“Leadership and learning are indispensable to each other” – John F. Kennedy.
Continuous learning is the recipe for growth. And growth gives us new dimensions to see, new dreams to follow. The collective efforts of teachers and students result in the success of students. However, these collective efforts require a lot of academic and soft skills. Learning is not only about gaining academic knowledge but also about being a better person. Leadership skills are crucial in teachers as well as students. But how to improve academic leadership skills? Well, CPD can help you with this. First thing first-
What is Continuing professional development(CPD)?
CPD stands for Continuing professional development. The term refers to the learning activities teachers engage in, to develop their teaching skills. The motto of CPD is to encourage active and practical teaching.
The mode of learning these skills could be formally or informally. Teachers can take courses, involve in activities, or just observe others. Irrespective of the mode opted, teachers should be able to implement the skills in their lives and teaching styles.
Continuous professional development cycle:
Continuing professional development encourages teachers to learn and improve consistently. The ability of teachers to understand their development needs and seek knowledge accordingly plays a key role.
The process of understanding the need to learn and implement is called a continuous professional development cycle. This cycle includes identifying the need, planning to learn, learning the skill, reflecting on the lessons learnt, implementing the learning and finally sharing.
Significance of academic leadership growth:
Leadership is an essential skill for teachers as well as students. The ability to set a goal, form a vision, give shape to the vision, uplift peers are key components of academic leadership growth.
In a learning environment, academic leadership is the ability to communicate your ideas effectively and also to engage with the ideas of others. This gives the ability to lead others and eventually foster academic leadership in students and teachers.
Some of the important traits of an effective academic leader are- the ability to speak the truth, compassion, have a self-formed thought, abide by school policies, ability to take risks, ability to commit, have a proactive attitude, conflict management, ability to listen, etc.
Activities involved in CPD plays a major role in enhancing these traits required for academic leadership growth. Let’s see how?
How CPD can contribute to academic leadership growth?
Continuing professional development prioritize formal as well as informal learning. Informal learning is derived from practical experiences, sharing knowledge with peers and getting challenged by peers. Each of these activities pushes the person to break their limits and outperform themselves.
This inculcates a progressive and healthy learning environment backed up with real-life lessons. CPD includes different kinds of activities, these activities help in academic leadership growth. Here are a few ways CPD can contribute to academic leadership growth:
Work-based learning
work-based learning helps to know the thoughts of peers. Work-based learning instils academic leadership by informally training the person to understand other’s perspectives, coach peers if needed, and prioritizes doing the activity in order to learn.
Some of the heavily used activities for work-based learning are, assessment of peers, understanding by experience, focusing on case studies, supervising peers, expanding the current role, project works, being a representative of a club, etc.
Professional activities
Professional activities contribute to academic leadership growth by developing a sense of responsibility in professionals, inculcating organization and management skills, ability to lead and ensure the progress of the team.
CPD activities that contribute to professional activities are mentoring, getting membership in a group, conducting conferences and meetings, organizing courses, participating in research, etc.
Volunteering
Volunteering is one of the best CPD activities that contribute to academic leadership growth. Volunteering often involves being a part of an organization where you have to network and help them. Volunteering helps to build networks and improves communication skills.
Volunteering is a much better way to practice a skill than selecting the classroom to practice it. It exposes teachers or students to real-life problems and inculcates problem-solving skills. A good academic leader must be excellent at listening to the audience and solving their problems. Volunteering also helps to build self-confidence- one of the must-to-have skills. Just by observing people around you, you can develop qualities that people admire and are good to have, to be a good leader.
Self-directed learning
An academic leader has a mind of thoughts. Self-directed learning helps individuals to form their own thoughts based on their perspective of learning.
Self-directed learning can be encouraged by journaling, reading books, doing research, documenting the day, using digital media like YouTube and television to get an update.
Formal education learning
Last but not the least, this CPD activity is crucial to have a piece of strong knowledge of leadership. You can take the help of courses, webinars, workshops, distance learning, seminars etc. to have a solid knowledge of leadership.
