CATALyST

Project LIFE Manual

Professional Development for Systemic Change: The Project LIFE Leadership Institutes

Written by Linda Ramsey

size: 8.5" x 11", 220p

This manual, based on the work of the Project LIFE team: Linda Ramsey, David Radford and Debbie Silver, contains practical information and a detailed professional development model for educators working to build leadership capacity within their systems. The manual describes a multi-stage model of professional development for teacher leaders that incorporates the current research on leadership development and closely correlates with the National Science Education Standards and Project 2061 Benchmarks for Scientific Literacy.

This publication serves as a blueprint and working model for professional developers of teacher leaders. Included are detailed program descriptions including goals, daily agendas, descriptions of activities, and suggested readings that correlate with the day's leadership focus. A complete workshop handout for a model workshop that integrates science, math and multicultural education is provided. Instructions are given for using the workshop as a mechanism for developing participants' insight into workshop organization, workshop presentation, handout development, and self and peer critiquing. A separate section addresses the program for mentor preparation. The rationale and mechanism for engaging participants is in the development of two documents: A Workshop Leader's Guide and Successfully Involving Students as Scientists is provided. Sample pages from the documents are included in the manual. Because this book is designed to serve as a reference and practical guide for designers of professional development for teacher leaders, it includes forms and checklists for organizing the programs and for collecting formative and summative data.

We believe that professional development of teacher leaders requires a multistage process that includes a mixture of professional development opportunities provided over an extended period of time. Professional development programs to prepare teacher-leaders must address the needs of teachers by utilizing strategies appropriate for each stage in the emerging teacher-leader's developmental process. The preparation of a teacher-leader must be multifaceted because teacher leaders can be asked to take on many different roles within a school system. These roles can include serving as workshop presenters, peer mentors, coaches of teacher groups, evaluators of curricular or assessment materials, and developers of curricular or assessment materials. In addition, teacher-leaders may be asked to address political issues with system administrators and parents or other members of the community. Leadership programs must provide opportunities for teachers to develop the skills and knowledge essential to successfully serve in any of these roles. Additional skills required of teacher-leaders include the ability to facilitate the development by the school community of a clear vision of a school system that is committed to success for all students. Teacher-leaders must be committed to this vision and must have the knowledge to lead their colleagues in the development of a plan to reach the vision. These tasks require that teacher-leaders understand the leadership role; understand different leadership styles; know how to make, build, and manage teams; understand the change process; and are familiar with systems thinking. Professional Development for Systemic Change: The Project LIFE Leadership Institutes provides the framework around which successful programs can be designed.