111,734 research outputs found

    Resistances and the optimisation of the Scottish education system

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    In 2016 the OECD published ‘Improving Schools in Scotland’ (OECD, 2016). The re-view made a strong case for a new evaluation framework to measure performance across all system levels, including ‘direct measures’ of school curriculum effectiveness, pupil attainment and teacher performance. The Scottish Government responded by creating the ‘National Improvement Framework’ (NIF; Scottish Government, 2016), which, as recommended, gathers data on all aspects of the education system. Central to this was a re-introduction of pupil standardized as-sessments, which was strongly opposed by teachers across Scotland. Of equal concern was a move to measure teacher performance and the development of new governance and accountability structures (Scottish Government, 2017). The OECD review explicitly overlooks teachers as actors of knowledge creation, instead highlighting the potential for ‘independent agencies’ to gather evidence on the system. It is therefore unsurprising that the Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) has become a dominant player in education reform. Despite this, the ‘teacher research’ trend (Wall, 2018) has picked up considerable momentum, with many schools choosing to develop their own teacher-led research hubs. We draw on documentary analysis of policy dis-course to position teacher opposition to standardized assessment and the teacher research movement as forms of resistance to the optimization of the Scottish education system

    The South Yorkshire e-Inclusion Projects

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    In July 2007 the South Yorkshire e-Learning programme approved investment in a series of one year projects designed to test and support use of technology to address social and educational exclusion and to identify ‘what works’ and support the adoption of this effective practice. By e-inclusion, we mean the use of appropriate digital technology to provide access to personalised learning for those isolated from the mainstream educational system. It was recognised that inclusion, even without the ‘e’, is a complex agenda with significant variations reflecting local partnerships and specialist learner groupings such as Looked After Children, hospital and home services and Pupil Referral Units. Effective projects would therefore need to be localised and specialised. However, it was clear that similar challenges of practice, effectiveness, empowerment and sustainability are experienced across the range of inclusion and re-engagement services, largely irrespective of partnership or client group. Furthermore the practitioners are often professionally isolated on account of their specialisms and the nature of their mission. They often lack the critical mass to share practice, to solve systemic problems and to access value added funding. The South Yorkshire e-inclusion projects were therefore explicitly structured to take both the specialism and common ground in to account. Each of the four local authorities was invited to plan and manage its own localised project or projects. These projects were then brought together within a formalised model for collaboration and evaluation. It was this wrap-around function, a model of collaborative self-help, which sparked the journey described here

    National evaluation of the Primary Leadership Programme

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    A FOLLOW-UP STUDY OF FIFTY-TWO RICHMOND PUBLIC SCHOOL PUPILS GIVEN PSYCHIATRIC STAFFING DURING THE 1966-1967 SCHOOL YEAR

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    This research study is a descriptive study of the effectiveness of the psychiatric staffing as determined by a follow-up study of fifty-two Richmond Public School Pupils given such staffing during the l966-67 school year. The review of pertinent literature reveals what others have contributed to the knowledge of the nature and function of the school helping team. The teamwork approach, which involves the efforts of several professions and disciplines working closely together, is seen as the best present method to meet the complex, overlapping needs which have been found to affect students\u27 learning. As a means of establishing guidelines and limits for this study, five areas of concern were defined. The questions to be answered by this study were: 1. What are the socio-economic backgrounds represented by the sample? 2. Were the recommendations made by the school psychiatrist implemented? 3. Is the overall psychiatric staffing effective according to the improvement in pupils presenting problems and the extent to which the recommendations were carried out? 4. To what extent do the available records contain sufficient information for a follow-up study? 5. What are the attitudes of the key persons responsible for the psychiatric staffing toward the effective operation of these staffings? The Pupil Personnel Services gave its approval to conduct this study. The sample numbered fifty-two. The agency requested and it was agreed that no pupil, school, or agency be contacted and that information be obtained only from the files and employees of Pupil Personnel Services. An interview schedule was constructed to elicit information to determine the extent to which the recommendations made during the psychiatric staffing were initiated and carried out. This schedule was applied to the pupil records. Open ended questions were used in interview schedules to gather pertinent information from three key persons responsible for the effective operation of the psychiatric staffing. The fifty-two pupil cases revealed the pupils to be largely from low income families, mostly males with acting-out behavior problems, and with no significant concentration from any one school. A larger percentage of the recommendations that were initiated involved the use of school resources rather than community resources. In nearly half of the pupil cases the recommendations were completely carried out, with a remaining few being carried out to a lesser extent. The findings suggested that, if the recommendations were carried out, the pupil would show behavior improvement. To a large extent the statements made by the key persons generally reflected that methods of record keeping be improved within the Department of Visiting Teachers; that there be an increase in the number and quality of the visiting teachers, especially for elementary and Junior high school placements; that parents of the pupils given psychiatric staffings become involved in the staffings and be included in the treatment process themselves; and that the visiting teacher exercise more responsibility for follow-up on the pupils given psychiatric staffing
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