Leadership for Teacher Learning to Support Innovative Pedagogies

Abstract

The need for techers to learn continuosly throughout their career has continued to grow in importance. This is understandable taking into consideration the fast pace of change that is taking place in societies around the world especially in how industries are transformed resulting from technological advances (e.g., robotics, artificial intelligence, etc). The future work places will require workers with a set of competences, and thus new set of knowledge, skills and dispositions. Education reforms must now direct and support transformations in the way teacher deliver their lessons so as to aid in the acquisition of these new set of competences. In the same spirit, school leaders need to provide appropriate structures to initiate and sustain the development of teaching competences along with appropriate innovative pedagogies suitable for the fourth industrial revolution. In this paper, i will propose key strategies that leaders in school can enact in order to support and sustain the right kind of teacher learning that would nurture innovative pedagogies. In terms of leadership, key ideas on distributed leadership, teacher leadership and instructional leadership will be expounded. In terms of teacher learning, teacher learning communities such as Lesson Study and Action Research will be expounded.