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School Development in the Context of Digitalization: Investigating the Role of School Networks (DigiSchulNet)
Abstract
State of the art research on school development in networks is summarized and the concept behind the research project DigiSchulNet is presented.
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Using digital technology effectively in schools requires profound changes in traditional teaching and learning activities. Pedagogical innovations often start small-scale and developing good ideas into shared practice across schools is challenging in many ways, especially if the innovation requires second-order change, i.e. challenges to fundamental beliefs about teaching and learning. This study investigates how a validated pedagogical method requiring integrated Information and Communication Technology (ICT) use and second-order change can be disseminated and sustained over time. We surveyed 92 primary school teachers who at different times over a 5-year period participated in a training course designed to implement an innovative technology-supported teaching method, Write To Learn, across an entire city. We found that organized teacher development programs can drive second-order change, but this requires considerable, active, and sustained effort from leaders at both school and district level. Additional factors include immediate and extended social systems and handling diversity among teachers. The results are useful for both practitioners and researchers since they contribute to a deeper understanding of the opportunities and challenges involved in disseminating effective ICT-based methods that requires profound changes of thinking about teaching and learning to guide the transformation of teaching practice.
While the development of digital technologies provides generous resources for educational practices, how the use of information and communication technology (ICT) supports instructional reforms in schools still needs further exploration. The purpose of the study is to understand the roles of school leaders and teachers play in an instructional reform supported by ICT as well as how these roles interact with each other. The study selected a Chinese middle‐high school that successfully had a school‐wide instructional reform supported by ICT as an exemplary case and collected data through document analysis, interviews and observations. The results indicated that the school leadership was critical in the instructional reform. While the executive vice principal was in an essential position as an initiator and strategic planner, the leadership was distributed and stretched over in the school. The school built supporting pedagogical and organizational systems for continuous and collaborative learning and helped the teachers develop four new roles: learners, facilitators to student‐centered learning, collaborators and researchers.
Abstract The aim of this study was to create a model which describes the main elements for improving schools with digital technology and helps to reveal differences between schools and identify their best practices and challenges. The innovative digital school model (IDI school) offers a framework for research but also a research-based model for schools to examine their own practices with digital technologies. The model combines previous research on school improvement, creation of innovations, and digital technology in education as a special case of innovations and learning as knowledge creation to define six main elements describing an innovative, digital school: visions of the school, leadership, practices of the teaching community, pedagogical practices, school-level knowledge practices and digital resources. The model was applied to investigate three basic education schools. The results indicate that the model worked: we found essential differences between the schools and their best practices and challenges for improvement. It worked particularly well for those elements, which are mainly the responsibility for leadership inside a school. The differences of various elements between schools were not based on socioeconomic background but on the school-level practices. As a conclusion, we suggest that to improve schools with digital technology, all elements of the model should be included in the evaluation and development process.
In Germany schools are obliged to foster students’ digital competences. Based on the
proficiency levels of students’ computer and information literacy (CIL) from the
International Computer and Information Literacy Study (ICILS 2013), and a theoretical
approach to media education in school, this paper aims to provide evidence on the
relevance of teacher- and school-related factors in the fostering of students’ CIL. On the
basis of a representative sample of secondary school teachers in Germany a structural
equation model (SEM) which accommodated the frequency of ICT-use in instruction as
a mediator variable was computed. The results of the SEM indicate teachers’ attitudes
towards the use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in instruction,
ICT-related collaboration, and sufficient ICT equipment at schools as significant
predictors in fostering students’ CIL. Findings bear important implications for teacher
education in terms of preparing teachers for this fundamental task.
Different international studies have shown that educational leadership is a relevant factor in the process of instructional integration of digital technologies in classrooms. The purpose of this article is to Analyse the perceptions that teachers have about leadership of ICT coordinator. An ICT coordinator is an educational agent whose main mission is to promote the process of pedagogical integration of technologies in the school. This paper presents a study about ICT coordinators, conducted through a questionnaire to more than 5161 teachers from different Spanish regions. It is argued that the coordinator must have ICT skills of various kinds that are more complex than mere instrumental mastery of technology. These functions must be linked to support the innovative use of ICT in teaching and learning by the teaching staff of a school. Evidence shows that ICT coordinators are becoming widespread and that teachers consider them necessary to promote innovation based on ICT. Differences between regions are observed in the implementation, the development of their roles and tasks, and on the perception of the need for an ICT coordinator. Depending on the educational stage, differences on the degree of implementation are detected. We come to the conclusion that regional educational policies should properly train and strengthen this agent of change.
This study (1) tested the effectiveness of a new survey tool to collect ego-centered network data and (2) assessed the impact of giving people feedback about their network on subsequent responses. The new tool, GENSI (Graphical Ego-centered Network Survey Interface), allows respondents to describe all network contacts at once via a graphical representation of their networks. In an online experiment, 434 American adults were randomly assigned to answer traditional network questions or GENSI and were randomly assigned to receive feedback about their network or not. The traditional questionnaire and GENSI took the same amount of time to complete, and measurements of racial composition of the network showed equivalent convergent validity in both survey tools. However, the new tool appears to solve what past researchers have considered to be a problem with online administration: exaggerated numbers of network connections. Moreover, respondents reported enjoying GENSI more than the traditional tool. Thus, using a graphical interface to collect ego-centered network data seems to be promising. However, telling respondents how their network compared to the average Americans reduced the convergent validity of measures administered after the feedback was provided, suggesting that such feedback should be avoided.
Purpose – Many governments worldwide are now promoting the importance of research-informed
efforts at improvement. At the same time research is yet to make sustained impact on the practices of teachers. Given the importance of the issue and the lack of progress in this area, the purpose of this
paper is to examine what drives teachers’ perceptions that their school: first, encourages the use of research evidence to support improvements to teaching; and second, whether school improvement strategies are grounded in research on effective practice.
Design/methodology/approach – Reviewing extant literature, the authors hypothesize that teachers’ perceptions of research use are related to their perceptions of: the presence of in-school organizational learning (OL) factors; whether they work in high-trust environments; and also to the frequency and quality of their “expertise-seeking” interactions. Using a survey instrument to measure OL, trust, and school research use climate, the authors gather data from 828 teachers in 43 schools.
The authors then use social network analysis to quantify teachers’ professional relationships; with hierarchical linear regression employed to explore multilevel relationships between variables. Social network diagrams are also used to visualize the patterns of relationships between teachers/study variables.
Findings – The analysis indicates that teachers who report the climate of their schools to be focussed on learning, experimentation, and valuing new ideas, tend to also report more use of research/evidence. Likewise, teachers who had more frequent and useful interactions around teaching and learning also report more research/evidence use (RE Use) in their schools. Finally, and perhaps most powerfully, is that higher levels of perceived trust in the school are also associated with reporting higher levels of RE Use.
Originality/value – The results illustrate the importance of learning and trust in facilitating the types of relations needed to provide teachers with access to the research/evidence centered social capital that
resides within a school. The work expands the notions of what is necessary to support the use of research/evidence in schools by placing more relational elements of the improvement equation front
and center.
Qualitative Inhaltsanalyse : Grundlagen u. Techniken. - Neuausg. - Weinheim : Dt. Studien-Verl., 1988. - 120 S. - Zugl.: Augsburg, Univ., Diss., 1983. - [1. Aufl. 1983]
This paper reveals the potential which lies in combining the qualitative analysis of egocentric network maps with the corresponding narratives collected simultaneously during an interview. It presents a method of analysis which has been validated in research on the lifeworlds of international students in order to elucidate their perspective on social support in their everyday lives. It is a method of analysis which can be applied in various other research fields and to answer various research questions when it comes to exploring meanings, feelings, relationships, attractions, and dependencies. The method is interviewee-centred and the approach is holistic, leading to comprehensive insights. Using examples of original research data, this paper first illustrates the data collection and then the data analysis procedure in the following three steps: analysis of the map, analysis of the narrative, and combination of the analyses.
Keywords: Egocentric Network Maps, Map Analysis, Qualitative Network Map Interview, International Students, Qualitative Analysis, Structural Analysis
Mass collaboration on Internet platforms like Wikipedia and Scratch, along with wider movements like the maker space and citizen science, are poised to have profound impacts on learning and education. Bringing together researchers from such fields as: psychology, education, information technology, and economics, the book offers a comprehensive overview of mass collaboration, novel, cross disciplinary, theoretical accounts, and methodological approaches for studying and improving these massively collaborative enterprises. The book is aimed to serve as an information source for researchers, educators, and designers of platforms and learning environments.