Leading in Teaching, Learning and Mentoring Practice.
Write an essay including the introduction of an Autistic intervention called Attention Autism.
This module focuses upon educational leadership and management in relation to the professional development of the wider school workforce. It provides the opportunity to enhance knowledge and understanding of how current legislative frameworks, relevant theories, current and emergent policy initiatives relate to the professional practice of the children and young people’s workforce. Using an enquiry based approach, students will engage with the theoretical frameworks, relevant policies and conceptual models that underpin contemporary debate in educational management and leadership. This provides a theoretical framework to enable students to respond to the challenge of continuing professional development within a contemporary context of distributed leadership, multi-disciplinary partnership working and the need to manage change within the workplace.
The development of this module reflects the importance of leadership to the effective development of the wider school workforce (Ofsted, 2008) Aims
• to draw upon professional experience of leadership in the current local, regional and national contexts
• to promote engagement with approaches identified as most effective in developing professional practice in education
• to contribute to the development of Level 6 knowledge skills and understanding in relation to leadership
• to develop academic skills and understanding
On successful completion of the module students will be able to:
1. Demonstrate knowledge and understanding of relevant theory and policy frameworks relating to leadership and change management within the context of an educational setting.
2. Critically analyse and evaluate leadership with reference to current practice in leading teaching, learning or mentoring within an educational setting.
3. Engage in Reflective Practice in relation to their own professional development.
4. Demonstrate leadership skills which evidence an informed awareness of the effective management of change.
5. Identify barriers to change and positive leadership strategies that could effect change.
6. Evidence knowledge and understanding of the need for the continuing professional development of the wider school workforce.
Part 1.
A critical analysis and evaluation of leadership practice within an educational setting in relation to relevant theory and with reference to current policy frameworks
Think about critical incidents in your role which have led you to stop and think about what happened and why. The word ‘critical’ can lead us to think of major, dramatic or significant events, but in this context a critical incident may be something quite routine or typical. What makes it a critical incident is reflection and interpretation of the events through analysis and evaluation.
For example, it may be that in a Year 2 class there is always some disturbance around the end of the day when children get their belongings together and leave school. There have been a number of minor incidents and there is usually somebody who cannot find their coat, book bag, lunch box etc. You have been noticing this and have analysed what is happening. You have put together a series of suggestions on how this process could be managed in order that the end of the day is a pleasant experience rather than a stressful one, so this involves discussions with class teachers, and TAs to manage the volume of children in the corridor.
This in itself is a fairly ordinary and typical incident in a primary school, however, what makes this a ‘critical incident’ is that you have reflected on the incident and interpreted what has to happen in order to make a change that will have an impact.
A critical incident could also be ‘significant’ or ‘’dramatic’ such as a parent coming into school at the end of the day because their child has not arrived home. Equally, the process of reflection and interpretation would be critical in order to identify and implement changes in practice.
So you will start by looking at 2 critical incidents relating to leadership practice you may want to think about something that you lead, or perhaps organise for example the residential trip, school fair, parental workshops, CPD timetables, cover rotas curriculum area etc. The interpretation of your critical incidents will then enable you to identify leadership practices and relate them to theory. You will also analyse these leadership practices in relation to policy frameworks.
Frameworks for writing the critical incidents will be available on Blackboard for you if you choose to use them.
Part 2.
A presentation on the management of change as a professional development session for peers on the effective leadership of change in teaching or mentoring practice as per part 1.
you will need to consider an aspect of your role in which you have implemented change. The scale of this change is not important; the process of leading the change is the critical part. You will need to present to your peers at University how the change in a particular area has been led and managed. The process of doing this will clarify your thinking and secure your understanding of the management of change. This will be submitted with references and bibliography for University assessment.
Within the assessed presentation you should aim to cover;
• How effective the management of change was
• The reaction of your colleagues in terms of the messages you were communicating
• How the process of the management of change relates to different roles within your setting.