Aspiring Leaders for Teaching and Learning

Session 1: Launch Day

Jacky King

October 20th 2010

Overview of the Programme• Session 1 (full day): Launch Day for all aspiring leaders

(AL) and coaches (C). Trainer: Jacky King, Venue: Long Sutton Golf Club, Date: Wednesday 20th October

• Session 2 (afternoon): Linking Data to High Performance (CASPA, Performance Guidance, And Target Setting) Trainer: Vince Stroud, Venue: Brookside School Training Room, Wed 15.12.10

• Session 3 (afternoon) Leading Change and developing the team and individualTrainer: Jacky King, Venue: Brookside School Training Room, Wed 16.2.11    

Overview of the Programme• Session 4 (afternoon): Managing and monitoring the

performance of the team and individual

Trainer: Vince Stroud, Venue: Brookside School Training Room, Wed 30.3.11        

• Session 5 (afternoon): How to get AfL & Inclusion to make the difference to Personalised Learning

Trainer: Vince Stroud, Venue: Brookside School Training Room, Wed 18.5.11            

• Session 6 (Whole day): Moving to mostly good and outstanding (please note that the content of this day will be driven by the earlier sessions and may not reflect the agenda below)Trainer: Jacky King, Venue: Long Sutton Golf Club, Wed 29.6.11

Outline of Session

• Introduction to the CPD project

• Introduction to core skills and qualities in coaching

• Development activities in core skills

• Community of learners

• Reflective diary, CPD plan and Learning Journal

• Leading and Managing learning and teaching

• AL and C meet in pairs and agree the focus for the first term based on key areas for development as identified with headteacher

Learning ObjectivesBy the end of the session Aspiring Leaders and Coaches will have:

• Been introduced to the CPD project

• Been introduced to core skills and qualities in coaching

• Had the opportunity to try out some core skills

• Developed an understanding of Community of learners

• Been introduced to the use of the Reflective diary, CPD plan and Learning Journal

• Been introduced to the ideas behind Leading and Managing learning and teaching

• Had the opportunity to meet in pairs and agree the focus for the first term based on key areas for development as identified with headteacher

The Reflective Journal

The Reflective Journal is key to Personal, Professional and Career development.

There are 3 parts to the Reflective Journal:

• The Learning Journal

• The CPD record

• The Reflective Diary

The Reflective Journal

• The Learning Journal: This is a record of what you have learnt during a session You might like to extend it to the work you do with your coach or mentor or your project at school.

There are 3 key questions in the Learning Journal:

• The main points I have learnt from this session are…

• How I can develop my skills as a result of this session

• How I could develop my knowledge and understanding as a result of this session

The Reflective Journal• The CPD record: This is a record of the skills you have

and those that you need to develop to enable you to move on to the ideal self: the person and leader you truly want to be.

• The Reflective Diary: This is your individual and private account of the personal challenges that you might be presented with as a result working with this programme. We need to be aware of the assumptions that frame how we think and act. We need to know ourselves well and be honest with ourselves!

• You can record your thoughts, feelings and emotions in your Reflective Diary at any time. Keep it with you always.

The Art of Reflection

“We do not learn from experience…

We learn from reflecting on experience.”

Dewey (1933)

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Reflection and its role in LearningMoon (1999, 2004) describes a model:

1. Noticing

2. Making sense

3. Making meaning

4. Working with meaning

5. Transformative learning

This is real ‘experiential learning’ – real activity with real consequences.

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Boyatzis’ Intentional Change Theory

Experiential Learning Model: Kolb

Johari Window

Known to me Not Known to me

Known to Others

Public/OpenKnown to others and to me

BlindKnown to others but not to me

Not Known to Others

ClosedKnown to me but not known by others

HiddenUnknown by me and others

Community of learners / Community of Practice / Learning Communities

A learning community is a group of people who share common values and beliefs, are actively engaged in learning together from each other.

The foundation of a collaborative learning community is collaboration - working together for common goals, partnership, shared leadership, co-evolving and co-learning - rather than competition and power given to only a few.

Five attributes underpin how Learning Communities work:

• supportive and shared leadership,

• collective creativity,

• shared values and vision,

• supportive conditions, and

• shared personal practice.

• Leading to… Positive Impact on Student’s Learning

By making connections with one another, and keeping them going over time, people are able to work together to achieve things that they either could not achieve by themselves, or could only achieve with great difficulty.  

What do Communities of Practice Look Like?

Problem solving "Can we work on this design and brainstorm some ideas; I’m stuck."

Requests for information "Where can I find the code to connect to the server?"

Seeking experience "Has anyone dealt with a customer in this situation?"

Reusing assets "I have a proposal for a local area network I wrote for a client last year. I can send it to you and you can easily tweak it for this new client."

Coordination and synergy "Can we combine our purchases of solvent to achieve bulk discounts?"

Discussing developments "What do you think of the new CAD system? Does it really help?"

Documentation projects "We have faced this problem five times now. Let us write it down once and for all."

Visits "Can we come and see your after-school program? We need to establish one in our city."

Mapping knowledge and identifying gaps

"Who knows what, and what are we missing? What other groups should we connect with?"

Kolb Learning Styles Questionnaire

• This questionnaire is a short version based on Kolb’s Learning Theory.

• It will help to determine your preferred learning style or styles – whether you are a Visual, Auditory or Kinaesthetic learner.

• Answer the questions as quickly as you can – go with your immediate response.

• Total up the number of A, B and Cs that you have scored... then have a look at what this says about your Learning Styles

Visual Learners – Danger Signs for you

• Sitting near a window – you may be distracted

• Being accused of day dreaming – you tend to picture what you are being told in your head

• Teachers who teach mostly by talking

• Teachers who talk more slowly than you (have patience – we do not all go at the speed of a train)

Ways to increase your learning power...

What are our Experiences of Coaching?

• In pairs share each other’s experiences of coaching.

• You will be asked to relate back to the group what experience of coaching the other half of your pair has.

• We will check back with your partner for accuracy.

• Please try to avoid taking notes – let’s take the opportunity to practise our auditory skills.

So why adopt a Coaching Style?

Freethink: Why adopt a Coaching Style

In a Freethink everyone’s contribution is valid

So why adopt a Coaching Style?

Coaching practice in schools is built on four essential qualities:• a desire to make a difference to student learning• a commitment to professional learning• a belief in the abilities of colleagues• a commitment to developing emotional intelligence

‘Coaching promotes learning and builds capacity for change in schools. It is Transformative’.

What does a coach do?First and foremost, a coach will have the ability to form and sustain

learning relationships. Leadership development is rooted in such relationships. To achieve these, coaches need to:

• establish high levels of trust

• be consistent over time

• offer genuine respect

• be honest, frank and open

• provide support via skilful questioning

• challenge without threat

Coaching vs Mentoring

How do you interpret this?

Coaching is grounded in five key skills:

• establishing rapport and trust

• listening for meaning

• questioning for understanding

• prompting action, reflection and learning

• developing confidence and celebrating success

Coaching Models: (T)GROW

• T – Topic or Theme What is it you want to talk about?

• G - GOAL What do you want?

• R - REALITY What is happening now?

• O – OBSTACLES / OPTIONS What are the Obstacles / What could you do? There may be Obstacles stopping you getting from where you are. Once the Obstacles are cleared this can leave Options

• W - WILL / WAY FORWARD What will you do?

Leading and Managing learning and teaching: Learning-Centred Leadership

How Leaders Influence

Directlywhere leaders’ actions directly influence school outcomes

Indirectlywhere leaders affect outcomes indirectly through other variables

Reciprocallywhen the leader or leaders affect teachers and teachers affect the leaders and through these processes outcomes are affected

(Hallinger & Heck, 1999)

Learning-Centred Leadership is about how school leaders influence learning and teaching in classrooms and across the school.

Indirect Influences

ModellingModelling

MonitoringMonitoring

DialogueDialogue

• the power of example

• creating opportunities for teachers to talk about learning and teaching

• analysing and acting on pupil progress data • visiting classrooms, observing teachers at work and

Learning-Centred Leadership

Modelling curiosity about teaching methods and classroom processes conveys to everyone that the core business of the school is uppermost in the minds of the leaders.

Monitoring what happens in classrooms, looking at pupil outcome data and observing teaching demonstrate what leaders are paying attention to.

Talking about learning and teaching, challenging conventional practices, identifying and valuing good teaching similarly reinforces these messages.

For this reason, learning-centred leadership is an apt title because it captures the fact that it is centred on pupil, teacher, staff and the leaders’ learning.

How do school structures and systems make a difference to the quality of Learning and Teaching?

• planning processes - for lesson, units of work, periods of time, individuals and groups of pupils, classes and years

• target setting -for individuals, groups, classes, years, key stages and the whole school

• communication systems - especially meetings

• monitoring systems - analysing and using pupil learning data and observing classrooms and providing feedback

• roles and responsibilities of leaders - including mentoring & coaching

• policies for learning, teaching and assessment and marking

Distributed LeadershipThe case for distributed leadership is based on 3 ideas:

• The belief in leadership teams: belief in the power of one is giving way to a belief in the power of everyone.

• As schools become more complex places to manage and lead, we need many more leaders than ever before.

• Ensuring that there are many leaders allows us to create pools of talent, from which we can grow tomorrow’s leaders.

www.ncsl.org.uk/distributedleadership

Where does all this lead us???

Brainsort

Personalisation1. Assessment for learning and the use of evidence and dialogue to

identify every pupil’s learning needs and the steps they need to take

2. Teaching and learning strategies that actively engage and challenge learners and develop their ability to focus on their learning skills and their capability to take ownership of their own progress

3. Curriculum entitlement and choice that allow for breadth of study, personal relevance and flexible curriculum pathways

4. Creative approaches to school organisation to enable a student-centred approach which integrates performance with wellbeing and inclusive approaches with attainment

5. Strong partnerships beyond the classroom both to enrich learning and support care of pupils in the wider sense through, for example home-school links, inter-agency work or community partnerships

Leadership for Personalising Learning: A FrameworkKey components of personalised learning

Management for personalised learning

Leadership for personalised learning

Learning how to learn

Assessment for learning

Teaching and learning strategies

Curriculum choice Mentoring and

support

Minimising within-school variation

Student choice and voice

Information and communications technology (ICT)

School systems and structures

Culture and values Learning-centred

leadership Distributed

leadership Networks and

partnerships Leading change

A Model for Learning-Centred Leaders: What is clear is that the theme of personalised learning offers a model for learning-centred leaders to build on the now considerable body of evidence about learning to focus on critical aspects of teaching and learning.

Agreeing the Focus for DevelopmentThere is now some time for the Aspiring Leader and Coach (and

mentor) to meet and agree the focus for the first term based on key areas for development as identified with headteacher.

Try to have a coaching conversation - Aim to focus on the Key Skills:

• establishing rapport and trust

• listening for meaning

• questioning for understanding

• prompting action, reflection and learning

• developing confidence and celebrating success

Coaching Models: (T)GROW• You might like to use the (T)GROW Model

• You might like to use the GROW Questions that are in your Reflective Journal

Session 2: Linking Data to High Peformance• Trainer: Vince Stroud, Venue: Brookside School Training Room,

Wednesday afternoon: 15.12.10

Outline of Session:

• Using data within the wider vision in individual schools

• Aspirational targets

• Why is it important that Leaders understand data?

• What is important to measure and what do we need to know?

• CASPA, Performance Guidance, Target Setting

• How to create a simple and transparent explanation of core data for team members

• How do you use data management to impact on learning and teaching?

• Data is great! So What! Intervention Strategies that work!

• AL and C agree focus for development and support strategy

www – what went well

ebi – even better if

Please write a www and an ebi on separate post-its and leave them on the flip charts on your way out.

www – what went well

ebi – even better if

Please write a www and an ebi on separate post-its and leave them on the flip charts on your way out.

www/ebi