Sue Swaffield

Getting to the heart of authentic Assessment for Learning

Assessment for Learning (AfL) has gained increasing international prominence in both policy and practice but some of its proliferation, notably the national strategy in England, has been accompanied by distortion of essential features. This paper presents an understanding of authentic (in the sense of genuine) AfL informed by literature and particularly by two major research projects. Assessment for learning is characterised by information being used to inform learning and teaching, its focus on learning conceived broadly, and actively engage progressively more autonomous students. It is distinctive in its timescale, protagonists, beneficiaries, the role of students, the relationship between student and teacher, and the centrality of learning to the process – all of which can but may not necessarily be features of formative assessment. An examination of the document setting out the National Assessment for Learning Strategy in England reveals the ways that it is at odds with authentic assessment for learning.

School self‐evaluation and the role of a critical friend

School self‐evaluation is receiving increasing attention in England, partly as a result of changes in the Ofsted inspection framework giving greater prominence to what schools can do to speak for themselves. The relationship between internal self‐evaluation and external inspection was a theme in a high profile policy speech made by the Schools Standards Minister, David Miliband, at the North of England Conference in January 2004. As part of a ‘new relationship with schools’ heralded in the speech, Miliband articulated critical friendship in terms of a ‘school improvement partner’. This article draws upon a number of research projects to critique these proposals, especially in respect of the role of a critical friend in school self‐evaluation. Issues discussed include different models of self and external evaluation, the importance of context, and the various ways in which a critical friend can support school self‐evaluation.

No sleeping partners: relationships between head teachers and critical friends

This article examines external support for school leaders, and focuses on the relationship between head teachers and other professionals who play the role of their ‘critical friends’. Most existing research in this area concentrates upon the activity of the critical friend without reference to the role partner, thereby losing the dynamic in the relationship and the contribution of the head teacher to its effectiveness. A small-scale study of head teachers and their local authority advisers acting as critical friends provides the empirical basis for insights into the nature and challenges of the relationship and points the way to further research in this area of increasing policy significance in England.

Critical friends: supporting leadership, improving learning

Critical friendship is a versatile form of external support for school colleagues engaged in leadership activities, and one that is subject to increasing professional and political interest. This article focuses upon the contribution of critical friends supporting leadership and school improvement in a range of contexts, including an international research project, school self-evaluation, and networking. It draws upon activities of ‘Leadership for Learning: the Cambridge Network’ to explore the role and functioning of critical friends by addressing 10 questions. The article concludes by summarizing the insights that can be gleaned from the examples of critical friendship in operation, and suggests that as the use of critical friends to support leadership in schools becomes more of the norm there is a need both to draw upon what is already known about critical friendship, and to extend our understanding.

Learning how to learn: Tools for schools

Learning how to learn is an essential preparation for lifelong learning. This book offers a set of in-service resources to help teachers develop new classroom practices informed by sound research. It builds on previous work associated with ‘formative assessment’ or ‘assessment for learning’. However, it adds an important new dimension by taking account of the conditions within schools that are conducive to the promotion, in classrooms, of learning how to learn as an extension of assessment for learning.

Critical friendship, dialogue and learning, in the context of Leadership for Learning

Critical friendship is a flexible form of assistance for development and research, and one that had a key role in the international Carpe Vitam Leadership for Learning project. Whilst conforming to common features and engaging in similar activities there were some differences in the way critical friendship was enacted across the eight sites. The work of the critical friends contributed to the development of the leadership for learning principles, which in turn provide a framework for considering critical friendship and deepening our understanding of its nature. Dialogue, a focus on learning, and concern with the conditions for learning are all found to be core features of critical friendship, and were themselves subjects of the critical friends’ work.

Embedding Learning How to Learn in school policy : the challenge for leadership

Achieving lasting and deep‐seated change in schools through the embedding of a new set of practices with associated values is a familiar goal. This paper draws upon interviews with school coordinators and head teachers participating in the Learning How to Learn Project to explore the nature of embedding and the related challenges for leadership. Conceptions of embedding may be divided broadly into those which refer to structure, often epitomized by procedural mechanisms, and those which proceed from a belief in a more gradualistic infusion of change through a shift in culture. We discuss a number of approaches to embedding practice, finding that cultural and structural elements are often closely interrelated, although schools place differing emphases on one or the other. The challenges for leadership include resolving the tension between ‘bottom‐up’ growth, and ‘top‐down’ mandated change, and addressing seven conditions for embedding which appear to be pertinent.

Teacher leadership and professional development: perspectives, connections and prospects

Interest in and knowledge about leadership and learning, separately and together, is an international and continuing phenomenon. This special issue draws together articles that add to the growing body of literature, but to a somewhat under-researched aspect of the field. Its two-pronged focus is a particular form of leadership – teacher leadership – and a particular form of learning – professional development; it is the connections between teacher leadership and professional development that are the specific contribution of this edition. The majority of the articles in this special issue discuss practice and policy in the USA and the United Kingdom, reflecting perhaps locations where particular interest in teacher leadership can currently be found. In this respect this collection must be viewed as a partial picture, and it should be borne in mind that both leadership and professional development are notions that need to be viewed and interpreted within the specifics of culture and context. Nevertheless, the issues raised and insights offered should act as catalysts for reflection in relation to teacher leadership and professional development in other contexts. Particularly pertinent here is Czarniawska’s (1997) notion of ‘outsidedness’, which refers to the process of coming to know ourselves better as a consequence of developing our understanding of others. Through adopting this stance of outsidedness we believe that readers from countries not represented in this collection will recognise the differences from teacher leadership and professional development in their own contexts and thus, as Czarniawska suggests, will come to know their own situations more deeply. Indeed, it is not necessary to be of a different nationality to reap the benefits of being an outsider: each of us is separated to a greater or lesser extent from others’ experiences and situations, and therefore – if so minded – can learn by reflecting on difference.

Improving the Quality of Teaching and Learning through Leadership for Learning: Changing Scenarios in Basic Schools of Ghana.

This article emerged as a case study from a fact-finding mission of a joint programme between the Centre for Commonwealth Education (CCE) in Cambridge University and the Institute for Educational Planning and Administration (IEPA) in University of Cape Coast, Ghana, to embed innovative approaches to teaching and learning in the basic schools of the latter country. The strategy was to enhance the leadership capacity of the headteachers. A leadership for learning (LfL) model with five seminal principles was used to guide and direct the change process. It was organized on the basis of capacity building whereby CCE provided expertise consultation and Ghanaians contextualized learning materials, and their execution. At the close of the second year, the qualitative case study involving four schools revealed that conspicuous changes were indeed taking place at different levels. The case study also provided evidence that LfL tended to be a broad systemic ideology that relied on the collective effort of various stakeholders.

Support and Challenge for School Leaders: Headteachers' Perceptions of School Improvement Partners.

For three years from 2008 every school in England had a designated school improvement partner (SIP), portrayed as a critical friend, whose role was to support and challenge the headteacher. A mixed-methods study involving a national survey and face-to-face interviews evaluated the enactment of the national policy from the perspective of the direct recipients – the headteachers/school principals. Headteachers’ perceptions of their school improvement partners, and their experiences of the support and challenge provided by SIPs, varied. Much seemed to depend on individual SIP’s expertise and conduct. The SIPs’ prescribed agenda was seen as too focused on data rather than discussions about learning and teaching, and requirements for SIPs to report to the local authority and governors were in tension with trustful relationships with headteachers. The SIP programme could be interpreted as a commitment to the entitlement of headteachers to support and challenge, or as a mechanism for surveillance and discipline. Lessons are drawn for the ‘national’ and ‘local leaders of education’ who have replaced SIPs, and for anyone internationally concerned with support and challenge for school principals.