The importance of distributive leadership for implementing blended learning.

1. Distributive Leadership and
Phenomenography
Professor Mike Keppell
Pro Vice-Chancellor, Learning
Transformations
1 October 2015
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2. Overview
• Distributive leadership
• Blended learning
• Fellowship Scheme
• Research approach
• Phenomenography
• Perceptions of fellows
• Implications
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3. What is
Distributive
Leadership?
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4. Shared Purpose
Distributive leadership
focuses on collaboration,
shared purpose,
responsibility and
recognition of leadership
irrespective of role or
position within an
organisation.
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5. Characteristics
•Collegial sharing of knowledge,
practice and reflection
•Building of trust
•Creation of a learning culture
• Sharing and disseminating of
information
•(Brown and Littrich, 2008)
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6. Why is it Important?
• Leadership focused
on principles of
distributive
leadership may
have potential in
creating widespread
strategic change.
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7. • The disintegration of the
distinction and the growing
acceptance that learning
occurs in different ‘places’
presents both exciting and
challenging opportunities
for higher education.
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Blended Learning

8. •Flexible learning provides
opportunities to improve the
student learning experience
through flexibility in time,
pace, place, mode of study,
teaching approach, forms
of assessment and staffing.
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Flexible Learning

9. •Blended and flexible learning
is a design approach that
examines the relationships
between flexible learning
opportunities, in order to
optimise student engagement.
(Keppell, 2010, p. 3; Garrison
& Vaughan, 2008).
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Blended and Flexible Learning

10. •Development of potential leaders across
multiple levels and multiple areas of the
university
•Facilitation of collaborative professional
relationships between the schools and
faculties.
•The proactive development of course and
subject learning and teaching.
•Recognition of learning management system
as a pivotal teaching and learning hub.
Teaching Fellowship Scheme

11. •Engaged 26 Fellows across four
faculties, 23 schools and nine
different campuses.
•A community of practice focused
on peer learning
•Teaching fellows widened the
awareness of blended learning
strategies within the school
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Teaching Fellowship Scheme

12. •It was essential that each
fellow remained within their
school to maximise their
influence as a distributive
leader.
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Teaching Fellowship Scheme

13. •The Teaching Fellowship
Program provided a 50%
release from regular teaching
duties over a 12-month period.
•2008 - 2012.
•
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Teaching Fellowship Scheme

14. Fellowship Projects
• Design and implement a virtual microscopy
teaching resource
• Design of twelve subjects in Information
Studies
• To refine and implement changes to the
pedagogy, support and learning experience
within the newly created cross-campus B.Ed
(EC & Primary)
• Development of a blending learning model that
will stimulate increased technology adoption by
Faculty
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15. Fellowship Projects
• The virtual horticultural crop: An innovative blended
learning approach in distance education
• Professional development for blended learning and
teaching in the 21st century digital classroom
•Pattern Recognition for Learning through Simulation
using Captivate in Policing
•Campus Learning: Exploring the nexus between
space, time, teaching and learning
• Shifting to student-centred facilitation of learning:
Development of blended professional development
initiatives for police educators within a student
problem-based learning (PBL) environment
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17. Research
• Analysis/problem: Need for
innovation in blended and flexible
learning
• Development: Teaching fellows
redesigned at the coalface in their own
discipline
• Evaluation: interviews: before, during
and after the project - Transformative
learning & Distributive leadership
• Reflection: Refined after each year
e.g. conducted interviews six months
after project. Continued for five years.
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18. Phenomenography
• The research goals are interpretivist in nature
and “focus on portraying how education works
by describing and interpreting phenomena
related to teaching, learning, performance,
assessment, social interaction and
innovation” (Reeves 2000, 23).
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19. Design-based Research
• Anthropologically driven design-based
research seeks to understand the nature of
the introduced changes and their
consequences from the perspective of the
participants, and often it provides them with a
voice and a source of influence on shaping
changes to their settings. (Bell, 2004, p. 245)
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20. Reeves (2000)

21. Transformative Learning
• An enhanced understanding of pedagogy
and of their own pedagogical approach.
• An increased capacity and willingness to
reflect upon their own practice.
• A willingness to think critically about
received ideas and conventional approaches.
• Readiness to innovate, to accept
technological change and to build effective
pedagogic connections between face-to-face
and online teaching strategies.
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22. Transformative Learning
• Renewed confidence with regard to leading and
adopting change and innovation among their
peers and within their own schools.
• Being empowered to negotiate perceived
technological and institutional barriers to change.
• Preparedness to maximise the time/space
opportunity of the Fellowship to actively
engage in meaningful and relevant activities for
their individual context.
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23. Leadership Roles after Fellowship
•Course Director, Faculty of Science, 2011.
•School of Medical Sciences' Learning and Teaching Committee in 2009 and in 2011
won an ALTC Citation for Outstanding Contributions to Student Learning, and also in
2011 was awarded the CSU Vice-Chancellor's Award for Teaching and Learning.
•Appointed Sub-Dean Learning and Teaching for the Faculty of Business.
•Appointed Course Director and managed the Pathways Programs and in building
connections with external education organisations and bodies.
•Awarded the Vice-Chancellors Award for Excellence in Sustainability in 2011 and
has been awarded substantial funding for several sustainability and environmental
projects.
•Associate Head of School since the start of 2011, was acting Sub-Dean Learning
and Teaching during semester 1, 2011 and acting Head of School for 3 months in late
2011.
•Awarded the Vice Chancellor and Faculty of Arts Awards for Teaching Excellence
in 2009 and also received an ALTC Citation for Outstanding contribution to student
learning 2010.
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24. Outputs
• Scholarly outcomes have
included:
• 14 external conference
presentations, 17 internal
conference presentations, an ARC
discovery grant application, 26
refereed publications and a
number of internal research
collaborations resulting from the
FLI Teaching Fellowship Program.
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25. Implications for
Swinburne
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26. 26
2015 Technology Outlook: Trends

27. 27
2015 Technology Outlook: Challenges

28. Rethinking the
Roles of Educators
Blended &
Online
Learning
Analytics
Personalised
Learning
Scholarship of
Teaching and
Learning
Open Education
OERs
Digital
literacies
Authentic
Assessment
SpacesMobile

29. Formal
On-campus
Informal
On-campus
Formal/Informal
Off-campus
Blended
Learning
Face-to-Face Campus