Transcript Slide 1

Sustainable School Improvement
Building a System-wide Vision
David Jackson
Melbourne, 2003
“Good ideas come from people with talent working
collaboratively together…..”
NCSL’s Goal
Every child in a well led school;
every leader a learner
White Paper Themes
• Transformation
• Innovation
• Diversity
• Inclusion
• Informed Professional Judgement
• Knowledge-Creation, Transmission and
Utilisation
• Practice Informed Policy
KNOWLEDGE
POOR
1980s
Uninformed
prescription
1970s
Uninformed
professional
judgement
NATIONAL
PRESCRIPTION
PROFESSIONAL
JUDGEMENT
1990s
Informed
prescription
2000s
Informed
professional
judgement
KNOWLEDGE
RICH
Challenges for ‘System-ness’
Personalised Education
Diverse but collaborative
and interdependent
Divided and selective
Excellence
for Some
Excellence
for All
National (or state)
standards and targets
Comprehensive
Standardised Education
The Old Way
NATIONAL POLICY
LEAs
SCHOOLS
A New Way
NATIONAL POLICY
LEAs
External Providers
Governors
SCHOOLS
Business and
Community Groups
NETWORKS OF SCHOOLS
Universities and
other Consultants
School Development Networks
- some of the challenges
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Poor collaborative histories
Divisions within systems & organisations
Traditionalists, resisters and cynics
Dependency cultures
Communication barriers
Isolationism
Lack of clarity about the model
Avoiding ‘mateship’
An argument for…..
• Learning networks offer a design for
school to-school collaboration and system
learning
• They are a means to build capacity and
support innovation at school and system
level
• They grow out of theoretical, practical and
policy contexts that offer fertile ground
• They offer a locally owned learning model
Three Fields of Knowledge
What Is Known
The knowledge
from theory,
research and
practice
What We Know The
knowledge of
those involved.
What we bring to
the table
New Knowledge
The knowledge
that we create
together
An argument for…..(2)
• Collaborative professional enquiry is central
to creating the conditions for deep learning
and professional learning community
• ….but education has a long way to go in the
field of knowledge management
• Network learning models create scope for
coherence and context specificity:
– for schools within a network
– collectively for a network of schools
– for the system - networks of networks
Professional Learning Communities
Culture of Collaborative Practice
School model
Internally collaborative
community risking the
continuous re-cycling
of traditional or low
level practice
Network model
The school as a learning
community, collaborating
to connect with and
reinterpret practice from
outside and to reinvent
practice within the school
Differences Between Sectors (OECD 2000)
Dimension
High Tech
Medicine Education
1. Pressure for knowledgecreation, mediation and
use
Very High
Medium
Low
2. Structures and resources
for knowledge-creation,
mediation and use
High
Medium
Low to
very low
3. Outcomes of knowledgecreation
Very high
To high
High to
variable
Low
Learning Together
“It is one of life’s great ironies: schools are
in the business of teaching and learning, yet
they are terrible at learning from each other.
If they ever discover how to do this, their
future is assured.”
Michael Fullan, “Leading in a Culture of Change”
Reasons for Networking
• FOR LEARNERS – through our own learning we
can enhance pupil learning
• To draw from the knowledge of other schools
• It can free us from our own contexts
• Knowing that there is support takes away the ‘I
stand alone’ feeling
• To move from dependence to interdependence
• We are farming in the same field of learning
• We are all teachers and learners. We need to
model both learning and teaching by working with
other teachers and school
South African School Principals
A Networked Learning
Metaphor
Adapted from Madeline Church, 2000,
“Participation, Relationships and Dynamic Change”
Threads, knots and nets a network metaphor
The triangles represent
the members
The threads stand
for the relationships,
the communication
and the trust
The knots
represent what we
do together
Net-Works - a dynamic for
learning
The ‘net’
structure:
• is created by,
and benefits,
members
• provides
solidarity and
tensile strength
• is dynamic and
flexible
• has to be
‘worked’
What makes Networks work?
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Shared values & aspirations - beliefs
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A common focus – purposes that act
themselves out in classrooms
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Supportive ‘structures’ – facilitative
norms and arrangements
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Will – the ‘moral purpose’ desire
NLCs – a core set of beliefs
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Intelligence is not fixed – it can be grown
All children can become successful and
energised learners
Educational professional and schools
can learn together to deliver what it takes
Making what we know visible and
transferable (within & between schools)
is not a bad place to start
The knowledge exists to do it!
‘Network Child’ – the Unit Change
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Networked Learning Communities involve
collaborative change built around a unit of
one
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One child, in one classroom, within one
school, within a network of schools is the unit
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What would a Network need to know and to
do in order to ensure that every single child
can be the most powerful learner that he or
she can be?
“If we want to develop young people
who are participating members of
society, we must model that by being
collaborating members of the
educational community”
The Durham Board, Canada - A Networked Learning Community
FIVE LEVELS OF LEARNING
(Levels of Leadership Influence)
• Pupil learning (a pedagogical focus)
• Teacher learning (with professional
learning communities as the goal)
• Leadership learning (at all levels in the
school)
• Organisational learning
• School-to-school learning
3 Non-negotiable Principles
• Moral purpose (caring about children
in other schools)
• Shared leadership (leadership that
travels laterally and stretches across
more than one site)
• Enquiry and the use of evidence (we
are not sharing anecdote)
‘Networked Learning Communities
are about schools working smarter
together rather than harder alone.’
Ten Proposals
1.
Align the various partners/agencies around a system
vision
2. Build internal commitment across schools
3. Identify ‘cultural architects’ for each school
4. Heads and CAs commit to ongoing learning
5. Generate new communication strategies – value voice
6. Create a Network Forum – allow a focus to emerge
7. Agree some compelling shared aspirations
8. Establish cross-school ‘study groups’
9. Transform existing time into new ‘learning spaces’
10. Celebrate and communicate intensively
Innovation in Challenging
Circumstances
NLC Name
Transforming
Learning
London:
Ten schools
(7 primary, 3
secondary,
schools)
Pupil Learning
Adult and
Leadership
Learning
Through
learning to
engage all
learners, we
aim to understand the
needs of
disaffected
learners in an
inner city ward
by connecting
and comparing
their primary
and secondary
experiences
Students will
give feedback to
teachers on
learning - in a
variety of ways.
We will also
work with
community
learning
mentors, peer
tutors and with
teachers and
trainees to
evaluate videoed
lessons
Leadership/
Within School
Learning
School-School
Learning
Both leaders
and teachers
will work in
schools across
phases.
Innovative
learning
designs will be
piloted in
rooms with
video facilities
We have
allocated
funding for
residential
‘thrash it out’
weekends, and
cross-school
‘design and
write’ groups,
where much of
our in-depth
work will take
place
Widespread & Diverse
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National Spread – 110
Urban, suburban, rural
Primary, Secondary, Special
Phase specific and Cross - phase
6-34 schools and whole LEAs
International connections
Independent and state