Who owns the knowledge? Knowledge construction as part of the school improvement process

Abstract

When Sweden began to experience a steady decline in student achievement results in PISA and TIMMS, the Swedish National Agency of Education initiated a model of collaboration with Swedish universities aimed at providing support to schools with falling student achievement scores. In this article, we examine how such projects can work at the local school level. Our focus is mainly on how knowledge construction can be realized for teachers and principals; we reflect on whose knowledge is valued, and we explore what role research texts play in school improvement. Working within the frames of both social and cultural processes, we looked at how teachers and principals are provided opportunities to develop and define their own professional understanding of school improvement. We found that knowledge construction of school improvement, as both a political and cultural process, needed to be based on local needs. The guidance of a knowledgeable other in interpreting research literature on school improvement can support such knowledge construction only when the local needs and history are part of the process.

Crafting a framework: a Delphi method approach to formulating a maker literacy assessment model for primary school students in China

“…"Cooperation and communication" refer to sharing knowledge, achievements, and resources with an interactive and open mind to compete rationally and promote one another. Among these components, experts give Knowledge integration the highest weight because it is a process of knowledge construction (Glaés-Coutts and Nilsson, 2021), basically an important part of higher-level cognitive abilities. In the era of a knowledge economy, which attaches great importance to the cultivation of thinking, the transfer and application of knowledge are essential abilities for excellent Makers.…”

Building capacity for inclusive teaching

“…In more decentralised systems, increasing school budgets and school autonomy could help attract and retain high-performing teachers (OECD, 2018 [81]).…”

“…Similarly, in Korea, teachers are expected to change school every five years. To attract teachers to more disadvantaged school settings, a set of financial and non-financial incentives are offered, such as higher salaries, smaller classrooms, awarding credits and promotions, and allowing teachers to choose the next school to work in (OECD, 2018 [81]).…”

“…Centralised/decentralised systems (OECD, 2018 [81]):  Countries with centralised mechanisms of teacher allocation and compensation can create a fixed-term assignment for novice teachers that only assigns them to less challenging settings.  In more decentralised systems, increasing school budgets and autonomy could help attract and retain high-performing teachers.…”

“…Sources: Australian Government Department of Education, Skills and Employment (2021 [83]), Teaching and School Leadership -Alternative Pathways, https://www.dese.gov.au/teaching-and-schoolleadership/alternativepathways#:~:text=High%20Achieving%20Teachers%20Program,The%20Australian%2 0Government&text=Each%20pathway%20proactively%20recruits%20and,schools%20experiencing%20teac her%20workforce%20shor (accessed on 13 April 2021); OECD (2019 [44]), Supporting and guiding novice teachers: Evidence from TALIS 2018 https://dx.doi.org/10.1787/fe6c9c0c-en; OECD (2018 [81]), Effective Teacher Policies: Insights from PISA, https://dx.doi.org/10.1787/9789264301603-en, OECD (2017 [82]), Teachers in Diverse Societies: Proceedings of the Second Policy Forum, http://www.oecd.org/education/scho ol/Forum-Proceedings-final.pdf (accessed on 24 September 2020); OECD Schleicher (2020 [15]), Insights and Interpretations TALIS 2018 Teaching and Learning International Survey,http://www.oecd.org/education/talis/ TALIS2018_insights_and_interpretations.pdf (accessed on 24 September 2020).…”