MIQUA: Improving the quality of the pre-university education system

“MIQUA_Improving the quality of the pre-university education system” is an international research project of the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia (UNIMORE, Italy) and Arizona State University (ASU, United States), sponsored by Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Modena.

Both changing local conditions and global challenges are forcing universities to adopt complementary actions that imply increasing interactions with their local contexts, in particular in the field of primary and secondary education. The two universities involved in this research proposal are experimenting new practices in this direction, primarily through UNIMORE's project Officina Emilia and ASU's Office of the Vice President for Education Partnerships.

The comparative analysis that will be carried on in the proposed research will investigate the motivations behind the interventions on the education system pursued by ASU and Unimore, and will require a preliminary investigation of the social, economic and institutional context in which the two universities operate. The comparative analysis - which will involve a multidisciplinary team from both partner universities - will provide a toolkit for the monitoring and evaluation of innovative university policy measures for innovation in the education system.

The aims of the project are:
(1) To improve our understanding of the impact of the universities’ actions in increasing the quality of education.
(2) To analyze the conditions in which improvements of the quality of education allow an increase in innovation.
(3) To understand the channels through which the quality of education can be increased (by considering the entire system of education: from pre-school to secondary and tertiary education).
(4) To model and evaluate interventions aimed at improving the quality of education in order to understand which are the most appropriate channels for promoting and consolidating effective changes.
(5) To understand, with respect to both the university and the school system: what actors should be involved in such interventions and with what incentives and opportunities, and which procedural changes must be implemented in order to allow the projects to achieve their objectives.

Read the project's extended proposal.

Kick-off meetings, Modena (Italy) 14-18 September 2009
In order to define how to develop the research project and the direction for further fundings, a five-days kick-off meetings will be held in Modena, Italy, on “Education partnerships: design, implementation and evaluation”, from September 14 to September 18, 2009.

The visit to Italy will give the opportunity for meetings and discussions complementary to the MIQUA project and to other projects in which some of the researchers are involved on innovation and education in the complexity perspective developed in the Officina Emilia project (Russo, Mengoli, Lane) and in the Iscom project (to whom Bonifati, Lane, van der Leeuw, Rossi and Russo have contributed).

Several workshop sessions will be held from Monday to Thursday, (approximately 9-12 and 14-17, prolonged if needed by commuting or discussion).

A seminar on "Improving the quality of education: challenges and experiences from the US and Italy" will be held on Friday 18th, September

[Ultimo aggiornamento: 12/09/2009 05:36:27]