Educational Leadership Presented by: Dr. Paul A. Rodríguez Professional Development for School Leaders: Reflection,Growth and Change Educational Leadership Presented by: Dr. Paul A. Rodríguez

Chapter Objectives: Discuss the need for continued growth and development. Identify and describe various approaches to professional development for school leaders. Discuss the need for leader assessment and various models that can be used. Develop a personal development worksheet & action plan. Discuss the importance of mentoring in leadership development.

Maxwell( 1993), “ Leaders who continue to grow personally and bring growth to their organization will influence many and develop a successful team around them”. The chapter discusses the development of a professional growth plan for school leaders. Bell(1998) suggests that professional growth comes from 3 directions: inside, outside, and upside down, it”…begins with a look inside that includes a thoughtful examination of strengths, limitations, improvement opportunities, needs, hopes, and fears.”

Reflective Journals Professional development for school leaders often involves reflection, which has “ the ultimate purpose of [getting] us into the habit of thinking about our experiences”.( Costa & Kallick,2000,p.60) Reflective journals provide a record of events, incidents, and thoughts and by reflecting on these experiences more personal insight is derived (Posner,1996)

Reflection Reflection involves hearing both internal and external voices’ self-knowledge or self-talk. One way to develop this capacity to hear is to write a memo or note to self in the journal or to identify and describe the thought process or steps that were used to solve a problem or to address a situation. Reflection involves mental processes that include drawing forth cognitive and emotional from visual, auditory, kinesthetic, and tactile sources (Costa & Kallick, 2000). Journal entries should be dated and reflect thoughts and feelings that immediately come to mind.( See p. 217, BOX 10.1)

Leader Assessment & professional Development School leaders use various types of assessment models to provide direction for constructing their own plans for professional development. The assessment models vary from state to state. According to Monk (2002), “ A meaningful mix of activities will give a quality read on skill levels from a variety of perspectives. Through an assessment process which includes primary job alike activities, other job-related activities as appropriate, detailed feedback, meaningful suggestions for growth, campus leaders will receive a quality snapshot of ability to ‘walk the walk’ of the principal.p.2

Self-Assessment Model for School Leaders (Beach & Reinhartz,2000,p.287),Developed a model that is appropriate for instructional leaders. It identifies the steps in the self-assessment model as school leaders assume responsibility and development. Step 1: Self-Awareness( Journal entries, portfolio abstract…..) Step 2: Other’s Perception (Questionnaires, inventories….) Step 3: Compile & Reconcile( Validate accuracy of self-awareness of personal and professional attributes) Step 4: Insights for Self-Renewal (Generate a professional growth plan) Step 5: Action Plan ( Demonstrate new knowledge & skill in leader behavior) Step 6: Renew (Repeat cycle; revisit steps.

Self- Assessment P.223, the authors state,” In self-assessment model, leaders begin the process by collecting data from their own journal entries or selecting artifacts from their portfolios as they begin building their professional profile. As indicated earlier in the journal section, journal entries are useful to prompt leaders “… to reflect on specific situations, interactions, and behaviors they experience over time as they perform their job” (Beach & Reinhartz, 2000 p. 288) Step 2: In figure 10.2 ,Involves seeking input from others (colleagues, teachers, staff and parents and students), regarding the use of such things as, questionnaires, inventories, etc. ( using a rubric scoring tool), see page 223.

Professional Development A life long process: Good professional development should: 1. Sheds light on how students learn in the classroom. 2. Inspires collegiality. 3. Improves student achievement. Casas(2009), “ professional development takes many forms depending on where each leader is in their career; it can be a seminar, a workshop, long term training ,conferences, reading professional journals and books”.

Developing Your Professional Growth Plan Using the information from this chapter and information from Figure 10.1, develop a professional growth plan for yourself. Consider where you are at now regarding your career goals and where you want to be in three to five years. Discuss your career plan with a mentor or friend to get feedback.