"The school itself needs to become a major focus for the professional development of the professional staff - and this includes the principal of the school as well" (Eisner, 1995, p. 104). It must be recognised that learning to teach and to lead is a lifelong professional activity, not something one completes in a leadership development program. These programs provide an initiation not a culmination, and in order to get better at their work educational leaders need to have constructive feedback regarding their daily work. Traditionally schools have been structured in ways that isolate staff; instead structures need to be created which make it possible for teachers, principals and superintendents to see and to talk with each other about their work.
A positive climate for adult learning is essential for leadership development programs. The Indiana Principal Leadership Academy provided a safe, supportive environment for learning. Considerable attention was given during the program, particularly during the early stages, to building a sense of teamwork and camaraderie (Hallinger & Anast, 1992). In the British Local Education Authority program participants commented on the "loyalty, mutual trust and self-confidence the process engendered" (Wallace, 1992, p. 360). Educators felt strongly about the benefits derived from being able to practice new behaviours in a safe environment before trying them in a real-life setting. Peer interaction, feedback and mentoring were noted as strengths of the Leader 1-2-3 program in South Dakota (Baron & Uhl, 1995). Principals responded that they might have derived additional benefits from their training program if they had been encouraged to take even more risks during their program (Hallinger & Anast, 1992). "An ideal learning environment will be sensitive to the varying levels of readiness manifested by school leadership candidates and recognise the particular needs of adult learners working in a variety of social contexts" (Begley, 1995, p. 199).
Leadership development programs require the deliberate creation of support networks. Building a network for program participants promotes continuing professional and personal development, develops a trusted peer group, and creates time for reading, reflection and thoughtful discussion (Krovetz, 1995). Such networks require a professional focus, variety and relevance in topics, a confidential environment for substantive discourse, and leadership opportunities for all participants.
Researchers have advocated the notions of situated cognition and cognitive apprenticeship as a way of improving the quality of administrative training programs by placing greater emphasis on the social and cultural context in which learning takes place (Begley, 1995; Prestine & LeGrand, 1991). Learning is viewed as active, collaborative and authentic, and the focus is on the processes educational leaders use in actual practice to solve real-life problems. Use of authentic problems and settings promotes transfer of knowledge from the instructional setting to the real-life administrative setting (Baron & Uhl, 1995; Cordeiro & Campbell, 1995; Leithwood & Steinbach, 1992). For transfer of knowledge and skills which are subject to routine and frequent use, it is helpful to provide many opportunities for practice across a wide variety of problem types, feedback about the adequacy of performance, and additional opportunities for guided practice.
Coaching during the process of implementation enables the learner to practice new skills and strategies with an expert's support and guidance. The skilled coach already possesses sophisticated cognitive structures to guide performance and the knowledge of how best to provide feedback. "As a consequence, such a person is likely to facilitate improvement in the learner's guiding schema and actual performance much faster than if the learner has available only his or her own analysis of performance discrepancies" (Leithwood & Steinbach, 1992, p. 324). Coaching can provide the learner with the confidence to undertake new initiatives as well as with the technical assistance needed to do so successfully. "Moreover, unless principals acquire skill mastery, they may do more harm than good during the implementation process" (Hallinger & Anast, 1992, p. 427). Coaching also supports the adaptation of program content to the needs of the local school. This function is of particular importance when the program is general in nature and the settings for implementation vary widely among participants. In addition coaching provides a limited form of accountability. The awareness that a colleague or instructor will be coming to coach provides additional impetus for a learner to engage in implementation.
Other cognitive and metacognitive processes also need attention. Effective educational leadership is a highly complex process which is "grossly underestimated by behaviourally-based recipes for administrative success" (Leithwood & Steinbach, 1992, p. 317). Actions unique to individual leaders may explain a much greater proportion of their effectiveness than the relatively small number of actions that research suggests they have in common. Efforts to improve the effectiveness of educational leaders may more productive if more consideration were given to improve the quality of thinking and problem solving rather than simply focussing on actions or behaviours. Such cognitive orientations are compatible with adult learning theory and with the notion of reflective practice (Prestine & LeGrand, 1991).
The leadership profiles from Ontario, the Northwest Territories and Western Australia described patterns of professional growth for educational leaders:
from a tendency toward reactive responses to proactive responses; from reliance on personal preferences in decision making to a focus on consensus to an outcomes-based or consequences focus to a sensitivity to, and accommodation of, multiple environmental influences; from rigid adherence to fixed procedure to procedural flexibility to philosophical or conceptual fidelity; from in-school focus to interschool focus to school-within-the-greater-community focus; and from a limited repertoire to a broad repertoire of strategies. (Begley, 1995, p. 193)
These patterns are an illustration of the developmental nature of leadership which requires consideration in program design.
In a redesigned leadership development program Behar-Horenstein (1995) recommended the following characteristics:
use of performance-based competencies; generation of knowledge that promotes the development of a reflective practitioner; a focus on cognitive and metacognitive processes; instructional methods that emulate the modelling, coaching and scaffolding concepts integral to cognitive apprenticeship; group discussion activities that encourage students to link their experiences to conceptual knowledge; learning activities that challenge students to use problem-solving skills and demonstrate their theoretical knowledge; and a greater emphasis on curriculum, instruction and teaching processes rather than the administrative and managerial functions. (p. 20)
Based on my leadership experiences and on recommendations from a variety of print and electronic sources, these characteristics seem appropriate. I would also recommend additional characteristics for leadership development programs:
From my perspective as a practising principal, a well-designed leadership development program would provide the opportunity to grow personally and professionally; to do creative, excellent work for the employing school district; and to receive the additional benefit of recognised leadership credentials.
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