Schools as Learning

Communities
Professor Christopher Day
 The School as Learning
Community
• Learning must be situated in a critical community of inquirers who accept that
knowledge is always partial and fallible and who support the enrichment of knowledge
through sharing of meanings, interpretations, and learnings among all members of
the community.

• The learning agenda of the school must be continually related to something

intrinsically human - to the exploration of questions important to human individuals
and social life.

• The learning agenda of the school must be related to the large cultural projects of our
current era as well as to the cultural projects of our history. Thus, school learnings are
connected to a significant discourse about the making of history.

• School meanings must be continuously related to students' experience of everyday

life.
(Starratt, 1996, p. 70)
 Learning Communities are
Multi-Level
• Individual
focussing upon teacher efficacy i.e. "the extent to which the teacher believes he or she
has the capacity of affect student performance".

• Group
 the use of distributed intelligence (Gronn, 2000)
 clarity of goals
 collaboration norms
 encouragement of divergence of views

• Whole Organisation

professional community i.e. shared sense of purpose, collective focus on student learning,
reflective dialogue, de-privatised practice.

• Families (as much as 75% of the variables)

which co-produce conditions which foster student learning.

 Qualities of Learning
Communities
1. Caring

2. Inclusive

3. Trust

4. Empowerment

5. Commitment
 Part 1

C.P.D.
 The Need for C.P.D.
• Schools as Learning Communities

• Educators as Lifelong Learners

• Education

• Training
 The Inquiring Teacher

• Reflection at the centre - what kinds?

• Working in communities - inside and
outside school
• Learning to teach over a lifespan
• Being entitled to personal and professional
support and challenge
• Systematic investigation: critiquing one’s
own practice
 Precepts for learning and capacity building include:
• Successful schools are learning communities for adults as well as children
• Teachers learn best when they participate actively in discussions about the
content, processes and outcomes of their learning
• Successful learning requires time for critical reflection of different kinds, and
action research is the most effective means of investigating practice
• Learning alone though one’s own experience will ultimately limit progress
• Successful learning requires collaboration with others from inside and
outside the workplace
• Teacher learning and development are necessary for school improvement
• School leaders play a significant role in teacher learning and the
development of a school’s capacity to improve and cope with change
• At its best, learning will have personal and professional significance for
teachers
• Supported, sustained learning over time is likely to be more beneficial to the
individual and organisation than short term learning
• If schools are to operate effectively in devolved systems, much reliance has
to be placed on trust in professional judgement at school level
(Day and Hadfield, 2004)
 The Nature of CPD: a definition
'Professional development consists of all natural learning
experiences and those conscious and planned activities
which are intended to be of direct or indirect benefit to the
individual, group or school, and which contribute, through
these, to the quality of education in the classroom. It is the
process by which, alone and with others, teachers review,
renew and extend their commitment as change agents to
the moral purposes of teaching; and by which they acquire
and develop critically the knowledge, skills and emotional
intelligence essential to good professional thinking,
understanding, planning and practice with children, young
people and colleagues throughout each phase of their
teaching lives.'
(Day, 1999, p 4).
 C.P.D. at the centre:
School Improvement Planning
PD

PM CPD CD

SIP

PD: Personal Development

CD: Curriculum Development
CPD: Continuing Professional Development
PM: Performance Management
SIP: School Improvement Plan
 Learning in School
CPD Settings Team Teaching
Peer Coaching
Table 1 - Organising for Professional Development Action Research
Problem-Solving Groups
Reviews of Students
‘Direct’ Teaching
Assessment Development
Knowledge update
Case Studies of Practice
Skill update
Planning Groups
Awareness Sessions
Writing for Professional
Initial Conversations
Journals
Charismatic Speakers
School Site Management
Conferences
Teams
Courses and Workshops
On-line Conversations
Consultants Peer Reviews of Practice
Performance Management
Mentoring

Learning Out of School

Networked Learning Communities
School/University Partnerships
Subject/Phase Networks
Study Groups Based on Lieberman & Miller (1999, p 73)
University Courses
The Three Orientations of CPD

Personal

Policy Organisational
 Figure 1 Orientations of Career-Long Professional Development Planning

Orientation of Individual Professional Organisational

development Personal professional practitioner (role related
activity (extended/long- (immediate classroom training/
term management/ development)
career related) knowledge/
Kinds of skills update/training
Professional
Development

Individual as Individual as Individual

Underlying member of wider as
Individual manager
view community of member
as Person of learning and
of individual professionals and of school
achievement
educative leader community
 Change in Learning
(Attitudes, Behaviour, Results)

• Evolutionary

• Incremental

• Transformative
 Part 2

Evaluation
Evaluating CPD Effectiveness

1. Participants’ reactions
2. Participants’ learning from CPD (cognitive,
affective, behavioural)
3. Organisational support and change
4. Participants’ use of new knowledge and
skills
5. Student outcomes

Tom Guskey (2000)

Participants’ Reactions
Method of evaluation
“..we have two meetings a
week, one’s just a
• “Happy Sheet” standard meeting, and
then what we call
development meeting, it’s
the same meeting of the
• Discussion previous, same topic, but
it’s developmental work”

• Focus Groups/Interviews

• Departmental/Staff meetings

• Learning logs/reflective journals

Participants’ Learning
 “But it’s the soft
Method of evaluation issues that are the
most important ..a
• Interviews with teachers form might not be
the right thing”
• Documentary evidence
• Interim observation “You have to kind
of have a feel
about and pick up
• Informal Discussion things through the
leadership team
• Reflective logs as well”.
• PM
“…but the professional
• Tests of knowledge development part of the
performance
management cycle
• Rating own learning means that you can say:
‘How did that CPD affect
• Questionnaires you in the long term?”
Organisational Support and
Change

“…I mean it’s not

just CPD, it’s the
whole culture
really…”
 “I think they feel they are
Method of evaluation working in a school that’s
giving them a lot. I think
• Attainment of SIP targets they feel they are working
in a school where it is a
professional organisation
• Retention of staff
• External recognition (IIP, excellent school
list, etc.)
• Retention of staff in profession
• Observation (Shadowing)
“The benefit for us is .. people
to move on, fine we know that
• Interviews we’ve sent someone from here
with the right tools to grow in
their job and know how to run a
• Questionnaires department and spend the rest
of their time developing it.”
Participants’ Use of New
Knowledge and Skills
“…as part of
performance review,
Method of evaluation
they do a questionnaire
• Discussion
on-line with their
pupils. So they get
• Documentary
feedback, we get the evidence
feedback into the whole
system from pupils.”
• Return to happy sheet
• Interviews with students
• Interviews with teachers
• Reflective logs
• Observation
• PM
• Questionnaires
“They put in a sheet prior
to the event... so then
when they come for their
reviews we say, “Right,
you went on such and
such, have you felt it’s
been useful for you in the
classroom?”
“We ran inset …I did
follow-up observations
– to see if they were
employing the
strategies “
 Student Learning Outcomes

“If you’re developing the teachers

professionally it’s of benefit to the
school and it’s of benefit to the
children”.
 “We have conferences
with our students
Method of evaluation twice a year to talk
about the teaching...”
• Interview
• Sats/GCSE/A/AS
“I wanted to see if the
• Scrutiny of work children were employing
the strategies that the
• Discussion teachers had learned –
• Immediate work when I went through the
answers the children were
• Term/year evaluations/tests
employing the strategies
I’d wanted the teachers to
• Pupil self assessment be teaching”.
• Performance assessment
• Portfolio assessment
 Part 3

Leadership
& Support
CPD Management Roles

Cover

Information Tracking

Provision PM
Admin

Materials PD

Networks Reporting
CPD Leadership Roles
Planning
Individuals

Planning NA whole
Schools school

Develop
NA
Networks
individuals

Use of
Analysis
analysis
 Evaluation Methods
Career long CPD planning

Leadership

Reflection

Supportive Culture SIP

Time & Resources

Co-ordinator's Role

Evaluation of Impact
Factors influencing school capacity and
student achievement
Student Achievement

Instructional Quality
Curriculum, Instruction, Assessment

School Capacity
Teachers’ Knowledge, Skills, Dispositions
Professional Community - shared purpose,
collaboration, reflective enquiry, influence
Program Coherence

Policy and Programs on

PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
by the
School
District
State
Independent Organisations