Lesson 5: Decision Making Part II

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Lesson Overview

In the previous lesson you looked at some decision making models and theories that can help you handle the various problems that confront professionals in school systems. You were further introduced to information about variables that may influence our decisions. Lesson 4 made explicit that although there are concrete steps for attacking problems, variables like rationality vs irrationality, leadership styles, Mind Styles™, time constraints, learning from past experiences, successes, and failures all combine to make decision making a dynamic process and skill. It's definitely not static. And important decisions should not be the burden of a single person. Complex systems benefit from leadership coordination.

Studies of effective schools consistently emphasize the importance and value of the leader. At the building level, that is the principal, assistant principal, headmaster, or director. Other titles may be assigned. At the district level, the superintendent, or chief operating officer, or another title may be in a formal and key leadership position. But educational leadership is not the sole responsibility of school principals. If school-wide change and improved student achievement is the ongoing target, then the system requires that leadership be shared or distributed throughout. Recognizing the importance of teacher leadership is not new, but tapping into teacher leadership talents and/or teams, and fostering leadership at all levels of the organization is, in this author's opinion, far from being operationalized and a part of defining a school's culture and management profile.

This lesson is designed to illuminate the change in leadership concepts of shared decision-making and distributed leadership. They are not one and the same, but both constructs offer underused and long overdue structures to address the ongoing challenges and criticisms of public school education.

Lesson Objectives

After completing this lesson, you should be able to

• assess the merits of site-based management (SBM);
• process the dynamics of group decision making;
• examine and evaluate shared decision making principles and models;
• examine and evaluate distributed leadership models and perspectives; and
• apply decision making strategies to case studies.

Lesson Readings & Activities

By the end of this lesson, make sure you have completed the readings and activities found in the course schedule.