"Snap !" Reimagined Network Aligns with School's Vision

Explicit clarity around the purposeful alignment of professional learning outcomes, forms part of the ongoing role of leaders. Making links to past, current and potential future practice, supports deep reflection in a community of learners wishing to make an impact on learning outcomes.

Snap card game image acknowledge Irish resources 

Vision

Striving to remain loyal to the voice of staff explicitly articulated in a vision developed with the Schools That Deliver Network means making sure external professional learning opportunities specifically link to the vision.

Reimagine

When the Catholic Education Office in the Southern Regionn (SRO) of Melbourne announced significant changes to their Professional Learning Network structure for 2019, it was important to understand the potential impact going forward. The "reimagined" new network is known as the School Wide Improvement Forum (SWIF). SWIF is for school leadership teams including Principals, Deputy Principals, Learning & Teaching Leaders, Mathematics Leaders, Literacy Leaders and Learning Diversity Leaders. SWIF aims to:

• Build effective leadership teams to improve learning outcomes for all students
• Support leaders to strategically plan for improvement
• Support leaders to evaluate the impact of improvement plans
• Utilise content such as literacy or numeracy as the context for improving pedagogical practice

Align

The SWIF aims clearly align to the St Patrick school's vision, in particular this part "..Any research is relevant to the needs of our learners and is used to strengthen outcomes, ensuring the curriculum has a positive and meaningful impact..." You can access the full vision narrative at this link.

Dr Ryan Dunn @DunnEducation @agileschools #agile leadership.

Dr Ryan Dunn, Director at Agile Schools and lecturer at the University of Melbourne, has been engaged to guide the SRO as a critical friend in this important work. Dunn has considerable experience within education and has advised and collaborated with schools and districts across the USA and Australia. 

I wish to acknowledge Dunn for the inclusion of some slides (see below) from Dunn's presentation to the SRO schools.

Dr Ryan Dunn presents to 150 leaders from Catholic schools across the Southern Region 

Key Learning and Links from Day 1 February 2019 with Dr Ryan Dunn

• Dunn recommends a deliberate, disciplined approach to intentional improvement through responsive and reflective work.
• Confusion is an essential part of learning. A productive struggle is vital for staff and students.
• Make sure clarity leads to complexity and a change in teaching practice to ensure the enhancement of learning outcomes for students.

Slide acknowledge Dunn

Engagement - what does it look like ? 

Dunn explores a range of interpretations of engagement :

1.  Behavioural engagement - surface routines and expectations in the classroom to create a learning environment
2. Cognitive engagement - increasing the rigour in the classroom by moving beyond the surface through, for example, application, analysis and critique
3. Relational engagement - engaged through cooperative teaching and collaboration with others

Slide acknowledge Dunn

• We have a moral imperative around the work that we do. We must teach beyond the acquisition of social capital gained through shallow exposure to learning merely by the children walking through the classroom door.
•  One year of teaching leads to value added for every student - one  year of growth and improvement.

Slide acknowledge Dunn

• Ryan explains teacher expertise growth should always be a focus. Significant improvement is needed  not because we are underperforming, but because we can be even better. We need to constantly look at the next steps on our improvement journey known as deep, expertise development. 

Slide acknowledge Dunn

New Mental Models

Mental models are also referred to as part of the Schools That Deliver Network professional learning. The following information from Dunn helps to give clarity around mental models:

• Be deliberate and intentional about improving practice and in doing so practice and develop new mental models for the way we do things. For example, over time, learning to drive an automatic car becomes natural. You develop a mental model of thinking around driving and you become competent. If you wanted to drive a manual car, you would have to make a deliberate effort to move out of your comfort zone and learn a new mental model for how to drive. You would need time to practice and improve to become an expert. 
• We need to continually be open to new mental models about the way we teach and through perseverance move from novice to competent to adaptive to expert (Dreyfus model of skill acquisition (see below). We become responsive over time. 
• Developing team mental models ( a shared understanding of our approach). In the Schools That Deliver Action Research teams, we work together to bring our vision to life. Dunn explains that we can become better equipped as a staff to deal with problems when we work together. This is through slowing down, going deep together, asking the why questions and explicitly developing pedagogical practice.

Novice to Expert

The reference to the Dreyfus Model of Skill Acquisition links to the Schools That Deliver 2018 Innovation Conference. Below is a link to a 3 minute video I developed to capture two days of learning from the Innovation Conference.

In the video I reference Dreyfus - "......Thirdly, the Dreyfus model of skill acquisition (1980) progresses from novice to expert. The competence level often becomes the comfort zone. Stretching and challenging learning to the proficient and expert level is necessary to truly engage in deep innovation for success...." (Hawkins, 2018 Disruption, creativity, innovate2flourish )

                                          

      An image of the  Dreyfus Model of Skill Acquisition 

Five Principles of Deliberate Practice 

Dunn shared five principles of deliberate practice:

1. Push beyond one's comfort zone
2. Work towards well-defined specific goals
3. Focus intently on practice activities (this links clearly to the Schools That Deliver Practice Field's)
4. Receive and respond to high quality feedback
5. Develop a mental model of expertise.

Slide acknowledge Dunn

• Dunn introduced the Clarify Canvas below. It is a valuable tool for staff preparing to present task descriptors for recommendations based on twelve months of action research for the future Schools That Deliver Network conference.

Slide acknowledge Dunn

• The Check-in Meeting Norms shared at the SWIF day by Dunn contain elements that align with our current Schools That deliver work especially our core values.

Slide acknowledge Dunn

"Snap !"As the SWIF team review short term school improvement goals to ensure they impact positive pedagogical practices, we can be reassured that there is alignment between our work, our vision and the aspirations of the SWIF team from the Southern Regional Office.

                               

Acknowledgements:
The staff from the Catholic Education Melbourne SRO for sharing their expertise at the SWIIF forum

Dr Ryan Dunn for the use of his slides and the ability to share the notes I took from his presentation.

The St Pat's leadership team for continually being open to stretch their learning for the benefit of the staff and students at our school.