Švietimas: politika, vadyba, kokybė /Education Policy, Management and Quality

4-9

Authors: Vincentas Lamanauskas

The implementation of science and study reform in Lithuania reasonably rouses up some doubts. It would be incorrect to claim that the reform itself is unnecessary. Otherwise, any hasty and badly prepared reforms do not give expected results. One of the most important science evaluation spheres is scientific publications. During the whole period after 1990s more or less coherent and clear system was not settled in Lithuania. In the summer of 2009 Lithuanian higher educational institutions received the new methodic of evaluation scientific pro-duction. To be precisely, the new methodic was confirmed with the order 1321 in June 29, 2009 by the Minister of Education and Science of Lithuania. The new methodic rouses anxiety because it is not coherent and clear enough, especially speaking about social and humanitarian sciences. Firstly, it is closely connected with the publication of works of that sphere. As it is said, the majority of works of such sphere are published in the local market and do not gain access to a wider round of users. Another thing is that such publications are mainly in Lithuanian. Yes, that is also important developing science of Lithuania, especially humanitarian sciences. But here is a very simple rule in force – science is not national, it is and must be international. In the above mentioned methodic scientific works are separated into the first and second levels. According to the methodic, those experimental and scientific research works of the highest level, which are recognized by the institutions themselves and which are evaluated in quality approach by the experts of the Research Council of Lithuania, are attributed to the scientific works of the first level. Uniting of social and humanitarian sciences into one block rouses up some doubts, which means that the same regulations of methodic will be applied for the both spheres. The question is how to compare, let us say, the works of economics and linguistics according to the same methodic? However displeasing the evaluation of scientific production is, it is unavoidable and necessary. The state assigning though poor financial supplies for science, must know, if those supplies are used rationally. On the other hand, acknowledged standards (international standards) of evaluation, expertise, indexation, abstracting, usage and etc. exist internationally. It is natural, that every country has its peculiarities, which not necessarily directly refer to inter-national practice. However, Lithuanian science aspires to integrate into the space of international science. In order to do that, national practice of evaluation scientific works will have to be reasonably harmonized with the international one.

19-25

Authors: Viktoriya Sokolovskaya

It is known that the export of educational services is one of the promising direction in the de-velopment of the education system. On one hand the arrival of foreign students for education demonstrates the relevance of national education, on the other hand it makes possible to identify the most important areas of the system and the ways of its improvement. As a result, educational institutions are being increasingly included in the competition for at-tracting foreign students. Certainly, each country has its particularities in realization of the educational services export caused by national traditions and the modern state of society. In main aspects the Republic of Belarus conserves the traditions of the Soviet Union to provide not only the quality of professional training but also to form personality with certain world outlook. But now all over the world the export of educational services is associated with the possibility of expanding the cultural, economic and political influence on other countries. It is seems that in this conditions experience of the Republic of Belarus (of course, purified from ideology), can be useful for reproduction by other countries. As practice shows the providing of educational services just through training without the pur-poseful work aimed at the assimilation of a certain kind of knowledge and skills is ineffective. Certainly, living and studying in the country of language sooner or later leads to the fact that a foreign citizen will learn a language in some degree, will know the culture and traditions, but as it’s shown in the article the existence of barriers impeding this process must be taken into account. The increase of the quantity of visitors is accompanied by the formation of local diasporas which actually reproduce the socio-cultural atmosphere of native countries and their value attitudes. In these conditions we consider that the most important task is the modernization of the educational process to maximize the integration of the content of training and education with its socio-cultural aspect. To optimize the process of introducing of socio-cultural knowledge in this article we propose the model for the implementation of multicultural education of foreign students. According to the results of experimental and theoretical studies we produce a model of multicultural education including various measures aimed at improving of the quality of education and facilitating foreign students’ successful socialization in the Republic of Belarus. It should be emphasized that even having a good level of professional training the teachers know the culture of foreign students poorly and, as a consequence, the educational process is monocultural, without reliance on a scale of values of students, which badly influences the integration and cultural understanding of the country As it is known, the task of the formation of tolerance between bearers of different cultures is one of the most actual for modern civilization. It appears that the model proposed in the article will contribute to its solution. In conclusion we’d like to emphasize that the problem of training of foreign students is relevant for all countries. There is a necessity to introduce a system of training which could integrate the capabilities of its socio-cultural aspect with educational one to train the specialists capable to solve professional tasks for the benefit of their country and for "alma mater" country.

39-42

Authors: Judita Stankutė

An interview with Rietavo art school director Rita Urniežienė.

4-7

Authors: Vincentas Lamanauskas

Recently the issues of quality management are becoming urgent in Lithuania. They are discussed and aspiration greatly improve the quality of activity in institutions of education are declared. But in the sphere of education the tendency to speak more than really work still remains. Many education organizations define quality as the major priority of their activity. But to declare or define is one thing and seek for that quality is another thing. The application of ISO standards in institutions of education still remains problematic. It is often tried to create own distinctive standards while ISO standards are acknowledged and applied on an international scale. It is understandable that institutions of education are specific and they rather differ from, let`s say, business organizations. Nevertheless, international ISO standards can and must be applied. Considering the process approach which is fixed in the ISO standards, every organization should effectively manage all occurring processes. Everything what happens in the processes later reflects in production or service in one way or another. According to this approach, the management of processes is rather complicated in organizations of education. The management of such processes, if it exists at all, is divided and fragmental. The application of statistical methods analyzing quality management issues in organizations of education is also problematic. It is undoubtedly that implement of quality management systems in organizations of education is especially urgent because it is a grave tool to basically improve the activity in all organizations of education.

18-25

Authors: Lina Vaškelienė, Antanina Grabauskienė

With reference to educational documents and articles of scholars and teachers-practitioners, this article analyzes the tendencies and problems of the alternation of the assessment of pupils’ achievements and progress in primary school in the plane of education reform; the aim is also to reveal the input of Lithuanian scholars and teachers-practitioners on purpose of creating a new system of assessment. The analysis of the stages of education reform demonstrated that all stages emphasize the necessity to democratize pupils’ assessment system with a gradual transition towards idiographic assessment and a refusal to assess primary school children with marks. In response to the requirements of the education reform, in 1998–2004 the scholars gave most attention to a theoretical grounding of the assessment of pupils’ progress. In the third stage of Lithuanian education reform (2003–2008) methodical articles prevail which offer various versions of assessment, achievement books, whereas the attention of the scholars towards the system of assessment is decreasing. With reference to this, we make an assumption that the removal of scholars in the third stage of the reform was the main reason for teachers and students to be unsatisfied with the modern system of assessment.

34-41

Authors: Valiantsina Dynich

In article ways of maintenance of quality of higher education in Belarus are considered. It is shown that they are the result of interaction of two tendencies. The first is inheritance and development of traditions of the Soviet education system. Belarus system tries to conserve fundamentality and scientific character of the contents of education, to keep in basis the orientation on Five years' term of training. The second one is use the consequences of world processes, such as mass character of higher education, its practical orientation, Influence of market relations on education, etc. All establishments of education of an education system of Belarus are subjected to the state control. Irrespective of subordination and patterns of ownership of establishments of education the state control is carried out as: – Self-checking which is carried out by establishments as the procedure which is carried out for an internal estimation of quality of education under the program worked out by establishment education or as a necessary stage of the certification which are carried out in the order, developed by department of quality assurance of education; – Inspections of establishments spent by department of quality assurance of education and other competent bodies; – Inspections by department of quality assurance of education of committees, departments of edu-cation of local executive and administrative bodies. Monitoring of quality of education at a level of universities is carried out in the form of the current and final certification of students for the certain period of training (a semester, a rate, all period of training). Oral, written and practical forms are used. Forms of certification of students are determined by educational standards of specialities. For the first time standards of specialties of higher education in republic have been developed in 1998-1999. In 2008 standards of new generation (361 specialities) have been created. In standards results of modernization of system of the higher school are reflected: two-level preparation of the graduate (the specialist, the master); the differentiated terms of preparation of the graduate at the first level (from 4 till 6 years of training on a speciality); competent approach to formation of model of the specialist; increasing of controlled independent work of students in total amount training hours; orientation to innovative techniques and technologies of teaching. The problem which is necessary to solve is to update of the training courses content from scientific and practical point of view. It is difficult because this step may lead to including more information that student is able to get. In this case it is important to emphasize that methodology of education is opposite to methodology of development of knowledge in science. In a science, as it is known, speaking computer language, change of operational system occurs from time to time. It allows to state information of past periods simply and briefly. There is reconsideration and re-structuring of all volume of the scientific information from the point of view of a new scientific paradigm. Changes of scientific knowledge in the content of training courses also should be nonlinear both on time and on intensity of the response to changes occurring in a science. During normal (extensive) de-velopment of a science the new knowledge can quite take root into educational process in an additive mode. Introduction of the knowledge which has arisen during change of a scientific paradigm demands radical transformation of forms and methods of training and even phase transition of all education system. Differently, the content and methodology of education, following by the changes in a science and practice, should vary periodically to provide quality of preparation of specialists according to modern social and culture realities.

4-8

Authors: Vincentas Lamanauskas

The recently discussed issues of education quality are devoted full attention. The systems of quality control are developed, services are certified etc. All EU countries point to education quality as one of the most important political priorities. Despite the fact it is an excellent idea, the questions of how to ensure adequate education and how to achieve equally ranked education certification in all countries of the European Union arise. We can note that different legal and political documents approved by Lithuanian authorities in one way or another emphasize that ensuring quality education is a priority field. What is quality? This question is not so simple. We can agree with general definition that quality generally refers to a certain degree (level) of excellence. It is obvious that there are at least two main perspectives of defining quality, one from the customer of education services and the other one from the producer (education institution). It is obvious, that the quality aspiration is important not only for the companies which produce products or offer service, but also for education institutions of all levels. The central point is the understanding that quality cannot be bought in the market and is not something beyond institution boundaries. Everything will be determined by awareness that quality in a broad sense is conditioned by the quality of management (administration). Only professional management leads to qualified processes (institution work) whereas the latter ensure high-quality service. Another main point is that education and research belongs together. It is as axiomatic truth. Without high-level research a quality management system seems to be a useless thing. As the understanding of quality may vary, a general agreement on the issue discussing quality is very important at least inside the institution. Quality is differently treated by academic staff, teachers, students, employers, social partners of institution, authorities and society in general. Education is a complex system having different levels, sub-systems etc. that closely correlate and determine one another. Finally, we can notice that the best organizations have a systemic and comprehensive focus on quality.

29-35

Authors: Danė Papečkienė

Lithuania having joined the European Union and seeking the education acquired in Lithuania to be internationally recognized, the necessity emerged to match the education standards with the systems of vocational training in European countries. The project plan (2002-2006) of the development of higher education in Lithuania states that the quality assurance is a top priority. The emphasis is laid on the fact that the quality assurance of higher education should not lack behind the one in the developed European countries. The quality assurance of higher education has been under discussion in the few recent years. How should be the studies organized in order to train students to be able to compete in the labor market of the dynamically developing European countries? To determine the dimensions and standards of the education quality that are common to Lithuanian universities and colleges it is essential to regard the worldwide experience and to apply it in the context of our country. The importance has been laid on the quality assurance at the European universities for the recent 10 years. The subsequent organizations were established in different countries all over the world. A number of the agencies dealing with the quality assurance of higher education started the network partnership. The established Centre for Quality Assessment in higher education plays a major role for imple-menting the external quality assurance policy in universities and colleges of Lithuania by contributing to the development of human resources. The object of this research is to reveal the educators’ attitudes at Marijampolė and Utena colleges towards the establishment of the quality assurance system at college. The research was done in November, 2004 at Marijampole and Utena colleges. There were 120 educator respondents at Marijampole College and 50 respondents at Utena College. 146 of them were lecturers and 24 were the administrative staff. The research done, the conclusions were made that the communities comprising the lecturers as well as the administrative staff of the colleges are concerned about the quality assurance of higher education and studies. The quality of higher non-university studies is being continuously assessed. Moreover, the system of quality assurance is being continuously developed. The educators both at Marijampole and Utena Colleges positively assess their input into the successive performance of the institutions taking an active part in making decisions related to the improvement of the inner system of quality assurance at the institutions.

42-48

Authors: Vytautas Kantauskas

Modern life is distinguished by rapid changes which affect the school as well. The changes which occur at school are usually caused by outer changes or they sometimes occur inside the school. Some of them are purposeful, initiated by the improvement of existing state, some of them occur because of rapid change outside the school and it does not depend on our will. Realization of purposeful changes helps schools to improve their activities and education. The Head of school is one of the main people who are responsible for the effective realization of the changes. The main qualities which should be obtained by the Head of school are: high competence in management, the right choice of realization means, training of the participants, and methodical supervision of the course realizing the changes. We can distinguish such management competences: knowledge (in management, juridical, peda-gogical, and psychological and others), personal qualities, values, attitudes and experience. The level of the management competence will depend upon the Head and his/her ability to join all the parts together in order to achieve the purpose, the development of all the parts and their balance. High management competence helps the Head to predict effective means, to train the participants and supervise the process of realization. Changes at school are realized not only by the Head of school, but by other teachers too. It depends whose work is connected with the changes. Effective realization of the changes depends up on everyone’s contribution. It is very important to explain to all the participants the necessity of the planed change, benefits for school and personally for everyone. The other quite important condition is involving participants into foreseeing measures realizing the changes. So as foreseen changes could be fully realized, the Head has to be systematically interested in successful realization of all the means. The Head has to give help in proper time for those who need it and to keep optimism, rejoice at achievements. Finally we can state that if we want the changes to be effectively realized, it depends up on the Head’s competence in management, the time which is devoted, energy and being ready for the changes and believe in successful end of it.

57-63

Authors: Ivars Muzis

Introduction. This paper outlines socio – cultural factors which may impact teachers’ decisions and practices regarding instruction. Goal. To examine and assess the working behavior of teachers aiming at identifying the key school cultural factors that influence the effective working behavior. Materials and methods. Theoretical method: studies and analysis of literature sources, empirical method: questionnaire. Results. The four dimensions of school culture collectively exert a strong influence over teacher behavior in a number of ways. Conclusions. Based on what teachers report about their school culture, this study of school culture leads to a better understanding of the people working behaviors towards improving the schools performance.