摘要:

SummaryA number of researchers have emphasised the ‘importance of the teacher’ in criticising studies of school effectiveness. This position has gained considerable support from practitioners who argue that some teachers are better than others and that experienced practitioners know a good teacher when they see one. Studies of teacher effectiveness are, however, notoriously difficult to design and conduct; they are rarely replicated. The paper presents evidence from one such attempt involving the teaching of reading in English infant schools and comes up with some unexpected resu

ISSN:0141-1926    

DOI:10.1080/0141192790050201

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1979

数据来源: WILEY

ISSN:0141-1926    

DOI:10.1080/0141192790050202

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1979

数据来源: WILEY

ISSN:0141-1926    

DOI:10.1080/0141192790050203

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1979

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

SummaryThere is a growing emphasis in psychology on cognitive variables that mediate feelings and action. White consistently has stressed the concept of sense of competence and, more recently, Bandura has posited the centrality of self‐efficacy in understanding human behaviour. The construction of a student sense of learning competence inventory (SLCI) is described and findings are reported on its administration to 721 first‐year university students. The majority of students felt limited sense of competence as learners. An analysis of sense of learning competence factors by faculty showed some significant differences between faculties. The validity of the SLCI is explored in relation to academic performance, achievement anxiety and study habits. Sense of competence has both evaluative and expectancy dimensions. Many students may have an inaccurate idea of their competence as learners and, hence, expectations of competence may inhibit as well as improve performance. The area of sense of learning competence is complex and suggestions are made for further resea

ISSN:0141-1926    

DOI:10.1080/0141192790050204

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1979

数据来源: WILEY

ISSN:0141-1926    

DOI:10.1080/0141192790050205

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1979

数据来源: WILEY

ISSN:0141-1926    

DOI:10.1080/0141192790050206

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1979

数据来源: WILEY

ISSN:0141-1926    

DOI:10.1080/0141192790050207

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1979

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

SummaryThe paper describes an approach to the definition and measurement of school innovativeness. Multiple criterion measures were developed to examine the complex interrelatedness of process and product dimensions of innovativeness. Process, defined as schools' continuous capacity for growth and self‐renewal, was operationalised by means of measures of school organisational climate for change and of principals' decision‐making behaviour in the management of innovation. Multiple product measures based on an inventory of specific innovations were used to define school level adoption, implementation and internalisation of innovations. Schools were found to differ significantly on each of the process and product measures. School mean scores for process and product were significantly related to each other and to measures of school openness to influence, of school supportiveness of change and of general motivational climate. School structure, process and norms appear to exert a significant influence on teachers' innovative attitudes and behaviours. The evidence suggests the utility of exploring innovativeness as a dimensional organisation level construct. The instruments developed for the study were found to possess a high degree of reliability and validity. Some 2000 teachers participated in the pilot and main studies.Since the pioneering work of Mort in the 1930s the study of innovation in schools has been dominated by models of analysis and explanation borrowed mainly from diffusion research in rural sociology. It is now a commonplace criticism that there are theoretical and practical problems in the grounding assumption that innovation in schools is homologous to adoption by individuals in agricultural settings (Fullan, 1972; Rogers&Shoemaker, 1971). The complexity of organisational change processes in schools is well documented in studies which, contrary to the prevailing rhetoric of change, found limited evidence of the successful implementation of adopted innovations (Goodlad&Klein, 1970; Smith&Keith, 1971; Grosset al.1971; Sarason, 1974).Typical ‘rate of adoption’ approaches stop short of an examination both of the variable stages in the ‘life’ of an innovation and of the organisational properties of schools which may inhibit or facilitate its adoption and institutionalisation. The use of criteria of innovativeness based on the number of innovations reportedly adopted obscures differences in levels, targets and processes of change. Neither do such measures differentiate functional and dysfunctional innovation characteristics, individual and system cost benefits, manifest‐latent and direct‐indirect consequences (Rogers&Shoemaker, 1971). In practice innovations may be highly divergent in complexity and consequences and such variations may carry significant implications for implementation strategies (Fullan&Pomfret, 1977).The studies reported here describe an attempt to define and measure school inno‐vativeness and to test the validity of the assertion that innovativeness may be analysed more meaningfully as an organisation level construct. Innovativeness is defined both as product (i.e. the adoption and implementation of specific innovations) and as process (i.e. schools' continuous capacity for growth and self‐renewal). Multiple criterion measures were developed to explore the dimensionality of product and of process and the complex interrelatedness of product and process. The measures were derived from theories of innovation and organisation and from a content analysis of reported perceptions of innovations and of innovative processes in schools. It was hypothesised that between school variance would significantly (p<0‐001) exceed within school variance on each of the product and process measures and that product and process measures would be significantly related to each other and to measures of postulated organisational correlates.The main thrust of the argument is that there are limitations in approaches which regard innovations exclusively as episodic events and as ends in themselves (Gross, Giacquinta&Bernstein, 1971). Innovation is inextricably related to organisational processes, structures and norms. Innovation occurs in organisational contexts which may vary significantly in functional flexibility and openness to new knowledge. In organisational terms school is defined as an open socio‐technical system (Emery&Trist, 1963) interacting with a ‘turbulent environment’ (Terrerberry, 1968). There may be wide variations in degree of openness among schools and within schools over time (Davies, 1973). Innovativeness may be defined partially as a school's attempt to grow and adapt to changing internal and external circumstances. The position adopted here shifts the emphasis from a preoccupation with ‘one shot’ innovations to an exploration of the processes of implementing and assimilating exogenous and endogenous changes within a framework of changing contextual demands and constraints. Specific innovations, however designated, are likely to be interrelated critically with one another. Their adopters interact with other individuals and groups within the system. Neither can the processes of growth and adaptation be considered meaningfully in isolation from the complementary processes of task achievement and group maintenance in schools. An adequate analysis of organisational change processes, it is argued, must take account of the interaction of school's tasks, structures, technology and leadership styles, the norms and behaviours of groups and individuals and the transactions of the organisation with its environment. It was hoped that the studies reported here might yield a better insight into a complex construct

ISSN:0141-1926    

DOI:10.1080/0141192790050208

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1979

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

SummaryHow can teachers become more closely involved in researching educational issues of national concern? Until recently efforts to involve teachers have been largely confined to individual classrooms. The paper: (a) describes some experience of an alternative paradigm through which teachers, amongst others, have been given access to a major national survey of secondary education and the transition to tertiary education or work; and (b) explores the problems that have been encountered in the attempt to decentralise the control of educational knowledge in this way.

ISSN:0141-1926    

DOI:10.1080/0141192790050209

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1979

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

Book reviewed in this article:Public Accountability and the Schooling SystemWILLIAM BACON, 1978, London, Harper&RowReading from Process to Practice, L. JOHN CHAPMAN&PAM CZERNIEWSKA (Eds), 1978, London, Routledge&Kegan Paul/Open University Press, £3.95 (paperback

ISSN:0141-1926    

DOI:10.1080/0141192790050210

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1979

数据来源: WILEY