From a lower to a higher performing School - how?

FROM A LOWER TO A HIGHER
PERFORMING SCHOOL - HOW?
Øyvind Sørreime - Norway

Workshop issues
 Do you think the way we use the selection of
research results is a passable way in
improving teaching and learning?
 Do you think the model of sustainable
educational change will have an impact on
students learning beyond standardizations
and tests?

Norwegian research
 Good learning activities in the classroom, but
too often the activities are not connected to
each other or to a clear learning objective
(Klette 2008)
 There is a significant gap between the ideas
of improvement among school leaders on
one hand, and on the other hand the teaching
and learning practices in the classrooms
(Imsen 2003)

TALIS key findings
 Norway has a weak appraisal and feedback
culture related both at the level of school-owner
to school leadership, as well as between school
leadership to teachers
 Norwegian lower secondary teachers provide
less feedback to student work than teachers in
other participating countries
 Norway has principals who are clear in the
administrative part of their role as a leader, but
far less visible as instructional leaders

OECD’s PISA 2009 (Programme for International
Student Assessment)

PISA key findings
 Norwegian students have had significant
progress in reading literacy since 2006, but
they do not score any better than they did in
2000
 For the first time they have a score
significantly above the OECD average

From a lower to a higher performing school - how?
We know what works
We even know what works best

Robinsons ”School leadership and Students
Outcomes: Identifying what works and why”

“Promoting and participating in teacher
learning and development have a
significant impact on students' learning”
Robinson, V., Hohepa, M. & Lloyd, C. (2009)

Hargreaves’ and Shirley’s
”The Fourth Way”
Improving schools through sustainable educational change

”Inspiring purposes developed and achieved
with others are the foundation of successful
and sustainable educational change”
Hargreaves and Shirley

Sustainability is the capacity of a system
to engage in the complexities of
continuous improvement consistent with
deep values of human purpose
Fullan 2004

Influences on Achievement
.40
.30
.15
0
.50
.60
.70
.80
.90
1.0RE VE RSERE VE RSE
D
evelopm
ental
D
evelopm
ental
Effects
Effects
Typical
Typical
Teacher
Teacher
Effects
Effects
ZONE OFZONE OF
DE SIRE DDE SIRE D
E FFE CTSE FFE CTS
John Hattie - Visible Learning

About Hattie’s ”Visible
Learning”
 The principal question:What works best?
 The answer relates to what’s going on in the
classroom
 Feedback
 Formative evaluation
 Classroom behavioral
 Teacher – students relationship
 The opposite question:Why continue a
practice that doesn’t work?

John Hattie - Visible Learning

Sustainable education beyond
standardizations and tests
Paths of distraction
Incompatible with sustainable
education
(Hargreaves and Shirley 2009)
Our basis for sustainable
educational change
 Autocracy – improving
schools by detail governance
 Technocracy – improving
schools by more tests and
top-down standardizations
 Effervescence - improving
schools by short-term
strategies
 Experiences from participating
in the national project
”Assessment for learning”
 Our own values of human
purpose
 Findings in national and
international research and
surveys
 Change of practice by
monitoring and instuctional
leadership

What we learned from participating in the
national project ”Assessment for learning”:
 Focus on students’ learning rather than
students’ doing
 Focus off the teacher and on to the student
 Focus on clear learning objectives, feedback
and feed-forward, students’ self-assessment
and parents’ participation

Yellow is a brave colour, and we
developed “yellow values” of human
p purpose at Skeie skole, which are:
*Be educationally and methodologically brave
*Act wholeheartedly in all your practice
*Act independently within our common goals
and framework
*Have a deliberate focus on learning in every
classroom activity

So – how?

Sustainable educational change
We developed a model for sustainable education
change
 Reflection on teaching and learning
 Visible leadership in the classroom
 Visible school leadership

Reflection on teaching and learning
Success Criterion:
Use precise terms for learning when learning is
planned and implemented

Reflection on teaching and learning
Teachers:Weekly talks of how to
• have a clear beginning and a clear summary of each
learning session
• use students' prior knowledge actively
• clarify the purpose of learning session for students
• help students to develop a variety of learning strategies
School leaders: Monthly feedback to the teachers
Organization: Develop a common understanding of
key learning concepts and transform it to practice in
the classroom

Reflections on teaching and learning
Key learning consepts:
 Learning goals that are clear, concrete, which are repeated and
understood, provides a high learning effect
 Criteria that are clear, concrete, which is repeated and understood,
provides a high learning effect
 Feedback that relates to learning objectives and criteria, provides a
high learning effect
 Feed-forward that builds on students' acquired knowledge, and
linked to learning strategies, provides a high learning effect
 Students' skills in self-assessment provides a high learning effect
 Students' ability and opportunity to communicate with peers and
teachers about what is learned, provides a high learning effect
 The students' own efforts of learning, provides a high learning effect

Visible leadership in the classroom
Success Criterion:
Use the methodological steps that we know
works best for students

Visible leadership in the classroom
 Build robust teacher-student relationships
 Use the points from the teachers’ weekly
talks
 Use clear learning goals and concrete criterias
of achievement
 Use feedback and feed-forward based on
clarified criterias of achievement
 Develop and use the students’ skills in self-
assessment

Visible school leadership
Success Criterion:
Apply educational leadership that has a
significant impact on students' learning.
Transform the school to a learning organization

Visible school leadership
 Participate in the classrooms regularly
 Participate in regular talks with the teachers
 Give feedback to the teachers, based on the
points in Reflection on teaching and learning
 Improve learning activities motivated by
experiences and research that have significant
impact on students’ learning (what works best)
 Emphasize the educational leadership when
priority of time must be made

Organising
 Deputy 1: Responsible for the teaching and
learning activities at Grade 2 and 3
 Deputy 2: Responsible for the teaching and
 Principal: Responsible for the teaching and
 Joint responsibility for the teaching and
learning activities at Grade 5

Organising
September
2011
Mandag Tirsdag Onsdag Torsdag Fredag
Viktige hendelser
Uke 38: Nasjonal brannvernuke (i løpet av denne uka
gjennomføres en brannøvelse)
DKS-arr.: 15. og 23. september
Kartlegginger/tester
Nasjonale prøver lesing: 14. september
Nasjonale prøver i engelsk: 21.september
Carlsten
Lesekartlegging fra Udir 7. trinn
Ordkjedetest
Alle teller
Frister
Ferdig med foreldremøtene innen fredag 16.september
Registrering i pas NPL 30. september
Møter
Ressursteamet
Drøfting tv 27.sep kl.1145
HMS 12.sep kl.1145
Faste innslag
Morgenmøte hver mandag kl.0815.
Kontormøte hver mandag kl.0845-1030
Fellestid hver mandag kl. 1330 - 1530
Trinntid tirsdager og onsdager/torsdager
35 1 2
36 5
Fellestid:
Vi jobber ferdig de lokale
læreplanene
6
Trinntid:
Trinnsamtaler 5.trinn
7 8 9
37 12
Fellestid:
Vi lærer om systematisk lese- og
skriveopplæring og overfører det
til praksis
13
Trinntid:
Trinnsamtaler
1., 2. og 4.trinn
14 15
DKS
(7. trinnet)
16
38 19
Fellestid:
Vi konkretiserer ”Robuste lærer -
elevrelasjoner er en forutsetning
for god læring”
20
Trinntid:
21 22 23
DKS
(6. trinnet)
39 26
Fellestid:
Vi utvikler læringsfremmende
tilbake- og framovermeldinger
27
Trinntid: Trinnsamtale
3., 6. og 7.trinn
28 29 30

Outcome
Main purposes
 Increase focus on learning activities in the
classroom that work best
 Develop a learning organization
 Anchor learning achievement in a targeted
interaction between school leaders, teachers
and students

Outcome
The teachers' feedback is unambiguous.
 The selected learning concepts are used in the
teaching and learning activities
 Students are participants in their own learning
 Teachers develop methods of what works best
for student learning
 The school has become a learning organization
 We expect that the model for sustainable
learning will improve the students’ learning
outcome in the future

Outcome

What’s the next improvements
 Parents’ participation
 Feedback – what works best
 Teacher observations in each other
classrooms, follow-up talks and reflektion

From a lower to a higher performing School - how?

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