JOURNAL OF SCIENCE OF HNUE InterdiscipUnary Science, 2014, Vol 59, No 5, pp 152 157 This paper is available online at http //stdb hnue edu vn MANAGEMENT OF DEPARTMENT HEADS IN UPPER SECONDARY SCHOOLS[.]
JOURNAL OF SCIENCE OF HNUE InterdiscipUnary Science, 2014, Vol 59, No 5, pp 152-157 This paper is available online at http://stdb.hnue.edu.vn MANAGEMENT OF DEPARTMENT HEADS IN UPPER SECONDARY SCHOOLS Ha Van Hai Ly Nhan Tong High School - Nam Dinh Province Abstract In upper secondary schools, those teachers who are the head of their department have an important role in educating students Headmasters should have effective methods to manage department heads such as increasing thefr activity awareness, planning their activities, improving thefr skills, dfrecting the combination between inside and outside school educational forces, organizing principal teacher staffs in fulfilling the contents of education, encouraging and rewardmg for them for thefr activities, and testing and evaluation the activities of the department heads Taking these steps would improve tae quality of the department heads and lead to a better reaUzation of educational goals Keywords: Measures managers, department beads, school principals Introduction In upper secondary school, headmasters are responsible for implementing the educational goals of the Party and the State They are to "manage the organizational structme of the school, teachers and staff members, provide work assignments, trating, evaluate and grade of teachers and staff members reward and discipline teachers and staff members, recrait teachers and staff members, conttact laborers, acceptance and organize the transfer of teachers and staff members while abiding by the provisions of the State" [1] Headmasters are responsible for furthering the educational goals of the school Department heads are responsible for "Planning educational activities that reflect the objectives, content and methods of education ensuring feasibility, consistent with stadent characteristics and the cfrcumstances and conditions to promote the advancement of the whole class and the individual smdents, Implementating educational activities as they were planned" [2] Thus, department heads are an important force in implementing the successful and effective educational goals of the school Therefore, headmasters should have tae means and abiUty to manage the department heads In this paper, we would like to discuss means to carry out effective department head management The following is an approach that could be taken to insme effective department performance Received January 25, 2014 Accepted June 5, 2014 Contact Ha Van Hai, e-mail address: hakhoinguyen09@yahoo.com.vn 152 Management of department heads in Upper secondary schools 2.1 Content Raising awareness about the work of the class for department heads To increase the efficiraicy of department head activities,tilieheadmaster must raise thefr awareness of the classroom work that needs to be done They also need to "have a sufficient number of quaUty teachers and educational managers An attempt must be made to increase the capabiUty of managers and teachersregardingcontent and innovative management" [2] Ways to raise department head awareness include: + Assign targets for each class and have department heads sign commitments that address moraUty, stady result and other educational activities organized by tae school + Provide essential documents related to the work of department heads such as educational goals, curriculum, planning of the school year and education and teaching guidelines + Hold teacher seminars on the education of stadents so that teachers can share thefr experiences 2.2 Plan department head work activities - Determine the baseline conditions in order to make a plan Headmasters need to help department heads to devise a work plan for the school year, each semester and each month that is oriented to fulfill the educational goals and theme of the school year - Provide department heads wita goals and a school year mission - Assign department heads based on the characteristics of the class such as class size, sexratio,fanuly cfrcumstances of individual smdents and class goals - Plan tae work to be done by the Youth Union - Ask department heads to a basic survey of thefr classes dming the first week of the school year - Headmasters should design a sample for every department head to help them understand what they need to plan a of thefr own - Investigate the stadents' family cfrcumstances along with the localfraditionsand customs when devising educational plans for smdents - Direct department heads to make a weekly and monthly work plan The monthly plan must be based on the school's monthly activity plan Ask department heads to observe the stadent attendance and development and set out a specific direction for the next monta - Steer coordination between department heads and the Union Standing Committee to make weekly and monthlytaematicactivity plans - Direct department heads to create information networks between teachers and smdent famiUes, and among smdent famiUes school leaders and department heads 153 2.3 Managing department heads - Select department heads tiiat fit tiie mission of die school year When appointing department heads, tae headmaster should consider tae following factors: + Teacher qualifications + AbiUty to understand smdent understand psychological level of stadents + AbiUty to communicate witii stadents and parents + AbiUty to orgaiuze stadent activities + AbiUty to judge, persuade and convince stadents to follow individual stadent counts + The cfrcumstances of tae teacher + AbiUty to ensme quaUtyttainingand awareness of stadent interests + Ability to ensure tae teaching of heritage and science that is consistent witii tiie characteristics and sitaation of the school and the curriculum + Option assignment or by way of assignment coordination of head teachers suit tae conditions of each school year, which can be assigned according to the class or specialization, assigning priorities, crossover or random assignments Headmasters can select and assign department heads in two ways: First: Choose a department head that wiU serve the entfre level so that the department heads wiU get to know the stodents and the taefr famiUes, and the cfrcumstances of the stadents Second: Have only the department heads determine stadent grades so that stadents acqiure an education from a variety of different teaching methods This specialization wiU allow department heads to accumulate more working experience by teaching various stadents - Organize tae group of principal teachei^: Depending on the characteristics of the school, headmasters may establish grade principal teacher organization TypicaUy, grade principal teacher organization is to follow tae each grade of school The department head organization should meet once a week on the weekend 2.4 Foster professionalism in department heads Department heads need to have specific pedagogical skiUs These should include communication skiUs in order to deal with stadents, knowledge ofstadent leaming skiUs and individuaUzed education students persuasive skiUs education stadents Many department heads are teachers who are new to the profession and lack certain managerial abilities Therefore, the professional ttaining and skills for principal teachers is requfred to Headmasters need to foster professional knowledge among department heads fix)m tae beginning of the school year, and this should include a short and long-term plan Management of department heads in Upper secondary schools 2.5 Direct cooperation between department heads and educational forces inside and outside schools One responsibility of department heads is to: "Work closely with the stadent's family, tiie comse instructor, die Ho Chi Minh Conununist Youth Union, Ho Chi Minh himself, the Young Pioneers Team, social organizations involved in supporting and monitoringteaching,learning and career counseUng for stadents in thefr principal classes and mobilizing community resources for use in school development" [2] - Organize and dfrect coordination between the department heads and the comse instmctors In the school, it is necessary for principal teachers and comse instractors to agree about the way smdents should be taught in that class The stadent's education is the common task of the school councUor and teachers should not stand outside the subject of this work - Dfrect a coordination between the department heads, class organizations and oflier organizations in the school In this activity, department heads should advise, help, organize conttol and manage The Ho Chi Minh Communist Youta Union of the school should provide overarching direction and overaU coordination of activities in the school Through group activities, stadents will extend taefr leaming and aesthetic development, enhance thefr awareness of social and civic consciousness and increase thefr love of country Smdents wita a positive attitade and sense of community wiU improve the quaUty of life - Coordinate communication between the department heads, stadents' parents and die parents' class representative - Help department heads to combine stadents's parents - Coordinate communication between the department heads and local government and organizations 2.6 Assist department heads to implement educational content - Organize moral education, law and labor activities to guide fiitme career choices Smdents' moral education is the most important task of the school in particular and the family and society in general Ethics is the dominant factor in the course of activities and human interaction Therefore, department heads need to create conditions in which stodents can participate in exchange activities Department heads should organize activities which contain content of moral education, ideology, poUtics, law and humanities - Do not isolate or separate taem from the class - Create an atmosphere which is supportive of coUective plans to help stadents who are in ttouble - Apply measures which wiU have a dfrect and paraUel impact - Work alongside tae smdents' parents, the parents' representatives and the school 155 A Ha Van Hai The market-based economy and intemational integration now requfre diverse human resomces and vocational stadents, need to leam manufacturing skills which would be usefiiltt)busmesses in different economic sectors Department heads play an important role in this endeavor - Direct the activities that wiU provide leaming motivation and organize leanung activities What stadents have leamed is demonsfrated by tiiefr abiUty to grasp mformation and tiiefr abiUty to be intellectaally active and creative This comes about when there exists die proper leaming attitade, motivation, conditions and means - Organizing cultural activities, artistic performance, physical education, sports, recreation and entertainment Department heads should consult class officers and class union officers about organizing entertainment and health training activities such as folk games, sport activities, artistic performances, tourism, camping, exhibitions, going to the cinema, quiz shows about socio-cultmal knowledge,ttaditionalcultmal festivals and culttiral exchange among schools 2.7 Encourage department heads to compete and facilitate their teaching jobs physically and spiritually With any public activities or tasks, the timely encomagement and reward of thefr superiors is a great somce of inspiration and motivation - Withregardsto department heads, headmasters should pay attention to them both materiaUy and mentaUy in order topenefrate deeply into thefr joy, sadness, worries and concerns in Ufe as weU as in thefr work - Create the titie 'Excellent Department Head' - Register to abide by the standards of good department heads - Direct and organize an annual 'good department head' competition There is a reasonable preferential regime for good principal teachers 2.8 Testing and evaluating department heads' effectiveness To ensure objectivity, fairness and impartiality in the testing and evaluation of department heads, headmasters should develop criteria and standards for specific assessment based on the written laws and by-laws of the Mirustry of Education and Training at the beginning of the school year Teaching quaUty in schools can be quite specific and clear but the quality of education is difficult to quantify and assess Thus, to scientificaUy evaluate department heacfe, avoiding forms which are not effective, the foUowing pomts should be noted - Standards to evaluate department heads should be set up - Check department heads' assessment of stadents in order to promote consistency among department heads in the school in terms of evaluation and grading of stadents 156 Management of department heads in Upper secondary schools Department heads should avoid being too easy or too strict in thefr evaluation Conclusions The department head is a 'bridge' between the school and tae smdents and taefr famiUes, and between the teachers and the smdents While department heads are teachers, in many situations they must also act as the smdents' fataer, mother, friend and person who provides emotional support Department heads "developing stadent collective is both friendly purpose both as a means to educate each stadent's personality , and to take coUective state develop higher states" [3] In fact, department heads who are close to and dedicated to smdents, who have a high level of expertise and who love thefr career wiU be engaged in better teaching and leaming activities The implementation of department head management measmes mentioned above will improve the quaUty of department heads in secondary schools thereby improving tae quaUty of education at the school REFERENCES [1] Cfrcular No 12/2011/TT-BGDDT / 28 3/2011 of tiie Minister of Education and Training - Issued charter high school junior , high schools and grade schools have a lot to leam [2] Document No 5478/BGDDT-GDTH August year 2013 by Ministiy of education andfrainingto perform tae tasks Guide to Primary Education 2013-2014 school year [3] Planning work - Nguyen Viet Hung , Ha The Tmyen (Fostering regular school year 2013-2014)