Educative Essays: Volume 2

By Benjamin L. Stewart, PhD

This book is a collection of essays on educational leadership.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Benjamin L. Stewart, PhD
• Release date: Jul 16, 2013
• ISBN: 9781301968039

Benjamin L. Stewart, PhD

Benjamin Stewart holds a PhD in curriculum and instructional leadership and a master’s degree in education, curriculum and instruction: technology. He is a full-time EFL teacher educator and researcher at the University of Aguascalientes in Mexico with an interest in researching personal learning networks and language teaching and learning.

Book preview

Educative Essays, Volume 2

Educative Essays

Volume 2

Benjamin L. Stewart, PhD

Educative Essays

Volume 2

By

Benjamin L. Stewart, PhD

Smashwords Edition

Copyright © 2018, © 2013 Benjamin L. Stewart, PhD

This work is licensed under a

Creative Commons Attribution

4.0 International License.

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

ISBN: 9781301968039

Table of Contents

Role of the Instructional Leader in Addressing Technology Philosophy

Leading Learning Communities

Leadership Interviews

Authentic Assessment Strategies and Practices

Personal Growth and Professional Development Plan (Part 1)

The Three-Minute Classroom Walk-Through

Research Project

Instructional Leader as Advocate and Decision Maker: Discussions

Center for Undergraduate Studies: Foreign Language Department

Stakeholder Benefits Within the Educational Process

Transforming Schools into Learning Communities

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Dedication

This book is dedicated to Beny and Oliver, who have taught me how to truly appreciate my own educative experiences as a father.

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Preface

Why a series of educative essays?

I began studying a doctoral dissertation from Northcentral University (NCU) in September of 2007. NCU is an online university, accredited by the Higher Learning Commission and is a member of the North Central Association. The first two years of the doctoral program consists of graduate courses whereby learners upload essays to the NCU platform for credit. Having completed all of the course work for the program, I realized that I had accumulated quite a few essays over the years, covering a variety of topics within the field of education. So, why a series of educative essays? Here are a few reasons:

I realized that I had no personal copies of any of the essays that I had written for NCU - they all resided on the NCU platform for a definite period of time.

The essays were all spread out over various courses and quite difficult to find. Having them all in a book format would allow for easier access.

I’ve been blogging for several years and have never gotten into the habit of reading prior posts, even when someone would post a reply. It was just something I hardly ever did, for better or for worse. The same applied to the essays written for my doctoral program. I thought having them as a single collection would force me to look at how I viewed various educational topics in the past as well as my own writing style. It has now been long enough that I feel that I can step back and appreciate them for what they are. Not literary classics, nor excessively profound statements on education written in clear, academic style and tone, but a realization and some satisfaction in reflecting on how my perspective in some cases had changed over the years while in other cases a perspective that continues today.

Never having published a book before, I thought pulling these essays together would justify going through the self-publishing process from start to finish. I will leave it up to the reader to judge whether doing so was actually worth it or not.

I wanted to offer a book on educational topics under a Creative Commons License so that others could reuse, revise, remix, and redistribute it to give back to the profession of education in some way.

Why order essays by date?

The essays are ordered by date so to respect the order in which I wrote them, spanning a period of about two years. It also provides a way to reflect on how my writing style and ideas developed during this period. Some topics jump around between chapters while others are more aligned. Thus, you may want to skip around to different chapters of the book to read those essays that interest you the most, or you may decide to read them in order, from start to finish.

Yielding to Dewey (1938), the term educative in the title of this book is meant to promote, the growth of future experience (p. 13). My sincere hope is that to some small degree that this will be the case for the reader - I know the process of putting these essays together has certainly been educative for me.

Benjamin L. Stewart

July 4, 2013

Role of the instructional leader in addressing technology philosophy

April 27, 2008

As learners continue to grow up in a society with new technologies, the educational system should harness technological use when creating educational designs that are relevant and meaningful for each learner.  In creating educational designs, educators may choose to use technology for administrative purposes, educational inquiry, and as an instruction and assessment tool.  Since technology is constantly in a state of change, the role of the instructional leader is vital if technology is to be used to enhance teaching and learning on a continual basis.  Therefore, the instructional leader (IL) who understands important flexible learning environments within established learning communities, the roles of each party within the school system, and how technology can enhance given educational frameworks will create more meaningful and relevant learning opportunities for all learners.

The Learning Environment

A learning environment that promotes technological use in schools comes from the top down (i.e., principal, director, etc., to the teachers and students).  An instructional leader is responsible for establishing quality teacher-induction programs that include the following characteristics: a) highly structured, comprehensive, rigorous, and seriously monitored b) focus on professional learning and on the growth and professionalism of teachers, and c) includes collaborative teamwork