The goal of any modern school transformation agenda is to enhance teaching and learning. But the approaches they take diverge significantly. For instance, some reforms aim to enhance all schools in a district, state, or nation simultaneously. Other initiatives make an effort to change a school’s overall philosophy of teaching and learning, but they do it one school at a time.
Effective leadership is essential for school reform, and it is comparable just to classroom instruction in terms of its impact on student accomplishment. Transformation of education can bring about long-lasting change through comprehensive initiatives rather than merely superficial changes or small-scale initiatives.
What do you mean by school leadership?
A collectively formed and supported change in vision is what leadership is all about. In this sense, transformation cannot happen without leaders, particularly school leaders. The interactions of the school characters result in an effective vision of the desired transformation, which the school leadership encourages and facilitates.
Since deschooling, extensive homeschooling, or online-only models are neither being used nor considered, education does not take place in a vacuum within an organization.
School leadership can impact teaching practices in the following ways:
1. Keeping the social-emotional well-being of teachers
Teaching sometimes becomes a mundane process dealing with different learning age groups. Sometimes it does impact the psychological balance of teachers. As a leader, you can follow up on your teacher’s emotional and mental needs. Talk about the concern that they are facing in the classroom, try to find a solution collaboratively, and talk about it instead of focusing on meeting the academic goals on priority.
2. Equip your classroom with technology
Having a classroom equipped with technology can enhance teaching-learning outcomes. As a leader, empower your teachers with various teaching-learning resources and training which can help with the effectiveness of delivering the concept to the learner.
3. Try including the community or parents in the school process
One of the ways to reduce the burden of the teachers can be to include parents in students’ learning. Schools can provide opportunities where parents volunteer to be a part of the program as per their interests and skills.
4. Encourage teachers to solve the problem creatively
While teaching teachers come across a lot of problems that are very new to them. As a school leader, you can motivate and support them to solve the issues with creativity such as peer-to-peer support, learning labs, etc.
Also Read: Simple guidelines to improve teaching quality and effectiveness in the classroom
5. Positive reinforcement for teachers
As a principal you can opt for various ways to motivate the teachers by praising them on their small efforts and by promoting rewarding culture in staff who go beyond the limits.
6. Remove additional responsibilities as much as possible
During the pandemic additional duties of teachers increased significantly and they are still continuing with the added responsibilities. Teachers should be freed from other duties or they should be compensated for the additional work. Introducing outside agencies can reduce the load on the teachers and allow them time to focus on the academic delivery.
7. Ask teachers’ opinions
Include your teachers in decision making. Any new process which you are planning to implement in the school must go through a collaborative and democratic process where every teacher shares their views before implementation.
School administrators may assist teachers by implementing successful teaching techniques. In addition to creating inclusive and motivating learning environments for the entire school, they can tap into the abilities and motivations of teachers, students, and parents. They can also offer rigorous, individualized and sustained teacher training.
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