EDUC43270

The module, school effectiveness: implications for policy and practice in Irish schools and classrooms, primarily focuses on the evidence that quantitative and mixed methods empirical studies provide for the improvement of teaching, learning and leading in Irish primary and post-primary schools. The module selects significant studies from international literature that cumulatively over time have identified pivotal considerations that feed into the significance of instructional leadership/ leadership for learning. Apart from critically interrogating the evidence and conclusions or implications drawn in studies, throughout the module repeatedly asks: what are the implications, if any, of such evidence for Irish schools and classrooms in their particular contexts and at this particular policy juncture, for national and local priorities. In situating school effectiveness and school improvement in the context of a confluence of influences that emanate from local and global levels, the module adopts a 'glocal' perspective on the evidence and its interpretation, seeking throughout to tailor intentions and practice in a manner that puts learners at the centre while being sensitive to context.

In the first instance, the module is offered as a general, generic offering to all MEd (general), MA Education, PDE (general) students so as to be knowledgeable about current research on school effectiveness but with a definite orientation towards practice and its improvement in a critical and selective manner.

Learning Outcomes:

Having completed this module, students will be enabled to:
- be articulate about the school effectiveness movement and what it has contributed to the field of school improvement, while being able to locate such implications in a 'glocal' context
-be familiar with and highly critical of research a variety or research designs, data analysis and interpretation of evidence with a view to being a critical consumer of published research, while being better informed as to the strengths and limitations of such offerings, particularly when weighed against school context
- be able to advise colleagues at the level of the school and beyond as to the strengths and limitations of various approaches to school effectiveness and improvement
- be able to undertake a selected literature review on a particular aspect of school effectiveness and improvement literature and to provide a critical analysis of the manner in which evidence has been presented, analysed and the extent to which conclusions are warranted by that evidence, while indicating also the implications of such evidence for classroom and school realities
- be more articulate about the role of research in terms of its potential to influence the policy making process
- position oneself within the field of school effectiveness and improvement to find an accommodation between evidence and decision-making at the level of the school.