ACEL Conference 2011
The Succession Challenge
Christine.furner@hillsgrammar.nsw.edu.au
The challenge
Developing, sustaining and growing
great teacher leaders for quality schools
and student learning
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Great teacher leaders should be
considering designing and delivering
effective whole school PD programs
PD at your school
• Use a metaphor to describe the
teacher professional development
approach or program at your school
Metaphors: The PD program at my
school can be described as:•
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a waterfall – continuous and effective
an early morning ocean swim – invigorating and exhilarating
a Picasso – creative and energising
a retreat – deep , meaningful and transformative
a bomb car – stops and starts, but we get there in the end
a kaleidoscope – multi facetted and interesting but possibly
with no central goal or articulated purpose
• a pop – up cake – not over planned and never quite know
what you may get – but it is fun finding out
• a rocket – lots of bang for your buck, but fizzes out in the end
• a person running for the train – happens at the last minute,
but we usually get there on time
Teacher professional learning
Identified in the literature as critical to:• quality teaching which has a direct impact on
enhancing student learning outcomes
(Rowe, 2003; Hattie, 2007; Dinham, 2008)
• building and maintaining effective schools as
learning communities
(Ewing, 2006; Aubusson, 2009)
• Developing teachers as leaders in learning
(Darling-Hammond, 2006; Dinham, 2008)
Effective schools literature
Top three results in effective schools research
according to:Dinham and Rowe (Aust.)
Hattie and Timperley (N.Z.)
Schools which have:• Leadership which builds learning community
culture
• Effective teacher professional learning
• Teachers who manage their classes well
Teacher learning matters
• The teacher is the determining factor in student
learning outcomes (Dinham, 2008)
• Teacher professional growth is paramount for
student learning (Hattie, 2003)
• The ability of an organisation to learn is dependent
on the capacity of key individuals to learn and grow
(Senge et al, 2000)
Teacher learning matters
• Wright, Horn & Sanders (1997) “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 more than by any other single factor”
• Timperley (2007) Studies show that “there are
substantive student outcomes associated with
teacher learning and development”
• Borko(2004) Teacher professional development is
“essential to efforts to improve our schools”
How do teachers learn?
Australian Government Mapping of
Teacher Learning Report (2008) states
that there is no agreement about an
overarching definition for professional
learning practices, nor for what
constitutes successful teacher learning
in the current literature.
Your school
• How do teachers learn at your school?
Examples of teacher learning
Plenty of examples of teacher learning (as there would be at
your school):• Collaboratively, through feedback from students and
teachers, informal collegial conversation, action learning style
projects, lesson observations, reflection, reading and writing,
post grad courses, experimentation, specialist speakers,
workshops
• The literature leans toward recommending planned, well
organised, sustained experiences and less through “one off”
in services
• Not much on how they learn across their career continuum in
the context of school culture on specific school sites (case
studies)
Coalescing factors:
teacher learning: school context
Teacher learning literature:• Not keeping up with the effective schools literature
• Not keeping up with the adult learning literature – more
information on the impact of teacher learning on individuals,
personally or professionally and how this relates to school
effectiveness would be beneficial
• Salient features of teacher PD are emerging (mostly as a
result of research not focussed on this area) but they are not
necessarily based on research of how teachers learn
• There is growing mention that teachers learn effectively
within the context of the environments in which they teach –
their schools
• Actual school case studies of teacher learning in schools are
scarce
Coalescing factors
teacher learning:career continuum
An interest in the career continuum of teachers is emerging:• Accreditation frameworks have been developed and are
being implemented based on career continuum definitions of
teachers and associated levels of development
• Studies on how teachers learn across the career continuum
are usually focussed on one point, rather than all levels
• Difficult to find ongoing case studies which studied teacher
learning on school sites across the career continuum from
early career through to Principal
• Little concentrated research on the best delivery practice of
professional development for teachers
• The assumption seems to be that teachers readily learn
effectively as professionals at all points in their career
development within the context of their schools in a way
which improves their practice
What does your school say?
About:•
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your teachers?
teacher learning?
teacher professional growth?
School based professional development program?
Teachers and their career continuum and how this
may effect both their learning and inform the PD
program at your school?
At THGS: teachers are considered to be
leaders in learning = school effectiveness
Hattie (2003) “It is what teachers know, do and care
about which is very powerful in this (student learning)
learning equation”(2003)
Rowe (2003) “The quality of teaching and learning
provision are by far the most salient influences on
students’ cognitive, effective and behavioral
outcomes of schooling”
Dinham (2008) “The teacher is the most major inschool influence on student achievement”
Professional learning @THGS
• Strategically developed based on identified goals and staff
professional learning needs
• Contextualised within the vision and core values of the school
• Emerges out of, and then enriches the learning community
culture
• Is aligned with accreditation and draws upon a career
continuum approach
• Supports the core programs of the school – academic,
pastoral and co - curricular
Staff goals informing PL and PD
approaches, practices and programs
• 2A: Build staff capacity to respond to growing
needs and expectations of students and parents.
• 2B. Develop and value staff capability and nurture
their skills, resourcefulness and creativity to
change and improve the School.
• 2C. Engender a spirit of research and enquiry in
order to develop staff capacity to lead, innovate
and improve
• 2D. Recruit and retain the highest quality staff.
• 2E. Challenge staff to undertake professional
learning which provides access to world best
practice in teaching and enables them to be
recognised as educational leaders.
THGS 2010 program
Courses and Presenters Contents
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THGS Collegial Conversations
ICT Integration Training
Learning Enrichment Sessions
Mental Health Matters Program
Consultant Presentations
THGS/UTS Tailored PD Sessions and
Special Projects
• Faculty/Stage Consultancy Program
Mentoring program
• An integral factor of our professional learning
program
• Relates to strategic goals for staff
• Is embedded in our practice
• Is utilized in both professional learning and
accreditation processes
• Relates directly to Elements 6 and 7 (Professional
Commitment)
• Three levels of mentoring in the school that relate
to the career continuum
PhD research – How teachers learn across
the career continuum in the context of
their schools
.Research on:• Teacher learning
• Across the career continuum
• On school sites (case study approach)
• Will involve a review of professional learning
according to teachers, leadership and school
policy/documentation
Validated by the literature from educational
leadership, teacher development, teacher
professional development, effective schools, schools
as learning communities, adult learning and
organisational change
Outcomes
Better understanding of:• How teachers learn according to their career
stage/development and how this effects their
practice
• The impact that school planning and delivery of
professional development has on the learning of
teachers along the career continuum
• Teacher accreditation standards frameworks and
their impact on teacher learning
• The possibilities of using a career stage
professional development approach for teacher
learning in school contexts
Does your school want to be involved in
the case study research?
Over the semester, at times that suit the volunteer
teachers and the school, each teacher would
participate in:• One 45 minute “chat” with Chris Furner about your
learning and what you think about teacher learning.
Open ended questions are used in a relaxed
setting
• One 40 minute focus group “chat” with colleagues
from your school about how teachers learn in the
context of the school
• One 20 minute survey
Benefits for teachers
• Refreshing chance to talk about themselves and
their learning journey
• Afterwards, the chance to reflect upon and ponder
their learning and teaching, and form thoughts and
plans for their own learning
• Increased morale and collegiality at their school
• Satisfaction in contributing to research which could
assist themselves, their colleagues, school and
students, as well as the broader national and
international teaching profession
(All input is totally anonymous and confidential)
Benefits to their school
• School leadership is supported in their efforts to
improve the school for both their teachers and
students
• The school learning community culture is edified
• The school will receive a report which can assist
the community together to continue with a
conversation about professional learning and
teacher development programs
• The school will have access to benchmarking tools
to assist them to self-evaluate and monitor their
teacher learning resources and initiatives
• Access to the final report and recommendations
Benefits: school PD benchmarking
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Strategic alignment
Resource allocation
PD content
Implementation
Career continuum learning
Accreditation processes
Teacher collaboration
School leadership in PL
School culture
Evaluation process
Benefits: future research
• Contribution to the literature and emerging
interests in effective schools, teacher career
continuums, leadership for learning, schools as
learning communities, delivery of effective,
contextualised professional learning on school
sites
• Could lead to trialling a career continuum teacher
learning methodology approach to the delivery of
professional learning
• Could lead to trialling the use of a career
continuum approach to evaluate teacher
professional learning programs in schools
• benchmarking
Contact to discuss the possibility of being
involved in this research
Chris Furner (conducting the research)
Christine.furner@hillsgrammar.nsw.edu.au
Or 96545327
Norman McCulla (Macquarie Uni PhD
supervisor)
Norman.mcculla@mq.edu.au
Or 98508650
Conclusions
• Teacher learning is integral to developing, sustaining and
growing great teacher leaders for quality schools and student
learning (ACEL Conference Focus)
• Great teacher leaders need to be informed about and drive
teacher learning and professional development programs in
their schools – at macro and micro level
• At present we don’t know enough about how teachers learn
along their career continuum in the context of their unique
schools, to enable us to design, develop and deliver school
based PD programs confidently to all teachers across the
career continuum, contextualised to the school and the
particular mix of teacher learning stages/needs on that site
• If we knew more we would be in a better position to shape
it…..