William Louden

School Restructuring and the Dilemmas of Principals’ Work

The complexity of principals work is often characterized in terms of dilemmas. In this paper three are identified. The autonomydilemma concerns providing strong and shared leadership. The efficiencydilemma concerns leading collaborative decision-making that is efficient. The accountabilitydilemma concerns empowering local decision-making while complying with external requirements. These are explored using data from a standards framework for school principals in a large restructuring system. Judgements on what mattersin principals’ work reveal the skills, knowledge and dispositions required for principals in restructuring schools, and judgements about levels of performance are shown by how wellparticular examples of principals work are rated using a Rasch analysis. This study found what matters is that principals care for and involve others, are strong, fair and open to alternatives, articulate long-term views and balance these conflicting qualities. But, when faced with the dilemmas of restructuring, principals favour strong leadership over shared leadership, efficiency rather than collaboration, and accountability to central requirements over shared local decision-making.

101 Damnations: the persistence of criticism and the absence of evidence about teacher education in Australia

There have been 101 government inquiries of one sort or another into Australian teacher education since 1979. Most have presumed or documented concerns about the performance of teacher education. There has, however, been surprisingly little impact from the reports of these many inquiries. They have not – so far – increased the relatively low level of consequential regulation on Australian teacher education; nor have they arrested the long run of declining government funding. This paper argues that in the absence of compelling evidence of differential effects of well‐ or poorly‐organised programmes, or well‐ or poorly‐funded programmes, there is no likely end to the stream of reports and no reasonable hope of restoration of adequate funding. Compelling evidence, the paper argues, would need to disaggregate the impact of student intake, teacher education programme and school context characteristics on subsequent teacher performance and student achievement.

Short shrift to long lists: An alternative approach to the development of performance standards for school principals

Many educational systems are currently establishing standards frameworks for school principals’ work. This paper critiques three current examples and describes an alternative approach. The authors argue that by combining qualitative case studies with probabilistic measurement techniques, the alternative approach provides contextually rich descriptions of the growth in performance on a series of dimensions.

Circumstance and Proper Timing: Context and the Construction of a Standards Framework for School Principals' Performance.

Professional standards for school principals have been developed in many jurisdictions in the United States, Australia, and the United Kingdom in recent years. Typically, these standards frameworks describe an ideal performance in a generalized context. This article describes an alternative method of developing a standards framework, combining qualitative vignettes with probabilistic measurement techniques to provide essential or ideal qualities of performance with contextually rich descriptions of variations in performance. The article provides an empirically grounded basis for the (future) development of performance assessments against the framework.

Potential influence of selection criteria on the demographic composition of students in an Australian medical school

BackgroundPrior to 1999 students entering our MBBS course were selected on academic performance alone. We have now evaluated the impact on the demographics of subsequent cohorts of our standard entry students (those entering directly from high school) of the addition to the selection process of an aptitude test (UMAT), a highly structured interview and a rural incentive program.MethodsStudents entering from 1985 to 1998, selected on academic performance alone (N = 1402), were compared to those from 1999 to 2011, selected on the basis of a combination of academic performance, interview score, and UMAT score together with the progressive introduction of a rural special entry pathway (N = 1437).ResultsMales decreased from 57% to 45% of the cohort, students of NE or SE Asian origin decreased from 30% to 13%, students born in Oceania increased from 52% to 69%, students of rural origin from 5% to 21% and those from independent high schools from 56% to 66%. The proportion of students from high schools with relative socio-educational disadvantage remained unchanged at approximately 10%. The changes reflect in part increasing numbers of female and independent high school applicants and the increasing rural quota. However, they were also associated with higher interview scores in females vs males and lower interview scores in those of NE and SE Asian origin compared to those born in Oceania or the UK. Total UMAT scores were unrelated to gender or region of origin.ConclusionsThe revised selection processes had no impact on student representation from schools with relative socio-educational disadvantage. However, the introduction of special entry quotas for students of rural origin and a structured interview, but not an aptitude test, were associated with a change in gender balance and ethnicity of students in an Australian undergraduate MBBS course.

What we don't understand about teaching for understanding: Questions from science education

Like any other complex agenda of reform, the notion of teaching for understanding contains areas of uncertainty and ambiguity. This paper uses an hermeneutic research cycle to identify some uncertainties in understanding of teaching for understanding. These areas of uncertainty are discussed in relation to the literature and vignettes from three interpretive case studies of science teaching. Three questions are considered: Is teaching for understanding a method or an outcome of teaching? Does specialist language interfere with understanding, or construct it? What kind of understanding does teaching with analogies promote? It concludes with a discussion of four issues: the difficulties faced by teachers in teaching for understanding, the wider context of school science, the nature of teacher change, and the need for elaborated examples of successful teaching for understanding.

The constructivist paradox: Teachers’ knowledge and constructivist science teaching

Advocates of constructivist science recommend that school science begins with children’s own constructions of reality. This notion of the way in which students’ knowledge of science grows is closely paralleled by recent research on teachers’ knowledge. This paper draws on case study evidence of teachers’ work to show how two experienced teachers’ attempts to develop alternative ways of teaching science involved reframing their previous patterns of understanding and practice. Two alternative interpretations of the case study evidence are offered. One interpretation, which focuses on identifying gaps in the teachers’ knowledge of science teaching, leads to theconstructivist paradox. The second interpretation explores theconstructivist parallel, an approach which treats the process of teachers’ knowledge growth with the same respect as constructivists treat students’ learning of science. This approach, the authors argue, is not only more epistemologically consistent but also opens up the possibilities of helping teachers lead students towards a constructivist school science.