OER4Schools/Workshop for school leaders: Difference between revisions
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== Focus on Learning == | == Focus on Learning == | ||
Read the text below, in conjunction with the questions for "Focus on Learning" above. | {{activity|otr|: Focus on Learning10}} Read the text below, in conjunction with the questions for "Focus on Learning" above, and then do the activity below. | ||
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Now consider a number of issues at your school, and decide whether they are important and/or urgent. | {{activity|stgw|15}} Now consider a number of issues at your school. What issues have recently arisen? What issues have been discussed in recent teacher meetings? Perhaps brainstorm and make a list of them, or write them on small cards. Now decide how how these issues relate to "Focus on Learning", and regarding "Focus on Learning" decide whether they are important and/or urgent. Go through some of the issues you came up with, and place them into these categories: | ||
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You could write this out on a piece of paper, and if you made cards above, they could be placed into this grid. Does everybody agree on where the cards are placed? Remember that we are looking at the issues through the lens of "Focus on Learning", so when we say that something is "important and urgent" we mean "important and urgent with regard to learning at the school". | |||
== Conditions for Learning == | == Conditions for Learning == | ||
Revision as of 13:09, 8 January 2013
The OER4Schools Professional Learning Resource
Values at your school
Whole class dialogue (30 min) on school values Discuss the following talking points. Discuss how true you think they are in the context of your school. For each item give concrete examples of how you implement this. For instance, regarding “We learn from each other and share what we know.”, give examples of what it is that you learn from each other, and say how you learn it from each other. Also give examples of how you are not implementing this. For instance, regarding “We try to save energy and avoid waste.”, you could list ways in which you do not (yet) avoid waste.
In our school:
- Some children or teachers are not treated fairly and do not feel part of a community.
- Everyone in the school has a voice that is heard – senior leaders and administrators, classroom teachers and children themselves share decision making in the school and take responsibility for learning.
- It is important that teachers learn from children.
- We sort out problems by listening to each other and finding solutions together. We speak up when we see that something is wrong.
(Adapted Index for inclusion, p. 27, Figure 3)
Barriers, resources and support
Whole class brainstorm (30 min) with brainstorm on barriers and support Brainstorm about the following questions regarding barriers, resources and support.
- What barriers to learning and participation arise within the school and its communities, and who do they affect?
- How can barriers to learning and participation be minimised?
- Are any additional resources needed to support learning and participation? If so how can these be mobilised and deployed?
(Adapted from Index for inclusion, p. 40, Figure 12)
Leadership for Learning activities
The following text gives the five Leadership for Learning principles, see Leadership for Learning for more information. The principles with questions are given here, so that you can use them with the five exercises below. Do not read them in detail now, but skip to the next exercise.
1. Focus on Learning
- Everyone is a learner. Are students the only learners in our school? How about the teachers? Parents? Headteachers?
- Learning relies on the effective interplay of social, emotional and cognitive processes. Do we think about what learning is about? Is it about memorising and applying certain facts? Managing emotions? Being able to make friends with one another? Making good decisions?
- The efficacy of learning is highly sensitive to context and to the differing ways in which people learn. Are we aware about the differences in ways which people learn and to what extent their background (e.g. family, age, interests) will influence the way they learn?
- The capacity for leadership arises out of powerful learning experiences. Who are some of the most influential teachers in our lives? When did we encounter such teachers and why did they create such powerful learning experiences for ourselves? How can we do the same for others?
- Opportunities for leadership enhance learning. Are we given the opportunities to make decisions on our learning?
2. Conditions for Learning
- Cultures nurture the learning of everyone. What kind of background (e.g. families, age, interests) would be most helpful to support learning?
- Everyone has opportunities to reflect on the nature, skills and processes of learning. Are there opportunities for everyone to reflect on the nature, skills and processes involved in learning? What are they?
- Physical and social spaces stimulate and celebrate learning. Are the physical facilities and other forms of support (e.g. community and family support) able to support learning? What are these facilities and forms of support?
- Safe and secure environments enable everyone to take risks, cope with failure and respond positively to challenges. Are we providing a safe environment for learners to take risks, cope with failure and respond positively to challenges? How are we doing that?
- Tools and strategies are used to enhance thinking about learning and the practice of teaching. Are we updating ourselves and reflecting on the various tools and strategies to enhance the way we teach and learn? How are we doing that?
3. Learning Dialogue
- Practice made explicit, discussable and transferable. Do we have the language to talk about learning so that we can discuss and reflect on it more fruitfully? How do we do that?
- Active, collegial inquiry focussing on the link between learning and leadership. Do we discuss and find out how we can take the lead to decide what learning should be like in our school (and not just be directed by the authority)? How can we go about doing that?
- Coherence through sharing of values, understandings and practices. Do we discuss and share the values and understanding of the ways we learn and teach? What are they?
- Factors that inhibit and promote learning are examined and addressed. Do we examine and address the factors that inhibit and promote learning? What are they?
- Link between leadership and learning is a concern for everyone. Do we prioritise the link between leadership and learning? What kind of concerns about learning do we raise and act upon?
- Different perspectives explored through networking with researchers and practitioners. Do we network with researchers and other practitioners to explore different perspectives of learning and leadership? How do we do that?
4. Shared Leadership
- Structures support participation in developing learning communities. Are there ways we can participate in learning or be involved in starting learning communities within the school?
- Shared leadership symbolised in day-to-day flow of activities. Can we see leadership being shared by various colleagues and students in the day-to-day flow of activities in the school? What is that like?
- Everyone encouraged to take a lead as appropriate to task and context. Do we take the initiative to take a lead in various learning or research projects in accordance with what we are interested in and capable of? What kind of projects or research can we embark on?
- Everyone’s experience and expertise is valued and drawn upon as resources. Do we draw on everyone’s experience and expertise and value all of them as important resources to support learning? How do we do that?
- Collaborative activity across boundaries of subject, role and status are valued and promoted. Do we value and promote collaborative activities across subject, levels and roles within the school?
5. Mutual Accountability
- Systematic approach to self-evaluation embedded at every level. Is there a systematic approach to self-evaluation that is evident in all aspects of our work?
- Focus on evidence and its congruence with core values. Is there a focus on documentation of teaching and learning that would be consistent with our beliefs on the values of education?
- Shared approach to internal accountability is a precondition of external accountability. Do we take the initiative to be accountable to ourselves in ensuring the quality of teaching and learning, rather than be dependent on an external authority?
- National policies recast in accordance with school's core values. Do we critically examine the national policies and how they are relevant with the school’s core values?
- Choosing how to tell own story while taking account of political realities. Do we maintain an individual stance of our own views of teaching and learning, while being very cognisant of the political realities that we are living in?
- Continuing focus on sustainability, succession and leaving a legacy. Do we try to look forward towards the future, on how we can sustain our current efforts and be able to leave a legacy for our future generations?
Focus on Learning
Observing, thinking, reflecting (: Focus on Learning10 min). Read the text below, in conjunction with the questions for "Focus on Learning" above, and then do the activity below.
The first principle is ‘a focus on learning’. The two key words are ‘focus’ and ‘learning’. To focus means to pay close attention to, to select what is important and to keep it in the foreground. Those who exercise leadership have at times to pay attention to things other than learning. Managing a school requires attention to a host of priorities and it is easy to be distracted by constant demands and other peoples’ urgencies. However, while a focus on learning always remains in the background of thinking, whenever possible it has to be brought into the foreground. It comes into the foreground when leadership is able to discriminate between the important and the urgent and knows where the priorities lie. (Adapted from "Leadership for learning: concepts, principles and practice", John MacBeath, April 2010, http://www.leadershipforlearning.org.uk)
Same-task group work (15 min). Now consider a number of issues at your school. What issues have recently arisen? What issues have been discussed in recent teacher meetings? Perhaps brainstorm and make a list of them, or write them on small cards. Now decide how how these issues relate to "Focus on Learning", and regarding "Focus on Learning" decide whether they are important and/or urgent. Go through some of the issues you came up with, and place them into these categories:
| Important and urgent | Important but not urgent |
| Urgent but not important | Not urgent, and not important |
You could write this out on a piece of paper, and if you made cards above, they could be placed into this grid. Does everybody agree on where the cards are placed? Remember that we are looking at the issues through the lens of "Focus on Learning", so when we say that something is "important and urgent" we mean "important and urgent with regard to learning at the school".
Conditions for Learning
Read the text below, in conjunction with the questions for "Conditions on Learning" above.
How can you focus on learning when conditions are so bad that simply getting children, and teachers to school is both urgent and important? How can you focus on learning when the priority is to find and manage accommodation, space, resources and contingencies of food, health, weather, and respond to unexpected crises? How can you focus on learning when you have a hundred or more children in a class? How can you focus on learning when many teaching staff have little background knowledge of pedagogy?
The physical conditions for learning vary widely in Ghanaian schools, in cities suburbs, villages and rural areas. Demands, expectations and resourcing also vary widely. The principle, however, remains the same. Leadership in every circumstance has to try to optimise the physical, social and emotional conditions which hinder learning, and has to try and seek out the ‘wiggle room’ for creating a greater learning focus. In this respect the force field tool can be used to analyse what helps and hinders and what may be possible. (Adapted from "Leadership for learning: concepts, principles and practice", John MacBeath, April 2010, http://www.leadershipforlearning.org.uk)
Use the "force-field analysis" to look at the conditions for learning. Leaning on a metaphor from Physics, Force Field Analysis is a useful technique for looking at facilitating and constraining forces. Identify the issue, then write down things three things that help on the left, and three things that hinder on the right.
| --> | <-- | |
| Help | The Issue | Hinder |
| --> | <-- |
The technique can be extended by
- (a) initially listing all the factors that help and hinder, then identifying the three most important of each,
- (b) showing the strength of the forces by assigning a score to each, from 1 (weak) to 5 (strong).
The next stage is to consider what can be done to
- Add momentum to and capitalise on the favourable forces
- Minimise or overcome the obstacles.
Options for action can be considered in how effective they will be in shifting the balance in favour of the positive forces. (Adapted from the "Blue Book" of the Leadership for Learning project.)
Learning Dialogue
Read the text below, in conjunction with the questions for "Learning Dialogue" above.
The force field can be used by any individual to think through the forces acting against you and the assets you have, or the potential assets still unexploited. Even in the most dire of circumstances the best resources are likely to be people. The force field comes into its own as a tool, a ‘tin opener’ for opening up the dialogue, for extending and challenging the status quo, for trying to think ‘outside the box’. It may reveal the hidden resources of staff or of children which have remained untapped and uncelebrated.
"Your school is a place for children to learn. If they do not learn much, you have not fulfilled your first priority. How can you, as headteacher, make sure that the children in your school are learning something new every day?" (Headteachers’ Handbook, Ghana Education Service) (Adapted from "Leadership for learning: concepts, principles and practice", John MacBeath, April 2010, http://www.leadershipforlearning.org.uk)
Use the force-field analysis to determine the things that support or hinder learning dialogue.
Read the text below, in conjunction with the questions for "Shared Leadership" above.
When there is a dialogue around the need to ensure that children are learning something new every day learning can become the first priority. When there is dialogue around securing resources and managing change, the capacity for hidden leadership can come to the fore. ‘This thing is too heavy for thee; thou art not able to perform it thyself alone’. It is said that a burden shared is a burden halved. It is also said that 1 and 1 can make 3, that is, my idea and your idea when put together can produce a third idea which neither of us had thought of. Another popular saying which strikes the same note - ‘All of us is better than one of us’ – is a more folksy way of describing the technical term ‘synergy’ which means ‘energy with’. Ghanaian leaders expend a lot of energy sometimes just to stand still but can replenish and even gain energy through working collaboratively with trusted others.
(Adapted from "Leadership for learning: concepts, principles and practice", John MacBeath, April 2010, http://www.leadershipforlearning.org.uk)
Whole group dialogue (30 min) on command, consultation, consensus. Discuss the meaning of command, consultation, consensus, and give examples how these occur in the day-to-day activities of the school. Now imagine a pie. It can be divided into three quadrants to represent the balance of three decision-making processes in your school, district office or circuit supervision. What percentage of those decisions are Command, Consultation, or Consensus?
Materials on consensus-based decision making can be found here: http://www.seedsforchange.org.uk/consensus If there is a strong interest in consensus-based decision making, the materials could be used.
Also see "hand signals" below.
Mutual Accountability
Read the text below, in conjunction with the questions for "Mutual Accountability" above.
When leadership is shared so is accountability. Those in leadership positions (‘where the buck stops’ as Harry Truman said) are, in some sense, accountable for every action taken, every decision made. Nine times out of ten decisions are never explained or accounted for as that would paralyse initiatives whether in the headteacher’s office, the teacher’s classroom, the regional headquarters or the Ministry. But where there is an ongoing dialogue and when there is shared leadership, decisions can be reviewed in retrospect and discussed in prospect, so that what one is accountable for, and to whom, and in what way is open to discussion. This strengthens a sense of ownership of staff, creates a feeling of reciprocity and is in itself an important source of professional development. (Adapted from "Leadership for learning: concepts, principles and practice", John MacBeath, April 2010, http://www.leadershipforlearning.org.uk)
Use the 'question starters' below, to investigate scenarios that have various degrees of shared accountability.
Activities and techniques for teacher meetings
Question starts
Dialogue (30 min) using question starts Question starts are explained below. Use question starts to initiate some discussion to explore a topic in the teacher meeting.
Question Starts (A Visible Thinking routine) - A routine for creating thought-provoking questions
Brainstorm a list of at least 12 questions about the topic, concept or object. Use these question-starts to help you think of interesting questions:
- Why...?
- How would it be different if...?
- What are the reasons...?
- Suppose that...?
- What if...?
- What if we knew...?
- What is the purpose of...?
- What would change if...?
Review the brainstormed list and star the questions that seem most interesting. Then, select one or more of the starred questions to discuss for a few moments.
Reflect: What new ideas do you have about the topic, concept or object that you didn't have before?
(Adapted from the "Blue Book" of the Leadership for Learning project.)
Increasing participation through handsignals
Read the text below about hand signals. Through hand signals, communication and participation in teachers meetings will be increased. Introduce and explain the hand signals in a teachers' meeting. Practice it for a few weeks, until it becomes second nature.
Handsignals can make meetings run more smoothly and help the facilitator see emerging agreements. Three simple signals should suffice:
- Raise a hand when you wish to contribute to the discussion with a general point.
- Raise both hands if your point is a direct response to the current discussion. This allows you to jump to the head of the queue, so use it wisely and discourage overuse!
- Silent applause - when you hear an opinion that you agree with, wave a hand with your fingers pointing upwards. This saves a lot of time as people don't need to chip in to say "I'd just like to add that I agree with..."
(c.f. Facilitation)
Critical incident analysis
Dialogue (30 min): Resolve an issue at school using critical incident analysis. The idea of critical incident analysis is explained below. Read the technique below, and use it to resolve an issue in a teacher meeting using the technique.
Critical Incident Analysis is a way of analysing a recent event significant event in order to examine it in detail and learn from the experience.
The group of people involved sit in a circle and firstly go back over the incident in descriptive detail. The aim is to recall the event in terms of what happened, the context, the key players, what preceded and what followed. Everyone will have different perceptions, recollections and angles. This is an important aspect of the exercise and should be recorded in some way. It may hold the key to the way in which people respond, allocate responsibility and decide on a course of action.
- Suspend judgement. Don’t allocate blame.
- Don’t argue for your construction of the event. Listen to others
- Describe from an objective, disinterested, viewpoint what happened.
- Try to remember the conditions – eg time of day, the weather (was it raining? hot? etc), preceding events
- Who was involved?
- What did different people do? And not do?
- What was said?
Having agreed, as far as possible, what happened, now reflect on questions such as:
- What might have been done differently?
- What were the possible options? (allow for wild ideas)
- Who held the options?
- Why were they not used? (still avoiding blame or judgement)
- What have we learned from the incident?
- What might we do differently next time?
(Adapted from the "Blue Book" of the Leadership for Learning project.)
