Personnel Development in Schools Requires Complex Leadership Competencies - Practice and Theory of a Programme for Leading with Personnel Development.

Author(s):

Cornelia Knoch

Conference:

ECER 2010

Network:

11. Educational Effectiveness and Quality Assurance

Format:

Poster

Session Information

MC_Poster, Poster Session Main Conference

Main Conference Poster Session

Time:

2010-08-27

12:15-13:15

Room:

2nd Floor Hall (M.B)/ II KRS AULA, Päärakennus / Main Building,

Chair:

Contribution

Personnel Development is a “new” subject in schools – especially in the Swiss Volksschule - although it has been practiced in the German-speaking economy since the 70^th.

A precise view at the social und political context will help to understand this special situation better. The poster shows the significant impacts and clearly defines the development of the example from the canton Zürich in Switzerland. Appropriate measures were taken in the political sphere (see Volksschulgesetz, 2005) against the background of the main characteristics of the knowledge society (see Drucker, 1998; see OECD, 1996) and as a result of theoretical discussions about school development, quality of schools and professionalizing of teachers and school leaders. A new role was established in the field of school - the school leader. The school leader is responsible for the promotion and coordination of professional development of the teaching staff (see § 44, Volksschulgesetz, 2005).

But personnel development itself is a young science which needs an intense exchange of ideas with related sciences. The understanding of personnel development depends on the point of interest from which the subject is reviewed (see Becker, Schwarz, 2002). The poster also describes the different approaches to the subject and - as a consequence - the range of theoretical and practical understandings of personnel development - varying between narrow and broad (see Becker, 2005; Mentzel, 1985; Neuberger, 1994).

Against this background the role of a pedagogical leader is complex. He or she has to take responsibility for the staff. This means the pedagogical leader needs necessary management and leadership competencies (see Knoch, 2006). What does this mean for the concept of a personnel development programme at the university (see Knoch, 2010)? The poster reflects the significance of the political and theoretical impacts on the planning and designing of a programme as an exemplary model - the personnel development programme at the University of Teacher Education Zürich. This learning programme follows the aim to enable school leaders and other leaders in the field of learning to use personnel development for the professionalizing of the staff (see Knoch, 2009). The poster shows the main characteristics: the scientific basis, the balance of theoretical and practical parts, the main questions of the programme and especially the internship in the area of personnel development in an economical organisation, which is an important element in the process of learning.

At least the poster shows what experiences have been made so far with the programme after carrying out and summing up main insights. The internship e. g., helps to change opinions and creates a win-win-situation for both – the participants of the programme and the firms who offer the internship (see Knoch, 2009). In addition to the main insights the poster also presents extracts from a survey with the participants – with tendencies and exemplary individual impressions.

Method

Findings of the survey among 50 participants during the programmes in 2008 and 2009 will be shown in this contribution. For the planning and designing of the programme itself the analysis of relevant documents in the concrete school field of Zürich was combined with the analysis of the actual state of the scientific research in the area of personnel development. The outcome has been tested in interviews with selected representatives like school leaders, teachers, politicians and members of the scientific staff in the area of personnel development. The poster itself will give an approach to the subject of personnel development. It identifies and structures main characteristics of the need for personnel development in schools; furthermore, the consequences of a learning concept by guiding through a concrete example at the University of Teacher Education Zürich.

Expected Outcomes

This specialised programme seems to meet the expectations of the participants. They appreciate the broad range of theoretical and practical approaches. These approaches give them a well-founded basis to develop useful questions and criteria for the creation of the personnel development concept at their schools which meets their individual needs. During the programme and after returning to their schools the leaders seemed more motivated for initializing personnel development processes. They said, they feel more competent. In addition, the internship in an economic organisation has led to changed or new insights. Participants who highlighted the difference between school and economy estimated the assumed gap after finishing the internship as less than previously thought (see Knoch, 2010). Especially in the middle of the programme during the internship self-reflection and a new judgement of their own competencies and leading qualities seemed to be a essential part of each individual learning process. The participants learned to use and to integrate questions, processes and instruments of personnel development in their range of leadership tasks. The following questions will be pursued in the future: Does the insights learned during the programme have a long-term effect on the leadership styles? Which measures could support the practice?

References

Becker, Manfred (2005): Personalentwicklung. Bildung, Förderung und Organisationsentwicklung in Theorie und Praxis. Stuttgart: Schäfer- Poeschel. Becker, Manfred; Schwarz, Volker; Schwertner, Anke (Hrsg.) (2002): Theorie und Praxis der Personalentwicklung. Aktuelle Beiträge aus Wissenschaft und Praxis. München: Hampp. Buhren, Claus G.; Rolff, Hans-Günter. (2002): Personalentwicklung in Schulen. Konzepte, Praxisbausteine, Methoden. Weinheim, Basel: Beltz Verlag. Dubs, Rolf (2005): Die Führung einer Schule. Leadership und Management. Zürich: SKV. Doppler, Klaus; Lauterburg, Christoph (2005): Change Management. Frankfurt am Main: Campus Verlag GmbH Drucker, Peter (1998): Die Zukunft bewältigen. Aufgaben und Chancen im Zeitalter der Ungewissheit. Berlin: Econ. Knoch, Cornelia; Rutz, Kathrin (2007): Konzept Zertifikatslehrgang Personalentwicklung. Unveröffentlichte Darstellung. Zürich: PHZH. Knoch, Cornelia (2006): Verständnis Personalentwicklung: Konkretisierung, Herleitung, Folgerung. Unveröffentlichte Darstellung. Zürich: PHZH. Knoch, Cornelia (2010): Personalentwicklung – ein neues Führungsinstrument in Schulen. In: HR Today, 3/2010. Krämer, Michael (2007): Grundlagen und Praxis der Personalentwicklung. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht. Kumpfert, Guy; Rolff, Hans-Günter (2005): Qualität und Evaluation. Basel: Beltz. Mentzel, Wolfgang (2005): Personalentwicklung. Erfolgreich motivieren, fördern und weiterbilden. München: Deutscher Taschenbuch. Mudra, Peter (2004): Personalentwicklung. Integrative Gestaltung betrieblicher Lern- und Veränderungsprozesse. München: Franz Vahlen. Neuberger, Oswald (1994): Personalentwicklung. Stuttgart: Lucius & Lucius Riesen, Martin (1999): Personalentwicklung als Führungsaufgabe in Bildungsorganisationen. In: Aus der Praxis für die Praxis. Nr. 21. Luzern, Zürich: AEB. OECD (1996): The Knowledge-based Economy. Arbeitspapier Nr. OECD/GD(96)102. Paris. Rolff, Hans-Günter; Buhren, Claus G.; Lindau-Bank, Detlev; Müller, Sabine (1999): Manual Schulentwicklung. Weinheim, Basel: Beltz Verlag. Seitz, Hans; Capaul, Roman (2005): Schulführung und Schulentwicklung. Theoretische Grundlagen und Empfehlungen für die Praxis. Bern: Haupt. Sonntag, Karlhein (Hrsg.) (2006): Personalentwicklung in Organisationen. 3. Auflage. Bern: Hogrefe. Thom, Norber & Zaugg, Robert J. (Hrsg.) (2006): Moderne Personalentwicklung. Mitarbeiterpotenziale erkennen, entwickeln und fördern. Wiesbaden: Gabler. Wunderer, Rolf (2006): Führung und Zusammenarbeit. 6., überarbeitete Auflage. München: Luchterhand. Volksschulgesetz (2005). Online als pdf unter: http://www.bildungsdirektion.zh.ch/internet/bi/de/allgemeines.html

Author Information

Cornelia Knoch

Pädagogische Hochschule Zürich

Weiterbildung und Nachdiplomstudien

Zürich

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