Authors: Dennis Sparks
ISBN-13: 9781412949705, ISBN-10: 141294970X
Format: Paperback
Publisher: SAGE Publications
Date Published: November 2006
Edition: 2nd Edition
Dennis Sparks has been executive director of the 10,000-member National Staff Development Council since 1984. He previously was an independent educational consultant and director of the Northwest Staff Development Center. Sparks has been a teacher, counselor, and co-director of an alternative high school. He completed his doctorate in counseling at the University of Michigan in 1976, and has taught at several universities. He speaks frequently throughout North America on topics such as powerful staff development and effective teaching.
Sparks has authored Designing Powerful Professional Development for Teachers and Principals (NSDC, 2002) and Conversations that Matter (NSDC, 2001), a collection of his JSD interviews since 1991. He is co-author with Stephanie Hirsh of Learning to Lead, Leading to Learn (NSDC, 2000) and A New Vision for Staff Development (ASCD/NSDC, 1997). He also co-authored, with Joan Richardson, What is Staff Development Anyway? (NSDC, 1998).
Sparks' column appears each month NSDC's newsletter, Results. His interviews with leading educational thinkers also appear in NSDC'sJournal of Staff Development. In addition, his articles have appeared in a variety of publications, including Educational Leadership, Phi Delta Kappan, The American School Board Journal, The Principal, and The School Administrator. Sparks' interviews and articles are accessible on the NSDC web site at www.nsdc.org/library/authors/sparks.cfm.
Featuring 18 new essays, this second edition shows how school leaders can promote extraordinary changes, be accountable, and achieve meaningful results for schools, districts, and their personal lives.
Introduction : change ourselves to change organizations | ||
1 | Clarify your fundamental choices, values, and purposes | 3 |
2 | Clarify your intentions | 8 |
3 | Establish stretch goals | 12 |
4 | Create successful schools | 16 |
5 | Identify multiple ways to achieve your goals | 22 |
6 | Promote breakthrough thinking | 27 |
7 | Develop a theory of action and use storytelling to communicate it | 32 |
8 | Gain clarity through writing, speaking, and reflecting on action | 37 |
9 | Tell your truth | 43 |
10 | Use genuine dialogue | 48 |
11 | Listen to others in a deep, committed way | 52 |
12 | Make requests to initiate action and create results | 57 |
13 | Make and keep promises | 61 |
14 | Replace questions with declarative statements | 66 |
15 | Minimize the language of obligation | 71 |
16 | Decrease the use of cause-effect language | 75 |
17 | Stand up for your point of view | 79 |
18 | Design powerful professional learning for all educators | 89 |
19 | Match professional development goals and methods with student outcomes | 94 |
20 | Bridge the knowing-doing gap | 99 |
21 | Appeal to the heart as well as the head | 105 |
22 | Amplify positive deviance in schools | 109 |
23 | Shape school culture to improve teaching and sustain competent teachers | 114 |
24 | Install next action thinking | 119 |
25 | Change habits | 123 |
26 | Sustain the conversation | 127 |