Week 6 Leadership Theories & Styles - LDC & Connected learning and Connectivism - DCL

Week 6 - LDC - Leadership Theories and Styles

Class Notes
Leadership Theories, Attributes and Styles. 
Theories:
These theories could be labelled in four broad headings- namely the Trait theories, Behavioral theories, Contingency theories and the Power and Influence theories.

Types of Leadership - Styles drawn from Theories

• Autocratic or Authoritarian Style of Leadership
  
  • Under the autocratic leadership style, all decision-making powers are centralised in the leader. 
• Laissez-faire or Free-rein Style of Leadership
  
  • A person may be in a leadership position without providing leadership, leaving the group to fend for itself. 
• Participative or Democratic Style of Leadership
  
  • A participative or democratic style of leadership involves the leader sharing decision- making abilities with group members while also promoting the interests of the group members and practicing social equality.
• Transformational Style of Leadership
• The transformational leadership style is one of the most inspiring leadership styles that enhances the motivation, morale and job performance of followers.  According to Burns, transformational leadership can be seen when "leaders and followers make each other to advance to a higher level of morality and motivation."

Based on a three-year study of over 3,000 executives, Daniel Goleman identified six different leadership styles:

• Pace-setting
• Authoritative
• Affiliative
• Democratic
• Coaching
• coercive or commanding

Task: Leadership styles I'm good at:

Thinking back to significant moments of me needing to lead I believe I have melded 2 styles - Authoritative and Democratic. One event which involved fundraising and leading a group of 32 youth overseas required an Authoritative leadership style. I needed to present a vision and what was needed to achieve it, pointing out the positive benefits for the individuals and wider community. 

 One of the long term goal was to build a community for our parish youth that would be self sustaining and draw on talents amongst those youth. This required a shift to Democratic leadership where I created platforms where the youth could experience collaboration, leadership and constructive feedback to one another.

Within the classroom as the teacher I believe I work mostly within a Coercive style after presenting the goal or vision in a Authoritative manner. I believe the Coercive style was the most natural style to follow as it has aspects that are part of the traditional, industrial way of education - "Do as I say."

Taking the Quiz - What Sort of Leader are You?

Overall, you have a reasonable mix of leadership styles but there is still a lot of opportunity to develop them further.

Your most developed leadership style is: Pace-Setter Pace-setting leaders expect excellence and self-direction, and can be summed up as ‘Do as I do, now’. The Pace-setter very much leads by example, but this type of leadership only works with a highly-competent and well-motivated team. It can only be sustained for a while without team members flagging. Like the Coercive leader, Pace-setters also show drive to succeed and initiative, but instead of self-control, these are coupled with conscientiousness. Identifying with a Leadership Theory I've based my identification on my experience from the past two years during staff PD and our weekly Team 1 meetings. While in both platforms we have the opportunity for a say in offering our thoughts it does an underlying element or feeling that ultimately the final decision will be decided by management. While I enjoy having a voice I often hold back because I think 'is anyone really listening?' Of course how can you not read about the aspects of Transformational Leadership and not be attracted to the concept of it having an impact on you by enhancing motivation, morale and job performance. I look forward to exploring this more especially in relation to my role as a leader for my students. 10 Leadership Theories by Professor Michael Zigarelli https://app.themindlab.com/media/13592/view The Great Man Theory The Trait Theory  The Skills Theory of Leadership The Style Theory of Leadership The Situational Leadership  The Contingency Theory Transactional Leadership Transformational Leadership Leader-Member Exchange Theory Servant Leadership The Six Leadership Styles - Daniel Goleman https://app.themindlab.com/media/13596/view According to the authors, the more of the six styles a leader can deploy, the better. Leaders who have mastered four or more styles tend to be the most effective. Effective leaders scan people individually and in groups and adjust their style suitably. They are good at the four resonance building styles – Visionary, Coaching, Affliative and Democratic. Leadership dilemmas ‐ Promoting collaboration You have introduced self and peer assessment into your class but you are finding that students are struggling to provide critique beyond very simple surface features.How might you lead your students in a manner that increases the quality of this  method of assessment? I believe a combination of at least 3 leadership styles would be beneficial here. I’m going to use the example of Austin’s Butterfly here. The primary purpose here is to teach Perseverance by way of creating several drafts as they work towards the highest standard Visionary: Showing the students exemplars of what they are working towards. e.g. The final image of a Blue Butterfly and examples of previous students and their drafts. Based on Daniel Coleman’s table this modus operandi mobilizes a person toward a vision. The underlying emotional intelligence competencies are self-confidence and change catalyst  This style works best when a clear direction is needed. Coaching: Here this style is recommended to help someone improve performance or develop long-term strengths. The style in a phrase could be “Try this.” Here modelling and talk aloud would support this. Democratic: Underlying competencies here are collaboration and communication.  The students are in a sense leading their peers to forge consensus through collaboration. Leadership for Transforming High Schools Commissioned by Wallace Foundation Teacher leaders working inside high schools face the challenges of teaching and leading simultaneously.  This means wrestling with what forms of leadership are necessary to make the shift from “some kids” to “each kid.” Preconditions also encompass who leaders are and what they bring  their knowledge of content and pedagogy; and their skills with leading others in various domains of activity related to improving teaching and learning.   Transformational leadership for education in a digital culture It is suggested that a transformational leadership style is most appropriate for organisations such as educational systems operating in a field characterised by change and innovation. The pressure for educational systems to change makes the role of educational leadership critical. Leaders are those in positions of authority or influence that serve to create and/or sustain effective and desirable change in organisations, Transformational leadership is characterised by a focus on the concerns and needs of followers to develop them into semi-autonomous entities that can act to advance the goals of an organisation without the need of constant direction. Whereas a transformational style emphasises the quality of the relationship between leader and follower through ethical role-modelling, motivation and care for individual needs According to this view, both transformational and servant leadership styles are characterised by role modelling, motivation, encouragement of risk-taking among subordinates and “individualised consideration,” but that while a transformational leader is ultimately concerned with the organisation, a servant leader is more focused on the well-being of followers. Yet, the overall intent of both transformational and servant leadership is to empower and motivate followers to work autonomously for the success of an organization. Emotional Intelligence by Daniel Coleman EI refers to how well we handle ourselves and our relationships, the 4 domains: Self-awareness - knowing what we’re feeling, why we’re feeling. recognising signs of anger so a student can self manage Self- management - handling your distressing emotions in an effective way so that they  don’t cripple you or get in the way of what you’re doing modelling/supporting a student so they know 1st step to take Empathy - knowing what someone else is feeling Social Skill - Putting it altogether in skilled relationship. explicit teaching needed over long/continuing period of time The part of the brain that supports EL and Social Intelligence is actually the last circuitry of the brain to become anatomically mature. And because the neuroplasticity of the brain shapes itself according to repeated experiences, so my argument is, hey, we should be teaching kids regularly overtime, in a systematic way, self-awareness, self-management, empathy and social skill. Executive function, which is mediated by the prefrontal lobe, both helps you manage your emotions and helps you pay attention.So as kids learn these skills, they also learn learning...basic learning skills. Strong proponent in getting Notes from Teacher Pd January 2016 DCL - Connected Learning and Connectivism Overview How do we create an education system where learning is no longer the variable that is framed by the constant of a dated delivery model and restrictive learning times. Knowledge is now available everywhere, 24 hours a day so new models of education must recognise learning as a constant with delivery modes and learning times as the variables. Class Notes Connected learning seeks to find ways to connect the lives and experiences of learners to the outcomes that educators feel are necessary to prepare students for their futures.  Connectivism suggests that learning only really takes place in networks. A broader approach to connected learning emphasizes the importance of learning that takes place beyond the formal lesson or the formal classroom.  How connected is your presence as teacher? The Essence of Connected Learning https://app.themindlab.com/media/13685/view Connected Learning - The experience of Education REIMAGINED We start with the wrong questions in Education - what do they need to learn, cover? Our core question is what experience do we want our kids to have is the kid engaged? what is the learning experience we want the kid to have  How do you create a need to know?  (Connie Yowell, Director of Education, The MacArthur Foundation) A key question to ask is WHO contributes to a child's learning? Who is ultimately responsible for helping children to survive and thrive and grow up to be curious, engaged citizens. ( Katie Salen, Professor, DePaul University, Executive Director, Institute of Play) Challenge is Effective matchmaking - how does a child find that mentor who can introduce them or support them in developing their interest. How can we use the capacity of these network resources, social connections to bring people together who want to learn together as opposed to How can we deliver this content more effectively from a single source - the teacher. (Mimi Ito, Cultural Anthropologist, Digital Media & Learning Research Hub, UC, Irvine) Chicago City of Learning - Connected Learning Environments A project which goal is to provide students free virtual learning opportunities as well as live activities outside of his/her school and neighborhood. Since these learning experiences are driven by the student’s specific interests, it allows him/her to take ownership of their personalized learning experiences. They try to provide students connected learning environments by linking learning in school, home and community. Credit: Connected Learning Research Network and Digital Media & Learning Research Hub George Siemens on Connectivism  noticed a difference between engaging and learning from others while blogging compared with in class/uni. Blogging allows for building upon others ideas Social Connected Process of Learning In a Networked world Learning is a Network Forming Process. Knowledge is a Networked Product When we are Knowledgeable is a reflection on how we have connected concepts and ideas over a period of time (2.03) This happens at 3 distinct levels: Biological Level - neurons firing and connecting taking concepts and forming conceptual connections - as we get a new idea we connect it to what we already know External social spaces - twitter, facebook, mobile device Why Connected Learning? - Video - by Mini Ito