September, 2016

School Management for Meaningful Teaching

and Learning

An Essay for EM205

by
Eden Grace B. Arabes
MA-2
 The purpose of school education is to develop young people who can prosper in
a modern, globalized world, a purpose that can only be realized through the daily work
of teachers and school leaders. The role of the system is to help develop a culture of
continuous improvement in schools that provides teachers and leaders with
opportunities to participate in high quality professional learning.

The central ofce and regions of the Department of Education & Training are
working in partnership to translate the research base into effective professional learning
opportunities for teachers and school leaders through a coherent and integrated set of
initiatives. The system continuously collects and analyses student, school and system
data in order to assist schools to monitor their individual performance and develop the
capacity to manage their own self-improvement. The provision of a exible, transparent
accountability framework provides the means for spreading effective practice across the
system and for becoming more responsive to immediate and future school needs in
terms of planning and achievement (Frazer, 2005).

It plays a critical role in raising awareness and encouraging debate about what
teachers and school leaders need to know and be able to do to improve student
learning. The system promotes and engages teachers, schools and the wider education
community in professional conversations to facilitate the development of a shared
language for describing effective schools, effective leaders and effective teachers.
Using research-based models and guiding principles to focus attention on the correlates
of school effectiveness, the system designs strategies that provide schools, leaders and
teachers with the incentive and opportunity to reach beyond their current practice and
performance.

There is general acknowledgement that the success of any organization or

project depends heavily on the way it is managed, irrespective of whether it is a football
team, a bank, a nation, Irish Water, or the Microsoft Corporation. Critical here is
organizational structure and the capacity, authority, responsibility and accountability of
each manager in the management matrix; and every successful organization is only too
aware of this. Even those with an elementary understanding of organizational theory
appreciate that unless organizations establish cohesive and efcient management
structures their capacity to set and achieve organizational goals will hinge on a
conuence of chance developments (Mahony, 2014).

Besides, management experts generally concur that the notion of the single
omnipotent, heroic leader is redundant in todays organic and complex organizations.
Today, dispersed leadership and management are deemed critical to organizations both
dening and achieving their macro and micro goals. Here the term manager is applied
to someone who has clear responsibility for a particular set of functions, has the
authority required to undertake those functions, and is held accountable for those
functions being carried out to an agreed standard.

While our earlier understanding about the number of subordinates that should
report to any particular manager has changed, given developments in information
technology and organizational structure, there is, nevertheless, a limit to the number of
staff that should report to a manager of any kind.

Effective education leadership makes a difference in improving learning. Theres

nothing new or especially controversial about that idea. Whats far less clear, even after
several decades of school renewal efforts, is just how leadership matters, how important
those effects are in promoting the learning of all children, and what the essential
ingredients of successful leadership are. It turns out that leadership not only matters: it
is second only to teaching among school-related factors in its impact on student
learning and the impact of leadership tends to be greatest in schools where the learning
needs of students are most acute.

By setting directions charting a clear course that everyone understands,

establishing high expectations and using data to track progress and performance. By
developing people providing teachers and others in the system with the necessary
support and training to succeed. And by making the organization work ensuring that
the entire range of conditions and incentives in districts and schools fully supports rather
than inhibits teaching and learning.

With School Management which helps develops the capacity of teachers to integrate
Education for Sustainability (EfS) into the curriculum and school management practices to
improve student learning and sustainability outcomes. When the curriculum emphasizes
sustainability as one of the three cross-curriculum priorities such as commitment to sustainable
patterns of living. Sustainability learning draws on and relates learning across the curriculum. It
leads to students developing an overall capacity to contribute to a more sustainable future in
terms of environmental integrity, economic viability, and a just society for present and future
generations. Through learning, auditing, suggesting options and action improvements in the
school (and community) students are active citizens who develop the confidence to help shape
their local and global world.

When students feel more motivated to learn -- in other words, when engagement
is at a high level -- they perform better academically, improve classroom behavior, and
gain a higher sense of self-esteem. Unfortunately, data -- and the direct experience of
many of us teachers -- shows that lack of motivation affects many of our students, and
appears to increase each year from middle school through high school. Students can
demonstrate this lack of engagement by withholding effort and by "voting with their feet"
through rising chronic absenteeism as they get older, and chronic absenteeism is
among the highest predictors of dropping-out of school. To use terms first used by Albert
O. Hirschman, it appears that the lack of student motivation is a major contributing
cause to many choosing this option of "exit" (withdrawal from active engagement) over
"voice" (active participation) in academic life (Ferlazzo, 2014).

With the effective professional learning focuses on developing the core attributes
of an effective teacher. It enhances teachers understanding of the content they teach
and equips them with a range of strategies that enable their students to learn that
content. It is directed towards providing teachers with the skills to teach and assess for
deep understanding and to develop students metacognitive skills. This is because of
the good school management implementation of the school managers.