Developing Quality Education

Abstract

There is a universal desire that education should be of the highest quality and, yet, any agreed understanding of what is meant by quality or how to assess quality are strangely absent. Far too often quality is assessed by looking at examination outcomes, failing to recognise that such examinations are unable to measure many vitally important educational outcomes. The other main approach is for outsiders to visit schools and observe what is going on, this also failing in that the presence of an outsider changes what is being observed. This chapter will look at the nature of what is meant by quality and offer an overall picture of what is happening in different areas of the world. It will draw together the research evidence that relates to many areas of education including teacher quality, teacher development, teacher evaluation and perceptions of quality from a learner perspective. Leadership and learning are indispensable to each other. John F. Kennedy