Last year, I taught continuing education with the Coquitlam School District. I taught Foundations of Mathematics 11 twice a week in the evenings to adult learners looking to upgrade or gain credits for graduation. The demographics of the students ranged from newly graduated high school students looking to upgrade their marks for university applications to more mature, newly-immigrated adults working towards completing a dogwood diploma or an adult graduation diploma. While challenging at times because of the wide range of backgrounds and skills of the students, it was also one of the most rewarding experiences of my career so far. I would like to share my experience by framing it around Malcolm Knowles’ (as cited in Trinity Western University, 2017) six principles of Andragogy.

1. As a person matures, his or her self-concept moves from that of a dependent personality toward one of a self-directing human being.
   One of the biggest learning differences I noticed in my evening class of adult learners compared to my morning class of teenage students was the adult learners’ abilities to work through difficult math problems on their own. In my morning class of teenage students, I needed to do a lot of scaffolded learning in order to guide the students to solve the problems otherwise many of them would give up on the question altogether. However, in the evening class, the adult learners showed a lot more perseverance and grit. They would often work through difficult problems without needing and requesting guidance at every step.
2. An adult accumulates a growing reservoir of experience, which is a rich resource for learning.
   Foundation of Mathematics 11 deals with many real life applications such as income taxes and probability. This often led to many meaningful conversations about life in general because all the students came from different backgrounds and had different experiences. One conversation I really enjoyed was when we discussed the addictive qualities of gambling during our unit on probability. Adult learners bring a much broader spectrum of opinions and ideas because of the experiences they have had in life.
3. The readiness of an adult to learn is closely related to the developmental tasks of his or her social role.
   As I mentioned earlier, many of the adult students were new immigrants who were working towards either an adult graduation or a dogwood diploma. A large number of these students felt that achieving a diploma was an integral part of becoming integrated into Canadian society and culture. These students often worked much harder than others whose goals were to take the course to upgrade a mark for college or university applications.
4. There is a change in time perspective as people mature – from future application of knowledge to immediacy of application. Thus, an adult is more problem than subject centered in learning.
   While the main focus of the course was still covering the learning outcomes of the course, we often veered off into discussions that were off-topic. Because I immigrated to Canada as a young child with my family, many of the newly-immigrated students were much more interested in my background than in the mathematics. They were much more interested in learning about my experience assimilating into the culture here than they were about the actual math. I enjoyed our conversations very much because it really helped me build a strong connection with the students.
5. Adults are mostly driven by internal motivation, rather than external motivators. 
   In my day classes with teenage students, most of them were driven to perform by grades. I found that many students were more concerned with their marks than with the actual learning of mathematics. However, in my evening classes, the adult students were much more focused on the actual learning of the mathematics and understanding the concepts. While grades and marks were still important to them, there was a much larger focus on actually understanding the material rather than just how to achieve a good grade. I believe that this was because many of the adult learners were internally motivated to learn rather than just externally motivated by grades.
6. Adults need to know the reason for learning something. 
   This was the hardest part about teaching math to adult learners. In a class of teenage students, they rarely asked why something was taught. However, with adult learners, they often asked why something was taught and whether it was really relevant. In the case of upper level secondary mathematics, sometimes there was no “real-life” relevance. For example, there is really very little reason for most people to learn about standard deviations and variances. However, adult learners are also extremely understanding with the answer “because it is in the curriculum”. They understood that while some of the concepts were not directly applicable to their lives, it was part of the course and that was enough of a reason to learn the concept.

My favourite part about working with adult learners was the connections and relationships I built with them. Even though I was the teacher there to deliver the math lessons, I found that I learned so much myself just from learning about their backgrounds and skills. I hope that in the future, I will have the opportunity to work with adult learners again.

References

Trinity Western University. (2017). Unit 6 Notes. Retrieved from https://create.twu.ca/ldrs500/unit-6/unit-6-notes/

I had the opportunity to talk to Simarjit yesterday. I enjoyed our conversation and really appreciated the connection I was able to make with a classmate in an online course setting!

Simarjit is a physician practicing internal and geriatric medicine. She started her career as a physician in India and moved to New York with her family about ten years ago. Understandably so, this move was one of the most challenging and rewarding times of her life. Simarjit remembers this time fondly and while it was stressful moving with her husband and her two daughter to a new country, she recalls no bad memories. Simarjit thrives under pressure and believes in making the most of every situation.

Simarjit is very content with her current situation both professionally and personally. She has worked hard, especially since immigrating to Canada, and is happy with the life she has built for her and her family. She is working towards obtaining her graduate degree in Leadership at Trinity Western because she believes it could open doors for leadership roles in her field in the future. Since she has extensive qualifications and experience in the medical aspect of her job, she would like to receive more formal and in-depth training in the areas of business and administration. This is her first experience with the Canadian education system and she is enjoying the opportunities she has been given to reflect deeper into her everyday practice and work strategies. Indeed, it was clear from our conversation that Simarjit is a life-long learner who is content with her current surroundings, but is ready to embrace the many possibilities the future could hold.

Simarjit explained to me that in her field as a physician, there are not many opportunities for further professional growth unless one is proactive about seeking them out. She has goals to take on a leadership role such as a section lead or a managing director in her current organization or possibly with a Canadian health authority. Gaining the experience and qualifications for these positions means taking on smaller leadership roles with local medical associations or external committees. Simarjit works a busy schedule right now so she has not had the chance to explore these options. However, in the future at the right time, she is open to taking on reduced working hours in order to make time for these necessary steps towards her future goal.

In order for a team to be effective and purposeful, team leaders must regularly take internal and external actions. Internal leadership actions are either task-based or relational-based while external leadership actions are environmental based (Rowe& Guerrero, 2011, p. 314).

At my work, my department head, Lisa, is the team leader for our program. She regularly performs all of the internal and external leadership actions listed by Rowe and Guerrero (2011, p. 315). Lisa works closely with our team of teachers and with our vice-principal to ensure that our program runs smoothly and optimally. She exemplifies the qualities of a strategic team leader. Generally as a team, we are working fairly independently in our own courses. However, we often come together to work on bigger projects like curriculum implementation and strategies for student enrolment growth.

Internal task-based actions include “goal focusing, structuring for results, facilitating decision making, training, and maintaining standards” (Northouse as cited in Rowe & Guerrero, 2011, p. 313). “Organizational mission, vision, and and values are important aspirational components that create meaning and purpose” (Hughes, Beatty, & Dinwoodie, 2014, p. 24). Lisa often reminds us that the mission of the district’s online program is to provide students with an alternate option that offers flexibility while maintaining educational integrity. To help ensure we are meeting our goals, Lisa identifies and uses strategic drivers to help align us with the program’s vision. Lisa regularly reviews our course and student numbers to ensure that our loads are structured properly. When decisions need to be made regarding specific courses, she supports teachers with feedback and suggestions while still allowing each teacher his or her autonomy in the course. In our group of teachers, Lisa has been teaching online the longest and as such, she is the most familiar with policies and programs. She provides training for new online teachers as well as training sessions for program updates during professional development days. Most importantly, Lisa maintains the standards of the online program but role modelling it in her own practice and also reminding us as a group the importance of providing each student with the best education possible. In doing these tasks, Lisa completes all the internal task-based leadership actions regularly.

Internal relational actions include “coaching, collaborating, managing conflict, building commitment, satisfying needs, and modeling principles” (Northouse as cited in Rowe & Guerrero, 2011, p. 315). One of the roles of a good leader is to “build community to provide a place where people can feel safe and connected with others, but are still allowed to express their own individuality” (Northouse, 2016, p. 229). It is evident that Lisa strives to create a culture where open communication is encouraged and conflict resolution is accomplished as smoothly as possible. On many occasions, Lisa has coached the team on how handle certain situations with students or parents. She also regularly encourages us to work together as a team whenever possible to share new ideas and practices that we have found successful in our individual courses. When team members have experienced conflict with each other, Lisa mediates the resolution by encouraging members to express their perspectives calmly and to compromise as much as possible. Lisa works to enhance team commitment by building trust and supporting the needs of the teachers (Rowe & Guerrero, 2011, p. 315). She consistently models the principles that she encourages and expects from the team.

External leadership actions include “networking, advocating, negotiating support, buffering, assessing, and sharing information” (Northouse as cited in Rowe & Guerrero, 2011, p. 313). Perhaps Lisa’s most impressive leadership action is her ability to advocate for us as teachers. She is constantly in conversations with our vice-principal and our district’s teacher union to negotiate more support for our team. Lisa is always networking with other distributed learning programs to learn about new practices and supports that are available for teachers. She regularly participates in provincial committees to learn about the new curriculum and expectations and then relays that information to our team.

While I was reading this chapter 11 in Rowe and Guerrero’s (2011) book, I could not help but feel blessed that I work under such strong leadership in my current position. My department head truly embodies the characteristics of a strong team leader and consistently practices the internal and external actions needed for optimal team development and maintenance.

References

Hughes, R. L., Colarelli Beatty, K., & Dinwoodie, D. L. (2014). Becoming a Strategic Leader: Your Role in Your Organization’s Enduring Success. San Francisco, CA: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Northouse, P. G. (2016). Leadership: Theory and Practice. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Rowe, G. W. & Guerrero, L. (2011). Cases in Leadership. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

The two critical functions of team effectiveness are performance and development (Northouse, 2016, p. 368). Performance refers to the quality of the work produced by the team and development refers to the level of cooperation between the team members (Nadler as cited in Northouse, 2016, p. 368).

The six components that support group effectiveness are (Hackman as cited in Northouse, 2016, p. 368):

1. Compelling purpose
2. Right people
3. Real team
4. Clear norms of conduct
5. Supportive organizational context
6. Team-focused coaching

The eight characteristics consistent with team excellence are (Larson & LaFasto as cited in Northouse, 2016, p. 369):

1. Clear, elevating goal
2. Results-driven structure
3. Competent team members
4. Unified commitment
5. Collaborative climate
6. Standards of excellence
7. External support and recognition
8. Principled leadership

A clear, elevating goal needs to be present so that team members can measure their success by whether or not the team objective has been accomplished (Northouse, 2016, p. 368). When goals are vague, teams have difficulty trying to figure out what their mission is. Goals should be motivating so that team members feel that they are important and worth pursuing (Northouse, 2016, p. 368). Different teams have different purposes so they must find the best team structure to accommodate their needs and tasks (Northouse, 2016, p. 369). Larson and LaFasto describe this as having a results-driven structure (as cited in Northouse, 2016, p. 369). Some teams emphasize trust, while others focus on clarity or creativity.  Hackman equates this to having a compelling purpose (as cited in Northouse, 2016, p. 369).

Hackman and Walton agree with Larson and LaFasto in that teams need competent team members (as cited in Northouse, 2016, p. 370). It is important to have the right people who have the training, education, and people-skills for the task (Northouse, 2016, p. 370). I currently work as a teacher at Coquitlam Open Learning (COL), the online program for the district. The team that I work with consists of teachers who are trained in both their academic subject area and the online systems and procedures. It is important that each teacher has the skills and technical knowledge needed to maintain their online courses for maximum program efficiency.

A real team has unified commitment and a collaborative climate (Northouse, 2016, p. 370). In order for a team to work together effectively, the team must have a sense of unity and team spirit (Northouse, 2016, p. 370). As well, the culture of the team should be one that encourages honesty, openness, and trust (Northouse, 2016, p. 370). Before I became a teacher, I worked at the British Columbia Dental Association as a statistical analyst. On several occasions, I worked closely with different project managers on different teams. Some project managers encouraged openness, trust and creativity within their teams while other were authoritative and demanded perfection. It became obvious after several projects that the teams with project managers who fostered a culture of collaboration produced outcomes that exceeded expectations while the teams with project managers who restricted group morale had outcomes that merely met expectations.

Standards of excellence should be set so that clear norms of conduct are communicated to team members (Northouse, 2016, p. 371).  When team members understand that excellence is expected from them, they are more likely to meet these expectations. I am currently taking another leadership course where students have been placed in groups to complete assignments. At the beginning of our first assignment, we discussed our expectations and academic goals for the project. Knowing what my teammates were willing to contribute and expect from me has made me more diligent and careful with my portion of the work because I want to ensure that it meets their expectations.

External support and recognition need to be provided for each team in a supportive organizational context (Northouse, 2016, p. 371). Teams need to be able to to draw on external resources in order to function effectively as part of the organization. They cannot be isolated.

Principled leadership is related to team-focused coaching. Effective leadership helps teams reach their full potential by influencing the team through four processes: cognitive, motivational, affective, and coordination (Zacarro et al. as cited in Northouse, 2016, p. 371). My department head provides leadership to our staff at COL. Recently, we have been tasked with new curriculum implementation for the program. Using coordination, she has delegated tasks based on our skills. For example, she tasked me with managing the budget for purchasing new teaching material because I am mathematically inclined. She asked another member of our team to reach out to other teachers for resources because she was more connected to other programs. The Ministry of Education has changed the new curriculum roll out dates several times and as such, our department head has adjusted our timelines and expectations accordingly.

References

Northouse, P. G. (2016). Leadership: Theory and Practice. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Servant leaders are ethical leaders who put followers first, empower them, and help them grow to their full personal capacities (Northouse, 2016, p. 225). One of the characteristics of servant leadership is awareness. Awareness is the ability of a servant leader to be attuned and receptive to their physical, social, and political environments (Northouse, 2016, p. 228). Emotional intelligence in the psychodynamic approach is the leader’s ability to understand his or her own behaviour and the behaviour of others in order to best influence and leverage the potential of the followers (Northouse, 2016, p. 307).

Awareness in servant leadership allows leaders to gain an unbiased and realistic perspective of themselves and how they are affecting others and their environment while emotional intelligence focuses on the behaviours of the leaders and followers and how they interact.

Jesus Christ is the perfect and original servant leader. He was aware of His surroundings and the impact He had on others. I believe when we strive to be like Christ, we end up taking on many of the servant leadership qualities that Christ embodied. Some examples of  individuals who strived to live Christ-like lives were Mother Theresa and Martin Luther King Jr. While serving others and prioritizing the good of others before themselves, both Mother Teresa and Martin Luther King Jr. were aware of the impact they had on those around them and how their actions were directly affecting the environments around them. Their actions caused rippling effects that touched lives far beyond their reach simply because Mother Teresa and Martin Luther King Jr. knew the importance of their actions in the moment and the lasting changes they could make.

References

Northouse, P. G. (2016). Leadership: Theory and Practice. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Transformational leadership is a process of interaction between the leader and followers. This form of leadership focuses on improving follower performance and helping followers meet their full potential (Northouse, 2016, p. 167). There are four factors characteristic of transformational leadership – idealized influence, inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation, and individualized consideration (Northouse, 2016).

Transformational leaders give followers a vision and sense of mission (Northouse, 2016, p. 168). They are regarded as highly moral and ethical so they are deeply respected and trusted (Northouse, 2016, p. 168). By placing priority in developing individual followers to their full potential, transformational leaders inspire followers to commit to contributing to the greater common good (Northouse, 2016, p. 176).

While transactional leadership uses contingent reward and management-by-exception to guarantee expected results from followers (Northouse, 2016, p. 170), transformational leadership encourages followers to perform beyond expectations by putting down their own self-interests for the great good of the group (Bass & Avolio as cited in Northouse, 2016, p. 170).

Walt Disney is a transformational leader that I really admire because Disney is an excellent example of how prioritizing follower development can lead to incredible organizational success. Walt Disney had a clear vision and inspired others to share his dream through his animations (Loftus, 2014). He created a culture of trust and staff empowerment within the organization (Jones, 2014). Today, years after his death, his dream and vision still lives on and Disney remains one of the greatest animation empire in the world.

References

Jones, B. (2014, October 11). The Key to Transformational Leadership: Know How to Empower Your People. Retrieved from https://disneyinstitute.com/blog/2014/12/the-key-to-transformational-leadership-know-how-to-empower-your-people/

Loftus, G. (2014, May 22). The Keys of Walt Disney’s Mickey Mouse Leadership. Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/geoffloftus/2014/05/22/mickey-mouse-leadership/#12999b16321a/

Northouse, P. G. (2016). Leadership: Theory and Practice. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.