Introduction: “A teacher is a leader of leaders in the classroom.” This statement comes from Theo Wubbels, an expert in the field of education and one of the world’s respected training professionals in teacher-student relationships. He says that a teacher can control and manage some of the important factors that can enhance the students’ ability in the classroom. This facilitator of training can demonstrate leadership in the class by leading all potential leaders among the students. By motivating these leaders, they can eventually motivate the learners and work in groups to increase the chances of success in learning (Rubin, 2015). The aim of this paper is to explain to the readers how a teacher should act as the leader in the classroom. The methodology used in this paper is gathering of relevant information from articles in credible websites and academic sources. Thesis: Should a teacher serve as the leader in the classroom? How? Yes, a teacher should serve as the leader in the classroom. He/she can do this function by looking at potential leaders in the class to help him/her achieve the goals of effective leadership.
An effective leader helps the students to complete the tasks and maintains effective working relationships among the members. Such good attributes of a teacher will result in molding potential leaders in the class and motivate other learners to become a leader. Generally, the students function effectively when the tasks of leadership are shared among the members. The leadership function consists of flexible behavior, ability to control and manage classroom issues, and knowledge on how to deal with special situations. Flexible behavior is the ability to analyze and apply the right behavior at a particular time to make the students function most efficiently. When it comes to managing classroom issues, it includes the late coming and early exit of students, chatting in class, disruptive and abusive behaviors of the students, and the use of laptop and other gadgets in the classroom. Special situations refer to giving help to students with disability, academic dishonesty, discrimination issues, and dealing with grading complaints. In essence, a teacher should remain calm in dealing with challenging students. As a good leader, a teacher should avoid making empty threats. Instead, he/she must decide whether to deal with the problem in class at that moment or at another time (Brookfield, 1990).
How a teacher shows effective leadership to the students:
There is effective leadership in the classroom if the teacher and the students have pleasant interpersonal relationships with each other. The result of such relationships is that the students would feel closer to the teacher and would trust him/her with great value. But this good relationship would only happen if the teacher has the ability to adapt to the different behaviors and situations in the classroom. One thing important that the teachers should remember is that they are not a boss or a friend of students. However, they can be bossy or friendly when the time comes as needed. To act as a leader in the classroom, the teacher should have effective communication skills as the first step in getting the cooperation of others. These communication skills include making messages complete and specific, and clearly communicating ideas and feelings. These skills also include the willingness to receive feedback from the students about the way they receive the messages, displaying openness about classroom issues, and listening attentively when a student sends his/her message. The second step in getting the cooperation of the students is building and maintaining trust. These abilities include acceptance and support. Acceptance is the act of respecting the communication of others while support is recognizing their strengths to manage the situation. The third step in cooperating with each other in class is managing conflict. Since participating in a group will surely create some conflicts, the teacher should have the skills to manage controversies among the members of the team in a constructive way (Wilcox, 1997).
The radical approach of a teacher as an effective leader:
There is a saying that “sometimes, simple acts make the most radical.” Their application requires a radical kind of learning. In this line of thinking, the teachers can act as leaders of student teams including their families. The aim is to develop the knowledge and skills necessary to become successful team leaders. This radical approach in teaching makes the teachers as leaders by interacting with class leaders in new ways. In this case, the teachers’ performance evaluation would focus on the quality of the academic work and not on the teachers’ moves and treatment toward their students, such as favoritism and discrimination. The leaders would discuss with their teachers frequently about the features of an engaging and meaningful academic work and the functions of student teams. Learning would also deal with the skills needed to design an effective academic work and engage in a classroom of family teams. In essence, the teachers act as leaders of student groups instead of serving only as instructors for them. This way, the students would not only compete for grades and rankings, but all of them including their families would feel responsible for their success. The teachers should design engaging and meaningful academic work that would be attractive to the student teams. They should teach their students effective interpersonal skills that include peer mediation, classroom discipline issues, and other group interactions (Teachers as Leaders of Classroom Teams, 2015).
Conclusion: A teacher should act as the leader in the classroom, and he/she must have the qualities of an effective leader. The irony is that most students view their teacher as the only one who plays all the leadership roles. The writer of this paper believes that leadership is a set of abilities that anyone can acquire. Therefore, it is time that the teacher shares her leadership responsibilities to the students, and guide them how to play these roles. This way, the students will have the chance to know what it is to be a leader and not only act as students.
References:
Brookfield, S. (1990). The skillful teacher. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Marygrove College.
Retrieved from: http://www.marygrove.edu/academics/graduate-academics/graduate-
programs/all-programs/item/edu-568-teacher-as-leader.html
Rubin, C.M. (June 2015). The Best Ways a Teacher can Demonstrate in the Classroom?
Retrieved from: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/c-m-rubin/the-best-ways-a-
Retrieved from: http://www.radicallearners.com/teachers-as-leaders-of-classroom-teams/
Wilcox, Susan. (1997). Leadership in the Classroom.
Retrieved from: http://ddi.cs.uni-potsdam.de/Lehre/WissArbeitenHinweise/
teachingassistant/hand/leader.html
