There is a pressing need for focused leadership development aimed at rural community colleges, which have challenges distinct to their geographic contexts. Designed to address these needs, the Belk Center for Community College Leadership and Research developed the three-year, cohort-based Rural College Leaders Program (RCLP). This…

How can we prepare practicing and aspiring education leaders for the complex, adaptive challenges they face? In "Helping Educators Grow," Eleanor Drago-Severson presents a new approach to leadership development. Too often, she argues, we teach leadership development the same way we teach world history: just the facts. Instead, we need to…

Contemporary management thinking embraces the organizational training theory that sustainable success rests, to a great extent, upon a systematic evaluation of training interventions. However, the evidence indicates that few organizations take adequate steps to assess and analyse the quality and outcomes of their training. The authors seek to…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to invite educational managers and management educators to reflect critically on practice. Design/methodology/approach: Using the point of Socrates' death, the paper suggests ways of reflecting on actions using ethically-critical, socially-critical, environmentally-critical, politically-critical and…

Action learning is a process of learning and reflection that happens with the support of a group of colleagues ("set") working with real problems with the intention of getting things done. This guide is for those who want to practice action learning. It can be used to introduce the concepts of action learning to others and as a manual…

Intended primarily for human resources managers who are responsible for the development of executives, this paper lays out the potential advantages and hazards of enhanced feedback. It first looks at enhanced feedback and its rationale in detail. Four sources of data are described: numerical ratings and verbatim comments; data from the workplace…

There is growing public recognition that the most important route to educational improvement is through enhancing the skills and status of adults who work within the education system. The purpose of this document is to provide a resource to school personnel who are attempting to improve their professional development efforts; hence both sections…

The staff development program of the Elmira City School District, New York, is designed to assist teachers in teaching to the specific objectives of the curriculum, and to ensure that teachers have the requisite knowledge and skills to accomplish this. The plan provides an opportunity for every teacher, building administrator, and the…

An organizational development specialist tells how he prepared a management workshop on conducting effective meetings by first interviewing the managers and finding out what they wanted. Includes his "front-end analysis" questionnaire and the workshop format. (MF)

Describes a graduate study program designed by the Journalism department of Northeastern University to meet the needs of journalists who wanted management training. Discusses the program's development and problems it has encountered. (FL)

As part of the process of redefining institutional growth and vitality, the Dallas Community College District is attempting to become a "learning society," that is, an institution which is capable of on-going critical self-examination, which is process-oriented, and which encourages the development of new ideas. The major components…

Professional development programs provide useful learning experiences to administrators who think strategically about the value of the programs to themselves and to their institutions of higher education. Few supervisors encourage participation, so individuals must survey the opportunities and find those that match their needs for current and…

In nine chapters, this guide provides planners of professional development programs for school administrators, directors, and supervisors with background information for assistance with the design of local entry-year programs and activities by employing school systems. In chapter 1, the legal basis for entry year programs is examined through a…

This discussion of the needs and characteristics of single-staff librarians provides an overview of continuing education and professional development programs covering issues relevant to this group such as management techniques, the role of the library, time management, planning, budgeting, and automation. Eleven references are listed. (MES)

Interest in staff development for principals bodes well for teachers and students. By engaging in and modeling learning, principals can create a community of learners. (MLF)