Learning organization as a tool for better and more effective schools

摘要

The socio-economic context of learning and the needs for increasing the quality of the teaching profession in Hungary. The research was aimed atincreasing employability viaimproving the quality of higher and public education. This paper analyses and highlights the relations between a knowledge-rich economy and the quality of higher education with special regard to the preparation of teachers and schools that all serve as a motivating environment for learning. Schools as learning organizations and a model used for diagnosing them The second part of the paper introduces the scientific basis for diagnosing schools. It analyses how the concept of a learning organization developed by Senge can be interpreted and adapted to schools. The applied model integrates three key concepts: the culture and the efficiency of a school organization were investigated with the application of the Competing Values Framework model; the behavioral competences of opinion leaders in schools were tested with a professional HR model (INRO/RDA); schools made SWOT analyses of themselves focusing on their learning capacity. These three concepts/models were integrated in one complex and holistic model, which provided a firm basis for the analyses. Profiles and characteristics of schools as learning organizations The core part of the paper provides a brief overview of the characteristics of the 82 schools based on the complex diagnosis model. This part of the paper describes how the characteristics of schools as learning organizations were formed, and what differences arose among the schools. Based on the fitness of the schools to the LO profile, the paper analyses what kind of differences appear in the CVF model. Conclusions: The closing part of the paper summarizes the main conclusions of the diagnosis, and gives suggestions that were articulated for the schools on the basis of the research.