Session Information
26 SES 03 A, School Leadership Training Programs for School Leaders’ Professional Development
Symposium
Contribution
Internationally lectures have traditionally been the dominant form of teaching in universities and colleges (Huber, 2011), characterised by students' limited opportunity for active participation (Pettersen, 2005). To strengthen the quality of higher education in Norway, national guidelines have been given, among other things, stating that studies must include learning activities where students become active participants in their learning. The core of student active learning is student activity and involvement in the learning processes; in short, it is about methods where students are activated in meaningful learning activities and think about what they are doing. In many educational programs, integrated use of lectures and more student-active approaches to learning are used (Amundsen & Haakstad, 2018). For example, teachers combine lectures with group work, reflection tasks, and the like. Such combinations of learning approaches align with researchers who propose the use of a range of learning activities in various formats for obtaining an effect of development for school leaders participating in formal school leadership training program and their organisations (see, e.g. Huber, 2011; 2013; Goldring et al., 2012; Forde & Gronn, 2013 & Simkins 2012). This paper reports from a study investigating how group discussions can contribute to students' learning in the extension of lectures to gain a comprehensive insight into and further develop teaching practices with lectures in combination with group discussions as an asset for students learning. The study is carried out with an action research design (Carr & Kemmis, 1986). The context of the study is a National School Leadership program (15 credits) offered by a Norwegian university. The data is based on observation logs of a teaching session and the students' reflection notes conducted at the session's end. The findings indicate that group discussions in the extension of lectures provide learning opportunities that promote the students' learning, both collectively and individually. Through the group discussions, learning opportunities emerge in the interaction between theoretical knowledge addressed in the lecture and practical, experience-based knowledge based on the students' self-perceived "pegs" and ideas from their organisational contexts. In this interaction, learning experiences are produced that give the students increased understanding and new perspectives about how they can drive development in their practice contexts and how they, as school leaders, can act in new ways. However, the findings reveal how both organisational and structuring conditions and conditions related to qualities in task design and the conversations themselves can inhibit learning potential.
References
Amundsen, G. Y. & Haakstad, J. (2018). Teaching in higher education – consistency and change in context and role. Journal of the European Higher Education Area, 2, 83–98. Carr, W. and S. Kemmis (1986). Becoming critical: education, knowledge, and action research. Falmer Press. Forde, McMahon, & Gronn (2013). Designing individualised leadership development programmes. School Leadership & Management, 33(5), 440–456. Goldring, E., Preston, C., & Huff, J. (2012). Conceptualizing and evaluating professional development for school leaders. Planning and Changing, 43(3/4), 223–242. Huber, S. (2011). The impact of professional development: A theoretical model for empirical research, evaluation, planning and conducting training and development programmes. Professional Development in Education, 37(5), 837–853. Huber, S. (2013). Multiple learning approaches in the professional development of school leaders – theoretical perspectives and empirical findings on self-assessment and feedback. Educational Management Administration & Leadership, 41(4), 527–540. Pettersen, R. (2005). Kvalitetslæring i høgere utdanning. Innføring i problem- og praksisbasert didaktikk. Universitetsforlaget.
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