Transcript Slide 1

UNESCO Conference
World Teachers’ Day
‘Success without Magic’
John Bangs
Senior Consultant – Education International
“Primary schools provide unfailingly positive and
dynamic settings for children’s development and
learning, and were highly valued by children, parents
and the wider community. This is worthy not so
much of note as of celebration.”
(Cambridge Primary Review, 2008)
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“My self-confidence and belief in making a positive difference will be
enhanced by feeling that my opinion is valued. Teachers are in close contact
with pupils in everyday practice and thus have an immediate understanding
of issues affecting the learning and well-being of pupils. Acknowledgement of
this and consultation with teaching staff will empower a workforce with the
confidence to drive development.”
(Teacher in ‘Herts Cam’, quoted in ‘Teacher Self-Efficacy, Voice and Leadership’
John Bangs and David Frost – Cambridge University 2012)
“Teachers with high self-efficacy expect to succeed in teaching and to
handle students well … this influences their interpretation of successes and
disappointments, the standards they set and their approaches to coping with
difficult instructional situations … strong self-efficacy beliefs can prevent
stress and burn-out … and are linked with (improved) instructional practices
and student achievement.
(‘Teaching and Learning’ – International Survey, OECD 2008)
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“The findings confirm the importance of professional development as
possibly one of the highest impact policy levers in education, with
possibly transformational effects on both social and academic
outcomes from the education system.”
(‘Teacher Professional Learning and Development’, BES programme
Helen Timperley et al 2008 – University of Auckland)
‘Instructional improvement requires continuous learning by all and
distributed leadership needs to create an environment that views
learning as a collective good’.
(Richard Elmore in ‘Improving School Leadership’ – OECD 2008)
‘The findings support the belief that collaborative leadership, as
opposed to leadership from the principal alone, may offer a path
towards more sustainable school improvement’.
(‘Collaborative Leadership and School Improvement : Understanding the Impact on
School Capacity and Student Learning’, Philip Hallinger and Ronald Heck 2010)
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"A lot of education rhetoric these days includes mention of
the supposedly negative impact of teacher unions on
reform … but here’s an interesting observation … virtually
all the top performing countries on international education
measures have strong teacher unions, including Finland,
Korea, Japan, Canada, Australia and others…"
(‘Let’s Stop Blaming Teacher Unions’, Ben Levin, 2010)
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“Learning outcomes at school are the result of what happens in
classrooms, thus only reforms that are successfully implemented in
classrooms can be expected to be effective. Teacher engagement in the
development and implementation of educational reform is therefore
crucial and school reform will not work unless it is supported from the
bottom up. This requires those responsible for change to both
communicate their aims well and involve the stakeholders who are
affected. But it also requires teachers to contribute as the architects of
change, not just its implementers.”
(‘Building a High Quality Teaching Profession –
Lessons from around the World’, OECD 2011)
“Last but not least it has become clear that education needs to become a social
project. Partnerships and coalitions are necessary for strengthening and building
the profession…seeking short term gains by shaming teachers will not strengthen
the profession but tear it apart.”
(‘Preparing Teachers and Developing School Leaders
for the 21st Century’, OECD 2012)
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“Governments are driven to tinker with the levers they control most
directly, whether or not those are the real drivers of outcomes. The
main means used to try to generate improvement have most often
been around structural aspects of the system-governance, finance,
workforce, and accountability or incentive systems … there is
considerable research evidence now on many of these efforts and,
to sum up … it is hard to find any evidence of sustained
improvement in outcomes resulting from these efforts. Structural
changes have always had disappointing results.”
(‘Government and Education Reforms :
Some lessons from the last 50 Years’,
Ben Levin: OISE 2010)
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1.
Accountability using test results, and teacher appraisal, to reward
and punish teachers and schools versus capacity building.
2.
Individual teacher leadership quality: promoting individual versus
group solutions.
3.
Technology: investing in and assuming the wonders of the digital
world will carry the day versus instruction
4.
Fragmented strategies versus systemic strategies.
(‘Choosing the Wrong Drivers for Whole System Reform,’
Michael Fullan, 2011, Centre for Strategic Education:
Seminar series 204)
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Principles promote a common understanding of new policy directions and are
the basis of sound and collective decisions. Achieving our vision … requires
the following principles to be embraced by all partners:
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Learner-centred.
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Shared responsibility and accountability for results.
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Engaged communities.
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Inclusive, equitable access.
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A responsive, flexible approach.
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Sustainable and efficient use of resources.
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A teacher is the most significant agent in the learning process.
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