leading learning communities: towards a culture of inquiry within and across schools

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Leading Learning Communities: Towards a culture of inquiry within and across schools

Sue Greer

www.aporia.ca

The Ontario Context

Ontario Ministry of Education

The Ontario Leadership Framework

Leadership In Ontario’s Context:

Leadership is the exercise of influence on organizational members and diverse stakeholders towards the identification and achievement of the organization’s vision and goals

Leadership defined:

Purpose of the framework:

Facilitate a shared vision of leadership across schools

Common language around what it means to be a leader

Identify the practices, actions and personal traits that describe effective leaders

Guide the design and implementation of professional learning for schools and leaders

Today’s Overview

The power and perils of learning communities Enabling professional learning- Our model A professional learning focus Collaborative inquiry that challenges thinking

and practice The instructional leader’s role

Nodes, Threads, Knots, and Nets

Church et al., 2002

Alphabet Soup!

PLCs, NLCs, Head of School LTs

The ‘letters’ don’t matter!

Implementation matters!

Effective PLCs:

The power of the idea of a PLC is that members of the group… engage together in challenges of practice so that their understanding of those challenges grows deeper and is more unified. Through their investigations, proposed solutions emerge that are then tested to see if they help…

Supovitz, 2006

Through such a repeated process, practice grows more sophisticated and powerful and the group develops a tighter sense of camaraderie and common purpose. As a result, they can construct common understanding, share knowledge and experience, and develop common goals..

Supovitz, 2006

Experience tells us…

This form of professional learning communities was largely absent from the district and the examples (school practitioners) did provide were too diffused and unfocused to have a strong influence on their practice. Activities like book talks and in-school professional development sessions were too sparse and diffused to fulfill the particular goals promised by PLCs

Suppovitz 2006

The Perils of Learning Communities:

Quality Control Group Think Diffusion of responsibility (Social Loafing) Deindividuation

The Power of Learning Communities

Learning from one another Learning with one another Learning on behalf of one another

NLG (UK)

The Power of Learning Communities

Diversity of opinion Independence Decentralization Aggregation

Surowiecki, 2004

Creating the conditions for focused professional learning

Enabling Professional Learning

Student Learning,

Engagement and

Success

Changes in

Thinking and

Practices in

classrooms and

Schools

Teacher Learning -

ProfessionalKnowledge

Creation and Sharing

Formal and Informal

Instructional Leaders

Collaborative Inquiry that Challenges

Thinking and Practice

Clear and Defensible

Learning Foci for Students,

Teachers and Leaders

Networked Learning

Communities

Professional Learning

Community In School

Aporia Consulting Ltd. 2011

Influencing Student Achievement

Classroom instruction is the single greatest predictor of student success

School leadership is second only to classroom instruction on impacting on student achievement

Hattie, Marzano et al., Leithwood et al., and many others!


Student Learning,

Engagement and

Success

Changes in

Thinking and

Practices in

classrooms and

Schools

Teacher Learning -

ProfessionalKnowledge


Formal and Informal







Networked Learning

Communities


Community In School


Characteristics of a high-leverage Professional LEARNING focus:

strongly connected to the needs of our students

explicit

shared understanding of the focus in the school

directs professional learning opportunities for themselves and staff

there is research-based evidence that the substance of the professional learning enhances teaching/learning and it is

displayed for everyone to see



Student Learning,

Engagement and Success

Changes in

Thinking and

Practices in

Classrooms and

Schools

Professional Learning - Knowledge


Formal and Informal







Networked Learning

Communities


Community In School


1.What knowledge and

skills do our students need?

2. What knowledge and skills do we

need as professionals

within this initiative?

5. What has been the impact of our

changed actions?

4. Engage students

in new learning experiences

3. Deepen professional knowledge and refine skills by engaging in further professional

learning

Timperley, Wilson, Barrar & Fung, (2008) Professional Learning and Professional Development: Best Evidence Synthesiswww.educationcounts.govt.nz/publications/series/ibes/15341

From student learning to professional learning


Beware of Activity Traps

Those “doings” that, while well intentioned, are not needs-based and divert resources (human and material) away from the school improvement focus


Joint Work that Challenges Thinking & Practice involves:

Regularly challenging one another’s assumptions about our practice

Being receptive to feedback from colleagues

Talking openly with colleagues about differing views, opinions, values

Dealing openly with professional conflicts that arise


Collaborative Inquiry – 7 Key Elements

1.Creating context2. Engaging in “question-driven” inquiry3. Generating working theories4. Critical evaluation5. Searching for new information6. Engagement in deepening inquiry7. Shared expertise

Hakkarainen et al. (2004)


Impactful Leadership Dimensions (Robinson, 2009)

Establishing goals and expectations (ES=0.42)– Includes the setting, communicating, and monitoring of

learning goals, standards, and expectations, and the involvement of staff and others in the process so that there is clarity and consensus about goals.

Strategic resourcing (ES=0.31)– Involves aligning resource selection and allocation to priority

teaching goals.

Planning, coordinating and evaluating teaching and the curriculum (ES=0.42)– Direct involvement in teaching through regular classroom

visits and the provision of feedback to teachers. Direct oversight of curriculum through school-wide coordination across classes and grades and alignment to school goals.Aporia Consulting Ltd. 2011

Impactful Leadership Dimensions (Robinson, 2007)

Promoting and participating in teacher learning and development (ES=0.84)– Leadership that not only promotes but directly

participates with teachers in formal and informal professional learning.

Ensuring an orderly and supportive environment (ES=0.27)– Protecting time for teaching and learning by

reducing external pressures and interruptions, and establishing an orderly and supportive environment both inside and outside classrooms.


0.27

0.84

0.42

0.31

0.42

0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1

5. Ensuring an Orderly andSupportive Environment

4. Promoting and Participating inTeacher Learning and

Development

3. Planning, Coordinating andEvaluating Teaching and the

Curriculum

2. Resourcing Strategically

1. Establishing Goals andExpectations

Effect Size

FIVE DIMENSIONS OF EFFECTIVE LEADERSHIP(Robinson et al., 2009)

Role of an Instructional Leader

To be the lead learner – not the lead knower To create the conditions where teachers

embrace the problem of practice To participate in their own learning with

colleagues who have the same learning focus

Differentiation of support

Great to excellent Good to great Adequate to good Awful to adequate

Nodes, Threads, Knots, and Nets

Church et al., 2002

3 C’s of Learning Communities:

Create

Collaborate

Celebrate

leading learning communities: towards a culture of inquiry within and across schools

Documents

common understanding

challenges of practice

shared vision of leadership

common purpose

common goals

student achievementhattie

effective plcs

examples school practitioners