Halia Silins

Schools as learning organisations: The case for system, teacher and student learning

An Australian government‐funded four‐year research project involving 96 secondary schools, over 5,000 students and 3,700 teachers and their principals has provided a rich source of information on schools conceptualised as learning organisations. The LOLSO project focused on three aspects of high school functioning: leadership, organisational learning and the impact of both on student outcomes. This research has established a relationship between the system factors of leadership and organisational learning and student outcomes as measured by student levels of participation in and engagement with school. This paper summarises this research and reports on a study that empirically tests the relationship between students’ participation in and engagement with school and student achievement using model building and path analysis. The importance of learning at the system, teacher and student level is discussed in the context of school restructuring.

The Relationship Between Transformational and Transactional Leadership and School Improvement Outcomes

This study examined the nature of the relationship between transformational and transactional leadership and the nature of the relationships between specified school outcomes and the constructs of ...

Successful principalship of high‐performance schools in high‐poverty communities

Purpose – The purpose of this article is to review literature in certain areas and report on related results from a study of successful school principalship in the Australian state of Tasmania.Design/methodology/approach – Surveys on successful school principalship were distributed to a population of 195 government schools (excluding colleges and special schools) in Tasmania with a return rate of 67 per cent. Surveys sought responses in areas such as demographic characteristics (including a measure of school poverty), leadership characteristics, values and beliefs, tensions and dilemmas, learning and development, school capacity building, decision making, evaluation and accountability, and perceptions of school success. In addition, details of actual student performance on literacy and numeracy tests were supplied by the Department of Education.Findings – The literature reviewed in this article indicated that world‐wide poverty is a major issue and that there is a nexus between poverty and education. Whil...

Successful School Principalship in Small Schools.

Purpose – The special characteristics of small schools appear to set them apart from larger schools. In fact, small schools may be a discrete group in that their complexity may not be in direct ratio to their size. The special characteristics of small schools may include the absence of senior staff, administrative assistance on a part time basis only, conservatism and role conflict within the community, and lack of professional interaction. This paper aims to explore these issues by analysing data from a recent survey on Tasmania successful school principalship.Design/methodology/approach – Results from a survey with the population of Tasmanian principals in schools of 200 or less students are compared with previous research findings from the limited literature in the area.Findings – The study has confirmed that contextual demands result in role conflict for teaching principals, that principals of small rural schools are mobile, staying for short periods of time, and that a higher proportion are female. S...

Successful School Leadership: What is it and Who Decides?

Arguments presented in this paper and the evidence from the Tasmanian Successful School Principals Project support broadening what counts for successful schools and school leadership. This broadening needs to embrace student outcomes, including non-cognitive social outcomes such as student empowerment. In examining who should provide the evidence for successful school leadership the need for triangulation, that is, multiple sources of evidence, became clear. Research employing only principal perceptions of success, especially on the importance of and improvement in student outcomes, should be examined much more critically than has occurred in the past.

What makes a good senior secondary school

Identifies characteristics of good senior secondary schools when defined as those providing post‐school options for students. The most successful schools were found to be the larger independent girls’ schools with predominantly transformational leadership practices that promoted positive teacher perceptions of school organisation and of students’ learning, attitudes, and school involvement. Path analysis was used to test a model of school effectiveness involving seven variables: sector, type size, and teacher views of leadership effects, school and student effects. The impact on school performance of school leadership and teachers’ strong sense of involvement in curriculum planning, teacher development and school culture was indirect and mediated through teachers’ assessment of students’ participation in learning and students’ attitudes to school. Raises issues about the purposes of schooling and the appropriateness of selected outcome measures as a basis for judging what makes a good school.

Students as a central concern

Recent preliminary research in secondary schools suggests that indicators other than the traditional performance outcome measures of school achievement can be used to differentiate between school performance. These indicators are student factors that have been associated with accepted notions of quality schooling outcomes, such as student attitude to school, their approaches to learning and their academic self‐concept. This study examined student survey data collected from 30 schools in rural and metropolitan South Australia, including independent and public schools. The nature and strength of the relationships between student factors and selected school variables were tested against a range of school outcome measures such as school retention, academic results and SACE (certification) completion. The implications of these results for the kind of teaching and learning environment that promotes valued school outcomes is explicated and discussed.

Leadership and School Effectiveness and Improvement

that it overclaims the success of effective schools. The movement is typified as a socially and politically decontextualised body of literature which, wittingly or unwittingly, has provided support for the inequitable reform programs of neo-liberal and managerial governments (Stringfield & Herman, 1996; Thrupp, 2000). Another major theme centres on the respective emphasis given to “top down” or “bottom up” approaches to school effectiveness and improvement (Scheerens, 1997). The social and political decontextualisation and inequitable use of school effectiveness and improvement research arguments are important and need to be addressed. However, it is the overclaiming argument that has the most relevance for this chapter. Most school effectiveness studies show that 80% or more of student achievement can be explained by student background rather than schools (Teddlie & Reynolds, 2000). On the other hand, school effectiveness supporters believe that, even with only 20% of achievement accounted for by schools, their work has convincingly helped to destroy the belief that schools do not make any difference. They argue that schools not only make a difference but they add value despite the strong influence of family background on children’s development (Reynolds & Teddlie, 2000). Other within schools research suggests that it is teachers in classrooms rather than the school and how it is organised or led that makes the difference. Hill (1998), for example, who found that almost 40% of the variation in achievement in mathematics was due to differences between classrooms, explained this difference as a result of teacher quality and effectiveness. More recent research based on results from the Third International Mathematics and Science Survey (TIMSS), questions this explanation. Lamb and Fullarton (2000) found that the variation in mathematics achievement in high schools was due mainly to differences within classrooms (57%), between classrooms (28%) and between schools (15%). However, the reasons for the differences between classrooms and schools were related more to student background and attitude toward mathematics and the types of pupil grouping practices schools employ than to

Successful school principalship in late‐career

Purpose – Who are late‐career school principals? Do they continue to make a positive contribution to their schools? Do they feel tired and trapped or do they maintain their commitment to education and young people? The purpose of this paper is to explore these issues, employing the results of a survey on successful school principalship with the population of Tasmanian government school principals.Design/methodology/approach – Surveys on successful school principalship were distributed to a population of 195 government schools (excluding colleges and special schools) in Tasmania. Return rates were 67 per cent for principals and 12 per cent for teachers. Surveys sought responses in areas such as demographic characteristics, leadership characteristics, values and beliefs, tensions and dilemmas, learning and development, school capacity building, decision making, evaluation and accountability, and perceptions of school success.Findings – The findings confirm other research indicating that pre‐retirement princ...

Organizational learning in schools

This article outlines the growing interest in organizational learning (OL), what it means, and why it is important, as well as the effects of, the constraints on, and encouragement to continue the study of OL in schools. Links are made between OL and successful school restructuring, effectiveness, and improvement, including in student outcomes.