2 out of 4 stars
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Do you recall your childhood memories in a classroom? If you do, do you remember what kind of teacher you had? Was your teacher strict? Did they listen to your opinions and ideas for the class? Did they ever encourage you to be a leader? In Don Broadwell’s Collaborative Leadership for Classroom and School, he brings up the topic of collaboration in the classroom. In his book, he discusses the history of leadership and gives examples and tips for teachers to use in their classrooms. Children are our future and to protect our future, we must make them better leaders.
It’s not rare to find a classroom where only the teacher makes the rules. It’s also not rare to meet a teacher, who instead of letting children solve problems themselves, just solve it for them. The author argues against this practice by writing, “In the classroom, ‘strict pedagogy’ once remembered, is now shunned.” He argues for the inclusion of children in creating rules for the classroom. Also, teachers need to focus on the needs of the children and guide them in solving problems, not doing it for them.
He further elaborates on these topics by bringing up great leaders and teachers of the past. One example he used was a psychologist, Thomas Gordan, who envisioned leadership in the classroom and created a six-step model for it. In the book, the author gives much explanation and theories that further proves the benefits of giving children more power in the classroom. The author gives readers a substantial amount of background information on collaborative leadership. The problem was, the information became too overbearing and the real point of the book was lost.
While readers will appreciate a little history lesson, there was more information given than necessary. The beginning of the book spent too much time on listing every single leader of our past and their accomplishments. The author should have kept it brief and jumped right into the topic of how modern teachers can encourage collaborative leadership in the classroom. There were a few examples he gave to readers, but it wasn’t enough. In most of the book, he went off topic and the book becomes filled with charts and pointless information that will not appeal to his audience at all. The main point of the book is to address the need for collaboration between teachers and students. When the author went on a rant about standardized testing and parent revolutions, it became apparent the point of the story was forgotten.
I rate this book 2 out of 4 stars. The book receives two stars because while most parts of the book was useless and uninformative, there were a few pieces of great advice given. Also, if the book had stayed on topic and not turned into a history book, it would’ve been a great read for teachers. If this book were to be revised and have a more stable structure, I would recommend it to teachers and parents. We need to create more leaders in the world. In order for children to start thinking like leaders, we need to start treating them like one.
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Collaborative Leadership for Classroom and School
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