ROGER KAUFMAN
Florida State University
As a vital part of the educational enterprise, plans must be made to define the future we want to create for tomorrow’s child and to enable educators to deliver on the promise. Planning is just a substitute for good luck. Not relying on luck, educators must identify valid and valuable measurable objectives for education and then enable educators to have the professional competencies, the physical and financial resources to do their jobs, and the supportive environment to operate. Where to start the planning is a challenge. Due to immediacy, we often start our professional work at improving parts of the educational enterprise, such as individual performance, leadership for administrators, or assessment, or curriculum development, improve learning, delivery, testing and assessment. These are the important parts of the total educational enterprise but not the entire system and its supporting parts. This article suggests a hierarchy of planning that may be used to assure that there is alignment with what an agency uses, does, produces and delivers with adding measurable value to our shared society.
EXPLORING TEACHERS’ PERSPECTIVES ON EFFECTIVE ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE STRATEGIES
CANUTE S. THOMPSON
The University of the West Indies
ABSTRACT
This study explores behaviors which teachers perceive would be effective when leaders are undertaking organizational change. A sample of one hundred teachers drawn from all levels of the education system in Jamaica was used. The data were collected using a Likert-type instrument that was designed by the researcher and was tested for reliability using Cronbach’s Alpha. The study found two categories of leadership conduct, and ten specific strategies which teachers considered to be effective tools in effecting organizational change efforts. This study also found that the forces for change are largely internal and deeply personal. The findings of the study suggest that change at the organizational level requires, and depends upon, change at the level of the individual employee and the quality of the engagements and interactions at the interpersonal level. If organizations are to be successful in effecting organizational change they must first succeed at effecting behavior change at the individual level. The study has major planning implications. Planning for improvements in the performance of schools is a change management undertaking, especially for schools which are underperforming. This study also provides clues for leaders concerning the kinds of leadership approaches and behaviors which motivate and sustain support for change.
MARK L. LANG
Cobb County School District, Georgia
ABSTRACT
This study was designed to generate an awareness of the differences between school administrators’ and teachers’ perceptions of instructional leadership practices towards implementation of differentiated instruction. Data were collected from 34 middle school administrators and 171 teachers from a major metropolitan school district in the southeast United States using a researcher-designed survey. The study found that teachers were not in complete agreement with administrators in 4 of 6 subsets including the total average of all subsets. Teachers perceived survey statements about supervision and evaluation of instruction, protection of instructional time, providing incentives for teachers, and providing professional development as not being experienced to the same extent as believed by administrators to be in practice. A high degree of disagreement between administrators and teachers for the statements of the survey raised the concern that misconceptions exist. The findings suggest that school administrators may not be as attuned to the teachers’ perceptions of their support for the practice of differentiated instruction. The study has implications for instructional leadership in that a misalignment of beliefs and attitudes held for innovations by school administrators and teachers can contribute to unintentionally creating barriers for implementation. Consequently, planning for differentiated instruction should be purposely informed by the perceptions of all stakeholders.
AUGUSTA MUTHIGANI
International Leadership University, Nairobi
ABSTRACT
Teachers are key to provision of quality education and as noted by Mompoint-Gaillard (2011), they have a great opportunity to facilitate development of values in learners. However, it is not clear whether lecturers in Primary Teacher Training Colleges (PTTCs) in Kenya are prepared for training teacher trainees in development of values. Instilling values and forming character are important education goals (Malinda, Mwania, & Maithya, 2017). Consequently, developing values in teacher trainees is critical, because it is not only the aim of national educational goals, but also the mission to prepare students to become responsible citizens. It is therefore critical that education planners take into account the place of values in preparing self-regulated citizens. The purpose of this paper is to explore the preparation of lecturers in facilitating the development of values in teacher trainees in PTTCs in Kenya. This paper is based on reviews of critical analyses of existing literature on values education in training of teachers. The analyses point at the importance of values education for both teachers and pupils as they plan to help one to relate values to corresponding actions in life based on informed and reasoned positions. The paper argues that lecturers, who are adequately and intentionally prepared for values education, effectively prepare teacher trainees for facilitation of development of values in pupils. This effort calls for purposeful planning. This paper hopes to shed new light on how lecturers model and demonstrate the behaviour and values they expect teacher trainees to practice. The paper concludes with a call to rethink the pedagogy in teacher education courses with a view of re-focusing on the practical aspect of development of values for lecturers in PTTCs including planning for specific value-based objectives. Lecturers’ knowledge, perception and pedagogical approaches have implications on values development in teacher trainees.