1. Emeritus Professor Judyth Sachs Macquarie University
Innovation, leadership and professional learning: choices and consequences
Emeritus Professor Judyth Sachs Macquarie University

2. Questions shaping the presentation
What shapes our practice?
How can we think about leadership and professional learning in different ways?
What choices can we make?
What are the consequences of these for teachers and students?
Talk about the importance of context and how this shapes how we think and what we do
Policy sets the limits of what is required of us – especially given strong demands for accountability and meeting and delivering on standards regimes

3. Policy focus Increased accountability
Improved reporting to stakeholders
Collecting evidence and data
Using data effectively to make informed decisions
Increased school level responsibility for making improvement happen
More active involvement of leaders in professional learning (theirs and teachers)

4. John Hattie argues
How we think has major impact on how we engage ourselves and others in our schools!
It is a set of mind frames that underpin our every action and decision in a school;
it is a belief that we are evaluators, change agents, adaptive learning experts, seekers of feedback about our impact, engaged in dialogue and challenge, and developers of trust with all, and that we see opportunity in error, and are keen to spread the message about the power, fun, and impact that we have on learning.

5. Mindframes that underpin learning
My fundamental task is to evaluate the effect of my teaching on students’ learning and achievement.
The success and failure of my students’ learning is about what I do or don’t do. I am a change agent.
I want to talk more about learning than teaching.
Assessment is about my impact.
I teach through dialogue not monologue.
I enjoy the challenge and never retreat to “doing my best”.
It’s my role to develop positive relationships in class and staffrooms.
I inform all about the language of learning.

6. But … Teachers and leaders are objectified
Assumes all teachers are the same in their experience, aspirations and behaviours
Sees a direct causal relationship between the quality of teaching and learning
Only 30% of learning is down to the teacher and the rest is family and social context
Not just the feedback rather the teachers’ response to feedback
Sees the teacher in isolation from their schools, the communicates in which they are located and the teachers’ personal and professional biography and experience

7. So the dilemma? Is the issue how people manage or how they lead?
There are challenges with both.

8. Manager or leader? Technical Plans Focuses on systems Has authority
Asks how and when
Knows how its done
Says ”I”
Does things right
Visionary
Inspires
Focuses on people
Has influence
Asks why?
Shows how its done
Says “we”
Does the right thing

9. Collaborative leaders
Types of leaders
maintenance
Controlled leaders
Compliant leaders
Collaborative leaders
Innovation leaders
Innovation

10. Controlled leaders Focus on accountability and government requirements
Wary of change
Technical approach and risk averse
Good at developing systems
Use tried and tested approaches in their schools
Has authority – ‘the boss’

11. Compliant leaders
Enact and interpret the government policy agenda in an unproblematised way
Sometimes find change difficult
Existing practices are modified to comply with government agenda
Asks how and when

12. Collaborative leaders
Focus on people and builds teams
Creates an environment where asking ‘why’ is important
Works with colleagues and build consensus and trust
Models the type of behaviour that is expected in the school

13. What are the capabilities for 21century learning and teaching?
Ways of Thinking: creativity and innovation; critical thinking, problem solving, and decision-making; and metacognition or learning to learn
Ways of Working: communication and collaboration or teamwork
Tools for Working: information literacy and information and communication technology (ICT) literacy
Living in the World: citizenship, life and career skills, and personal and social responsibility
Binkley, M., Erstad, O., Herman, J., Raizen, S., Ripley, M., & Rumble, M. (2010). Defining 21st century skills. Assessment and teaching of 21st century skills draft white paper. The University of Melbourne

14. Innovation leaders Transformative practices – change agents
Visionaries – often far ahead of the teachers in their schools
Charismatic – visible inside and outside of the school
Thinks outside the box to solve problems

15. So where does this take us?
If we want new kinds of leaders in schools – teachers and principals – what do we need to do?
Innovation leadership
Innovative approach to leadership
Leadership for innovation

16. Innovation leadership
An innovative approach to leadership.
brings new thinking and different actions to how you lead, manage, and go about your work. …think differently about your role and the challenges you and your organization face. What can you do to break open entrenched, intractable problems? How can you be agile and quick in the absence of information or predictability?

17. Leadership for innovation.
Leaders must learn how to create an organizational climate where others apply innovative thinking to solve problems. It is about growing a culture of innovation, not just hiring a few creative outliers.
How can you help others to think differently and work in new ways to face challenges? What can be done to innovate when all resources are stressed and constrained? How can you stay alive and stay ahead of the game?

18. David Horth & Dan Buchner (2014) Innovative Leadership: How to use innovation to lead effectively, work collaboratively and drive results. Centre for Creative Leadership

19. Innovation thinking Logical Deductive/inductive Requires “proof”
Traditional thinking
Innovation
Logical
Deductive/inductive Requires “proof”
Looks for precedents
Quick to decide
a right or wrong way
Uncomfortable with ambiguity
Wants results
Intuitive
Abductive thinking
Asks ‘what if?’
Unconstrained by past
Multiple possibilities
Always a better way
Relishes ambiguity
Wants meaning

20. Innovation thinking skills
Paying attention
Personalizing
Imaging
Serious play
Collaborative inquiry

21. Innovation thinking skills
Paying attention
Notice what has gone unnoticed
Look deeply into a situation, being a clear eyed observer-
See the world ‘anew’
Look for new patterns, details
Personalizing
Seeking insight from your experience
Understanding ourselves and others in a deep and personal way
Draws on our interests, values, beliefs and perspectives in order to understand what we do and how we do it
How we relate this to understanding our colleagues, members of the community pushes us to understand who they are and how they live

22. Innovation thinking skills
Imaging
Processing information differently
Stories, pictures, impressions, metaphors
These are powerful tools for describing situations, constructing ideas and communicating
Serious play
Bending the rules, branching out, having a sense of fun
Experimentation and improvisation
Collaborative inquiry
Thoughtful sharing of ideas
Process of sustained, effective dialogue with multiple stakeholders
Asking searching questions and exercising critical thinking without always expecting answers

23. It follows then that The combined application of these skills
opens possibilities for new ideas and understandings to emerge that fuel innovation.
ensures that leaders have a sound basis for leading others in improving practice

24. What then are your choices as a leader?
Remain comfortable?
Take some calculated risks
Go for broke

25. Professional learning for innovation leaders
Create opportunities to practice innovation thinking skills
Establish learning networks to pose and test new ideas
Develop new skills around social media – ask students to teach you
Improve technology literacy skills
Establish your identity as an innovation leader

26. Consequences of making these choices
Teachers are likely to be:
More or less collaborative in their practices
More or less open to risk taking in the classroom
More or less confident to be creative in their thinking and behaviour
More of less disposed to sharing their practices and contesting ideas
More or less open to change
More or less confident to take responsibility for the consequences of their actions in the classroom
More or less persistent in the quest for continuous improvement
More or less able to manage ambiguity and uncertainty in a fluid policy environment

27. And for students this means
More or less participation
More or less dynamic relationships with teachers
A more or less inclusive school culture

28. But what we want is Better engagement Better learning
Better experience
Better outcomes

29. Thank you
Questions