Sociology

The twenty-first century calls for a number of expectations from leaders. They must be able to come up with reforms in organizations, construct alternative organizational enterprises, offer new service delivery to clients and come up with significant partnerships and alliances to reach the set goals. The knowledge and skills acquired for both career advancement and personal development are referred to as professional development. It incorporates all opportunities of learning that can be collaborative and intensive. These approaches are varied and include coaching, mentoring, consultation, technical assistance and reflective supervision (Thompson and Crampton, 2004).

Characteristics and Training of an Effective Educator and Educational Leader
The demands for leadership are complicated and challenging in public organizations. The structures of educational institutions for instance are different from other organizations (Thompson and Crampton, 2004). Research has indicated that educative leadership comprises of a number of characteristics which include establishment of a vision. For an educational leader to be effective he or she must come up with a vision. The leader must show commitment to the vision. This will be done by being able to communicate passionately the content of the vision to others (Noll, 1995). The other characteristic of effective leadership is for the leader to be able to build relationships and being able to inspire trust among the workers in an organization.

An educational leader must be ethical, proactive and hardworking. He or she needs to be passionate and supportive to others. This cannot be achieved without good communication, being empathetic and resourceful. The effectiveness and performance of administrators has to be improved at all times. This is realized through coaching and mentoring (Blackwood, 2009). Similarly communication has to be strengthened in order to work well with others, advancements in career, pay increases and promotions.

Opportunities for Professional Development and Continuing Education
There are a number of professional developments offered by private foundations or in association with universities. For instance development and renewal opportunities are provided in all States (Streich, 2009). Mostly it is employers in schools that pay for the seminars or reimburse costs for the courses. Teachers need to make inquiries and understand whether or not such benefits are offered by the administration. In some States the National Board certification fee is paid by the State.

Weekend conferences are also a form of professional development. In this case the sponsoring agent may allow a free entry, cater for travel allowances and pay stipend for attending. One of the free summer programs is offered by the National Endowment for the Humanities (Streich, 2009). There is also AP courses whereby both national and regional conferences are facilitated by the College Board. Further travel companies for students such as NETC and EF Educational Tours offer educator conferences as a reward program (Streich, 2009).

There is an online option for busy students. The courses offered by the University of Phoenix have reduced prices. Similarly publications such as Education Week and Education Today are essential in providing development resources for teachers (Streich, 2009). Community Colleges also offer chances for courses or seminars. The teachers benefit from weekend classes or short night.

Implementation of Educational Innovations in Current Professional Settings
Attempts to bring reforms in educational programs have been disappointing (Elias, Zins, Graczyk, and Weissberg, 2003). The reasons for these failures are varied. There is poor management of resources including time, inattention to those who carryout the plans and introduction of inappropriate packages and programs. In order to guarantee success there is need to prepare educators with skills essential for implementing reforms, proper documentation of earlier attempts and active research.

There are four dimensions to educational innovations sustainability, depth, shift in ownership of reform and spread. In depth the principles in the curriculum such as beliefs, classroom practice, norms in social interaction are addressed. Sustainability is change maintenance over a long period of time, spread and shift refer to dissemination of innovation to various schools and ownership by teachers in districts schools respectively.

This approach is referred to as scaling up. Even though there are successes recorded in other programs it has proven difficult for education (Noll, 1995). The immediate environment influences a lot in the end result. What is likely to succeed in one area may not show similar results in another. Sometimes in the same school a teaching strategy might apply to one practitioner but not all (Dede, in Press). Complex innovations are therefore likely to fail as practitioners attempt to implement it on a wider context.

Creative Problem Solving Strategies
The techniques of creative problem solving are meant to shift the mind of an individual to enable the creative process to take effect. These may include taking a break or relaxing after a prolonged thinking on a problem. The problem can be reframed. All these are attempts to boost fresh ideas. An increase in quantity of such ideas is likely to lead to a solution. In addition it gives is a fresh perspective to a problem.

The strategies may require a team or one to work as an individual. Whichever way the techniques are meant to encourage divergent thinking and bring about original thoughts. Creative strategies associate the current state with the goal and stimulus. It starts up with definition of the problem, after which ideas are generated. From multiple ideas a few are selected for later implementation.

Conclusion
Educational leadership is complex compared to other positions of leadership. Institutions are changing by the day and expectations are high for leaders to be dynamic. They should be well educated and keep abreast with the most current trends. Training is therefore vital for the leaders and for those he or she is leading. Opportunities for such training are available for interested practitioners. Similarly, there are a number of changes which continue to cause a lot of anxiety in professional settings. The implementation of these changes can only be done with much passion, dedication and hard work from leaders.