1. Read through the scenario below.
2. Determine the style of LEADERSHIP that is being presented at this school – is it appropriate
or should some other style of leadership be considered
3. If Yes . . how do you make this change?
4. Outline some issues that might see arising in this scenario and discuss what steps need to be
put in place to implement some innovative initiative to make a change.
Bob is the headmaster of a large coeducational school. He manages it well. The school has a clear
vision of its purpose. The outcomes of his students match those in similar schools. They reflect
effective curriculum provision and implementation.
His relationship with his teaching staff, based on mutual respect, works well. Staff are generally
positive about the management. The school is committed to professional development.
Recruitment reflects the dominant staff profile of the school. Wise management of its financial
resources helps the school achieve its educational priorities.
Bob’s agenda is student learning. His passion is that all students in his school have the opportunity
to learn optimally. This includes those students whose approach to learning may be described as
‘gifted’. A series of incidents, each small, led him to believe that the quality of teaching could be
improved for these students. Some of the students who had been identified earlier as gifted were
not interested in learning. They described as ‘boring’ the teaching that allowed peers to learn.
They certainly didn’t excel in academic learning and in some cases their learning outcomes were
substantially below expectations. Some were regularly behaviour and discipline problems.
Discussion with some of the disaffected students suggested that the teaching did not match how
they learnt. This was confirmed when some of the teachers mentioned that their teaching hadn't
deteriorated, it was just that many of the students just didn’t want to learn. Teachers doubted that
some if these students were in fact gifted. They say some of these students as difficult to manage
and direct in the classroom, as being troublemakers. Some couldn’t spell correctly; some couldn’t
recall number facts.
Bob saw the problem differently as one in which the teaching practice made invalid assumptions
about how these students learnt. A mismatch existed between how these students learnt and the
learning assumptions made by the teaching. Bob was aware that the mismatch could be solved in
part by fine tuning the teaching.
Bob conceptualized the problem as leading his school to learn more relevant teaching practice for
these students. He needed to lead his staff to improved teaching and some students to enhanced
attitudes and goals for learning. To improve their teaching practice, his teachers needed to reflect
on and evaluate their practice, identify where it could be improved and make the necessary
changes.

He was not sure whether all his staff were ready to be led in this direction. Some staff were already
trying to do this, and he supported them. Others were not as motivated to engage in a change in 
this direction. Some didn’t see the need for it, some didn’t believe that they could improve their
teaching.
He could not, personally, lead all his staff to make the improvements he saw necessary. In some
areas he knew the outcomes he wanted but did not know how to achieve them. The school was too
large for him, or the SLT, to do all the leading. As well, he did not know the best ways of having his
teachers learn so that their teaching would improve in a permanent way.
Bob’s attempts, in the past, to lead his school to improve their pedagogic practice had had limited
success. He had discussed his goals with his leadership team and had asked departmental heads to
implement the initiatives. The heads had discussed the issues, but little had changed practically.
While they had accepted the need for improvements, they did not know how to bring them about.
Bob wanted to avoid a repeat of this. He needed to build in his school a capacity for systematic, ongoing professional learning. His goals and the vision for the school needed to be negotiated with
the staff and ultimately accepted as theirs. Staff learning, as well as being specific to particular
areas, needed to be integrated with the direction in which he wanted to lead the school.
Most school leaders face the challenge of improving the quality of teaching in their schools. While
a school leadership team may decide that a particular innovation or change is necessary, the school
may not necessarily move in the intended direction. To achieve improved pedagogic practice, a
school needs the capacity to learn professionally. Effective leadership builds and guides this
capacity