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Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER)

Conference

2017

Articles 1 - 18 of 18

Full-Text Articles in Education

Karmel Oration: Leading Schools And School Systems In Times Of Change: A Paradox And A Quest, Toby Greany Aug 2017

Karmel Oration: Leading Schools And School Systems In Times Of Change: A Paradox And A Quest, Toby Greany

2009 - 2019 ACER Research Conferences

The ‘paradox’ in this title refers to a set of contradictions that sit at the heart of education policy in many school systems. Policymakers in these systems want things that, if not inherently at odds, are nevertheless in tension— such as a tightly defined set of national standards and a broad and balanced curriculum; academic stretch for the most able and a closing of the gap between high and low performers; choice and diversity and equity; and so on. The ‘quest’ is for leaders and leadership to resolve these tensions in practice. School autonomy policies have placed huge power in …

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Looking For The X-Factors: Contextualised Learning And Young Indigenous Australian Children, Karen L. Martin, Stuart Fuller Aug 2017

Looking For The X-Factors: Contextualised Learning And Young Indigenous Australian Children, Karen L. Martin, Stuart Fuller

2009 - 2019 ACER Research Conferences

This presentation outlines a research project into early childhood education funded by Queensland Department of Education and Training’s Education Horizon research grant scheme. The project will run from July 2016 to June 2017. This project involved two main research activities: an online survey of early childhood educators of young Indigenous Australians and a small case study of early childhood and early years education programs in Logan, Darling Downs and Far North Queensland regions. The pilot case study sought to identify ‘X-factors’ regarding the contextualisation of curriculum, pedagogy and assessment for young Indigenous Australian learners. This presentation will outline the case …

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Leadership That Transforms Schools And School Systems, Brian Caldwell Aug 2017

Leadership That Transforms Schools And School Systems, Brian Caldwell

2009 - 2019 ACER Research Conferences

This paper will report on the findings of four international research projects on leadership in high-performing school systems around the world. The paper will focus on building the capacity of school leaders to exercise professional autonomy and how different levels of government achieve strategic alignment among policies in their efforts to lift performance. The paper will summarise findings reported in The Autonomy Premium published in 2016 by ACER Press, along with the findings of a national survey of principals in Australia. The major part of this presentation is devoted to comparing Australia on 15 benchmarks derived from international studies in …

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Teacher Leader And Teacher Leadership: A Call For Conceptual Clarity, Susan Lovett Aug 2017

Teacher Leader And Teacher Leadership: A Call For Conceptual Clarity, Susan Lovett

2009 - 2019 ACER Research Conferences

Education systems cannot afford to lose promising teachers who could be the school leaders of tomorrow. My work shows a need to promote leadership as learning for teachers and students rather than as management and administration, heavy workloads and disconnectedness from students and their learning. Conceptions of leadership that allow teachers to see professional learning as the reason for their work make a contribution to school leadership as a whole. Schools benefit from leaders at all levels no matter their distance to classrooms. School cultures can stimulate leadership practices when professional learning exchanges among teachers are reciprocated. Professional learning is …

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Leading Age-Appropriate Pedagogies In The Early Years Of School, Beverley R. Fluckiger, Julie Dunn, Madonna Stinson, Elizabeth Wheeley Aug 2017

Leading Age-Appropriate Pedagogies In The Early Years Of School, Beverley R. Fluckiger, Julie Dunn, Madonna Stinson, Elizabeth Wheeley

2009 - 2019 ACER Research Conferences

There is increasing pressure on leaders and teachers to improve the academic achievement of children in the early years of school. Alongside this is recognition that social and emotional development are the important drivers of children’s school and lifetime success. This paper reports on the design and leadership of the pilot phase of the Age Appropriate Pedagogies program commissioned by the Queensland Department of Education and Training to refocus pedagogical practices in the early years of school. This refocus was deemed to be necessary in order to achieve strong academic outcomes while ensuring that children’s holistic development remained a key …

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Science Of Learning Network Of Schools: The Science Of Communities Of Practice, Andrew Jones, Frank Vetere Aug 2017

Science Of Learning Network Of Schools: The Science Of Communities Of Practice, Andrew Jones, Frank Vetere

2009 - 2019 ACER Research Conferences

Frameworks referencing synthesised bodies of prominent research adorn education improvement policy like curiously named pieces of Ikea furniture—peculiar in their assemblage, ostensibly contemporary, and striking in their modular convenience. Amid this, most pundits still agree that we have an education advancement issue in this country. Despite significant increases in funding from successive federal and state governments, we simply haven’t been able to shift the needle. What we can ascertain is that compliance-based improvement approaches don’t work. They are unable to influence the cognitive maps, beliefs and understandings of the educator to the extent necessary to effectively improve outcomes for students …

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Opening Or Closing Doors For Students? Equity And Data-Driven Decision-Making, Amanda Datnow Aug 2017

Opening Or Closing Doors For Students? Equity And Data-Driven Decision-Making, Amanda Datnow

2009 - 2019 ACER Research Conferences

Data-driven decision-making is key pillar of educational reform initiatives in countries across the globe. While approaches to data use vary, the theory of action underlying these efforts is often similar. The common idea is that when leaders and teachers are knowledgeable about how to use data, they will become more effective in reviewing their existing capacities, identifying weaknesses, and charting plans for improvement. In the classroom, data can inform how teachers plan lessons, identify concepts for re-teaching, and differentiate instruction. For all these reasons, data use has significant implications for teaching and leadership. Ensuring equitable opportunities and outcomes for all …

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Leading Empowered Evaluations To Develop Trust And Improve Learning: Insights From Qualitative Research, Peter Mcclenaghan, Kerrie Ikin Aug 2017

Leading Empowered Evaluations To Develop Trust And Improve Learning: Insights From Qualitative Research, Peter Mcclenaghan, Kerrie Ikin

2009 - 2019 ACER Research Conferences

What does ‘empowering teachers-as-evaluators’ mean in whole-school strategic planning and evaluation? Our work seeks to develop and empower teachers as whole-of-school evaluators to embrace ownership of the school’s plan and directions, build communities of practice, create transparency, openness and trust, and ultimately improve student learning outcomes. Our previous research in whole-school qualitative empowerment evaluation showed that principals who were fully engaged in their schools’ evaluations were more likely to be influenced by the evaluation process, use the evaluation results and build evaluation capacity than those who merely participated as a guest. They engaged in double-loop learning. We further found that …

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Developing A Professional Certification System For School Principals: The Principals Australia Institute Certification Project, Lawrence Ingvarson Aug 2017

Developing A Professional Certification System For School Principals: The Principals Australia Institute Certification Project, Lawrence Ingvarson

2009 - 2019 ACER Research Conferences

In 2014, the Principals Australia Institute (PAI) decided to develop a national system for providing professional certification to accomplished school principals, based on the AITSL Australian Professional Standard for Principals (the Standard). ACER has been assisting the PAI in the development of valid and reliable methods whereby principals can demonstrate how they meet the Standard. This work has included conceptualising the system, developing an assessment and evaluation framework for certification, and developing guidelines for three portfolio initiatives linked to the Australian Professional Standard for Principals. The portfolio initiatives were field-tested in 2015 and a group of principals was trained to …

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Developing Evaluative Thinking And Evidence-Based Practice: A Synthetic Case Study, Tim Wyatt Aug 2017

Developing Evaluative Thinking And Evidence-Based Practice: A Synthetic Case Study, Tim Wyatt

2009 - 2019 ACER Research Conferences

The NSW Literacy and Numeracy Action Plan, which operated from 2012 to 2016, provided $261 millon to improve literacy and numeracy learning in 448 the most disadvantaged and lowest performing schools across the three education sectors in NSW. A key objective of the Action Plan was to enhance teacher and school leader capacity, including the ability to apply evidence-based practices and evaluative thinking to planning and programming for teaching and learning at a classroom level, and to planning and decision-making at a whole-school level. The concept and terminology of ‘evidence-based practice’ is in common parlance in Australian schools; however, in …

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Pre-Service And In-Service Teacher Education: A Leadership Model For Collaborative Learning, Jo-Anne Reid Aug 2017

Pre-Service And In-Service Teacher Education: A Leadership Model For Collaborative Learning, Jo-Anne Reid

2009 - 2019 ACER Research Conferences

Innovative collaboration between schools and university can enhance teacher education. This model was developed as part of a partnership between a school principal leading a cluster of diverse primary schools, and a local university school of teacher education. The partnership established a memorandum of understanding to support targeted and standards-based professional learning for teachers and new leaders across the schools in the cluster. Novice pre-service teachers were also assigned to these schools for an extended weekly professional placement. This session outlines the model as it was designed: to respond to the strategic demands of particular school communities, as well as …

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Principals As Literacy Leaders: A Strategy For Improving Reading Engagement And Achievement In Australian Schools, Tony Townsend Aug 2017

Principals As Literacy Leaders: A Strategy For Improving Reading Engagement And Achievement In Australian Schools, Tony Townsend

2009 - 2019 ACER Research Conferences

By the end of 2017, approximately 1500 school leaders from all states and territories in Australia will have undertaken the Principals as Literacy Leaders (PALL) program. This program was first funded in 2010 for 60 primary principals of disadvantaged schools by a Commonwealth Government grant under the Closing the Gap strategy. Since that time, additional cohorts of school leaders have been funded by state departments of education, professional associations and individual schools. Many of the programs were associated with research looking at various outcomes of the learning gained from the PALL program. To date, there have been six published studies, …

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Stronger Smarter: A Sustained And Enduring Approach To Indigenous Education (Whether Education Researchers Know It Or Not!), Chris Sarra Aug 2017

Stronger Smarter: A Sustained And Enduring Approach To Indigenous Education (Whether Education Researchers Know It Or Not!), Chris Sarra

2009 - 2019 ACER Research Conferences

In 1988, Professor Sarra commenced his career as an educator. After a very personal revelation about how he as an Aboriginal student had been ‘sold short’ by schooling, he became determined to change expectations of Aboriginal children in schools throughout Australia. It was a lofty career ambition, but one he feels he has achieved: the stronger smarter approach, which he developed and now shares with an army of hardworking and courageous educators, has had success – despite the questionable efforts of education researchers with little or no insight into the profound complexities of such an undertaking. This paper will reflect …

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Enhancing Instructional Leadership: Lessons From The Nsw Literacy And Numeracy Action Plan, Tim Wyatt Aug 2017

Enhancing Instructional Leadership: Lessons From The Nsw Literacy And Numeracy Action Plan, Tim Wyatt

2009 - 2019 ACER Research Conferences

Over the past decade, schools, school systems and governments at all levels have invested heavily in enhancing the quality of school leadership. The Australian Government-funded National Partnerships (2012–2014) identified principal leadership as one of its explicit goals. More recently, the emphasis of leadership development has been on enhancing instructional leadership. This paper describes an approach to enhancing instructional leadership adopted as part of the NSW Literacy and Numeracy Action Plan (2012–2016), which was the particular approach of the NSW government school sector. The three school sectors in NSW each adopted different models for their implementation of the Action Plan relevant …

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Courageous And Coherent Leadership Required For Excellent And Equitable Outcomes, Linda Bendikson Aug 2017

Courageous And Coherent Leadership Required For Excellent And Equitable Outcomes, Linda Bendikson

2009 - 2019 ACER Research Conferences

The paper illustrates the complexity of leadership work, using data on the varying perspectives of middle and senior leaders about their own goals; the seriousness of the problems that they face in reaching those goals; and the perceived effectiveness of the senior leadership team. The findings from these studies indicate that the basic leadership skills of problem analysis, focused goalsetting and close monitoring of progress towards goals are lacking in many leadership teams in secondary schools. These findings highlight the importance of a team of middle and senior leaders being aligned in their goal pursuit, being active problem-solvers and being …

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Nourishing Teachers’ Leadership For Learning: Insights From Practitioner Research, Simon Clarke Aug 2017

Nourishing Teachers’ Leadership For Learning: Insights From Practitioner Research, Simon Clarke

2009 - 2019 ACER Research Conferences

This session contends that leadership and learning are mutually supporting and reinforcing. It is only recently that attempts have been made to describe in practice the complex connections existing between the two activities by drawing on empirical evidence. To this end, this session will depict ways in which leadership and learning are indispensable to each other in day-to-day teachers’ work, and the implications this symbiosis has for practice. Firstly, the session will consider the key foundations and principles of leadership for learning, especially as they relate to the Carpe Vitam international leadership for learning research project. Secondly, we will discuss …

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Capabilities Required For Leading Improvement: Challenges For Researchers And Developers, Viviane Robinson Aug 2017

Capabilities Required For Leading Improvement: Challenges For Researchers And Developers, Viviane Robinson

2009 - 2019 ACER Research Conferences

The leadership of improvement is a challenging task, requiring capability in 1) using relevant knowledge to 2) solve complex educational problems, while 3) building relationships of trust with those involved. In this keynote address, Viviane describes what she has learned from her leadership research and development program about each of these three leadership capabilities. In addressing the first of these leadership capabilities, she describes key findings about how leaders’ relevant knowledge intersect with their ability to build trust and solve the problems that stand in the way of their improvement goals. Her discussion of the second capability draws on empirical …

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Acer Research Conference Proceedings (2017), Australian Council For Educational Research (Acer) Aug 2017

Acer Research Conference Proceedings (2017), Australian Council For Educational Research (Acer)

2009 - 2019 ACER Research Conferences

Educational leaders play a crucial role in setting directions for improvement and innovation. Leaders – whether or not they are in formal leadership roles – create the tone of an institution, set priorities and directions for change, build coherence and shared commitment across the community and maintain a sharp focus on measurable improvements in student outcomes. Effective leaders take a deep interest in the quality of teaching and learning. They closely monitor indicators of student achievement and wellbeing and promote institution-wide conversations and professional learning focused on improving teaching and learning processes and student outcomes. They also form partnerships with …

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