Some Theoretical Issues On The Quality Management In Education And Training

SOME THEORETICAL ISSUES ON THE QUALITY MANAGEMENT IN EDUCATION AND TRAINING Nguyen Duc Huu (Ministry of Education and Training) Nguyen Xuan Hai (Hanoi Metropolitan University) Abstract Quality is considers as the key factor to ensure the sussess or failure or even the elimination of an organization in general and a school in particular Therefore, quality is always to involve the attentions of each organization and school The outcomes of education and training are regarded as its products and ref[.]

IN EDUCATION AND TRAINING

Nguyen Duc Huu

(Ministry of Education and Training)

Nguyen Xuan Hai

(Hanoi Metropolitan University)

Abstract: Quality is considers as the key factor to ensure the sussess or failure or even the elimination of

an organization in general and a school in particular Therefore, quality is always to involve the attentions of each organization and school The outcomes of education and training are regarded as its products and reflected

in the characteristics of personalities and his labour powers or competency of practical knowledge, skills of the graduated persons, correspondingly to the aims, education and training programs First of all, management of education and training are manifested in the mechanism, policies, strategies and others from psychological-socio perspectives.

The contents of the manuscript shows the results of a PhD desertation named: “Inclusive Education Management for Primary School Students following Approach of the Quality Insurance” by the author of this paper

In the limitation of the paper, some issues are mentioned to as quality, quanlity management and management of education and training.

Keywords: quality, education and training, factors of quality, management.

I INTRODUCTION

Quality is the exploration of humanity In the market mechanism, quality plays a decisive role for the success or failure, the existence or doom of organizations in general and each school in particular Therefore, quality is always the top concern of every organization and school

Quality is a very abstract matter, no one can see and feel the quality directly with their senses, and ordinary measuring tools cannot measure it The quality of education and training is generally understood as the quality of the educational and training product, which is the result of the educational and training process reflected in the characteristics of personality value and labor value or the ability

to practice knowledge and skills of graduates corresponding to the objectives , specific educational and training programs [2]

Management is an essential activity formed to organize, coordinate and direct the activities of different individuals in a small group or a large organization to achieve a certain purpose Management is

a universal and necessary activity that takes place in all fields, at all levels and involves everyone Without management, it will lead to spontaneity, arbitrariness, chaos in organizations and inefficient activities

Management is a necessary and inevitable activity of all structures, types of groups or organizations large and small and is one of the three basic factors (labor, knowledge, management) to maintain and promote social development Management is the combination and application of knowledge and labor

to develop social production

If combined well, it will promote social development, while on the contrary, the society will be slowed down or become confused That combination is first of all expressed in the mechanism; policy regime; management measures and in other socio-psychological aspects As society develops, the level

of organization, administration or management in general is also improved and developed

The content of the article will go into in-depth researches and discussions on quality issues, quality management and quality management in education and training

II RESEARCH CONTENT

2.1 Quality

2.1.1 Terms

The quality of education as an integrity, whole social system (Quality of Education; Education Quality, Educational Quality)

The quality in education - Quality in education as in an area of social and practical life (Quality in Education) The education quality as a requirement for an education or education of the desired quality (Education Quality)

2.1.2 Definitions

- Quality is attributed to educational goals or outcomes

- Quality is measured in all the elements constituting education

- Quality is attributed to both factors and conditions outside of education that affect educational processes, activities and outcomes

2.2 The Quality of Education

2.2.1 Approaches to the quality of education

2.2.1.1 Holistic approach/overall outreach

This approach leads to a wide-range understanding of the concept of education quality corresponding

to the educational category itself Education implies elements of abundance and of certain quality It is the quality of the ingredients that make up the education quality

2.2.1.2 Specific or partial approach

This approach leads to an emphasis on different stages, divisions or areas of education The meaning

of the partial approach is to allow to delve into each stage, each element, each part, each sub-structure

(such as branches and educational levels) of the overall education to consider the specific education

quality in every part of it

For example, the quality of education in terms of educational outcomes (or products) reflects the development of learners and the improvement of teachers’ skills and professional ethics as a result of the level of investment input resources and effectiveness in educational processes and activities

The quality of input resources (programs, material facilities, training qualifications and professional feelings of teachers, starting level of learners, quality of school-family-society relationships,…) plays a leading role, fundamentally, deciding the entire quality of education

However, the quality factors of the education process itself have a great impact on quality, as they can change the quality of input resources, create quality factors that play a new role and thus improve the quality of education in general

2.2.1.3 Other interpretations or conceptions

- The quality of education has different ranks or levels, which is a multi-level, multi-variable and extremely rich phenomenon

- The quality of education is something that can be measured and needs to be evaluated, not only

in educational outcomes but also regularly in the educational process

- The quality of education is influenced by many factors and influences inside and outside education

2.2.2 The concept of the quality of education

Diagram 1 The Educational Quality Function Framework

The diagram 1 only describes the educational quality framework according to its own objective logic, which means that this is the most common diagram for all education systems The quality is what makes things what they are and not something else But assessing and evaluating the quality of education is another matter All three groups of factors that make up the overall quality of education (educational background) must satisfy a common and extremely important criteria, that is - this quality must match the needs and interests of learners, of the society and the country Without the above criteria,

we cannot assess the quality of education as high or low, good or bad, good or broken

The quality of education in this country is high, but in another (if desired and can do it) it is not at all considered high, even inferior

Although internationalization trends are also taking place in education, the legitimate subjectivity

of communities cannot be denied when assessing and evaluating education quality (concepts) according

to their own needs and interests According to objective indicators, the education level of developed countries is recognized as high But surely, no country or individual, including poor ones, will unconditionally accept that the quality is high if it does not match the needs of its people, students and the interests of its own country

2.2.3 Factors of the education quality

The quality factors are understood as all that forms the overall quality of education, which comes from different elements and departments of education Since overall education is a complex, multi-component, multi-quality system, it is not appropriate to attribute the entire quality of education to a simple formula However, the quality of education can be briefly defined as a combination of the quality

of all the factors that make up education, or the combination of all factors of the education quality Education is organized from a wide range of physical and mental factors that can be observed and

felt These are human resources, material, activities, relationships, operating environment, results or

products, counted at least in the fields of: education management, pedagogical training, research and information education, teaching and learning This is a broad conception of the structure of activity

fields in education

But customarily, we often pay the most attention to the area of teachers and learners’ activities, i.e teaching and learning, and often direct quality goals in this area The education quality factors must actually cover all four areas, while the quality of activities and the direct educational process is only a part But that is the central, most important quality department, which is purposeful, and the other areas must serve to achieve the desired quality here

The quality of teaching and learning reflects the overall status and quality of education as a whole, and is in principle consistent with the quality of management, the quality of researches and information and the quality of pedagogical training If there is no quality agreement among the four areas, it is forced to admit that in some areas there are unresolved quality problems, or in some areas there is a phenomenon of artificial quality

Diagram 2 Factors of Education Quality

Quality factors belong to the direct educational process and activities of teaching and learning Compared with the other 3 areas, the quality of teaching and learning is the quality of products, while the quality in the other areas has an assurance function In other words, the quality factors in management, research and information, pedagogical training are the factors that ensure the quality of teaching and learning

When applying the ISO international quality management system to education, most institutions have understood and followed this concept At this time, education was limited to schools, the quality of education was reduced to the quality of teaching and learning, even to the results of training in graduates (products) When understanding the quality of education as the quality of the learners at the output, meeting the human resource needs and focusing on the labor market, meeting the needs of the learners’ own personal development, then of course the quality management system will only focus on product quality management, not overall management

According to such a concept, it is possible to identify groups of the factors of the quality of education, what UNESCO calls the main sizes (dimensions) of educational quality, as follows:

1- The suitability of the education with the needs of learners, the community and the society; 2- Quality of environment and input for teaching and learning activities;

3- Quality of teaching - learning processes and activities;

4- Quality of output and the impact of teaching and learning outcomes (here there is a problem related to the effectiveness of the output, i.e the external effect of education)

For an educational institution, a school for example, it is possible to evaluate the quality of its education in a number of key areas such as: 1- Educational programs; 2- Study materials; 3- Professional qualifications and personality of teachers; 4- Material-technical foundations; 5- Teaching methods and technologies; 6- Academic results and achievements; 7- Effectiveness and achievement of school management as well as leadership and management of the educational process

The quality of the school can be considered as the basis unit of the quality of education, because

it contains all factors of the quality of education but that quality is limited to a specific scope and level The quality of education is always associated with the effectiveness of the school An inefficient school is generally not of high quality of education, or at least in some parts of the state of low quality For example, the input quality is high but the execution quality is low, resulting in low output quality, which in general cannot be high

2.3 Quality Management

2.3.1 Definition [1]

Many authors use the term of quality management to describe methods or procedures carried out

in order to verify that products are up to the required quality parameters for the intended purposes The quality management is carried out by various methods

According to the International Organization for Quality Standardization: “The quality management

is a set of activities with a common management function that define the quality policy and quality

objectives and implement them by means of facilities such as planning, quality control, quality assurance, quality improvement within the framework of a quality system”.

According to Japanese Industrial Standards (JIS): “The quality management is a system of methods

for facilitating output, economically producing quality goods, or providing satisfactory quality services for demand of customers”.

AG Robertson, a British expert, said that: “The quality management is defined as a management

system aimed at formulating a program and coordinating the efforts of different units to maintain and enhance the quality in organizations from design, production, operation, etc to be most effective and at the same time, allow to satisfy the needs of consumers”.

AV Feigenbaum, an American said that: “The quality management is defined as a unified, effective

system of activities of different parts of an organization responsible for implementing quality parameters, maintaining the quality level achieved, and improving it to ensure the most economical production and consumption of products, satisfying consumer needs”.

Kaoru Isgikawa said: “The quality management is the implementation research, production design,

and maintenance of products with the best quality, the most economical, the most useful for consumers and always satisfying their needs”.

According to Philip Crosby, an american expert: “The quality management is a systematic means

of ensuring the total respect of all components of an action plan”

Thus, each definition of the quality management is based on its own considerations, but all of them are similar in that it represents the quality management as a system of processes for assuring the quality

of the entire system, satisfying the market’s needs at the lowest cost, with the highest economic efficiency,

is carried out in all stages from design, production to distribution and use of products.

2.3.2 Principles of the quality management

2.3.2.1 Customer Focus

In education, consumers are understood as learners, the society and the State - these are the subjects that make requirements, evaluate and assess the quality of education, test and accept educational products The education development and the overall quality of education (input-implementation-output) depends on these factors, especially on the needs of learners, the society and the State - the main force in education to represent the interests of the people

2.3.2.2 Leadership

Leaders must establish the consistency of purpose and direction of the organization, create and maintain an internal environment conducive to everyone’s full participation in the achievement of the organization’s goals In the school, the political leader is the head of the party committee (secretary), the professional leader is the principal, the person who directly manage the expertise are the professional vice principals and the professional team leaders

2.3.2.3 Involvement of People

People in their respective positions are the backbone of the organization and their full involvement will allow their competencies to be used to the benefit of the organization Individual teachers, social organizations in the school such as the trade unions, teachers’ youth unions, student youth unions, youth teams, etc., as well as specialized education groups, the core groups… must become an important force creating dynamic quality factors of the school

2.3.2.4 Process approach when doing work

The desired results will be better if the activities and related resources are managed as a process That means we need to recognize and monitor, operate and evaluate them regularly, flexibly, to analyze and use them in a dialectical way: depending on the job, the person, the time, the occasion and specific conditions The process approach in the educational quality management allows controlling the entire quality evolution from input resources, how they are changed and transformed to lead to the output quality, which stage is stable or which is not good, what needs to be adjusted or changed or which personnel to achieve higher efficiency

2.3.2.5 Systems approach to conduct management

Perceiving, understanding and managing interrelated processes, as a system will contribute to the organization’s high efficiency and performance Education as a system is made up of structures, functions, entities, processes, roles, resources and values The direct systems approach requires the total quality management in education, it is not possible to manage only a single part or element but achieve high efficiency

2.3.2.6 Continuous improvement

Continually improving the overall performance of an organization is always a long-term goal of any organization The accumulation of improvements will lead to a new higher quality For education, improving the quality of teaching and learning activities, school management processes, basic resources such as teacher development, learning materials, technical infrastructure, educational solutions based on scientific-technological researches… are the priority directions

2.3.2.7 Factual Approach to Decision Making

Effective decisions must always be based on the data and information analysis If the data and information analysis is conducted in a scientific way, this is already one of the important quality assurance factors of the education management Both management information and scientific information must

be taken seriously The reality of the education management in our country shows that the management information alone is not enough for strategic planning and management, has not yet allowed proper assessment and quality assessment, and cannot improve professional management efficiency and overall management effectiveness

2.3.2.8 Mutually Beneficial Supplier Relationships

The organization and its suppliers are always interdependent, and the reciprocal relationship enhances the capacity of both parties to create value In education, it is a triangle relationship as mentioned: Education sector and schools <> Learners <> Government and Society This is especially important in the context of the market economy, because it is the main driving force of the educational quality management and educational development process

2.3.3 Quality management system

2.3.3.1 Steps to build the quality management system

Building a quality management system includes the following 6 steps/requirements:

First, it needs to establish the most important areas to be managed in the school, the essential processes in the quality management system (the leadership processes, the resource management, the

other quality assurance conditions).

Second, to identify sequences and new interactions between processes The output of this process must be considered as input to which processes, the output quality of the previous process must match the input quality of the process

Third, to identify the quality standards and methods needed to ensure effective operation and control of educational processes

Diagram 3 Determination of Quality Sandards

Fourth, to develop processes, ensure the availability of necessary resources and information to support operational activities and monitor educational processes It is necessary to prepare procedures processes (PP), work instructions (WI) and application forms (AF) to control the educational process

Diagram 4 Building Processes

Fifth, to measure, monitor and analyze educational processes.

- To measure: to select measurable quality standards

- To monitor: to record the measurement results according to the duration period

- To analyze: to apply statistical techniques SPC (Statistic Process Control) to analyze each process,

to find problems to be solved and make decisions

Sixth, to implement necessary activities, perform correctly and continuously improve processes

- To identify processes status and their stability (measured by X-R control chart)

- To rebuild quality or objectives standards

- To update, adjust and improve processes

2.3.3.2 Illustrative example: Deming’s circle

To realize continuous improvement in quality management, Deming proposed the PDCA cycle

of continuous improvement (Plan; Do; Check; Action) is also known as the Deming’s circle and is represented as shown in Figure 3

Diagram 5 Deming’s Management Cycle

Quality does not stop but is continuously improved according to the PDCA cycle as shown in Figure

3 [8] An organization that always acts like this will create trust for customers, thereby create a reputation for itself

The Deming’s Circle is the sequence required for the effective performance of any job according

to the principle of continuous improvement

Diagram 6 The Cycle of Continuous Quality Improvement

2.3.3 Quality management in education and training

2.3.3.1 Concept

Quality management in education is a method whose main tool is a set of standards, including

standards, criteria, indicators and procedures for implementing those standards Quality management

in education is the construction and operation of a management system (on the basis of standards and criteria) in order to influence the quality assurance conditions in all stages of the educational process, for all products of the system, not for the quality of each stage or individual product.

2.3.3.2 Levels of quality management

a) Quality control

Quality control is the oldest model of quality management and also the most common measure

in educational quality management [3] Quality control is examination and evaluation of the quality of educational outputs and products This is an activity carried out after the training courses have ended and carried out through graduation exams, thesis and PhD thesis defense

Similar to “Quality Control” in production, the purpose of the test is to evaluate the quality

of education by comparing the learning outcomes that students achieve compared to the prescribed program standards and training objectives In human resource training, in order to meet the customers’ requirements in the market mechanism, this standard must be based on the customers’ requirements and the production, so it is often called the industry/service standard

Thus, as in manufacturing, the outcome of the quality control is to guarantee the quality of the graduates, but does not create the quality of graduates by themselves

b) The process control

With the view that quality is a process, for quality training, it is necessary to control the quality of every stage of the training process: Input - Process - Output

Thus, the quality management of the training process must be managed from the stage of enrollment, teaching, examination, assessment, and granting diplomas to graduates The quality of each of the above stages contributes to the quality of training On the other hand, good management of each stage will promptly take measures to limit the number of weak students, back-to-back students and increase the percentage of graduates students from training courses To manage the training process, the school needs to organize a good management of the enrollment process; to organize educational and teaching activities; examination, assessment Teachers need to strengthen regular checks in the teaching process

to take timely measures to fill in gaps in knowledge, skills and attitudes for students

Thus, just like in production, the process control aims to train qualified graduates, and at the same time, there are solutions to prevent the poor learning status of some students to minimize the number of back-to-back students, dropped-out students or not be recognized for graduation after completing the training program in order to improve the quality and effectiveness of training

In recent decades, under the strong impact of scientific and technological progress as well as politics, economy and society on the education of each country, the quality management of the training process has been mentioned in the context of education and CIPO model: Context - Input - Process - Out put/Outcome have been applied in training quality management [4]

c) Quality assurance

The quality assurance is a model of quality management in training institutions that has been widely applied in many countries, and has also begun to be implemented in our country The quality assurance

is all activities planned and carried out within a management system that have been demonstrated to be sufficient to provide confidence that an entity (object) will fully satisfy quality requirements” [5]