University of Twente Student Theses
Knowledge sharing in schools with data teams
Sinke, Mariska (2014) Knowledge sharing in schools with data teams.
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| Abstract: | Data-based decision making has become more and more important for schools. Schools are increasingly held responsible for the education they provide and their pupils’ learning progress, and one way in which they can take this responsibility is by basing their decisions on data. This study focused on the data team procedure, which is one of the methods of data-based decision making. The data team procedure learns teachers to collect, interpret and analyse data and to develop improvement measures for the educational problems within the school (Schildkamp, Poortman, & Handelzalts, submitted). The group of teachers who use the data team procedure, the data team members, will not be able to solve the educational problem by themselves. The data team members need the cooperation of the non-data team members to implement the improvement measures in the school, because mostly these concern school wide problems. Therefore, knowledge sharing between the data team and the non-data team members is important. Data team members can share two types of knowledge: knowledge on the data team procedure and data use in general, and knowledge about the educational problem they are studying. This study focused on whether these two types are shared with the non-data team members, how this knowledge is shared, and what factors promote and hinder this knowledge sharing. The results showed that data team members shared both knowledge about the data team procedure and about the educational problem, although more knowledge was shared about the educational problem. With regard to the way knowledge was shared, the results showed that knowledge was mostly shared verbally at the team level and during formal moments. Knowledge sharing could be promoted by a stimulating school culture and the presence of formal opportunities to share knowledge (e.g., team meetings). A factor that seemed to hinder knowledge sharing was the organisational structure of the school, when there is not much communication between the different locations and departments within the school. This study may be a helpful overview of knowledge sharing in schools for school leaders. They could use the results to promote knowledge sharing in their schools, for example by creating a stimulating school culture and by facilitating the data team members with enough formal opportunities to share their knowledge. Future research about knowledge sharing in the context of data teams is needed in order to gain more insight in which factors have a promoting and a hindering influence on knowledge sharing within schools. |
| Item Type: | Essay (Master) |
| Faculty: | BMS: Behavioural, Management and Social Sciences |
| Subject: | 54 computer science, 81 education, teaching |
| Programme: | Educational Science and Technology MSc (60023) |
| Link to this item: | https://purl.utwente.nl/essays/66651 |
| Export this item as: | BibTeX EndNote HTML Citation Reference Manager |
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