16 July 2010
The launch of the new ITDEQC project in Beijing, China
Education and academic quality can mean different things to different people, depending on their perspective, role and context and, in part because of this, quality is notoriously difficult to evaluate. The question of how to do this has been pursued for many years. Nevertheless, the goal of improving educational quality is agreed by all and stimulated further by the recent worldwide economic downturn and the need to counteract the impact of the crisis on economic growth and prepare for economic recovery.
The quality of knowledge generated within higher education institutions, and its availability to the wider economy, is becoming increasingly critical to national competitiveness.
International collaborative research is an important way of achieving this aim. For example one such collaboration is being conducted by China National Institute for Educational Research and the University of Bristol's Graduate School of Education with financial support from UKaid and ESRC.
The IEEQC project, ending in January 2011, is investigating the complex nature of schools' effectiveness in China and how local context may play a key role in determining definitions of educational effectiveness and quality. The project aims to provide new insights into the impact of student characteristics, school context and process factors on students' attainment and progress in school using innovative quantitative methodology (multilevel modelling) and the relevance of these factors in the evaluation of schools' performance in China.
A further collaborative project, launched yesterday, aims to investigate the nature and extent of teachers' professional development and learning in China as well as the relevance of professional learning communities in Chinese schools. The 3-year ITDEQC project seeks to provide empirical data to enhance understanding of teachers' development and learning and how these aspects relate to schools' effectiveness and improvement of the education level in China.
Overall, the ITDEQC research seeks to promote the development of teacher and school quality as well as innovation in school evaluation and "value added" approaches through guidelines for implementation and bottom-up and top-down dialogues involving key stakeholders such as local and national policymakers, teachers and students. Such research is relevant because the quality of primary and secondary education is a crucial input contributing to the quality of higher education outcomes, especially in providing students with the necessary grounding in core knowledge and skills (and assessing these appropriately), in order to bring students up to the minimum level required for university education.
In these circumstances, building research capacity in China to enhance primary and secondary school quality, through, for example, teacher training and support for school self evaluation, is another important strategy to address educational quality issues. Professor Sally Thomas said: "The key message is that higher education capacity development can play a crucial role in supporting and improving the quality of basic education, which then subsequently feeds back into enhancing the quality of higher education."
As the World Bank and UNESCO said 10 years ago: "The quality of knowledge generated within higher education institutions, and its availability to the wider economy, is becoming increasingly critical to national competitiveness." They also emphasized that "A strong research system at the national level opens up the possibility that substantial additional public benefits can be realized through international links."
Professor Sally Thomas commented: “This is precisely why Chinese students and academics should contribute to these global benefits, reforming and improving evaluation systems for educational and academic quality. Original and good research, especially in science, economics and social sciences, has a trickle-down effect on society. And it offers additional benefits even without international links, though international collaboration and exchange of the best evaluation policy and practice can bring substantial advantages to all partners in relation to lessons learned elsewhere.”
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