Abstract:

Following the “school as leaning organization” – SLO – concept and model proposed by Kools & Stoll and OECD – UNICEF, the present paper explores the extent to which the key features of learning organizations already exist in vocational education and training schools in Romania.

It is based on previous results of a theoretical approach which showed that:
(1) since at teachers’ level the implementation of the new curriculum (skills-based, focused on students) is supported by a national project, another course of action to gain focus on students, but at organizational level, would be re-conceptualization of schools using the SLO model;
(2) the model and concept starting baseline implementation could be given by the national performance indicators and descriptors identified as being correlated with dimensions and key-characteristics of the proposed SLO model.

It is also based on previous results of an experimental approach on a sample of 238 urban and rural schools externally evaluated in the first semester of the school year 2018 – 2019, which showed that, without explicitly and intentionally introducing the SLO model, the minimum levels of incidence of several key-characteristics of SLO’s varying between 30.67% and 73.10%. Because the pressures in the educational area have been increasingly high, especially for correlating the expected learning outcomes with explicit labor market demands and with requirements that the companies are constantly and rapidly changing, the present research is devoted to technical and vocational education and training (TVET) schools, much more willing to collaborate and keen to learn and adapt, and therefore, more likely to develop elements specific to the concept of learning organizations. Expanding the research base with another 233 urban and rural schools externally evaluated in the first semester of the school year 2019 – 2020, therefore considering 471 schools, the present paper deepens the previous experimental results identifying the minimum levels of incidence of several key-characteristics of SLO’s at TVET schools and compare them with those of general education schools.

Keywords:

School as learning organization, TVET schools.