The project have significant short and long term effects that will be felt by schools, policymakers and researchers.
Benefits for School: SPF Report and EF Handbook
School staff from 125 schools in the project will use the SPF report and EF handbook to advance their impact onto the learning gain of their pupils beyond the life of the project. It is expected that the SPF report will greatly help them consider their role in pupil learning and direction they need to take to improve it. It is also expected that the EF handbook, with the in-depth description of those teacher and school practices that most effectively impact pupil learning, will give school staff the tools to undertake the necessary changes. Other schools will also benefit from the project as they will be sent an electronic version of the SPF sample report, EF handbook and EPD pamphlet, and have these and other materials available free of charge at the projects’ web site.
Benefits for School Stuff: Effectiveness Professional Development (EPD)
Schools in Serbia, Belgium and Cyprus that attended the EPD are expected to experience the most enduring and far reaching effects of the project. They are expected to change their practices to enhance their pupils’ progress through school. They will also be contacted by the researchers/trainers via email to identify potential problems with applying the EPD training in practice and ways to reach needed solutions. Should the partners secure additional funding after the end of the project, the EPD schools will be studied thoroughly to examine the longevity of the effects of EPD, not only by the school staff satisfaction questionnaire, but by measuring the EPD impact on their pupils’ learning.
Satisfaction of school staff with the usefulness and effectiveness of the SPF report, EF handbook and EPD training for improvement of pupil learning will be assessed by the external evaluator via the questionnaire.
All the schools will receive information about the EPD seminar (since not all of them can be trained during the project) via the EPD pamphlet and web site.
Benefits for Policymakers
The policymakers in Serbia, Belgium, Cyprus and Slovenia will be reached by various dissemination events (round tables, conferences and meetings) and materials (example of the SPF report, EF handbook, EPD pamphlet, policy brief, thematic journal issues). Web site was designed to serve both information and dissemination purposes. The policy makers will be comprised of municipal education boards, regional school authorities, education institutions at the national level. The aim of these efforts targeting policy makers will be to focus their attention to the project findings and their potential to change practice, as well as to secure their commitment to institutionalize various outputs of the project (e.g., EPD). In addition, various teacher and principal associations and societies, parent associations and various NGOs, as well as researchers from universities and institutes will be reached via the same means.
The dialogue with policymakers is taking place during but it will last even after the end of the project. In addition to providing policymakers with dissemination materials and inviting them to dissemination events during the project, we will carry on meeting with them after the project ends in order to continue raising their awareness of the potential of EER to improve practice, and advocate that relevant action take place. In the dialogue it will be aimed that EPD become one of the mandatory in-service training courses and that sophisticated methodology that is applied in the SPF and EF parts of the project be adopted in subsequent assessments of pupil learning.
Benefits for Researchers
The researchers will directly benefit from various outputs in the project – fine tuning of the SPF system, testing of the dynamic model of educational effectiveness, and development of effectiveness-tailored professional development – as they will be able to make them transferrable to other countries and further develop their work in the field.
The researchers at partner institutions will be able to apply their updated and refined work on the SPF system and dynamic model of educational effectiveness to a great variety of school settings. In addition, partners will consider applying to other programs in order to expand EPD into other schools and countries.
Benefits for the International Research Community
The wider international research community will be also impacted by the project, as journal papers and conferences presenting the findings of the study will take place after the project ends.