Learning from the learners' experience: e-Learning@greenwich post-conference reflections

This publication comprises papers from presenters who, having made a conference presentation, were invited to author an academic paper about their work

Leadership-Focused Coaching in Action: An Approach to Continuous Improvement and Supporting Public Schools

This article details the efforts of one program’s collaborative efforts toward continuous improvement and strengthening partnerships with local school districts using Leadership-Focused Coaching, a research-based model for principal preparation programs. Practical experiences and lessons learned from the ongoing online program improvement and redesign initiative are shared. In advance of two accreditation visits, data and feedback were gathered from partner districts, recent graduates, current students, and employers, which helped to identify ways in which the program could better prepare instructional leaders. This article describes the efforts, successes, setbacks, and future plans of a group of professors working to improve a program while preparing for accreditation visits and strengthening district partnerships. Résumé Cet article détaille les efforts d’un programme spécifique de collaboration afin d’assurer une amélioration continue et un renforcement des partenariats avec des districts scolaires locaux au moyen du Leadership-Focused Coaching (coaching axé sur le leadership), lequel est un modèle basé sur la recherche pour les programmes visant à mieux former les directeurs d'école. Cet article partage les expériences et les leçons pratiques tirées d’une initiative en cours qui consiste à améliorer et reconcevoir le programme en ligne dont il est question dans l’article. Avant deux visites d'accréditation, des données et des commentaires ont été recueillis auprès de districts partenaires, de diplômés récents, d’étudiants actuels et d’employeurs, ce qui a permis d’identifier les moyens par lesquels le programme pourrait mieux préparer les leaders pédagogiques. En somme, cet article décrit les efforts, les succès, les revers et les projets d'un groupe de professeurs travaillant à l'amélioration d’un programme tout en se préparant aux visites d’accréditation et en renforçant les partenariats avec les districts. Keywords / Mots clés : leadership preparation, university-school partnerships, leadership field experience, leadership-focused coaching, leadership mentoring / préparation au leadership, partenariats université-école, expérience de terrain en matière de leadership, coaching axé sur le leadership, mentorat en matière de leadershi

The power of feedback: An indicator of mentor effectiveness during student teaching

Mentorship programs have become increasingly prevalent in multiple organizations, particularly due to a large number of positive outcomes for the mentees such as improved performance, attitudes, and retention (e.g. Eby et al., 2013). Likewise, research suggests that there are potential benefits of training mentors to work with student teachers, leading many teacher preparation programs to devote human and financial resources to develop trained mentor teachers, known as clinical faculty, to provide pre-service support. Findings have shown that student teachers feel most supported when given concrete and meaningful feedback to improve their instructional practices (Sayeski & Paulsen, 2012), therefore, clinical faculty training prepares mentor teachers to provide this feedback. The purpose of this study was to establish evidence of effective mentorship in trained clinical faculty. The study reviewed data over a three-year period of student teaching experiences to better understand indicators of effective mentorship, and 13 themes related to effective mentorship were established. Student teacher evaluations of their mentor teachers indicated more effective mentorship with clinical faculty than untrained mentor teachers, particularly with regards to feedback. It was hypothesized that trained mentors provide feedback more often and of higher quality than untrained mentor teachers. Feedback on assessments of student teachers was reviewed. Quality of feedback was scored by adapting Hattie and Timperley’s (2007) model of feedback – self, task, process, and self-regulation, with the view that process and self-regulation feedback is the most effective feedback to improve practice. The hypotheses for higher quantity and quality were not supported; therefore, limitations of the current practices in training mentor teachers are discussed

Lean Six Sigma in the Service Industry

In light of the increasing importance of the service sector, the objective of this chapter is to discuss whether the business improvement methodology known as Lean Six Sigma is applicable to the service industry as well, and illustrate some case study applications