Teaching and Leading for Quality Australian Schools

Teaching and Leading for Quality Australian Schools
Author: Katina Zammit
Publisher:
Total Pages: 54
Release: 2007
Genre: Education
ISBN: 9780980332308

The current debate surrounding quality schooling makes this stocktake of recent national and international research into quality teaching and school leadership timely and relevant for the teaching profession. This report, commissioned by Teaching Australia and produced by the University of Western Sydney, provides a review and empirically-based synthesis of relevant research and seminal works published in the last five years. Professional organisations and members of the teaching profession in each state and territory were consulted to help identify issues and gaps in the review findings and areas for further research, and to explore the need and potential uses for a research database.

Leading Learning and Teaching

Leading Learning and Teaching
Author: Stephen Dinham
Publisher: ACER Press
Total Pages: 586
Release: 2016-08-01
Genre: Education
ISBN: 1742864244

Leading Learning and Teaching is a thorough, comprehensive sourcebook on school improvement and best-practice leadership, including extensive references, case studies and evidence to back up arguments.

Quality Teaching and School Leadership - A Scan of Research Findings by Louise Watson

Quality Teaching and School Leadership - A Scan of Research Findings by Louise Watson
Author: Louise Watson
Publisher:
Total Pages: 88
Release: 2005
Genre: Educational leadership
ISBN: 9780977525201

This report discusses the research effort in teacher education in terms of 4 central issues. Quality initial teacher preparation, effective links between teacher education programs and schools, the use of advanced standards school leadership and approaches to leadership learning and professional development for teaching.

Educational Leadership for Organisational Learning and Improved Student Outcomes

Educational Leadership for Organisational Learning and Improved Student Outcomes
Author: William Mulford
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 296
Release: 2005-10-14
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 9781402037610

The change in paradigm in our field is away from the great man or woman theory of leadership and the teacher in his or her own classroom to the development of learning communities which value differences and support critical reflection and encourage members to question, challenge, and debate teaching and learning issues. How to achieve such learning communities is far from clear, but we believe the areas of problem-based learning (PBL) and organizational learning (OL) offer valuable clues. The indications are that the successful educational restructuring agenda depends on teams of leaders, whole staffs and school personnel, working together (i.e., OL) linking evidence and practice in genuine collaboration (i.e., PBL). The book is unique in that it is both about and uses these two concepts. The book is made up of four sections: 1.An introductory rational in which the case for using only quality evidence in school reform efforts is argued. Results from a quality research project are then presented. These results are organised around six questions: how is the concept of OL defined in schools ('teacher voice')? what leadership practices promote OL in schools ('teacher voice')? what are some outcomes of schooling other than academic achievement ('pupil voice')? what are the relationships between the non-academic and academic outcomes of schooling? does school leadership and/or organisational learning contribute to student outcomes? And, what other factors contribute to student outcomes? The section concludes with a plea that given the accumulation and consistent quality of the evidence from across systems and countries, we no longer need to involve ourselves with just impressions of effective leadership. We have a way forward that links leadership to organisational learning and improved student outcomes. 2.Advice for using the book. The reasons for the choice of problem-based learning as the vehicle for the professional development materials that form the major part of this book are detailed. Suggestions are then made for use of the book, including a one-day and two- day workshop, and advice on group development and warm-up activities for such group development before moving to the problem-based learning package in Section 3; 3.A problem based-learning, evidence informed, professional development package for aspiring and actual school leaders based on real schools and their leaders. 4.A challenge. The final section provides refined versions of the diagnostic instruments used in the research and challenges readers to use them in their own schools. The book concludes with the references used and a list of other readings.

Learning for Leadership

Learning for Leadership
Author: Michelle Anderson
Publisher: Aust Council for Ed Research
Total Pages: 167
Release: 2008
Genre: Educational leadership
ISBN: 0864316313

Learning for Leadership is about how school principals can initiate and maintain programs and practices to develop the leadership potential of teachers in their school. It explains the theory behind the concept of educational leadership and then, in a series of 'lessons, ' it tells the story of a school much admired for its leadership development. Together, the research and the case study present a strong argument for the introduction of similar programs in schools throughout the world

High-Expectations Relationships

High-Expectations Relationships
Author: Stronger Smarter Institute
Publisher:
Total Pages:
Release: 2014-12
Genre:
ISBN: 9780648052807

This paper has been developed by the Stronger Smarter Institute and is based on concepts and approaches that the Institute has developed over a number of years of running leadership programs for school and community leaders across Australia.The paper draws specifically on the published and unpublished work of Chris Sarra and David Spillman, but also incorporates concepts that have been developed by the Stronger Smarter Leadership Program facilitators and through group conversations with the entire 2014 Stronger Smarter Institute team.The paper introduces the concept of High-Expectations Relationships, which together with a 'positive sense of cultural identity' and 'embracing positive Indigenous leadership', forms one of the three 'pillars' of the Stronger Smarter philosophy and approach.We recognise that in introducing the concept of High-Expectations Relationships in this written form we are not able to provide the in-depth understandings that are possible through the experiences of the Stronger Smarter Leadership Program.Through our internal discussions, we also recognise that the paper raises many questions which are not addressed: What constitutes high-expectations leadership? When is it appropriate or necessary for a school leader to develop High-Expectations Relationships? In what contexts is it possible to create true equal power relationships that move beyond the role of teacher or school leader? In what contexts does the 'role' still need to be part of the relationship? What are the characteristics of a high-expectations classroom?We hope this paper will provide a basis for discussion and we invite our Stronger Smarter Leadership Program alumni and others to provide their thoughts on what a High-Expectations Relationship means in the classroom, school and school-community.

Empowered Educators in Australia

Empowered Educators in Australia
Author: Dion Burns
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
Total Pages: 288
Release: 2017-04-03
Genre: Education
ISBN: 1119369649

BEST PRACTICES FROM AUSTRALIA'S HIGH-PERFORMING SCHOOL SYSTEMS Empowered Educators in Australia is one volume in a series that explores how high- performing educational systems from around the world achieve strong results. The anchor book, Empowered Educators: How High-Performing Systems Shape Teaching Quality Around the World, is written by Linda Darling-Hammond and colleagues, with contributions from the authors of this volume. The authors of Empowered Educators in Australia take an in-depth look at the policies and practices surrounding teaching quality in two different states: New South Wales (NSW) and Victoria. NSW offers significant support for government schools in areas such as staffing and teacher professional development. Victoria operates a highly devolved school system. Each provides a contrasting view of how federal and state policies combine to shape learning outcomes for students in Australia. The interplay between state and federal policy characterizes an intriguing "centralizing decentralization." Initiatives to create national curricular, teaching, and teacher education standards all sit in balanced tension with a movement towards greater devolution of authority to schools. Together the NSW and Victoria case studies provide insights into policies that can support high-quality teaching in a federal education system. Australia's current educational reforms place increasing emphasis on issues of teaching quality, reshaping teaching as a standards-based, evidence-informed profession, and one that seeks to foster collegiality and professional exchange. These reforms encompass many aspects of a system that supports teaching quality, and highlight: the way teachers are trained, how they are inducted into the teaching profession and supported with mentors, the professional learning they receive, how they are appraised on their work, and the career pathways for teachers.

Creating the Outstanding School

Creating the Outstanding School
Author: David E. Lynch
Publisher: Lulu.com
Total Pages: 218
Release: 2015-08-08
Genre: Education
ISBN: 1329385438

From three of Australia's leading teaching and teacher education researchers comes a book about creating the outstanding school. Lynch, Madden and Doe provide an easy to read text that is all about ensuring every student gets a quality education. Each chapter explains, in easy to read terms, a set of ideas and research-based strategies that schools and their teachers can employ to reform their school. The book identifies for the reader and then explains the key research-based elements that lie at the heart of creating the outstanding school. The book features the Collaborative Teacher Learning Model and the elements of 'teaching, ' 'leadership', 'coaching', 'mentoring', 'feedback', 'data driven decision-making', 'high impact instruction' and the idea of 'teachers as researchers' as the embodiment of a school-based strategy for creating the outstanding school. This book is compulsive reading for teachers and school leaders and those who care about our children's education future.

Teaching and Learning

Teaching and Learning
Author: Dennis M. McInerney
Publisher: IAP
Total Pages: 436
Release: 2008-10-01
Genre: Education
ISBN: 160752970X

Our highly interconnected global education environment provides unprecedented opportunities for teaching professionals and educational researchers to share best practice in teaching and learning across international borders and sociocultural frontiers. This volume presents a diverse range of innovative educational best practices from around the world – particularly those practices that directly strengthen and enhance student motivation and achievement in a broad range of sociocultural contexts. These practices include: enhancing teaching and learning environments, particularly in relation to provision of high quality infrastructure for 21st Century (digital) learning; designing and managing after-school homework support; recruiting, developing and retaining high-quality teaching staff; promoting international and multicultural awareness through deliberate exposure to varied cultural experiences and perspectives; optimizing the benefit of project work for student academic and social outcomes; designing educational interventions based on self-concept research; and developing an international service learning course for tertiary students. The editors of the present volume have gathered over thirty renowned educators and researchers from Asia, Australia, Europe, and the United States, to share their experiences in developing best practices in teaching and learning in socioculturally and educationally diverse contexts. These practices, guided and underpinned by cutting edge educational/psychological theories and research, are believed to be adaptable to many diverse educational and sociocultural contexts. The editors invite researchers, professionals, educators, teachers, lecturers, policy-makers, and curriculum developers to think, reflect, and take action on how to utilize the underlying principles of the best practices in the present Volume to their own settings.