Quality in Education:
Six Sigma Model (DMAIC Model) :
Six Sigma process enables an organization to measure the number of “defects” in a process, methods to eliminate them and get close to “zero defects” as much as possible.
Shewhart Cycle of Total Quality Management:
- Dr. Shewhart believed that lack of information greatly hampered the efforts of control and management processes in a production environment. In order to aid a manager in making scientific, efficient, economical decisions, he developed Statistical Process Control (SPC) methods.
- In terms of Shewhart’s PDSA cycle, Set-I gives its stages, while Set-II specifies related actions :
- Set-I (Stages of cycle) Set-II (Related actions)
- Plan – Chalk out a change or test
- Do – Carry out the change or test
- Study – Observe the effects of the change or test
- Act – Improve change or test with new knowledge
- Set-I (Stages of cycle) Set-II (Related actions)
Edward Deming:
Theory of Profound Knowledge involves expanded views and an understanding of the seemingly individual yet truly interdependent elements that compose the larger system of the organisation. Deming believed that every worker has nearly unlimited potential if placed in an environment that adequately supports, educates, and nurtures senses of pride and responsibility.
Meaning and Nature of Educational Supervision:
Basic Principles for Effective Supervision:
- Healthy Atmosphere: The environment should be made free from tension and emotional worries. The staff should be given incentives for work.
- Staff Orientation: The quality and quantity of the work must be specified in clean and clear terms. Staff should be made to understand clearly what to expect and what not to expect. New staff must be given the necessary orientation. They should have a schedule to know from where to get
information and materials to help them perform the work satisfactorily.
- Guidance and Staff Training: Staff should be offered necessary guidance. They should be guided on how to carry out the assignment, standard should be set by the supervisor while information should be given ruling out the possibility of rumors. Information should be for everybody and specifics to
individuals assigned to a particular task. Techniques of how to do it must be given at all times. The school must always arrange and participate in staff training. - Immediate Recognition of Good Work: Good work should be recognized. This implies that the acknowledgement of any good work done must be immediate and made public to others which will then serves as incentive to others. Incentive of merit, recommendation for promotion, etc. improve
performances. - Constructive Criticisms: Poor work done should be constructively criticized. Advice and personal relationship should be given to the affected staff. It must be stated here that such criticisms should be made with mind free of bias.
- Opportunity for Improvement: Staff should be given opportunity to aspire higher and prove their worth. They should therefore be allowed to use their initiatives in performing their jobs and taking decision. It will give them the motivation to work much harder.
- Motivation and Encouragement: Staff should be motivated and encouraged to work to increase their productivity. They should be encouraged to improve their ability to achieve organizational goal.
So, Supervision is an intervention that is provided by a senior member of a profession to a junior member or member of that same profession. This relationship is evaluative, extends over time, and has the simultaneous purposes of enhancing the professional functioning of the junior members, monitoring the quality of professional services.
Supervision as service activity:
The Cluster Resource Center Co-ordinator (CRCCs) will be accountable to the Head Masters of the said school who have been declared as Panchayat Education Officers for rural areas and Cluster Education officers for urban areas.
In each block there are several CRCs and each CRC covers a small number of schools within easy reach. BRCs are headed by Block Resource Centre Cocoordinators and CRCs by Cluster Resource Centre Co-coordinators (CRCC).
The BRC Co-coordinator is academic coordinator / facilitator at block level who is responsible for in-service training of teachers and providing guidance to the CRC Co-coordinators (CRCC). They also organize training programmes for members of Village Education Committees (VEC) and School Development and Monitoring Committees (SDMCs).
BRC coordinators also collect material from the District Project Office for distribution among the teachers, SDMCs, etc. through CRCs and provide continuous support to teachers while monitoring implementation of pedagogical and other interventions at school level.
The tasks of CRC coordinators include providing constant support to the teachers, monitoring their performance, identifying their needs both in formal schools and alternative education centers and liaising with the SDMCs, the community and NGOs working in the area of education. Monthly meetings at cluster level are held and periodic visits to schools are made by CRC Coordinators to monitor teachers’ performance and to provide them on–site support.
The supervisory tasks that have a potential to affect teacher development are as follows:
A. Direct assistance: which is the provision of personal, ongoing contact with
individual teacher to observe and assist in classroom instruction.
B. Group Development: is the gathering together of teachers to make decisions on
mutual instructional improvement.
C. Professional Development: is the task which includes learning opportunities for
staffs provided or supported by the school and school system.
D. Curriculum Development: is the revision and modification of the content, plans
and materials of classroom instruction.
E. Action Research: is the systematic study by a staff of the school on what is happening in the classroom and school with the aim of improving learning. By understanding how teachers grow most advantageous in a supportive and challenging environment, the supervisor can plan the tasks of supervision to bring together organizational goals and teacher needs into a single fluid entity.
Supervision at School Level in teaching learning process is a day-to-day and continuous process, the function of the supervision at the school level should also be a continuous responsibility. Within the school system, the supervisors are the school principal & vice-principal, the department heads and the senior teachers.
The educational programs supervision manual of Ministry of Education (MOE, 1994) has sufficiently listed the roles of supervision at the school level as follows:
● Beginner teacher supervision: The supervisor assists in developing the beginner teacher vocationally by different available means. The educational supervisor depends on specified supervising styles, such as class visits and meetings, without inclination to practice the helping supervising styles having a great effect in developing cognitions and skills of teachers.
● Individual Supervising practices: Supervisor assists the teachers to discover errors, aspires qualifying teachers for different class stands and assists developing and qualifying teachers to develop their skills of evaluation. The supervisor works to modernize educational concepts and teaching styles of
the teacher.
● Supervising new developments: The supervisor shares in making the teacher oriented with new developments. The supervisor raises the motivation of the teacher by showing his achievements and capabilities. The supervisor understands the needs of the teacher and his problems and assists him to solve them. The supervisor urges the teacher to employ learning resources (labs, computer and the library) in education.
● Training supervising practices: A supervisor must give training to teachers in
many areas.
-The supervisor trains the teacher to put education plans.
-The supervisor assists the teacher in specifying his training needs.
-The supervisor trains the teacher on developing instruments of evaluating students.
-The supervisor trains the teacher on how to present the scientific content.
-The supervisor trains the teacher to solve problems and how to decide inside the classroom.
-The supervisor organizes the training workshops that develop the teacher’s performance.
-The supervisor employs minor education to train new teachers.
-The supervisor works to organize symposiums and seminars to teachers related to educational learning process.
● Supervising practices related to curriculums: The supervisor lays instructions to employ the guide-book of the teacher to implement the curriculum effectively. The supervisor lays directions to employ the Teacher’s Guidebook to effectively implement the curriculum. The educational supervisors participate in preparing curriculums and their development and evaluating them without intervention in planning them. The supervisor directs the teacher to make benefit from local environment in enriching curriculum. The
supervisor makes the aware of other sources that can be teacher revised without the school text. The supervisor assists the teacher in facing difficulties that confront implementation of the curriculum.
● Collective supervising practices: The supervisor works at a team spirit with those whom he deals with. Supervisor leads to the weakness of innovation and renewal of them, and belittles the size of expectations wished. The supervisor directs the teacher how to control the class obtained an explained
by increasing the burdens of the educational supervisor and difficulty of specifying the cognitive and vocational needs, related to how to control the class accurately, with unavailability of publications and training courses that assist the teacher to appropriately control the class.
● Supervising research: The supervisor works on participating the teacher in preparing the procedural researches and developing projects. And that can be explained that teachers view that the educational supervisors are careless of procedural researches and projects concerned with developing the teacher.
“the supervisor encourages the teaching staff to find an instructional environment meets the needs of users”, And that can be explained that teachers view that the educational supervisor has a cognition not enough in things that he should follow working to find an appropriate educational environment and its effect on educational outcomes.
Functions of supervision:
- Education Department supervises the Block Office and in reverse Block Office provides information regarding quality improvement in schools.
- It consolidates and oversees CRCs work and training section. It is requisite to role as a venue for teacher training, material development, community mobilization, action research works and organization of different activities or competitions among teachers and students.
- Block Office supervises the Cluster Resource center and in reverse CRC provides information regarding quality improvement in schools.
- Cluster Resource Person can be thought of as the person who maintains relationships with a group of schools and facilitates a process of engagement with schools teachers-parents-children, in particular through the activities of monitoring, supervision, mentoring and data collection. These are activities where the state reaches and maintains regular contact with the school or field.
- Both CRCs and BRCs focus on school improvement primarily through enhancing school identity and academic functionality. CRP may meet once in a while for a talk or a workshop. But regular planning and review will take place at the school level.
The role of BRC/CRC is a mixed set of academic, supervisory, managerial, networking and creative activities; it goes beyond routine monitoring and supervision work as it encompasses providing support to schools and teachers through teacher training and teacher mentoring for their professional growth, strengthening community school linkage, providing resource support and carrying out action research.
The administrative set up under the Directorate of Elementary Education is such that all primary and middle schools in district fall under the Director of Elementary education. There is a Chief Education Officer (CEO), under whom 2 or 3 District Education Officers (DEO) function to control schools that comes under the district. District Education Officers (DEO) function to control schools that comes under the district. Inspectors who visit schools take care of the teaching learning aspects in the schools. Inspectors who visit schools take care of the teaching learning aspects in the schools that fall under their jurisdiction.
the administration under the Directorate of School Education goes on from the Director of School Education (DSE) on top to each Chief Education OfficerThe chief education officer have overall control, supervision on various sections and activities of the Education Department namely, Municipal Primary Schools, secondary Schools etc.
The District Education Officer or DEO controls the whole district with regard to Education. DEOs perform wide-ranging duties and appear to be the most exhaustively deployed officials in the district as they have to manage both administrative and academic functions of district education.
- To supervise and inspect all schools in their jurisdiction. This function includes making at least 3-4 school visits, one of which is a day-long thorough school inspection while the other 2-3 are unscheduled surprise visits to monitor the functioning of the schools.
The District Programme office is headed by district programme officer of Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA)
- Supervising the training programmes at the district and blocks and assessing the impact of the training.
- To identify critical infrastructure requirements and plan to bridge the same. Monitoring the progress and quality of Construction works undertaken in the districts.
- Distribution of grants to various agencies and monitoring the proper and transparent utilization of grants released.
DIET- District Institutes of Education and Training:
DIET’s are considered as a nodal agency at the district level for planning, implementing and monitoring pedagogical activities in the entire district. The DIET would supervise the performance of the block and cluster personnel and guide the specific approach(s) chosen in their district. They would support the BRC’s to overcome challenges that come in implementing programs for school improvement in accordance with the chosen approach.
There are some major functions of DIET:
- It plans short-term training programmes for teachers of elementary schools of the district after ascertaining the needs of the teachers.
- It conducts training programmes for the teachers, BRC & CRC Coordinators and School inspectors.
- It conducts action research studies and takes up corrective measures.
- It provides resource support to BRC & CRC Coordinators and teachers in schools.
- It reviews block and cluster level performance of teachers and resource coordinators.
- It monitors pedagogical activities in the district and plan for qualitative interventions at all levels.
Academic functions of BRCs and CRCs:
- Development of the centre as a rich academic resource with ample reference materials for the teachers.
- Development of strong human resource pools (by inviting resource persons) including nearby teacher education institutions, NGOs, Colleges/ Universities and resourceful individuals and to form Resource Groups in different subject areas for primary and upper primary level.
- Regular school visits for addressing emerging development and pedagogic issues of school.
- Organization of teacher training and monthly meetings to discuss academic issues and design strategies for better school performance.
- Setting up of performance indicators to track and enhance school performance.
- Consultation with community members and Panchayati Raj Institutions to strive for school improvement.
- Designing a Quality Improvement Plan for the block/ cluster as per the SSA goals and strive to achieve that in a time bound manner.
- Monitoring the progress of quality using Quality Monitoring Tools in
collaboration with, DEO’s DIET’s.
New trends and techniques:
- In our country the process of supervision is characterised with the notion of inspection.
- Supervisors create fear during the process of supervision in the minds of teachers. This trend has created mistrust and reluctance among the teacher
- The more emphasis is given for providing constructive feedback, to guide the teachers and hence improvement takes place.
- Modern day supervision is concerned with direction.
- As supervision has gradually moved from the improvement of instruction to the improvement of learning.
- So, the efforts for annual planning and review that need to take place block wise and district wise, consolidated at the state and approved at the national level is a huge task.
- It includes both infrastructural requirements, educational quality – curriculum and pedagogy, and equity concerns with an emphasis on enrolling and retaining children in school.
Information flow systems in the quality monitoring tools:
- The State Office(National level) will also reflect on information about enrolment and actual attendance of children in schools but will not send it to the National Level.
- SCERT and state project office reflect on information and collate information sent by DPO.
- DPO and DIETs reflect on information and collate information sent by different blocks.
- Block level coordinator analyzes the data sent by CRCs and collects information at his own level.
- Cluster Resource Center coordinator consolidates and analyze data. Community based organizations collects information at school level.
- Every teacher analyze data on learner’s achievement to reflect on students’ learning and performance.
- For quality monitoring a computerized District Information System for Education (DISE) is operational in the country which looks into several quality related parameters like student-classroom ratio, teacher-pupil ratio, teachers’ profiles and examination results. In addition, Government of India, with the help of NCERT, has operationalized a quarterly monitoring system in the form of Quality Monitoring
- Tools (QMTs) to monitor quality aspects such as student attendance, teacher availability in schools, classroom practices, student learning achievement, academic supervision provided by BRC/ CRCs, community support, etc.
- Monitoring provides government officials with means to learn from past experience in order to improve planning and resource allocation decisions and in order to demonstrate results as part of accountability to key stakeholders.
- As far as teachers’ monitoring is concerned, it involves – faculty development programs, fund utilization, placement record of teaching centres, internal audit mechanism, trainees teachers feedback evaluation and % of trainees completing training versus target.
Monitoring:
Monitoring is the process of collecting and interpreting data on specified indicators to provide management and stakeholders with evidence of the extent of progress towards achieving the objectives from the implementation of a plan.
The monitoring and supervision of the aspects, which are easily quantifiable, have generally received the attention of the planners, implementers and supervisors. For this, there is a need to have an effective monitoring system through which not only the progress of the programme can be analyzed but also timely corrective measures can be undertaken. The levels for monitoring and feedback mechanisms have been envisaged
In view of National Knowledge Commission, there is a multiplicity of management structures and government departments in the administration of school education.
This creates confusion, unnecessary replication and possibly inconsistent strategies across different schools. There must be greater coordination among various government departments concerned to school education policy for ensuring more autonomy to the local community in matters of day-to-day administration of schools
Monitoring systems to develop educational strategies:
- All India Education survey: It is conducted by NCERT, AIES enable the collection of information on the country’s progress in shool education, implementation, and results of entire educational sector.
- AIES covers availability ofschooling facilities in rural habitations, physical and educational facilities in schools, incentive schemes and beneficiaries, medium of instruction, enrolment particularly of SC and ST, girls and educationally disadvantageous minority groups, teachers and thier academic qualifications , enrolment at +2 stage of education.
- DISE: DISE is a school based statistical system to monitor the implementation of District Primary Education Programme (DPEP).
- In light of SSA DISE was xtended to cover the level of elementary education all over the country
- District and school report cards are producedwith drastic redution in the time lagin data dissemination from 7 to 8 yrs to less than 1 year.
- Village and school level: Village level data comprises of variables related to educational facilitites of various types, identification of habitations without access to primary and upper primary schools based on distance norms, inventory of recognised and unrecognised schools in the village.
- School level information comprises core data on school location,management, rural-urban enrolment, buildings, equipments, teachers, CWSN (Child with special Needs), and examination results.
- National Programme on school standards and Evaluation(NPSSE):
- The quality initiatives in school education sector, thus, necessitate focusing on school, its performance and improvement. In a major step towards comprehensive school evaluation as central to improving quality of school education in India, NPSSE has been initiated by National Institute of Educational Planning and Administration (NIEPA), under the aegis of Union Ministry of Human Resource Development.
- The programme envisions reaching 1.5 million schools in the country through a comprehensive system of school evaluation. As part of this endeavour, the School Standards and Evaluation Framework (SSEF) has been developed as an instrument for evaluating school performance.
- This will enable the school to evaluate its performance against the well-defined criteria in a focused and strategic manner.
- The ‘Framework’ has been developed through a participatory and mutual consensus approach on ‘How to evaluate diversified Indian schools for Incremental Improvement’.
- The SSEF has the flexibility that makes it eminently suitable for adaptation, contextualization and translation in state-specific languages. It has been designed as a strategic instrument for both self and external evaluation.
- Both the evaluation processes are complementary to each other and ensure that the two approaches work in synergy for the improvement of the school as a whole.
Defects in existing system:
In order to perform guidance and supervision at schools, respective power must be given to educational guide in proportion to his responsibility because the educational guide is not able to settle educational problems by establishing official liaison through organizational hierarchy, relying on respective instructions.
District Education Officers (DEO) function to control schools that comes under the district. Inspectors who visit schools take care of the teaching learning aspects in the ‐ schools that fall under their jurisdiction.
It has been found that there is a poor concept of supervision in our schools. In our country the process of supervision is characterised with the notion of inspection. Supervisors create fear during the process of
supervision in the minds of teachers. This trend has created mistrust and reluctance among the teachers. The supervisors instead of providing constructive feedback, dictate to the teachers and hence no improvement takes place.
BRCs and CRCs have been conceptualized under SSA based on their good performance initiatives such as DPEP, Lok Jumbish, Shiksha Karmi, etc. Presently, nearly all BRCs and about 95% CRCs are operational in the country. However, much of their potential as academic resource centers are yet to be realized and their role and functions are to be academically channelized. BRCs and CRCs need to function as resource centers near the schools to study the problems and issues related to quality through effective use of District Information System for Education (DISE), household survey, Quality Monitoring Tools etc
The more educational guides rely on their expert knowledge, skills and professional abilities, the more teachers will show eagerness to accept their guidelines.
The Roles of School Principal in Supervision
- The school principal in his capacity as instructional leader, has some responsibilities:
- Creating a conducive environment to facilitate supervisory activities in the school by organizing all necessary resources;
- Giving the professional assistance and guidance to teachers to enable them to realize instructional objectives;
- Supervise classes when and deemed necessary;
- Coordinating evaluation of teaching-learning process and the outcome through initiation of active participation of staff members and local community at large;
- Coordinating the staff members of the school and other professional educators to review and strengthen supervisory activities and;
- Cause the evaluation of the school community relations and on the basis of evaluation results strive to improve and strengthen such relations.
Professionals Growth
- One of the most important goals of educational guidance and supervision is professional development of teachers and promotion of knowledge, skills and information of teachers.
- Extension of self-reliance and independence in work for teachers is among fundamental steps, taken for realization of this great goal.
- Orientation with application of modern phenomena at schools such as computer, using educational software, learning new expert knowledge and hire of modern educational methods all provide suitable grounds for professional growth of teachers.
- Acquiring fresh experiences and knowledge, which gives fresh abilities and initiative to teachers, is necessary and significant for promotion of efficiency among teachers, but it is so valuable in change of personality of teachers and raising spirits and motivation among teachers and for their scientific and occupational promotion.
Internal and external controls in the school institution:
The goal of any kind of activity that attempts to involve community and families/parents in education is to improve the educational delivery so that more children learn better and become well prepared for the rapidly transforming World.
There are various reasons to support the idea that community participation and local governance contributes towards achieving the goal.
These are the following rationales that explain the role of community participation through decentralization in education.
- Maximizing Limited Resources
- Developing Relevant Curriculum and Learning Materials
- Identifying and Addressing Problems
- Promoting Girls’ Education
- Realizing Democracy
- Ensuring Sustainability
In India there are many partners (stakeholders) in education sector who are involved in the welfare and success of a school and its students, including administrators, teachers, staff, students, parents, community members, school board members, city councillors and state representatives.
They have a stake in the school and its students, which means they have personal, professional, civic, financial interest or concern in the school. Stakeholders’ engagement is considered vital to the
success and improvement of a school.
Teacher management in School:
Teacher gets opportunities to come in contact with administrators in their daily routine of work and develop harmonious relations with them. His main function as a manager of the school is planning, organising, supervising and coordinating.
Supervision is considered to be an essential tool in any education system to control and improve the school functioning. Effective supervision is known to enhance quality of teaching and achievement of learners.
Development of teacher as a communicator:
Communication skills are vital for anyone who has a teaching job. Effective teachers are always effective communicators. They communicate clearly about course objectives, content and testing, making sure to provide a rationale for learning particular material and adapt instruction to their student’s level of knowledge and skill.
- The problems arising from expression in communication are called semantic problems.
- Lack of communication means that the students will not understand key concepts at all, or they will do so incorrectly.
- Effective teacher can take something that is complex and present it in a way that can be easily absorbed by the students, and through different verbal and non-verbal communications.
Many attributes of good teacher leaders are fundamentally the same as the attributes of good teachers: persuasiveness, open-mindedness, flexibility, confidence, and expertise in their fields.
Development of teacher as a professional:
Many teachers today, however, are encouraged to adapt and adopt new practices that acknowledge both the art and science of learning. They understand that the essence of education is a close relationship between a knowledgeable, caring adult and a secure, motivated child. They grasp that their most important role is to get to know each student as an individual in order to comprehend his or her unique needs, learning style, social and cultural background, interests, and abilities. Their job is to counsel students as they grow and mature — helping them integrate their social, emotional, and intellectual growth. So, the union of sometimes separate dimensions yields the abilities to seek, understand, and use knowledge, to make better decisions in their personal lives.
They must be prepared and permitted to intervene at any time and in any way to make sure learning occurs. Rather than see themselves solely as masters of subject matter such as history, math, or science, teachers increasingly understand that they must also inspire a love of learning. In practice, this new relationship between teachers and students takes the form of a different concept of instruction. As a result students take an active role in learning.
The most respected teachers have discovered how to make students passionate participants in the instructional process by providing project-based, participatory, educational adventures. They know that in order to get students to truly take responsibility for their own education, the curriculum must relate to their lives, learning activities must engage their natural curiosity, and assessments must measure real accomplishments and be an integral part of learning. Students work harder when teachers give them a role in determining the form and content of their schooling –helping them create their own learning plans and deciding the ways in which they will demonstrate that they have, in fact, learned what they agreed to learn.
The day-to-day job of a teacher, rather than broadcasting content, is becoming one of designing and guiding students through engaging learning opportunities. An educator’s most important responsibility is to search out and construct meaningful educational experiences that allow students to solve real-world problems and show they have learned the big ideas, powerful skills, and habits of mind and heart that meet agreed-on educational standards. The result is that the abstract, inert knowledge that students used to memorise from dusty textbooks comes alive as they participate in the creation and extension of new knowledge.
Besides their primary responsibility as directors of student learning, teachers are also taking on other roles in schools and in their profession. They are working with colleagues, family members, politicians, academicians, community members, employers, and others to set clear and attainable standards for the knowledge, skills, and values that we expect children to acquire. They are participating in day-to-day
decision making in schools, working side-by-side to set priorities, and dealing with organisational problems that affect their students’ learning.
Many teachers also spend time researching various questions of educational effectiveness that expand the understanding of the dynamics of learning. And more teachers are spending time mentoring new members in their profession, ensuring that the education school graduates are truly ready for the complex challenges of today’s classrooms.
As regards to the conditions affecting Continuous Professional development among teachers, two theoretical perspectives are usually taken into account:
● Psychological factors (teacher cognition and motivation)
● Organisational factors (leadership, teacher collaboration, staff relationships and communication, locus of control, opportunities for teachers’ learning)
Outcomes of CPD:
- Materials and resources – provisions for teaching, such as worksheets or activities
- Informational outcomes – fact-based information, e.g. about new policies or schemes
- Awareness of novel ideas and values– a perceptual shift, teachers becoming aware of new ideas and values
- Value congruence – the extent to which teachers’ own values and attitudes fit in with those which the CPD is trying to promote
- Affective outcomes – teachers’ feelings and understanding after going through the CPD, which may be negative (e.g. demoralised) or positive (e.g. confidence)
- Motivation and attitude – such as enthusiasm and determination to implement changes
- Knowledge and skills – both curricular and pedagogical, combined with awareness, flexibility and critical thought
- Institutional outcomes – on groups of teachers, such as consensus, collaboration and support
- Impact on practice – The ultimate aim of CPD: what effect does it have on the pupils?
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