THE INTERNATIONAL
IMPERATIVE FOR
INSTRUCTIONAL
LEADERSHIP
LEAP Conference
Sydney 29th July 2013
Professor Stephen Dinham OAM
Chair of Teacher Education |
Director Learning and Teaching
Melbourne Graduate School of Education
Overview
1. National and international emphases on quality
2.
3.
4.
5.
teaching.
How and why have approaches to leadership and
educational leadership changed?
What impact does leadership have on student
outcomes?
Leadership for teaching and learning:
1. AESOP
2. Authoritative Leadership (introduction to workshop)
Connecting clinical teaching and instructional
leadership.
National and international
emphases on quality teaching
Background
 Until the mid-1960s the view was that schools
make almost no difference to student
achievement, which was largely pre-determined
by socio-economic status, family circumstances
and innate ability (“Coleman Report”, 1966).
 However, research has powerfully refuted that
view.
 We now know that teachers, teaching and
schools can make a significant difference to
student success.
Background
 As a result, there has been a major international
emphasis on improving the quality of teachers
and teaching since the 1980s.
 We now know how teacher expertise develops
and we know what good teaching looks like.
However we also know that teacher quality
varies within schools and across the nation.
 A quality teacher in every classroom is the
ultimate aim, but how to achieve this is the
big question and challenge.
Best Practice ...
'Thus, the major challenge in improving teaching
lies not so much in identifying and describing
quality teaching, but in developing structures and
approaches that ensure widespread use of
successful teaching practices: to make best
practice, common practice.'
(Dinham, Ingvarson & Kleinhenz, 2008)
It’s the Teacher …
‘... the most important factor affecting student learning is
the teacher. ... The immediate and clear implication of
this finding is that seemingly more can be done to
improve education by improving the effectiveness of
teachers than by any other single factor’.
Wright, S.; Horn, S. & Sanders, W. (1997). 'Teacher
and Classroom Context Effects on Student
Achievement: Implications for Teacher Evaluation',
Journal of Personnel Evaluation in Education, 11, pp.
57-67.
It’s the Teacher …
‘The quality of teaching is the main driver of successful
student learning outcomes.
Australia’s teaching profession and its schools constitute
an infrastructure that is critical to its survival in an
increasingly global economy.
Every student deserves teachers who are suited to
teaching, well trained and qualified, highly skilled, caring
and committed to moving forward the learning of their
students.’
(Dinham, Ingvarson & Kleinhenz, 2008)
*Dinham (2008) ACER Press
http://shop.acer.edu.au/acer-shop/product/A4066BK
Four Fundamentals of Student Success
(Dinham, 2008)*
QUALITY
TEACHING
FOCUS ON THE
STUDENT
(Learner, Person)
LEADERSHIP
PROFESSIONAL
LEARNING
Raudenbush, S. (2009). ‘The Brown Legacy …’ ,
Educational Researcher , 38(3), 171.
“ … school improvement by itself has potential to make an
enormous difference in the lives of children even if
broader social change is slow in coming. The children
who depend most on good schooling for academic
growth are the least likely to receive it. If school
improvement begins early in life and if sustained, the
most disadvantaged children stand to benefit most. This
reasoning suggests that increasing the amount and the
quality of schooling to which these children have access
would reduce inequality in academic achievement.”
The Melbourne Declaration (2008)
The Declaration articulates two important goals for
education in Australia:
◦ Goal 1: Australian schooling promotes equity and
excellence
◦ Goal 2: All young Australians become:
■ successful learners
■ confident and creative individuals
■ active and informed citizens.
The Melbourne Declaration is a very good frame for the
sorts of evidence we need in schools today.
Quality Teachers and Quality Teaching
• Defining quality teaching, quality teachers: UNESCO Strategy
•
•
•
on Teachers (2012-2015) (2012).
http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0021/002177/217775e.pdf
Schleicher, A. (Ed) (2012). Preparing Teachers and
developing School Leaders for the 21st Century. Paris: OECD.
http://www.oecd.org/site/eduistp2012/49850576.pdf
Dinham, S. ‘The Quality Teaching Movement in Australia
Encounters Difficult Terrain: A Personal Perspective’,
Australian Journal of Education, 57(2), pp. 91-106.
OECD. (nd). Programme for International Student
Assessment (PISA) – Strong Performers and Successful
Reformers in Education. Paris: OECD.
http://www.oecd.org/edu/preschoolandschool/programmeforint
ernationalstudentassessmentpisa/strongperformersandsucces
sfulreformersineducation.htm
Measuring Student Achievement
• OECD – PISA http://www.oecd.org/pisa/
• OECD – ‘Shanghai and Hong Kong’
•
•
•
•
http://www.oecd.org/pisa/pisaproducts/46581016.pdf
TIMSS and PIRLS http://timss.bc.edu/
GEM http://www.gemconsortium.org/
Sahlberg, P. (2012). ‘How Finland Remains Immune to the Global
Educational Reform Movement’, Dean’s Lecture Series, University of
Melbourne, MGSE, 25th September.
http://education.unimelb.edu.au/news_and_activities/events/deans_l
ecture_series/pasi_sahlberg
Dinham, S. & Scott, C. (2012). ‘Our Asian Schooling Infatuation: the
problem of PISA envy’, The Conversation, September.
https://theconversation.edu.au/our-asian-schooling-infatuation-theproblem-of-pisa-envy-9435
How and why have approaches
to leadership and educational
leadership changed?
Changing Paradigms of Leadership in
Education
• ‘Great Man’ theory – personal qualities of ‘great’ leaders
• With growth of formal organisations – administration and
•
•
•
•
•
governance
Weber – the rational bureaucracy
Models, theories, typologies of leadership, contingency
Educational Administration – 1950’s onwards; Prof Bill
Walker (UNE)
‘Science ‘of Management; corporate influences; MBAs,
business degrees 1980’s onwards
Parallel wave from 1970’s – effective schools;
instructional leadership
Changing Paradigms of Leadership in
Education
• Mid-1980s onwards – Quality Teaching
• 1980-1990s – Self-managing schools; ‘transformational
•
•
leadership’, distributed leadership, leading learning
communities
More recently – return of instructional leadership with a greater
emphasis on student learning and the impacts of leadership
and [clinical] teaching on student achievement.
Context in Australia:
•
•
•
•
NAPLAN
ACARA
Australian Professional Teaching Standards
International testing
Leadership is Important
• The more leaders focus their influence, their learning,
and their relationships with teachers on the core business
of teaching and learning, the greater their influence on
student outcomes. (Robinson, Lloyd & Rowe, 2008).
• I … advance the following three arguments. First,
leadership matters …Second, leadership is inclusive
…Third, leadership practices can be taught and learned.
(Reeves, 2008)
Leadership is Important
Ask anyone who has had one or more years working in a
school whether leadership has made a difference in their
work and the answer will be an unhesitating ‘Yes’. No
matter who the respondent is … they all seem to know
good (and bad) leadership when they experience it.
(Wahlstrom & Louis, 2008).
Leadership matters and is changing … School leadership
needs to be smart; it needs to be evidence-based and
shared. (Mulford, 2008)
Leadership is Important
Today, the prime focus for any educational leader must be
on the academic, personal and social advancement of his
or her students. Everything done in a school should be
geared to impact in some way on facilitating student
achievement, the true core business of teachers and
schools. ... The challenge for educational leaders is thus
to make things happen in their school and to penetrate
the often closed classroom door. While principals are
important leaders, they are not the only leaders in
schools. Other leaders, formal and informal, through
distributed leadership, also play important roles in
facilitating student learning. (Dinham, 2009).
What impact does leadership
have on student outcomes?
Relative impact of leadership dimensions
(Robinson, Lloyd & Rowe, 2008)
0.42
1. Establishing
Goals
andexpectations
Expectations
1. Establishing
goals
and
2. Resourcing
2. Resourcingstrategically
Strategically
0.31
3. Planning,
coordinating
and evaluating
3. Planning,
Coordinating
and
teaching
and
the
curriculum
Evaluating Teaching and the Curriculum
0.42
4. Promoting and participating in teacher
4. Promoting and Participating in
learning and development
0.84
Teacher Learning and Development
5. Ensuring an Orderly and Supportive
Environment
5. Ensuring an orderly environment
0.27
0
0.1
0.2
0.3
0.4
0.5
0.6
0.7
Effect Size
0.8
0.9
1
Findings from Action Learning Projects: Bastow
Institute Leading Instructional Practice (2013)
What Works in transforming teaching and learning?
• Listening to students (student to teacher feedback)
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Observing learning (not just teaching)
Teachers learning together, working in teams
Gathering and using evidence
Setting, reviewing and revising goals
Considering and building for sustainability
Striving for teacher understanding, consistency
Focusing on teacher explanation
Findings from Action Learning Projects: Bastow
Institute Leading Instructional Practice (2013)
… What Works
• Emphasising literacy everywhere
• Engendering self-verbalisation
• Setting the example, sharing the message
• Assessment is broader than marks and grades
• Feedback is more than communicating assessment
• Prioritising
• Finding reasons, not making excuses
• Questioning
• Sharing success, communicating
Findings from Action Learning Projects: Bastow
Institute Leading Instructional Practice (2013)
The Outcomes
• Powerful, enacted teacher learning
•
•
•
•
•
Changing practice, taking charge of learning
Teacher inquiry
Deep reflection, questioning, open discussion
Consistent implementation
Growth in student learning, not just measurement
The Need for Instructional Leadership
• Marzano, Waters and McNulty found (2005):
•
A highly effective school leader can have a dramatic
influence on the overall academic achievement of
students. ... a meta-analysis of 35 years of research
indicates that school leadership has a substantial effect on
student achievement and provides guidance for
experienced and aspiring principals alike.
Yet Hallinger (2005) observed that despite interest in
instructional leadership - leadership of and for teaching and
learning - arising from research into effective schools going
back as far as the late 1970s (2005):
During the mid-1990s, however, attention shifted somewhat
away from effective schools and instructional leadership.
Interest in these topics was displaced by concepts such as
school restructuring and transformational leadership.
The Need for Instructional Leadership
• However findings from international research have caused a
re-examination of the worth of instructional leadership.
Robinson, Lloyd and Rowe concluded from their work on the
impact of various leadership approaches (2008):
The comparison between instructional and
transformational leadership showed that the impact
[on student outcomes] of the former is three to four
times that of the latter. …
Educational leadership involves not only building collegial
teams, a loyal and cohesive staff, and sharing an
inspirational vision. It also involves focusing such
relationships on some very specific pedagogical work, and
the leadership practices involved are better captured by
measures of instructional leadership than of
transformational leadership.
The Need for Instructional Leadership
• While original conceptions of instructional leadership focussed
•
•
predominantly on the principal, the notion of distributed
leadership – the leadership practices and effects of others in
leadership positions in schools – has become more prevalent.
Attention is increasingly turning to the impact of teaching and
leadership on student outcomes along with teacher leadership
– has become prominent.
Barber et al. (2010) found:
High-performing [‘top’ 15%] principals focus more on
instructional leadership and developing teachers. They
see their biggest challenges as improving teaching and
curriculum, and they believe that their ability to coach
others and support their development is the most important
skill of a good school leader.
The Need for Instructional Leadership
• However penetrating the often closed classroom door
remains a challenge for principals and other leaders.
Wahlstrom and Louis have commented (2008):
In the current era of accountability, a principal’s
responsibility for the quality of teachers’ work is
simply a fact of life. How to achieve influence over
work settings (classrooms) in which they rarely
participate is a key dilemma.
The Need for Instructional Leadership
• Robinson et al’s. conclusions from their meta-analyses support
the existence of a disconnect between approaches to
leadership and approaches to improving student outcomes
(2008):
The loose coupling of school leadership and classroom
teaching ... is paralleled in the academy by the separation
of most leadership research and researchers from
research on teaching and learning, and by the popularity of
leadership theories that have little educational content. ...
Fortunately, the gulf between the two fields is
beginning to be bridged by a resurgence of interest in
instructional leadership and calls for more focus on
the knowledge and skills that leaders need to support
teacher learning about how to raise achievement while
reducing disparity.
Leadership, Teaching and Learning
• www.nctq.org/p/publications/docs/mckinsey_education_report.pdf.
• Barber, M.; Whelan, F. and Clark, M. (2010). Capturing the Leadership
Premium: How the world’s top school systems are building leadership
capacity for the future. McKinsey and Company.
http://mckinseyonsociety.com/capturing-the-leadership-premium/
• Day, C.; Sammons, P.; Hopkins, D.; Harris, A.; Leithwood, K.; Qing, G.;
•
•
Brown, E.; Ahtaridou, E. and Kington, A. (2009). The Impact of School
Leadership on Pupil Outcomes. Nottingham: University of Nottingham.
http://dera.ioe.ac.uk/11329/1/DCSF-RR108.pdf
Dinham, S. (2008). How to get your School Moving and Improving: An
evidence-based approach. Melbourne: ACER Press. Available at:
http://research.acer.edu.au/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1137&context=resear
ch_conference
Robinson, V., Lloyd, C., and Rowe, K. (2008). The impact of leadership on
student outcomes: An analysis of the differential effects of leadership types.
Educational Administration Quarterly 44(5), pp. 635-674.
Leadership for teaching and
learning
AESOP
Authoritative Leadership
Dinham, S. (2007). Leadership for Exceptional
Educational Outcomes.
• See http://www.postpressed.com.au/index.html?aesop/index.html for
ÆSOP series
PROPOSITION
• Leaders’ beliefs, attitudes, mindsets and predispositions
are powerful influences on the change that can be
achieved in schools.
FINDINGS
• Principals and other leaders facilitate quality teaching,
student achievement and school renewal and
improvement through:
1. External Awareness and
Engagement
•
•
Openness to Change and Opportunity
Develop Productive External Links
2. A Bias Towards Innovation and
Action
•
•
Using Discretion, Bending Rules, Procedures
Bias to Experimentation, Risk Taking
3. Personal Qualities and
Relationships
•
•
•
•
Leaders have positive attitudes which are contagious
Intellectual Capacity
Moral Leadership
Assist, Feedback, Listen to Staff
3. Personal Qualities and
Relationships
•
•
•
•
•
Treat staff, others professionally
Expect high standard of professionalism in return
Model professionalism
Others don’t want to “let down”
Provide professional, pleasant facilities
3. Personal Qualities and
Relationships
Other Personal Qualities
• High level interpersonal skills
• Generally liked, respected, trusted
• Knows, use names, shows personal interest
• Demonstrates empathy, compassion
• Available at short notice when needed
• Epitomises the “servant leader”, yet unmistakably in
control
• Work for school , students, staff, education, rather than
for themselves.
4. Vision, Expectations, Culture of
Success
•
“Expect a lot, give a lot” (highly responsive, highly
demanding – see later)
•
•
•
•
Clear, agreed, high standards
The standard things done well
Recognition of student, staff Achievement
Creates a culture, expectation of success
5. Teacher Learning,
Responsibility and Trust
•
•
•
•
•
Investment in teacher learning
Teachers are at the core of improvement in student
learning
All teachers can be leaders
Responsibility recognition, empowerment, staff
development
Trust an aspect of mutual respect
6. Student Support, Common
Purpose, Collaboration
•
•
•
•
Centrality of Student Welfare
Support by leaders essential
Leaders Find Common Purpose
Pockets of like-minded staff, collaboration
7. Focus on Students, Learning
and Teaching
•
Focus on students as people (personal, academic,
social)
•
•
•
Teaching and learning prime foci of the school
Leaders obtain and organise the resources for success
Creates and environment where teaching and learning
can occur
7. Focus on Students, Learning
and Teaching
•
•
•
•
•
•
Leadership Takes Time
Leaders Build on What is There
Consistency, Yet Flexibility in Policy
Evidence based practice
Vision is knowing where you are going
Stand for Something!
Comment
• Attributes, qualities, approaches neither idealistic nor
•
•
•
•
prescriptive.
Not ‘quick fixes’ or recipes for success, but a framework
for reflection and action.
Context, history important.
Influence of leadership on outstanding outcomes
confirmed.
Significant role for professional learning.
Comment
• Two aspects to leadership:
– Highly responsive to people and events
– Highly demanding of self and others
• Principals and other leaders help create conditions,
climate, where success can occur.
• Characteristics both product (output) and process (input)
variables leading to upwards cycle of success.
Conclusion
 Those looking for and advocating quick fixes for
struggling schools need to consider the intense,
coordinated effort and teamwork under
authoritative forms of leadership that such
improvement entails.
 However, the evidence is clear that it can be
done. As one participant commented in the
ÆSOP study:
◦ ‘in this school we make plans now, not excuses’.
Importance of Relationships
• Michael Fullan (2001: 5):
… we have found that the single factor common to
every successful change initiative is that relationships
improve. If relationships improve, things get better. If
they remain the same or get worse, ground is lost.
Thus leaders must be consummate relationship
builders with diverse people and groups - especially
with people different than themselves.
Connecting clinical teaching
and instructional leadership.
Introduction
• There have been long-standing concerns with teacher pre-service
•
•
education. The model of university coursework plus practicum has been
criticised. Despite attempts to rectify this situation, only a minority of
beginning teachers in Australia rate themselves as being well prepared
or very well prepared when they begin teaching.
This presentation examines such concerns before offering an
alternative.
There are two aspects to this new model.
– Firstly, a clinical approach to teacher pre-service education
coupled with new roles, practices and structures designed to
overcome the so-called theory practice gap and enable
implementation of evidence-based interventionist practice.
– Secondly, the adoption of a clinical approach to teacher education
and teaching practice requires understanding, knowledge,
commitment and support from education leaders. Educational
leaders require a thorough grounding in instructional leadership
for clinical teaching if real change towards evidence-based teaching
practice for improved student achievement is to occur in schools.
Concerns with Teacher Education
• In Australia there has been, on average, one major state or national
enquiry into teacher education every year for the past 30 years.
Inevitably and unfortunately, ‘Each inquiry reaches much the
same conclusions and makes much the same
recommendations, yet little changes’ (Dinham, 2006).
• Darling-Hammond and Baratz-Snowden (2005) provide a succinct
summary of these concerns and an emerging trend:
In the recent past, traditional teacher preparation often has been
criticised for being overly theoretical, having little connection
to practice, offering fragmented and incoherent courses, and
lacking in a clear, shared conception of teaching among the
faculty. Programs that are largely a collection of unrelated
courses and that lack a common conception of teaching and
learning have been found to be feeble agents for effecting
practice among new teachers. ...
In response …
• However in response:
Beginning in the late 1980s, teacher education reforms
began to produce program designs representing more
integrated, coherent programs that emphasise a
consistent vision of good teaching ... The programs
teach teachers to do more than simply implement
particular techniques; they help teachers to think
pedagogically, reason through dilemmas,
investigate problems, and analyse student
learning to develop appropriate curriculum for a
diverse group of learners.
Clinical Approaches
• There is growing recognition that teachers need to be
able to ‘diagnose’ individual student learning and provide
appropriate ‘prescriptions’ for improvement i.e., to be
clinical, evidence-based, interventionist practitioners in
the manner of health professionals.
• Teachers have been told for decades that they need to
cater for individual student differences and to
‘personalise’ learning, yet generally, have not been
shown or taught how to do this.
Clinical Approaches
• Darling-Hammond and Baratz-Snowden (2005) have noted
that successful clinical teacher education programs exhibit:
– Clarity of goals, including the use of standards guiding the
performances and practices to be developed.
– Modelling of good practices by more expert teachers in
which teachers make their thinking visible.
– Frequent opportunities for practice with continuous
formative feedback and coaching.
– Multiple opportunities to relate classroom work to
university coursework.
– Graduated responsibility for all aspects of classroom
teaching.
– Structured opportunities to reflect on practice with an eye
toward improving it.
Example of a Clinical Approach: The Master of
Teaching at UoM
The Master of Teaching [Early Childhood, Primary,
Secondary] introduced in 2008 at Melbourne:
• A key principle underpinning the MTeach is the focus
upon evidence or data about learners to improve
teaching practice and to lead to enhanced student
learning and development.
• A second principle is that in order to break the cycle of
teachers teaching as they were taught and new teachers
being drawn into this prevailing culture, there needs to be
more alignment, understanding and collaboration
between the university and schools/early childhood
settings.
Key Features of the MTeach
• Teacher Candidates spend two days per week in a school or
•
•
early childhood centre from early in their studies and
undertake placements in block rounds of up to four weeks in
each semester.
Placement sites (Base Schools [hubs], Placement Schools
and early childhood centres) are arranged in neighbourhood
groups (networks in early childhood) which have been
carefully chosen and where staff have a sound understanding
of the program.
MGSE funds one staff member at each Base School/centre
(40 in total) called a Teaching Fellow, to be released from 50
per cent of their duties to work across the partnership
group/network with Candidates, and Mentor [supervising]
Teachers to ensure coherent and consistent delivery of the
placement.
Key Features of the MTeach
• The Teaching Fellow [0.5] is joined by a university-based Clinical
Specialist [0.2] who supports Teacher Candidates to draw on the
work undertaken at university as they seek to meet the needs of
individual learners. Most Clinical Specialists are also involved in the
teaching of university-based subjects and are well placed to make
links between theory and practice.
• In order to further embed the links between theory and practice within
the program, Clinical Specialists, with the support of Teaching
Fellows, organise and deliver a seminar series that runs throughout
each semester at a placement/network site.
• These partnerships play a key role in supporting the clinical premise
of the Master of Teaching, i.e., that teachers who use a specific form
of evidence-based, diagnostic, interventionist teaching have a
positive effect on student learning outcomes. The program facilitates
the role of the teacher to work in teams and use data to enhance
decision-making about teaching and learning strategies for individual
students, groups and classes.
Key Features of the MTeach
• Assessment of student work as evidence of learning lies
at the core Master of Teaching subjects, a key principle
being that with a data-driven, evidence-based approach
to teaching and learning, teachers can manipulate the
learning environment and scaffold learning for every
student, regardless of the student’s development or
intellectual capacity.
Clinical Judgement for Teaching:
The Melbourne approach
Master of Teaching: Teaching to inspire
W: masterofteachingmelbourne.edu.au
© The University of Melbourne
Impact of the MTeach to date
• A study by the Australian Education Union (2009) asked
1,545 new primary and secondary teachers from across
Australia their satisfaction with their training as
preparation for teaching. Overall, 40 to 45% claimed that
they were ‘well’ or ‘very well’ prepared (on a five point
scale) when they began teaching.
• When the first MTeach graduates (primary and
secondary) were asked the same question as part of an
evaluation conducted by ACER late in 2010, 90%
reported being ‘well’ or ‘very well’ prepared when they
began teaching. Similar [higher] findings have been
recorded for Early Childhood graduates.
Impact of the MTeach to date
The ACER evaluation found:
– All respondents [Primary and secondary graduates, Clinical
Specialists, Teaching Fellows, Mentor Teachers, Principals,
other stakeholders] agreed that the [MTeach] program had
impressive strengths, as evident in the:
• Integration of theory and practice.
• Emphasis on evidence-based practice.
• Increased awareness and engagement with aspects of the
•
•
•
•
profession by Teacher Candidates.
Development of Candidates, who come into the profession with
knowledge of ‘best practice’.
Emphasis on deep reflection and on reflective practice in the course
giving Candidates an opportunity to change as they go along.
Recognition that Candidates have an important role to play in
increasing standards in the profession.
High levels of support for Candidates from Clinical Specialists,
Teaching Fellows and school-based staff.
The Need for Educational Leaders to
Understand and Support Clinical Practice
• These findings are encouraging – although the MTeach
is a work in progress - but producing well trained clinical
practitioners is not enough.
• If real change in teachers’ clinical assessment and
interventionist capabilities is to occur, school leaders
must be informed, supportive and equipped to assist
in this process of changing the way teachers think,
what they know and how they teach.
• A key concern is the professional development of the
bulk of the teaching profession who may have decades of
service ahead of them. Leaders have a key role here.
Conclusion
• Quality teaching lies at the heart of attempts to raise student
•
•
outcomes and to close achievement gaps associated with
factors such as socio-economic status, family background,
geographic isolation, non-English speaking background and
Aboriginality.
Research findings are increasingly compelling on the
relationship between instructional leadership, effective
teaching and student outcomes yet much work remains to be
done.
As teaching becomes more evidence-based, clinical and
interventionist in nature, it is imperative that school leaders are
equipped to guide, support and lead teachers in this process.
This central role is recognised in the recent Australian
Professional Standard for Principals.
Conclusion
• Twenty First Century educational leaders need to be able
to ‘talk the talk’ and more importantly, ‘walk the walk’ on
approaches that place the individual student and his or
her advancement at the centre of the school.
• In order to make best teaching practice common practice
(Dinham, Ingvarson & Kleinhenz, 2008), preparation for
and the enactment of instructional leadership must be
congruent with teachers’ initial and ongoing professional
learning to ensure evidence-based, clinical professional
practice occurs in every classroom and for every student.
One Response … Master of Instructional
Leadership (UoM)
• ‘Book-ends’ the Master of Teaching
• http://education.unimelb.edu.au/study_with_us/profession
al_development/course_list/instructional_leadership
Clinical Teaching
• Alter, J. and Coggshall. J.G. 2009. Teaching as a clinical
•
•
practice profession: implications for teacher preparation and
state policy. New York: National Comprehensive Centre for
Teacher Quality.
http://www.tqsource.org/publications/clinicalPractice.pdf
Dinham, S. (2013). ‘Connecting Instructional Leadership With
Clinical Teaching Practice’, Australian Journal of Education,
57(3), [in press]
McLean Davies, L.; Anderson, M.; Deans, J.; Dinham, S.;
Griffin, P.; Kameniar, B.; Page, J.; Reid, C.; Rickards, F.;
Tayler, C. and Tyler, D. (2013). ‘Masterly Preparation: Clinical
practice in a graduate pre-service teacher education program’,
Journal of Education for Teaching, 39(1), pp. 93-106.
IT’S AUTHORITATIVE
LEADERSHIP THAT MAKES THE
DIFFERENCE
Workshop
Parenting, Teaching and
Leadership Styles
• Teaching and educational leadership, like life generally,
are heavily dependent on relationships.
Parenting Styles
• Work of Diana Baumrind on parenting styles
• Two dimensions underlie parenting style:
Responsiveness - ‘the extent to which parents
intentionally foster individuality, self-regulation and
assertion by being attuned, supportive, and acquiescent
to children’s special needs and demands’.
Demandingness - ‘the claims parents make on children to
become integrated into the family whole, by their maturity
demands, supervision, disciplinary efforts and willingness
to confront the child who disobeys’. (Baumrind, 1991: 62)
Four Parenting Styles
• Uninvolved – low responsiveness, low demandingness;
• Authoritarian - low responsiveness, high demandingness;
• Permissive – high responsiveness, low demandingness,
•
and
Authoritative – high responsiveness, high
demandingness.
Authoritative Parenting
“… authoritative parents are high on both
responsiveness and demandingness. They are
warm and supportive of their children, aware of
their current developmental levels and sensitive
to their needs. They also, however, have high
expectations, and set appropriate limits while
providing structure and consistent rules, the
reasons for which they explain to their children,
rather than simply expecting unthinking
obedience.
Authoritative Parenting
While they maintain adult authority they are also
willing to listen to their child and to negotiate
about rules and situations. This combination of
sensitivity, caring, high expectations and
structure has been shown to have the best
consequences for children, who commonly
display academic achievement, good social
skills, moral maturity, autonomy and high self
esteem.”
(Scott & Dinham, 2005)
Enhancing Student Achievement
and Self Esteem
• “We argued that an authoritative teaching style
where high responsiveness is accompanied with
high demandingness provides the best model for
enhancing both student achievement and self
esteem, and that a pre-occupation with building
student self esteem through a permissive
approach in the hope that this will translate into
student achievement and development is counter
productive.
Enhancing Student Achievement
and Self Esteem
We noted recent research where schools that were
successful in facilitating students’ academic,
personal and social development achieved this
through an effective balance of focus on student
achievement and student welfare, regardless of
whether the school might be perceived by others
as being either a ‘welfare’ or ‘academic’ school,
an unhelpful and damaging false dichotomy”
(Scott & Dinham, 2005; Dinham, 2005, 2010).
Question
• Can the four types of parenting identified by Baumrind be
productively applied to educational leadership?
Four Types
of Leadership
• Uninvolved Leadership
• Authoritarian Leadership
• Permissive Leadership
• Authoritative Leadership
RESPONSIVENESS
DEMANDINGNESS
Low
High
Low
High
Authoritarian
Leadership
Authoritative
Leadership
Uninvolved
Leadership
Permissive
Leadership
1Uninvolved
•
•
•
•
•
•
Leadership
Low responsiveness and low demandingness
May be an efficient administrator
Staff left to own devices; little control or direction
Feedback (positive and negative) lacking
Students perceive as remote
Standards and expectations unclear and possibly too low
…Uninvolved Leadership
• Inconsistency, uncertainty can lead to confusion, conflict
(Balkanisation, Groupthink) and poor performance
• Insufficient attention to key functions (planning, policies,
recruitment, induction, systems, communication,
evaluation)
• Organisation is reactive, drifting, sinking
• Other leaders and groups may attempt to keep afloat, or
push in other directions
2. Authoritarian Leadership
• High demandingness, low responsiveness
• Obedience, compliance, respect, status, for position
rather than person
Tend not to negotiate
Focus on procedures rather than people
•
•
• Feedback to ensure control and authority
• Standards and expectations can be high, reinforced by
•
extrinsic mechanisms
Control at expense of flexibility
…Authoritarian Leadership
• School may be orderly, well run with delegation,
reporting, accountability
• Can be high degree of dependency on the leader
• Untapped potential; staff and students can be infantilised
• Some will appreciate strength and direction of the
authoritarian leader, others will feel stifled and frustrated
3. Permissive Leadership
• High responsiveness, low demandingness
• Good people skills, open and responsive to needs of
•
•
•
others
Spend time being available, seeking input, building
consensus
Planning and decision making can take some time; may
find it difficult to be decisive
Staff and students allowed a fair degree of latitude
…Permissive
Leadership
• Lack of direction, accountability, organisational looseness
• Trust and leeway may be exploited
• May be reluctant to intervene or confront; small problems
•
•
•
can grow
Standards and expectations can be unclear,
contradictory, too low
Some staff will flourish, others will drift
Schools may be happy, sociable, at expense of progress.
4. Authoritative Leadership
• High responsiveness and high demandingness
– Best aspects of authoritarian and permissive leadership
•
•
•
•
Warm, supportive, sensitive to others, inclusive
Good listeners, networkers
Personal qualities admired, respected
Clear, high expectations of themselves and others
…Authoritative Leadership
• Sets an example: ‘Give a lot, expect a lot’
• Knows when to consult and when to be decisive,
•
•
courageous
Places teaching and learning at the centre of the school;
pupil welfare underpins academic success
Seeks to develop competent, assertive, self-regulated
staff and students
…Authoritative Leadership
• Clear, effective, consistent policies and procedures
• Timely, effective feedback, good and bad; people ‘know
•
•
•
where they stand’
Practices distributive leadership
Strong emphasis on professional learning; models for
others
Strong, clear vision for school
…Authoritative Leadership
• Bias towards innovation, action, experimentation,
•
•
•
•
‘permission to play’
Empowerment; trust, potential recognised, released;
strategic, pragmatic; contagion effects
Evaluation, evidence, planning, action
Change used to advantage, rather than reactive,
defensive
Leadership sustainability, succession, facilitated.
Authoritative Leaders
• Authoritative leaders are ‘relationship’ people, able to
‘read’ and respond to others. They understand people
and they understand change, which they help others to
appreciate and to come to grips with. They are authentic
leaders, in that they model those qualities, attributes and
behaviours they expect of others.
• Authoritative leaders rely more on moral than positional
authority, and influence more than overt control. In their
relationships with teachers and students, authoritative
leaders balance a high degree of responsiveness with a
high degree of demandingness.
• What sort of relationships would you hope to see in a
school? Implications?
Conclusion
• Michael Fullan (2001: 5):
… we have found that the single factor common to
every successful change initiative is that relationships
improve. If relationships improve, things get better. If
they remain the same or get worse, ground is lost.
Thus leaders must be consummate relationship
builders with diverse people and groups - especially
with people different than themselves.
© Copyright The University of Melbourne 2009