and for different groups of students. It raises issues such
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When death strikes early as often will: How counsellors and schools can support grieving pupils and students Improving Schools Pub Date : 2021-02-24 Geoffrey Wango, Leila Mkameli Gwiyo
Death is inevitable and universal, and the corona virus disease has only further intensified a world of uncertainties as a result of frequent accidents, HIV/AIDS, cancer and natural disasters. Bereavement after any death is a potentially disruptive life event with consequences in physical and mental health, relationships and social functioning. Death is a rather odd, thought-provoking and challenging
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Student absenteeism and ecological agency Improving Schools Pub Date : 2021-02-05 Andrew L Kipp, J Spencer Clark
The purpose of this article is to address student absenteeism through the theoretical lens of ecological agency and to encourage the use of ecological agency in a school setting to address student absenteeism more holistically. We align absenteeism research within the ecological agency framework and suggest that absenteeism is a manifestation of agency influenced by contextual factors unique to the
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Empathy is the mother of invention: Emotion and cognition for creativity in the classroom Improving Schools Pub Date : 2021-01-25 Helen Demetriou, Bill Nicholl
According to the age-old proverb from Plato’s Republic: necessity is the mother of invention, the main motivation for creating new discoveries is the need for them. However, as well as the necessity factor, we argue that a very important aspect that influences invention and creativity is the empathy factor. This mixed methods research investigated the impact of empathy instruction on the social and
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‘Should we ask the students’ opinions first?’ Practice architectures of student participation from the perspective of teachers Improving Schools Pub Date : 2020-11-28 Reetta Niemi, Anni Loukomies
An in-service training programme was used as an accelerator that scaffolded teachers in four school units in Lappeenranta, Finland, the aim being to find a shared understanding and shared practices...
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Please listen to us: Adolescent autistic girls speak about learning and academic success Improving Schools Pub Date : 2020-11-20 Pamela Jacobs, Wendi Beamish, Loraine McKay
Limited research is available with a focus on adolescent Autistic girls and their needs during secondary schooling. Consequently, many issues are often not recognised and addressed by educators. Th...
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Organizational building versus teachers’ personal and relational needs for school improvement Improving Schools Pub Date : 2020-11-20 Mette Liljenberg, Ulf Blossing
Organizational building is essential if school leaders are to promote school improvement, but it can be difficult to combine with school leaders’ requirements to satisfy teachers’ personal and rela...
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Turning around coast-based schools: An interpretive narrative analysis of a report on school reform in English coastal communities Improving Schools Pub Date : 2020-11-11 Anne Parfitt
An interpretive narrative inquiry approach is adopted to shed light on the improvement agendas applied in a specific set of coastal schools. The unifying thread between the focal cases is that they...
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Equipping students for leadership through community engagement Improving Schools Pub Date : 2020-11-02 Gladys Ingasia Ayaya
The contribution of community engagement towards shaping leadership development in students is an area that is not well explored in research. A study was conducted to establish the type of leadersh...
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Creativity in primary schools: An analysis of a teacher’s attempt to foster childhood creativity within the context of the Scottish Curriculum for Excellence Improving Schools Pub Date : 2020-11-02 Krystallia Kyritsi, John M Davis
The importance of creativity in education has been increasingly recognised by policy-makers and, as contemporary research argues, the way curricula are organised and implemented impact on children’...
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Changing the narrative on African American boys: A systemic approach to school success Improving Schools Pub Date : 2020-10-29 JaDora Sailes Moore, Chavez Phelps
Despite progress over the past decade in math and reading, proficiency scores of African American boys continue to trail behind those of White, Latino, and Asian male counterparts. African American...
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Education, intellect and wellbeing Improving Schools Pub Date : 2020-10-06 Terry Wrigley
One of the negative features of a certain type of ‘school improvement’ text has been to regard schools almost as machines for producing exam results and test data. This approach divorces human formation and pedagogy, separating the development of intellect and the promotion of social and emotional maturity. It is a tendency which this journal has resolutely avoided. Across a range of contexts and situations
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Optimising leadership: Conceptualising cognitive constraints of sociality and collaboration in Australian secondary schools Improving Schools Pub Date : 2020-09-30 Joanne Casey, Susan Simon, Wayne Graham
School improvement frameworks and their associated reform efforts often have limited durability and are frequently not fully implemented. Improving their viability, requires a more realistic unders...
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Reading and inquiring in an afterschool tutoring program: Working to re-imagine the reading intervention paradigm Improving Schools Pub Date : 2020-09-28 Dennis S. Davis, Jill Jones, Nermin Vehabovic, Robyn DeIaco
In this article, we discuss tensions that emerged as we collaborated with teachers to iteratively design and refine an afterschool reading intervention approach that emphasizes inquiry and discipli...
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Learning from the COVID-19 home-schooling experience: Listening to pupils, parents/carers and teachers Improving Schools Pub Date : 2020-09-14 Sara Bubb, Mari-Ana Jones
In Spring 2020, schools in many countries had to close in response to the COVID-19 virus pandemic and move to remote teaching. This paper explores the views of pupils, parents/carers and teachers of ‘home-school’ in one Norwegian municipality, gathered through parallel online surveys in April 2020 during the peak of the COVID-19 lockdown period. It finds that adaptation happened very quickly and that
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Coherent school improvement: Integrating outcomes-based assessment and trauma-informed practice Improving Schools Pub Date : 2020-09-09 C. Allison Reierson, Stephen R. Becker
This literature review tests a framework for coherent implementation of school improvement initiatives. Often in education, initiatives are introduced as disparate, isolated approaches towards impr...
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Concept of knowledge boxes – a tool for professional development for learning and support assistants Improving Schools Pub Date : 2020-08-17 Julia Lederer, Caroline Breyer, Barbara Gasteiger-Klicpera
By supporting children with disabilities, learning and support assistants have become an essential component of inclusive education in regular schools. Assistants in European countries have various...
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Experiences of practitioners implementing comprehensive student support in high-poverty schools Improving Schools Pub Date : 2020-08-01 Amy E Heberle, Úna Ní Sheanáin, Mary E Walsh, Anna N Hamilton, Agnes H Chung, Victoria L Eells Lutas
This US-based study examined the experiences of school counselors and social workers implementing a systems-oriented, programmatic student support practice model, City Connects, within high-need ur...
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Middle school students’ views about leaders and leadership Improving Schools Pub Date : 2020-07-30 Shane Lavery, Anne Coffey
This article presents the views of 72 Australian middle school students from 12 metropolitan schools across six states and territories as to their understanding of leadership. Initially, literature...
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Advancing an LGBTI-inclusive curriculum in Scotland through critical literacy Improving Schools Pub Date : 2020-07-24 Kelly Stone, Jennifer Farrar
Following the announcement, in November 2018, that Scotland would be the first educational system to introduce an LGBTI-inclusive curriculum in all of its state schools, this position paper advocat...
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Researching educational disadvantage: Concepts emerging from working in/with an Australian school Improving Schools Pub Date : 2020-07-24 Stephen Heimans, Parlo Singh, Andrew Barnes
This is a conceptual article arising from, and grounded in, research with a government-funded primary school serving high-poverty communities in Queensland, Australia. It is one response to the last 10 years of participatory research work led by the three authors of this article (the school principal and two academics). In this article, we write about three concepts that have emerged out of our joint
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Exploring young people’s perceptions about secondary school: Critical issues and improvements to prevent dropout risk in disadvantaged contexts Improving Schools Pub Date : 2020-07-21 Anna Bussu, Manuela Pulina
Through a mixed methods approach, this article explores young people’s perceptions about critical issues in secondary school and the improvements being made to prevent dropout risk. The empirical data were gathered from a representative sample of young people (14–24) in a socioeconomically disadvantaged region in the European Union. A principal component analysis assessed the most significant indicators
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Socio-cultural factors influencing preschool enrolment in a rural cohort exposed to early parenting interventions in Pakistan: A qualitative study Improving Schools Pub Date : 2020-07-15 Muneera A Rasheed, Saima Siyal, Alma Arshad, Arooba A Farid, Jelena Obradović, Aisha K Yousafzai
Early parenting interventions have shown to be effective for changing parenting behaviours to provide stimulation at home. However, evidence about the effect on decision to timely enrol the child i...
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Extraordinary times Improving Schools Pub Date : 2020-07-01 Terry Wrigley
This editorial has been written after months of school closure in some countries. The pandemic has placed unprecedented demands on teachers and necessitated much creative adaptation including distance learning at home. First then, this editorial pays tribute to all the teachers and school leaders whose dedication and ingenuity has seen them through this challenge and enabled them to sustain children’s
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Who owns the knowledge? Knowledge construction as part of the school improvement process Improving Schools Pub Date : 2020-06-19 Lena Glaés-Coutts, Henrik Nilsson
When Sweden began to experience a steady decline in student achievement results in PISA and TIMMS, the Swedish National Agency of Education initiated a model of collaboration with Swedish universit...
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Teacher education in cooperative learning and its influence on inclusive education Improving Schools Pub Date : 2020-06-18 Yolanda Muñoz-Martínez, Carlos Monge-López, Juan Carlos Torrego Seijo
This article presents the study of the perception of teachers and principals participating in a teacher training program about cooperative learning with the focus on the transformation of teaching practices for inclusive education. The aim is to analyze the effect of a teacher training program on teaching practices and school transformation. We carried out an exploratory case study involving eight
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Principals’ strategies for increasing students’ participation in school leadership in a rural, mountainous region in Pakistan Improving Schools Pub Date : 2020-05-28 Mir Afzal Tajik, Abdul Wali
This study aimed to explore the principal’s perceptions about, and strategies for, increasing students’ active participation in the day-to-day affairs and decision-making at a secondary school located in a rural, mountainous region of Pakistan. By exploring the principal’s leadership practices, this study aims to answer the question, ‘how can school principals promote students’ participation in school
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Working towards inclusion and social justice: Multiple perspectives Improving Schools Pub Date : 2020-03-01 Terry Wrigley
This issue of Improving Schools brings together an interesting collection of papers which examine questions of inclusion and social justice, and particularly the possibilities for including pupils more successfully. First, Lea Lund (Odense, Denmark) looks at building professional learning communities which enable teachers to scrutinise their own practices. In particular, routine actions and thinking
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Teachers’ engagement within educational policies and decisions improves classroom practice: The case of Iranian ELT school teachers Improving Schools Pub Date : 2020-02-28 Iman Tohidian, Saeed Ghiasi Nodooshan
Teachers and students are the main stakeholders of educational policies in the states; hence, the higher order policies, rules, and regulations must be in alignment with their rights, values, ideol...
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Perceptions of regular and special education teachers of their own and their co-teacher’s instructional responsibilities in inclusive education: A case study Improving Schools Pub Date : 2020-02-25 Tanja Lindacher
Co-teaching is fundamental to inclusive education. However, the way co-teaching is implemented, varies considerably, and establishing and allocating instructional responsibilities does not follow a standardized pattern. This study is based on four cases – two located at traditional secondary schools and two at newly created community schools – and includes semi-structured in-depth interviews with four
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Measuring life skills, hope, and academic growth at project-based learning schools Improving Schools Pub Date : 2020-02-07 Scott Wurdinger, Ron Newell, En Sun Kim
Eleven project-based learning charter schools participated in this correlational study. Eight have participated for 2 years and three for 1 year. The schools are affiliated with EdVisions, a non-profit organization that helps create individualized, project-based learning schools. There were five variables in this correlational study: the hope survey, self-direction rubric, collaboration rubric, math
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Student voice to improve schools: Perspectives from students, teachers and leaders in ‘perfect’ conditions Improving Schools Pub Date : 2020-01-31 Mari-Ana Jones, Sara Bubb
This article explores the use of student voice to contribute to improving schools. Through the gathering of perspectives and experiences of staff and students, it considers how the responses to req...
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‘Soft barriers’ – The impact of school ethos and culture on the inclusion of students with special educational needs in mainstream schools in Ireland Improving Schools Pub Date : 2020-01-11 David Mc Keon
The use of ‘soft barriers’ to deter students with special educational needs (SEN) from accessing some schools has been reported in the Irish media. This article investigates the influence of ethos and culture on access to and inclusive practice in mainstream schools in Ireland. Ethos and culture are nebulous concepts yet are integral to how schools operate, how they present themselves and how they
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Parent and student voice in evaluation and planning in schools Improving Schools Pub Date : 2019-12-24 Martin Brown, Gerry McNamara, Shivaun O’Brien, Craig Skerritt, Joe O’Hara, Jerich Faddar, Sakir Cinqir, Jan Vanhoof, Maria Figueiredo, Gül Kurum
Current approaches to the regulation of schools in most jurisdictions tend to combine elements of external inspection with systems of internal self-evaluation. An increasingly important aspect of the theory and practice of both, but particularly the latter, revolves around the role of other actors, primarily parents and students, in the process. Using literature review and documentary analysis as the
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Case studies on the transition from traditional classrooms to innovative learning environments: Emerging strategies for success Improving Schools Pub Date : 2019-12-18 Raechel French, Wesley Imms, Marian Mahat
This article explores the characteristics of a successful transition of a school from traditional classrooms to an innovative learning environment. Many schools today are converting traditional classrooms into spaces which are flexible, supporting a wide array of teaching and learning possibilities (i.e. an ‘innovative learning environment’). These schools envision a future in which teaching, culture
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Parental involvement in Spanish schools: The role of Parents’ Associations (AMPAs) Improving Schools Pub Date : 2019-11-13 Carmen Álvarez-Álvarez
The involvement of families in Spanish schools is a legally recognised right, a social demand, an educational need and a permanent challenge. However, there are limited opportunities for families to become engaged with schools in Spain. Their primary avenues for involvement are Parents’ Associations (Asociaciones de Madres y Padres de Alumnos, known as AMPAs), but there has been little research on
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Influences on proactive classroom management: Views of teachers in government secondary schools, Queensland Improving Schools Pub Date : 2019-11-11 Lorna Hepburn, Wendi Beamish
Proactive classroom management is associated with increased teacher wellbeing and improved student learning outcomes. Yet research indicates that many teachers over-report and underuse practices associated with this approach. The research findings reported here were drawn from semi-structured interviews conducted with 26 government secondary school teachers in Queensland, Australia. These teachers
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A circle of research on disadvantaged schools, improvement and test-based accountability Improving Schools Pub Date : 2019-11-05 Heidi Huilla
This study analyses how studies on disadvantaged schools, improvement and test-based accountability relate to each other. The analysis covers 69 studies on disadvantaged schools reported in prestigious educational journals and conducted in 1995–2015. Educational policies related to evaluation and accountability define the official goals of schooling, and the aim in this article is to analyse how the
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The importance and potential of community partnerships in urban schools in an era of high-stakes accountability Improving Schools Pub Date : 2019-10-15 Marlon I. Cummings, Jennifer D. Olson
In today’s era of increased accountability and standards-based reforms within the United States educational system, Community Partner Organizations (CPOs) can offer essential support to teachers, schools, and districts. CPOs have the potential to have a positive impact in urban schools in particular, where high-stakes testing and accountability policies are often more demanding and the threat of school