Leading Adult Learning: Supporting Adult Development in Our Schools

by Eleanor Drago-Severson

Support the growth and development of  all  adults―teachers, principals, and superintendents―in your school community! Educators need different kinds of supports and challenges over the different stages of their lives. Drago-Severson’s developmental model of learning-oriented school leadership draws from multiple knowledge domains to help school and district leaders understand how to support professional growth. This

Genres: Leadership, Education, Grad School

368 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 2009

Reviews

[Ms.Witdoeckt]

This one is thick going...but valuable stuff. I'm going to read it in little bits and stew on it over time.

[Meg · Rating 4 out of 5]

Such a great book on how to promote adult learning in any educational building. The learning of adults is pivotal to the success of the students. A must read for any administrator.

[Brenna · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have to constantly remind myself that rating non-fiction books, especially those that I read for my doc class work, can't be rated the same way I'd read fiction books. So for this type of rating, I keep how informative or how useful the book was in mind. I needed a few chapters for this book for the paper I'm currently working on, but read the whole thing because I thought a few other chapters in the book would be useful for my later dissertation work, and it seems like it will be. Drago-Severson's four pillars for adult learning should be taught to all building administrators and supervisors. Although Drago-Severson said that the audience of this book wasn't just administrators but all adults in schools, I felt like the focus on specific expereinces of teachers as leaders was lacking. Nearly all of the examples were from principals or VPs (understandably based on the sample group used for the main study used in this book), but I would have liked to see some concrete examples or case studies of how teacher-leaders (especially in an informal capacity, not those trying to become administrators) are helping to make their schools more welcoming places for adult learning and growth.

[Christina · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found Drago-Severson's "ways of knowing" to be a helpful framework for assessing colleagues' mindsets and identifying the types of strategies that help different people grow. I also liked her ideas regarding professional development, teacher collaboration, mentoring, and cultivating teacher-leaders. At times, the book was a bit repetitive. I struggled with Drago-Severson's claim that no one "way of knowing" is better than another; if so, then why are they labelled as "stages" in the early chapters?

[Anne Galland]

Fabulous principles of personal growth and in relationships.

[Jack Jose]

A challenging read, it rewards the careful reader with a deeper understanding of how adults learn and how to meet them where they are.