Building Capacity for
Leading Curriculum
Change:
A collaborative approach
Heidi Bush ACSA Biennial Conference Sydney 2011
heidibush@ozemail.com.au
THE CONTEXT
© 2011 Google
SUPPORTING SCHOOLS IN
THE IMPLEMENTATION OF
THE AUSTRALIAN
CURRICULUM
• What will schools need for successful
implementation of the AC?
• How can schools with diverse needs
and contexts be supported
effectively?
• How can consistent support be
provided to schools across a wide
geographic area?
THE AIMS OF OUR
APPROACH
Successful implementation of the AC
– Knowledge, understanding and skills for effective use
of a new curriculum
– Enhanced pedagogy
Capacity building
– Principals as primary leaders of learning
– APs as leaders of learning and change agents
– Teachers as best practice educators
Second order change
– new learning
– transformation
– sustained
CONSULTING PRINCIPALS
•
•
•
•
•
2009
Principals asked to name the support they required
for successful implementation of the AC.
Planning and assessment identified as a common
focus.
A focus on “how” rather than “what” as we
transitioned between curricula.
Transfers across all learning areas – not just a
learning area focus.
What was needed to achieve success with planning
and assessment from a new curriculum?
BUILDING SUCCESS
SOCIAL
CAPITAL
BUILDING
CAPACITY
ACKNOWLEDGE
THE DIP
BEING
ASSERTIVE
TROUBLESHOOT
LEAN
PLANS
LEARN
THROUGH
ACTION
NO
ISLANDS
MEASURE
SUCCESS
A TRI-LEVEL
APPROACH
• Important to have everyone “on the same
page”.
• The same process and PL was delivered
with Principals, Assistant Principals and
teachers.
– Purposeful Planning and Authentic Assessment
BUILDING
CAPACITY
A TRI-LEVEL
APPROACH
2010
“Purposeful Planning and Authentic
Assessment”
• Three full day PL sessions with APs.
• Four full day Principals’ Meeting with half
the day devoted to PL.
• Process driven in schools by APs with
Education Officer support.
BUILDING
CAPACITY
A TRI-LEVEL
APPROACH
Starting with existing beliefs and
understanding
Highly effective and purposeful planning is
evident when …
Authentic assessment is …
BEING
ASSERTIVE
BUILDING
CAPACITY
A TRI-LEVEL
APPROACH
Starting with existing beliefs and
understanding
• Planning process vs. recording planning
• Not looking at planning templates
BEING
ASSERTIVE
BUILDING
CAPACITY
Purposeful Planning and Authentic
Assessment
STARTING WITH THE
END IN MIND
ESTABLISH THE GOAL
What do we want to achieve in planning and assessment?
THE VISION
What will mission accomplished look like?
VISION AND REALITY
What are the gaps?
TAKING ACTION
How do we close the gaps?
TROUBLESHOOTING GUIDES
Planning for adjustments.
OUR “END IN MIND”
OUR GOAL FOR PLANNING AND ASSESSMENT
We are collaboratively planning and assessing from the Australian Curriculum and Good
News For Living so that students are able to successfully and actively engage in
learning experiences that suit individual needs, levels of understanding and preferred
ways of learning.
The key elements of the planning are
•
Backward design
•
Concept based
•
Inquiry focus
•
Articulated knowledge, understanding, skills and attitudes/values
LEAN
PLANS
Students are assessed prior to, during and following learning experiences and given
constructive feedback to enable them to demonstrate the full extent of their
understanding and apply learned knowledge and skills in varied situations,
particularly real world contexts.
Assessment will be used to inform our ongoing teaching practice in order for students to
reach their full potential.
Schools worked through the process to develop their own
goal.
STARTING WITH
THE END IN MIND
Shared goal.
LEAN
PLANS
Clarity of purpose.
Backward design.
Knowing what we want to achieve so the
best structures, processes and support
can be put in place to accomplish this.
• Language and expectations that are
accessible for all – classroom teachers
and school leaders.
•
•
•
•
A REGIONAL FOCUS:
Purposeful Planning &
Authentic Assessment
A shared focus across all schools.
SOCIAL
CAPITAL
Consistent language and PL.
A focus on HOW rather than WHAT.
A network of support across schools and
among educators.
• Shared focus with contextualised
implementation.
• A shared process for learning and leading
learning.
• “Knowing our people” and working together.
•
•
•
•
FOCUSED PL
• 2010 Teacher Network Meetings(4) –
exploring the Shaping Papers
• Shared process – jigsaw.
• Emerging issues identified for future
PL.
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
Inquiry
Concept-based teaching learning
Inclusion / Differentiation
Teaching for Understanding
Assessment
Planning
Reporting
Digital Technologies
The Kindergarten Program and EYLF
NO
ISLANDS
BEING
ASSERTIVE
FOCUSED PL
NO
ISLANDS
BEING
ASSERTIVE
FOCUSED PL
• Emerging issues were discussed at a
Principals’ Meeting.
• The second regional focus became
collaborative planning.
NO
ISLANDS
BEING
ASSERTIVE
FOCUSED PL
2011
• “Regional Curriculum Meetings for School Leaders”
– 10 full day meetings every 3 weeks
• Focus – the PL required to achieve the 2010 regional goal.
– focus and structure determined by principals
– direction and content of the PL was provided (“you don’t know what
you don’t know”)
– follow up at Principals’ Meetings
– action planning and accountability
• Ongoing Support
–
–
–
–
–
–
Education Officer
Regional Director
school visits
working with teachers and leadership teams
school-based PL
Curriculum Mapping
NO
ISLANDS
BEING
ASSERTIVE
FOCUSED PL 2011
Collaborative
Planning
LIVING THE GOAL: PURPOSEFUL PLANNING AND AUTHENTIC
ASSESSMENT IN ACTION
STAGES OF PROFESSIONAL LEARNING
Stage 1: Backward Design
Stage 2: Differentiation
Stage 3: Assessment
Stage 4: Feedback
Stage 5: Concept-Based Curriculum
Stage 6: Inquiry
The AC was used as a
“vehicle” for the
learning
FOCUSED PL 2011
PACED LEARNING
• No “coverage” in the PL
– Learning paced according to the learners,
not pre-determined.
– Time to apply and embed.
– Challenges acknowledge and addressed.
ACKNOWLEDGE
THE DIP
APPLYING THE
LEARNING
• Learning cannot happen through words alone.
• PL at each Regional Curriculum Meeting for School
Leaders included application of learning.
– Using the AC to plan
– Planning collaboratively
– Facilitating planning in teams
LEARN
THROUGH
ACTION
• School leaders felt better prepared and competent when
participating in teachers’ collaborative planning meetings
in their own schools.
• Beyond beliefs to behaviours – LIVE THE BELIEF.
MEASURING SUCCESS
• The goal.
• Success criteria – the goal in practice (“mission
accomplished”)
• Rubrics.
• A combination of school leaders describing success
criteria and examples provided (“You don’t know
what you don’t know”).
MEASURE
SUCCESS
COLLABORATIVE PLANNING
1
2
3
4
Teachers meet regularly to discuss and share ideas for future learning sequences and inquiries. Teachers are open
and willing to both share their own planning and accept ideas from others. Examples of resources used in the past
or known quality resources are shared with the planning team. Teachers may leave the planning meeting with
copies of planning and resources that have been offered and shared by others in the team and all members of the
team are clear about the topics to be covered and the time frame for covering these.
Teachers meet regularly to plan future learning opportunities and share ideas and resources. Teachers use the
curriculum documents and together, share teaching approaches, strategies and activities that have been successful
in the past when teaching the content for the year level. As teachers share and discuss ideas, these are recorded by
a member of the planning team for distribution to other members of the team. Teachers collaboratively agree on
topics to be addressed in order to cover the curriculum content and teachers leave the meeting with a clear long
term plan for the areas to be covered and when these will be covered in the classroom, as well as a bank of shared
ideas and resources for teaching the agreed topics.
Teachers meet regularly to plan learning opportunities for students and discuss student progress. Teachers agree at
the beginning of each meeting, the curriculum area/s to be planned and refer to the curriculum documents for
these areas during the planning process. Teachers use the curriculum as a starting point for planning and discuss
ways of addressing the content and standards and how this may be taught. A member of the team records ideas and
planning for later distribution to the team. Teachers work together to plan the focus for a learning sequence, the
topic and the activities that will be completed and the order in which they will be sequenced to maximise learning.
Teachers agree on the time frame to complete the planned learning sequence in order to cover the curriculum
content for the year level. Teachers share additional resources that may be of assistance to other members of the
team when implementing the planned learning sequence.
Teachers meet regularly to plan the conceptual focus, generative topics, essential questions, expected knowledge,
skills, understanding and evidence of this learning. Teachers have an extensive knowledge of curriculum documents
for all year levels and plan the above based on these. Teachers discuss the varied nature of the learners they are
planning for and enable flexibility in planning of learning sequences to enable individual teachers to plan specifically
for readiness, interests and learning profiles of their students and the time needed for learning. Each planning
meeting has an agreed to agenda and outcome to be achieved that has been determined prior to the planning
meeting. Each meeting begins by discussing previous planning and the learning this has achieved and any
misconceptions or issues that may need to be addressed in future planning. Teachers value and respect the input,
views and varied levels of experience and expertise within the team and meeting norms are agreed to and revisited
at each meeting. Teachers come to planning meetings knowing the agenda and curriculum areas to be planned and
bring with them the required curriculum documents. Teachers work together to plan the conceptual focus,
generative topics, essential questions, expected knowledge, skills, understanding and evidence of this learning.
TROUBLESHOOTING
• Troubleshooting guides.
• Troubleshooting began at the goal-setting
stage.
• Potential “speed bumps” identified and
planned for.
• Ongoing discussion and troubleshooting of
emerging issues and challenges within
schools.
TROUBLESHOOT
THE RESULTS OF
THIS APPROACH
• Enhanced capacity among school leaders, particularly APs –
confidence to lead and contribute to meetings.
• Consistent PL for teachers and school leaders.
• Principals actively and visibly being part of PL alongside
teachers.
• Shared knowledge, language and processes for future
networking and collaboration between schools.
• Enhanced use of regional office support.
• Open discussion and airing of our values and beliefs about
teaching and learning and how these apply in practice.
• Enhanced understanding and attitude to the new
curriculum. (“I thought History was going to be really boring
to teach but I’m really excited about this.”)
FROM OUR EDUCATORS
• “We’ve looked at the Shaping Papers so I
thought, ‘we’ve done this’ but after today I
got so much more out of them and we’ll do
more of this again back at school.” (a
principal)
• “I don’t think we can keep using our text
books now after discussing purposeful
planning and authentic assessment.” (an
assistant principal)
• “This is really exciting. I can’t wait to get into
the classroom and do this.” (a classroom
teacher)
PRE-EMPTING POST-
CONFERENCE FATIGUE!
Take a moment to reflect:
• What do you remember from the session?
• Has anything in this workshop connected with
you?
• Was anything of particular interest?
• How does this sit with your current practice,
thoughts or context?
• Is there anything you’re still wondering? Any
questions?
Every collaboration helps you grow
Brian Eno
heidibush@ozemail.com.au
References
Fullan, M. (2009). Motion Leadership. Moorabin,
Victoria: Hawker Brownlow Education.
The National Academy for Academic Leadership.
Leadership and Institutional Change.
Retrieved September 23, 2011 from
http://www.thenationalacademy.org/ready/ch
ange.html