Forecast Function And Strategic Decision Within The School Organization

Abstract

The main purpose of the research is the development and implementation of a strategic program in the forecast and the decision necessary for the intervention of the teacher in the intensification of activities focused on pupil. The experimental research carried out in this respect is based on theories and information provided in the specialty literature, which deals with the themes of classroom management process implementation and the educational climate. Educational management consists in studying the relational aspects that manifest in the educational institutions during the necessary educational process in order to identify the legislative aspects for the elaboration of management strategies that ensure the efficiency of the didactic process. For a successful management it is necessary to plan, to set out the fundamental objectives, be mobilized all the resources to achieve the objectives. Thus, research is transposed into a strategy developed in order to capture new relationships between the components of educational action and to develop optimal solutions to solve the problems indicated by the instructive-educational process according to the social exigencies. This study, through the set objectives, comes with a series of clarifications related to the management of school organization, the management functions and especially the forecasting, planning and decision making.

Keywords: Educational management functionsforecastplanningdecisionstrategic decisionpsychosocial climate

Introduction

Educational management consists in studying the relational aspects that manifest in the educational institutions during the necessary educational process in order to identify the legislative aspects for the elaboration of management strategies that ensure the efficiency of the didactic process.

One of the most current trends in educational management is the approach of the school organization as a learning organization, but also as an organization able to produce learning. This perspective makes the core of the school organization to be a coherent group of values, attitudes, principles and norms of action, activity oriented towards value, accepted thinking-and-management styles. It also determines the ways in which the members of the organization " will behave and act, their externalized and internalized behaviours, their conduct inside and outside that organization " (Taciu, Bocos, & Chiş, 2015, p. 40). These aspects involve presenting and capitalizing some general notions or concepts defining the educational management and the school as an organization, which allow a particular interest in the connection between them as elements of managerial activity. All these aspects have a great theoretical and methodological openness as they involve and develop these managerial skills, where the function of forecasting and strategic decision-making is particularly important within the school organization.

All the important aspects of the school organization gave me the resources of a significant operational research, both theoretically and practically. The forecast and decision are the basis of specific managerial activities in education and training, carried out in a formal and non-formal environment, and which cultivate the cultural values of pupils and teachers, reflected in the pedagogical plan. Management is now promoting " professional competition, optimal management of resources, efficient communication and innovative strategies development " (Csorba, 2012, p. 29). That is why the perspectives of approaching and analysing the competences of the school organizations are compared by the progress in the field of educational management and performance that targets the competencies of the school organization.

Problem Statement

The school organization is the basic unit of the educational system and it is considered an institutional factor specialized in the educational process according to the general and specific pedagogical objectives established at the level of educational policy. The analysis of the school organization highlights the importance of institution structure, which reflects, on the one hand, the imperatives of stable managerial functions, such as planning and organization, methodological guidance, regulation and self-regulation function through research and pedagogical training. Also, this method capitalizes the two methodological perspectives meant to ensure the structural-functional opening of the school organization and its adaptation to a constantly changing social context.

To address this issue, which significantly contributes to the assurance and consolidation of the educational management and of the school as an institutionalized organization, I have proposed a series of objectives that are meant to clarify the key elements of managerial activity.

Achieving goals represents the anticipatory elements needed to penetrate the culture of the school organization and to know the strategic forecast and decision.

Educational management appears as a complex act whereby the leader of a school institution develops and applies in practice certain strategies to determine the action of all members of the school community in order to achieve the desired facilities (Cristea, 2003). Thus, management is the art of managing, reflected by a certain way of seeing, seeking and accepting progress that manifest through specific functions: organization, analysis, diagnosis-forecast, planning, programming, control, guidance and evaluation.

In determining the functions of educational management in relation to the specifics of education and of school institution, the most important are: planning, organization, forecasting, command, staff control, evaluation and decision.

Planning or forecast includes all the actions and decisions that set out the fundamental objectives, its components, the resources to be mobilized and the ways to achieve them.

Planning encompasses the global and specific processes through which the objectives of the school, the components of educational policies, the resources, “ the orientation strategies for educational managers and the evaluation of objectives achievement at the level of the entire school organization "(Boboc, 2002, p. 238).

Planning identifies a number of steps such as analysing previous management education plans, organizing plans, evaluation, feedback and includes three types of predictive activities: forecasting, planning and programming.

a) The forecast, refers to a long-term forecast and is characterized by studies on which strategic decisions are taken at a hierarchical level. It has an indicative character and a high degree of generalization, aiming at the observing some evolutionary characteristics of the socio-educational phenomena.

b) Planning is the forecast for medium and short terms, from a few years to a semester, its result being the plan, and the structure of the plan includes: objectives, activities, responsibilities, deadlines, control and evaluation means.

c) Programming, which refers to very short periods, decade or week, and describes very thoroughly the actions proposed and the resources used to implement the plan.

Forecasting must be seen in close association with other management functions, where its success depends on the organization and optimal assessment of the managerial process.

Managerial practice proves that a good teacher adopts a differentiated management style depending on the problem situation he/she is facing, and the situational leadership style is based on both tasks and consultation, leaving pupils the possibility of choosing the way to fulfil the tasks, according to their nature and their possibilities.

In practice, the situational leadership style "combines the advantages of authoritarian and participatory style, greatly diminishing their disadvantages" (Langa, & Bulgaru, 2009, p. 56).

The management of the class becomes an increasingly persistent problem faced by primary school teachers in the current generation of pupils.

The repertoire of managerial strategies available to teachers is either very low or inadequate, and identifying managerial styles and enhancing procedural knowledge of classroom management can lead to an optimal approach to pupils and problematic behaviours.

The main purpose of the research is to develop and implement a strategic program in the forecasting and decision required by the teacher's intervention in the intensification of activities focused on pupils.

The experimental research carried out in this respect is based on theories and information presented in the specialty literature, which deals with the themes of classroom management process implementation and the educational climate. I also think it is important to analyse under concrete conditions, through teachers and pupils, the class management process, in optimizing didactic activity.

Thus, research is transposed into a strategy developed in order to observe new relationships between the components of educational action and to develop optimal solutions to solve the problems indicated by the instructive-educational process according to the social exigencies.

The managerial activity of the teacher has as an object of investigation the educational phenomenon in all its complexity and, from this point of view, it has a prospective character.

Also, pedagogical research must be continually ameliorative, that is to say, through its modelling interventions, to optimize the pedagogical act.

Research Questions

If there is a strategic forecast and managerial decision program, by enhancing activities focused on pupils the didactic work will be improved?

Introducing pupils into a learning activation teaching program by using learning types focused on pupils?

Purpose of the Study

Optimizing the didactic activity of pupils through forecast and decision in the managerial activity.

Research Methods

The research was conducted on an experimental group of 40 high school pupils and it was intended to outline an overview of the perception of the teaching staff both on the management strategies of the class and on the skills training needs in certain disciplines.

Findings

The main elements of this study relate to the identification of the managerial aspects of the teaching staff, to studying the socio-emotional climate of the class, as well as to the find concrete ways of optimizing the didactic activity by forming competences in certain disciplines. Thus, regarding the informational content to be pursued through the experimental study, we are considering the identification of defining features and behaviours of the didactic staff as manager of the class of pupils, the aspects related to the operational description of the attitudinal-behaviour dimensions that make up the class management style and the attitude towards the need for a learning enhancement program. Also important is the opinion about knowing some aspects specific to the class management process by using the forecast and decision in designing certain types of learning that create the conditions for progress. Content activities should also focus on the influence of a pupil focused learning enhancing program in forming competences in specific disciplines.

Thus, the polarized information around the aspects mentioned above are able to facilitate the awareness of the existing situation at the level of the educational reality regarding the perception of the teaching staff as a manager, the existence of some weaknesses or malfunctions in the way of approaching the leadership of the class of pupils. From the analysis of the obtained data, we can say that the perception about the managerial activity and the influence of the forecast on the didactic activity in some disciplines reveals a real formation of competences that create the premises of the optimization of didactic activity.

Also, the initial stage of the experimental study offered the opportunity to know the socio-emotional climate, from the perspective of the atmosphere created through the use of group work and the relationship of the class with the teacher. In the sample investigated after the initial test, we intervened in the classroom activity with a program of influencing the teaching-learning activity with learning activities focused on the pupils, namely, media learning, active learning and experiential learning, which enabled the whole class of pupils and allowed the formation of competencies in certain disciplines. As a result of the influencing program we have obtained a clear picture of the managerial aspects, organized according to the degree of teacher’s intervention.

The first intervention resulted in the ability to discipline by involving pupils in setting the rules, checking compliance, and enforcing coercive measures.

The second was to monitor pupils’ behaviour by systematically checking their level of understanding and achieving tasks on each of the learning types focused on pupils. Also, the time and the didactic material were well managed and the identification and integration of the most relevant didactic means necessary for the activity took place. This dimension was appropriate to the duration of the activities and the training sequences, for each type of learning and for each of the didactic tasks approached. That is why the orientation towards the didactic task means organizing and planning the activity of the class, i.e. timing, the correct estimation of the tasks for each pupil and the selection of didactic strategies in order to stimulate cognitive learning. This is why managerial plans succeed in controlling both learning situations and pupils’ behaviour by establishing and verifying compliance with the rules, by organizing teaching activities and by maximizing pupils’ involvement in learning tasks.

Conclusion

In the classroom, teacher’s role is important, and the actual exercise of this role depends on his/her personality and on the educational situations he/she has to deal with. He/she has to make decisions about what is happening in the instructive-educational process, he/she exercises his/her power over the main phenomena taking place in the group, supervises and guides the whole activity of the class. The forecast presupposes the anticipation of the basic problems that will arise within the instructive-educational process. It is done at the beginning of the school year and appears as an orientation based on the initial level.

This study, through the set objectives, comes with a number of clarifications related to the management of the school organization, the management functions and especially the forecasting, planning and decision.

Acknowledgments

The authors of the publication have equally contributed to the elaboration of the study.

References

1. Cristea, S., (2003). Managementul organizatiei scolare, [Organization management school] 2nd Edition, Bucharest: Didactic and Pedagogical Publishing House.
2. Boboc, I., (2002). Psihosociologia organizatiilor scolare si managementul educational, [Psychosociology school organizations and educational management] Bucharest: Didactic and Pedagogical Publishing House.
3. Csorba, D., (2012). Management educational. Studii si aplicatii, [Educational management. Studies and applications], Bucharest: University Publishing House.
4. Langa, C., & Bulgaru, I., (2009). Managementul clasei de elevi, [Classroom Management] Pitești: University of Pitesti Publishing House.
5. Taciu, R., Bocos, D., & Chis, O., coord., (2015), Tratat de management educational pentru învătământul primar si prescolar. [Educational management treaties for primary and preschool education] Pitești; Paralela 45 Publishing House.