Abstract:

The quality of education is determined by many interrelated factors, such as the educational management and financing, curriculum, the competence of teachers, infrastructure, and school‘s organizational culture. Improving the quality of education requires a shared vision and goals, as well as long-term, focused, integrated and coordinated measures. The latter goals and measures in Lithuania are presented as guidelines in School of Excellence Concept (2015). The Concept defines an excellent school as a school based on the development of fundamental humanistic values in educational process, striving for meaning, discovery and successful personal development, which is guided by the agreements and learning of the whole school community. The School of Excellence Concept enables the modelling of a school strategy aimed at developing learners‘ personalities, well-being of school community, empowering educational environment, and the formation of the culture of the school as a learning organization. It fosters the idea of leadership for learning when the commitment for learning is initiated by the school principal and ends with e the dimension of shared accountability and self-evaluation that leads to evidence base decisions necessary for improving performance and student achievement.

The aim of research is to reveal the tendencies of applying the concept of School of Excellence in the professional practice of teachers. The qualitative research methodology was applied by selecting focus group interviews for data collection, based on a prepared semi-structured questionnaire. The main areas of the interview coincide with the parameters defined in School of Excellence Concept (personality maturity; achievements and progress; education, learning and students' experiences; leadership for learning, assessment in education, empowerment of the physical environment, leadership, strategic management of the school, co-creation). The findings of the research were analysed by applying content analysis method that enables to discern categories and subcategories. The study involved 12 teachers from purposefully selected one gymnasium in the region of Lithuania, where the implemented strategy is directly related to the School of Excellence Concept.

The results of the research reveal that the gymnasium plans, evaluates and discusses the student progress in the implementation of primary and secondary education programs and in pursuit of the personal development of learners. Recognizing the differences of students, teachers develop various strategies for learning and work techniques, and integrate subject-specific, inter-subject, formal and non-formal education. The school community encourages changes and shared leadership, and staff policies focus on the well-being of teachers and learners. The research also reveals the main problems and difficulties as well as the obstacles to enabling the elements of a School of Excellence Concept. The biggest challenges and difficulties are highlighted in the development of students' self-assessment skills and promotion of their motivation. Some teachers also have problems with the diversity of students and working with them to assess individual progress and respond to their individual needs in the learning process, and some find it difficult to understand and implement the strategic goals, because of the disagreement that should be given more attention and priority.

Keywords:

School of excellence, school management, teachers, leadership for learning.