Instructional Leadership: Creating Practice Out of Theory

by Peter M DeWitt

This step-by-step how-to guide presents the six driving forces of instructional leadership within a multi-stage model for implementation, delivering lasting improvement through small, collaborative changes.  

Genres: Education

176 pages, Paperback

Published February 25, 2020

Reviews

[Matt]

A helpful and practical guide for leaders who want to support academic success and are not sure how. The author provides specific ideas and logic models for engaging in this work.

[David Burgess · Rating 5 out of 5]

Instructional Leadership by Peter M DeWitt is a fascinating read which provides a practical step by step guide to take leadership actions which improve outcomes for learners. At every stage, Peter references the research which has influenced his work which includes reflections and mindfulness stops where you can reflect on your own work and consider your own context and role. Critically for me, there is a separate chapter which has a focus purely on the implementation stage. This underpins the whole of the book and stresses the importance of taking time to plan and consider how to take forward this work, but crucially how to engage with staff to take this forward. It is not often that an educational book provides practical steps to take leadership actions which have a direct focus on impacting on improving outcomes for learners. There are nuggets throughout this book which also has a video guide related to each chapter from Peter.
The explanation of the logic model approach to support planning is a perfect example of the practical and useful elements of Peter's book. Peter shares examples of different strategies to focus on learning and teaching but crucially explains how these can make a difference which can only happen when the culture and relationship are in place.
Peter's writing is engaging, accessible and his passion for learning and teaching comes through both in his book but also in his video clips.
I highly recommend it!

[Charlie Moynahan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm currently studying for the CPACE (California Preliminary Administrator Credential Examination), of which the second part requires an in-depth analysis of the instructional leadership standards for School Leaders. While confident I know what it means to teach a good lesson as a teacher, I wanted some clear guidelines for what a principal should be doing and having the perspective of a principal when looking at another teacher's lesson and giving demonstrative and quality feedback.

This was the first book I've read from Peter DeWitt, and seeing that there were reviews from Fullan and Fischer (and that DeWitt partners with John Hattie), I figured he was "good company". And the book didn't disappoint. The book was simple, concise, but plentiful in applicable attributes for principals and school leaders looking to improve their instructional leadership capabilities. I'm glad for having read this, and look forward to checking out more of Peter DeWitt's books.

[Cody MacKay · Rating 4 out of 5]

A decent introduction to a lot of different concepts. For someone like me, simply interested in learning more about educational leadership in general, it offers a lot of leads for further research and crucially introduces specific concepts like the implementation cycle, the implementation dip, and the program logic model. For someone who already has a few years (or more) of educational leadership experience under their belt, I imagine a lot of this will seem plain and obvious; however, I also imagine it might offer that reinvigoration that some books and interactions tend to give folks who otherwise might be experiencing tunnel vision without realizing it.

[Spacek Kim · Rating 5 out of 5]

The author outlines a Logic Model for implementing educational initiatives. The model begins with discussing Implementation, moves to keeping A Focus on Learning, looking at Student Engagement, and then Instructional Strategies. The last tow parts speak to Collective Efficacy and Evidence of the effort toward improvement. The Logic Model provides a practical guide to work with others on implementation. The book can be used as a book study to get staff on board with improving instruction for the success of students.

[Freya · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some new resources and framing around what instructional leadership is and how to get there.