Innovation and Learning from Research: Turning Schooling on its Head and Moving into the Future with Learners at the Centre

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Innovation and Learning from Research Turning
Schooling on its Head and Moving into the Future
with Learners at the Centre
Professor Geraldine Castleton Dean Head of
School of Education University of South Australia
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Innovation and Learning from Research Turning
Schooling on its Head and Moving into the Future
with Learners at the Centre
Innovation in the context of schools may involve
different forms of change, e.g.

• in the way work is organised among teachers

• in the administrative or organisational
  activities of schools

• in the implementation of new teaching methods,
  assessment tools or curriculum content or

• in the use technologies to enhance learning and
  improve students learning outcomes.
• (Roberts, K. Owens, S. 2012, 17)

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Action research/practitioner research
Three particular characteristics of action
research are that it

• arises from practical questions

• is participatory in nature and

• its validity is strengthened through peer
  examination and discussion.
• (Bartlett, S. Burton, D, 2006,401)

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Action research/practitioner research as inquiry

• The objects of inquiry are

• observable social activities, patterns,
  structures

• intentions motivating those activities

• shared, available interpretations of these
  activities.

• Goal interest to document, explicate, critique,
  transform.

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Researchers toolkit

• Methodology framework for conduct of research
  project e.g. ethnographic, case study, discourse
  analysis, action research.

• Method systematic, theoretically derived means
  employed for producing a public knowledge. It
  includes techniques to be employed for the
  collecting of data (e.g. survey, questionnaire,
  data bases, standardised or teacher-developed
  tests, field notes, participant observations) as
  well as the analytic techniques employed to
  analyse and interpret data.

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(No Transcript)
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Action research as cyclic (Spears Skrzypic,
2012)
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Stringers (1999) Action Research Interacting
Cycle Look ? Think ? Act
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Stringer (1999)
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Action research/practitioner research
Action research/practitioner research involves
engaging educator researchers and collaborators
in a cycle of

• experience

• critical reflection, and

• action.

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Key characteristics of Action Research (Freebody,
2003, 86)

• It is a deliberate rather than a purely
  exploratory entry into a naturally-occurring
  educational setting. That is, it is planned and
  self-consciously focused examination of changing
  practice.

• It is solution-oriented investigation aimed
  explicitly at solving particular problems rather
  than simply documenting their instances,
  character or consequences.

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Key characteristics of Action Research (Freebody,
2003, 86)

• It is group or personally owned and conducted.
  This is a reference to the politics of knowledge
  ownership, which emphasizes the importance of
  the educational practitioners role as
  determinants of the description of the problem,
  what counts as solutions, and what form the
  reporting of the project will take.

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Key characteristics of Action Research (Freebody,
2003,86)

• It takes the form of a series of iterations on
  and around the problem, its documentation and
  theorization, and the analyses that are used to
  display how it has been redefined and solved.
  These iterations are referred to as spirals
  but are more commonly known as the Action
  Research cycle. This cyclic feature of Action
  Research is taken to be central to its core
  emphasis on the documented improvement of
  practice.

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Key characteristics of Action Research (Freebody,
2003, 86)

• The trying out of ideas is not undertaken
  solely for the purposes of re-theorizing
  educational practice, or adding to knowledge, but
  is also aimed at improving educational practice,
  then and there. In that respect, Action Research
  is concerned as much with outcomes on the
  original research site as it is with
  generalizations to other sites or leading to
  theoretical refinement.

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Process(Freebody, 2003,87)
1. select focus study available literature
2. collect relevant data from variety of
sources
3. analyse, document review the immediate,
cumulative longer-term effects of teachers
students actions
4. develop and implement interpretive analytic
categories
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Process (cont)(Freebody, 2003,87)
5. organise the data and its interpretations by
grouping instances, events, artefacts into
systematic, interconnected displays
6. taking action on the basis of redeveloped
short-and long-term plans and
7. repeat the cycle.
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Action Research/practitioner research results in
data-driven action

• What constitutes data?

• How do you collect it?

• How do you analyse your data?

• How do you substantiate your findings? - WARRANT

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Research Checklist

• research that can be completed with the available
  resources, including time (do-able)

• research processes that are logical and coherent
  (credible)

• products of the research that are meaningful to
  the stakeholder groups who ought to be its
  beneficiaries (useful) SO WHAT

• outcomes are achieved in a timely way (efficient).

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Ethical practice in action research
Action research is subject to the same ethical
protocols as other social research.

• Informed consent from participants- students,
  teachers, parents or others

• There must be an earnest attempt to do no harm.

• Processes should be transparent
• in the conduct
• researchers accountable for the processes and
  products of their research making these public
  is part of the transparency.

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Ethical practice in action research

• It is collaborative in nature
• - provide opportunities for colleagues to share,
  discuss and debate aspects of their practice
  with the aim of improvements and development
  and involves responsible sense- making of data
  collected from within the field of researchers
  own practice.

• It is transformative in its intent and action
• - Practitioner researchers engage in an
  enterprise which is about contributing to
  transformation of practice.

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Leading for innovation a case study

• While there are many different models of
  leadership, a number of them share the notion of
  distributed leadership (e.g. Gronn, 2000
  Spillane 2005) with that term defining leadership
  as a more shared responsibility across a school
  staff.
• Recent literature makes a link between this form
  of leadership student educational outcomes
  (e.g. Fullan et al, 2005 Graczerski et al, 2008
  Robinson, 2008, Alton Lee, 2011)

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Leading for innovation a case study
Achieving high levels of student literacy
outcomes requires strong and effective
leadership. It is the role of leadership to
model and live the shared beliefs and
understandings about literacy that underpin a
school literacy program, ensuring that the school
implements ongoing self-evaluation, and maintains
the focus on literacy improvement (Sharrat
Fullan, 2006).
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Leading for innovation a case study
Agreement in literature about need for strong
focus on

• enhancing teacher expertise in teaching literacy

• professional learning for teachers
• (evidence-based effective literacy
• pedagogy)

• expertise seen as shared
• commodity residing in a community
• of learners (including leaders, teachers,
• aides/education workers, parents/carers,
• community)

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Leading for innovation a case study
School Literacy Plans as a site for investigating
effectiveness of leading for literacy.
They provide a vehicle for analysis of each
schools understanding of the processes involved
in literacy learning, their intentions in terms
of providing leadership for literacy within the
classroom and school community, their
articulation of the needs of their educational
community, and the intended mechanisms for the
evaluation of their efforts to improve student
outcomes (Castleton et al, 2011, 98).
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Leading for innovation a case study
Common features across 5 schools that showed
clear evidence of leadership roles and
responsibilities were

• strong connection between leadership
  positions/roles and classroom teaching (often
  identifying leaders as being classroom teachers)

• specific detail on how leaders would lead to
  achieve improvement of practices

• clear descriptions of how performance of leaders
  would be monitored and/or evaluated.

• ACCOUNTABILITY

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Leading for innovation a case study

• One school identified key elements of its
  literacy leadership as a focus on teacher
  learning and pedagogy through the development of
  learning/teaching teams
• - and linked the work of these planning teams
  explicitly to what was being taught, professional
  learning activities, the establishment of
  school-based standards of exemplary practice
  (linked to student achievement),
• and a requirement for teams to
• engage in action research to extend
• and refine teachers repertoires of
• practice.

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Leading for innovation a case study
Strong leadership

• is collaborative in nature

• allows for distribution of
• responsibilities

• maintains a strong focus
• on self-evaluation
• continuous improvement

• knows how to define success and set appropriate
  goals and targets

• develops a shared vision that leads to shared
  ownership - a key foundation for SUSTAINABILITY.

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References

• Alton-Lee, A. (2011) Using evidence for
  educational improvement, Cambridge Journal of
  Education, 41(30), 303-329.
• Bartlett, B. Burton, D. (2006) Practitioner
  research or descriptions of classroom practice? A
  discussion of teachers investigating their
  classrooms, Educational Action Research, 14(3),
  395-405
• Castleton, G., Moss, T. Milbourne, S. (2011)
  Challenges in Leading for Literacy in Schools in
  T.Le, Q. Le M. Short, Language and Literacy
  Education in a Challenging World. New York Nova
  Science Publishers.
• Freebody, P. (2003) Qualitative Research in
  Education London Sage Publishers.
• Graczewski, C., Knudson, J. Holtzman, D. (2008)
  Instructional leadership in practice What does
  it look like and what influence does it have?
  Journal of Education for Students Placed at Risk,
  14(1), 72-96.
• Gronn, P. (2000) Distributed Properties A new
  architecture for leadership. Educational
  Management and Administration, 28(3), 371-395.
• Murphy, J. (2004) Leadership for literacy A
  framework for policy and practice. School
  Effectiveness School Improvement, 15(1), 65
  96.
• Mills, G. (2000). Action Research A guide for
  the teacher researcher. Upper Saddle River, NJ
  Pearson/Allyn Bacon.
• Roberts, K. Owens, S. (2012) Innovative
  Education a Review of the Literature, Adelaide
  DECD.
• Sharratt, L. Fullan, M. (2006) Accomplishing
  district wide reform. Journal of School
  Leadership, 16,583-595
• Souto-Manning, M. (2009) Teacher as Researcher
  Teachers Search and ReSearch Questioning
  Educational Practices, Childhood Education, 86
  (1) 49-51.
• Spears, B. Skrzypic, G. (2012) Framing research
  questions, approaches, analysis. Powerpoint
  presentation
• Spillane, J. (2005) Distributed Leadership.
  Educational Forum, 69, 143-150.
• Stringer, E. (1999) Action Research in
  Education, 2nd edition. Thousand Oaks CA Sage
  Publications.