Networked Learning Communities: School Improvement for Educational Leaders
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Networks and professional learning communities of teachers, principals, schools, and even districts have become a common method in education for trying to sustain change in practice. Although there are many positive characteristics that are attributed to networks, there is limited direct investigation of how networks operate and how they can be purposefully and strategically constructed for school improvement and effectiveness.
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Networked Learning Communities: School Improvement for Educational Leaders
- 1. Dr. Sonia Ben Jaafar EduEval
- 2. Mobilizing professional knowledge 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 Learning Communities 2. Strategic focus 3. Collaborative inquiry 4. Role of Leadership 5. Accountability & joint decision making
- 4. Organizational arrangement of 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 Change in teaching practice Sustainable Change in school culture Change in professional communication Better results from schools
- 7. Few cases of 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 in UK & 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 relationships are important Trust as a foundation Move from superficial sharing to joint work Storytelling Helping each other Sharing Joint work Collaborative Inquiry
- 12. Simple intense collaboration 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 scaffold educators through focused collaborative inquiry Uninformed Professional Judgment Informed Professional Judgment
- 14. Uninformed Professional Judgment Informed Professional Judgment Learning from Student artefacts – Process
- 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 patterns highlight 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 to NLC 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 support for 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 on curriculum, 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 artefact structured sharing process Monitor Teacher participation Teacher implementation Boys’ reading comprehension Girls’ reading comprehension
- 24. 1. How to Start a Learning Network in Your School 2. How to Learn and Share Using Student Artefacts