Muriel Wells

Elements of effective and sustainable professional learning

Teachers’ professional learning can be enhanced by positioning teachers as practitioner researchers and professionals who are capable of generating change within their local educational communities. In this article a teacher’s story is used to show how teacher knowledge was developed and how teachers designed research questions, gathered evidence about their teaching and used this evidence to inform their practice and have a positive impact on their students’ learning. The article then presents a mapping of elements of professional learning that became apparent in one professional learning program in which teachers were given space to develop skills to research their everyday practice; skills that they can continue to use to refine their practice as teachers in the future. A mapping of the elements that contributed to the overall effectiveness of the professional learning program is presented to contribute to the debate surrounding the characteristics of effective professional learning.

School Improvement as a Global Movement

School improvement has become a common policy option to reform education. This chapter provides an overview of school improvement research, its history and particularly how it has travelled from a variety of national locations. This chapter theorises how global policy responses, such as school improvement are realised in local contexts, in this instance a network of schools in the Australian state of Victoria. The chapter troubles current understandings of education reform, particularly those based on a narrow conception of student attainment. These too often locate the problem of school improvement directly on the quality of teachers with the individual school as the unit of analysis. Rather, this analysis points to connections between schools and the learning that takes place in networks of schools in providing leadership to direct change in individual schools. Ultimately, this chapter questions what is valued and valuable in school improvement, providing the context and theoretical positions supporting the analysis pursued in subsequent chapters.

Insights into Casual Relief Teaching: Casual Relief Teachers' Perceptions of Their Knowledge and Skills.

ABSTRACT Research into the experiences of casual relief teachers (CRTs) (substitute or supply teachers) across Australia and internationally has reported feelings of marginalisation among participants. These findings are concerning when one considers that students might be in the care of CRTs for an equivalent of 1 year or more throughout their schooling. When CRTs describe such feelings there is a suggestion that they do not feel a part of the community of practice in which they work. Accordingly, their opportunities for professional learning are often compromised, which has implications for their ability to maintain pedagogical knowledge and skills. This study used cluster sampling survey data to offer insights into professional challenges faced by CRTs. The discussion examines the self-determined skills of 59 Australian CRTs and the way schooling is organised that may leave them feeling excluded rather than members of what should be their “communities of practice.”

Contexts for School Improvement

This chapter presents four case studies of one secondary and three primary schools that participated in this school improvement initiative. The variety of specific school sites within which the short cycle school improvement initiative occurred, provide insights into how differences in educational contexts affect the possibilities for change. This chapter highlights the different communication and decision-making processes operating in the case study schools in the Billabong Network and the way school improvement processes played out within each school. Common themes identified in the case studies indicate key features of effective school improvement and reform across the disparate school communities. Presentation of differences between the schools serves to clarify why certain aspects are important in particular circumstances and how local contextual factors and leadership styles played a crucial role in the success or lack of success in the translation of educational policy into visible changes in teaching practices.

Classroom Practice and Student Learning

This chapter focuses on the perceptions of teachers and students of the implementation of a short cycle model of school improvement in the Billabong Network. This model of school improvement involved a pattern of decision-making and negotiation across and between layers of leadership within a regional network and the schools in which teachers are supported and accountable for implementing changed classroom practices so as to improve student outcomes. A significant question to be posed for system change models is the extent to which intended changes flow through to the classroom level. Pedagogical changes envisaged at the system or school level need to be (re)negotiated to ensure that the learning needs of each student is met. This chapter provides insights into the changes to classroom practices and teachers’ perceptions of the benefits and challenges of the process.

Leadership and Collaborative Practice in School Improvement

This chapter focuses on principal and teacher interpretations of the decision-making structures within schools to make sense of the different ways this model of school improvement was taken up and interpreted through existing practices and commitments at the school. Existing histories of change management within schools framed the degree of compliance to the regional model with responses ranging from renewed collaborative practices to overt resistance, and conscription of the language of the model to existing leadership agendas. Interviews with principals and teachers included visual maps of patterns of decision-making and the enactment of ideas, and these are combined with interview data to argue the strong influence on local context and leadership style, interacting with existing patterns of commitment in framing the school improvement agenda and practice. The analysis leads to insights into the conditions under which regional policy initiatives support the development of productive school improvement practices.

The Network Model

In 2011 a ‘new’ model for school improvement was rolled out across 23 schools in the Billabong Network in regional Victoria. This chapter considers a network-led model of school improvement, its development, adjustment and implementation across the Billabong Network. Key elements of this model included: school improvement plans negotiated between school principals and the network, the planning for change implementing successive short cycle initiatives, all based on the use of student data to drive change processes. Capacity building was understood to be central to the success of the processes, and took a number of forms including identifying the skill/needs within a school relative to their school improvement goals and providing opportunities for ongoing professional learning to key staff so as to address these needs. The role of the regional network leader and the effects of mandated use of a template in the planning process is considered.

Flipping Learning!: Challenges in Deploying Online Resources to Flipped Learning in Higher Education

Recently, there has been considerable interest in deploying the concept of the Flipped Classroom within higher education a blended mode of learning which typically deploys online resources to provide more focused learning opportunities for learners at home, with lecture-time re-oriented to facilitate discussion and collaborative learning approaches. Much has been written about the success of particular online social media technologies such as wikis, podcasts and blogging sites in supporting open, distributed and situated learning, within active eco-learning systems such as Personal Learning Environments (PLEs) and online communities of learning in higher education. This chapter presents a meta level review of emerging and emergent challenges of integrating online resources to flip the learning in higher education. The recommendations call for the reorientation of prevailing learner, educator and institutional cultures and contexts so that learner centred, autonomous, flexible learning experiences can be facilitated when flipping learning within higher education.