Summary
Leadership is the process of working collaboratively to shape a culture of interdependence and trust to foster inclusive practices and serve a shared vision which responds to change for growth and promotes learning and empowerment for all stakeholders.
Essential Question(s)
What are the key principles and approaches that education professionals can adopt to become effective leaders and positively impact student learning?
Learning Goals
Examine the different leadership models and practices.
Reflect on personal leadership style.
Synthesize information, concepts, and practices from the session to illustrate a holistic view of educational leadership.
Materials List
Presentation slides (attached)
Four Corners Posters (attached; print one-sided)
Leadership Card Sort handout (attached; one per 2-3 participants; print one-sided, card stock, cut apart)
Leadership Practitioner’s Brief (attached; one per participant; print 2-sided)
Chart Paper
Markers
Pens
Engage
Use the attached Presentation Slides to guide this professional learning experience. Begin by displaying slide 3 and introducing the Four Corners instructional strategy. Explain to the participants that they will be presented with three different questions. For each question, they need to choose the poster that best fits. Read the statements to the participants while pointing out where they are in the room. Do not inform them that these are the definitions of the different types of leadership.
Putting teachers, students, parents, and community members’ goals and well-being before my own.
Focusing on teaching and learning practices.
Building capacity for change and improvement and empowering others to take on decision making.
Focusing on managerial tasks that keep the school running.
Read the question Where do you think you spend most of your time and why? Ask the participants to move to the poster they believe fits best. Allow participants time to move to their chosen poster. Have participants spend a few minutes discussing why they chose that specific poster. Once participants have had a chance to discuss, ask for one spokesperson from each group to share what was discussed.
Display slide 4, and ask the question Where do you think you spend the least amount of your time and why? Ask the participants to move to the poster they believe fits best. Allow participants time to move to their chosen poster. Have participants spend a few minutes discussing why they chose that specific poster. Once participants have had a chance to discuss, ask for one spokesperson from each group to share what was discussed.
Display slide 5, and ask the question Where do you think you would like to spend more of your time and why? Ask the participants to move to the poster they believe fits best. Allow participants time to move to their chosen poster. Have participants spend a few minutes discussing why they chose that specific poster. Once participants have had a chance to discuss, ask for one spokesperson from each group to share what was discussed.
Display slide 6 and slide 7 to share the essential question and learning objectives to the extent you feel is necessary.
Explore
Display slide 8, and introduce the participant to the Card Sort instructional strategy. Have participants get in groups of 2-3 at their tables. Pass out just the scenarios from the Leadership Card Sort handout to each group. Inform the participants that they will read through each scenario and have the group sort the cards into all the different leadership categories they can think of. Encourage them to create the card sort off to the side as it will be revisited later in the presentation.
Explain
Display slide 9, and introduce the CUS and Discuss instructional strategy. Inform the participants that they will only read the School Leadership in Practice section of the research brief. As they read, they will need to annotate the following:
Circle—Something you or your organization does well
Underline—Areas to improve self or organization
Star—Most essential action that impacts your school or organization
Pass out the Leadership Practitioner’s Brief handout. Provide participants with 10 minutes or so to read through the brief. As participants finish, have them discuss something they circled, underlined, and starred.
Extend
Display slide 10. Have participants look back at their card sort from the Explore section of the presentation. Pass out the leadership category cards from the Leadership Card Sort handout to each group. Have the groups resort their scenario cards using the four leadership categories. Provide participants with 5-10 minutes to resort their cards.
Display slide 11. Go over the definitions of the different types of leadership and have the participants share out scenarios that they believe represent that scenario.
Evaluate
Display slide 16, and introduce the Anchor Chart instructional strategy. Tell the participants they will be creating an anchor chart that reflects everything they learned in this session and how it applies to them as a leader. Each group will need the following on their anchor chart:
Complete the phrase “Leadership is…”
Add examples of how they demonstrate leadership in their job.
Draw an illustration that shows what leadership looks like for their team.
Provide participants with 15-20 minutes to complete this activity. Once all participants are finished, have one person from each group take 30 seconds to share about their Anchor Chart.
Display slide 17, and introduce the Mirror, Microscope, Binoculars instructional strategy. Inform the participants that this is a personal reflection on leadership, so they do not need to add their names to their responses. Provide the participants with a QR code and link to the Padlet you created. Have participants answer the following questions for each portion of the strategy.
Mirror:
What have I learned about myself?
How has this experience changed my thinking?
Microscope:
Now I can see that…
What required closer inspection?
How can this be applied?
Binocular:
How is this impacted by what is going on in the world?
What could be done to alter or change my view of leadership?
As this is a personal reflection, allow participants to read over answers, but do not share them with the whole group.
Research Rationale
School leaders often are in a critical position to shape the educational culture of their schools. Though traditional ideas of school leadership have explored top-down forms, there has been a notable shift in recent years to explore ways in which leadership can be shared (Urick &Bowers, 2014). When leadership is shared, administrators and teachers are able to work together to create an environment in which students, school staff, and families feel supported (Eckert, 2019). Engaged leadership improves student achievement not only through the instructional leadership itself, but also through higher levels of teacher involvement as it relates to school improvement (Hallinger et al., 2020). When we explore the value of the school leader, we see that school leadership significantly impacts an organization’s ability to positively influence teaching and learning (Leithwood et al., 2019). Considered second only to classroom teaching in its effect on student learning, school leadership is crucial to the success of school improvement efforts (Leithwood et al., 2019). Leadership and school-wide decision-making has continued to evolve in important and positive ways over time. As principals develop leaders among their staff who can share expertise and lend their talents, the workload is shared. Teachers empowered with a voice in the goals, mission, and direction of learning will experience greater satisfaction in their work, leading to retention. When leadership teams understand that flexibility is key and make choices based on data and feedback, both teams and students benefit. Through team-based leadership, schools can create the best possible learning environment for all students.
Resources
Eckert, J. (2019). Collective leadership development: Emerging themes from urban, suburban, and rural high schools. Educational Administration Quarterly, 55(3), 477–509. https://doi-org.ezproxy.lib.ou.edu/10.1177/0013161X18799435
Hallinger, P., Gümüs, S., & Bellibas, M. S. (2020). ‘Are principals instructional leaders yet?’ A science map of the knowledge base on instructional leadership, 1940–2018. Scientometrics, 122(3), 1,629–1,650. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11192-020-03360-5
K20 Center. (n.d.). Anchor charts. Strategies. https://learn.k20center.ou.edu/strategy/58
K20 Center. (n.d.). Card sort. Strategies. https://learn.k20center.ou.edu/strategy/147
K20 Center. (n.d.). CUS and discuss. Strategies. https://learn.k20center.ou.edu/strategy/162
K20 Center. (n.d.). Four corners. Strategies. https://learn.k20center.ou.edu/strategy/138
K20 Center. (n.d.). Mirror, microscope, binoculars. Strategies. https://learn.k20center.ou.edu/strategy/3020
K20 Center. (n.d.). Padlet. Tech tools. https://learn.k20center.ou.edu/tech-tool/1077
K20 Center. (n.d.). QR codes. Tech tools. https://learn.k20center.ou.edu/tech-tool/2449
Leithwood, K., Harris, A., & Hopkins, D. (2019). Seven strong claims about successful school leadership revisited. School Leadership & Management, 40(4), 1–18. https://doi.org/10.1080/13632434.2019.1596077
Urick, A., & Bowers, A. J. (2014). What are the different types of principals across the United States? A latent class analysis of principal perception of leadership. Educational Administration Quarterly, 50(1), 96–134. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0013161X13489019