WAPPA Conference Day 2

On the second day of conference they tried something new by having a keynote address presented digitally by a speaker in Canada. The speaker is very well known in education circles, Michael Fullan.

Michael Fullan's website

Michael spoke on ‘Drivers of Change’

He outlined what he believed to be the wrong as well as the right drivers for changing our education system.
He suggested that things like ad hoc professional learning activities, teacher appraisal systems, merit pay (award the ‘good’ and punish the ‘bad’), leadership competency frameworks and external accountability are drivers that will not lead to an improved system which results in higher student outcomes. He suggested that good drivers tap into the intrinsic motivation that exists in the system to do our best and improve. Successful schools are those with a positive culture and high human social capital.

Good principal’s, he suggests, are those who build internal accountability through helping members of the school community to feel safe and then willing to analyse school performance data in order to generate improved teaching and learning opportunities. He talked about using ‘the group’ to impact networks of schools and ultimately the system itself.

Some dot points I made while listening to his presentation include:

• Good accountability:
• is a function of good data and is used for improvement
• is non-judgemental (everyone is responsible for results)
• is part of widespread transparency and respectful partnerships
• builds individual and collective capacity
• Schools with high social capital make the greatest impact
• Improve by using ‘the group’
• Technology is good but does not lead to improvement without good pedagogy
• The degree to which the principal participates as a learner to improve performance is the key – working with teachers to look at performance data and talk about teaching
• Individual teachers need to stop thinking about their classroom alone and think bigger at the school level. Schools need to think at the network level and networks at the system level.
• Collaboration is the premier strategy for improvement. To build intrinsic, safe collaboration and positive culture you need:
• high expectation with assertiveness
• a spirit of partnership and respect
• obsession on implementation of good practice
• Principal’s need to develop ‘Motional Leadership’ skills. These skills cause positive and measurable movement. It’s when you do something that motivates the unmotivated.
• Beware of ‘fat’ plans. 1 page plans are better. Have three goals with a core focus
• Put ‘draft’ on documents to make a document live
• Ongoing 2-way communication is important for reinforcing vision and finding out what works and what needs to change (problem solving dialogue).
• Targets should be viewed as aspirational and not ‘do or die’.
• Have a non-judgemental improvement mentality