School Quality and Teacher Education

This project, partly to be conducted within the framework of a Visiting Research Fellowship at the University of Oxford, will examine how principals and teachers in highly effective and improving schools in England understand and develop school quality. There are innumerable models and frameworks for schools, advocating many different ways of improving school quality. This project will focus on what really works and what works best in this respect, in terms of achieving high impact on students learning. Focusing on England, a country with a long tradition in school improvement both in practice and as subject of research, the project will therefore determine (1) what principals and teachers of effective schools understand by school quality and if their understanding differs from the understanding of principals and teachers in less effective schools; (2) how principals of effective schools measure and develop quality in their practice; and (3) what those principals and teachers understand by the terms good teachers and good teaching. It will also ask (4) how the answers to these questions can effectively inform practice in different contexts, including professional development within schools and the process of initial teacher education, in both England and Austria. To answer the research-questions, qualitative and quantitative methods will be applied. In a qualitative study, 20 teachers and 20 principals of 20 highly effective and improving schools will be questioned in expert interviews. There will be a subsequent quantitative survey with 300 teachers and 100 principals. The inclusion of various perspectives and the overview of the results of the qualitative and quantitative study shall enable a deep and broad understanding. To select the sample of effective schools, in which the research will be conducted, we draw on an inclusive definition. Thus, we take into account not only attainment scores, but also value added measures. Effective schools that will be taken into the sample are therefore schools, in which students are led to reach their potential regardless of their social background. For a comprehensive, forward-looking and practice-relevant understanding of school quality and in order to determine ways to develop it in the practice, the inclusion of the voices of those principals and teachers who demonstrably were able to realize quality in their schools, will be a valuable contribution. An empirical perspective from England will contribute interesting and practically-relevant stimuli for decision-making regarding school quality and in teacher education on different levels in the education system in Austria. The project will be conducted by Dr Roland Bernhard (University of Salzburg) in close cooperation with a range of project partners at the University of Oxford, Department of Education and selected Austrian and international project partners.

The SQTE project was partially based at the University of Oxford under a Visiting Research Fellowship. It investigated how school leaders in exceptionally effective and improving schools in England, particularly in London, improve school quality and student learning outcomes. The goal was to identify differences in leadership and school improvement approaches between highly effective and average schools. The project aimed to generate learning effects for Austrian school practice by exploring best practices in England. Exceptionally effective schools, primarily in challenging areas of London that had shown significant improvements, were studied. Interviews with 43 school leaders identified effective school improvement approaches in these schools. However, case studies alone cannot show concrete differences from average-effective schools or pinpoint specific strategies of highly effective schools. Therefore, a quantitative study was conducted to determine which approaches were more frequently used in effective schools than in average ones. Few but interesting differences were found: Educational leaders in highly effective schools focus more on pedagogical leadership, place greater emphasis on improving teaching quality and they have a stronger belief that a feature of an outstanding teacher is his or her willingness to constantly develop and improve. Additionally, such leaders more frequently implement peer observation as a school development strategy, where teachers regularly visit each other's classrooms to provide feedback. It was found that the more frequent such peer observation occurs in schools, the greater the students' learning progress. The project's results provide guidance for the training and professional development of teachers and school leaders, as well as for school quality improvement. They indicate how educational leaders can focus their limited resources to maximize student learning. The approaches identified, such as pedagogical leadership and peer observation, are still not widely adopted in Austria. Many school leaders in Austria do not see it as their primary task to continuously improve teaching and learning. The project has successfully raised awareness of the importance of these approaches in Austria and can point to a concrete influence on schools and the education sector. Results of the project were mentioned 40 times in newspaper articles, on television, and on the radio, thereby becoming well-known across Austria. Additionally, aspects of the results were elaborated in 35 publications and presented in 50 lectures to representatives from academia, politics, unions, foundations, school development consulting, and schools. Numerous training sessions for school leaders and educational leaders were organized, influencing school development in various contexts. Furthermore, the project identified systemic weaknesses such as the administrative overload of Austrian school leaders and the lack of middle management, which hinder the development of a culture of continuous improvement. Proposals for change were submitted to policymakers via an open letter, which triggered a broad media response.