Measuring Innovation in Education: A New Perspective

Do teachers innovate? Do they try different pedagogical approaches? Are practices within classrooms and educational organisations changing? And to what extent can change be linked to improvements? A measurement agenda is essential to an innovation and improvement strategy in education. Measuring Innovation in Educationoffers new perspectives on addressing the need for such measurement.

This book’s first objective is informative: it gives readers new international comparative information about innovation in education compared to other sectors. And it documents change in a variety of dimensions of school practices between 1999 and 2011. Its second objective is methodological: it assesses two approaches to capturing the extent and type of innovation occurring within and across education systems. The third objective is exploratory: this book showcases a large-scale pilot that presents over 200 measures of innovation in education using existing international data. Last but not least, the fourth objective is prospective: this report proposes new approaches to measuring innovation in education in the future.

This book is the beginning of a new journey: it calls for innovations in the field of measurement – and not just of education.

Contents:

+ Foreword

+ Acknowledgements

+ Executive summary

+ Overview: Why and how to measure innovation in education
-Objectives of the book
-Why measure innovation in education: context and rationales
-How innovation in education is measured in this publication
-Better understanding the role of innovation in education
-Summary of the main findings
-How to improve the measurement of innovation in education
-References
-Reader’s guide

+ PART I. COMPARING INNOVATION IN EDUCATION WITH OTHER SECTORS
++ Chapter 1. Highly innovative workplaces in education and other sectors
-Innovation occurrence and types within the education sector
-Innovation occurrence within the education sector compared with other sectors
-Innovation types within the education sector compared with other sectors
-Innovation within the education sector by level of education

++ Chapter 2. Employee participation in innovation in education and other sectors
-Innovation occurrence and types within the education sector
-Innovation occurrence within the education sector compared with other sectors
-Innovation types within the education sector compared with other sectors
-Innovation within the education sector by level of education

++ Chapter 3. Speed of adoption of innovation in education and other sectors
-Level of Innovation within the education sector
-Lead innovation within the education sector compared with other sectors
-Innovation within the education sector by level of education

++ Chapter 4. Highly innovative jobs
-Innovation occurrence and types within the education sector
-Innovation occurrence within the education sector compared with other sectors
-Innovation types within the education sector compared with other sectors
-Innovation within the education sector by level of education

+ PART II. INNOVATION AS CHANGE IN CLASSROOMS AND SCHOOLS
++ Chapter 5. Innovation in teaching style
-Use of front-of-class teaching
-Independent work
-Summary

++ Chapter 6. Innovation in instructional practices
-Relating lessons to real-life
-Data and text interpretation
-Reasoning
-Summary

++ Chapter 7. Innovation in class organisation
-Group work
-In-class ability grouping
-Self-directed work
-Individualisation
-Summary

++ Chapter 8. Innovation in the use of textbooks in classrooms
-Use of textbooks as primary resources
-Use of textbooks as supplementary resources
-Summary

++ Chapter 9. Innovation in the methods of assessment used in classrooms
-Test based assessment
-Non-test based assessments
-Summary

++ Chapter 10. Innovation in the availability of computers and the internet in the classroom
-Computer availability
-Network accessibility
-Summary

++ Chapter 11. Innovation in the use of computers in the classroom
-Use of computers for practising skills and procedures
-Use of computers for information research
-Use of computers for data analysis and scientific experimentation
-Use of computers for reading and writing
-Summary

++ Chapter 12. Innovation in the provision of special education in schools
-Remedial education
-Enrichment education
-Summary

++ Chapter 13. Innovation in the extent of teacher collaboration in schools
-Instructional collaboration
-Classroom observations
-Summary

++ Chapter 14. Innovation in feedback mechanisms in schools
-Progress benchmarking and monitoring
-Curriculum and instruction development
-Summary

++ Chapter 15. Innovation in evaluation and hiring in schools
-Use of data for teacher and principal evaluation
-External evaluation
-Peer evaluation
-Incentive use for recruitment and retention of teachers
-Summary

++ Chapter 16. Innovation in schools’ external relations
-Informing parents
-Parental involvement
-Public relations
-Summary

++ Chapter 17. Composite indices of innovation in classrooms and schools
-Composite innovation indices

+ PART III. CHANGE IN EDUCATIONAL OUTCOMES
++ Chapter 18. Innovation and educational outcomes
-Composite innovation indices and learning outcomes
-Composite innovation indices, equality and equity
-Composite innovation indices and changes in education expenditure
-Composite innovation indices and satisfaction

+ Annex A. Data sources and methods
-Data sources: overview
-Coverage of the statistics
-Country coverage
-Sample sizes
-Year coverage
-Calculation of cross-country means and totals
-Calculation of effect sizes
-Further resources

+ Annex B. Composite innovation indices
-Creating the indices
-Missing values
-Criteria for including questions in the indices
-Developing and reporting the indices
-Cautions
-Countries’ top 5 areas of classroom-level innovations
-Countries’ top 5 areas of school-level innovations
-Country index

Website: OECD iLibrary http://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/

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