ORCID Profile
0000-0002-0334-8278
Current Organisations
Central Queensland University
,
James Cook University
,
Oulu University Hospital
,
University of Oulu
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Publisher: Emerald
Date: 08-2016
Abstract: – This paper argues that in a well-organised school with strong leadership and vision coupled with a concerted effort to improve the teaching performance of each teacher, student achievement can be enhanced. The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate that while macro-effect sizes such as “whole of school” metrics are useful for school leaders in their professional development roles, there are important micro-conditions that can be uncovered in a more detailed analysis of student achievement data. – Evidence of student achievement in a variety of standardised and non-standardised assessment tasks was subjected to examination in a post hoc , case study design. The assessment tasks were the South Australian Spelling Test Waddington Reading Test, a school-wide diagnostic writing task, teacher running records and National Assessment Program for Literacy and Numeracy. Performance in selected classrooms was compared on these tests utilising a variety of parametric quantitative statistics. – School-based reform initiatives require external criteria on which to base decision making. Without such criteria based on data and the capacity to interpret it, interactions in the school culture have unanticipated consequences that have the potential to neutralise school improvement strategies. Further, findings suggest that fewer but sharper and quicker data collection tools are more valuable in such teacher decision making, but these require expertise to produce and interpret them. – This paper provides insights from one school, but the reported data are embedded in a sustained five year school reform programme. – This paper documents a whole school organisational reform model devised by a school head and leadership team to improve student academic performance. The paper offers a process for developing a data-based school reform strategy for professional development to enhance both student achievement and school outcomes. – The paper outlines a model for school reform that is focused on all students increasing their academic outcomes. By emphasising collaborative teacher work based on research-justified teaching approaches, the model shows that social inequalities can be reversed. – The paper outlines a whole of school reform model focused through a combination of distributed leadership, data-driven decision making, within a context of a coaching, mentoring and feedback regime for teachers. Together this model is an application of theoretical ideas to school reform.
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 22-06-2019
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 16-07-2021
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 28-11-2022
Publisher: Edith Cowan University
Date: 12-2017
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 21-09-2023
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 30-08-2019
Publisher: Emerald
Date: 04-02-2019
DOI: 10.1108/IJEM-07-2017-0181
Abstract: The purpose of this paper is to compare measures of socio-economic status (Index of Community Socio-educational Advantage values (ICSEA)), school performance, school funding and school readiness in terms of their impact on student performance. In this respect, the paper tests the proposition – given research that suggests the teacher is the important ingredient in improved student learning performance – that a school principal who has strategical worked to “ready” their teachers for a whole of school teaching improvement agenda will generate increased student learning results than those who have not and further this improvement will occur irrespective of the circumstance of the socio-economic circumstance of the school. In total, 22 Government schools from a single school district in Australia participated in the study, after having been involved in a system sponsored “teaching improvement program”. A survey, consisting of 30 seven-point Likert-style scale items, was administered to all teachers and school leaders in the school district. The survey was designed to rate levels of staff perceived alignment, capability and engagement to the programme as it was implemented by the Head in each school. The information regarding each school’s ICSEA value, funding per student and student learning performance, was obtained from the database provided by the relevant authority (ACARA). All statistical analysis was completed using SPSS Version 22. The findings of this study indicate that high levels of organisational readiness, as defined by the alignment, capability and engagement (ACE) approach, are associated with effective teaching and improvement in student outcomes. In turn, the authors interpret this to mean that the internal organisation of a school has important effects on student achievement that are independent to external factors such as school funding or even the socio-educational positioning of the school. The findings of this study indicate that high levels of organisational readiness, as defined by the ACE approach, are associated with effective teaching and improvement in student outcomes. The implications are that the ACE provides a framework for what the school leader needs to focus on when whole of school teaching improvement is the goal. The study did not investigate what the school leader did in each school to ready their staff. These findings indicate the importance of leadership in a school and provide an insight into what the school leader needs to focus on when whole of school teaching improvement is the intended goal. This focus can thus be understood as the leader working to ensure all staff members are ACE to the improvement agenda. The improvement of educational outcomes is a global goal of governments. In this respect, Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) school systems in particular have linked education system performance and international competitiveness in ways that place pressure on the “black box” of in idual schools. Reports, such as the Programme for International Student Assessment and local testing regimes testify that governments and communities are interested in the academic performance of students within and across schooling systems. The benefits of high performing schools contribute to the standard of living of citizens and the well-being of a society more generally. This paper investigates propositions that focus the work of the school leader to achieving such inherent goals. The paper introduces the concept of school readiness. The premise is considered important to the current research because it represents the ability of schools to participate in reform agendas that are characteristic of government policy positions. The “school readiness” approach lies outside the education literature, motivated by the idea that the literature on turning around failing organisations in sectors outside of education provides clear guidelines for reforming schools. The implications for turnaround leadership are particularly encouraging and important particular organisational factors, in common with sectors outside of education, are of significant importance in enhancing teacher motivation, teacher learning and consequential improvements in student outcomes. This paper seeks to add empirical evidence in support of these approaches by adopting what the authors refer as organisational “readiness” for reform developed by Schiemann (2014).
Publisher: The Society for the Provision of Education in Rural Australia (SPERA)
Date: 16-11-2020
Abstract: This article outlines the rationale for, and development of an online support system (OSS) for teachers of mathematics in regional, rural and remote (RRR) Australia as part of an ongoing longitudinal project, Regional Teachers of Mathematics Networks (RTMN). The OSS is designed to assist development of interconnected collaborative networks for teachers of mathematics in order to help them develop their professional identity. The article builds on the logic of the broader RTMN project, arguing that the development of a teacher of mathematics identity (ToMI) framework through participation in networked communities of practice (CoPs) is integral to improved practice and teacher retention. Theoretical considerations, framed within the overarching conceptual umbrella of cultural accumulation theory, are provided and relate mathematics CoPs to professional development and its role in the development of a localised teacher of mathematics identity. This framing outlines the importance of an OSS that supports both face-to-face and online (virtual) CoP functions for teachers of mathematics. The article also states the case for a design-based implementation research approach that allows stakeholders to sustain ongoing evaluation and updating of the OSS platform for professional learning exchanges within the ToMI framework.
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 10-2020
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 30-01-2020
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 24-08-2022
DOI: 10.1007/S13384-022-00553-0
Abstract: This article reports on original research investigating teacher wellbeing while teaching mathematics in relation to teacher identity. Using survey data from mathematics teachers ( N = 402) participating in a teacher of mathematics support initiative, teacher wellbeing was operationally defined as the experience of wellbeing whilst teaching, allowing an applied understanding of wellbeing in relation to the activity of teaching. Teacher identity was construed from prior research by the authors (Willis et al., in: Math Educ Res J, 10.1007/s13394-021-00391-w, 2021) and operationalised for the current study in terms of a specific teacher of mathematics identity (ToMI) construct. The main research question for this investigation was directed at how well the ToMI construct, as a wellbeing variable, was able to predict teacher wellbeing while teaching, viewed as an ‘in situ’ or ‘active’ (applied) measure of wellbeing. Identity-Based Motivation (IBM) theory was used to frame the research, as it helps explain how the degree of congruency between identity and wellbeing may influence motivation to teach. Results indicated that although several important factors relate significantly to teacher of mathematics wellbeing, the ToMI construct predicted teacher wellbeing far above the ability of all other study factors combined, suggesting that a focus on the development of a professional identity for teachers is fundamental to the support of teacher wellbeing in schools. Suggestions for investigating this focus at the school level are also provided.
No related grants have been discovered for David Lynch.