FOURTH PLENARY SESSION

Educational institutions as communities of learning: the context

for effective teaching

VII Meeting of OAS Ministers of Education Suriname

1-2 March 2012

Dr. Michael JohanekUniversity of Pennsylvania

In 15 minutes…!

• Locating the “learning community”

• How does it work? – “Essential supports” model of an effective school– How adults learn in high performing schools– The role of context and a new educational leadership

• How to support them? – OAS/Inter-American Educational Leadership Network

(IAELN)

Locating the “learning community”

Teaching / Learning

Levels of the Current Problem

Organization

Teaching / Learning

Organization

Context/Community Teaching / Learning

Organization

Context/Community

Teaching / Learning

Teachers

Leadership

Students

Interaction

Inte

rmed

iary

Gov

erna

nce/

Org

aniz

atio

ns

Polic

y/Le

gal A

utho

rity

Organization

Context/Community

Teaching / Learning

Teachers

Leadership

Students

Interaction

BUFFER - BUILD CAPACITY

When it works, how does it work?

“Essential supports” model of an effective school

Bryk, Anthony S., et al. Organizing Schools for Improvement: Lessons from Chicago. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press 2010. Print.

“Essential supports” model

How adults learn in high performing schools

High-performing schools “learn” more

• High-performing schools tend to be characterized as “learning organizations”

• Learning organizations tend to have the following characteristics:• Supportive and shared leadership, participation in decisions• Shared values, vision, goals• Collective learning, shared application of learning, “horizontal

network of information flow” (Schechter/Qadach), commitment to improvement

• Supportive conditions, resources, culture• Shared personal practice, break with traditional isolated

practice– Recent research has been trying to link such characteristics to

changes in instructional practice and student achievement

Schechter, Chen. "Organizational Learning Mechanisms: The Meaning, Measure, and Implications for School Improvement." Educational Administration Quarterly 44.2 (2008): 155-86. Print.

The conceptual framework of organizational learning

Supovitz, Jonathan, Philip Sirinides, and Henry May. "How Principals and Peers Influence Teaching and Learning." Educational Administration Quarterly 46, no. 1 (2010): 31-56.

Peer Influence

Geijsel, Femke P, et al. "The Effect of Teacher Psychological and School Organizational and Leadership Factors on Teachers' Professional Learning in Dutch Schools." The Elementary School Journal 109.4 (2009): 406-27. Print.

Collaboration, shared decisionsInternalized mission, self-efficacy

Thoonen, Erik E. J., et al. "How to Improve Teaching Practices: The Role of Teacher Motivation, Organizational Factors, and Leadership Practices." Educational Administration Quarterly 47.3 (2011): 496-536. Print.

Relational trust, tolerance to uncertainty

Schechter, Chen, and Mowafaq Qadach. "The Contribution of Organizational Learning Mechanisms --toward an Organizational Model of Change in Elementary Schools." Educational Administration Quarterly 48.1 (2012): 116-53. Print.

Organizational Leaning Mechanisms

How do adults learn in high performing schools?

• Maintain stability, a level of certainty within the inevitable uncertainty, focus on students’ development, fight distractions

• There is trust between adults and students, transparency in decisions

• Leaders that develop and monitor organizational learning mechanisms

• “Professional learning communities”

The role of context

and

A new educational leadership

Bryk, Anthony S., et al. Organizing Schools for Improvement: Lessons from Chicago. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press 2010. Print.

“Essential supports” model

Organization

Context/Community

Teaching / Leaning

Teachers

Leadership

Students

Interaction

Knowledge on part of the leader of curricular contente.g., observation/evaluation

Resolution of unstructured problemsChecking assumptions, looking for alternative perspectives, colaborate, make values explicit, etc.

Development of relational trustInterpersonal respect, personal steem among coleagues, personal integrity, capabilities requiered by the position

Diagnosis of the surroundings and the organization“ecometrics”

Focused development of distributed leadership

Robinson, Viviane M. J. "From Instructional Leadership to Leadership Capabilities: Empirical Findings and Methodological Challenges." Leadership & Policy in Schools 9, no. 1 (2010): 1-26.; Nelson/Stein, 2003; Nelson et al, 2007; National College; Burdick-Will et al, 2011; Harding et al, 2011; Spillane et al.

Competencies/challenges of the new leadership

252525

Leaders

Administrators, Specialists, Teachers

Situations

Tools, routines,

structures

Followers

Teachers, Administrators, Specialists

Leadership –Interacctions

The practice of leadership

Leadership Theory(iterative, cumulative; principles + judgment)

Name, categorize and analyze

ideas and underlying issues

Redirect with conceptual frameworks,

Dimensions and theoriesChallenges of

leadership practice

Data and analysis

Act towards a problem

or challenge

Analysis and reflection

Around results

How to support them?

International collaboration

OASand

IAELN

Inter-American Educational Leadership Network 

State Market

Hemispheric community pushing sustainable, continuous innovation

CommunityNGOs

EducationalLeaders

… Innovative leaders from different fields and sectors… with a dedication to push relevant reforms of the educational system

… a network of leaders through the Americas that are thinking and facilitating dramatic changes in schools and other educational institutions

…especially for the most vulnerable sectors.

• Research• Development• Direct exchange

WWW.GSE.UPENN.EDU/IAELN Virtual space

Webinars

Web-based simulations

Simulacros virtuales

X

Professional ConferencesUCEA, 2011

1st joint international certificate Universidad Católica de Chile and

Graduate School of Education, University of Pennsylvania

“blended” distance / onsite

 “Interamerican professional learning community”

Thanks!

Michael Johanek, Ed.D.

Senior Fellow

Graduate School of Education

University of Pennsylvania

johanek@upenn.eduwww.gse.upenn.edu/faculty/johanek

FOURTH PLENARY SESSION

Educational institutions as communities of learning: the context for effective teaching

VII Meeting of OAS Ministers of Education Suriname

1-2 March 2012

Ministerial Dialogue

Prof. Mario Mora QuirozViceminister of Institutional Planning and

Regional CoordinationMinistry of Public Education of Costa Rica