Meat in the sandwich: The impact of changing policy contexts and local management of schools on principals’ work in New Zealand 1989-2009

The impact of principal leadership on school outcomes, particularly student achievement, is assuming unprecedented attention internationally. Official discourses often assume that principals can be trained to achieve prescribed outcomes through the employment of learned strategies. Such claims are challenged by critical leadership scholars who insist on the significance of context. This paper explores the impact of policy contexts on the work of a small group of experienced principals in New Zealand over a period of 20 years. During that time, they often struggled to reconcile their own espoused educational principles with policy imperatives in a small country where Local Management of Schools (LMS) has been extreme. It argues that national policy discourse around competition, curriculum and achievement, together with formal accountability to local lay Boards of Trustees (BOTs), are sources of tension and moral ambiguity, which tempt principals to comply and play the game for the sake of their schools. Principals are also caught between local and national accountabilities. In spite of this, principals in the study maintained an educational vision encompassing the wider social context of New Zealand education and retained a sense of personal agency

An Ordinal factor analysis of requirements and challenges of information and communication technology system to train private agricultural insurance brokers in Iran

This study was conducted to identify challenges and requirements of an information and communication technology (ICT) system to train brokers. Using the ordinal factor analysis, the challenges and requirements have been classified into six factors (Human, Organisational, Technical,Social, Financial, and Legal) and four factors (instructional,technical, organisational, and cultural) respectively. Finally a conceptual framework is presented for the challenges and requirements of the ICT training system

Supporting sustainable e‐learning

This paper draws upon work carried out within phase one of a national forum for support staff, funded by the UK Learning and Teaching Support Network Generic Centre. It sets out themes in current Learning Technology research within the context of institutional practice. It reports the responses of a range of e‐learning support staff to new developments in the reuse and sharing of Learning Objects. The article highlights tensions across support units, inconsistencies in support provision and confusion over issues concerning different modes of teaching. It also forewarns a growing gap between institutional practice and research in the development of approaches to sustainable e‐learning

The four pillars of peer assessment for collaborative teamwork in higher education

Peer learning is an umbrella term covering diverse strategies supporting students to learn from each other. Studies highlight the power of combining two intertwined models of peer learning, namely peer assessment/feedback and collaborative team-based learning, to prepare graduates for the world of work and encourage acceptable social behaviours. Nevertheless, this approach comes with distinct challenges of marking bias, implementation difficulties, quality, trust and other issues. Studies addressing these challenges in the collaborative teamwork context are sparse and fail to consider the complex and intertwined challenges. Responding to this need, we propose a four-pillar framework comprising veracity, validity, volume and literacy to provide a strong footing on which to base future work in this area. Each of the pillars supports specific but overlapping aspects of peer assessment including assessment design (veracity pillar); implementation considerations (validity pillar); technology factors (volume pillar); and roles and responsibilities (literacy pillar). The framework aims to support educators, policymakers and scholars in mitigating challenges to reimagine and renew peer learning practices to effect positive change

Using a learning management system in secondary education : design and implementation characteristics of learning paths

The general aim of this dissertation was to increase the knowledge on how Learning Management Systems (LMS) are used by secondary school teachers and to examine the design and implementation of learning paths

Integrating Learning Management System with Facebook Function: The Effect on Perception towards Online Project Based Collaborative Learning

This study evaluates the effect on Perception towards Online Project Based Collaborative Learning (OPBCL). OPBCL was developed by integrating Moodle forum with Facebook function and using project based learning approach. A quasi-experiment was conducted with two classes of polytechnic students for three weeks which involved 54 students. Data were obtained using Perception of Online Collaborative Learning Questionnaire (POCLQ). The study was conducted to evaluate students’ perceptions toward CIDOS and OPBCL platform based on Learning Environment (LE), Learning Design (LD), Learning Interaction (LI) and Soft Skills (SS) construct. All collected data were analysed using SPSS 19.0 software. Overall, the findings revealed that perception score in OPBCL platform is higher than CIDOS platform.  Evaluation based on constructs showed that except for LD construct, other constructs have shown that score in OPBCL platform is higher than CIDOS platform. OPBCL has shown to be a better online learning platform that can promote students’ interaction in project based learning approach

Exploring the Phenomenon of Secondary Teachers Integrating the LMS Canvas in a Blended-Learning Course

Online learning has become fully ingrained within the educational environment and extensive LMS use in higher education settings is challenging secondary education institutions to keep pace with the growing trend to offer LMS resources to their teachers and students; however, schools that have chosen to implement an LMS face multiple challenges in motivating teachers and students to accept and integrate the new technology into their course curriculum. The purpose of this phenomenological study was to investigate teachers’ experiences integrating the LMS Canvas within a blended-learning course in a rural high school district located in the Southeastern United States. The study integrated the theoretical frameworks of the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT) and technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPACK) and draws primarily from a postpositivism framework. The study sought to understand teachers’ motivational and attitude factors for integrating the LMS Canvas into their blended-learning course and involved: distributing a questionnaire for descriptive purposes, conducting individual and focus group interviews, and evaluating course materials. Qualitative data analysis was conducted using NVivo, and coding was utilized to develop an interpretation of the phenomenon. Based on data analysis, four themes developed: (1) motivation and attitude, (2) training and technology support, (3) teaching effectiveness, and (4) student benefits, which along with their related categories, supported the central research question and subsequent sub-research questions. In the final analysis process, in which the essence of the phenomenon is formulated, a central concept for why teachers use Canvas was reduced to adaptability

Task-based language teaching frameworks in technology enhanced learning contexts

Task-based language teaching (TBLT) continues to be more widely applied as an approach in second language education. Benefits and challenges of TBLT have been debated over the past thirty years. The advent of technology enhanced learning (TEL) and the use of TBLT in such contexts have revealed further benefits and challenges within this approach. This study summarises TBLT history, before reviewing recent literature relating to TBLT and TEL with specific reference to such challenges as student participation, error correction, fluency, accuracy and the role of feedback. Literature that addresses the conceptualisation of the TBLT approach in TEL contexts is somewhat scant. This qualitative study, situated in the ESOL department of a Canadian higher education institution addresses this gap through phenomenographic analysis of teacher and student interview transcripts. Findings are analysed with reference to established TBLT frameworks that have been broadly used in classroombased settings. The outcome space reveals six categories of description in hierarchical sequence of complexity. These categories of description fit within three structural aspects, in which the phenomenon is experienced in three qualitatively different ways. These involve a shift from the enabling factors of the context, to needs-related skills of the individual, and to the facilitation of language acquisition in a collaborative and reflective technology-mediated environment. Findings are then discussed in terms of a wide range of recommended adaptations to existing TBLT frameworks for more effective use in online and blended contexts, and in terms of associated benefits and challenges. Key contributions to new understanding concern access to digital resources during on-task stages, further opportunities for learner choice and peer training, the incorporation of soft skills training, and the refining of task-related documentation and procedures. Findings are also applied to recommended changes to initial teacher training programmes in ELT and to ongoing aspects of professional development