LEADERSHIP FOR LEARNING

I. My Learnings

Leadership for learning provides me insights and thoughts on how could I become a better

teacher. The first topic, Looking at Classroom Teaching and Learning provides me realization.. it

is about getting to know oneself or identifying oneself. Who am I as a teacher, person, and as a

practitioner. It tells me that knowing oneself is important to know my role as teacher, as a person.

It also means knowing my responsibilities as a teacher. This leads to the realization that I need to

improve my teaching and learning. Some important things I learned from this part are as follows:

as a teacher, I need to modify my instruction. It tells me that one size does not fit all. I should not

use the same lesson plan to all types of learners. I need to modify to suit to the learning needs of

my learners. I need feedback from both students and colleagues. This is one way to improve

myself. I need to analyze and evaluate my manner. I need to grow professionally through attending

relative trainings and seminars and I need to welcome visitors (eg. supervisor, school head, or

master teacher) to observe me for feedback and suggestions so I could improve myself more. If I

am open to all these changes in my class and in myself, then I could be a better teacher ahead of

time. In addition, it tells me that student’s learning is the goal of my teaching, thus, I need to

welcome renewal of my priorities, if this is not my priority. For me to achieve this goal, I need to

focus on content, assessment, and methods of teaching, so I could my goal… that is student’s

learning.

The second topic of the book pertains to the structures for Classroom Assistance. Here, I

have learned the importance of clinical supervision, peer coaching, critical friends, and classroom

action research teams or study groups. As a teacher, I need to warmly welcome visitors in my

class, because my superiors are my mentors who could help me or assist me to improve myself

better. Clinical supervision would give clear direction to my teaching and instructional plan and

decision. Peer coaching is also helpful because it fosters close monitoring of peer progress. The

team teacher and the rest of the peers are aids to teachers in monitoring their progress or

improvement. Critical friends provide help in improving instruction. Classroom Action Research

Teams or Study Groups can help in addressing the needs or issues in school like establishing
research agenda to study student learning goal via readings, visiting classrooms in other school,

team teaching, joint curriculum planning, attending conferences or meetings, videotaping own or

other classroom.

The third topic is format for focusing observation. Salient findings in this atopic include:

a) both parties should understand what the purpose of observation is; b) always begin by sharing

descriptions with the observed teachers before making any judgments about the effectiveness or

the lack of the teacher observed; and c) provides a well-developed framework for teaching which

has been developed by Charlotte Danielson, this comprised of a comprehensive definition or

classification system of the domains, components, tasks, and subtasks of the art and science of

teaching that teachers can make use to expand their own professional knowledge base for self-

improvement.

The fourth topic is about the Approaches to Working Closely with Teachers. Important

findings are as follows: a) instructional leadership behavior such as: listening, clarifying,

encouraging, reflecting, presenting, problem solving, negotiating, directing, standardizing, and

reinforcing; and b) interpersonal approaches such as: nondirective, collaborative, directive-

informational, and directive-control.

The fifth topic is Direct Applications to Assisting Teachers, among which are as follows:

a) the directive control approach; b) directive-informational approach; c) the collaborative

approach; and d) the nondirective approach. In the directive control approach, the leader is not

hostile or intimidating, instead a businesslike, serious and task oriented. The directive leader has

judged that the most effective way to improve instruction is by making standards clear and by

tangibly showing teachers how to attain such standards. It is a businesslike, and unilateral approach

based on a careful collection of data. The leader’s dominant behavior are clarifying, presenting,

directing, demonstrating, standardizing, and reinforcing. In the directive-informational approach,

the leader judges that a teacher needs specific and concrete suggestions to deliberate and choose

from in the development of a classroom action plan. In this approach, the leader emphasizes

clarifying, presenting, directing, demonstrating, standardizing, and reinforcing in recommending

options for the teacher to choose and commit to. For collaborative approach, the leader may decide
to speak casually with the teacher. It emphasizes the major behaviors of listening, clarifying,

presenting, problem solving, and negotiating. The end result is a mutually agreed upon contract

between the leader and the teacher that delineates the structure, process, and criteria for subsequent

instructional improvement. The nondirective approach rests on the major premise that teachers are

capable of analyzing and solving their own instructional problems. It highlights the behaviors of

listening, encouraging, clarifying, presenting, and problem solving to create a teacher self-plan.

The six topic covers the criteria for assessing teacher competence and growth. Fostering

intellectual and self-motivated growth on the part of teachers means that the instructional leaders

have to use approaches that demands greater choice and thought on the part of the teacher. Such

approaches include directive-control approach used for emergency situation, directive-

informational approach used for minimal way to begin to push initiative from the leader to the

teacher, collaborative approach best used when teachers themselves have greater knowledge and

understanding of their teaching than leader does. Instructional leaders may use level of

commitment and level of abstraction to assess an individual status of the teachers.

The last topic presents purpose, strength, and collegial force for school success. Some

aspects are needed in order for a school to succeed. These include renewing classrooms and schools

which are presented in certain elements such as student learning, content, method, assessment,

focus, approaches, structure and formats, school renewal priorities, professional development, and

evaluation. It also needs teachers’ evaluation.

II. Related Personal Experiences

Among the topics, I can best relate my personal experiences to “How Do Teaching and

Learning Improve.” Things discussed here served as constant reminder to me that that teaching is

a continuous learning profession, and as a teacher I need to grow in my profession. Some of the

things that I am now practicing include, modifying lessons. I always believe that learners in my

class have diverse background, and diverse needs, so I have to differentiate my instruction as the

need arises. Since my learners are grade school children, they cannot give or provide me feedback,
however, I always ask them to if they could follow my teaching or they understand what I am

teaching to them. In this way, I could always make adjustment with my instruction or make a

paradigm shift of my strategies, leading to the best possible strategies where my learners could

better understand me and that learning would take place. I also share my lesson, strategies, and

things I think “my best practices” with my colleagues. I seek their suggestions for further

improvement. I also like the presence of my immediate superior. Some teachers might not like this

scenario, but I welcome this because the supervisor or observer can give me concrete feedback

about my teaching so I could better improve myself as a teacher. Also, I am trying my best to keep

myself updated with the trends in education. I do professional reading, bench marking, and I am

pursuing graduate studies for me to capacitate myself with more learnings and for me to feel

confident and competent as teacher.

III. My Suggestions/Recommendations/Other Ideas I want to Contribute

I suggest that all teachers needs to have the biggest improvement in their lives. They should

be often to observations, suggestions, feedback, and results of evaluation of their performance.

These things could help them to better improve themselves as both teacher and person. Teachers

have to keep in mind that students’ learning should be the focus of their instruction. So keep in

focus, teachers have to improve themselves, especially their instruction. That is why, they should

not be afraid of the presence of observers and the feedback they bring to them.

I understand that teaching is a difficult profession because it has lots of demands, but as a

teacher, one has to be committed. Those difficult tasks are part of one’s job. If this is really the

profession that a teacher would like to have, then she or he has to do it religiously. Every teacher

has to be reminded that teaching is more than a job… it is a vocation.

 On the other hand, I would to recommend that it could be better if observers may use

approaches of observation based on the needs of the teacher and employ major behavior for

observation such as listening, clarifying, encouraging, reflecting, presenting, problem solving, and

reinforcing. At times, some teachers feel the pressure of observation because some observers are

“fault finder.” This causes stress to teachers, thus, instead of welcoming the presence of observers,

they wished not to have one.

IV. My Plans

As always, I am doing my best to improve myself. I am open to anything that could help

me to become a better teacher and to achieve what Maslow called “self-actualization” that is,

achieving the highest possible position of my profession in the future. As a teacher, I am religiously

doing my job, I assure to myself that the center of my instruction is students’ learning, that is why,

I have to always prepare the best instruction for my learners.