Understanding the Learning Environment and Facilitating a Vision of Learning, Part 2

Question 1: Discuss how the Principal’s role of articulating the importance of education in a democratic society influences his duties as the school’s curriculum and instructional leader

Answer 1: The public school system is the only chance many students will ever have to obtain an education, and an educated citizenry is the basis of a functioning democratic society. Therefore the public school principal’s role as curriculum and instructional leader is his most important. The curriculum which the school follows will determine what, and how well, students will learn; if the curriculum does not include the material students need to equip themselves for life after graduation – college and/or employment – then the public school system has failed its students. No matter how devoted the school’s principal and staff may be, no matter how talented its teachers, if the curriculum does not match the students’ needs than they will not receive the education necessary for them to succeed as adults. As the curriculum and instructional leader of the school, the Principal is responsible, at least in part, for his students’ success or failure later in life.

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Question 2: “Continuously,” “continuing,” “continual” – this is an important and recurrent concept covered by the test. Discuss.

Answer 2: Most everything you do as Principal will be done over and over. You will not design, implement, assess and modify your curricular or extracurricular programs one time. Your students, your school board, the state’s educational requirements, prevailing educational theory, and political and economic conditions – all will change over time, and the school must change as well. “Sound, research-based practice” will change over time. What was considered educationally sound over 30 years ago is no longer practiced. So expect the “design, implement, assess, modify” paradigm to last throughout your career.

Question 3: Discuss facilitation.

Answer 3: Facilitating is the primary responsibility of principals. They make things happen by proposing, planning, budgeting, discussing, researching, consulting, leading, and managing. These actions all are forms of facilitating. Although they do not teach classes, principals help teachers get the training and materials they need to teach, and principals help teachers design curriculum and instruction. Principals do not write and mail the checks for payroll and operations, but they do plan and authorize budgets that finance all school functions. Principals do not clean their schools or paint the buildings or mow the lawns, but they have to facilitate these operations to make sure that it all gets done. Parents contact principals with questions or problems, even though they may not be the subject of such concerns. Principals communicate to the district on behalf of the teachers and vice versa. Although schools require many people to operate efficiently, all schools need principals to facilitate the complex interactions of all staff members.

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