Leading Learning Communities: Towards a culture of inquiry within and across schools

1. Leading Learning Communities: Towards a culture of inquiry within and across schools Sue Greer www.aporia.ca

3. The Ontario Context Ontario Ministry of Education

4. Leadership In Ontario’s Context: The Ontario Leadership Framework

5. Leadership defined: Leadership is the exercise of influence on organizational members and diverse stakeholders towards the identification and achievement of the organization’s vision and goals

6. Purpose of the framework: Facilitate a shared vision of leadership across schools Common language around what it means to be a leader Identify the practices, actions and personal traits that describe effective leaders Guide the design and implementation of professional learning for schools and leaders

7. Today’s Overview The power and perils of learning communities Enabling professional learning- Our model A professional learning focus Collaborative inquiry that challenges thinking and practice The instructional leader’s role

8. Nodes, Threads, Knots, and Nets Church et al., 2002

9. Alphabet Soup! PLCs, NLCs, Head of School LTs The ‘letters’ don’t matter! Implementation matters!

10. Effective PLCs: The power of the idea of a PLC is that members of the group… engage together in challenges of practice so that their understanding of those challenges grows deeper and is more unified. Through their investigations, proposed solutions emerge that are then tested to see if they help… Supovitz, 2006

11. Through such a repeated process, practice grows more sophisticated and powerful and the group develops a tighter sense of camaraderie and common purpose. As a result, they can construct common understanding, share knowledge and experience, and develop common goals.. Supovitz, 2006

12. Experience tells us… This form of professional learning communities was largely absent from the district and the examples (school practitioners) did provide were too diffused and unfocused to have a strong influence on their practice. Activities like book talks and in-school professional development sessions were too sparse and diffused to fulfill the particular goals promised by PLCs Suppovitz 2006

13. The Perils of Learning Communities: Quality Control Group Think Diffusion of responsibility (Social Loafing) Deindividuation

14. The Power of Learning Communities • Learning from one another • Learning with one another • Learning on behalf of one another NLG (UK)

15. The Power of Learning Communities • Diversity of opinion • Independence • Decentralization • Aggregation Surowiecki, 2004

16. Creating the conditions for focused professional learning

17. Enabling Professional Learning Formal and Informal Instructional Leaders Professional Learning Community In School Changes in Thinking and Practices in classrooms and Schools Student Learning, Engagement and Success Teacher Learning - Professional Knowledge Creation and Sharing Collaborative Inquiry that Challenges Thinking and Practice Networked Learning Communities Clear and Defensible Learning Foci for Students, Teachers and Leaders Aporia Consulting Ltd. 2011

18. Influencing Student Achievement • Classroom instruction is the single greatest predictor of student success • School leadership is second only to classroom instruction on impacting on student achievement Hattie, Marzano et al., Leithwood et al., and many others!

19. Enabling Professional Learning Formal and Informal Instructional Leaders Professional Learning Community In School Changes in Thinking and Practices in classrooms and Schools Student Learning, Engagement and Success Teacher Learning - Professional Knowledge Creation and Sharing Collaborative Inquiry that Challenges Thinking and Practice Networked Learning Communities Clear and Defensible Learning Foci for Students, Teachers and Leaders Aporia Consulting Ltd. 2011

20. Enabling Professional Learning Formal and Informal Instructional Leaders Professional Learning Community In School Changes in Thinking and Practices in classrooms and Schools Student Learning, Engagement and Success Teacher Learning - Professional Knowledge Creation and Sharing Collaborative Inquiry that Challenges Thinking and Practice Networked Learning Communities Clear and Defensible Learning Foci for Students, Teachers and Leaders Aporia Consulting Ltd. 2011

21. Enabling Professional Learning Formal and Informal Instructional Leaders Professional Learning Community In School Changes in Thinking and Practices in classrooms and Schools Student Learning, Engagement and Success Teacher Learning - Professional Knowledge Creation and Sharing Collaborative Inquiry that Challenges Thinking and Practice Networked Learning Communities Clear and Defensible Learning Foci for Students, Teachers and Leaders Aporia Consulting Ltd. 2011

22. Characteristics of a high-leverage Professional LEARNING focus: strongly connected to the needs of our students explicit shared understanding of the focus in the school directs professional learning opportunities for themselves and staff there is research-based evidence that the substance of the professional learning enhances teaching/learning and it is displayed for everyone to see Aporia Consulting Ltd. 2011

23. Enabling Professional Learning Formal and Informal Instructional Leaders Professional Learning - Knowledge Creation and Sharing Professional Learning Community In School Changes in Thinking and Practices in Classrooms and Schools Collaborative Inquiry that Challenges Thinking and Practice Student Learning, Engagement and Success Networked Learning Communities Clear and Defensible Learning Foci for Students, Teachers and Leaders Aporia Consulting Ltd. 2011

24. Enabling Professional Learning Formal and Informal Instructional Leaders Professional Learning - Knowledge Creation and Sharing Professional Learning Community In School Changes in Thinking and Practices in Classrooms and Schools Collaborative Inquiry that Challenges Thinking and Practice Student Learning, Engagement and Success Networked Learning Communities Clear and Defensible Learning Foci for Students, Teachers and Leaders Aporia Consulting Ltd. 2011

25. From student learning to professional learning 1.What knowledge and skills do our students need? 2. What knowledge and skills do we need as professionals within this initiative? 5. What has been the impact of our changed actions? 3. Deepen professional knowledge and refine skills by engaging in further professional learning 4. Engage students in new learning experiences Timperley, Wilson, Barrar & Fung, (2008) Professional Learning and Professional Development: Best Evidence Synthesis www.educationcounts.govt.nz/publications/series/ibes/15341 Aporia Consulting Ltd. 2011

26. Beware of Activity Traps • Those “doings” that, while well intentioned, are not needs-based and divert resources (human and material) away from the school improvement focus Aporia Consulting Ltd. 2011

27. Joint Work that Challenges Thinking & Practice involves: Regularly challenging one another’s assumptions about our practice Being receptive to feedback from colleagues Talking openly with colleagues about differing views, opinions, values Dealing openly with professional conflicts that arise Aporia Consulting Ltd. 2011

28. Collaborative Inquiry – 7 Key Elements Aporia Consulting Ltd. 2011 1.Creating context 2. Engaging in “question-driven” inquiry 3. Generating working theories 4. Critical evaluation 5. Searching for new information 6. Engagement in deepening inquiry 7. Shared expertise Hakkarainen et al. (2004)

29. Impactful Leadership Dimensions(Robinson, 2009) • Establishing goals and expectations (ES=0.42) • Includes the setting, communicating, and monitoring of learning goals, standards, and expectations, and the involvement of staff and others in the process so that there is clarity and consensus about goals. • Strategic resourcing (ES=0.31) • Involves aligning resource selection and allocation to priority teaching goals. • Planning, coordinating and evaluating teaching and the curriculum (ES=0.42) • Direct involvement in teaching through regular classroom visits and the provision of feedback to teachers. Direct oversight of curriculum through school-wide coordination across classes and grades and alignment to school goals. Aporia Consulting Ltd. 2011

30. Impactful Leadership Dimensions(Robinson, 2007) • Promoting and participating in teacher learning and development (ES=0.84) • Leadership that not only promotes but directly participates with teachers in formal and informal professional learning. • Ensuring an orderly and supportive environment (ES=0.27) • Protecting time for teaching and learning by reducing external pressures and interruptions, and establishing an orderly and supportive environment both inside and outside classrooms. Aporia Consulting Ltd. 2011

31. FIVE DIMENSIONS OF EFFECTIVE LEADERSHIP(Robinson et al., 2009)

32. Role of an Instructional Leader To be the lead learner – not the lead knower To create the conditions where teachers embrace the problem of practice To participate in their own learning with colleagues who have the same learning focus

33. Differentiation of support Great to excellent Good to great Adequate to good Awful to adequate

34. Nodes, Threads, Knots, and Nets Church et al., 2002

35. 3 C’s of Learning Communities: • Create • Collaborate • Celebrate