Transcript Leadership Styles

Learning about School-Based Teacher
Professional Development:
Facilitating Collaborative Inquiry to
Change Practice.
Helen O’Sullivan
School of Education
Trinity College Dublin
Structure of the Presentation
1. Irish Context
2. Theoretical Framework
3. The Research
4. Learning from the Research – interwoven
throughout the research story
The Education Act 1998 –
Section 23. The Principal shall:
a)
b)
c)
Be responsible for the day to day management of the
school, including guidance and direction of the
teachers and other staff of the school, and be
accountable to the board of management,
Provide leadership to the teachers and other staff and
the students of the school,
Be responsible for the creation, together with the
board, parents of students and teachers of a school
environment which is supportive of learning among
the students and which promotes the professional
development of the teachers .
In-Service Professional Development Programmes
(Primary Level) - SAMPLE
In-Service Professional Development Programmes
(Post-Primary Level)
Primary Curriculum Support Service (PCSP)
School Development Planning Initiative (SDPI)
School Development Planning Service (SDPS)
Second Level Support Service (Curriculum) (SLSS)
Relationship and Sexuality
Relationship and Sexuality (RSE)
School Support Programme (Disadvantaged)
Junior Certificate School Programme (JCSP)
Child Abuse Prevention Programme
Social, Personal and Health Education (SPHE)
Substance Misabuse Prevention Programme
Junior Cycle Physical Education (JCPE)
Teacher Professional Network Scheme
Teacher Professional Network Scheme (TPNS)
Reading Recovery
Technology
Summer Courses
Dublin Cool Schools Pilot Project (Anti-Bullying)
Special Education Support Service (SESS)
National Behaviour Support Service (NBSS)
Leadership Development for Schools (LDS)
Leadership Development for Schools (LDS)
TRINITY COLLEGE DUBLIN COLÁISTE NA TRÍONÓIDE BAILE
Primary Professional
Development Service [2008: SLSS is to incorporate SDPI, SPHE, JCPE, RSE
ÁTHA CLIATH
An amalgamation of PCSP & SDPS]
PISA countries in
Coverage of world economy
2003
2000
2001
2009
2006
1998
83%
81%
77%
87%
86%
85%
Theoretical Framework
• Joyce & Showers, 2002, Leithwood & Riehl,
School Based Teacher
Professional Development 2003, Wiliam and Thompson, 2007
Theories of Learning
Professionalism
School as a Professional
Learning Community
•
•
•
•
Rogers and Freiberg, 1994, Freire, 1970,’72
Dennison and Kirk, 1990
West-Burnham, 2005, Watkins, 2005
Donovan et al, 2000
• Eraut, 1994, Freidson, 2001
• McCullough, 2000
• Hord, 2006
• Dufour, 2006
• McLaughlin & Talbert, 2006, Louis, 2006
Rationale
Moral Purpose of Schooling is to raise the bar and close the gap of student
learning (Fullan 2005).
Research Evidence that:
1. The quality of teacher in the classroom is the single most important
school-related variable influencing student learning (Leithwood, 1999)
2.
Improved student learning depends upon teacher learning (McLaughlin
and Talbert, 2006, p. 3).
3.
Teacher learning to change practice is ‘inextricably with teachers day to
day work contexts, for example in the classroom or working with groups
of colleagues in their school’ (Carnell, 2001, p. 44)
4.
In-school variability has a lasting impact on student achievement
...Consistent quality of teaching matters in student progress
(Konstantopoulos, 2006, McKinsey, 2009)
Acting the Way into a New Way of Thinking
(Millard Fuller cited in William 2008 )
Data Gathering and Analysis: Year One
Purpose : EVALUATORY
1. Interviews
2. Questionnaires
3. Minutes of Meetings
4. Facilitator’s Reflective Diary
5. Workshop Findings
ANALYSIS:
Thematic Coding
Factor Analysis Using SPSS
Verification /Validation by teacher
participants
Focus: Teachers’ learning
• Knowledge,
• Skills
• Dispositions
• Theory of Action
Using Guskey’s (2002) 5 level
model for evaluating PD:
1. Reactions to the programme
2. Learning
3. Organisational support &
change
4. Application of new learning
5. Impact on student learning
Facilitating In-School Professional
Development to Improve Practice
Organisational • Change the
Level
Environment
• Change
Cultural Level
Perceptions
Classroom
Level
• Change
Practice
Reactions
“ I liked working with
teachers to a shared goal”
90% mentioned enjoyed sharing with
and learning from others
30% mentioned trying out new ideas
20% mentioned TIME a pressure
Learning
“I am much more confident
about teaching the different
genres”
90% mentioned pedagogical content knowledge
80% mentioned assessment and feedback
Organisational Support
“sometimes we had to cancel
because there was nobody to
take our classes”
85% appreciated time being made available
Negative factors: cancellations & learning
support teachers ‘covering’ classes
“There was great teamwork”
Application
“ I tried to follow through on
ideas suggested, planned
ahead...READ!”
80% said they applied something
( ‘a lot’ to ‘a little’)
All applied Genre approach to writing
Impact on Student Learning
(Based on teachers’ own
assessment
70% said children’s learning improved:
Use of Rubrics (Highly time consuming)
School wide displays
Findings Building School Capacity
• Developing an Inquiry habit of •
mind takes time, and a
relentless commitment to
•
keeping the focus on learning
and asking WHY?
•
• Roles must make leadership
dimension explicit.
• Important to adopt an empathic
approach to change – initial
•
fears must be respected
• Timing and Pacing –
Loose/Tight/Loose
• Must involve facing the cultural
impediments that may reside in
Understanding the theory of
action is important.
TIME – Need to recognise
leverage points
Teachers ‘shape’ each others
pedagogical-content knowledge
[but the nature of that shaping
is not well understood]
In this model success/failure
hinges on quality of the
facilitation and professional
dialogue at individual team
level
How teachers saw their learning
challenge – a Journey
sharing
ideas
trying
things out
together
sharing
new
learning
Isolated Privatism
sharing
resources
inviting
others into
our
classroom
Collaborative Professionalism
Teachers’ Illustration of the Stages of
the Journey
1.Sharing Planning
2.Sharing Resources
3.Sharing Teaching
4.Sharing Observation
5.Sharing Feedback
6.Sharing Improvement
The Conceptual Model for Learning Collaborative Practice – CMLCP
Getting Started for Year Two
• Tri-level approach to continue with an additional
fourth level: R & R team.
• Use the pyramid to guide the journey
• Identify key leverage points - e.g. lesson plans
• Pacing and Timing – one learning intention per
term
• Try to answer ‘How are we shaping each others ‘
learning?’
Data Gathering and Analysis: Year Two
Purpose : ‘How are we shaping each Focus: Teachers’ engaging in
others ‘ learning?’
reciprocal learning dialogue
3 teachers (representing junior,
• Learning how to ‘see’
middle and senior levels of school)
another’s practice
volunteered to have a lesson
• Learning how to give
observed (2 video recordings and
/receive professional
1 ‘live’) and invited their learning
feedback
team to share feedback .
• Learning about own ‘talk’ –
The feedback meeting was video
what teachers talked about
recorded & the dialogue analysed.
, the attitudes and values
ANALYSIS:
reflected in that talk
Discourse Analysis informed by
• Theory of Action
Systemic Functional Linguistics Using Peer Professional
(SFL)
Learning Cycle (PPLC)
Verification /Validation by teacher
participants
Peer Professional Learning Cycle (PPLC)
What
• High levels of convergence
• Children’s learning was the
dominant subject matter
• All 3 meetings looked at
pedagogical issues
• Shared terminology
children, kids ‘they’: 200
‘stronger’ /’weaker’
• Strong identification with
their own students – warm
relationships – protective of
some, challenging of others
• Egalitarianism
•
•
•
•
How
Uncertainty around how
to view own practice –
‘we’ / ‘they’
Tentative
Captured highly detailed
description – an
alertness to using
children’s body language
as source of feedback
All learning tasks defined
by teacher
Dominant Learning
Images: Intended
Practice
Dominant Image : Realised
Practice
Dominant approach: Whole
Class Teaching
• Learning as Process: • Learning tasks defined by
teacher
– Engagement with the
Learning Goals
learning task
• Terminology
– Co-constructed
learning
• Tacit
• General
• Learning as outcome
• Challenge of time-bound :
– Understanding
completion/incompletion
performances
• The challenge of
Personalisation
Recommendations
• Teachers pedagogical
• Professional learning
content knowledge
through the methodological
shapes the learning of
approach being promoted
each individual in the
• Examining assumptions
class - learning intentions,
around learning–
task,
timing,
assessing
understanding learning is
and feedback
fundamental to teachers’
• Building in-school capacity
professional learning
to gather and analyse
• Improving one discipline at
data.
a time
• Encouraging teaches to
undertake action research
What I have learned about leading in-school
professional learning to change practice?
5. Embedding
New Norms of
Practice –
Policy
Development
1. Empathic
Inquiry Rooted
in Moral
Purpose
Unwavering
Commitment
2. Modelling
the Change
Mapping the
Journey
To
Dialogic Action
4. Making
Improvements
Visible Mentoring
& Coaching
towards SelfRegulation
&
Developing
Agency
3. Building
Capacity to
develop Inquiry
Habit of Mind &
Practice
Teacher Professional Development
Vision
Values
Purpose