TIMSS 2011 study uses new index (SEAS) that is closely related to the concept of academic optimism. This paper describes some causes and ramifications of the low level of SEAS and its components in the Czech Republic. Besides, the SEAS components are used to analyse the relationships between the attitudes of the Czech schools to the curricular reform and achievement of their pupils. Introductory part of the paper describes the concept of academic optimism and the SEAS index in TIMSS 2011. Subsequently, explorative secondary analysis of TIMSS data is performed to explain strikingly low level of SEAS in Czech Republic. The results are discussed in the regional perspective. The data on results of Czech 4th grade pupils in TIMSS 2011 mathematics test and school questionnaires were analysed by basic descriptive and inferential statistics methods. The low level of SEAS in the Czech Republic is mainly due to the low perceived pupils' desire to do well in the school. One explanation may be the low trust of teachers and principals to pupils. The analysis also shows paradoxical relationship between the declared support to the reform and pupils' achievement in the Czech schools. The components of the SEAS may be interpreted as a window on the perception and implementation of curricular reform in the Czech Republic.
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The major reform of Czech schools has not achieved its goals according to several recent studies. This paper describes mechanisms of troubled enactment of the reform in one school. First, the method of congruence analysis is presented as a tool to link the case observations and theoretical models. Then, two rival theories of educational change are sketched. The empirical part of the paper describes the school’s improvement over more than five years and the roles of different actors. The interaction between the processes of inner school development and the top-down mandated educational reform is discussed. A longitudinal qualitative case study of one comprehensive primary and lower secondary school is based mainly on interviews with school leadership, teachers and pupils, lesson observations and documentary analysis. The school with a record of successful improvement (turnover) has very skeptical attitude to the reform and implements it only formally. There is a striking difference between the school’s vision and the national reform’s discourse. The findings suggest that the theories stressing the plurality of actors involved in change and the necessary contribution of different system levels provide more plausible explanation of the reform’s results.
Czech parents place particular emphasis on ensuring the overall quality of life of their child when choosing a school. Our study shows how rural state schools understand this demand. A mixed approach was used in our research. In the first step, administrative data from all schools in municipalities with a population of up to 3,000 was used to shortlist 91 schools in demand by both catchment and non- -catchment families. In the second step, socio-geographic data on type of municipality, online presentations, and other documents of the shortlisted schools were analysed. In the last step, case studies of 13 schools were prepared on the basis of parent surveys and interviews with stakeholders. We present case studies of three schools with different explicitly expressed approaches to satisfying parental preferences through a specific mix of care for well-being and valued characteristics of the rural environment. Our study adds to the existing literature on school choice and school leadership by describing specific developmental and/or marketing strategies of rural schools based on the real or perceived characteristics of the countryside.
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