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News bulletins from the Australian Council for Educational Research published August 2007 3134 subscribers Subscribe Now In this issue: Introduction Principals warned: Don’t carry the burden alone Understanding student motivation a key to raising academic standards School leaders must focus on teaching and learning Leadership stress deters potential principals The best principals are both demanding and responsive Leadership standards the key to preparing better principals ACER UPDATE Introduction Research Conference 2007 special edition The following articles are based on papers presented at the ACER Research Conference 2007, held in Melbourne, 13-14 August 2007 on the theme of The Leadership Challenge: Improving learning in schools. Principals warned: Don’t carry the burden alone School principals charged with improving educational outcomes should adapt their leadership style to fit in with the context of the school’s needs rather than adopting a one-size fits all approach according to Professor Philip Hallinger, Chief Academic Officer of the College of Management, Mahidol University, Thailand. Delivering the opening keynote address to the Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER) annual conference on the theme The Leadership Challenge: Improving learning in schools, Professor Hallinger contrasted the two most influential models of educational leadership: instructional leadership and transformational leadership offered possible paths towards their integration in the practice of educational leadership. Continue reading » Understanding student motivation a key to raising academic standards Contemporary research on human motivation and learning is enabling schools to understand better students’ reasons for learning and in turn, how they can raise academic achievement according to a visiting international expert on educational leadership. Professor Elizabeth Leo of the University of Dundee, Scotland visited Melbourne on August 13 to speak at the Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER) annual conference, The Leadership Challenge: Improving Learning in Schools. In her keynote presentation Professor Leo presented evidence from a longitudinal research study of an Academy school in England that has moved from being in the country’s lowest 10 per cent on academic achievement to the top 10 per cent without a change in student profiles. Continue reading » School leaders must focus on teaching and learning The more school leaders focus their influence, their learning and their relationships with teachers on the core business of teaching and learning, the greater their likely influence on student outcomes. This is among the findings from a review of published research focused on identifying the relative impact of different types of leadership on student outcomes. The research findings were presented to the Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER) annual conference, The Leadership Challenge: Improving learning in schools, by Professor Viviane Robinson of the University of Auckland. Continue reading » Leadership stress deters potential principals Fundamental cultural change is necessary to reform the institution of school leadership in the 21st century, says education policy researcher Dr Louise Watson. Dr Watson addressed the challenge of attracting and sustaining effective school leaders at the Australian Council for Educational Research annual conference on 13 August. Posing the question ‘Why would anyone want this job?’ Dr Watson argued that while there has been considerable concern about an impending crisis in school leadership due to a shrinking pool of applicants for principals’ positions, the problem is not a lack of qualified leaders, but a lack of interest in leadership roles due to the increasing pressure such positions entail. Continue reading » The best principals are both demanding and responsive Schools that focus only on being more responsive to students without also setting high expectations and demands are making a fundamental mistake according to a paper delivered to ACER's Research Conference 2007 - The Leadership Challenge: Improving learning in schools. Professor Stephen Dinham, ACER's Research Director, Teaching and Leadership, told delegates that educational leadership, like teaching and life generally, is heavily dependent on relationships. In his presentation Professor Dinham explored two fundamental dimensions to relationships: responsiveness and demandingness and their influence on teaching and learning in Australian schools. Continue reading » Leadership standards the key to preparing better principals Australia must implement school leadership standards if it wants well-prepared principals according to Dr Lawrence Ingvarson and Michelle Anderson of ACER. Dr Ingvarson and Ms Anderson presented the findings of their international review of leadership standards to the ACER annual research conference The Leadership Challenge: Improving learning in schools. Continue reading » ACER UPDATE Research Conference 2008 Research Conference 2008 will take place at the Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre, Queensland from 10-12 August 2008. The theme of the conference will be Educating for Effective Participation - Citizenship and work: what the research says. Conference speakers will include Professor Richard Sweet of SweetGroup, ACT; Professor Stuart Macintyre of Harvard University and Suzanne Mellor and Gabrielle Matters of ACER. Further information on the conference will be added to the conference webpage as it becomes available. Information available to date is included in the conference flyer. Australian Education Review 53 Australian Education Review 53 will elaborate on issues raised by Research Conference 2007 - The Leadership Challenge: Improving learning in schools. The review argues for an emphasis on continuity, independence, community and heterogeneity, to balance the current overemphasis on constant change, dependence, individualism and homogeneity. Successful school leaders avoid the much promoted one-size-fits-all approach to leadership, and become an independent rather than a dependent variable in their school. They can take the opportunity to create communities of professional learners. Australian Education Review 53 is written by Professor Bill Mulford, Professor and Director of the Leadership for Learning Research Group, Faculty of Education, University of Tasmania. It will be available early in 2008. For further information about the Australian Education Review series visit the AER website. Conference proceedings available online The full conference proceedings and individual papers from Research Conference 2007 - The Leadership Challenge: Improving learning in schools are now available online.
Copyright © Australian Council for Educational Research 2013 All rights reserved. Except under the conditions described in the Copyright Act 1968 of Australia and subsequent amendments, no part of this electronic publication may be reproduced, stored in retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying or otherwise, without written permission. Please address any requests to reproduce information to communications@acer.edu.au Subscribe Unsubscribe Australian Council for Educational Research Private Bag 55, Camberwell, Victoria Australia 3124 Tel: + 61 3 9277 5555 Fax: + 61 3 9277 5500 Web: www.acer.edu.au

News bulletins from the Australian Council for Educational Research published August 2007
3134 subscribers
Subscribe Now

In this issue:

Introduction

Research Conference 2007 special edition

The following articles are based on papers presented at the ACER Research Conference 2007, held in Melbourne, 13-14 August 2007 on the theme of The Leadership Challenge: Improving learning in schools.

Principals warned: Don’t carry the burden alone

School principals charged with improving educational outcomes should adapt their leadership style to fit in with the context of the school’s needs rather than adopting a one-size fits all approach according to Professor Philip Hallinger, Chief Academic Officer of the College of Management, Mahidol University, Thailand.

Delivering the opening keynote address to the Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER) annual conference on the theme The Leadership Challenge: Improving learning in schools, Professor Hallinger contrasted the two most influential models of educational leadership: instructional leadership and transformational leadership offered possible paths towards their integration in the practice of educational leadership.

Understanding student motivation a key to raising academic standards

Contemporary research on human motivation and learning is enabling schools to understand better students’ reasons for learning and in turn, how they can raise academic achievement according to a visiting international expert on educational leadership. Professor Elizabeth Leo of the University of Dundee, Scotland visited Melbourne on August 13 to speak at the Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER) annual conference, The Leadership Challenge: Improving Learning in Schools.

In her keynote presentation Professor Leo presented evidence from a longitudinal research study of an Academy school in England that has moved from being in the country’s lowest 10 per cent on academic achievement to the top 10 per cent without a change in student profiles.

School leaders must focus on teaching and learning

The more school leaders focus their influence, their learning and their relationships with teachers on the core business of teaching and learning, the greater their likely influence on student outcomes. This is among the findings from a review of published research focused on identifying the relative impact of different types of leadership on student outcomes.

The research findings were presented to the Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER) annual conference, The Leadership Challenge: Improving learning in schools, by Professor Viviane Robinson of the University of Auckland.

Leadership stress deters potential principals

Fundamental cultural change is necessary to reform the institution of school leadership in the 21st century, says education policy researcher Dr Louise Watson. Dr Watson addressed the challenge of attracting and sustaining effective school leaders at the Australian Council for Educational Research annual conference on 13 August.

Posing the question ‘Why would anyone want this job?’ Dr Watson argued that while there has been considerable concern about an impending crisis in school leadership due to a shrinking pool of applicants for principals’ positions, the problem is not a lack of qualified leaders, but a lack of interest in leadership roles due to the increasing pressure such positions entail.

The best principals are both demanding and responsive

Schools that focus only on being more responsive to students without also setting high expectations and demands are making a fundamental mistake according to a paper delivered to ACER's Research Conference 2007 - The Leadership Challenge: Improving learning in schools.

Professor Stephen Dinham, ACER's Research Director, Teaching and Leadership, told delegates that educational leadership, like teaching and life generally, is heavily dependent on relationships. In his presentation Professor Dinham explored two fundamental dimensions to relationships: responsiveness and demandingness and their influence on teaching and learning in Australian schools.

Leadership standards the key to preparing better principals

Australia must implement school leadership standards if it wants well-prepared principals according to Dr Lawrence Ingvarson and Michelle Anderson of ACER. Dr Ingvarson and Ms Anderson presented the findings of their international review of leadership standards to the ACER annual research conference The Leadership Challenge: Improving learning in schools.

ACER UPDATE

Research Conference 2008

Research Conference 2008 will take place at the Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre, Queensland from 10-12 August 2008. The theme of the conference will be Educating for Effective Participation - Citizenship and work: what the research says. Conference speakers will include Professor Richard Sweet of SweetGroup, ACT; Professor Stuart Macintyre of Harvard University and Suzanne Mellor and Gabrielle Matters of ACER. Further information on the conference will be added to the conference webpage as it becomes available. Information available to date is included in the conference flyer.

Australian Education Review 53

Australian Education Review 53 will elaborate on issues raised by Research Conference 2007 - The Leadership Challenge: Improving learning in schools. The review argues for an emphasis on continuity, independence, community and heterogeneity, to balance the current overemphasis on constant change, dependence, individualism and homogeneity. Successful school leaders avoid the much promoted one-size-fits-all approach to leadership, and become an independent rather than a dependent variable in their school. They can take the opportunity to create communities of professional learners.

Australian Education Review 53 is written by Professor Bill Mulford, Professor and Director of the Leadership for Learning Research Group, Faculty of Education, University of Tasmania. It will be available early in 2008. For further information about the Australian Education Review series visit the AER website.

Conference proceedings available online

The full conference proceedings and individual papers from Research Conference 2007 - The Leadership Challenge: Improving learning in schools are now available online.

All rights reserved. Except under the conditions described in the Copyright Act 1968 of Australia and subsequent amendments, no part of this electronic publication may be reproduced, stored in retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying or otherwise, without written permission. Please address any requests to reproduce information to communications@acer.edu.au

Subscribe Unsubscribe

Australian Council for Educational Research
Private Bag 55, Camberwell, Victoria Australia 3124
Tel: + 61 3 9277 5555
Fax: + 61 3 9277 5500
Web: www.acer.edu.au