Browsing by Subject "kehittämistoiminta"

Traditionally school reform studies have focused on the analysis of results and outcomes. In this study educational development work was examined from the point of view of institutional learning. The concept of institutional learning is focused around the idea of how the multiorganizational field develops and adapts to changes. Institutional learning is collaborative and it includes all hierarchy levels. In this study institutional learning was approached by examining what different parties learned in the development work based on local experiments. Additionally, the aim was to locate connections that support institutional learning in the field of basic education. The concept of institutional learning is based on the viewpoints of Reijo Miettinen. The theoretical framework for school reforms consists mainly of Michael Fullan's reform theories and Martti Hellström's viewpoints on pedagogical development. As a framework for this study is a reform initiative called "The development of intensified and special support", which was carried out in years 2008-2012. The aim of this initiative was to implement a new strategy for special needs education in municipalities. The data consisted of eight interviews of representatives from school, municipality, state and scientific levels. The interviewees were two teachers, one vice head teacher and one principal, one municipal project coordinator and one municipal education planner, one researcher and one representative of National Board of Education. On municipal level the study was conducted in two elementary schools in Vantaa. The study was conducted using qualitative methods and analysed with content analysis method. Based on the results, learning occurred in four following dimensions: 1)Attitudes and motivation, 2) Co-operation and interaction, 3) Adapting of new practices and 4) Learning of concepts. There was some variation within the hierarchy levels. The dimension of attitudes and motivation was mostly represented on school level. According to the results, many of the learned matters also support future development work. Furthermore, as a second result, four social forms of institutional learning were located. These forms of connections were rather informal and non-organized. An example of such connection was a network where pilot schools are used as partners in a teacher internship program of special teacher education. This study suggests that informal connections should be more systemically examined in order to support the development of the whole institution.