AbstractsEducation: a global contest
Number 167, September 2007;
Pages 1–15
The author examines three key challenges that the global knowledge economy presents for Australian schooling. The first challenge is to provide the knowledge and skills needed for the modern economy through a curriculum that enhances students’ higher order thinking skills. In Victoria, the VELS P-10 curriculum has provided an important foundation for such learning, ‘but it appears a more confident and coherent engagement with the community is now needed’. The curriculum should ensure students acquire core knowledge of human society, science and technology, and culture and language. It should also enable them to synthesise information, generate ideas, communicate across multiple modes, and solve problems through effective teamwork. Currently, such aims are often ‘undercut by many system and school practices’ around assessment, facilities, timetables and staffing structures. Subject content should provide for diverse needs and interests. The media often criticises some subjects as ‘soft options’ but these subjects are needed to engage students, especially in light of higher numbers in senior schooling. The second major challenge is to revitalise the composition, structure and leadership of the teaching workforce. The Victorian education system is implementing a Professional Development Culture program in schools (for a discussion of the program, see the abstract ‘Workplaces for learning’ below). Schools should introduce practices that are already used effectively by professional service firms, such as financial incentives to lift performance, improved knowledge management, and high quality recruitment. One promising model for such high quality recruitment is the Teach for America program, in which graduates and undergraduates from fields other than teaching are given training and support to work in high-need schools. The third major challenge for Australian schooling is to overcome student inequity. Finland’s high quality, high equity education system offers teachers and schools considerable autonomy within broad standards; its teachers are well qualified; and it emphasises early childhood and middle years’ education. Finland encourages technical innovation that focuses on the global knowledge economy. Research in Victoria suggests that low SES students need class and school arrangements that allow them more time with and more individual attention from teachers, including the chance to ask more questions and to work more often with practical examples. KLA Subject HeadingsCurriculum planningEducation aims and objectives Education management Workplaces for learningSummer 2007;
Pages 11–13
The Performance and Development Culture program was introduced into Victorian public schools in 2005 as part of the Blueprint for Government Schools reform. The program reflects the fact that schools can usefully apply many of the reforms that are common among other types of government or commercial workplaces ‘whose core business is knowledge and people’. The progam identifies the need for collaborative work, reflection, innovation and adaptation, and accountability at individual and group levels. It takes the form of an accreditation scheme, including self-assessment and external verification processes. The Victorian Government aims to have all state schools accredited by 2008. Under the program, a school examines its performance and development culture against a number of criteria. One criterion is induction for all staff new to the school or to their position. Another is evaluation of teachers’ performance using feedback about their practice, not only from students and parents, but also in the form of structured observation of teachers’ classroom practice by peers. The third criterion is the creation of individual development plans for teachers that reflect their individual needs, the needs of their students, and the school’s overall priorities. The fourth criterion is professional development as an ongoing activity that is closely integrated to the teacher’s work, and which involves collaboration and the use of evidence. Fifth is staff belief that the school has an effective performance development culture. Schools may adopt different approaches to accreditation. The article refers to action research at a regional primary school, peer coaching at a fast-growing city secondary college, and customised performance development planning at a city primary school. The author is Deputy Secretary for the Office for Education Policy and Innovation, DEECD Victoria. For a discussion of the broader context of the program, see also the abstract ‘Education: a global contest’ above. KLA Subject HeadingsTeacher evaluationEducational planning Professional development Victoria Teaching and learning Curriculum mapping: preparing our students for an unknown future
Volume 11
Number 9, October 2007;
Pages 1–3
Curriculum mapping is the collection and record of data ‘that identifies core skills, content taught, and assessments used for each subject area and grade level’. Curriculum mapping can identify gaps and overlaps in the curriculum, reveal opportunities for integration across disciplines, and measure alignment to academic standards. It allows for a review of assessment methods. It also allows for the tracking of student learning from one year to the next, and can reduce repetition between levels. Curriculum mapping is often managed through commercial, Internet-based products, which facilitate communication within a school and with colleagues nationally and internationally, promoting dialogue and collegial relationships. HH Jacobs proposes a process for curriculum mapping. Initially it involves research such as literature reviews, visits to other schools, and collection of internal data; development of a provisional action plan; and selection of suitable mapping technology. It also involves establishing time frames and the identification of periods in the school year available for mapping tasks; selecting external human resources; and selecting individuals in the school to help the process based on their ‘attitude and instructional power’. The curriculum mapping itself can then proceed, with initial data collection, reviews at school wide level, and discussions amongst groups of staff. Points for immediate revision can then be decided and timetabled. Suggestions for more complex changes may generate further research, and, if needs are confirmed, further planning. All teachers should be involved in decisions about the curriculum. Michael Fullan calls for schools to consider many sources of new ideas, but not adopt external programs that ‘foster dependency’. Mapping requires sustained input of resources, including time for discussion and reflection, and professional development. It is very important to acknowledge sensitivities of teachers. Teachers should be supported to make the changes demanded as a result of mapping exercises, in areas such as content and skills taught, and assessment practices. It should be made very clear that mapping is not used for performance appraisal. The mapping process allows the curriculum to be regularly updated for new ideas, issues and forms of expression, while also recognising timeless elements such as Shakespeare. The article includes links to curriculum mapping resources. KLA Subject HeadingsEducational evaluationEducation aims and objectives Curriculum planning Beyond crisis: reimagining science educationOctober 2007;
Pages 40–45
The current crisis in science education is manifested in various ways: students’ increasingly negative attitudes to the subject; decreasing participation at the post compulsory level, especially in physics, chemistry and higher maths; and shortages of science graduates and science teachers. There is an especially sharp decline in students’ interest in science at the early secondary level when their attitudes to future careers start to form. The science syllabus has not kept pace with the vast expansion of scientific knowledge, the increasing number of social issues that involve scientific questions, the abundance of science-related material on the web, and developments in pedagogy. The curriculum, therefore, needs significant revision. Rather than presenting science as resolved and non-negotiable knowledge, classes should involve substantial exploration and discussion of ideas. Instead of ‘canonical abstract content’ detached from everyday life, school science should interpret phenomena significant to students’ experiences. Rather than being organised through formal logical structures, school science should apply the ‘aesthetic, contextual and narrative processes by which students come to make meaning’. These changes do not challenge the centrality of conceptual knowledge in science education, only the form that it takes. Conceptual knowledge remains essential in the process of investigating the world, generating and validating scientific knowledge, and applying it to the resolution of social and scientific issues. Achieving such changes in the science curriculum involves ‘guidance in the curriculum, especially for overworked or under-confident teachers’. It also means overcoming the association of academic rigour with canonical conceptual knowledge which is a view held in various forms by many teachers and parents as well as by influential media commentators. A promising example of a new approach to science is England’s 21st-Century Science curriculum for 15 and 16 year olds. Australian school science may be able to apply the thinking behind this approach by, for example, moving from highly contextualised discussion at early secondary levels towards a more explicitly theoretical focus in later years. At all stages science needs to emphasise the way science operates and how it generates and tests ideas. This article is an edited extract from Re-imagining Science Education, Australian Education Review 51. Key Learning AreasScienceSubject HeadingsCurriculum planningScience teaching Science literacy Science ‘Restoring value’ to the high school diploma: the rhetoric and practice of higher standardsOctober 2007;
Pages 1–35
In the United States, prominent calls for higher standards in secondary school education have come from the American Diploma Project, now endorsed by 29 states, and in the report Tough Choices or Tough Times. The ‘rigor’ demanded by such reports is usually defined in terms of either test results or course content based on traditional, disconnected disciplines. Neither form of rigor establishes that students have acquired deep understanding, higher order thinking skills, or the ability to apply learning in unfamiliar settings, perhaps because these important criteria are difficult to measure through standardised tests. Schools need to prepare students for the workplace but, despite rhetoric in this direction, the drive for standards tends to focus only on preparation for higher education. Workplace internships for students would illustrate the practical uses of their school learning. Internships could also provide role models and mentors, and might raise companies’ civic engagement in support of educational goals. However, neither report calls for such action. Nor do the reports ask the business sector for financial or non-financial support of education, despite the benefits business receives from education as a public good. Existing standards have not assisted schools in disadvantaged areas because their students rarely reach the stage where they can engage meaningfully with the tests or content demanded by the standards. Efforts are currently being made to overcome this gap through new forms of instruction or school design for disadvantaged students, but these measures are not mentioned in the reports. Failing students are usually dealt with through remediation which narrows the curriculum to basic skills and a few tested subjects, an approach that disengages students and works to lower rather than raise standards and graduation rates. The focus on standards threatens to distract attention from curriculum reform, equity concerns and ‘nurturing intrinsic interest’. Multiple pathways should be offered to secondary students, structured around themes that may or may not be occupational. This approach would offer students a range of ways to graduate, would be based on various conceptions of rigor, and would distribute responsibility for standards more broadly throughout the education community. See also commentary article in Education Week 10 October 2007 (registration required). KLA Subject HeadingsUnited States of America (USA)Assessment Secondary education Leadership for radical transformation in school education 2007;
Pages 55–60
Between 2004-06, the author reviewed self-managing schools in Australia, New Zealand, England and Chile. The review included workshops with school leaders across Australia. The review identified schools’ need for a number of types of resources and capital. 'Intellectual capital' refers to the knowledge and skills needed in schools. Building intellectual capital involves recognition of teacher quality as ‘the single most important school variable influencing student achievement’, a fact confirmed by OECD research between 2002 and 2004. Intellectual capital also involves knowledge and skills needed to perform the complex roles demanded of school leaders and managers. 'Social capital' refers to the social links allowing pursuit of common goals within groups and organisations. Some experts have noted the loss or absence of some forms of social capital in western societies. Family and community partnerships are one means to enhance a school’s social capital. One way to build community links is to allow school facilities to be used by the surrounding community. Active involvement by parents is a strong indication of social capital within a school. An exclusive reliance on 'financial capital', whether from public funds, fees or community contributions, is unlikely to transform a school. Research by Eric Hanushek has found that increases in school funding at the national level had ‘little impact on educational outcomes over many decades’, and the same argument can be made for individual schools. 'Spiritual capital' refers, according to TR Malloch, to ‘a sense of purpose and other moral characteristics which cannot persist in the absence of piety, solidarity and hope that come from religious and spiritual sentiments’. A study of a community in the United States by RD Putnam found that shared religious beliefs and practices accounted for over half the social capital identified. The article concludes with a range of ‘implications for leadership and governance’ in schools. They include clear identification of authorities, accountabilities and accountabilties of the governing body and professional staff; clear mechanisms to meet obligations regarding legal liability and risk management; and clearly drawn connections between school policies and school aims regarding student outcomes. KLA Subject HeadingsEducation and stateEducation management Leadership School culture School and community Educational planning School principals School administration School leadership The business agenda for school reform: a parallel universe
Volume 34
Number 2, Summer 2007;
Pages 45–58
The private sector has been involved in schooling in the United States since the early twentieth century. At that time, as now, intervention in schooling by business was presented as a means to improve the country’s international economic competitiveness. One very useful form of business involvement in education was through apprenticeship schemes that gave young people skills for the workforce. Today’s students would benefit greatly if business continued such direct support, for example if employees were given release time to mentor and guide students. However, corporate support for schooling almost never takes this form today. Business funding, for example for school buildings, is used to promote the corporate identity of the donor. Business has also pushed for the collection and analysis of school data to inform decision making. Business usually advances this proposal in terms of classroom-wide performance rather than in the more constructive form of tracking individual student performance year to year. Business has promoted the use of standards and high stakes tests to address the low academic performance of poorer students, who are often from ethnic minorities, and such testing is indeed a ‘bonanza’ for the corporate suppliers of tests and test preparation materials. But to actually lift students’ performance, the United States' government would have to introduce the more expensive solution of a social ‘safety net’ to compensate for the interaction of low pay, unemployment and social dysfunction in disadvantaged communities. Since the 1990s, there has been a trend toward more direct business involvement in public schools or publicly funded charter schools. The author’s analysis of proposals for charter schools in New York State found that ‘self-managed, grassroots, community supported proposals with creative curricular design were denied a charter’. Successful proposals most often involved ‘scripted, pre-packaged curricula’ to be run by for-profit companies. KLA Subject HeadingsBusinessSocially disadvantaged United States of America (USA) Assessment Education finance Education policy Education management Education and state Education aims and objectives Testing information literacy in digital environments: ETS's iSkills Assessment
Volume 26
Number 4, September 2007;
Pages 3–12
There is increasing evidence that the technological competence of the ‘Net Generation’ does not translate into effective skills for research and communication. In that sense, today's students may be ‘less information savvy than earlier generations’. Information literacy refers to the ability to determine information needs, and to find, evaluate and apply the information effectively. ‘ICT literacy’ refers to these abilities as they apply within digital environments. Standards for ICT literacy have been set out by the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL). The Educational Testing Service (ETS) in the United States has created an ‘iSkills assessment’, an Internet-based test designed to measure students’ information literacy skills in technological contexts. The test contains 15 interactive tasks: 14 simple tasks to be completed in three to five minutes, and one 15-minute task requiring a more complex problem to be solved. The tasks were all designed to test cognitive decision making rather than ICT competencies. The interactive tasks allowed for various pathways to accurate answers. Automated help after incorrect answers offered participants the chance to move on to show other skills. In May 2006, the test was taken by 1016 secondary and over 5000 tertiary students. The 63 participating educational institutions selected participants through a variety of methods, including random sampling and invitation. Overall, students ‘performed poorly’. For example, when asked to evaluate a number of websites, only 52% ‘judged the objectivity of the sites correctly’ and only 49% ‘uniquely identified the one website that met all criteria’. In a web search task, only 40% entered multiple search terms to narrow the result; in general, with all tasks, they struggled to narrow searches effectively. Participants tended not to tailor responses to a particular audience. The National Forum on Information Literacy has established a National ICT Literacy Policy Council which is working toward the creation of national ICT literacy standards for the United States. KLA Subject HeadingsInformation literacyInformation and Communications Technology (ICT) Surveys Students Tertiary education Secondary education Educational evaluation Assessment Virtual library: e-ssential
Volume 21
Number 3, September 2007;
Pages 5–8
A well-designed virtual library teaches students information literacy skills and provides access to quality online resources that complement the physical library collection. Virtual libraries will vary depending on the needs of the school and the curricula they support, however some elements are common to all well-constructed online learning environments. Navigation of the site should be simple and intuitive with research guides linking students to physical and online resources for particular subjects and assignments. The virtual library should contain search tools and electronic database pages, and a link to the school library catalogue. Bibliographic and citation guides and other reference services, such as an ‘ask a librarian’ email service, should be accompanied by thorough instruction in information literacy. Students should be taught to use appropriate search engines, how to read URLs, and how to select relevant databases. Teaching information ethics, including an understanding of plagiarism and correct referencing, as part of a curriculum unit ensures that students are informed and possess the skills relevant to their immediate needs. Virtual libraries can help supplement the curriculum with validated age and reading-level appropriate material. With interactive whiteboards increasingly present in classrooms, digital resources and learning objects are particularly appropriate as they can cater to a range of learning styles. A virtual library can be updated more frequently and easily than the print collection. However, building a virtual library demands web design and web publishing skills as well as significant time to search for materials and maintain the website. Some schools may find generic gateway sites a more feasible option. Schools should also be conscious of the ‘digital divide’ that exists as a result of unequal access to the Internet from students’ homes, as well as the instability of Internet links, which should be checked regularly. Schools should be realistic about virtual library design, building up capacity over time. Teacher librarians can also save time by encouraging subject teachers to contribute relevant web resources and subject links to the site. Today’s students are accustomed to using the Internet to meet their information needs, and teacher librarians must either harness this reliance on the web or risk being seen as irrelevant. KLA Subject HeadingsLibrariesLibrary resources Information services Information and Communications Technology (ICT) Viewing: an important component of the English curriculum
Volume 12
Number 3, October 2007;
Pages 29–32
'Visuals', visual images or texts, are a significant means of communication in everyday life, and students should be provided with a repertoire of skills with which to critically evaluate images and create meaning. Students must understand that visuals are constructed purposefully in order to invite certain interpretations and exclude others. Common visual texts, including television, illustrations in children’s books, advertisements and greeting cards, can all be used to teach students to identify the ideology and covert meanings underpinning visual texts. Students must be taught the codes used to compose visuals. The ‘modality’ code describes how different features of a visual, such as the level of realism or detail, are manipulated. The angle of a visual relates to whether the viewer is positioned higher or lower in relation to a character in the visual, establishing a particular relationship between the viewer and subject. The distance of the shot, close up or long distance, seeks to elicit either a strong or weak emotive response from the viewer. Viewers will also have a more emotive response to a visual if the character portrayed appears to be looking directly at the viewer. Alternatively, when a character’s gaze is directed at another object or action, the viewer is invited to observe the overall scene rather than be drawn into it. Symbolism, framing, use of colour and, in the case of video, music and lighting are other codes used in visual texts. Teachers can support students’ visual analysis from an early age through various activities. Students can be directed to construct a story orally using only the visuals from a text, and then to compare this to the original. Classes could compare a number of books presenting different perspectives on a similar theme, and discuss how the visuals differ in each. Teachers could ask students to respond affectively to various pictures in storybooks, and discuss how their responses are influenced by the construction of the visuals. Birthday cards for boys and girls can be analysed for gender representation, and students can be encouraged to design new cards representing a broader view of gender. Such activities can support students' acquisition of skills in critical analysis. Key Learning AreasEnglishSubject HeadingsPrimary educationVisual literacy Literacy Marketing Multimedia systems Literacy and sensory-motor difficultiesNovember 2007;
Pages 48–53
Sensory-motor abilities refer to an individual’s capacity to interpret and utilise sensory information from their surrounding environment to plan skilled motor actions. These abilities are required in daily living activities such as maintaining an upright posture and controlling a grasped object (as required when handwriting, cutting and employing other important school skills). Attention is also regulated by sensory processing; although sensory information is continuously registered by the human brain, students can’t attend to all of it and need to learn how to prioritise that information and attend selectively to important input. Primary school education research shows that sensory-motor difficulties frequently co-occur with reduced phonological awareness, a crucial skill in reading and writing. In order to write even a single letter, students need to hold the letter in memory, recall the sequence of motor steps required to reproduce it correctly, stabilise the paper, maintain an appropriate grip on the pencil and then execute a planned motor sequence. Students who struggle to execute sensory-motor aspects of handwriting cannot focus as much attention on content and creativity in written work. These students may receive lower grades and begin to avoid writing tasks, therefore missing out on the practice that might improve their skills. Research suggests that up to half of children who receive intervention for delayed phonological or literacy skills may have additional sensory and motor difficulties. Literacy interventions should therefore break away from traditional approaches which assume a child’s ability to sit at a table and focus on work with minimal sensory input. Several studies have demonstrated that providing young primary students with explicit daily practice in letter formation has a positive effect on both handwriting speed and the length and sophistication of stories written by students. Phonological awareness activities should involve greater movement and sensory input and allow students to move away from the table to complete work in different postures and positions. These changes to intervention will increase alertness and sitting endurance, and strengthen the deficient sensory-motor skills that often restrict students’ literacy abilities. Key Learning AreasEnglishSubject HeadingsLiteracyPhonetics Neurology Motivation Reflections on quality teachingSummer 2007;
Pages 41–43
Criticism of teachers from the community is often sensationalised in the interests of ‘emotion stirring television’, however, most often it is simply a case of teachers, parents and the general public holding different perceptions of what constitutes ‘good teaching’. Parents’ expectations represent personal values which can differ even within the same community. Perspectives and understandings of quality teaching are continually changing and expanding, thanks largely to good teaching and standards frameworks. However, standards frameworks can also inhibit good teaching if they are approached in a technical way, with the emphasis on assessing and comparing teachers at the expense of encouraging creativity and responsiveness in local contexts. A list of higher-order attributes exemplifying quality teaching has been developed to inform the New South Wales Quality Teaching Awards. According to the list, good teachers generally demonstrate a high level of knowledge, imagination, passion and commitment to progressing students’ learning. They draw on a wide repertoire of skills, methods and approaches in providing the appropriate ‘mix’ for individual students. They have a detailed understanding of the specific expectations of the local community and local students’ needs, and a capacity to respond to the student cohort both individually and collectively. Good teachers garner a high level of respect and even affection from their school communities as a result of their contribution to the professional learning of others, their moral leadership and professionalism. They also exhibit a great capacity for engagement in professional learning. Schools and communities should encourage, identify and celebrate good teaching, as is the convention in other professions. KLA Subject HeadingsTeaching professionTeacher evaluation New South Wales (NSW) The never ending journeySummer 2007;
Pages 48–50
Hay School of the Air (SOTA) is a campus of the Broken Hill SOTA, servicing remote, primary students from K-6 through a satellite education program. The satellite set-up allows children living on homesteads to hear and see their teacher in the Hay studio, as well as other students, on their computer. Hay SOTA teachers have only one 30-minute session per week allocated to satellite maths teaching. This requires extensive planning to prepare high-quality, engaging lessons. A recent action research project funded by the Australian Government Quality Teacher Program (AGQTP) aims to embed aspects of the New South Wales Quality Teaching Model in Hay SOTA’s mathematics delivery. The AGQTP project highlighted the need for these 30-minute sessions to include short, explicit, modelled teaching segments interspersed with hands-on practical opportunities and off-computer tasks. New lesson plan formats were developed which included the key question ‘What do I want the students to learn?’. This question helped teachers clarify the focus of the lesson as well as keep track of what concepts should be targeted next. The AGQTP project also provided new technologies which facilitate greater interaction between teacher and students. The Bridgit program, for example, allows students remote access to their teacher’s screen and, when used in conjunction with the newly installed Interactive Whiteboard (IWB), teachers were able to watch their students' problem solving work in real time. Under normal circumstances, distance education teachers only see the finished product of students’ workings, sometimes weeks after completion. TLF Learning Objects were also used extensively to promote student engagement. Teachers monitored students’ involvement via a weekly lesson survey sent to all parents, and the collated ratings showed encouraging progress as teachers gained experience with the learning objects and new quality teaching styles. The AGQTP has also led to the development of a Gala Maths Day, held each semester, at which students from Hay SOTA and two conventional public schools meet together to engage in higher-order problem solving activities and mix with age and level-appropriate peers face-to-face. Key Learning AreasMathematicsSubject HeadingsRural educationInformation and Communications Technology (ICT) Rules of innovation?Summer 2007;
Pages 8–10
To integrate ICT effectively, schools need individual innovators solving small problems with ‘baby steps’. New technologies are commonly associated with a ‘hype cycle': the positive hype peaks with inflated expectations resulting in a trough of disillusionment that typically leads to more realistic expectations and an eventual plateau of improved productivity. Educator attitudes to technologies vary widely, as do the quality of the technologies themselves, and the extent to which learners should be taught to resist or rely on new technologies remains controversial. Continuing scepticism has rendered the pace of ICT integration in education ‘monumentally slow’. Innovations related to Web 2.0 technologies, for example, are considered mainly in terms of potential dangers, overshadowing their potential for enhancing learning. Yet the sustainable, effective application of Web 2.0 can promote student-centred, participatory pedagogies by giving users the ability to manipulate information and adapt tools for participation. By delaying uptake of these valuable technological innovations, schools risk losing their influence in shaping learners in the 21st Century. Schools lose credibility in the eyes of students who witness divergence between formal school structures and the personalised learning that takes place outside the classroom. The education sector’s reluctance to engage with technology also cements its position at the fringes of the technology market, thereby ensuring that tools will continue to be designed predominantly for business, defence and leisure rather than specifically for educative purposes. Where technology is being used, schools are usually still attempting to fit new technologies into old pedagogies. However, individual teachers often innovate effective and specific changes that go unnoticed in the busy school day. Schools must develop cultural and operational practices that support such innovations and encourage dialogue. Problems need to be addressed ‘from the bottom up’, with teachers driving small changes and sharing their innovations with colleagues. KLA Subject HeadingsSchool cultureInformation and Communications Technology (ICT) Teachers for the 21st Century: leading and learning for improvement9 September 2007
Although the term ‘teacher leadership’ has become an ‘umbrella phrase’ without a precise meaning, teachers who play leadership roles effectively tend to exhibit some common attributes. They are collaborative, developing supportive working relationships among teachers, administrators and school communities. This collaboration reduces tension and ‘turf wars’ among teachers and administrators and promotes teachers’ self-efficacy. Effective teacher leaders are focussed on ongoing personal and professional learning, establishing learning communities and providing learning opportunities for colleagues. Reflective practice, critiquing implicit values in practice and the personal, social and institutional contexts of that practice, is commonplace in effective teacher leaders. They are committed to meeting the needs of students and are directed by a moral purpose which compels them to consider the needs of students above all else. Teacher leaders are ‘change agents’, possessing a transformative view of professionalism and valuing divergent thinking and risk taking in themselves, colleagues, and students. Schools and systems must actively develop, support, and sustain these leaders by developing school cultures conducive to teacher leadership, and by providing professional development relevant not only to teachers’ skills and knowledge, but also to their specific leadership role. Teacher leaders require professional development promoting skills in leading groups, working collaboratively, mentoring adults and conducting action research. Professional development should focus on change, offer intellectual challenges causing teachers to re-examine their assumptions about education, inspire teachers to share ideas, connect theory with practice, and provide opportunities to collaborate with colleagues from other schools and systems. Such professional development necessitates generous time allocation to promote reflection and collaboration. Education research indicates that provision of such support for teacher leaders will positively influence teacher leaders’ instructional practice, and contribute to the professionalism of teachers more generally. Effective teacher leadership is underpinned by change, directing strategic initiatives towards student and community focussed pedagogy, proactive and responsive, constructive and risk taking. KLA Subject HeadingsSchool leadershipProfessional development There are no Conferences available in this issue. |