WAPPA Conference Day 3

The keynote address for day 3 was again presented by Ben Levin. His message for today was on ‘Improving Teaching and Learning’. Below are some of the points that I noted:

• Competition does not result in system improvement
• Autonomy does not drive improvement
• Things that get in the way of improvement:
• teacher resistance and autonomy (bound by the 4 walls of their classroom)
• lack of focus on the skills of teaching and how to acquire them. Teaching is highly technical and the skills don’t come naturally
• lack of leader knowledge of how to lead teaching
• Public attitudes and expectations e.g. testing
• Teaching is a technical art and a highly skilled occupation
• need to move our focus from ‘teachers’ to ‘teaching’.
• People, including teachers, can learn to get better
• Systems should help and support individual improvement
• we know a lot about what good teaching is, we also need to know how to build it
• Improving teaching should be a collective social process. One skilled teacher can impact on another. What a teacher’s colleagues do can impact on them.
• PD is not enough, group norms matter greatly.

“People would rather look competent at the wrong things than incompetent at the right things” Michael Fullan

• Prioritise:
• you can’t improve everything at once
• pick a focus area
• assessment is often a good starting point
• use evidence to generate professional dialogue
• Leading teacher learning:
• is more about process and organisation than expertise – the principal does not have to be an expert teacher but must know what process to use to improve teaching
• team building is critical
• use data/evidence
• have high expectations
• invite external input as it brings new ideas to the table and helps avoid having the same conversations
• build a wide base of support
• marginalise opposition
• To drive a culture of improvement a good leader must demonstrate relentless optimism
• Develop and maintain an intense focus on the relationship between teaching and learning
• Develop a collective responsibility for student outcomes and school achievement
• Focus on the capabilities and capacity of your students and staff
• Listen to your students – student voice is powerful for teachers as we are here for them and they remind us of why we are here
• Not many people go to work every day with the opportunity to effect the life of someone else for the better – teachers do