Date and time

Wednesday 17 May 2023, 9.30 am to 3.30 pm

Delivery mode

In person at ISV, 40 Rosslyn St, West Melbourne

Audience 

Any educator interested in understanding an expanded notion of teacher-leadership and wishing to develop a set of leadership mindsets and skills that go beyond business-as-usual in their practice.

Description

What are powerful ways that a teacher can enact leadership in their schools? What skills and mindsets are important if teachers are to lead learning in their classroom, school and the field of education?

Schools are important contexts for learning and development, not only for students but also teachers. When teachers embrace responsibility for a positive future for their learners and their school, they become powerful leverage points for innovation and change in their community.

This workshop, led by Dr Flossie Chua from Project Zero at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, will engage participants in the practice of teacher-leadership. It invites them to unpack key qualities of three important leadership mindsets – role, pedagogy and evidence – and explore strategies for developing them.

Explore what it means for a teacher to: 

• create conditions for positive behaviours in their context
• understand how identity affects how we work with and lead others
• recognise how implicit assumptions about self and the world deepen an individual's commitment to improving teaching and learning
• go beyond traditional notions of leadership (and role titles) to design and implement structures and patterns of interaction to improve work processes
• look outside current repertoires to explore, innovate and champion ways to improve instruction in learning spaces
• investigate the impact of pedagogical and assessment practices on learners
• undertake small experiments to test your evolving ideas about what it means for a teacher to lead.

Key takeaways                        

• greater understanding of how the three mindsets of role leadership, pedagogical leadership, and evidence leadership are important ways of thinking and being that can be used flexibly for different purposes, contexts and circumstances
• exploration of how teacher leaders play a significant role in the optimal functioning of classrooms and schools by exploring three key questions: How can we better support learning? How do we know that learning is taking place? How might we work and play more effectively as a community?
• greater understanding of how teacher leadership is multifaceted. Inspiring teacher leaders lead themselves and others to improve patterns of interaction and work processes, champion innovative pedagogical practices to improve learning, and investigate the impact of learning and assessment practices on the community.

 

Presenter information

Dr Flossie Chua

Dr Flossie Chua is a Principal Investigator at Project Zero. Her work focuses on understanding how people think about and experience complex ideas and challenges in different contexts. Her research also examines how educators nurture good thinking and practices that develop not just better thinkers, but also learners engaged by a range of topics, relating them to both individual and social needs and aspirations.

 

Kieren Noonan

Kieren is an experienced innovative education professional with extensive experience of working in educational leadership and strategically delivering innovative products, solutions and initiatives. Kieren is skilled in education leadership and management, training delivery, process management and product and service design. He is a dedicated education professional with a Master of Education - Leadership from the University of South Australia.

 

Aynur Simsirel

Aynur Simsirel has significant experience in school leadership. She has worked as an Executive Principal and Deputy Principal overseeing the growth of a multi-campus Independent school. In her current role at Independent Schools Victoria, she supports schools with compliance, governance and student wellbeing initiatives, as well as school performance and strategic planning. Her work focusses on understanding how we can make visible thinking routine in schools. Aynur facilitates leadership, coaching programs, the Principal Executive Network and supports the Leading Learning that Matters Program in partnership with Harvard University.  

 

David Burton             

David Burton returned to Australia in 2015 after several years overseas. Until recently he served as Head of Senior Campus at Woodleigh School, a role which included periods as Acting Principal, most recently during the COVID-19 crisis. David has a background in teacher coaching and professional learning, curriculum development, middle years innovation and the integration of new learning technologies into the classroom.  David has particular expertise with the International Baccalaureate programs. He was IB MYP Coordinator at the International School of Paris and the Australian International School in Singapore. As a regular IB conference presenter and workshop leader over the last ten years, David has led professional learning with schools and teachers across Australia and New Zealand as well as throughout Asia, Europe and Africa. He has also completed a Masters of School Leadership course, specialising in research into the efficacy of teacher collaboration.

Link(s) to relevant VRQA Standards 

• Curriculum and Student Learning – Curriculum framework

• Curriculum and Student Learning – Student learning outcomes

• Curriculum and Student Learning – Monitoring and reporting on students’ performance.