Educational Paradigms and Models

Assignment 4: Educational Paradigms and Models

EDU 558: Seminar in Teacher Leadership

Educational Models that may Transform a School into a Learning Community

The educational model that best fits my school district, Kennett School District, would have to be a mixture between the factory model and service-delivery model. In some ways, the students are viewed as products that can influence major decisions for the district during standardized testing. How well each student performs directly reflects on both educators and the district as a whole. The “Factory,” ran by a CEO or principal and the teachers are viewed as skilled workers. There is also a sense of performance-based off of social status. The service-delivery model has helped me to understand the concept of what a school is by involving parents as questionable allies when problems arise, or help is needed. Slowly, our district has started to view educators within as a professional group. I feel that most students and parents look toward the educators within the district as professional experts in their field of work.

Learning communities are a group of people who interact at a personal level whose interactions can be face-to-face or electronic. A learning community is bound by a common quest to answer questions, solve issues, and solve problems. Learning communities enable districts to import and export knowledge.

These models as mentioned previously will assist in transformation of all components within a district. Transformation for students will rely mainly on the instruction of the teachers to engage and understand themselves as learners without excessive overload. One way to ease the excessive overload for students is for them to be as involved as possible. Students should be highly attuned learners. Students will essential in reshaping student affairs. Transformation of parents will go from little involvement to serving a higher purpose within the school. Still giving power to parents, without leadership duties. The transformation of teachers will go from underdog to coaching while working with the mental models present in the district. They must understand the concepts of reality and restructure these views to see into the underlying causes of problems. Transformation of principals will go from leaders to something greater. The principal whose desire is first and foremost not to lead, but to serve a higher purpose of implementing better organizations and reshaping the way the school operates. Transformation of the central office staff will go from knowledgeable employees to counselors of expertise. Sharing and enforcing policies created by the superintendent. Transformation of the superintendent will go from captain of the ship to ships designer, creating a shared vision of purpose and vision. Determining the strategies, policies, and structures that translate guiding ideas into decisions to be carried out. “Creating effective learning processes will allow for continuous improvements of strategies, policies, and structures” .

Examining the Effects

Economic Factors on Schools

Contrary to the time when only a few people were required to be well educated, today both civic and economic life require that all citizens have a profound grasp of the academic disciplines as well as the intellectual processes implicit in these disciplines.

Economic factors in rural communities, such as Kennett District, can have a strong influence on educational performance. With a family median annual income of under $35,000, it makes it tough on many families to provide, especially single-parent households. This can sometimes lead to placing some of the financial burdens on high school students within the low-income home. Many high school students in my community have one or more jobs to offset some of the costs for family members, which can lead to educational stress.

Moral Order Factors on Schools

One of the moral dilemmas I have seen throughout the schools my children have attended is that the cognitive approach is bent on doing something to the student and not something about the student. Students are flawed in character development, If personal traits that make for success are lacking, all the techniques and instructors in the world will not make a young person a good student or a good athlete.

School Board Leadership on Schools

Transformation of the school board will go from decision takers to policymakers. They will be the ones enforcing all district qualities tasked out to the chain of command hierarchy. They will oversee monetary decisions and ensure the districts permanence as a learning organization. (Frost, 2017)

Social Capital on Schools

“Social capital refers to the intangible resources embedded within interpersonal relationships or social institutions” . Social capital in the form of obligations, parental expectations, and social networks that exist within the school, family, and community are important for student success. Academic success can attribute to parents’ expectations and obligations for educating children. The disciplinary climate and academic norms established by the school community and mutual trust between the school and home are major forms of social capital. Higher social capital is more likely to produce students with better academic performance than with lower social capital.

Educational Paradigm or Model

My educational design would be called the “Divergent Community Model”. This model would assist in bringing the community together and getting it more involved within the district. This transformative way of thinking would encourage the district to think critically while taking in new ideas. The school board could pursue certain ideas through critical questioning while asking for the communities input, thus forming new ideas and relationships.

The leadership hierarchy would be the same, but a lot more inclusive and open to justified reasoning. This can be achieved through the five following points of the model: