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Leading Learning Through Professional Learning Communities. Dr Louise Stoll Immediate Past President International Congress for School Effectiveness and Improvement (ICSEI) Visiting Professor Institute of Education University of London [email protected]. - PowerPoint PPT Presentation
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Leading Learning Through Professional Learning Communities
Dr Louise Stoll Immediate Past President
International Congress for School Effectiveness and Improvement (ICSEI)
Visiting Professor Institute of EducationUniversity of London
PresentationMinistry of Education, Toronto, Ontario
June 5 2006
Outline
Why are professional learning communities important right now?
What are they and what difference do they make?
How can you lead learning through professional learning communities?
Why are professional learning communities important and what difference do they make?
Futures
Possible futures - things which could happen, although many are unlikely
Probable futures - things which probably will happen, unless something is done to turn events around
Preferable futures - things you prefer tohave happen/you want to plan to happen
Beare (2001)
A key change force
‘Child power’: children with increasingly lessregard for school as it lags behind the society itserves
Papert (1996)
The four pillars of learning
Learning to know
Learning to do
Learning to live together
Learning to be
UNESCO (1996)
In a fast changing world, if you can’t learn, unlearn and relearn, you’re lost. Sustainable and continuous learning is a given of the twenty-first century.
Stoll, Fink and Earl (2003)
If it’s not about learning, what should it be about?
Five Core Values constituting ‘the fundamentals of a proactive and
responsible approach to professionalism’
Learning
Participation
Collaboration
Cooperation
Activism
Sachs (1999)
Capacity
. . . is a complex blend of motivation skill, positive learning, organisational conditions and culture, and infrastructure of support. Put together, it gives individuals, groups and, ultimately whole school communities the power to get involved in and sustain learning.
Stoll, Stobart et al (2003)
What are professional learning communities and what difference do they make?
A professional learning community is:
. . . an inclusive group of people, motivated by a shared learning vision, who support and work with each other, finding ways, inside and outside their immediate community, to enquire on their practice and together learn new and better approaches that will enhance all pupils’ learning.
Stoll et al (2006)
An effective professional learning community has an impact on:
individual teachers’ and other staff’s practice, morale, recruitment and retention
leadership capacity for learning across the whole school
a school’s capacity to engage successfully in networks and partnerships beyond the school
students’ learning process and progress, attitudes, attendance
How do you lead learning through learning communities?
Three ways leaders handle pressuresof education and change
Coping Limit selves to managing school and respond only to directives from higher sources
Diffusion Aware of new trends and indiscriminately set goals - “Christmas tree schools” (Bryk et al, 1998)
Goal-focused Select a few reasonable goals, establish priorities, and ignore or manage other pressures
Tye (2000)
Capacity building
creating and maintaining necessary conditions, culture
and structures
facilitating learning and skill-oriented experiences
and opportunities
ensuring interrelationships and synergy
Stoll and Bolam (2005)
Louise Stoll (2005)
Professional learning community
Ensuring supportive structures
Designing deep learning experiences
Growing a learning culture
Nurturing trust and collaboration
Promoting enquiry mindedness and innovation
Developing networks, parterships and connections
Being inclusive and empowering
QuestionsWhat are the first things that catch your eye when you enter your school? What messages do they give out?
If you were an anthropologist and you had to pick three artifacts that represented your school, what would they be and what do they represent?
From Stoll, Bolam, McMahon, Thomas, Wallace, Greenwood and Hawkey (2006)
Flow
Control
Relaxation
Boredom
Apathy
Worry
Anxiety
Arousal
High
Low HighSKILLS
CHALLENGES
Csikszentmihalyi (1990)
Promoting an Inclusive PLC
Every teacher and nursery officer is a key worker for a number of children
Every teacher and nursery officer coordinates a curriculum area
All staff take turns to take notes at meetings
Teachers and support staff are mentors to pupils
Teacher and support staff set learning targets together for individual pupils
Collaboration sheets help articulate joint work of teachers and support staff
Support staff train teachers at PD days
Support staff plan curriculum with teachers Bolam et al (2005)
Distributed leadership
. . . incorporates the activities of multiple groups of individuals in a school who work at guiding and mobilizing staff in the instructional change process
Spillane et al (2001)
Distributed leadership is collective responsibility in action
Stoll (2006)
Emotions, trust and respect
It’s essential to have professional trust, respect, consideration, openness, and to unpick the words. It’s not ‘touchy feely’. Then you can inject the challenge to keep the setting moving forward.
. . . the underpinning . . . one of the key elements.
. . . There are going to be certain things where you think ‘I wish I’d done that’. But you learn from it and at the end of the day, if you have the respect of the other staff, which we have, we all learn from each other. Bolam et al (2006)
The decisive factor is almost exclusively the “horizontal” trust of staff among themselves and the “vertical” trust between management and staff. Without horizontal trust, there can be no transfer of knowledge; without vertical trust, no willingness to take risks.
Sprenger (2004)
Teachers’ Learning: seven r’sRehearsing and Refining
PractisingTrial and error
ReflectingReflection in and on action
Becoming assessment literateMeta-learning
ReadingStudy groupsBook clubsInternet
‘RitingJournal writing/diariesPortfolios
ResearchingAction research
RelatingDialoguePeer observation
Mentoring and coachingCo-operative group learning
Collaborative planning Networking
Risking
Trying new strategiesSeeing pupils as partners in the learning
processUpdated from Stoll, Fink and Earl (2003)
Specific features of collaborative continuing professional development
that might be linked to benefits
External expertise
Observation
Peer support
Teacher ownership
Building on teachers' existing knowledge
Cordingley, Bell, Rundell and Evans (2003)
Which activities are most powerful in helping to deepen staff learning and develop their practice?
How do you vary professional learning strategies for different needs and purposes?
In what ways are you trying to ‘spread’ and extend the development of deep learning activities?
To what extent are paraprofessional staff and school council members involved in learning activities?
What are your sources of external support and expertise to promote deep learning?
Adapted from Stoll, Bolam, McMahon, Thomas, Wallace, Greenwood and Hawkey (2006)
Deep Learning Questions
‘A place of questioning where you must ask the question and the answer questions you’.
Stoll et al (2006)
Leadership in a Data-Rich World
Develop an Inquiry Habit of Mind
Become Data Literate
Create a Culture of Inquiry
Earl and Katz (2006)
Staff survey
Statements A %agree % uncertain %disagree B % important % less imp. % unimportant
There is a shared A 37 40 23whole-school vision of B 90 8 2where the school is going
High levels of trust and A 32 34 34respect exist in this school B 93 7 0
There is effective A 40 37 23communication between B 88 8 4 SLT and staff
Teachers observe each A 15 46 39other teach and give each B 41 27 32Other feedback
Teachers routinely collect, A 27 58 15analyse and use data and B 37 36 27 evidence to inform theirpractice
From McCall et al (2001)
What helps you to learn in school?
Group workI enjoy working in groups 91% agree
Making learning active and enjoyable
I am really interested in my schoolwork 61% agree
My teachers make learning fun 34% all/most
2164 Year 8 students – Evaluation of Key Stage 3 (Middle Years) Strategy Pilot in England – Stoll, Stobart et al (2003)
Clear learning objectives and explanations
I like to be clear what I am learning 93% agree
My teachers explain things clearly 63% all/most
Within school PLC
Districts as PLCs
International NLCs
Local communities
as LCs
District and national
NLCs
Wider community as LC
Policy makers
as LCs
Inter-agency
LCs
Connecting learning communities
Louise Stoll (2005)
Focus and purpose
Collaboration
Accountability
Relationships
Building capacity and support
Enquiry
Leadership
Key features of learning networks
Profess-ional
knowledge creation and
sharing
Deep and sustained changes
in practices
and structures in schools
Impact on pupil learning
and engage-
ment and
success
Earl and Katz (2005)
Key reasons when networks have a positive impact on improving teaching, learning and attainment
Specific focus – networks structured around clearly defined (and narrow) aims
Collaboration – to achieve network breadth and principal means to achieve in-depth transfer
Ownership of network’s goals and processes – important for sustaining collaborative activities.
Continuing professional development – principal means of effecting transfer of knowledge and practice within networks
CUREE (2006)
Formulate key question
Introduction & discussion
Lesson observations and presentations
Plenary
Written and verbal feedback
Evaluation
Learning Walk
Prudhoe School, adapted from NCSL
Learning from international visits
. . . an understanding of culture and what it was possible for this to mean in schools. I feel I . . .have talked glibly about school culture and then wondered why, within wider communities, our values and culture have felt isolated. The integration and respect given to Maori rituals and culture and the valuing of parents as part of the process was enlightening and “real”.
English headteacher after visiting New ZealandStoll (2005)
Bridging social capital – inclusive
Bonding social capital – exclusive
Gittel and Vidal (1998)
To bridge social capital requires that we transcend our social and political and professional identities to connect with people unlike ourselves.
Putnam (2000)
Three types of conversation
Instructional conversation – usually seen in classroom. Acquiring skill, guidance, knowledge external to ourselves
Learning conversation – closer to conversation where mutual growth is end result. Relationship and task get equal attention
Community conversation – vehicle for people to express and share diverse views, negotiate and reaffirm directions and vision and develop social capital
West-Burnham and Otero (2005)
Structural conditions that support professional learning community
Time to meet and talk
Use of space
Resources
Communication mechanisms
School development/improvement plans
Professional development coordination and planning
Staff deployment and hiring policies
Structure Questions
How do you find time and space for colleagues to reflect, engage in dialogue, observe other colleagues, network with other staff and generally deepen their practice?
How do you make regular time for your own reflection and development?
Chinese Bamboo
When you plant it nothing happens in the first year, nor in the second year or the third or the fourth years. You don’t even see a single green shoot. And yet, in the fifth year, in a space of just six weeks, the bamboo will grow 9 feet high. The question is, did it grow 9 feet in six weeks or in five years?
Dick (1992)
An effective professional learning community has the capacity to promote and sustain the learning of all professionals in the school community with the collective purpose of enhancing pupil learning.
Bolam et al (2005)
PDFs can be downloaded from:
http://www.standards.dfes.gov.uk/innovation-unit/collaboration/2127523/?version=1