The New Meaning of Educational Change

Prof. dr. K. Lombaerts

Progressive period

¡ Aim
§ changing pedagogy coupled with strong
intellectual/practical base (e.g. John Dewey)

→ inward strategy = exemplary settings

→ absence of change at classroom level
Adoption period

¡ Aim
§ external ideas bringing about desired innovations
(e.g. large-scale national curriculum reform
through government)

→ yield = isolated examples

→ absence of change at classroom level
¡ ↓ progress BUT ↑ pressure for reform

§ need for large-scale reform

§ more appreciation of the complexity
§ partial success examples

§ ↑ economic and education gap

¡ ↑ attempts to large-scale reform
§ ↓ naive, ↑ complex
§ shared meaning (individual AND social change)

¡ Capacity building with a focus on results

§ reconciling and combining top-down and bottom-
up forces for change
§ a bias for action

→ powerful usable strategies for powerful

recognizable change
¡ Urgent reasons
§ global society ↑ complex requiring educated
citizens
▪ lifelong learning
▪ receptive to diversity
▪ working local and international

¡ Large-scale consequences of failed reform

§ ↑ health and well-being costs
§ risking economic prosperity
§ ↓ social cohesion
¡ central to making sense of educational
change
§ subjective meaning
▪ values, goals, consequences
§ objective reality
▪ a socio-political process with ≠ factors at work in interactive ways

¡ the ‘what’ of change ! the ‘how’ of change (cf. social

settings)

→ solution: development of shared meaning

¡ key for reform: purposeful action on ≠ fronts
AND shared meaning

¡ innovation (content) ≠ innovativeness

(organizational capacities to improve)
¡ Duration of changing process
§ elementary school: 1,5 years
§ high school: 3 years
§ school district (depending on size): 4 years

→ BUT still not changing the whole system

¡ Main raison for failure: weak, unhelpful
infrastructure or working at cross-purposes
¡ Tri-level reform
¡ Main change forces to success
§ moral purpose
§ knowledge
¡ Voluntary ≠ imposed change BUT all real
change
§ involves loss, anxiety, struggle
§ represents a personal & collective experience
(ambivalence & uncertainty)
§ sense of mastery, accomplishment, professional
growth
¡ Teachers: ↓ learning opportunities

¡ The classroom press (Huberman)

§ immediacy and concreteness
§ multidimensionality and simultaneity
§ adapting to ever-changing conditions or
unpredictability
§ personal involvement with students
Consequences
§ short-term perspective
§ isolation from other adults
§ exhaustion
§ ↓ opportunities for sustained reflection
¡ Reform strategies focus on
§ structures
§ formal requirements
§ event-based activities
BUT reculturing instead of restructuring!
¡ The essence of change
§ beliefs and values
§ knowledge and skills
§ outcomes

¡ Need for
§ infrastructures and processes to engage teachers
in developing new knowledge, skills and
understandings
§ deep meaning about new approaches to teaching
and learning
¡ Innovation = multidimensional
§ materials
§ teaching approaches
§ beliefs
§ …
¡ 3 difficulties
§ who?
§ fidelity ↔ mutual-adaptation perspective
§ definition
¡ Changes in beliefs and understandings are
the foundation of achieving lasting reform
¡ close the gap
¡ attend 3 basics
¡ tap into people’s dignity and sense of respect
¡ ensure the best working people
¡ socially based and action oriented strategies
¡ work on lack of capacity
¡ leveraging leadership
¡ in/external accountability
¡ conditions for evolution of + pressure
¡ public confidence
¡ Effective classrooms and schools
§ quality teachers
§ workplace: energize and reward accomplishments

¡ Teaching = underdeveloped profession

¡ Teachers
§ multifaceted diversity
§ overload
§ limits to reform

§ ↓ time: planning, constructive discussion, …

¡ Teacher training = not equip for reality
¡ Isolation / uncertainty → ↓ learn possibilities →
no improvement and experiment
¡ Ambiguity & ad hocness
¡ Effective resources (infrequently – selective
basis)
§ fellow teachers
§ administrators and specialists
¡ Effectiveness of teaching based on their own
informal observations of students
¡ Source of gratification
§ psychic rewards
§ respect from others
¡ Source of satisfaction
§ single student successes
¡ Unwanted or –productive interruption
¡ Teachers
§ autonomous isolation
§ no involvement in school-wide problems
¡ Erosion of the profession
§ ↓ status and recognition
§ outside interference in and deprofessionalization
of teaching
§ ↑ workload
¡ ↑ professional learning communities: difficult
to establish (depth & spread)
¡ Collegiality = strong indicator of
implementation success
¡ How? Professional learning community (PLC)
¡ Collaboration linked with
§ norms
§ opportunities
§ career-long learning
Learning-Enriched Schools
¡ Result
§ ↑ trust, value
§ share expertise
§ seek advice
§ give help in/outside of the school
§ certainty ↔ commitment

→ student achievement
→ assessment literate
¡ 3 patterns
§ enacting traditions of practice
§ lowering expectations and standards
§ innovating to engage learners
¡ Kruse et al. (1995)
§ 5 underpinning elements
▪ reflective dialogue
▪ deprivatization of practice
▪ collective focus on student learning
▪ collaboration
▪ shared norms and values
§ 2 conditions
▪ structural
▪ social and human resources
¡ Fulan (2007)
§ 3 difficulties
▪ policymakers
▪ privatization by teachers
▪ complex cultural change
¡ Dufour et al. (2006)
§ 6 ! elements
▪ focus on learning
▪ collaborative culture with focus on learning for all
▪ collective inquiry into best practice
▪ action orientation
▪ commitment to continuous improvement
▪ focus on results

→ difficult to develop and maintain

¡ Intra- and interschool learning for system
transformation
¡ Starting point: personal learning
¡ Professional learning in context
¡ Teachers ↔ principal ↔ external ideas & people
¡ Research
§ early: promoting or inhibiting change
§ 1990s: leading improvement at school and
community levels
§ today: key role for school effectiveness

¡ developing leadership among teachers

¡ ↑ demands on the principalship (90%)
¡ ↓ principal effectiveness (61%)
¡ ↓ authority (84%)
¡ ↓ trust in leadership (72%)
¡ No believe in fulfilment of all responsibilities
(91%)
¡ Sources of dissatisfaction
§ policy & administration
§ lack of achievement
§ sacrifices in personal life
§ lack of growth opportunities
§ lack of recognition and little responsibility
§ relations with subordinates
§ lack of support form superiors
¡ Concerns about the job
§ challenge of doing all the things
§ mundane or boring nature of the work
§ ~ personal interactions
§ ≠ constituencies
§ concern to supersede leadership functions
¡ Reasons of quitting
§ fatigue
§ awareness of personal limitations
§ awareness of the limitation of career choices
¡ Successful principals
§ inclusive, facilitative orientation
§ institutional focus on student learning
§ efficient management
§ pressure + support
¡ Effective principals
§ promote/inhibit development TLC
§ leverage teacher commitment and support for
collaboration
§ broker and develop learning resources for TC
§ support transitions between stages of community
development
§ distributive leadership
¡ Effective principals
§ Relationship centered
§ Professional standards
§ Outwards looking in
§ Monitoring school performance
¡ School capacity
↳ collective effectiveness of the whole staff working
together to improve student learning for all
§ 5 ! components
▪ teachers’ knowledge, skills and dispositions
▪ professional community
▪ program coherence
▪ technical resources
▪ principal leadership
¡ Dramatic individual change is possible
¡ 1 experience can be a jump-start
¡ Ongoing support for leaders
¡ Training for team + principal
¡ Direct, practical help in decision-making
¡ Practice
¡ Budget
¡ Community of leaders for long-term impact
¡ Use community to retain
¡ Leadership models to recruit
¡ Successful leaders engage in 3 sets of core
practices
§ Setting directions
§ Developing people
§ Redesigning the organization
→ ¼ student achievement
¡ Strategy: highly detailed and explicit roles for
principals as instructional change agents on
an ongoing basis
§ determined roles
§ instructional leader = understanding and skills
§ no adaptation of conditions
¡ Students = potential beneficiaries of change
BUT also participants in a process of change and
organizational life (1980s , ↓ progress)
Engagement = key
¡ Integration into the culture of PLC
§ engagement of all learners
§ alteration of power relations in school
→ educators as moral change agents
→ motivation and relationships
¡ Research
§ limited and dispersed
§ dearth of attention to student engagement
¡ Research project (1970 – 1977)
§ Less than 1/5 can express opinions – what/how to teach
§ (vice) principals don’t listening to or being influenced
by
¡ Not much change
¡ Enhance learning when students
§ understand expectations
§ get recognition for their work
§ learn quickly about errors
§ receive guidance in performance improvement
!"↓ #"↑ grade
¡ Consequences of disengagement perceived
by students
§ perceptions of themselves
§ perception of school work
§ relationship with peers
§ relationship with teachers
§ perceptions of the future
→ ↑ disengagement % (↑ with age)
→ new approaches for all (own learning/peers)
¡Self-assessment = essential to learning
!"engages students in their own learning by using direct and immediate data on learning
performance to alter learning keyed to the needs and interests of the individual

¡ Peer-assessment
§ Important complement
§ Prior requirement for self-assessment
¡ Pedagogical changes
§ ≠ students engagement
§ + impact on enjoyment of learning and achievement
on external tests
¡ Rudduck (in press)
§ challenges in taking students voice seriously
§ involving students through skilled facilitation:
addressing problems/issues basic to school
improvement
¡ Fielding (2001)
§ students as radical agents of change
¡ Pekrul and Levin (in press)
§ motivated, engaged students = central to lasting
school improvement
§ ally in their work ↷ + effect on parental and
community support for change
§ student voice (not widespread)
▪ valuable experience to their learning
▪ developing confidence and leadership skills
§ student voice: commitment & support from school
§ see action following from student participation
¡ Involving students in constructing their own
meaning and learning is fundamentally
essential pedagogically
§ learn more
§ motivated to go further
¡ Connecting disaffected students: cognitive
and affective attainment with students
! student engagement
§ the culture of the classroom (day-to-day learning)
§ the culture of the school and community

! student engagement strategies must reach all

students
⇒ meaning accomplished at every system level
¡ 2 fundamental interrelated parts
§ overhauling the standards, incentives and
qualification systems (30%)
§ remodeling teachers’ working conditions (70%)

¡ Collaboration: + only with focus on

§ student performance for all
§ Associated innovative practices ↷ improvement
for previously disengaged students
¡ One-shot workshops
§ ineffective
§ topics not selected by receivers
§ rare follow-up support for implementation
¡ 5 domains: teachers
§ committed to students & their learning
§ know the subject & how to teach to students
§ responsible for managing/monitoring students’ learning
§ think about their practice & learn from experience
§ members of learning communities
¡ Process of analyzing their own/students’ work
↷ standards
§ ↑ ability to assess student learning
§ ↑ ability to evaluate the effects of their own actions
¡ NSDC’s Standards of Practice for Professional
Development (2005)
§ 3 main categories: improve learning of all students
▪ Context Standards
▪ Process Standards
▪ Content Standards

→ raising awareness of professional development practice

→ exposing poor practice
→ improving professional development
BUT don’t change cultures
¡ Levin, Mulhern & Schunck (2005): union
contracts in school districts
§ 3 factors
▪ Vacancy policies
▪ Staffing rules favouring seniority
▪ Late budget timetables
↳ producing 4 negative consequences
¡ New standards of practice and related
policies are providing stronger avenues for
the professional development of teachers
¡ Public education 21st century
§ new goal: serve + 95% of school population
↳ instructional system based on
▪ personalization
▪ precision
▪ professional learning

¡ Standards of practice ⇄ cultural change $"

powerful mutually connected change forces
¡ 2 components
§ structure
§ culture
¡ ISLLC
§ 6 standards for principals
▪ vision of learning
▪ sustaining a school culture
▪ ensuring management of the organization
▪ collaborating with families and community members
▪ acting with integrity, fairness, in ethical manner
▪ larger political/social/economic/legal/cultural context

¡ Learning in context
¡ Teaching profession includes
§ standards
§ qualifications
§ conditions and cultures within which educators work

¡ Biggest revolution
¡ ↓ political will
¡ Needs
§ reform in recruitment, selection, status, reward
§ redesign of initial teacher education & induction
into the profession
§ continuous professional development
§ standards & incentives for professional work
§ changes in daily working conditions of teachers
¡ New professionalism
§ collaborative
§ open
§ outward-looking
§ authoritative
¡ Improvement is a function of learning to do
the right thing in the setting where you work
¡ Market model ↔ public school system
¡ Large-scale change
§ teacher → colleagues – whole school
§ principal → colleagues – schools in district
§ school district → colleagues
§ individual state → colleagues – whole country " ..
¡ People as shareholders with a stake in the
success of the whole system, with the pursuit
of meaning as the elusive key
↳ motivation
↳ energy
↳ engagement
↳ life
¡ Prof. dr. Koen Lombaerts
§ Koen.Lombaerts@vub.be