Week 9 - Problem solving from a leadership perspective

One key issue is ensuring ongoing professional development meets the needs of turnover with staff and ongoing changes to technology to create implement effective pedagogy with technology integration. Every staff member is going to be at slightly different places on their learning journey with technology and it is crucial that, just like with our students, we try to meet all their needs. In international schools, there is a high turnover rate in comparison to public government-funded schools. This means that every year is a challenge to bring teachers up to a base level of knowledge when joining a school. It is important that the professional development is timely and ongoing according to Flanagan & Jacobsen (2003). While our school has a lot of professional development run by the education technology department, it also needs to be prioritized by the senior leadership team of both primary and secondary so that teachers feel the need to continue to upskill. Technology is constantly changing. Therefore, the professional development needs to continue to evolve with the technology with a focus on pedagogy and transferable skills to ensure teachers feel that professional development is a good use of their time. Some strategies to approach this problem would be for looking for edtech leaders within the organisation or each year group to mentor their teammates and find times to allow staff members to work together on personal goals in a collaborative environment.

References

Flanagan,L. & Jacobsen, M. (2003).Technology leadership for the twenty-first century principal, Journal of Educational Administration, 41( 2), 124 - 142.