Author(s): Dan Roger Sträng,Bohumíra Lazarová,Roald Jensen,Dag Sørmo / Language(s): Czech
Support for learning in schools is a subject based on efforts to develop schools towards openness and quality. It is a topic that reacts to the changing appearance of Europe and is becoming a focus of attention in various European and national documents of educational policy and strategy. Evoking a number of co-subjects such as organizational learning, peer support, school counselling, mentoring and reflection of practice, the processes of learning in schools apply to both children and adults. The efforts of education politicians, researchers and, obviously, people working in schools are interwoven in these themes. An interest in this subject has brought Norwegian and Czech authors together in order to create this publication and offer it to readers involved in education and schooling. Supported financially by the Norway Grants, this book is a collection of analytical studies in a variety of forms of support for the processes of learning in Norwegian and Czech schools. The aim of the publication is to present an image of how these processes are supported at the level of education policy as well as in everyday practice. Its purpose is not to present fully comparable data, however; instead, the content of particular chapters presents what is characteristic of Norwegian and Czech education in the opinions of their authors. Their articles are based on both specialist national references and results of their own research. The initiatives for the support of learning processes in schools and the resulting experience are discussed in the framework of the European trends outlined in the opening chapter. The publication starts with a brief description of the term ‘school development’, paying particular attention to the relation between theories of learning and education and practice. An important role in this connection is played by reflection on learning and teaching, i.e. reflection on practice, which is one of the most important concepts addressed throughout this publication. The book is divided into four parts. Part One, entitled Norwegian and Czech schools: Policy and practice, is devoted to selected issues of Norwegian and Czech education (Chapters 2 and 3) and the European trends mentioned above (Chapter 1). The Norwegian authors emphasize several historic milestones in the development of Norwegian education, comment on the internationalization of Norwegian schools and highlight some current topics: debates on the professionalization of teaching and its image in the media, stress on care for pupils with special education needs and an increasing demand for counselling and guidance of teachers. These topics, typical of the current needs of Norwegian education, resemble to a certain extent the situation in Czech education. As for the current issues of Czech education, the book pays attention to pupils’ results, inclusive education and the career order of teachers. The opening part is concluded with a list of selected systemic support measures and initiatives implemented by various subjects supporting school development and the quality of learning processes in schools. The Norwegian authors refer to the National system of quality assessment which comprises control mechanisms and methodological support, and they emphasize a deficiency in the abilities of schools to analyse data. Another topic in this part of the book is support in health, counselling and social matters, as provided to families and schools by various subjects (Chapter 4). The Czech counterpart mentions initiatives focusing more narrowly on the development of the quality of teaching. Major legislation and strategic documents are presented together with selected support programmes and projects managed at the levels of the state (Ministry of Education), non-profit organizations and other subjects active on the nationwide and local scales (Chapter 5). Part Two of the book, Support of teachers in theories, focuses in more detail on professional development of teachers and schools as a necessary condition for ‘better learning’. This part presents selected theories on which many efforts to support teachers and whole schools are based. The theory of organizational learning, emphasizing the reflectionbased concept of justified practice, is presented first (Chapter 6). Chapter 7 is devoted to mentoring and other kinds of counselling in schools as important processes that can support learning (and reflection) on individual and organizational levels. In this respect, mentors and school consultants are regarded as agents of change. The aim of the last chapter in this part (Chapter 8) is to present selected theories about reflective processes, reflective practice and reflection with reflecting teams devised by the Norwegian psychiatrist Tom Andersen. This chapter highlights the transfer of a systemic approach used in psychotherapeutic practice and social work to the context of schools and accentuates its benefits for teachers’ reflective practice. Part Three of the publication, Learning teachers as seen through research, presents selected results of recent research surveys that the authors carried out with the focus on the processes of learning and peer support in schools. The data produced by these studies reflect the professional specialization of authors, illustrate specific forms their efforts take and evidence impact on school practice. The Norwegian authors (Chapter 9) present the results of a research and development project called Learning and Assessment, which has enabled many schools to test measures for the development of learning focus and awareness. The Czech author (Chapter 10) presents data of evaluation surveys carried out in schools that can draw on long-term support from mentors and consultants within the project Helping Schools Succeed. She points out the potential of mentoring and counselling in the course of deepening, dissemination and anchoring (after Verbiest) of learning processes in particular learning communities. In the last chapter in this part (Chapter 11), one of the Norwegian contributors summarizes the results of three projects (KARIB, Låby, Berg) with development and research objectives, aimed at the development of reflection practice with the use of reflecting teams in schools. The last part, Concluding remarks, contains one chapter as a recapitulation of the whole book. It stresses the importance of a sustainable support system for teachers and schools that would include reflection on practice. This publication offers inspiration for how a learning support system can be built, and on which foundations.
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