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Instructional Leadership : Teaching And Learning

Decent Essays

Simply put, instructional leadership focuses on students. Instructional leadership “is strongly concerned with teaching and learning, including the professional learning of teachers as well as student growth” (Bush, 2007, p. 400). There is heightened awareness with instructional issues, ensuring professional development, conducting classroom observations, communicating high academic standards and ensuring the school environment is conducive to learning (Hattie, 2015). Instructional leaders are less focused on how to make schools a reflection of their educational beliefs and more concerned with keeping students first, as a means to drive positive change. Instructional leadership focuses on the principal closely monitoring the activities of not only the students’ work but also that of the teachers (Blase & Blase, 2000). This is aimed at improving instruction and technical activities of the school. Hallinger developed the most common conceptualization of instructional leadership. According to Hallinger (2003), there are three scopes to an instructional leadership design: defining the school’s mission followed by managing the program and finally promotion of a positive learning environment.
The first step involves establishing a number of goals, which ultimately define the school’s mission. Moreover, the goals need to be achievable and functional. More importantly, the mission needs to be drilled into all stakeholders for support. This includes the staff, the students and

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