Educational leadership in today’s higher education sector
Higher Education Summit, Auckland
10th March 2011
Peter Coolbear
What’s my perspective?
From an agency charged with improving teaching and learning
What do we see?
• The brilliant co-existing with the indifferent
• Great ideas gaining traction: great ideas never getting off the runway
• Variability in organisational performance
• Decisions made on assertion and anecdote
• Practice inertia (unquestioning continuation of historical practices)
• Misalignment of resources with learner needs
March 2011
Plan of this presentation
• The changing policy context for tertiary
teaching and learning
• How should we think about educational
leadership in this changed context – what are
the dimensions of educational leadership?
Proposition:
• We need to move to a more evidence-based,
model of educational leadership at all levels
within tertiary organisations
March 2011
Levels of Educational Leadership
• At individual practitioner level
• Middle management
• Senior management
• Governance
• System
March 2011
The context: an ambitious “value for money” reform
package around educational performance
• There’s a new game in
town!
• It’s no longer about
inputs and systems ….
It’s about outcomes and
many of the outcomes
could be better
The context: an ambitious “value for
money” reform package
• Publication of Educational
Performance Indicators
• New quality enhancement
processes based on selfassessment and external
evaluation and review
• Targeted review of qualifications
pre-degree and a new model for
the tertiary qualifications
framework
• Specific governance expectations
• Capped funding
Underlying drivers for these reforms
• Massification of Tertiary Education massive increase in expenditure
• Tertiary education as an investment:
what’s the RoI:
– for the individual?
– for the nation?
• Perceptions of waste and duplication of
effort
• Perceptions that resources spread too
thinly for effective spend
• Accountability issues
• International comparisons
• Deadweight costs
• Lack of trust?
• Expectations of new technologies
Student success
7 year completion rates of NZ students enrolling in 2003
Level of study
NZ
European
Māori
NZ Pacific
NZ Asian
Diploma L 5-7
40
35
37
52
Bachelors L 7
61
41
41
66
Masters L 9
66
48
50
76
Source: MOE census data for 7 year completion rates all domestic
students, all f/t + p/t (September 2010)
Variability in provider performance
ITP
PEP
University
Wānanga
Qualification
completion
rates (all levels)
34-65%*
0-100%
63-77%*
37-63%
Course
completions (all
levels)
50-78%
21-100%
77-87%
42-80%
Measure
* Range excludes significant distance providers
Source: TEC Educational Performance Indicators for 2009 (September 2010)
The skills of Educational Leadership
• Professionalism
• Evidence-based decision making
• Ability to share vision and values across the
organisation
• Bravery
• In the end, it’s about people
March 2011
The functional dimensions of Educational Performance:
Educational
leadership needs
to address all
three:
Public data
Self evaluation
External
Reputation
March 2011
Public data
• TEC EPIs
• Value-add measures
• Participation rates
• Level of academic challenge
• Employability
March 2011
External
Reputation
• Community perceptions
and positioning
• Employer endorsement
of graduate outcomes
• National recognition of
educational excellence /
initiative / innovation
• Peer reviewed research
• Consultancy / outreach
March 2011
Selfevaluation
• Evaluative questioning
• Evidence gathering
• Evidence collation and interpretation
• Benchmarking
• Acting on the evidence
March 2011
Ako Aotearoa undertaking work with ACER and New
Zealand Universities and ITPs
Universities: data interpretation
10 polytechnics – NZ report due March
March 2011
Average student engagement scale scores by
qualification type in ITPs
Bridging programme
Certificate
Diploma
Undergraduate degree
70
60.4
60
55.0 54.1
53.3
Average scale score
50
40
52.1 51.4 51.9
48.8
45.2
40.1
39.1 39.5
35.8
29.8 30.2
30
28.6
27.1
25.8
22.9
18.6
20
25.2
25.2
18.5
13.1
10
0
Academic Challenge
Active Learning
Student Staff
Interactions
Enriching Educational
Experiences
Supportive Learning
Environment
Work Integrated
Learning
March 2011
Targeting and prioritising from evidence about
what works and what doesn’t work
What are the best value for money interventions to
improve learner outcomes?
What can we stop doing without much impact on learner
outcomes?
What should we be doing to further build our reputation /
key partnerships / establish points of difference? What
evidence should we collect to support the stories we tell?
March 2011
How do we grow Educational Leadership in our
organisations?
• A learning organisation grows leaders
• Is managerial numeracy a problem?
• A professional association for tertiary
educational leadership?
• How do we improve the attractiveness of middle
management positions in educational
organisations?
March 2011
Where does Ako Aotearoa fit in?
• Support development of
practice
• Leadership in evidence-based
change
• Strengthen the research base
on which tertiary education
practice and policy develops in
the future
• Identify and share good
practice
• Raise professional
expectations of tertiary
teachers and organisations
Generally, people view the value placed on quality tertiary teaching and the quality of
professional development services available for tertiary teachers in New Zealand as being
quite average
Perceptions of Tertiary Education in New Zealand (1)
1 = 'Poor' to 3
The value placed on quality tertiary
teaching in New Zealand
The quality of professional
development services available for
tertiary teachers in New Zealand
4 to 7
8 to 10 = 'Excellent'
19%
13%
63%
66%
Mean
Not Sure, N/A
15%
14%
4%
9%
5.5
5.7
Notes: 1. Sample size n = 517
March 2011
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Nearly eight in ten survey respondents believe that it is important for the tertiary sector to
develop mutually agreed minimum standards of teaching and learning
Do you believe it is important for the tertiary sector to develop mutually agreed minimum standards of
teaching and learning?(1)
Yes
No
Not sure
15%
7%
79%
Notes: 1. Sample size n = 517
March 2011
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