INNOVATIVE AND EFFECTIVE PROFESSIONAL LEARNING FOR STUDENT ACCOMPLISHMENT

1
INNOVATIVE AND EFFECTIVE PROFESSIONAL LEARNING
FOR STUDENT ACCOMPLISHMENT

• Professor Stephen Dinham
• Research Director Teaching, Learning and
  Leadership
• ACER
• CURRICULUM CORPORATION
• Melbourne 19th June 2008

2
The Born Teacher Who needs Professional
Learning?

• The born teacher The Media Fixation
• The heroic individual
• Innate attributes, traits of individual teachers
• Linda Darling-Hammond describes the belief that
  good teachers are born and not made as one of
  educations most damaging myths one that has
  gained the standing of a superstition, with
  harmful consequences for teacher education and
  schooling (2006 ix).
• Darling-Hammond, L. (2006). Powerful Teacher
  Education. San Francisco Jossey-Bass.

3
The Importance of the Teacher

• Many empirical studies have confirmed that the
  individual classroom teacher is the major
  in-school influence on student achievement. (see
  Hattie Rowe Mulford)
• Accounting for Variance Hattie
• Student 50
• Homes 5-10
• School 5-10
• Peers 5-10
• Teacher 30
• Major focus on Quality Teaching from late 1980s
• Hattie, J. (2003). Teachers Make a Difference
  What is the Research Evidence?,
  http//www.leadspace.govt.nz/leadership/articles/t
  eachers-make-a-difference.php

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Prof John Hattie Uni of Auckland

• Over 750 Meta-analyses of over 50,000
  international studies
• Hattie, J. (2007). Developing Potentials for
  Learning Evidence, assessment, and progress,
  EARLI Biennial Conference, Budapest, Hungary.
  http//www.education.auckland.ac.nz/uoa/education/
  staff/j.hattie/j.hattie_home.cfm

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Note on Effect Size

• Effect size (ES) is a name given to a family of
  indices that measure the magnitude of a treatment
  effect. Unlike significance tests, these indices
  are independent of sample size.
• ES measures are the common currency of
  meta-analysis studies that summarize the findings
  from a specific area of research.
• The larger the ES, the greater the influence of
  the treatment effect.
• As a guide, ES lt 0.0 negative impact 0.0 gt 0.2
  no/weak impact 0.2 0.4 small, possibly
  significant impact 0.4 0.6 moderately
  significant impact gt 0.6 large, significant
  impact

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Student Achievement

• Influence Effect Size
• Mobility (shifting schools) -.34
• Retention -.16
• Television -.14
• Summer vacation -.09

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Student Achievement

• Influence Effect Size
• Open v Traditional .01
• Multi-grade/age classes .04
• Inductive teaching .06
• Reading whole language .06
• Perceptual-motor programs .08
• Out of school experiences .09
• Distance education .09
• Web based learning .09

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Student Achievement

• Influence Effect Size
• Ability grouping .11
• Teacher training .11
• Diet on achievement .12
• Teacher subject matter knowledge .12
• Gender (boys-girls) .12
• Multi-media methods .15
• Problem based learning .15
• Home school programs .16

9
Student Achievement

• Influence Effect Size
• Extra-curricular programs .17
• Family structure .18
• Co-/team teaching .19
• Learning hierarchies .19
• Aptitude/treatment interventions .19
• Individualised instruction .20
• Charter schools .20
• Religious schools .20

10
Student Achievement

• Influence Effect Size
• Class size .21
• Teaching test taking .22
• Finances .23
• Summer school .23
• Competitive learning .24
• Programmed instruction .24
• Within class grouping .25
• Mainstreaming .28

11
Student Achievement

• Influence Effect Size
• Desegregation .28
• Exercise/relaxation .28
• Audio-based teaching .28
• Home visiting by teachers .29
• Reducing anxiety .30
• Principals/school leaders .30
• Ability grouping for gifted students .30
• Homework .31

12
Student Achievement

• Influence Effect Size
• Inquiry based teaching .31
• Simulations and gaming .32
• Reading exposure to reading .36
• Bilingual programs .37
• Teacher positive expectations .37
• Computer assisted instruction .37
• Enrichment on gifted .39
• Integrated curriculum programs .39

13
Student Achievement

• Influence Effect Size
• Adjunct aids .41
• Hypermedia instruction .41
• Behavioural organisers/adj questions .41
• Self-concept on achievement .43
• Frequent/effects of testing .46
• Early intervention .47
• Motivation on learning .48
• Small group learning .49

14
Student Achievement

• Influence Effect Size
• Questioning .49
• Cooperative learning .49
• Reading Second/third chance programs .50
• Play programs .50
• Visual based/audio-visual teaching .51
• Outdoor programs .52
• Concept mapping .52
• Peer influences .53

15
Student Achievement

• Influence Effect Size
• Keller's mastery learning program .53
• Reading Phonics instruction .53
• Reading Visual-perception programs .55
• Parental Involvement .55
• Peer tutoring .55
• Goals challenging .56
• Mastery learning .57
• Social skills programs .57

16
Student Achievement

• Influence Effect Size
• Socio-economic status .57
• Home environment .57
• Providing worked examples .57
• Reading Comprehension programs .58
• Direct instruction .59
• Time on task .59
• Study skills .59
• Acceleration of gifted .60

17
Student Achievement

• Influence Effect Size
• Problem solving teaching .61
• Teacher professional development .64
• Reading Repeated reading programs .67
• Reading Vocabulary programs .67
• Meta-cognition strategies .67
• Teaching students self-verbalisation .67
• Creativity programs .70
• Prov. Formative evaluation to teachers .70

18
Student Achievement

• Influence Effect Size
• Feedback .72
• Teacher-student relationships .72
• Prior achievement .73
• Reciprocal teaching .74
• Quality of teaching .77
• Classroom behavioural .80
• Absence of disruptive students .86
• Self-report grades 1.44

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Overall Influences

• Effect Size
• Teacher .50
• Curricula .45
• Teaching .43
• Student .39
• Home .35
• School .23
• Average .40

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Activator or Facilitator ?
21
Guide by the Side or Sage on the Stage?

• A damaging and demeaning dichotomy
• Good teachers have always been both
• Findings from Successful Secondary Teachers
  Study
• Expert teaching is student centred and teacher
  directed.

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Underpinning Teacher Effectiveness

• Educational Leadership
• Teachers Professional Learning

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Types of Teacher Learning

• Traditional
• Formal pre-service
• ad hoc, on the job
• Professional associations
• Informal self-directed
• Formal in-service
• Formal postgraduate study

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Types of Teacher Learning

• Alternative Approaches
• Action research
• Action learning
• Formal mentoring
• Professional standards/accreditation (mandatory,
  voluntary)
• Professional learning modules
• Learning communities

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Teacher Learning since the mid-1970s

• From To
• Centralised Decentralised
• System responsibility Individual, collective
  responsibility
• Off the shelf Tailored
• Generalised Contextualised
• Off site, apart On site, embedded
• Input Outcomes
• Passive Interactive
• External expert External partner
• Individual learning Community learning
• Theory based Problem based
• Transactional Relational
• Changing things Changing people
• Learning by seeing, hearing Action learning
• Using research Doing research
• Broad focus Student/learning focus

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The Learning CommunityIdeal and Reality

• Case Studies The Evidence Base
• HSC Teaching Success
• AESOP
• Australian Government Quality Teaching Program
  (NSW)
• NSW Quality Teaching Awards
• None of these projects was about learning
  communities per se, but each shed light on the
  dynamics of the phenomenon.

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How is a Learning Community Developed and
Sustained?

• The Learning Communities examined in the case
  studies were developed and sustained through
• Focus on Teaching and Learning
• Individual and Collective Belief and Support
• Problem Solving
• Internal Expectations and Accountability
• Leadership and Outside Influence
• Overall Dynamics

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A. Focus on Teaching and Learning

• Learning communities have a focus on learning and
  a desire to learn about learning there is use of
  pedagogic terminology, models, evidence and
  theory.
• Members of learning communities see themselves
  and their students as going somewhere, with
  learning being an on-going process learning
  becomes contagious, with others catching the
  bug.

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Focus on Teaching and Learning

• Within the group there is recognition that it is
  necessary to change the way people think if there
  is to be change in how they act, and thus
  learning, reflection and questioning are
  important.
• Members of the group are concerned with
  establishing and maintaining upward, continuous
  cycles of improvement they are not satisfied
  with the status quo.

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B. Individual and Collective Belief and Support

• Group members possess and demonstrate belief and
  respect for their profession and discipline they
  believe in, even love their area and communicate
  this to others.
• Members of the group pay attention to social
  maintenance, trying to make their school,
  department, or faculty a good place (MacBeath,
  2006) members care for each other and their
  students as people and social and professional
  relationships are important.

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C. Problem Solving

• There is an emphasis on problem or issue based
  learning and recognition of what is important,
  with dialogue around identified issues and
  potential solutions.
• Experimentation, risk taking and innovation in
  teaching and learning are encouraged and are a
  feature of learning communities there is
  questioning rather than acceptance of constraints.

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Problem Solving

• Teaching and learning are context and person
  specific, with efforts to contextualise and
  modify as necessary externally derived solutions
  or approaches.
• There is on-going reflection on and evaluation of
  existing and new measures within the learning
  community, coupled with data-informed decision
  making.

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D. Internal Expectations and Accountability

• The group creates a climate of high expectations
  and professionalism which members rise to, not
  wanting to let anyone down, not least students.
• Members of the group empower each other to take
  the lead in learning, in turn enhancing
  individual and group leadership capacity and
  effectiveness.
• Accountability is to the group, more than to
  externally imposed accountability measures group
  accountability and self-accountability are
  powerful influences on the learning communitys
  ethos, and action.

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E. Leadership and Outside Influence

• Leadership outside and within the group is
  important in stimulating and facilitating the
  learning community.
• While learning communities can develop without
  stimulus or action from above or outside,
  assistance, guidance, resources and encouragement
  from others within and in some cases outside the
  organisation can facilitate the learning process.

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F. Overall Dynamics

• Overall, what seems to work most effectively is a
  combination of external understanding, advice,
  assistance and recognition, coupled with a focus
  on internal issues, with teacher and group
  learning to address these through empowerment and
  with internal action and accountability.
• Time, place, space and language are important
  elements in creating a learning community.

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Putting it Together The Student Success Triangle
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Implications and Conclusions

• There are many who advocate the development of
  learning communities.
• The research evidence on learning communities and
  how these can support teachers professional
  learning and improve student achievement is
  encouraging.

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Implications and Conclusions

• However, learning communities cannot be mandated,
  built or maintained in a technical, mechanistic
  sense.
• Rather, these need to be encouraged, nourished
  and sustained in the manner of an organic system.

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Implications and Conclusions

• Building a learning community is more like
  agriculture or gardening than engineering or
  chemistry.
• Educational leaders cannot, nor should they
  attempt to, mandate the development of learning
  communities. Leaders can however assist
  organisational members to come together, focus
  and collaborate on issues of importance.

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Implications and Conclusions

• Some organisations and groups suffer from
  learning disabilities. These need to be
  assessed/diagnosed/treated in the same way we
  would with a student.
• Educational leaders need to ensure that teaching
  and learning are central concerns of the
  educational organisation and do all in their
  power to ensure that nothing is allowed to
  obstruct or distort this central focus.

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Implications and Conclusions

• There is a challenge for educational leaders to
  deal with situations where learning has
  atrophied.
• McBeath has noted (2006 19)
• It is hard for teachers to shed an outer skin
  which has calcified over many years in the
  classroom where dialogue is a rare commodity no
  matter how hard teachers strive for it, and in
  which instruction is the norm.
• However building a learning community is not
  about fixing teachers but improving teaching
  and learning.

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Implications and Conclusions

• Dialogue and innovation around quality teaching
  and learning have emerged and re-invigorated
  jaded mid-late career teachers who are now active
  participants in learning communities.
• Latent leadership potential has emerged and in
  turn facilitated further change and improvement
  in the groups/faculties/schools concerned.

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Implications and Conclusions

• Finally, teacher professional learning needs to
  be built upon an evidential foundation of what
  works in teaching, not fad, fantasy, idealism,
  ideology or rhetoric. Further evidence needs to
  be gathered to inform and enable this
  professional learning.

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Some References

• Ayres, P. Dinham, S. Sawyer, W. (2000).
  Successful Senior Secondary Teaching, Quality
  Teaching Series, No 1, Australian College of
  Education, September, pp. 1-20.
• Brady, L. Aubusson, P. Dinham, S. (2006).
  Action Learning For School Improvement',
  Educational Practice and Theory, 28(2), pp.
  27-39.
• Dinham, S. (2007). Leadership for Exceptional
  Educational Outcomes. Teneriffe, Qld. Post
  Pressed.
• Dinham, S. (2007). The Dynamics of Creating
  and Sustaining Learning Communities, Unicorn
  Online Refereed Article, ORA43, pp. 1-16.
• Dinham, S. (2007). The Secondary Head of
  Department and the Achievement of Exceptional
  Student Outcomes, Journal of Educational
  Administration, 45(1), pp. 62-79.
• Dinham, S. (2005). Principal Leadership for
  Outstanding Educational Outcomes, Journal of
  Educational Administration, 43(4), pp. 338-356.
• For the complete AESOP series see
  http//www.postpressed.com.au/aesop/aesop_manual.p
  df
• Main reference for this paper.

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Contact Details

• Professor Stephen Dinham
• Research Director - Teaching and Leadership
• ACER
• Private Bag 55
• Camberwell Vic 3124
• Email dinham_at_acer.edu.au
• Phone [phone]
• Website www.acer.edu.au/staffbio/dinham_stephen.h
  tml