Schools as Learning
Communities
Professor Christopher Day
The School as Learning
Community
•
Learning must be situated in a critical community of inquirers who accept that
knowledge is always partial and fallible and who support the enrichment of knowledge
through sharing of meanings, interpretations, and learnings among all members of
the community.
•
The learning agenda of the school must be continually related to something
intrinsically human - to the exploration of questions important to human individuals
and social life.
•
The learning agenda of the school must be related to the large cultural projects of our
current era as well as to the cultural projects of our history. Thus, school learnings are
connected to a significant discourse about the making of history.
•
School meanings must be continuously related to students' experience of everyday
life.
(Starratt, 1996, p. 70)
Learning Communities are
Multi-Level
•
Individual
focussing upon teacher efficacy i.e. "the extent to which the teacher believes he or she
has the capacity of affect student performance".
•
Group




•
the use of distributed intelligence (Gronn, 2000)
clarity of goals
collaboration norms
encouragement of divergence of views
Whole Organisation
professional community i.e. shared sense of purpose, collective focus on student learning,
reflective dialogue, de-privatised practice.
•
Families (as much as 75% of the variables)
which co-produce conditions which foster student learning.
Qualities of Learning
Communities
1.
Caring
2.
Inclusive
3.
Trust
4.
Empowerment
5.
Commitment
Part 1
C.P.D.
The Need for C.P.D.
• Schools as Learning Communities
• Educators as Lifelong Learners
• Education
• Training
The Inquiring Teacher
• Reflection at the centre - what kinds?
• Working in communities - inside and
outside school
• Learning to teach over a lifespan
• Being entitled to personal and professional
support and challenge
• Systematic investigation: critiquing one’s
own practice
Precepts for learning and capacity building include:
• Successful schools are learning communities for adults as well as children
• Teachers learn best when they participate actively in discussions about the
content, processes and outcomes of their learning
• Successful learning requires time for critical reflection of different kinds, and
action research is the most effective means of investigating practice
• Learning alone though one’s own experience will ultimately limit progress
• Successful learning requires collaboration with others from inside and
outside the workplace
• Teacher learning and development are necessary for school improvement
• School leaders play a significant role in teacher learning and the
development of a school’s capacity to improve and cope with change
• At its best, learning will have personal and professional significance for
teachers
• Supported, sustained learning over time is likely to be more beneficial to the
individual and organisation than short term learning
• If schools are to operate effectively in devolved systems, much reliance has
to be placed on trust in professional judgement at school level
(Day and Hadfield, 2004)
The Nature of CPD: a definition
'Professional development consists of all natural learning
experiences and those conscious and planned activities
which are intended to be of direct or indirect benefit to the
individual, group or school, and which contribute, through
these, to the quality of education in the classroom. It is the
process by which, alone and with others, teachers review,
renew and extend their commitment as change agents to
the moral purposes of teaching; and by which they acquire
and develop critically the knowledge, skills and emotional
intelligence essential to good professional thinking,
understanding, planning and practice with children, young
people and colleagues throughout each phase of their
teaching lives.'
(Day, 1999, p 4).
C.P.D. at the centre:
School Improvement Planning
PD
PM
CPD
CD
SIP
PD: Personal Development
CD: Curriculum Development
CPD: Continuing Professional Development
PM: Performance Management
SIP: School Improvement Plan
CPD Settings
Table 1 - Organising for Professional Development
‘Direct’ Teaching
Knowledge update
Skill update
Awareness Sessions
Initial Conversations
Charismatic Speakers
Conferences
Courses and Workshops
Consultants
Learning Out of School
Networked Learning Communities
School/University Partnerships
Subject/Phase Networks
Study Groups
University Courses
Learning in School
Team Teaching
Peer Coaching
Action Research
Problem-Solving Groups
Reviews of Students
Assessment Development
Case Studies of Practice
Planning Groups
Writing for Professional
Journals
School Site Management
Teams
On-line Conversations
Peer Reviews of Practice
Performance Management
Mentoring
Based on Lieberman & Miller (1999, p 73)
The Three Orientations of CPD
Personal
Policy
Organisational
Figure 1 Orientations of Career-Long Professional Development Planning
Orientation of
development
activity
Personal
Individual
professional
(extended/longterm
career related)
Kinds of
Professional
Development
Underlying
view
of individual
Individual
as Person
Professional
practitioner
(immediate classroom
management/
knowledge/
skills update/training
Individual as
member of wider
community of
professionals and
educative leader
Individual as
manager
of learning and
achievement
Organisational
(role related
training/
development)
Individual
as
member
of school
community
Change in Learning
(Attitudes, Behaviour, Results)
•
Evolutionary
•
Incremental
•
Transformative
Part 2
Evaluation
Evaluating CPD Effectiveness
1. Participants’ reactions
2. Participants’ learning from CPD (cognitive,
affective, behavioural)
3. Organisational support and change
4. Participants’ use of new knowledge and
skills
5. Student outcomes
Tom Guskey (2000)
Participants’ Reactions
Method of evaluation
• “Happy Sheet”
• Discussion
“..we have two meetings a
week, one’s just a
standard meeting, and
then what we call
development meeting, it’s
the same meeting of the
previous, same topic, but
it’s developmental work”
• Focus Groups/Interviews
• Departmental/Staff meetings
• Learning logs/reflective journals
Participants’ Learning
Method of evaluation
• Interviews with teachers
• Documentary evidence
• Interim observation
• Informal Discussion
• Reflective logs
• PM
• Tests of knowledge
• Rating own learning
• Questionnaires
“But it’s the soft
issues that are the
most important ..a
form might not be
the right thing”
“You have to kind
of have a feel
about and pick up
things through the
leadership team
as well”.
“…but the professional
development part of the
performance
management cycle
means that you can say:
‘How did that CPD affect
you in the long term?”
Organisational Support and
Change
“…I mean it’s not
just CPD, it’s the
whole culture
really…”
Method of evaluation
• Attainment of SIP targets
• Retention of staff
“I think they feel they are
working in a school that’s
giving them a lot. I think
they feel they are working
in a school where it is a
professional organisation
• External recognition (IIP, excellent school
list, etc.)
• Retention of staff in profession
“The benefit for us is .. people
• Observation (Shadowing)
• Interviews
• Questionnaires
to move on, fine we know that
we’ve sent someone from here
with the right tools to grow in
their job and know how to run a
department and spend the rest
of their time developing it.”
Participants’ Use of New
Knowledge and Skills
“…as part of
performance review,
they do a questionnaire
on-line
with their
• Discussion
pupils. So they get
feedback,
we get the
• Documentary
evidence
feedback into the whole
system
from pupils.”
• Return
to happy sheet
Method of evaluation
“They put in a sheet prior
to the event... so then
when they come for their
reviews we say, “Right,
you went on such and
such, have you felt it’s
been useful for you in the
classroom?”
• Interviews with students
• Interviews with teachers
• Reflective logs
• Observation
• PM
• Questionnaires
“We ran inset …I did
follow-up observations
– to see if they were
employing the
strategies “
Student Learning Outcomes
“If you’re developing the teachers
professionally it’s of benefit to the
school and it’s of benefit to the
children”.
“We have conferences
with our students
twice a year to talk
about the teaching...”
Method of evaluation
• Interview
• Sats/GCSE/A/AS
“I wanted to see if the
• Scrutiny of work
children were employing
the strategies that the
• Discussion
teachers had learned –
when I went through the
• Immediate work
answers the children were
employing the strategies
• Term/year evaluations/tests
I’d wanted the teachers to
• Pupil self assessment be teaching”.
• Performance assessment
• Portfolio assessment
Part 3
Leadership
& Support
CPD Management Roles
Cover
Tracking
Information
PM
Provision
Admin
PD
Materials
Networks
Reporting
CPD Leadership Roles
Planning
Individuals
NA whole
school
Planning
Schools
Develop
NA
individuals
Networks
Analysis
Use of
analysis
Evaluation Methods
Career long CPD planning
Leadership
Reflection
Supportive Culture
SIP
Time & Resources
Co-ordinator's Role
Evaluation of Impact
Factors influencing school capacity and
student achievement
Student Achievement
Instructional Quality
Curriculum, Instruction, Assessment
School Capacity
Teachers’ Knowledge, Skills, Dispositions
Professional Community - shared purpose,
collaboration, reflective enquiry, influence
Program Coherence
Policy and Programs on
PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
by the
School
District
State
Independent Organisations