ethanporcaro/eric-fulltext-meta huggingface dataset:
Inspiring Teachers: Perspectives and Practices
Author: Sammons, Pam
Date: 2014-09-00
Type: Reports - Research
Subjects: Foreign Countries,Teacher Attitudes,Observation,Interviews,Instructional Effectiveness,Teacher Effectiveness,Teacher Characteristics,Classroom Techniques,Formative Evaluation,Feedback (Response),Positive Reinforcement,Classroom Environment,Elementary School Teachers,Secondary School Teachers,Principals,Teacher Student Relationship,Relevance (Education),Reflection,Educational Innovation,Occupational Aspiration,Job Satisfaction,Cooperation,Teaching Methods,Student Attitudes

This research study investigates the notion of &quot;inspiring&quot; teaching through case studies of a purposive sample of 17 primary and secondary school teachers in England. The research was commissioned by CfBT Education Trust as part of a collaborative professional development initiative involving its schools. It arose from headteachers' suggestions that schools nominate a number of &quot;inspiring&quot; teachers so that their practice could be studied and the results shared across the participating schools to promote the professional development of staff and spread good practice through encouraging greater collaboration and learning across the CfBT family of schools. The purposive samples are thus viewed as exemplars of good practice by their schools by showing practice that is seen as &quot;inspiring&quot; for colleagues and students. The first section of this report is divided into two parts. The first contextualises the work in relevant literature, exploring gaps and definitions in the existing body of knowledge about inspiring teaching, and connecting the contribution of this study to these issues. The second outlines the aims and methods that guided the research. The findings reported in this document provide new evidence and insights about what inspiring teachers do (through observations), what they think (through interviews), and how their students think about their teachers and lessons (through questionnaires). The use of multiple observation instruments begins to address the gap outlined at the end of the previous section by providing measures of what inspiring teaching might &quot;look like&quot;, i.e. what teachers do and what happens in their classrooms. The research had two complementary components--an investigation led by practitioners and another led by a team of academics from the Department of Education at the University of Oxford and the Institute of Education at the University of Worcester. Each study adopted different methods and a different approach to investigating what it is to be an inspiring teacher. This report presents a description of inspiring teachers--drawing exclusively on the academic study which focused on a sub-sample of 17 of the original 36 teachers. A complementary summary report based on both phases of the research is also available. [The University of Worcester contributed to this research project. For &quot;Inspiring Teachers: Perspectives and Practices. Summary Report,&quot; see ED546803.]
Lessons from London Schools: Investigating the Success
Author: Baars, Sam
Date: 2014-06-00
Type: Reports - Research
Subjects: Foreign Countries,Educational Improvement,Educational Policy,Educational Change,Intervention,Instructional Leadership,Elementary Schools,Secondary Schools,Elementary School Teachers,Secondary School Teachers,Secondary School Students,Elementary School Students

This research seeks to investigate the claim that London schools have improved dramatically since 2000. The authors have reviewed the evidence of transformational change and explored possible reasons for the development in London's schools. The project was guided by three questions: (1) Is the success of London's schools as real as has been suggested?; (2) If the success is real, in what ways have schools improved and for what reasons?; and (3) What can be learned for the future of school improvement, for London and beyond? The authors suggest that the report provides readers-- such as teachers, school leaders and policymakers--with a detailed review of what has happened across London. It provides a comprehensive synthesis of previous evaluations of the London schools' journey and of the distinctive elements that are perceived as contributing to improvement. Most importantly, it draws conclusions intended to inform current debates on educational policy reform in a very practical sense, providing an agenda for action. An appendix details the methods used in this research. [This report was written with the support of the Centre for London and LKMco.]
Successful Leadership: A Review of the International Literature
Author: Day, Christopher
Date: 2013-00-00
Type: Information Analyses
Subjects: Foreign Countries,Instructional Leadership,Transformational Leadership,Participative Decision Making,Academic Achievement,Literature Reviews,Principals,Instructional Effectiveness,Curriculum Design,Educational Resources,Communities of Practice,Student Behavior,Attendance Patterns,Partnerships in Education,Teaching Conditions,Administrative Organization,Alignment (Education),School Community Relationship,Elementary School Teachers,Secondary School Teachers

School leaders are under considerable pressure to demonstrate the contribution of their work to school improvement, which has resulted in the creation of a wide range of literature which addresses leadership in the context of school improvement. This review pays particular attention to issues including transformational leadership, instructional/pedagogical leadership and distributed leadership. The evidence examined by this review indicates that effective school leadership is important but, in isolation, is not a sufficient condition for successful schools. The review draws particular attention to two concepts of leadership: instructional/pedagogical and transformational. While there is evidence that instructional/pedagogical leadership has been shown to be important for promoting better academic outcomes for students, it is concluded that the two forms of leadership are not mutually exclusive. A combination of strategies can be most beneficial in ensuring school success and most leadership effects operate indirectly to promote student outcomes by supporting and enhancing conditions for teaching and learning through direct impacts on teachers and their work. School leaders, particularly principals, have a key role to play in setting direction and creating a positive school culture including the proactive school mindset, and supporting and enhancing staff motivation and commitment needed to foster improvement and promote success for schools in challenging circumstances. The challenges facing school leaders include: (1) ensuring consistently good teaching and learning; (2) integrating a sound grasp of basic knowledge and skills within a broad and balanced curriculum; (3) managing behaviour and attendance; (4) strategically managing resources and the environment; (5) building the school as a professional learning community; and (6) developing partnerships beyond the school to encourage parental support for learning and new learning opportunities. The key dimensions of successful leadership are identified as: (1) defining the vision, values and direction; (2) improving conditions for teaching and learning; (3) redesigning the organisation: aligning roles and responsibilities; (4) enhancing teaching and learning; (5) redesigning and enriching the curriculum; (6) enhancing teacher quality (including succession planning); (7) building relationships inside the school community; (8) building relationships outside the school community; and (9) placing an emphasis on common values.
Building High-Performing and Improving Education Systems: Leadership. Review
Author: Slater, Liz
Date: 2013-00-00
Type: Reports - Evaluative
Subjects: Instructional Leadership,Principals,Educational Improvement,Expectation,Administrator Responsibility,Administrator Role,Management Development,Administrator Characteristics,School Effectiveness,Department Heads,School Turnaround,Compensation (Remuneration),Foreign Countries

Many of the policy documents and much of the recent literature talk about &quot;leadership&quot; when discussing the role of headteachers and principals of schools. The word is also used when writing about other senior and middle managers. It is a way of showing the difference between what used to be expected of headteachers and what is expected of them now. They now have more responsibilities. As a result, they need different characteristics and a wider range of knowledge and skills. &quot;Leadership&quot; is a generic term. It opens up the possibility of learning from the exercise of successful leadership in other organisations, particularly where improved performance is needed. Leithwood and Strauss note it is &quot;the major factor accounting for successful turnarounds&quot;. Leadership, particularly by the headteacher, is important in promoting school improvement. Research has also identified the role of middle leaders, particularly heads of subject departments, in shaping the academic effectiveness of the school. In this Review, for the sake of clarity, job titles such as &quot;headteacher&quot; and &quot;principal&quot; are used. This Review looks at key aspects of policy and practice relating to headteachers: their changing role; management of supply; recruitment; performance management; training and development. An annex presents: &quot;Responsibilities of headteachers.&quot; [National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER) carried out the scoping and bibliographic work on which this review was based.]
Bilingual Education in Brunei: The Evolution of the Brunei Approach to Bilingual Education and the Role of CfBT in Promoting Educational Change. Research Briefing
Author: Riggall, Anna, Ed.
Date: 2014-00-00
Type: Reports - Research
Subjects: Foreign Countries,Bilingual Education,English (Second Language),Partnerships in Education,Educational Attainment,Educational Improvement,Educational Quality,Institutional Role,Change Agents,Educational Assessment,Capacity Building,Educational Practices,Faculty Development

During 2012/13 academics from the Department of Education, University of Oxford, were commissioned by CfBT to conduct an independent evaluation of the CfBT Brunei English teaching programme. The evaluation sought to document the various processes of change and improvement within the Bruneian education system between 1996 and 2012, in particular looking at the teaching of English as an additional language in the bilingual system, and the involvement of CfBT as an external education provider and change agent. This research briefing describes the six &quot;evolutionary paths&quot; identified by the evaluation. Core recommendations from the evaluation are also summarized. [For the full report, see ED546822. For the related summary, see ED546819.]
Building High-Performing and Improving Education Systems. Systems and Structures: Powers, Duties and Funding. Review
Author: Slater, Liz
Date: 2013-00-00
Type: Reports - Evaluative
Subjects: Educational Improvement,Educational Quality,Power Structure,Educational Finance,Educational Responsibility,Financial Support,Administrative Organization,Governance,Resource Allocation,Private Schools,Public Schools,Foreign Countries,Elementary Secondary Education

This Review looks at the way high-performing and improving education systems share out power and responsibility. Resources--in the form of funding, capital investment or payment of salaries and other ongoing costs--are some of the main levers used to make policy happen, but are not a substitute for well thought-through and appropriate policy making. Nonetheless, having control over resources can be critical to achieving policy implementation. This Review also looks briefly at some models of private schooling, since they are used in many systems in conjunction with public education.
Action Research for School Improvement: Studies on Able, Gifted and Talented Learners, Homework and White Working-Class Pupils
Author: Riggall, Anna, Ed.
Date: 2014-00-00
Type: Reports - Research
Subjects: Action Research,Educational Improvement,Academically Gifted,Homework,White Students,Working Class,Educational Research,Educational Attainment,Academic Achievement,Psychotherapy,Cooperative Learning,Special Education,Elementary Schools,Secondary Schools,Foreign Countries

This report is based on seven action research projects undertaken by teachers in CfBT academies in the school year 2012/13. The schools received research support that included training in research methods and undertook a smallscale research project within one of three thematic strands. Schools chose the themes for their research themselves and these reflected key strategic priorities. The first theme, able, gifted and talented learners, was made up of the two studies: (1) Exploring the use of transactional analysis to develop able pupils' collaborative working (Stamford Queen Eleanor School: Emma Lupton); and (2) Lessons from the evaluation of a gifted and talented programme (The Deepings School: Christopher Cox, Nick Lefley, James Baird-Parker, Andrew Hart, Daniel Walker, Olivia Schelpe and Charlotte Strenge). The second theme, homework, had three studies: (1) Cross-curricular homework: how does it impact on attainment, engagement and teaching? (Ely College: James Waters, Sarah Kupski and Sam Craven); (2) Homework: strategies that work for us and our students (Oxford Spires Academy: Patricia Thornhill, Rebekah Finch and Joanne Dunphy); and (3) The changing face of homework at Danum Academy (Danum Academy: Angela Moore, Debbie Calver, Lyndsey Dyer, Rachel Elliott, Sarah Higgins, Steve Richardson and Laura Saunders). The third and final theme, white working-class pupils, was made up of two studies: (1) Engaging white working-class pupils at St. Mark's Church of England Academy (St. Mark's Church of England Academy: Joanne Isiramen, Gifty Ghansah, Thomas Slatter and Daniel Stevenson); and (2) Raising the attainment and achievement of white working-class pupils (Mount Street Academy: Becky Malam). In addition, three literature reviews were conducted by Richard Churches on each of the thematic strands. These provided the schools with the theoretical and research background in the area of their particular study. Each of these studies and their findings are detailed herein.
An Awareness of Neuroscience in Education: Can Learning about the Brain Transform Pupils' Motivation to Learn?
Author: Elwick, Alex, Ed.
Date: 2014-00-00
Type: Reports - Research
Subjects: Neurosciences,Brain,Learning Motivation,Science Instruction,Academic Achievement,Instructional Effectiveness,Intelligence,Computer Assisted Instruction,Secondary School Students,Student Attitudes,Beliefs,Foreign Countries

This research was commissioned by CfBT Education Trust and carried out in conjunction with the Institute for the Future of the Mind at the University of Oxford. The project sought to establish whether teaching pupils about the brain could impact upon their beliefs about their own intelligence (amongst other motivational measures) and ultimately positively impact on their academic performance. The central aims of this research were: (1) To assess whether teaching pupils about their own brains (neuroscience training) has an effect on their motivation to learn; (2) To assess whether teaching pupils about their brain has an effect on their actual academic performance; and (3) To assess whether the mode of teaching pupils about the brain (either by a teacher or a computer programme) impacts upon any outcomes of the training. A randomised controlled trial with Year 7 pupils showed that neuroscience training can positively change pupils' views of their own intelligence, encouraging them to see their own intelligence as flexible. The study did not show any positive impact on actual academic performance itself, but this was tested over a relatively short time period and within just one subject (mathematics). The study also tested the mode of delivery, comparing content delivered by a teacher with identical input delivered through an interactive software program. That delivered by the teacher was seen to have a greater impact on pupils' motivation, in both the short and the longer term. The study makes the following recommendations: (1) Additional research is needed to explore the effect of neuroscience teaching on academic performance; (2) Neuroscience workshops should be used to positively improve pupils' beliefs about their own intelligence; and (3) Further research should be undertaken to explore how neuroscience workshops can be used to try and combat the Year 7 learning &quot;dip&quot;. [The original version of this report was written by Ian Devonshire, Ellie Dommett and Susan Greenfield.]
Action Research at St Mark's Academy 2013
Author: Elwick, Alex, Ed.
Date: 2013-00-00
Type: Reports - Research
Subjects: Foreign Countries,Action Research,Public Schools,High Achievement,Christianity,Religious Education,Parochial Schools,Writing Skills,Literacy Education,Teaching Methods,Grading,Educational Policy,Error Correction,Values Education,Academic Persistence,Athletics,Geography Instruction,Student Motivation,Learning Strategies,Group Dynamics,English (Second Language),Withdrawal (Education),Student Promotion

St Mark's Church of England Academy is an 11-18 academy situated in Mitcham, South London. It offers a commitment to high achievement within a community of care, underpinned by the Christian values of hope, love and trust. The academy encourages the development of the moral and spiritual well-being of students, alongside their academic success. The academy works closely with, and is supported by, its sponsor, CfBT Education Trust, and its key partner, the Southwark Diocesan Board of Education. Developing a real professional learning community within the staff of a school is an ambitious task but one which the teachers and leaders at St Mark's Academy have shown can be achieved with the right support and some hard work and dedication. St Mark's Academy is leading the way in terms of developing an active research community and a research culture amongst the staff--this publication emerged from within the school itself and has been driven and inspired by the former principal (Chris Mallaband), his successor as substantive principal (Lisa Peterkin), and the interim principal (Rob Thomas), as well as the academy's governors and, of course, a large proportion of the academy staff. This year's practitioner research programme has focused on the key area of improving the quality of teaching and learning. Within this area, staff have explored areas such as an investigation into whole-school literacy; motivating learners in religious education; the impact of local fieldwork investigation on student experiences; the perception of school values on achievement and behaviour; and an examination of the transition from Year 11 to Year 12. This research will be fundamental in improving teaching and learning at St Mark's and the recommendations will be shared and inform our next steps and vision for the future. This will in turn empower young people to take ownership and leadership of their own learning journey. This action research report provides the outcomes of the practitioner research programme at St Mark's Academy in the 2012-2013 academic year. (Individual chapters contain references.) [Contributors from St Mark's Academy include: Rachel Sewell, Joshua Coulson, Alexander Kilford, Hannah Fahey, Safijo Jimale, Ewa Czarnecka, Eva Kingcome.]
Building High-Performing and Improving Education Systems: Teachers. Review
Author: Slater, Liz
Date: 2013-00-00
Type: Reports - Evaluative
Subjects: Educational Improvement,Educational Quality,Teacher Effectiveness,Teacher Characteristics,Teacher Recruitment,Teacher Supply and Demand,Preservice Teacher Education,Teacher Persistence,Teacher Placement,Faculty Development,Student Recruitment,Teacher Salaries,Teacher Evaluation,Rewards,Elementary Secondary Education

There is overwhelming evidence that teachers have the most effect on pupil outcomes (closely followed by the quality of leadership). The Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD) concluded that: (1) teachers were central to school improvement; (2) in order to improve the quality and fairness of education, teachers had to be skilled and able to teach very well; and (3) all students had to be taught by good-quality teachers. In fragile states, as elsewhere, besides teaching formal knowledge and skills (such as literacy and numeracy), teachers pass on values such as &quot;tolerance&quot; and &quot;citizenship.&quot; They also pass on information crucial to survival, such as health education. The evidence on the impact of teachers has been cited widely. As a result of the drive for school improvement, in many countries there has been increasing government involvement in policies relating to the recruitment, training, management and reward of teachers. Generally speaking, systems have taken broadly similar approaches. Where this has led to the relative exclusion of the profession itself from decision-making, there is a risk of de-professionalisation and loss of status. These changes, in turn, make teaching less attractive to high-quality potential entrants to the teaching profession. Consequently, this review looks at: (1) The characteristics of effective teachers; (2) Strategies for attracting high-quality candidates; (3) Recruitment to pre-service training; (4) Pre-service training and routes into the profession; (5) Deployment; and (6) Performance management, reward and professional development. It also covers briefly the role, training and deployment of para-professional and non-teaching staff. As with other component parts of high-performing and improving education systems (such as quality assurance, the curriculum and assessment) system leaders appear to focus on similar priorities. However, they have taken different approaches. There are important lessons to be learned from these different approaches, bearing in mind the different starting points, the cultural and political contexts and the available human and financial resources. Infrastructure and resources are significant, but evidence shows that teachers are the most critical parts of effective education systems. Governments aiming to raise standards need to ensure that all students have access to good-quality teachers, whatever their socio-economic status and wherever they live. [The National Foundation for Educational Research carried out the scoping and bibliographic work on which this review was based.]
Building High-Performing and Improving Education Systems: Quality Assurance and Accountability. Review
Author: Slater, Liz
Date: 2013-00-00
Type: Reports - Evaluative
Subjects: Educational Improvement,Accountability,Quality Assurance,Educational Quality,School Supervision,Evaluation Methods,Administrative Organization,Self Evaluation (Groups),Institutional Evaluation,Achievement Tests,Benchmarking,Data Collection,Compliance (Legal),Comparative Education,Test Use,Models,Foreign Countries

Monitoring, evaluation, and quality assurance in their various forms are seen as being one of the foundation stones of high-quality education systems. De Grauwe, writing about &quot;school supervision&quot; in four African countries in 2001, linked the decline in the quality of basic education to the cut in resources for supervision and support. Countries and states monitor and evaluate not only to drive educational improvement but also for accountability. There are difficulties with putting monitoring and evaluation into practice, and some opposition to it however, there seems to be a general recognition that evaluation is part of the process of education and that accountability is a normal and necessary part of the supply of public services. This review focuses on quality assurance, monitoring and evaluation, and the use of these methods to drive educational improvement and accountability; addressing structures, responsibilities, processes, tools and models of evaluation.