Goal Pursuit in Education Using Focused Action Research The Neuroleadership Model for Change

This book is written in response to escalating international research showing the importance of alignment and focus of goals in education. However, I am painfully aware that not everyone, including myself, finds it easy to focus on goals through to full pursuit. This pain has led me to create a simple approach to goal pursuit fitting my own inclinations favoring depth of development, lift in performance, and a fascination with a collaborative action research approach to improvement.

The book is important for all in education given that goals are integral to strategic and team planning, individual performance review, and focus for learning and development. It is written in a practical, readable way but is theoretically informed so would appeal to scholars, scholar-practitioners, and practitioners. It introduces new thinking on neuroscience and neuroleadership linked to goals. Multiple practical, downloadable, tools for goal pursuit are provided as well as a case study showing how one school applied the model and tools.

Eileen Piggot-Irvine is Professor of Leadership at Royal Roads University (Victoria, Canada) and an Adjunct Professor at Griffith University (Brisbane, Australia). She was formerly Director of the New Zealand Action Research and Review Centre (NZARRC), Director of the New Zealand Principal and Leadership Centre (NZPLC), senior lecturer at Massey University, and Head of the Education Management Centre, a successful consultancy practice facilitating hundreds of leadership development workshops and completed performance reviews with 110 principals. She has published four books (two on performance review in schools, two on action research), multiple book chapters, approximately 50 peer-reviewed journal articles, and presented too many keynotes to count. She has directed 11 evaluation contracts in the education sector (several at a national level) and recently won a national Canadian grant to lead a team of researchers investigating the impact of action research. Most importantly, Eileen is dedicated to making complex educational issues accessible and usable in the education sector.

Table Of Contents
Foreword
List Of Tables/Figures
Acknowledgements
1. Introduction To How A Reluctant Goal Pursuer Became Converted
2. Why Should You Engage In Goal Pursuit?
3. A Simple, Yet Detailed, Model For Goal Pursuit
4. How The FAR Model Encourages Shift In Depth, Lift In Challenge, And Collaboration
5. What This Looks Like In A Real Case Study
6. Ten Useful Activities, Tools And Templates
References