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Request for articles on school evaluation to be translated and published in a Polish educational magazine

Thanks to ENIRDELM members Justina Erčulj (Slovenia) and Dick Aurell (Sweden) I translated their articles for the educational magazine “The School Director”. Justina’s article was on ‘networks of learning schools’ and Dick’s on ‘peer mentoring’. Both these themes are new to the Polish headteachers.

At the moment I am looking for short articles on internal and external school evaluation. This process has been implemented in Poland starting in the current school year. I would like to translate and publish them in the above-mentioned magazine.

“The School Director” editorial board tries to help Polish heads to implement school reform of which school evaluation is one part. As a new issue it creates fears and tensions. Therefore examples of good practice, practical tips and research findings from countries where evaluation is well known would be highly appreciated.

Danuta Elsner, delsner@neostrada.pl

Technology, Entertainment, Design - a treasure trove of cutting-edge ideas
One of the internet’s greatest on-line publication treasures that gives easy and free access to cutting edge thinking relating to a wide range of human affairs is www.TED.com . It has attracted a global audience in the millions because it provides on-demand access to the world's most inspiring voices. Issues of interest to ENIRDELM members such as leadership, education (see examples  in “Interesting Websites” above), creativity, global issues and sustainable development feature among the 600+ video presentations, many of which are models of how to present ideas in highly effective ways.
TED is a small nonprofit devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading. It started out (in 1984) as a conference bringing together people from three worlds: Since then its scope has become ever broader. Along with the annual TED Conference in Long Beach, California, and the TEDGlobal conference in Oxford UK, TED includes the award-winning TEDTalks video site, the Open Translation Program, the new TEDx community program, this year's TEDIndia Conference and the annual TED Prize.
On TED.com, the best talks and performances from TED and partners are available to the world, for free. More than 600 TEDTalks are now available, with more added each week. All the talks feature closed captions in English, and many feature subtitles in various languages. These videos are released under a Creative Commons license, so they can be freely shared and reposted.
Particularly relevant in ENIRDELM’s non-English-speaking countries is The TED Open Translation Project.  It brings TEDTalks beyond the English-speaking world by offering subtitles, interactive transcripts and the ability for any talk to be translated by volunteers worldwide. It was launched with more than 250 translations, 50 languages and 100 volunteer translators. It's an ambitious project that radically enhances the accessibility of the talks -- for the hearing-impaired, for those who speak English as a second language, for search engines (which can now index the full transcript of a talk), and of course for the vast audience of non-English speakers worldwide.
Today, TED is therefore best thought of as a global community welcoming people from every discipline and culture who have just two things in common: they seek a deeper understanding of the world, and they hope to turn that understanding into a better future for us all. As such it offers an inspiration to our modest effort in ENIRDELM to pursue similar goals.
Click here to subscribe to TEDTalks video:
Novotný, Petr. Učení pro pracoviště. Prostor pro uplatnění konceptu workplace learning v českém prostředí [Workplace Learning. Possibilities applying the concept in the Czech environment]. Brno : Masaryk University, 2009. 152 pp. ISBN 978-80-210-5116-4.

This book presents the reader with theoretical and empirical analysis on the topic of workplace learning. The text derives from two essentially simple theses: The first thesis says that the workplace is a learning environment and a place that normally co-defines a community in which learning takes place. And in spite of the fact that learning is, with only a few exceptions, the secondary process in the workplace, it is inherently linked to work performance as the primary process and with many aspects of the functioning of the workplace as part of the organization, such as efforts to efficiency and innovation processes. The second argument complements the first and says: learning for the workplace does not take place only in the workplace, it may take place elsewhere (e.g. in educational institutions) or in the spaces between workplace and the outside world (e.g. within the social contacts of the workplace members outside the workplace itself). The key to the definition of workplace learning is not a space, but functional link of the learning process to what happens in the workplace.

Research related to issues of adult education in the Czech Republic has shown in recent years, that professional education of adults is very important, quantitatively increasing the component of lifelong learning and that the occupational and professional context is a crucial determinant of motivation and participation in adult education. The author is convinced that enforcement of the workplace learning concept is in this situation desirable.

Novotný, Petr. (ed.) Pracoviště jako prostor k učení. [Workplaces as learning spaces] Brno : Masaryk University, 2009. 97 pp. ISBN 978-80-210-4918-5.

The volume of proceedings is based on the work of researchers from several European institutions. It is a selection of inspiring papers presented at the workshop “Decoding working places as learning spaces” authored by 9 experts from 5 countries: Magdolna Benke (HU), Bente Elkjaer (DK), Gábor Erdei (HU), Karen Evans (GB), Lynne Chisholm (A), Linda Kragelund (DK), Zuzana Šimberová (CZ) and Edmund Waite (GB). The workshop was organized by the Department of Educational Sciences, Masaryk University, Brno, with the support of the Austrian Office for Science and Research in Brno.

The volume presents seven situations studied by the authors as a part of their efforts to enhance our understanding of workplace learning in several European countries. The studies range across a number of heterogeneous examples of professional and occupational lifelong learning, with a specific emphasis on the workplace as a key space for learning. Despite the shared framework of workplace learning, the studies differ in many respects, this variety resulting from many factors. The papers included in the journal emphasise the relation between empirical findings and theoretical background.

The University Council for Educational Administration (UCEA) is an international consortium of prestigious research universities committed to advancing the preparation and practice of educational leaders for the benefit of children, schools and society. UCEA, as a consortium, symbolizes an important aspiration--advancing significantly the field of educational leadership through inter-institutional cooperation, communication, and contribution.

UCEA works with its institutional members and other educational partners to improve the preparation of educational leaders and promote the development of professional knowledge on educational leadership and school improvement. Over the past few years UCEA and its member faculty have focused keenly on increasing the quality and amount of research focused on leadership preparation.  As a result of these efforts, UCEA has supported research initiatives, developed the Journal of Research on Leadership Education, published the International Handbook on the Preparation and Development of School Leaders and the Handbook of Research on the Development of School Leaders in the United States, and has created a program evaluation and technical assistance service to support preparation program improvement and further knowledge development in the field.  UCEA welcomes your involvement in these and other initiatives, which are helping to shape the future of educational leadership. UCEA headquarters is currently hosted by the University of Texas at Austin's College of Education