Role of Instructional Leadership

1
Role of Instructional Leadership
2
Purpose of Session

• Explore the term Instructional leadership and
  what it means to our roles
• Examine research of what is effective
  instructional leadership
• Link instructional leadership to the current
  agenda regarding improvement, improvement
  improvement ..

3
What is it?

• Educational leadership
• Curriculum leadership
• Leader of learning
• Transformation leadership
• Transactional leadership
• Its whats behind the title that matters!

4
Background

• Most popular theme in leadership over the last
  two decades
• Origins in Northern America
• Despite its popularity it is often not clearly
  defined

5
Instructional leadership

• Instruction the process or act of teaching
  education
• Leadership a person who rules, guides, or
  inspires others
• Collins Dictionary

6
Leadership Matters!

• A highly effective school leader can have a
  dramatic influence on the overall academic
  achievement of students.
• Michael Fullan 2005

7
Leadership Matters even more!

• It is now more than 20 years since leadership was
  identified as one of the key components of good
  schools by HMI, who stated that, without
  exception, the most important single factor in
  the success of these schools is the quality of
  the leadership of the head.
• Dept of Education Science

8
Why the importance of this type of leadership?

• Improved classroom instruction is the prime
  factor to produce student achievement gains
• Odden Wallace

9
Why the importance of this type of leadership?

• Another great irony of public schooling is that
  the office of curriculum and instruction
  traditionally has so little influence on.
  curriculum and instruction. Results Now M
  Schmoker
• Too much of the educational leadership
  literature is long on harmony, consensus and
  sentiment, feel good pressures that float high
  above the hard fundamental necessities of school
  leadership. Most especially, leaders need
  practical ways to monitor and require-effective
  instruction and high quality curriculum.
  Results Now M Schmoker

10
Why the importance of this type of leadership?

• When leadership is focused on results, on urging
  a formal, frequent review of the impact of
  instruction, teaching improves. Results Now
  M Schmoker
• For school improvement to occur instructional
  leadership needs to be in existence.
• A Mission of the Heart, Public Agenda

11
What are the elements of Instructional Leadership

• Resource provider, instructional resource,
  communicator and visible presence (Smith and
  Andrews)
• Encourager, facilitator of the study of teaching
  and learning, facilitator of collaborative
  efforts amongst teachers, establishing coaching
  relationships with teachers, using research to
  make instructional decisions using adult
  learning principles (Blasé Blasé)

12
What are the elements of Instructional Leadership
contd

• Direct assistance to teachers in their day to day
  activities, development of collaborative groups
  amongst staff, designing effective staff
  development, curriculum development, use of
  action research
• Glickman, Gordon and Ross-Gordon

13
What are the elements of Instructional Leadership
contd

• Defining schools mission, managing curriculum and
  instruction, promoting a positive school
  climate
• Hallinger, Murphy et al
• Understands effective practices in curriculum,
  instruction and assessment and the ability to
  work with teachers on the day to day problems
  that relate to these topics.
• Elmore

14
Process

• Define Instructional Leadership
• Share with partner

15
Leadership Matters!

• Sustainable leadership doesnt equivocate. It
  puts learning at the centre of everything leaders
  do. Students learning comes first, then everyone
  elses in support of it.
• Stoll, Fink and Earl 2003

16
Instructional Leadership Practice Viviane
Robinson 2007

• Establishing goals and expectations
• Strategic resourcing
• Planning, coordinating and evaluating teaching
  and the curriculum
• Promoting and participating in teacher learning
  and development
• Ensuring an orderly and supportive environment

17
Instructional Leadership characteristics David
Hopkins

• Ability to articulate vision and values about
  student learning and achievement, and to make
  connections to behaviour
• Understanding of pedagogy
• Understanding of development and maintenance
• Strategic orientation and to plan medium term

18
Instructional Leadership characteristics contd
David Hopkins

• Understanding capacity and its role in sustaining
  change
• A commitment to promoting enquiry the how rather
  than the what
• Commitment to professional development and
  managing a teachers life cycle
• Ability to engender trust and provide positive
  reinforcement

19
Connections to DIAf
20
What does instructional leadership look like?

• If you were to go into a school /preschool where
  there is effective instructional leadership what
  would you see, feel, hear?
• Make a list of 8-10 concrete bits of evidence?
• Would it look different in the different sectors
  ie preschool, primary, secondary?

21

• School improvement is most surely and thoroughly
  achieved when teachers engage in frequent,
  continuous and increasingly concrete talk about
  teaching practices... capable of distinguishing
  one practice and it's virtue from another.
• Judith Warren