Educational leaders have evolved tremendously over the past few years, and will continue to change as education does. Leaders of today must focus on more than just leading a school environment to be an organized, successfully run institution. Rather, they must assist in the transformation process of moving a school to reach a level of performance that allows all students to learn in an environment that is conducive to reaching beyond their potential.

Sergiovanni identifies transformational leadership in terms of three leadership components: building, bonding, and banking. Building entails empowerment, symbolic leadership, and charisma that lads to raised expectations of leaders and followers so that they are motivated to higher levels of commitment and performance. Bonding elevates organizational goals and purposes based on a moral commitment between leaders and followers. Banking involves transformation, where school improvements are turned into the routine and therefore become second nature. (1991) Leadership today has to be transformational leadership, because that reflects both education and our students. Technology alone advances our student¢â¡Ás daily, and we, as leaders, must be willing and able, with available resources, to foster an environment in which learners can transform as well.

As leaders, one of our goals is to create curriculum in which learning is problem-based, and made real. John Dewey, named the grandfather of education, expressed in Experience and Education, the importance of having learning become real. Dewey argues that the most necessary idea in education is that education is based on experience, and the quality of the experience. He argues that all experiences are educative (Dewey, 1938,p.17). Dewey admits that not all experiences are quality experiences, yet realizes that different people react to different experiences in different manners. As a leader, playing a detrimental role in building our curriculum, I concur. I strongly believe that our children need to learn in an environment where their education is tangible, and they are encountering hands-on experiences that cause them to question why things happen. The curiosity is often taken out of learning, which is, in my opinion, of utmost importance. If the curiosity is lost, so is then is the motivation.

Problem-Based learning, also called authentic learning, allows the learner to build an internal representation of knowledge and interpret the experience based on their prior knowledge. This allows students of all levels to participate in activities, and construct meaning for themselves. Problem-based learning is inheritly differentiated, therefore allowing all students to thrive. Meaningful learning does not just happen when students receive information through direct instruction. That is why learning must come by way of experience.

Assessment, as it is currently known and used, does not relate to authentic learning. Tests, such as multiple-choice tests assess the recall of factual information, which coincides one or two of the multiple intelligences. Testing like this rarely assesses a child¢â¡Ás potential. If we begin to create a curriculum that is centered around authentic learning, than we must, in turn, create authentic assessments. Learners should be able to construct meaning for themselves, reflect on the significance of the meaning, and self-assess to determine their own strengths and weaknesses.

Assessment, therefore, should focus on students acquiring knowledge as well as the disposition to use skills and strategies and apply them appropriately. Recent studies suggest that poor thinkers and problem solvers may possess the skills they need, but fail to use them in certain tasks (Burke, 1999, p.XV). In order to foster life-long learners, we must allow experiences to become real integrate motivation into the lives of our students.

Education has traditionally been viewed as building on prior knowledge. Building on prior knowledge is a broad idea that can be interpreted in a myriad of ways. For example, John Dewey would suggest that prior knowledge helps to construct meaning when experiences something new. To take a more traditional thinker, E.D. Hirsch believes in the idea that knowledge build on prior knowledge, and it is more important to have essential information learned during the elementary years in a child¢â¡Ás education. Hirsch argues that it is essential to begin building solid foundations of knowledge in the early grades when children are most receptive (Hirsch, 1992). Hirsch, in his Core Knowledge Series, lists what a curriculum should include, from grades Kindergarten through sixth grade. This list, although comprehensive, has the absence of experience. A comprehensive list cannot make learning meaningful. Experience is necessary, and as a leader, I feel that it is my responsibility to allow meaningful experiences to occur daily both within the walls of the school, and beyond.

Earlier, I spoke about differentiation through problem-based learning. Focusing a curriculum around problem-based learning allows for differentiation, and here are some examples of how our school can successfully implement meaningful, differentiated learning. The implementation of a hands-on science program is necessary to evoke curiosity into the lives of our students. By conducting experiments that leave our students asking more questions than they started with, we have taught science successfully! We must allow for self-questioning and self-discovery, which is done through the use of a hands-on curriculum.

I also believe that education works best when there is a spiraling approach that occurs. So often, information is taught once, expected to be memorized, tested, and then forgotten. This is not learning, rather it is learning for the moment in order to complete the assessment and move on. Testing students on information that is taught in this fashion leaves room for failure, and therefore diminishes students¢â¡Á self-esteem. If information is taught in a spiraling fashion, students are encouraged to learn the information, but assured that it will be re-taught for mastery. Children, and adults alike, cannot be expected to master a concept after one exposure to the subject. Rather, there should be room for those students who need to be re-exposed. If education takes a spiraling approach, information is not taught once. It is revisited time and time again, allowing mastery some students, while leaving other students developing the idea. Spiraling in education is also another way in which education can be differentiated, reaching all levels.

Making education meaningful includes teaching across the curriculum. When ideas and concepts are intertwined throughout different subject areas, students are given a valuable opportunity. Teaching across the curriculum leads to authentic education, which is what I believe is the most important issue in education today. Oftentimes, making experiences model reality is a challenge, when placed in a room with walls. Based on the physical constraints placed upon us due to our environment, we must think outside the box, and attempt to make education meaningful within the classroom. One way of doing this is to teach across the curriculum and pull ideas from other subjects into a lesson. This opens up a new way of thinking for students, and will hopefully foster the dialogue between students causing meaningful discussions to occur during the school day.

Through the combination of hands-on teaching and learning, cross-curriculum teaching, authentic learning through experience, and authentic assessments, we can foster a school culture that reaches all students and differentiates without a forced attempt. Students will learn according to their own needs and pace, and will gain a better understanding of what they are learning, because learning will become real to them.

It is my belief that we can foster an environment that is more than just conducive to learning, but rather one that encourages, motivates, and interests students, as well as parents and teachers. If we, as parents and teachers, show an interest in learning, we can cause students to model our behavior. This, in turn, leads to everyone within the learning community to play a part in the education of students. Education does not occur through a teacher independently, rather it is the community in which the child learns. With the positive influence of leaders, teachers, parents, and fellow students, we can form a cycle of positive and rewarding experiences. This will lead us to greater success as a school and as a community, with a feeling of determination, and want. The key to our success lies in front of us. I invite you all to enter our school knowing that opportunities await you, both to learn from those around you, and to teach those around you. Keep in mind that learning results not from access along, but from continuous, dynamic interaction between students, educators, parents, and the extended community.

Sources

1. Burke, Kay (1999). "How to Assess Authentic Learning" Illinois: Skylight Professional Development.

2. Hirsch, E.D. (1993). "What your Third Grader Needs to Know" New York: Dell Publishing.

3. Sergiovanni, T.J. (1991). "The Principalalship: A Refelctive Practice Perspective, Second Edition" Boston:Allyn and Bacon.

4. Dewey, John (1963). "Experience and Education" New York: Collins.