Module 1 Introduction to Student-centred leadership

Learning Intentions

Learn about the student-centred leadership model and how it was developed.
Make a connection between the student-centred leadership model, your work and improved student outcomes.
Reflect on your school's practices in light of the model and discuss opportunities to improve how you work as a leadership team.

Success Criteria

Leadership teams are able to identify strengths and weaknesses in their leadership approach.

Leadership teams identify some short-term actions to address a few identified weaknesses.

What is leadership?

There are many models of leadership but this two-dimensional one is the simplest. Essentially all leadership definitions will contain these two core elements of building relationships in order to achieve a common goal.

How leadership in schools affects student outcomes

BES Summary

Early this century, the New Zealand government commissioned a study into the evidence of what works for leaders in terms of improving student outcomes. The results of an analysis of the limited quantitative data available linking school leadership to social or academic outcomes from international studies highlighted five key behaviours that leaders use to impact outcomes.

Instructions for the next section on the five dimensions.

Read the descriptions for each dimension below. As you proceed, write your own notes about your team's strengths and weaknesses or questions related to each dimension. These notes will be used for your final team task for this module.

Dimension One: Goals

The research of Lathan and Locke (2006) is extensive and covers hundreds if not thousands of studies, mainly in industry. The diagram above by Viviane Robinson illustrates some aspects of that theory.

Big Ideas

Goals are all about motivating a team. Therefore the goals must be few and clear so teams have the space and time (capacity) to focus on improving one or two areas. They also need to be committed to the goal, so they must see the goal as a worthy area to prioritise.
Effective goals set up an appropriate disparity between the current reality and the desired state – not too big (as to make the challenge unachievable) and not too small (as to make the target trite). By and large, if there is commitment to the goal, the higher the goal, the higher the performance.
If people are clear about a school's priority to improve, they can put in more time and energy to resolving problems that impede progress in that area.
The consequences are they have an increased sense of purpose, make progress in the targeted area, which in turn motivates them to keep problems solving and improving. As they see results their sense of efficacy is increased as is that of the students. There is then more team cohesion and satisfaction.

Dimension Two: Resourcing strategically

Big Ideas

Goals in themselves do not make a difference; it is the ability to use goals to focus day-to-day mundane business onto priority needs. e.g., getting the right meetings in place to focus on achieving the goal; using meetings to track progress to the goal and to problem solve.
Resourcing strategically is how you bring your goals to life. The vision and goals are the talk of leadership. Strategic resourcing is the ‘walking of that talk’. If you say the goal is to improve literacy and then do not resource the library appropriately, you are not ‘walking your talk’.
The diagram above illustrates the important operational matters that underpin successful goal pursuit.
- People - investing in attracting, retaining and developing the highest quality teachers. The right appointments will impact more than many other practices.
- Time - focusing on the goal means putting more time and effort into pursuing this. Leaders have to organise to optimize time to focus on the goal efficiently.
- Money - prioritising funding towards the goal e.g., staffing needs, resources, professional development focused on the goal area.
- Systems and artefacts - new routines need to be embedded into the system and various artefacts can support that e.g., meeting templates; reporting templates; new role descriptions.

Dimension Three: Ensuring quality teaching

Aitken Quality Teaching Model

Big Ideas

Quality teaching by our definition is not defined by style but by the ability to provide experiences that maximize time in worthwhile learning experiences.
Professor Graeme Aitken argues that effective teaching maximises the time that learners are engaged with, and are successful in, the learning of important outcomes.
The diagram above illustrates Professor Graeme Aitken's model of effective teaching. He argues that:
- The red square equals academic learning time – this is pivotal to students learning. In any given day, though there are times when the students are not engaged (cognitively and/or behaviourally) or the curriculum is not well-aligned to valued outcomes or students do not experience success. Graeme Aitken’s argument, is that an effective teacher is essentially trying to make the red box bigger.
- An example of misalignment is when a science topic is insects – that have three body parts (head, thorax and abdomen) and six legs. Then the children do a painting of an insect and are not get corrected when they sketch in eight legs and two body parts. Or misalignment is when paragraph writing is taught in numerous different ways in a secondary school. ‘Busy work’ is another example of misalignment.
- Lack of success occurs when the learning is not in the ‘proximal zone of development’ (the zone between what the learner can do without help and what they can do with help) – the concept introduced by Lev Vygotsky (1896-1934).
- Lack of engagement – when the learner is not motivated to be involved e.g., copying from the board.
Monitoring of curriculum delivery is a critical role of school leadership. Leaders set the conditions for teachers to work by designing the curriculum, putting in place expectations about teaching (see the quality teaching definition above), and establishing routines and systems to support effective teaching.
Monitoring of outcomes is possibly the most powerful leadership behaviour in this dimension. Higher performing schools are characterized by tight monitoring of student outcomes and reacting to the outcomes. Teachers and leaders use of data to evaluate student progress, adjust to results, and embed effective practices is core to improving student outcomes and it is the leader's role to ensure these conditions exist.

Dimension Four: Promoting and participating in teacher learning and development

Professional Learning

At about the same time as the BES on School Leadership and Student Outcomes was commissioned, the NZ government also commissioned a Best Evidence Synthesis on Professional Learning. That document is a vast tome but some key ideas are summarized here.

Big Ideas

Effective professional development has a clear purpose related to the priority goals a school is pursuing. Teachers and leaders need to be able to answer…
- What is the problem we are trying to solve?
- Why is this new learning important?
- How will we know we are being successful? (This latter point illustrates that for professional development to be effective it must be closely linked to teachers and leaders measuring outcomes related to the priority goal in the short-term e.g., every month or five weeks).
Teacher and leaders need multiple exposures to ideas and structured opportunities to refine and revisit those ideas with others. Repeated exposure to ideas and opportunities to process those with colleagues interrupts over-assimilation and self-affirmation bias (where someone suggests - 'we are already doing that', when they are not. All learners need multiple and different types of opportunities to learn e.g., in a large whole-staff group; with their teams; with their close and trusted associates. None of us take in ideas effectively with only one exposure to them.
Responding to teachers' theories of action means responding to the way people view the world. ‘Theories of action’ are the mental models that drive our behaviour. Our actions make clear our true values and beliefs (our mental models). An effective leader tries to understand what theories are driving teachers' current behaviour before trying to change it.
Involvement of leaders in the PLD is critical because this act
- makes the importance of the PLD clear to staff - they lead by example - by being there and fully engaged
- supports informed and open discussion. If leaders are not there with their staff they cannot engage with their views
- means leaders can learn from teachers about what is problematic about implementing the ideas from the PLD and what resources they need to put in place
- allows leaders to monitor the progress of the team and provide feedback to the facilitator.

Dimension Five: Ensuring an orderly and safe environment

Big Ideas

1. An orderly environment is a pre-condition for improvement. Heck’s (2000) study indicated that the more positive all groups were – teachers, students and parents –about feeling safe and comfortable and cared for, the higher the achievement levels. Building relationships with all stakeholders is critical.

2. Protecting teachers from undue pressures from educational officials and parents is also aligned to higher performance – though this needs to be treated with care – the emphasis is on ‘undue’ pressure. Sometimes pressure may be warranted e.g., when a teacher is not fulfilling their professional obligations.

3. Dealing with staff conflict quickly is also strongly associated with achievement. Teachers in higher performing schools felt able to approach their principal with problems.

Conclusion

1. All these dimensions overlap. For example, optimizing time in the classroom can be seen as part of Dimension 3 and 5 - Quality teaching and Orderly environment.

2. The dimensions represent the 'what' of leadership. To enact them, however, leaders need three key capabilities - the 'how' of leadership: to have some depth of knowledge about curriculum and systems management; to be able to constantly problem solve; to do this while building relationships.

Individual & Group Task

Pre Webinar:

Individually - Read the descriptions of key concepts and each dimension. As you proceed, record your insights about your individual and team's strengths, challenges or questions related to each dimension. You can refer to these notes throughout the webinar; for break out conversations and your post webinar team task.

Reminder: CEDP Teams undertaking both GGL1 & 2 concurrently have an alternate team task assigned to them in the GGL2 Course. See here.

Post Webinar:

Following the webinar, share you insights on each dimension with others in your leadership team; strengths, challenges and questions. Remember, this module is a high level summary of all five dimensions, you will have time to go more deeply into certain dimensions in subsequent modules. As a team, draw a consensus about the areas you may need to do more work on. The focus of this team task is to listen to each other's insights and perspectives on each dimension and plan some actions to address the identified issue(s).

After this discussion, your group leader will SUBMIT ASSIGNMENT (see top right of the assignment submission page - SUBMIT ASSIGNMENT) submit 100 words or less (by no later than three working days before the next scheduled webinar stating): what are the issues you have identified and what are some short-term actions you have been spurred to take as a result.

Examples:

Issue: Goals not clear to all

Action: Communicate our key priority and how we intend to achieve it more often.

Issue: Time in meetings is not focused on goals.

Action: Schedule Action Planning progress as a standing item in leadership meetings.