Report on introducing School based professional development to support the implementation of the New National Curricula

1
Report on introducing School based professional
development to support the implementation of the
New National Curricula

• Professor Tony Townsend
• Chair of Public Service, Educational Leadership
  and Management
• School of Education,
• University of Glasgow

Pedagogical Institute Cyprus June 2012
2
Our meeting today

• An overview of the report
• Understanding change management
• Putting the recommendations into practice with
  some examples and the roles of the Ministry, the
  Pedagogical Institute, Inspectors and School
  Leaders
• Discussion on next steps

3
Part 1 An Overview of the report

• Strategies for Implementing and Supporting the
  new Curriculum
• This report suggests two main strategies for
  implementing the new curriculum into Cypriot
  schools. The first is to develop a school
  self-evaluation approach to curriculum
  improvement and the second is to establish a
  series of professional learning communities, for
  inspectors (at the national level), for school
  leaders (at the regional level) and for teachers
  (at the school level).

4
School Self-evaluation Approach to School
Improvement

• Essentially the school self-evaluation approach
  can be considered as responding to a number of
  questions
• What does our school do well?
• How do we know how well we are doing?
• What would we like to see our school achieving in
  3 5 years?
• What are the things we need to work on in order
  to build the bridge from question 1 to question
  3?

5
Professional Learning Communities

• Stoll et al (2006) define a Professional Learning
  Community in the following way
• A professional learning community is an inclusive
  group of people, motivated by a shared learning
  vision, who support and work with each other,
  finding ways, inside and outside their immediate
  community, to enquire on their practice and
  together learn new and better approaches that
  will enhance all pupils learning.

6
Final Recommendations

• RECOMMENDATION 1 Development of indicators for
  student success associated with the curriculum
  areas together with the identified competencies.
• RECOMMENDATION 2 Establish a national resource
  base
• RECOMMENDATION 3 Establish an ongoing process of
  school curriculum planning, self-evaluation and
  inspection.
• RECOMMENDATION 4 Support the development of
  national, regional and local professional
  learning communities.
•  

7
Understanding Change Management
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Change management moving from good intentions to
good results

• Many organizations are increasingly exposing
  their employees to change, but they are not
  teaching their leaders and teams how to
  effectively manage the "people" side of change.
  We all have good intentions for managing change
  well, but sometimes our results fall short.

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What is change management?

• The process, tools and techniques to manage the
  people-side of change to achieve the required
  outcome(s)

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Managing change people
8. My organization is good at managing the
people side of change initiatives.
Almost 1/2 disagree
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Key points to consider
Key point 1 We have to realize that effective
change management is more than just a few pieces
of communication Key point 2 We have to realize
that we (the changers) may be living in the
future state, while everyone else (the
changees) is living in the present Key point 3
Effective change management MUST be focused on
helping individuals change Key point 4
Individual change is a process Key point 5 We
need to select and use the tools available to
us Key point 6 We need the right people
involved and engaged in the right ways Key
point 7 Begin with end in mind. Measure the
right things for this change, at the
organizational level and the individual level
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Current State

• Staff (including school leaders and
  administrators!) generally prefer the current
  state, because that is where they work now

Current State
Transition State
Future State
better the devil you know is better than the
devil you dont
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Future State

• The future state is unknown to the staff will it
  be better, or worse?
• This is where the new curriculum
• teams live

Current State
Transition State
Future State
14
Transition State

• The transition state creates stress and anxiety

Current State
Transition State
Future State
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Successful change addresses both the technical
and the people side
The New curriculum is designed, developed and
delivered effectively(Technical side)

The new curriculum is embraced, adopted and
utilized effectively(People side)
CHANGE SUCCESS
Individual PEOPLE change, NOT organizations
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Individual change management is the Centerpiece
of success
The secret to successful change lies beyond the
visible and busy activities that surround change.
Successful change, at its core, is rooted in
something much simpler How to facilitate change
with one person.
From ADKAR a model for change by Jeff Hiatt
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The five building blocks of successful individual
change
Awareness of the need for change
Desire to participate and support the change
Knowledge on how to change
Ability to implement required skills and behaviours
Reinforcement to sustain the change
ADKAR is the (relatively) easy-to-remember acronym
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ADKAR

• Awareness of the need for change (why).
• Desire to support and participate in the change
  (our choice).
• Knowledge about how to change (the learning
  process).
• Ability to implement the change (turning
  knowledge into action).
• Reinforcement to sustain the change (celebrating
  success).

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Some Key Change Management Tools
Communications
Plan
Training
Readiness / Resistance Mgt.
Coaching
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Mapping the tools to the personal change elements
(ADKAR)
Communications
Awareness
Awareness
These channels enable project team to facilitate
organization through phases of ADKAR.
Plan
Desire
Desire
Training
Knowledge
Knowledge
Ability
Ability
Readiness / Resistance Mgt.
Reinforcement
Reinforcement
Coaching
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Change management requires a system of doers
Each gear plays a specific role based on how
they are related to change
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Measuring Outcomes the Organisational perspective

• Outcome
• Did the new curriculum
• deliver the intended results?
• Process
• Was the new curriculum
• delivered on time and on budget?
• Were milestones met along the way?

Organisational
Organisational
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Measuring Outcomes the Individual perspective
Individual

• Outcome
• Are teachers doing their work the new way that
  was required by the new curriculum?
• Process
• How well did teachers make the transition?
• How well did we support that transition?

Individual
A D K A R
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• Implementing the recommendations

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Final Recommendations

• RECOMMENDATION 1 Development of indicators for
  student success associated with the curriculum
  areas together with the identified competencies.
• RECOMMENDATION 2 Establish a national resource
  base
• RECOMMENDATION 3 Establish an ongoing process of
  school curriculum planning, self-evaluation and
  inspection.
• RECOMMENDATION 4 Support the development of
  national, regional and local professional
  learning communities.
•  

26
Roles for various groups

• RECOMMENDATION 1 Development of indicators for
  student success associated with the curriculum
  areas together with the identified competencies.

• Ministry
• Support a national workshop to identify major
  objectives and priorities of the Cypriot school
  system.

• Pedagogical
• Institute
• Conduct the national workshop inviting
  representatives of all stakeholder groups in
  education with the objective of identifying a
  specific list of national indicators.

• Inspectors
• Participate in workshop and nominate
  appropriate representatives from stakeholder
  groups.

• Head Teachers
• Identify possible student parent and community
  representatives to participate in the national
  workshop.

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RECOMMENDATION 1 Development of indicators for
student success

• Proposal
• National workshop funded by the Ministry and
  conducted by the Pedagogical Institute
• Objectives
• A series of goals associated with school and
  student success will have been identified and
  prioritised.
• A series of behavioural indicators associated
  with these goals will have been identified.
• A series of generic activities that will
  encourage this behaviour will have been
  identified.
• Strategies for identifying specific activities
  for the various curriculum areas, for each of the
  behaviours, will have been developed.
• A strategy for reporting student progress on each
  indicator will be identified.

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Three main pillars of the New Curriculum

• Students should
• Acquire an adequate (sufficient) and coherent
  (consistent) body of knowledge from all
  disciplines.
• Develop attitudes and attributes that
  characterize a democratic citizen
• Develop high levels of key competences,
  abilities and skills required for the society of
  the 21st century for the development of creative
  human being

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Key Competences in the New Curriculum

• a) Creativityb) Critical thinking and reflective
  management knowledgec) Theoretical thinking and
  ability to convert theory into practiced)
  Abilities and skills of analysis and designe)
  Willingness and ability for teamwork and
  information exchangef) Ability to problem solve,
  to develop and search options and develop the
  capacity to identify alternative theoriesg)
  Excellence in testing and prudent use of
  information and communication technologiesh)
  Empathy and interpersonal skills and
  communication.

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Workshop activity Part 1 Identifying goals

• Step 1 Identify 5 curricular/academic goals, 5
  attitudes, values or skills and 2 other outcomes
  that you would want every student to achieve by
  the time they leave school.

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Identifying Goals
Step 1 Individual Goals   Curriculum/Academic
Goals (Individual List) C1 C2 C3 C4 C5 Values/Skil
ls/Attitudes V1 V2 V3 V4 V5 Other Goals O1 O2
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Workshop activity Part 1 Identifying goals

• Step 1 Identify 5 curricular/academic goals, 5
  attitudes, values or skills and 2 other outcomes
  that you would want every student to achieve by
  the time they leave school.
• Step 2 Small groups (5-6) discuss the individual
  goals and come up with an agreed list of 5
  curricular/academic goals, 5 attitudes, values or
  skills and 2 other outcomes for the group

33
Identifying Goals
Step 1 Individual Goals   Curriculum/Academic
Goals (Individual List) C1 C2 C3 C4 C5 Values/Skil
ls/Attitudes V1 V2 V3 V4 V5 Other Goals O1 O2
34
Workshop activity Part 1 Identifying goals

• Step 1 Identify 5 curricular/academic goals, 5
  attitudes, values or skills and 2 other outcomes
  that you would want every student to achieve by
  the time they leave school.
• Step 2 Small groups (5-6) discuss the individual
  goals and come up with an agreed list of 5
  curricular/academic goals, 5 attitudes, values or
  skills and 2 other outcomes for the group
• Step 3 The lists are consolidated into a single
  list so that all goals identified are listed but
  none are duplicated.

35
Workshop activity Part 2 Prioritising goals

• Step 1 Individuals indicate the level of
  importance (on a 5 point scale) of the complete
  list of curricular/academic goals, attitudes,
  values or skills and other outcomes that they
  would want every student to achieve by the time
  they leave school.

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Scoring Priorities

• Extremely important Schools must do this
  4 POINTS
• Really important Schools should ensure
  resources are found to do this 3 POINTS
• Important - Schools should do this when resources
  become available 2 POINTS
• Valuable Schools could consider this when the
  more important things are done 1 POINT
• Unimportant This is not something that the
  Schools should be worried about 0 POINTS

37
Workshop activity Part 2 Prioritising goals

• Step 1 Individuals indicate the level of
  importance (on a 5 point scale) of the complete
  list of curricular/academic goals, attitudes,
  values or skills and other outcomes that they
  would want every student to achieve by the time
  they leave school.
• Step 2 Small groups (5-6) discuss their
  priorities and are asked to come up with a group
  priority list, with rules to make sure that all
  goals cannot be identified as equally important.

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Rules from Group Priorities

1. The number of points to be allocated will be 2
   times the number of items.
2. The group must allocate all, but no more than
   their points budget in total.
3. At least one item in each group (so one
   curricular, one values and one other) must be
   given four points the maximum score.
4. Four points can be allocated to as many items as
   the budget will allow.
5. Items can be given zero points.
6. The group must come to agreement on the
   allocation of points to each

39
Workshop activity Part 2 Prioritising goals

• Step 1 Individuals indicate the level of
  importance (on a 5 point scale) of the complete
  list of curricular/academic goals, attitudes,
  values or skills and other outcomes that they
  would want every student to achieve by the time
  they leave school.
• Step 2 Small groups (5-6) discuss their
  priorities and are asked to come up with a group
  priority list, with rules to make sure that all
  goals cannot be identified as equally important.
• Step 3 The groups results are documented
  publicly and a final decision of agreed set of
  goals are identified. These form the list that
  will be used to create the national priorities.

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Further workshop activities

1. Identify a series of behaviours that demonstrate
   successful achievement of the goals identified
   (eg How do we know when someone is literate? How
   do we know when someone is co-operative?) Some
   can be associated with what we would expect by
   the end of the primary school years and others by
   the end of the secondary school years.
2. Consider some activities that might be used to
   enable students to demonstrate these behaviours
   for all of the curriculum areas of the new
   curriculum.
3. Develop a mechanism for enabling teachers to
   identify and report student capabilities in these
   areas.
4. Develop and publish on the Ministry website some
   of the activities that teachers might use for
   this purpose.

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Final Recommendations

• RECOMMENDATION 1 Development of indicators for
  student success associated with the curriculum
  areas together with the identified competencies.
• RECOMMENDATION 2 Establish a national resource
  base
• RECOMMENDATION 3 Establish an ongoing process of
  school curriculum planning, self-evaluation and
  inspection.
• RECOMMENDATION 4 Support the development of
  national, regional and local professional
  learning communities.
•  

42
Roles for various groups
RECOMMENDATION 2 Establish a national resource
base

• Ministry
• Develop a dedicated website related to the
  implementation of the curriculum on the Ministry
  website

• Pedagogical
• Institute
• Conduct and publish research to support the
  introduction
• Develop online training and support materials
  for teachers to use

• Inspectors
• Identify activities and processes at school
  level that could become models for best practice

• Head Teachers
• Encourage teachers to use the resource base to
  support their teaching of the new curriculum

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The current website

• http//www.moec.gov.cy/dde/anaptyxi_veltiosi_schol
  eiou/index.html

Action areas Leadership-Vision
Organisation-school management
Organization-class management Self evaluation
Planning Action plans Climate culture
Quality of the teaching and learning Changes
innovations Professional development of the
personnel New National curricula New Time
Schedules School for all the kids
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RECOMMENDATION 2 Establish a national resource
base
An Example Early years development framework,
Victoria

• http//www.education.vic.gov.au/earlylearning/eyld
  f/default.htm

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Outcomes

• Outcome 1 Children have a strong sense of
  identity
• Outcome 2 Children are connected with and
  contribute to their world
• Outcome 3 Children have a strong sense of
  wellbeing
• Outcome 4 Children are confident and involved
  learners
• Outcome 5 Children are effective communicators

46
Research papers

• Practice Principle One Family-Centred Practice
• Practice Principle Two Partnerships with
  Professionals
• Practice Principle Three High Expectations for
  Every Child
• Practice Principle Four Equity and Diversity
• Practice Principle Five Respectful Relationships
  and Responsive Engagement
• Practice Principle Six Integrated Teaching and
  Learning Approaches
• Practice Principle Seven Assessment for Learning
  and Development
• Practice Principle Eight Reflective Practice

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Professional Learning opportunities

• Module 1 - An Introduction to the Victorian
  Framework and Reflective Practice
• Module 2 - An Introduction to Collaborative
  Practice
• Module 3 - An Introduction to Effective Practice
• Module 4 - Assessment for Learning and
  Development The Early Years Planning Cycle
• These are offered as professional development
  and also are contained online for those that
  cannot attend in person.

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Reading about Improving professional practice

• Practice Guide One Family-centred Practice
• Practice Guide Three High Expectations for Every
  Child
• Practice Guide Five Respectful Relationships and
  Responsive Engagement
• Practice Guide Eight Reflective Practice
• Four more to be published in 2012

49
Conference opportunities

• http//www.earlychildhoodvictoria.org.au/Page.asp?
  _Conferences
• The key themes of the 2012 conference include
  understanding learning styles, talking to learn,
  learning frameworks and learning environments.

50
Final Recommendations

• RECOMMENDATION 1 Development of indicators for
  student success associated with the curriculum
  areas together with the identified competencies.
• RECOMMENDATION 2 Establish a national resource
  base
• RECOMMENDATION 3 Establish an ongoing process of
  school curriculum planning, self-evaluation and
  inspection.
• RECOMMENDATION 4 Support the development of
  national, regional and local professional
  learning communities.
•  

51
Roles for various groups
RECOMMENDATION 3 Establish an ongoing process of
school curriculum planning, self-evaluation and
inspection.

• Ministry
• Establish a policy of school self-evaluation and
  external inspection. Provide resources for a
  national pilot study and training program.

• Pedagogical
• Institute
• Work with the Ministry to establish a national
  training program and research activity to support
  the implementation of school self-evaluation.

• Inspectors
• Undertake training in inspecting school
  progress using a school self-evaluation model.

• Head Teachers
• Identify a leadership team that will undertake
  the training for school self-evaluation and
  support all school staff to learn these methods

52
RECOMMENDATION 3 Establish an ongoing process of
self-evaluation and inspection
A Framework for continuous improvement
53

• The Scottish Model

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Supporting Schools to Improve

• Journey to Excellence website
• http//www.ltscotland.org.uk/journeytoexcellence/i
  ndex.asp

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Curriculum for Excellence
56
Curriculum for Excellence
http//www.ltscotland.org.uk/curriculumforexcellen
ce/index.asp
http//www.ltscotland.org.uk/curriculumforexcellen
ce/index.asp
57
The road map to improvement

• The Journey to Excellence Guide contains
• Part 1 Aiming for Excellence
• describes the concept of excellence
• discusses the nature of the learning process and
  what we mean by successful learning
• outlines ten dimensions of excellent schools and
  early education centres.
• Part 2 Exploring Excellence
• describes the key features of each of the ten
  dimensions of excellence in more detail
• provides examples and illustrations in a variety
  of forms
• indicates some of the ways in which excellent
  practice differs from practice which is good
• suggests the direction schools need to travel to
  transform their practice from good to excellent.

58
The road map to improvement

• The Journey to Excellence Guide contains
• Part 3 How good are we now?
• provides the next version of How good is our
  school?, a quality framework made up of quality
  indicators and performance measures to help you
  work out where you are now and think through your
  next steps in continuous improvement.
• Part 4 Planning for Excellence
• provides advice about how you and your partners
  can go about selecting the most appropriate
  dimensions for improvement
• recommends ways of planning for your journey to
  excellence
• suggests how you can check your progress.
• Part 5 Journeys to Excellence
• provides real examples of excellent practice in
  schools and early
• education centres, in audio-visual format
• presents the voices of children, young people,
  staff, parents and partners describing the stage
  their school has reached on the journey to
  excellence, the route it has taken and where they
  are going next.

59
The Slovenian Model
60
Slovenian School self-evaluation training model
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Train the trainers
7 days training
7 intermediate activities
whole school approach leadership (SET) from
theory to practice school/evaluation culture
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7 days of training for Schools

• Setting priorities and goals (learning, teaching,
  student achievement)
• Improvement and self-evaluation planning
• Improvement monitoring (data)
• The role of leadership, self-evaluation
  stakeholders
• Analysis and reflection as the foundation for
  self-evaluation
• Reporting and long-term improvement and
  self-evaluation planning
• A model of self-evaluation at school level

63
Training for establishing a self-evaluation
culture

• Each of the 7 days of training includes
• Direct contact hours or a workshop, organised for
  head-teachers by the Leadership School, and by
  self-evaluation teams for entire teaching staff
• Interim activities in schools, such as
• Professional discussions taking place within the
  entire teaching staff or in teacher groups
  (organised eg. according to subjects, age groups,
  triads)
• Individual interim activities taking place at the
  level of individual participants

64
External Evaluation of Schools reportsTraining
for

• External evaluation training
• Day 1 Introduction, external evaluators'
  knowledge and skills
• Day 2 Self-evaluation and external evaluation
• Day 3 Evaluating the quality of self-evaluation
  data gathering
• Day 4 Communication and feedback, reporting
• Day 5 External evaluation and inspection
• Day 6 Preparing for external evaluation
• Day 7 Introductory meeting of external
  evaluators and schools to be evaluated
  conducting external evaluations in schools
• Day 8 Evaluation of external evaluations
  (evaluators and schools' representatives)

65
Schools evaluation of the SSE and External
evaluation process
Why is such an approach to external evaluation
good?

• External evaluation is first and foremost a
  positive experience
• It is not an inspection
• Evaluators' visit brings positive tensions (not
  fear!), preparation and a more in-depth
  reflection about self-evaluation and quality as
  such
• It is not control, it is not academic/science
  level it is practice, it is exchange of
  practitioner knowledge and experience
• Two evaluators per school are enough, the
  protocol and everything else (meetings,
  materials, communication, reporting) is well
  organized

66
Schools evaluation of the SSE and External
evaluation process
Why is such an approach to external evaluation
good?

• External evaluation is focused on self-evaluation
  process, report and quality of teaching and
  learning that is good/necessary because other
  areas are covered by other reviews (eg.
  inspection)
• It can be of a big help to headteacher (if one
  wants that)
• It is good for school image
• School gets a critical/constructive, positive and
  professional feedback with regards to it's
  improvement goals, activities, monitoring,
  self-evaluation as a part of school policy (not
  just a project) etc
• Helps in making sense of self-evaluation for
  school staff
• Focused only on self-evaluation, teaching and
  learning processes

67
Strengths of self-evaluation (Brejc and Savarin
2011)

• Accustoms teachers to systematic monitoring and
  evaluation of their own performance (3.5)
• Focuses quality endeavours to teaching and
  learning (3.5)
• Directs school activities to priorities (3.5)
• Enables all teachers to actively and
  participatory contribute to school improvement
  (3.5)
• Encourages systematic approach to ongoing school
  activities (3.4)

68
Final Recommendations

• RECOMMENDATION 1 Development of indicators for
  student success associated with the curriculum
  areas together with the identified competencies.
• RECOMMENDATION 2 Establish a national resource
  base
• RECOMMENDATION 3 Establish an ongoing process of
  school curriculum planning, self-evaluation and
  inspection.
• RECOMMENDATION 4 Support the development of
  national, regional and local professional
  learning communities.
•  

69
Roles for various groups
RECOMMENDATION 4 Support the development of
national, regional and local professional
learning communities.

• Inspectors
• Establish one or more PLCs in their local
  regions to bring together Head Teachers and other
  school leaders to discuss issues associated with
  the new curriculum and school improvement

• Ministry
• Provide resources on the new curriculum website
  that will help people understand and develop
  professional learning communities

• Pedagogical
• Institute
• Provide facilities and support for inspectors
  to form a national PLC of inspectors to enable
  them to meet regularly and discuss issues of
  school improvement.

• Head Teachers
• Provide the time and resources for teachers to
  form and develop PLCs associated with improving
  student learning in either subject areas or
  grade levels.

70
RECOMMENDATION 4 Support the development of
Recommendation 4 Develop national, regional and
local PLCs professional learning communities

• An effective professional learning community has
  the capacity to promote and sustain the learning
  of all professionals in the school community with
  the collective purpose of enhancing pupil
  learning.
• (Stoll, et al, 2006)

71
Professional Learning Communities in Cyprus

• National Level
• Inspectors create a professional learning
  community where national objectives and policies
  can be discussed and debated
• Regional Level
• Inspectors support the development of
  professional learning communities for Head
  Teachers in a particular region
• Local Level
• Head Teachers support the development of learning
  communities in their schools

72
Professional Learning Communities Research
Project UK

• Project website www.eplc.info
• Project report available www.dfes.gov.uk/research
  
  Bolam et al (2005)

73
Source Materials for Professional Learning
Communities

• What is a professional learning community? A
  summary
• User guide getting started and thinking about
  your journey
• Creating and sustaining an effective professional
  learning community
• Setting professional learning communities in an
  international context
• Broadening the learning community key messages
• Exploring the idea of professional learning
  communities
• Investigating the culture of your professional
  learning community

74
Source Materials for Professional Learning
Communities

• Comparing your preferred future and the current
  situation in your professional learning community
• Deciding where you are as a professional learning
  community
• Planning your professional learning community
• Developing your professional learning community
• Bringing about change Starting out, developing
  and sustaining
• Reflecting on the progress of your professional
  learning community
• Assessing the impact of your professional
  learning community

75

• If you would like more details contact
• ProfessorTony Townsend
• School of Education
• University of Glasgow
• Phone [phone]
• Fax [phone]
• email tony.townsend_at_glasgow.ac.uk