Leadership Theories and Connected Learning

Leadership Theories and Styles LDC Week 6
Transformational Leadership
Group Task: What makes a good leader? An active listener; inspirational / passionate learner, strong content knowledge, up-to-date, reciprocity of approach, sense of humor, positively invested in others, compassionate, empathetic, finger firmly on the learning pulse within a school/class, skilled in relationship building/maintenance, flexible and adaptable. Also links to the Key Competencies.

Leadership challenge: we selected one of six options (scenarios) to then reflect on our natural ways of doing things - how would we act as a leader? Then, we made some notes for ourselves before think-pair-sharing, where we shared our approaches, and discussed some alternative ones. 

e.g.: "Teachers in Year 6 are complaining that teachers of year 5 teach science in many different ways which is resulting in an inconsistency in the preparedness of students arriving in year 6. Consideration amongst senior leaders has identified the need for a greater consistency between science learning between year levels.
How do you make the year 5 teachers follow a more consistent science programme?"
My initial thoughts on this 'problem' were: "First of all, determine the extent of the differences in approach - either through survey by encouraging shared reflections around how different programmes are being carried out around the school. Identify the extent of the 'problem' - is it one or two of your teachers' programmes who are out of alignment, or is it more extensive? Don't assume that the Year 6 teachers have it right either - bring it back in to context via alignment with the NZC. Consider how you could collaborate with staff to begin to develop and align programmes - without finger pointing - and create PLD opportunities linked to the targeted curriculum area (in this instance, science). Reflect on the broader contexts for science learning in the senior school, and how the introduction of co-constructed benchmarks around learning might occur. This may be done within year level syndicates initially, and then taken back into whole / senior school meetings (depending on the size of your school) and identifying those staff members who have a strong interest in taking the qualitative discussions..." [What style does this best reflect? = participative leadership]

Try this quiz to find out your style of leadership...

(My score was: Authoritarian 24 / Procedural 28 / Transformational 36 / Participative 39 / Laissez Faire 40 :-)

The Six Leadership Styles (Goleman, Daniel "Leadership That Gets Results" 2000)

Connected Learning DCL Week 6 
"...is an educational approach designed for our ever-changing world. It makes learning relevant to all populations, to real life and real work, and to the realities of the digital age, where the demand for learning never stops." (source)

NB: Click here for the original link for the above jpeg

Connectivism - video of the original theorist Dr George Siemens' explanation for this theory.

Online Sharing Apps
We also tried out some 'mind mapping' tools or other visual presentations to summarise key ideas visually:
Comic Strip - using bitstrips (shared on to Facebook)
Storyboard - use Storyboard That
Infographic - use Piktochart

Assignment Notes: for LDC 1 - talk about a specific leadership theory (not style!), how it applies to you, evaluate how it impacts on your professional practice.LDC 2 - can broaden and compare to other theories and styles.

Most commonly, LDC students have chosen from:
Participative Leadership
Situational Leadership
Servant Leadership
Transactional Leadership
Transformational Leadership

Next Steps: setting up our own Twitter 'handle'/accounts for our next tutorial session... Here's a helpful video I found as to why this might even be a good idea after all.

(Video Open Source: Edutopia) 

Learning Theories and Developing a Growth Mindset

Learning Theories in Stop Motion DCL Week 5 (Tutor - Chris)

What is stop motion animation? Taking a series of still photos of an event, and turn it into an animated sequence. Some of us have used stop motion in the classroom to provide modelling, science (chemistry reactions) and for story telling, for example. 

Stop motion animation activities with our students can provide a really good challenge, with opportunities for hands-on kinesthetics and problem solving. The activities also link well to the Key Competencies of the NZC. Because each group of kids is approaching the activity differently, there are always unique challenges that occur.

Learning theories are developed around "things that we can test [/apply regardless of personal traits]" (quantitative - can be transferred from one person to another vs. qualitative - an example of the latter would be leadership styles).

Today's activity is to create a stop motion animation around a particular leadership theory - as an 'elevator pitch' - using visual metaphors or concepts to explain (not writing!).

After picking a theory out of a hat, plan how you'll explain the theory, film, edit and then save/upload it... 

Our group of five teachers got Cognitive Load Theory. With an air of enthusiastic collaboration, as we found out about the theory itself and began to formulate a suitable visual metaphor, we chose our background setting and worked out how to present our understanding of the concepts using everything from available props to playdough, a plastic cup, some carnations surreptitiously 'found', and some tinfoil... 

Researched, conceived, planned, resourced, created using Monkey Jam and published online in under an hour, our video begins with our character's head going from being able to fill his cup with ideas (his eyes growing wider as his pupils dilated in response) until one idea too many "overloaded" his fragile mind, squishing him flat in the process! Then, we juxtaposed this with technical information being given like water to a flowering plant - growing from seed, and then flourishing, even sprouting new, complex ideas. With permission of the group participants (Desire', Heather, Fiona, Michelle and Marla), here's the stop motion video that we made:

Some of the other Leadership Theories that other groups have looked at included: Andragogy, Cognitivism, Communities of Learning, Constructionism, Learning Ecology, Modal Model of Memory, Operant Conditioning and Social Learning Theory. 

Developing a Growth Mindset (Leading change) LDC Week 5

We had a professional discussion around the provocation: " Intelligence is innate and cannot be developed beyond what you are born with." Suffice it to say, our understanding around concepts such as differentiated learning and neuroplasticity made us universally balk at this prompt! What about innate vs. learned knowledge? Someone mentioned The Flynn Effect - which found that the results of intelligence tests in different countries show that over the past century average IQ has been increasing at a rate of about 3 points per decade.

Provocation: Consider - "Intelligence has become defined as the kind of mind that responds most readily to the peculiar demand of school." (Claxton, 2008). What do we know about Carol Dweck's Growth Mindset theory? Details a paradigm shift around how intelligence is viewed. There is of course a degree of overlap between the two mind sets outlined.

How might we build a 'Growth Mindset' in our learners? 

- the power of 'not yet'; 

- change our language: talk about learning rather than work; 

- use our wall displays to document the learning journey as well as the final product; 

- Praise and reward effort, process, perseverance (rather than intelligence or talent).

Next Steps: Changing Mindsets

- Create a list of comments you hear students say and write a growth mindset alternative.

- How else do we build resilience, curiosity, resourcefulness, and persistence in our students?

Let's Use Skype in Class!

I thought I would share with you the first video I have made in response to our class collaboration, where we wanted to find a way to open up the physical boundaries of our classroom using Skype... 

For those teachers who have an HP laptop and would like to have a go at using some of the screen styles I have used in my video above, you can Download and install Cyberlink YouCam Software (sp65795) from HP's support web site. Click here for more information or troubleshooting if it's already installed on your teacher laptop, but not working. 

Once created, the video clips were then opened in Windows Live Movie Maker, which I found allowed me to very quickly view and edit to give a smile worthy outcome, and then the movie maker project was saved as a wmv file to allow online sharing.

Please note that this was a completely unscripted, some might suggest impromptu, series of ideas made in response to both digital and collaborative learning activities in class and my having fun trying out software I hadn't used before. (Since the rubrics we were provided with suggest that whilst this is a lovely narrative of the process we followed, it may only be helpful as a prequel in regards to my DCL Assignment 1)