The document discusses factors driving change in education and implications for the future of education. It summarizes key messages from international assessments and examples from other education systems. The Scottish education system aims to provide broad education for all students through its Curriculum for Excellence reforms while also raising standards. This includes revitalizing teacher education and supporting career-long professional learning through the new Scottish College for Educational Leadership.

1. Keynote 1
Graham Donaldson

2. SHAPING THE FUTURE
Graham Donaldson
AHDS November 2014

3. Factors Promoting
Change
Information on
school quality,
including
international
comparisons
Te chnologica l de ve lopme nts, comme rcia l
Increased
autonomy at
local and school
levels Increased
Demands to use public
resources efficiently
inte re sts & me dia
Rising importance of education
accountability in public
sector and demands for
evidence-based policy
making
•Knowledge and the economy
•International competition
•Growing expectations

4. Some Implications
New and growing expectations?
Instrumental pressure? Education is for work?
Education for democratic participation / citizenship?
Uncertainty and lifelong learning?
New conceptions of knowledge?
Creativity, teamworking, problem-solving?
Deprivation and educational achievement?
Better learning or different learning?
Anywhere, anytime learning? Hand-held connectivity?
Social networking

5. Some Interesting Challenges
Defeating destiny – deprivation/expectation/aspiration
Raising standards – particularly in maths, science, computing and
basic literacy and numeracy skills
Establishing a broader, more secure and enduring base of
education before qualifications
Creating space for engaging teaching and learning
Sustaining high quality and relevant education
Building the capacity of the teaching profession

6. Storming the classroom citadel
Package and push?
Direct and demand?
Manage and measure?
Promise and punish?
Hearts and heads?
Network and nourish?
Pervasive tension between immediate iimmppaacctt aanndd
lloonngg--tteerrmm,, ssuussttaaiinnaabbllee ggrroowwtthh

7. Impact of Reform
“The basic lesson of nearly fifty years of policymaking in
education at both the federal and state levels is that there is not
necessarily a relationship between what policymakers say will
happen and what actually does happen as a consequence of
policy.”
“...institutional change – including changes in the rhetoric of
policy and in the accompanying regulatory superstructure – do
not necessarily result in educational improvement.”
“Educational reform can become a kind of conspiracy of
ignorance”
Elmore, School Reform from the Inside Out 2007

8. Impact of Reform
“We have in education a long history of innovation but
it rarely touches but a chosen few.”
Hattie, Visible Learning (2009) p254

9. Teachers and change
Cuban and Tyack in Hattie ‘Visible Learning ’ 2009

10. What might work? PISA
2012
Schools with more autonomy over curricula and assessments tend to perform
better than schools with less autonomy when they are part of school
systems with more accountability arrangements and/or greater teacher-principal
collaboration in school management.
Stratification in school systems, which is the result of policies like grade
repetition and selecting students at a young age for different “tracks” or
types of schools, is negatively related to equity; and students in highly
stratified systems tend to be less motivated than those in less-stratified
systems.
Beyond a certain level of expenditure per student, excellence in education
requires more than money: how resources are allocated is just as
important as the amount of resources available.
Across OECD countries, students who reported that they had attended pre-primary
school for more than one year score 53 points higher in
mathematics – the equivalent of more than one year of schooling – than
students who had not attended pre-primary education.
OECD PISA Results in Focus 2014

11. Economic and Social Research Council
Education in a Devolved Scotland 2013
Reading score of 15 year olds
PISA, 2009
BUT ALSO
PISA Reading
2009
Between
Schools
Within
School
England 29% 71%
Wales 17% 83%
NI 51% 49%
Scotland 18% 82%

12. Lessons from abroad
• No universal template – insights not models but
increasing evidence of policy travel accentuated by PISA
and other international surveys.
• Trend towards seeing the curriculum as more than
access to specified range of subjects or courses - moves
from ‘learning about” to “learning to”
• Growing skills focus in curriculum specifications

13. More messages
• Tendency towards breadth with a core
• Literacy and numeracy essential foundations with a
growing emphasis on digital literacy although
• Emphasis on application and development of higher
order skills, creativity, (entrepreneurship)
• Mixed-mode assessment
• ‘Judicious’ (???) use of testing
• Clarity about purposes and uses of assessment –
increasing focus on aid to learning

14. A few more
• Subsidiarity principle common but not universal – statutory
curriculum still quite common but moves towards specification
of goals and to encouraging greater local decision making
including school ownership/teacher agency
• Agility and review demand less cumbersome mechanisms
• System alignment – bringing improved synergies amongst
curriculum, assessment and accountability arrangements
• Recognition of capacity implications– starting point as well as
aspiration

15. High performing education systems combine
quality with equity
Strength of the relationship between performance and socio-economic status is above the OECD average
Strength of the relationship between performance and socio-economic status is not statistically significantly
different from the OECD average
Strength of the relationship between performance and socio-economic status is below the OECD average
Slovak Republic
Hungary
Bulgaria
Chile
Peru
Shanghai-China
Chinese Taipei
Slovenia
Czech Republic
Belgium
Poland
Germany
Singapore
Austria
Switzerland
Viet Nam
Hong Kong-China
Japan
Netherlands
Finland Estonia
Australia Canada
United Kingdom
Denmark
Ireland
Latvia Russian Federation
PortugalLuxembourg
France
Uruguay
New Zealand
Romania
Spain
Israel
Costa Rica
Lithuania
United States Croatia
Turkey
Malaysia
Serbia
Montenegro
Tunisia
Greece
Argentina
Brazil
Sweden
Iceland
Thailand
Norway
Jordan
Colombia Indonesia
Macao-China
United Arab Emirates
Kazakhstan
Qatar
Mexico
Liechtenstein
Korea
Italy
Mean mathematics
score
650
600
550
500
450
400
350
300
OECD average
30 25 20 15 10 5 0
Percentage of variation in performance
explained by the PISA index of economic, social
and cultural status
OECD average
Above-average mathematics performance
Below-average equity in education outcomes
Above-average mathematics performance
Above-average equity in education outcomes
Below-average mathematics performance
Below-average equity in education outcomes
Below-average mathematics performance
Above-average equity in education outcomes
Greater
equity

16. Performance of Swedish students on
PISA

17. Case Study : Sweden
• Decentralised system from 1990s –
• National steering but local delivery – Local decisions about resources and
approaches
• Voucher system
• Free schools funded by state
• Declining PISA and other international performance over successive surveys
• 2011 Goal-focused National Curriculum enshrined in law
•Values, goals, syllabuses
•A – F Grading system based on criteria at 3 Points (A,C,E) / National tests
• Reform of teacher education
•Standards set by National Agency for Education but …
•28 universities
•Individualistic culture
• Compliance-based inspection
•5 year cycle
•Published report
•Non-compliance highlighted but not strengths
•Follow up
• Low standards, indiscipline, low morale, confusion, variability
• Why? Alignment!!!

18. Case Study Scotland: we
have
• Similarly decentralised system but no statutory curriculum, no vouchers
or free schools
• Stable PISA performance after initial decline – much better than Sweden
• Curriculum for Excellence – values/capacities/breadth/literacy &
numeracy
• Major reforms in teaching profession –
• ‘Teaching Scotland’s Future’
• Clear professional standards and registration – GTCS independent
• ITE in universities
• Developing leadership culture
• Growing peer to peer learning and networking
• Leading country in self evaluation and school improvement/risk-based
inspection/strengths highlighted
• Alignment???

19. NATIONAL CONTEXT

20. The Reform ‘Programme’
Broad, twenty-first century education for all (four
capacities / outcomes- based general education between 3
and 15/Senior Phase)
Deep learning and higher standards
Literacy and numeracy across the curriculum
Engaging, imaginative and purposeful pedagogy
Assess what we profess – wider achievement
AND
A new paradigm of governance and change
A revitalised and better connected teaching profession
Distributive leadership
Constructive accountability
GIRFEC
One aligned agenda

21. Scottish Teacher
Education Reform
New degrees – practicum reconceptualised
Career-long professional learning – ITE/Induction
New Standards Framework from GTCS
More relevant, collegiate and challenging professional development
Professional review and update
Masters level profession – Scottish Masters Framework
Scottish College of Educational Leadership (SCEL)
Strong partnership approach - University engagement
(Donaldson, Teaching Scotland’s Future 2010)

22. From In-Service Training to
Career- Long Learning
“She’s been on a course”
Cascade – spray and pray
“They should try teaching here”
“When were they last in a classroom”

23. From In-Service Training to
Career- Long Learning
Individualism and individuality
Balkanisation
Contrived collegiality
Professional learning communities
Clusters, networks and federations
Hargreaves and Fullan, ‘Professional Capital’ 2012

24. What Works Best?
Authentic – real issues in context
Extended not one-off
External stimulus and challenge
Engaged in learning
Collegiate – necessary but not sufficient
Supportive leadership
Funding/release time/voluntary or compulsory unrelated to
influence on student outcomes
Timperly et al quoted in Hattie ‘Visible Learning’ 2009

25. Key Elements
Professional culture – collegiate, reinforcing and exploring
Professional commitment
Supporting structures and partnerships
GTCS Standards
PRD
Focus on impact on learning

26. What about you?
Do not feel imprisoned by the past or the context
Active member of extended professional community
Professional inquiry and exploration
Engage with complexity
Masters level thinking
GTCS Standards and PRD
Leadership is not about length of service
Aspiration, reflection and optimism
A revitalised teaching community
Better experiences and outcomes for our young people

27. KEY MESSAGES
• The world is changing fast
• Schools are inherently sceptical about external solutions
• The answer lies in the school/between schools/beyond schools
• Build the capacity of teachers
• Nobody can give you that answer but outside support and challenge
matters
• Be clear and honest about your challenges – no conspiracies of
ignorance
• The way forward is more about exploration than implementation
• Draw strength from colleagues – isolation is the enemy of
improvement
• Break new ground – real action research

28. Thank You
Graham.Donaldson@glasgow.ac.uk

31. Keynote 2
Gillian Hamilton

32. Gillian Hamilton
AHDS Keynote – November 2014
Follow SCEL on Twitter @TeamSCEL, @CEOSCEL

33. Recommendation 50:
A virtual college of school leadership
should be developed to improve
leadership capacity at all levels within
Scottish education.
Follow SCEL on Twitter @TeamSCEL

34. From virtual to reality:
Virtual:
Almost or nearly as described, but not completely or according to strict
definition.
Not physically existing as such but made by software to appear to do
so.
Denoting particles or interactions with extremely short lifetimes and
(owing to the uncertainty principle) indefinitely great energies,
postulated as intermediates in some processes.
Follow SCEL on Twitter @TeamSCEL

35. Key messages from scoping
•Independence and autonomy
•Inclusivity and accessibility
•Coherence and coordination
•Quality assurance
•Set the leadership agenda
•Partnership in co-construction and delivery
Follow SCEL on Twitter @TeamSCEL

36. Vision
• Develop, articulate and implement a vision for educational
leadership in Scotland that is learner focused and futures
oriented.
• Provide coherence for the range of leadership development
opportunities available in Scotland.
• Offer / facilitate innovative and cutting edge leadership
development opportunities that are research-led, practice
focused and bench marked internationally.
• Embed ‘leadership networks’ across the sectors and
systems so that leaders at all levels are connected to and
within professional leadership communities.
Follow SCEL on Twitter @TeamSCEL

37. Developing SCEL – Progress to date
• Governance
• Staffing – recruitment of CEO and Chair
• Board appointment process complete
• Location and premises
• Initial meetings of Partners’ Forum and Stakeholders’ Forum
• Pilot Fellowship Programme
• National Consultation on Leadership Pathways and National
Headship Programme
Follow SCEL on Twitter @TeamSCEL

38. Follow SCEL on Twitter @teamScel

39. Follow SCEL on Twitter @teamScel

40. Framework for Educational Leadership
All teachers are expected to be leaders in a number of important ways.
They are expected to lead learning for, and with, all learners, with a clear
focus on improving outcomes for everyone (pedagogical leadership).
All teachers are expected to develop their capacity to lead colleagues and
other partners to achieve change, for example through specific projects or
development work (middle leadership).
Teachers in, or aspiring to, leadership roles within education are expected to
lead teams, initiate and manage change effectively and develop leadership
capacity in others (school leadership).
All leaders have a responsibility for encouraging collaborative partnerships to
ensure positive outcomes for all children and young people (system
leadership).
Follow SCEL on Twitter @teamScel

41. Follow SCEL on Twitter @teamScel

42. Follow SCEL on Twitter @teamScel

43. Programme Development
Phased programme of growth and development
•Teacher leadership / Middle leadership
•Headship programmes
•Headstart programme for new heads
•Serving heads / Fellowship Programme
•Regional Network Leaders
•Register of experts / specialists
Follow SCEL on Twitter @teamScel

44. SCEL Fellowship Programme
• Designed to provide advanced development opportunities for headteachers
in schools and heads of establishments in early years centres.
• Design principles underpinned by the model of professional learning that
integrates reflection on practice, cognitive development, experiential learning
and collaborative learning.
• Participants will extend their professional learning and widen their leadership
experience while taking forward an aspect of policy development that
enables them to engage with policy formation and implementation at local,
national and international levels.
• New Fellows will become champions and ambassadors for the College as
well as contributing as system leaders in Scotland.
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45. Follow SCEL on Twitter @teamScel

46. Regional networks
Team of Regional Network Leaders
Work for the College for an agreed number of days per year
Local partners – LA link officers, learning reps, ES area
officers
Defined role
Follow SCEL on Twitter @teamScel

47. Follow SCEL on Twitter @TeamSCEL

48. Contact us at:
Scottish College for Educational Leadership
The Centrum Building
Unit 2E - 38 Queen Street
Glasgow
G1 3DX
0141 548 8005
www.scelscotland.org.uk
Follow SCEL on Twitter @teamScel