Professional Development Today

pDT PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT TODAY

Issue: 15.4

Developing leaders for the future Raphael Wilkins asks what’s next for school leadership development?

Peter Earley reports on the skills needed to meet the challenge of leadership

Graham Handscomb provides a HOW TO guide to leading change

Jane Jones recalls professional development that made a difference

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Contents ■■■■■

Issue 15.4 Comment Developing leaders for the future

3

Graham Handscomb

40

How to... learn from Change models and theories 46

Practice and policy What next for school leadership development?

How to... deal with the complexity of change?

A concluding reflection

50

6

Raphael Wilkins

Research

Disciplined Collaboration: Professional Learning with Impact

Developing leadership skills and capabilities for the future 52

14

Peter Earley

Michelle Jones and Alma Harris

Growing your own evidence!

22

Chris Brown

Reference Professional learning leaving its mark!

60

Jane Jones

How to.... lead change

33

Graham Handscomb

NEET prevention: reading the signs to keep students on track 65 Tami McCrone

The leadership of change journey

33

How to... take the long view?

34

How to... understand the importance of cultural context?

37 ISSN 1460-8340

Editor

Editorial Office

Graham Handscomb

Professional Development Today is published by

Professor of Education, College of Teachers, Institute of Education, University of London.

Graham Handscomb Management Services; graham@handscomb-consultancy.co.uk

Imaginative Minds,

Editorial Board Dr Christopher Chapman Professor of Education Glasgow University.

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Peter Earley Professor of Education Leadership and Management, Institute of Education, University of London.

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Company registration number 02445043 © Professional Development Today, 2013 ISSN 1460-8340

Assistant Headteacher, Millais School, Horsham, Surrey.

No part of this publication may be reproduced,

Sue Law

independent magazine. The views expressed in

Director of Academic Practice, Higher Education Academy, University of Nottingham

signed articles do not necessarily represent those

copied or transmitted in any form or by any means.

Professional Development Today is an

of the magazine.

The magazine cannot accept any responsibility for products and services advertised within it.

Gill Tricoglus CCDU Training and Consultancy, Leeds Metropolitan University.

Krishan Sood Senior Lecturer in Education. MA Programme Leader at Nottingham Trent University, Nottingham.

2

Comment

Developing leaders for the future Graham Handscomb looks at the great challenges facing leaders in an ever changing school system and educational environment, and poses the question whether professional development for school leaders is fit for purpose.

■■■ Great Expectations

on school leaders. All this has profound implication for the professional development of school leaders. What kind of development will be fit for purpose to help leaders meet these future challenges and fulfil the considerable demands being made of them? This is the compelling focus of our Professional Development Today contributions in this issue.

There is wide acknowledgement that leadership matters.

High quality leadership is one of the key factors in the development of successful schools (Earley, 2013) and there is compelling evidence that leaders have a significant positive impact on student outcomes (Day, Sammons, Hopkins, Harris, Leithwood, Gu, Brown, Ahtaridou, & Kington, 2009). The role of leaders is seen as a fundamental ingredient in the process of improving schools across the globe and this international consensus about the crucial importance of leadership is summarised in the often quoted findings of Leithwood and Seashore-Louis (2012): “to date we have not found a single documented case of a school improving its student achievement record in the absence of talented leadership”. Indeed, the status and importance of leadership have led some to claim that “internationally, this is the ’golden age’ of school leadership” (Mulford, 2006).

The future of school leadership then is very much a high stakes issue; it is at the centre of political attention and there are considerable expectations surrounding it: “Policy, officials and researchers are consumed by its potential and the public believes it is what schools need more of ” (Miller, 2013). This is particularly so given the changing and volatile nature of the educational landscape.

Past structures are weakening and disappearing with reduced roles both of centrally controlled national agencies and of local authorities. In their place the government is looking to schools, working in collaboration, to improve not just themselves but also to bring about system wide improvement (Hargreaves, 2010, 2011, 2012), and again at the centre of this drive is the expectation being placed

■■■ Lateral development Raphael Wilkins sets the tone by asking “what next for school leadership development”? He raises significant doubt about the appropriateness of conventional leadership development provision given the nature of the challenges ahead. He draws on a range of international evidence, including the example of the Experienced Principals’ Development Programme in New Zealand. The article points to the appearance of a new cadre of school system leaders which must “either grow locally or emerge from national and international dialogues within the profession itself”. He intriguingly describes how school leaders operate within a range of spatial perspectives, including spaces within communities beyond the school, and calls for an increased “lateral “ element in leadership development which “gives practitioners in early leadership positions more exposure to school-to-school networking, both locally and internationally.”

■■■ Disciplined collaboration The focus on collaborative professional development is also a key feature of the article by Michelle Jones and Alma Harris. They contend that much professional development is still of the nature of ineffective training

Improving learning and teaching ■■■■■

programmes rather than embedded learning or learning in context. In their portrayal of “professional learning with impact” they challenge provocatively the view that this automatically means using professional development modes that are currently popular like coaching and mentoring which can be little more than “just a free fall into lowlevel emotional handholding”! Instead they draw on their current work being piloted in Australia using a “Disciplined Collaboration” model. This uses systematic enquiry to trial, refine and test new classroom practices and approaches that help to make a real difference to learning and learners.

The power of disciplined evidenced-based practice is also at the heart of the contribution from Chris Brown. In his wide ranging exploration of policy and practice here and abroad, he demonstrates the importance of evidencedinformed practice but concludes that this must move from volunteerism to expectation and even compulsion, backed up by real and substantive support.

College on the school landscape. It looked at how leaders are responding to the rapidly changing policy environment and in particular examined the leadership and professional development opportunities currently taken up by school leaders. He considered the skills and capabilities they needed for the future. There are some thought provoking findings. These include the issues of whether schools are taking up local authority or other commercial provision, and the surprising confirmation of what Jones and Harris feared in their article, that formal traditional development such as conferences, seminars and leadership courses still predominate. There were some other intriguing reflections such as: it is primary headteachers who were most likely to refer to “developing personal resilience”. Perhaps the most sombre finding was that staff are being” turned off” applying for headship because of “increasing pressures and high levels of accountability where headteachers were deemed to be only as good as their last inspection report”.

■■■ The challenge of change ■■■ Hope for the future?

In this issue’s HOW TO section I provide a range of pieces on How To Lead Change. Each contribution contains a range of thinking and research related to leading individual and organisational change. Together they explore issues related to seeing change as a journey, the importance of taking the long view and taking account of cultural difference, as well as looking at various models about the leadership of change. Each HOW TO piece is designed to provide some stimulus material followed by professional learning exercises to help relate this thinking to your own practice.

One of the concluding contributions in this issue of Professional Development Today is a personal reflection from Jane Jones. In this she thinks back to an early career experience of both professional and leadership development. Interestingly it combines many of the elements fore-grounded by other articles in describing a rich experience of contextually job-embedded, evidenced informed, disciplined collaboration. In particular we are presented with an image of an educational organisation where leadership is developed within the very fabric of school’s life and culture. It may be that despite the enormous expectations of our school leaders that the future of school leadership is not as bleak as we might fear.

■■■ The state of leadership How appealing will headship be in the future? This is at the heart of the article written by Peter Earley. He reports on the research he and others conducted for the National

graham@handscomb-consultancy.co.uk

References: Day C., Sammons P., Hopkins D., Harris A., Leithwood K., Gu Q., Ahtaridou E., and Kingston A. (2009) The Impact of School Leadership on Pupil Outcomes. Final report.DCSF and NCSL.Research report No: DCSF – RR108, June, 2009. ■ Earley P. (2013) Exploring the School Leadership Landscape: Changing demands, changing realities, London: Bloomsbury. ■ Hargreaves D. H. (2010) Creating a self-improving school system.National College for School Leadership. ■ Hargreaves D. H. (2011)Leading a Self-improving School System.National College for School Leadership. ■ Hargreaves D. H. (2012)A Self-improving School System: Towards Maturity.National College for School Leadership.

■ Leithwood K. and Seashore Louis K (2012) Linking Leadership to Student LearningJossey-Bass ■ Miller P.(ed.)School Leadership in the Caribbean: perceptions, practices and paradigms. Symposium books ■ Mulford B. (2006) Leadership for Improving the quality of Secondary Education: Some international Development. Profesorado.Revista de currículum y formacióndelprofesorado, 10, 1 (2006)

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What next for school leadership development? ■■■■■

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What next for school leadership development?

Raphael Wilkins explores the changing contribution of school leaders to shaping future school systems, and the implications for professional development of the next generation of school leaders. He calls for a radical re-think of the professional learning opportunities which incorporate more lateral development experiences gained through local and international networking.

■■■ Leadership fit for a changing educational landscape This article addresses the question ‘what next for school leadership development?’ In England, the Labour government which took office in 1997 set out on a raft of strongly managed national projects. These embraced

school leadership. The Government’s strategies depended on schools being led not only well, but in a certain way. It embarked on a phase of school leadership development, of which the creation of the then National College for School Leadership was the flagship. This was unusual in its intensity when compared to previous

Policy and practice

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That leadership focus on policy initiatives lessened when the government changed in 2010. Leadership development continued in a broadly similar direction, through a period of reflection and stock-taking.

Meanwhile, the educational landscape, in which school leaders will be leading, is changing profoundly. The present government has greatly reduced the scale of activity previously undertaken by centrally-controlled national agencies. Budgets for education have tightened.

The activity of local authorities has been sharply curtailed and that trend will continue. The growth of academy chains means that an increasing number of school leaders find themselves in the role of site- or unitmanager within a corporately-cultured conglomerate.

These developments are occurring in an increasingly globalised world, in which ideas and debates about school leadership have a supra-national dimension.

This changing landscape has implications for the kinds of issues with which school leaders will need to wrestle. This in turn calls for a radical re-think about approaches to the preparation of school leaders. The current generation of school leaders adapting to the changing landscape will have a range of professional development needs beyond previous delineations of headteachers’ roles and required competencies.

■■■ The next generation of leaders

periods of history, and globally innovative, although similar attention to leadership occurred elsewhere, for example in Singapore, Ontario and Alberta.

Undoubtedly this drive to develop school leadership was motivated by a growing pool of evidence of the importance of leadership to school improvement: that is to say, by a genuine belief in its intrinsic benefit. That notwithstanding, a marked feature of New Labour’s working methods was that each of its initiatives would be designed to support as many as possible of its other initiatives. This policy of cross-reinforcement meant, inevitably, that ‘good’ school leadership development would be increasingly understood as development which produced headteachers able to implement the Government’s political priorities effectively, and preferably with enthusiasm.

A far bigger issue, however, concerns the school leaders of the future. Current leaders know the old landscape, and the systems that they are changing from; they have the accumulated toolkit of everything they learnt under the old regime, including many transferable skills. They know how the new is intended to differ from the old, and whether they agree with it or not, they have lived through the debate setting out the rationale for the change. They are the current wave of pioneers. Their perceptions, which differ somewhat between primary and secondary phases, are well captured in the recent Review of the School Leadership Landscape (Earley et al 2012).

The next generation of school leaders is in a different position. These are the rising professionals in early or middle leadership positions, some of whom will be aspiring to be headteachers in perhaps

What next for school leadership development? ■■■■■

■■■ Current leadership development Leadership development takes place within a policy context. MacBeath (2008) examined how headteachers in England talked about National Strategies, within the global contexts of international comparison, devolution to schools, central government interventions, and high stakes accountability - an agenda he saw as driven by economic rather than educational logic. He concluded that headteachers have to work out their own salvation: ‘a quest for a marriage of convenience between dutiful compliance and intellectual subversion.’

More recently, MacBeath, O’Brien and Gronn (2012) studied the coping strategies of Scottish headteachers, and found these to be: dutiful compliance, cautious pragmatism, quiet self-confidence, bullish self-assertion, and defiant risk-taking. This range of strategies says something about the kinds of professional development that leaders have engaged in and where it has led them, but the fact that so much ‘coping’ is necessary, while being easily blamed on governments, may also raise a question about the overall fitness for purpose of conventional leadership development provision.

Brundrett, Fitzgerald and Sommefeldt (2006) critiqued national programmes of school leadership development in England and New Zealand. They considered these to be designed to create orthodoxy and compliance to centrally mandated norms, and argued that fundamental questions about the nature of leadership and its knowledge base should be re-surfaced.

A more recent article by Cardno and Youngs (2013) shows, for New Zealand at least, how much progress has been made since 2006.

Cardno and Youngs (2013) report their evaluation of the Experienced Principals’ Development Programme (EPDP) in New Zealand: an 18 month programme commissioned by the Ministry of Education from 10 providers, to help experienced school principals to develop their capability. Cardno and Youngs comment on the appropriate forms of learning for experienced principals, noting their needs for re-vitalising, reenthusing, and for individualised approaches to development. From a literature review of research they summarise these needs as including:

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ten or fifteen years’ time. These are the people whose long-term leadership development is vital to the future success of the school system. Yet when they look to their future, they will see that existing maps are out of date; infrastructures for career progression and leadership development are, in the main, obsolescent; and that there is no-one whose job it is to help their career-long development.. As school leadership becomes more professionalised, will it be up to the next generation of school leaders to help themselves, by designing and working towards the futures they want: by being the next wave of pioneering individuals?

■ Coaching and mentoring by credible, capable

coaches, providing carefully planned support in a sustained trusting relationship ■ Reflection and problem-solving experience, cultivating the particular type of critical reflection needed to resolve complex problems of practice, which requires ready access to an extensive repertoire of problem-relevant knowledge ■ Professional renewal, developed by a combination of intellectual challenge, and increased emotional intelligence including self-management ■ Direct involvement in school improvement initiatives in their own school to provide authentic on-the-job learning though self-directed enquiry projects and action research.

(Cardno and Youngs 2013) The structure and content of the EPDP is consistent with these findings. It starts with the use of a leadership assessment tool, the Education Leadership Practices (ELP) survey of staff perceptions of leadership practices across the school and contributes to the assessment of participants’ development needs. This may influence the direction for another element which is a school improvement enquiry project. The programme also includes professional reading and workshops, and coaching-mentoring (Cardno and Youngs 2013).

The experienced principals placed a high value on the face-to-face learning with other principals, and on

Policy and practice

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the key programme features summarised above. The study concluded that effective development required sufficient duration (in this case 18 months) for the learning to be reflective, applied and sustained (Cardno and Youngs 2013).

EPDP was designed for very experienced school principals, but possibly in the future, if not already, such forms of professional development might be just as appropriate to, and appreciated by, school leaders at earlier points on life’s journey. The model also implies a limitation in its treatment of time and space. Experience seems to be measured mainly in time, but an alternative model might look at breadth, complexity and intensity of experience. The latter, which is becoming more relevant, might mean that a younger and, in hierarchical terms, more junior school leader is equally ready to benefit from forms of professional development conventionally reserved for those senior in rank and years of service. The model, reflective of its current context, also assumes that more experienced principals will run bigger schools, but that they are still essentially concerned with a single institution. It is likely that many of the participants of EPDP will have system leadership roles of one kind or another, but this is not foregrounded in the evaluation.

■■■ Professional standards for school leaders Professional standards for school leaders may provide an additional proxy-indicator for the kinds of professional development either actually taking place, or that ought to be taking place, because in broad terms one would expect to see some correlation between patterns of development and the stated competence requirements of the role.

The UK National Standards for Headteachers (DfES 2004), notwithstanding that they are no longer current, and have not been replaced, provide a description of attributes considered necessary to succeed in school leadership. They concern shaping the future, leading learning and teaching, developing self and working with others, managing the organisation, securing accountability and strengthening community. For each of these areas the standards give an explanation and define the knowledge; disposition (‘is committed to’); ability (‘is able to’); actions and outcomes expected.

By contrast, the Alberta School Leadership Framework: Building Leadership Capacity in Alberta’s Education System (Government of Alberta 2012) sets out the vision, purposes and elements of a framework of professional competencies for school leaders. As well as detailing the competencies, this defines standards for school leader professional growth, supervision

What next for school leadership development? ■■■■■

■■■ Constraints of conventional thinking These examples of statements of standards are sufficiently embracing to be applied in a range of contexts now and in the future. Generally, however, these frameworks imply a series of assumptions: that leaders will be leading a single institution; that their concerns are limited to their own institution and its immediate community rather than embracing a sense of responsibility for wider educational issues; that there is a coherent local school system; and that the fundamental nature of the school conforms to the traditional pattern.

If a traditional and somewhat cautious view is taken of likely future changes, then those assumptions will remain valid for the majority of future school leaders.

Sections of the public and some politicians want schools to become more old-fashioned rather than more modern: a ‘good’ school is a traditional school.

A more radical view of the potential scale of change raises the possibility that these assumptions amount to what Joel Spring (2009), building on Morin (2008), refers to as ‘blinding paradigms’. A blinding paradigm: ‘gives privilege to particular logical operations and sets of assumptions … (and) grants validity and universality to its chosen logic. Thereby it gives the qualities of necessity and truth to the discourse and theory it controls’ (Morin, 2008, cited in Spring, 2009, p 201)

Blinding paradigms shut doors: preventing serious attention being given to alternative ways of looking at things. There is no logical reason why notions of ‘school’ and ‘school leadership’ remain so traditional. It is only force of habit that decrees that the activity described as ‘leadership’ is, in fact, largely making minor efficiency adjustments to an inherited model. Many headteachers are happy with that role, including those who boast ‘We’ve got it cracked; we know what works.’ Perhaps there is also a need for other school leaders interested in pushing forward ideas about new models of schools and school leadership for a rapidly changing world.

Taking a view mid-way between these extremes, it is likely that there will be at least a small minority of upand-coming school leaders whose future careers will take them in ground-breaking directions. These will be the innovators who shape a new school system to respond to rising global expectations.

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and evaluation, which are not included in the UK standards.

The professional standards for school leaders in Qatar (State of Qatar 2012) are contemporary and thorough.

The core standard focuses on leading and managing learning and teaching. Six other standards focus on strategic vision and aims; leading change; developing people and teams; school-community relations; resources; and reflection and evaluation. Each standard is broken down into statements with indicators, lists of required skills, knowledge and dispositions. These are followed by an evidence guide differentiated for middle and senior leaders. Qatar’s standards were formed alongside the wholesale shift of government schools to a new independent status based on the academy model.

■■■ Nature and purpose of ‘school autonomy’ In England, school leaders are to have greater autonomy (which will sometimes translate simply into ‘less support’): more autonomy than in any other state school system. What will this mean? What new models of school leadership will England be contributing to the global field? Does ‘autonomy’ mean simply exchanging loose control by a local authority for much tighter control by an academy chain? Will the English contribution to global thinking simply be the most privatised state school system? Or will school leaders, collectively, use their autonomy to create new models of professional leadership of school systems?

Models driven by educational philosophy, developing and using their own new business models rather than being dominated by other people’s, and evolving new pedagogies to match new needs?

The day-to-day demands remain acute. Autonomy offers the opportunity to assert professional leadership of school development, and to take this in directions which better reflect educational knowledge and beliefs.

But unless something is done to break out of established habits and ways of thinking, then time, energy, ideas and support will all be insufficient to take full advantage of the opportunity. Other organisations will fill the vacuum

10

Policy and practice

■■■ Returning to first principles: educational values, global responsibility and the long view Some will want to maintain the momentum of recent government policy, including heavy-handed intervention in each other’s schools based on test results, and the rigorous reinforcement of ‘tried and tested’ methods which discourage experimentation. Others would see this as the successful use by government of ‘smart power’ (Nye 2011) to achieve the unconscious and voluntary co-option of school leaders into the selfimposed continuance of the harsh and limiting regime into which they were coerced.

Much current leadership development provision is anchored into a policy agenda that emphasises delivering short-term improvements in performance, and discourages debate about the fundamental purposes and design of the school system. That is why it is helpful to adopt a completely different starting point: to explore global issues, educational values, and the long view.

On the global scene, two great forces are at work.

One is the march of the education industry as one of the drivers of the global economy. This has tended to widen differentials within countries regarding the forms of education available to people at different ends of the socio-economic spectrum. The other is the growth of education as a humanitarian response to acute need.

This concerns education in emergencies, and among

the displaced, the excluded, and the global majority of the rural poor. Two challenges are posed by these trends. The first is the cultural gulf between the worlds of well-resourced formal institutions of schooling, and make-shift community-based education. The second is the unsustainable escalating dependency of education as a humanitarian response on aid funding and philanthropic giving.

Colin Brock’s analysis ‘Education as a Global Concern’ (Brock 2011) emphasises how significant is the proportion of the world’s population whose educational needs are not being met appropriately, and argues that the solution ‘depends on repairing the dislocation between the formal system and civil society wherein the non-formal and informal majority of learning takes place’ (Brock 2011). Brock identifies the educational elements within the Millenium Development Goals, and his thesis is that the full benefits of education are only achieved where formal, non-formal and informal learning are operating with mutual complementarity, and that the emphasis on formal schooling, and neglect of the other forms of education, amounts to a serious problem in the way the Millenium Development Goals are being implemented. ‘Bringing the forms of education together’ involves generating new partnerships to develop cultural capital, involving the ‘ world of formal education learn(ing) from the more organic world of civil society’ (Brock 2011).

It matters how school leaders view issues of educational disparity. As an occupational group, school leaders have immense influence and capacity. Their attitudes will determine how and to what extent the relationship between formal schooling, the community, and the educational needs of groups in specific challenging circumstances at home and abroad might be set to change. In a context of greater institutional autonomy, and increased global communication, a larger canvas is offered to school leaders, upon which they may choose to paint a new educational landscape. If sustainable answers are to be found to the world’s biggest educational problems, it will be because leaders of formal schooling, worldwide, see it as part of their professional responsibility to contribute to their creation.

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with their own schemes and structures.

Future organisational patterns are still hazy: they include school-to-school support, and school-led (ie headteacher-led) business arrangements. Such thinking implies the emergence of a new cadre of school system leaders, but this must either grow locally or emerge from national and international dialogues within the profession itself. Models for the exercise of ‘autonomy’ that are designed and managed by central government, such as Teaching Schools and National Leaders of Education, may be a necessary contribution to stimulating such a major systemic change, but if ‘school autonomy’ is to mean anything at all, school leaders will need to use these as a starting point for the development of their own ideas.

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What next for school leadership development? ■■■■■

School leaders manage certain kinds of spaces, and impact on or interact with other spaces. There are three principal domains to this. The school leader manages the spaces they occupy, physically and mentally, as an individual human being, as a professional, as a person with values and commitments, and as a repository of their own knowledge, resources, energies and motivations. At the next level of spatial scale, school leaders manage a school, or perhaps a group of schools, embracing all of the formal and informal learning spaces and ambiences that make up the campus. Thirdly, they interact with a diverse range of spaces within communities: from the students’ homes to community groups, to businesses which have links to the school, to other schools with which the school may have various kinds of partnership.

If one of the schools in the latter group is an international link, ie a school in another country, the headteacher of that school has an equivalent network of spaces with which they interact. The nature of that network may be different, but the idea is the same. When the two networks become joined through an international link, the range of potential linkages across the combined networks is multiplied. An important part of the energy and potential capacity of each part of the linked network is the students themselves. The overall effect of the combined network is the potential for considerable synergy.

North-South school partnerships have been shown to benefit the curriculum and staff professional development in the schools concerned. The next step is to extend such partnerships to include the aims of developing system leadership capacity, and impacting on wider educational problems. This can enable school leaders in England to take a stronger lead in shaping the new educational landscape, and leaders of well-resourced independent schools in other countries to contribute more to addressing wider educational needs.

School leadership of the future will develop schools as network nodes with local and international connections.

In this way, the impact of leadership spreads into four connected places: own school, own local communities, linked school and the linked school’s local communities.

To maximise its potential impact, school leadership of the future will need to break down the barriers

between formal and informal learning, and lessen the disconnections between ongoing or mainstream education, and education to respond to the needs of emergencies and extreme situations.

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■■■ Spatial perspectives

■■■ School leadership reconceptualised A spatial analysis of school leadership enables the following fundamental aspirations to be proposed.

■ School leadership understands starting points,

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making discerning and empathetic assessments of contexts and obstacles to learning; also strengths, positive identities and potentialities.

School leadership involves space-making on at least three scales: the leader’s own personal spaces; the spaces within the institution the leader manages; and the networks of places and organisations with which the leader and the school have links. Leaders’ values guide how they want to change both their own spaces and how others experience the spaces they occupy.

School leadership is cosmopolitan, promoting global citizenship, multi-layered affiliations, and respect for and understanding of others’ spaces.

School leadership addresses humanitarian needs, using activism to impact on spaces of exclusion and disconnection.

School leadership creates infrastructures for capacitybuilding, including by connecting homes, workplaces and civic spaces through the school’s networks.

School leadership designs pragmatic solutions, problem-solving in specific contexts to co-create new spaces and mobilities.

School leadership upholds values, engages critically with imposed values and the politics of knowledge, to help transform spaces of prescription into spaces of negotiation.

■■■ Moving forward by striking balances Moving towards practical application of these principles involves striking a series of pragmatic balances between short-term pressures and longer term needs for systemic development. The following statements describe some of the balances that school leaders may be working with.

12

Policy and practice

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of global, national and local productive practices in the most effective combinations. Local conditions and issues are very important, but the English school system is currently at risk of being too inwardlooking. A more global perspective will bring fresh insights, energies and solutions to local challenges.

They need to interact on the basis of a deep understanding of the processes through which professional practice evolves and spreads. The lateral spread of good practice, and applying ‘what works’ are popular concepts, but are often applied superficially, relying on managerial authority. Peer-supported school improvement must adopt a professional rather than managerial model, and, within that, strategies that draw more on human relations thinking and less on engineering thinking.

School leaders should support worthwhile innovation in appropriate combination with established methods. Space to try out new ways of working requires experimentation and acceptance of a heightened level of risk tolerance. On the other hand there is little merit in innovation for its own sake.

They should aim to combine addressing short term needs with nurturing the conditions for longer term ‘blue skies’ thinking. Undoubtedly there are needs, which will continue to arise, for urgent and acute action, but will be easier, less disruptive, and in the end cheaper, if it is nested inside parallel work to clarify long term educational visions.

Finally, a key aspiration of a school leader will be to generate evidence and knowledge for local and national dissemination. Broadening the generation and use of evidence, especially qualitative as well as

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■ School leaders should aspire to combine knowledge

quantitative, is one of the hallmarks of progressing from managerial to more professional leadership and development of schools and school systems.

■■■ Professional engagement – lateral, broad and deep To engage with these agendas, leadership development needs to include a much stronger ‘lateral’ element, giving practitioners in early leadership positions more exposure to school-to-school networking both locally and internationally, and more opportunity to investigate ‘big picture’ issues and possibilities.

The first is essentially practical: to work with others on the co-creation of mutually beneficial business models for taking forward school-to-school collaboration both locally and internationally, in forms that allow the partner schools to operate as network nodes. The second is to explore long-term visionary futures for the school system and its role within society. If the professional leaders of education (especially those young enough to see the vision through to reality) do not lead this work, who will?

To support development of this kind, the processes identified as useful in the Cardno and Youngs (2013) study point towards including face-to-face learning such as through annual residential workshops; executive coaching; broad and deep critical professional reading; and opportunities personally to lead and reflect on innovative projects including through use of action research. This would provide a fitting response to Brundrett et al’s (2006) call for a resurfacing of fundamental questions about the knowledge base and nature of school leadership. Put more simply: what will the school leaders of the future need to know, and do, to address society’s big educational problems?

References: Brock, C. (2011) Education as a Global Concern, London: Continuum. ■ Brundrett, M., Fitzgerald, T. and Sommefeldt, D. (2006) ‘The creation of national programmes of school leadership development in England and New Zealand: a comparative study’, International Studies in Educational Administration, Vol 34, No 1, 89-105. ■ Cardno, C. and Youngs, H. (2013) ‘Leadership development for experienced New Zealand Principals: perceptions of effectiveness’, Educational management, Administration and Leadership, Vol 41, No 3, 256-269. ■ DfES (2004) National Professional Standards for Headteachers, London: DfES. ■ Earley, P., Higham, R., Allen, R., Allen, T., Howson, J., Nelson, R., Rawar, S., Lynch, S., Morton, L., Mehta, P. and Sims, D. (2012) Review of the School Leadership Landscape, Nottingham: National College for School Leadership. ■ Government of Alberta (2012) The Alberta School Leadership Framework: Building leadership capacity in Alberta’s education system, Edmonton: Government of Alberta. ■ MacBeath, J. (2008) ‘Stories of compliance and subversion in a prescriptive policy environment’, Educational Management, Administration and Leadership, Vol 36, No 1, 123-148. ■ MacBeath, J. O’Brien, J. and Gronn, P. (2012) ‘Drowning or waving? Coping strategies among Scottish headteachers’, School Leadership and Management, Vol 32, No 5, 421-437.

■ Nye, J. (2011) The Future of Power, New York: Public Affairs. ■ Spring, J. (2009) Globalisation of Education: an Introduction, New York: Routledge. ■ State of Qatar (2012) National Professional Standards for Teachers and School Leaders, Doha: Supreme Education Council Education Institute. ■ Wilkins, R. (2013) ‘Practitioner research and professional identity’, Professional Development Today, .

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Disciplined Collaboration: Professional Learning with Impact ■■■■■

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Disciplined Collaboration: Professional Learning with Impact Michelle Jones and Alma Harris call for professional learning with impact – which means moving away from traditional training programmes and towards collaboration with colleagues on real issues that will make a difference to practice in the classroom. They show how this is being delivered through their Disciplined Collaboration approach being pioneered in Australia.

■■■ Introduction Without question, high quality professional learning is critical to school and system improvement. A great deal of evidence reinforces that professional learning is the key to improving teacher quality and improving learner outcomes. But effective professional learning is easier said than done. To make any real or lasting difference

14

Policy and practice

■■■ A Question of Impact Around the globe, every year, thousands of teachers routinely participate in hundreds of hours of professional development and training. The implicit assumption is that attending courses equates with professional learning and that by participating in these events somehow professional practice will change. Now without question, there are some good courses, powerful programmes and effective professional learning sessions.

But the return on this large-scale investment, in the form of improved professional practice that leads to better learning outcomes, is still highly questionable. There are a number of key reasons.

First, many professional learning programmes or courses assume knowledge gained from such training can be readily transferred. In other words that ideas, knowledge and skills gained in one situation can be easily applied to another. Conversely, evidence would suggest that changes in professional behaviour or classroom practice are more likely to result from job embedded learning or learning in context. Second, teachers still tend go to external training or professional development events alone. They experience the training independently and however good that training might be,

the possibility of convincing colleagues back at schools of its merits will be low. It is like telling someone about a really good film that you watched. Second hand, it simply doesn’t have the same have effect.

Third, much depends on the quality of the training and its relevance to the participating teacher or teachers.

Much of the professional learning field is still driven by commercial interest where profitability rather than applicability is the main goal. Consequently, the latest fads or fashions are quickly re-packaged, marketed and made available to teachers not because they are the best thing but simply because they are the latest thing. Finally and most importantly, there is still a predominant view that professional learning is primarily about the teacher and not the learner.

Now clearly the teacher is important, as this is where professional expertise resides but the focus or endpoint of professional learning should be the learner. Can you imagine a doctor or dentist attending a training session on the use of a new drug or technique and then choosing not to apply that learning for the direct benefit of their patients? That would seem ludicrous. But so often, that is exactly what happens with so much professional learning and development. Teachers engage with the training, possibly enjoy it and even learn from it, fill in the happy sheet and leave. It is as if the training is the end in itself rather than a means to an end. While there are many programmes, courses and training sessions that are not like this but they are still in relatively short supply. There is still far too much professional learning without impact.

So what does professional learning with impact look like, necessitate and require? If you were to ask teachers this question, the short and honest answer is not a professional course, not an external programme not even a Masters degree. There is still little independent evidence to corroborate that these forms of professional learning correlate significantly with sustained changes in professional practice. Courses and programmes can develop professional knowledge and understanding.

Masters programmes can introduce teachers to theory, research and forms of systematic enquiry. However, time and time again teachers say that it is relevant and appropriate guidance from a colleague that would be most likely to change their professional practice.

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to pedagogy and professional practice professional learning has to be focused, rigorous and purposeful.

While we know that collaboration among teachers is a powerful form of professional learning. If it is to have any sustained impact there has to be a clear methodology or theory of action that is consistently used. In summary, professional learning with impact has to be ‘disciplined’ (Harris and Jones, 2012) So much of what passes as collaborative professional learning may score high on professional engagement, entertainment or enjoyment but can often rate fairly low on measures of effectiveness, usefulness or impact.

The world of professional learning is full of hyperbole, assumption and commercial opportunism but often woefully devoid of concrete evidence concerning impact and outcomes. In the professional learning literature, the issue of ‘what, if any, difference does professional development or learning actually make’ is not predominantly centre stage.

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Disciplined Collaboration: Professional Learning with Impact ■■■■■

Collaborating with colleagues in a systematic way on a real issue or problem is still the most powerful form of professional learning we have. Frequently, this is the response that school leaders and teachers give when asked the question, ‘what has influenced your professional practice most?’ It comes down to one thing and one thing only - the advice, expertise or guidance from trusted peers.

Now before rushing headlong to the conclusion that ‘coaching or mentoring’ is the ready-made answer to professional learning with impact, think again. Even though coaching and mentoring is fundamentally about collaboration, mutual trust, professional dialogue etc. there is no automatic guarantee of impact. While a great deal of emphasis, and indeed investment, is placed upon mentoring and coaching as a productive form of professional learning, the many claims made about its benefits need some qualification. Any causal relationship between coaching or mentoring and improvements in learner outcomes remains largely unsubstantiated (Darling Hammond et al, 2009).

There are studies that show that when the mentoring or coaching activities have a clear instructional focus, then this professional interaction does enhance teacher performance and learner outcomes. For example, where coaches are used specifically to improve the teaching of literacy or maths in schools in a ‘hands-on’ way, they can make a difference. However, when coaching is a form of quasi counselling among professionals the sum is significantly less than the parts.

The important point here is that when coaching or mentoring has a clear instructional focus and that expertise, rather than just experience, is genuinely and authentically shared with others, the effects can be dramatic. Where coaching or mentoring is just a free fall into low-level emotional handholding then the opposite is true. If coaching or mentoring amounts to little more than a ‘learning conversation’ without substance, then once again the benefits claimed for this form of professional learning will not be fully realised. Where such conversations are content-free or where coaching or mentoring is little more than a form of mutual therapy the net effect will be zero, in terms of positive changes

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■■■ Meaningful Collaboration

16

Policy and practice

A major literature review, conducted as part of an Institute for Education Sciences evaluation of the Reading First program, reported mixed findings on the impact of coaching on improving instructional practice. It was noted that unless the instructional practices promoted through the processes of mentoring or coaching are in and of themselves effective then a positive impact on teaching and learning is unlikely.

Changes to professional practice require much more than simply sharing or processing ideas or questions through mutual reflection or discussion. Even with clear guidelines or rubrics, much will depend upon the level of expertise of those participating in the ‘learning conversation’ and their skill at being able to analyse, reflect and co-construct through mutual dialogue.

■■■ Professional Learning with Impact

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to instructional practice. Teachers may feel a whole lot better but this may be only tangible outcome.

To have a true impact, professional learning, in whatever shape or form it takes, needs a clear model or theory of action to support, structure and guide the professional learning. Comments such as ‘the collaborative work had an impact because teachers talked about positive changes in the classroom’ or ‘the collaborative work has made a difference as teachers say that they now communicate more and share materials between schools’ is simply not good enough. These statements reveal a high degree of buy in or a ‘belief’ that change has happened but little more.

At this juncture, many would argue that not every professional learning experience or professional development programme can, or indeed, should have an impact on student learning. So then why on earth invest in it in the first place? Surely, the whole point of professional learning is to bring about positive change in the classroom, to improve learning, to have an impact on learners? Otherwise why bother? If we are serious about changing professional practice rather than simply

17

Disciplined Collaboration: Professional Learning with Impact ■■■■■

across Australia. The programme commenced in November 2012 and the long-term aim is to generate local approaches to innovation and change that can be shared more widely across the system. The ‘Disciplined Collaboration’ work is part of the broader and extensive implementation of a ‘Charter for the Professional Learning of Teachers and School Leaders’. This Charter states that a high quality professional learning culture will be characterised by ‘a focus on the professional learning that is most likely to be effective in improving professional practice and student outcomes’ (AITSL, 2013) Based on international research, the Charter identifies effective professional learning as being ‘relevant,

collaborative and future focused’ (AITSL, 2013). It also identifies the importance of developing a learning culture within a school and underlines that professional learning should be based on changing teachers practice to meet students’ learning needs. As highlighted above, this is easier said than done. Consequently, the current programme of ‘Disciplined Collaboration’ is intended to provide a platform, an infrastructure and a way of working to support school leaders and teachers in turning the aspiration of professional learning with impact into a day-to-day reality.

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confirming that practice, then it is imperative to invest in the most powerful forms of professional learning i.e. those that make a difference to learning and learners.

In Australia, a new programme is currently underway that aims to support professional learning with impact through using a model of disciplined professional collaboration (Harris and Jones, 2012). The ‘Australian Institute of Teaching and School Leadership’ (AITSL, 2013) is currently piloting the ‘Disciplined Collaboration and Evaluation of Professional Learning (DCEPL)’ programme with seven schools in six states

■■■ Disciplined Collaboration There is insufficient scope in this article to describe the ‘Disciplined Collaboration’ model in full, and so what follows is a very brief overview of the model with a few preliminary observations about the progress made, to date, by schools in Australia. Initially, it is important to clarify what makes the DC model a departure from previous or existing models of professional collaboration.

It could be claimed that this is just old wine in new bottles - but there are two major differences.

First, within the DC model teachers are trying out new collaborative strategies while simultaneously trialling and refining new pedagogical approaches.

In other words they are ‘learning to connect’ while

18

Policy and practice

■ Collaboration (establish the group; scrutinise data

and evidence to define students needs; identify a focus and method of enquiry; agree impact measures), ■ Innovation (enquire into new pedagogical practices and new collaborative approaches and then trialling them; relentless review of student learning to inform refinement of strategies and practice) and ■ Impact (monitor, assess and analyse the impact on learner outcomes resulting from changes to pedagogy).

With disciplined collaboration (DC) teachers use a consistent methodology to share ideas, enquire together, to apply new knowledge and to refine their evaluative skills in a supportive environment (AITSL, 2013). The DC model is premised and predicated upon teachers working interdependently in order to address an issue or problem facing a specific group of learners, identified through the collective analysis of data. Through a process of systematic and focused collaborative enquiry, the aim is to trail, refine and test new classroom practices and approaches that can make a positive difference to learning and learners.

Evidence shows that the most effective collaborative teams or professional learning communities are not those that seek solutions to self-evident problems.

Instead, they collectively enquire and investigate in order to highlight a problem to address in imaginative and new ways. Effective collaborative teams are problem seeking and not problem solving. This requires mutual enquiry, reciprocal accountability and risk taking - but it also requires discipline. If collaborative working is to be truly innovative, it also has to be rigorous and adopt a consistent and systematic methodology. Here systematic does not mean systematised with implications of control and routinized behaviour. Rather systematic means that the collaboration is focused, carefully planned and ultimately aimed at generating new ideas, understanding and knowledge that will make a difference to professional practice and ultimately to learner outcomes.

Initial data from the schools in Australia reveals that the DC model is increasingly defining and refining collaborative professional learning within the participating schools. Emerging evidence shows a shift in the extent, nature and density of collaborative professional practice and a consistent focus on creating new professional understanding, knowledge and skills focused upon improved learner outcomes. Inevitably, the schools are at different stages in the DC process but some of the schools are already able to demonstrate that their collective work is making a difference to teaching and learning.

In one school, the focus is upon improving spelling through using consistent, effective and transparent spelling strategies across the school and making these strategies explicit to learners so they can be better at spelling. This is not just a spelling policy but instead is a concerted effort to change pedagogy in order to improve learners’ metacognitive abilities and their ability to spell.

In another school, every teacher is in a collaborative team that has a specific learner need to address. These teams are adopting the DC methodology to frame their collective enquiry with the prime purpose of changing and improving pedagogical practice so that learner outcomes change. As the programme continues, the descriptions of DC practice will become richer and more detailed. Ultimately, the progress made will depend

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developing, trialling and refining new professional practices. In other models, it is assumed that the skills of collaboration and the interdependent ways of working are natural, innate or self-evident. Not so. As in any form of team or group work, collaborative working is a skill that has to be learned. To collaborate or connect in order to learn, teachers need to first ‘learn to connect’.

Second, unlike many other collaborative models, impact is built in from the outset. The DC model requires teachers to engage in continuous consideration of student data in order to monitor progress and gauge impact throughout all three stages. Within the DC model, impact is not an afterthought; it is not re-engineered or recycled feedback. It is not a bolt-on piece of congratulatory self-report. Impact is at the core of the DC model. It is embedded in each of the three stages through the continuous scrutiny of the evidence about student learning.

The three stages of the DC model are as follows:

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Disciplined Collaboration: Professional Learning with Impact ■■■■■

Not a soft option Meaningful changes in classroom practice don’t just happen; they occur through careful design and hard work. New professional learning involves trying something different, working at it, feeling uncomfortable or frustrated, and adapting, refining or changing practice as a direct result. The bad news is that the DC model is not a soft or easy option. It requires diligence, patience and relentless persistence to make the professional collaboration truly effective. It is not something that happens just once. It is not something that springs from an inspiring professional development course and then disappears forever. It is not just the latest gimmick geared to entertain rather than educate.

Disciplined collaboration is hard work, as those working in the Australian schools will testify. At the heart of the model is a fundamental belief that teachers working together in a systematic, rigorous and focused way can change professional practice for the better and in so doing can make a positive difference to learner outcomes. Other than focused professional collaboration, there is little else has the power to improve learning and teaching so significantly. Consequently, we know how to secure professional learning with impact. This is the good news. The challenge now is to make it happen.

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upon the teachers themselves and their collective will, skill and persistence to improve learner outcomes.

Alma Harris is Professor at the Institute of Educational Leadership, University of Malaya.

Michelle Jones is Deputy Director at the Institute of Educational Leadership, University of Malaya.

References: Australian Institute of Teaching School Leadership (AITSL) (2013) Disciplined Collaboration and Evaluation of Teaching and Learning (DCEPL) AITSL http://www.learn.aitsl.edu.au/node/88 ■ Carmichael, L. (1982). Leaders as learners: A possible dream. Educational Leadership, 40(1) ■ Dufour, R. and Eaker, B.(2009) New Insights into Professional Learning Communities at Work in Fullan, M (2009) The Challenge of Change, Corwin Press, CA ■ Earl L. et al (2006) How Networked Learning Communities Worked, Vol 1, The Report, Aporia ■ Elmore, R. F. (2002) Bridging the Gap Between Standards and Achievement: The Imperative for Professional Development in Education.

Washington, DC: Albert Shanker Institute. ■ Hargreaves, D.H. (2011) Leading the Self Improving School, Nottingham, National College. ■ Hargreaves, D. (2011) Leading a Self-Improving System, Nottingham, National College. ■ Harris, A. (2009) Evaluation of D and R (Leadership) Networks, SSAT and NCSL ■ Harris, A. (2012) AERA Educational Change Special Interest Group, ‘Lead the Change Series’ Issue No. 20 March 2012 ■ Harris, A. and Jones, M. (2011) Professional Learning Communities in Action, Leannta Press. ■ Harris A. and Jones M. (2012) Connect to Learn: Learn to Connect. Professional Development Today Vol. 14, Issue 4.

Learning Without Limits 1 using art to develop critical and creative thinking

By Tony Hurlin Price: £65.00 plus VAT Includes whole school licence so you can put it on your virtual learning environment

How to challenge and involve pupils of all abilities by teaching the key skills of critical and creative thinking through paintings, pictures and prints.

The materials in this pack will help all teachers to: • Recognise the value of building a repertoire of techniques, to teach thinking through looking at examples of important art • Learn and understand the core principles of critical and creative thinking and how to apply these in all lessons • Explore 6 techniques in detail and learn how to apply these to lessons they have already planned • Refine and adapt the techniques to meet the needs of specific groups of pupils including able learners • Develop confidence in talking and learning at deeper levels of meaning with all pupils

This pack uses thinking and interpretion skills as part of critical skills development at KS2 and as a practical application for the principals of the Intelligent Learning Learning Without Limits 1 Programme. It can be integrated with the Intelligent has been created through Learning Programme or used on its own. looking at the practical experiences of teachers It includes a teacher’s handbook, CD-ROM with seeking to foster critical and powerpoint presentation and seven A4 laminated creative thinking abilities in all their pupils. reproductions of paintings discussed in the handbook.

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order hotline: 0121 224 7599 or visit www.teachingtimes.com

A major national seminar on creative pedagogies that promote motivated successful learning and good progress.

Transforming Primary Teaching Seminar

Thursday 17th October 2013, Venue: Priory Rooms Meeting & Conference Centre, Birmingham

The first in a series, the top speakers include: Professor Steve Higgins The Education Endowment Fund Toolkit: Professor Steve Higgins, lead researcher and author illustrates the impact of Digital Technology on learning.

Understand why the Toolkit is praised by Ofsted and the DfE and recognise the power of digital technology in successful learning as Professor Higgins explores how ICT and digital technologies can practically support teaching, learning and achievement.

Mike Fleetham Starting The Transformation: Mike Fleetham, writer and practitioner of the Thinking Classroom.

‘Stand out’ as innovative 21st century educators who can apply a range teaching strategies that encourage lively and engaging learning.

Marcelo Staricoff Intellectual Playfulness In The Infant Classroom: Marcelo Staricoff, author of Start Thinking.

Learn how to successfully get very young children into philosophical thinking.

Andrew Morrish Ofsted and teachers in total agreement! “We want teaching to be fresh, lively, motivating and engaging.” Michael Cladingbowl, HMI, National Director of Schools, Ofsted.

Do you want to: ■■ ■■

■■ ■■

Create classroom cultures that produce motivated and engaged learners?

Deploy more exciting approaches to the curriculum, mobilising dialogic teaching, creativity and learner-led learning?

Use ICT in more productive ways to enhance and deepen learning?

Find alternative routes to raising standards in your school?

Then this important, intensive, ONE DAY national seminar is right for you. This seminar will offer opportunities to: ■■

■■ ■■

Engage in discussions with top practitioners about how they created outstanding schools with new strategies to motivate and challenge children.

Learn about new ideas emerging in schools here and abroad.

Use and take back to school tools and programmes that will transform teaching in your classrooms.

BOOK NOW: to secure your place. Cost is £220.00 +VAT for the first delegate and £160.00 +VAT per subsequent delegate in the same party. Subscribers to Imagnative Minds publications get a reduced rate of £160.00 +VAT per delegate.

All delegates will receive a free copy of Think Like A Learner! by Di Pardoe and Tom Robson, and a six month subscription to Creative Teaching and Learning magazine, published by Imaginative Minds.

Becoming A Stand Out School: Andrew Morrish, headteacher of a school that has moved rapidly from special measures to ‘outstanding’.

Hear how one school removed barriers to learning and closed the achievement gap by enabling children to become social entrepreneurs and creative planners.

Howard Sharron Transformative Tools: Howard Sharron, author of Changing Children’s Minds.

Understand the impact of Kieran Egan’s Learning in Depth programme and other transformative tools.

Di Pardoe & Tom Robson Think Like A Learner!: Di Pardoe and Tom Robson, practitioners and authors of Think like a Learner!

Discover how to develop children’s language of learning, enabling your children to sparkle as learners responsible for their own learning.

THREE EASY WAYS TO BOOK YOUR PLACE Post: Complete the details above and send with your payment or Official Order to: Imaginative Minds Ltd (Bookings), 309 Scott House, The Custard Factory, Gibb Street, Birmingham B9 4DT Fax: Fax your completed booking-form to: 0121 224 7598 Email: Email your completed booking form to: sandie@imaginativeminds.co.uk

Growing your own evidence! ■■■■■

Growing your own evidence!

Chris Brown emphasises the importance of evidenced-based practice and argues that because individual context matters practitioners should ‘grow their own’ evidence. However he shows that there is much to be done to help practitioners to do this.

The pursuit of evidence-informed practice is based on a relatively simple notion: that the quality of teachers’ performances (and so outcomes for pupils) will be improved if their practice is aided by high quality, meaningful knowledge. This premise is championed through the work of advocates such as Oakley, who argues that evidence-informed approaches ensure that: “those who intervene in other people’s lives do so with the utmost benefit and least harm” (2000); this is also described by Alton-Lee (2012) as the ‘first do no

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■■■ Empowering practitioners

harm’ principle. In this article however I argue that, all too often, evidence-informed solutions are prescribed from government or from organizations seeking to ascertain ‘what works’ for the education system as a whole (Moss, 2013). Whilst there is some merit in more ‘generalized’ approaches to identifying best practice, it should also be recognized that individual contexts (i.e. schools or individual circumstances) matter and the need to re-contextualise centralized or generalized evidence can often be costly or difficult for schools. A complementary approach is for practitioners to ‘grow

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Policy and practice

■■■ What works?

Typically the realization of evidence-informed practice is undertaken through the promotion of ‘what works’ type evidence. This can be seen both in the discourse and the initiatives put forward by recent governments and others. For instance in 2000, David Blunkett (a former Secretary of State for Education and Employment), as part of an announcement of major developments in the Government’s education research policy, called for: “Social scientists to help to determine what works and why, and what types of policy initiatives are likely to be most effective” (my emphasis). More recently Michael Gove, the current Secretary of State for Education, set forth in a speech to the National College, his desire for: …more data generated by the profession to show what works, clearer information about teaching techniques that get results, more rigorous, scientifically-robust research about pedagogies which succeed and proper independent evaluations of interventions which have run their course.

We need more evidence-based policy making, and for that to work we need more evidence (June 2010: my emphasis).

In keeping with this approach, Randomised Controlled Trials are often held up as the ‘gold standard’ for establishing cause and effect; for example within the recent Cabinet Office publication: Test, Learn, Adapt: Developing Public Policy with Randomised Controlled Trials (Haynes et al., 2012: with one of the authors, Ben Goldacre, being an outspoken proponent of this approach). Specifically it is stated within Test, Learn, Adapt… that: “Randomised Controlled Trials (RCTs) are the best way of determining whether a policy is working… we should and could use RCTs much more extensively in domestic public policy… to learn what is working and what is not; and to adapt our policies

so that they steadily improve and evolve both in terms of quality and effectiveness”. (2012: 6: my emphasis).

Similarly, the mission of the Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) is to investigate ‘what works’ in raising the attainment of disadvantaged pupils in schools in England and to provide suggestions as to how the Pupil Premium might best be spent. To achieve this, all EEF projects are independently evaluated; “where possible, using randomised controlled trials”.a Likewise the EEF/Sutton Trust Toolkit presents the findings of such evaluations as readily accessible ‘dashboard’ of results, with the quality of evidence ranked according to the method employed (with RCTs given highest weight).b Whilst it is hard to fault the notion of spreading best practice, the issue with the kind of approaches detailed above, however, is that, by their vary nature, they are likely to ignore the specificities of the individual setting (whilst assuming that there is recognizable commonality across schools) and it is this that makes it harder for those implementing them to understand fully how they can make ‘what works’ meaningful to their particular school or classroom.

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their own’ evidence. Instilling this approach however will require a cultural shift. Specifically, it will involve both mandated expectations of teachers and in turn teachers should expect to be supported in this endeavor, particularly with regards to capacity building. I begin by examining the notion of ‘what works’.

■■■ Islands of context In Making Evidence Matter (Brown, 2013), I argue that the social world is essentially one of meaning; it is created by individuals and groups. Given this, the importance of context, the effects of context on the production of meaning and, as a result, the difficulties in reconciling different contexts (different meanings), cannot be understated. Putting it another way, within a given context, things specific to that context ‘make sense’; they fit in and seem harmonious with their settings.

When removed and transplanted to a new setting, a new context with different norms and values, these things will no longer exhibit the same kind of harmony - they stick out (or fail to blend in) and consequently are likely to be treated or viewed as such. In essence then, such objects need to be recontextualised: to be dissassembled and reconstructed, with this re-build made in light of and in keeping with their new environment. The same is true for research: context affects how and the extent to which evidence findings, whether in themselves or

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Growing your own evidence! ■■■■■

“The central Strategy team took responsibility for analyzing the data on performance gains and deciding where the policy should go next. Such decisions had to be partly tailored to the political environment in which they operated. By contrast, teachers involved at classroom level had fewest opportunities to reflect on, let alone alter aspects of the programme…. Difficulties teachers identified in practice could be passed on up the

line but those in central implementation team reserved the right to determine which key factors were hindering progress most and agree on how further improvements should be secured. The solutions the team decided on and passed back down to those at the frontline might not be recognized or even needed in the particular local contexts they entered” (Moss, 2013; my emphasis).

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as represented by policy initiatives or guidelines, are likely to be enacted within schools. This issue is nicely illustrated by Moss (2013) in relation to Englands’ National Literacy Strategy (NLS) for primary schools, a policy which has its origins in the very public reporting of the poor attainment in reading in primary schools in inner city London (e.g. Ofsted, 1996) and the (as was) Conservative government’s response. Moss argues that whilst the NLS was initiated as a top down programme, it was intended by those who developed the policy that data from schools would help policy makers adjust and fine tune their approach. Despite this, Moss also notes, however, that:

This notion is further explored by März and Kelchtermans (2013) who examine the relationship between research messages and their implementation.

They note that: “schools’ and teachers’ practices are never simply a matter of executing prescriptions and procedures… schools and classes differ and thus constitute different contexts that affect the actual form of teaching and learning practices”. In addition however, research is never value neutral, by the time it has reached schools it will have been subject to interpretation by either researchers or government and so will be informed by specific values as they relate to education. This inevitably raises further contextual issues. So, for example, do such values correspond with

24

Policy and practice social workers’ own clinical/practical expertise and iii) the difficulty of assessing and applying evidence-based initiatives when the sources of knowledge behind the evidence were numerous and not always unanimous.

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those of the school or setting (and/or the individual teachers within it) and how might any conflict in values materialize; who will have a say in shaping implementation; will what is implemented end up looking anything like what was envisaged centrally and, ultimately, does this matter?

Issues in marrying centrally prescribed, ‘evidencebased’ solutions with local context have also been reported in professions such as medicine and social work. For example, Rexvid et al., (2012) have examined general practitioners’ and social workers’ reactions to initiatives to implement ‘evidence-based’ guidance. Here they found that both types of professional expressed numerous concerns regarding the impact of the guidance on their ability to carry out patient/client centric practice. In particular, concerns were raised with regards to: i) the difficulty in applying statistical risk assessments to concrete individual cases; ii) potential threats to the doctor-patient/social worker –client relationship; and iii) the general failure of evidence-based solutions to capture the complexity of the patient’s clinical picture or the client’s contextual and cultural background.

Rexvid et (2012) al report that the first of these issues was particularly evident when GPs perceived that a strict implementation of something ‘evidencebased’ might constitute an apparent risk to the patient’s health. Hence, faced with the risk of misdiagnosing, GPs sometimes chose to ignore evidence-based guidelines. The second issue concerned the preferences of patients/clients with regards to their treatment/care, which might not accord with what evidence suggests.

Thirdly, there was often a perceived discrepancy between the complex clinical picture experienced in the doctor’s practice and evidence-based guidelines: physicians thus chose to deviate from evidence-based guidelines when they perceived that adherence to them to reduced the complexity of the patient’s clinical picture. Rexvid et al., also found that GPs and social workers also faced a difficulty in combining evidence-based initiatives with clinical/practical expertise. Here, too, it was possible to ascertain three sources of anxiety: i) the difficulty in applying initiatives when they clashed with personal experience; ii) the experience of evidence based as a topdown model that left limited or no room for the GPs’/

■■■ Practitioners ‘growing their own’ It is of course possible to conceive of ways in which ‘what works’ or generalized evidence and theory might successfully be recontextualised so that general principles might be applied across a number of settings.

Cartwright (2013), for instance argues that evidence findings derived in one setting may also serve another so long as: i) the drivers of cause and effect apply in both settings and crucially; ii) that the support factors upon which cause and effect depend in the original setting are also present in the new setting (in other words, causes will always need the right support in order that they behave as expected). Whilst the former may be readily assumed in societies and social settings that broadly share principles and norms, the existence of the latter is, however, less likely. For example, Cartwright illustrates how initiatives to reduce class sizes in Tennessee led to better exam results, but the same initiatives failed in California because a dearth of high quality teaching staff led to inadequate cover for the increased number of classes. As such, there will be a cost to any centralized imposition of evidence-informed practice; namely the cost of recontextualising findings or exemplar cases to the specific situations practitioners find themselves facing (in other words the costs of recontextualising = the costs of interpreting and/or implementing appropriate support structures). In the case of California the cost is relatively easy to quantify (the cost of hiring x number of high quality teachers). In other examples it may be less easy to calculate, nonetheless it will still exist (for example I have recently costed a number of bids that involve my supporting schools in this area).

At the same time Nutley et al. (2012) argue that there has, in more recent times, been a call for more ‘bottom-up approaches to defining and/or encouraging evidence-informed practices. One such example stems from Hogam et al. 2011) who, in their discussion of the Singaporean education system, describe the emphasis Singapore’s national government is now placing on

25

Growing your own evidence! ■■■■■

■■■ The lack of support for practitioner enquirers Despite the longstanding interest in the use of practitioners employing evidence (this theme, for example, formed the mainstay of Hargreaves 1996 lecture to England’s [as was] Teacher Training Agency), it is noted by Campbell and Levin (2012) that: “educators may lack time, resources, skills, and individual and institutional supports for meaningfully engaging with research…” In addition, they suggest that, if research is to be used to improve educational practice and pupil outcomes, user ‘capacity’ will be required, specifically that: “Work in England should focus on two areas: 1.

Developing stronger networks among and between educators, researchers and intermediary organizations; 2. Developing capacity within schools to find, understand, share and act on research. This capacity may be improved through training to improve skills, or through institutional changes which create the time

or resources for schools to undertake these activities” (Campbell and Levin, 2012).

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facilitating autonomy at the level of schools/school clusters. Correspondingly, a top-down system of disseminating best practice is now being replaced by an increasing focus on the role of schools as knowledge producers, who co-produce the research agenda; collaborating with researchers not only in relation to the research agenda but also in regards to knowledge creation and the attendant learning that accrues from such processes. The idea of school systems generating a myriad of context specific knowledge also corresponds with current thinking regarding how people can develop their expertise with regards to a given area. For example, some proponents of expertise theory have suggested that it is problematic to assume that possession of knowledge in itself can deliver practical mastery (e.g. Hackley, 1999). Instead, the type of combined ‘functional’ expertise that is actually required is represented by Flyvbjerg’s (2001) notion of the ‘proficient performer’; here situational intuition interacts with analytical decision making, to provide an understanding of what should be done and how this ‘what’ corresponds to a given specific situation.

The existence of capacity in itself will not, however, lead to increased instances of research use. This is illustrated

by Levin et al., (2011) who sought to investigate how research is encountered and used to shape policy and practice in Canadian secondary schools (employing a collaborative approach involving superintendents, principals and others with designated leadership roles in eleven school districts across the country). Their approach was to trial three interventions (implemented throughout the 2008/2009 school year in nine districts).

Specifically, the interventions were designed to: i) implement a system to share research articles; ii) set up study groups around research issues and; iii) ensure districts were conducting research. An evaluation of these interventions suggests that: ■ Even in districts with capacity, actual frequency of

research use often remains modest, therefore research capacity is not necessarily synonymous with use; ■ Better ways are needed to increase daily use of research and embed that use in organizational systems and processes; ■ Knowledge mobilization activity still appears to depend heavily on volunteerism or on a few interested people rather than being embedded in daily practices; ■ Educators’ beliefs are shaped more by experience and colleagues than by empirical evidence; and ■ Interventions to increase research use had modest success. Interventions were most successful where: 1) designated intermediaries/ facilitators were involved; and 2) research used was connected to existing priority issues.

(Levin et al.2011) However, if these findings are correct and capacity alone is not enough, what then might facilitate a desire to build capacity to employ evidence AND a concomitant incentive to use it? A potential solution may exist. Sebba (2012), for example, identifies a need to focus on and instill ‘professional expectations’, i.e. to

26

Policy and practice

the simple encouragement of research production/use, to research production/use forming a core competence of the profession (and sometimes being required for advancement). Wilkins notes for example that in China, Article 7 of the Teachers Law provides that: Teachers shall enjoy the following rights: to conduct education and teaching activities and carry out reform and experiment in education and teaching; to engage in scientific research and academic exchanges, join professional academic societies and fully express their views in academic activities.

(Ministry of Education PRC, 1993-94 quoted in Wilkins, 2013)c

At the opposite end of the spectrum sits Shanghai, where school staff are organised into teaching and research groups; with the role of the latter to carry out and publishing research (publishing research being a requirement to become a Master Teacher: Asia Society, 2012). Somewhere in the middle sit Ontario, whose

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ensure that standards or other guidelines which govern professional behaviour compel practitioners to engage with research. A recent review by Wilkins (2013) has illustrated the extent of official support for teachers’ engagement in practitioner research internationally and suggests that a clear spectrum exists, that ranges from

statement of standards of practice for the teaching profession included the commitment to “reflect on their practice and learn from experience; and draw on and contribute, where appropriate, to various forms of educational research” (Ontario College of Teachers, 1999).

In contrast Sebba (2012) notes that England’s new Teaching Standards (implemented from September 2012) do not mention the word research; the closest these standards come, in fact, is on p.4 in the context of professional development where it is stated that: Appropriate self-evaluation, reflection and professional development activity is critical to improving

27

Growing your own evidence! ■■■■■

All GPs will be initiators, collaborators or users of research.

In this context, the minimum competence required is that of a user. The effective user of research will be able to demonstrate competence in the following areas:

is due, even though there is no correlation between the factors which enable a school to achieve Teaching School status and the factors which make a school a conducive environment for practitioner research.

The role of teaching schools is described on the National College website,e where it is stated that: “collaboration sits at the heart of the teaching school model. Teaching Schools are required to form an alliance with other schools and key strategic partners such as LAs or HEIs in order to form teaching school alliances (TSAs)”. The purpose of an alliance is to build capacity to support other schools in a wider network, in relation to the following six key tasks:

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teachers’ practice at all career stages. The standards set out clearly the key areas in which a teacher should be able to assess his or her own practice, and receive feedback from colleagues (DfE, 2012).

Sebba contrasts this to the requirements set out by the England’s medical profession. In particular she highlights The Royal College of General Practitioners’ Curriculum Statement 3.6 on research (RCGP 2006: 5: my emphasis)d, which states that:

■ Playing a greater role in recruiting and training

■ ■ ■ ■ ■

Prioritising relevant information Critical appraisal Problem framing Accessing evidence Implementing change in clinical practice.

■

■

The statement then goes on to suggest that: All GPs should be familiar with essential components of the research process. They should be able to: ■ Develop a research question ■ Identify appropriate methods from a range of

designs ■ Draw up a questionnaire ■ Demonstrate basic quantitative and qualitative data analysis skills ■ Draw appropriate conclusions ■ Summarise results (RCGP 2006) In medicine then, localized evidence production and use is mandated rather than simply encouraged.

■■■ And what of Teaching Schools?

It is noted by Wilkins (2013) that: The one place in the English system where practitioner research is officially encouraged is in Teaching Schools.

This appears an act of enlightenment for which credit

■ ■ ■

new entrants to the profession (Initial Teacher Training); Leading peer-to-peer professional and leadership d e v e l o p m e n t ( C o n t i n u i n g Pr o f e s s i o n a l Development); Identifying and developing leadership potential (succession planning and talent management); Providing support for other schools; Designating and brokering support from Specialist Leaders of Education; and Engaging in research and development activity. (my emphasis)

In relation to the last of these tasks, it is stated on the National College’s website that the College expect teaching schools involved in research and development to: ■ Show evidence of engagement in research and

development which reflects agreed priorities, builds on existing external research/evidence, and contributes towards the alliance's overall priorities; ■ Ensure that new initiatives within the alliance are based on existing evidence and include a rigorous evaluative focus, drawing on external expertise; ■ Demonstrate an ability to work with other teaching schools on research and development activities as part of regional or national networks where appropriate;

28

Policy and practice

used by staff and that appropriate staff have the time and support needed to undertake research and development activities; and ■ Effectively disseminate learning from research and development work across the alliance and the wider school system.

The National College has also set up a national research and development network to support teaching school alliances to engage in research activities. This provides opportunities for training, sharing expertise and wider dissemination of ‘what works’ and provides a forum for networking between teaching school leaders and teachers, so they can learn from and with each other (Sebba et al., 2012). Three national research and development themes were identified by the Teaching schools and three associated research projects set up to address them have been funded by the National College for 2012−14.

Specifically, these examine: what makes great pedagogy?; what makes great professional development which leads to consistently great pedagogy?; and how can leaders lead successful teaching school alliances which enable the development of consistently great pedagogy? A corresponding programme: Closing the Gap: Test and Learn provides grants for schools and teachers to get involved in rigorous research under the auspices of their neares Teaching School Alliance.f It is clear then that the Teaching School Approach plays a halfway house between compulsion to engage in research and support for doing so. The latter aspect (support) appears designed to tackle the issues identified by Levin et al. (2011) regarding capacity and the need for intermediaries (for instance, the National College has commissioned the Institute of Education, and Sheffield Hallam University to support Teaching School Alliances to undertake cross alliance research and development projects). The former aspect

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■ Ensure that existing evidence can be accessed and

29

Growing your own evidence! ■■■■■

■■■ So what does this mean for evidence informed practice Whilst there are strong arguments in favour of evidenceinformed practice (e.g. see Brown, 2011; 2013) consideration now needs to be given to how such practice is determined. What has also become abundantly apparent from my experience of working with schools in order to help them to identify and scale-up best practice is that any kind of school improvement initiative will only ever be successfully implemented when:

■ there is a clear focus on tackling the issue in

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is reflected through statements such as that Teaching Schools must “ensure that new initiatives within the alliance are based on existing evidence and include a rigorous evaluative focus, drawing on external expertise”.

However, this is only incumbent on schools who have already volunteered to take part. In other words those who have, by their inclusion, already demonstrated some propensity or interest to engage in research. This then raises questions as the long term viability and sustainability of the project. A truly self improving school system (Hargreaves, 2010; 2012) is one in which “school improvement and professional development are conjoined in the life and work of a school in relation to its chosen partners” (Hargreaves 2012: 6); and is based on the notion of partnerships or alliances of schools acting as engines for improvement. Can such a pilot approach to such fundamental development ever be rolled out across the school system as a whole, if identifying best practice is dependent simply on high cost support and good will?

question;

■ there is clarity and confidence as to the approach

that will be applied; and ■ that this approach is administered consistently and unstintingly.

This must also be true practitioners’ use of research. If the centrally prescribed course of action to be taken is not clear and a school’s staff, from the senior leaders downwards, cannot see the connection between the ideal of the research and their reality, then initiatives based on such studies are likely to be either ignored or implemented only half-heartedly. So, if we are to ensure practitioners use evidence that can help them deal with the day to day practical issues they face in their setting, localised research production must also exist as a cultural norm.

In order to achieve this it must become standard practice that all are expected to reach. This means we must move beyond volunteerism and towards compulsion. It must be expected of teachers (by the Teaching Agency, schools, parents and pupils) that they employ research methods to improve their practice and it must be the expectation of teachers that they are supported to do so.

Dr. Chris Brown is a John Adams Research Fellow at the Institute of Education, University of London. Currently working within the London Centre for Leadership in Learning, Chris leads various projects which seek to help practitioners identify and scale up best practice.

Notes a. See: http://educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/evaluation b. See: http://educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/toolkit c. Teachers Law of the People’s Republic of China, (enacted 1993-94), Ministry of Education of the People’s Republic of China See: http://www.moe.gov.cn/publicfiles/business/htmlfiles/moe/moe_280, accessed September 2012. d. See: http://www.rcgp.org.uk/gp-training-and-exams/gp-curriculum-overview/~/media/Files/GP-trainingand-exams/Curriculum%20previous%20versions%20as%20at%20July%202012/curr_archive_3_6_Research_ v1_0_feb06.ashx, accessed 16 May 2013. e. http://www.education.gov.uk/nationalcollege/index/support-for-schools/teachingschools/teachingschoolsprogramme-details.htm, accessed 24 December 2012. f. http://www.education.gov.uk/nationalcollege/index/about-us/national-college-role/national-collegeconsultations/testandlearn.htm

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Policy and practice

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?

References: Cartwright, N. (2013) Knowing what we are talking about: why evidence doesn’t always travel, Evidence & Policy, 9, 1, pp. 97112 ■ Department for Education (2012) Teachers’ Standards, (London, DfE). ■ Flyvbjerg (2001) Making Social Science Matter (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press). ■ Hargreaves, D. (1996) The Teaching Training Agency Annual Lecture 1996: Teaching as a research based profession: possibilities and prospects, available at: http://eppi.ioe.ac.uk/cms/Portals/0/PDF%20reviews%20and%20summaries/TTA%2 0Hargreaves%20lecture.pdf, accessed on 14 January 2013. ■ -- (2010) Creating a self-improving school system, (Nottingham, National College for School Leadership). ■ -- (2012) A self-improving school system: towards maturity, (Nottingham, National College for School Leadership), available at: http://www.education.gov.uk/nationalcollege/docinfo?id=177472&filename=a-self-improving-school-systemtowards-maturity.pdf, accessed on 24 December, 2012. ■ Hackley, C. (1999) Tacit knowledge and the epistemology of expertise in strategic marketing management, European Journal of Marketing, 33, 7/8, pp. 720-735 ■ Haynes, L., Service, O., Goldacre, B., and Torgerson, D. (2012) ‘Test, learn, adapt: Developing public policy with randomized controlled trials’. Online. www.gov.uk/government/publications/test-learnadapt-developing-public-policy-with-randomised-controlled-trials (accessed 6 May 2013). ■ Hogam, D., Teh, L. and Dimmock, C. (2011) Educational Knowledge Mobilisation and Utilization in Singapre, Paper prepared for the 2011 conference of the International Alliance of Leading Educational Institutions, OISE, University of Toronto. ■ Levin, B., Cooper, A., Arjomand, S. and Thompson, K. (2011) Research Use and Its Impact in Secondary Schools: Exploring Knowledge Mobilization in Education, Executive Summary, available at: http://www.cea-ace. ca/publication/research-use-and-its-impact-secondary-schools-exploring-knowledge-mobilization-educati-0, accessed on 22 December, 2012. ■ März, V. and Kelchtermans, G. (2013) Sense-making and structure in teachers’ reception of educational reform. A case study on statistics in the mathematics curriculum, Teaching and Teacher Education, 29, pp. 13-24. ■ Moss, G. (2013) Research, policy and knowledge flows in education: what counts in knowledge mobilisation, Contemporary Social Science: Journal of the Academy of Social Sciences, DOI: 10.1080/21582041.2013.767466. ■ Nutley, S., Powell, A. and Davies H. (2012) What counts as good evidence, available at: http://www. nesta.org.uk/library/documents/A4UEprovocationpaper2.pdf, accessed on 2 December 2012. ■ Oakley, A. (2000) Experiments in knowing: gender and method in the social sciences, (Cambridge, Polity Press). ■ OfSTED (1996). The teaching of reading in 45 Inner London primary schools, (London, OfSTED). ■ Ontario College of Teachers (1999) Standards of Practice for the Teaching Profession, (Ontario, Ontario College of Teachers). ■ Rexvid, D., Blom, B., Evertsson, L. and Forssen, A. (2012) Risk Reduction Technologies in General Practice and Social Work, Professions and Professionalism, 2, 2, pp. 1-18 ■ Sebba, J. (2012) Can Research Influence Practice? Paper presented to All Souls, 10 November 2012. ■ Sebba, J., Kent, P. and Tregenza, J. (2012a) Helping schools to use evidence on Joint Practice Development to improve their practice, (Nottingham, National College for School Leadership). ■ Wilkins, R (2013) Practitioner research and professional identity, Professional Development Today, 15, 1/2, pp. 40-47.

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Thinking Together A programme of lessons and activities for developing KS2 children’s communication and critical thinking skills

By Lyn Dawes, Neil Mercer and Rupert Wegerif

?

Price £22.95

In today’s full curriculum, there is only so much time teachers can devote to the teaching of language and reasoning skills. Thinking Together has been specifically designed to develop these skills across the KS2 curriculum. The book is presented as a series of structured lesson plans to help teachers initiate and build upon a programme that can be adapted for use in every subject area.

This is an excellent guide for teachers who may never have taught thinking skills before.

All of the ideas and materials have been successfully trialled in UK schools, and standards have been raised as a result. Ideal for introducing at the start of term, the book suggests ways of creating an ethos of co-operation within the classroom.

As seen and acclaimed on Teachers TV Primary CPD Resources.

An invaluable resource for developing thinking skills at KS2

Order Hotline: 0121 224 7599 31 or visit www.thinkingonlinecatalogue.co.uk

Sandwell Early Numeracy Test (SENT) Key Stages 2-3

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ORDER NOW AND RECEIVE YOUR PACK SOON! PRICE: £139.00 + VAT NOW from Sandwell Inclusion Support Service a NEW version of the DfE approved numeracy assessment Sandwell Early Numeracy Test (SENT) for use with pupils in Key Stage 2 and Key Stage 3 This assessment tool is used with individual pupils, under supervision by a teacher or teaching assistant.

It covers the traditional five elements of: ■■ ■■ ■■ ■■ ■■

Identification of number Oral counting Value and computation Object counting Language from NC level P6 to 3A.

The materials are suitable for pupils in Key Stages 2 and 3.

The test can be used to identify skills and knowledge in pupils and the results can be expressed as either National Curriculum levels or Age Equivalents within the range of 4 to 11 years.

It is used extensively for children on the SEN code of practice (from 8 - 14) to diagnose underlying difficulties in numeracy, plan individual programmes and monitor progress. It has been extensively researched and the previous version was the standard test for the DfE’s ‘Every Child Can Count’ strategy.

Please send orders to: Imaginative Minds Ltd 309 Scott House, The Custard Factory, Gibb Street, Digbeth, Birmingham B9 4AA Tel: 0121 224 7599 or Fax: 0121 224 7598 Email: enquiries@imaginativeminds.co.uk www.teachingtimes.com

➜

How to...

How to…

lead change!

In the following HOW TO contributions Graham Handscomb provides a range of material and professional learning exercises on the challenge of leading change.

The leadership of change journey Considerations about leading individual and organisational change have over a number of decades generated a wealth of literature about change leadership theories and their use in organisational contexts. These How To contributions will help you explore some of these and to examine the research traditions within which these theories and approaches have developed.

The How To section begins with the perspective of seeing school improvement as a journey, comprising patterns and trajectories of change, linked to school specific features. This article also considers the value of longitudinal research which investigates how change plays out within the school as an organisational entity over an extended period of time. Then follows a How To contribution which looks at how leaders use a range of strategies in relation to their particular and unique school context, and also reflects on the significance of cultural context. Within the article on How to … face the challenge of the complexity of change you will have opportunity to examine claims that the Complexity Leadership Theory approach more accurately reflects the complex nature of leadership as it occurs in practice. This will invite you to consider leadership from the respective perspectives of the leader, the follower and the relationship between the two, and will explore the view that in complex organisations like schools different types of leadership can be productively entangled together. You will examine the intriguing notion of embracing chaos and the merits of the host-as-leader model as opposed to the hero leader. Two examples of models about the leadership of change are then explored, from Kotter and Fullan respectively. The final How To article explores the traditions of school improvement and school effectiveness research, the perceived strengthens and limitations of each, and some attempts to bring about a blended approach which contains elements of the two.

Throughout, you will be provided with exercises to help you consider the implications of this material to your own experience and practice of leading individual and organisational change.

The material for these HOW TO exercises have been adapted from units written by Graham Handscomb for the University of Nottingham on-line MA in Leadership and Management (Handscomb, 2013).

33

How to... ➜

How to... take the long view?

■ ■

■

■

Inspiring an inclusive vision or dream The capacity of the organisation to work with their communities and to value them The ability to use data but not be driven by it; instead to use it as the basis for the enquiry, as communities together in how organisations can improve.

Recognition that organisations need to work together for a common good; that the strong should help the weak and that sometimes you can achieve more by collaborating with your competitors.

In contrast to messages coming from, for instance the highly influential McKinsey reports (Barber, Whelan and Clark, 2010; Mourshed, Chijioke and Barber, 2010),

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T

his How To collection of articles and exercises will look at a range of thinking and approaches to leading individual and organisation change and will explore how these have developed in the research literature over past forty years or so. Indeed Andy Hargreaves argues that “in education strategies for bringing about change have themselves changed over time, over three or four decades” (2010, extract from video). In the first video extract below he characterises these changes in terms of three different phases or “ways” – the innovation of the 1960s/1970s which was not sufficiently “pulled together”; followed by the era of “enforced competition” which created energy but also gave rise to a good deal of micro-management; and then finally the “third way” which emphasised combining the public and private sector.

In the following videos Hargreaves outlines what he calls a “fourth way” of approaching the whole issue of leading individual and organisational change. In the first extract he outlines the main features as including:

Hargreaves emphasises that at the core of the fourth way is “not being number 1 or having vaguely world class standards, but having a strong dream of how we want to be and how to achieve it” (2010, extract from video).

34

■■ Professional learning task: The Fourth Way View the two brief videos in the links below, and read the following extract from the second video about what Hargreaves says is the core principle of his “fourth way”. How compelling do you feel his argument is for a new fourth way approach in contrast to what has gone before? Do you agree with his emphasis on the importance of having a strong dream or do you find this idealistic and lacking in practical details? What questions would you wish to ask in in order to critique and explore this approach further?

Video link 1: Hargreaves (2010) Systems Thinking in Action Conference Preview.

6.48 minutes http://www.youtube.com/ watch?feature=player_ detailpage&v=k8HmCZ3BH4s Video link 2: Hargreaves (2011) Principles of the Fourth Way. 3.08 minutes http://www.youtube.com/ watch?feature=player_ detailpage&v=1NresL_05Rg

➜

How to...

■■ Patterns and trajectories of change Hallinger and Heck (2011) see school improvement as a journey and that taking this perspective has significant implications for how we view leading individual and organisational change. They conducted research which sought to understand how changes in school leadership were related to changes in school improvement capacity and growth in student learning over a four year period in 200 United States elementary schools. Drawing on their previous research (Hallinger and Heck, 2010) they started by characterising the schools according to three “latent change trajectories”: stable, improving and declining respectively. They then investigated whether it was possible to identify common patterns among the improvement trajectories of the schools (Hallinger and Heck, 2011, page 2). They saw the significance of their research in terms of “establishing whether it is possible to identify underlying patterns of improvement in the performance of schools over a substantial period of time” (page 2).

Their conclusions emphasise that any attempt of leaders to bring about change in their schools needs to take account of the school’s specific contextual features and also of its particular change journey or trajectory. This was also echoed in the Leading schools facing challenging circumstances unit which reflected on

35

■■ Professional learning task: The school’s unique journey Read the following extract which sets out Hallinger and Heck’s perspective on this. To what extent does your experience accord with this view? What implications does the “unique set of challenges” that comprise each school’s improvement journey raise for the process of school development/improvement planning?

■■ Extract “Across the globe, governments have undertaken strategies to restructure schools that fail to meet minimum standards of learning performance. This is readily apparent, for example, in the USA and the UK, where sustained levels of poor performance can trigger extreme measures including the replacement of principals and teachers, or even closure of schools. In this new policy climate, schools are now routinely required to formulate school improvement or development plans that focus on student learning outcomes. Yet, shaping an evidence-based plan that meets the needs of a particular school’s context (or conditions) remains a challenge (Day et al., 2010; Hallinger & Murphy, 1986; Jackson, 2000).

In our view, these ‘‘conditions’’ include not only important features of the context (e.g., student composition, school size, school level) but also the location (i.e., current status) and trajectory (i.e., stable, declining, improving) of the school on its ‘‘journey’’ of school improvement. One can say that these factors combine to create a ‘‘unique set of challenges’’ for each school.”

(Hallinger and Heck, 2011, page 21 & 22)

take the long view?

“The core (of the 4th Way) is the idea that what matters most, what drives you, what lifts you, what pulls you together is having some kind of inspiring dream of what you want to be, before you decide how high you want to be. The third way is really about being world class, or being top, or raising the bar, or narrowing the gap.

The 4th Way is really about what person you want to be; what kind of contribution do you want to make in the world; what your school will emphasise; what your District or State is all about. The first thing is the dream and that drives and articulates/animates everything else” Hargreaves (2011, extract from video).

how Chapman (2006) identified the need for a “fit between the (improvement) programme and the school’s developmental needs” (page 148). Indeed Hallinger and Heck take issue with the worldwide broad brush practice of calling on such schools to produce development or improvement plans that take little or no account of the school’s improvement patterns or trajectory.

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■■ Extract

How to... ➜

take the long view?

The work of Day et al, 2010 (which explored the contribution of leadership to pupil outcomes over a three year period), and many others, has highlighted the value to be gained by looking at schools over a period of time when seeking to understand the leadership of change. Hallinger and Heck (2011) are adamant that we will only achieve a robust understanding of valid strategies and practices for school improvement if we include “the analysis of longitudinal data that describe the educational conditions in and performance of relatively large numbers of schools over time.” They point to there being, until recent times, a paucity of such longitudinal research which has “stalled progress in identifying and understanding patterns of change in the improvement of schools” (Hallinger and Heck, 2011, page 5).

In the Change over Time? project Hargreaves and Goodson (2006) set out to investigate the sustainability of educational change by looking retrospectively at how various educational change forces have exerted effects across eight secondary schools, in two countries, during three decades. So it sought to look at schools as entities with a life span of many years and how they were affected by societal and political developments over this extended period of time. Interviews were conducted with 186

.......................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

■■ Longitudinal research

teachers with 50 repeat interviews or questionnaires with teachers and administrators. The researchers claimed that: “The project has analyzed change longitudinally and retrospectively, through the eyes of teachers and administrators, over a good deal longer period than the 5 years that contemporaneous studies normally allow ... It has sought to tell a story of action within a theory of context … involving significant and sometimes epochal changes in the wider social, economic, and political landscape that have affected schools as institutions and the lives and missions of those working within them …

The Change Over Time? project demonstrates the importance and necessity of taking a historical perspective on educational change if change efforts are to be sustainable achievements rather than matters of only transient interest … Among researchers, change needs to be viewed in the rearview mirror of reflection and not just placed in the service of policy makers’ driving ambition for political success” (Hargreaves and Goodson, 2006, pages 6, 7 and 35)

36

■■ Professional learning task: Taking the long view What is your view about looking at change in schools over such an extended period?

What do you think are the benefits and what practical problems do you think would be encountered in such an investigation?

➜

How to...

The last article looked at the importance of looking at schools over time and also in their own context when considering the leadership of change. The research of Leithwood, Day, Sammons, Harris Hopkins (2006) and subsequently of Day et al (2010) emphasised this crucial element of the way in which leaders used their range of improvement strategies in relationship with their particular and unique school context. This relationship is a dynamic one, i.e. not a case of the context determining or narrowing the leadership function, but rather the leader interacting with and being creatively responsive to the context: “Heads in more effective schools are successful in improving pupil outcomes through who they are – their values, virtues dispositions, attributes and competences - the strategies they use, and the specific combination and timely implementation and management of these strategies in the unique contexts in which they work”.

(Day et al, 2009, page 195) The ways in which leaders apply these basic leadership practices – not the practices themselves – demonstrate responsiveness to, rather than dictation by, the contexts in which they work. (Leithwood, Day, Sammons, Harris and Hopkins, 2006, page 3) There has been a growing realisation that cultural context is a significant factor when considering school leadership, and the leadership of change. This has been influenced

.....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

■■ Cultural context counts

by the work of Geert Hofstade who conducted research exploring national differences in culture and portrayed these in terms of five dimensions. It was originally carried out some thirty years ago (Hofstade, 1980), with some subsequent revision (e.g. Hofstade, Hofstade, and Makov, 1991), and has been regarded as “the most influential in the field of international comparative management” (Dimmock and Walker, 2005, page 22). Although some reservation about this work has been expressed in terms of, for instance, the appropriateness of the IBM employees sample, the narrow range of only five dimensions used, and using questionnaires to capture complex values, it is nevertheless still widely cited and used.

37

■■ Professional learning task: Taking the culture dimension test Read the adapted extracts that follow which summarise Hofstade’s five dimensions. Then access the Hofstade website: http://geerthofstede.com/countries.html Use the drop down menu to view the dimension profile of a country of your choice, and then compare it with two other countries.

Reflect on how compelling you think the five dimensions are. Do you think that the profiling of countries using these dimensions provides insights which are significant?

What implications do you feel these cultural dimensions may have for school leadership?

understand what we mean by resilience?

How to... understand the importance of cultural context?

How to... ➜

understand what we mean by resilience?

■■ Extract .......................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

Hofstede’s Five Dimensions of Culture

Armed with a large database of cultural statistics, Hofstede analyzed the results and found clear patterns of similarity and difference amid the responses along these five dimensions. His research was done on employees of IBM only, which allowed him to attribute the patterns to national differences in culture, largely eliminating the problem of differences in company culture. The five dimensions are: 1. Power/Distance (PD) – This refers to the degree of inequality that exists – and is accepted – among people with and without power. A high PD score indicates that society accepts an unequal distribution of power and people understand “their place” in the system. Low PD means that power is shared and well dispersed. It also means that society members view themselves as equals.

Application: According to Hofstede’s model, in a high PD country like Malaysia (104), you would probably send reports only to top management and have closed door meetings where only a select few, powerful leaders were in attendance.

2. Individualism (IDV) – This refers to the strength of the ties people have to others within the community. A high IDV score indicates a loose connection with people. In countries with a high IDV score there is a lack of interpersonal connection and little sharing of responsibility, beyond family and perhaps a few close friends. A society with a low IDV score would have strong group cohesion, and there would be a large amount of loyalty and respect for members of the group. The group itself is also larger and people take more responsibility for each other’s well-being.

Application: Hofstede’s analysis suggests that in the Central American countries of Panama and Guatemala where the IDV scores are very low (11 and 6, respectively), a marketing campaign that emphasized benefits to the community or that tied into a popular political movement would likely be understood and well-received.

3. Masculinity (MAS) – This refers to how much a society sticks with, and values, traditional male and female roles. High MAS scores are found in countries where men are expected to be tough, to be the provider, to be assertive and to be strong. If women work outside the home, they have separate professions from men. Low MAS scores do not reverse the gender roles. In a low MAS society, the roles are simply blurred. You see women and men working together equally across many professions.

Men are allowed to be sensitive and women can work hard for professional success.

Application: Japan is highly masculine with a score of 95 whereas Sweden has the lowest measured value (5). According to Hofstede’s analysis, if you were to open an office in Japan, you might have greater success if you appointed a male employee to lead the team and had a strong male contingent on the team. In Sweden, on the other hand, you would aim for a team that was balanced in terms of skill rather than gender.

4. Uncertainty/Avoidance Index (UAI) – This relates to the degree of anxiety society members feel when in uncertain or unknown situations. High UAI-scoring nations try to avoid ambiguous situations whenever possible. They are governed by rules and order and they seek a collective “truth”. Low UAI scores indicate the society enjoys novel events and values differences. There are very few rules and people are encouraged to discover their own truth.

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How to...

5. Long Term Orientation (LTO) – This refers to how much society values long-standing – as opposed to short term – traditions and values. This is the fifth dimension that Hofstede added in the 1990s after finding that Asian countries with a strong link to Confucian philosophy acted differently from western cultures. In countries with a high LTO score, delivering on social obligations and avoiding “loss of face” are considered very important.

Application: According to Hofstede’s analysis, people in the United States and United Kingdom have low LTO scores. This suggests that you can pretty much expect anything in this culture in terms of creative expression and novel ideas. The model implies that people in the US and UK don’t value tradition as much as many others, and are therefore likely to be willing to help you execute the most innovative plans as long as they get to participate fully. (This may be surprising to people in the UK, with its associations of tradition!)

Extracts adapted from: http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newLDR_66.htm [Accessed 21 March 2013] Hallinger and Kantamara consider the tension between the “cultural and institutional differences in the context of schooling as well as the nature of successful school leadership” on the one hand, and the drive for “’global dissemination’ of school improvement programmes” on the other (Hallinger and Kantamara, 2001, page 386). Harber and Muthuhrishna argue that effectiveness or otherwise of schools must be understood contextually as there are significant differences between both the material and ideological contexts of schooling” (Harber and Muthuhrishna , 2000, page 421). So they state that, for instance, in the South African context education for peace and democracy is an essential feature of school effectiveness. Similarly when reflecting on the Thailand cultural context Hallinger and Kantammara say that their work has led them to believe that there are culturally grounded differences in people’s responses to change. Drawing on the work of Hofstede (1980), they identify the following as appearing to be highly relevant to understanding personal and organizational responses to change:

the role of the individual versus the group the type and strength of the social hierarchy; ■ the degree to which people are comfortable with uncertainty, and ■ the emphasis on product versus process.

(Hallinger and Kantamara, 2001, page 405).

■ ■

The fundamental importance of context also featured in Mortimore’s comparative study of schools in Singapore and London, the main findings of which were: Improvement techniques must fit with the grain of society rather than go against it.

■ Indiscriminate borrowing from other cultures may not achieve the desired results.

■ (In line with other studies of school improvement) there is no “quick fix'' for school improvement.

(Mortimore, 2001, page 238) ■

What do you think is meant by the phrase: Improvement techniques must fit with the grain of society rather than go against it? What are the issues involved for and against this statement?

39

understand what we mean by resilience?

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Application: Hofstede’s Cultural Dimensions imply that when discussing a project with people in Belgium, whose country scored a 94 on the UAI scale, you should investigate the various options and then present a limited number of choices, but have very detailed information available on your contingency and risk plans. (Note that there will be cultural differences between French and Dutch speakers in Belgium!)

How to... ➜

deal with the complexity of change?

■■ It’s not all about the leader!

Throughout the world a great deal of the research literature has confirmed that leadership matters. To a certain extent this has led to a pre-occupation with the role of the leader. Many of the proponents of Complexity Leadership Theory (CLT) would see this as an over simplification and that it neglects an understanding in terms of multiple domains: the leader, the follower and fundamental relationship between these two (Graen and Uhl-Bien, 1995). Instead it is argued that developing new approaches to leadership grounded in complexity theory provides models which “more accurately reflect the complex nature of leadership as it occurs in practice” (Uhl-Bien and Marion, 2009, page 631). It still remains broadly the case that “a plethora of studies have been conducted on the leader, but in comparison there has been a dearth of studies in the other two areas” whilst at the centre of Complexity Leadership Theory is the tenet that “effective leadership processes occur when leaders and followers are able to develop mature leadership

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How to... deal with the complexity of change?

relationships (partnerships) and thus gain access to the many benefits these relationships bring” (Graen and Uhl-Bien, 1995, pages 222 and 225).

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■■ Professional learning task: The leader, the follower and the relationship.

In focusing the research eye on all three domains, not just that of the leader, a wider variety of questions about leading individual and organisational change is explored. Read the following extract. Then think of a major change development that has occurred in a school/organisation with which you are familiar and consider this development in the light of the three domains of the leader, follower and the “dyadic relationship” between the two. What new perspectives does this bring?

➜

How to...

In the leader-based domain, the primary focus is on the leader. The critical issue of interest concerns the question: What is the proper mix of personal characteristics and leader behavior to promote desired outcomes? Based on this viewpoint, studies would include measures that focus on leader behaviors and characteristics, such as leader traits, leader behaviors, personality variables, leader attitudes, leader perceptions, leader power and influence, and so forth. Applying a contingency design, analyses could then examine how the leader-focused variables interact with situational factors to affect outcomes.

Adopting a follower-based perspective, on the other hand, would generate hypotheses and analyses that focus primarily on follower issues. In this case, the critical question of interest would become: What is the proper mix of follower characteristics and follower behavior to promote desired outcomes? Like the leader-based domain, questions raised by this approach would focus on how traits, behaviors, attitudes, perceptions, expectations, and so forth affect the type and effectiveness of certain leadership styles and techniques, but this time with respect to followers.

These investigations would thus generate findings concerning followership and its relationship to leadership outcomes.

Finally, a relationship-based approach would focus on the dyadic relationship between the leader and the follower. The critical question of interest in this case would be: What is the proper mix of relational characteristics to promote desired outcomes? Investigation within this domain could focus on identifying characteristics of dyadic relationships (e.g., trust, respect, mutual obligation), evaluating reciprocal influence between leaders and followers, examining how the dyadic relationships are correlated with outcome variables of interest, and researching how effective leadership relationships can be developed, maintained, and combined into collectivities of leadership structures. … each of these domains should then be considered in combination with the others. This generates a whole new set of questions surrounding the issue of how the characteristics of leader, follower, and relationship interact with each other to influence leadership outcomes. Analysis at this level would have to examine combined and interactive effects of the variables generated by each domain to obtain a more complete picture of the leadership process”.

(Graen and Uhl-Bien, 1995, Page 223).

■■ The Challenge of Complexity The implications of Complexity Leadership Theory are that it calls for looking at the dynamic of organisations like schools and their leadership in very different ways. In particular it has been suggested that there are three kinds of leadership in such organisations: “adaptive leadership, administrative leadership and enabling leadership” and that “these three leadership

functions are intertwined in a manner that we refer to as entanglement” (Uhl-Bien, Marion and McKelvey, 2007, page 305). Within the functioning of places like schools there are complex adaptive systems (CAS) which enable the school to handle these forms of leadership and foster a dynamic interplay between them. The following extract which gives a summary of Complexity Leadership Theory.

41

deal with the complexity of change?

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■■ Extract

How to... ➜

deal with the complexity of change?

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■■ Box 1: Complexity Leadership Theory

Complexity Leadership Theory provides an overarching framework that describes administrative leadership, adaptive leadership and enabling leadership; it provides for entanglement among the three leadership roles and, in particular, between CAS and bureaucracy.

Adaptive leadership is an emergent, interactive dynamic that is the primary source by which adaptive outcomes are produced in a firm. Administrative leadership is the actions of individuals and groups in formal managerial roles who plan and coordinate organizational activities (the bureaucratic function).

Enabling leadership serves to enable (catalyze) adaptive dynamics and help manage the entanglement between administrative and adaptive leadership (by fostering enabling conditions and managing the innovation-to-organization interface). These roles are entangled within and across people and actions 306 Complexity Leadership Theory (CLT), then, is a framework for studying emergent leadership dynamics in relationship to bureaucratic superstructures. CLT identifies three types of leadership, adaptive, enabling, and administrative, and proposes that they differ according to where they occur in the larger organizational hierarchy. A basic unit of analysis of CLT is complex adaptive systems (or CAS), which exist throughout the organization and are entangled with the bureaucratic functions such that they cannot be separated. CLT proposes that CAS, when functioning appropriately, provide an adaptive capability for the organization, and that bureaucracy provides an orienting and coordinating structure. A key role of enabling leadership is to effectively manage the entanglement between administrative and adaptive structures and behaviors in a manner that enhances the overall flexibility and effectiveness of the organization.

(Uhl-Bien, Marion and McKelvey, 2007, page 306 and pages 313-314)

■■ Embracing chaos!

An even more fundamental challenge to our more traditional perceptions of leaders and leadership is posed by those who see that the world in which we try to exercise leadership as one of chaos ... and furthermore that, rather than try to impose our own control, we should embrace this chaos and look for patterns of order to emerge! This outlook is derived partly from a conception of the dynamic processes that operate in the natural world and applying this to the leadership of organisations as summarised in the following: “Wherever we look, we see a landscape of movement and complexity, of forms that come and go, of structures that are not from organizational charts or job descriptions, but from impulses arriving out of deep natural processes

of growth and of self-renewal. In our desire to control our organizations, we have detached ourselves from the forces that create order in the universe. All these years we have confused control with order. So what if we reframed the search? What if we stop looking for control and begin the search for order, which we can see everywhere around us in living dynamic systems?

It is time, I believe, to become a community of inquirers, serious explorers seeking to discover the essence of order-order we will find even in the heart of chaos” (Wheatley, 1993, page 3).

Thus we have a world which is portrayed as an environment which is “out of control”, where what takes place is the result of innumerable actions of the many rather than the decisive leadership actions of

42

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How to...

■■ Professional learning task: From Hero to Host!

Rather than “playing the hero” Wheatly and Frieze encourage leaders to embark on “the journey from Hero to Host”. Read the following extract. How compelling do you find this portrayal of leaders-ashosts. How does this relate to the issue of distributed leadership?

Drawing from your own experience what are the potential and pitfalls of this image of leadership?

Discuss this with members of your leadership team.

■■ Extract

The Illusion of Control Heroic leadership rests on the illusion that someone can be in control. Yet we live in a world of complex systems whose very existence means they are inherently uncontrollable. No one is in charge of our food systems. No one is in charge of our schools. No one is in charge of the environment. No one is in charge of national security. No one is in charge! These systems are emergent phenomena— the result of thousands of small, local actions that converged to create powerful systems with properties that may bear little or no resemblance to the smaller actions that gave rise to them.

These are the systems that now dominate our lives; they cannot be changed by working backwards, focusing on only a few simple causes. And certainly they cannot be changed by the boldest visions of our most heroic leaders.

If we want to be able to get these complex systems to work better, we need to abandon our reliance on the leader-as-hero and invite in the leader-as-host. We need to support those leaders who know that problems are complex, who know that in order to understand the full complexity of any issue, all parts of the system need to be invited in to participate and contribute. We, as followers, need to give our leaders time, patience, forgiveness; and we need to be willing to step up and contribute.

These leaders-as-hosts are candid enough to admit that they don’t know what to do; they realize that it’s sheer foolishness to rely only on them for answers. But they also know they can trust in other people’s creativity and commitment to get the work done.

They know that other people, no matter where they are in the organizational hierarchy, can be as motivated, diligent and creative as the leader, given the right invitation.

43

deal with the complexity of change?

“You’re acting as a hero when you believe that if you just work harder, you’ll fix things; that if you just get smarter or learn a new technique, you’ll be able to solve problems for others. You’re acting as a hero if you take on more and more projects and causes and have less time for relationships. You’re playing the hero if you believe that you can save the situation, the person, the world” (Wheatley and Frieze, 2011, page 4)

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the few. It reflects the Tolstoyan view which in War and Peace debunked the idea that an individual like Napoleon could single-handedly determine the course of events and instead applauded the character of the Russian General Kutuzov who wisely read and went with the flow of the seemingly chaotic developments of the battlefield (Tolstoy, 1869; 1969 - Penguin). Wheatley and Frieze (2011) confront the temptation for leaders to adopt the hero mode in a chaotic and complex world:

How to... ➜

deal with the complexity of change?

.......................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

The Journey from Hero to Host Leaders who journey from hero to host have seen past the negative dynamics of politics and opposition that hierarchy breeds, they’ve ignored the organizational charts and role descriptions that confine people’s potential. Instead, they’ve become curious. Who’s in this organization or community? What skills and capacities might they offer if they were invited into the work as full contributors? What do they know, what insights do they have that might lead to a solution to this problem?

Leaders-as-hosts know that people willingly support those things they’ve played a part in creating— that you can’t expect people to ‘buy-in’ to plans and projects developed elsewhere. Leaders-ashosts invest in meaningful conversations among people from many parts of the system as the most productive way to engender new insights and possibilities for action. They trust that people are willing to contribute, and that most people yearn to find meaning and possibility in their lives and work. And these leaders know that hosting others is the only way to get complex, intractable problems solved.

Leaders-as-hosts don’t just benevolently let go and trust that people will do good work on their own Leaders have a great many things to attend to, but these are quite different than the work of heroes.

Hosting leaders must: provide conditions and good group processes for people to work together. provide resources of time, the scarcest commodity of all. insist that people and the system learn from experience, frequently. offer unequivocal support—people know the leader is there for them. keep the bureaucracy at bay, creating oases (or bunkers) where people are less encumbered by senseless demands for reports and administrivia.

■ play defense with other leaders who want to take back control, who are critical that people have been given too much freedom.

■ reflect back to people on a regular basis how they’re doing, what they’re accomplishing, how far they’ve journeyed.

■ work with people to develop relevant measures of progress to make their achievements visible.

■ value conviviality and esprit de corps—not false rah-rah activities, but the spirit that arises in any group that accomplishes difficult work together.

(Wheatley and Frieze, 2011, pages 2-3) ■ ■ ■ ■ ■

44

Assessing Maths and Phonics Skills Reception – KS2 GOVERNMENT RECOMMENDED Understanding the numeracy strengths and weaknesses of your children

The Sandwell Early Numeracy Test – Revised (SENT-R) Price: £125 + vat

SENT-R enables practitioners to assess children’s ability with numbers.

Designed for use with children from ages 4 years – 7 years 11 months, it explores five strands of basic numeracy skills: identification, oral counting, value, object counting and language, and provides a baseline of a pupil’s number skills. It is particularly useful in helping to identify targets for pupils who are having difficulties with numeracy up to Key Stage Two. The two parallel tests allow for the monitoring of progress every three months and there is an online marking tool for easy analysis. SENT-R is easy to administer and enjoyable for the children.

Images in the test book are engaging and relate to tasks in every day activities. Any member of the school staff who has some basic training can use the tests.

Recommended by the DES and the Every Child Counts programme, the revised version of the Sandwell Early Numeracy Test is proving hugely popular as schools try to lift their maths teaching in the light of tougher new Ofsted assessment-for-learning and teaching quality requirements.

Every Child Counts describes the Sandwell Early Numeracy Test as an ‘Essential Teacher Resource’ to be used as a standardised baseline test to establish children’s levels of numeracy at the start and end of their programme, and to monitor children’s progress throughout. The assessment is now used in schools in most local authorities.

CONCEPTS

It is essential that pupils understand the language used to talk about phonological awareness before trying to address any difficulties highlighted by testing.

Same/Different

Are your children ready to read?

Assessing phonological skills

The Sandwell Phonological Awareness Readiness for Reading Kit (SPARRK) Price: £150.00 + vat Phonics is the main way of teaching reading to Reception,Year 1 and Year 2 children. But the starting point is how phonologically aware are your children? If they are not, they will struggle with putting sounds and letters together and their reading readiness will be adversely affected.

The SPARRK assesses: ■ Concepts (Linguist concepts associated with phonological awareness) ■ Syllable ■ Rhyme ■ Beginnings ■ Middles ■ Blending and segmenting It can be used as a diagnostic tool with individual/groups of children who are experiencing difficulties with phonic acquisition/reading and spelling. It can also be used as a screening tool within the Early Years in order to identify children who might require early intervention before they embark on formal phonics teaching.

Pupils need to be able to recognise pictures and symbols that are the same and different. This forms the basis of an ability to recognise same and different letters and words.

SPARRK provides an Excel data recording spreadsheet for data collection, that has been specifically designed to provide an overview of the phonological awareness skills of individuals, groups and whole classes of children. This can be used to identify which skills are established, identify potential groupings for intervention work and measure progress over time.

Activity

Source

Section

Publisher/Source

Concepts in Pictures

CIP11

Black Sheep Press

SALLEY

Methods: 34 35 37 38 42 45 48

Imaginative Minds

Matching Skills Sherston Skill Builders

Sherston Software

Observation Skills

Sherston Skill Builders

Sherston Software

Sorting Skills

Sherston Skill Builders

Sherston Software

Long/Short

The ability to distinguish long and short sounds, especially vowel sounds, is a prerequisite of reading and spelling.

c-v-c

(Short PHONEME FRAMES

(Individual or

small group activity)

and to demonstrate in half vertically. or small groups Cut each card blending. individual pupils segmenting and Use these with of phoneme teach the principles vocabulary is expected picture ensure that the activity Before starting understood and and ‘end’ are known. to the sounds ‘beginning’, ‘middle’ concepts of each card and Ensure that if this is the the boxes on be related to ‘medial’ and ‘final’ that they can ly, use ‘initial’, (Alternative within a word. familiar vocabulary.)

SUGGESTED

Concepts in Pictures

vowels)

ACTIVITIES

Activity 1 phoneme by (middle or end) or third) For beginners: principle of beginningcounter in first (second adult. ce • Establish is spoken by to indicate/pla getting pupil or final) phoneme indicate initial (medial phoneme then box when the to identify required asking pupil • Extend by as above.

Activity 2 have 3 counters. down on table. and face Each pupil should name the picture of picture cards up the top card, Place the pile turns to pick • Pupils take as each under each box. the box above place a counter counter into pushes each • Pupil then activity is completed. phoneme is identified. be repeated as the word should • The whole activity through the should be guided to repeat. and get pupil difficulty they If pupils have model the activity If necessary step. step by

Black Sheep Press

CIP9 Methods: 28 29 30 32 36 41 43 47 49

SALLEY

Imaginative Minds

Silly/Sensible

This concept is introduced so that pupils will be able to apply existing skills to unfamiliar (i.e. nonsense) words

Name

2

Item number

SALLEY

Methods: 39 40 44 46

DateImaginative

1 Concepts Expected response

Question

Minds

Correct?

MEDIAL VOW

Where next?

(cvc/short

Long/short 1a 1b 2 eg 2a

Show me the long pencil.

Show me the short socks.

Is this sound long or short?

2b 2c 2d 2e

3a

Show me the silly picture.

Show me the sensible picture.

Same/different 4a 4b

Which dogs are the same?

Which cars are different?

5 eg

Are these sounds the same or different?

5a

Are these sounds the same or different?

5b 5c 5d 5e

p

mmmmmm

Silly/sensible 3b

vowels)

(2 - 6 players

+ caller)

EL BINGO

Before starting the game Ensure that ensure that concepts expected of ‘vowels’ understoo picture and d. Decide which vocabular ‘medial or middle vocabulary is known. consisten letter or t in its use. y will be used phoneme’ to play the are game and Activity 1 be For beginners , game could to be used be preceded are sorted by a matching into sets identified k short activity where by the players . cards and medial vowel phonemes ffffff long Activity 2 Each player ssshhh long needs a baseboard One player and 6 counters. is designate d as the • The caller has the cards caller. phoneme of each card. and turns them over • If any saying the player has medial a picture medial phoneme, on their baseboard they can • The game containing place a counter continues Name over the picture.the same • When

this happens until one player has

covered all they call

“BINGO” their pictures.

and the game Activity 3

is over.

As Activity

2 except:

• The caller m–d differentItem

numbe • The playersnames each picture

r as the card have to work Date k - k same is turned the same over. medial phoneme. out whether they 1 Quest have a picture Show f – t different ion containing me who’s Activity 4 at the 2 eg As p - l different beginn Activity 2 (Point Expec ing of except: to and ted the line.

• What name respon s - sh different CorreThe caller turns over else begins each pictur se ct • The the picture players have 2a with /d/? e.) duck, fish. duck, without naming ? to identify o-o same picture on Is it duck car, dog, bag, fox. it.

What the medial egg else begins phoneme – car?

Wher • Each playertheir card containing Fish Duck and cover Is it duck begins the same (or one chosen e next?

2b with /f/? begins with any one elepha medial with /d/. and say the nt, egg, – dog? /f/. common medial by the caller) should phoneme.

What house Is it duck else begins , giraff name both phoneme.

- egg? pictures with /e/? e Elepha 2c sun, moon, nt begins mouse What with /e/. fox else begins , sock Sun 2d with /s/? begins web, whale, with /s/. fox, What egg else beginsfly Web with /w/?begins with 2e parrot /w/. , What duck, pencil sock else begins , ship 3 eg with /p/?Parrot begins Mat begins with /p/. with What whale else begins /m/.

3a with /m/?

Tiger begins What with pencil else begins /t/.

3b with /t/?

Shoes begins What with /sh/. monke else begins y with /sh/?

3c Octop us begins What teeth else beginswith /o/.

3d with /o/?.

Car begins with What shop else begins/c/. with /c/?

3e Zoo begins with What orange else begins/z/. with /z/? cap

Listen to this sound – ssssss. It’s a long sound. Listen to this sound – t. It’s a short sound.

Is this sound long or short? - g short short long

4 Beg inni

ngs

zebra

SPARRK also provides ready to make games and activities and signposts to other commercially produced materials in the “Where Next” pack. This provides practitioners with ideas and teaching suggestions to implement if difficulties have been identified by the assessment. SPARRK also links directly to the SALLEY programme (Structured Activities for Language and Learning in the Early Years) a well researched programme that can be delivered as a Wave 1 programme during the Foundation Stage, but also as a Wave 2 and/or 3 intervention by selecting specific activities.

Order Hotline: Tel: 0121 224 7599 or Fax: 0121 224 7598

Email: enquiries@imaginativeminds.co.uk www.teachingtimes.com

How to... ➜

learn from Change models and theories

C

hange, then, is a continuing and inevitable feature in the experience of individuals and of organisations in the complex and chaotic environment in which they operate, and yet it appears to remain a significant challenge and even stumbling block. Kotter (1996) states that, from his decades of research in the commercial and business sector, he found at least 70% of all major change efforts in organisations fail. His 8-step model, which sets out how organisations can work to avoid failure and become adept at bringing about successful change, has been highly influential. The eight steps are diagrammatically presented below and grouped under three broad areas or stages: ■ ■ ■

Creating a climate for change Engaging and enabling the whole organisation Implementing and sustaining change

....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... ....................................................................................................................................................................................................... .

How to... learn from Change models and theories For a detailed account of Kotter’s model, access the Kotter international website and click on each step for outline description of each of the eight steps: “The 8-Step Process for Leading Change”. http://www.kotterinternational.com/our-principles/ changesteps/step-8 In the video clip which follows Kotter talks about the first step and says that establishing a sense of urgency at the outset is crucial: “This is, from the point of view of making big changes, a huge issue.”

He maintains that only 10% of change programmes fulfil their expectations, with all the others falling well short or failing, and that the common feature of those that succeed is that “all start with a sense of urgency” (Kotter, 2012, quotes form video).

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How to...

Video link: Kotter, J. (2012) Leading Change: Establish a Sense of Urgency. Kotter International videos. http://vimeo.com/30523068

■■ Fullan’s three phase model One of the most influential models about leadership of change specifically in the educational context is the three phase model outlined by Fullan (1982, and revised in 2001). Although these phases often co-exist in practice (see the diagram below), Fullan and his colleagues described them separately in order to clarify the process that takes place in each phase. Typically the initiation phase is about deciding to embark on innovation, and of developing commitment towards the process. It includes having a clear, well-structured approach to change and an active advocate or champion who understands the innovation and supports it. Implementation is the phase of attempted use of the innovation. The key activities occurring during implementation are the carrying out of action plans, the developing and sustaining of

Figure: The three overlapping phases of the change process (Miles et al., 1986)

47

■■ Pofessional Learning Task: Learning through doing View the following video of Fullan, accompanied by some school leaders, talking about dealing with change via a process of learning through doing. What do you think of his ideas about Motion Leadership and the importance of having a Mind Set and an Action Set? Consider how this might be applied in leadership of change situations in your own professional context.

Video link: Fullan, M. (2012) Motion Leadership: The Skinny. http://www.youtube.com/ watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=v1LZZMaVFFE

■■ School Effectiveness and School Improvement Much of the research literature about leading individual and organisational change has been characterised by the respective approaches of the school improvement and school effectiveness movements.

Creemers and Reezigt (2005) describe the two as having

learn from Change models and theories

View this video by clicking on the link below. Then reflect on the range of change developments that you have experienced; to what extent do you feel that beginning with a sense of urgency was a feature, or would have make a significant difference, and why?

commitment, and the checking of progress and over­ coming problems. Institutionalisation is the phase when innovation and change stop being re­garded as something new and become part of the school’s usual way of doing things. The move from implementation to institutionalisation often involves the transformation of a pilot project, to a school-wide initiative, often with­out the advantage of the previously available.

Fullan has returned to his original ideas about the nature of educational change a number of times and a significant element in his thinking is the notion of “reflecting through doing” and of teachers and leaders developing theory from their practice – rather than the other way around (this is also powerfully conveyed in the work of Fish, 1995).

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■■ Pofessional Learning Task: A sence of urgency

How to... ➜

learn from Change models and theories

“Scholars have referred to the knowledge base on effective teaching and learning … and school leadership … on the assumption that these literatures would provide insights into the nature of classroom and school-level practices that represent high leverage foci for school improvement efforts. Other scholars have framed the study of school improvement in terms of processes associated with change on the assumption that school improvement is a form of organizational change. Another popular lens for exploring school improvement emerged from the literatures on school and organizational culture … Later efforts derived from this perspective have been linked to the construct of learning organizations, which highlights the systemic nature of change in schools … a more narrowly focused literature has also evolved around the study of school improvement as a domain in and of itself.”

(Hallinger and Heck, 2011 page 3) In terms of limitations, Wikeley, Stoll, Murillo and De Jong, (2007) state that a major criticism of school effectiveness research has been “its apparent lack of theory development … offering empirical findings as quasitheories that become the basis for school improvement strategies.” On the other hand they also reflect that:

“school improvement research is often accused of being too far removed from the realities of the classroom.

Oversimplified models that are hard to interpret within the complexities of school life are seen to offer little to teachers keen to improve their practice and their pupils’ learning outcomes” (pages 387-388). Researchers like Gorard (2010) have been coruscating in their criticism of these traditions and particularly of what they perceive as the pernicious effect they have had on determining education policy and the direction of educational change.

He claims, in particular, that because of fundamental errors in the nature of data gathered and propagated that School Effectiveness results cannot be relied upon and declares that “the whole school effectiveness model, as currently imagined, should be abandoned” (Gorard, 2010 page 760). Similarly, Coe (2013) sees the focus on school improvement and effectiveness approaches as not only being unhelpful but also misleading, and makes the startling claim that this has led to the mistaken view that levels of attainment in England have systematically improved over the last 30 years:

.......................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

different origins and in this respect also imply that they have distinctive intentions: “School effectiveness is more directed to finding out ‘what works’ in education and ‘why’; school improvement is practice and policy oriented and intended to change education in the desired direction” (page 359). A similar distinction is made by Bennett and Harris (1999) who pinpoint this in terms of alternative emphases on structure and culture: “School effectiveness research has tended to view organisational development in terms of structural change, while the school improvement field has conversely placed an emphasis upon the cultural dimensions of organisational change” (page 533).

Each perspective brings its strengths and limitations.

For some an emphasis on effectiveness strategies, which are related directly to the classroom, brings with it greater potential for change. In contrast others see the benefits of focusing on organisational processes in order to bring about improvement:

“Much of what is claimed as school improvement is illusory, and many of the most commonly advocated strategies for improvement are not robustly proven to work. Even the claims of school effectiveness research – that we can identify good schools and teachers, and the practices that make them good – seem not to stand up to critical scrutiny … Overall, an honest and critical appraisal of our experience of trying to improve education is that, despite the best intentions and huge investment, we have failed – so far – to achieve it”.

(Coe, 2013, page i) Others have not been so dismissive but have seen the tension between these two traditions as involving a rather sterile debate and have sought to develop approaches that draw on the strengths of both. So, for instance, Creemers and Reezigt (2005) judged that “in their orientation to outcomes, input, processes, and context in education, they also have much in common” and aimed to create “a comprehensive theoretical framework of school effectiveness and school improvement” However, in their research they struggled to develop a model for a combined “Effective School Improvement” approach

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➜

How to...

■

Alternatively, Bennett and Harris (1999) suggested that by incorporating the concept of “power” into the analysis of the two fields of schools improvement and school effectiveness, they can be brought more successfully together. For them power is the feature that

“As structures are enacted and create formal and publicly accepted rules, so cultures are also enacted and create informal and often unstated rules. Both represent forms of constraint upon the individual, and as such represent statements of power relationships between members of the organisation … The distribution of power within an organisation is simultaneously a key determinant and consequence of cultures as it is both a determinant and a consequence of structure.”

(Bennett and Harris, 1999, page 539)

■■ Professional learning task: What theory works for you?

Reflecting on your reading of the range of school effectiveness and school improvement research, and drawing on your own professional experience, consider your own views of which approach (or a combination of approach) has the most potential and leverage to bring about change. What are the key issues for you in this debate?

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learn from Change models and theories

context; the role of external change agents; ■ the importance of internal agency (included under this heading was the role of the principal/ headteacher/school director, and also the role of “internal change agents”); ■ the complexity and interconnectedness of all the factors and influences on effective school improvement.

(Adapted from Wikely et al, 2007, page 399) ■

helps to bring a coherent and integrated understanding of the respective focus of school effectiveness on structures and school improvement focus on culture:

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because of the complexity of the two traditions and the contextual differences between countries (pages 358 & 368). In their attempt Wikeley et al (2007) set out to evaluate effective school improvement programmes across the eight participating European Union countries in in order to develop “a model of effective school improvement would be of use to policy-makers and practitioners across Europe” (page 388).

The factors that emerged from their Effective School Improvement Project were grouped under the headings:

How to... ➜

A concluding reflection

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A concluding reflection

“L

eadership required in a culture of change ... is not straightforward.

We are living in chaotic conditions.

Thus leaders must be able to operate under complex, uncertain circumstances” (Fullan, 2001, page xii).

The search for a comprehensive plan or strategy of educational change that addresses individual and organisational needs and, as Hopkins, Ainscow and West (1994) once put it: “enhances student learning outcomes as well as the school’s capacity for managing change’’ (page 388), remains a live enterprise and

■■ Further reading and references Further reading Hallinger, P., & Heck, R.H. (2011). Leadership for learning: Does collaborative leadership make a difference? Educational Management Administration & Leadership, 38(6), 654–678.

Uhl-Bien, M and Marion, R. (2009) Complexity Leadership in Bureaucratic Forms of Organizing: A Meso Model. The Leadership Quarterly 20:4 (August 2009), pages 631–650 Uhl-Bien, M and Marion, R. and McKelvey, B. (2007) Complexity Leadership Theory: Shifting leadership from the industrial age to the knowledge era. The Leadership Quarterly 18:4 (August 2007), pages 298-318

one that pre-occupies researchers from a variety of traditions. The material in this HOW TO section has been wide ranging and covered a variety of perspectives. Perhaps prominent amongst these has been the appreciation that leading individual and organisational change is complex, and context specific – both in terms of the individual school and in the broader context of time and culture. You may find it useful to reflect upon the implications of this material in the light of your own professional situation and the leadership of change issues that you are encountering.

50

This work is worth reading in its entirety.

It characterises school improvement as a journey and describes a research study which found that schools could be classified according to several predominant patterns of school improvement and growth which in turn could be linked to features of school context. It also gives a helpful overview of different approaches to school improvement, school effectiveness and organisational change These two articles give a very useful detailed summary account of Complexity Leadership Theory and its implications for the leadership of organisations like schools.

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How to...

Kotter. J. and Rathgeber, H. (2005) Our Iceberg is Melting: Changing and succeeding under any conditions. Macmillan.

This conveys Kotter’s 8-step model of leading change through an illustrated fable about an Emperor penguin colony in Antarctica.

Coe, R. (2013) Improving Education. A triumph of hope over experience. Inaugural Lecture of Professor Robert Coe, 18 June 2013. Centre for Evaluation and Monitoring, University of Durham

This paper gives a bleak and provocative analysis that over the last thirty years standards have not risen, teaching has not improved and that the claims of school improvement and effectiveness research have been illusory. It alternatively argues the need to be clear what kinds of learning is valued; to evaluate, and measure properly, teaching quality; to invest in high-quality professional development; and to evaluate robustly the impact of changes that are made.

References: Barber, M.; Whelan, F.; and Clark, M (2010) Capturing the Leadership Premium: How the world’s top school systems are building leadership capacity for the future. McKinsey & Company. ■ Chapman, C. (2006) The Challenge of improving schools facing challenging or difficult contexts revisited: Pitfalls and possibilities. In Chapman, C. (Ed) Improving schools through external intervention. Bloomsbury. ■ Coe, R. (2013) Improving Education. A triumph of hope over experience. Inaugural Lecture of Professor Robert Coe, 18 June 2013. Centre for Evaluation and Monitoring, University of Durham. ■ Day, C., Sammons, P., Hopkins, D., Harris, A., Leithwood, K., Gu, Q., and Brown, E (2010) 10 strong claims about successful school leadership. National College for Leadership of Schools and Children’s Services ■ Day, C., Sammons, P., Hopkins, D., Harris, A., Leithwood, K., Gu, Q., Ahtaridou, E., and Kingston, A. (2009) The Impact of School Leadership on Pupil Outcomes. Final report. DCSF and NCSL. Research report No: DCSF – RR108, June, 2009. ■ Fish, D. (1995) Quality Learning for Student Teachers: A principled approach to practice. David Fulton. ■ Fullan, M. (2001) Leading in a culture of change. Jossey-Bass. ■ Fullan, M. G. (1982) The Meaning of Educational Change. New York: Teachers College Press. ■ Fullan, M. G. (2001) The New Meaning of Educational Change. New York: Teachers College Press. ■ Fullan, M. (2012) Motion Leadership: The Skinny. ■ Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=v1LZZMaVFFE [Accessed 29th June 2013] ■ Gorard, S. (2010) Serious doubts about school effectiveness. British Educational Research Journal, 36: 5, 745 — 766, ■ Graen, G. B. and Uhl-Bien, M. (1995) ■ Relationship-Based Approach to Leadership: Development of Leader-Member Exchange (LMX) Theory of Leadership over 25 Years: ■ Applying a Multi-Level Multi-Domain Perspective. Leadership Quarterly 6:2 (1995), pp. 219-247 ■ Hallinger, P., & Heck, R.H. (2011). Leadership for learning: Does collaborative leadership make a difference? Educational Management Administration & Leadership, 38(6), 654–678. ■ Hallinger, P., & Murphy, J.F. (1986). The social context of effective schools. American Journal of Education, 94, 328–355. ■ Hallinger, P. and Kantamara, P (2001) Exploring the Cultural Context of School Improvement in Thailand. School Effectiveness and School Improvement: An International Journal of Research, Policy and Practice, 12:4, 385-408 ■ Harber, C. and Muthukrishna, N. (2000) School Effectiveness and School Improvement in Context: The Case of South Africa. School Effectiveness and School Improvement: An International Journal of Research, Policy and Practice, 11:4, 421-434 ■ Hargreaves, A. (2010) Systems Thinking in Action Conference Preview. http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=k8HmCZ3BH4s [Accessed 14 June 2013] ■ Hargreaves, A. (2011) Principles of the Fourth Way. http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=1NresL_05Rg [Accessed 14 June 2013] ■ Hargreaves, A. and Goodson, I. (2006) Educational Change Over Time? The Sustainability and Nonsustainability of Three ■ Decades of Secondary School Change and Continuity. Educational Administration Quarterly, Vol. 42, No. 1 (February 2006) 3-41 ■ Hofstede, G. (1980) Culture’s consequences: International differences in work-related values. Newbury Park, CA: Sage. ■ Hopkins, D., Ainscow, M., and West, M. (1994) School improvement in an era of change. Cassell ■ Jackson, D. (2000). The school improvement journey: Perspectives on leadership.

School Leadership & Management, 20, 61–78. ■ Kotter, J. (1996) Leading Change. Harvard Business Press. ■ Kotter, J. (2012) Leading Change: Establish a Sense of Urgency. Kotter International videos. http://vimeo.com/30523068 [Accessed 29th June 2013] ■ Kotter International Website, (2013) The 8-Step Process for Leading Change. http://www.kotterinternational.com/our-principles/changesteps/step-8 [Accessed 29th June 2013] ■ Kotter. J. and Rathgeber, H. (2005) Our Iceberg is Melting: Changing and succeeding under any conditions. Macmillan. ■ Leithwood K., Day C., Sammons P., Harris A. and Hopkins D. (2006) Seven Strong Claims about Successful School Leadership. National College for School Leadership and DES. ■ Miles, M.B. (1986) Research findings on the stages of school improvement. Mimeo. Center for Policy Research, New York ■ Mortimore, P. (2001) Globalisation, Effectiveness and Improvement. School Effectiveness and School Improvement: An International Journal of Research, Policy and Practice, 12:2, 229-249 ■ Mourshed, M.; Chijioke, C.; and Barber, M .(2010) How the world’s most improved school systems keep getting better. Summary. McKinsey & Company. ■ Tolstoy, L. (1869; 1969) War and Peace. Translated by Rosemary Edmonds. Penguin. ■ Uhl-Bien, M and Marion, R. (2009) Complexity Leadership in Bureaucratic Forms of Organizing: A Meso Model. The Leadership Quarterly 20:4 (August 2009), pages 631–650 ■ Uhl-Bien, M and Marion, R. and McKelvey, B. (2007) Complexity Leadership Theory: Shifting leadership from the industrial age to the knowledge era. The Leadership Quarterly 18:4 (August 2007), pages 298-318 ■ Wheatley, M (1993) Chaos and Complexity: What can science teach?

Organisational Development. Fall,1993. ■ Wheatley, M. with Frieze, D. (2011) Leadership in the Age of Complexity: From Hero to Host Resurgence Magazine, Winter, 2011.

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A concluding reflection

This article gives a clear account of the thinking about chaos and complexity and the implications for self-managing systems.

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Wheatley, M (1993) Chaos and Complexity: What can science teach? Organisational Development. Fall,1993

Developing leadership skills and capabilities for the future ■■■■■

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Developing leadership skills and capabilities for the future In this article Peter Earley reports the findings of a recently published national research report on current professional development of school leaders and the skills and capabilities they will need to develop in the future.

■■■ Introduction The recently published report by the National College on the school leadership landscape (Earley, et al, 2012) explores in detail how leaders are responding to the rapidly changing policy landscape in which they lead and manage their schools.

The research project consisted of four overlapping phases and collected a large amount of both quantitative and qualitative data from surveys, case studies, interviews and focus groups. As part of this project the leadership and professional development opportunities currently

52

Research

■■■ Professional development opportunities In each school, the headteacher, the chair of governors and two senior/middle leaders were asked to complete a separate questionnaire. A total of 1949 questionnaires were returned from 1006 schools (an overall response rate

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taken up by school leaders and the skills and capabilities they need to develop in the near future were considered.

It is this – and the future appeal of headship - that is the focus of this article.

of 27%). The response rate was higher for headteachers than for the other groups. The questionnaire survey asked whether they had undertaken any professional development (PD) activities specific to their leadership role within the last three years. Ninety per cent of headteachers had done so, which meant that one-in-ten had not undertaken any leadership development within the last three years.

Of these headteachers, the highest percentage (86%) participated in activities provided by their local authority. Given the rapid growth in academisation and the consequent effect on LA funding, it will be interesting to see how this will change over the next few years. The 2012 survey recorded that four-out-of-ten heads had stopped or intended to stop using services provided by their LA. However seven-out-of-ten heads reported that they were already or planned to collaborate with other schools to fund aspects of the Local Authority improvement service to ensure support and development were sustained.

When these data were further analysed in relation to phase, school type, Ofsted category and free school meal (FSM) eligibility, a number of statistically significant differences were found. For example, secondary school heads were also more likely to engage in commercial provision, whilst primary school heads were more likely to be involved in LA and other provision (e.g. chain, diocese). Heads of schools graded as ‘outstanding’ were more likely to have been involved in leadership programmes or courses (including those of the National College), mentoring and coaching (of others), and job shadowing.

Senior/middle leaders were also asked about their PD activity over the last three years. Only 82 per cent of senior/middle leaders (compared to 90% of headteachers) reported undertaking developmental activity. However, the range of development activities undertaken by senior/middle leaders were similar to those reported by headteachers.

The three most effective or beneficial PD activities on leaders’ own development are shown in Table 1.

They were reported to be LA provision, attending conferences and seminars, and leadership programmes or courses. Mentoring/coaching from others and

53

Developing leadership skills and capabilities for the future ■■■■■

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Table 1: Three most effective activities – heads and senior/middle leaders

Local authority provision

Heads

Senior

%

%

37

42

Leadership programmes or courses e.g. National College

36

41

Conferences/seminars

36

23

Mentoring/coaching from others (e.g. school leaders, consultants)

29

27

Networks (face to face and virtual)

24

19

Mentoring/coaching you have undertaken of other school leaders

19

12

Regular discussions (learning conversations) (face to face and virtual)

19

23

Collaborative activity (e.g. Teacher Learning Communities)

14

6

Performance management/360 degree feedback

13

29

12

6

10

7

University provision and/or university-led action research

5

6

Academic study/qualifications (e.g. Masters, Doctoral study)

4

9

N=

737

642

Other provision (e.g. chain, diocese) Other commercial provision (e.g. HEI, SSAT)

More than one answer could be put forward so percentages may sum to more than 100.

The percentages in this table are weighted by school type, size and FSM A filter question: all those who ticked ‘yes’ to undertaking professional development activity specific to their leadership role.

Source: NFER and IoE leadership survey for the National College, (Earley, et al, 2012)

networks, both face-to-face and virtual were also noted as beneficial developmental activities. However, the wide range in responses from both heads and senior/middle leaders suggests that no one PD activity was considered extremely beneficial.

There were also a number of statistically significant differences among respondents. Perhaps unsurprisingly, academy heads were least likely to make reference to LA provision. Primary heads were the most likely.

Secondary school heads were more likely than other heads to refer to ‘other commercial provision’ and ‘conferences and seminars’ as among their three most effective PD activities.

■■■ Skills and qualities to be developed Headteachers and senior/middle leaders were asked to reflect on the leadership skills and qualities they most needed to develop over the next 18 months and these are listed in Table 2.

For headteachers, future development needs often reflected what they had identified as their most significant leadership challenges. Resulting development needs included ‘strategies for closing attainment gaps’ (49%) – perhaps unsurprising given the current focus on the Pupil Premium - ‘developing future leaders or succession planning’ (46%), ‘leading curriculum change and innovation’ (46%), ‘modelling excellence in the leadership of teaching and learning’ (37%) and ‘forming partnerships with schools and agencies to improve outcomes’ (37%).

Further statistical analysis revealed a number of significant differences. Perhaps unsurprisingly, headteachers from schools graded ‘outstanding’ and those with the lowest proportion of FSM eligible pupils were less likely to refer to ‘strategies for closing attainment gaps’ and to ‘engaging with parents and the local community’ as a development need. Heads of ‘outstanding’ and ‘good’ schools were also least likely

54

Research

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Table 2: Leadership skills and qualities most needed over next 18 months

Head % 49

SL/ML % 52

46

46

Modelling excellence in the leadership of teaching and learning

37

41

Forming partnerships with schools and agencies to improve outcomes

37

33

Implementing change and improvement successfully

33

38

Strategic thinking and scanning to anticipate trends and political agendas

29

36

Marketing your school

Strategies for closing attainment gaps Leading curriculum change and innovation

28

23

Developing an entrepreneurial ethos within your school leadership

28

21

Analysing and interpreting student data and information

26

40

Developing personal resilience

25

24

Knowing your legal responsibilities as a school leader

24

34

Developing a learning culture and organisation community

22

13

Using learning theories and pedagogies to influence teaching

22

22

Engaging and building effective relations with parents and the community

19

20

Strategies for leading professional development

13

21

Adapting your leadership style to the school’s culture and needs

12

17

Developing effective project management skills

9

13

4

9

Developing interpersonal skills

N= 833 769 More than one answer could be put forward so percentages may sum to more than 100.

The percentages in this table are weighted by school type and FSM A filter question: all those who ticked ‘yes’ to undertaking professional development activity specific to their leadership role.

Source: NFER and IoE leadership survey for the National College (Earley, et al, 2012)

to refer to ‘modelling excellence in the leadership of teaching and learning’ and ‘marketing your school’.

Heads of ‘outstanding’ schools however, as well as those from special schools, were more likely than others to refer to ‘providing services or support to other schools or organisations’ as a skill that required future development.

Primary school heads were most likely to refer to ‘developing personal resilience’, to ‘strategies for leading professional development’ and to ‘purchasing services from a range of suppliers’. Head of special schools and PRUs were most likely to refer to ‘analysing and interpreting student data and information’, ‘implementing change and improvement successfully’ and ‘developing future leaders and succession planning’.

Interestingly, heads from schools with the highest percentage of FSMs were least likely to refer to ‘strategic thinking and scanning to anticipate trends’.

There was a range of responses from senior/middle leaders but no particular activity was dominant. The most common response related to ‘leading curriculum change and innovation’ (46%), followed by ‘modelling excellence in the leadership of teaching and learning’ (41%). While there were significant overlaps between headteachers and senior/middle leaders, each relates mainly to its own domain or professional area. For the latter, there was a stronger emphasis, for example, on teaching, learning and pupil outcomes, who typically have a more direct role within these than headteachers.

55

Developing leadership skills and capabilities for the future ■■■■■

During the research, case study participants and interviewees often reflected on leadership succession challenges and the unwillingness of staff to take on senior leadership and headship roles. Although this was not always the case in their own schools, many heads noted that this was often found across their wider networks. Staff were reported to be ‘turned off’ by increasing expectations and high levels of accountability where headteachers were deemed to be only as good as their last inspection report and hence felt they were subject to dismissal as the ‘buck stopped with them’.

This was especially the case in challenging schools where the pressures to succeed and to succeed rapidly were said to be putting off talented people from applying (Lightman, 2013).

There were exceptions however and some heads reported ‘no concerns at all’ about the future of leadership and on the calibre of staff recruited through accelerated routes such as Teach First and Future

Leaders. Case study headteachers commonly reported building succession planning into their way of working with a general preference for ‘growing their own’ (see case study below and NCSL, 2007). This often began at recruitment, with time invested to select highquality teachers with leadership potential and by asking about leadership ambitions at interview. Performance management was also used - ‘we always ask staff where they want to be in five years’ - and aspirations identified through performance reviews were commonly said to supported through development opportunities.

Examples noted in the report included:

.......................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

■■■ The future appeal of headship

■ Providing opportunities to take responsibility within

the school, for example through bursaries, rotating subject coordination and/or giving responsibility for leading curriculum initiatives.

■ Staff working alongside or to support other schools, in leadership roles or as an AST, with the new SLE role being mentioned in some cases;

56

Research

■ ■ ■ ■

providers, such as National College programmes or local variants of these; Courses provided by other national training networks; Visiting other schools to see good practice; Providing an accreditation route for support staff, to provide a ladder of opportunity; Opportunities to gain Masters awards e.g. schoolbased programmes delivered by HEIs. (Earley, et al, 2012, p.106)

Given recent policy developments some heads were concerned about the continuing appeal of school leadership. They were usually of the view that headship was the best job in education but were less certain about its future direction. Some were no longer sure it was ‘a work of passion’ or as appealing as before. For others the role had become increasingly like a CEO and that ‘that’s not what I went into leadership to do’. Federations and chains were also commonly seen to be taking over the role of the local authority, a development not all welcomed and which had implications for the sources of support and development available to schools.

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■ Leadership courses provided through external

Case Study: Continuing development of leadership skills and capabilities A special school serving children with severe and profound learning difficulties and/or physical difficulties across the 3 to 19 age range emerged as outstanding in its most recent Ofsted inspection (2011). Of significance, is the progress that children make throughout each key stage of their schooling here. The current headteacher has been a serving headteacher for 32 years and has a track record in teaching excellence and has regularly published work on teaching in his specialist area. He regards the whole workforce as key to the school’s success, with frontline reception staff for example, fundamental to strong relationships and communications with parents and a raft of agencies who engage with the school.

The school grows its own talent via graduate teacher training and newly qualified teacher entry points.

The school also offers initial teacher training placements. As a teaching school, there is an established relationship with local HEIs and they have collaborated to develop a deeper SEN offer for initial teacher trainees, including the majority who go on to engage with SEN in mainstream settings.

Across the staff there is a commitment to grounding leadership and learning in the needs of students.

The headteacher in particular identified the School Improvement Partner, Chair of Governors and external consultants as key sources of advice and challenge in grounding the school’s efforts in this direction. Other staff also express commitment to development through a variety of means including contact with external consultants who offer support relevant to their context in areas such as coaching and mentoring; in-house support from the AST in the form of modelling and trialling methods as well as the use of performance management and target setting. Rolling observations, review of teaching and learning policy, engagement with specialist agencies that frequently come into school and reading were further ways in which professional learning and leadership of learning were enhanced within the school. Short courses in areas such as neuroscience, payment by results and models for change were consistently sought out to prepare staff to better meet the needs of learners and to also prepare staff for important external developments such as marketisation. The inclusion of industry figures on the governing body had been key to maintaining a high level of ambitious bidding and fundraising, financial competence and effective financial management. The small SEN advisory team was also viewed as an important area of support in terms of wider policy awareness and curriculum change.

(Earley, et al, 2012, p.107)

57

Developing leadership skills and capabilities for the future ■■■■■

These are interesting times to be a school leader! Many headteachers predicted they would be using a wider range of providers in 18 months’ time including providers that few schools currently use or consider important. These included commercial organisations, National Leaders of Education and Teaching Schools. This suggests not only greater diversity in support but also uncertainty as schools anticipated moving away from the known and the well used. This uncertainty can be coupled with vulnerability – how vulnerable school leaders feel, particularly in relation to the new Ofsted framework which now presents challenges at all levels. This has become a major factor – something recently noted by

.......................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

■■■ Conclusion

the president of one of the headteacher associations (Lightman, 2013).

Education continues to go through a period of considerable change; experience and evidence sug gests that over the last decade or so this is a permanent state of affairs (Earley, 2013). The National College at a recent high level seminar put it like this:

Some leaders are fearful and feel exposed; some aspirant leaders are rethinking whether to go for leadership now. But for others, this is an exciting time; they are optimistic about the future and have a growing sense of confidence in their own ability to take charge. Greater accountability is now on the agenda but there is more emphasis on this accountability being assumed collectively (NC, 2013, p.5).

Leaders can never be fully prepared to face an uncertain future but it is interesting to consider what leaders themselves perceive to be the areas of development and how there development needs might be met.

Professor Peter Earley London Centre for Leadership in Learning Institute of Education, University of London p.earley@ioe.ac.uk

References: Earley, P (forthcoming, 2013) Exploring the School Leadership Landscape: Changing demands, changing realities, London: Bloomsbury. ■ Earley, P., Higham, R., Allen, R., Allen, T., Howson, J., Nelson, R., Rawar, S., Lynch, S., Morton, L., Mehta, P. and Sims, D. (2012) Review of the School Leadership Landscape, Nottingham: National College for School Leadership. ■ Lightman, B. (2013) ACSL annual conference speech. http://www.ascl.org.uk/events/documents/Brian-Lightman. Accessed online at www.ascl.org.uk, 22.03.13. ■ National College for School Leadership (2013) School leadership for a self-improving system, Nottingham: National College for School Leadership. ■ National College for School Leadership (2007) Greenhouse schools: lessons from schools that grow their own leaders, Nottingham, National College for School Leadership.

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Start them thinking!

BE

STS

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Marcelo Staricoff and Alan Rees Suitable for KS1-2 ÂŁ22.99 Make an immediate difference to teaching and learning in your school. Start Thinking will bring enjoyment, creativity and challenge to your classroom and improve the thinking skills of your pupils.

Inspiring education often grows from simple routines. When teachers at Westbury Park School in Bristol wanted to challenge their pupils to think, enquire and reach beyond standard expectations, they introduced daily thinking-skills starters. These mini-challenges had built-in requirements for pupils to exercise their minds through essential thinking processes such as questioning, comparing, prioritizing, recognising patterns and thinking methodically. The teachers were amazed at how much children enjoyed the starters and benefited from them. Some children turned starters into projects lasting months – all completed in their own time. Children seemed to grow in confidence, persistence and enthusiasm for learning.

Start Thinking Daily starters to inspire thinking in primary classrooms

Start Thinking collects more than 90 thinking-skills starters, tried and tested by teachers at Westbury Park School. The starters are arranged into chapters on Words, Numbers, Science, Creativity and Philosophy so you can easily choose the most appropriate challenges for your pupils.

Detailed guidance notes are provided.

What questions can you think of that do not have an answer, or that have more than one answer?

If you could grant the world five wishes, what would they be?

What are the similarities and differences between blood and ketchup?

Order Hotline: 0121 224 7599 or visit www.thinkingonlinecatalogue.co.uk

ER

Professional learning leaving its mark! ■■■■■

Jane Jones recalls a professional and leadership development experience which was

woven into the daily life of the school and has influenced her approach to leadership and

teaching ever since.

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Professional learning leaving its mark!

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Reference

■■■ A story of embedded leadership and development Once upon a time, I taught in a secondary school led by an extraordinarily visionary Head. Although she acceded to all requests for outside courses and study that were reasonable and justifiable (‘Sometimes it’s a good idea to get a breath of fresh air’), she was of the view that rich teacher learning could and should be embedded continuously in the fabric of the aims, structures and practices of the school. In this school, leadership was very visible not only in the school infrastructure of posts of assigned leadership and accountability (a large Senior Leadership team, middle leaders, coordinators and assistant coordinators) but with an expectation of all staff to demonstrate aspects of leadership in their

.......................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

T

here are some life-changing experiences that have profound influence on our learning and the development of our professional selves. In terms of my professional development, the learning that has had the most impact on my professional development has been what I would now call, on reflection, job-embedded professional development. The experiences that I shall describe changed my outlook and attitude towards teacher learning as well as giving me confidence to develop my leadership skills. These experiences have framed my approach to the way I support colleagues in a variety of contexts in their learning. The outcome has thus resulted in a sustainable and transferable practice.

Although professional development concerns principally the individuals engaging in the learning experiences, Earley and Porritt are of the view that the ultimate goal of professional development ‘is the change effected in the thinking and the practice of our colleagues so that change improves the experience and learning for pupils’ (2009:139). It then follows, if we accept that teachers and their practices are the most influential elements in enhancing student outcomes, that professional development may be the ultimate determinant of the quality of student learning. It is useful sometimes to make this link very explicit.

areas of responsibility in their classrooms. The strategies employed were varied and could be personalised to individual teacher/group need. I will look at three such strategies in this article, ‘task forces’, ‘two by two’ and ‘show and tell’.

Research task forces

There were frequent task –force opportunities open to all staff to opt in to a short or medium term investigation and take the lead on a variety of topics. The purpose was to give a group of individuals who were interested the chance to explore a situation in need of some change or improvement and to come up with some proposed solutions. These would be presented in a paper to be presented to the whole staff and also to the governors when the work of the task force was completed. High stakes gave high profile. This was a hugely confidencebuilding mechanism for colleagues. In other words, there were ample opportunities for leadership. This was seen as a way to provide leadership learning for those interested in taking on a more senior role but, crucially, as way to increase leadership density across the whole school in a very practical way. Teachers could opt in according to interest although, it needs to be said, that sometimes a gentle nudge was needed to encourage colleagues, less willing to go forward.

On various occasions, for example, assessment was a topic, as was literacy, differentiation, and provision for more able pupils. Indeed any new government or school initiative was given task force scrutiny and was researched- and that is why I would prefer such groups to be called ‘research groups’, reflecting more the teacher inquiry dimension rather than connotations of a naval expedition. The group was more self-regulatory and more research-focused than a more traditional working party and was supported with a modest time allocation and a budget.

The “Noah” experience!

Innovatively, we all thought, bespoke leadership training was created between local schools and a University department of Education and all staff beyond a certain

61

Professional learning leaving its mark! ■■■■■

thinking. The Head had a rule that any staff undertaking professional development would as a matter of course disseminate a short paper to colleagues and make a brief presentation to them with some concrete proposals. The bar was set very high for not only one’s own learning but for supporting the learning of others and contributing to whole school learning.

Show and tell

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basis level attended leadership training in pairs, one being a more senior member of staff. The less senior colleagues were made to feel very important and valued and we all went ‘two by two’ into the ark of professional development that was focused on not just general issues but issues relating to our own school and roles. The professional development was thus contextually jobembedded. The pairing comprised quite a sophisticated combination of cross- mentoring and collaborative learning. The luxury of two days to learn with each other (and in plenary- sharing with other pairings) was invaluable. The course tutor took on the role of critical friend to challenge any ‘woolly’ or overly inward

There were also many opportunities for teachers to ‘show and tell’ about their work (why should primary school pupils have all the fun?) and staff meetings always had a professional development dimension. The Head who was very much a ‘learning by walking around the school’ leader, trawled through her observations and invited colleagues to ‘show and tell’ practices she had seen. Colleagues were also asked to self-nominate or put forward the work of a peer. It was a little like developing Assessment for Learning (AfL) in the classroom (which we did, very early in its emergent state) in identifying practice that works and encouraging teachers to explain

why it worked and under what conditions to their peers.

As with AfL, a culture of trust was essential as was constructive feedback.

Groups of teachers enjoyed one off lessons from their peers as ‘show and tell’ and on other occasions, poster presentations from colleagues were a way of speaking about our work to colleagues. In this respect,

62

Reference

■■■ A culture of development In conclusion, the professional development approach described represents a shift towards collaboration, connectedness and community and away from atomised professional development that can be rather isolationist and/or unconnected. Effective professional development is described by Darling-Hammond and her colleagues in a report on effective professional learning thus: ‘intensive, ongoing, and connected to practice; focuses on the teaching and learning of specific academic content; is connected to other school initiatives and builds strong working relationships among teachers’ (2009) The report indicates how such effective professional development has a greater probability of influencing teaching practices and enhancing student learning than other modes of professional development. The perennial lack of time issue needs to be addressed given that the potential

.......................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

even appraisal that would not be acceptable for many as a form of professional development was useful learning, involving mutual peer observation and a learning conversation. All teachers were observed and senior staff were observed not just by peers but by a trio of less experienced colleagues. The Head herself enjoyed teaching a lesson or two (teachers and pupils thought this was excellent) and names had to go in a hat for the opportunity to observe the Head teach such was the popularity of this offer. She also permitted two older pupils to join the formal observation. Being lucky once in the lottery for such a ticket, I recall the Head’s teaching as a no-nonsense, humorous and kindly approach to teaching. It was the only time I enjoyed appraisal, learnt from it and found that commitments agreed for further CPD were met.

value of collaborative job-embedded professional development on school/classroom culture and on teacher practice is substantial.

What I have described may sound like Utopia but this is not the case. Instead, the strategy in the school being highlighted in this article was to create a culture of learning and professional development that was woven into the daily life of the school, a culture that was creative with its use of time and opportunistic in seizing the moment to go with the flow; as one does in a good lesson. It seems to me that such a strategy is well within the scope of possibility for schools as part of their CPD design in providing a range of similar opportunities and ICT has opened up a new world of sharing such as online teach-meets, pedagoo days on Twitter and the like. There is essentially nothing particularly new or revolutionary about what is being suggested. What I am emphasising here are the benefits of making CPD personalised, collaborative and totally inclusive and in providing continuous differentiated leadership learning, and embedded professional development opportunities in which the teachers have a real stake.

The professional learning I have described was a rare but powerful experience. It has of s left me with a legacy of aiming to do similar things with colleagues. My first thought in any context of teacher learning always focuses on negotiating a leadership learning opportunity, and of ‘pairing and sharing’. I practise this fervently in all my classes at all levels where I teach. Interestingly, in the networking I undertake in my work, I frequently come across colleagues from ‘the same stable’ who cite the same memorable learning and its enduring impact on them. We scarcely remember any other professional development.

References: Darling-Hammond, L., Wei, R. C., Andree, A., Richardson, N. and Orphanos, S. (2009) ■ Professional Learning in the Learning Profession: A Status Report on Teacher Development in the United States and Abroad. Stanford University: National Staff Development Council and The School Redesign Network. ■ Earley, P. and Porritt, V. (eds.) (2009). Effective Practices in Continuing Professional Development: Lessons from Schools. London: Institute of Education, University of London.

63

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Reference

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NEET prevention: reading the signs to keep students on track Practitioners have a crucial role to play in preventing young people from disengaging from education. Tami McCrone introduces a new checklist of indicators and an evidenced-based CPD toolkit developed by the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER).

I

recently had the immense satisfaction of seeing our report on a checklist of indicators to identify the reasons why young people are at risk of disengagement published online. The research team have worked hard on this and are rightly proud of their achievement.

However, what is the point of yet another educational research report? As researchers, our satisfaction at the fruit of our labours is short-lived – and the report of our findings is of limited use – unless we enable

practitioners (and policy makers) to engage with it. NFER wants the evidence we collect to make a difference. We care that too many young people leave the education system and end up not in education, employment or training (NEET). To this end we are not content with just producing a report; we want to use its findings to provide valuable resources to education professionals to develop their skills and understanding in this difficult area. So alongside the report, we are making available:

65

NEET prevention: reading the signs to keep students on track ■■■■■

practitioners to consider when trying to understand the reasons why a young person appears to be disengaging from learning (see Box 1: Checklist of indicators for practitioners). This would add to data provided by the local authority and will help to inform conversations with other agencies about possible interventions.

And later this year we are producing: ■ A tool to contribute to staff continuing professional

development (CPD) INSET days to ensure an awareness of potential factors amongst all staff.

This would provide consistency for school-based identification of young people at risk of becoming NEET. ■ A discussion aid for teachers (with either their form or careers hats on) or support staff such as learning mentors to use with young people – in order to facilitate conversation and young people’s self-awareness.

Many of our research participants from schools and local authorities were enthusiastic about the checklist.

Comments included: ‘The checklist would be a great tool to complete with all pupils at the start of Year 9 to support early intervention’.

‘It’s this sort of thing [the checklist] that triggers somebody to put in the correct intervention or initiate an action’.

So we believe that by creating accessible, practical tools, based on a solid evidence base, we can help practitioners to do what they want to do: support young people to enjoy learning.

Our interest in this area stems from our belief that many young people at risk of disengaging (but who do not face multiple and /or complex barriers) should never become NEET in the first place. If we can help more of these young people to stay engaged in learning,

.......................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

■ A checklist of indicators to act as a prompt for

then there would be more resources to support those with complex barriers.

Although we live in challenging economic times, we think that if the actual reasons why a young person is disengaging (and this can start as early as Year 7 or before) can be understood; then the appropriate support can be put in place to keep them engaged; and therefore they would never become NEET. It might be that a young person lacks self-esteem or confidence or ‘stickability’ and that mentoring or mental-resilience building might enable them to reengage. Or it might be that studying a Level 2 hair and beauty course at key stage 4 alongside maths and English GCSEs might help a young person to see the point of these subjects as they apply the skills they learn to their chosen vocational area. Or it might be that by having part-ownership of a school’s careers guidance strategy and mentoring fellow students in the academic year below, might help to empower another young person to find direction in life.

Whichever is the right intervention for a particular young person, we hope that the evidence-based tools that we will make freely available to all schools and local authorities, will have a direct positive impact on many thousands of young people.

We are keen to capture further comments from practitioners before further refinng the indicators checklist for use at the beginning of the new academic year in September. So let us know what you think, by emailing your feedback to: Tami McCrone (t.mccrone@ nfer.ac.uk) or Clare Southcott( c.southcott@nfer. ac.uk).

The full report, Indicators to identify the disengaged can be found at http://www.nfer.ac.uk/publications/ INDS01 To find out more you can also read our earlier report: Engaging the disengaged, http://www.nfer. ac.uk/publications/ETDE01 Tami McCrone is Research Director at the National Foundation for Educational Research.

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Reference

Box 1: Checklist of indicators for practitioners

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NFER checklist of indicators for identifying the reasons why young people may disengage Theme 1: Factors associated with structure/environment ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■

Gender Ethnicity Eligibility for free school meals (FSM) Traveller Asylum seeker/refugee Geographical location (e.g. rural/urban) Local unemployment rate/deprivation indices

Theme 2: Factors associated with level of attainment /educational needs ■ ■ ■ ■ ■

Attainment at Key Stage 1 &/or 2 Attainment at Key Stage 3 &/or 4 Attendance and exclusion rates English as an additional language (EAL) Special educational needs (SEN)

Theme 3: Factors associated with local education services ■ ■ ■ ■

Does not have access to and/or cannot afford transport Does not have access to quality local 16-19 provision Does not have access to a range of appropriate courses for 16-19 year olds Does not have access to independent and impartial careers information, advice and guidance (IAG)

Theme 4: Factors associated with personal/family circumstances ■ Has social care involvement (e.g. is classed as a looked-after child (LAC), has a common assessment ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■

framework (CAF) or is a young carer on a child protection plan) Has been referred to other professional agencies Has suffered poor family relationships/breakup Has unemployed parents Has parents in prison Does not have a positive role model in the family Lives amongst domestic violence Appears to be living in poverty or shows signs of deprivation Has suffered a bereavement

67

NEET prevention: reading the signs to keep students on track ■■■■■ Has medical condition(s) which impact on school life Has misused or is misusing drugs and/or alcohol Is a teenage parent/pregnant Is a young offender Has moved schools Has difficult social relationships (e.g. gang culture or peer pressure) .......................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■

Theme 5: Factors associated with attitude/aspirations ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■

Has a lack of involvement in school activities, clubs, enrichment and work experience opportunities Has a lack of active and supportive parental involvement Is not participating in lessons Has low confidence and self-esteem Is unhappy at school Lacks mental resilience Lacks ‘stickability’ to a task Does not understand how important work is considered to be Has a lack of engagement with careers advice or interest in post-16 opportunities Has low, unrealistic or no aspirations Lacks direction

Theme 6: Factors associated with progression routes ■ Does not understand own strengths and weaknesses and how that informs progression ■ Does not understand progression routes ■ Is not satisfied with available progression routes

everychild

Journal

Making the Every Child Matters agenda work on the ground

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By subscribing to this e-Journal you will receive: ■ Advice on recognising learning, care and physical problems and conditions ■ Evidence of effective interventions ■ Co-operative good practice between agencies ■ Legal advice on such things as information sharing and safeguarding ■ Research that can help professionals support individual children at risk ■ Monthly email briefings on policy, research reports and practice developments

Recent Every Child Journal articles have included: ■ Taking on bullying from within ■ Operation safer schools ■ The well-being index ■ New kids on the block Up and coming: ■ The Reading Recovery revolution ■ Getting boys reading ■ Protecting the ethical basis of education ■ The cost of caring

To subscribe to Every Child Journal: Call the Subscriptions Orderline 0121 224 7578 or email sandie@imaginativeminds.co.uk 68 Subscribe online at: www.teachingtimes.com/publications/every-child-journal_1.htm

THINK LIKE A LEARNER!

Carol Dweck and Bob Burden (Myself As a Learner Scale) have shown how important children’s self-concept as learners is to their performance – no matter what their natural ability. Children’s ability to reflect on their own thinking -metacognition- is now recognised as critical to children becoming resilient and successful learners.

A new practical guidebook to help children acquire the language, skills and self-awareness of successful learners.

This book achieves both goals: it asks children to involve themselves in key questions about learning and develops their self-awareness as self-critical thinkers and learners. It asks: • • • •

How do we think and talk about learning?

What is ‘bouncebackability’ and how do you get it?

How can we make sure our team learning is high quality?

How does making choices help us to become more responsible for our own learning?

Ofsted has observed how children ‘really enjoyed learning’ in a school using the guide-book.

Hundreds of schools and thousands of children have used the questions and ideas from the ‘Think Like a Learner’ approach and the authors, Diana Pardoe and Tom Robson have now turned them into a workbook for children aged 8-12.

Comments from children: • •

•

•

We now work harder It’s good to be in the challenge zone and get out of the comfort zone We understand we need to co-operate and know how to do it We understand that learning is our

responsibility and that we have got to take part

Comments from Primary teachers: • The children are becoming more divergent thinkers • They are more in control of their learning. They recognise what makes them successful learners and THEY have the responsibility for learning.

• When faced with difficult tasks the children are more prepared to have a go and to take a risk • Improved communication skills • Raised self-esteem

Learning is an exciting journey The more we understand about it the more exciting it gets The better we get at thinking the more we enjoy taking on a challenge The harder we try the prouder we feel

To order call: 0121 224 7599 or Fax orders: 0121 224 7598

Testimonials

About the Authors: Tom Robson

‘Thank you, thank you, thank you.

This has been enlightening, thought provoking, full of useful ideas, reinforcing motivation and stimulating enthusiasm. Fantastic professional development for someone who has been teaching for 22 years!’

Tom has a passion for teaching and an ambition to help all children and adults see learning as something that can enhance their lives and bring great pleasure.

He has taught in all phases (FS 2 to post-graduate institutions) worked all over the world giving advice to schools as far as China, Malaysia, Thailand and the United States. His experience ranges from being an NPQH trainer, OFSTED inspector, helping set up new schools, Headteacher mentor and appraiser, Senior Local Authority Adviser.

Tom’s great interest is in the science of learning and the impact neurotransmitters have on our capacity to learn. He works in schools all over the UK helping them understand the impact of the science of learning on the quality of teaching and learning.

Diana Pardoe Diana is passionate about learning and believes that every child should be enabled to experience personal learning success. Following her role as Deputy Head teacher in a large primary school in Bristol, she worked for several years for Bristol LA leading many courses and projects focused on the development of effective Assessment for Learning. She then spent five years as a learning coach with the Excellence in Cities Action Zone in South Bristol where she did the initial research which led to the publication of her book ‘Towards Successful Learning’ (2nd edition published 2009). Diana has taught all ages from Foundation Stage to Key Stage 4. She is now an independent education consultant and trainer and continues to teach learners of all ages as this is where she continues to develop her own understanding about learning!

‘Fantastic! ...it has had a huge impact on my practise and outlook. I’m now smiling more!

Somerset Project

Plymouth Project

‘As a staff we have grown ‘Pupils really enjoy their greatly from your input learning in this good school. and the focus has shifted Their increasing understanding of from teaching to learning. how to be a succesful learner is You have been inspiring helping them to make the best of and motivational to both their lessons. As one pupil said ‘I teachers and TAs.’ don’t mind if I get anything wrong because I learn from my mistakes.’

Deputy Headteacher Somerset Junior Isle of Wight Ofsted report

Available from September 2013 Pre-order now!

Think Like a Learner - Single Copy Think Like a Learner - Pack of 10 Buy 100 get 10 free Myself as a Learner Scale Order now before 31st July 2013 and get Free Postage and Packing!

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Are your children ready to read?

Sandwell Phonological Awareness Readiness for Reading Kit

A brilliant new assessment tool for children’s early phonological awareness from the developers of the Sandwell Early Numeracy Test-R

How many of the underlying skills for reading do your children have? … If children are impaired they will struggle and their reading progress will be adversely affected.

P

honics is the main way of teaching reading to Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 children, and the first starting point is how phonologically aware children are. For those children struggling with reading in Year 1 and Year 2, the SPARRK assessment tool will pinpoint where children are having problems and where and why they are not identifying the sounds in words adequately.

Ideal for Year 1 Screening Test

If SPARRK is delivered to children in reception for the Year 1 Phonics Screening test, any problems these children may have with phonological awareness will be spotted and schools can start putting in intervention. If not, poor phonological awareness will undoubtedly manifest itself in difficulties in reading in Year 1 and 2.

There are no other tests that assess phonological awareness for young children. SPARRK checks if children have got some of the basic concepts required to be phonologically aware, like long and short in long and short sounds and the assessment is totally picture-based so very child-friendly.

The SPARRK works by asking children to listen as you are saying sounds… it is oral and aural skills that are assessed, so it’s not written at all.

What is SPARRK? Manual – Covering background research, how to use the kit, scoring, signposts to intervention activities, how to record data.

Price: £150.00 + vat

Assessment – Covers seven assessment sections, which appear in the order it is expected skills would be acquired: Concepts, Syllables, Rhyme, Beginnings, Ends, Middles, Blending and Segmenting.

Where Next? – Activities book signposting to commercially available material and SPARRK branded games and activities.

CD – Containing record sheets, e-copy of Where Next?, ready to make SPARRK games and activities, Excel data recording spreadsheet and instructions.

Sample game – 16 Syllable Jigsaws ready to use.

All contained in a durable canvas book bag

SPARRK was trialled extensively in Sandwell with individual children for over two years and was found to be very efficient in both identifying early which children have problems, but also responding to them. It could also work very well as a screening tool for a whole class.

Why use SPARRK? •

Use SPARRK in reception and know which children or classes have phonological awareness problems and how to remediate them By the time children have the Year 1 screening test they would have been brought up to speed Children with reading problems after the test are likely to have a phonological awareness deficit at the heart of the problem. SPARRK will identify which areas they are having problems with and where to attack SPARRK identifies whether a child has acquired the concepts associated with phonological awareness Determines the level of complexity needed for teaching Separates areas that are firmly established versus those beginning to evolve Focuses upon specific areas of phonological awareness which may be of concern Can be used with children with a wide range of developmental conditions Developed in line with peer reviewed research and the recommendations of the Rose review for high quality phonics work

• •

• • • • • •

The test proved to be a useful tool in identifying specific skills where individuals need more work.

Showed me how children could be grouped for extra help.

Staff have been impressed with the elements of phonic skills that this assessment has pinpointed for the child to work on.

The assessment has identified a weak area.

Where Next? provides a good selection of materials and activities to use with pupils.

Helpful in targeting needs.

The pupil enjoyed the attention and displayed more skills than are apparent in class.

Following trials teachers said...

Pupils maintained interest and engagement in activities.

It identified weaknesses in areas we thought we’d covered.

This helped us to develop a programme for a new IEP at the next review.

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