The The Effects of Innovative Teachers in the Upper Secondary Institutions of four Counties of the Regions Northern Hungary and Northern Great Plain –Medium-Term Efficiency of Educational Innovation Practices

Abstract

The challenges of the 21st century have opened up opportunities for new areas of innovation: educating the knowledge-based economy of the 21st century and, in the interests of a competitive society, a key task for all education actors to develop competencies that enable modern, open approachable, co-operative workers can become a driving force for development. All this requires the renewal of the educational content and structure. The relevance of our research is given by the fact that in recent years, the monitoring of innovation activity in the education sector has increased, not only internationally, but also in Hungary, qualitative and empirical research have been carried out. The accredited “Good Practices” on the Schoolbag interface of the Office of Education show a remarkable territorial distribution. In terms of society, we examined the educational innovations registered in the upper secondary institutions of four counties in the most disadvantaged regions of Hungary, Northern Hungary and Northern Great Plain and their correlations between 2011 and 2018. One of the main goals of our research was to explore the demographic and individual factors that influenced the creation of innovations, and we also examined the direct results and impact of educational innovations induced by registered pedagogical innovations in recent years. We found that the 4 counties registered the same number of innovations, but observed a difference with regard to school type. No difference was found in terms of type of educational innovations. We identified participation in in-service training to help educators increase their human capital. Examining the composition of the faculty, we encountered stronger faculty and professional capital in the institutions where educational innovations were registered. It is clear that strong human professional and social capital has an impact on innovation activity. We also proved that educational innovation activity is related to student achievement in several areas: the number of people with learning difficulties, the decrease in the number of repeaters, and the strengthening of student motivation. Our research highlights that focusing on the composition of student groups leads to success, which is the key to students pursuing successful study paths, developing their competencies, and standing their ground as successful employees in the future.