Foreword by: Mary Helen Immordino-Yang
Publication Date: December 4, 2015
Pages: 144
This pioneering book shares a fresh vision for school leadership that connects current knowledge from mind, brain, and adult learning research to the process of teacher development and leadership. The authors provide clear steps to enable and inspire teachers to embrace leadership and collaboration opportunities for improving instruction and student outcomes, and increasing professional satisfaction. To demonstrate the broad array of leadership pathways, a flexible “spectrum of teacher leadership” suggests the myriad ways for teachers to contribute to their school and community beyond their classrooms. This spectrum is illustrated with real-life examples of teacher leadership in practice. Smarter Teacher Leadership will guide teachers to bridge what has been discovered about the brain and how metacognitive, cognitive, and affective skills support learning, teaching, and leading to stimulate collaboration with colleagues and advocacy with administrators, parents, and the wider community.
Book Features:
Marcus Conyers and Donna Wilson are developers of graduate degree programs focused on brain-based teaching and teacher leadership with Nova Southeastern University and are founders of the Center for Innovative Education and Prevention. They are authors of numerous articles and 20 books including, Five Big Ideas for Effective Teaching: Connecting Mind, Brain, and Education Research to Classroom Practice with Teachers College Press.
"Marcus Conyers and Donna Wilson have produced a clear, practical guide to improving teaching through strategic collaboration. Given the inherently social nature of the human mind and the fundamentally social work of teaching, this book is a useful addition to any ambitious teacher’s library."
—Mary Helen Immordino-Yang, Associate Professor of Education, Psychology, and Neuroscience
University of Southern California
"Using neuroplasticity and metacognition as key vehicles, Marcus Conyers and Donna Wilson elevate the concept of teacher leadership to a new level of understanding and significance. Their work has a research-based authority, and a deep sensitivity to teachers as professionals, that is both rare and admirable."
—Frank Crowther, emeritus professor, University of Southern Queensland
"Smarter Teacher Leadership is an excellent and really useful book for both aspiring and serving leaders. The power model of leadership is developed and is a welcome shift toward purposeful collaboration among teams of people. In an age of dominance of systems and structures, this is a refreshing approach."
—Elaine Wilson, University of Cambridge
"Conyers and Wilson provide a POWER-ful resource for tapping teacher leadership within schools to inspire collective intelligence, efficacy, and action that leads to student achievement. Combining research, practical experience, and the voice of teacher leaders, they demonstrate how to leverage collaboration among professionals to transform schools into places of learning for students and adults."
—Joellen Killion, senior advisor, Learning Forward
"This book is a must-read for educational leaders who are committed to improving student learning by levering the power of purposeful collaboration. The text combines a strong research base with practical strategies that can be applied immediately."
—Judith Warden, CEO, Blue Ribbon Schools of Excellence
"I love this book! This is a perfect text to accompany what we teach in our master’s degree in educational leadership. This inspiring and encouraging book will guide graduates in their new roles as administrators."
—Lisa Lohmann, University of Central Oklahoma
"An excellent bottom-up collegial focus that provides useful, nontechnical information about how to insert educationally significant cognitive developments into classroom management, instruction, and assessment."
—Bob Sylwester, professor emeritus, University of Oregon
"Breaking the lockdown on student learning--this is the essential guidebook for teacher leaders who remain in the classroom while helping expand collegial knowledge of neuroscience, adult learning and purposeful collaboration."
—Margaret Ridgeway, Classroom Teacher Leader, Tara High School, Baton Rouge, Louisiana
"From a principal's perspective there is no truer belief that purposeful collaboration among teachers will lead to improved lessons and thus translates to improved instruction."
—Priscilla Bougeois, Retired Principal, Jefferson Parish, Louisiana
"In another direct example of their work illustrating how mind, brain, and education research impacts our classrooms, Conyers and Wilson have nailed it once more. Smarter Teacher Leadership is clear and straight to the point: Learning never stops, so why should it for teachers? Highlighting cultural paradigm shifts geared toward entire academic communities, Smarter Teacher Leadership is full of insight to improve teaching and learning at any level."
— Michael Fitzgerald, English teacher, Eagle Academy, Eagle Idaho
"We can improve education as we unleash teacher leadership. Marcus Conyers and Donna Wilson have done a tremendous job of collecting the research on the brain, teaching, and leadership that works in a powerful collaborative method that can help us move things forward. Teacher leadership isn't just a "nice to have", it is an essential ingredient of effective 21st century schools where students are engaged and learning. This book will help you get there."
—Vicki Davis , Westwood Schools, Camilla, GA
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Print copies available for US orders only. For orders outside the US, see our international distributors.