The management and leadership of learning

This topic rests on the conviction that there is a huge untapped potential for educational improvement that can be released when teachers are provided with support which enables them to lead development work and build professional knowledge collaboratively. This view underpins activities with the HertsCam Network and the International Teacher Leadership project. It rests on the belief that, for an education system to be successful, learning has to occur on all levels at once; that is to say that learning is for pupils/students, for teachers/support

staff, for schools and for the systems within which they operate (MacBeath et al., 2006).

This topic is based on the principle that sustained development and change in any education system cannot be imposed from outside but must emanate from changes in the understanding and practice of teachers in authentic classrooms. The idea that change will be brought about by teachers, at any level, critically evaluating, amending and then re-evaluating practice and policy is central to

this whole programme. Leadership seen as teachers leading change therefore permeates the whole programme. It also exists as a separate topic in order to facilitate a focus on approaches to leadership within the different levels.

The approach to leadership adopted in this topic, particularly at Level 3, is underpinned by principles of Teacher Led Development Work (Cambridge University) in which teachers change as they reflect on their practice in relation to ideas addressed through the programme. They identify, research or evaluate and develop aspects of their own practice in relation to these ideas. This of course depends on teachers being able to think critically and is closely linked to topic two about critical thinking.

Action Research

Practitioner educational researchis a conceptual and linguistic overarching term used for an array of research approaches (Cochran-Smith & Lytle, 2009) such as ethnographic and case studies. In the wider literature there are various approaches to practitioner inquiry reported, with different emphases and intentions as well as different historical and epistemological traditions however there are also common aspects. For example, all forms of practitioner inquiry involve a practitioner, for example a teacher or medical practitioner, simultaneously taking on the role of researcher. The important premise is that such practitioners, who work inside a particular practice context, have significant knowledge and perspectives about that situation. Furthermore, practitioner inquiry also builds on the premise that the relationship between knowledge and practice is complex and non-linear and that the knowledge needed to improve practice is influenced by the contexts and relations of power that structure the daily work of the specific practice.

What is school based educational action research?

School based educational action research is the process whereby practitioners deliberate on and respond to school based problems. This form of research is not so much ‘in’ and ‘about’ education as ‘for’ education. Consequently it is the role of the teacher to engage in the process of self-reflective enquiry so that they will understand and improve their own practice. The efforts of the participants of educational action research are geared towards changing the curriculum,

challenging existing school practices and working for social change by engaging in a continuous process of problem posing, data gathering, analysis and action.

Teachers are often concerned with issues in their classrooms and actively try to address these. When a teacher intervenes to make changes to their practice and at the same time systematically collects evidence of the effects of these changes, then they are engaging in action research. There are many interpretations of action research because the approach is used in a wide range of education and other settings. However, in all cases there is a common intention, which is to change practice in response to a problem identified by the practitioner researcher.

Another important feature of action-research inquiry is that it is always done by or with insiders within an organization or community and not by an external team of researchers whousually study teachers or students in action.School-based action research is about investigating human actions and social situationsthat are experienced by teachers. The impetus for the research might stem from a situation beingconsidered as unacceptable in some respects, susceptible to change or requiring a practicalresponse.

Accordingly, action research is concerned with the everyday practical problems experiencedby teachers and as such is a flexible research approach, where methodology is definedas an orientation towards research, rather than a particular set of research tools and strategies.Action research can introduce teachers to the power of systematic reflection on practice.

The basic assumption is that all teachers have within them the power to meet all the challenges of the teaching profession. The secret of success in the profession of teaching is to continually grow and learn. Action research is a way for teachers to continue to grow and learn by making use of practical experiences. Action research literally starts where the teacher is and takes them as far as they want to go.

In summary Action Research is:

• the process of taking action to improve teaching and learning plus the systematic study of the action and its consequences;

• typically designed and conducted by practitioners who analyze data from their workplace to improve their own practice;

• a type of applied research in which the researcher is actively involved in the cause for which the research is conducted.

• fits within the rich traditionof qualitative research that has emerged from the fields of anthropology, sociology, and ethnography.

Lesson Study

Lesson study is a form of classroom research which originated in the 1870s in Japan as a means to improve and refine practice. Lesson Study has recently become popular beyond Japan in 2007 when Makoto Yoshida bought the idea to the United States and the UK. Researchers became interested in the apparently higher academic attainment of Japanese pupils, as demonstrated in international studies. Yoshida claims that this is due to the widespread use of lesson study in Japanese schools. Lesson study is now being widely used as a means for developing teachers’ pedagogical content knowledge and practice in several countries across East Asia. It could be argued that reflective practice is a form of lesson study. However, for a professional development activity to be called lesson study there are certain underpinning principles and practical elements of the process that must be retained. Lesson Study is an essentially collaborative

approach to teacher learning and the development of practice and like action research involves a number of cycles. Central to Lesson Study is the ‘research lesson’ or ‘study lesson’ in which the collaborating teachers study pupils learning in order to ascertain how they might further develop a particular approach to enhance learning. Lesson Study involves both creativity and scientific rigour. The creativity comes from teachers working together to develop new teaching approaches. Scientific rigour is involved in collecting the evidence of pupil learning that will demonstrate whether or not the new approaches have been effective.

Lesson study is essentially a democratic way of improving practice. Groups normally consist of at least three teachers and benefit from including a range of experience and expertise. The teachers are likely to come from one school but a group may involve teachers from a number of schools working together to improve practice. Sometimes teachers with a particular expertise in the approach or aspect of curriculum being tried may be included in the group for guidance.

However, all members of the group are fully and equally involved in the process. Although only one teacher will teach the research lesson, the group take responsibility for it and it is accepted that any evaluation of the teaching and of the lesson relates to the work of the whole group and not to the individual teacher. A further democratic feature of lesson study is that the learning gained from it is shared with the wider teaching community.

In Japan, accounts of lesson studies are routinely published and read by teachers to support their practice and in preparation for their own research cycles. Lesson study groups also model teaching the new approach or aspect of curriculum to colleagues and conduct discussions about their research. In Japan the foci of lesson study has been extended to considering values, attributes and personal qualities of learners and has been demonstrated to promote breadth, balance and coherence across a school.

The process

The Lesson Study cycle begins with the collaborative detailed planning of a research lesson. The lesson is then taught by one member of the group and observed by others. Evidence of pupil learning is collected and analysed immediately after the lesson by group members. The lesson is then collaboratively re-planned taking account of the evidence of learning collected in order to amend the lesson to be more effective. There are a number of steps in the lesson study process that have evolved over time:

• The Lesson Study group agree on a set of rules that contributions to the group by all members are treated with equal respect;

• The group agree a focus for their research which is usually framed as a question and identifies what is to be taught and to whom, e.g. ‘How can we teach X more effectively to Y in order to improve their learning’;

• Group members research the literature for evidence of successful approaches in relation to their focus and synthesise their findings to inform their planning;

• The group decide which class and which three ‘case study pupils’ will be the focus of the research lesson. These three pupils are chosen to be representative of groups within the class who have high, medium and low characteristics in relation to their learning involved in the lesson;

• The group plans the research lesson with a particular focus on how it will be received by the three ‘case study’ pupils;

• One teacher teachers the research lesson while others observe and take notes with particular attention to the learning of the three ‘case study’ pupils;

• Teachers interview a sample of pupils to get their views on what worked well and less well in the lesson;

• The group discusses the lesson as soon as possible after it has taken place. The discussion follows a set structure

Following a cycle of research lessons (usually three or more) the group agrees changes to teaching approaches or curriculum design to be adopted and shared more widely.

encounter. When that student combines these pieces of knowledge, and makes the connections between these two seemingly unconnected pieces of information, then s/he is engaged in critical thinking. Critical thinking must emerge from participants who learn the ability to make these connections – largely by simply thinking through the relationships between ideas. When we combine this critical research skill with the necessity to stand up and speak for your position, we come up with a great educational combination to foster critical thinking skills.