xMore importance is being attached today than ever before to training programs to highlight the competence and talents of principals in line with movements for rendering educational administration efficient, scientific and specialized more systematic ...
xMore importance is being attached today than ever before to training programs to highlight the competence and talents of principals in line with movements for rendering educational administration efficient, scientific and specialized more systematic studies on principalship should be made with a view to enhancing its professionalism and pushing ahead with the improvement of principal's capacities and talents. Accordingly, it goes without saying that such program are of great importance. In korea where the pre-principalship training systems are devoid, it is through the qualification training programs only that the capacities and talents of principals can be enhanced and that qualifications are acknowledged in addition to the granting of certificates and the appointment of principals.
This paper is designed to draw problems from the review and analysis of the contents per area in relation to the construction and the operation of curricula and the evaluation of education in principal qualifications training programs which are executed at the conprehensive training institute of Korea Teachers University, to make a suggestion of measures to improve the standards models of the qualifications training programs and their programs.
In chapter I. this paper sheds light on the purpose and the contents and the method of the study. In chapter II. this paper tries to establish the desirable programs for principal-qualifications training by examining the importance and the concepts of principal-qualifications training, the role of a principal, and the talents and the function of principals as well as relevant precedent studies making a research into the principal-qualifications training system In chapter III. this paper dwells on the method and the procedures of the study. In chapter IV, this paper makes an analysis of the construction and the operation of curricula on the basis of my questionnaire research in relation to the realities of the operation of the current qualification training system And in chapter V. this paper elaborates on measures to improve the principal-qualifications training system. In chapter VI, this paper makes a suggestion of measures for its enhancement after dealing with drawn problems.
This paper is grounded on the study of literature, questionnaire research, and interviews with those concerned with the training system with 207 persons participating in the 14th principal-qualifications training programs in the year 1999 as the subject of the study.
I have come to the following conclusions.
As the purpose of the principal-qualifications training system is to cultivate characters and leadership with which to manage and operate one school in charge, and objective system should be worked out in order to Meet such a demand. The training programs should be so carried out that principals may acquire abilities to manage and assess the condition of education as well as to manage the organization and to work on planning.
I seggest that the curricula of the principal-qualifications system should reflect the development of education and the demand of trainees, and that the curricula should be of great help to knowledge and techniques in connection to the administrative management of schools, and that the subject matters should be diversified. The standard curricula of the principal-qualifications training system should be reviewed, and programs should be reviewed and evaluated for the purpose of cultivating the new leadership and management-oriented mind of private training institutes.
It is necessary that principal-qualifications training programs should be forged so as to promote the quality of the principal-qualifications training system in tenns of the operation of the training process. The number of training experts should be on the rapid increase, and the contents and the methods of educations should be diversified and adjusted in accordance with the subjects with the aid of the diversification of the principal-qualifications training programs, the principal-qualifications training system should be managed by the office if education in each city province in line with the idea of local-education autonomy. The rights of demanders should be respected by means of the introduction of competitiveness in the principal-qualifications training system so as to enhance its quality.
I think that even when there is a good curriculum or educational program, effective and proper methods of teaching and learning should be applied in order to bear intended fruit. Hence, much focus should be placed on trainee-centered, participatory and experience-based education for the sake of cultivating leadership, creativity, judgement and problem-solving ability and a wide variety of methods of teaching and learning should be applied in accordance with the characteristics and contents of the subject matters, the principal-qualifications training system should surly enhance the abilities of trainees to make use of information as well as education technology in behalf of improving the method of training. It is necessary to have lectures with much experience in the field and with adequate academic theories. Besides, the training-expert professor system should be implemeted step by step.
I insist that there should be a shift from knowledge and understanding-based evaluation to the evaluation of such behavior area as human-relationship techniques and practical techniques. Evaluation should be made on the basis of objective orientation in accordance with the objectives of the subject matters. And it is necessary that approaches and systems should be introduced to secure the objectivity validity and impartiality. Such relative evaluation as the expulsion of trainees due to not living up to the standards should be complemented. And the subject matters of evaluation should be properly adjusted and the open-book test should be taken into consideration for the benefit of increasing the effects of training, and problems suitable for opn-book tests should be developed.
The purpose of the current principal-qualifications training system lies in the acknowledgement of qualifications and the improvement 01 principalship, but my research shows that the contents methods and evaluation of training leave much to be desired the principal-qualifications training system attaches much importance to form, and the latter doesn't bear any fruit. Measures should be worked out that focus on the long-term pre-principalship training like advanced countries to grant qualifications after a right fashion instead of the current short-term principal-qualifications training system for the good of the improvement of professionalism and talents of principals, and for the purpose of improving the principal-qualifications training system. And the principal-qualifications training programs should be executed at a graduate-school level on behalf of securing the professionalism and continuity of the system based on the correspondence training during the tenns and attending classes during vacations with the help of voluntary training with application for lectures and enrollment for at least three years. Competitiveness should be introduced; a lot of training institutions including universities may come up with a wide variety of programs, providing them to the Office of Education so that the demanders of education may make a choice of the best and most suitable one for getting trained.
I think that the afore-mentioned measures can render the principal-qualifications training system future-oriented and development-oriented.
As the measures above are so highly dated that the improvement of one area only cannot possibly lead to any good results, it is necessary to maked comprehensive, and deep studies. It is very important that the government should make every effort to grant support in terms of policies administration and finance above all with a view to the effective performance of the principal-qualifications training system.