My Leadership Plan: Developing Strengths and Understanding Behaviorism

Introduction

A personal leadership plan refers to the development of learning activities to be involved in during a specific period. It helps improve your leadership abilities by analyzing your strengths and weaknesses. The plans should be strategically organized, with clear and understandable goals and objectives. The theory of behaviorism can help to understand ones strengths and weaknesses based on the behavioral stimulus and response. The theory considers that any person can be trained to perform particular tasks when under the right conditions. Teachers' motivation can encourage the behavioral change of the students to reduce the rate of school dropouts as well as increase the rate of school attendance. A plan to address the rate high rate of school drop- out and poor attendance may be able to create a healthy student-teacher relationship. A plan can also create an environment that supports fairness and fosters self- efficacy may include implementation of after school or evening individual tutoring sessions, which may enhance student engagement and improve their performance and tutorial programs in school involving qualified individuals. Besides, staffing of teachers according to their certified subjects would create smaller classes with qualified teachers. This would therefore, increase the rate of students' engagement and involvement in the class.

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This paper aims at developing a leadership plan involving an explanation of a personal experience that shaped the behaviorism theory I subscribed, and a plan to address the barriers to school success. A plan to monitor the effectiveness of the school program in addressing the barrier and a plan to create an environment that supports fairness and fosters the development of self-efficacy among faculty, including opportunities for teacher leadership, are also discussed.

Personal Experience that Shaped Behaviorism Theory

Description of Behaviorism Theory

Behaviorism theory states that knowledge exists outside and independently from people. The theory explains that people learn through the association of responses and stimuli which results in behavioral change. According to behaviorists, learning commences when some stimulus is presented from the environment, and the learner responds to the stimulus.For instance, a teacher can give some stimulus such as awarding the best students after a test to encourage all the students to work hard and attain good grades. The students may change their behaviors from sleeping in class, being late for class, and start being attentive and punctual. When the students improve their behavior due to the presented stimuli, it signifies that learning has taken place (Dietrich &Feeley, 2016). Besides, behaviorists dictate that each person can be trained and learn to perform assignments regardless of internal thoughts, genetic background, or personality traits. Therefore, in the correct conditioning, any person can act in a given manner with the right training.

In my high school education, I studied in two different schools. In the first school, I used to perform poorly in my academics, and there was only one girl who always topped in our class. I had believed that I could not perform better than I used. The teachers did not highly motivate students through such ways as awarding of best students or punishing those involved in harmful behaviors. As a result, students did not compete to perform well by changing their behaviors to the best. In my third year in high school, my parents were concerned about my performance and decided to transfer me to a better school. In my new school, I noticed many changes in the way teachers taught the students and motivated them to work hard. In the new class, I also realized that the top position did not belong to one student. The school held ceremonies after every semester to award the best students. As A Result, I felt challenged since all those students who were being awarded only used to spend most of their time learning, asking questions and avoiding punishments in school. I started to target the awards by being attentive in class, completing my assignments on time to avoid punishments, and revising thoroughly for my examinations. At the end of the second semester in the school, I was awarded as the most improved student. My parents were impressed and promised to take me to one of the best universities if I perform well in my final exams. I did not want to miss the opportunity, and therefore, I worked hard to attain good grades in my final exam. When the results were out, I was one of the best students in our school. Just as the theory of behaviorism describes, I was able to change my behavior because of the stimuli presented by the teachers in the new school. I have become a successful person in my professional career because of the stimuli presented to be in various environments, including my university, such as being challenged by a friend who performed better than me.

A Plan to Address a Specific Barrier to the School's Success

School Dropouts and Poor School Attendance Patterns among Students

Student related behavior is one of the significant barriers to the school's success. Such behaviors include dropping out of school and low rate of class attendance. Dropping out of school is related to the low level of school discipline (Sapp, 2009). Besides, students who are less engaged in school are the primary victims of school dropouts and poor class attendance. Research suggests that high school involvement and engagement in various activities in the institution have positive impacts on student performance (Sapp, 2009).Teachers are the main contributors to student behavior related to dropouts and poor attendance, hence influence overall school performance. Mainly, teachers are perceived as role models for students. Also, a positive teacher-student relationship fosters positive outcomes in student's performance (Krane, Karlsson, Ness, & Kim, 2016). Teachers who are encouraging and caring have a high capability of enhancing student engagement and involvement in school activities, even for the high-risk pupils. Caring and encouraging teachers create the willingness of the students to participate in school activities and also develop a sense of understanding as to why school is important (Krane, Karlsson, Ness, & Kim, 2016). Research suggests that schooling is not about just getting information becausein the world today; information can be obtained easily from various sources such as the internet. Therefore, there is a need for a conducive classroom environment, timely feedback from the teachers, and effective classroom leadership by the teachers as well as a healthy teacher-student relationship.

A Plan to Address School Drop- Out and Poor Class Attendance

As discussed earlier, the leading cause of student drop- out and poor attendance is poor teacher-student relationships and teacher behavior concerning their caring and encouraging characters. Therefore, the plan will mainly focus on teacher behavior to reduce the rate of school dropouts and improve the rate of class and other school activities attendance. The first step of the plan will involve training programs for the teachers on how to create positive relationships with the students. The seminars will be sponsored by the school, and they will be held on every Thursday of the week from 2pm to 4pm. All teachers should attend the training programs which will be conducted by professional trainers hired by the school. Second, teachers will be supervised on their progress in enhancing a healthy relationship with students as well as creating a healthy learning environment.

The plan will also include counseling programs that will be conducted by one of the teachers. The sessions will be conducted on every Wednesday of the week from 8am to 9.30 am. The counseling programs will create a room for interaction between students and the teachers. Also, it will create an opportunity for teachers to act as role models to students on matters outside classrooms. As a result, the teachers will be able to learn and understand the student's social and cultural backgrounds during the interactions which will help them know more abouthow to handle them in class.

Discussion of the Barrier and the Plan to Monitor the Effectiveness of the School Program

The effectiveness of the school program in addressing the rate of school drop -out and poor attendance will be monitored by assessing the performance of the students. Students will be given continuous assessment tests after every month of the semester to test their performance in response to the implemented strategies. Improved performance will mean that students' attendance rate has improved. Also, the increase in the number of graduating students will indicate a reduction in the rate of school dropouts. Secondly, student roll calls will be taken daily in every class by the respective subject teachers. The roll calls will enable the school to monitor the effectiveness of the school program in addressing the low attendance rate in school.

Another way that the effectiveness of the plan will be monitored will be through surveys at the end of every semester to assess students' attitudes towards school learning as well as their relationship with their teachers. The end of semester surveys will involve filling of questionnaires by all the students, and the school administration will review and analyze them to monitor the effectiveness of the plan in reducing school dropouts and increase the rate of class attendance.

Class attendance will be monitored through the preparation of daily absentee forms and the production of the details of regular attendance. Also, the school will implement the use of a swipe card which will be used by students when they arrive at school they give details about late and early arrivals. Each student will be given a swipe card during his or her admission. Also, the swipe card will help take details about students who leave school early. The rate of school and class attendance will indicate the status of student-teacher relationships as well as the students' level of motivation, engagement, and involvement in school, which may also reduce the rate of school dropout.

Discussion of a Plan to Create an Environment that Supports Fairness and Fosters the Development of Self-Efficacy

The plan to create an environment that supports fairness and encourages self -efficacy will include the following:

First, the implementation of learning environment for freshman would support separate building in school. The smaller environment will enhance positive interaction between teachers and first-year students (Sapp, 2009). Also, the environment will support strong relationships among staff members, allowing improved collaboration, planning, and communication with the primary aim of enhancing better performance of the students.

Second, the implementation of the evening and after school classes for personal tutoring. The classes will increase student participation in school even away from their typical school day, which may help improve their performance (Sapp, 2009). Besides, the implementation of personal tutoring will allow both younger and older students to capture what they may have missed in the regular classes.

Teachers should be staffed and tasked to teach their certified subject. As a result, the classroom will be smaller and will be taught by a qualified subject teacher, thus, enhancing the health student-teacher relationship (Kaplan & Patrick, 2016). Research shows that students interact more with their teachers when a classroom is smaller, as it is easier for the teacher to enhance the engagement and participation of almost all the students in class discussions and other activities.

Also, the plan will include the implementation of a tutorial prog...