A Case Study on School-Oriented Management Successfully Launched ABSTRACT The present study is primarily intended to probe into a case school¡XMin-chyuan Elementary School of Kaohsiung regarding its process and experiences via compilation and analysis of documents in promoting its school-oriented management so as to look into what efforts Min-chyuan Elementary School of Kaohsiung has made toward the school-oriented management. Through focus interview, triangulation, we look into the key school personnel regarding how they view the issues and what they have in mind. The study is backed by a small-scale questionnaire survey to analyze the performance and satisfaction level, added with the personal observation and comments by the researcher (the founding Principal of the subject School) as appropriate, in reciprocation and reflection. In the present study, the connotation to define the school-oriented management includes such six key issues, i.e., the Principal¡¦s philosophy in leadership, formulation and enforcement of school vision, forging and deepening the school culture, concept and characteristics of campus landscaping, shape and application of school classes which are open for use, school-oriented curricula in planning and enforcement. I. The Principal¡¦s philosophy in leadership: Including the Principal¡¦s thoughts in leadership philosophy, what the Principal has acted in leadership, co-sharing of hands-on examples and reciprocation of school faculty toward the Principal in the wake of efforts of leadership. II. Formulation and enforcement of school vision: Based on the school vision and backgrounds of the school philosophy, it will forge the bold vision through hands-on actions and through school faculty who will point out their view points and reciprocation toward the school vision. III. Forging and deepening the school culture: Through elaborately written stories, it will combine the cultural efforts and sentiment of Min-chyuan Elementary School of Kaohsiung. For instance, a flock of ducks are visiting the newly founded campus to create the topics in common, to let the school grow and flourish along with us all. The significance of education will be merged into the hands-on experiences accumulated in school construction. The little ant¡¦s legend and others will bring the school faculty and students firmly together into strong sense of honors. IV. Concept and characteristics of campus landscaping: The concept and blueprints of campus planning, co-sharing of hands-on examples and feedback of the fruits. V. Shape and application of school classes which are open for use: The analysis of the school classes, the shapes and post-use status, the co-sharing of the examples, relevant issues of the classes and methodology to solution. VI. School-oriented curricula in planning and enforcement: The evolution of the school-oriented curricula, co-sharing of examples, reciprocation feedback and viewpoints toward school-oriented curricular. The present study yields the precious finding that in the school-oriented management, the Principal plays the core role, holding the open-minded and human-cored leadership. In turn, the Principal receives tremendous recognition from entire teams and faculty members. The School will take the school culture as the core of the vision to formulate the ¡§culture-based campus, education-based communities¡¨. Such vision and blueprints are matched with hands-on and concrete practice which form the tremendous momentum of continual development of the school to forge a promising and upbeat dream. Through toughing stories one after another, the school will shape up warm and sweet campus culture which is profoundly embedded into children through the characteristics of their behaviors. Under the breakthrough philosophy engineered by the Principal, the school is not a school alone and a classroom is not a classroom alone. With the elaborately designed spaces, the campus speaks. The space is in brisk dialogue. Thanks to the unique and sophisticated thoughts, Min-chyuan Elementary School of Kaohsiung impresses all and receives the Architectural and Landscaping Award for the Greater Kaohsiung Region¡Xthe first school ever awarded such tremendous honor. Through the efforts for compilation and co-sharing from the researcher, i.e., the founding principal of Min-chyuan Elementary School of Kaohsiung, both the tangible campus planning and intangible philosophy of spatial design profoundly impress all as the very target to probe into. In a nutshell, the school-oriented management efforts launched by Min-chyuan Elementary School of Kaohsiung are indeed unique breakthrough. The hands-on experiences so accumulated are precious lessons as worthwhile reference to other elementary schools.

abstract: Many school facility-planning theories have proposed an integrated role for schools within their surrounding neighborhood, advocating analogous approaches to creating "community schools" that involve social and community services at school sites that support both students and local residents. Despite the popularity of this concept in the education community, the idea of schools as community centers has not entered the mainstream of urban planning thought or practice. As the community schools movement continues to grow, planners should be engaged to support and leverage community school developments using their unique role as mediators of public and private interests. Furthermore, planners tend to have a broad perspective of communities that can facilitate synergistic partnerships and development patterns beyond the immediate school site. The aim of this research was to reframe the existing literature on community schools into a unified School-Oriented Development (SOD) neighborhood planning paradigm that 1) proposes a typology based on the relationships between schools and their surrounding communities, and 2) suggests urban form guidelines that will support these relationships in a child-friendly environment. These outcomes were achieved through the creation of a prototype SOD SmartCode Module that incorporates an SOD typology. / Dissertation/Thesis / M.U.E.P. Urban and Environmental Planning 2011