Educational Leadership, Communication and Information Literacy - Essay Example

INTRODUCTION This paper is intended to be a reflective essay for the learning outcomes for the Capstone project. Each of the learning outcomes are covered and dealt with in detail along with the learning’s that accrued to me personally from them. The emphasis is on documenting how I benefited from the courses that I took as part of my MA in Educational leadership. I have listed the learning outcomes in sequential order as they appear in the Outcomes for the degree requirements document. Any reflection on what one has learnt and assimilated has to be a personal narrative. The accent has to be on what one has learnt measured against the outcomes for that particular course. This forms the basis for the paper and what I have learnt as far as the requirements for the degree are concerned. As I reflect on the learning’s and the way in which the course has been taught, I feel that the course has equipped me with several skills that can be used in any real world setting. Apart from the theoretical foundations of what I have learnt, the practical skills that I have picked up would stand me in good stead. The course outcomes are geared towards preparing us for positions of leadership in educational and non-profit sectors with the expectation that we would be able to fulfill the roles in these sectors to the satisfaction of the stakeholders. As with any program that prepares students for managerial roles, the learning outcomes for this degree are tailored in such a way so as to equip us with analytical and problem solving skills. That is the bottom line requirement for this course and one that I hope I have mastered to a certain extent. RESEARCH AND THEORY This particular outcome relates to the analysis and use of data about the student community in decision making and its subsequent use by the teachers in forming opinions and perceptions of the students that they teach. The outcomes from this course for me have been training in researching data about students and applying them to aid in decision making. I have benefited enormously from this particular outcome as the course taught me to bridge the gap between theory and practical application. The gap between theory and practice has to be bridged and one can aspire to be a leader in any field only when they have successfully mastered the art of applying theory to real world scenarios. I have learnt to analyze the data from the student profiles, be it demographic, gender specific or other forms of data analysis and learnt to arrive at decisions using the data. I have learnt to use several models of decision making and the inputs that go into each of them along with the necessary tools that aid them. As I have mentioned before, applying research data to real world models calls for application of what one has learnt and I have learnt the methods that make this possible. The ability to design curriculum appropriate to the needs of the situation and to the satisfaction of all the stakeholders is an essential requirement of being an educator. Thus, what one needs to do is to get the information on the curriculum and design it in such a way so as to engage the students effectively. Apart from this, practical hands on experience must be imparted to the students and I learnt the techniques that would contribute to such an exercise. COMMUNICATION AND INFORMATION LITERACY This outcome relates to improving one’s communication abilities and learning new technologies that include computer literacy among other things. The other forms of media have to be mastered as well. I used this course to hone my speaking and written skills with a particular emphasis on the former. The educational leadership demands a certain kind of rigor when it comes to the ability to communicate effectively at all levels of the hierarchical setup and it involves effective communication between the teacher and the student along with the ability to communicate with other stakeholders. The other outcome from this course has been my improved ability to write concise and lucid reports along with an overall improvement in written skills. I believe that communication is the bedrock of an educator and hence I took this outcome very seriously and put all my efforts into making myself an all round communicator. The next competency that I developed is that of mastering computer skills and improving my web literacy skills. This forms one of the essential requirements for anyone who wishes to gain and impart knowledge. The first and foremost criterion for educators is the ability to transmit what one knows effectively. And the means of getting this knowledge is through the web and associated tools. The ability to build trust and develop the organizational processes is one of the learning’s of this outcome. An effective educator must be able to foster a culture of learning and promote individual and group interactions in such a way so as to ensure that the student as well the group benefits from the exercise. CRITICAL THINKING/PROBLEM SOLVING The ability to think out of the box is an asset in any field and when it comes to the educational and non-profit sector, it becomes a critical skill to be had. There are many contemporary problems that require solutions and the ability to step outside the situation and apply oneself to the task at hand by an objective look at the situation is particularly important. For instance, I studied the issues and challenges thrown by the no-child-left-behind and other campaigns and learnt to analyze them critically and with a view to tackling the problems and challenges thrown up by the implementation of such programs. To be an effective educator, one needs to come up with innovative and practical solutions to everyday issues and a balanced and objective assessment of the situation along with solutions that address these challenges is called for. COLLABORATION Team building and the ability to promote co-operation and inculcate a spirit of understanding and support is a key element of teaching. The educator must be able to motivate and lead the students and work by example. Thus, he or she needs to walk the talk. Apart from this, the educator needs to bind the students as a team and make sure that they learn the art of being in a team. The ability to work together and contribute to the group while making a mark as an individual at the same time sets the successful achiever apart from others and I have learnt to make way for others without compromising my standing at the same time. More often than not, the ability to collaborate is one of the critical success factors that determine the line between success and failure and hence I learnt to work with groups and polish my interpersonal skills to be that much more effective when dealing with groups. Working with teams and in teams makes for a successful collaboration and the outcome from this has been an enhancement of my ability to work well with others. I have also learnt to work with cross-functional teams and learn about the facets of educational research as they relate to the classroom. EDUCATIONAL LEADERSHIP One of the primary requirements for an educator is that he or she must be able to lead the students and supervise their progress through their studies. This forms part of the requirements for successful conduct of classroom studies and the ability to lead as discussed in the previous section is a necessary component of the classroom experience. As the outcome relates to the educational leadership in the school sector and the ability to translate the requirements of teaching into usable theories and models of learning, I have learnt the art of managing the course requirements for these skills. Apart from teaching and supervision, the other outcomes relate to coaching and mentoring. These are competencies that are guided by the teacher and put into practice in the classroom. Coaching and mentoring of students is a sensitive task that deals with the finer aspects of teaching and only an educator with a keen sense of discernment would be able to match the requirements needed for this. Thus, the motivation to do well on these skills brought the best out of me. There were several instances of role plays and discussions where I took an active part in learning these skills as well as learning to impart these skills. The other outcomes relate to an ability to be a change agent and maintain a high degree of professionalism in one’s dealing with external and internal stakeholders. This is one of the outcomes that I have achieved from this course and it gives me satisfaction to note that I have performed well on these competencies. ETHICS/PRINCIPLES An educator needs to set an example to the students with regards to professional conduct. He or she needs to be fair in their approach towards students and ensure that all students are treated equally and fairly. This is one of the basic requirements of a teacher and the outcome relates to how well the educator has learnt the art of balanced opinion and action. Integrity of thought and action is also called for and I have learnt to walk the talk when it comes to dealing with the simulated classroom environment. I hope to apply these techniques and behavioral attributes to my job and learn to be professional with my peers and students. Apart from being personally ethical, I feel that it is the duty of the teacher to inculcate these values to the students and let them learn to deal with ethical and normative rules of behavior. In these days, it is more than urgent that the teacher serves as a substitute parent and takes the lead in teaching the virtues of these rules of behavior so that the students learn at an early age the benefits of living ethically professionally as well as personally. Thus, it is my firm belief that I should be ethical as well as impart ethical standards of behavior to my students. DIVERSITY Dealing with diversity is a must for every educator and there is no doubt that I had to learn to work with teams and students coming from diverse races and demographic backgrounds. Further, the other requirement of pluralistic tendencies has meant that I learnt to work with groups of students from different backgrounds. It is my personal belief that diversity must be encouraged and actively promoted for students to get to know the real world conditions that exist outside of the classroom. Empathizing with people from different income groups and demographic backgrounds is a must if they have to succeed in the real world and thus as an educator, it is my duty to impart a sense of unity in diversity kind of message. INTERPERSONAL EFFECTIVENESS I have described the competencies and skills that I have learnt over the course of my degree program. All of them tie into each other and make one an effective leader with good interpersonal skills. The effectiveness of a leader is gauged by how well he or she can relate to others professionally as well as personally. Thus, the ability to motivate others and lead them to action makes for good leadership. This particular outcome tests how well one is able to manage others and oneself by means of verbal, written and non-verbal communication. Thus, good interpersonal effectiveness is nurtured and developed by the educator as well as imparted to the students. This outcome is tied to the other outcomes and forms the soft skill component of the learning process. Dealing with conflict is a necessary skill for a teacher as classrooms are places where there is going to be difference of opinion and difference of view points. The ability to reconcile differing view points and ensure that no one gets “put down” is a key requirement for a teacher and one that would help them with resolving group clashes and individual differences. CONCLUSION The preceding sections have dealt with each of the outcomes and how they relate individually to the course objectives and requirements. In this section, I summarize my learning’s from the overall outcomes and link them up with the bottom line outcome i.e. a degree in Educational leadership. The overall objective of the course was to make me a leader and an educator who can impart knowledge and be a role model to the students. I believe that I have succeeded to a great extent in learning the educational requirements for the course and that I have developed an understanding of the courses that were taught. Though I do not want to resort to clichés, I am on my way to receiving a degree as well as an education. And this is the bottom-line as far as I am concerned, how to impart knowledge as well as an education in all senses of the word to my students. In conclusion, I must mention that I have scored straight A’s in many of the courses and despite holding a full time job and raising kinds, I have done my best to ensure that I fulfill the requirements set forth by the course. Read More