The present study constitutes an analysis of Public school teachers´ testimonies from Copiapó, Third Region, Chile, whom have been classified as belonging to “Successful Schools” and “Non Successful Schools”, considering their achievements in SIMCE tests, expert judgment, and activities in general.
The following Research is about “teacher’s thoughts about success/failure of their own corresponding educational units”, considering the Implicit Theories, beliefs, perceptions and visions, owned by the reporters, i.e., to explain the cognitive alignments which guide the teacher’s performance.
The research is framed on the “Teacher’s Thoughts”. A Case Study Qualitative methodology will be used, corresponding to Glasser and Strauss´ ”Fundament Theory”, which tries to generate knowledge from the base, without starting from a prior theoretical framework, but from the participants´ reports.
This research shows that according to the teacher’s perceptions, the most relevant elements of success/failure in their schools are mainly the leadership vision, school vision, quality of teachers staff, quality of students and parents, and the perception about students’ learning, which can be demonstrated in clear and task-oriented standards , continuous evaluation, both external and internal to the school, in-service teachers training, a very positive organizational environment, cooperative system among educational system members, and high performance expectations from all the participants involved.
