The model of relatively autonomous management at the basic level of the education system proved viable from the perspective of increasing the effectiveness of the school institution. Educational effectiveness – represents the extent to which the activity in the educational field has achieved all its proposed purposes, the extent to which it has met the training standards, and the institutional standards correlated with the specific objectives formulated on action levels. School effectiveness – is reported at the institutional level and represents the extent to which the school’s activity has achieved its proposed goals.
Keywords: management, results, effectiveness, learning opportunities, curriculum
Educational efficiency represents the achievement of expected results at the level of education (in correlation with the set educational goals) under the conditions of a low consumption of resources.
School efficiency can be defined from the student’s perspective as achieving school success with a minimum of consumed resources; it can also be defined from the perspective of the school institution in the sense of achieving it with a small consumption of material, human, and financial resources. Defining the concept of school effectiveness is difficult. A consensus was reached regarding the need for the emphasis to fall on student results and especially regarding the concept of added value by the school (an effective school adds more value to the training of its students compared to other schools serving the same general purposes). Measuring effectiveness requires establishing clear parameters, including the consistency and consistency of the school’s influence on student results.
A manager is effective if he has a clear vision of what an effective school means, he can determine the staff of the school institution to share his vision, and he organizes his time in such a way that he can carry out the mission arising from its vision. The three fundamental components of an effective and efficient educational process are:
1. Some aspects related to the curriculum – openness to curriculum management as the responsibility of the school manager (the head of the school institution) and the educational manager (the teacher/educator); the way the national curriculum is implemented in the school institution and the way how the curriculum is conceived, elaborated, implemented, evaluated and developed at the school level. In approaching the educational process, if the broad meaning of the concept of curriculum is taken into account, several levels must be taken into account: the students, the class, the school, and the educational context. The basic idea is that the effectiveness of the act of learning at the student level is determined by:
- the time allotted to learning;
- the learning opportunities offered;
- the quality of the educational process as a whole;
- the influence of environmental factors specific to each student.
The entire school activity, led by the school manager, makes the student, with his distinct personality, at a certain level of evolution, develop through learning, this means for each managerial cycle (school year or school cycle): an increase in functional knowledge – the „to know” area; a plus of intellectual work skills – the area of „knowing how to do something with what you know”; an increase in abilities, capacities, a higher level of skills development the area of „knowing how to be”; a higher level of development of personality traits – the area of „knowing how to be and how to become”.
2. Modalities of grouping the actors of the educational process – openness to the management of the organization. Two plans of grouping are involved here, which are more obvious in education systems where the weight of the national curriculum is high:
- grouping by classes (teaching activity by classes and lessons) – the class as a constant learning group to which the student belongs for a constant period – usually a school cycle. The students belonging to a class, the actual level and the level of preparation of the respective class, the report of the teachers to the class group, and the report of the class to the teachers are influencing factors on school effectiveness. Through the introduction of optional subjects, the abolition of the class group is determined, at least for some sequences of the learning time, and the reunification of students from several classes in other learning groups, each, in turn, with its meaning, with a certain specific relationship with the teachers and with the same influences on students, taken individually, influence school effectiveness as a whole.
- the grouping plan at the level of the learning act – carried out either in the class or in the group constituted by options about a specific curricular area. The micro-group activity proves to be a way of bringing the educational process closer to the needs of each individual, to his particularities, increasing the learning yield.
3. Teaching behavior of teaching staff – openness to staff management; methodological approaches, and organization of learning, are aspects that belong to the teacher. In the classroom, the teacher not only carries out teaching-learning assessments, but also relates to the students, influencing their learning behavior, and intervenes in directing their general evolution; being the central figure for the students, the teacher takes on other roles of educational influence, adding new behaviors in the activity with the class:
- plans the activities, determines the tasks on various levels, structures their contents, and programs their actions;
- organizes class activities, and determines the specific work climate;
- communicates various information;
- leads the activity carried out in the class, according to the specific norms;
- coordinates activities, synchronizes the achievement of objectives, harmonizes styles and rhythms, unites the collective, and prevents negative influences;
- guides the students in knowledge, in their activity;
- motivates the students through the stimulation-sanctioning balance;
- advise students on age-specific and individual problems ‚
- controls the progress of students about the objectives of the didactic process;
- appreciates, and evaluates the achievement of performances, given standards, formulates value judgments.
Through these behaviors, the teacher influences the instructional-educational activity managerially, with direct effects on the quality, efficiency, and effectiveness of the teaching act, without confusing the two action plans. The teacher-manager creates the necessary conditions for the success of activities in the classroom, not only in terms of clearly specifying the objectives, processing the thematic content, and choosing strategies but also of the other conditions that facilitate the optimal development of these activities in terms of pedagogy: ergonomic, psychological, social, operational, innovative, normative conditions. A teacher must be trained to have effective behavior in the classroom, both during his initial training and through continuous training/improvement courses.
The three categories of aspects: the curriculum, the organizational structures of the training, and the behavior of the teacher with their particularities, have an indisputable role in influencing the effectiveness of the students’ learning. There is a dynamic interaction between these aspects, and the final result from the perspective of the effectiveness of the student’s learning is dependent on this interaction.
Bibliography
1. Gherguţ Alois, General and strategic management in education, POLIROM Publishing House 2007;
2. Iucu, Romiţă, Student class management, POLIROM Publishing House 2006.