What do we know about Schooling Improvement:

Session One

Helen Timperley

Professor of Education

The University of Auckland

New Zealand

What knowledge

and skills do our students

need? What knowledge and skills do we

as teachers need?

What has been the

impact of our changed actions? Deepen

professional knowledge and

refine skillsEngage

students in new learning

experiences

Teacher inquiry and knowledge-building cycleto promote valued student outcomes

Leadership for Learning

• Leaders need to assist teachers work through the cycle

• To do this they have to have deep knowledge of assessment and PCK– New leadership study

• Engage in their own cycles to develop organisational adaptive expertise

Effective principals• Knowledge of teaching and learning

– Source of knowledge• Content and how it looked in classrooms

– Built teachers’ knowledge• Learning relationships

– High relational trust based on respect– Evaluative conversations for learning (no blame)

• High expectations to learn– Self– Teachers– Students

What knowledge and

skills do our teachers and

students need?

What knowledge and skills do we as

leaders need?

What has been the impact of our changed actions on teachers and

students? Deepen leadership knowledge and

refine leadership skills

Engage teachers & students in new learning experiences

Leader inquiry and knowledge-building cycleto promote valued teaching and student

outcomes

Organisations with Adaptive Capacity

• Deeply knowledgeable – PCK• Create structures and routines for development• Work to become aware of assumptions• Expert is retrieving, organising and applying relevant

knowledge• Vigilant about the impact of leadership on teaching

and learning• Know how to assess students on what matters• Know when routines don’t work and how to get help• Engage in cycles at all levels of the organisation

What knowledge and

skills do our teachers and

students need?

What knowledge and skills do we as

leaders need?

What has been the impact of our changed actions on teachers and

students? Deepen leadership knowledge and

refine leadership skills

Engage teachers & students in new learning experiences

Leader inquiry and knowledge-building cycleto promote valued teaching and student

outcomes

Inquiry plus the Skills to Challenge

• Inquiry is the starting point

• Some theories need to be challenged if progress is to be made in every classroom

• Challenge is most effective if new ideas are developed at the same time– Usually happens through dialogue

Principal and two teachers’ talking about a group of Samoan Year 4

students [meeting in May]

Principal: When you saw the writing results for the group what was your first reaction? How did you interpret that data?

Teacher: It reinforces what I had seen in their first writing assessment - there was little structure in the surface features … so it was in my opinion very low but predictable.

• What is the teacher’s theory of action?• How could the principal/facilitator challenge it?

Students’ needs To meet the sixth form challenge –independence reflection

T eac hers ’ inquiry H ow do we help s tudents to meet the s ixth form challenge and resolve the paradoxes?

C hec king outc omes S tudent voice; evidence of learning to meet s ixth form challenge; A -level pas ses .

S tudent opportunities C lassroom observations

K nowledg e / s kills Indicators of s tudent

learning; s trategies for resolving paradoxes