School Leaders as Learners: Acquiring Expertise for Improving Teaching and Learning

Meeting the challenge of improving instruction and achievement in our nation’s schools – especially in urban schools where students are often disadvantaged by economic or other circumstances – will depend, in part, on school leaders who can effectively lead such improvement (Barth, 1986; Leithwood, 1994). But developing principals who can lead teachers and students to a new level of performance is a daunting task. Recent work in the learning sciences indicates that traditional modes of instruction typical of many principal training programs often result in limited transfer of learning from the workshop classroom to the real world of schools (Bransford, Brown, & Cocking, 2000).

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