monash.edu

Improving schools from within!

TISS conference, Sri Lanka November 13 2015

Associate Professor Libby TudballFaculty of Education, Monash University

Outline of this session…. Key questions:

1. Considering: What should/could be your focus - key emphases for improving schools from within - case studies of practice

2. Reflecting on: What does research tell us about successful school improvement strategies in the C21st? 

3. Pondering: What processes can be developed to improve schools?

4. Concluding: What future challenges might you address in your own schools?

Considering: What should be our focus?

…So much depends on your own school context, needs and priorities

• Student learning and achievement?

• Student well being and engagement?

• Teaching, learning and assessment innovation?

• Curriculum planning and evaluation

• Effective use of ICT in schools?

• Teacher professional learning?

• Teacher, parent and student satisfaction

A case study: Wooranna Park Primary school

http://www.woorannaparkps.com.au/

http://www.woorannaparkps.com.au/#!media/c1m64

What should be our focus? At Wooranna Park…the 6C’s and more…

At Wooranna Park…

Key improvements led by the leadership team, teachers, parents, students…

• A focus on learning to learn and meeting diverse learner needs- all students can achieve

• Learning collaboratively and in multiple ways to maximise learning

• Often interdisciplinary, maybe literacy, science, maths, the arts, humanities as the base

• Flexible use of time and space

• Including student and parent voice

• Reaching out to the community

• ICT ubiquitous

What should be our focus for improving schools from within?..

Effective School’s Model [Sammons, Hillman and Mortimore (1995)

Multiple models and approaches for improving schools … but no one size fits

all! eg St Stephen's School… https://www.ststephens.wa.edu.au/

Balwyn High school… improving from within… what focus?

see http://www.balwynhs.vic.edu.au/StrategicPlan.aspx

• All government schools in Victoria are required to engage in continuous school improvement processes:

• These involve self review, peer review and independent expert input

• This leads to a documented strategic plan for the next four years that includes goals, targets and key improvement strategies.

The focus for improvement at Balwyn High school… 2014-2017

…a co-ed school with 2000 students and 200 teachers

Key areas.. Continue to build teacher capacity to consistently implement the agreed Balwyn High School pedagogy and instructional model based on E5

Achievement:

• rigorous and differentiated curriculum and explicit teaching to cater for individual learning needs

• improve Literacy outcomes for all students at all levels of ability, including EAL learners

• Develop a whole school literacy plan with agreed pedagogies for teaching literacy across the curriculum

• Embed accurate and consistent approaches to assessment of individual students

Balwyn High school improvement focus

Engagement and Wellbeing …(snapshots)

• provide higher levels of student cognitive engagement, challenge, independence, self-directed inquiry and deep thinking

• To build student capacity to become more resilient, self-reflective learners and productive school citizens

• Parent Opinion Survey – Social Skills to achieve a minimum of 75th percentile

• Continue to investigate school-community partnerships for mutual benefit

• Embed sustainability processes across all areas of the school

2. Reflecting on:

What does research tell us about

successful school improvement

strategies in the C21st? 

Reflecting on: research on the importance of PLC’s 

Shaughnessy (1998) argued that:

• The concept of professional learning communities is generating a significant amount of interest among educators, and the literature is quick to reveal the reasons. When implemented successfully, they serve as catalysts for community wide growth. Further, they enhance student outcomes, supporting the very reasons that educational institutions exist. (p.1)

 

Research shows that without the combination of the key characteristics of PLCs, it is unlikely for the goals of PLCs to be achieved (Hord, 2007, Dufour & Eaker, 2002, Fullan, 1997, 2001; Hargreaves, 1994)

So what are these goals and characteristics?

The goals & structure of a PLC….drawing on Hord’s (1997) literature review.. (see

www.sedl.org/pubs/change34/plc-cha34.pdf)

• The professionals and parents: continuously seek and share learning to increase their effectiveness for students, and act on what they learn.

• Schools organised as PLCs demand at least a minimal level of each of these dimensions:

• shared mission, vision and values

• shared and distributed leadership

• collective focus on student learning and responses to data,

• collaboration and de-privatized practice,

• And, reflective dialogue.

‘Revisiting Professional Learning Communities at Work: New Insights for Improving Schools’ DuFour, DuFour & Eaker (2008)

Leadership is critical in a PLC…

• It is clear that while the principal playscritical role, the concept of ‘leader’ should not be limited to the principal or senior staff, as teacher leaders in classrooms, faculties, and across school programs are vital in improving learning in schools.

• Many researchers have discovered the benefits of ‘distributed leadership’, where every member of the communityhas the responsibility and authority totake appropriate leadership roles (Neuman & Simmons, 2000; Supovitz, 2000, Wenger et al., 2002)

BUT… Barth (1990) argued that:

‘Probably nothing within a school has more impact on students in terms of skills and\knowledge development, self-confidence, or classroom behaviour, than the personal and professional growth of their teachers’ (p. 49)

The critical role of quality teaching…

Rosenholtz (1989) reminds us that,

‘… Teaching is inherently complex and challenging (i.e. nobody can ever know it all); …teachers will need to engage in continuous improvement throughout their whole careers (i.e. nobody ever fully arrives); and teachers improve by engaging with others in “analysis, evaluation, and experimentation” (i.e. nobody can do it by themselves)’. (p. 89)

Rowe (2003) reports that…‘Whereas students’ literacy skills, general academic achievements, attitudes, behaviors and experiences of schooling are influenced by their background and intake characteristics, the magnitude of these effects pale into insignificance compared with class/teacher effects. That is, the quality of teaching and learning provision are by far the most salient influences on students’ cognitive, affective, and behavioral outcomes of schooling – regardless of their gender or backgrounds. …Research indicates that ‘what matters most’ is quality teachers and teaching, supported by strategic teacher professional development!

(See Rowe, Ken, "The Importance of Teacher Quality As A Key Determinant of Students’ Experiences and Outcomes of Schooling" (2003). http://research.acer.edu.au/research_conference_2003/3 )

Pondering:

What processes can be developed to improve schools from within?

Victorian government school improvement processes involve…

http://www.education.vic.gov.au/school/principals/spag/governance/Pages/accountability.aspx

Pondering: What processes can you develop to improve your school from within?

So far I have explored with you …

• Internal reviews: such as the Victorian model including leadership teams, all staff, parents, students

• Also important to complete needs analyses …What to improve and why?

• External and peer review…can value add to the internal processes

• Using PLC structures as a way to improve is a continuous theme in the literature

Pondering: What other processes can improve schools ?

Making PLC’s work…

Schwahn and Spady (1998) say that having a compelling vision alone will not produce change that makes a difference in student learning.

The vision must have a detailed and complex view of how the organization will look when it is achieving its goals, what action will be taken, and what moral purpose will underpin the actions (Fullan, 2001; Sparks, 1997).

Overall, the vision must detail the policies, resources and programs required to support the achievement of the desired goals

Deep and targeted focus on specific areas of curriculum, teaching and learning through teams involved in action research can lead to deep improvement.

Process of Action Research (Mertler, 2006, p. 24)

In Victorian schools many leaders use the E5 model

See www.education.vic.gov.au/school/teachers/support/pages/e5.aspx

The E5 (continued)

Concluding:

What future challenges might you address in your own schools?

Are there basic building blocks for the future of schooling?...

See http://dangerouslyirrelevant.org/2013/08/7-building-blocks-for-the-future-of-schools.html

Basic building blocks for the future of schooling?... McLeod (2012)

1.Competency-based education and standards-based grading efforts that shift the focus from seat time to learning mastery

2. Project- and inquiry-based learning environments that emphasize greater student agency and active application of more cognitively-complex thinking, communication, and collaboration skills.

3. ICT initiatives that give students powerful digital learning devices and access to the world’s information, individuals, and organizations to increase availability of higher & deeper learning opportunities.

4. Online communities of interest that augment more-traditional learning communities that are limited by geography and time.

5. Simulations and problem-based learning experiences that foster students’ ability to engage in authentic, real-world work

C21st learning

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nA1Aqp0sPQo

What future challenges might you address in your schools?

Possible priorities? But what about in your school?

• Healthy school communities with a focus on well being, resilience and active local and global citizenship

• Negotiated curriculum priorities: around the formal and the informal curriculum, with a realistic understanding of the need for both…

• Non negotiables.. Developing mutli-literacies, numeracy, and learning encompassing the disciplines and key capabilities

• STEAM? (Wooranna Park!)

Learning to be prepared for uncertain futures and an interdependent world…with the knowledge, skills, capabilities our school leavers will need?

Global education and internationalisation

What future challenges might you address in your schools?

• Healthy school communities?… see • http://

www.education.vic.gov.au/school/principals/health/pages/healthpromo.aspx

STEM …or STEAM?

https://www.studentsfirst.gov.au/restoring-focus-stem-schools-initiative

Engagement with the Asian region… http://www.asiaeducation.edu.au/

http://www.asiaeducation.edu.au/programmes/school-partnerships

Building connections between schools and communities in our region is a key priority for Australian governments, schools and universities.This recognises our own demographics” Asia at Home”… and our engagement in the region

Education for sustainability…not an optional extra!!!.

Education for sustainability…social, ecological, economic

• There has been a global surge of interest in the importance of values and civics and citizenship in school practice…

• …and increasing evidence that schools in Australia are making connections between these fields and developing theory and practice in education for sustainability (EFS) (Fien, 2001; Fien, & Tilbury, 2002; Henderson & Tilbury, 2004, Tudball, 2010).

• EFS must encourage students to develop understanding of the complex relationships between economic, environmental and social goals, systems and processes (Rauch, 2002, UNESCO, 2005)

• …consistent with key goals for citizenship education …to develop informed and active participatory citizens

• See also global views…

• http://www.unesco.org/new/en/education/themes/leading-the-international-agenda/education-for-sustainable-development

UNESCO ..1997

(UNESCO, 2002, curriculum framing model)..clear links evident with interdisciplinary learning agendas

Preparing young learners for uncertain futures…

• requires learning related to global challenges…• increasing refugee movements related to conflict, • global socio-economic divides, • food security concerns, finite energy resources,• Ecological challenges and climate change

"Learning for Work, Citizenship

and Sustainability".

The triple bottom line

(UNESCO-UNEVOC

Bulletin:

Special Issue -2005-06)

Whole school approaches to school improvement …

‘This generation of young people will also unavoidably be crucial decision-makers in terms of stewardship of the earth. To be able to take an active part in sustainable development, students need to understand the concept of global interdependence, and need to value empathy, equity, personal responsibility, social justice and social action in their own lives and in their connections with the world’

(Tudball & Gordon, 2013, p 258) Our obligation to learners of today is

to develop curriculum relevant to their lives now and vital for a more sustainable future…

As we move further into the C21st we need to remember that…

As members of the world community, educators have a responsibility to ensure that education contributes to the promotion of equity, peace, social justice and the universal realization of human rights … Curricular and instructional programs … should aim to develop in every person self-respect, social awareness and the capacity to participate at all levels of world society, from local to global.

World Council for Curriculum and Instruction, 2003

I wish you all well in your important work as educational leaders in Sri Lanka

Libby Tudball November 2015