This chapter explores how school leaders and teams acted to promote quality teaching and student ... more This chapter explores how school leaders and teams acted to promote quality teaching and student achievement in 38 schools. The study of senior secondary teaching discussed previously focused on successful individual teachers. An unexpected finding of that study was the degree to which the success of these teachers was found to be underpinned by faculties and teams. AESOP (An Exceptional Schooling Outcomes Project) aimed to investigate junior secondary education - Years 7-10 - rather than senior secondary education. It was decided to investigate the junior secondary years because this stage of schooling has been relatively neglected and is something of a 'black hole'.
The philosophy of 'give a lot, expect a lot' was particularly marked in schools from area... more The philosophy of 'give a lot, expect a lot' was particularly marked in schools from areas of lower socio-economic status. There is a tendency to dichotomise schools as being either of 'welfare' or 'academic' types. In welfare schools, there are frequently lower expectations, with an emphasis on inculcating 'social' and 'living' skills and boosting student self-esteem at the expense of academic achievement, yet in the two projects it was evident that the function of student welfare in the disadvantaged or lower socio-economic status schools was more about 'getting students back into learning' for their future benefit than making students feel good about themselves.
This chapter begins with an examination of what should be the focus of every school, every educat... more This chapter begins with an examination of what should be the focus of every school, every educational system and every education department or faculty of education - student learning and achievement. Changing views on the effect that schools and teachers have on student achievement are examined, and current international research findings on what actually adds value in schooling are considered. What we know about the development of teacher expertise is also explored. An overview on leadership and how it can influence teaching and learning is then provided, which serves as a foundation for later chapters. I conclude this chapter with an overview of research evidence on learning from the excellent publication 'How people learn from the US National Research Council'. 'How to get your school moving and improving' is intentionally more about teaching and leadership than learning, but I think you will be able to make the connection between the two through the use of this overview.
Teacher: The National Education Magazine, Dec 1, 2010
Review(s) of: Developing Successful Leadership, Edited by Brent Davies and Mark Brundrett, Publis... more Review(s) of: Developing Successful Leadership, Edited by Brent Davies and Mark Brundrett, Published by Springer, ISBN 9 7819 048 191 055.
... Educational Leadership and Change; Effective pedagogy/quality teaching; Postgraduate supervis... more ... Educational Leadership and Change; Effective pedagogy/quality teaching; Postgraduate supervision; Professional teaching ... involving working with individuals and teams to transformteaching and learning. ... Leaders strongly support student welfare measures to "get students into ...
This chapter reviews traditional and emerging approaches to teachers' professional learning b... more This chapter reviews traditional and emerging approaches to teachers' professional learning before presenting a framework for developing and maintaining a learning community in education. This is derived from the research studies described to date and additional projects with which I have been involved. While none of the projects was about teachers' professional learning per se, each project added to an overall understanding of the role and nature of building learning communities for fostering quality teaching and student achievement.
Leadership matters and is changing - School leadership needs to be smart; it needs to be evidence... more Leadership matters and is changing - School leadership needs to be smart; it needs to be evidence-based and shared. (Mulford, 2008, p. 69) Ask anyone who has had one or more years working in a school whether leadership has made a difference in their work and the answer will be an unhesitating 'Yes'. No matter who the respondent is - they all seem to know good (and bad) leadership when they experience it. (Wahlstrom and Louis, 2008, p. 459)
Harry is something of an unusual case, being "over 65" years of age, but maintaining that despite... more Harry is something of an unusual case, being "over 65" years of age, but maintaining that despite the fact he retired at the beginning of 1991, he was "forced out" by the Department and thus should be considered a resigned teacher. Harry was initially a steam engineer in New Zealand before completing a three year teacher training course in New Zealand in fine arts and languages. He taught Art for 10 years in New Zealand and 22 years in Australia. During his years in Australia, he also worked as an English as a second language teacher in evening colleges for 13 years. Harry had something of a continuing argument with the Department of School Education during the period he worked for it as his New Zealand teaching qualifications were only recognised as being equivalent to two year training, and thus he was classified as a "permanent casual" and could never go for promotion, despite the fact that for most of his years in N.S.W. secondary schools he was "in charge" of Art in unmastered departments. At the time of his leaving the Department he was on a salary of only $31,000, despite his more than 30 years of experience as an Art teacher. Since his "forced retirement" Harry was occupying himself by doing repairs around his house, something he neglected during his last years of teaching. 4.18 "Jack" Jack is a 38 year old former secondary Industrial Arts teacher who resigned at the beginning of the 1991 school year after nine years with the Department of School Education. Jack had been a mature aged student when he completed his three year Diploma in Teaching and had previously worked as a surveyor's assistant and later as a clerk with the railways. At the top of the three year trained salary scale when he resigned, Jack was now earning "twice as much" in partnership with his wife "Wendy" (see 4.19) in their furniture manufacturing business. Jack stated that the higher income he now earned was "one of the reasons" for his resignation. At the time of his resignation, Jack was a classroom teacher in a Metropolitan West Region secondary school. Jack recounted how he became interested in teaching as his wife was a teacher and he had been working as a railway booking clerk at a country town which had a teacher training college. Jack recalled that "the students that came to the station didn't seem too bright ... I thought 'I can do if". At the time, Jack thought teaching to be "something that had a future ... a well respected job for life". Jack's opinion of teaching didn't change during his three years of training and he described himself then as "a conscientious mature aged student full of enthusiasm for the job". Following his training, Jack was unable to obtain a permanent position and worked for 18 months as a casual teacher on the central coast north of Sydney, a period of his career that Jack "enjoyed". However, eventually the Department posted Jack to a permanent position at a "special school for juvenile delinquents in the western suburbs ... I hated it but was forced to take it as I thought that I would go to the bottom of the list [of teachers waiting for a permanent appointment] if I refused". Jack eventually spent three and a half years at the school, applying each year unsuccessfully for a transfer. Jack "wasn't trained for the job" and there was "little support ... I was the only Industrial Arts teacher and all the Executive were primary teachers". Eventually, when the school was closed, Jack was posted to a Metropolitan West secondary school. Jack stated that his attitude to teaching "changed dramatically in the first job ... I was ill prepared for it and appealed for help from the Department but none was forthcoming ... I struggled through but it soured me ... on a number of occasions we took the Department to court to get help and we won a case in the early 1980s to get support ... It was unreal, my first appointment to a school like that". Following the closure of his first school, Jack was posted to a pleasant rural school at the edge of Sydney where Jack's Head Teacher "was very supportive, but he had the attitude that there were problems at my previous school. He had heard stories of teachers coming out of that school but when he left he said that I was not as bad as he had thought". Jack said that the time at his second school "rekindled my faith in the system".
Australian primary students are out-performed by their secondary peers in relative terms on inter... more Australian primary students are out-performed by their secondary peers in relative terms on international measures of student achievement. This paper explores some explanations for this discrepancy including the role of content knowledge in primary curricula, a general lack of an evidence base for teaching and learning in primary education with a propensity to adopt fads and fashions and the increasingly unrealistic and untenable expectations placed on primary teachers and schools. A solid research evidence base for teacher pre-service and in-service teacher education is essential and there is a need to question from this basis of evidence current practices and untested assumptions underpinning primary teaching and schooling. If such transformation can't be achieved, coupled with a rethinking of the expectations held for primary schools and primary teachers, then further decline in relative and absolute terms seems inevitable.
He has conducted a wide range of research projects (68 funded) in the areas of educational leader... more He has conducted a wide range of research projects (68 funded) in the areas of educational leadership and change, effective pedagogy/quality teaching, student achievement, postgraduate supervision, professional teaching standards, teachers' professional development, middle-level leaders in schools, and teacher satisfaction, motivation and health. He has an extensive publication record (more than 290 publications) of books, book chapters, refereed journal articles, and articles in professional journals. His most recent book is How to Get Your School
The central focus of ReMSTEP was on introducing PSTs to contemporary mathematics and science to e... more The central focus of ReMSTEP was on introducing PSTs to contemporary mathematics and science to establish their conceptions of these subjects as discovery and application practices. In other words, a reconceptualisation from a traditional paradigm that mathematics and science knowledge is fixed and 'hard' and consists of solving problems using known techniques, towards a more realistic paradigm that mathematics and science are about discovering and applying new knowledge to solve real-world contemporary and future problems. The work of mathematicians and scientists is central to this problem solving.
This chapter explores how school leaders and teams acted to promote quality teaching and student ... more This chapter explores how school leaders and teams acted to promote quality teaching and student achievement in 38 schools. The study of senior secondary teaching discussed previously focused on successful individual teachers. An unexpected finding of that study was the degree to which the success of these teachers was found to be underpinned by faculties and teams. AESOP (An Exceptional Schooling Outcomes Project) aimed to investigate junior secondary education - Years 7-10 - rather than senior secondary education. It was decided to investigate the junior secondary years because this stage of schooling has been relatively neglected and is something of a 'black hole'.
The philosophy of 'give a lot, expect a lot' was particularly marked in schools from area... more The philosophy of 'give a lot, expect a lot' was particularly marked in schools from areas of lower socio-economic status. There is a tendency to dichotomise schools as being either of 'welfare' or 'academic' types. In welfare schools, there are frequently lower expectations, with an emphasis on inculcating 'social' and 'living' skills and boosting student self-esteem at the expense of academic achievement, yet in the two projects it was evident that the function of student welfare in the disadvantaged or lower socio-economic status schools was more about 'getting students back into learning' for their future benefit than making students feel good about themselves.
This chapter begins with an examination of what should be the focus of every school, every educat... more This chapter begins with an examination of what should be the focus of every school, every educational system and every education department or faculty of education - student learning and achievement. Changing views on the effect that schools and teachers have on student achievement are examined, and current international research findings on what actually adds value in schooling are considered. What we know about the development of teacher expertise is also explored. An overview on leadership and how it can influence teaching and learning is then provided, which serves as a foundation for later chapters. I conclude this chapter with an overview of research evidence on learning from the excellent publication 'How people learn from the US National Research Council'. 'How to get your school moving and improving' is intentionally more about teaching and leadership than learning, but I think you will be able to make the connection between the two through the use of this overview.
Teacher: The National Education Magazine, Dec 1, 2010
Review(s) of: Developing Successful Leadership, Edited by Brent Davies and Mark Brundrett, Publis... more Review(s) of: Developing Successful Leadership, Edited by Brent Davies and Mark Brundrett, Published by Springer, ISBN 9 7819 048 191 055.
... Educational Leadership and Change; Effective pedagogy/quality teaching; Postgraduate supervis... more ... Educational Leadership and Change; Effective pedagogy/quality teaching; Postgraduate supervision; Professional teaching ... involving working with individuals and teams to transformteaching and learning. ... Leaders strongly support student welfare measures to "get students into ...
This chapter reviews traditional and emerging approaches to teachers' professional learning b... more This chapter reviews traditional and emerging approaches to teachers' professional learning before presenting a framework for developing and maintaining a learning community in education. This is derived from the research studies described to date and additional projects with which I have been involved. While none of the projects was about teachers' professional learning per se, each project added to an overall understanding of the role and nature of building learning communities for fostering quality teaching and student achievement.
Leadership matters and is changing - School leadership needs to be smart; it needs to be evidence... more Leadership matters and is changing - School leadership needs to be smart; it needs to be evidence-based and shared. (Mulford, 2008, p. 69) Ask anyone who has had one or more years working in a school whether leadership has made a difference in their work and the answer will be an unhesitating 'Yes'. No matter who the respondent is - they all seem to know good (and bad) leadership when they experience it. (Wahlstrom and Louis, 2008, p. 459)
Harry is something of an unusual case, being "over 65" years of age, but maintaining that despite... more Harry is something of an unusual case, being "over 65" years of age, but maintaining that despite the fact he retired at the beginning of 1991, he was "forced out" by the Department and thus should be considered a resigned teacher. Harry was initially a steam engineer in New Zealand before completing a three year teacher training course in New Zealand in fine arts and languages. He taught Art for 10 years in New Zealand and 22 years in Australia. During his years in Australia, he also worked as an English as a second language teacher in evening colleges for 13 years. Harry had something of a continuing argument with the Department of School Education during the period he worked for it as his New Zealand teaching qualifications were only recognised as being equivalent to two year training, and thus he was classified as a "permanent casual" and could never go for promotion, despite the fact that for most of his years in N.S.W. secondary schools he was "in charge" of Art in unmastered departments. At the time of his leaving the Department he was on a salary of only $31,000, despite his more than 30 years of experience as an Art teacher. Since his "forced retirement" Harry was occupying himself by doing repairs around his house, something he neglected during his last years of teaching. 4.18 "Jack" Jack is a 38 year old former secondary Industrial Arts teacher who resigned at the beginning of the 1991 school year after nine years with the Department of School Education. Jack had been a mature aged student when he completed his three year Diploma in Teaching and had previously worked as a surveyor's assistant and later as a clerk with the railways. At the top of the three year trained salary scale when he resigned, Jack was now earning "twice as much" in partnership with his wife "Wendy" (see 4.19) in their furniture manufacturing business. Jack stated that the higher income he now earned was "one of the reasons" for his resignation. At the time of his resignation, Jack was a classroom teacher in a Metropolitan West Region secondary school. Jack recounted how he became interested in teaching as his wife was a teacher and he had been working as a railway booking clerk at a country town which had a teacher training college. Jack recalled that "the students that came to the station didn't seem too bright ... I thought 'I can do if". At the time, Jack thought teaching to be "something that had a future ... a well respected job for life". Jack's opinion of teaching didn't change during his three years of training and he described himself then as "a conscientious mature aged student full of enthusiasm for the job". Following his training, Jack was unable to obtain a permanent position and worked for 18 months as a casual teacher on the central coast north of Sydney, a period of his career that Jack "enjoyed". However, eventually the Department posted Jack to a permanent position at a "special school for juvenile delinquents in the western suburbs ... I hated it but was forced to take it as I thought that I would go to the bottom of the list [of teachers waiting for a permanent appointment] if I refused". Jack eventually spent three and a half years at the school, applying each year unsuccessfully for a transfer. Jack "wasn't trained for the job" and there was "little support ... I was the only Industrial Arts teacher and all the Executive were primary teachers". Eventually, when the school was closed, Jack was posted to a Metropolitan West secondary school. Jack stated that his attitude to teaching "changed dramatically in the first job ... I was ill prepared for it and appealed for help from the Department but none was forthcoming ... I struggled through but it soured me ... on a number of occasions we took the Department to court to get help and we won a case in the early 1980s to get support ... It was unreal, my first appointment to a school like that". Following the closure of his first school, Jack was posted to a pleasant rural school at the edge of Sydney where Jack's Head Teacher "was very supportive, but he had the attitude that there were problems at my previous school. He had heard stories of teachers coming out of that school but when he left he said that I was not as bad as he had thought". Jack said that the time at his second school "rekindled my faith in the system".
Australian primary students are out-performed by their secondary peers in relative terms on inter... more Australian primary students are out-performed by their secondary peers in relative terms on international measures of student achievement. This paper explores some explanations for this discrepancy including the role of content knowledge in primary curricula, a general lack of an evidence base for teaching and learning in primary education with a propensity to adopt fads and fashions and the increasingly unrealistic and untenable expectations placed on primary teachers and schools. A solid research evidence base for teacher pre-service and in-service teacher education is essential and there is a need to question from this basis of evidence current practices and untested assumptions underpinning primary teaching and schooling. If such transformation can't be achieved, coupled with a rethinking of the expectations held for primary schools and primary teachers, then further decline in relative and absolute terms seems inevitable.
He has conducted a wide range of research projects (68 funded) in the areas of educational leader... more He has conducted a wide range of research projects (68 funded) in the areas of educational leadership and change, effective pedagogy/quality teaching, student achievement, postgraduate supervision, professional teaching standards, teachers' professional development, middle-level leaders in schools, and teacher satisfaction, motivation and health. He has an extensive publication record (more than 290 publications) of books, book chapters, refereed journal articles, and articles in professional journals. His most recent book is How to Get Your School
The central focus of ReMSTEP was on introducing PSTs to contemporary mathematics and science to e... more The central focus of ReMSTEP was on introducing PSTs to contemporary mathematics and science to establish their conceptions of these subjects as discovery and application practices. In other words, a reconceptualisation from a traditional paradigm that mathematics and science knowledge is fixed and 'hard' and consists of solving problems using known techniques, towards a more realistic paradigm that mathematics and science are about discovering and applying new knowledge to solve real-world contemporary and future problems. The work of mathematicians and scientists is central to this problem solving.
An important issue in the (re)conceptualisation, conduct and renewal of junior secondary schoolin... more An important issue in the (re)conceptualisation, conduct and renewal of junior secondary schooling is the manner in which it is characteristically organised. In New South Wales, this is shaped and even determined by what has been called the 'impregnable fortress' of the school-subject department. Whether or not this is in the best interests of students or supportive of the kinds of learning needed for a new era is, however, increasingly a matter for debate. This paper seeks to review the existing state of play in the literature, with specific regard to subject-matter and secondary education. In doing so, it brings together recent work in educational management and teacher and subject-department efficacy with work in curriculum inquiry and curriculum history.
NB: AESOP was a research project conducted in the early 2000s in New South Wales, Australia. It was addressed to researching what was involved in producing “outstanding educational outcomes” in the junior secondary school. Among the publications emerging from the project, see: Wayne Sawyer, Paul Brock & David Baxter (2007), Exceptional Outcomes in English Education, Brisbane: Post Pressed.
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NB: AESOP was a research project conducted in the early 2000s in New South Wales, Australia. It was addressed to researching what was involved in producing “outstanding educational outcomes” in the junior secondary school. Among the publications emerging from the project, see: Wayne Sawyer, Paul Brock & David Baxter (2007), Exceptional Outcomes in English Education, Brisbane: Post Pressed.