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1 – 10 of over 1000Monika Bauer and Gertrud E. Morlock
School kiosk offerings play a crucial role in the dietary behavior of students. The importance of healthy meals in schools is emphasized again and again, but there is a lack of…
Abstract
Purpose
School kiosk offerings play a crucial role in the dietary behavior of students. The importance of healthy meals in schools is emphasized again and again, but there is a lack of practical implementation and literature data on kiosk offers and acceptance. This study aimed to analyze the reasons and improve the situation.
Design/methodology/approach
Individual nutrition knowledge and behavior as well as purchasing behavior at a typical kiosk scenario at schools were collected. Based on the outcome, a concept for improving the school kiosk offerings according to the quality standard of the German Nutrition Society was developed. Many obstacles and challenges had to be overcome in the transition to healthier offerings and their implementation. In the course of these changes, the creation of a new feel-good cafeteria lounge was deemed necessary and finally realized.
Findings
A large percentage of the school kiosk offerings did not meet the desires of the school community. Opportunities to improve the school kiosk service were identified. The skillful planning of structural changes towards healthy food offers and warm meals on two weekdays made it possible to implement the official nutrition standards for healthier meals at school kiosks, despite long-term challenges for food providers.
Originality/value
After a critical analysis of the reasons for the lack of politically desired standards for healthier meals at school kiosks, a new implementation culture is presented and was successfully applied to overcome barriers and challenges through an incremental-dynamic concept strategy with iterative cooperation between the actors of food service providers, school administration, school management, teachers and students.
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While recognizing networking as a powerful means of school turnaround, most studies focus on governments’ and schools’ roles in promoting collaborative turnaround rather than the…
Abstract
Purpose
While recognizing networking as a powerful means of school turnaround, most studies focus on governments’ and schools’ roles in promoting collaborative turnaround rather than the complexity of external providers and their behaviors. This study explores multiple external providers’ complex roles in networked school turnaround.
Design/methodology/approach
This study employed a qualitative case study approach and collected data through document analysis, observation and interviews in a Shanghai public junior secondary school’s turnaround network.
Findings
This study revealed three patterns in external providers’ interactions with the school (direction leader, solution supplier and method instructor) corresponding to three types of external providers (universities, private enterprises and public institutions). While providing support at different levels (i.e. macro, meso and micro), different external providers shared common strategies for addressing policy requirements and school needs and co-constructing turnaround strategies.
Originality/value
This study offers new insights into external providers’ supporting roles in Chinese school turnaround and expands the scant international knowledge base on external providers in educational improvement.
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Mariam Kawafha, Duaa Al Maghaireh, Najah Shawish, Andaleeb Abu Kamel, Abedelkader Al Kofahi, Heidar Sheyab and Khitam Alsaqer
This study aims to enhance understanding of malnutrition's effect on academic achievement of primary school students.
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to enhance understanding of malnutrition's effect on academic achievement of primary school students.
Design/methodology/approach
This is a descriptive, cross-sectional design built on Roy's adaptation model (RAM). This study uses a random cluster sample, consisting of 453 primary school students. Contextual stimuli (mother's educational level, income and child’s breakfast eating) and focal stimuli (wasting, thinness, body mass index and stunting) were examined regarding adaptive responses to student’s academic achievement.
Findings
The investigation revealed that Model 1, which took into account factors of age, gender, the frequency of breakfast, income, the number of family members and the education of mothers, explained 12% (R2 = 0.12) of the variance in academic achievement. Stuntedness (β = −3.2 and p < 0.01), BMI (β = 0.94 and p < 0.001), family income per month (β = 5.60 and p < 0.001) and mother's education (β = 2.79 and p < 0.001) were the significant predictors in Model 2.
Practical implications
This study provides evidence that malnutrition is associated with ineffective academic achievement. Moreover, variables such as the mother's level of education, family income and the child’s breakfast consumption have a significant impact on academic achievements.
Originality/value
RAM is a useful framework for determining factors affecting people's reactions to difficult circumstances.
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Wangying Zhang and Kwok Kuen Tsang
Developing an enabling bureaucratic structure for school organization has been an important aim of education governance reforms in China, like many societies across the globe…
Abstract
Purpose
Developing an enabling bureaucratic structure for school organization has been an important aim of education governance reforms in China, like many societies across the globe, since the 1990s. However, there is a lack of valid measures to investigate the extent to which the Chinese education governance reforms facilitate the development of the enabling structure of school bureaucracy and examine the antecedents and consequences of enabling school bureaucracy. Thus, the study was conducted to validate the Chinese version of the Enabling Structure Scale (ESS-Ch), which is used to assess school bureaucracy in China.
Design/methodology/approach
The study surveyed 1,146 teachers enrolled in professional development courses provided by a Beijing university. The validation process involved two phases. In the first phase, the sample was divided into three subgroups for exploratory factor analysis (EFA), confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and cross-validation. In the second phase, reliability and validity were assessed utilizing the entire sample.
Findings
It indicated a four-factor model of the ESS-Ch: enabling formalization, coercive formalization, enabling centralization and hindering centralization. Factor loadings ranged from 0.72 to 0.88, composite reliabilities ranged from 0.82 to 0.95 and values of average variance extracted ranged from 0.61 to 0.80.
Research limitations/implications
The study contributes to the international literature by validating the ESS-Ch so as to provide a standard measure that can be applied in comparative studies on enabling school bureaucracy between Chinese and Western cultures.
Originality/value
The study is original by validating the ESS-Ch based on a sample of 1,146 teachers in China.
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Yulian Zheng, Haiyan Qian, Shuangye Chen and Allan David Walker
This study examines principal rotation in China to gain empirical insights from the policy analysis and succession strategies that principals employ to gain internal and external…
Abstract
Purpose
This study examines principal rotation in China to gain empirical insights from the policy analysis and succession strategies that principals employ to gain internal and external support in their new schools.
Design/methodology/approach
We employed document analysis and a case study approach. Interviews were conducted with officials in 5 local educational agencies and 40 principals from 5 different regions who were undergoing rotation. Thematic analysis was used to identify common patterns and themes in the interview responses.
Findings
We explored how the principal-rotation policy was implemented, including the goals, standards, targeted principals, tools and other aspects of the policy in China. The study revealed the challenges faced by the rotated principals and their succession strategies.
Originality/value
Our study contributes to the field of educational leadership by shedding light on the implementation and impact of principal rotation in mainland China.
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Stefan Ninković and Olivera Knežević Florić
Since teaching practice is the most important within-school determinant of student learning outcomes, a deepened understanding of how and why school leadership contributes to…
Abstract
Purpose
Since teaching practice is the most important within-school determinant of student learning outcomes, a deepened understanding of how and why school leadership contributes to effective teaching is needed. This article aimed to systematically review the knowledge that has been accumulated about the indirect relations between school leadership and instructional practices.
Design/methodology/approach
The Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guided the selection of relevant articles from the databases Scopus and Google Scholar. Twenty-six published works met the eligibility criteria and were included in the narrative synthesis and content analysis.
Findings
The most frequently measured mediators of the effects of school leadership on teaching practice were teacher collaboration, professional learning and teacher self-efficacy. Most studies simultaneously modeled multiple mediated pathways from school leadership to teaching practice. However, only a few analyzed studies used time lags when examining relationships between constructs.
Originality/value
This is the first study to systematically review knowledge on pathways through which school leadership is related to classroom instruction. Thus, this review provides a comprehensive understanding of processes through which school leadership achieves its effects on instructional practices.
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Liang Hong and Siti Rohaida Mohamed Zainal
Researcher agreed that job performance has a positive effect on productivity as well as an organisation’s efficiency. Thus, this study aims to investigate the impact of…
Abstract
Purpose
Researcher agreed that job performance has a positive effect on productivity as well as an organisation’s efficiency. Thus, this study aims to investigate the impact of mindfulness skill, inclusive leadership (IL), employee work engagement and self-compassion on the overall job performance of secondary school teachers in Hong Kong. It then evaluates the mediating effect of employee work engagement between the relationships of mindfulness skill, IL and job performance, as well as the moderate effect of self-compassion between the relationships of mindfulness skill, IL and employee work engagement.
Design/methodology/approach
The sample comprised 263 teachers working from three secondary schools in Sha Tin, Hong Kong. The data was then analysed using Smart PLS version 4.0.9.
Findings
The results showed significant positive relationships between mindfulness skill and IL towards employee work engagement and between employee work engagement and job performance; meanwhile, there emerged a significant effect on the relationship between mindfulness skill and IL towards job performance. Furthermore, this research has confirmed that self-compassion did not moderate the relationship between mindfulness skill, IL and employee work engagement, but employee work engagement plays a mediating effect on the relationship between mindfulness skill, IL and job performance.
Originality/value
This research has helped to fill the literature gap by examining the mediating roles of employee work engagement and mediator role of self-compassion in the integrated relationship of multi-factor and job performance. Examining the mediating role of employee work engagement has helped to enhance the understanding of the underlying principle of the indirect influence of mindfulness skill, IL and job performance. The result of this research shows that self-compassion plays a vital role in influencing the employees’ work engagement. Hence, it is important that companies design human resource management policy that enables self-compassion to be used as a consideration psychological-related strategy when structing organisation or teams. It is also crucial for top management and policymakers to define and communicate the organisation’s operating principle, value and goals.
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Gokce Tomrukcu, Hazal Kizildag, Gizem Avgan, Ozlem Dal, Nese Ganic Saglam, Ece Ozdemir and Touraj Ashrafian
This study aims to create an efficient approach to validate building energy simulation models amidst challenges from time-intensive data collection. Emphasizing precision in model…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to create an efficient approach to validate building energy simulation models amidst challenges from time-intensive data collection. Emphasizing precision in model calibration through strategic short-term data acquisition, the systematic framework targets critical adjustments using a strategically captured dataset. Leveraging metrics like Mean Bias Error (MBE) and Coefficient of Variation of Root Mean Square Error (CV(RMSE)), this methodology aims to heighten energy efficiency assessment accuracy without lengthy data collection periods.
Design/methodology/approach
A standalone school and a campus facility were selected as case studies. Field investigations enabled precise energy modeling, emphasizing user-dependent parameters and compliance with standards. Simulation outputs were compared to short-term actual measurements, utilizing MBE and CV(RMSE) metrics, focusing on internal temperature and CO2 levels. Energy bills and consumption data were scrutinized to verify natural gas and electricity usage against uncertain parameters.
Findings
Discrepancies between initial simulations and measurements were observed. Following adjustments, the standalone school 1’s average internal temperature increased from 19.5 °C to 21.3 °C, with MBE and CV(RMSE) aiding validation. Campus facilities exhibited complex variations, addressed by accounting for CO2 levels and occupancy patterns, with similar metrics aiding validation. Revisions in lighting and electrical equipment schedules improved electricity consumption predictions. Verification of natural gas usage and monthly error rate calculations refined the simulation model.
Originality/value
This paper tackles Building Energy Simulation validation challenges due to data scarcity and time constraints. It proposes a strategic, short-term data collection method. It uses MBE and CV(RMSE) metrics for a comprehensive evaluation to ensure reliable energy efficiency predictions without extensive data collection.
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