The Power of Professional Learning:

School Leaders and First Teachers

Helen TimperleyProfessor of Education

The University of Auckland

• Auckland

•Wellington

• Christchurch

A Recent National Policy Discussion Document in New Zealand

The visionEvery student in every school has

leaders and teachers who are actively engaged in professional learning and development that

supports and challenges them to accelerate outcomes for students. - First Teachers can help to achieve this kind of vision

The Evidence Base

Professional Development Project in Literacy

Over 300 primary schools in New Zealand

Writing: Average gains 2.5 to 3.2 expected rate over two years

Lowest 20% 5-6 times expected rate

Reading: Average gains 1.5 to 1.9 expected rate over two years

Lowest 20% 3 times expected rate.

Sustained over the three year monitoring period

More Recently (2014)• Anthony Bryk at the American Educational

Research Association on Improvement Science

• Provides history of improvement failures over 20 years– Too much change expected– Tried to replicate good ideas from other settings– Quickly work out a solution to a general problem

• Identifies similar inquiry processes to demonstrate what works at scale

Moving from Professional Development

to

Professional Learning

What knowledge

and skills do our students

need?What knowledge and skills do we as teachers have

and need?

What has been the impact of our changed

actions?

Deepen professional

knowledge and refine skills

Engage students in new learning experiences

Teacher inquiry and knowledge-building cycleto promote valued student outcomes

Some shifts in mindsets

1. External Internal– Participation learning (so must be based

on learning theory)– Developing new practices solving

challenging problems– Implementation trying things out,

seeking feedback, trying again

Student learning in the past

11

•T

ransmission

•T

ransmission

Some Things We Know About Learning

Having clear goals, co- and self-regulating learning towards those goals is powerful

Developing Knowledge / skills• Co-constructing meaning is more effective

than transmission– Linking new ideas with existing ideas

• Unpack misconceptions together

– Actively construct new ideas in holistic frameworks

• Students taking joint responsibility for their learning

– Feedback and feedforward

Teacher learning in the past

Developing Knowledge / skills• Co-constructing meaning is more effective

than transmission– Linking new ideas with existing ideas

• Unpack misconceptions together

– Actively construct new ideas in holistic frameworks

• Teachers taking joint responsibility for their learning

– Feedback and feedforward

Teacher learning now

Some shifts in mindsets

2. Activities / implementation

Systematic evidence-informed inquiry

Assessment about student capability

assessment provides information about teaching effectiveness

Information about

student capability

Information about

effectiveness of teaching

Assessment for professional inquiry

Shifting the focus

•Information filed•Students told their mark•Information reported to parents•Students told what they need to learn

•Teachers identify what needs to be taught again•Teachers identify how well they taught something – what they need to learn

Shifting the focus

How do your teachers think about student

assessment results?

Deciding on student capability and what students need to learn?

OR

Identifying how well they have taught something and what they as teachers need

to learn?

Some shifts in mindsets

3. Professional development focuses on implicit theory of professionalism as routine expertise

Professional learning based on an explicit theory of professionalism as adaptive expertise

Routine to Adaptive Expertise

Routine Expertise

• Apply a core set of skills with increasing fluency and efficiency

• Own beliefs taken for granted and not open to scrutiny

• Based on notions of novice to experts – practice makes perfect

Adaptive Expertise

• Flexibly retrieve, organise and apply professional knowledge

• Aware of own beliefs underpinning practice and when get in the way

• Recognise when old problems persist or new problems arise and seek expert knowledge

Assessment from Different Perspectives

Adaptive expertise

• Assessment and learning are integrated

• Assessment is about the effectiveness of teaching

• Investigating the impact of teaching is essential to improvement

• Inquiry cycle provides a framework for learning

Routine expertise

• Assessment and learning are sequential

• Assessment is about how well students learn

• Investigating the impact of teaching undermines professionalism

• Inquiry cycle is a set of steps to endure

Example 1: An Australian High School (FT had expertise in written language)

• Principal and leadership team established that students were not doing well on national assessments, particularly in those subjects requiring a lot of writing

• With the assistance of the first teacher, they identified the problem as students not being able to write extended informational texts

• Teachers worked with the first teacher to mark and analyse classroom writing samples

• From this exercise, the first teacher suggested they focus on sentence structure, paragraphing and cohesion

• Teachers not teaching languages did not know what these terms meant

What knowledge

and skills do our students

need?What knowledge and skills do we as teachers have

and need?

What has been the impact of our changed

actions?

Deepen professional

knowledge and refine skills

Engage students in new learning experiences

Teacher inquiry and knowledge-building cycleto promote valued student outcomes

Sentence structure

The production of grammatically correct, structurally sound and meaningful sentences

Paragraphing

The segmenting of text into paragraphs that assists the reader to follow the line of argument

Cohesion

The linking of ideas across the text, achieved through the use of referring words, ellipsis, text connectives, substitutions and word associations

The Areas of Focus

1Correct sentences are mostly simple and/or compound sentences Meaning is sometimes clear

2

Most simple and compound sentences are correct ANDsome complex sentences are correct Meaning is predominantly clear

3

Most simple, compound and complex sentences are correct ORAll simple, compound and complex sentences are correct but do not

demonstrate variety Meaning is clear

4

Sentences are correct (allow for occasional error in more sophisticated structures). Demonstrates variety

Meaning is clear and sentences enhance meaning

5

All sentences are correct (allow for occasional slip, e.g. a missing word) Writing contains controlled and well-developed sentences that express

precise meaning and are consistently effective

Sentence StructureSkill focus: The production of grammatically correct, structurally sound and meaningful sentences.

Monitoring

• After one term, the teachers with the First Teacher’s assistance reassessed their own students

• Students were surveyed about the extent to which their teachers were teaching the targeted skills

Reading Comprehension in a Primary School: The Importance of Analysing Teaching Practice

What knowledge

and skills do our students

need?What knowledge and skills do we as teachers have

and need?

What has been the impact of our changed

actions?

Deepen professional

knowledge and refine skills

Engage students in new learning experiences

Teacher inquiry and knowledge-building cycleto promote valued student outcomes

What features of these two examples are relevant to

your context?Are there any implications for the work of the first teachers?

Getting Started: Gathering evidence about students’ learning and engagement

Must be driven by CURIOUSITY about what is going on for student learners in your school

•Use a range of evidence – test scores, surveys, interviews, family perceptions

– Ask students to interpret the data with you

•Put faces on the data– Means much more to teachers

What knowledge

and skills do our students

need?What knowledge and skills do we as teachers have

and need?

What has been the impact of our changed

actions?

Deepen professional

knowledge and refine skills

Engage students in new learning experiences

Teacher inquiry and knowledge-building cycleto promote valued student outcomes

The purpose is to provide a baseline for improvement and to find out what teachers need to learn to teach more effectively

What Does this Mean for Leaders

You need: •Good data management systems for quantitative data•Ways to collect qualitative evidence•Skills in analysis and collaborative interpretation of the evidence with teachers – this is what really counts!•Skills to make collaborative decisions about what evidence will be used for baseline to monitor improvement

What knowledge

and skills do our students

need?What knowledge and skills do we as teachers have

and need?

What has been the impact of our changed

actions?Deepen

professional knowledge and

refine skills

Engage students in new learning experiences

Motivated by the teacher’s desire to know, not someone else’s desire to tell

Purpose –relate new learning to prior knowledge

This is why you need baseline evidence

Teachers make the difference

But they cannot do it alone,

nor can First Teachers

Some potential issues impacting on the work of First Teachers

1. Ambiguous roles and changed relationships between first teachers and others

2. Too much going on and not enough time to focus on learning to improve

3. Work focused on individual teachers (remediation) rather than developing collective responsibility for professional and student learning through an inquiry process– Exception may be supporting newly qualified

teachers

Ambiguous Roles and Changed Relationships

• First teachers cannot take over leadership roles of:– Defining their new role with their colleagues

• Including conveying to colleagues that their practice needs to change

– Addressing all the teaching-related challenges in the school

– Finding the time to work with colleagues when no formal time has been allocated

Too much going on:The International Research on

ImprovementMore ≠ better

Less = Improvement

Learn in one area with a deep focus then transfer the learning to

other areas

Student learning

Teacher learning

Start with learner-related challenges

Student learning

Teacher learning

Start with students in an area of focus then transfer learning:To other contexts – students, curricula

Student learning

Teacher learning

Answers three questionsWhere are we going? GoalHow are we going? FeedbackWhere to next? Feed-forward

A Leadership Task: Setting Goals for Students

• Goals are broad statements about what you want to achieve for students in your focus for inquiry

• They may be ‘vague’ but that is OK if supported by SMART targets

• They form the basis of your strategic and annual plans

• They are likely to be a focus over a number of years – not just one, as they represent major shifts you are seeking e.g.,

– To improve numbers of students gaining qualifications– To improve numbers of students reaching standards– To improve numbers of students reaching x in written language

Exercise 2:Baseline Data

• Very few (usually only one) – and student focused• Directly linked to your strategic and annual plans • Based on evidence of the current situation

(baseline data) • Everyone who influences the achievement of the

goal is involved in setting it (including students)• Most people feel these are worthwhile or the right

goals • Realistic but challenging• Confidence that there will be support to achieve

them• They are a priority – other decisions made with

reference to them• There are ways of monitoring progress towards

them

• Very few (usually only one) – and student focused• Directly linked to your strategic and annual plans • Based on evidence of the current situation

(baseline data) • Everyone who influences the achievement of the

goal is involved in setting it (including students)• Most people feel these are worthwhile or the right

goals • Realistic but challenging• Confidence that there will be support to achieve

them• They are a priority – other decisions made with

reference to them• There are ways of monitoring progress towards

them©Auckland UniServices Ltd, 2013.

Characteristics of Effective Goals in an Area of Inquiry

A Leadership Task: Identifying Targets for Students

• Targets are SMART - Specific, Measureable, Achievable, Realistic (but challenging), and Time-bound.

• They are very specific to the student challenge you have identified at the beginning of the inquiry process e.g. at a year level, in a subject, with a specific group of students

• They articulate the shift you want to get (usually annually) in reference to baseline evidence

Leadership Task: Identifying Baseline Evidence

• Baseline evidence gives a picture of the current situation in the area of inquiry

• This is a must – It justifies/describes the challenge you are trying to resolve

• It provides a base from which you measure progress – and monitor progress at least each term

Targets – relationship to baseline data

2014 Target for Year 6 - 2015

Year 5 exceeding …

12% In 2014, 77% of Year 5 met or exceeded the ... In 2015, we are aiming for 85% of Year 6 to meet or exceed.

Year 5 achieving …

65%

Year 5 below … 23%

After examining

names.

Teachers also need learning goals and ways to monitor progress

Learning Goals for TeachersStudents’ learning goals …My new understandings to achieve these goals …My new practice and which students I will try it out with …How I will monitor if this new practice is making a difference to those students ….

Changes in Organisational Practices

For your collective improvement efforts to be successful in achieving goals for students and teachers and not fragmented across

many different areas may mean:•Systematically creating time for opportunities to learn in relation to your goals

– Meeting times – every face-to-face should be an opportunity for professional learning

– Where else can you create time?

Monitoring and Measurement

“You cannot improve what you cannot measure” Tony Bryk (AERA,

2014)

Short- term, long-term evidence for both process and outcomes

Monitoring

• To keep the goals and targets a priority, progress must be monitored several times a year (develop a timetable)

• The monitoring needs to include:– Evidence of student actions and evidence– Evidence of changes in teacher practice– Evidence of changes in organisational

practices

Area of intended change and outcomes

Baseline What did the data tell us about what was happening

At half Term What changes would we expect to see and how will we know?

After a TermWhat changes would we expect to see and how will we know?

After 1.5 TermsWhat changes would we expect to see and how will we know?

Student learning and engagement

Changes in teaching practice

Changes in organisational practice e.g. meetings

Leaders’ Role:Work with others to set goals and

targets and identify how they will be monitored and develop a culture of collective responsibility to achieve

themFirst Teachers’ role:

Work with groups of teachers to facilitate a focused inquiry process to achieve the goals and targets for themselves and their students

Identify some possible implications for you

as a leader and as a first teacher

(you may disagree with the material I have presented)

Thank you for listening and participating - Helen