World Teachers’ Day ‘Success without Magic’

1. UNESCO Conference World Teachers’ Day ‘Success without Magic’ John Bangs Senior Consultant – Education International

2. We know schools are optimistic communities “Primary schools provide unfailingly positive and dynamic settings for children’s development and learning, and were highly valued by children, parents and the wider community. This is worthy not so much of note as of celebration.” (Cambridge Primary Review, 2008) 1

3. If teachers are the key to children’s levels of optimism, then high teacher self-efficacy is vital “My self-confidence and belief in making a positive difference will be enhanced by feeling that my opinion is valued. Teachers are in close contact with pupils in everyday practice and thus have an immediate understanding of issues affecting the learning and well-being of pupils. Acknowledgement of this and consultation with teaching staff will empower a workforce with the confidence to drive development.” (Teacher in ‘Herts Cam’, quoted in ‘Teacher Self-Efficacy, Voice and Leadership’ John Bangs and David Frost – Cambridge University 2012) “Teachers with high self-efficacy expect to succeed in teaching and to handle students well … this influences their interpretation of successes and disappointments, the standards they set and their approaches to coping with difficult instructional situations … strong self-efficacy beliefs can prevent stress and burn-out … and are linked with (improved) instructional practices and student achievement. (‘Teaching and Learning’ – International Survey, OECD 2008) 3

4. We know teacher learning and leadership are vital for successful education systems “The findings confirm the importance of professional development as possibly one of the highest impact policy levers in education, with possibly transformational effects on both social and academic outcomes from the education system.” (‘Teacher Professional Learning and Development’, BES programme Helen Timperley et al 2008 – University of Auckland) ‘Instructional improvement requires continuous learning by all and distributed leadership needs to create an environment that views learning as a collective good’. (Richard Elmore in ‘Improving School Leadership’ – OECD 2008) ‘The findings support the belief that collaborative leadership, as opposed to leadership from the principal alone, may offer a path towards more sustainable school improvement’. (‘Collaborative Leadership and School Improvement : Understanding the Impact on School Capacity and Student Learning’, Philip Hallinger and Ronald Heck 2010) 4

5. We know that strong proactive teacher unions have a vital role in educational success "A lot of education rhetoric these days includes mention of the supposedly negative impact of teacher unions on reform … but here’s an interesting observation … virtually all the top performing countries on international education measures have strong teacher unions, including Finland, Korea, Japan, Canada, Australia and others…" (‘Let’s Stop Blaming Teacher Unions’, Ben Levin, 2010) 5

6. We know about the conditions for the most effective education reforms “Learning outcomes at school are the result of what happens in classrooms, thus only reforms that are successfully implemented in classrooms can be expected to be effective. Teacher engagement in the development and implementation of educational reform is therefore crucial and school reform will not work unless it is supported from the bottom up. This requires those responsible for change to both communicate their aims well and involve the stakeholders who are affected. But it also requires teachers to contribute as the architects of change, not just its implementers.” (‘Building a High Quality Teaching Profession – Lessons from around the World’, OECD 2011) “Last but not least it has become clear that education needs to become a social project. Partnerships and coalitions are necessary for strengthening and building the profession…seeking short term gains by shaming teachers will not strengthen the profession but tear it apart.” (‘Preparing Teachers and Developing School Leaders for the 21st Century’, OECD 2012) 6

7. We know what does NOT work “Governments are driven to tinker with the levers they control most directly, whether or not those are the real drivers of outcomes. The main means used to try to generate improvement have most often been around structural aspects of the system-governance, finance, workforce, and accountability or incentive systems … there is considerable research evidence now on many of these efforts and, to sum up … it is hard to find any evidence of sustained improvement in outcomes resulting from these efforts. Structural changes have always had disappointing results.” (‘Government and Education Reforms : Some lessons from the last 50 Years’, Ben Levin: OISE 2010) 7

8. And we know about misdirected reform efforts • Accountability using test results, and teacher appraisal, to reward and punish teachers and schools versus capacity building. • Individual teacher leadership quality: promoting individual versus group solutions. • Technology: investing in and assuming the wonders of the digital world will carry the day versus instruction • Fragmented strategies versus systemic strategies. (‘Choosing the Wrong Drivers for Whole System Reform,’ Michael Fullan, 2011, Centre for Strategic Education: Seminar series 204) 8

9. Not just a wish list – a postscript based in reality Principles promote a common understanding of new policy directions and are the basis of sound and collective decisions. Achieving our vision … requires the following principles to be embraced by all partners: • Learner-centred. • Shared responsibility and accountability for results. • Engaged communities. • Inclusive, equitable access. • A responsive, flexible approach. • Sustainable and efficient use of resources. • Ateacher is the most significant agent in the learning process. 10