How to … build a focus on learning

Chris Watkins explores how using Appreciative Inquiry can ensure a focus on learning.

When the dominant culture is not clearly focussing and not sufficiently geared towards learning, Appreciative Inquiry (Hammond 2013) is an effective approach. Originally an organization development strategy, Appreciative Inquiry utilises a social process of inquiry and joint discovery. Carried out by organizational members themselves, through face-to face interviews, the process legitimized everyone’s curiosity about what works for self and others and allows the unveiling of each other’s peak experiences. It operates on the following four principles:

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      string(294) "A Case Study in a Queensland Secondary School. The main thesis of the study is that in the turbulent complexity of modern schooling, effective leadership is more likely to be spread across a network of individuals rather than concentrated in the hands of one or two leaders.  It reveals why ..."
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      string(404) "... principal’s blessing.Leadership from this perspective is everywhere: in the principal’s office, the sciencelaboratories, the teachers’ workrooms, anywhere staff members join together to focuson learning, teaching or change.Hargreaves and Fink (2006) closely associate the notion of “emergent distribution” withtwo other linked concepts which were identified earlier in ..."
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      string(464) "A Case Study in a Queensland Secondary School. The main thesis of the study is that in the turbulent complexity of modern schooling, effective leadership is more likely to be spread across a network of individuals rather than concentrated in the hands of one or two leaders.  It reveals why distributed school leadership has become prominent in the contemporary international context of school improvement and leadership in the past decade. By Matthew Glen - 2009."
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      string(5676) "get others to do as the school has developed. It would be interestingto see … when his time is finished here which is probably reasonably close now;you know where it goes to. It wouldn’t be too many schools like this where thefounding principal is still present, after what 20 years.These examples illustrate the strong influence and presence of P upon the schoolcommunity during his 20-year tenure. He had guided the development of the school asa learning organization from its infancy through to its current position as a vibrant andsuccessful community-based school. His strengths as a Principal and leadershipmentor had been recognised widely and sought by others, but there was now a degreeof uncertainty about the future without his presence.5.8.4 Emergent distributionEmergent distribution, according to Hargreaves and Fink (2006), does not occur bydesign (delegation or direction) but emerges from individuals and groups who seize theinitiative to inspire and influence their colleagues to take up opportunities, move in newdirections, or attend to external pressures – with or without the principal’s blessing.Leadership from this perspective is everywhere: in the principal’s office, the sciencelaboratories, the teachers’ workrooms, anywhere staff members join together to focuson learning, teaching or change.Hargreaves and Fink (2006) closely associate the notion of “emergent distribution” withtwo other linked concepts which were identified earlier in the literature review inChapter Two: Parallel leadership which is the focus of Australian research by Crowther et al.(2002) in which teacher leaders were identified as the initiators and creators of  118new ideas and programs which succeeded in improving student learningoutcomes; similar findings can be found in the North American context as citedin the work of Lieberman and Miller (2004, p. 26). These authors suggest thatthe heart of teacher leadership is “groups of teachers intentionally workingtogether to transform the very cultures in which they work and lead”; and Professional learning communities in which the best facilitative principals canwork with their teachers, supporting and inspiring them to re-culture theirschools and districts so that they become strong professional learningcommunities. The most important contribution which senior school leaders canmake to the development of emergent distributed leadership is to create an“inclusive, purposeful and optimistic culture in which initiatives can easily comeforward” (Hargreaves & Fink, 2006, p. 123). The principal is not made irrelevantby the positively distributed leadership that professional learning communitiesrepresent.In Vignette #12, examples are provided of teachers at Southern SHS who had taken upthe opportunity to assume a leadership role, irrespective of their formal positional roleswithin the school.Vignette #12 Southern SHS examples of emergent distribution well, for example, I have a staff member right now who is wanting to get off theground a HECS-style system for kids who want to do a school-based traineeship,because the biggest problem is they can’t get to jobs because they don’t havetransport, so he wants to buy cars for his kids and build a relationship with a caryard to buy these cars for five to eight grand, to get these kids to their jobs and weare trying to build in a loan system, and that is a ‘goer’; I mean it might be a fewyears away yet but it is a ‘goer’ and he has just picked that up and run with it. …we’ve had a large turnover of teachers in recent times, and … that has brought innew people and ideas and we have done a lot of collaborative work with them andpeople enjoy being there…. I had a middle school meeting for just half an houryesterday, and apart from the people who are away sick, every single core teacherthat I have got in Year 8, all attended. So you know, they were there and they werewilling to listen and we had presentations from two of the teachers, just in thatgroup, just discussing behaviour management techniques from some seminars theyhad been to, and just giving some feedback and people walked out of the room,sounding positive and having conversations about what went on; as opposed toones where they can’t just wait to be somewhere else. So that is a good sign.  119 You’ve got a reasonably large group of people, so sometimes to get a consensus isextremely difficult. Everyone’s passionate about their own faculty so everyone looksat it particularly from a point of view, and that’s what you want your middlemanagers to do. You want your HODs to be passionate about their subject areasand their faculties. Sometimes that then creates difficulty in getting them to look at itfrom the bigger picture but again they’re being passionate and defending theirsubject area and doing those sorts of things, it’s hard to tell them that they’re wrongso there are issues with that as well, but I’ve worked in a school where everythingwent back through the principal and that was it, and it was awful.There are many parallels to be drawn from the Southern SHS case study to thedevelopment of a vibrant professional learning community. Hargreaves and Fink (2006,pp. 127-128) argue that “strong principals are crucial to the creation of professionallearning communities … but the image of how a strong principal operates needs to bereconsidered”. They propose that strong principals are not “strident and forceful”, butthat their true strengths include: modelling and building strong and rewarding"
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Leadership

Distributed Leadership

6 Jul 2017

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      string(5694) "26 SPRING 2009LEARNING OUTSIDE THE CLASSROOMSmall	 	 worldELT_Small World.indd   26 20/5/09   16:26:3027SPRING 2009LEARNING OUTSIDE THE CLASSROOMIn 2006, Bradon Forest, a specialist performing arts secondary school for 11 – 16 year olds, began researching learningplatform options.  Our Local Authority, NorthWiltshire District Council, had not yet chosenits learning platform for all of its schools so wemade our own decision. Key to us was thatthe provider we chose would always focus onlearning rather than technology – the strategicteam at Bradon Forest wanted a tool thatwould support and enhance learning, not anextra piece of ICT kit.After going to tender and a process oflooking at our preferred options, we decidedon UniServity’s cLc (connected Learningcommunities) learning platform. Our projectteam intentionally comprised representativesfrom each faculty, from those in their secondyear of teaching to heads of department aswell as members from the pastoral and seniormanagement team.  This cross-section of staffwas keen to be ambassadors of the cLc and,through one-to-one training and departmentalmeetings, agreed to lead their colleagues.Bradon Forest was in a good position tointroduce a learning platform as, since NOF(New Opportunities Fund) and ICTAC (ICTAcross the Curriculum) training in previousyears, there has always been an expectation anddemand to learn more about ICT and its usesin teaching and learning.  Therefore, we knewthat we would not have to convince teachersof the benefits of our cLc.The Roll OutWe began the phased roll out of the cLc withYears seven and ten in October 2006.  At theYear ten coursework evening, used to explainGCSE coursework to parents, all students andparents were informed about the learningplatform so that it would seem a naturaltool for KS4 work.  Taking this opportunitywhen all parents and students were togetherwe explained the WIFM (“What’s In It ForMe?”) for both parents and students.  Weknew that a learning platform without thebacking and interest of students would endup being an empty filing cabinet and this wasnot our intention. Help sheets were also placedon the learning platform as an easy point ofreference.The roll out to Year sevens was through asubject-based approach.  Teachers in all subjectareas engaged the pupils in building pages onthe learning platform to work collaborativelyor in forums where the pupils could shareideas.We planned to continue roll out to theremaining three year groups the followingSeptember but due to pester power from theYear eight, nine and 11 students who hadsiblings in other years, we created log ins forthese learners six months early in February2007. Across the school, we were keen for thelearners to take ownership of the cLc. In otherschools, there are fears that students mightsabotage school property and technologygiven the chance. But learning platformrepresentatives were elected in each tutorgroup who were responsible for the platform.If anything malicious occurred, they wouldreport this to their teachers.Tutor groups were asked to make theirown pages on the learning platform – whichpartly acted as a chance to bond and workcollaboratively on a project, but also meantthat they had a safe area in which to chatsocially out of school hours and duringholidays. We have ensured that the learningplatform is not just for curriculum work forour students but is the centre of schooling.When our Year 11 students wore suits formock interviews for college, we posted thephotographs on the internet for the wholeschool to share.Going beyond the classroominto local schoolsWe did not want the cLc to be a placefor our students to learn and meet onlythose from our school – from the offset, weintended to use the platform to collaboratewith local schools, the community and eveninternational schools.Early on, our Year sevens worked togetherwith their peers from Malmesbury School toForget pen pals – nowadays, the kids all want e-pals! Dave Wright explains how hisNorth Wiltshire school’s intranet has allowed students to chat to Ghana and Peru.create a North Wiltshire news page. Here, theyresearch local news and together create a newspage about their area.  This has since evolvedinto Wikiwilts – a wiki all about Wiltshirelisting news, local events, information aboutthe area and what is on offer here. Our aimduring this project was to introduce ouryoungest learners to Web 2.0 technology andfor them to have a taste of what working inthe adult world is like.  The vast majority ofgroup-work that takes place in the traditionalclassroom is face-to-face.  However, we knowthat in the world of work, emails, telephonesand video or tele-conferencing are morefrequently used methods of communication.Therefore, since an initial meeting withMalmesbury, the students have communicatedat a distance through the cLc, using forumsfor discussion.Our Year sevens have also used the platformto ease the transition from pr imary tosecondary school.  Bradon Forest workswith St Mary’s and St Sampson’s Junior withour Year seven learners, teaching the localfeeder schools how to build pages on ourcLc about their schools.  These two primaryschools have ownership of these pages anddecide their content-even though they areon our cLc. This enables us to strengthen linksbetween these schools, but it also encouragesthe primary children to discover more aboutBradon Forest and to become familiar withour school community.Strengthening these links further, many ofour subject teachers have each made pages onour platform for use by teachers and"
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Digital Learning

Small world

19 Jul 2009

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      string(5320) "as well as their coachand mentors.d) Tools for co-coaches- Identifying alearning focusWhen deciding on a learning focus, co-coaches need tochoose one that is manageable, that interests them andthat is likely to be effective. Sometimes the temptationis to start with a focus that is just too large (for example,improving writing at Key Stage 2). If colleagues don’trefine this – and define exactly what they are and arenot intending to achieve in what time frame, with whichpupils – they can tie themselves in knots trying to thinkof the best starting point because there are just too manyplaces to start from!Here are some practical questions to consider whenchoosing a learning focus:What is currently interesting and concerning youabout your pupils’ learning?What aspect of learning do you want to enhance?Which strategies might be efficient and effective inhelping with this?What will be the benefits for your pupils and/oryour colleagues?Which group of pupils would you like to focuson? Which group would benefit particularly in thiscontext?How does it complement the work that you arealready doing – department/Key Stage developmentwork or performance management targets, forexample?Does it offer an appropriate level of challenge?Over what timescale will it be possible to explorethis?Starting from evidence (one source of specialistexpertise) is a good place to begin to identify a learningfocus because it offers co-coaches a manageable menuof options to choose from, rather than having to identifya learning focus from an infinite number of possibilities.Effective co-coaches will then look for evidence thatwill help them to understand and refine their learningfocus; evidence that can assure them that the strategiesthey’re experimenting with are credible.To help with using evidence as a springboard foridentifying an effective and meaningful focus, wehave provided an exercise on the Pulling TogetherCD in which co-coaches are able to use researchtasters, based on large scale evidence, to developa learning focus. In this exercise participants are■■■■■■■■http://www.curee.co.uk/mentoring-and-coaching38How to… use tools and resources to build skills and capacity……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………➜How to…offered a menu of questions linked to specificreflective development activities. Each activity offersco-coaches a ‘nugget’ of evidence from research.With this evidence is a suggestion of one way inwhich teachers could collect evidence on how theirown students experience this particular aspect ofteaching and learning as preparation for deciding onnext steps in their own learning and practice. All ofthis is supported by group work to help participantsadopt and adapt the activity to their own specificcontext. The activity involves practising coachingskills in triads. This has a dual purpose – it is a meansof choosing and refining a possible learning focus butis also a way of expanding participants’ experiencesof coaching and being coached. They will considerhow their learning focus can not only have an impacton their own practice but also on their pupils. Thiswill also help them consider how it will fit with theirperformance management targets and the wholeschool development plan.This activity can be found in more detail in theEffective Mentoring and Coaching pack ‘PullingTogether’, available from http://www.curee-paccts.com/mentoring-and-coaching/effective-mentoring-and-coaching-emac-suite Further examples of arange of research tasters that are designed to supportco-coaching can be found on the CUREE web-site at http://www.curee-paccts.com/mentoring-and-coachinge) Tools for theprofessional learnerMost coaching coursesand materials concentrateon coaching skills but it isimportant to remember thatthe coaching relationshipcontains two people and tothink about what skills theprofessional learner bringsto the partnership. There isa great deal that professionallearners can do to makethe coaching work for themselves. The skills of aprofessional learner are identified in the NationalFramework but typically they may need support in theirdeveloping ability to:recognise and reflect on the skills needed forprofessional learning;choose and refine a learning focus;use learning agreements to manage differences inpower;identify when to use closed questions (to focusattention on the professional learner’s needs) andopen ones (when the professional learner doesn’tknow what they don’t know); andlearn how to reflect on what they’ve learnt.■■ Using a learning agreementCoaching sessions are usually focussed on goals ortargets agreed by the coach and the learner. A learningagreement is a tool to help keep learning conversationson track. This activity"
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Professional Development

How to... use tools and resources to build skills and capacity

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      string(2131) "coaching, she gave the parent the opportunity to say everything they had to say and just listened. (In coaching, our staff are trained to reflect back to someone exactly what they have said using the same words – so repeating verbatim rather than interpreting. By doing this, we demonstrate that we are actively listening. We also enable the person to hear what they have said in their own words – an experience that doesn’t happen very often for most people.)Rather than provoking the parent or worsening the situation, this tactic caused the parent to feel valued and listened to, and her demeanour changed – she was shocked when hearing back the things she said and became more conciliatory. During a PLM, the teaching assistant presented this scenario back to the wider staff team as an example of coaching that had enabled her to deal with a challenging situation in a more positive way than her previous experiences.In another example, a leader used a coaching conversation to prepare a team leader for having a difficult conversation with a colleague. Coaching is about empowering colleagues to find solutions to challenging situations they are facing. They are far more likely to commit to a solution that they have arrived at for themselves.ConclusionA consistent approach is needed to develop a positive culture for coaching in the thinking school. Coaching conversations have to be both authentic and regular, and participants have to believe in them. Their purpose is to build on existing strengths, and develop positive individual dispositions to learning, so that teachers are committed to continual quality change, enhancing the emotional climate in the school.Dr. Kulvarn Atwal is executive head teacher of two large primary schools in the London Borough of Redbridge He has recently published The Thinking School: Developing a Dynamic Learning Community with John Catt publishing ReferencesWhitmore, J. (2009) Coaching for Performance: Growing Human Potential and Purpose—The Principles and Practice of Coaching and Leadership. 4th Edition, Nicholas Brealey Publishing, London."
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Inclusion

How Coaching Can Create A Thinking, Learning School

5 Oct 2020

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