Investigating School Leadership within a European Project

This article draws on the work conducted within the context of the European Policy Network on School Leadership. Its aim is to discuss and reflect upon school leadership policy development in the context of European education systems. The first section focuses on the concept of school leadership, identifying connections between school leadership practices and the promotion of equity and learning in schools. The second section discusses critical factors in policy implementation that shape the capacity of school leaders to combat inequalities and promote learning performance in schools. The article ends with an outlining of key policy actions for the promotion of distributed leadership practices in schools. In effect, this section stresses the need for a conceptual shift in understanding school leadership, from the position, roles, responsibilities, traits and capacities of the individuals holding formally assigned leadership roles in schools, to leadership as a function inside schools. As it is argued, such a conceptual shift calls for a policy shift in school leadership capacity-building that strengthens, but also goes beyond, the traditional repertoire of policies that focus on the preparation and professional training of school heads or other members of formal teams responsible for school management

weSPOT: A personal and social approach to inquiry-based learning

weSPOT is a new European initiative proposing a novel approach for personal and social inquiry-based learning in secondary and higher education. weSPOT aims at enabling students to create their mash-ups out of cloud based tools and services in order to perform scientific investigations. Students will also be able to share their inquiry accomplishments in social networks and receive feedback from the learning environment and their peers. This paper presents the research framework of the weSPOT project, as well as the initial inquiry-based learning scenarios that will be piloted by the project in real-life educational settings

De la relaxation au stretching

The article draws from the work conducted in the context of the European Policy Network on School Leadership (EPNoSL). In particular, it is based on an in-depth review of school leadership policies in 21 European countries and the discourse that is taking place in EPNoSL’s webinars, national workshops and peer learning activities organised in several EU countries with the participation of a variety of school leadership stakeholders (including policy makers at European, national, and local levels, school leaders, teachers and other professionals, academics, researchers, parents and students). EPNoSL is a network of 42 European institutions that aims at improving policy on, and practice in, school leadership in Europe. The article discusses the question of school autonomy in the context of school leadership policy development in Europe. School autonomy is considered as a critical precondition for the development of comprehensive school leadership policies. Based on the comprehensive framework of school leadership policy development that has been developed in the context of this project, the article undertakes two main tasks. Firstly, it attempts to show that instead of searching for universal solutions on the question of school autonomy, it is important to reflect on context-specific policies on autonomy that aim at the attainment of concrete learning and equity goals. Secondly, it specifies seven general directions for policies on school autonomy that are adaptive to the divergent experiences of European education systems

Võrdseid võimalusi ja õppimist soodustav koolijuhtimine ning koolide autonoomia

Artikkel põhineb koolijuhtimise Euroopa võrgustiku (EPNoSL) raames tehtud tööl, eelkõige 21 Euroopa riigi koolijuhtimise strateegiate süvauuringul ja aruteludel, mis toimuvad EPNoSLi veebiseminaridel, riikide õpikodades ja vastastikuse õppe üritustel, millest võtavad osa mitmes ELi riigis koolijuhtimisega seotud huvirühmad (sh Euroopa, riikliku ja kohaliku tasandi poliitikakujundajad, koolijuhid, õpetajad ja teised haridustöötajad, õppejõud, lapsevanemad ja õpilased). EPNoSL on Euroopas tegutsevast 42 institutsioonist koosnev võrgustik, mille eesmärk on parandada Euroopa koolide juhtimist nii poliitilisel kui ka praktilisel tasandil. Artiklis käsitletakse koolide autonoomia küsimust Euroopa koolijuhtimise strateegiate kujundamise kontekstis. Koolide autonoomiat peetakse tervikliku koolijuhtimise poliitika väljatöötamise oluliseks eeltingimuseks. Artikkel tugineb kõnealuse projekti raames välja töötatud laiaulatuslikule koolijuhtimise strateegia kujundamise raamistikule ja sellel on kaks põhieesmärki. Esiteks püütakse artiklis näidata, et selle asemel et otsida koolide autonoomia puhul ühte, kõigile sobivat lahendust, tuleks keskenduda konkreetset olukorda arvestavale strateegiale, mille eesmärk on saavutada kindlaksmääratud õpitulemused ja võrdsed võimalused. Teiseks on artiklis kirjeldatud seitset koolide autonoomia põhisuunda, mida on võimalik kohandada Euroopa eripalgeliste haridussüsteemidega.  Full tex

Working Environment with Social and Personal Open Tools for Inquiry-based learning: Pedagogic and Diagnostic Frameworks

The weSPOT project aims at propagating scientific inquiry as the approach for science learning and teaching in combination with today’s curricula and teaching practices The project focuses on inquiry-based learning with a theoretically sound and technology supported personal inquiry approach and it contains three main development aspects: (a) define a reference model for inquiry-based learning skills, (b) create a diagnostic instrument for measuring inquiry skills, and (c) implement a working environment that allows the easy linking of inquiry activities with school curricula and legacy systems. The current work outlines the pedagogical and diagnostic frameworks for scientific inquiry. The pedagogical framework is aimed at supporting informal, self-regulated learning settings as well as the embedding in a formal learning context. The scientific exploration process can take place independently, or in collaboration with others. The diagnostic framework focuses on the pedagogical diagnosis, which will be tailored to the ambitious aim of inferring students' inquiry and meta-cognitive skills as well as domain-specific knowledge from observational data tracked within the weSPOT environment. Pilot studies planned to be conducted in 16 test-beds across 6 EU countries will test the reference model and make use of the diagnostic instrument

Working Environment with Social and Personal Open Tools for Inquiry-based learning: Pedagogic and Diagnostic Frameworks

The weSPOT project aims at propagating scientific inquiry as the approach for science learning and teaching in combination with today’s curricula and teaching practices The project focuses on inquiry-based learning with a theoretically sound and technology supported personal inquiry approach and it contains three main development aspects: (a) define a reference model for inquiry-based learning skills, (b) create a diagnostic instrument for measuring inquiry skills, and (c) implement a working environment that allows the easy linking of inquiry activities with school curricula and legacy systems. The current work outlines the pedagogical and diagnostic frameworks for scientific inquiry. The pedagogical framework is aimed at supporting informal, self-regulated learning settings as well as the embedding in a formal learning context. The scientific exploration process can take place independently, or in collaboration with others. The diagnostic framework focuses on the pedagogical diagnosis, which will be tailored to the ambitious aim of inferring students' inquiry and meta-cognitive skills as well as domain-specific knowledge from observational data tracked within the weSPOT environment. Pilot studies planned to be conducted in 16 test-beds across 6 EU countries will test the reference model and make use of the diagnostic instrument.weSPOT is a 7th Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013) project funded by the European Commission under grant agreement number: 318499 (http://wespot.net)