Now I'll be writing about my work as a teacher and educational researcher here!
I was lucky enough to be asked to contribute a chapter to a book being published on teaching assistants in international schools. My chapter focused on how TAs can support the teaching and learning of students with English as an additional language (EAL) in an international classroom. It outlined three main areas of support - supporting teaching and learning by providing cultural and linguistic bridges; supporting teaching and learning through classroom activities and practices; supporting teaching and learning through home-school communication - and identified potential barriers that might need to be addressed to facilitate such support. What do the highest ranking countries in the world in terms of education results (in international testing) have to teach systems looking to improve. Although the success of all these systems are highly dependent on a wide range of contextual factors that can't be ignored, this makes an interesting list, including:
inter-school collaboration; more teacher preparation time (less instructional time); strong parental and community involvement; greater investment of public funds; cap on class sizes; regular school breaks; strong collaborative practices in school between all members; I've just finished this interesting and informative book. Originally drawn to it by the recommendation by Roy Blatchford (National Education Trust) on the back and a desire to become more informed on the debate about the current education policy debate, I found the book both one-sided yet incredibly informative. While Benn makes no effort to conceal her partisan views, she does a great job of summarising the development of education since the second world war, and her passion and involvement in the subject helps overcome the tendency at moments to flit lightly between half-referenced evidence.By the end of the book I found myself better informed about the history of education policy in England since WWII, which, from all governments, was piecemeal and hampered by old ideas and institutions, meaning that truly comprehensive education never really took off (not like health care) and, as a result, what exists today is, as written by Andy Beckett in his review of the book for the Guardian 'a perplexing place: both inspiring and depressing, public and private, egalitarian and elitist, selective and non-selective, secular and religious, multicultural and monocultural, centralised and anarchic, politicised and above politics, under-funded and lavish, worn-out and gleaming.' I had thought about the pros and cons of all types of school systems both in England and abroad (American Charter School, Swedish Free Schools, Finnish comprehensive education, Canadian Public schools) and ideals and ideas at play in current movements in the UK. The final chapter left me with most to think about, as Benn reeled off changes and beliefs that rung so true with my own beliefs and experiences of being a teacher and educator; namely, that education should 'not confirm a given truth, or generate a set of IQ-related numbers, but encourage the constant recreation of self though imagination and knowledge and effort' and that this needed to be done not through increasing selection, reducing local authority oversight, increasing central government control, misdirecting funding and bringing in private businesses to run schools (current policies and practices) all of which will further segment and confuse provision in terms of quality, but by creating a genuinely comprehensive education system in which all children have equal access to equally good schooling, with additional resources being streamed to areas of greater need (socially and economically deprived areas). Finally, she proposes three reforms that she thinks would make a huge difference to England's education system, and which I so wholeheartedly support.
Very thought provoking. When I ask myself what one thing would I most like to change in the next year at my school, I know the answer would be our school culture, which I want to be more professional, with greater levels of trust, collaboration and commitment. However, that is a big issue, with a lot of variables, especially in the context of conducting small-scale research such as that required for my dissertation. So I am in the process of trying to break that down a little.
What can I, as a leader, do to build a school community which has a shared sense of responsibility, actions and accountability for student learning? From an researcher's perspective, I am acknowledging that my research is driven by my belief that a school's primary purpose of should be to work towards ensuring high level of learning for all students and that this is most likely to be achieved in a culture of collaboration, creativity and reflection. Firstly, the school community consists of several sub-sets: teachers, TAs, administrative staff, parents and students. This may be too big a group to work with - would it be better to look at one sub-set with the aim of establishing practices that could be extended to (or naturally permeate out to) other sub-sets? So, I might narrow things down a little, by asking: How can I, as a leader at the school, encourage commitment, participation and shared accountability for student learning in our teaching community? Literature review: Building learning cultures; the role of leaders in developing commitment, participation (collaboration?) and shared accountability; effect of leaders on collective teacher efficacy/ teacher commitment; building shared accountability for learning in schools; facilitating sharing; strengthening teacher commitment, etc. Possible action research questions: What can I do to create a shared set of assumptions and norms? What school practices can I develop to establish teacher commitment to student learning? How will establishing a set of shared norms and assumptions affect teacher commitment to and accountability for student learning? How will the establishment of small teaching groups that meet regularly to discuss learner needs, lead to a collective commitment to/ understanding of the school's purpose and school learner needs? How will working collaboratively as a staff group affect shared accountability for student learning? Suggested actions: 1. establish PLC in order to
Early days, but I think it can be summarised as: I’m trying to find out how strengthening our capacity to work together, as a teaching community, to identify and analyse student learning needs, can improve our school practices and therefore student learning. I’m also reflecting on my role as a leader of that process and how I can improve my own practice. What I hope to achieve is school wide systems and structures that support collective decision-making and shared accountability for student learning; a strong sense of commitment to our schoolwide learning goals; and effective leadership practices to establish and maintain those Important areas to develop my thinking about:
I'm in the process of trying to decide what the focus of my research will be for my dissertation. I know that I want to look at the role of leadership in developing a learning-centred school but I haven't yet decided what exactly I will look at as it is a large topic.
Today I have been reading some examples of action research studies, as I am keen to make my dissertation an action research piece (my last three research papers have been case studies, which while illuminative, and usually lead to improved practiced, are often then left without the follow up I would like to give them, especially when the structure of the Masters means as soon as I finish one paper, I am moving onto the next topic of research). Action research would give me the opportunity, while writing my dissertation to follow through on the cycle of taking action, evaluating and taking further action. Today I came across a study by a deputy headteacher(Moyra) who had researched her management of staff professional development, who realised, at the end of the first year, that she had provided a top down model of provision of professional development over which the teachers had felt no ownership. This had been the opposite of what she'd intended and completely contrary to what she believes in. SHe has wanted the teachers to be engaged in open-access, self-identified professional development. This rang some bells. More often than I'd like, I find the outcomes not quite matching up to what I'd intended. Take for example, what I've done this year, in terms of professional development at the school, the management of which is my responsibility. I believe passionately in ongoing professional development - a teacher must first be a learner and building your skills of reflection and evaluation and learning from others is key to improving practice, as well as important personal skills I think everyone should strive for. At the start of this school year, I embedded monthly training sessions for teachers into the school calendar. The purpose of this was to build a learning culture, in which teachers were engaged in on-going learning. The training sessions were to provide time and space for teachers to come out of their classrooms and share good practice, in a collaborative way. See...good intentions. From the very start, teachers were encouraged to participate actively in the way these sessions worked. They were consulted about what training topics they would like, they were encouraged to share examples of good practice (self-selected or highlighted in peer/ formal observations), to bring ideas they wanted to discuss and investigate, to share things they were trying in the classroom which were successful or struggling and why etc. and were always asked to provide feedback on the trainings and on anything that they were trying in their classrooms. My views on the success of this programme - mixed. I have definitely seen evidence of improved teaching and learning as a result of things that have been shared in training sessions and in our mid-year school evaluation the majority of our teachers cited professional development/ training as one of the things management did well. Yet it is far from what it could be. While teachers checked which topics for future trainings they wanted after one of our early sessions, subsequent emails asking if people had suggestions or requests for the upcoming session went unanswered and invitations to deliver part sessions on specific areas of practice in which they had been identified as strong were declined. Despite applying all the techniques I know for delivering collaborative, fun, interactive sessions, where participants take responsibility for their own learning, the atmosphere was often more like walking through treacle, while I cracked the whip or herded sheep. No matter what I did - using staff examples to illustrate good practice; praising individuals; requesting feedback for how I could do things better - engagement was limited. I want to know why! If engaged, passionate, reflective and learning teachers are key to successful learning in classrooms, which I believe they are, what makes the difference? What should school leaders be doing to create a work force engaged in their own development for the sake of improving the quality of experience and education we give the children? More than that I want to know what I should be doing in my school. So that's my goal...what is limiting the success of these practices at our school and what can be done about it? That's one of the things I am coming to love about my research. I'm learning how to research. I could pick up a book about leadership and good practice in the areas I've discussed, but what if they don't work in my school setting, because every school setting is different and while there are some universal (almost) truths, 'there are plenty of anomalies too, and I'm learning how to seek those out and adjust accordingly. |
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January 2014
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