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Recommended reading
Ngā pepa hei pānuitanga

This section presents summaries of readings that were particularly influential in the writing of these materials or in the research activities of INSTEP.

A PDF of this section is available here.

Argyris and Schön (1974). Theory in Practice: Increasing Professional Effectiveness. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Argyris and Schön demonstrate that people’s behaviour is guided by and can be explained by their theories of action. An individual’s theories of action consist of his or her “espoused theories” and actual “theories-in-use”. Argyris and Schön present a conceptual framework for evaluating specific theories-in-use. They then present two models that relate specific theories-in-use to their effectiveness in supporting learning through human interaction. Finally, they describe how the theories developed here can be used to reform professional education.

Atkin, J. (1996). "From Values and Beliefs about Learning to Principles and Practice". Seminar Series, no. 54. Melbourne: Incorporated Association of Registered Teachers of Victoria. Available at www.learningtolearn.sa.edu.au/Colleagues/files/links/ValuesBeliefs.pdf

Atkin argues that “we need values and vision driven development in which the question we are regularly asking of ourselves, as individual educators and school communities, is how well are we achieving what we value and believe; how well does our current situation match our vision of what is possible?” (page 4). In this paper she:

  • promotes a values- and vision-based approach to school development;
  • shares some processes and strategies for engaging in a values- and vision-driven approach;
  • presents some principles of effective learning;
  • suggests some implications of these principles for educational design and practices.

BES publications homepage: www.educationcounts.govt.nz/publications/series/ibes

The Ministry of Education established the Iterative Best Evidence Synthesis (BES) Programme in 2003. The BES programme is now internationally acclaimed for the quality of its research into how to improve educational policy and practice. While the Teacher Professional Learning and Development: Best Evidence Synthesis Iteration (Timperley, Wilson, Barrar, and Fung, 2007) is probably of most immediate relevance to ISTEs, you will find it valuable to familiarise yourself with all the syntheses over time. They are all available for download, and, by contacting the programme via the main home page, you may find that you are eligible for a free hard copy.

To date (mid-2008), the programme has published six syntheses:

  • The Complexity of Community and Family Influences on Children’s Achievement in New Zealand
  • Professional Development in Early Childhood Settings
  • Quality Teaching for Diverse Students in Schooling
  • Quality Teaching: Early Foundations
  • Teacher Professional Learning and Development
  • Effective Pedagogy in Mathematics/Pāngarau.

Two further syntheses are forthcoming:

  • Effective Pedagogy in Social Sciences/Tikanga ā Iwi
  • School Leadership and Student Outcomes: Identifying What Works and Why.

A body of literature is developing around the BES programme, much of which is available from the BES publication home page. Of special interest is a booklet about teacher professional learning and development written by Helen Timperley as part of the International Academy of Education’s Educational Practices series. You can download the booklet from the Projects page of the Academy’s website at www.smec.curtin.edu.au/iae

Bishop, R. and Glynn, T. (1999). Culture Counts: Changing Power Relations in Education. Palmerston North: Dunmore.

Excerpt from the back cover

The model for addressing cultural diversity that is presented in this book is based on an indigenous Kaupapa Māori response to the dominant discourse within New Zealand. It promotes self-determination as guaranteed in the Treaty of Waitangi as a metaphor for power-sharing and has as its goal the advancement of educational outcomes and life opportunities for Māori children and those from other cultures.

In this model the classroom is a place where young people’s sense-making processes (cultures) are incorporated and enhanced, where the existing knowledge of young people is seen as “acceptable’’ and “official”, and where the teacher interacts with students in such a way that new knowledge is co-created and not seen as something that the teacher makes sense of and then passes on to students.

Bishop, R., Berryman, M., Tiakiwai, S., and Richardson, C. (2003). Te Kōtahitanga: The Experiences of Year 9 and 10 Māori Students in Mainstream Classrooms. Wellington: Ministry of Education. Available on the Te Kōtahitanga publication home page at: www.educationcounts.govt.nz/publications/series/te_kotahitanga

This research team employed the process of collaborative storying when they interviewed a range of Māori students in mainstream schools about how best to improve their educational achievement. The students claimed that major changes were needed in the way teachers related to and interacted with them in their classrooms. Based on the students’ experiences, the research team developed a professional development intervention called Te Kōtahitanga. When implemented with a group of 11 teachers in four schools, the intervention was associated with improved learning, behaviour, and attendance outcomes for Māori students.

Since 2003, two further reports have been published as Te Kōtahitanga has been scaled up to more schools:

  • Te Kōtahitanga Phase 2: Towards a Whole School Approach (Bishop, Berryman, Powell, and Teddy, 2007);
  • Te Kōtahitanga Phase 3: Establishing a Culturally Responsive Pedagogy of Relations in Mainstream Secondary School Classrooms (Bishop, Berryman, Powell, and Teddy, 2007).

Brookfield, S. (1995). Becoming a Critically Reflective Teacher. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Brookfield applies the principles of adult learning to discuss how critical reflection can help teachers understand why they teach in a certain way and to assess the impact and perceptions of their practices. According to Brookfield, the reflective process involves teachers viewing their teaching from four different perspectives or “lenses”: their autobiographies as teachers and learners; their students’ eyes; their colleagues’ perceptions; and the relevant theoretical literature.

Coburn, C. E. (2005). “Shaping Teacher Sensemaking: School Leaders and the Enactment of Reading Policy”. Educational Policy, vol. 19 no. 3, pp. 476–509. Available at http://gse.berkeley.edu/faculty/CECoburn/shaping_sensemaking.pdf

Abstract

A growing body of research has emphasized the social processes by which teachers adapt and transform policy as they enact it in their classrooms. Yet little attention has been paid to the role of school leaders in this process. Drawing on sociological theories of sensemaking, this article investigates how principals in two California elementary schools influenced teacher learning about and enactment of changing reading policy. It argues that principals influence teachers’ enactment by shaping access to policy ideas, participating in the social process of interpretation and adaptation, and creating substantively different conditions for teacher learning in schools. These actions, in turn, are influenced by principals’ understandings about reading instruction and teacher learning.

Cochran-Smith, M. and Lytle, S. (1999). “Relationships of Knowledge and Practice: Teacher Learning in Communities”. Review of Research in Education, ed. A. Iran Nejad and C. D. Pearson, vol. 24, pp. 249–305.

Cochran-Smith and Lytle argue that “Different conceptions of teacher learning – although not always made explicit – lead to very different ideas about how to improve teacher education and professional development, how to bring about school and curricular change, and how to assess and license teachers over the course of the professional life span” (page 249). They distinguish three conceptions of teacher learning: knowledge-for-practice; knowledge-in-practice; and knowledge-of-practice.

Donovan, M. S., Bransford, J. D, and Pellegrino, J. W., eds. (1999). How People Learn: Bridging Research and Practice. Washington, DC: National Academy Press. Available at www.nap.edu/html/howpeople2/

This valuable booklet draws on a synthesis of research into human learning that was conducted in the United States by the National Research Council. The original research highlighted a set of principles that apply to all learners. This booklet presents those principles in ways that make the research-based knowledge accessible and useful to all the communities that contribute to educational practice.

Earl, L. and Katz, S. (2002). “Leading Schools in a Data-Rich World”. In Second International Handbook of Educational Leadership and Administration, ed. K. Leithwood and P. Hallinger. Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers. A shortened version of this article is available at www.decs.sa.gov.au/hillsmurraylands/files/links/Leading_schools_in_a_data.pdf

Earl and Katz argue that “data have the potential to be very powerful and useful mechanisms for helping schools change in productive ways” (page 1003). However, they caution that using data is a deeply analytical and emotional process that is closely tied to the context, the people involved, and the nature of the data that is available. But, they say, “for data to have deep and lasting effects on schools, the motivation for its use has to be intrinsic and rooted in a need to know” (page 1008). They suggest that “leading schools in a data-rich world” requires leaders to develop an “inquiry habit of mind”, become data-literate, and create a culture of inquiry.

Elmore, R. (2003). “A Plea for Strong Practice”. Educational Leadership, vol. 61 no. 3, pp. 6–10. Available at www.qualitylearning.net/strongpractice.htm

Elmore argues that “professional educators have weak political authority and influence in part because they are fragmented professionally and lack strong cooperative theories on how to improve the enterprise” (page 9). He urges educators across the system to collaborate to develop a strong theory of improvement and outlines some parameters for such a theory.

Findings from the Numeracy Development Project

A significant theme that has emerged from the New Zealand Numeracy Development Project is that the sustainability of reforms depends on the ability of facilitators to assess and respond to each teacher’s context of practice. You can explore this theme by downloading the following sources:

You can learn more about the project itself by exploring the New Zealand Maths: Numeracy Projects website at www.nzmaths.co.nz/Numeracy/index.aspx

Findings from the Pacific Islands School Community Parent Liaison (PISCPL) project

PISCPL aims to raise the achievement of Pasifika students by fostering more effective engagement between schools and Pasifika parents and communities. You can explore this idea further through the following sources:

  • Gorinski, R. (2005). “Pacific Islands School Community Parent Liaison Project Case Study”. Report prepared for the Research Division of the Ministry of Education. Wellington: Ministry of Education. Available at www.educationcounts.govt.nz/publications/pasifika_education/5259
  • Ministry of Education (2006). Connections and Conversations: Making Links for Learning. Wellington: CWA New Media. Booklet and DVD. ISTEs can obtain free copies of this resource by contacting the distributors via freephone 0800 660 662 or freefax 0800 660 663.
  • Gorinski, R. and Fraser, C. (2006). “Literature Review on the Effective Engagement of Pasifika Parents & Communities in Education (PISCPL)”. Wellington: Ministry of Education. Available at www.educationcounts.govt.nz/publications/pasifika_education/5907

Michael Fullan: www.michaelfullan.ca

Michael Fullan is one of the world’s leading experts on educational change and improvement. You can learn about his ideas by exploring his website, which includes synopses of his books, downloadable copies of many of his articles, and other resources. Two texts that were drawn on frequently for these materials are:

  • Fullan, M. (2007). The NEW Meaning of Educational Change. New York: Teachers' College Press.
    Fullan provides a reference tool to help educators bring about and manage the change process.
  • Fullan, M. and Hargreaves, A. (1996). What’s Worth Fighting for in Your School? New York: Teachers’ College Press.
    Fullan and Hargreaves believe that there can be no improvement without the teacher, and that the key to creating, sustaining, and motivating good teachers is interactive professionalism.

Reid, A. (2004). "Towards a Culture of Inquiry in DECS". Keynote address at the Quality Teachers, Quality Teaching conference in Melbourne 23–24 May, 2005. Published as an Occasional Paper on South Australia’s Department of Education and Children’s Services website: www.decs.sa.gov.au/corporate/files/links/OP_01.pdf

Reid notes that education systems around the world have responded to the challenges of the contemporary environment through increased managerialism, an approach that has been largely discredited in the educational literature. He argues that education systems should instead develop a culture of inquiry and research that will support educators to make inquiry into professional practice a “way of professional being”. Reid speculates about the possibilities for creating “a system that has institutionalised a system-wide culture of inquiry and research through its structures, processes and environment” (page 3).

Robinson, V. and Lai, M. K. (2006). Practitioner Research for Educators: A Guide to Improving Classrooms and Schools. Thousand Oaks, Calif.: Corwin.

Excerpt from the back cover

Each school and classroom is different. Therefore educators must learn, through their own inquiry, how to adjust their practices in ways that will improve teaching and learning. Practitioner Research for Educators explains how the popular technique of practitioner inquiry can be used by teachers, principals, and other school leaders to solve instructional problems and improve student achievement. Viviane Robinson and Mei Kuin Lai include step-by-step instructions, ready-to-use tools, and examples of successful practitioner research projects. Practical yet rigorous, this collaborative process is ideal for use in professional learning communities.

Spillane, J. P., Reiser, B. J., and Reimer, T. (2002). “Policy Implementation and Cognition: Reframing and Refocusing Implementation Research.” Review of Educational Research, vol. 72 no. 3, pp. 387–431.

Abstract

Education policy faces a familiar public policy challenge: Local implementation is difficult. In this article we deliver a cognitive framework to characterise sense-making in the implementation process that is especially relevant for recent education policy initiatives, such as standards-based reforms that press for tremendous changes in classroom instruction. From a cognitive perspective, a key dimension of the implementation process is whether, and in what ways, implementing agents come to understand their practice, potentially changing their beliefs and attitudes in the process. We draw on theoretical and empirical literature to develop a cognitive perspective on implementation. We review the contribution of cognitive science frames to implementation research and identify areas where cognitive science can make additional contributions.

Stein, M. and Coburn, C. (2005). "Toward Producing Usable Knowledge for the Improvement of Educational Practice: A Conceptual Framework". Unpublished paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association, Montreal, April 11–15.

Traditionally, moving evidence-based strategies into practice has often involved a linear process where researchers generate fundamental research leading to applied research that then “trickles down” to practitioners via facilitators in the form of new products or codified practices. Stein and Coburn ask how the relationship between research and practice can be better linked so that innovative approaches to educational improvement are more routinely “taken up”, with the ultimate goal being improved educational practices and greater student learning in a large number of sites.

Stoll, L., Fink, D., and Earl, L. (2003). It’s about Learning (and It’s about Time): What’s in It for Schools? London: RoutledgeFalmer.

Back cover

The ability to learn, unlearn and relearn is crucial in a changing and developing world. This book is about understanding the connections between pupils, teachers’ and leaders’ learning, and between learning in schools and in the wider community. It argues that it is schools’ internal capacity that fuels learning, and examines ways that pupils, teachers, parents, school advisors and policy makers can all help increase this capacity to turn schools into learning communities. This fascinating and accessible book contains questions for reflection and inspirational quotes, and should be read by all education practitioners.

Timperley, H. (2005). “Instructional Leadership Challenges: The Case of Using Student Achievement Information for Instructional Improvement”. Leadership and Policy in Schools, vol. 4 no. 1, pp. 3–22. Available at www.informaworld.com/index/713734381.pdf

Abstract

Increasingly school leaders are being challenged to take a more instructionally focused role in their schools. This paper tracks the leadership challenges through a change process involving an assistant principal and a group of teachers, supported by a consultant, through four phases of an action research project. During the project the participants learned how to use achievement data to improve instruction for their low-achieving students. Initially, the teachers did not believe that they could influence the low literacy achievement of their students and so analyzing achievement data was irrelevant to their practice. Eighteen months later they were using the data to target their instruction more precisely and to test the effectiveness of their teaching practice and make refinements to their programs. The multifaceted challenges involved in leading such an initiative are discussed for each phase, together with conclusions about the realities of instructional leadership and the support that might be needed to undertake it effectively.

Waters, T., Marzano, R. J., and McNulty, B. (2003). "Balanced Leadership: What 30 Years of Research Tells us about the Effect of Leadership on Student Achievement". McREL. Available at www.sai-iowa.org/BalancedLeadership.pdf

These researchers have developed a leadership framework that describes the knowledge, skills, strategies, and tools leaders need to positively impact on student achievement. They based the framework on a meta-analysis of the literature that revealed a substantial relationship between leadership and student achievement (a correlation of 0.25).

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