Leading, Coaching & School Improvement
VLNS National Partnerships Schools Forum
March 2011
Chris Wardlaw, Deputy Secretary
Office for Policy, Research and Innovation
Two Views on Education
“What sculpture is to a block of marble, education
is to the soul.”
- Joseph Addison
“I had a terrible education. I attended a school for
emotionally disturbed teachers.”
- Woody Allen
2
School leaders will need to consider…
• Knowledge dimension
• High reliability dimension
• High performance dimension
3
The knowledge dimension…
The new global environment
The World has Changed !
5
6
The game has changed!
“Like never before,
you have to be able
to hit the target.”
- Simon Dalrymple, Western
Bulldogs recruiting manager
Changing Views of Knowledge
Sources of Knowledge
Education institution
 Everywhere
(connected classroom)
Structure of Knowledge
Compartmental
 Holistic
(subjects & cross-curricular
studies/enquiry projects)
Understanding of Knowledge
Static
 Dynamic
(foundation knowledge,
learning to learn, generic
skills)
Nature of Knowledge
Authority
 Personal and
contextual
(teachers & students
learning together)
8
Melbourne Declaration 2008
10 year national agenda
Goal 1:
Australian schooling promotes
equity and excellence
Goal 2:
All young Australians become:
- Successful learners
- Confident and creative individuals
- Active and informed citizens.
Australian Curriculum
What is curriculum?
The core curriculum, comprising those general capabilities that all people need, use
and develop through their life and the big issues of the day that all need to know
about
The formal curriculum, based on disciplinary rules understandings and methods
The chosen curriculum that individuals students and teachers create through the
choices they make
The meta-curriculum comprising those activities, events and traditions that all good
schools arrange to promote personal development, character and a community of
learners
The Australian Curriculum defines for all students the core and the formal
curriculum, but leaves to schools, teachers, parents and students critical decisions
about the chosen and meta curriculum
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7 Generic Capabilities
Literacy
Numeracy
ICT competence
Critical & Creative Thinking
Ethical behaviour
Personal & Social Competence
Intercultural Understanding
Generic
Capabilities
Domain
Expertise
Cross curriculum priorities
3 Cross Curriculum Priorities
One national/indigenous
One regional/Asia
One global/sustainability
8 Key Learning Areas
English
Mathematics
Science
Humanities and social
sciences
The Arts
Languages
Health and physical
education
Technologies, specifically
design and technology
Divergence or Convergence …
‘the fiercest debates in education circles are
generally over the falsest of dichotomies …..’
Professor Michael Barber

“grammar” vs “whole language”

“narrative history” vs “thematic history”

“back to basics” vs “real mathematics”
12
Learning reform:
aligning curriculum, pedagogy and assessment
Curriculum
what is worth
learning
Pedagogy
how
students
learn &
teachers
teach
Alignment for
student
learning
Assessment
knowing what
students have
learned
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DEECD outcomes
Early childhood
Best start
in life
Quality early
childhood
education &
care
Transition
to school
Schools
Engagement
in learning
Student
Achievement
& improvement
Youth
transitions
Successful
transitions
AEDI Measures 5 year old Children’s
development in ‘Developmental domains’
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Physical health and well being
Social competence
Emotional maturity
Language and cognitive skills
Communication and general knowledge
• 61,187 children in Victoria (94% of the 5 year-old population),
national coverage was 261,203 children (97.5%)
• Victoria faired well nationally, but 1 in 5 children who are
entering school do not have the basic skills in place to
develop and learn and achieve success at school
Proportion of children developmentally
vulnerable by each AEDI domain, 2009
2 or more domains
1 or more domains
Communication skills
Language & cognitive skills
Emotional maturity
Victoria
Australia
Social competence
Physical health & wellbeing
0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
Percentage of children developmentally
vulnerable on the Language and Cognitive
Skills AEDI subdomains
20%
Basic literacy
18%
16%
14.8
Interest in literacy/numeracy and memory
14%
12.6
11.4
12%
10.7
Advanced literacy
10%
9.0
8.5
8%
7.8
6.9
6.3
8.6
7.6
7.1
6.7
Basic numeracy
6%
5.3 5.0
4.4
3.5
4%
4.2 3.9 3.9
2%
0%
Boys
All children
Girls
Sex
Most disad.
Least disad.
SES
Transition Learning and Development
Statement
• 90% of early childhood educators reported completing a
Statement.
• 91% of families reported receiving a Statement.
• 98% of families that received a Statement agreed to
forward it to the school.
• 85% of families reported completing Part 1: the family
information of the Statement.
Transition Learning and Development
Statement cont…
• 77% of Prep teachers reported having a better
knowledge of the children starting school.
• 58% of Prep teachers reported having a better
knowledge of children with additional needs.
• 46% of Prep teachers found information in the
Statements useful for curriculum planning:
– How Prep teachers are using the content of the Statements to
inform curriculum planning is a critical part of the next phase of
work around the initiative.
VELS
2009 -2010 English Online Interview
Data
4
Mean VELS
expectation
Mean EOL
VELS Level
Start Prep
Level 0.5
0.4
End Prep
Level 1
1.0
2
End Year 1
Level 1.5
1.7
1
End Year 2
Level 2
2.3
•Average scores were at or slightly above the
expected VELS Level for each year
•Achievement distributed across at least 3
VELS Levels from end Prep to year 2
•Substantial overlap in achievement between
year levels
•Most growth from start to end of prep
3
The high reliability dimension…
Where do we stand?
In the dark all education systems, all
schools, all classrooms look similar….
But with some good data …. Important
differences become apparent
22
The future is here, it is just
unevenly distributed
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Baseline Performance
What improvement/gaps are we targeting?
PISA
2000
PISA
Reading
Score800
700
600
500
400
300
200
-2.5
-2.0
-1.5
-1.0
-0.5
0.0
SES
0.5
1.0
1.5
2.0
2.5
Closing the gap between …
… the ‘intended curriculum’ and
… the ‘implemented curriculum’
… conscious, explicit, relentless focus on the task(s)
… implementation planning
… operationalising high expectations.
25
Operationalising high expectations?
26
Primary International Reading Literacy Study
(PIRLS) 2006 (Primary 4)
2nd (14th in 2001)
Note: 26% operating at L1 literacy levels in English
8% in 2001
27
28
2010 NAPLAN
Yr 9 Writing Score Distribution
23% at or below the
national minimum
writing standard
12.1% below the
national minimum
numeracy standard
Students with a mark of 89 failed
to answer a single question
correctly. They are mostly males
who were over the national
minimum writing standard in
2008. These grades can be
attributed to a lack of motivation
rather than lack of ability.
Literacy and Numeracy 6-18 Month Strategy
(Primary and Secondary)
• Assessment schedule for students Prep to Year 10
• Advice on data analysis at a school, year, cohort and individual
level.
• Multi-faceted approach to developing and maintaining a whole
school focus on literacy and numeracy, including the student
intervention, professional learning and partnerships with
families.
• Six-term strategy published at the beginning of 2010
Key Characteristics of Effective Literacy and
Numeracy Teaching P- 6 and 7-10:
Differentiating support for all students
The Key Characteristics of Effective Literacy and Numeracy Teaching documents quality
differentiated classroom teaching for all students. The resource is organised into four
headings:
Teacher knowledge
Literacy/Numeracy Focus
Assessment
Planning and Instruction
Purpose:
•
Articulate effective practice in literacy and numeracy teaching that supports
differentiation within the classroom
•
Build knowledge and capacity in literacy and numeracy teaching and learning with a
focus on student improvement
•
Establish a common, shared language to describe effective practice in literacy and
numeracy teaching
Contemplating research…….
3
2
Research into how people learn
Three principles which, when incorporated into
teaching, result in the improvement of student
achievement…..
Bransford, Brown and Cocking (2000) How people
learn: brain, mind, experience and school. National
Academy Press. Http://books.nap.edu/books
33
Learning is enhanced when teachers identify and
work from learners’ current knowledge and beliefs
Learning is most effective when it results in wellorganised knowledge and deep understanding of
concepts and their applicability
Learning is enhanced by the ability to monitor
one’s own learning
34
A Task:
What evidence would you
need to convince
yourselves that your
school is enacting these
three principles?
The high performance dimension…
Rigorous benchmarking
Top 2 levels (5 & 6) in maths proficiency
PISA 2009
Top 2 levels (5 & 6) in maths proficiency - PISA 2009
United Kingdom
United States
NT
TAS
OECD average
SA
Victoria
VIC
NSW
Australia
QLD
Canada
New Zealand
Japan
ACT
Finland
WA
Korea
Hong Kong-China
Shanghai-China
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
Top 2 levels (5&6) in reading proficiency
PISA 2009
TAS
OECD average
United Kingdom
NT
SA
United States
VIC
Victoria
Hong Kong-China
Canada
Australia
Korea
NSW
Japan
QLD
WA
Finland
New Zealand
ACT
Shanghai-China
0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
Aspirational or minimum standards?
• 85% HK P3 students meet minimum
standards in mathematics;
• 96% in Australia (NAPLAN)
• ?
Civic Knowledge
Selected jurisdictions
International Civic and Citizenship
Education Study 2009
Teachers make a difference
John Hattie suggests
…it is what teachers get the students to
do in the class that emerged as the
strongest component of the
accomplished teachers’ repertoire,
rather than what the teacher,
specifically, does.”
(Visible Learning, 2009 pp. 34-35)
Professor John Hattie
Meta research and evaluation……
0.4 is the average size effect of various
influences on learning
Professor John Hattie
A further task:
Think about assessments
undertaken in your school.
Do they reflect Bloom’s
Taxonomy?
Assessment as feedback
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Sharing learning intentions
Sharing success criteria
Using effective teacher feedback
Using peers to provide feedback to each other
Questioning strategically
Encouraging student self-assessment
Making formative use of summative assessment
We can learn from other education
systems (schools) even though the
contexts differ.
51
Maths unplugged. Young colleagues compare notes (front row) in an abacus and mental arithmetic contest in
Huaibei in eastern Anhui province, on Sunday. The contest for the northern part of the province attracted more than
200 participants aged between 4 and 8 years old. Photo: Xinhua
South China Morning Post Friday May 22, 2007
The learning debate
“There’s no imaginative play
anymore, no pretend.”
The Chinese mother
Here are some things my daughters, Sophia
and Louisa, were never allowed to do:
• attend a sleepover
• have a playdate
• be in a school play
• complain about not being in a school play
• watch TV or play computer games
• choose their own extracurricular activities
• get any grade less than an A
• not be the #1 student in every subject
except gym and drama
• play any instrument other than the piano or
violin
• not play the piano or violin.
Tiger mum – the parenting debate
“Chinese parents and teachers are increasingly
aware of the need to encourage children’s
individuality, while more educators in the United
States are seeking to understand why U.S. children
are left in the dust in global testing.”
Zhang Yiwu, Director of Cultural Research Center of Peking
University
Questions
•Benefits of rote learning
•Frequent practice
•Intensive testing
•Acceptance of mediocre grades
•Grasping as much knowledge as possible
•Encouraging individuality
•Thinking critically
•Asking questions
•Using knowledge in real life.
So…
Student Attitudinal Factors
Confidence in mathematics (Grade 8) (TIMSS)
40%
35%
30%
25%
International
Hong Kong
Japan
20%
15%
10%
5%
0%
% of Students confident in Math
…values
57
Mathematics, science and perseverance
• TIMMSS
• Besides the maths and science tests, students fill
out a survey….a long survey (120 Qs). Many
students leave many questions blank
• Comparing the ranking on the tests with ranking of
the average questions completed…..the rankings
are the SAME ( not related!)
• Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong and
Japan
Outliers: The Story of Success
Malcolm Gladwell
Our young people will have….
• a deep understanding of what it means to be a
Hongkonger and a citizen of China and of the world.
• a sense of responsibility for all in society, regardless of
their background, gender, race, social or geographical
group.
• perseverance and a willingness to take risks (never
being defeated by failure).
• an acceptance that the answers may not be totally
clear at first, and that understanding can be built.
• a willingness to collaborate and share, to listen to
others’ points of view and to communicate their own
viewpoint.
59
Perseverance
Higher performance through
coaching
61
62
“I don’t think about losing…
I don’t think about winning either.
I think about what I have to do.”
Cathy Freeman
Olympic Champion 400m 2000
World Champion 400m 1997, 1999
63
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Classrooms
“When locked out of the (class)room, do not peek through
the keyhole. Either breakdown the door, or go away.”
- Dag Hammarskojld
“The problem with every reform in education is that they
have all stopped at the classroom door.”
- Dean Ashenden
65
E5 Instructional Model
Engage
Explore
Explain
Elaborate
Evaluate
49
Multiple strategies for professional development
• Demonstration/master teaching (Chinese)
• Lesson study (Japanese)
• Collaborative school based model (Western)
• Professional knowledge and pedagogy upgrading
• Specialist teaching in primary mathematics and
languages
• Professional education community
• Teacher education providers key partners
• Heavy resource commitment emphasising on-site support
67
School Support Research
– Teachers and Change
Condition
Presentation of Theory
68
% Take Up
5
Modelling and Demonstration
10-15
Practice and Feedback
30-35
Onsite/Ongoing Coaching and
Reflection
80-85
“A journey of a thousand miles
must begin with a single step.”
Lau Tzu
The sustained literacy and numeracy
improvement we are seeking will depend
on the strength of…
• The ideas
• The organisational and infrastructure
arrangements, resources, and professional
capacity
• The information (communication, consultation,
evidence, feedback)
Macro Policy
and Planning
(Focus on what matters most)
Managing
Relationships
Leading
Change for
Improvement
Develop Capacity
(Attention to detail)
Managing
Expectations