Abstract:

This research aims to study the role that some variables might have for the improvement of student learning. The following variables were considered for the research, namely, students’ engagement, school educational projects and some educational policies, such as the national curriculum, a class-size reduction or the commitment to continuous teacher training, trying to understand the role that they might have in the improvement of learning and personal and social skills of the students in the Portuguese educational system. This presentation is part of a larger research that is still under development and presents some results from a research model proposed by the authors. Regarding the methodology, the research is qualitative, in the line of an interpretative paradigm, although using quantitative techniques of data collection and analysis. The data were obtained through an online survey developed by the authors to evaluate the different dimensions of the proposed research model, using for this purpose a sample of convenience constituted by 1,320 teachers and school directors of non-higher education, public and private, from the first cycle to the high school, of the Portuguese territory. The email addresses were obtained from the official database available on the “Portal of Schools”. In the treatment of quantitative data, a structural equation model (SEM) was used through the SPSS software (Statistical Package for the Social Sciences), to investigate the possible relationships between the different dimensions incorporated in the model.

The main conclusions of the study, considering the conceptions of the respondents, point towards that the students' school improvement was significantly influenced by the students' study methods and it is also possible to underline the relevance of school educational projects and school-based teacher training. The results of this research will contribute to the definition of new educational policies by identifying the main variables that might contribute to the students’ learning.

Keywords:

Educational policies, Students learning, Class-size reduction, Teacher training, School educational projects.