Clusters of opportunity: results of research on educational effects of participation in the project “School for High School Students”

Abstract

The objective of the research presented in this article is to study the opportunities for students, teachers, and administrative teams to take part in the project “School for High School Students”. The main research method is a survey conducted among students, teachers, and administrations of educational institutions of the city of Moscow taking part in the project “School for High School Students”. The survey data were analyzed with the help of content analysis (text analysis based on Zipf’s law). The data obtained as a result of the sampling of schools that were taking part in the project “School for High School Students” were analyzed in terms of opportunities for the main participants of educational relations. Substantive and infrastructure changes in the projects provide possibilities: for high schoolers — in terms of creating individual educational routes, forming a subjective position, professional and personal self-determination, trying out their potential profession, and choosing their career path; for teachers — in terms of professional development, acquiring new methodological experience, using new teaching frameworks, gaining experience of working with new equipment and electronic resources; for administrative teams — in terms of improvement of the quality of conditions, process, result, and management, namely, improvement of the school status, positive dynamics of students’ educational results, resourcing of the project, forming a motivating learning environment and environment for occupational trials, and networking interactions with educational and other organizations.