Self-evaluation:

A question of voice

CH. 1 THE GLOBAL CONTEXT

CH. 2 HEARING VOICES? The new leadership

CH. 3 MAKING SELF-EVALUATION WORK

A STORY IN THREE CHAPTERS

A GLOBAL MOVEMENT

Government intervention

School based management

Power down Accountability up

A GLOBAL MOVEMENT

Government intervention

School based management

Inspection/review

Self-evaluation

A GLOBAL MOVEMENT

Government intervention

Local school management

The accountability improvement interface

MISTAKES WE HAVE MADE

1. Big cats2. Naming and shaming 3. Snoopervision4. Destruction of trust5. Lack of respect for professionalism6. Overprescription7. Pre-empting and narrowing quality8. Raising the stakes9. The rhetoric gap10. Deafness to voice

CHAPTER 2

HEARING VOICESTHE NEW LEADERSHIP?

The Leadership Quartet

Distributed leadership

Authoritarian leadership

Strategic leadership

Invitational leadership

silenced voice

It is in the counter weight and balance of the fluctuating acoustic of teachers’, pupils’ and parents’ voices that cultures either flourish or diminish. The ability to listen and tune in to harmonies and discords marks out effective leadership and it is in the management of the blend that school improvement is realised.

THE ACOUSTIC OF THE SCHOOL

MANAGING THE ACOUSTIC OF THE SCHOOL

MANAGING THE ACOUSTIC OF THE SCHOOL

Student voice(s)

Teacher voices(s)

Principal’s voice

Support staff voice(s)

Parents’ voice(s)

External voices

Media voice (s)

HOW MUCH CONSENSUS?

Organizations require a minimal degree of consensus but not so much as to stifle the discussion that is the lifeblood of innovation. The constant challenge of contrasting ideas is what sustains and renews organizations. Schools that play safe, driven by external mandates and limiting conceptions of improvement set tight parameters around what can be said and what can be heard. They are antithetical to the notion of a learning organisation which, by definition, is always challenging its own premises and ways of being.

Adapted from Genady and Evans (1999, p. 368),

Power Distance – demand for egalitarianism as against acceptance of the unequal distribution of power

Individualism-Collectivism - interdependent roles and obligations to the group as against self-sufficiency

Masculinity-Femininity - endorsement of modesty, compromise and co-operative success as against competition and aggressive success

Uncertainty Avoidance - tolerating ambiguity as against preferring rules and set procedures

HOFSTEDE’S TEST OF CULTURE

100

75

50

25

0

JapanMexico

UAE

USAUK

Rank Area

1 Agreement on Principles.-The ability and goodwill of all groups of people at school to agree on their own ground rules.

2 Vision Creation and Process of Aiming at it. -All stakeholders (management, teachers, pupils, other employees) work to create a shared idea of school future.

3 School Openness.-Cooperation and communication of the school with parents, municipal authorities and ministry of education.

4 Management and Administration Styles.-. From management based on extrinsic motivation (rewards, formal rules) to intrinsic motivation.

5 School Development and Change.-Gradual and systematic change .Freedom to experiment with new approaches.

6 Support from Colleagues.- Experience exchanges, professional dialogue and cooperation with colleague-teachers. Using the feedback from colleagues.

7 School Physical Environment.- School's location, buildings, equipment and its optimal use.

8 Professional Growth Support.- for the school employees' personal and professional growth, creation of conditions for employees' further training and development

9 Informal School Life.-People identify themselves with the school's symbols, they are proud of their school. Customs and traditions are carried over at communal meetings.

10 Working with Conflicts.-Ways of solving conflicts, working with "problem" people.

The fact that I am telling you what to do requires:

(a) that I know what to tell you to do

(b) that you are willing to consent to my telling you what to do

(c) that you actually know how to do what I’m telling you to do

If any of these conditions fails, control loses its power to produce collective action.

LOCUS OF CONTROL

formally

incrementally

strategically

opportunistically

culturally

pragmatically

DISTRIBUTED LEADERSHIP

formally

incrementally

strategically

opportunistically

culturally

pragmatically

DISTRIBUTED LEADERSHIP

THEORIES OF CHANGE

External accountability

or

Internal accountability

THEORIES OF CHANGE

Big cats

or

Small butterflies

THE WHOTHE WHOTHE EPIDEMIOLOGY OF CHANGE

1. The rule of the vital few: A few exceptional people doing something different start and incubate an epidemic.

2. The stickiness factor: Some attribute of the epidemic allows it to endure long enough to "catch", to become contagious or "memorable".

3. The power of context: The physical, social and group environment must be right to allow the epidemic to then suffuse through the population.

(Gladwell, 1999)

CONTROL

The principal assumes responsibility for telling teachers and students what to do in such a way that the result of the work of individuals in classrooms aggregates to a coherent result at the level of the school.

CO-ORDINATION

Individuals and groups assume responsibility and agree to coordinate their behavior with an agreed goals in such a way that it produces a coherent and sutainable result.

Wide variability among teachers in classroom practice

Low agreement on whether the school can actually affect student learning in the face of community influences

Little understanding of conditions which affect motivation and learning

Limited ways of finding out what is actually happening in classrooms.

WEAK INTERNAL ACCOUNTABILITY

High agreement among teachers on what good learning looks like

Identification of conditions which support and affect learning

High agreement on the aims of the school in influencing student learning

Visible norms and practices for evaluating the work of teachers and students.

STRONG INTERNAL ACCOUNTABILITY

LEADERS AS

• Mediators

• Learners

• Followers

• Vulnerable

The Yang of leadership in action

Can you lead your people without seeking to control?

Can you open and close the gatesin harmony with nature?

Can you be understandingWithout trying to be wise?

Can you create without possessiveness?

Accomplish without taking credit?

Lead without ego?

This is the highest power.

Tao, 10

CHAPTER 3

MAKING SELF-EVALUATIONWORK: the challenge to leadership

THREE MODELS

Parallel

Sequential

Collaborative

Self-evaluation as the focus

Shorter period of insepction

Sharper focus

Little or no notice for inspection

Appointment of critical friend

Public reporting of results

Special measures for failing schools

Light touch for successful schools

INGREDIENTS OF SUCCESSFUL SELF-EVALUATION

purpose framework criteria toolsprocess product

purpose ? criteria tools process product

purpose framework criteria tools process ?

purpose framework ? tools process product

purpose framework criteria ? process product

purpose framework criteria tools ? product

? framework criteria tools process product

12.2%

2.4%

4.9%

47.6%

32.9%

response capacity

hearing pupil views

staff sharing ideas

to raise attainment

tools for evaluation

A QUESTION OF PURPOSE: ENGLAND

Views from Hongkong

Purpose of School Self-evaluation

40.0%

5.0%15.0%

15.0%

25.0%

capacity

pupils' viewsshare ideas

raise standards

Tools for trs

Norway

Purpose of Self-Evaluation

12.5%

50.0%

12.5%

12.5%

12.5%

capacity

share ideas

raise standards

evidence for ofsted

Tools for trs

Netherlands-PurposesNetherlands

Purpose of Self-evaluation

36.4%

31.8%

31.8%

capacity

raise standards

Tools for trs

25.6%

2.4%

8.5%

37.8%

2.4%

20.7%

2.4%

school factors

school background

Tr-pupil relationship

pupil motivation

pupils' attitudes

value added

performance -KS test

THE COMPONENTS OF SELF-EVALUATION

COMPONENTS: HONG KONG

Important Components in Self-Evaluation

20.0%

5.0%

10.0%

40.0%

10.0%

10.0%

5.0%

school conditions

School background

tr-pupil relationshi

pupil motivation

pupils' attitudes

value added

K-S tests

INHIBITING OF SELF-EVALUATION: HK

• Time, heart• Schools not prepared• Staff do not have the skills• Staff do not have the time and energy to do all this• Work load and documentation• Reform and continual organisation development• Self complacency, pride and prejudice• Dead wood among the staff• Beliefs of teachers• How to use data• Resistance from teachers due to misconceptions• Anxiety over school self-evaluation

PROMOTING OF SELF-EVALUATION: HK

• Mutual trust among teachers• Teachers’ reflective thinking• Self motivation for continuous improvement• Time for preparation• Attitudes, culture• Skills and attitude of being a reflective practitioner• Confidence in facing ‘changes’• A school culture which promotes learning• A principal who facilitates changes• Collaboration and trust among the staff• Workshops for teachers• Training (to realise the value of self-evaluation)• Security leading to improvement rather than a final verdict

Ownership

comparability

External and compliant

Internal and compliant

Ownership but only

internal

Ownership and

External

Ownership

comparability

External and compliant

Internal and compliant

Ownership but only

internal

Ownership and

External

Transformational leadership seeks to generate second-order effects. Transformational leaders increase the capacity of others in the school to produce first-order effects on learning

(Hallinger, 2003)

FIRST AND SECOND ORDER LEARNING

LEARNING AS INVISIBLE

…..to get that far, one has to get past the problem of invisibility. A large part of the challenge is that the very invisibility of thinking is itself invisible. We don't notice how easily thinking can stay out of sight, because we are used to it being that way. As educators, our first task is perhaps to see the absence, to hear the silence, to notice what is not there.

(Perkins, 2004, p6)

The task of leadership is to make visible the how of learning. It achieves this by conversations and demonstrations around pupil learning, professional learning and organisational (or systems) learning. Leadership nurtures the dialogue, extends the practice and helps makes transparent ways in which these three levels interconnect. It promotes a continuing restless inquiry into what works best, when, where, for whom and with what outcome. Its vision is of the intelligent school and its practice intersects with the wider world of learning.

MAKING LEARNING VISIBLE

pupil learning

teacher learning

school learning

THE LEARNING WEDDING CAKE

MEASURED ATTAINMENT

LIFELONG LEARNING

INDIVIDUAL PUPIL

COMMUNITY OF LEARNERS

THE CLASSROOM SEAT

THE NATURAL AND SOCIAL WORLD

REPRODUCTION OF THE CURRICULUM

PASSIVE CONUMPTION

MULTIPLE AVENUES OF INQUIRY

THE SCHOOL DAY

WHAT

WHERE

WHY

HOW

WHEN

WHERE

WHAT

WHO

WHY

HOW

WHEN OPPORTUNSTIC LEARNING

LEARNING HOW TO LEARN

WHO

SMALL THINGS THAT MAKE A BIG DIFFERENCE

• Wait time

• No marks

• No hands up

• No right answers

• No praise/ nor criticism

• Tests devised by pupils

Heads PupilsMiddle managers Teachers

Support staff

Parents

Authority

Pedagogic knowledge

Community networks

Organisational knowledge

Vision for the future

Self-evaluation expertise

Change champions

System learning

Building capacity

System learning

Building capacity

TOXINS

• ideas rejected or stolen

• constant carping criticisms

• being ignored

• being judged

• being overdirected

• not being listened to

• being misunderstood

Southworth, 2000

NUTRIENTS

• being valued

• being encouraged

• being noticed

• being trusted

• being listened to

• being respected

Southworth, 2000

PRINCIPLES OF SSE/ESR

1. Clarity of purpose2. Starting where teachers are3. The important rather than the urgent4. Transfer of agency5. Reciprocity – ‘the me-too-you-too

principle’6. Listening with intent to understand 7. Putting learning centre stage8. Celebrating diversity 9. Diminishing the power distance10.Demonstrating trust

« Tu te jugeras donc toi-même, c’est le plus difficile. Il est bien plus difficile de se juger soi-même que de juger autrui. Si tu réussis à bien te juger, c’est que tu es un véritable sage. » Est-ce ça l’autoévaluation?

If you think you’re too small to make a difference, you’ve never been in bed with a mosquito.