Toll for Quality Assurance of Education for Democratic Citizenship in Schools [antikvár]

Executive summary This Tool for Quality Assurance of Education for Democratic Citizenship (EDC) in Schools was prepared as a response to the compliance gap between policies and practices of EDC in various countries. While EDC policies are well developed, EDC practices in schools present significant weaknesses. The Tool was also prepared as part of the current interest and implementation of quahty assurance in education. Quality assurance (QA) is a powerful means to Improve the effectiveness of education. Its key principle is that the main actors at the forefront of education - such as teachers, head teachers and other stakeholders at school level (students, parents, school administrators and other staff, members of school governing bodies, the community) - are responsible for improving educational performance. Therefore, at the centre of quality assurance are school self-evaluation and development planning processes. However, these processes are not sufficient for ensuring improvement. They need to be part of a fully fledged quality assurance system in which the national education authorities create the conditions and provide the support for performance improvement by schools. This Tool is designed as a reference document. It focuses on education for democratic citizenship and applies the principles and processes of quality assurance to EDC. Chapter 1 introduces the whole tool. It (a) presents the background, the objectives and the target groups of the tool; (b) introduces the