Leadership for Learning in Ireland

20/21 August 2003

Professor John West-Burnham

WHAT DO WE KNOW ABOUT LEARNING?

  1. Learning is individual, subjective and unique.
  1. Learning is a neurological process.
  1. Learning is physiological.
  1. Learning is mediated by family and community.
  1. Learning is a social and emotional relationship.
  1. Intelligence is learnable.
  1. Learning involves success, play and fun.

TOWARDS A DEFINITION OF LEARNING

Shallow / Deep / Profound
Means / Memorisation / Reflection / Intuition
Outcomes / Information / Knowledge / Wisdom
Evidence / Replication / Understanding / Meaning
Motivation / Extrinsic / Intrinsic / Moral
Attitudes / Compliance / Interpretation / Challenge
Relationships / Dependence / Independence / Interdependence

CREATING KNOWLEDGE

PRIVATE PUBLIC

KNOWLEDGEKNOWLEDGE

NEW KNOWLEDGE

DEMONSTRATING UNDERSTANDING

  • Explanation
  • Exemplification
  • Transfer
  • Justification
  • Comparison
  • Contextualisation
  • Generalisation
  • Action

Perkins, D. (1998) Smart Schools, Free Press

UNDERSTANDING DEEP AND PROFOUND LEARNING

  1. Reflect on an example of deep and profound learning in you own life. (e.g. learning a foreign language, to play a musical instrument, to swim, to drive, etc.)
  1. How did you know that you had achieved understanding?
  1. What were the significant factors that enabled you to achieve understanding?
  1. Working with you neighbour compare and contrast your experiences of deep and profound learning.
  1. What are the common factors?
  1. What are the implications for your classroom practice?

THE AUTONOMOUS LEARNER

The autonomous learner knows how to learn and has a disposition to do so. She can identify, on her own, and /or with others, a problem, analyse its components and then marshal the resources, humanand non-human, to solve it.

She has developed, and continues to refine, a wide portfolio of learning strategies.

She continuously questions herself and others as to whether she is employing the best learning methods. She can explain the processes of her learning and its outcomes to her peers and others, when such a demonstration is required.

She is able to organise information and, through understanding, convert it into knowledge. She is sensitive to her personal portfolio of intelligences.

She knows when it is best to work alone, and when in a team, and knows how to contribute to and gain from teamwork. She sustains a sharp curiosity and takes infinite pains in all she does.

Above all, she has that security in self, built through a wide and deep set of relationships and through her own feelings of worth fostered in part by others, to be at ease with doubt, and to welcome questioning and probing of all aspects of her knowledge.

LEARNING CENTRED LEADERSHIP

  1. Personal efficacy as a learner.
  2. A sophisticated knowledge base about learning.
  3. The ability to guide and support the learning of others.
  4. A rich vocabulary of learning and the ability to engage in dialogue.
  5. Values rooted in the rights of the individual learner.
  6. Comfort with change and innovation.
  7. The ability to translate principle into practice.

TOWARDS THE LEARNINGSCHOOL

In schools where Learning Centred Leadership is strong, there will be a real commitment to learning about and improving learning. In the most developed schools, there will be a shared pedagogical vocabulary. You will hear, in the staff room and around the school, at the ends of lessons, teachers, support staff and pupils planning and reflecting on teaching and learning, often in a quite informal way. Expectations and approaches will be explicitly articulated and in evidence in all areas of the organisation and there will be a continuous dialogue about learning in a community rich in teacher reflection and collaboration.

Leadership in these schools will be instructionally focussed and is also likely to be interpersonally strong, futures-oriented and strategically driven. There will be no doubt that highly visible heads and leadership teams take a lead in questioning, reflecting on and nurturing excellent learning at all levels in the organisation. The school will seek out new knowledge in relations to what is known about learning. Staff will talk, for example, of brain friendly schools, accelerated and other learning strategies, new research, enquiry, unanswered questions about teaching. There will be evidence of planned and supported professional growth and the school will be able to document quality and perceptions of learning. Pupils will talk explicitly about learning styles, targets and strategies. There will be an optimism about learning and potential, a commitment to celebration. Meetings, too, will focus on sharing teaching and learning, problem solving and joint planning rather than the usual round of mundane administration. In short, there will be a buzz about learning and in the most impressive of places, there will be no need for seeking after evidence—it will be everywhere, from the moment you walk through the door.

NCSL 2002 LEARNING CENTRED LEADERSHIP a Leading Edge Seminar

THE LEARNING FOCUSSED SCHOOL

  1. Values, norms and beliefs are centred on learning.
  1. There is regular professional dialogue and inquiring about learning and teaching.
  1. Leadership and management processes, systems and structures are focussed on learning.
  1. Learning about learning is at the heart of all professional development.
  1. There is regular sharing of research based professional knowledge about learning.
  1. The family and community are integrated into learning strategies.

leadership for learning ireland/JWB

THE LEARNING CENTRED SCHOOL

The components of the learning centred school.
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7. / The current situation in my school. / Action required.

leadership for learning ireland/JWB