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**Action Research Week 1:** Firstly some background info on the School Leadership Capability Framework:



The School Leadership Capability Framework is divided into 5 domains and 3 inner circles

**The 5 domains:** //Educational// – pedagogical knowledge and application //Personal// – ethics and values, commitment to professional development, decision making and judgement //Strategic// – Building school vision and culture, advocacy, building leadership //Organisational// – operating effectively, managing resources, managing systems and processes //Interpersonal// – effective communication, productive relationships, inspiring others

**The 3 inner circles:** //Stance: Emotional Intelligence// – our sense of self and where we are coming from //Ways of thinking// – reading situations and reacting appropriately, being able to see core issues //Diagnostic mapping// – evaluation of practice

**We are going to focus on the three inner circles for this action research**

The first of the three interlocking circles is titled //Emotional Intelligence// and includes stance, ‘where we are coming from’, our experience of self (personal) and our interactions with others (interpersonal). Researchers have concluded that there are ten intelligences needed to be a leader. They are: ====Many researchers have investigated emotional intelligence since it was first proposed by Peter Salovey and John Mayer in articles published in 1990, but Daniel Goleman has popularised the theory. With his first book, "Emotional Intelligence" (1995) the concept of EI became known by a wider audience and began to be of particular interest in the field of leadership. Gradually organisations have become seriously interested in how EI could help their leaders operate more effectively. There are a number of studies that have linked EI competence to high leadership performance and poor EI to failure. ==== ====<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">Stance is why it is you see and do things and how you understand things. It is the way you do them: your experience of self (personal) and your interactions with others (interpersonal). It includes aspects of yourself; your persona, your joys and passions, your thoughts, feelings and experiences, your strengths and shortcomings, your own style and ways of doing things. More specifically, stance is based on your: ====
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">academic intelligence: high quality study and scholarship
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">collegial intelligence: the ability of teachers to work together to improve student outcomes
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">contextual intelligence: the ability to see the relationship of your school to the wider community and the system
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">empathic intelligence: a theory of relatedness, the values and functions of caring and empathy
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">ethical intelligence: the ability to use values and moral purpose to provide students with life-long learning skills
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">emotional intelligence
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">pedagogical intelligence: learning and teaching are regularly examined and improved for highest quality
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">reflective intelligence: monitoring and evaluating to achieve highest standards
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">spiritual intelligence: valuing of lives and the balance between school and personal needs
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">strategic intelligence: responding to the present, anticipating the future and creating the vision.
 * ====<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">principles: what guides you? ====
 * ====<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">values ====
 * ====<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">standards ====
 * ====<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">code of ethics ====
 * ====<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">moral purpose ====
 * ====<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">expectations and goals ====
 * ====<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">management of emotions and stress ====
 * ====<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">theories of learning, leadership and change ====
 * ====<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">beliefs, particularly about social justice and equity ====
 * ====<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">non-negotiables ====

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">Your stance is absolutely crucial to your leadership. It defines you and your success.

=
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">TASK: download, print and complete the Emotional Intelligence Test. Once you have done this please make a comment below about either something that you have read of interest in this section or on your own feelings about emotional intelligence. Feel free to comment on other posts. The easiest way to do this so that everything stays in order is to click on edit then scroll down to comments and add yours then press save. Alternatively press edit then comment at the top and we'll see what happens! =====

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">I have found this quite interesting and was able to reflect on myself and leaders that I have had in the past. In hindsight, I now feel that some issues could have been handled more appropriately had the leader had, either a higher level of Emotional Intelligence or more understanding of its value. I thought the quiz was a useful reflection, however find the word 'always' to be so definitive and the term 'at times' to be not quite enough. The quiz got me thinking - I hope that my perception of myself is true, in my experience peoples perceptions of themselves is not always the reality - I would hate to fall into the category! <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">(L.Vaux)

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">We were talking about others perceptions during our training day and it seems people tend to undervalue themselves rather than overvalue. Different people see different qualities in each other however so I assume its possible for people to have varying opinions about a person's EI, that too maight have an effect on how a leader leads or reacts in situations. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">(C. McKenna)

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">**Action Research Week 2:**

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">In this section of the module we are going to explore the second inner circle: ways of thinking. There are many different ways of thinking. You will, undoubtedly, have studied some of them. Each way opens up endless discovery, understanding and learning. School leaders have to choose appropriate thinking patterns and responses to each situation. You create your individual way of thinking. In this section we will briefly touch on some ways of thinking, reflect on situations and events in your workplace and read and match situations.

<span style="color: #000000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">Way of thinking involves your unique way of looking at things, evaluating ideas and making decisions. Most people use a range of different thinking approaches depending on the situation.

<span style="color: #000000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">There are many different ways of thinking. Each opens up endless discovery, understanding and learning. There are ten different ways of thinking that we have listed here. This list is not exhaustive. It includes some of the more popular ways of thinking. They include:


 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">Analytical thinking
 * <span style="color: #000000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">Contingent thinking
 * <span style="color: #000000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">Creative thinking
 * <span style="color: #000000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">Critical thinking
 * <span style="color: #000000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">Lateral thinking
 * <span style="color: #000000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">Logical thinking
 * <span style="color: #000000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">Parallel thinking
 * ====<span style="color: #000000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">Rational thinking ====
 * ====<span style="color: #000000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">Reflective thinking ====
 * ====<span style="color: #000000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">Systemic thinking ====

<span style="color: #000000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">From the various ways of thinking, leaders have to choose appropriate thinking patterns and responses to each situation. They need to construct their own way of thinking. Effective leaders have the capacity to predict and assess the consequences of alternative courses of action. They make judgements as to whether their thinking is right or wrong.

<span style="color: #000000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">Since there is never a fixed set of steps to solving a problem, thinking processes that focus on problem solving are important approaches to understand. Different problems may require different thinking approaches to determine a satisfactory solution.

<span style="color: #000000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">What kind of thinker are you?

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;"> TASK: click on the link and complete the ways of thinking quiz. It is short quiz of 36 questions. It should take you ten minutes to complete at most. It looks at how you spend your time, what things you like to do, how you prefer to work and how you describe yourself. You are not encouraged to think too deeply about your responses.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">Thinker quiz

<span style="color: #000000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">Add a comment below on something of interest from this week. Feel free to comment on other posts.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">** Week 2 Comments: ** <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">
 * <span style="color: #000000; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">I have found the self reflection on thinking rather interesting. Styles of thinking do affect how we look at a situation and interact with others. Though the quiz is a brief glimpse of how I prefer to think creatively and solve problems it acts to remind us that each person within the workplace is complex in their thinking styles and may interpret the same data set from a very different point of view. **

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">** Action Research Week 3: **

<span style="color: #000000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">In the creation of the conceptual framework for the SLCF, great care was taken to ensure there was a graphical representation of the overlap of the domains and then the inner circles. It is important for everyone to see that all areas are inter-related. A leader having all of the capabilities in one area of the SLCF and none in any of the other areas will exhibit a very unbalanced leadership style. Not to mention that it would be almost impossible to achieve this without gaining some capabilities in other areas. To be highly effective, school leaders need to try to develop in all of the areas. This is an ongoing learning journey. No-one ever has finished developing. Each new challenge can aid in the expansion of your leadership capabilities.

<span style="color: #000000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">In an English study published in 2005 it was found that it is the combination of a variety of capabilities that leads to success. Successful head teachers ‘were driven primarily by individual value systems’ and ‘moral purposes, emotional and intellectual commitment and ethical and social bonds’ ... These were resilient, not merely compliant, leaders.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">The final of the three interlocking circles is titled //Diagnostic mapping.// It is the second of the intellectual capabilities. The other intellectual or cognitive capability, your way of thinking, will influence the development of your diagnostic maps. Emotional intelligence will impact on the types of maps you create. In this capability you will see more clearly how the three interact. Diagnostic maps are the sets of actions that you follow when presented with a new situation, particularly those actions called upon when split second responses are required. They are the actions that define who is the true leader in the situation. They are based on your prior experiences and making connections to this new situation. Reflection on each new experience expands and perfects the actions incorporated into your diagnostic maps.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">When there is a high stress situation and intelligence is impaired, experience of the same or similar situations (diagnostic maps) enables the leader to react in appropriate ways without having to think carefully about the situation. This means that they are also directly related to theories of tacit knowledge and intuition. The more experience that you have in all aspects of your leadership role, the more you can hone your diagnostic maps. This leads to a greater ease and success of your response to unexpected and often stressful stimuli. This is one aspect of experience that cannot be economically quantified.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">TASK: What would you do in the following scenario? Answer each question as your week 3 comment.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">You are Head Teacher of a faculty. You are in the staffroom during a free period when one of your staff members call for you to attend the class next door to them (also one of your staff members). The teacher calling for you believes the class next door is out of control.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">What would you do first?

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">How might you identify the cause of the problem without judging the teacher?

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">What would you do next?

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">What would be the hardest task for you to do as the supervisor?

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">Would you do anything after (follow up)?

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">** Week 3 comments: **