P owerful
Learning
A secondary approach
Contents
Page
Secondary Strategy for Powerful Learning
2
Introduction
Proposed Implementation Schedule
Powerful Learning
3
A School Improvement Model
Motion Leadership and Powerful Learning
35
A Secondary Approach for Powerful Learning
6
Grouping the Theories of Action
7
Planning for teaching
Planning for learning
Planning for teaching and learning
Theories of Action Worksheets and Exhibits
8 - 15
Learning Intentions14
Higher Order Thinking
Student Feedback
Planning Heuristic
17
School improvement planning for student progress
and achievement
19
The Role of the School Improvement Team
23
Secondary Strategy for Powerful Learning
Introduction
The Secondary Principals’ Conference ‘Secondary Strategy for Powerful Learning’ is a joint initiative
of the Grampians, Loddon Mallee, and Northern Metropolitan Regions.
The conference will address issues around secondary student outcomes across the three regions and
the impact of what teachers do.
Data indicates that our secondary schools are generally not improving their performance; in all three
regions (and in fact across the state) our more able students do not perform at the level they should
and there are significant numbers of students in the bottom two bands at Year 9.
The most effective way for school leaders to support improved student learning and outcomes is to
focus on how teachers teach.
The aim of the conference will be to develop an agreed and coherent strategy, and implementation
plan to support improved teacher practice that will lead to improved student learning and
performance.
Malcolm Millar
Regional Director
Grampians Region
Ron Lake
Regional Director
Loddon Mallee Region
Wayne Craig
Regional Director
Northern Metropolitan Region
Proposed Implementation Schedule
2
Conference
Establish an agreed and coherent strategy and implementation
framework
Rest of Term 1
Continue school level planning and selection of school
improvement group led by RNLs in participating schools
Term 2
Training of school improvement team members and in parallel
some training on instructional leadership with Principals
Terms 3 and 4
Peer observation teams/Triads in each school work on Theories
of Action with support of their own school improvement group
Term 4
Conference to share work and its impact
2012
Continue work on instructional core as appropriate to individual
schools using the same school improvement strategy
Powerful Learning
A School Improvement Model
The inner ring - Powerful learning
The most direct way to improve student learning is to improve teachers’ instructional
practice.
Our theory of action: If we support all teachers to improve their practice, then we will create
the conditions for powerful learning which will allow all students to achieve at high levels.
3
Motion Leadership and Powerful Learning
5
6
Grouping the theories of action – 1
Planning for Teaching
•
•
•
When teacher directed instruction becomes more enquiry focused the level of student
engagement and achievement increases
When teachers set learning intentions use appropriate pace and have a clear and strong
narrative about their teaching then student’s are more secure about their learning and
their level engagement and understanding is increased
By consistently adopting protocols for teaching student behaviour and engagement is
enhanced
Grouping the theories of action – 2
Planning for Learning
•
•
•
By consistently adopting protocols for learning student understanding, skill level and
confidence is enhanced
If teachers use cooperative group structures / techniques to mediate between whole
class instruction and students carrying out tasks then the academic performance of the
whole class will increase
When teachers systematically use higher order questioning the level of student
understanding is deepened
Grouping the theories of action – 3
Planning for Teaching and Learning
•
•
•
When feedback contains reference to practical actions student learning behaviour
becomes more positive and consistent
When peer assessment (AfL) is consistently utilized student engagement, learning and
achievement increases
When learning tasks are purposeful, clearly defined, differentiated and challenging,
(according to the students Zone of Proximal Development), then the more powerful and
precise the learning for all students
7
Learning Intentions
Theory of Action - When teachers set learning intentions, use appropriate pace and have a clear
and strong narrative about their teaching then student’s are more secure about their learning
and their level engagement and understanding is increased
Effect Size – 0.56
Group Discussion
1. What is the practice related to learning intentions in your school and how widespread is
it?
2. How helpful is the exhibit in helping you become more specific and consistent in the
practice of setting learning intentions in your school?
3. What will be the impact of the consistent use of setting learning intentions on the
learning of your students?
4. How will you achieve it?
8
Exhibit: Learning Intentions and Direct Instruction
1. Before the lesson is prepared, the teacher should have a clear idea of what the learning
intentions are. What, specifically, should the student be able to do, understand, care
about as a result of the teaching?
2. The teacher needs to know what success criteria of performance are to be expected and
when and what students will be held accountable for from the lesson/activity. The
students need to be informed about the standards of performance.
3. There is a need to build commitment and engagement in the learning task. In the
terminology of Direct Instruction, this is sometimes called a “hook” to grab the student’s
attention. The aim is to put students into a receptive frame of mind; to focus students
attention on the lesson; to share the learning intentions.
4. There are guides to how the teacher should present the lesson – including notions such as
input, modelling, and checking for understanding. Input refers to providing information
needed for students to gain the knowledge or skill through lecture, film, tape, video,
pictures, and so on. Modelling is where the teacher shows students examples of what is
expected as an end product of their work. Checking for understanding involves
monitoring whether students have “got it” before proceeding.
5. There is notion of guided practice. This involves an opportunity for each student to
demonstrate his or her grasp of new learning by working through an activity or exercise
under the teacher’s direct supervision.
6. There is the closure part of the lesson. Closure involves those actions or statements by a
teacher that are designed to bring a lesson presentation to an appropriate conclusion:
the part wherein students are helped to bring things together in their own minds, to
make sense out of what has been just taught. “Any questions? No. OK, let’s move on” is
not closure.
7. There is independent practice. Once students have mastered the content or skill, it is time
to provide for reinforcement practice. It is provided on a repeating schedule so that the
learning is not forgotten. It may be homework or group or individual work in class. The
advocates of Direct Instruction argue that the failure to do this seventh step is
responsible for most student failure to be able to apply something learned.
In a nutshell: The teacher decides the learning intentions and success criteria, makes them
transparent to the students, demonstrates them by modelling, evaluates if they understand
what they have been told by checking for understanding, and re-telling them what they have
told by tying it all together with closure.
Adapted from Hattie.
9
Higher Order Questions
Theory of Action - When teachers systematically use higher order questioning the level of
student understanding is deepened
Effect Size – 0.73
Group Discussion
1. What is the practice related to higher order questioning in your school and how
widespread is it?
2. How helpful is the exhibit in helping you become more specific and consistent in the
practice of higher order questioning in your school?
3. What will be the impact of the consistent use of higher order questioning on the learning
of your students?
4. How will you achieve it?
10
Exhibit: Formulating Questions for Higher-Order Thinking
Bloom’s
Taxonomy
Key Words
Sample Questions
Knowledge
List
List characteristics of each of the main characters.
Label
Match names with appropriate picture
Identify
Identify the important details from the story
Tabulate
Arrange story events in sequential order
Name
Recall details about the setting of the story
Interpret
Interpret pictures or scenes from the story
Explain
Explain parts of the story in your own words
Compare
How are two characters in the story alike or different?
Summarise
Write a paragraph summarising what happened in the story
Predict
Predict what could happen next before reading the rest of the book
Classify
Classify selected objects as living or nonliving
Change
Move a main character to a new setting and explain what will
happen
Illustrate
Make puppets and dramatise parts of the story
Relate
How are you like the main character in the story?
Solve
Think of a situation in the story and explain how you would have
handled it differently
Analyse
Distinguish fantasy from reality in the story
Select
Select parts of the story that were funniest or happiest
Compare
Compare the two main characters in the story
Infer
Identify a character who is similar to you in personality
Debate
Discuss the pros and cons of a character’s decision
Comprehension
Application
Analysis
11
Bloom’s
Taxonomy
Key Words
Sample Questions
Synthesis
Design
Advertise the story on a poster so will want to read it
Modify
Rewrite the role of the main character to create a new outcome
Create
Create an original character and add him/her to the story
Invent
Write lyrics to a popular tune that explains how the character felt in
the story
Combine
Combine characters and events from two stories to create one
new story
Judge
Write about why a character should or should not have acted the
way he did
Convince
Prepare a book talk that persuades other students to read the
book
Rank
Compare this story to another one and explain which one you like
the best
Support
Decide which character you would like to spend the day with and
tell why
Conclude
Change the main character’s decision and write a new ending for
the story
Evaluation
13
Student Feedback
Theory of Action -When feedback contains reference to practical actions student learning
behaviour becomes more positive and consistent
Effect Size – 0.73
Group Discussion
1. What is the practice related to student feedback in your school and how widespread is it?
2. How helpful is the exhibit in helping you become more specific and consistent in the
practice of student feedback in your school?
3. What will be the impact of the consistent use of student feedback on the learning of your
students?
4. How will you achieve it?
14
Exhibit: Model of Feedback
Hattie
15
16
REGION
NETWORK
SCHOOL
CLASSROOM
STUDENT
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SCHOOL IMPROVEMENT PLANNING FOR STUDENT PROGRESS AND
ACHIEVEMENT
In its simplest form a school improvement plans (SIP) brings together, in an overall plan, national, state
and regional policies and initiatives, the school’s aims and values, its existing achievements and needs for
development, and enables it to organize what it is already doing and what it needs to do in a more
purposeful and coherent way. By coordinating aspects that are otherwise separate, the school acquires a
shared sense of direction and is able to control and manage the tasks of development and change.
Priorities for development and improvement are planned in detail for one year and are supported by
action plans that are the working documents for teachers. The priorities for subsequent years are
sketched in outline to provide the longer term programme. An overview of the planning process is seen in
Figure 1.
Figure 1
The planning process.
Evidence of good practice and the lessons of research suggest that development planning needs to focus
both on how to accelerate the progress and enhance the achievement of students as well as establishing
effective management practices within the school. This approach to planning is neither top-down –
focused in the main on management arrangements – nor bottom-up – committed to specific changes in
individual classrooms – but a combination of the two. It is this that has led to a reconceptualization of
how development planning can be used to enhance pupil progress and achievement.
19
This ‘new’ approach to development planning concerns the integration of three key foci:
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Student progress and achievement;
The quality of teaching and learning;
Management arrangements to support the first two.
Figure 2 illustrates the interface between whole school development and classroom practice and the
integration of these three foci at the heart is the pupils’ progress and achievement supported by the
quality of teaching and learning in the classroom. This is the core business of schools. Outside the
classroom are the key management arrangements and practices that support and provide the context for
quality learning experiences in the classroom.
Figure 2
The interface between whole school development and classroom practice
In any action plan for student achievement the classroom should be the main focus for improvement. The
priorities for development must also be rooted in evidence about pupils’ progress and achievement.
Targeted action can then concern:


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Specific improvements in pupil outcomes;
Changes in teaching practices;
Any modifications needed to school-wide provision and management arrangements to support
developments in the classroom.
20
An action plan for student achievement will therefore need to include the following:
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Specific targets and success criteria related to pupils’ learning, progress and achievement that are
clear and unambiguous;
Teaching and learning strategies designed to meet the targets;
Evidence to be gathered to judge the success in achieving the targets set;
Modifications to management arrangements to enable targets to be met;
Tasks to be done to achieve the targets set and who is responsible for doing them;
Time it will take;
How much it will cost in terms of the budget, staff time, staff development and other resources;
Responsibility for monitoring the implementation of the plan – progress checks;
Evaluating its impact over time – success checks.
As distinct from previous approaches that focused on the management of external change and the
implementation of school-wide policies, this approach to development planning begins with the learning
needs of students and moves out from there. After setting targets for student learning, progress and
achievement, the plan focuses on developing a strategy for enhancing teaching and creating powerful
learning experiences; and then on the management arrangements required to support such changes in
classroom practice. In reality, both these aspects of the school’s development plan coalesce in practice.
They are also grounded in and supported by other forms of planning in the school.
There are three key elements to the enquiry aspect of the action plan:
1
2
3
the success criteria against which progress and success in reaching targets can be judged;
the allocation of responsibility to assess progress;
how success is subsequently judged.
Targets must, specify the criteria by which success in reaching the target can be judged, both by team
members and by others. These success criteria are a form of school-generated performance indicator,
which:
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give clarity about the target: what exactly are you trying to achieve?;
point to the standard expected by the team;
provide advance warning of the evidence needed to judge successful implementation;
give an indication of the time-scale involved.
The success criteria are a means for evaluating the outcomes of the plan, as well as providing benchmarks
for development. It is important that they specify the minimal acceptable standard, though the team will
usually have aspirations to a standard of outcome that is much higher than this.
21
At least once a term progress should be formally checked for each task against the success criteria
associated with the target. A progress check is an act of evaluation in the course of implementation. It is a
response to the question: how are we doing so far? Many progress checks are intuitive, a ‘feel’ for
whether things are going well or badly. This is a natural part of monitoring one’s activities: it becomes
more systematic if these intuitive reactions are shared within the team, and evidence is produced to
support them. Regular progress checks involve:
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giving somebody in the team responsibility for ensuring that the progress checks take place;
reviewing progress at team meetings, especially when taking the next step forward or making
decisions about future directions;
deciding what will count as evidence of progress in relation to the success criteria;
finding quick methods of collecting evidence from different sources;
recording the evidence and conclusions for later use.
Success checks take place at the end of the developmental work on a target. The team now decides how
successful the implementation of the target or priority as a whole has been. Checking success need not
be complex or time-consuming. It will consist largely in collating, and then drawing a conclusion about,
the earlier progress checks. The relationship between progress and success checks is represented
diagrammatically in Figure 3.
Figure 3 The relationship between progress and success checks in development planning
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THE ROLE OF THE SCHOOL IMPROVEMENT TEAM
Typically, the school improvement team (SIT) is a cross-hierarchical team which could be as small
as three or four to six in comparatively small schools, to between six and ten in large schools.
Though one of these is likely to be the principal, it is important to establish teams that are
genuinely representative of the range of perspectives and ideas available in the school – it
should, ideally, then, be cross-hierarchical, cross-institutional, have a mix of ages, experience,
gender, length of time at the school, and so on. School improvement team members should also
not come together in any already existing team within the school, such as the senior leadership
team or a heads of department team, so that the problem of pooled rationalisations is
minimised. The school improvement team is responsible for identifying the school improvement
focus (through a consensus- building process involving the rest of the staff), and for managing
efforts on a day-to-day basis within the school. They are supported through a core training
programme, through networking with School Improvement Team teams from other schools, and
by regional and external consultancy support and facilitation.
The school improvement team is essentially a temporary membership system focused specifically upon
enquiry and development. This temporary membership system brings together teachers (and support
staff) from a variety of departments within the school, with a range of ages or experience and from a
cross-section of roles to work together in a status-free collaborative learning context. One teacher has
described it as the educational equivalent of a research and development team, and the traditional
school as analogous to a company in which everyone works on the production line, without any research
and development function. The result is stagnation, and that is how schools have been. The
establishment of a school improvement team creates the research and development capacity, whilst
retaining the existing structures required also for organisational stability and efficiency. It also unlocks
staff potential often stifled within formal structures, and opens up new collaborations.
In the same way that the school improvement team is mutually supportive of one another, the school
community (the wider staff and the institutional support of senior management and school council)
makes a number of tacit commitments, too:
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To support each partnership in whatever way possible – time, resources, visits to centres of
good practice, the adoption of recommendations etc.
To agree to remain informed about the progress of each area of enquiry in order to maintain
collective ownership of the directions being travelled.
To support the implementation of new practices, new structures, or new ways of working.
To be open to the research process by contributing ideas, responding to research
instruments, opening up our classrooms for observation, offering our professional support in
whatever way required.
To engage in workshop activity within full staff meetings, staff development days or other
school meetings in order to contribute to the on-going knowledge creation and learning
process.
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Most School Improvement Teams appear to grow in confidence quite quickly, particularly as the school’s
efforts and resources become focused around priorities they are addressing. Progress, however, is not
uniform and some schools seem able to ‘move’ to effective operational arrangements much more quickly
than others do. It also appears that the stages of development through which teams move can be
associated not only with ‘typical’ behaviours for each stage, but also with the way they view the ‘task’
(What is school improvement about? What is our role in it?), and the way they conceive ‘solutions’ (What
do we need to improve? How should we go about improving it?). The three phases of this cycle of
development are as follows:
Phase 1 - Uncertainty about focus
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The School Improvement Team feeling its way (What is a SIT?)
What is School Improvement?
What is the role of the School Improvement Team?
How can the School Improvement Team work best together?
Initial reliance on established ways of working
Initial reliance on existing structures
Initial reliance on key personnel/leaders within the School Improvement Team
Start to collect data and share it
Uncertainty about the theory
Where is it all going? It’s hard to make things happen.
Phase 2 - Clearer about focus
 Using existing structures in new ways, e.g. department meetings with single item research agendas.
 New ways of working.
 Greater openness within the School Improvement Team, e.g. voice of main scale teacher
 Better at making meaning from data.
 Beginning to shift from staff development mode to school improvement mode.
 The theory makes sense.
 Seeing the connections. Learning how to implement.
Phase 3 - Change/renewal of the School Improvement Team
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R & D establishing its own rhythm – School Improvement Plan becomes more organic
New Structures emerge – R & D.
New roles emerge
 Eg HOD as facilitator of research (* R & D research post).
Establishment of research culture within the school
 Evidence-based
 Risk taking
Involvement of students as researchers
 From data-source to partners in dialogue
Collection of data, making meaning, and supporting research outcomes
The school generates its own theory
The implementation becomes growth
This ‘summary’ of how the School Improvement Team evolves gives a clear indication of how a
structure for distributed leadership that relates both to instructional leadership and authentic
school improvement is established. It also illustrates how it progresses over time, gradually
expanding its leadership capacity and increasing its understanding about learning –
organisational learning, the learning of School Improvement Team members and other teachers
and the learning of students.
The experience of working with School Improvement Teams suggests that simply belonging to
the team can be seen as a major staff development opportunity; the team’s work becomes a
significant part of the members’ overall role in the school. Most School Improvement Teams
members are busier and spend more time at school than they did. The motivation for the
increase in commitment seems to spring from two sources. On one hand, there is often a very
real sense of ‘making an impact’ – actually influencing the quality of learning opportunities in the
school, seeing changes, feeling that the school is serving the needs and aspirations of its pupils
better. On the other, there is a heightened sense of professionalism. Different kinds of dialogue
and discussion take place, more emphasis is placed on pedagogy, more sharing of practice
evolves, and a clearer sense of the professional challenges and achievements that teachers
address daily develops.
The range of staff development activities involved in such authentic school improvement
approaches is considerable and is likely to include:
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Whole staff in service days on teaching and learning and school improvement planning as well as
‘curriculum tours’ to share the work done in departments or working teams;
Inter-departmental meetings to discuss teaching strategies;
Workshops run inside the school on teaching strategies by School Improvement Team members and
external support;
Partnership teaching and peer coaching;
The design and execution of collaborative enquiry activities, which are, by their nature, knowledgegenerating.
In addition, School Improvement Team members are involved in:
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Out of school training sessions on capacity building and teaching and learning;
The pursuit of their own knowledge in support of their role – about leadership, the management and
implementation of change, the design of professional development activities etc.;
Planning meetings in school;
Consultancy to school working teams;
Observation and in-classroom support;
Study visits to other schools within the network.
This is a wide range of staff development activity and represents a fairly sophisticated infrastructure for
sustained professional development. A key element in all of this is the provision of in classroom support
or ‘peer coaching’. It is the facilitation of peer coaching that enables teachers to extend their repertoire
of teaching skills and to transfer them from different classroom settings to others.
25
When the refinements noted below are incorporated into a school improvement design, peer
coaching can virtually assure ‘transfer of training’ for everyone:
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Peer coaching teams of two or three are much more effective than larger teams.
These teams are more effective when the entire staff is engaged in school improvement.
Peer coaching works better when Principals and Assistant Principals participate in training and
practice.
The effects are greater when formative study of student learning is embedded in the process.
The argument being made here is that for effective school improvement, forms of distributed leadership
are essential. The school improvement team is one way of facilitating this. The links between school
improvement team working and the constellation of staff development activities just described makes
the structural link between their work and enhanced levels of student achievement clear and achievable.
The staff development focus has the potential to unite both the focus on teaching and learning and
capacity building. Coaching in particular is so powerful because it integrates transformational and
instructional leadership and professional development. In highly effective schools it is this that provides
the essential infrastructure for school improvement.
26