Educational Leaders Challenges
The educational environment is one that is built and founded on principles that were created in the 20th century. Its roots stem from this earlier century as well as from even more historic time periods. Most recently, demand for 21st century skills has created vast excitement and interest (Reeves, 2013). However, the curriculum and the assessment process that is currently being practiced in the learning environment is one that continues to be utilized with through the foundational basis of earlier centuries.
While the desire and the urgency for 21st century skills is highly publicized, curriculum continues to be rooted in that of 20th century practices and current assessment practices struggle to advance from those procedures conducted as far back as the 16th century through the use of multiple choice tests established during the Ming dynasty in China (Reeves, 2013). Desire for advancements in both curriculum and assessment practices pale in comparison to the inadequate and sincere pledge to modern learning.
This paper reviews the presence of three challenges that face educational leaders today: assessment gap, teaching gap, and leadership gap. Each one of these challenges critically impact the learning environment of the current educational system and it is vital that each one be identified, addressed, and corrected so that its presence can be minimized and its effects neutralized.
Challenge #1: The Assessment Gap
While there has been much debate on the skills needed for modern day effectiveness, there are a few that can be adequately determined as vital and necessary for personal and organizational advancement. First, the need for effective communication is vital to the successful ...
... middle of paper ...
...f the actual benefit to its inclusion. It is in this way that leadership could have better addressed my concerns and my eagerness to promote the well being of my team and my store.
Works Cited
Bartalo, D. G. (2013). The teaching gap. Retrieved from http://www.sagepub.com/upm-data/47088_Bartalo___Ch1.pdf.
Jaschik, S. (2009). The assessment gap. Retrieved from http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2009/12/11/assess.
Kouzes, J. & Posner, B. (2008). The leadership challenge. (4th Ed.). San Francisco, CA: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Reeves, D. B. (2013). Three challenges for education leaders. Retrieved from http://www.ascd.org/ascd-express/vol5/507-reeves.aspx.
Skinner, R. A. (2011). The leadership gap to come. Retrieved from http://www.insidehighered.com/advice/2011/09/28/skinner_essay_on_advice_for_university_boards_to_prepare_for_coming_leadership_gap.
Pierce, Jon L. and John W. Newstrom (2011) 6th edition. Leaders and the Leadership Process.
Lashinger et al highlights the need for communication within leadership as effective communication is essential to influence change and motivate others. Emphasising the need for communicating effectively towards all staff members, whilst undergoing change to ensure all staff feel supported and understand the process, allowing implementation to be more successful.
Mlls, D. Q. (2005). Leadership How to Lead, How to Live. Boston: Harvad Business School Press.
Leaders is an effective tool for summarizing and inspiring leadership, not in that it teaches tough strategies and manipulations, but that when looking at an overview of its content, Bennis and Nanus are essentially teaching human relations and human decency. All in all, this book highlights strategies for us all to be better in our lives and our everyday interactions.
Furthermore, excellent communication skills are essential for effective performance management [U.S. office of personnel management 2016]. The need for continuous dialogue is essential. Managers should create an atmosphere which is conducive for interaction and work. So that colleagues can be able to share information on the organization’s mission, values and objectives. This leads to efficient and effective performance which contributes in meeting the goals of the organisation
Therefore, educators should know how to provide the environment and knowledge for students in a way which is suitable to the current social development. P21 Document includes lots of information which is very useful for educators and students who is major in education. For example, it summarizes the “assessment of 21st century skills” (p. 8). This is the content I never touched with.
Newspaper articles and websites about those organizations and the people connected to them instructional leadership. Examples of organizations such as Michelle Reed, Teach for America, and The New Teacher Project are a few (Rigby, 2014). The focus was on three out of the eight Dimensions when writing the memo notes. Number one focused on the underline assumption that all leaders share a commitment to bring educational opportunities to all students. Number two, leaders focused on the practice of instructional leadership. The third Dimension is the role of the teachers. Teacher’s characteristics have the biggest or largest impact on student learning inside of schools. The research shows that school leaders influence teachers such as with their type of their instructional leadership style they should develop trust and professional community. Majority of principal’s instructional leadership action is focused on the teachers through direct interaction such as observations and feedback (Rigby, 2014). The three largest instructional leadership research found that there was an assumption that the primary role of the principle is that of instructional leader how it is conceptualized and what it looks
Daniel, K. (1995). The Learning and Teaching Environment. Available: http://tecfa.unige.ch/tecfa/research/CMC/andrea95/node4.html. Last accessed 29 OCT 2011.
Kouzes, J. M., & Posner, B. Z. (2012). The leadership challenge: How to make extraordinary
Effective business communication is central to the success of an individual’s career and consequently to that of the overall business entity. It would be imaginable therefore that there is some form of correlation between effective communication skills and such success. To put this into context, University of Kent (2011) has placed Verbal Communication at the top of the ten skills that employers most commonly look for. On the same note, anything that hinders effective communication is bound to have a negative effect not only on the specific message delivery, but also on the overall success of a career. In this paper, some of the barriers to effective business communication are discussed, with a few examples of how they affect the process.
Northouse, P. (2010). Leadership: Theory and practice (5th ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, Inc.
Lussier, R.N. & Achua, C.F. (2010). Leadership: Theory, application, skill development (5th ed.). Mason, OH: South-Western.
middle of paper ... ... References Farr, S. (2010). The 'Standard'. Teacher leadership: The highly effective teacher guide to closing the gap. achievement gap.
Education is of the essence. It is a process in which an individual acquires knowledge. It is what helps us survive in this cruel world. Unfortunately, the system of education has become a complete mess for everybody. Almost every day you’ll hear another issue about it on the news and on the internet. There are many challenges facing schools, teachers and students and there are many educational philosophies about how to address these issues.
Education is a very important aspect in the life of a child. The level of success a student has in the classroom is greatly influenced by their teachers. Students, as well as their parents, depend on the teachers to guide them through their education. But who guides a teacher to perform successfully in the classroom? Principals and teachers play an important role in schools. A good relationship among school leaders and teachers is necessary and play an important role in making improvements in the school. Leadership refers to the “process in which one person successfully exerts influence over others to reach desired objectives”. (Okoji, 2015) Good leadership involves honesty, vision, confidence and commitment. It is the ability to inspire a