What do we know about Schooling Improvement: Session One

1. What do we know about Schooling Improvement: Session One Helen Timperley Professor of Education The University of Auckland New Zealand

3. Teacher inquiry and knowledge-building cycle to promote valued student outcomes 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 skills Engage students in new learning experiences

4. 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

5. 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

6. Leader inquiry and knowledge-building cycle to promote valued teaching and student outcomes 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

8. 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

10. Leader inquiry and knowledge-building cycle to promote valued teaching and student outcomes 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

11. 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

12. 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?