Implementation Of Educational Reforms Research Articles

The professional development needs of Hong Kong ESL teachers

In the light of changing needs for the professional development (PD) of ESL teachers in Hong Kong, this study investigates current practice and future needs within the context of the implementation of educational reforms by the Hong Kong Government. A cohort of ESL teachers, members of a knowledge sharing community project, participated in a survey to gauge their experience of, and attitudes towards, PD. The survey produced a 100% response. Data from the cohort indicated that experienced, well-qualified ESL teachers perceive the need for PD from a broader perspective than their less qualified, less experienced peers who are driven by more immediate needs. These findings resonate with those from countries where PD is viewed as an integral part of ongoing teacher development. The paper concludes with the recommendations that the current findings would be augmented by a further, qualitative study.

Not all interactive engagement is the same: Variations in physics professors’ implementation ofPeer Instruction

While educational reforms in introductory physics are becoming more widespread, how these reforms are implemented is less well understood. This paper examines the variation in faculty practices surrounding the implementation of educational reform in introductory physics courses. Through observations of classroom practice, we find that professors' actual practices differ strikingly. We present a framework for describing and capturing instructional choices and resulting variations in enacted practices for faculty who are implementing Peer Instruction. Based on our observations, there are a variety of scientific practices that are supported and modeled in the use of Peer Instruction. In all of the classrooms studied, students were found trying out and applying new physical concepts and discussing physics with their peers. However, there were large discrepancies in students' opportunities to engage in formulating and asking questions, evaluating the correctness and completeness of problem solutions, interacting with physicists, identifying themselves as sources of solutions, explanations, or answers, and communicating scientific ideas in a public arena. Case studies of six professors demonstrate how these variations in classroom practices, in aggregate, create different classroom norms, such as the relative emphasis on student sense-making vs answer-making during Peer Instruction.

Educational reform in North Cyprus—Towards the making of a nation/state?

Abstract The Turkish Republic of North Cyprus (TRNC) aspires to take its place in Europe and the global ‘knowledge economy’. In order to do so, it needs not only to be politically recognised as legitimate and to develop the kinds of economic and governance structures that signify a functional state, but also to produce a cultural imaginary of itself as a nation. In this paper, we mobilise Appadurai's theorisation of deterritorialisation, flows and context generation in order to examine the ways in which the implementation of educational reforms in TRNC might contribute to this ambition. We show that the ethnoscape and financescape combine to make education reform difficult, with specific challenges arising from the mixed commitment of the workforce, the capacity of the education bureaucracy to align support with policy mandates, and the ‘fit’ between the policy and local needs. We conclude by suggesting that TRNC faces the dilemma of working with cultural heterogeneity: Appadurai identifies this as a key ideoscape challenge for all nation/states.

Complexity Theory and School Reform

There is a paucity of studies that assess the influence of communication in facilitating educational change. The purpose of this study was to examine the role of communication for high school principals in the implementation of education reform. Overall, the study found that top-down communication strategy was more prevalent in high schools. These findings are consonant with complexity theory, which posits that self-organizing activities are best promoted by interactions and connection among staff members.

“It’s what we’ve always been doing.” Exploring tensions between school culture and change

In this article, we compare two North Carolina public schools that were simultaneously implementing reforms with seemingly different orientations, the A+ School Program and the ABCs of Public Education. We use the literature on caring and critiques of bureaucracy as a framework to look at the concurrent implementation of two educational reforms in North Carolina. We discuss data from a 5 year longitudinal study and critique our own assumptions as we develop portraits of schools that are both situated and complex. We do this to explore the question: In what ways does educational reform actually change educational practice? We develop a framework that articulates a critique of bureaucracy from the standpoint of caring, locate the culture of each school within the theoretical framework, and analyze how the culture of schools affects the implementation of educational reform. We conclude that reform is deeply cultural and that ethnographic methods are essential to understanding educational reform efforts.

New Labour, new leaders? Gendering transformational leadership

Transformational leadership is widely recognised as being central to the implementation of educational reform. In this paper I draw on selected educational speeches made by New Labour politicians in order to locate shifting discourses of leadership within the broader accountability framework through which the terms of the relationship between central government and head teachers have been re/configured in the United Kingdom. The gendered politics of transformation are examined, highlighting new and renewed forms of masculinity embedded within new leadership ideals. It is suggested that a gendered critique of transformational leadership offers an important contribution to critical analyses of the neo‐liberal and managerialist educational project.

Teacher professionalism in educational reform: the experiences of Hong Kong and Shanghai

Beginning in the 1990s, the education departments of Hong Kong and Shanghai began to actively initiate reform with a focus on the quality of education. In reviewing the implementation of educational reform in these two societies, we found that Hong Kong teachers tended to only adopt those policies which they felt were beneficial for students' learning, whereas Shanghai teachers tended to conform more to the state's requirements. Teachers in Hong Kong strongly expressed their frustration over the intensification of their work, while teachers in Shanghai seldom expressed disagreement over the state initiatives. Concerning the meaning of teacher professionalism, teachers in Hong Kong were more able than their counterparts in Shanghai to develop their own interpretations. However, at the same time, teachers' work in Hong Kong was still being monitored by the emerging schooling market, while the work of Shanghai teachers was monitored by the state. Teachers' work in both societies can be interpreted as ‘confined professionalism’. In addition, in both of the two societies teachers' awareness of their professionalism was comparatively weak. Further empowerment in this area is needed.

Considering equity in basic education reform in Japan from the perspective of private costs of education

It is widely acknowledged that the private costs of education occupy a substantial part of the overall education cost and thus they have implications for quality and equity in education. The case of Japan demonstrates that access to basic education at junior high school level is unequal and inequitable when considering private costs of education borne within and outside the school system. It was also found that household spending on supplementary education in public schools is likely to be determined by local implementation of education reforms. Current education reform with its absence of financial and technical support to schools under the guise of deregulation does not seem to generate good levels of choice nor does it seem to sustain quality and equity in education.

Tinkering toward Utopia or Stuck in a Rut? School Reform Implementation at Wintervalley High

This article1 presents findings from a 2-year qualitative study that examined teacher and administrator involvement with implementation of school reform initiatives in a public secondary school. Findings suggest that implementation had both positive and negative consequences. Although reforms advanced the school's ongoing discussion about continuous improvement and promoted some useful procedural change, the reform negatively changed some work conditions for teachers. This study prompts educators to consider the importance of context and perspective, both historically and in situ, during educational reform implementation.

Despite the Odds: The Contentious Politics of Education Reform

Despite the Odds: The Contentious Politics of Education Reform. By Merilee S. Grindle. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2004. 288p. 22.95 paper.No one argues with the claim that education is a necessary ingredient for any recipe for economic and social development. With higher rates of literacy and numeracy, with more years of schooling, a cornucopia of benefits emerge—from lower birth rates to healthier workers to more autonomous women to more engaged citizens. And yet despite the recognition that everything good comes from education, expanding and reforming public education is a costly and contentious process in all political systems. Scholars and politicians alike are pessimistic that educational reform can be instituted. Given the costs and the conflict, what can explain successful implementation of educational reforms?

STUDENTJAMA. The Flexner report and the standardization of American medical education.

1MEDICAL EDUCATION IN THE UNITED STATES TODAY IS STRIKinglystandardizedanddemanding.Itwasnotalwaysso.Prior to the widespread implementation of educational reforms, medical training was highly variable and frequently inadequate. It was not until the early decades of the 20th century that a “uniformly arduous and expensive” system of medical education was instituted nationally. Inthe19thcentury,mostmedicaleducationintheUnited States was administered through 1 of 3 basic systems: an apprenticeshipsystem,inwhichstudentsreceivedhands-on instruction from a local practitioner; a proprietary school system, in which groups of students attended a course of lectures from physicians who owned the medical college; orauniversitysystem,inwhichstudentsreceivedsomecombination of didactic and clinical training at universityaffiliated lecture halls and hospitals. These medical schools taught diverse types of medicine, such as scientific, osteopathic, homeopathic, chiropractic, eclectic, physiomedical, botanical, and Thomsonian. 2 In addition, wealthy and industrious medical students supplemented their education with clinical and laboratory training in the hospitals and universities of Europe, primarily in England, Scotland, France, and Germany. Because of the heterogeneity of educational experiences and the paucity of licensing examinations, physicians in America at the turn of the 20th century variedtremendously intheir medical knowledge, therapeutic philosophies, and aptitudes for healing the sick. 3,4 Throughoutthesecondhalfofthe19thcentury,theAmerican Medical Association (AMA) lobbied for the standardization of American medical education. These efforts were largely unsuccessful, both because political traditions in America dissuaded national regulation of professions and because the American public and much of the medical professionwerenotconvincedthatanyparticularbrandofmedi

Student restraints to reform: Conceptual change issues in enhancing students' learning processes

Considerable research has been published on students' alternative conceptions of science concepts and the means of addressing those alternative conceptions. However, few studies have been reported on students' conceptions of learning and consequent learning processes and attempts to change such conceptions and processes. Recent research has shown that students' beliefs can act as barriers to the implementation of educational reforms that aim to alter students' learning processes. In this study an interpretive methodology was employed by a teacher participant-observer to investigate barriers to students' adoption of an alternative referent for learning and its consequent learning strategies in a Grade 11 chemistry class. Student narratives suggest that both “cold” and “hot” contextual factors influenced students' willingness to adopt an alternative referent. The consideration of “hot” factors, including students' beliefs, trust of the teacher, and ownership of the change process, is necessary if such change is to be understood more fully. The value and difficulties of a teacher adopting this researcher's perspective are also explored.

The Challenge of the 21st Century: Developing a Highly Qualified Cadre of Teachers to Teach Our Nation's Diverse Student Population

The quality of the nation's public schools chiefly depends on the competence of the teachers and principals who staff them; the commitment of students, parents, and communities who animate them; the adequacy and judicious use of the dollars that support them; and the prudent application of emerging technologies that enlarge them. Good schools depend on these elements. (Consortium on Renewing Education, 1998, p. 6) We in the United States have long viewed education as being of primary importance to the development of responsible, productive citizens and thus inextricably linked to national development. This expectation will be no less salient in the new millennium. Indeed, more and more, education is viewed as central to the nation's continued role as an economic and political power in an increasingly globalized society. This message is underscored repeatedly as politicians, business leaders, the media, and diverse communities of Americans affirm that without a well-educated citizenry, the United States will have difficulty competing in a world where knowledge, especially technological knowledge and how to use it, will determine the future of individuals and of nations. The message, however, is not a new one. For almost two decades, the United States has been engaged in a struggle to improve its systems of public education. Starting with A Nation at Risk in the early 1980s (National Commission on Excellence in Education [NCEE], 1983), dozens of reports have underlined the critical importance of public education to the nation's future. Virtually all have described the poor quality of public schools from prekindergarten through graduate school. Much of the blame for this sad state of affairs has been placed at the doorstep of teachers and teacher educators. For more than a decade, a debate has raged about the role of teachers and teacher educators in the successful implementation of educational reforms. This debate is the continuation of a much-needed dialogue about the role of teachers in efforts to reform public education. As part of the reflective process, a critical look at past and present efforts to reform teacher preparation programs is also appropriate. The present article

Instructional Capacity and High Performance Schools

or more than a decade researchers have been studying the design and implementation of educational reforms in states and school districts. One of the major sets of issues concerns the of these systems to achieve the goal of helping all students reach high standards of achievement. The task of formulating policy has been hampered by disagreement in both the research and policy communities about the degree to which capacity is a problem, and if it is, what capacity or capacities are needed, and therefore, what should be done. Discussions of capacity are often framed by advocates of particular reforms and their beliefs about what is essential to implementing their ideas. For example, those who advocate systemic reform focus on the capacity for policy alignment, adoption of standards, development of curriculum and assessment, and changes in governance (Smith & O'Day, 1991). In contrast, for those who advocate school-by-school change, capacity building means the creation of learning communities, changes in governance, and opportunities for teachers to share their craft knowledge (Darling-Hammond, 1993).

Higher education in partnership with the industrial sector: the necessity to employ off‐the‐job training systems

Many American and European researchers have studied the reasons for the success of Japan's economy after the end of the Second World War. One of the contributory factors to economic expansion is clearly the educational training systems used by Japanese companies. Accordingly, a number of foreign as well as Japanese researchers have focused on these manpower and training systems. Recently, the Japanese government has issued ‘Immediate Policies and Guidelines for the Implementation of Educational Reform’ (Ministry of Education 1990: 244). In this reform plan, the Ministry of Education announced the necessity to promote the improvement, enhancement and diversification of graduate schools. Reflecting this policy, some new and unique Japanese graduate programmes designed for businessmen and other programmes in partnership with industry have emerged. In this new era, the issue of educational training systems beyond conventional company training has become critical for the development and survival of Japanese co...

Implementing Reforms in a Centralised Education System: the case of Israeli education

abstract The aim of this paper is to identify the mechanisms which have constrained the implementation of educational reform in a centralised education system. The case study relates to the 1968 educational reform in Israel. Analysis of the relevant documents reveals that even in a centralised education system decision‐makers have to look at reform implementation not just as an administrative follow‐up on policy, but in order to be able to mobilise an effective response to client needs and to unite political interest and pressure groups in support of the reform to ensure its successful implementation.

The New Zealand State and Educational Reforms: ‘competing’ interests

The starting point of this paper is the remarkable success of a relatively coherent, and strongly transnational, set of ideologies in securing a process of market-oriented educational reform in a number of nations; not the least in Britain, the United States and New Zealand. In order to explain this success, it is necessary to understand the relationship of this set of ideologies to two factors. First, market educational reforms are the corollary of the more general shift from Keynesian to neo-liberal forms of national economic management, with implications not just for education but for the state as a whole. Secondly, the shift to neoliberal forms of economic management was itself predicated on the failure of Keynesian policies to solve the economic and political crises of many nations which began in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Thus the basis on which market educational reforms can be understood as transnational, if not global, is as part of a solution to a common set of economic circumstances, including the falling rate of profit, the growth in multinational corporations, increasing national debt, rising unemployment, high levels of inflation and spiralling welfare costs, to name just a few. However, the relationship between economic' problems and political 'solutions' is far from direct and clear. In claiming a common economic basis, rooted in a global crisis of capitalism, for the ideologies of neo-liberalism, I would not wish to argue that political responses have been the same in every country. Whilst similar themes can be identified in the literature, major differences are also evident. These differences can be explained by those element of states that are nation-specific. Examples of such factors include the previous political settlements (CCCS, 1981), broad historical forces, the institutional arrangements of state agencies and governments and the nature of social expectations within civil society. It is the particular mixture of national specificities and transnational trends that allows for national comparisons to be made about the implementation of market reforms in education (as well as in many other aspects of the state). A central issue is what kind of education system pre-existed the move to market reforms. Bruce Cooper (1990) lists a number of differences between the education systems of Britain and the United States, a key issue being the level of decentralisation of control over education preceding the reform processes (p. 133). He notes that the high level of decentralisation of education in the United States has impeded the implementation of market reforms. In contrast, the relatively centralised British system allowed for a much more direct implementation of new policies. New Zealand's education system has been for many years one of the most centralised in the world. Whilst Britain's system relied heavily on the intermediary role of the Local Education Authorities, New Zealand had only a minimal regional level of organisation,

Policy evaluation of investment in education: a Papua New Guinea study

Estimates of rates of return to investment in education by level for Papua New Guinea are presented using 1986 market sector earnings data. The fragmentation of the educational system and marked increases in unit outlay and opportunity costs as educational level increases particularly focus attention on reforms that impinge upon unit costs and enrolments by educational level, and by courses and institutions. The scope for attracting non-government resources points to the need to widen personal and community direct contributions to education. The distinctive circumstances of economy, culture, geography, and politics heighten the need for strengthening policy implementation of educational reform.

Fidelity in Teaching, Teacher Education, and Research for Teaching

Viewing fidelity from the perspective of an ethic of caring, Nel Noddings explores how this virtue might be moved from the periphery to the center of educational work. She argues that such a reorientation would not undermine, but rather enhance, the quality and depth of teaching, learning, and research. She urges, further, that fidelity to persons be taken as the proper measure and guide for the implementation of educational reform.

Sorcery and SSCEP: the cultural context of an educational innovation

Abstract The paper highlights the relative neglect by educational planners of a socio‐cullural analysis of the context surrounding the implementation of educational reforms designed to promote rural development in Third World countries. An examination of the sociological and anthropological literature pertaining to both village culture and rural development in Papua New Guinea suggests that there are powerful cultural constraints on schools leavers applying practical skills learned in school on their return to the village. These are exemplified by a discussion of the role of sorcery, the subordinate position of youth, and the divergence between planners’ and villagers’ priorities, and are illustrated with reference to the Secondary Schools Community Extension Project (SSCEP).