We are all learners: changing a school

cultureTanya Thompson and Keith Jackson

St Andrews Middle School

How do you go about changing a school culture when your

aspiration is to develop “all-in” participation in

deprivatised practice?

Action research is the study of a social situation with a view to improving the quality of action

within it.Cardno and Piggot-Irvine, 1991

No matter where you start…

each component spirals into the others

Some ways to allow for classroom practice to be deprivatised in an ‘all in’

manner…….

• Teachers need to see the necessity for change for themselves.

• Teachers need to see hard evidence

• Teachers need to be supported when modifying their practice.

If it’s worth doing …..then it’s worth all of us doing it!

• Whole school PD and Staff meetings

• Collegial discussions based on teaching and learning

Teacher reflection within the classroom leads to

higher teacher confidence and a positive culture of change.

Teacher reflection within the classroom leads to

higher teacher confidence and a positive culture of change.

Action Research Process

Teacher reaction to Student voice

• How do you collect student voice? • What do you do with it?• How does it impact on your teaching and

learning?

What role do structures play initiating, progressing and

sustaining change?

Internal Structures

Clear School-wide Expectations• Trust established within the school

culture• All staff complete projects• Whole school PD• Data analysis – individual teachers

• Evidence based planning and assessment

• All learning should be transparent • A professional culture of learning

and teaching

Staff Meetings Staff meetings are specifically set aside for goal setting/assessment, discussion of professional readings and sharing and celebration of teachers practice.

In-Class /Professional Support

• Modelling of best practice• Release time• Both in-house and consultant

knowledge base of best practice• Individual/group support with planning

and assessment

Appraisal Process

• Staff set goals in relation to their practice in appraisal documentation

• Staff collect baseline/comparative data• Teachers keep a reflective journal

• In-class appraisal where teachers demonstrate changes made due to projects

• Teachers must share projects with staff during staff meetings during the year

Keith to discuss further

While teachers hold initial concerns about additional work involved in

changing their practice, these tend to dissolve as teachers realise the

benefits these projects can have on their practice and the enjoyment of

their profession.

Deprivatising classroom practice and allowing teachers to reflect enables them to feel empowered and therefore empowering their

students.

All stakeholders can make real decisions as active members of a community of learning therefore enhancing student learning and

achievement.

Staff were asked:

What was working well for them with regard to action research and

if they had concerns what were they?

When you’ve gathered staff voices, what do you do

differently to ensure that they are heard and acted on?

Working well

• That they had choice in what they researched

• Reassurance that they were on the right track in what they were doing and how they were doing it.

• It provided an opportunity for a teacher to be self-reflective

• Opportunity was provided to work collectively with other team members

• Opportunity was provided to work collectively with other team

members

• It raised awareness of issues

• Real results that they could see and get feedback on

• Changing programme to accommodate new information found

Concerns

• Projects were creating additional work

• Demands created were excessive

• Work was perceived to be external to what the essence of their job was

• They were not seeing the benefits of the process – they asked what has changed?

• Some teachers were not gaining professional satisfaction from doing the projects

• Some felt that they were not held accountable enough and that there needed to be better evaluation of projects

And…..could it not be linked more tightly to the appraisal

process?

How can we continue to foster our professional reflective culture of teaching and learning leading to

change?

• We want to continue to move forward and to maintain the trust

of our staff at the same time

Making the process relevant to all and a central component of a positive learning

culture

Our appraisal system is currently under self-review

1.Professional Standards

2. Professional Objectives

3. Teacher expectations

4. Teacher Attestation

PROFESSIONAL OBJECTIVES

We are expecting teachers to set goals for themselves under:

1.Raising the achievement of students

b) Teaching techniques

c) A choice from school-wide foci

We are proposing that Action Research will be the process used in

meeting any one of these 3 Professional Objectives

Next steps…

• Revise with staff the procedures already set out for carrying out Action Research and clarify any confusion

• Establish that each teacher is to gather their evidence and align it to their Action Research goals

Each teacher is to gather their evidence and align it to their action research goals as part of the work they are currently doing to show the difference they have made through their Deliberate Acts of Teaching

Where teachers wish to work collaboratively in teams the chance is there to set up small Quality Learning Circles to enable internal and external moderation to occur where appropriate.

Each participant could take part in a cycle of both observing and being observed in a focused teaching session where the outcomes for the students were explicitly linked to DATs

Developing a positive learning culture

It is essential to remember that we are all learners.

Developing an “all-in” philosophy can help to deprivatise classrooms.

Student voice when acted upon can enhance teaching and learning.

Developing a positive learning culture

Internal structures play an important role in initiating, developing and sustaining change.

It is essential to engage staff, students and families in a community of learning.

We are all learners…We aspire to engage our

staff, students and families in a community

of learning

We hope you will too…