The Concept of Learning-by-Doing in the Context of Media Education and School Quality Assessment

Abstract

The study deals with an investigation of the results of the evaluation of the quality of Slovak secondary schools, with a specific focus on identifying differences between schools that publish a school magazine and schools that do not publish a school magazine. The research sample consisted of a total of 519 secondary schools from all parts of Slovakia, which were evaluated on the basis of 45 indicators based on data from various data sources. As a part of our research study, we worked exclusively with the most up-to-date data relating to secondary schools, obtained from the school year 2018/2019. Our study focuses on a research issue that is whether the existence of a school magazine in any way affects the results of an overall school quality assessment or not. The final data set that we subjected to statistical testing (N = 160) consisted of 80 schools that have a magazine and 80 schools that do not have a magazine. The research hypothesis was statistically evaluated using the Pair test. We accepted the alternative hypothesis, according to which the evaluation results of schools that publish a school magazine are statistically significantly different from schools that do not publish a school magazine. The findings of the research study point to the significant benefit of the existence of the learning-by-doing concept in school practice and point out that the experiential form of learning is effective.