Efficacy and Improvement of Educational Organizations

Objectives

1. To explain the concept of school effectiveness, in its different interpretations

2. To identify and characterize strategies historically used to identify "effective" schools

3. To list the main intra-institutional processes that research on effective schools has identified as being relevant to the educational success of students and to critically reflect on their importance

4. To list and explain the main difficulties inherent in research on the effectiveness of educational institutions

5. To identify and discuss the main weaknesses of the effective schools movement

6. To define the concept of school improvement and to explain its points of convergence and divergence with the postulates of the effective schools movement

Program

1. The concept of school effectiveness
2. Strategies for identifying 'effective' schools
3. Intra-institutional processes and schools outcomes
4. Issues in research on effective schools
5. Vulnerabilities of the effective schools movement
6. School effectiveness and school improvement

Teaching Methodologies

The teaching-learning process relies on an active, reflective, inquiry-oriented student role. Classes are organized through the articulation of: teacher-centered lecturing; student individual work; small-group cooperative learning activities; small- and large-group presentations and discussions. Student assessment has a continuous character and focuses on two main kinds of elements: 1) participation in in-class activities, namely, attendance, punctuality, sense of responsibility in fulfilling assignments, contribution to teamwork, quality of the materials produced in practical activities and quality of individual interventions during classes and oral presentations (50%); and 2) oral presentation of a written essay, prepared as a small-group assignment (50%).

Bibliography

Barroso, J. (Org.) (1996). O estudo da escola. Porto: Porto Editora.
Bolívar, A. (2003). Como melhorar as escolas. Porto: Edições ASA.
Gray, J., Reynolds, D., Fitz-Gibbon, C., & Jesson, D. (Eds.) (1996). Merging traditions: The future of research on school effectiveness and school improvement. London: Cassell.
Lima, J. Á. (2008). Em busca da boa escola: instituições eficazes e sucesso educativo. Vila Nova de Gaia: .Fundação Manuel Leão.
MacBeath, J., & Mortimore, P. (Eds.) (2001). Improving school effectiveness. Buckingham: Open University Press.
Reynolds, D., et al. (Eds.) (1996). Making good schools: Linking school effectiveness and school improvement. London and New York: Routledge.
Sammons, P. (1999). School effectiveness: coming of age in the twenty-first century. Lisse, The Netherlands: Swets & Zeitlinger.
Teddlie, C., & Reynolds, D. (Eds.) (2000). The international handbook of school effectiveness research. London & New York: Routledge/Falmer.