Jim Brandon

Teacher supervision and evaluation challenges: Canadian perspectives on overall instructional leadership

Abstract This inquiry focuses on the overall instructional leadership approaches used by exemplary principals in three high performing Canadian provinces to overcome three persistent obstacles to effective teacher supervision and evaluation: (a) the management challenge, (b) the complexity challenge, and (c) the learning challenge. Analysis of data collected from interviews, focus groups, observations, field notes, documents, artifacts, and reflective research journals yielded the following four assertions: (a) Shared, distributed, and collective approaches to overall instructional leadership deepen and widen impact. (b) Effective supervision and evaluation are part of a career-long continuum of practice that fosters teacher growth while ensuring quality teaching. (c) There are multiple learning pathways to effective overall instructional leadership. (d) Policy contexts that place teacher supervision and evaluation practice within a broader conception of overall instructional leadership are beneficial.

Engaging high school students in an engineering thermodynamics project

Efforts for recruiting and retaining students in engineering programs are evident in many postsecondary institutions around the world. These efforts include outreach programs at both elementary and secondary school level, as well as projects that develop capacities beyond technical content-often taught as declarative and procedural knowledge. The mandate of the Galileo Education Network Association includes the design of rich learning environments engaging K - 12 students in authentic tasks: tasks that resemble the real work of professionals such as engineers. We describe the experience of enacting a seven-session engineering project in thermodynamics with Grade Ten students. The initial project resulted from the collaboration-as a means for teacher professional development-between this network association and the mathematics and science teachers in a western Canadian high school. We propose that programs for teacher professional development in mathematics and science should include a focus on tasks that resemble the work of engineering in order to design authentic, engaging learning tasks.

Leading Learning: Lessons from Successful Superintendency Teams

This collective case study provides insights into the ways that superintendents lead learning in six highly successful and learning focused school districts. Themes from our cross-case analysis generated five major assertions offered as lessons for superintendency teams: framing leadership research in action, leading learning through superintendency teams, building purposeful professional relationships, accessing external and internal expertise, and travelling the pathways of collaborative leadership learning. Evidence was collected through 23 focus groups and 16 individual interviews. In total, 114 educational leaders participated: 53 principals, 33 central office leaders, and 28 superintendency team leaders. Data from documents, artifacts, field notes, and an online survey were also gathered in pursuit of transferable insights for district leaders practicing in other settings.

Supporting Pedagogical Leadership in Area III

This case study examined district efforts to strengthen instructional leadership practices in Area III of the Calgary Board of Education during three years. Building on research informed conceptions of teaching, instructional leadership, professional learning, and district leadership our research focused on the development of pedagogical leadership that requires school leaders to be leaders of teacher learning. Data included individual and focus group interviews, provincial achievement tests, student engagement surveys, documents, field notes and participant observations. Our findings indicate that district leaders and consultants have effectively mobilized evidence-based professional learning to strengthen instructional leadership, teaching, and student learning.

Student Assessment Policy and Practice in Alberta: An Assessment for Learning

This chapter assesses the degree to which educational policy and practice in the Canadian province of Alberta reflect the best available research evidence in each of the areas of quality teaching, educational leadership, professional learning, and education policy. The assessment indicates the need to embrace the nuanced complexity of evidence-informed policy and practice through consideration of four paradoxes: