Leadership & Entrepreneurship Skills - The Key to Effective Collaboration

Leadership is a key point not only in companies and offices, but also in European education. It represents one of the essential aspects which can surely lead to successful management and effective team work towards achieving the set goals of an (educational) institution. This international course aims at clarifying the following aspects: what leadership is; how to become a leader; how a manager can become a leader in a school institution; how a teacher can become a leader for his students; how a teacher can become a leader in the teachers’ teams he is involved; how to educate students to become leaders in their groups. The course provides knowledge, methodology, insights, skills and practical approaches to better explain what leadership is. It also offers guidance on how to become a leader due to a wide range of practical activities and challenging workshops. At the same time it focuses on internal strategies in order to make leadership operational for those who want to apply it in their work, thus, the course contributes to the empowerment of teachers as leaders in their learning institutions.

Preparation:

Support information and detailed program will be provided to all participants along with a list of materials and websites connected to the topic of the course. Moreover, a questionnaire will be sent to participants via email so that they can express their interests towards the topic of the course, requirements and expectations in terms of professional development. Participants are free to bring, if they want, a PPT presentation about their institution, teaching realities and educational systems in their countries. 

Course description

The course is structured into training modules and each module focuses on a particular aspect of leadership in educational institutions: what leadership is; how to become a leader; how a manager can become a leader in a school institution; how a teacher can become a leader for his students; how a teacher can become a leader in the teachers’ teams he is involved; how to educate students to become leaders in their groups. Each module provides knowledge, methodology, insights, skills and practical approaches to better explain what leadership is and how it can be achieved. The course offers guidance on how to become a leader due to a wide range of practical activities and challenging workshops. At the same time it focuses on internal strategies in order to make leadership operational for those who want to apply it in their work, thus, the course contributes to the empowerment of teachers as leaders in their learning institutions.

 Methodology:

Methodological approach involves:

• Ice-breaking sessions
• Self-motivation sessions
• Questionnaires
• Team building sessions
• Team work
• Questioning
• Planning and structuring
• Decision-making sessions
• Negotiation
• Brainstorming
• Goal-setting sessions
• Inquiry-based activities
• Problem-solving activities
• Debates
• Individual reflection
• Group discussions
• Pyramid-discussions 

Objectives

At the end of the course, participants will be able to:

• Explain what leadership is
• Understand the difference between a boss and a leader
• Apply various methods to become a leader
• Learn how a manager can become a leader in a school institution
• Practice strategies on how to become leaders for their students
• Develop leadership abilities in order to become leaders in the teachers’ teams they are involved
• Exercise practical approaches on how to educate students to become leaders in their groups
• Guide their colleagues and students on how to become leaders due to a wide range of practical activities and challenging workshops throughout the course
• Create internal strategies in order to make leadership operational in their careers
• Improve teaching and communication skills
• Exchange solutions to common challenges and examples of good practice with the other participants
• Evaluate and solve whatever conflicting situations with leadership skills and charisma

Modules

• Introduction to leadership proficiency
• What is a leader?
• From manager to leader
• How to become a leader
• What is leadership?
• Principles of leadership
• Top 10 qualities that make a great leader
• 20 keys to setting an example to be a good leader
• How to build more collaborative working relationships
• Effective team work and management

      a) The PDCA-cycle: PLAN + DO + CHECK + ACT
      b) The IMAR-cycle of empowerment: INSPIRE + MOBILISE + APPRECIATE + REFLECT

• Group forming, team dynamics and leadership – theoretical and practical approaches
• Marzano’s 9 strategies for effective instruction
• Improving school leadership (Temperley)
• Practical leadership skills in teaching

Learning Outcomes

• Use of leadership skills in forming groups, boosting team dynamics and increase effective team work management
• Increased confidence in teaching and leadership approach in the classroom
• Learning key elements and growing trends related to teaching entrepreneurship and leadership;
• Mastery of leadership skills both in the classroom and in teachers’ working teams
• Reinforcement of school leadership methods and techniques to increase students’ self-confidence, motivation and interest in their own education
• Acquisition of leadership skills, practical language, new transferable teaching techniques, soft skills, emotional intelligence to be used in the classroom
• Improved leadership ability to deal with conflict situations and to solve problems that may arise in the students’ groups, in the classroom or in the educational institution
• Development of tools and techniques to support students to develop entrepreneurial mindsets and assertive attitudes;
• Encourage students and motivate them to develop their entrepreneurship and problem solving skills 
• Interaction with teachers from various European countries
• Development of language and communication skills
• Increased capacity to cooperate on international level with representatives from different educational systems
• Exchange of practical ideas and examples of good practice with the participants for applying them in classroom
• Enhanced linguistic and intercultural awareness, tolerance, flexibility, open-mindedness and availability to work in international teams
• Increased level of internationalisation of their own institutions back home
• Broader understanding of practices, policies and systems of education after analyzing similarities and differences of realities they come from
• Encouragement to share best practices, ideas and materials among colleagues within the EU
• Improved abilities to use innovative and student-centered pedagogical approaches and to develop appropriate teaching and assessment methods, based on learning outcomes

Follow-up

Participants will be given hand outs during workshops and activities and self-evaluation materials will be provided as well. At the end of the course, they will receive a questionnaire to offer their feedback regarding the effectiveness of the training event and also soft copies of all PPT materials which will have been presented till the end of the course in order to be shown to their colleagues back home in their own institutions to generate interest in the new approach of leadership. There will be a group formed on a social network which will allow participants and trainers to keep in touch after the end of the course and to exchange impressions on how they apply leadership in their work. 

Programme of training activities day-by-day:

Day 1 – MONDAY

• Ice-breaking activities
• Introduction to leadership and entrepreneurship in today’s world
  

Day 2 – TUESDAY

• What is a leader?
• From manager to leader
• Leadership styles and team roles

Day 3 – WENDESDAY

• What is leadership?
• Principles of leadership
• Top 10 qualities that make a great leader
• Sharing best practices and entrepreneurial experiences

Day 4 – THURSDAY

• 20 keys to setting an example to be a good leader
• How to build more collaborative working relationships

Day 5 – FRIDAY

• Effective team work and management

       a) The PDCA-cycle: PLAN + DO + CHECK + ACT
       b) The IMAR-cycle of empowerment: INSPIRE + MOBILISE + APPRECIATE + REFLECT

• Teaching Entrepreneurship in classroom

Days 6/7 – SATURDAY and SUNDAY Workshops and Cultural/Sightseeing Activities

Day 8 – Monday

• Group forming, team dynamics and leadership – theoretical and practical approaches
• Fostering your students inner entrepreneurs
• Success story presentations: entrepreneurial leaders

Day 9 – Tuesday

• Marzano’s 9 strategies for effective instruction
• Improving school leadership (Temperley)
• Drafting an entrepreneurship and/or  leadership workshop

Day 10 – Wednesday

• Practical leadership skills in teaching
• Master classes (presentations of participants' projects on how they will use in their work what they have learned on leadership at this course)
• Feedback and evaluation  
• Certificate of attendance awarding