SCHOOL IMPROVEMENT AS A RESULT OF EXTERNAL PRESSURE, VERSUS, AS A RESULT OF PERSONAL AWARENESS AND REFLECTION

This paper examines the school quality issue from an organizational learning perspective. The hypothesis is that school improvement occur more frequently through teachers voluntary development than as a result external pressure. Pressure is often a depressive element in teacher’s work-life, and it could be tempting to do something cosmetically, instead of something of more durable and profound character, if the goal is to document change. In Norway school improvement , the latest years, as in most OECD countries, has been closely linked to better comparable test-results in basic skills. Focus has, in particular, been put on what is tested in the PISA framework. How the results are carried out, and what kind of test-focus there have been in schools daily life is usually under-communicated. Still, is seems to be a common agreement that the quality of the teacher is a vital element when it comes to pupils results.

This paper examines how schools can take care of the ambition of creating a leaning organization within the frames of the public criteria measuring quality in school – built on experiences from a project carried out in a Norwegian municipality.