Lessons from the School Sector (Hopkins 2002)
Hopkins draws on experience from the school sector to identify that improvement programmes should be:
Achievement focussed - they focus on enhancing student learning and achievement, in a broader sense than mere examination results or test scores
Empowering in aspiration - they intend to provide those involved in the change process with the skills of learning and 'change agentry' that will raise levels of expectation and confidence throughout the educational community
Research based and theory rich - they base their strategies on programmes and programme elements that have an established track record of effectiveness, that research their own effectiveness and connect to and build on other bodies of knowledge and disciplines
Context specific - they pay attention to the unique features of the educational organisation and build strategies on the basis of an analysis of that particular context
Capacity building in nature - they aim to build the organisational conditions that support continuous improvement
Inquiry driven - they appreciate that reflection-in-action is an integral and self sustaining process
Implementation oriented - they take a direct focus on the quality of instructional practice and student learning
Interventionist and strategic - they are purposely designed to improve the current situation in the educational organisation or system and take a medium term view of the management of change, and plan and prioritise developments accordingly
Externally supported - they build agencies around the educational organisation that provide focussed support, and create and facilitate networks that disseminate and sustain 'good practice';
Systemic - they accept the reality of a centralised policy context, but also realise the need to adapt external change for internal purpose, and to exploit the creativity and synergies existing within the system.
Hopkins goes on to identify that, if applied to higher education, these principles can also fulfil a number of other important functions:
- Define a particular approach to improvement strategies in Higher Education.
- Can be used to organise the theoretical, research and practical implications that define educational change as a field on enquiry.
- Provide a set of criteria that can be used to differentiate broad approaches to improvement efforts in Higher Education.
- Can also be used more specifically to help analyse and define individual educational improvement efforts or programmes.
- Contain a series of implications for policy that could enable them to more directly influence the achievement and learning of all students.
