The Empowerment of Schools as a necessary condition for Creativity and Innovation Presentation to the ‘Promoting Innovation and Creativity: Schools' Response to the Challenges of Future Societies’ Conference Brdo, Slovenia, Tuesday 10 th April 2008 Professor David Hopkins HSBC iNet Chair of International Leadership

Workshop Outline 10:00 – 11:30 “The Empowerment of Schools” - David Hopkins Presentation Discussion Activities Conclusions 11:30 – 12:00 Break 12:00 – 1:30 Three examples of good practise: »The Slovenian case of the didactic reform in upper secondary schools. »The Slovenian case of the Vocational Education Center Velenje and ways of collaborating with local communities and businesses »We European Training Foundation case on how it builds capacity in different countries.

Moral Purpose of Schooling All these …. whatever my background, whatever my abilities, wherever I start from I know how I am being assessed and what I need to do to improve my work I know what my learning objectives are and feel in control of my learning My parents are involved with the school and I feel I belong here I enjoy using ICT and know how it can help my learning I can get the job that I want I know if I need extra help or to be challenged to do better I will get the right support I know what good work looks like and can help myself to learn I can work well with and learn from many others as well as my teacher I can get a level 4 in English and Maths before I go to secondary school I get to learn lots of interesting and different subjects

The G100 Communique A group of 100 principals from fourteen countries (G100) met at the National Academy of Education Administration (NAEA) in Beijing, China October 2006 to discuss the transformation of and innovation in the world’s education systems. They concluded their communique in this way - We need to ensure that moral purpose is at the fore of all educational debates with our parents, our students, our teachers, our partners, our policy makers and our wider community. We define moral purpose as a compelling drive to do right for and by students, serving them through professional behaviors that ‘raise the bar and narrow the gap’ and through so doing demonstrate an intent, to learn with and from each other as we live together in this world.

The need for a systemic response … We aspire to a society that is not merely civil but is good. A good society is one in which people treat one another as ends in themselves. And not merely as instruments; as whole persons rather than as fragments; as members of a community, bonded by ties of affection and commitment, rather than only as employees, traders, consumers or even as fellow citizens. The vision of a good society is a tableau on which we project our aspirations, not a full checklist of all that deserves our dedication. And the vision is often reformulated as the world around us changes, and as we change. The Third Way is a road that leads us toward the good society. However, it should be acknowledged at the outset that the Third Way is indeed fuzzy at the edges, not fully etched. Amitai Etzioni – The third way to a good society

‘Every School a Great School’ as an expression of moral purpose What parents want is for their local school to be a great school. (National Association of School Governors; Education and Skills Select Committee 2004). Test of resolve: − A stress on moral purpose and social justice in order to equalise life chances ; − an educational system that enables every individual to achieve their potential and enhance their learning skills; − enhance teaching quality rather than structural change; − commitment to sustained, systemic change since a focus on individual school improvement distorts social equity.

Towards system wide sustainable reform Every School a Great School National Prescription Schools Leading Reform Building Capacity Prescription Professionalism System Leadership

Networks & Collaboration Personalised Learning Professional Teaching SYSTEM LEADERSHIP Intelligent Accountability 4 drivers mould to context through system leadership

System Leadership: A Proposition ‘System leaders’ care about and work for the success of other schools as well as their own. They measure their success in terms of improving student learning and increasing achievement, and strive to both raise the bar and narrow the gap(s). Crucially they are willing to shoulder system leadership roles in the belief that in order to change the larger system you have to engage with it in a meaningful way.’

System leaders share five striking characteristics, they: measure their success in terms of improving student learning and strive to both raise the bar and narrow the gap(s). are fundamentally committed to the improvement of teaching and learning. develop their schools as personal and professional learning communities. strive for equity and inclusion through acting on context and culture. understand that in order to change the larger system you have to engage with it in a meaningful way.

Evidence from OFSTED suggests that teaching is still a relatively weak area

‘Seven Strong Claims about School Leadership’ School leadership is second only to classroom instruction as an influence on student learning. Almost all successful (school) leaders draw on the same repertoire of basic leadership practices. It is the enactment of the same basic leadership practices – not the practices themselves – that is responsive to the context. School leaders improve pupil learning indirectly through their influence on staff motivation and working conditions. School leadership has a greater influence on schools and pupils when it is widely distributed. Some patterns of leadership distribution are much more effective than others. A small handful of personal “traits” explain a high proportion of the variation (such as being open minded, flexible, persistent and optimistic) in leader effectiveness.

Personal Development Strategic Acumen Managing Teaching and Learning Developing People Developing Organisations Work as a Change Agent Lead a Successful Educational Improvement Partnership Moral Purpose Partner another School Facing Difficulties and Improve it Lead and Improve a School in Challenging Circumstances Act as a Community Leader

Leadership for Learning Setting direction Total commitment to enable every learner to reach their potential Ability to translate vision into whole school programmes Managing Teaching and Learning Ensure every child is inspired and challenged through personalized learning Develop a high degree of clarity about and consistency of teaching quality Developing people Enable students to become more active learners Develop schools as professional learning communities Developing the organization Create an evidence-based school Extend an organization’s vision of learning to involve networks

I wrote (with Bruce Joyce) some time ago that: Learning experiences are composed of content, process and social climate. As teachers we create for and with our children opportunities to explore and build important areas of knowledge, develop powerful tools for learning, and live in humanizing social conditions.

Three ways of thinking about Teaching Teaching Relationships Teaching Models Reflection TeachingSkills

Teaching Skills Content coverage Time allocated to instruction Engaged time – ‘time on task’ Consistent success Active teaching Structuring information Effective questioning

Teaching Relationships Expectation effects on student achievement are likely to occur both directly through opportunity to learn (differences in the amount and nature of exposure to content and opportunities to engage in various types of academic activities) and indirectly through differential treatment that is likely to affect students' self-concepts, attributional inferences, or motivation. Good, T.L. and Brophy, J.E. (1994) Looking In Classrooms (2nd ed)

Teaching Models Our toolbox is the models of teaching, actually models for learning, that simultaneously define the nature of the content, the learning strategies, and the arrangements for social interaction that create the learning contexts of our students. For example, in powerful classrooms students learn models for: Extracting information and ideas from lectures and presentations Memorising information Building hypotheses and theories Attaining concepts and how to invent them Using metaphors to think creatively Working effectively with other to initiate and carry out co-operative tasks

The Key Question What teaching strategies do I and my colleagues have in our repertoires to respond to the student diversity that walks through our classroom doors?

Post- test Test Scores Effects of Complex Co-operative Learning by SES (Social Economic Status) 0 20 Pre- test Test Scores Co-opWhole Class Hi SES Lo SES

Range Number Normal distribution with standard deviations Score SD -1 SD +1 SD +2 SD 150

Achievement of students Number of students Reaching for the “Double Sigma Effect”

Effect Size of Teaching Strategies Information Processing – a mean effect size over 1.0 for higher order outcomes Cooperative Learning – a mean effect between 0.3 to 0.7 Personal Models – a mean effect of 0.3 or more for cognitive, affective and behavioural outcomes Behavioural Models – a mean effect between 0.5 to 1.0. Best representatives are for short term treatments looking at behavioural or knowledge of content outcomes

Effect Size of Learning Student Performance 50 th percentile 100 th percentile 0 percentile Age 8 Age 11 Students with high performing teacher Students with low performing teacher 90 th percentile 37 th percentile 53 percentile points McKinsey & Company, 2007:11

Personalised Learning A fundamental aspect of personalised learning is the ability of learners to it is the learners’ ability to take control over their own learning processes, to respond successfully to the tasks that they are set, as well as the tasks they set themselves – in particular to: integrate prior and new knowledge acquire and use a range of learning skills solve problems individually and in groups think carefully about their successes and failures evaluate conflicting evidence and to think critically accept that learning involves uncertainty and difficulty.

A Typology of Skills These skills fall into three categories: Functional Skills: literacy, numeracy and ICT. Thinking and Learning Skills: are the skills young people need to acquire in order to become effective learners. Gaining mastery of these skills equips students to raise their achievement by developing their ability to: improve their achievement by applying a wide range of learning approaches in different subjects; learn how to learn, with the capability to monitor, evaluate, and change the ways in which they think and learn; become independent learners, knowing how to generate their own ideas, acquire knowledge and transfer their learning to different contexts. Personal Skills: are the skills young people need to acquire in order to develop their personal effectiveness. Gaining mastery of these skills equips students to manage themselves and to develop effective social and working relations.

Curriculum Development The Dialectic between Curriculum, Learning and Teaching Group Investigation Role Playing Synectics Knowledge Mnemonic Simulations Inductive thinking Mnemonic Inductive Thinking Simulations Concept Attainment Inductive Thinking Concept Attainment Inductive Thinking Concept Attainment Models of Learning – Tools for Teaching Curriculum Development Evaluation Comprehension Analysis Synthesis Application

Structuring Staff Development Workshop Understanding of Key Ideas and Principles Modelling and Demonstration Practice in Non-threatening Situations Workplace Immediate and Sustained Practice Collaboration and Peer Coaching Reflection and Action Research

The Logic of Pedagogy and Personalisation Learning Potential of all Students Repertoire of Learning Skills Models of Learning - Tools for Teaching Embedded in Curriculum Context and Schemes of Work Whole School Emphasis on High Expectations and Pedagogic Consistency Sharing Schemes of Work and Curriculum Across and Between Schools, Clusters, LAs, Nationally and Globally

Issues for Discussion and Activities Issues for Discussion What is your view on the policy framework for empowering schools? What is your view on system leadership? How far are explicit pedagogical approaches common place in your country’s schools? Activities Activity 1: Swot Analysis Activity 2: Classroom diagnostic

David Hopkins is the inaugural HSBC Chair in International Leadership, where he supports the work of iNet, the International arm of the Specialist Schools Trust and the Leadership Centre at the Institute of Education, University of London. He is also a Professorial Fellow at the Faculty of Education, University of Melbourne. Between 2002 and 2005 he served three Secretary of States as the Chief Adviser on School Standards at the Department for Education and Skills. Previously, he was Chair of the Leicester City Partnership Board and Dean of the Faculty of Education at the University of Nottingham. Before that again he was a Tutor at the University of Cambridge Institute of Education, a Secondary School teacher and Outward Bound Instructor. David is also an International Mountain Guide who still climbs regularly in the Alps and Himalayas. Before becoming a civil servant he outlined his views on teaching quality, school improvement and large scale reform in Hopkins D. (2001) School Improvement for Real, London: Routledge / Falmer. His new book Every School a Great School has just been published by The Open University Press. Website: Professor David Hopkins HSBC Chair in International Leadership