SIC – School Improvement Capacity for Academic Learning

The key to pupils’ successful learning development. A longitudinal analysis of 60 primary schools in German-speaking Switzerland (2018 – 2022)

A school’s capacity to support school development processes has a crucial influence on its pupils’ learning development. Thus, to develop an effective schooling system, it is vital to understand how schools can effectively foster their pupils’ capabilities, and to understand what makes schools successful.

Until now, it is still uncertain which factors, processes or activities set successful schools apart. For the first time, this will be investigated by analysing 60 primary schools in German-speaking Switzerland by using an innovative research approach. The study will make use of questionnaires for school leaders, teachers, specialists and pupils, as well as of performance tests. In addition, the schools’ activities will be monitored using an application specifically developed for this purpose that to be used on the mobile phone and on social networks. Therefore, the project is relevant not only from a scientific perspective, but also from the perspective of education policy, in that it investigates how educational systems can be managed in an effective manner.

This study will be conducted from 2018 to 2022 and is supported by the Swiss National Science Foundation (Schweizerischer Nationalfonds, SNF).

Project launch: Summer 2018

Project website: www.ife.uzh.ch/sic/en