Forbairt 2015
. . . the overall performance of
a school almost never exceeds the
quality of its leadership and management. For every 100 schools that
have good leadership and management, 93 will have good standards
of student achievement. For every 100 schools that do not have good
leadership and management, only one will have good standards of
achievement.
A large number of quantitative studies in North America . . . show that
school leadership influences performance more than any other variable
except socio-economic background and the quality of teaching.
A major study of improving schools found that “there are statistically
significant empirical and qualitatively robust associations between
heads’ educational values, qualities, and their strategic actions and
improvement in school conditions leading to improvements in student
outcomes.” Barber, Whelan and Clark (2010)
Shared Values
&common
purpose
Collaboration
Trust &
quality
relationships
Preventing
failure
Professional
Learning
Learning
centred
leadership
John West-Burnham
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The conceptual frame for education
19th Century Educational Imaginary
21st Century Educational Imaginary
Students are prepared for a fixed
situation in life/ career progression.
Students’ identities and destinations are
fluid – multiple career pathways.
Schools ignore social and economic
factors
Schools are active in family and
community engagement
Intelligence is fixed.
Intelligence is multi-dimensional and can
be developed.
The curriculum is a body of definitive
knowledge
Knowledge is co created and widely
distributed
Access to quality teaching and learning
is variable. Automatic, chronological
cohort progression.
Schooling provides personalized learning
for all.
Assessment is summative, prescribed
and monotechnic
Assessment is formative, negotiated and
multi-media
Schools work on the factory model.
Any time, any place learning.
The nature of education is defined by
educational institutions
The nature of education is defined by
democratic communities
Schools, teachers and learners work
autonomously.
Schools educators and learners work
collaboratively in complex, multi-media,
networks.
Schooling is provider led. Schools have
rigid and clear boundaries and
outcomes.
Education is user led and life-long for
every student.
Education Imaginaries (after Hargreaves 2004 p30-32)
Taylor (2004:23) defines a social imaginary as:
. . . the ways people imagine their social existence, how they fit
together with others, how things go on between them and their fellows,
the expectations that are normally met, and the deeper normative
notions and images that underlie these expectations.
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1. Effective leadership: values and purpose
The leadership characteristics of schools in Tower Hamlets:
• They have consistent, high expectations and are very ambitious for the
success of their pupils.
• They constantly demonstrate that disadvantage need not be a barrier to
achievement.
• They focus relentlessly on improving teaching and learning with very
effective professional development of all staff.
• They are expert at assessment and the tracking of pupil progress with
appropriate support and intervention based upon a detailed knowledge
of individual pupils.
• They are highly inclusive, having complete regard for the progress and
personal development of every pupil.
• They develop individual students through promoting rich opportunities for
learning both within and out of the classroom.
• They cultivate a range of partnerships particularly with parents, business
and the community to support pupil learning and progress.
• They are robust and rigorous in terms of self-evaluation and data analysis
with clear strategies for improvement.
(Transforming Education for All: the Tower Hamlets Story)
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Principle
People
Principle
Purpose
Leadership
Management
Administration
Doing the right
Doing things right
Doing things
things
Purpose
Path making
Path following
Path tidying
People
Engaging with
Creating clarity
Securing
complexity
consistency
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Management/operational
A
Leadership/Strategic
A = Administration
The urgent and the important
Urgent/Important
Crises, deadlines,
external pressures
MANAGE
Noturgent/Important
Relationships,
planning, values
FOCUS
Not
important/Urgent
Interruptions,
distractions,
administrivia
CONTROL
Not important/not
urgent
Distractions,
escape, timewasters
AVOID
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2. Distributing and sharing leadership through trust
In their research into high performing elementary schools in Chicago, Bryk and
Schneider found a high correlation between the levels of trust in a school and its
capacity to improve. Schools with a high level of trust at the outset of a programme to
improve maths and reading had a 1in 2 chance of improving. Schools with relatively
low levels of trust had only a 1 in 7 chance of improving. Schools in the latter
category that did improve made significant gains in their levels of trust as a prerequisite to raising attainment.
If you want to change any relationship you have to behave your way into it.
Trust comes after good experiences. (Fullan 2010:97)
These ‘good experiences’ might be said to include empathy, goodwill, openness,
honesty, respect, reliability and reciprocity – there are plenty of words to describe the
emotional responses that seem to capture the essence of trust.
Confidence
Competence
Credibility
Consistency
Credibility + consistency + competence = confidence = trust
In their most recent work Bryk and his colleagues (2010:45-46) report on a detailed
and systematic longitudinal study carried out since 1989 looking at over 100 schools
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that have improved compared with over 100 schools that have declined. The key
differences between the schools has enabled the identification of a key element of
improvement
. . trust represents the social energy, or the “oven’s heat,” necessary for
transforming these basic ingredients into comprehensive school change.
Absent the social energy provided by trust, improvement initiatives are
unlikely to culminate in meaningful change, regardless of their intrinsic merit.
(2010:1
Immature
Mature
Personal Power
Shared authority
Hierarchy
Teams
Low trust
High trust
Dependency
Control
Interdependency
Delegation
Empowerment
Subsidiarity
This diagram shows the stages in moving from the immature organization based on
control to the fully mature one based on subsidiarity; the movement away from
control is characterised by a growth in trust.
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3. Effective professional learning
Promoting and participating in teacher
learning and development.
Effect size 0.84
Establishing goals and expectations
Effect size 0.42
The leader participates in the learning as
leader, learner or both. The contexts for
such learning are both formal and
informal.
Leadership makes a difference to
students through its emphasis on clear
academic and learning goals. In a work
environment where multiple conflicting
demands can make everything seem
equally important, goals establish what is
relatively more or less important
Planning, coordinating and evaluating
teaching and the curriculum
1 Involving staff in discussions of
teaching
Effect size 0.42
2 Working with staff to coordinate and
review the curriculum
3 Providing feedback to teachers, based
on classroom observations that they
report as useful in improving their
teaching;
4 Systematic monitoring of student
progress for the purpose of improvement
at school department and class level
Strategic resourcing
Effect size 0.31
Ensuring an orderly and supportive
environment
Effect size 0.27
This leadership dimension is about
securing and allocating material and
staffing resources that are aligned to
pedagogical purposes.
This dimension describes those
leadership practices that ensure that
teachers can focus on teaching and
students can focus on learning
Robinson’s conclusion provides a powerful vindication of the refocusing of leadership
that is taking place in many education systems:
The main conclusion to be drawn from the present analyses is that particular
types of school leadership have substantial impacts on student outcomes.
The more leaders focus their influence, their learning, and their relationships
with teachers on the core business of teaching and learning, the greater their
likely influence on student outcomes.
Robinson V M J (2011) Student-Centered Leadership San Francisco Jossey-Bass
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The relative impact of learning strategies
Non-directive
Directive
Generic
Personal
Where would you place each of the following on the diagram above going
from bottom left to top right in terms of personal impact and deep learning?
Experiential learning, teaching, facilitation, coaching and mentoring,
friendship, training, action learning.
Mentoring and Coaching
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Coaching
Mentoring
Counselling
- a short-term intervention
to provide explicit support
in developing specific
skills, techniques and
strategies
- a sustained, one-to-one
relationship based in trust
in which the mentor
actively supports the
learner to build capacity to
enhance personal
effectiveness
- a therapeutic relationship
which is designed to
support personal change
and enhance well-being
The impact of coaching/mentoring can be demonstrated by reference to the work of
Joyce and Showers:
5% of learners will transfer a new skill into their practice as a result of theory.
10% will transfer a new skill into their practice as a result of theory and
demonstration.
20% will transfer a new skill into their practice as a result of theory, demonstration
and practice.
25% will transfer a new skill into their practice as a result of theory, demonstration,
practice and feedback.
90% will transfer a new skill into their practice as a result of theory, demonstration,
practice, feedback and coaching.
Joyce, B.R. & Showers, B. (1983:9)
One of the key insights in learning theory is Benjamin Bloom’s (1964) discussion of
solutions to what he calls ‘the two sigma’ problem. Bloom shows that students
provided with individual tutors typically perform at a level about two standard
deviations (two sigma) above where they would perform with standard group
instruction. This means that a person who would score at the 50th percentile on a
standardized test after regular group instruction would score at the 98th percentile if
personalized tutoring replaced group instruction.
Comparing and contrasting CPD and JPD
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Characteristics
CPD
JPD
Type
Presentations and ‘talk and
discuss” mode. 40-60 teachers
from random backgrounds not
always linked to alliances or
partnerships
2 teachers from each of 7
alliance schools undertake an
action-learning project to
develop and research through
lesson study
Duration
1 day event
1 introductory day, regular
meetings e.g.4 twilight sessions,
classroom observations and
time to plan and review
Delivery
Expert presenters from LA, HEI
or commercial provider present
knowledge and provide
resources.
Outcomes
Perhaps a presentation or
summary at a staff meeting or
school based CPD event when
materials are shared.
2 expert teachers facilitate
programme and provide
coaching. A Lesson study
approach is adopted to apply
and refine the approach.
Teachers work in groups to
review outcomes of
observations.
Successful strategies are
identified, refined and agreed
Findings are embedded into a
school strategy and the learning
process is adapted as the
means of implementation
Impact and implications for
practice
Uncertain and tentative.
Uncertain cost-effectiveness
Potential to have a direct
bearing on school policies and
strategies
High credibility and likelihood of
acceptance.
(NCTL 2014)
“Lesson Study is a breathtakingly simple and common sense way of developing
teachers’ practice knowledge: i.e. teachers’ knowledge of how best to teach X to
pupils like Y. In a lesson study, a group of teachers work together to plan, deliver and
analyse a series of ‘research lessons’ or ‘study lessons’ devised to improve the way
they teach something or the way particular learners learn something. They record
what they discover or develop and pass this knowledge on to others by inviting
people to watch them demonstrate the approach in a public research lesson – or by
writing it up and publishing it online.
Pete Dudley www.teacherdevelopmenttrust.org/lessonstudy/
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4. The Leadership of Learning
Coaching
Review
Dialogue
Monitoring
Modelling
Southworth (2004) defines three of the elements in the following terms:
Modelling
Modelling is concerned with the power of example. Teachers and headteachers
believe in setting an example because they know this influences pupils and
colleagues alike. Research shows that teachers watch their leaders closely. And
teachers watch what their leaders do in order to check if leaders’ actions are
consistent over time and to test whether leaders do as they say. Teachers do not
follow leaders who cannot ‘walk the talk’.
Monitoring and evaluation
Monitoring includes analysing and acting on pupil progress and outcome data (e.g.
assessment and test scores, evaluation data, school performance trends, parental
opinion surveys, pupil attendance data, pupil interview information). Leadership is
stronger and more effective when it is informed by data on pupils’ learning, progress
and achievements as will as by direct knowledge of all teaching practices and
classroom dynamics. The outcomes of monitoring need to be synthesised and
evaluated against the school’s planning in order to inform judgements and identify
future priorities.
Dialogue
Dialogue in this context is about creating opportunities for teachers to talk with their
colleagues about learning and teaching. The kinds of dialogues that influence what
happens in classrooms are focused on learning and teaching. Leaders create the
circumstances to meet with colleagues and discuss pedagogy and pupil learning.
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Coaching and mentoring
(See above)
Review
Purpose and
outcomes
Implementation
strategy
Consideration of
alternatives
Evidence and
data
Review and
judgements
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5. Securing improvement by preventing failure and marginal gains
Predict and prevent is essentially the same as ‘prevention is better than cure’
– it involves moving the culture of a team or department from reaction to
anticipation and intervention, crucially the willingness to intervene. There are
numerous examples of this approach from everyday life – the best way to
avoid a heart attack is to stop smoking, not to invest in more cardiac surgeons,
the most effective way to maintain your car’s efficiency is to have it regularly
serviced.
The ‘Checklist Manifesto’ is a book by Atul Gawande, a surgeon who was
concerned that so many patients seemed to suffer serious complications or
die unexpectedly in the days after their operation. His analysis led to the
conclusion that many of these problems were caused by operating staff failing
to follow basic procedures. Gawande developed a 19-point checklist to be
read out before and during each operation to ensure that all of the simple, but
essential procedures were followed. The outcome was a marked decrease
(30%) in the number of patients becoming seriously ill or dying after surgery.
In his book Gawande makes the distinction between errors of ignorance
(mistakes we make because we don’t know enough), and errors of ineptitude
(mistakes we made because we don’t make proper use of what we know).
Failure in the modern world, he writes, is really about the second of these
errors, and he shows how the routine tasks of surgeons have now become so
incredibly complicated that mistakes of one kind or another are virtually
inevitable: it’s just too easy for an otherwise competent doctor to miss a step,
or forget to ask a key question or, in the stress and pressure of the moment,
to fail to plan properly for every eventuality. This is exactly the point about
effective management, however inspirational the leadership of a surgeon
hands must be washed and swabs counted!
The best way to close the gap is to prevent children failing and that means
actively challenging poor and inappropriate performance and that in turn
means identifying, defining and embedding appropriate performance. While
there are a range of strategies and techniques that can help to manage the
problem of variation it is important that such interventions are reinforced and
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corroborated by a culture of prevention – in other words it is not just what we
do, it is the way that things are done.
The theory of Marginal Learning Gains is inspired by the philosophy that
underpinned the extraordinary success of Team GB Cycling at the Beijing and
London Olympics and of the Team Sky Pro Cycling Team at the 2012 Tour de
France. When Sir Dave Brailsford became performance director of British
Cycling, he set about breaking down the objective of winning races into its
component parts. The philosophy is simple: focus on doing a number of few
small things really well. Once you do this, aggregating the gains you make will
become part of a bigger impact on learning.
The doctrine of marginal gains is all about small incremental improvements in
any process adding up to a significant improvement when they are all added
together. It is perhaps most easy to understand by considering the approach
of Sir Dave Brailsford. Brailsford believed that if it was possible to make a 1%
improvement in a whole host of areas, the cumulative gains would end up
being hugely significant.
He was on the look-out for all the weaknesses in the team's assumptions, all
the latent problems, so he could improve on each of them.

By experimenting in a wind tunnel, he noted that the bike was not
sufficiently aerodynamic.

By analysing the mechanics area in the team truck, he discovered that
dust was accumulating on the floor, undermining bike maintenance. So
he had the floor painted pristine white, in order to spot any impurities.

The team started to use antibacterial hand gel to cut down on
infections.

When he became general manager of Team Sky, he redesigned the
team bus to improve comfort and recuperation.

They started to probe deeper into untested assumptions, such as the
dynamic relationship between the intensity of the warm-down and
speed of recovery.
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6. Collaboration
There is evidence that the process of change is more resilient and improvement
more sustainable when school collaborate and learn from other schools. Schools that
sustain improvement are usually well networked and have a good structure of
internal support.
While such schools may be considered to be leading the way for others to
follow, the reciprocal nature of the relationship and the opportunities for
schools to innovate together means there is added value in both directions
from these forms of collaboration. (Leithwood et al 2010: 238)
David Hargreaves (2011:17) provides a powerful and graphic example of the
potential of collaboration by comparing two centres of innovation in the information
science industries – Silicon Valley and Route 128 near Boston quoting Saxenian
(1994) Hargreaves demonstrates the differences between the two centres. Route
128:
. . . is based on independent firms that internalise a wide range of productive
activities. Practices of secrecy and corporate loyalty govern relations between
firms and their customers, suppliers and competitors, reinforcing a regional
culture that encourages stability and self-reliance. Corporate hierarchies
ensure that authority remains centralised and information tends to flow
vertically. The boundaries between and within firms and between firms and
local institutions thus remain... distinct in this independent firm-based system
(Saxenian, 1994: 3).
Silicon Valley, by contrast, works by being:
. . . a regional network-based industrial system that promotes collective
learning and flexible adjustment among specialist producers of a complex of
related technologies. The region’s dense social networks and open labour
markets encourage experimentation and entrepreneurship. Companies
compete intensely while at the same time learning from one another about
changing markets and technologies through informal communication and
collaborative practices; and loosely linked team structures encourage
horizontal communication among firm divisions and with outside suppliers and
customers. The functional boundaries within firms are porous in a network
system, as are the boundaries between firms themselves and between firms
and local institutions such as trade associations and universities. (Saxenian,
1994: 2)
The differences between Silicon Valley and Route 128 are a graphic illustration of
one of the most powerful ways of understanding the differences between autonomy
and collaboration – the concept of bonding and bridging social capital. Successful
teams, schools, families, clans – in fact almost any sort of human engagement need
to bond. At the same time, in varying degrees according to context, they also need to
bridge. Route 128 companies are not as successful as Silicon Valley for the simple
reason that they are more disposed to bonding than bridging.
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Bonding - Autonomy
Bridging - Interdependency
Inward looking
Outward looking
Potentially exclusive
Inclusive
Self-reinforcing and legitimating
Pluralist and consensual
Homogeneous
Heterogeneous
Route 128
Silicon Valley
In very practical terms it seems reasonable to argue for the following potential
benefits of collaboration between schools:
1. Standards are likely to rise as the result of the dissemination of best practice
across schools and between schools – ‘closing the gap’ is more achievable
through collaboration and the ‘deprivatisation’ of successful practice.
2. There is the potential for significant economies of scale in economic terms –
notably in terms of learning resources and materials.
3. Shared CPD has the potential to enhance consistent practice and embed
improvement and cross-fertilise good ideas and the best practice.
4. Strategic planning is more likely to be effective through collaborative
governance.
5. Integration across phases and primary-secondary transfer is likely to enhance
the learning experience of pupils through integrated and collective
approaches.
6. Intervention to support pupils would be more effective with consistent record
keeping, monitoring and use of data.
7. Deployment of staff could be more flexible and effective.
8. The potential for successful collaboration with other agencies would be
significantly enhanced.
(Robins D and West-Burnham J 2011 Leadership for Collaboration SELT)
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Reviewing strategic leadership
Current status
Action required
Articulate values and
purpose, set direction
Ensure achievement,
progress and consistency
Build trust and high quality
relationships
Reshape the conditions for
teaching and learning,
enhance the quality of
teaching and learning
Develop and sustain a
high performance culture
Monitor, review and
evaluate performance
against agreed outcomes
Build collaboration
internally
Build strong relationships
outside the school
community.
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