Leadership Issue/ Essay / Paper by AssignmentLab.com

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Running head: LEADERSHIP ISSUE 1

Leadership Issue

First name, middle initial(s), last name

Institution



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Abstract

The current paper is dedicated to the exploration of a leadership issue, which is integration of

the internet into the school curriculum. The analysis identifies the steps, which the leader

takes to perform this integration and the strategies used by her, as well as the barriers, which

she faced. Based on the principal’s practice, her leadership style is identified. The description

of benefits for students and teachers follows. Finally the key lessons, learned from the

principal’s experience, are pointed out. The research shows that the principal of the school is

a good leader and her experience can be used as an example for other leaders. The main

aspects of her success are as follows: gaining support, teambuilding, inspiration, and control.

It is also pointed out that internet integration with the curriculum is a factor, which can

significantly improve the level of education in schools.

Keywords: Internet, integration, curriculum, leadership, secondary school.



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Leadership Issue

The management of any organization sooner or later faces some leadership issue. It

might concern different aspects of activity. It takes a skillful leader to deal with it. If it is

managed properly, the organization can benefit. This paper is dedicated to analysis of a

leadership issue, which is integration of the internet into the school curriculum. In course of

the paper I am going to reflect upon this issue. I am going to describe the strategies of dealing

with it, as well as benefits and problems, which it can bring. In the end of my research I am

going to formulate the lessons learned from this leadership issue.

In the modern society informational technologies play a very important role. They have

become a significant part of our daily activities. They make our lives easier and expand our

opportunities. The internet is one of the most advanced technologies. It is hard to imagine our

lives without it. People use internet for work, entertainment, information, and studying.

Lately, it has become an important issue to integrate the internet with the curriculum. It has

been a subject of many recent studies (e.g. Mohammed & Al-Karaki, 2007). The internet

integration into the educational process has already changed the educational system of many

developing countries, such as India (Viswanathan, 2008). In a secondary school it is a matter

of a great concern of a principal and administration. It is necessary to study this process and

find out what actions should be undertaken in order to make it as effective as possible. The

principal also needs to make sure that everyone benefits from such integration. It is also

important to identify the barriers and ways of eliminating them.

Before integrating the internet with the curriculum the goals should be identified. A

principal must have a clear vision of what he or she is trying to achieve by this integration. In

my school the leader has set the following goals: enhancement of the learning process,



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development of basic skills of internet usage, stimulation of independent research,

optimization of teachers’ work, and curriculum extension.

The next step that the leader undertook is choosing the subjects, with which the internet

should be integrated in the first place. One of such subjects is foreign language, particularly

English. It is practiced in many schools all over the world. However, in the Arab countries,

the integration of the internet with foreign language learning is not very popular (Al-

Mekhlafi, 2004). There are many reasons why internet-based learning of foreign languages

should be implemented in schools. The internet provides the learners with plenty of

information, visual and audio tools, which improve comprehension and pronunciation

(Kilimci, 2010); it also adds some elements of entertainment to the learning process and

creates a feeling of involvement into the global community (Al-Mekhlafi, 2004).

The other subjects, such as physics, chemistry, mathematics, history, and biology were

integrated with the internet in the second place. The decision about the integration was made

based on teachers’ opinions and availability of school’s financial resources.

It is obvious that not all the internet content is reliable and truthful. Moreover, some

sites contain material, which is inappropriate for children. That is why it is important to

choose web-resources, which are good for using by the students. There are different ways to

reduce access to undesirable resources to a minimum. They are as follows: parental

acknowledgements and permissions, blocking access to inappropriate web-sites, restricting

the students from an independent research, and discussions with the students (Karchmer,

2001). The principal encourages the teachers to use these techniques. However they decide

which one is the most appropriate for their classes.

There are different criteria, according to which the sites can be evaluated (Alqudsi-

Ghabra, 2003). The principal of Private Glory School has chosen the following set of criteria:

purpose, sponsorship, content, stability, and navigation. The list of appropriate sites was



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created and the teachers were informed about it. They were instructed to encourage students

to use these resources in their studying. Meanwhile, a list of prohibited sites was created, and

the access to them was blocked.

However, there are various web-tools, which make research and learning more exciting

and effective, such as WebQuest, telecomputing activities, and Walden’s Paths (Betz, 2000).

These web resources create an interactive environment, where the students can get

information, complete tasks, and receive instructions. It should be marked, that according to

research conducted by Segers, Droop, and Verhoeven (2010), integration of WebQuest has a

positive impact on students ’ academic achievements. The principal should suggest that the

teachers use them in their class activities.

An important issue, which the principal had to deal with, is computer literacy of the

teachers. It turned out that not all of them knew how to work with computers and the internet

properly. That is why special classes were organized, where the teacher received the relevant

basic knowledge. The teachers must be able to deal with the software, which is used in class

in order to get the maximum benefit from it.

As the next step, the teachers were required to integrate the internet with their particular

courses. They had to develop an academic program of their courses which would include the

internet usage. The course descriptions had to be approved by the principal. Each course had

to involve a certain amount of hours, dedicated to the research on the internet. The teachers

were instructed to assist the students in their researches.

The next measure was establishing a system of control. As any novelty, integration of

the internet with curriculum needs to be controlled. It is important to diagnose any deviations

from the initial plan and eliminate them as soon as possible. If it was evident that something

is not working as it should, or some measures are ineffective, the relevant changes were

made. Both teachers and students participated in giving feed-back.



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In order to enable all these steps of the process to work, the principal of Private Glory

School implemented certain strategies. The strategies involve the following aspects: co-

operation with the teachers, concern with students’ needs and preferences, establishing of

control and feed-back system, and implementation of the best practices of integration of the

internet with curriculum. In the following par agraph I am going to describe the principal’s

strategy in details.

In the first place the principal prepared the ground for an upcoming innovation. She

realized the importance of everyone understanding the advantages of the internet integration.

She needed support from the teachers of her school. The measure, which she undertook was a

creation of an orientation program. It is a very important strategic move. The innovation is

always more effective, if it is accepted by the subordinates. If the principal had not done the

orientation program, the teachers probably would have rejected the integration process.

Another important part of the strategy is teambuilding. The work of the principal of

Private Glory School is based on co-operation with the teachers. That is why she always

makes sure that everyone is involved. In her team everyone performs certain functions, which

are ultimately aimed at the common benefit. To enable the process of the internet integration

to work, the principal created a team of professionals within her school, including deputy

headmaster, school register, the head of computer and since department, and three senior

teachers. Together they worked out the steps of the internet integration and controlled this

process.

A necessary part of a good leader's practice is inspiration. A leader must not just make

the subordinates do something, but make them want to do that. As a good leader, the

principal of Private Glory School implemented this concept. She shared her vision of how the

new system should work like. She inspired the teachers and the student to use a new approach

to learning.



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The final part of the principal’s strategy was the establishment of a feed -back system. It

is important to know, how the subordinates react to the innovation. The best way to find this

out is to organize a survey, which would illustrate the attitudes of the teachers and the

students. The survey conducted by the principal showed, to what extent the goals of the

integration were achieved. It also helped to measure the success of the innovation. The survey

also helped to point out the deviations from the plan.

As suggested by Bingimlas (2009), the barriers to the integration of the new

technologies can be classified as teacher-level and school-level. In Private Glory School the

teacher-level barriers are as follows: lack of skills of teachers and their sequential resistance

to integration. School-level barrier is lack of time. However, these obstacles were

successfully managed by the principal.

The main barrier was that not all the teachers were familiar with the internet

technologies. They were not willing to accept the novelty at first. The old-fashioned way of

getting information seemed more convenient for them, while the perspective of introduction

of a new system was confusing. However, the principal eliminated this problem by

establishing special training courses for teachers and students.

Another barrier is the lack of time to implement new technologies. This is a common

problem, which has been a subject of research (Almekhlafi & Almeqdadi, 2010). Teachers

are already loaded with a lot of work. Integration of the internet requires time and effort,

since the teachers have to familiarize themselves with the technology and adjust their

curricula to it. The principal delegated the personnel of the computer department to assist

other teachers while they make the adjustments to their curricula.

The teachers played a very important role in the integration process. Their role is to be

the link between the internet and the students on one hand and the internet and the curriculum

on the other hand. The teachers should act like guides while the students perform internet-



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based activities. Such practice is exemplified by Brandl (2002). According to his suggestions,

the teacher should act like a facilitator of a learning process. The importance of this approach

is also pointed out by Snider and Gershner (1999). In the school the like system has been

applied. The teachers are supposed to identify the relevant internet resources for each topic

and give the task, which is to be completed with the help of these resources. At the same time

the students are encouraged to use some independent research within the boundaries,

determined by the teachers.

On the other hand the teachers determine the specific ways of integrating the internet

with the course programs of their own subject. They know the best the specifics of their

subjects and therefore can work out the best ways of using the internet in the learning

process. They are also able to sort out the most appropriate and reliable internet resources

which can provide the students with the most accurate information. Moreover, the teachers

know the students’ needs and abilities as regards to their subjects. Therefore they can choose

the info rmation, which would be adequate to the students’ level of knowledge. The matter of

teachers ’ concern is reading level of the web pages. Some of them can be too difficult to

comprehend; the others may be too easy (Karchmer, 2001). The teachers have to study the

content of web sites carefully and choose the appropriate ones according to this criterion. At

the same time the teachers are responsible for making sure that the leaning process is not

interrupted by inappropriate use of internet resources and that the students receive all the

necessary information.

Regarding the actions, undertaken by the principal her leadership style can be

identified. The relevant literature specifies many different styles of a leader (Marturano &

Gosling, 2007). I would identify two leadership styles, which correspond with my leader’s

practice in the best way. They are as follows: participatory leadership and transformational

leadership. As a participative leader she involves the teachers in the decision making



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process. She creates a team of adherers, who put their efforts in order to achieve the corporate

goals. The principal appreciates the participation of each teacher in the integration process.

She also pays attention to their opinions and makes improvements according to them. On the

other hand, the principal’s leadership style can be described as transformational. That means

that she strives for changes and innovations. Her number one priority is to improve

functioning of the organization. The principal puts a lot of effort to promoting the level of her

school. She has implemented some innovations to the learning process before. For example,

she integrated the Smart Board into the learning process. She shares her vision and passion

with the subordinates and in such a way she stimulates them to work hard and show

significant positive results. The combination of these two leadership styles assured the

successful integration of the internet with the curriculum of her school.

The students usually welcome the integration of the internet technologies with the

curriculum (Mohammed & Al-Karaki, 2007). The results of this specific study are not unique

for that institution. They represent the tendency, which is common both for schools and

universities. The integration of the internet with the curriculum in Private Glory School

brought a lot of benefits to the students. First of all, they got an access to the most

sophisticated information resources to use in their studying. The new system enables them to

find the most up-to-date information on any topic right in the classroom. It is a great

advantage for them, because before that they had to search for the information in books,

many of which were outdated. Researches show, that the traditional methods of learning are

not very effective; student-centered learning environments with internet integration give

much better results (Cubukcu, 2008). Moreover, the process of learning becomes much easier

and more enjoyable with the help of internet technologies. It is no more limited to the course

program, outlined in books. Now the students can use online courses with video and audio

aids which improve the comprehension.



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Another advantage of the internet integration is that the students received the access to

many online databases, which offer a great number of articles on various topics. They can be

used for in- class discussions, which improve the students’ understanding of the particular

subject. The researches show, that the students, who use the internet in their learning are

more motivated to solve difficult problems (Capper, 2003).

The innovation also gives the students freedom to choose what information to use and

what to leave out. The teachers only specify what resources to use; the rest of the research is

done by the students. This approach improves the students’ analytical skills and stimulates

independent thinking.

The teachers of Private Glory School also benefited from the integration of the internet

into the curriculum. First of all, they don’t have to collect the papers with assignments , which

they receive from their students any more. Now the students have an opportunity to submit

their homework and class work via e-mail. On the other hand, the teachers can make some

corrections and send the graded assignments back to the students. It becomes easier for the

teachers to review, store, and keep track of the student’s written assignments.

The new approach to educational process gives the teachers more freedom for creativity

and initiative. It also gives them an opportunity to reveal and develop their potential. They

can enrich their lessons by introducing to the students the most up-to-date information found

on the internet (Schofield & Davidson, 2002, p. 215). For example, in natural science classes

the teachers can encourage students to discuss the most recent discoveries; in geography class

they can use online satellite maps instead of traditional ones. Those, who achieve the best

results, will surely be recognized by the principal. They will feel proud of their achievements

and enthusiastic about doing their job even better (Schofield & Davidson, 2002, p. 224).

Having studied the process of integrating the internet with the curriculum in Private

Glory School, we can point out the key lessons, learned from the leader’s practice. The study



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has shown that the principal of this school is a good leader. Therefore, her experience can be

a good example for other leaders. The most significant aspects of her dealing with the issue

are as follows: gaining support, teambuilding, inspiration, and control.

These aspects were the composites of her strategy, which ensured its success. Now I

am going to identify the lessons, which can be learned by others based on the steps of the

integration process, undertook by the principal.

1. Before introducing any novelty, it is important to define the goals which are to be

achieved. In order to do that it is necessary to have a vision of the desirable outcome of the

improvement. Without specific goals it is impossible to measure the success and identify the

possible deviations. Moreover, the vision must be delivered to the subordinates in order to

establish an appropriate climate in the organization (Sa ğnak , 2010). They should understand

their specific role in the innovation process and be willing to perform it.

2. Technological innovation is a very important aspect of a leader’s practice

(Gregory-Mina, 2009). In order to make sure that innovation is going to work and be

successful, the trial measures should be undertaken. They will help to identify how the

system can be improved. They will also help to avoid confusion and misunderstanding. Only

when a leader sees that the probation is successful, he or she can move on to the overall

implementation of an innovation.

3. A good leader always cares about safety. That is why before integrating a new

technology, the leader has to make sure that it is not going to bring any harm to the users. The

principal of Private Glory School took measures to secure the students against undesirable

and harmful information, which they might receive via internet.

4. Finally, it is necessary to establish control over the integration process. All the

members of the organization should be involved in it by measuring the results and giving



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feedback. The leader must trust and appreciate the opinions of his or her subordinates, and

maybe make some corrections to the plan.

In the current paper I have analyzed a leadership issue, which is integrating the

internet with the curriculum in Private Glory School. The principal of this school has done an

immense work enabling this innovation to function to the benefit of the teachers and the

students. Internet integration into the curricula of secondary schools is becoming more and

more popular. If administrations of schools use smart integration strategies, they will be able

to promote the level of education in their schools and improve learning processes, as it was

done in Private Glory School.



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Leadership Issue/ Essay / Paper by AssignmentLab.com