Theories Of Effectiveness In Schools

INTRODUCTION

“Heck (2013) defines effective schools by saying it should provide stable and consistent results over time that apply to all students within the school... Underlying the notion of school accountability is the belief that school personnel should be held responsible for improving student learning.”

Society continues to change and so does the notion of what may be effective in schools. What we may think was effective before may not necessarily be effective now. We try to understand what works best as schools restructure and transform. This paper aims to critically discuss two mainstream thoughts in education that are crucial for improving or maintaining effectiveness at schools. I will discuss the various forms of effectiveness and

The scientific management stresses the making of the individual to the task to capitalize efficiency.

Frederick W. Taylor an American engineer who was well known as an administrator and known for his four principles of scientific management. His belief was that it is crucial to employ the correct people and to train them well to achieve what needed to be done. The focus was on individuals, to make them more reliable, predictable and less prone to failure; we see this as the “human- machine interface.” According to Taylor money is used as a motivator and motivation is important.

Taylor’s principles focused on the rule- of- thumb- deciding how each worker does its’ job, the methods of selecting workers for training, a clear division of responsibilities between management and workers and finally objectives set by management for workers to achieve. The principles he developed were to solve realistic production problems, where it can be seen as a top- down hierarchical relationship between manager and

The main features of bureaucratic theories are a hierarchical authority structure, a goal orientation, a division of labour, decisions and behaviour governed by rules and regulations, decisions made through rational process, the authority of leaders and leaders that are accountable to the organisation’s sponsoring.

Bureaucracy, also known as the scalar principle (line and staff) where it emphasises rigid hierarchy that limits lateral relationships. Hughes (1985, p.8) concludes that the bureaucratic model applies to education: “Schools and colleges, particularly if they are large, conform to a considerable degree to Weber’s specification of bureaucracy, as judges by their division of work, their hierarchical structures, their rules and regulations, their impersonal procedures and their employment practices based on technical criteria.”

For example; South African schools have been making use of the top- down hierarchy approach where principles and teacher are responsible for policies and decisions