Marc Demeuse

The Theoretical Basis of the Effective School Improvement Model (ESI).

This article describes the process of theoretical reflection that preceded the development and empirical verification of a model of “effective school improvement”. The focus is on basic mechanisms that could be seen as underlying “getting things in motion” and change in education systems. Four mechanisms are distinguished: synoptic rational planning, the market mechanism, cybernetics, and autopoiesis. Principles relevant for effective school improvement that are deducted from these basic mechanisms are: goal setting for improvement, pressures to improve, cyclical improvement processes, and autonomy. The article also briefly touches upon the way empirical models of school effectiveness and school improvement can be linked and used in the encompassing model of effective school improvement that the ESI project has yielded.

Differentiated Financing of Schools in French-Speaking Belgium: Prospectives for Regulating a School Quasi-Market.

The school quasi-market in French-speaking Belgium is characterised by segregation. Efforts to apply measures that encourage greater social mixing have met with stiff resistance. In 2008 and 2009, turbulence was caused by the application of the “social mixing” law influencing the registration procedures. The purpose of this article is to present some results from a prospective research project that investigated the possibility of modifying the formula for financing schools. To do this, a generalised formula for allocating funds to schools according to need is proposed. Then, the solution tested is presented with a financing formula that takes into account indicators of the social composition of the school population. Various scenarios of differentiated financing are presented, through simulations on the effects of these scenarios for all schools. Finally, the implications of these scenarios are discussed and put into perspective with respect to the different solutions considered since 2005 in French-speaking Belgium.

The European Commission Stepping up Both the Efficiency and Equity of Education and Training Systems

This article analyses the Communication of the European Commission (EC) devoted to efficiency and equity of European education systems. It shows the Commissions difficulties in integrating the multiple dimensions of education equity and the confusion between pedagogical and economical notions of efficiency. The authors also analyse the means proposed by the Commission to foster equity and efficiency at different education levels. Under the guise of a specific interest in pre-schooling, the arguments concerning compulsory education were rather lightweight and incomplete, and those on higher education worrying. This article raises the concerns and questions that remain after the reading of this Communication.

Priority Education Policies in Belgium: Two Modes of Regulation of the Effects of a Market Logic

An important feature of the Belgian context is the ‘communautarisation’1 of education policies. Since 1989 teaching has fallen within the competence of the communities, whereas until then it came under the Federal state. It is the three language-based communities (the French-, Flemish- and Germanspeaking communities) that manage similar but completely independent education systems, each covering part of the country.2 In this chapter we will base our account on the French and Flemish communities. The first part deals with the general context of the education systems of these two communities and recounts their joint move towards equity up to 1989. The second part is centred on the priority education policies in the French Community. The targeted populations and the actions prescribed are analysed on the basis of official documents. Their effective implementation and the evaluation of their effects (whether desired or not) is then discussed on the basis of research and the scientific literature available. The third part of this chapter analyses, in the same way, the priority education policies in the Flemish Community. The chapter concludes, as a summary, by examining the similarities and divergences which exist between the two communities.

What role for developmental theories in mathematics study programmes in French-speaking Belgium? An analysis of the geometry curriculum’s aspects, framed by Van Hiele's model

Abstract One possible way of evaluating set curricula is to examine the consistency of study programmes with students’ psycho-cognitive development. Three theories were used to evaluate matching between developmental theories and content proposed in the mathematics programmes (geometry section) for primary and the beginning of secondary education. These were considered in the light of more recent work. Qualitative analysis was performed on the basis of the geometrical thinking model proposed by Van Hiele and this paper focuses on this model. The results obtained can be used to identify gaps where the programmes fail to take adequate account of child development. These results highlight the lack of precision in the wording of programme items, which makes them hard to analyse on the basis of scientific knowledge. The classifications performed revealed instances of lack of coherence that raise doubts about the supposedly progressive nature of the set content.

L’accompagnement du changement en formation

Nous assistons depuis quelques annees a un envahissement du terme accompagnement dans la sphere professionnelle et a son developpement dans la litterature scientifique. Nous constatons en parallele que les milieux de l’education, de la formation et differents champs professionnels (sante, social) sont en cours de transformation (reformes, evolution technologique, evolution des pratiques) et peuvent necessiter un accompagnement de ces changements. La litterature scientifique met en evidence des strategies et des formes de conduite versus accompagnement du changement : supervision, consultation, expertise, analyse des pratiques, formation, communaute de pratiques, mentorat... Ces formes sont pensees en fonction des finalites attendues relatives a la continuite /discontinuite du changement, ce qui revient a situer le changement dans son rapport a la situation anterieure. Dans ce dossier, le regard porte sur le changement inscrit l’accompagnement a differents niveaux : la posture de recherche pour accompagner le changement ; la place des pratiques mises en jeu sur le chemin du changement ; le role des personnes participantes ou intervenantes, collectivement ou individuellement, dans le changement ; la pregnance des dispositifs comme cadre de pensee, cadre d’intelligibilite ou cadre d’emancipation du changement ; le poids des organisations. Ce numero propose donc de tisser un lien entre accompagnement et changement. En effet, ce lien n’est pas uniquement un effet de mode, mais une reponse a la multiplication des reformes, l’acuite des exigences face aux crises de toutes sortes (economiques, sociales, politiques…) que traverse notre siecle. L’accompagnement du changement donne corps aux demandes sociales.