Search

Browse

• Communities
• Authors
• Year
• Titles
• Subjects

My Space

• Login

Development of a methodology for the evaluation of primary education organizations

Ntereka Georgia

Full record

---

Summary

The main purpose of the present thesis is to explore the intention of Primary Education actors (directors and teachers of primary schools) toward the application of evaluation methodology in Primary Education Organizations (public primary schools). Research endeavor proceeds through reviewing the literature and investigating the quality criteria of the Malcolm Baldrige model. Research reported herein proposes an assessment method for school units in order to improve educational processes and its operation in general. A review of the existing literature is presented, as well as a research analysis.Nowadays evaluation is main characteristic that provides information in time that leads to optimal performance, better use of resources and potential, easy decision-making and maximum productivity.Exploring international trends, particularly in the European Union, leads to the conclusion that evaluation is increasingly linked to the quality and improvement of education. More than that, Total Quality Management (or TQM in short) concepts, methods and techniques have been applied to the management of educational organizations.This present thesis adopts TQM toward evaluation in education, focuses on quality and excellence model Malcolm Baldrige, attempts to investigate its application to primary education schools in Greece and proposes an evaluation methodology. It also seeks to contribute to the promotion and improvement of educational processes, ending up with conclusions on the current situation (in year 2019) in primary schools and proposing a new method of self-evaluation.Due to the fact that evaluation starts from the United States, an American model of quality that is widely applied in US educational institutions, the Malcolm Baldrige Nation Quality Award (or MBNQA model in short), is selected in the present study. The questionnaire was used as a tool for this research. The basis was the Malcolm Baldrige questionnaire, which was also applied by Meyer & Collier (2001) in the field of health. The originality of the present investigation also lies in the fact that this questionnaire was implemented in a limited form (teachers and primary school principals only). It took a good deal of time to translate into the Greek language, to be modified to adapt to the Greek data of primary education (e.g. replacing the terms "senior leadership", "worker" and using the educational terms "director", "teacher"23"student", "educational processes", "teaching methods", etc.), and then the translated Greek questionnaire to be re-translated into the language of the original foreign language questionnaire in order to check the semantic equivalence and to find any discrepancies. It also took time to give initial general instructions for completion, as well as give comments corresponding to each percentage (explanation of percentages) for each factor (Leadership, Strategic Planning, Information and Analysis, Human Resources, Operations Management, Configuration Relations Results) to help respondents in their responses about the Greek public primary schools. It was decided to use a Likert five-step scale where 1 = 100% -80%, 2 = 80% -60%, 3 = 60% -40%, 4 = 40% -20%, 5 = 20% -0% where 1 is the most positive and 5 is the worst. The scale in this form was chosen to be surer of the answers, that the sample read the questions as most surveys use the 5-point Likert scale but where 1 is the most negative and 5 the most positive. Of course, the scale of the present study may make future researchers difficult to use it because it is commonly used as the inverse of prices. Each factor is composed of questions (some of which were removed - Confirmatory Factor Analysis - based on each factor based on negative behavior in the model or improvement of model acceptance ratios) after a pilot-pre-trial research before final release and final distribution of the questionnaire by the researcher in a sample of 20 academics, as well as teachers and managers, to understand the questionnaire and ensure its quality. In Annex I - Questionnaire, the questions that remain and were used in the survey are highlighted in bold.The complete form of the MBNQA is to be applied to schools for a long time and to involve all groups related to the educational process, such as directors, teachers, students, students' parents, suppliers, to gather their views on the school unit in order to explore its function from all points of view and gathering data, for example, school activities, etc., so that the self-evaluation of the school is more objective. The investigator of this research chose to deal only with the directors and teachers (deputies and permanent) of public primary schools. She considers these groups to be the school's core for self-evaluation, as they are the two main groups (director and teacher's team) who are best aware of the school unit in which they work, as well as the training data which change constantly. It is worth noting that the study of this research is also the type of school units (urban, rural and island) in order to compare them and to establish the quality of the schools (their strengths and24weaknesses according to directors' and teachers' experience) in every part of our country, where geographic conditions are more or less difficult.The sample was an intended choice of primary schools (teachers and directors), so that the present research goes even at school level. Specifically, 264 questionnaires were gathered by teachers and managers of 20 primary schools in total (prefecture of Larissa, prefecture of Karditsa, prefecture of Chania, prefecture of Attiki, prefecture of Pieria, prefecture of Viotia, prefecture of Evia, prefecture of Cyclades and prefecture of Dodekanissos) who responded to the suggestions / questions of the seven Malcolm Baldrige questionnaire criteria (Leadership, Information and Analysis, Strategic Planning, Managing Process, Human Resources, Relationship, Outcomes-Performance) depending on their experience by performing self-evaluation of the school unit in which they work.In addition, the PROMETHEE Multiple Criteria Analysis Method was used in order to identify weaknesses or strengths of some school units, with pre-selected weights for each criterion.The results of this research are of particular interest in the evaluation of primary schools and, by extension, in the direction of promoting quality in education, because of the conclusions they led, following comparisons between the directors' and the teachers' views, permanent teachers with alternates, and school district comparisons by region (urban, rural, island primary schools). Indicatively, the following are mentioned:- 100% of the sample stated affirmatively that they have participated in training sessions.- About the evaluation, it is stated that 84,1% of the total sample is positive in the existence of School Data for the contribution of teachers to the development of their students. On the other hand, it is mentioned that rates are lower for self-assessment. 66,7% of the sample was positive in self-evaluation, with more positive (74,3%) rural primary school teachers.With regard to Leadership, Information and Analysis, Strategic Planning, Management Process, Human Resources, Relationship Development, Outcomes-Performance:- Women had more negative opinions than men on all factors.- The younger ones had more negative opinions than the older ones on all factors.25- Substitutes had more negative views than those who are permanent on all factors.- The fewer experienced (younger) had more negative views than the more experienced (older) on all factors.- The directors had more positive views than the teachers on the operation of their school units.-At the end of the questionnaire, respondents were asked to rate the three strongest factors in their school and the three weakest.a) The strengths of teachers:Information and Results were the first strongest factor in Urban schools. In Rural schools were Information and in Island schools were Outcomes, Information and Relationships.Taking into account all three factors that were possible, overall stronger factors in Urban schools we

Available Files

Services