Abstract
Teachers are arguably the most important professionals in the society today. This is because they are the ones who produce all the other professionals, whether high-ranking or low-ranking. The significance of teachers has never deteriorated since time immemorial. Although formal learning was unheard of hundreds of years ago, teachers were still there and they were respected.
Hundreds of years later, teachers are still respected but this time for a different reason. This paper aims at discussing a major research topic; teacher improvement. The information contained in this research paper has been widely researched and compiled in a bid to come up with the most accurate information.
Major Definitions
Educational leadership is a wide subject that encompasses a variety of topics. Of all the topics that fall under this topic, the author of this paper has found it most appropriate to select the topic of teacher improvement, leadership and technology as his final research topic.
Teacher improvement is the increase in the skills and efficiency of a teacher from one level to another. Teacher improvement has been the rationale of classifying teachers into various categories ranging from elementary teachers to high school teachers and finally university lecturers.
Teacher leadership is another aspect that goes hand in hand with teacher improvement. Every teacher is a leader because he or she is at the helm of a class. Students therefore look up to him or her for guidance. In fact, most students learn the definition of good and bad from their teachers.
According to Kennedy (2007), this has been the case particularly with today’s school children who spend more time with their teachers than they do with their families. The author of this paper has personally been not only a guider but also a role model to hundreds of students who have passed through his hands.
Technology has been the push factor that has necessitated teacher improvement. Technology changes with time. The introduction of technology in the students’ learning curriculum obliges each and every single teacher to be technologically updated. A major trend in the twenty first century has been the computerization of a couple of school operations.
Teachers no longer have to do everything manually as machines have been introduced to take care of some duties. This saves time that could have been wasted while performing the activities manually. Because of this, teachers have no choice but to keep up with the modern technology. There have been cases of teachers who have had their jobs taken by more tech-savvy people due to their reluctance in keeping up with dynamic changes in technology.
Relevance And Importance Of The Topic of Study
Having gone through the major definitions above, it is now necessary that the writer explains the relevance of his topic of choice and the personal interests that have contributed to the choice of this topic. The study of teacher improvement as a topic under education leadership is relevant because of the following reasons.
First and foremost, teacher improvement in the United States of America is necessary to keep up with the changes and trends in the public education curriculum of the country. Various changes have taken place in the public education curriculum of America over the years. These changes have affected virtually every sector of the curriculum. Because of this, the system of education keeps changing within every few years.
Teachers are consequently required to make various adjustments in order to suit in the new system of education (Cyrs, 2010). Failure to do so will make the teacher wholly irrelevant and therefore unsuitable for the current curriculum. The major changes have been those that have affected the syllabus.
While certain topics have been removed from the syllabus, there are others that have been introduced due to a need to match the trends in the society. In this case, the teacher will be forced to go over the newly introduced topics in a bid to get a grasp of the concepts before presenting the same before a class.
In doing this, the teacher would have simply improved himself or herself in order to remain relevant to the education system. Teacher improvement is therefore important as it helps teachers to be at par with the changes and adjustments in the education sector.
The topic of teacher improvement is also necessary because of the changes in the laws defining the relationship between students or pupils and teachers.
These are laws that clearly indicate the duty, role and control of teachers over students. The laws also state the limits which should not be passed by either the teacher or the students. For instance, punishment of a student in American public schools using canes was allowed when this system of education was first implanted in the 1800s. This was the case until this practice was halted a few years ago.
In this incidence, teacher improvement would help the teacher to adjust to the changed laws and regulations. Failure of a teacher to improve in the sense of becoming updated with the current trends in education may in this situation lead to imprisonment after the teacher using a cane to punish a student.
The personal interest of the writer in teacher improvement is derived from his thirteen years in the education sector. During the many years that the author has served as a teacher, he has come to a subtle conclusion that a teacher who is updated with the current happenings in the education sector stands a better chance of getting a higher position in a school than one who is not.
This is because of the belief that a leader who is familiar with the current trends and changes in the education sector will be in a position to keep any educational institution updated and relevant to the outside education world. The author came to this conclusion after witnessing the promotion of more than half a dozen teachers in schools to senior positions due the fact that they were educationally updated. This is yet another significance of teacher improvement.
The author has also developed a personal interest in teacher improvement because it is his personal ambition to always stay relevant to the current happenings in the outside world. An updated teacher has more confidence while in class and also while interacting with other colleagues. The author feels at ease in class because he is in a position to answer almost all questions raised by students that are related to current affairs in education.
On the other hand, a teacher who has failed to improve himself or herself as far as education trends are concerned will definitely fail to answer any questions raised by students on current education affairs.
This is also a sure way to ruin one’s teaching career because the students will then lose confidence in the teacher. They will start having doubts with everything this particular teacher tells them. The end results would be that the grades of these students will go down. Consequently, the teacher may be exposed to the risk of being demoted or even losing his or her job.
Benefits Of The Research To Administrators
Information from the study of teacher improvement in relation to leadership and technology will be of much significance to administrators, teachers, parents, government agencies among others. However, the group that stand a chance of benefiting most are the administrators.
The information from this study will provide the administrators with the qualities and characteristics that they should look for before employing a person.
The study will enlighten the administrators on the advantages of having teachers who have improved themselves through getting updated with the current happenings in the education sector. The administrators will benefit here by reshuffling and reconstituting their staff members so as to have only those who are currently updated as far as technology and leadership is concerned.
The administrators will also benefit because the results of the study can be adopted can be used personnel selection criteria. They can use them as a rationale for gauging the suitability of job applicants for the jobs they would have applied (Cornesky, 2008).
If they strictly base on the information imparted on them from the study, they will be sure of hiring only people whose knowledge will go a long way in raising the performance of the institutions. The information from the study can be solely relied on to weigh the skills and knowledge of the applicants.
The administrators will also benefit the most because the information from the study will outline the desirable characteristics that a good leader should have. These good leadership skills can then be used by administrators in circumstances where they may need to select one person to lead over others.
The person with the most qualities that match those outlined in the study information stands a chance of getting the top position. The qualities may include good communication skills, time consciousness, personal discipline and many others. This may also serve as a motivation to others who will then work on their personal attributes and character in a bid to acquire the same promotion.
Apart from gauging the suitability of others for various positions in the institutions, the information form the study will also provide the administrators with an opportunity to analyze themselves and determine their strengths and weaknesses. There could be a possibility that the administrators rose to the high ranks they currently hold without a proper selection criteria.
The information from the study will ensure that each administrator identifies areas where he or she is best-advantaged and others where he or she underperforms. If the administrators take this practice with utmost sincerity, seriousness and commitment, they can design ways of allaying their weaknesses and putting their strengths into better use.
Lastly, the study information will enable the administrators to identity qualities that should be taught to the students. Because today’s students are the ones who will be the leaders of tomorrow, the leadership skills and other significant information can be incorporated into their learning system (Christensen, 2007).
By doing this, the administrators will help the institution to earn a reputation of one which cares about both the educational and moral development of students. At the end of the day, the credit would go to the administrators who will be heralded for their efficient management and control of the school.
Sources Of Information For The Study
When carrying out this study, there are a variety of sources of information that can be used by the author. One of the sources of information in this study is the use of previous research materials. These materials can be available in libraries across the country. These literatures will provide the researcher with information about the old systems of education and the education curriculum of America many years ago.
The author can also access other information such as the qualifications of teachers who taught students many years ago. Other information that can be found in these old research materials may include the hierarchical structure of the administration of educational institutions during those past years.
The author can then turn to recent educational publications for current information. The information may be found in educational magazines, scholarly journals and even general newspapers. These will provide the author with an insight of the current educational systems of America. In the same way, the author will also get an intuition of the administrative forms in the public education sector in America today.
After acquiring all this information, the writer will then be in a position to compare and contrast the educational systems of the two ages and appreciate the importance of teacher improvement. A notable fact will be that a major difference exists between the qualifications of teachers, administrative forms and use of technology between the ages. Some of these great changes can be attributed to teacher improvement.
The author can also look into the performance records of institutions during the time when no significant improvement had been made in terms of qualification of teachers, use of good leadership skills and application of modern technology in educational institutions.
It is obvious that the performance of students during those years was very poor compared to the performance of today’s students. This is most likely because the teachers of those days had less skills compared to those of today (Areola, 2008). In the same way, the exclusion of important topics from the syllabus, such as qualities of good leadership, must have led to low levels of discipline during those days. The low levels of discipline then translated into poor performance in class work.
In the same way, inadequate technology must have contributed to the low performances of students many years ago. Technology was scarce and the only machine that could be found in an educational institution was a typewriter. The teachers were overburdened with huge amounts of paperwork which they had to do manually.
This may have contributed to their loss of morale which then resulted to low performance of their duties. Improvements of teacher capabilities, leadership and technology have therefore had great impacts on the performances of current students in educational institutions.
Use Of Surveys And Questionnaires In The Study
The study of teacher improvement in relation to leadership and technology will greatly benefit from the use of surveys and questionnaires. In fact, surveys and questionnaires are the most appropriate methods to use in this study.
This is because the respondents give answers to the questionnaires as people who have personally gone through the old education system of America (Angelo and Cross, 2009). Therefore, these people are familiar with both the advantages and disadvantages of this education system.
The most suitable group to survey in this study is that comprising of learned old women and old men. These could be healthy individuals who are in their sixties. It would be prudent to avoid those who are well in their seventies because they are subject to memory failure.
They may even end up giving either exaggerated or understated information. The reason for picking on educated old men and women is because these are the people who went through the old American system of education. Their memory is also in good shape enough to recall their activities while in school (Aleamoni, 2007).
The fact that they went through the system personally lends credence to everything they have to say about it. The information gathered from them is especially important because it is primary information that cannot be found in other place. The information collected here is more detailed than that found in other research materials and publications.
A suitable number of people to survey would be a minimum of a hundred. This is because this high number would safeguard against collection of inaccurate or biased information. This will be achieved by comparing and contrasting all the responses to the questionnaires at the end of the survey. Those responses that fail to match or tally with the majority can then be regarded as wrong and discarded.
The information collected from the remaining responses will then be accurate and without any flaws. The author will then compare this information about old educational systems and practices with the current trends in education. A sharp contrast will be noticed, which will point to teacher improvement, development of leadership skills and use of technology.
Importance Of The Study To The Author
The dream career of the author is to be a public school superintendent. This study of teacher improvement in relation to leadership and technology will therefore be of much help to the writer. The study will help him in a number of ways to prepare for the career that awaits him ahead. First, the study will lay bare the importance of being updated about the current happenings in education. The author will certainly put this in practice so as to be able to get the position and maintain it effortlessly.
Lastly, the author will appreciate the value of developing good leadership skills and keeping up with changes in technology. For such a position as a public school superintendent, the author will obviously need to develop good leadership skills. Because the study will reveal qualities of a good leader, the author will quickly pick up those that he is currently lacking. The author will also make a personal initiative of staying tech-savvy always.
The study will also reveal some of the problems and hardships that leaders go through. After getting an idea of the nature of these problems, the author can start putting in place as early as now some of the mechanisms that can help to keep away or find an ultimate solution to these problems. This early preparation will enable the author to be an outstanding public school superintendent when the time comes.
Conclusion
In conclusion, teacher improvement in relation to leadership and technology is a topic that is relevant to today’s society. It can be seen from the foregoing that it is necessary for any teacher or leader to stay informed about the current trends in education. It is also evident from the discussion in this paper that technology is significant in today’s computerized world. It is not easy for anybody to land on a well-paying job without a combination of good leadership skills and technological know-how.
Reference List
Aleamoni, L. M. (2007). Techniques for evaluating and improving instruction: New directions for teaching and learning. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Angelo, T. A. and Cross, K. P. (2009). Classroom assessment techniques: A handbook for college teachers. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Areola, R. A. (2008). Developing a comprehensive faculty evaluation system. Bolton: Anker Publishing.
Christensen, C.R. (2007). Teaching and the case method. Boston: McGraw Hill.
Cornesky, R. A. (2008). The quality professor. Madison: Magna Publications.
Cyrs, T. (2010). Teaching and learning in the college classroom. Needham Heights: Simon & Schuster.
Kennedy, D. (2007). Academic duty. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.