For us, learning is in large
part about listening, asking questions, and making connections. As we listen to the leaders whom we serve and
support, here are a couple of the questions that we have been hearing.
Question: What does research show to have the most significant
impact on student learning of anything ever documented?
If you have spent any time
with us at all – in person, through our writing, or on our blogs – you know our
response to this question. What we do as educators is built on the foundation
of assessment and the seven actions that are collectively known as assessment
in the service of learning or assessment for
learning (William & Black, 1998).
By this we mean that all students, no matter how much they struggle
will:
•
Have a
clear learning destination.
•
Use
samples to understand quality and
development.
•
Participate
in the co-construction of criteria.
•
Be
involved in self- and peer assessment.
•
Collect,
select, reflect, and project (set goals) based on evidence of their learning.
•
Communicate
their learning to others, both
formally and informally.
Connection: School leaders facilitate
the learning of teachers and support staff. These actions or big ideas are
equally effective with adult learners. Just as teachers use these strategies to
build self-monitoring and self-regulating learners, leaders use these
strategies to build a culture of learning and collaboration where teachers own
the learning and change is sustainable.
Examples include:
·
One principal
of a K – 8 school modeled writing a letter for Grade Two students, making her
thinking visible by talking about it as she wrote. Her goal was to support teachers in their
professional inquiry into the teaching of writing as a co-learner, leading the
way by taking risks herself, so as to encourage teachers to take risks
alongside her.
·
A principal
co-taught with a teacher, modeling what it means to solve a math problem
completely while colleagues observed and recorded data as requested by the
co-teachers.
·
A
secondary principal modeled, along with the classroom teacher and one of the
assistant principals, what was important in a class discussion that leads to
learning. The students observed that
demonstration and analyzed what the adults were doing, in order to establish
criteria in that regard.
Question: What if the school
is too large for me to reasonably model in classrooms or I just don’t know
enough about the subject matter or current teaching practices to model with
students?
In a research study (Davies,
Busick, Herbst, & Sherman, 2014) into the effectiveness of using assessment
for learning as a leadership tool,
the authors reported three key findings. One of them speaks directly to the
ideas in this post:
“Leaders take action and move beyond words to deeds.”
The leaders in this study
used the principles and strategies of assessment for learning in their leadership practice, modeling for teachers
the big ideas they were looking for in teachers’ classroom practice.
Connection: When we work in
alignment with teachers we implicitly and explicitly communicate a powerful
message:
You are not alone in this change we are making as a school. We are
all working toward this goal.
Examples from our colleagues
include:
·
Principals
and vice-principals in a community of practice wrote clear and specific
descriptions of what success would look like in relation to their school
improvement plan goals in the areas of reading, writing, and mathematics. After
considering the possible conversations, observations, and conversations to
collect as evidence, the leaders gave each other feedback on the plans.
·
A
principal, whose school’s literacy goal included the importance of providing
samples of proficiency and quality, began a session on writing report card
comments with exemplars provided by the province. Together, the staff
deconstructed the samples and co-constructed criteria on what makes an
effective report card comment.
·
A
secondary principal and the school’s three assistant principals talked through
the triangulated evidence that they were collecting in relation to their school
improvement plan. They shared this
evidence during the staff meetings that coincided with each of the four reporting
periods. They described the challenges that they were facing, in particular,
with the collection of evidence from observations and conversations that
“outlasted” the event.
As you consider these
examples, you might ask yourself the following questions:
In what ways do these
connections remind me of my leadership practice?
In what ways might these
examples provide opportunities for me and my leadership practice?
What other examples could I
add to the illustrative ones offered here?
As you respond to these
questions, you are invited into a deeper reflection of the actions of an
instructional leader. And you move, “lead teacher” to “lead learner” or
“principal teacher” to “principal learner”.
This blog post was co-written with my colleague Brenda Augusta.
This blog post was co-written with my colleague Brenda Augusta.
References
Black, P. and Wiliam, D.
1998. Inside the black box: Raising standards through classroom assessment. Phi Delta Kappan 80(2): pp. 1-20.
Davies, A., Busick, K.,
Herbst, S. & Sherman, A. 2014. System leaders using assessment for learning as both the change and the
change process: Developing theory from practice. The Curriculum Journal, Vol.25(4): pp. 567-592.