Quality Management in Preschool Education - Essay Example

? Total Quality Management in public and private preschools al affiliation: Origins of total quality management in preschool During the previous decades, quality has been a central theme in many organizations, and various concepts associated to quality improvements have been advanced. Total quality management was established in the 1980s especially to offer support to privately owned goods manufacturing companies. Initially, total quality management was employed in manufacturing entities, although the TQM concept then started to be employed in the service sector in the late 1980s and early 1990s. The use of quality management issues in public and education sector is more recent, and the interest of working with quality from a TQM point of view within the education sector has grown during the last decade (Dale, et al., nd). The use of TQM in the public sector such as education and the health sectors is deemed as part of the new public management. New public management is a general term for various change initiatives, which has been brought about by escalating requirements from different authorities. The Swedish public sector introduced an administrative law in 1987 that requires counteracting of inconveniences and enhancing accessibility among authorities. The Swedish commission on advanced vocational education necessitates that educational organizations employ quality assurance as some kind of quality evaluation. Formal definitions of total quality management preschool The external concept of quality refers to attempts to enhance the quality of the incoming product. In the case of schools, the product is the student or the child who is entering school for the first occasion. Industry operates with sellers who make parts, which when assembled will be the end product. Schools on the other, hand have two vendors, which are the preschool children and their parents or guardians. Schools ought to have programs for preschool and parenting. Nevertheless, this is often not possible to have preschooling as part of an ongoing program in most cases due to cost inadequacies. If possible, any school wishing to implement the external quality concept should have a preschool program. There are numerous definitions of the quality concept as put forward by different scholars (Karoly & Bigelow, 2005). There are five broad concepts of the term quality. One aspect is the transcendent concept where quality is taken as the innate excellence, which is absolute and universally acknowledgeable and long lasting. In preschooling, transcendent quality can be learned to be acknowledged through experience. The second approach to quality is product based, where quality reflects differences in the amount of some ingredient or factor possessed by a product. Preschool quality management concept on product based refers to attributes possessed by students. The third attribute of quality is user based, where the quality of the best satisfies clients’ preferences. Preschool quality management reflects on students meeting the requirements and needs of the employers as they look for those students with the highest quality. The fourth aspect of quality is manufacturing based, where the focus is on the supply side. Manufacturing based quality is essentially concerned with manufacturing practices and fulfilling tolerances (Bradley, 1994). The final concept of quality is value based, where quality is measured in terms of costs and price. In preschooling total quality management, the school should offer performance or conformance at an acceptable price and cost. Main components of total quality management in preschool There are five main basic components in preschool total quality management that foster young children skills and abilities. These are the curriculum, the early literacy learning principles, accountability and assessment, teacher education and professional growth, as well as home-school relations (Bracken, 2004). Early literacy learning principles Developing standards for preschool is among the best indicator of the need to categorize curriculum content and child outcomes for preschool programs. Developing early literacy standards aids in establishing clarity of the curriculum content, raising expectations for the attainment of all children, as well as ensuring responsibility and answerability for education. It is fundamental to develop standards with caution in order to avoid placing responsibility on children rather than on people who should offer support for learning. Linguistically and culturally dissimilar children and disabled children are at high risk of carrying responsibility for learning (New Jersey State Department of Education, 2004). Curriculum In ensuring preschool total quality is met, the curriculum plays a basic role in addressing the entire learning and growth of the young child. The curriculum should place emphasis on social, cognitive, physical, and emotional development of children while strengthening the academic curriculum at the same time (Macrothink Institute, 2011). Curriculum developers have to be watchful to avoid narrowing the literacy skills and neglect consideration for other aspects that foster a child’s academic and personal growth. Accountability and assessment Measuring early literacy development for children is an integral part of preschool total quality management. Assessment helps to evaluate learning and development and guide the teacher in program planning and decision making. Assessment also aids in identifying children who may benefit from special services. In addition to the continuous assessment on the preschool curriculum, there is a growing need on program accountability to display effectiveness in enhancing school readiness and positive child outcomes. Teacher education and professional development Early literacy education requires highly capable teachers. Preschool teachers are expected to implement a challenging and successful curriculum in the contemporary world. The teacher has to also assess and document the progress in more and more intricate ways. The increasing expectations and ever increasing number of preschool programs have resulted in staffing crisis. Teachers of young children need to be knowledgeable in diverse fields such as oral language capabilities, phonological awareness, family literacy learning and print related knowledge (Boocock, nd). Home-school relations Supportive parental engagement and children’s early literacy is integral in total quality management in preschool. It has been established that children who have been engaged in acts that foster fundamental comprehension on literacy and its uses are better prepared for school. The benefits and limitation of total quality management in public and private school in Asia, western and European countries East Asia and the some parts of the Pacific Rim are among the globe’s most developed nations both academic wise and economic wise. In Singapore, Japan, Hong Kong and South Korea have a similar heritage in the context of fast industrial growth and most children go to preschool at three years of age (Strickland & Shannon, 2013). The benefit of total quality management in private and public schools in Asia reflects the value and worth that Asians traditionally attach to education situation. In addition, total quality management in preschool helps to prepare children for formal schooling, which is considered a significant avenue to social and economic mobility. In North America and western European countries, preschool total quality management helps in preparing children for elementary school (Magnus, 2004). Studies carried out in French, German and British preschool systems show that preschool attendance and total quality management can have strong positive effects on children’s readiness and the eventual academic performance (Fiszbein, 2001). Swedish children who have undergone preschool total quality programs benefit children’s development, especially when the programs are high quality. A survey conducted in Singapore showed that preschool total quality management enhances children’s skills at sharing and cooperating (OECD, 2012). Although well established preschool offer several gains to children, as well as their relations, there are limitations on total quality management across Asia, western and European nations. Positive outcomes are found in states that have nationwide policies of giving preschool services to every child. In addition, positive outcomes are only realized in countries with a practice of making sure the quality of preschool services through imposable rules. Another limitation of total quality management in preschool is the verity that there is no global agreement as to what exactly constitutes a quality program (Magnus, 2004). Of utmost significance is the disagreement between child focused and developmentally suitable form of preschool education, which centers on play with the intent of preschool as a descending expansion of official education. This extension of formal schooling initiates children to sober education as early as possible. The child focused preschool total quality management model that dominates western societies is not popular in other cultures. Moreover, various quality indicators deemed as significant by western (American) evaluators is given less importance elsewhere. Compare total quality management with classical theories of management The classical theories of management are the earliest form of management thought that date back at the age of the industrial revolution in the 20th century. Classical theories of management relate on ways to manage tasks and organizations more successfully (Thenmozhi, nd). Three main areas of classical theory are the scientific, bureaucratic and administrative management. Scientific management focuses on working methods that ensures efficiency. Administrative management centers on the process of management and the principles of management. Henri Fayol outlined five basic administrative management functions; planning, coordinating, controlling, organizing and planning (Mukherjee, 2006). Bureaucratic management was advanced by Max Weber, who held that organizations can attain efficiency through bureaucracy. According to Weber, bureaucracy is having formalized rules, hierarchy, impersonality and employees promotion on the ability, all which results in efficiency. Total quality management, on the other hand, is an approach that attempts to enhance performance and quality in order to meet or exceed customer expectations. Unlike in classical theories of management, TQM allows full participation of organizational members in enhancing products, processes, culture and services in which they work. Classical theories of management are efficiency focused while TQM is customer centered. The customer eventually determines the degree of quality in all that an organization does in terms of the design process, staff training and upgrading systems (Morfaw, 2009). While classical theories consider the hierarchy of authority, TQM adopts an inclusion approach where all workers are empowered toward common goals. Total quality management is process focused, where various steps are transformed into outputs, which are delivered to customers. TQM operates on an integrated system where differential specialties that are vertically and horizontally structured are interconnected into an integrated system. TQM has a focus of continuous improvement, which drives an organization to be both creative and analytical to gain competitive merit. Fact based decision making, strategic approach and communications in times of organizational change are employed to meet stakeholders’ expectations (Nigam, 2005). Peer reviewed research in the area of total quality management in private and public preschool There have been numerous searches in the field of total quality management in private and public preschool. Research has established that high quality preschool is a fundamental element in developing social and cognitive abilities, which are considered as noteworthy for school readiness. Nonetheless, there are variations and different opinions from early child caregivers, teachers and parents with regards to what school readiness is (Frank, 1992). The teacher belief system of what constitutes school readiness is significant, and a key component of teacher classroom decision making (Sheridan, nd). Past studies have established a connection involving quality of classroom and structure in preschool settings. The quality of the classroom is measured by observable processes such as caregiver responsiveness while the structure is measured in terms of teacher training. It has also been established that higher classroom quality in preschool learning environments is predictive of a child’s social and cognitive outcomes. Children who encounter higher classroom quality perform better than children in lower quality preschool environments (Margaret, Carollee & Kontos, 2002). The teacher’s education and training determine the quality of the learning environment in both center based and family based preschool programs. Teachers’ training in the field of early childhood education and its related areas determines the quality of classroom as compared to training in other fields. In addition to the teacher education influencing quality, different programs also have implications for child outcomes. For illustration, center based preschool programs provide more educational contents, toys, well structured curriculum as compared to other family based and other programs such as relative care. Although there have been mixed reactions on the above statement, several studies show that children who take part in center based program exhibit higher language and cognitive abilities (Doherty, et al., 2006). They have also been shown to have lesser behavioural complication, as compared to children from other programs of the same quality. Although the above variances place children in center based programs at a better edge, other researches also reveal that family based preschool programs offer better adult-child interactions (Barnett, 1995). In addition, family based programs and relative programs offer more flexibility on the schedule of children, and provide official learning activities, as well. Teacher belief also plays an elemental part in shaping the quality of the classroom experience (Fang, 1996). Teacher beliefs entail what the teachers consider as significant for preschool children before going to formal schooling. Previous researches show a positive relationship linking teacher practices and teacher beliefs, which are development suitable (Kagan, 1992). Teacher beliefs meet the cognitive and age specific children development needs while a teacher’s individual knowledge establishes his/her decisions. Preschool teachers who have strong beliefs in essential skill practices like teacher directed instruction are less likely to endorse child centered practices. On the contrary, preschool teachers who have strong beliefs in children centered curriculum place value on self esteem and child independence (Jan, 1987). How private schools are affected by total quality management compared to public preschools Numerous preschool centers do offer both full time and quality early childhood education. Nevertheless, (Dowling & Kate, 2009) note that there is a strong perception that private preschools have higher standards of educational quality that public preschools. The perception emerged from a study conducted in Australia. The perception results from the verity that preschools are subject to higher regulation and traditions that connect them to educational provision rather than care. One of the main reasons for the perceived lower educational quality of public schools compared to private preschools is the actual subject of that there may not be a teacher at all in all public preschool settings. In most states, there are no legal requirements to employ teachers in public preschools (Wesley & Virginia, 2003). For illustration, New South Wales has a requirement that a centre based care with more than twenty nine children should employ a degree trained childhood teacher. However, most public preschools enroll less than 29 children to avoid meeting this requirement. Although children take longer in public preschool, it does not essentially imply that they receive more teaching than children in the private preschool. What needs to be done to promote preschool total quality management? Preschool total quality management is essential in enhancing a child’s readiness to schooling. As such, it is essential to carry observe activities that promote total quality management in preschool. Of great significance is improving the school readiness for disadvantaged children such as children with disabilities. In most places, the preschool curriculum is skewed towards offering care and education for healthy children. Such curriculum and activities may not be fit for disadvantaged children. The quality of the preschool experience can be disrupted when a young child’s level of behavioural and emotional development deters him/her from suitably adjusting to the classroom environment. As such, it is essential to develop curriculum that enhances school readiness of disadvantaged children. Teacher training is another basic component that is fundamental in preschool quality management. Teacher training and professional development should also be improved so as to ensure that teachers offer the best to the preschool children. Ensuring that there are supportive relationships between children, teachers, parents and other preschool stakeholders is also an indispensable component of promoting preschool total quality management. The supportive relationship will help offer individualized attention to children, especially children who do not respond sufficiently well to classroom management. References Barnett, W. S. (1995). Long-term effects of early childhood programs on cognitive and school outcomes. Future of Children, 5(3), 25-50. Boocock, S.S (nd). Early childhood programs in other nations: goals and outcomes. Retrieved on 26 June 2013 from< http://futureofchildren.org/futureofchildren/publications/docs/05_03_04.pdf> Bracken, B.A. (2004). The Psychoeducational Assessment of Preschool Children. UK: Taylor & Francis press. Bradley, L.H. (1994). Total Quality Management for Schools. Maryland: R&L Education press. Dale, B.G et al. (nd). Total quality management: origins and evolution of the term. Retrieved on 26 June 2013 from< http://repositorio.bib.upct.es/dspace/bitstream/10317/441/1/tqm2.pdf>. Doherty, G. et al. (2006). Predictors of quality in family child care. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 21(3), 296-312 Dowling, A. & Kate, O. (2009). Preschool education in Australia. Retrieved on 26 June 2013 from< http://research.acer.edu.au/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1000&context=policy_briefs>. Fang, Z. (1996). A review of research on teacher beliefs and practices. Educational Research, 38(1), 47-65. Fiszbein, A. (2001). Decentralizing Education in Transition Societies: Case Studies from Central and Eastern Europe. WBI Learning Resources Series. Washington: World Bank Publications press. Frank, P.M. (1992). Teachers' beliefs and educational research: Cleaning up a messy construct. Review of Educational Research, 62(3), 307-332. Jan, N. (1987). The role of beliefs in the practice of teaching. Journal of Curriculum Studies, 19(4), 317-328 Kagan, D.M. (1992). Professional growth among preservice and beginning teachers. Review of Educational Research, 62(2), 129-169. Karoly, L. A. & Bigelow, J.H. (2005). The Economics of Investing in Universal Preschool Education in California. California: Rand Corporation press. Macrothink Institute. (2011). The implementation of total quality management TQM on the higher educational sector in Jordan. International journal of industrial marketing. 1:1, 1- 10. Retrieved on 26 June 2013 from< http://sinche.uom.gr/sites/default/files/771-5488-2- pb.pdf> Magnus, S. (2004). TQM-based self assessment in educational organizations. Help or hindrance? Retrieved on 26 June 2013 from< http://pure.ltu.se/portal/files/142508/LTU- DT-0440-SE.pdf> Margaret, B. Carollee, H. & Kontos, S. (2002). Structural predictors of child care quality in child care homes. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 17(1), 87-105. Morfaw, J.N. (2009). Total Quality Management (TQM): A Model for the Sustainability of Projects and Programs in Africa. Washington: University Press of America. Mukherjee, P.N. (2006). TOTAL QUALITY MANAGEMENT. New Delhi: PHI Learning Pvt. Ltd. New Jersey State Department of Education. (2004). Division of early childhood education. Retrieved on 26 June 2013 from< http://www.nj.gov/education/ece/archives/code/expectations/expectations.htm>. Nigam, S. (2005). Total Quality Management: An Integrated Approach. New Delhi: Excel Books India. OECD. (2012). Starting Strong III A Quality Toolbox for Early Childhood Education and Care: A Quality Toolbox for Early Childhood Education and Care. Paris: OECD Publishing press. Sheridan, S. (nd). pedagogical quality in preschool. An issue of perspectives. Retrieved on 26 June 2013 from< https://gupea.ub.gu.se/bitstream/2077/10307/1/gupea_2077_10307_1.pdf>. Strickland, D. & Shannon R.A. (2013). Early Literacy: Policy and Practice in the Preschool Years. Retrieved on 26 June 2013 from< http://www.readingrockets.org/article/11375/>. Thenmozhi M.(nd). Evolution of management theory. Retrieved on 26 June 2013 from< http://www.nptel.iitm.ac.in/courses/IIT-MADRAS/Management_Science_I/Pdfs/1_2.pdf >. Wesley, P.W. &Virginia, B. (2003). Making meaning of school readiness in schools and communities. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 18(3), 351-375 Read More