TAMAM Assumptions

• School reform or development is very complex and involves interactions among change agents, processes, and contextual factors.
• Successful school reform is characterized by sustainable innovative activities that enhance students’ abilities and attitudes for lifelong learning.
• Knowledge about specific developmental efforts resides in individuals in specific schools.
• The locus of school reform is in individual schools.
• Empowering teachers at the school level by equipping them with critical reflection and research skills is a powerful tool toward evidence-based school reform.
• One purpose of government policy is to provide the guidance and support needed for positive development to take place in individual schools.
• Universities and school practitioners have an important role to play in providing governments with more reliable and credible information about the kind of guidance and support that is needed to help schools improve.
• Universities have an important role to play in empowering teachers through professional development and research activities.
• There is a need for the generation of a new understanding of educational reform which reflects the previous assumptions and which provides evidence-based recommendations for policy makers.