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Session F3FTHE IDEA OF INSTRUCTIONAL LEAD ERSHIP IN ENGINEERINfGEDUCATION

John Heywood'Abstract:- During the last thirty years, the period of theFrontiers in Education conferences, there has been aresearch movement that has studied school effectiveness andthus the fac tors that lead to school improvement. While thismovement has been of considerable interest to politiciansand policy makers the idea of such research has made littleimpact on higher education where id eas derived fro mindustry such as total qua lity management seem to have hadgreat er effect. Asso ciated with the school effecti venes smovement is the concept of educational leadership and anancillary concept of instructional leadership neither idea ofwhich has infiltrated higher education. In paral le l wi ththese developments the study of qua litative and quantitativemethods of educational research has made considerableprogress. The purpose of this pape r is to argue the case fo rinstructional leadership in higher education and to indicatethe qualities and knowledge re quire d by those who might beasked to carry out such a task in engineering education. Thepaper begins with a summary of the research on schooleffectiveness.

THESCHOOLFFEC~VENESSESEARCHMOVEMENTBeginning some thirty years ago (1 ) the school effectivenessmovement spawned numerous research studies in the UK(e.g. Rutter et a1 (2)), and the U S (e.g. Goodlad (3)), as wellas a journal.. These studies soug ht to establish the influenceof schools, teachers and the education they provide onstudent achievement. They arose in response to studies inthe United States that suggested that s chools had a relativelysmall effect on performance (1) (4). The majority of studiesin the UK and the US, although som etimes with differentgoals, have been on inner city schools (5). It is only recentlythat studies have been undertaken that control (statistically)for the intake of students (6). This is important when, as inthe UK, performance tables of schools are published in thenational press.A critical review of school effectiveness research thatpointed out problems in relation to definition, the type ofevidence collected, methodology of analysis, and thetransferability of data concluded that there is a core ofconsistency to be fou nd across a variety of studies conductedin different settings in different countries (7).The sam e authors concluded that there were eleven keycharacteristics which contributed to an effective school.These were:'University of Dublin, Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland0-7803-6424-4/00/%10.000 000 IEEE

1. Professional Leader ship2. Shared Vision and goals3. A learning environment4.5 . Purposeful teaching6. High expectations7. Positive reinforcement8. Monitoring progress9. Pupils rights and responsibilities10. Home-school partnership11. School based staff development (8)

Concentration on teaching an d learning

Since universities are large and amorphous institutions,studies of their overall effectiveness are inherently difficult.However, this is not the case at the department ororganization level where the subject matter is relativelycoherent, as for example , in engineerin g and all its branches.In the forgoing it has been assum ed that the d :finition ofeffectiveness is given. Howev er, i t needs to be understoodthat definitions of effectiveness are dependent 011 a numberof factors including the sample of schools evaluated, thechoice of outcome m easures, and control for the differencesbetween institutions, methodology, and timescale (i.e.longitudinal versus snapshots) (9).

For the purpose of this argum ent Mortimore 's definitionwill suffice (10). He defined an effective school as one inwhich students progress further than m ight be expected fromconsideration of its intake of students. An effective schoo lthus adds value to its students' outcomes in comr arison withother schools serving similar intakes. In respect ofengineering education Carter has developed i t statisticalmodel that indicates the effects of the process 011 he outputperformance o f the intake defin ed by Ievel of entryqualification (1 1).Referring to this model Heywood has poini.ed out thatthe value-added by Blite universities in the UK ar d US mightbe less than for o ther universities since the intakes have thehighest scores for academ ic achievement as measured by Alevel GCE (General Certificate of Educ;ttion), andSAT/ACT (12). The relative study of effectiveness ofengineering departments is thus of considerable interest.

INSTRUCTIONALEADERSHIPInspection of the key characteristics (above) that lead toschool effectiveness, shows that, unsurprisingly , several ofthem are to do with teaching and learning. The : .ast of these,

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Session F3Fschool based staff development, recognises that schools l ikeother organisations are learning systems (13). The thirdcharacteristic relates to the architectural and socialenvironment for learning, the fifth and sixth relate toteaching. It is not surprising, therefore, that in a periodwhen much was written on the qualities of leadership thatthere should be a debate about both educational andinstructional leadership (14).

There is much confusion about the meanings of thesetwo terms and often in the literature they overlap. Confusionis also created by the term 'instructional' which althoughbroadly interpreted in the literature is often narrowlyperceived and related to 'training'. Percep tions such as thisprevent constructive debate. For the purpose of thisdiscussion educational leadership is taken to be an over-arching concept that corresponds to professional leadershipwhich is at the beginning of list of characteristics affectingeffectiveness. A key question in the higher educationcontext is whether persons elected for posts to a short periodof time (e.g. departmental chains) can be effectiveeducational leaders as well as efficient administrators. (Thesame question is asked of school principals).Fitzmaurice (15) provided an operational definition ofan instructional leader based on the literature thus:1 .0

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The instructional leader leads others in a process ofchange through school planning which involves:identification of instructional or curriculum areas thatneed change/improvement/innovation.preparation and planning processes that prepares theground by pooling resources, selection throughconsensu s and designing a plan.the implementation of the change in the classroomreview and assessmentThe instructional leader energises and encourages othersto focus on the two main concerns of scho ols - teachingand learning. This is used as the bottom line referencewhenever there is controversy or indecision.The instructional leader uses reports, test results,feedback from parents, management, inspectors andpupils to identify areas for instructional improvement.The instructional leader provides resources from avariety of sources to support, maintain or initiatechange, improvement and reflection. This may includereports, studies, articles, advice, teacher-centres, fellowprofessionals, support groups, inservice courses andnew technology.The instructional leader speaks to and questionsteachers about children, teaching, subject areas,problems, projects, con cerns and difficulties in theirteaching and classrooms. This can be done bothformally and informally.

Th e instructional leader supports teachers in their effortsin classrooms by being available to offer advice,opinion, praise, judgem ent and encouragement to theirwork and the efforts of children. He/she mightencourage the display of projects and provide a publicarea for this. He/sh e might check classroom workbooksor essays on classroom visits.The instructional leader is a reflective practitioner whocontinually seeks to improve the teaching/learningprocess in hislher class and throughout the school byconstantly asking - what and how can we improve?He/she must also lead and train others in this process ofreflection so that it becom es school-wide and automatic.It will be seen that an instructional leader requires asubstantive knowledge base that is grounded in the

educational sciences if helshe is to be the resource envisagedby the role. As has been pointed ou t the elements of such aknowledge base exist within engineering education but needto be developed (16).Within school systems there is a debate about whoshould be the instructional leader. Is that person necessarilythe Principal of a school or can the function be delegated?Does the function involve personal staff-development asopposed to the provision o f in-service training during schooltime. The idea of whole school development is receivingsome interest. Can this be done by the schools instructionalleader withou t the assistance of an outside facilitator. Suchquestions would have to be answered at the departmentallevel in universities. The particular question this paper seeksto pose is - Is there a role for an Educational/InstructionalLeader in Engineering departments?

It has also been argued that if teachers were trainedproperly there would be no need for instructional leaderssince teachers, like medics, would have to keep at the forefront of their profession and continually evaluate theirpractice (17).THECASE FOR INSTRUCTIONAL LEADERSHIPNENGINEEIUNGEPARTMENTS

During the last thirty years a small number of papers havebeen published in enginee ring education journals whichshow that when the edu cational theories and methods theydescribe are implemented in engineering programmesimprovements in student learning take place. Other papersshow how, when these models are applied to the curriculumthat substantial changes may have to be made if thecurriculum is to be given greater coherence. Evaluations ofassessment and examining techniques have show n that whatis assessed is not necessarily that which is wanted to beassessed. Other reports show how a more detailedunderstanding of the psychological characteristics of the

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Session F3FACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This paper was inspired by conversations I had with BarbaraOlds, Dick Culver, Larry Shuman and Charlie Yokomoto atFIE 1999.REFERENCES

Colman, J.S. et al. (1966). Equality of EducationalOpportunity. Equality of Education Opportunity, U SGovernment Printing Office, Washington.Rutter, M., Maughan, B., Mortimore, P and J. Ouston(1979) Fifteen Thousand Hours: Secondary S chools andtheir Effects on Children. Open Books. London.Goodlad, J. (1984). A Place called S chool: Prospects for theFuture. McGraw Hill, New Y ork.Jencks, C. et al. (1972). Inequality: A reassessment of theeffects of family and schooling in America. Basic Books,New York.Sammons, P., Hillman, J. and P. Mortimore (1995) Keycharacteristics of Effective Schools. A Review of SchoolEffectiveness Research. Institute of Education, Universityof London, London.Mortimore, P., Sammons, P., and S. Thomas (1995). SchoolAssessment in Education: Principles, Policy and Practice, 1See ref. 5.See ref. 5.Sammons, P (1994), Findings from school effectivenessresearch. Som e applications for im proving the quality ofschools in P. Ribbins and E. Burridge (eds) ImprovingEducation: the issue of quality: Cassell, London.ibidCarter, G. and J. Heywood (1992) The value addedperformance of electrical engineering students in a BritishUniversity. International Journal of Technology and DesignEducation, 2 ( I ) , 4-15Heywood, J. (2000). Assessment in Higher Educa tionafstudent learning, teaching, programmes and institutions.Jessica Kingsley, London.Senge, P. (1990) . The Fifth Discipline. The Art andPractice of the Learning Organisation. Doubleday, NewYork.e.g. Sergiovanni, T.J. (1990) Value-Added Leadership:How to get extra-ordinary Performance in Schools.Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, New YorkFitzmaurice, J. (1997) M.St. Thesis, University of Dublin.Heywood, J. (1995) Toward the Improvement of Quality inEngineering Ed ucation. Proceedings FIE 2a3.8 - 2a3.13Howie, J.G.R. (1989) Research in General Practice TdEdition. Chapman and Hall, London.Cross, K. P. (1986 ) Taking Teaching Seriously. A Proposalto Improve Teaching. AAHE Bulletin. September 9-15Angelo, T and K.P. Cross (1993) C lassroom AssessmentTechniques. 2"d Edition. Jossey Bass, San Francisco.Cross, K.P. and M. Steadman (1996) ClassroomResearch.Jossey Bass, San FranciscoHeywood, J. (1992) Stud ent Teachers as Researchers ofInstruction in J.H.C. Vonk and H.J. von Helden New

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Prospects for Teacher Education in Europe Free Universityof Amsterdam. ATEE. Amsterdam.Hi gg s, J . an d A. Ti tch en (1995) Propositional, Professionaland Personal, Know ledge in Clinical Reasoning in J. Higgsand M. Jones (Ed) Clinical Reasoning in the HealthProfessions. ButterworthIHeinemann, Oxford,For Example Kean, D.E. et a1 (1998) - CurriculumDevelop ment: for medical Education. A Six StepApproach.. The Johns Hopkins University Press,Baltimore.For Example - Felder , R.M., Forre st, K.D., Baker-Wad, L.,Dietz, E.J., and P. Mohr (1993). A Longitudinal study ofengineering student performance and retention. I Successand failure in the introductory course. Journal ofEngineering Education, 82, ( I ) , 15-2 1, and subseq uentpapers.Fordyce, D. (1992). The nature of student learning inengineering. International Journal of Technology andDesign Education . 2, (3), 22-40.Pavelich, M.J. and W.S. Moore. (1996) Measuring theeffect of experiential education using the Perry m odel.Journal of Engineering Education , 85 , (4), 287-292.Woods, D.R. et a1 (1997) Developing Problem SolvingSkills: T he MacM aste r problem solvingprogram. JoumalofEngineering Education,86, (2), 75-92.Cowan, J. (1998) On B ecoming an Innovative UniversityTeacher. Open University Press, Buckingham.George, J., and J. Cowan (1999). A Handbook ofTechniques for Formative Evaluation. K ogan Page, London.

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