1. The Power of Professional Learning: School Leaders and First Teachers
Helen Timperley
Professor of Education
The University of Auckland

3. Auckland
Wellington
Christchurch

4. A Recent National Policy Discussion Document in New Zealand
The vision
Every student in every school has leaders and teachers who are actively engaged in professional learning and development that supports and challenges them to accelerate outcomes for students.
- First Teachers can help to achieve this kind of vision

5. The Evidence Base

6. Professional Development Project in Literacy
Over 300 primary schools in New Zealand
Writing: Average gains 2.5 to 3.2 expected rate over two years
Lowest 20% 5-6 times expected rate
Reading: Average gains 1.5 to 1.9 expected rate over two years
Lowest 20% 3 times expected rate.
Sustained over the three year monitoring period

7. More Recently (2014)
Anthony Bryk at the American Educational Research Association on Improvement Science
Provides history of improvement failures over 20 years
Too much change expected
Tried to replicate good ideas from other settings
Quickly work out a solution to a general problem
Identifies similar inquiry processes to demonstrate what works at scale

8. Moving from Professional Development to Professional Learning

9. 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 have and need?
What has been the impact of our changed actions?
Deepen professional knowledge and refine skills
Relate to 3 findings of “How people learn” and adaptive expertise
Emphasise worthwhile content in deepening PK and refining skills
Engage students in new learning experiences

10. Some shifts in mindsets
External Internal
Participation learning (so must be based on learning theory)
Developing new practices solving challenging problems
Implementation trying things out, seeking feedback, trying again

11. Student learning in the past
Transmission 11

12. Some Things We Know About Learning
Students
Having clear goals, co- and self-regulating learning towards those goals is powerful
Where to Next?
How are we doing?
Where are we going?
Students

13. Developing Knowledge / skills
Co-constructing meaning is more effective than transmission
Linking new ideas with existing ideas
Unpack misconceptions together
Actively construct new ideas in holistic frameworks
Students taking joint responsibility for their learning
Feedback and feedforward

14. Teacher learning in the past

15. Developing Knowledge / skills
Co-constructing meaning is more effective than transmission
Linking new ideas with existing ideas
Unpack misconceptions together
Actively construct new ideas in holistic frameworks
Teachers taking joint responsibility for their learning
Feedback and feedforward

16. Teacher learning now

17. Some shifts in mindsets
Activities / implementation
Systematic evidence-informed inquiry
Assessment about student capability
assessment provides information about teaching effectiveness

18. Assessment for professional inquiry
Information about student capability
Information about effectiveness of teaching
Shifting the focus
Teachers identify what needs to be taught again
Teachers identify how well they taught something – what they need to learn
Information filed
Students told their mark
Information reported to parents
Students told what they need to learn
Shifting the focus

19. How do your teachers think about student assessment results?
Deciding on student capability and what students need to learn? OR Identifying how well they have taught something and what they as teachers need to learn?

20. Some shifts in mindsets
3. Professional development focuses on implicit theory of professionalism as routine expertise Professional learning based on an explicit theory of professionalism as adaptive expertise

21. Routine to Adaptive Expertise
Routine Expertise
Adaptive Expertise
Apply a core set of skills with increasing fluency and efficiency
Own beliefs taken for granted and not open to scrutiny
Based on notions of novice to experts – practice makes perfect
Flexibly retrieve, organise and apply professional knowledge
Aware of own beliefs underpinning practice and when get in the way
Recognise when old problems persist or new problems arise and seek expert knowledge

23. Assessment from Different Perspectives
Adaptive expertise
Routine expertise
Assessment and learning are sequential
Assessment is about how well students learn
Investigating the impact of teaching undermines professionalism
Inquiry cycle is a set of steps to endure
Assessment and learning are integrated
Assessment is about the effectiveness of teaching
Investigating the impact of teaching is essential to improvement
Inquiry cycle provides a framework for learning
Summarise key points

24. Example 1: An Australian High School (FT had expertise in written language)
Principal and leadership team established that students were not doing well on national assessments, particularly in those subjects requiring a lot of writing
With the assistance of the first teacher, they identified the problem as students not being able to write extended informational texts
Teachers worked with the first teacher to mark and analyse classroom writing samples
From this exercise, the first teacher suggested they focus on sentence structure, paragraphing and cohesion
Teachers not teaching languages did not know what these terms meant

25. 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 have and need?
What has been the impact of our changed actions?
Deepen professional knowledge and refine skills
Relate to 3 findings of “How people learn” and adaptive expertise
Emphasise worthwhile content in deepening PK and refining skills
Engage students in new learning experiences

26. Sentence structure Paragraphing Cohesion The Areas of Focus
The production of grammatically correct, structurally sound and meaningful sentences 
Paragraphing
The segmenting of text into paragraphs that assists the reader to follow the line of argument 
Cohesion
The linking of ideas across the text, achieved through the use of referring words, ellipsis, text connectives, substitutions and word associations

27. Sentence Structure
Skill focus: The production of grammatically correct, structurally sound and meaningful sentences. 1
Correct sentences are mostly simple and/or compound sentences
Meaning is sometimes clear 2
Most simple and compound sentences are correct AND
some complex sentences are correct
Meaning is predominantly clear  3
Most simple, compound and complex sentences are correct OR
All simple, compound and complex sentences are correct but do not demonstrate variety
Meaning is clear 4
Sentences are correct (allow for occasional error in more sophisticated structures).
Demonstrates variety
 Meaning is clear and sentences enhance meaning 5
All sentences are correct (allow for occasional slip, e.g. a missing word)
Writing contains controlled and well-developed sentences that express precise meaning and are consistently effective

29. Monitoring
After one term, the teachers with the First Teacher’s assistance reassessed their own students
Students were surveyed about the extent to which their teachers were teaching the targeted skills

30. Reading Comprehension in a Primary School: The Importance of Analysing Teaching Practice
Prediction of events – comprehension strategies for a purpose

31. 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 have and need?
What has been the impact of our changed actions?
Deepen professional knowledge and refine skills
Relate to 3 findings of “How people learn” and adaptive expertise
Emphasise worthwhile content in deepening PK and refining skills
Engage students in new learning experiences

32. What features of these two examples are relevant to your context
What features of these two examples are relevant to your context? Are there any implications for the work of the first teachers?

33. Getting Started: Gathering evidence about students’ learning and engagement
Must be driven by CURIOUSITY about what is going on for student learners in your school
Use a range of evidence – test scores, surveys, interviews, family perceptions
Ask students to interpret the data with you
Put faces on the data
Means much more to teachers

34. Teacher inquiry and knowledge-building cycle
to promote valued student outcomes
The purpose is to provide a baseline for improvement and to find out what teachers need to learn to teach more effectively
What knowledge and skills do our students need?
What knowledge and skills do we as teachers have and need?
What has been the impact of our changed actions?
Deepen professional knowledge and refine skills
Relate to 3 findings of “How people learn” and adaptive expertise
Emphasise worthwhile content in deepening PK and refining skills
Engage students in new learning experiences

35. What Does this Mean for Leaders
You need:
Good data management systems for quantitative data
Ways to collect qualitative evidence
Skills in analysis and collaborative interpretation of the evidence with teachers – this is what really counts!
Skills to make collaborative decisions about what evidence will be used for baseline to monitor improvement

36. Purpose –relate new learning to prior knowledge
What knowledge and skills do our students need?
What knowledge and skills do we as teachers have and need?
What has been the impact of our changed actions?
Deepen professional knowledge and refine skills
This is why you need baseline evidence
Relate to 3 findings of “How people learn” and adaptive expertise
Emphasise worthwhile content in deepening PK and refining skills
Engage students in new learning experiences
Motivated by the teacher’s desire to know, not someone else’s desire to tell

37. Teachers make the difference
But they cannot do it alone, nor can First Teachers

38. Some potential issues impacting on the work of First Teachers
Ambiguous roles and changed relationships between first teachers and others
Too much going on and not enough time to focus on learning to improve
Work focused on individual teachers (remediation) rather than developing collective responsibility for professional and student learning through an inquiry process
Exception may be supporting newly qualified teachers

39. Ambiguous Roles and Changed Relationships
First teachers cannot take over leadership roles of:
Defining their new role with their colleagues
Including conveying to colleagues that their practice needs to change
Addressing all the teaching-related challenges in the school
Finding the time to work with colleagues when no formal time has been allocated

40. Too much going on: The International Research on Improvement
More ≠ better Less = Improvement Learn in one area with a deep focus then transfer the learning to other areas

41. Start with learner-related challenges
Student learning
Teacher learning

42. Start with students in an area of focus then transfer learning:
To other contexts – students, curricula
Transfer
Transfer
Student learning 7
Teacher learning

43. Student learning
Teacher learning

44. Students Teachers Answers three questions Where are we going? Goal
Where to Next?
How are we doing?
Where are we going?
Students
Teachers
Answers three questions
Where are we going? Goal
How are we going? Feedback
Where to next? Feed-forward

45. A Leadership Task: Setting Goals for Students
Goals are broad statements about what you want to achieve for students in your focus for inquiry
They may be ‘vague’ but that is OK if supported by SMART targets
They form the basis of your strategic and annual plans
They are likely to be a focus over a number of years – not just one, as they represent major shifts you are seeking e.g.,
To improve numbers of students gaining qualifications
To improve numbers of students reaching standards
To improve numbers of students reaching x in written language
Make your goal high level so everyone can engage with it.

46. Exercise 2:Baseline Data
Characteristics of Effective Goals in an Area of Inquiry
Very few (usually only one) – and student focused
Directly linked to your strategic and annual plans
Based on evidence of the current situation (baseline data)
Everyone who influences the achievement of the goal is involved in setting it (including students)
Most people feel these are worthwhile or the right goals
Realistic but challenging
Confidence that there will be support to achieve them
They are a priority – other decisions made with reference to them
There are ways of monitoring progress towards them
Exercise 2:Baseline Data
©Auckland UniServices Ltd, 2013.

47. A Leadership Task: Identifying Targets for Students
Targets are SMART - Specific, Measureable, Achievable, Realistic (but challenging), and Time-bound.
They are very specific to the student challenge you have identified at the beginning of the inquiry process e.g. at a year level, in a subject, with a specific group of students
They articulate the shift you want to get (usually annually) in reference to baseline evidence
Emphasise that this data goes in the plan – it should be visible. A plan is a written document and has an audience and purpose. Data justifies your target – the reader can judge whether the target is worthwhile based on it.

48. Leadership Task: Identifying Baseline Evidence
Baseline evidence gives a picture of the current situation in the area of inquiry
This is a must – It justifies/describes the challenge you are trying to resolve
It provides a base from which you measure progress – and monitor progress at least each term
Some problems – hit you in the face. Environmental scan may be requried – go back to basics – find out where people are at
Some are identified as you proceed on a focus and then realise it is too broad,
People will only commit to goals they perceive as important

49. Targets – relationship to baseline data
2014
Target for Year
Year 5 exceeding …
12%
In 2014, 77% of Year 5 met or exceeded the ... In 2015, we are aiming for 85% of Year 6 to meet or exceed.
Year 5 achieving …
65%
Year 5 below …
23%
1.One of the risks of the times we are in now is that leaders could put unrealistic and unhelpful pressures on teachers. On the other hand, we have to have high standards but it is the decisions we make as leaders that can impact most on teachers.
Over assessment – and that can arise from leaders trying to cover themselves. The thing to keep in mind is you make decisions on the level of assessment and you need to keep the purpose of it in mind.
. If we are making them more accountable for their outcomes, and I think this is inevitable given that we now have nationally set standards to focus on, how do we provide teachers with more support.
I have heard people lament that the time of creative teaching in schools is over and that teachers will be doing literacy and numeracy all day and that art, music and PE will be neglected. To that I say –only if you let it happen. (mushrooming; tree climbing).
More commonly the real problem. Are teachers using data to inform teaching?
Your role – but commonly find data is not collated school wide, and is not able to inform goals because of lack of systems. Don’t have to have high-tech processes.
After examining names.

50. Where to Next?
How are we doing?
Where are we going?
Teachers
Teachers also need learning goals and ways to monitor progress
Students

51. Learning Goals for Teachers
Students’ learning goals …
My new understandings to achieve these goals …
My new practice and which students I will try it out with …
How I will monitor if this new practice is making a difference to those students ….
Where to Next?
How are we doing?
Where are we going?

52. Changes in Organisational Practices
For your collective improvement efforts to be successful in achieving goals for students and teachers and not fragmented across many different areas may mean:
Systematically creating time for opportunities to learn in relation to your goals
Meeting times – every face-to-face should be an opportunity for professional learning
Where else can you create time?

53. Monitoring and Measurement
“You cannot improve what you cannot measure” Tony Bryk (AERA, 2014)
Short- term, long-term evidence for both process and outcomes

54. Monitoring
To keep the goals and targets a priority, progress must be monitored several times a year (develop a timetable)
The monitoring needs to include:
Evidence of student actions and evidence
Evidence of changes in teacher practice
Evidence of changes in organisational practices

55. Area of intended change and outcomes Baseline
What did the data tell us about what was happening
At half Term
What changes would we expect to see and how will we know?
After a Term
After 1.5 Terms
Student learning and engagement
Changes in teaching practice
Changes in organisational practice e.g. meetings   

56. Leaders’ Role: Work with others to set goals and targets and identify how they will be monitored and develop a culture of collective responsibility to achieve them
First Teachers’ role: Work with groups of teachers to facilitate a focused inquiry process to achieve the goals and targets for themselves and their students

57. Identify some possible implications for you as a leader and as a first teacher (you may disagree with the material I have presented)

58. Thank you for listening and participating
- Helen