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Networked Learning Communities: School Improvement for Educational Leaders
The document discusses the importance of mobilizing professional knowledge and the role of collaborative inquiry in improving educational practices and student achievement. It outlines strategies for creating network learning communities, emphasizing leadership, trust, and deep collaboration to foster a supportive school culture. Challenges include difficulty in cultivating necessary social processes and the need for focused efforts and leadership support for sustained success.
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Networked Learning Communities: School Improvement for Educational Leaders
- 1. Dr. Sonia BenJaafar EduEval
- 2. Mobilizing professionalknowledge is critical Knowledge management is embedded in social processes Collaboration as an organizational goal Strategies to promote these social processes Network learning communities
- 3. 1. Network LearningCommunities 2. Strategic focus 3. Collaborative inquiry 4. Role of Leadership 5. Accountability & joint decision making
- 4. Organizational arrangementof education professionals Continuous and purposeful learning Goal: To improve professional effectiveness ◦ Better professional practice ◦ Increased student learning ◦ Increased student achievement Many names ◦ Communities of continuous inquiry and improvement ◦ Professional Learning Community ◦ Network learning community
- 6. Promise Changein teaching practice Sustainable Change in school culture Change in professional communication Better results from schools
- 7. Few casesof sustained success Many cases of failed attempts Reasons ◦ Hard to cultivate necessary social processes within an organization ◦ Efforts not focused ◦ Lack of understanding of social processes and organization ◦ Lack of leadership support
- 8. Research inUK & Canada Dimensions of Successful NLCs 1. Strategic focus 2. Relationships for collaborative inquiry 3. Informal & formal leadership 4. Sustaining collective understanding
- 9. 1. Strategic Focus Aligned with school vision Evidence-based Shared across schools E.g., Are ESL students are bringing down the school average for mathematics achievement?
- 10. 1. Strategic Focus Aligned with school vision Evidence-based Shared across schools E.g., Is boys reading comprehension lower than girls’ reading comprehension in all our schools?
- 11. Professional relationshipsare important Trust as a foundation Move from superficial sharing to joint work Storytelling Helping each other Sharing Joint work Collaborative Inquiry
- 12. Simple intensecollaboration is not enough Deep collaboration ◦ Make own knowledge explicit & accessible ◦ Invite critique & challenge ◦ Ready for evidence on beliefs & practices ◦ Learn from others Hard work Not normal part of school culture
- 13. NLCs scaffoldeducators through focused collaborative inquiry Uninformed Professional Judgment Informed Professional Judgment
- 14.
- 15. Organizational arrangement Navigates usual boundaries to create connections Creates the situation for collaborative inquiry Addresses logistics for network Fosters school culture for educator professional growth
- 16. Network patternshighlight distributed leadership Cultivates ownership Allows for localized sustained improvement Fosters professional growth Formal leaders ◦ People with positions of authority Informal leaders ◦ People without positions of authority
- 17. Critical toNLC at school & network levels Encouraging and motivating others ◦ Open dialogue about teacher learning ◦ Creating conditions for job-embedded learning Setting & monitoring agenda ◦ Keeping the staff efforts aligned to the focus Sharing leadership ◦ Empowering others
- 18. Providing supportfor building capacity ◦ Individual capacity knowledge and skills for content work ◦ Relational capacity learning how to share and interact ◦ Organizational capacity learning how to create shared learning space
- 19. Focused oncurriculum, teaching, and learning Highlights instructional leadership Requires capacity Create high expectations based on vision Model appropriate behaviour & motivate individuals Involved in building collaborative processes Share information with formal leaders
- 20. Monitoring &Evaluation ◦ Using systematic data collection and analysis Evidence-informed decisions at the school and network levels Good decision ◦ Made based on data ◦ Made together Responsibility of formal and Informal leadership Inclusive process
- 21. Shared Focus:Improving boys’ reading comprehension & maintaining girls’ high scores Informal leaders: Literacy Leads
- 22. Strategy: Student artefactstructured sharing process Monitor Teacher participation Teacher implementation Boys’ reading comprehension Girls’ reading comprehension
- 24. 1. How toStart a Learning Network in Your School 2. How to Learn and Share Using Student Artefacts