“A GOOD leader leads the people from above them. A great leader leads the people from within them.” –M.D. Arnold. Leaders come and go, but the concept and the way how they lead their people remain in the hearts of the people they come in contact with. The achievement of the organization’s goals and objectives will be greatly affected by the kind of leaders in the organization. In the Department of Education, there is a need for leaders that will really feel the need of the children, the teachers, and their peers in the government service.
Educators, administrators, supervisors, and superintendents who are committed to improving the lives of the learners drive good schools. School administrators and teachers are under more stress than ever before as a result of the challenges provided by technological and global developments in the twenty-first century. The question is, are you an effective school leader?
The top ten characteristics of great school leaders in the twenty-first century are described as:
1. Reliability and honesty
2. The ability to inspire much confidence
3. Connected, cooperative, and communicative
4. Positive vigor
5. Confidence
6. Dedication and perseverance
7. The desire to learn, unlearn, and then gain knowledge again
8. Business-minded, enterprising, and creative
9.Intuitive
10.Imaginative capacity
Roles and Responsibilities of Supervisors
Supervisors usually wear two or three other hats, but their specific responsibilities tend to include some or all of the following arranged in ascending order of scope or reach: Mentoring or providing for mentoring of beginning teachers to facilitate a supportive induction into the profession.
- Bringing individual teachers up to minimum standards of effective teaching (quality assurance and maintenance functions of supervision).
- Improving individual teachers’ competencies, no matter how proficient they are deemed to be.
- Working with groups of teachers in a collaborative effort to improve student learning.
- Working with groups of teachers to adapt the local curriculum to the needs and abilities of diverse groups of students, while at the same time bringing the local curriculum in line with state and national standards.
- Relating teachers’ efforts to improve their teaching to the larger goals of schoolwide improvement in the service of quality learning for all children. https://education.state university.com/pages/2472/Supervision-Instruction.html
Nature and Definition of Personal and Professional Development
Effective personal and professional development involves ensuring your knowledge and understanding of your area of expertise for your career is always at the highest possible level. It is the acquisition of skills and knowledge for career advancement, but it also includes an element of personal development. Investing in personal and professional development allows you to be proactive in bringing your goals to life, giving you a sense of self-awareness and direction.
Different educators offer different definitions of professional development as follows:
- Day (1999) states “professional development consists of all natural learning experiences and those conscious and planned activities which are intended to be of direct or indirect benefit to the individual, group or school, which contribute, through these, to the quality of education in the classroom”.
- Fullen (1995) defines professional development as “continuous learning focused upon the sum total of formal and informal learning pursued and experienced by the teacher in a compelling learning environment under conditions of complexity and dynamic change”.
Characteristics of an Effective Professional Development
Effective professional development is intensive, creates learning opportunities, identifying own learning needs and others; evaluating yourself, observational and peer-review skills; accessing mentoring; engaging in reflection, professional dialogue and feedback and builds strong working relationships among teachers (Wei, Andree & Richardson (2017) and Rhodes, Stokes, & Hampton, (2004).
Darling-Hammond et al. (2017) defines effective professional development as structured professional learning that results in changes to teacher knowledge and practices, and improvements in student learning outcomes. They conceptualize professional learning as a product of both externally provided and job-embedded activities that increase teachers’ knowledge and help them change their instructional practice in ways that support student learning. They also find that successful professional development with demonstrated benefits for student learning generally displays one or more of the following seven characteristics: (i) It is content-focused. (ii) It incorporates active learning utilizing adult learning theory. (iii) It supports collaboration, typically in job-embedded contexts. (iv) It uses models and modelling of effective practice. (v) It provides coaching and expert support. (vi) It offers opportunities for feedback and reflection. (vii) It is of sustained duration. (Effective Teacher Professional Development Report. )
