Course Title: Teacher as Leader

Part A: Course Overview

Course Title: Teacher as Leader

Credit Points: 12

Course Code	Campus	Career	School	Learning Mode	Teaching Period(s)
TCHE2134	Bundoora Campus	Undergraduate	360H Education	Face-to-Face	Sem 1 2006, Sem 1 2007, Sem 1 2010

Course Coordinator: Willem Goeman

Course Coordinator Phone: +61 3 9925 7423

Course Coordinator Email:willem.goeman@rmit.edu.au

Course Coordinator Location: 220.4.26

Pre-requisite Courses and Assumed Knowledge and Capabilities

None

Course Description

What is this course about?

In this course pre-service teachers explore the nature of education work places as professional settings and examine their own developing potential role as professionals. Pre-service teachers will clarify their knowledge of organizational cultures and systems and the nature of organizational change and reform in the education settings with which they are familiar, and will consider the role of the teacher as a professional in this context. They will explore the concept of ‘teacher leadership’, as a means of developing and demonstrating their own developing professional identity as they prepare for entering the education profession. Panels and round-table discussions are used to set up debates in which pre-service teachers express and refine their developing perspectives. Possible additional formats are lectures and visiting speakers.

Key Guiding Questions
1. What does it mean to be a ‘professional’?
2. What is useful knowledge about organisations and organisational change?
3. How can education organisations be compared to non education organisations?
4. What is teacher leadership and its relationship to professional initiative?
5. What could professional initiative look like in the teaching profession?
6. What professional initiative skills do you know you have?
7. Can professional initiative skills/teacher leadership be developed by pre-service teachers?

You are encouraged to consider the above focus questions in relation to issues you have been considering throughout your program so far, for example during placements, and in your Professional Journal.

Objectives/Learning Outcomes/Capability Development

Teacher as Leader draws upon a plethora of capabilities identified for Education Programs. The course links across all Bachelor of Education courses facilitating capability developed at a transformative level. For a full account of specific capability linkages across courses refer to the Graduate Capabilities Map – Bachelor of Education.

Bachelor of Education: Transforming
1. Awareness and Understanding of Self and Others
1.3: Perform independently within a wide range of varied situations.
1.4: Apply interventions that maximise opportunities to develop full potential (optimisation).
2. Commitment
2.3: Undertake an advocacy role as required.
2.4: Work collaboratively as an enabler, empowering others and sharing the decision-making.
2.5: Engage in innovation and change locally and globally.
2.6: Influence change where possible.
2.7: Engage in on-going research and development.
3. Creative Problem-solvers: Teaching as Inquiry
3.3: Explore and interpret a range of purposes, thinking and action.
3.4: Employ reasoning through reframing practice.
4. Lifelong Learners(autonomous)
4.7: Use initiative in extending self through professional challenges.
5. Communicative Competencies
5.4: Actively listen and participate in ‘learning conversations ’.
5.5: Collaborate in and share decision-making with others.
6. Critical Reflective
6.4: Use critical reflection to inform and improve future practice.
7. Professional Knowledge, Understandings and Applications
7.6: Display consideration of a curriculum that acknowledges different knowledges, contexts, cultural/ethnic and socio/economic backgrounds of families and communities.
7.8: Incorporate appropriate learning technologies and media to develop aesthetic and creative teaching and learning experiences.
10. Collaborative Decision-making and Action
10.4: Engage in inclusive practices so the best interests of all parties are served.
10.5: Build networks (internal and external) and collaborate with others.
10.6: Work effectively in teams and take a leadership role as appropriate.
11. Organisation and Implementation
11.3: Plan, prepare, and present efficiently and effectively.
11.4: Identify and locate knowledge, resources/support selectively.
11.5: Envision and articulate new organisational arrangements.

C. Objectives / Learning Outcomes
What can I expect to learn by studying this course?
Teacher as Leader draws on many capabilities identified for Education Programs. The course links across all Bachelor of Education courses facilitating capability developed at a transformative level.
This course concerns:
• Thinking and acting professionally
• Refining professional identity and professional readiness.
Furthermore:
Fourth year students will synthesise and consolidate their pedagogical and professional communication skills and knowledge. They will continue to explore creative and collaborative work practices and develop greater awareness of the importance of taking responsibility for demonstrating initiative, resourcefulness, critical self-reflection and working collaboratively with peers in their respective learning and teaching contexts.

A pre-service teacher is expected to be able to:
 analyse, discuss, and categorise a range of organisational cultures, structures, and systems based upon observations made in familiar organisational settings
 clarify their own interpretations and values in relation to such organisational realities
 clarify their own understanding of distributed leadership and its relevance for professional teachers
 explore examples of organisational change/reform in education and interpret these in relation to appropriate teacher leadership
 interpret and analyse the nature of the teacher leader’s work and give a report on a leadership project planned and offered for application to a familiar setting.

In Teacher as Leader, pre-service teachers will utilise knowledge and skills built up during Years One to Three of the Program. Understanding the Learner, Contexts for New Learning, Thinking Education, Designing Multiliteracies, Inclusive Practices, and Pedagogy for Multiliteracies provide essential knowledge and skills for capabilities in this course.

Overview of Learning Activities

What opportunities does the course provide for me to learn? What will I be expected to do?
In this course pre-service teachers will participate in a range of learning activities. These include: class discussions, panels, independent reading and research, peer review and feed-back; visiting speakers, lectures, and practical activity in the field.

Overview of Learning Resources

As well as the prescribed text, students will be required to access a wide range of  resources including books and journals, supplemented by resources provided in tutorials.

Overview of Assessment

Assessment tasks are directly linked to the learning objectives and will include a range of assessment activities including case studies, field studies, essays and presentations.
Students should refer to Part B of the course guide for further information on assessment .