teaching and learning

Well, it’s been a week back at work since the Conference and I’ve (nearly) cleared the email deluge and back-up of tasks to the extent that I can actually think about the sessions I saw and what might come of them. I’ll try to write about some of them over the next few days.

The first session I saw was from Vivianne Robinson, from the University of Auckland (NZ) talking about the relationship between school leadership and student outcomes. It was basically an argument for instructional leadership (and a focus on pedagogy) over transformational leadership. I liked (because I agreed!) that the most powerful leadership action to take in schools was to focus on teaching and learning. (I know it sounds obvious, but how many schools actually do that?) Robinson’s findings were based on actual research, rather than my intuitive feeling about that, but that was good too. She argued strongly for:

Leadership that not only promotes but directly participates with teachers in formal or informal professional learning.

The problem I had with this presentation was the discussion of competing theories. She said, memorably, ‘forget resistance to change, they’ve (those teachers who wont change) just got a different theory to you’ and she described how to work through that difference in theory. (see below) Trouble is, I thought later over ordinary coffee, what if they DON’T have a competing theory at all, no theory, just opposition. Someone else thought the same thing and we talked that over as we cruised around in circles on Sydney Harbour.

You can download the full Robinson PowerPoint HERE