Session 1.5 - Introduction to Leadership for Learning and effective use of ICT
The OER4Schools Professional Learning Resource
Learning intentions and objectives.
In this session you will learn about:
- Leadership for Learning as a framework that creates the opportunity for change in schools to promote the activity of learning,
- Most Significant Change (MSC) as a technique for monitoring and evaluating this professional development programme by collecting stories of significant changes in areas of practice, and
- sharing resources effectively across groups and within groups when doing activities that make use of ICT taking into account the number of students per computer and the need for all students to spend time on the computer.
Success criteria.
To meet the learning intentions you will:
- recognise the potential for leadership capacity to expand as a result of the professional development of staff on programmes like this,
- contribute MSC stories on a regular basis either by writing them down or making an audio recording,
- plan ICT activities that allow all students to see the computer well (no more than 6 per computer) being prepared to provide alternative activities for the rest of the class to work on at the same time, and
- plan activities that allow all students equal access to a computer by e.g. giving them roles within groups and encouraging them to monitor use.
ICT components.
The ICT components you will focus on are
- Searching for images and downloading images
- OpenOffice Impress for making your own photo stories
- Continuation of typing practice
Classroom based activities (with your students, after this session):
- you will do group work around images (using OO Impress),
- you will do typing practice in the classroom
Resources needed.
You'll need to make a "pin board", so you might need some pins or bluetack, and some space.
Review of follow-up activities from last session
Why are we doing this? An introduction to Leadership for Learning
Individual activity (5 min): Reading about the five principles of Leadership for Learning. Read the following text.
Leadership for Learning is a way of thinking, doing, communicating, working, and reflecting about educational leadership in schools for the singular purpose of promoting the activity of learning.
Five principles of Leadership for Learning are as follows:
- Focus on learning
- Conditions for learning
- Learning Dialogue
- Shared Leadership
- Shared Accountability
Throughout this programme we will explore the five LfL principles in practice with a view to you contributing your own ideas about Leadership for Learning through interactive learning opportunities.
LfL is not something that can be implemented, ‘done-to’ a school or imposed on a person. LfL provides a framework that creates an opportunity for change; for expanding leadership capacity in schools and improving the quality of learning. The OER4schools programme adopts an approach similar to the one in LfL in how it defines professional learning. You will have an opportunity in this unit to reflect further on the application of LfL in every aspect of your own professional learning.
Same-task group work (10 min): Small group discussion on LfL in school. Form a different small group of three to four teachers and discuss these questions:
- What is your initial impression of the terms ‘leadership’ and ‘learning’?
- Who are the leaders and learners in your school?
- Who are the leaders in your school who are responsible for learning within the school?
- Can you be a leader who promotes learning in your school? Why?
VIDEO
Ghana Leadership for Learning
Ghana Leadership for Learning - The Context
Video/Ghana Leadership for Learning - The Context.mp4, https://oer.opendeved.net/wiki/Video/Ghana_Leadership_for_Learning_-_The_Context.mp4,This video is available on your memory stick in the video/Video from other organisations folder. Duration: 06:58 watch on YouTube, local play / download options / download from dropbox) dudfilms(Series: Video from other organisations, episode N/A)
Where are we going? Overview of the resource topics
The present resource intends to cover a number of units. You have now come to the end of Unit 1.
Unit 1: Introduction to interactive teaching and the use of ICT. The unit offers an introduction to interactive teaching with and without ICT. It introduces the idea of “plan-teach-reflect”, as well as lesson planning to include interactive activity. The unit covers the following aspects:
- What is interactive teaching?
- ICTs in interactive teaching.
- Effective use of ICTs, including basic use of netbooks, browser, and images / slideshows (also in OpenOffice Impress).
The aims of Unit 1 are to
- understand principles of interactive teaching - with and without ICT,
- see illustrations and discuss issues involved in implementing it,
- think about changing one’s own practice, and
- develop ways of working with colleagues to reflect on practice, share ideas and trial new strategies.
The unit also introduces the most significant change technique, and at the end of this unit, we look at the Leadership for Learning principles.
Unit 2: Whole class dialogue & effective questioning. The unit’s focus is whole class dialogue and effective questioning. It covers:
- creating a supportive environment for dialogue;
- introducing cumulative talk – creating a story together;
- promoting and managing whole class discussion;
- types and examples of effective questions to ask in class, and
- how to engage students in activity at the blackboard.
At the end of this unit, we consider how to communicate with other teachers at the school, with parents, head teachers, as well as officials who might seek to assess your new teaching practices. It also includes some material to support school leaders in providing a conducive learning environment for their staff.
In terms of ICTs, this unit introduces GeoGebra and collaborative writing. You should continue practising your other ICT skills, including typing, and making use of images.
Unit 3: Group work. This unit introduces group work, how to agree on ground rules, and what sort of resources support group work (such as “talking points” and digital resources). In detail, the unit covers
- exploratory talk,
- same task group work,
- different tasks group work,
- group composition and formation,
- ground rules for group work,
- carousel of activities for group work,
- mixed pace group work and differentiation, and
- talking points activity for promoting group interaction.
Unit 4: Assessment for learning and lesson pacing. The unit introduces how to find out what your pupils have learnt, and where they need more help, allowing you to use lesson time effectively whilst making sure that your pupils are making continued progress.
In detail the unit covers
- using an assessment inventory as a self-assessment measure,
- sharing learning objectives and success criteria,
- summative feedback,
- formative feedback, and
- peer assessment.
Unit 5: Enquiry-based learning and project work. The unit introduces how to work in an “enquiry-based” way, for instance learning through project work and in-depth, open-ended investigations. We explore a way of teaching and learning that encourages students to take the initiative to pose questions and explore their curiosity about the world around them, through a process of enquiry.
Unit 6: Into the future. This unit reviews the programme, and continues to make connections between the various interactive practices introduced throughout the programme. It also offers an introduction to action research and communities of practice, through which teachers can continually evolve their teaching practice.
You can print this content on a separate sheet here: OER4Schools/Unit overview.
What is the most significant change?
The most significant change (MSC) technique
MSC is a form of participatory monitoring and evaluation. It is participatory because many project stakeholders are involved both in deciding the sorts of change to be recorded and in analysing the data. It is a form of monitoring because it occurs throughout the program cycle and provides information to help people manage the program. It contributes to evaluation because it provides data on impact and outcomes that can be used to help assess the performance of the program as a whole.
Essentially, the process involves ‘searching’ for project impact through:
- collection of significant change (SC) stories emanating from the field level
- systematic selection of the most significant of these stories by panels of designated stakeholders or staff
- collective reading of the stories aloud and regular and often in-depth discussions about the value of reported changes
When the technique is implemented successfully, whole teams of people begin to focus their attention on programme impact. You can find out more about the MSC technique here: http://www.mande.co.uk/docs/MSCGuide.pdf
We now consider what the biggest changes might be as a consequence of being involved in this programme - for yourselves, for your teaching, for your students, for the school, or in whatever other area.
Whole class brainstorm (5 min) on newspaper analogy for recording MSC. Think about how a newspaper works. A newspaper presents news stories about interesting events. Newspapers are structured into different sections (subject areas, such as foreign news, domestic news, financial news, sport, leisure). The most important stories go on the front page and the most important of these is usually at the top of the front page.
Information to be documented should include:
- Information about who collected the story and when the events occurred
- Description of the story itself – what happened
- Significance (to the storyteller) of events described in the story.
Documenting who collected the story and when helps the reader put the story in context and enables any follow-up inquiries to be made about the story, if needed. The SC story itself should be documented as it is told. The description of the change identified as the most significant should include factual information that makes it clear who was involved, what happened, where and when.
Whole class dialogue (10 min): Whole group discussion on MSC stories. Now imagine that later on you will be putting together a whole newspaper issue about how this whole programme affects your thinking and classroom practice: What kinds of stories will be the most important? Who and what will the stories be about? Who will be affected by those stories, who would listen, and who will be they of interest to? What different sections would the newspaper have? What kind of change would you like to make?
The storyteller is also asked to explain the significance of the story from their point of view. This is a key part of MSC. Some storytellers will naturally end their stories this way, but others will need to be prompted. Without this section, people reading and discussing the story may not understand why the story was significant to the storyteller. For example, a woman may tell a story about going to a community meeting and sitting at the back and asking a question. ‘So what?’ you may think. She then tells you that this story was significant because she had not previously had the confidence to go to a community meeting, and that the program helped her gain the confidence to express her views in front of the village elders for the first time.
Where possible, a story should be written as a simple narrative describing the sequence of events that took place.
Groupwork with computers: Sharing resources across groups
Individual activity (5 min): Reading. Read the following.
Access to computers: “We need more computers." Many schools don’t have access to computers at all, but where schools do have access, it is often felt that there are not enough computers. How many computers would a school need? While some might say that one computer per child, or perhaps one computer per two children would be ideal, for many schools (and classrooms) this is unrealistic. In general, when you have access to computers, you should therefore make sure that the computers are used in the best way possible in your context. We now consider how to make best use of whatever computers are available during group work.
Same-task group work (5 min): Pair work on sharing computers.. Spend 5 minutes as pairs, considering the following scenario: You have 60 children in your class, and 10 computers. How would you arrange the groups, how would you distribute the computers, how would you structure the lesson?
To help with this, consider the following questions:
- In devising groupings consider how many children can see the screen and get hands-on experience.
- If you only have a few computers, it is better to operate a carousel so everyone gets a chance?
Whole class dialogue (10 min): Presentation and discussion Go round all the pairs, who very briefly present their suggestions. Discuss the various outcomes. What different proposals are there?
Here are two more pictures you can consider, regarding how children are sitting around a computer: In one picture, the screen us upright, and all the pupils are squeezing in behind. In the other picture, the screen is flat, allowing the children to sit around the screen.
Groupwork with computers: Sharing resources within groups
Having considered how computers are distributed among groups, we now consider how the computer can be shared equally within groups.
Same-task group work (5 min): Pair work. In pairs, consider the following questions:
- What would you do if there are some students who always control the computer, while other group members never get to use it?
- Would you say that it is sensible to mix computer-literate pupils with novices?
- How will you ensure they help rather than dominate their peers?
Whole class dialogue (10 min): Discussion Discuss the outcomes of your reflection as a whole class.
ICT practice: Planning an activity using groupwork and ICT
This activity requires one of the following files
- File:Monarch Life Cycle.odp for OpenOffice Impress or
- File:Monarch Life Cycle.ppt for MS PowerPoint.
- Alternatively, you can view the pictures here: life cycle of a butterfly and use your own software for arranging them.
Pair work (10 min) to download the files. Start by downloading the presentation files above (or the pictures individually), and have a look at them. With a grade buddy, use presentation software to arrange and present them in the right sequence. If you have difficulty arranging the slides, read the background note below.
Arranging slides in OpenOffice Impress
When you open a presentation, you see the first slide displayed in a larger window in the middle of the screen. To the left, you see small pictures of all of the slides in the presentation, like a "film strip". To rearrange the slides, you can simply click on a slide with the mouse, and (while holding down the mouse button), drag it to a different position.
Same-task group work (30 min): Plan an activity with ICT in year groups. In year groups plan an activity together (i.e. all grade 4 teachers plan a lesson for grade 4 together; grade 5 teachers together for grade 5; etc). Whilst in your group:
- discuss with your colleagues (from the same grade) which topics you have coming up next week, and whether some of these topics would work particularly well with groupwork and ICT
- choose a topic that you will be teaching for which this type of activity is useful
- find some appropriate images for your chosen topic and plan a presentation for your students to re-order (you can find pictures that are open resources (Creative Commons licensed) at http://www.flickr.com/search/advanced/)
- make active use of the computers to identify useful images together and download them
Read the following background text if you need help with downloading Flickr images.
Downloading images from Flickr
- Click on the photo from the Flickr search results that you want to use (the screen will refresh and a larger version of the image will be shown).
- Select the "Actions" tab directly above the image (a drop down menu will appear).
- Click on "view all sizes' from the drop down menu (the screen will refresh).
- Select the "download a large version of this file" option.
Your chosen image will now be downloaded to your computer for use in OpenOffice Impress - introduction to slideshows with OpenOffice.
Think about the following when planning your activity (keep a note in your activity template):
- What instructions will you give to your students to enable them to carry out this ICT activity effectively?
- How will you ensure everyone participates and everyone learns? How will you stretch all learners?
- What will you say to the groups to ensure this?
- Consider how the computers will be swapped between groups, and between pupils within a group, to ensure that there is effective access for everybody.
This week for homework you will try:
- an image-based task in the classroom (as prepared above) and
- typing practise in the classroom which students would do individually, recording their scores, perhaps for a league table.
Further tips on how to do the typing practice activity are available here (typing practice with students), and included below. Use this information to come up with some ideas for typing practise.
This activity would follow on from the basic netbook familiarisation.
Key points:
- Some computer use relies on conceptual understanding (such as understanding the terms "application", "window" etc). Student need practical experience, but the main concepts are understood conceptually.
- There are other skills in computer use, which are motor skills (such as using the mouse and typing) that are need to be learned through repetition.
Activity:
- Students do typing practise (individually).
- If there are not enough keyboards for each student to have one, you do carousel-style group work. You can combine developing typing skills with any other activity that requires individual or small group work.
- Make sure you plan your lesson so that every student has got a chance to practise
- Use a typing tutor
- Students can record their scores to see how they improve over time, or to form a league table.
Typing practice in the classroom. You only have a limited number of computers. When you start typing, you can do this in pairs, so that both students understand how the typing tutor program works. However, once students get this, it makes sense to do it as an individual activity. However, students only needs to practise for 10 minutes. Say if you have 12 netbooks, then take a group of 12 students to do typing practise, while your remaining students (perhaps 20-30 or so) do other tasks (also in group work). After a while, you rotate: Some of the students who were doing other tasks now use the typing tutor, while the students previously doing the typing tutor now join in with other group tasks. We will introduce carousel(a)-style group work properly in session 3.2.
You can print this content on a separate sheet here: OER4Schools/Typing_practice_with_students.
Connecting with overarching goals of the programme
Open space (10 min). It's now time for the "open space", that gives you an opportunity to discuss issues that have arisen, and to relate those to the broader context of the programme. Do not just gloss over this section, but make time to raise issues, and probe the progress that you are making. You could use this space to:
- Remind yourselves of the of the Most Significant Change Technique, and e.g. collect more of your stories.
- Discuss your assessment portfolios: Is there anything that you are unsure about? Is it going well? What could be done better?
- Check on the work with the classroom assistants: Is this going well? Are there any tensions? Any observations or tips you can share?
- Reviewing individual ICT practise (such as typing practise).
- If you are preparing a presentation for other teachers, you could work on the presentation (about what you have been learning, stories emerging from MSC).
- Remind those who are doing audio diaries, to upload them.
- You could discuss any other issues that have arisen.
You will find notes and summaries of various techniques and concepts on our reference page, and you might want to refer to those for clarification during this activity if needed.
Follow-up activities
Agreeing follow-up activities (5 min).
Part A: Come to the teacher lab at least once each week to learn more ICT skills.
- In preparation for developing some image-based lesson activities, you should search suitable images.
- Do some typing practice to improve your typing skills.
- Send an email to the oer4schools list (optional)
The following items are specific to the programme at CBS, and may need to be adapted to local circumstances:
Searching for images:
- If there is internet, you can use the "search images on flickr" link from your school homepage (http://192.168.128.1).
- Alternatively, if connectivity is poor, you can do this by browsing the schools edition of Wikipedia, also linked from the school homepage.
Part B: Try out your groupwork with ICT. As the week progresses, the teachers within each grade should share the experiences. That is to say, if you are the first teacher to teach this lesson, meet your colleagues afterwards, and discuss with them how it went, and what improvements could be made. Remember to keep a note of your reflections and of peer feedback in your reflective journal.
As you teach the lesson remember to think about your own role in the classroom; it is not just to monitor progress but also to interact with pupils, assess their understanding, offer support and help move their thinking forward. Sometimes a group will even need you to sit with them and offer intensive support to progress. Think about how you can identify this need?
During the lessons, remember to encourage groups to let everybody within the group have a go at using the ICT!
Video some of the groupwork if you can (ideally a colleague can do this for you so they can capture you as well as the pupils) and upload it to the server.
