Research Ethics is defined here to be the ethics of the planning, conduct, and reporting of research.

It is clear that research ethics should include:

Protections of human and animal subjects

However, not all researchers use human or animal subjects, nor are the ethical dimensions of research
confined solely to protections for research subjects. Other ethical challenges are rooted in many
dimensions of research, including the:

Collection, use, and interpretation of research data

Methods for reporting and reviewing research plans or findings

Relationships among researchers with one another

Relationships between researchers and those that will be affected by their research

Means for responding to misunderstandings, disputes, or misconduct

Options for promoting ethical conduct in research

For the purpose of this online resource, the domain of research ethics is intended to include nothing less
than the fostering of research that protects the interests of the public, the subjects of research, and the
researchers themselves.

In discussing or teaching research ethics, it is important to keep some basic distinctions in mind.

It is important not to confuse moral claims about how people ought to behave with descriptive claims
about how they in fact do behave. From the fact that gift authorship or signing off on un-reviewed data
may be "common practice" in some contexts, it doesn't follow that they are morally or professionally
justified. Nor is morality to be confused with the moral beliefs or ethical codes that a given group or
society holds (how some group thinks people should live). A belief in segregation is not morally justified
simply because it is widely held by a group of people or given society. Philosophers term this distinction
between prescriptive and descriptive claims the 'is-ought distinction.'

A second important distinction is that between morality and the law. The law may or may not conform
to the demands of ethics (Kagan, 1998). To take a contemporary example: many believe that the law
prohibiting federally funded stem cell research is objectionable on moral (as well as scientific) grounds,
i.e., that such research can save lives and prevent much human misery. History is full of examples of bad
laws, that is laws now regarded as morally unjustifiable, e.g., the laws of apartheid, laws prohibiting
women from voting or inter-racial couples from marrying.

It is also helpful to distinguish between two different levels of discussion (or two different kinds of
ethical questions): first-order or "ground-level" questions and second-order questions.
First-order moral questions concern what we should do. Such questions may be very general or quite
specific. One might ask whether the tradition of 'senior' authorship should be defended and preserved
or, more generally, what are the principles that should go into deciding the issue of 'senior' authorship.
Such questions and the substantive proposals regarding how to answer them belong to the domain of
what moral philosophers call 'normative ethics.'

Second-order moral questions concern the nature and purpose of morality itself. When someone claims
that falsifying data is wrong, what exactly is the standing of this claim? What exactly does the word
'wrong' mean in the conduct of scientific research? And what are we doing when we make claims about
right and wrong, scientific integrity and research misconduct? These second-order questions are quite
different from the ground-level questions about how to conduct one's private or professional life raised
above. They concern the nature of morality rather than its content, i.e., what acts are required,
permitted or prohibited. This is the domain of what moral philosophers call 'metaethics' (Kagan, 1998).

Each of these approaches provides moral principles and ways of thinking about the responsibilities,
duties and obligations of moral life. Individually and jointly, they can provide practical guidance in
ethical decision-making.

One of the most influential and familiar approaches to ethics is deontological ethics, associated with
Immanuel Kant (1742-1804). Deontological ethics hold certain acts as right or wrong in themselves, e.g.,
promise breaking or lying. So, for example, in the context of research, fraud, plagiarism and
misrepresentation are regarded as morally wrong in themselves, not simply because they (tend to) have
bad consequences.
The deontological approach is generally grounded in a single fundamental principle: Act as you would
wish others to act towards you OR always treat persons as an end, never as a means to an end.

From such central principles are derived rules or guidelines for what is permitted, required and
prohibited. Objections to principle-based or deontological ethics include the difficulty of applying highly
general principles to specific cases, e.g.: Does treating persons as ends rule out physician-assisted
suicide, or require it? Deontological ethics is generally contrasted to consequentialist ethics (Honderich,
1995).

According to consequentialist approaches, the rightness or wrongness of an action depends solely on its
consequences. One should act in such a way as to bring about the best state of affairs, where the best
state of affairs may be understood in various ways, e.g., as the greatest happiness for the greatest
number of people, maximizing pleasure and minimizing pain or maximizing the satisfaction of
preferences. A theory such as Utilitarianism (with its roots in the work of Jeremy Bentham and John
Stuart Mill) is generally taken as the paradigm example of consequentialism. Objections to
consequentialist ethics tend to focus on its willingness to regard individual rights and values as
"negotiable." So, for example, most people would regard murder as wrong independently of the fact
that killing one person might allow several others to be saved (the infamous sacrifice of an ailing patient
to provide organs for several other needy patients). Similarly, widespread moral opinion holds certain
values important (integrity, justice) not only because they generally lead to good outcomes, but in and
of themselves.

Virtue ethics focuses on moral character rather than action and behavior considered in isolation. Central
to this approach is the question what ought we (as individuals, as scientists, as physicians) to be rather
than simply what we ought to do. The emphasis here is on inner states, that is, moral dispositions and
habits such as courage or a developed sense of personal integrity. Virtue ethics can be a useful approach
in the context of RCR and professional ethics, emphasizing the importance of moral virtues such as
compassion, honesty, and respect. This approach has also a great deal to offer in discussions of
bioethical issues where a traditional emphasis on rights and abstract principles frequently results in
polarized, stalled discussions (e.g., abortion debates contrasting the rights of the mother against the
rights of the fetus).

The term 'an ethics of care' grows out of the work of Carol Gilligan, whose empirical work in moral
psychology claimed to discover a "different voice," a mode of moral thinking distinct from principle-
based moral thinking (e.g., the theories of Kant and Mill). An ethics of care stresses compassion and
empathetic understanding, virtues Gilligan associated with traditional care-giving roles, especially those
of women.

This approach differs from traditional moral theories in two important ways. First, it assumes that it is
the connections between persons, e.g., lab teams, colleagues, parents and children, student and
mentor, not merely the rights and obligations of discrete individuals that matter. The moral world, on
this view, is best seen not as the interaction of discrete individuals, each with his or her own interests
and rights, but as an interrelated web of obligations and commitment. We interact, much of the time,
not as private individuals, but as members of families, couples, institutions, research groups, a given
profession and so on. Second, these human relationships, including relationships of dependency, play a
crucial role on this account in determining what our moral obligations and responsibilities are. So, for
example, individuals have special responsibilities to care for their children, students, patients, and
research subjects.

An ethics of care is thus particularly useful in discussing human and animal subjects research, issues of
informed consent, and the treatment of vulnerable populations such as children, the infirm or the ill.

The case study approach begins from real or hypothetical cases. Its objective is to identify the intuitively
plausible principles that should be taken into account in resolving the issues at hand. The case study
approach then proceeds to critically evaluate those principles. In discussing whistle-blowing, for
example, a good starting point is with recent cases of research misconduct, seeking to identify and
evaluate principles such as a commitment to the integrity of science, protecting privacy, or avoiding
false or unsubstantiated charges. In the context of RCR instruction, case studies provide one of the most
interesting and effective approaches to developing sensitivity to ethical issues and to honing ethical
decision-making skills.

Strictly speaking, casuistry is more properly understood as a method for doing ethics rather than as itself
an ethical theory. However, casuistry is not wholly unconnected to ethical theory. The need for a basis
upon which to evaluate competing principles, e.g., the importance of the well-being of an individual
patient vs. a concern for just allocation of scarce medical resources, makes ethical theory relevant even
with case study approaches.
Applied ethics is a branch of normative ethics. It deals with practical questions particularly in relation to
the professions. Perhaps the best known area of applied ethics is bioethics, which deals with ethical
questions arising in medicine and the biological sciences, e.g., questions concerning the application of
new areas of technology (stem cells, cloning, genetic screening, nanotechnology, etc.), end of life issues,
organ transplants, and just distribution of healthcare. Training in responsible conduct of research or
"research ethics" is merely one among various forms of professional ethics that have come to
prominence since the 1960s. Worth noting, however, is that concern with professional ethics is not new,
as ancient codes such as the Hippocratic Oath and guild standards attest (Singer, 1986).

What is descriptive method? (Discuss the values of descriptive studies)

Descriptive research is a study designed to depict the participants in an accurate way. The
three main ways to collect this information are: Observational, defined as a method of viewing
and recording the participants. Case study, defined as an in-depth study of an individual or
group of individuals.

Descriptive Research
Descriptive research can be explained as a statement of affairs as they are at
present with the researcher having no control over variable. Moreover,
descriptive research may be characterised as simply the attempt to determine,
describe or identify what is, while analytical research attempts to establish why it
is that way or how it came to be[1].
Descriptive research is aimed at casting light on current issues or problems
through a process of data collection that enables them to describe the situation
more completely than was possible without employing this method[2]
In its essence, descriptive studies are used to describe various aspects of the
phenomenon. In its popular format, descriptive research is used to describe
characteristics and/or behaviour of sample population.
An important distinctive trait of descriptive research compared to alternative
types of studies relates to the fact that while descriptive research can employ a
number of variables, only one variable is required to conduct a descriptive study.
Three main purposes of descriptive studies can be explained as describing,
explaining and validating research findings.
Descriptive studies are closely associated with observational studies, but they are
not limited with observation data collection method, and case studies, as well
as, surveys can also be specified as popular data collection methods used with
descriptive studies.
Thesis Proposal Requirements

An approved thesis topic and a designated thesis supervisor are requirements for admission to the
doctoral program. A doctoral thesis must be based on an original piece of research that the
candidate has designed and carried out. After successfully writing the PhD Comprehensive
examination, the student will begin preparations to write and defend the PhD thesis proposal.
Departmental approval of a thesis proposal is provided only after the student has been successful in
a formal defense of the proposal.

The primary purpose is to protect the student. The examiners of the proposal will have read the
entire proposal critically and will, in many cases, have searched the key references in the literature
to ensure that:

the proposed study will move the literature in the area forward
the methodology proposed is appropriate and
if completed, the project is worthy of a PhD.
If a thesis proposal passes critical review at this stage, the student is reasonably assured that
following the proposed methods will result in a defensible PhD thesis. The proposal defense was
implemented primarily to prevent students from reaching the stage of final thesis defense only to
learn that their project has a fatal flaw which makes it indefensible.

A secondary purpose is to strengthen the thesis design, methods, theory, and rationale through
productive conversations and critical feedback.

Another objective of the proposal defense is to screen out students who clearly are unsuitable for the
program. It must be stressed that it is highly unlikely that any student who has successfully
completed the courses and the comprehensive examination will not be capable of developing a
suitable proposal. However, in the unlikely event that this does occur, it is much better to reach this
conclusion before any more time and effort are invested by the student. Following a successful
defense, the student's task is then to complete the work using appropriate methods and using the
proposal as a guide.

Preparing A PhD Thesis Proposal

It is your responsibility to note the following:

1.Each PhD student must defend his/her thesis proposal prior to initiation of thesis research. If
you begin your thesis research prior to defending the proposal, you risk losing all work
done to date if the committee requires revisions.
2.The proposal should be defended within a year of writing the comprehensive examination.
3.All research involving human subjects must be approved by the Review Board for Health
Sciences Research Involving Human Subjects (Office of Research Ethics, Support
Services Building, Room 4180) before subjects are recruited.
Thesis Proposal Defense Process

At least EIGHT (8) WEEKS before the anticipated date of the proposal defense:
The student will meet with his/her supervisor and the full supervisory committee to ensure
the readiness of the proposal.
The student (with input from the supervisor) submits suitable names for the examining
committee by the 8 week deadline using the Intent to Submit a PhD Proposal form (
PDF, 148 KB).
Three examiners are required for the oral proposal defense. All members must hold at least a
Teaching/Advisory Membership (TAM) with the School of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies
(SGPS). We recommend that two members be from within our department/program (view the
department's a list of our faculty with SGPS membership here). To ease the difficult job of finding a
time when three people can meet, the list of possible examiners should have enough names to allow
for substitutions.
Up to a maximum of three proposal defense examiners may later serve as dissertation examiners
providing they meet SGPS regulations for dissertation examiners. Proposal examiners and thesis
examiners must not be members of the students supervisory committee. Finally, the department will
arrange for a examination Chair and a suitable room for the defense, and will confirm the
arrangements by letter or e-mail with all the members of the examining committee.

AT LEAST FOUR (4) TO FIVE (5) WEEKS before the anticipated date of the proposal defense, the
student will submit upload a copy of his/her thesis proposal to the Academic Programs Coordinator
for distribution to each of the three examiners and one to be held in the department for the Chair of
the examining committee.
After a successful defense and once any corrections/revisions are complete, the student will submit
a copy of the revised proposal to the Academic Programs Coordinator for the department library.

Failure to successfully defend the proposal may be followed by a second attempt at a later date.
Following the second failure of a proposal defense, continuation in the program will require the
approval of the Departmental Graduate Affairs Committee.

On occasion, a student may instead develop a research protocol. A proposal-style thesis would be
acceptable only in the situation where the actual study is too large to be fully implemented as an
PhD project. It must be a protocol developed to the point of implementation together with evidence of
its feasibility. A proposal-style thesis will ideally still contain a data collection and analysis
component (perhaps a pilot study) and all implementation details should be specified.

Proposal Defense Examination Committee

The proposal defense committee will consist of a Chair and three carefully selected examiners. At
least two of the examiners will be faculty members from within the department, usually from the
specific field which the student is concentrating (Epidemiology or Biostatistics). The third examiner
must be from another department at Western, selected because of expertise in the content area of
the proposal. This is a decision which needs to be tailored to the specific area of the thesis proposal.

Usually, the thesis supervisor will suggest names for the committee (with input from the student).
However, it must be recognized that workloads vary and the department may have to substitute
another examiner. Please see the department's PhD Thesis Proposal Defense Timelines document
for additional important information. Note that the proposal defense process begins 8 weeks prior to
the intended defense date.

Structure of the Proposal Defense

When the student and supervisor feel that the proposal is ready for defense, a full supervisory
committee meeting must be held. This is for the protection of the student and also to ensure that the
examiners' time is not wasted on a proposal which is not ready. The Intent to Defend a PhD
Proposal form must be signed by the supervisor and student, and submitted the Academic Programs
Coordinator 6-8 weeks in advance, prior to the setting up of the examining committee.

The proposal defense is a formal process, but is not public. At the beginning of the defense, the
Chair of the examining committee will ask the student to leave the room while the committee
members talk briefly with the supervisor. They will discuss how the proposal looks generally,
ascertain the nature of the questioning, review the objectives to be met and decide the order of
questioning and the format (e.g. 15 minutes per examiner in round 1 and 5 minutes per examiner in
round 2).

When the student returns, he/she will give a brief (15 minute) summary of the proposal. Questions
will be posed by the three examiners in the order agreed upon and the student will have an
opportunity to respond to the questions. No outer limit is set on the length of the defense. It may run
1-2 hours. During this period of time, the thesis supervisor will take notes on any points he/she feels
are important to discuss later with the examining committee and/or the student.

Following the defense, the student will be asked to leave the room temporarily so that the examining
committee and the thesis supervisor can discuss. The thesis supervisor will be given an opportunity
to make any comments he/she considers important. Following this, the examiners will discuss the
outcome of the proposal, which will be one of:

1.acceptable for the project to be undertaken (there may be minor revisions but committee
does not need to review the revisions)
2.acceptable subject to revisions and/or submission of feasibility data (concerns are sufficient
that the committee or designated member(s) need to re-review the revised document;
however, meeting specified requirements should ensure a suitable proposal)
3.unsure pending revisions and feasibility data (committee will re-examine the revised
proposal)
4.unacceptable as a PhD project
In the case of outcomes 2. or 3., a revised proposal or new information pertaining to the proposal will
be reviewed. The same examination committee will remain in place and the re-review will be
considered as part of the same attempt. In the case of outcome 4. [unacceptable], examiners will
discuss whether a change of specific focus might allow the student to develop a proposal in the
same general subject area or whether the student should be advised to pursue another area entirely.

The student will be informed by his/her supervisor when it is time to return to the room to hear the
decision. The examiners will give a brief description of the reasons for the decision and then will
make arrangements to meet, either individually or collectively, with the student at a later time to
provide the student with more detailed feedback. It is anticipated that the thesis supervisor will play a
major role in providing feedback to the student as well.
What if the Proposal is Deemed as Unacceptable?
If the project is not accepted, the student has another opportunity to try to produce a defensible
proposal. A project is not accepted if the examiners feel that the study does not meet the
requirements for a PhD. This is not necessarily a reflection on the quality of the candidate. A very
good student can occasionally propose a project that, while well-designed, lacks the scope
necessary to make it appropriate for a PhD thesis in this department.

Although unlikely, it is possible that a student may not produce a defensible PhD proposal on the
second try (noting that this has not happened in all the years that we have had a proposal defense
requirement!). An unacceptable second attempt may be considered evidence that a student is
unable to generate a PhD level study within the discipline and is considered grounds to withdraw the
student from the program. Continuation in the program will require the approval of the Departmental
Graduate Affairs Committee.

Thesis Proposal Public Lecture

In 2-4 months following successful defense of the project, the student will give a public lecture on the
thesis proposal. The public lecture will be 40-45 minutes in length followed by questions from the
floor. The public lecture is an opportunity to receive, from all faculty and students, useful input
regarding the proposed study. It is hoped that, in the lecture, the student will disclose some of the
details of the examination process. This serves an educational function for other students preparing
for the process. It also helps demystify the process in that, if a major revision is required, students
understand why. The public lecture also gives students experience at preparing and giving a
seminar. Delivering public presentations is a normal and expected part of academic life.

Comparative Education
Community participation in school management has great potentials for removing mistrust and
distance between people and schools by nurturing transparency of information and a culture of
mutual respect and by jointly pursuing improvement of school by sharing vision, process, and
results. Individual and organizational behavioral changes are critical to increase the level of
participation. In countries where the administrative structures are weak, the bottom-up approach
to expanding educational opportunity and quality learning may be the only option.

Nevertheless, when community participation is implemented with a top-down manner without

wider consultation on its aims, processes, and expected results, the consequences are likely to
be conflicts between actors, a strong sense of overwhelming obligation, fatigue, inertia, and
disparity in the degree and results of community participation between communities. Political
aspects of school management and socio-cultural difference among the population require
caution, as they are likely to induce partial participation or nonparticipation of the community at
large. Community participation in school management will result in a long-term impact only if it
involves a wide range of actors who can discuss and practice the possibilities of revisiting the
definition of community and the way it should be.

Keywords: community participation, school management, developing countries, basic education, private
sector, accountability, transparency, client power
What is Community?
What is community? There is no common definition of community and its function in education
of developing countries. If there is a school within a walking distance for most people, school
community is likely to overlap with the geographical community. However, this is hardly the case
in many developing countries. When the locality is sparsely populated, a school community may
cover a wide range of geographical communities. Also, when geographical communities are
divided into different cultural, ethnic, or linguistic identity groups, a school community needs
rigorous coordination over the language of instruction, school events, and the membership of
the school management body (e.g., school management committee, school council, and school
board). The locality may have several schools based on religion, language, and other cultural
backgrounds, and people from the same geographic community may belong to different cultural
and school communities.

The context of community also influences its function. Community may promote social cohesion
in school through various forms of collaboration within itself, but can exclude or be competitive
with others over available resources. Such resources include public or private financial resource
allocation to schools, assistance by donors, and access to natural resources such as water.
Thus, using the term community participation in school management requires caution in what
we mean by community and careful consideration of the social context.

In more conceptual terms, there are geographical, cultural, and school (or functional)
communities. Geographical community is a group of people who reside in the same
geographical boundary. Cultural community means a group of people with the same ethnic,
linguistic, and/or religious backgrounds who share common norms and practices. Finally, school
community denotes a group of people who gather and work for the purpose of school
management, regardless of their geographic location or cultural backgrounds. School
community may or may not include diversity in the socio-economic and cultural backgrounds of
its members. This article assumes the functional community as the operational definition of
community participation in school management.

Different social and institutional contexts of the education systems affect results in community
participation differently, particularly in their roles and responsibilities, the levels of participation,
representation of community members in the school management body, and the outcome of
students learning performance and life course. For instance, the recent upsurge of
decentralization devolved decision-making power to the community level in many developing
countries. However, in some countries, the actual power devolved to the community is fairly
limited due to scarce resources at the community level and high dependence on the guideline of
usage of grants allocated to school by the government. In other countries, where community
participation has a long history of compensating for the weak management of government
schools, communities are actively involved in hiring teachers themselves and contributing to
school in various forms. In the latter case, monitoring attendance of students and teachers,
construction of classrooms and pit latrine blocks, and financial contribution to scholarships for
pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds are likely to be in the hands of community members.

With the recognition that there are a variety of ways of involvement of community in school
management in developing countries, this article examines how and in what ways community
has been involved in school management in the context of developing countries and how the
existing studies have documented the phenomenon with reference to the actual challenges,
constraints, and possibilities. The section Conceptual Framework of Community Participation in
School Management demonstrates the analytical framework of community participation,
including historical roles of community in school management, the school-based management
theory, and types and levels of participation. The section Empirical Literature on Community
Participation in School Management, reviews the empirical literatures on the impacts of
community participation on access to and quality of learning in schools as well as the
constraints and driving factors for community participation in school management. The
conclusion summarizes and suggests further studies on this theme.

Conceptual Framework of Community Participation

in School Management
Historical Roles of Community in School Management

Who bears the cost of schooling?

Who bears the cost of schooling is a primarily important question to ask, since the education
policies and international discussion on the role of community often emphasize its benefit as a
means to fill the financial gap left by the government. In many developing countries, community,
historically, has played an important role in educational provision. In sub-Sharan Africa (SSA),
for instance, community-based providers and faith-based organizations supported educational
provisions even before independence, until the 1960s and 1970s when the governments in the
region exerted their own influence on educational development. During the period, some
countries in the region declared primary education fee-free, resulting in a dramatic increase in
the public education expenditure. Earlier attempts, however, to provide free education in SSA in
the 1970s, had failed to achieve the objective owing to ineffective institutions, reduced quality of
education, high informal fees, and other costs of schooling (Allison, 1983; Amutabi, 2003;
Bray, 1986; Obasi, 2000; Prince, 1997; Sifuna, 2007; Somerset, 2009).

The structural adjustment programs (SAPs) adopted in many poor countries in the 1980s with
the aim of overcoming the debt crisis, hampered school education with reduced government
budgets and introduction of user fees for basic education, while private education expanded its
presence in the provision of basic education. In many developing countries, basic education had
fees until the 1990s or 2000s, and the fees varied across schools. Parents bore not only the
direct and indirect costs of schooling; they also contribute to school in the form of labor (e.g.,
classroom construction) and in cash (i.e., contributions, even despite the fee abolition policy).
However, private education was not financially sustainable in some areas and was out of reach
for children from poor households. Olembo (1985) indicates, for instance, that many community-
financed school projects in Kenya were abandoned because of the lack of capacity. Further,
many families living in poor areas were unable to afford the non-tuition fees and other
contributions at the primary school level, and many rural nongovernmental schools found it
difficult to collect fees from the parents (Colclough & Lewin, 1993; UNESCO, 2007). Because of
the recognition that the high cost of education hinders many poor children from going to school,
the abolition of school tuition has regained popularity in developing countries since the mid-
1990s (Avenstrup, Liang, & Nellemann, 2004; UNESCO, 2008).

Nevertheless, the re-introduction of fee abolition policies in many developing countries over the
past 20 years did not stop the spread of private schools. In this context, it is helpful to divide
private schools into two groups: (a) high-cost private schools that provide high quality education
to wealthy children in urban areas, and (b) low-cost private schools that are often financially
supported and managed by communities and parents (Bray & Lillis, 1988; Knight &
Sabot, 1990). While some argue that the low-cost private schools are only substitutes for public
schools in areas where the latter are absent, others maintain that private schools provide basic
education more cost-effectively for the poor, even in areas where public schools are available
(Kingdon, 2007; Phillipson, 2008; Tooley & Dixon, 2005). Thus, it is important to note that
various intentions and demands for community participation in school management have led to
different roles of community.

Substitute, Complementary, and Critical Roles of Community

Community can play the substitute, complementary, and critical roles in school management.
The substitute role is to substitute the governments service due to the lack of government
support. James (1987, 1995) explained the phenomenon of high private expenditure on
education in developing countries by the excess demand model (James, 1987, 1995). This
model describes the role of the private sector in satisfying excess demand and filling in the gap,
relative to the size of the age cohort, created by inadequate capacity of the public sector.
Private schools driven by excess demand often offer low-cost and affordable education, while
some suffer from low quality education when there is no competition with other public or private
schools.

The complementary role for community is to provide alternative education to the existing
education system. Contrary to the excess-demand model, the differentiated-demand model
hypothesizes that the public education system is unable to meet the diverse demands of
parents, especially for cognitive, religious, and linguistic education (James, 1987, 1995). When
the quality of public education is attractive enough to keep pupils from different socio-economic
backgrounds, there may not be the high demand for private schooling. In other words, the
quality of public education determines the demand for high-quality education in private schools.
There are also cases whereby cultural communities take initiative to operate non-formal schools
for children and adults. Community organizations and non-governmental organizations (NGOs)
offer adult literacy programs to target those who missed the opportunity of schooling due to
poverty, war, conflicts, child labor, early marriage, and so on. In such cases, community
organizations take alternative pedagogical approaches to the public schools. For instance,
ActionAids REFLECT and ACCESS programs use participatory learning methods and suggest
a new role of teachers as facilitators in promoting students learning in school (Archer &
Cottingham, 1996). The program emphasizes the linkage between education and action,
whereby the educational goal is not just to master systematic knowledge and skills offered in
school, but also to empower learners to solve the problems in daily life.

The communitys critical role is to be a friend of the school system and to address the issues
and problems of school management from the side of the community. Let us look at educational
evaluation as an example. The school-based learning assessments do not include the data on
learning performance of those students who tend to be frequently absent from school or on
unenrolled school-age children, thus providing a partial overview of learning output in school.
Such assessments are often collected and compiled at the central level after administering the
assessment in schools without school-based analysis or feedback to draw some practical
implications for further pedagogical and managerial strategies at the school level. Educational
evaluation tends to be regarded as a professional and policy matter, managed by central
government officials and professionals such as university professors and senior teachers,
leaving out other stakeholders including parents, community members, and students as sole
beneficiaries.
However, since the mid-2000s, civil society organizations have emerged that challenge the
closed form of educational evaluation and decision-making process on quality of education. The
Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) in India was the pioneer in this regard and
conducted the learning assessment for 700,000 children in 5,000 villages in all parts of India in
2005. Such household-based learning assessment did not aim only to assess learning
achievement of school-age children but also to promote discussion on quality of education with
a wide range of people at the community level for social change. Such movement was rapidly
expanded to Pakistan, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Senegal, and Mali.

UWEZO, a civil society organization established in 2009 in East Africa, conducts a large-scale
household-level learning assessment for the purpose of forming a civil society to take action
with respect to the quality of basic education. UWEZO conducts annual household-based Grade
2-level learning assessment in math and reading for children ages 6 to 16 years in Kenya,
Uganda, and Tanzania. UWEZO uses various means, such as mobile phones short message
services, radio, league tables, and posters for stakeholders at the household, community, and
local government levels to discuss the results of the learning assessment and to demand quality
education to schools and the government. UWEZO challenges the conventional norms that
teachers and education specialists handle quality issues in education by opening up the forum
to the public to raise multiple voices to school.

Accountability Mechanisms for Education Service Delivery

The role of community in school management attracted attention in the 1970s, when the
mainstream idea, that government is the sole actor to provide educational services, was
challenged, and community-led alternative education programs were proposed as more relevant
and effective for providing basic education. Since the 1980s, community has become the main
actor of development, not the recipient, and participatory approaches in learning, such as
Participatory Learning and Action (PLA), were adopted. Furthermore, in the early 1990s,
neoliberal economic theory and liberal democratic theory were jointly called a new policy
agenda, which regarded the market and private sector as the most efficient service providers
and maintained that democratization and civil society form a strong foundation for economic
success. Many donor agencies shifted their targets of assistance to non-governmental
organizations (NGOs) and civil society organizations (CSOs), away from inefficient and corrupt
governments.

The critical role of community was further explored by the World Bank (2003), which provides an
analytical framework of its accountability mechanism for the improvement of service delivery, as
shown in Figure 1. There are long and short routes of accountability for schools to account for
their service to the beneficiaries. The long route of accountability is for the citizens to elect the
political leaders who then formulate education policies to respond to the will of the voters and to
direct and supervise schools to deliver the service demanded by the citizens. With a
precondition that each institution could maintain autonomy, citizens as the clients of public
service utilize votes to enhance the control of central and local governments over service
delivery institutions and to oversee these institutions more effectively through the direct exercise
of client power.
 Click to view larger

Figure 1. Accountability framework for school management.

Source: Created by M. Nishimura, based on World Bank (2003, p. 188, Figure 10.3).

The short route of accountability is to increase client power, which is power to demand
educational services that match client needs by directly raising voices and asking for
explanation of schools on their services. The short route of accountability is ensured by forming
a school management committee or school council that consists of representatives of parents
and community members plus a head teacher to discuss the school plan and challenges facing
the school to collaboratively improve quality of education. In many developing countries, it is
quite difficult to ensure the long route of accountability due to corruption and mismanagement
on the part of politicians and government officials and unclear election processes. Thus, much
attention is being paid to enhancing client power through the short route of accountability.

There are numerous examples of using this short route of accountability. The initiatives of ASER
and UWEZO in the previous section are the very challenge to enhance the short route of
accountability. These household-level learning assessments are intended to initiate client
power movement for quality improvement of basic education through sharing and analyzing
information on learning at the household and community levels.

Another example can be drawn from a School for All Project started in Niger in 2004 and
expanded to surrounding countries (i.e., Burkina Faso, Senegal, Mali, Madagascar, and Cte
dIvoire) by Japan International Cooperation Agency. These West African countries had low
enrolment rates, high levels of poverty, and serious public financial constraints, altogether
inducing the lack of classrooms and of parental understanding and cooperation for schooling.
Teacher absenteeism and the lack of capacity of teachers resulted in learning crises in schools.
While thatched classrooms are commonly built by communities, the lack of transparency in
school management increases the distance between community and school and results in
malfunctioning of the school management committees. The School for All Project aimed at
functional school management committee (SMC) and adopted the minimum package of
democratic election for the SMCs, participatory planning and implementation of school
improvement plans, collaborative monitoring and evaluation of school activities, and accounting
through community gathering. After school management became participatory, with
transparency of information, the intake rate increased from approximately 60% to almost 100%,
and the gross enrolment rate of below 60% reached about 80% (Hara, 2011). The primary
completion rate also gradually increased from about 40% to over 50%. Community members
became more active in participating in various school activities such as classroom construction
and implementation of supplementary and night classes, and purchased and procured
textbooks and learning materials.

Both UWEZO and the School for All Project attempt to improve the short route of accountability
for quality of education. The School for All Project puts more emphasis on the function of school
management than the public movement for social change proposed by UWEZO. Nevertheless,
they have common goals, to improve the quality of education by ensuring information sharing
between school and community, to overcome the distrust and distance between them, and by
promoting the participation of community members to collaboratively manage local schools.
They also share potentials to improve accountability by linking the government, teachers,
parents, community, and students to share information, to raise awareness, to dialogue, and to
act together. Such bottom-up initiatives to ensure accountability seem to be key to expanding
educational opportunities and improving the quality of education, especially in fragile states with
weak administrative systems.

Types and Levels of Participation

It is important to note that the types of participation vary depending on the purpose of
participation and the actual power devolved to the community. The categories in which power is
devolved include budgeting (i.e., budget formation and allocation), personnel management (i.e.,
appointment and dismissal), pedagogy and educational content (i.e., curriculum development,
making of class schedules and school calendar and events, selection of textbooks, etc.), school
infrastructure and maintenance (i.e., improvement of buildings and other infrastructure,
procurement of textbooks and scholastic materials), and monitoring and evaluation (i.e.,
monitoring and evaluation of teachers performance and students learning achievement).

School-Based Management (SBM), discussed in the next section, is a typical example of

promoting community participation in school management under the new policy agenda
described in the previous section. Nevertheless, various types of SBM exist in the types and
levels of devolved power. Latin American countries have several examples of power devolved to
the community for appointment and dismissal of teachers, while other parts of the world
generally devolved power of budget formation, a certain level of pedagogical approaches and
educational content, and maintenance of school infrastructure to community. Monitoring
attendance of students and teachers tends to be managed at the school level, while evaluation
of teachers and learning performance is often in the hands of the central government. Devolved
power is dynamically re-allocated within the system among school, community, local
government, and central government in various educational reforms.

There are political, economic, and historical backgrounds against diverse allocations of
decision-making powers within the education systems. In theory, democratic school
management intends to democratize a society. In reality, however, community often becomes
responsible for school management as an alternative to the unstable government after the
political turmoil. There are also countries with diverse ethnic and cultural groups where
decentralization becomes an option to weaken the conflict between groups. Alternatively, highly
centralized states that pursue efficient economic growth as development states, often seen in
East and Southeast Asia in the 1960s and 1970s, restricted community participation. From the
economic perspective, decentralization is often regarded as a means to utilize financial,
physical, and human resources at the local level when facing the constraints of the national
budget. Historically, how a school was established in the society determines the role of the
community. For instance, in SSA, it was churches and communities that constructed schools
during the colonial period and that kept their contributions to school after independence due to
low capacity of the government. In short, community has played an important role since the
origin of school education in these countries.

The degree of participation also requires attention. The ladder of participation, by Arnstein
(1969), is well known to indicate the levels of participation. According to Arnstein, there are eight
ladders categorized as client power (i.e., citizen control, delegated power, and partnership),
tokenism (i.e., placation, consultation, and informing), and nonparticipation (i.e., therapy and
manipulation). Even if the decision-making power is devolved to the community level, how
power is distributed among multiple groups of community members and to what extent
participation takes place need careful speculation, as we see a variety of impediments in the
process later, in the section on empirical literatures.

School-Based Management Theory

The neo-liberal agenda of privatization and the recent upsurge in school-based management
(SBM) both imply the importance of community participation for the efficient and effective
delivery of educational services (Bruns, Filmer, & Patrinos, 2011). The underlying belief is that
the closer the decision-making power is to local communities, the more relevant and efficient the
consequent resolutions will be. The theory of SBM emphasizes (a) increasing poor peoples
opportunity to choose schools and participate, (b) giving citizens a stronger voice, (c) making
information about a schools performance widely available, and (d) strengthening the rewards
and penalty to schools based on their performance for improving learning outcome (Barrera-
Osorio, Fasih, Patrinos, & Santibez, 2009). In more concrete terms, there are three essential
components of school management in the theory of SBM, namely, autonomy, assessment, and
accountability for improving the learning outcome (Barrera-Osorio et al., 2009; Demas &
Arcia, 2015). School management under autonomy often gives an important role to the school
management committee and its school policy formation (Yuki, Igei, & Demas, 2016).

SBM has also attracted attention due to the lack of perspectives on school management and
their relation to learning outcome in the previous research. For instance, many input-output
analyses based on the education production function have discussed possible factors affecting
performance of students while paying less attention to how inputs are managed and interacted
with at school. Inputs include attributes to students, such as age, gender, socio-economic
backgrounds, and teacher and school characteristics such as the pupil-teacher ratio, the pupil-
textbook ratio, qualification of teachers, and school facilities, as a proxy indicator for school
inputs (Glewwe, Hanushek, Humpage, & Ravina, 2013). Outputs are measured by test scores,
promotion rate, dropout rate, and so on. However, these models do not include policy
environment and management of school, and they have faced criticisms that they deal with
school as a black box and that they often lack analysis on how schools are managed and are
using resources to improve learning (Hanushek, 2003; Rogers & Demas, 2013).

The researchers of the World Bank developed the System Approach for Better Education
Results (SABER) tool in 2011 to overcome the limitation of the traditional input-output analysis
and to examine the inside of the black box by looking at variables related to policy intent and
implementation at the school and government levels. JICA Research Institute further contributed
to developing questionnaires at the school and government levels to capture different levels of
intent and implementation of an education policy, focusing on school autonomy and
accountability domain. The SABER data on the school autonomy and accountability domain
allows us to analyze how policy intent and implementation of school management is associated
with learning achievement at the school level. Evidence is expected to accumulate in the
coming years, but some of the research on Senegal and Burkina Faso indicate that school
autonomy and accountability are moderately associated with educational outcomes such as
access to school, learning improvement, and gender equality (Nishimura, unpublished
manuscript; Yuki et al., 2016).

Empirical Literature on Community Participation in

School Management
Impact of Community Participation
The impact of community participation in school management is mixed at best in the past
literatures. Empirical evidence, mostly from Latin American countries, has highlighted some
impacts of community participation on the increased attendance of pupils and teachers and of
pupils learning achievements (Bruns et al., 2011). Taniguchi and Hirakawa (2016) recently
suggested some indirect positive relationship between community participation and learning
achievements of pupils through improved school management in rural Malawi. In Senegal, a
recent study that used a randomized control trial method reports that the impact of school grants
was seen on French, mathematics, and oral reading test scores of Grade 3 students, especially
on girls with high ability levels at baseline (Carneiro et al., 2015). Reviewing a wide range of the
past empirical literatures, Bruns et al. (2011) note that a combination of school autonomy,
students learning assessment, and accountability to parents and other stakeholders brought
better learning performance by students.

In contrast, Hanushek et al. (2013) analyzed a panel dataset from international PISA1 tests
between 2000 and 2009 and found that school autonomy affects student achievement
negatively in developing and low-performing countries, while its effect is positive in developed
and high-performing countries. A number of other studies, based mostly on qualitative case
studies, have posited the challenges of community participation in school management in terms
of social structure, the social and cultural aspects of individual and organizational behaviors,
and political intervention in community participation.

Impediments of Community Participation

A number of qualitative research efforts indicate that the devolution of decision-making power to
school and community does not automatically result in exercise of devolved power due to social
structure, attitude and culture of individuals and organizations, and political intervention in
community participation. Contextual understanding of participation is of primary importance to
clarify diversity in the results of community participation in school management in developing
countries.

Social Structure
The past literatures suggest that structural factors that cause low accountability are two-fold,
namely, the lack of autonomy of each institution and severe inequality in the society (Bruns et
al., 2011). As for autonomy of institutions, many studies suggest that, unless the main actors of
the local government, school, and parents/community members are independent in their
decision making and control over resources, an accountability mechanism does not function
well (e.g., Francis & James, 2003; Ogawa & Nishimura, 2015). When resources stem mainly
from a single source characterized by insufficient information sharing and transparency,
community participation is discouraged, the local government becomes unaccountable, and the
central control becomes stronger (Francis & James, 2003).

Social inequality tends to reproduce unequal client power and quality of education among
schools under the decentralization policy. Socio-economic and geographical inequality tend to
result in disparities between the available resources and the level of academic achievement
among schools in different countries (Cullar-Marchelli, 2003; Kristiansen & Pratikno, 2006;
Ogawa & Nishimura, 2015). There are numerous cases where the heavy economic burden of
education on community resulted in disparity in the quality of education among schools and
regions in SSA countries in the 1980s and 1990s (Bray, 1996; Bray & Lillis, 1988). In the post-
conflict situation in El Salvador, access to primary education expanded rapidly, while unequal
financial capacity of parents, region, and Association for Community Education was reported to
result in disparity of school education and learning performance of students (Cullar-
Marchelli, 2003). Kristiansen and Pratikno (2006) also note that decentralization in Indonesia
brought an increase of education expenditure of parents and socio-geographical disparities.

Abolition of school fees, often called universal primary education policy or free primary
education policy, attempts to ensure equal educational opportunity, while this policy minimizes
local decision making power by enhancing central control over school finance (i.e., a flat rate of
capitation grant set by the central government replaced the various levels of tuition fees and
parental contribution) and thus contradicts the decentralization policy (Sasaoka &
Nishimura, 2010). In reality, however, parents and community members bear the cost of
education in forms other than tuition fees (e.g., contribution, exam fees, development fees,
compensatory or remedial lesson fees, etc.), and it is likely that disparities in client power will
perpetuate in an unequal society (Ogawa & Nishimura, 2015).

Individual Attitude and Organizational Culture

The second major challenge is more to do with behavioral patterns of people, such as attitude
and culture. To change ones attitude and to build capacity take time, with various kinds of
confusion in the process, albeit with the legal and administrative systems in place. For instance,
in India, local administrators and community members are used to following directives and could
not adjust to the guidelines, based on which they could have initiated independent action
(Varghese, 1996).

Numerous cases at the school level also showed that organizational culture and conservative
attitudes of teachers and administrators did not exercise the devolved power in reality. For
instance, in Nicaragua, the organizational culture of schools influenced the ways in which
schools handled the devolved power differently and widened the disparity in quality of education
among schools (Rivarola & Fuller, 1999). Where obedience to authority is a social norm, local
district officers and community members do not seem to practice devolved decision making
(Chapman, 1998; Varghese, 1996). In Asian countries, it was reported that parents, teachers,
and principals preferred maintenance of the status quo to taking a risk of undertaking a reform,
and thus the devolved power did not result in education reforms for improvement at the school
level (Chapman, 1998). Case studies from Ghana and Indonesia have revealed that the
hierarchical behavior of head teachers and teachers could not change the teachers attitudes to
be more independent and spontaneous during reform to the local curriculum, and the existing
pedagogical practices persisted (Bjork, 2003; Pryor, 2005; Yeom, Acedo, & Utomo, 2002).
Other literatures suggest that a school culture that encourages parental and community
participation seems critical if such participation is to occur (Rivarola & Fuller, 1999;
Shoraku, 2008). In Cambodia, for example, it is reported that parents norm, as being obedient
to teachers and community leaders, as well as teachers perceptions that regard parents as
passive, with no interest in the learning environment of schools, jointly led to the limited degree
of parental involvement in school management (Shoraku, 2008).

Attitudinal issues are also indicated at the community level. For instance, the decentralization
policy, planned and led by the central government, weakened school management due to a lack
of consensus building among community members, that they are the ones who would manage
schools and create a new learning environments under the new policy in the Philippines
(Chapman, 1998). Furthermore, as community members lacked the willingness to change the
situation, and lacked as well the understanding and confidence necessary to discuss the quality
of education, community participation did not lead to an improvement in the quality of education
in Ghana and the Philippines (Chapman, 1998; Chapman et al., 2002; Mfum-Mensah &
Friedson-Ridenour, 2014). In Nicaragua, parents were unprepared, with insufficient
understanding of the meaning of autonomy, leading to no action and passive attitudes towards
school management (Rivarola & Fuller, 1999).

In more decentralized forms of school management, tension theoretically exists between

teachers professionalism and political legitimacy as represented by community participation
(McGinn & Welsh, 1999). In Latin American countries such as Guatemala, where power to hire
and dismiss teachers was devolved to community, tensions occurred between teachers and
community members over personnel management and school policy (Tamura, 2012). However,
most of the existing literature on developing countries does not reveal such tension. Rather, the
degree of participation is fairly limited due to the top-down nature of policy formation and
implementation of devolution and the difficulty of attitudinal and behavioral changes of people.

Socio-Cultural and Political Aspect of Participation

The socio-cultural aspect of each society determines the form and degree of participation. In
Ghana and Tanzania, the higher general level of parental education was reported to be a
contributing factor to the higher level of participation in school management (Mfum-Mensah &
Friedson-Ridenour, 2014; Phillips, 2013). Based on the case study of Ethiopia, Yamada (2012)
indicates that the SBM-type school management structure and institutionalization of School
Management Committee (SMC) itself tends to favor educated males conversant with the logic
and formalities of the school management committees work, while excluding others.

Political influence on the way participation takes place is also evident from some qualitative
studies. For instance, a case study in Nepal illustrates that participation in legitimate spaces for
community participation in school is taking a form of tokenism whereby school management
represents only a small number of political elites (Khanal, 2013). In Guatemala and Honduras, a
case study suggests that hiring of teachers was based on partisan loyalties rather than teaching
qualifications and trust of broader community members in the community-managed schools due
to the intervention of the patronage politics in community participation (Altschuler, 2013).

McGinn and Welsh (1999) note that one of the important conditions for smooth democratic
decentralization is a highly uniform citizen in terms of levels and distribution of education and
training. Needless to say, many developing countries do not meet this condition, and yet various
types of decentralization and SBM are being implemented in a mostly top-down manner, leaving
individual attitude and organizational culture as remaining challenges for improvement of
accountability of school education.
Driving Forces of Community Participation
Although central government plays the primary role in providing public education, community
plays a complementary role to the government in fragile states that suffer from political turmoil
and stagnant economy. El Salvadors Community Managed Schools Program (EDUCO) is a
typical example. The EDUCO Program devolved power to recruit and retain teachers to school
management committees that consisted of parents and community members when the
governments had not recovered administrative functions in the post-conflict situation. In Maasai
communities in Kenya, where public education has recently spread and became popular,
parents and community members are hiring teachers on behalf of the government, which froze
teacher deployment due to financial constraints. The high demand for alternative education also
promotes community participation in school management. In Afghanistan, for instance, teachers
and community members offered home schooling for girls who had been excluded from public
schooling under the Taliban regime.

In any role that community plays, be it substitute, complementary, or critical, the most important
driving force is the demand for education from the side of a wider community (the school
community). Also important are information sharing within the community and between
community and school, collaboration and coordination among actors within the community and
administrative institutions, critical thinking abilities of community members for analyzing
government policy and their own needs to initiate action, attitudes of trust and mutual respect
among people over school management, untiring efforts to improve, and a spirit of voluntary
contribution (Nishimura, 2014).

Conclusion
This article discusses the role of community in school management from historical, theoretical,
and empirical perspectives. It is important to note that community plays a substitute,
complementary, and critical roles in educational development and that the role of community
and its impacts varies by country, region, and actor. To understand the role of community, it is
imperative to grasp the social context and needs of the community in which community
participation is promoted in school management. In-depth analysis of cases is required to
carefully investigate the process of producing or not producing the impact.

Community participation in school management has great potential for removing mistrust and
distance between people and schools through nurturing transparency of information and culture
of mutual respect and for jointly pursuing improvement of schools by sharing vision, process,
and results. It should also be noted that individual and organizational behavioral changes are
critical to increase the levels of participation. In countries where administrative structures are
weak, the bottom-up approach to expanding educational opportunity and quality learning may
be the only option. On the other hand, when community participation is implemented with a top-
down manner without wider consultation on its aims, processes, and expected results, the
consequences are likely to be conflicts between actors, a strong sense of overwhelming
obligation, fatigue, and sabotage, disparity in the degree of participation and its results between
communities, and political interference. School management body will also become a mere
name without substances or activities, and people will feel helpless if the range and degree of
devolved power is limited to the minimum scale.

Finally, although this article did not discuss the issue of exclusiveness and the politics of
community, a community may not be able to agree to one goal and may face multiple vested
interests and intensions. Community participation in school management will result in a long-
term impact only if it involves a wide range of actors in the discussion and application of its
possible methods, including revisiting the definition of community and the way it should be.

Modern Trends In Education:

by Lisa Chesser, opencolleges.edu.au
Education sprouts in many forms depending on how you look at it. Our views of what
it should look like and how it should materialize depend on our value of it and our
experience with it.

What if a class consisted of words that led to information that whirled into blended
realms of creativity set up just for students, created by students. The students then
dictated what they learned instead of reluctantly ingesting information and standards
imposed upon them.

That exists here and now. In every nook and cranny, around every corner, inside every
well-engineered lesson, students might just learn what they want to learn and actually
find success while improving the world around them.

Take a tour of 50 different views of education that somehow find a similar

note: Education must change.

1. Ground Up Diversity

Sir Ken Robinson campaigns changing education through talks, writing, advising, and
teaching. He believes education must change because its a stale environment in
which most students dont really learn what they should or want to learn. How that
happens makes all the differencefrom the ground up. People, students, and teachers
create the change not the administrators or the executives.

2. Social Networking

With social networking growing to the point that Technorati last tracked about 70
million updated blogs, using social networking to teach any subject and catapult
students into a realm other than stagnant learning means blending the traditional
education with modern communication. Many educators believe this is the route to
engaging students in learning all the basic skills they need.
3. Talking Education

Educators believe using talking or videos to review lessons and teach concepts helps
students learn and retain more. Between TedEd and TeacherTube, education talks a
lot about everything. Students love movement, television and film so utilizing these
snippets of information transforms the meaning of learning especially for many
students who are strapped for time.

4. Underground Education

According to John Taylor Gatto, teachers should choose the real world over the
classroom. Students dont learn to live or survive in a classroom. They learn to
survive in the real world so the concept of underground education challenges
educators in any walk of life to give students the tools with which to live and breathe
in the world around them. If the lesson must be taught, then teach it thinking of who
they might become.

5. Navdanya

Dr. Vadana Shivas mission lives and breathes in Navdanya, an organization that
promotes self-reliance and earth democracy. The leaders of the organization are
women who find strength in womens movements and give women a voice. Earth
democracy developed from the idea of seed saving helping local communities become
self-reliant.

6. Asset

In China, seeing education as an asset means youre a high net worth individual
or HNWI. China has approximately 1.4 million HNWIs equaling out to around $8.7
trillion in wealth stock according to Julius Baer Group Ltd. With the cost of tertiary
education rising so quickly, this also makes education a luxury item.

7. Social Status

Even more significant to learning than being an asset, social status plays an
underlying role in the education of a small or large group of people whether its an
entire countrys agenda or certain sections or communities within that country. In
other words, if that community puts importance on education as a social benefit,
students and people in that community will strive to achieve it in order to raise their
status in the community.

8. Lesson Study

Originating in Japan, lesson study applies to style of teaching. Conceptually, lesson

study promotes the idea that teachers constantly improve and change their style of
teaching based on students performance and reaction to it. It sounds like what we
already do but not exactly. Collaboration between teachers is paramount and so is
change. Combining these two factors with constant change means students never stop
learning.

9. Constructive Struggling

Another Japanese form of teaching is to allow students to struggle through a lesson

with guidance from their teacher. In other words, the student shouldnt be
embarrassed about failing the first time around, not even the second or third time. The
instructor should actually encourage students to learn from that failure.

10. School in the Clouds

After experimenting with a computer in a wall where poor children basically found a
way to learn without a teacher, Sugata Mitra won the Ted Prize of $1 million in 2013.
He wrote an ebook named Beyond the Hole in the Wall offering an ideal for education
based on a very real premise that students learn no matter what social status or
economic background. They simply need the tools with which to do so.

11. Problem Based Learning

In regards to tertiary education, problem based learning is gaining popularity in

Australia. Students are given a real-world problem then they work together to find a
solution to this. In Australia, nursing programmes have begun to embrace this style of
teaching and learning because it challenges the students to work as if theyre dealing
with real problems theyll encounter in the workplace. Teachers find it invaluable
because students learn more with this method.
12. Learning with Technologies

Another view found all around the world but also heavily used in Australia surrounds
the use of technologies as the key to students improving their learning abilities and
their marketability. Within the realm of technologies, teachers encourage students to
innovate, bringing them full-circle into the 21st century where survival and stability
rule.

13. Constructivist Learning

According to Dimitrios Thanasoulas of Greece with relation to philosopher

Giambattista Vico, humans only understand what they construct. This concept runs on
the idea that students create their own learning environments, actively participating in
the knowledge they ingest. Creating your own learning involves making mistakes with
no preset agenda in place. Constructive learning is not stable so many educational
systems reject it.

14. International Objectives

Many countries are creating a climate conducive to international students interests

and desires. In 2010, $7.7 billion was spent on tuition by international students
in Canada. Countries that give attention to international students find economic
benefits in both education and employment.

15. MOOCs & eLearning

Free education has materialized in the form of eLearning and Massive Open Online
Courses as a direct result of students wanting to learn but not having the resources to
do so whether that means they dont have the money or the background to achieve
their learning goals.

16. Competency Based Education

Competency based education says that regardless of the length of time it takes for a
student to complete a course, the student completes it based on what they know
already. The only factor in determining how or when the student completes the course
is the mastery of knowledge within the subject.
17. The Bologna Process

More an agreement than a concept, the Bologna Process is an agenda bent on

responding to the changing landscape of education. Higher education systems in
European countries organize themselves to create a more modern, advanced system of
higher education for the incoming students.

18. Degree Qualifications

The Lumina Foundation argues that degree programs need to set benchmarks for
students that prepare them for an ever-changing workplace. These degrees then arent
simply meant for study but give students goals and skills that will help them find and
maintain jobs once they enter the workforce.

19. Herbert Steins Law

Herbert Steins Law states, If something cant go on forever, it will stop. Many
within and outside of the field of education have latched onto this law as a wake-up
call to educators. It shows its presence with the advent of so many changes actively
taking place and being embraced throughout every educational environment.

20. Disrupting Innovation

Some see online education as a disruptive process in the clean line that traditional
education has managed to stronghold, which links to Herbert Steins law in the sense
that online education is putting an end to this stronghold. Americans see this as a
crisis because of the unemployment rate and the competition from China and India. In
response, disruptive innovation means the expense and elitism of education is
changing to provide an affordable alternative.

21. Open Innovation

Open innovation promotes the idea of competition. In the business world this means
opening up platforms for companies in the form of contests. In higher education, this
means bringing together various institutions for competitions locally and globally. It
means not confining it to only a select few but opening up to as many contestants as
possible.
22. High-Quality Teachers

Another view and criticism of education puts the success or the blame on the teachers
low salary. Respect for the teaching profession should be shown monetarily then
creating high-quality teachers. Finnish educator Pasi Sahlberg believes that educators
should be paid more and for good reason. In Finland, receiving placement in a
masters programme for teachers is harder than getting a law or medical degree.

23. Finnish Education

Instead of focusing on meeting standards and racing to the top, Finland focuses on
providing a quality education to everyone. Contrary to many of the other views in this
list, Finland doesnt believe in competition or even giving grades until fifth grade. The
system also doesnt believe in punitive measures but encourages trust and equality.

24. Social Support Strategy

Organizations such as The Adolescent Girls Advocacy and Leadership Initiative

(AGALI) use social support strategy to ensure young women learn about themselves
beyond social norms. Realizing that the institutionalization of education can only go
so far, these organizations provide education in other, far-reaching ways that give
people a sense of confidence and self-worth necessary to finding success in life.

25. Change Agents

Elevating the teacher as the key to changing the groaning educational system, change
agents are teachers who not only embrace the notion of change but simply make
change happen. They dont wait for a law to pass or a standard to take effect, they just
take the initiative to ensure students learn no matter what the circumstances or
limitations.

26. Common Core Change

In the United States, the implementation of common core standards is meant to

support higher education, which has reported a lower standard in educational abilities
than in years before. Its also meant to challenge students more by forcing education
to enter the 21st century with more student-driven learning.
27. Start-up Education

Start-ups and education are slowly finding each other and attempting to link up with
one another. The only problem is that bureaucracy in education creates slow change.
But, when that change does occur, fast change and innovation give students and
educators an ecosystem in which to thrive and learn. LearnLaunchX showcased
startups products to educators creating enthusiasm in hopes of changing educational
sloth.

28. Mobile Education

We move as a global society so that where ever we go, we carry our smart phones
with us. Between conversations, we look down and tap away at whatever our minds
fancy necessary or entertaining. So education, at least in the most cognizant facets,
says it will be there too. It will walk with us on our journeys, our whims, our detours,
and our desires. If we take our laptops around the world, education will walk with us
according to mobile educational theories.

29. Invisible Structures

On that same note, why place a student in a box? If a student prefers to learn while
traveling the world, then so be it. Breaking down the walls of education doesnt
simply mean creating online classrooms but encouraging students to meet in open
spaces and learn outside the confines of the institution. Teaching outside the
classroom should be a source of inspiration, not a strange phenomenon.

30. Economic Empowerment

Giving students the ability to control their economic status through teaching them
skills and economic value systems around the world helps them become leaders and
innovators but also helps them find a basis for earning an income in a fluctuating
economy.

31. Vocational Training

Whether students are seeking a specialized higher education or a specific skill in order
to further a career path, vocational training has become a more popular avenue and
view of education in general. Often used by governments to train displaced workers, it
can be a valuable source of study for anyone wanting to specialize in areas such as
various types of medical technicians or even graphic arts.

32. Gamification

The concept of gamification basically means introducing the gaming experience to

environments where gaming would normally be unacceptable: Education. The word
gamification was actually coined by an English programmer, Nick Pelling, in 2004.
Adding gaming to education means simply enough that the user completes certain
tasks for rewards just like in a video game.

33. Smart Capital

Smart capital involves placing funds exactly where they should be. Instead of handing
funds over to an entire community or country based on need, the money flows into the
hands of those that need it but will also use it effectively then share their ideas and
funds with others so that we eliminate mediocre use or even no use of technology and
funds.

34. Catalytic Role

Many foundations or organizations play a catalytic role in advancements in education

such as the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. They help innovators change the
dynamics of education by providing monetary and other resources as support through
college-ready education and post-secondary success. The main idea is to strengthen
the relationship between teacher and student so that the learning process progresses to
the point at which students not only learn but apply what they learn.

35. Blended Learning

Blending learning and technology gives students an advantage over others. Its one
thing to move along at ones own pace. Its another to learn at ones own pace.
Linking the two makes a difference worth noting. Teachers dont have to be breathing
over the neck of the student. Guiding the student is often quite enough.

36. Collective Education

The individual takes the back seat when it comes to the idea of collectivist education.
Students learn in groups and more importantly with each other better and more
effectively than alone. This doesnt mean that we disregard the individual online
learner, but it means that the online learner will learn better when exposed to a group
of learners with similar interests who can offer insight and questioning into the
process of learning any particular subject.

37. Personalized Education

Ironically enough, personalized education holds even more value than ever. The
difference is that personalized education doesnt mean there isnt collective education.
It just means that the education is given importance to personalized needs and desires,
that the individual should mean something within the collective forum.

38. Flexible Learning

With the personalized education, the value of flexible learning needs to be addressed.
Flexible learning offers students choices, convenience, and a personal approach to
learning any given subject. Because we are individuals, learning and teaching should
entail some form of flexibility within the realm of standardization.

39. Flipped Learning

As bluntly put as possible, a flipped classroom means turning learning on its head.
Take the learning environment and flip it around so that students do the nitty gritty of
learning with their teachers or professors as opposed to studying for exams alone in a
dark room with only a bright lamp to guide them. The fun part happens at home with a
link to a short article or a video. The tough part happens in school where the teachers
can help students fill in the blanks.

40. Classical Education

The classical education of any group of students rewind to a time lost to them if
delivered in a lecture format. Students can experience the beauty of Shakespeare at
any age because they see it like it was and is, in a theater, no matter how small or
large. Students at Oxford, in an online class, or students at a small school experience
classical education because its handed to them by teachers who deliver it in motion.
41. Free Post-Secondary Education

Countries all over the world offer free post-secondary education giving students in
those countries an obvious advantage over other students who may or may not receive
any education at all. Students might be able to pay for their education if they work
while theyre putting themselves through school and if theyre lucky enough maybe
they have a resource providing them with funds for their education, but free resources
guarantee an education that adds value to whatever they want to become.

42. Religious Education

Religious education exists because communities and cultures give it an importance

beyond knowledge. Linking them together with time and presence, students learn the
nature of who their families and communities believe they are as well as how to deal
with a changing world full of disappointments and violence.

43. Moral Education

Moral education involves many religions and many insights into the way humans
interact with one another. How we manage our way through difficulties is just as
important as how we maneuver through technological advances, at least to our
ancestors and their views of right and wrong.

44. Character Education

Within the realm of creating morality, theres character standing right next to it.
Character may even be a stronger element of education than morality. With students
so quickly exposed to violence and sexism throughout the Internet, character
development takes effort and awareness. At every level of education, students should
be exposed to it and given a chance to exercise their understanding of it.

45. Readiness Testing

Readiness Testing points educator and students in the right direction according to the
people who view it as necessary. It allows educational systems to decide whether
students can perform various tasks at a particular level therefore giving everyone
insight into where and how students should move forward.
46. Sharing Voices

In New Zealand, students are encouraged to use online tools in order to tell their own
stories and have their voices heard throughout their own communities and their
country. In fact, the Ministry of Educations goal is to have students express
themselves and take responsibility of their own learning.

47. Expeditionary Learning

Expeditionary learning brings the learning out into the world expediting the need to
learn more than whats confined inside the classroom walls but even more so using
the world to learn. Students feel engaged in learning while achieving goals and
accomplishing character development when exposed to learning outside.

48. Global View

According to renowned educator Yong Zhoa, high-stakes testing creates more

problems than provides answers and it doesnt match success in the world today.
Educating creative, entrepreneurial students should be the focus of education with
what he calls world-class learners in his latest book. Zhoa believes there needs to be a
paradigm shift in education that builds on students strengths and gives them a format
where their talents flourish and take shape instead of education shaping them.

Philosophy of Education

All children can learn when their environment is safe, welcoming, and conducive to acquiring
knowledge. Creating this positive learning environment requires educators to utilize effective
communication, strong classroom management, parental involvement, academic rigor, high
expectations for all, collaboration and collegiality, acceptance of change, and accountability.

Communication is essential to creating an environment where students can learn. Open two-
way communication must be established and valued by all members of the educational community.
Open communication between students, teachers, administrators, parents, and the community creates
an environment of shared understanding and responsibility in the development of the Educated
Person. It assures that all voices are heard and valued toward development, implementation,
assessment and improvement of effective educational practices.

Learning requires a safe and welcoming environment. Structure and assertive discipline are the
foundation for a positive learning environment. School discipline must be fair, consistent, and firm.
Students must understand their role in school and the academic and behavioral expectations placed
upon them. I believe that when students and parents clearly understand expectations and
accountability, they become more actively engaged in their own learning. Meaningful active
engagement in learning must lead educators and students to frequently celebrate achievement.

Strong relationships between schools, families, and the community are essential to the
academic success of all students. Education is a shared responsibility between schools, families, and the
community, with the best results coming when all three work together. In fact, I believe the three most
critical dynamics of school improvement are teaching and learning, school climate, and family
involvement. Research tells us that the greatest indicator of student success is the level of family
involvement in education. This comes at a time when more children than ever before in United States
history have working mothers and fathers. Therefore, schools must take the initiative in developing and
sustaining effective partnerships. A well-planned visionary partnership is necessary for all students to
succeed.

Academic rigor is at the heart of improved student learning. Educators must identify essential
learning, set clear goals and objectives, create performance-based assessments to accurately measure
student learning, and then develop lessons that foster student engagement toward achieving learning
targets. High standards for learning must be expected and communicated to all students. Educators
need to embrace the idea that the concepts and skills we deem essential require adequate instructional
hours for students to successfully reach the expected learning. Teachers, administrators, parents, and
the community must share the belief that holding students accountable for hard work and the
expectation to continuously improve their learning, will result in a meaningful and lasting educational
experience for all.

All students can learn at higher levels when expected. This position must be consistently
articulated and modeled from the principal, teachers, parents and support staff. A school climate that is
collaborative and focused on results will ensure that all students learn. Educators need to be committed
to frequent and ongoing assessment of student performance that focuses on student learning.
Assessment methods should be varied and aligned to instructional practices applied in the classroom.
Teachers need to work collaboratively to analyze assessment results and develop strategies for
improvement based on the assessment data. When instruction is based on assessment, teachers and
students will have a clear image of what students need to know, understand, and be able to do at the
end of each unit of instruction.
 Teaching and learning in isolation will result in failure. An effective learning community utilizes
collaborative efforts between all stakeholders to improve teacher and student learning. A learning
community begins with the development of shared knowledge and vision. Educators must have a vision
for learning outcomes and must share that vision with students, colleagues, parents, and the
community. This involves communication, research, goal setting, and ongoing professional
development with a clear focus on student learning. By working together, students are exposed to
diverse perspectives and all participants can achieve a greater job satisfaction and sense of
accomplishment.

Change in education must be systemic, sustainable, and effective as measured by increased

learning for all students and adults. I believe that for sustainable, effective change to become imbedded
in our practice, school leaders must develop a vision that values and utilizes shared leadership. We
need to involve all teachers, administrators, parents, and the community in the change process. Finding
new solutions to new problems requires a shared sense of urgency, a common vision, and a deeper level
of active engagement. Teachers need to feel valued as part of the solution to the problem, more than
merely an agent of change for acceptance to occur. If our goal is to improve student achievement, then
teachers, staff, parents, and the community must share the problem and solution with the
understanding that they are accountable to its success. They must be committed to the shared vision
for change.

The education of our students requires educators to synthesize many components. When we
unify our efforts around a strong vision, sound educational practices, professionalism, and an
environment of collaboration and collegiality, we create an environment for meaningful learning. This
positive learning environment embraces the concept that schools are for students and achievement.

Basic Statistics

Teaching and Learning with Technology would like to acknowledge Jackie Ritzko for
revising the content of this tutorial.

Purpose

Statistical terms will play an increasingly important role throughout your

college career. Understanding the terms and processes of statistics is
necessary for you to understand your Research Methods and
Methodologies
As a researcher, you will consider what method(s) might be most appropriate for answering the questions you

want to investigate. Whether you are trying to get the basics of statistics and how to conduct statistical tests or

use a statistics software package, looking to gain experience in using software like NVivo to come to grips with

your qualitative data, or learning how to design a questionnaire or survey for your research, we have resources

and training programmes to help you.

Whatever your discipline, there are methodologies that criss-cross boundaries, and can provide invaluable

insights, particularly when you are contemplating or already undertaking cross- or inter-disciplinary research.

Our Intrepid Researcher series is aimed at offering tasters of different methods/methodologies and include

new, cutting-edge areas, as well as older, more tried and tested methods.

own research and the research of other scholars.

Goals and Objectives

Upon completion of this tutorial, you will be able to:

Define a variety of basic statistical terms and concepts

Solve fundamental statistical problems
Use your understanding of statistical fundamentals to interpret data
Why Study Statistics?
Statistics is the science of collecting, analyzing and making inference from data. Statistics is a particularly
useful branch of mathematics that is not only studied theoretically by advanced mathematicians but one
that is used by researchers in many fields to organize, analyze, and summarize data. Statistical methods
and analyses are often used to communicate research findings and to support hypotheses and give
credibility to research methodology and conclusions. It is important for researchers and also consumers
of research to understand statistics so that they can be informed, evaluate the credibility and usefulness
of information, and make appropriate decisions.

Statistics in Action

Some of the major purposes of statistics are to help us understand and describe phenomena in our world
and to help us draw reliable conclusions about those phenomena. Below you will find video clips
highlighting various phenomena. Based on the information presented in these videos, what are some
conclusions you might draw? What hypotheses can be made? Who do you think would be interested in
information like this? What are the implications for future research? What information shown in the videos
supports those implicationS?

Descriptive and Inferential Statistics

When analysing data, such as the marks achieved by 100 students for a piece of
coursework, it is possible to use both descriptive and inferential statistics in your
analysis of their marks. Typically, in most research conducted on groups of people, you
will use both descriptive and inferential statistics to analyse your results and draw
conclusions. So what are descriptive and inferential statistics? And what are their
differences?

Descriptive Statistics
Descriptive statistics is the term given to the analysis of data that helps describe, show
or summarize data in a meaningful way such that, for example, patterns might emerge
from the data. Descriptive statistics do not, however, allow us to make conclusions
beyond the data we have analysed or reach conclusions regarding any hypotheses we
might have made. They are simply a way to describe our data.

Descriptive statistics are very important because if we simply presented our raw data it
would be hard to visulize what the data was showing, especially if there was a lot of it.
Descriptive statistics therefore enables us to present the data in a more meaningful
way, which allows simpler interpretation of the data. For example, if we had the results
of 100 pieces of students' coursework, we may be interested in the overall performance
of those students. We would also be interested in the distribution or spread of the
marks. Descriptive statistics allow us to do this. How to properly describe data through
statistics and graphs is an important topic and discussed in other Laerd Statistics
guides. Typically, there are two general types of statistic that are used to describe data:

o Measures of central tendency: these are ways of describing the central

position of a frequency distribution for a group of data. In this case, the
frequency distribution is simply the distribution and pattern of marks scored by
the 100 students from the lowest to the highest. We can describe this central
position using a number of statistics, including the mode, median, and mean.
You can read about measures of central tendency here.

o Measures of spread: these are ways of summarizing a group of data by

describing how spread out the scores are. For example, the mean score of our
100 students may be 65 out of 100. However, not all students will have scored
65 marks. Rather, their scores will be spread out. Some will be lower and
others higher. Measures of spread help us to summarize how spread out these
scores are. To describe this spread, a number of statistics are available to us,
including the range, quartiles, absolute deviation, variance and standard
deviation.

When we use descriptive statistics it is useful to summarize our group of data using a
combination of tabulated description (i.e., tables), graphical description (i.e., graphs and charts)
and statistical commentary (i.e., a discussion of the results).

Join the 10,000s of students, academics and professionals who rely

on Laerd Statistics.TAKE THE TOUR PLANS & PRICING
Inferential Statistics
We have seen that descriptive statistics provide information about our immediate group of data.
For example, we could calculate the mean and standard deviation of the exam marks for the 100
students and this could provide valuable information about this group of 100 students. Any group
of data like this, which includes all the data you are interested in, is called a population. A
population can be small or large, as long as it includes all the data you are interested in. For
example, if you were only interested in the exam marks of 100 students, the 100 students would
represent your population. Descriptive statistics are applied to populations, and the properties of
populations, like the mean or standard deviation, are called parameters as they represent the
whole population (i.e., everybody you are interested in).

Often, however, you do not have access to the whole population you are interested in
investigating, but only a limited number of data instead. For example, you might be interested in
the exam marks of all students in the UK. It is not feasible to measure all exam marks of all
students in the whole of the UK so you have to measure a smaller sample of students (e.g., 100
students), which are used to represent the larger population of all UK students. Properties of
samples, such as the mean or standard deviation, are not called parameters, but statistics.
Inferential statistics are techniques that allow us to use these samples to make generalizations
about the populations from which the samples were drawn. It is, therefore, important that the
sample accurately represents the population. The process of achieving this is called sampling
(sampling strategies are discussed in detail here on our sister site). Inferential statistics arise out
of the fact that sampling naturally incurs sampling error and thus a sample is not expected to
perfectly represent the population. The methods of inferential statistics are (1) the estimation of
parameter(s) and (2) testing of statistical hypotheses.

Periodic Assessments
Students take Periodic Assessments several times throughout the school year to give teachers more information
about what students have learned. Teachers use these assessmentsalong with other school work and what they
see in classto learn where students need more help and plan targeted instruction. The New York City DOE does
not use Periodic Assessment results to grade children or schools.

The DOE offers several assessment options for English and math in all grades; schools choose the combination of
Periodic Assessments that meets their needs or design their own combination of assessments.
How do Periodic Assessments help schools?

1. Periodic Assessments provide schools with up-to-date information about what each student knows and can
do so that teachers can target instruction to the learning needs of every child.
2. Periodic Assessments predict students' performance on New York State Tests so that teachers can help
every student meet or exceed State Learning Standards.
3. Periodic Assessments measure student learning within a grade and from grade-to-grade to help schools
keep students on track for success in high school and beyond.
 How can families learn more about Periodic Assessments?
We encourage schools to share students Periodic Assessment results with families.

Families can contact their childs teacher or the schools Parent Coordinator to learn more about the information
available at their school.

Educators can find much more information about the assessments on the Periodic Assessment page of the
intranet.

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Quantitative and Qualitative

Testing

Collecting data to inform and improve website usability is consistently a challenge, for
companies from startups to large enterprises. Theres a plethora of information and
healthy debate on what user experience research methods should be used and when.
When it comes to quantitative versus qualitative research, best practices suggest a mix
of qualitative and quantitative approaches to effectively capture a more holistic
perspective. A challenge, however, is how to combine qualitative and quantitative
testing in a cost-effective, productive way to rapidly obtain data to drive user-centered
design.

Whats the difference?

The difference between quantitative and qualitative approaches is often explained using
contrasting terminology like hard v soft, numeric vs non-numeric, statistics vs insights,
measure vs explore, what vs why. These quick contrasts are useful to highlight both the
strengths and limitations of each approach if used solely without consideration of the
other.

Qualitative tells stories.

At the core of user experience is the subjective, emotion-based response of the individual
user the way a website makes visitors feel. These feelings can range from delighted,
impressed, or hooked, to confused, frustrated, and angry. All these welling emotions,
and the ones in between, have one thing in common: they wont show up in the
numbers.
Quantitative data can tell you which pages people visited, and how long they stayed,
and where they came from and where they went to, but the story itself is missing; the
feelings arent there.

The user that clicked to your registration page and then left without signing up what
kept them from continuing on? The users staying on the homepage for so long, was it
because their interest was captured by great content, or because they were fruitlessly
searching around for an About section? When someone clicks to a new page, did they
move a step closer to their goal or did they find that they had mistaken the page for
something it didnt provide?

Listening to a user narrate their journey, hearing their reactions as they navigate a site,
fills in those blanks. The ups and downs, the irritations and confusions, the aha
moments, the satisfaction of a task completed, all come together to tell a story, and the
best and worst things about your design stand out like warm bodies through infrared
goggles. Qualitative feedback tells why at a level that quantitative data cannot reveal.
Quantitative gives context.
Quantitative feedback allows you to understand your sites usability in the context of a
much bigger picture.

Unlike qualitative information, it can be used to make easy, reliable comparisons. User
testing tools like SUS (System Usability Scale), the SEQ (Single-Ease Question), and
task durations and completion rates that measure and quantify usability can map the
individuals user experience, chart usability increases and decreases over time, and
show how your website performs compares to other sites.
For this reason, quantitative data has a unique capacity to persuade. It shows
stakeholders and decision-makers whats working and whats not, and demonstrates,
with numbers, undeniable disparities in performance. That gives it the capacity to
strengthen and justify qualitative findings. Then it can be used to set predictable
objectives for a new design sprint.

Combining qualitative and quantitative in your research

The challenge with getting quantitative data is that it requires scale for the numbers to
mean anything. But user testing is a research method that relies on video data, and video
analysis is hard to scale up.
The key is to read between the lines of your quantitative data. Video may not scale well,
but if you know how to use all the usability testing data youve collected, its a lot easier
to handle, and can be dissected efficiently even at a large scale.
Data like task duration, for example, is more than just a statistic to show higher-ups, or a
benchmark for the next iteration. Which task took the longest to complete? Was it longer
than you expected? Look for users whose times stand out from the rest; an unusually
long task duration could indicate a user who struggled with the task.
Now you have a starting point to tackle any mass of video data: instead of randomly
picking one of your user videos and watching it beginning to end, pick the user that
struggled most, and skip to the task they had trouble with.

As you start combining other forms of data you can compile your shortlist of video clips
to watch.

Task completion rates and task usability measures like the Single Ease Question (SEQ)
help identify the most difficult portions of the experience, and which users found certain
tasks difficult or even impossible to finish.
System usability scores like SUS or PSSUQ indicate which users had the worst (and
best) overall experience on the site. If youre going to watch any videos all the way
through, these ones will probably be the most useful for your time investment.
UXCrowd, a crowdsourced usability tool, uses voting to show what users liked and
disliked about the site. These results can help you identify which parts of the test videos
to focus on; you can also compare UXCrowd responses to written survey responses to
see what else users had to say about those issues.
Now, having used your quantitative data to create a preliminary framework for analyzing
your research, you have a pared-down but highly targeted list of video clips to watch,
that may look something like this:

Users with the best and worst experiences

Hardest 1-2 tasks from the users with the worst task ratings
Tasks with unusually long durations from some users
Tasks containing issues found in UXCrowd
Users with interesting feedback in the written survey
After working through this much of your data, you can use what youve seen so far to
make decisions about any additional videos to watch.

Sign up for a free trial to launch your first qualitative and quantitative usability study!
 Get started

TryMyUI and Loop11

To help you tackle your usability research, TryMyUI and Loop11s partnership can come
in handy. When TryMyUI and Loop11 are used in tandem, designers, researchers and
marketers have a powerful set of tools to optimize site and user experience.
Quantitative research with Loop11

Broadly, quantitative research can provide path and

performance analyses by capturing the what of user behavior. Loop11 is a remote
usability testing tool that provides quantitative measures of real users behavior through
clickstream analysis. Loop11 delivers quantitative metrics such as task completion rates,
number of clicks, time on tasks, and detailed path analysis. To get started, researchers
use Loop11 to create tasks or questions that are then presented to real users.
Loop11 supports unlimited tasks and questions, and as many as 1,000 users can
participate. Data generated from users clickstreams is automatically presented in real-
time reports.
The quantitative measures from Loop11 are especially useful if researchers want to
Identify any usability problems
Measure task efficiency and success
Compare against competitor usability metrics
Qualitative research with TryMyUI
In contrast, a goal of qualitative research is to gain valuable insight into the thought
processes behind the users actions or clickstream. TryMyUI is a remote usability testing
software platform that captures the voice of the customer via a video recording and
written summary documented by the user. As users navigate a website, they think
aloud, verbalizing their thoughts and reactions as they complete the tasks or questions
posed by the researcher.
For example, a user may express surprise to find the Register button in a particular
location on the site. Quantitative research tracks that the user clicked Register and
what the user clicked on before and after. For researchers, the additional insight that the
user was surprised augments the analysis of the users behavior, and the researcher
observes this first-hand by viewing the narrated video delivered by TryMyUI.
What you can learn from the qualitative feedback from TryMyUI:

How does the user experience compare to the users expectations about how things will
work?
Why is the user experiencing the website or product this way (with in-context feedback)
Whats the linkage?
Loop11 provides the quantitative measures through metrics and reports, and TryMyUI
delivers the qualitative insights via narrated videos and written answers to survey
questions. With these two easy-to-use, on-demand testing tools, any researcher or
marketer can simultaneously gain insight into both the what and the why of user
behavior.
Although there is no single usability tool that provides this powerful combination, the
combined functionality can be replicated by initiating a project in Loop 11 and then
augmenting the testing process in TryMyUI. To get started, open an account on
TryMyUI.com and Loop11.com. Both sites offer a free trial for the first project to help get
started and become familiar with the process and results. Once the accounts are
created, the process is straightforward:
At Loop11, create the test scenarios, invite user participants, and analyze metrics and
reports.
At TryMyUI, copy the project URL generated upon launching your Loop11 project. In
Create a new test, paste the Loop11 project URL in URL. Theres no need to re-enter
the test scenario and tasks in the Scenario and Task sections, as that information is
already captured in the Loop11 project URL.
Use the default written survey questions or customize as needed. Select the
demographics and number of testers.
TryMyUI handles the rest, and will deliver videos of each test user navigating the
website with think aloud narration. Users will also provide written answers to your
survey questions; for example, What did you like about the website?

The purpose of grading is to describe how well students have achieved the learning objectives
or goals established for a class or course of study. Gradesshould reflect students' performance
on specific learning criteria. ... They focus on what students know and are able to do at a
particular point in time.Apr 10, 2015

Though codes of ethics may not have played a significant role in teacher preparation programs in
the past, (Strike & Ternasky, p.3), professional ethical dispositions of teachers must now be
addressed as part of the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE)
accreditation process (NCATE, 2002). A program of ethical education developed for dental
professionals at the University of Minnesota more than 25 years ago is finding adaptations to
other professional training programs, including the training of teachers (Rest & Narvaez, 1994).
Called the Four-Component Model of Moral Maturity, the program assumes that moral
behaviors are built on a series of component processes (Bebeau, Rest, & Narvaez, 1999). Each
component is clearly defined, and educational goals, teaching strategies and assessment methods
can be derived from those definitions. The components are:

1) Moral sensitivity, the awareness of how our actions affect other people. It involved being
aware of the different lines of action and how each line of action affects the parties concerned. It
involves knowing cause-consequent chains of events in the real world, and empathy and role-
taking abilities.

2) Moral judgment is based on the work of Piaget (1965) and Kohlberg (1984) and involved
intuitions about what is fair and moral. It requires adults to make moral judgments about
complex human activities.

3) Moral motivation requires a prioritization of moral values over personal values, particularly in
professional settings, and,

4) Moral character requires individuals to act on their moral convictions.

Training strategies which lend themselves to enhancing moral sensitivity may include role-
playing exercises to sensitize pre-service teachers to professional dilemmas (like the one that
began this essay) and related strategies to make professionals aware that their actions affect
others. In addition, moral judgment training strategies might include the direct teaching of
criteria for making professional moral judgments in cases involving informed consent,
paternalism or breaches of confidentiality. For this component, reference should be made to the
specific descriptions of prescribed actions found in professional codes of ethics.

Moral motivation training might include profession-specific service activities, and the study of
professional moral exemplars (i.e., exemplary teachers); and moral character training might
include strategies for problem solving and conflict resolution among and between children and
adults (Bebeau, Rest & Narvaez, 1999).

Issues related to the moral and professional ethical education of teachers are the focus for several
book-length treatments (e.g., Tom, 1984; Sockett, 1993; Goodlad, Soder, Sirotnik, 1990; and
Goodlad & McMannon, 1997). It would seem that this is developing into an area of greater
interest to the profession.

UNDERSTANDING FOUNDATIONS FOR MORAL AND CHARACTER EDUCATION

For most of history, the concept of character formation--the duty of the older generation to form
the character of the young--has been a basic principle structuring moral education. For example,
Aristotle (trans. 1962) wrote about the development of excellence, stating that to become
excellent at any craft, including becoming virtuous, we have to exercise (practice) those
behaviors. He stated: "We become just by the practice of just actions, self-controlled by
exercising self-control, and courageous by performing acts of courage. Hence, it is no small
matter whether one habit or another is inculcated in us from early childhood; on the contrary, it
makes...all the difference" (1962, pp. 34-35).
 Clearly, the business world expects a basic understanding and practice of ethical behavior from
its workers as they enter the workforce. David Berliner and Bruce Biddle, in their book "The
Manufactured Crisis" (1995), report data collected from personnel directors of major industries.
These employers were asked to list the five most important and the five least important skills
needed by their employees. The surveys suggest that the habits and motivation of workers are
more important to employers than the technical skills workers bring to their jobs. The authors
conclude, "...if schools are truly to serve the needs of business, it appears they should
concentrate...more on the values that students will need when they enter the workplace" (p. 89).

Professionals in education need objective knowledge about how children form a basic sense of
right and wrong and what schools can do to reinforce appropriate development. William Damon,
author of "Greater Expectations" (1996), provides that foundation. He describes research that
children thrive on accomplishment, not on empty self-esteem message. They do not become
overburdened by reasonable pressures related to worthwhile activities, including demanding
homework. They are tough and resilient and are motivated to learn through both extrinsic
inducements (e.g., high expectations, rewards, pressure, encouragement, grades, etc.) and
intrinsic motivations. But they need the guidance that can best be provided by able, caring,
concerned adults.

Daniel Goleman, author of the highly acclaimed book "Emotional Intelligence" (1995), has
documented the effects of positive and counter-productive child-rearing practices that result in
either positive or anti-social behaviors. Many of these practices are related to teaching. Such at-
risk behaviors as impulsiveness and belligerency, stubbornness and indecisiveness, overreaction
to irritation, and inability to put off gratification are learned, and interfere with social and
educational success, with what Goleman calls "mental clarity." Other dispositions, equally
learned, are much more conducive to optimism and full maturity. These include a strong cultural
work ethic, temperance, and the ability to cope with frustrations, optimism and empathy.

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An appropriate classroom environment can enhance these positive dispositions in children if

teachers receive appropriate training. It is no accident that some schools are more adept at
addressing the moral development of their students. Better schools plan for virtue. The
curriculum contains references to virtuous acts, and students are recognized and rewarded for
virtuous behaviors. The school building is physically cared for and psychologically safe and
teachers model exemplary character traits (Benninga, Berkowitz, Kuehn & Smith, 2003). There
is good communication between teachers and parents.

EXEMPLARY CHARACTER EDUCATION PRACTICES IN TEACHER EDUCATION

A recent publication by the Character Education Partnership (2002) highlighted details of a

national survey of 600 deans of schools of education to determine what their institutions were
doing to prepare future teachers in character education. Although 90% of the survey's
respondents agreed that core values should be taught in schools, only 24.4% of the respondents
reported that their institutions "highly emphasized" that content. However, the report identified
three university teacher education programs offering students the knowledge and professional
skills to integrate character education into classroom practices (p.8). Each will be described here.

Boston University. Character education is a theme running through Boston University's School
of Education teacher preparation program. As freshmen, students take a "Cultural Foundations
for Educations" class that focuses on the classics and the arts and interprets these works through
a teaching/learning lens. As a culminating experience, students develop and present lessons at
Boston's Museum of Fine Arts to groups of middle school students. The purpose of this
experience according to the instructor, Steven Tiner, is to offer "future teachers a pedagogically
reflective engagement with texts and other artifacts fundamental to American culture" (p.12) In
their second semester students take an introduction to education class focusing on the moral
responsibility of teaches to students, parents, colleagues, and community members. Other classes
include character education themes, and the School of Education formally inducts students into
the profession at a special ceremony.

California State University, Fresno. Since 1999, the Kremen School of Education and Human
Development, like Boston University, has formally inducted students into the teaching
profession. Students begin the induction session with a discussion of an ethical dilemma and end
the session with a choral recitation of the Educators' Affirmation, a pledge adapted from Tinger's
work at Boston University. All student teacher supervisors meet regularly to discuss ethical
issues that confront them as they supervise student teachers, often writing their own dilemmas
for group discussions. The Kremen School's mission and vision statements attend to the
professional ethical responsibilities of its students, and the School sponsors a yearly Conference
on Character and Civil Education (now in its 20th year) for its student teachers. At that
conference both faculty and community members present moral dilemmas from their
professional work for discussion with students. Character education is the clear theme of that
conference, as well as the work of several education-program cohorts. In one cohort, Early
Childhood Education, faculty have initiated a long-term research project assessing students as
they enter and exit the program, and influsing the curriculum with activities that enhance
character and moral development. This research is based on the Four Component Model of
Moral Maturity discussed earlier (Lane-Garon, 2003).

University of St. Francis. As a Catholic Franciscan University, the University of St. Francis has
always included attention to values, ethics, and service. Character education is part of both the
formal curriculum and the ethos of the College of Education. Several education classes examine
moral development and ethics and the responsibilities of teachers as character educators while
school-and-campus-wide programs habituate students to service and community involvement.
Service learning projects are required in students' cultural diversity courses.

CONCLUSION

It appears that moral and ethical issues, including character education, are slowly becoming part
of the teacher education programs. Philosophical writings and psychological research exist to
provide guidance, and exemplary university training programs, provide beginning models of
practice. Overwhelmingly deans and administrators of teacher education programs agree that
core values can and should be taught in our schools. It's now up to the profession to ensure
broader and deeper implementation.

Building Parent-Teacher Relationships

By: American Federation of Teachers
 Effective communication is essential for building school-family partnerships. It constitutes the
foundation for all other forms of family involvement in education.

Parent Benefits
Positive parent-school communications benefit parents. The manner in which schools
communicate and interact with parents affects the extent and quality of parents' home
involvement with their children's learning. For example, schools that communicate bad news
about student performance more often than recognizing students' excellence will discourage
parent involvement by making parents feel they cannot effectively help their children.

Parents also benefit from being involved in their children's education by getting ideas from school
on how to help and support their children, and by learning more about the school's academic
program and how it works. Perhaps most important, parents benefit by becoming more confident
about the value of their school involvement. Parents develop a greater appreciation for the
important role they play in their children's education.

When communicating with parents, consider your remarks in relation to the three categories that
influence how parents participate. For example, are you communicating about:
Classroom learning activities?

The child's accomplishments?

How the parents can help at home with their child's learning?

Student Benefits
Substantial evidence exists showing that parent involvement benefits students, including raising
their academic achievement. There are other advantages for children when parents become
involved namely, increased motivation for learning, improved behavior, more regular
attendance, and a more positive attitude about homework and school in general.

Teacher Benefits
Research shows that parental involvement can free teachers to focus more on the task of
teaching children. Also, by having more contact with parents, teachers learn more about
students' needs and home environment, which is information they can apply toward better
meeting those needs. Parents who are involved tend to have a more positive view of teachers,
which results in improved teacher morale.

Good Two-Way Communication

 Good two-way communication between families and schools is necessary for your students'
success. Not surprisingly, research shows that the more parents and teachers share relevant
information with each other about a student, the better equipped both will be to help that
student achieve academically.

Opportunities for two-way communication include:

Parent conferences

Parent-teacher organizations or school community councils

Weekly or monthly folders of student work sent home for parent review and comment

Phone calls

E-mail or school website

Communication Strategies
Personal contact, including conferences, home visits, telephone calls, and curriculum nights or
open houses, seems to be the most effective form of communication and may be among the
most familiar. However, the establishment of effective school-home communication has grown
more complex as society has changed. The great diversity among families means that it is not
possible to rely on a single method of communication that will reach all homes with a given
message. It is essential that a variety of strategies, adapted to the needs of particular families
and their schedules, be incorporated into an overall plan. Some strategies to consider include:
Parent newsletters

Annual open houses

Curriculum nights

Home visits (where applicable)

Phone calls

Annual school calendars

Inserts in local newspapers

Annual grandparents or "special persons" days

Board of Education spokesperson or communications officer at PTA meetings

Homework hotlines

Annual field days

Notices and handouts in local markets, clinics, churches, mosques, temples, or other gathering
sites

Website for the school

Workshops for parents

Communications that are focused on fathers as well as mothers

Effective communication strategies involve:

 Initiation: Teachers should initiate contact as soon as they know which students will be in their
classroom for the school year. Contact can occur by means of an introductory phone call or a
letter to the home introducing yourself to the parents and establishing expectations.

Timeliness: Adults should make contact soon after a problem has been identified, so a timely
solution can be found. Waiting too long can create new problems, possibly through the
frustration of those involved.

Consistency and frequency: Parents want frequent, ongoing feedback about how their children
are performing with homework.

Follow-through: Parents and teachers each want to see that the other will actually do what they
say they will do.

Clarity and usefulness of communication: Parents and teachers should have the information they
need to help students, in a form and language that makes sense to them.

Surprise a Parent
Parents are not accustomed to hearing unsolicited positive comments from teachers about their
children, especially in a phone call from the school. Imagine how you would feel, as a parent, if
you were contacted by a teacher or the school principal and told that your son or daughter was
doing well in school, or that your child had overcome a learning or behavior problem. When you
make calls to share positive information with parents, be prepared for them to sound surprised-
pleasantly surprised.

Research shows that school-home communication is greatly increased through personalized

positive telephone contact between teachers and parents. Remember, when a phone call from
school conveys good news, the atmosphere between home and school improves. When you have
good news to share, why wait? Make the call and start a positive relationship with a parent.

Phone Guidelines
Sometimes, as a new teacher, it's difficult to make the first call to a parent or guardian.
Preparing for the call will make it easier. Before making a call, write down the reasons for the
call. One reason can be simply to introduce yourself to the parent or guardian. Here are several
guidelines you can use as you prepare:
Introduce yourself

Tell the parents what their child is studying

Invite the parents to an open house and/or other school functions

Comment on their child's progress

Inform them of their child's achievements (e.g., "Student of the Week")

Inform them of their child's strengths or share an anecdote

To hear a sample teacher-parent phone call, visit www.t-source.org.

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