An Survey On The Data Literacy Of Principals In Primary And Secondary Schools In China

The application of big data in medical,transportation,safety and other fields gives new impetus to many sectors in society.There is a large number of educational data.These data is generated in teaching activities.In future,education will grow with big data.It means that students' learning behavior will change,teachers' teaching behavior will change and school organization will change.The Chinese government issued a series of policies to guide the development of education modernization and the use of educational data for the new education form.These policies has been gradually refined to the management of data at the school level.The "standard of information leadership for primary and secondary school principals" issued by the Ministry of education in2014 is clearly pointed out what the principal should do in using technical method and big data.In line with the new requirements of the new age,principals need data literacy to promote related work and make decisions more scientific.Many researchers focus on data literacy,teacher data literacy,principal information leadership,and data leadership,and etc.The result shows that the principal's data literacy plays an important role in changing the school organization to adapt the change.Most researches concentrate on teachers' and students' data literacy,but ignore primary and secondary school principal's data literacy.The concept of data literacy has obvious similarities and subtle differences among different groups.These differences are caused by groups' characteristics.The primary and secondary school principals in China have three roles as leaders,managers and educators.Under the background of large data,the principal should make use of the data to improve the decision-making rationality and predict the risk of change,and also take measures in school vision,cultural construction,teacher professional development,school curriculum,school operation and coordination with external relations.The educational big data is mainly used in the integration of data and student learning.Teaching and learning is school principals' core task.Combined with the current role of primary and secondary school principals and the research achievements educators' data literacy.The study puts forward that primary and secondary schoolprincipals' data literacy includes four aspects: data-driven decision,organizing staffs to use data,data mindset and data ethics.The study mainly focused on curriculum teaching,investigating primary and secondary school principals' data literacy.This study randomly selected 232 primary and secondary school principals in China to conduct a questionnaire survey.This study find that:(1)More than 50% of the schools didn't purchase data management analysis system,nor did they make purchase plans;(2)According to the overall situation of the principal's data literacy,the principals are the best in data mindset,followed by data ethics,then data-driven decision,and the last is organizing staffs to use data;(3)In data mindset,most principals perform well.The principals in city are significantly better than the principals in town;the nine-year school principals are significantly better than the primary school principals,the junior school principals,and the high school principals;the principals who work in a school with data management and analysis system are significantly better than the principals who work in a school without data management and analysis system,and the purchase plan.(4)In data ethics,nearly half of the principals don't know enough relevant laws and regulations.In this dimension,the nine-year school principals are significantly better than the primary school principals,the junior school principals and the high school principals;the principals who work in a school with data management and analysis system are significantly better than the principals who work in a school without data management and analysis system,and the purchase plan.(5)In the principal's data-driven decision dimension,nearly half of the principals don't perform well,they need to strengthen the ability on obtaining and analyzing data.In this dimension,the nine-year school principals are significantly better than the primary school principals,the junior school principals and the high school principals;the principals who work in a school with data management and analysis system are significantly better than the principals who work in a school without data management and analysis system,and the purchase plan.(6)In organizing staff to use data,more than half of the principals don't perform well.Most principals don't know the situation of the data in school.In this dimension,the nine-year school principals are significantly better than the primary school principals,the junior school principals and the high school principals;the principals who work in a school with data management and analysis system are significantly better than the principals who work in a school without data management and analysis system,and the purchase plan.Generally,Chinese primary and secondary school principals' data literacy isn't good enough.Although most principals have the sensitivity to the data,they need to put effort to survey and arrange school data.Principals approve the use of data,but haven't take steps in teaching and management.On the various dimensions of the principals' data literacy,the nine-year school principals are significantly better than the primary school principals,the junior school principals and the high school principals,the principals who work in a school with data management and analysis system are significantly better than the principals who work in a school without data management and analysis system,and the purchase plan.It means that Chinese education modernization in primary and secondary school still stagnate in simple application of technical equipment.Educational data isn't effectively used in school teaching and principals decision-making.Many principals don't have data analysis platform.The segmentation of the school's internal management make the application of educational data in primary and secondary schools more impossible.Based on the result,this paper puts forward several suggestions:(1)Establish the sharing mechanism of data management and analysis system,so that many schools can buy and use data management and analysis system together to overcome the shortage of funds.(2)Set up student electronic files,and let students' data accompany them to enter new school.(3)Principals organize staff to arrange data in schools,form data maps,and grasp the situation of school data.(4)Investigate the principals,and develop corresponding training for them.(5)Collect principals' experience,and facilitate communication between principals.(6)Add the case teaching method to principals' training.(7)Increase legal knowledge related to data in principal training.Because some private data is involved in educational data.If principals have enough legal knowledge,they can decrease the legal risks in using data.