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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. According to Professor Dinham, since the 1960s there has been a greater focus on meeting individual student needs and this has been reflected in school teaching and leadership styles which focus on the individual student, sometimes at the expense of high academic expectations. “Put simply, demandingness and responsiveness have been falsely dichotomised. Ideologically it was believed that any increase in responsiveness towards students required a decrease in demandingness: to be responsive was to be progressive; while to be demanding was traditional.” “However, our research has shown that the best school leaders and teachers see a focus on individual needs and student self esteem as underpinning academic success. They adopt an ‘authoritative’ style that blends high responsiveness and high demandingness rather than treating the two as mutually exclusive.” He argues that the ‘false dichotomising’ of demandingness and responsiveness in teaching and school leadership has been a mistake and remains a problem in some schools today. Professor Dinham joined ACER in July 2007. Download Professor Dinham's conference paper. « Back to eNews
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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.

According to Professor Dinham, since the 1960s there has been a greater focus on meeting individual student needs and this has been reflected in school teaching and leadership styles which focus on the individual student, sometimes at the expense of high academic expectations.

“Put simply, demandingness and responsiveness have been falsely dichotomised. Ideologically it was believed that any increase in responsiveness towards students required a decrease in demandingness: to be responsive was to be progressive; while to be demanding was traditional.”

“However, our research has shown that the best school leaders and teachers see a focus on individual needs and student self esteem as underpinning academic success. They adopt an ‘authoritative’ style that blends high responsiveness and high demandingness rather than treating the two as mutually exclusive.”

He argues that the ‘false dichotomising’ of demandingness and responsiveness in teaching and school leadership has been a mistake and remains a problem in some schools today.

Professor Dinham joined ACER in July 2007.

Download Professor Dinham's conference paper.

The best principals are both demanding and responsive