A Model for Enhancing School Effectiveness at Private Schools in Shenzhen, Guangdong Province, China.
Keywords:
School Effectiveness, Private Schools, Teachers, Flexible LeadershipAbstract
This study was conducted to address the necessity of enhancing school effectiveness at private schools in Shenzhen, Guangdong Province, China. Given the competitive educational landscape and evolving regulatory environment, private schools face significant challenges in achieving sustained effectiveness. Therefore, the study aimed to develop and validate a comprehensive model for enhancing school effectiveness, grounded in school effectiveness theory (Marzano et al., 2005), school-based management theory (Caldwell & Spinks, 1988), and flexible leadership theory (Yukl & Lepsinger, 2004). The research adopted qualitative and quantitative methods. Qualitative methods involved descriptive literature reviews and expert interviews to identify critical factors and verify the developed model. The quantitative method was utilized by administering a questionnaire to 335 private school teachers, employing statistical analyses. The study pursued five objectives: exploring school effectiveness factors, identifying the desired and current states, analyzing enhancement needs, developing a context-specific model, and validating the model through expert evaluation forms. Instruments included literature reviews, expert interviews, questionnaires, and SPSS analyses (Frequency, Mean and Standard Deviation). Findings revealed clear mission, good environment, empowering schools, leadership style, and collaborative governance as pivotal factors influencing school effectiveness, with gaps identified particularly in clear mission, good environment, and empowering schools. Consequently, a validated model was developed, integrating these five factors with Yukl’s flexible leadership practices and three encouraged strategies based on the interview with 5 experts to generate significant findings and conclusions, and responses from these experts guided the development of these strategies. The study recommends adopting this model at private schools to systematically improve leadership adaptability and organizational effectiveness while also suggesting future research explore broader implementation scenarios to test the model’s generalizability.
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