Leadership of Teams

Overview

Whist the profession of teaching requires the establishment of effective teams, too often we assume career teachers have the skills and knowledge to create or be part of highly effective teams. Moving from a working group to a real team takes hard work and commitment, and the role of the teacher/leader is pivotal in shaping the culture and behaviours of the team. It takes a lot more than team-building events and one-day workshops for real teams to develop. This unit aims to teach how to build, lead and be a part of a cohesive team, including how to build trust, master conflict, achieve commitment, and embrace accountability.

Unit learning outcomes

Students who successfully complete this unit will be able to:

• Describe and critique contemporary leadership theories pertaining to their relevance of effective leadership of diverse teams and/or atypical team dynamics.
• Critically analyse Secure Base Leadership including its relevance to contemporary team environments in education settings.
• Evaluate critical incident responses using educational leadership theory
• Critically reflect on individual participation in team environments within education contexts using contemporary theories and practices.

Teaching methods

All applicable locations

Assessment

Content

Content topics within this unit will include:

• Understanding leadership and the impact of various leadership approaches
• Avoiding jumping to judgement and making premature assumptions 
• The perils of giving advice and asking the right questions
• Communicating for maximum effect, including influencing and mastering conflict
• Receiving, soliciting and providing feedback
• Coaching for empowering others.