INNOVATION OF DOCTORAL STUDIES AT THE FEM CULS PRAGUE

Research results and university performance measures have been frequently discussed topic in the Czech higher education system. Performance can be improved by establishing innovations in education in many areas. At higher education sector the performance within research activities is of the same importance. Various authorities have been making an effort to establish a set of measures to assess research performance at institutional level. This paper focuses on the assessment of research activity within an institution – the Faculty of Economics and Management (FEM), Czech University of Life Sciences (CULS) Prague – with the use of Data Envelopment Analysis model (DEA). The measured units (DMUs) are 12 FEM departments. Based on the findings revealed by the DEA model application various measures adopted by the faculty in order to improve research and education performance are introduced. Following the widespread trend in many countries the focus of the effort is in training of university teachers and students. This aim is being partially accomplished by the Project Operational Program Prague – Adaptability (OPPA), which is focused on the innovation of the Ph.D. studies at the FEM. The main project aims are i) to improve students’ research experiences, ii) to provide appropriate conditions for Ph.D. students at the departments/faculty and iii) to launch tools for better communication among Ph.D. students and their supervisors

Is a schools’ performance related to technical change? – A study on the relationship between innovations and secondary school productivity

This paper examines the relation between innovations and productivity in dutch secondary schools. Innovation clusters are directly included in the production model. In order to correct for differences between schools, we add school type, region and year controls. The results indicate that process innovations, teacher professionalization innovations and education chain innovations are positively related to productivity, whereas new courses innovations and pedagogic innovations are negatively related to productivity. The results also show that innovations are directly related to productivity, but also through student performance. The positive results of teacher professionalization, education chain and process innovations are similar to what is found elsewhere in the literature

Efficiency in education. A review of literature and a way forward

This paper provides an extensive and comprehensive overview of the literature on efficiency in education. It summarizes the earlier applied inputs, outputs and contextual variables, as well as the used data sources of papers in the field of efficiency in education. Moreover, it reviews the papers on education that applied methodologies as Data Envelopment Analysis, Malmquist index, Bootstrapping, robust frontiers, metafrontier, or Stochastic Frontier Analysis. Based on the insights of the literature review, a second part of the paper provides some ways forward. It attempts to establish a link between the parametric 'economics of education' literature and the (semi-parametric) 'efficiency in education literature'. We point to the similarities between matching and conditional efficiency; difference-in-differences and metafrontiers; and quantile regressions and partial frontiers. The paper concludes with some operative directions for prospective researchers in the field

Tolerance of Ambiguity in Educational Technology: A Review of Two Social Science Concepts

How does a concept acquire its meaning? How does a learner acquire a concept? Answers are explored through historical review of two social science concepts: tolerance of ambiguity (TA) and educational technology (ET). Each of these concepts accommodates multiple interpretations. Limitations in dominant interpretations of each concept are exposed using three analytic perspectives: theoretical, ecological, and phenomenological. The first concept, TA, originally conceived as a personality trait, acquires additional meaning when re-interpreted as a metacognitive skill. As such, TA refers to an ability to cope with increasing sensitization to novel features of a phenomenon in order to redefine prior conceptual interpretations, contingent on trust and motivation. The second concept, ET, concerns the application of technology for purposes of learning. ET is popularly conflated to mean the application of computer technology; however, less intuitively, technology refers to myriad ideas and processes, including cultural, biological, and metacognitive processes. As a metacognitive strategy for conceptual change, TA can be exploited in ET theory and practice. In particular, securely experiencing the ambiguity that is inherent in a phenomenon (for example, the ambiguity inherent in a concept such as TA or ET) equips learners to overcome the restraints of prior knowledge, toward the cultivation of new knowledge

Itinerário pedagógico: estudo do impacto sobre as proficiências dos alunos nas avaliações da Provinha Brasil

Dissertação (mestrado profissional) - Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Centro Tecnológico, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Métodos e Gestão em Avaliação, Florianópolis, 2016O presente estudo tem o objetivo de realizar uma análise dos impactos do Programa Itinerário Pedagógico como metodologia da Educação Infantil, na Rede Municipal de Educação de São Bento do Sapucaí, de acordo com a percepção da equipe gestora e dos professores como prática de um processo de gestão de mudanças. Neste processo, também, serão analisados seus efeitos nos resultados obtidos pelos alunos nas Avaliações da Provinha Brasil e sua influência para a melhoria da qualidade da Educação Municipal. Este trabalho nasceu da opção feita pela equipe gestora da Educação do Município de São Bento do Sapucaí por utilizar o Itinerário Pedagógico como recurso metodológico de planejamento das atividades da Educação Infantil. Desta forma, procurou-se construir uma proposta que oferecesse subsídios para que a Educação Infantil Municipal pudesse refletir sobre seus objetivos e suas práticas. Optou-se por utilizar, como metodologia, a pesquisa qualiquantitativa longitudinal pela possibilidade de buscar, conhecer e interpretar a realidade pesquisada, utilizando o modo de investigação Estudo de Caso. A análise documental e as entrevistas foram fundamentais para apreender as vicissitudes da implementação do Programa, sob a consideração de que concorreriam para a compreensão da influência do Itinerário Pedagógico nos resultados alcançados pelos alunos na Provinha Brasil, dando robustez às análises com dados da realidade das escolas. Nas considerações finais, apresentamos reflexões sobre as dificuldades no processo de gestão a melhoria da qualidade vinculada à mudança da metodologia, considerando o contexto institucional em que o Itinerário Pedagógico foi implantado.Abstract : This study aims to analyze the impacts of the Pedagogical Route program as a methodology for early childhood education at the Municipal Education Network of São Bento do Sapucaí, São Paulo, Brazil. We considered the point-of-view of the management team and teachers, while practicing changes in the management process. We will also analyze the effects of this process over the results obtained by students on Provinha Brazil tests, as well as its influence to improve the quality of Municipal Education. This work began with the choice of the management team to use the Educational Itinerary as a methodological resource for planning activities of early childhood education. In this way, we attempted a proposal that would provide subsidies for the Municipal Children's Education, reflecting on their goals and practices. We chose to use the longitudinal qualiquantitative research as methodology, with the possibility of seeking, acknowledging and interpreting the reality studied a Case Study. The document analysis and interviews were fundamental to seize the vicissitudes of the implementation of the program under the consideration that they would compete for understanding the influence of Pedagogical Itinerary over the results achieved by the students on the Provinha Brazil, giving strength to the analysis with the real school data. In conclusion, we present reflections on the difficulties in the management process and in improving the quality linked to the change of methodology, considering the institutional context in which the pedagogical itinerary was deployed

Factores asociados a la eficiencia de las unidades de gestión educativa local en la generación de resultados educativos de calidad de la educación básica regular

El objetivo general de la presente investigación es evaluar el efecto de los factores asociados a la gestión de las UGEL sobre su eficiencia en la generación de resultados educativos de calidad de la Educación Básica Regular (EBR) de acuerdo con su capacidad operativa y desafío territorial, en el periodo 2019 al 2022. Los factores asociados propuestos son aspectos vinculados a la gestión de las UGEL: la “Gestión del personal”, la “Coordinación con el Ministerio de Educación (Minedu) y las DRE”, la “Coordinación con las IIEE” y la “Innovación y Desempeño promovidos por el Minedu”. De acuerdo con la literatura, estos factores podrían incidir en la capacidad de gestión de las UGEL, así como su eficiencia en el uso óptimo de recursos para alcanzar mejores resultados educativos.Además, para evitar una comparación no adecuada, se evalúa la eficiencia de las UGEL considerando su capacidad operativa y desafío territorial. De esta manera, a través de una estrategia mixta, (i) mediante un enfoque cuantitativo, se implementa un análisis de frontera estocástica para cuantificar la eficiencia técnica de las UGEL y evaluar cómo los factores vinculados a su gestión inciden en su mejora y, (ii) mediante un enfoque cualitativo, desde entrevistas semiestructuradas a actores claves (UGEL identificadas de mayor y menor eficiencia así como a personal del Minedu), se explica cómo se genera una gestión eficiente de los recursos educativos que contribuya a la generación de mejores logros educativos. En armonía con ambos enfoques, sólo se genera evidencia robusta para afirmar que el factor “Innovación y desempeño promovidos por el Minedu”, principalmente desde la gestión de incentivos a partir de los Compromisos de Desempeño, ha tenido una incidencia positiva en la eficiencia de las UGEL para la generación de resultados educativos de calidad de la EBR. Adicionalmente, los factores socioeconómicos han sido los de mayor efecto en la eficiencia, tanto en los resultados cuantitativos como en los cualitativos, lo cual está alineado con la evidencia nacional e internacional en el estudio de la eficiencia en educación. Ante estos resultados, se proponen principalmente recomendaciones para la continuidad en la implementación de estrategias que promuevan mejoras en la gestión de las UGEL, especialmente a través del canal de incentivos, fortaleciendo y/o repensando las estrategias previamente utilizadas o generando nuevas estrategias o mecanismos de incentivos que incorporen a personal clave de las UGEL como público objetivo. Se recomienda también que el sector educación fortalezca sus estrategias multisectoriales; principalmente, con aquellos actores que desarrollen políticas que busquen minimizar la pobreza y, sobre todo, mejorar la conectividad

L’eficiència del procés educatiu de maternal i primera ensenyança a Andorra

This work presents an efficiency assessment of public elementary schools in Andorra, a small country where there are three public educational systems (Andorran, Spanish -congregational and non congregational-, and French), with four different organizational environment. This particular framework, with different systems in the same country can give new results to the existent literature. The method used to measure the efficiency of the educational process in this study is the DEA (Data Envelopment Analysis), introduced by Charnes, Cooper, and Rhodes in 1978. In this study the DEA technique is applied with bootstrap (Simar and Wilson, 2000). To make the comparative study, Li test (Li, 1996) is used to confirm results by comparing the distribution of each educational system. To get the authorisation to obtain the data for this study it has been necessary to identify anonymously the different schools and educational systems in the results of the study. It is for this reason that the terms: A, B, C and D identify the four different educational systems. The results before introducing the effect of the environment variables show that school of educational system C have higher efficiency scores than other schools, and schools of educational system B, have lower efficiency scores. These results may be explained by the organizational environment of each educational system and can give indications to improve the efficiency of the schools. Some differences in the organizational environment of educational system C are: a higher level of management autonomy by the leadership (Purkey & Smith, 1983), which facilitates the role of the principal of the school (Antunex, 1994); and more school hours for students and more work hours for teachers (Gimenez et al., 2007; Naper, 2010). The results after introducing the effect of the socioeconomic environment of families and individual characteristics of the students (motivation and attitude towards the study) show that most differences in efficiency between educational systems disappear. It can be explained by the less favourable environment of educational system B, which appeared with lower efficiency scores before introducing the effect of these variables, and the opposite effect in schools of educational system C. As Coleman Report (Coleman et al., 1966) shows, the environmental variables role in educational process is truly important, and these results confirm that. Finally, results in last chapter show that efficiency is a variable that explains parental satisfaction. Previous studies that analyse the factors influencing parental satisfaction focus on involvement and participation of parents, school size, facilities, location and socioeconomic environment. This result provides new applications for efficiency studies, which can provide policies for improving the performance of public resources but also allow these policies to improve citizens' satisfaction with public services (Roch & Poister, 2006, and Van Ryzin et aI., 2004).En aquest treball es realitza un estudi d'eficiència de les escoles públiques de maternal i primera ensenyança d'Andorra. Les particularitats de I'entorn on es desenvolupa I'estudi, on conviuen tres sistemes educatius públics (I'andorrà, I'espanyol -congregacional i no congregacional- i el francès) que representen quatre entorns organitzatius diferents, en un mateix país, permeten fer noves aportacions a la literatura existent sobre I'eficiència del procés educatiu i identificar factors organitzatius que poden influir en I'eficiència de les escoles. EI mètode utilitzat per mesurar I'eficiència es el DEA (Data Envelopment Analisys), introduït per Charnes, Cooper i Rhodes el 1978. En una segona fase s'aplica la tècnica del bootstrap (Simar & Wilson, 2000). Per analitzar les diferències entre sistemes educatius s'utilitza el test de Li (Li, 1996). EI procés de recollida de dades ha estat laboriós i ha requerit la necessitat de garantir I'anonimat de les escoles i dels sistemes. És per aquest motiu que s'identifiquen els quatre sistemes educatius diferents miljançant lIetres: A, B, C i D. Els resultats abans d'introduir I'efecte de les variables d'entorn mostren que les escoles del sistema educatiu C obtenen puntuacions d'eficiència més altes que la resta, i les escoles del sistema educatiu B obtenen puntuacions d'eficiència més altres. Aquests resultats poden ser explicats pels trets diferencials de I'entorn organitzatiu que dibuixen els diferents sistemes educatius i poden donar indicacions amb I'objectiu de millorar I'eficiència de les escoles. Alguns dels trets diferencials del sistema educatiu C són: un nivell més elevat d'autonomia en la gestió (Purkey & Smith, 1983), que facilita el rol de lideratge per part de la direcció (Antunez, 1994); i un horari lectiu i laboral més extens (Gimenez et al., 2007; Naper, 2010). Després d'incloure I'efecte de I'entorn socioeconòmic de les famílies i les característiques individuals de I'alumne (en termes de motivació i actitud) s'observa que desapareixen la major part de diferències en I'eficiència de les escoles per sistemes educatius. Aquest canvi pot venir explicat per I'entorn menys favorable en el que treballen les escoles del sistema educatiu B i en I'entorn més favorable de les del sistema educatiu C. Tal i com es va començar a debatre amb la publicació de I'informe Coleman (Coleman et aI., 1966), I'entorn familiar i les característiques individuals de I'alumne són variables que intervenen al procés educatiu, i aquests resultats ho constaten. Per acabar, en I'anàlisi de les variables que expliquen la satisfacció dels pares, s'ha trobat que I'eficiència de les escoles n'és una. Aquest darrer resultat aporta noves aplicacions als estudis d'eficiència que s'han fet fins ara, que no només permeten estudiar polítiques de millora del rendiment dels recursos públics sinó que també permeten orientar aquestes polítiques a la millora de la satisfacció dels ciutadans amb els serveis públics (Roch & Poister, 2006 i Van Ryzin el al., 2004)

Rethinking Organization, Knowledge, and Field: An Institutional Analysis of Teacher Education at High Tech High

Thesis advisor: Marilyn Cochran-SmithA new phenomenon in teacher education, referred to as new graduate schools of education, or nGSEs (Cochran-Smith, et al., 2016), is gaining traction in the U.S. Profoundly different in program structures and arrangements from most university programs, these non-university affiliated teacher education programs have emerged during the current era of standards- and accountability-based reform. However, limited empirical research has examined how nGSEs conceptualize and enact teaching and learning and how these programs might signal a shift in the field of teacher education. This dissertation attempts to address this empirical lacuna through an in-depth qualitative case study of the first such program, located within High Tech High (HTH), a charter school network. The purpose of this study is to understand the HTH program’s core beliefs and behaviors, as well as the organization’s relationship with its institutional environment (i.e. the broader educational policy, funding, and field-level contexts). Utilizing institutional analysis and sensemaking theory, I argue that teacher education programming at HTH drew on a core logic of constructivism, which informed the school’s instructional work of teaching and learning and its organizational design. Through this constructivist approach, teacher education faculty and students were able to “practice with theory,” bridging the theory-practice dichotomy and informing a relational and actionable conception of knowledge. Finally, HTH took an active stance towards its institutional environment, developing organizational networks to both retain organizational fidelity to its mission and also enact change in accordance with this mission. My analysis has implications for teacher education, organizational analysis, and education policy. Because constructivism dually informed instruction and organizational structures, HTH offers new possibilities for the design of education organizations. The centrality of constructivist logics allowed for both remarkable consistency in values, beliefs, and goals across the organization as well as considerable agency for individual actors. The agency of HTH personnel, paired with the program’s “active stance” towards environmental forces, such as funders and field-level partners, informed how education leaders’ design choices simultaneously supported individual agency and organizational mission as well as ground-up approaches to change. Lastly, the case of HTH indicates that the nGSE phenomenon models new organizational approaches to teacher education, which can challenge and expand the ways in which we understand teaching and learning for educators.Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2019.Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education.Discipline: Teacher Education, Special Education, Curriculum and Instruction