Disciplined dialogue to build capacity

I spent the last 2 weeks working with the Team Leaders and Teaching Educators who are part of the team with whom I work. Several of the team members were new.

One thing that struck me from the two weeks was the importance of talk in getting to know each other and in developing leadership. The talk allowed for us to get insights into how each person thinks about teaching and learning, the language we use to describe our thinking and our theories of learning.

At the recent ICSEI conference I attended a session on Teacher Leadership conducted by John MacBeath from the Leadership for Learning network. The session identified the need to move from professional discussions (conversations that dissect and pull apart) to disciplined dialogue (conversations that flow through developing thinking and ideas).

Disciplined dialogue takes time but it is essential for effective distribution of leadership and the building of capacity in the profession of teaching. Engaging in disciplined dialogue is hard work.

Disciplined dialogue assists in developing a shared language for talking about learning. The conversations reflected understandings held by others. They allowed for theories of learning to be surfaced and for assumptions to be tested.

For me it reinforced the importance of professional talk about teaching and learning undertaken in a focused and disciplined way.

Engaing in disciplined dialogue takes time. Too often time is not given to conversations as time is viewed as a something to be consumed, rather than as an investment for the future.

Enough of reviewing - let's put the energy into improving

I've had the opportunity to have spent 3 days working with leader colleagues from across the Parramatta system of schools facilitated by Michael Fullan.

It was refreshing to focus energies on possibilities of improvement by building capacity that is beyond formulaic reviewing and measuring school effectiveness. I love the phrase that I picked up in Scotland when visiting there in 2006: "Weighing the pig more often doesn't make it fatter!"

Achieving improvement
Michael presented a framework that focused on improvement through PRECISION and SPECIFICITY around what works in moving things forward with a clear focus on a small number of goals. To achieve improvement three things are needed:
Transparency of results and practice + Non-judgementalism + Good help.

I think that this is what Tim Brighouse did to bring about the change in Birmingham under his stewardship.

The challenge
The challenge for me, and for all interested in school improvement is to engage in authentic ways with schools communities, the teachers, their leaders, the students in exploring the issues that challenge the school.

A theory of action
The way forward inovolves developing a Theory of Action that has the dual effect of improving learning outcomes and life opportunities for students as well as building the capacity of the school. With this would come increased satisfaction in teaching.

An unrelenting focus on learning
What is required is an unrelenting focus on students and their learning, with a precision and specificity focused on Pedagogical Synergy - the alignment of curriculum, assessment and pedagogy(teaching/instruction).

New Position

I'm excited! I have been offered a position with Parramatta CEO as one of the newly appointed Team Leaders. Parramatta CEO's Executive Director, Greg Whitby was recently announced as one of The Bulletin magazine's Top 100 Thinkers. It is a great opportunity to be part of a venture that is focused on transformation of learning and teaching - to move from the industrial models and approaches.

For me this is an opportunity to put into practice my own thinking and understandings as reflected in my Churchill Fellowship. The focus on innovation, collaboration, networking and capacity building has great potential in transforming learning and teaching.