The title of this post may be a little long yet its impact is extraordinary.
We know that establishing the conditions for continuous school improvement depends on the school’s leadership. Schools, regardless of their philosophy, curriculum, or teaching ideologies, are all working to improve student learning. At the heart of school improvement is effective teaching, which is enhanced through the intervention of targeted and “intentional” strategic endeavours. This is where the work of the leaders comes to the fore.
Our school, Al Yasat Private School in Abu Dhabi, has implemented an approach to teaching improvement which comprises an orchestrated interplay between:
- a strategic teaching improvement intent (the goal);
- an approach to leadership and;
- the use of data to inform decision making.
This was undertaken through the adoption and establishment of the teacher as researcher premise (TAR). In simple terms TAR is an approach to teacher professional learning that uses action-based research to enable the teacher to investigate and improve what they and their students do in classrooms and the greater school environment. This approach was recorded in two key publications: Teachers TEACHing Teachers and School Reform: Case Studies in Teaching Improvement.
The Learning Model used to guide the strategic intent of the teacher learning process was developed in 2016/2017 in a considered manner and implemented. During the early part of the 2019/2020 academic year we investigated the impacts of such an approach to teaching improvement through an evaluation project. The results have have been collated and, with contributions from Dr Denis Peters, Dr Asif Padela, Mr Thomas O’Meara, Mrs Reem Rekieh and Dr Paul Triegaardt, will be published in a book to be released late April/early May 2020.
The publisher has just released the book cover.
School leaders looking at re-organising their schools as a means to drive school improvement will read this book through the lens of not only their school’s journey but also their own leadership formation. This book highlights the impact leaders can have on leading school improvement and ultimately raise student outcomes. While it is not expected that schools will adopt the Al Yasat School Improvement Model, but rather, understand the processes and the thinking that leaders need to undertake in order to make meaningful educational gains.
