New Structure of School Improvement

Erscheinungsjahr 1999
ISBN: 978-0-335-23197-3
Verlag: Open University Press

Buch, Englisch

Self renewing schools where students and staff are involved in ongoing inquiry has long since been an ideal in education. However, this goal has not proved readily achievable. The authors of this book regard this as a challenge which can be confronted positively, believing that enough knowledge exists to develop a fresh structure of school improvement - and one which is likely to succeed. The book draws upon the considerable body of research on successful and unsuccessful school improvement programs to generate a practical strategy for school improvement that can be used by schools, school districts and local education authorities, and policymakers with a high probability of success. The heart of the strategy is an inquiry process centered on the continuous study of student learning and the creation and study of initiatives to enhance student achievement in academic, personal and social domains. The school as a workplace is altered dramatically with the inclusion of study time for teachers, continuous staff development and the organization of a governance structure which includes school staff, parents, community agencies, business partners and local district or education authority personnel.

This timely and important book is vital reading for anyone with an interest in improving schools and the quality of education today.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Joyce, Bruce

Calhoun, Emily

Hopkins, David

Fachgebiete

• Sozialwissenschaften Pädagogik Schulen, Schulleitung Schulleitung, Schulentwicklung

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Introduction
Part one: Creating the school as a centre of enquiry: searching for a new structure
Building the evolutionary school
looking for success in research and experience
Centering the school on student learning
imagining the possibilities
Studying evolving schools
watching the process
Part two: Elaborating the hypotheses: the detail work of school improvement
Establishing the responsible parties
organizing the decision-making community
Informing, informing and informing
conducting education the action research way
Embedding staff development
living in a state of learning
Connecting to the knowledge base
finding curricular and instructional options
Part three: Refining, renovating and redesigning: taking steps large and small
Refining
thinking through sets of changes
Renovating
changing a dimension of the learning environment
Redesigning the Pembroke school
unfolding an evolutionary state
Part four: Policy-making for school renewal: Making the context through National, State and LEA policy
Supporting evolution
working at a distance from the school
Reforming reform
renewing the Local Education Authority
References
Index.

Über Autor(innen)

Bruce Joyce taught in the state of Delaware and began his experience in urban school renewal in Detroit while taking his doctorate at Wayne State University. He concentrated on research on teaching, the study of personality and teaching and learning styles, and research on teacher education while directing the elementary teacher education programs at the University of Chicago and Teachers College, Columbia University. For the last 20 years he has been Director of Booksend Laboratories in Pauma Valley, California, and conducts extensive school renewal projects which include studies of models of teaching and staff development.
Emily Calhoun taught high school English and first grade in Georgia and began research on teacher personality and staff development while taking her doctorate at the University of Georgia. A specialist in the language arts, she has engaged in the engineering of action research in the context of extensive school improvement programs in school districts and states in the U.S. Her eight books to date combine her scholarship with practical guidance on school renewal and teaching students to read and write. She directs the Phoenix Alliance in Saint Simons Island, Georgia and embeds studies of language learning and school renewal in her programs there.
David Hopkins taught in Wales before an extensive sojourn in Canada where he studied school change while taking his doctorate at Simon Fraser University. He returned to the UK to work at Cambridge University where he and colleagues established IQEA, an organization that helps schools in the UK to engage in school renewal and in whose projects he conducts the research that has led to more than a dozen books on school renewal, assessment, and teacher appraisal. He is dean of the faculty of education at the University of Nottingham and continues his work on school improvement and teacher education in that setting.