Building Capacity for Leading Curriculum Change: A collaborative approach
Heidi Bush ACSA Biennial Conference Sydney 2011
[email protected]
THE CONTEXT
© 2011 Google
SUPPORTING SCHOOLS IN THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE AUSTRALIAN CURRICULUM
• What will schools need for successful implementation of the AC? • How can schools with diverse needs and contexts be supported effectively? • How can consistent support be provided to schools across a wide geographic area?
THE AIMS OF OUR APPROACH Successful implementation of the AC – Knowledge, understanding and skills for effective use of a new curriculum – Enhanced pedagogy Capacity building – Principals as primary leaders of learning – APs as leaders of learning and change agents – Teachers as best practice educators Second order change – new learning – transformation – sustained
CONSULTING PRINCIPALS • • • • •
2009 Principals asked to name the support they required for successful implementation of the AC. Planning and assessment identified as a common focus. A focus on “how” rather than “what” as we transitioned between curricula. Transfers across all learning areas – not just a learning area focus. What was needed to achieve success with planning and assessment from a new curriculum?
BUILDING SUCCESS
SOCIAL CAPITAL
BUILDING CAPACITY
ACKNOWLEDGE THE DIP
BEING ASSERTIVE TROUBLESHOOT
LEAN PLANS
LEARN THROUGH ACTION
NO ISLANDS
MEASURE SUCCESS
A TRI-LEVEL APPROACH • Important to have everyone “on the same page”. • The same process and PL was delivered with Principals, Assistant Principals and teachers. – Purposeful Planning and Authentic Assessment
BUILDING CAPACITY
A TRI-LEVEL APPROACH 2010 “Purposeful Planning and Authentic Assessment” • Three full day PL sessions with APs. • Four full day Principals’ Meeting with half the day devoted to PL. • Process driven in schools by APs with Education Officer support.
BUILDING CAPACITY
A TRI-LEVEL APPROACH Starting with existing beliefs and understanding Highly effective and purposeful planning is evident when … Authentic assessment is … BEING ASSERTIVE
BUILDING CAPACITY
A TRI-LEVEL APPROACH Starting with existing beliefs and understanding
• Planning process vs. recording planning • Not looking at planning templates BEING ASSERTIVE
BUILDING CAPACITY
Purposeful Planning and Authentic Assessment
STARTING WITH THE END IN MIND ESTABLISH THE GOAL What do we want to achieve in planning and assessment? THE VISION What will mission accomplished look like?
VISION AND REALITY What are the gaps? TAKING ACTION How do we close the gaps? TROUBLESHOOTING GUIDES Planning for adjustments.
OUR “END IN MIND” OUR GOAL FOR PLANNING AND ASSESSMENT We are collaboratively planning and assessing from the Australian Curriculum and Good News For Living so that students are able to successfully and actively engage in learning experiences that suit individual needs, levels of understanding and preferred ways of learning. The key elements of the planning are •
Backward design
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Concept based
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Inquiry focus
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Articulated knowledge, understanding, skills and attitudes/values
LEAN PLANS
Students are assessed prior to, during and following learning experiences and given constructive feedback to enable them to demonstrate the full extent of their understanding and apply learned knowledge and skills in varied situations, particularly real world contexts. Assessment will be used to inform our ongoing teaching practice in order for students to reach their full potential.
Schools worked through the process to develop their own goal.
STARTING WITH THE END IN MIND Shared goal. LEAN PLANS Clarity of purpose. Backward design. Knowing what we want to achieve so the best structures, processes and support can be put in place to accomplish this. • Language and expectations that are accessible for all – classroom teachers and school leaders. • • • •
A REGIONAL FOCUS: Purposeful Planning & Authentic Assessment A shared focus across all schools. SOCIAL CAPITAL Consistent language and PL. A focus on HOW rather than WHAT. A network of support across schools and among educators. • Shared focus with contextualised implementation. • A shared process for learning and leading learning. • “Knowing our people” and working together. • • • •
FOCUSED PL • 2010 Teacher Network Meetings(4) – exploring the Shaping Papers • Shared process – jigsaw. • Emerging issues identified for future PL. – – – – – – – – –
Inquiry Concept-based teaching learning Inclusion / Differentiation Teaching for Understanding Assessment Planning Reporting Digital Technologies The Kindergarten Program and EYLF
NO ISLANDS
BEING ASSERTIVE
FOCUSED PL
NO ISLANDS
BEING ASSERTIVE
FOCUSED PL • Emerging issues were discussed at a Principals’ Meeting. • The second regional focus became collaborative planning.
NO ISLANDS
BEING ASSERTIVE
FOCUSED PL 2011 • “Regional Curriculum Meetings for School Leaders” – 10 full day meetings every 3 weeks
• Focus – the PL required to achieve the 2010 regional goal. – focus and structure determined by principals – direction and content of the PL was provided (“you don’t know what you don’t know”) – follow up at Principals’ Meetings – action planning and accountability
• Ongoing Support – – – – – –
Education Officer Regional Director school visits working with teachers and leadership teams school-based PL Curriculum Mapping
NO ISLANDS
BEING ASSERTIVE
FOCUSED PL 2011 Collaborative Planning
LIVING THE GOAL: PURPOSEFUL PLANNING AND AUTHENTIC ASSESSMENT IN ACTION STAGES OF PROFESSIONAL LEARNING Stage 1: Backward Design Stage 2: Differentiation Stage 3: Assessment Stage 4: Feedback Stage 5: Concept-Based Curriculum Stage 6: Inquiry
The AC was used as a “vehicle” for the learning
FOCUSED PL 2011
PACED LEARNING • No “coverage” in the PL – Learning paced according to the learners, not pre-determined. – Time to apply and embed. – Challenges acknowledge and addressed. ACKNOWLEDGE THE DIP
APPLYING THE LEARNING • Learning cannot happen through words alone.
• PL at each Regional Curriculum Meeting for School Leaders included application of learning. – Using the AC to plan – Planning collaboratively – Facilitating planning in teams
LEARN THROUGH ACTION
• School leaders felt better prepared and competent when participating in teachers’ collaborative planning meetings in their own schools. • Beyond beliefs to behaviours – LIVE THE BELIEF.
MEASURING SUCCESS • The goal. • Success criteria – the goal in practice (“mission accomplished”) • Rubrics. • A combination of school leaders describing success criteria and examples provided (“You don’t know what you don’t know”). MEASURE SUCCESS
COLLABORATIVE PLANNING
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Teachers meet regularly to discuss and share ideas for future learning sequences and inquiries. Teachers are open and willing to both share their own planning and accept ideas from others. Examples of resources used in the past or known quality resources are shared with the planning team. Teachers may leave the planning meeting with copies of planning and resources that have been offered and shared by others in the team and all members of the team are clear about the topics to be covered and the time frame for covering these. Teachers meet regularly to plan future learning opportunities and share ideas and resources. Teachers use the curriculum documents and together, share teaching approaches, strategies and activities that have been successful in the past when teaching the content for the year level. As teachers share and discuss ideas, these are recorded by a member of the planning team for distribution to other members of the team. Teachers collaboratively agree on topics to be addressed in order to cover the curriculum content and teachers leave the meeting with a clear long term plan for the areas to be covered and when these will be covered in the classroom, as well as a bank of shared ideas and resources for teaching the agreed topics. Teachers meet regularly to plan learning opportunities for students and discuss student progress. Teachers agree at the beginning of each meeting, the curriculum area/s to be planned and refer to the curriculum documents for these areas during the planning process. Teachers use the curriculum as a starting point for planning and discuss ways of addressing the content and standards and how this may be taught. A member of the team records ideas and planning for later distribution to the team. Teachers work together to plan the focus for a learning sequence, the topic and the activities that will be completed and the order in which they will be sequenced to maximise learning. Teachers agree on the time frame to complete the planned learning sequence in order to cover the curriculum content for the year level. Teachers share additional resources that may be of assistance to other members of the team when implementing the planned learning sequence. Teachers meet regularly to plan the conceptual focus, generative topics, essential questions, expected knowledge, skills, understanding and evidence of this learning. Teachers have an extensive knowledge of curriculum documents for all year levels and plan the above based on these. Teachers discuss the varied nature of the learners they are planning for and enable flexibility in planning of learning sequences to enable individual teachers to plan specifically for readiness, interests and learning profiles of their students and the time needed for learning. Each planning meeting has an agreed to agenda and outcome to be achieved that has been determined prior to the planning meeting. Each meeting begins by discussing previous planning and the learning this has achieved and any misconceptions or issues that may need to be addressed in future planning. Teachers value and respect the input, views and varied levels of experience and expertise within the team and meeting norms are agreed to and revisited at each meeting. Teachers come to planning meetings knowing the agenda and curriculum areas to be planned and bring with them the required curriculum documents. Teachers work together to plan the conceptual focus, generative topics, essential questions, expected knowledge, skills, understanding and evidence of this learning.
TROUBLESHOOTING • Troubleshooting guides. • Troubleshooting began at the goal-setting stage. • Potential “speed bumps” identified and planned for. • Ongoing discussion and troubleshooting of emerging issues and challenges within schools. TROUBLESHOOT
THE RESULTS OF THIS APPROACH • Enhanced capacity among school leaders, particularly APs – confidence to lead and contribute to meetings. • Consistent PL for teachers and school leaders. • Principals actively and visibly being part of PL alongside teachers. • Shared knowledge, language and processes for future networking and collaboration between schools. • Enhanced use of regional office support. • Open discussion and airing of our values and beliefs about teaching and learning and how these apply in practice. • Enhanced understanding and attitude to the new curriculum. (“I thought History was going to be really boring to teach but I’m really excited about this.”)
FROM OUR EDUCATORS • “We’ve looked at the Shaping Papers so I thought, ‘we’ve done this’ but after today I got so much more out of them and we’ll do more of this again back at school.” (a principal) • “I don’t think we can keep using our text books now after discussing purposeful planning and authentic assessment.” (an assistant principal) • “This is really exciting. I can’t wait to get into the classroom and do this.” (a classroom teacher)
PRE-EMPTING POST-
CONFERENCE FATIGUE! Take a moment to reflect:
• What do you remember from the session? • Has anything in this workshop connected with you? • Was anything of particular interest? • How does this sit with your current practice, thoughts or context? • Is there anything you’re still wondering? Any questions?
Every collaboration helps you grow Brian Eno
[email protected]
References Fullan, M. (2009). Motion Leadership. Moorabin, Victoria: Hawker Brownlow Education. The National Academy for Academic Leadership. Leadership and Institutional Change. Retrieved September 23, 2011 from http://www.thenationalacademy.org/ready/ch ange.html
