Thinking and Learning Conference

Here are my big takeaways from Leadership for Teacher Learning:

  1. Be a critical consumer of educational research. Don’t look for “what works”, look for “how well is it actually working”. What are the factors that make the strategy successful? What are the demographics, the population, and the culture that has been created within the documentation of the research. Don’t discard it because it is different, but instead look at it critically and see how it can be better and work better for your students. 
  2. The three biggest factors that research continually shows is associated with high achievement is:
    1. The socio-economic profile of the school.
    2. The knowledge and use of formative assessment practices in the classroom
    3. Direct instruction practice.
  3. Poverty is definitely a factor in student achievement, but should not be an excuse.
  4. Stop the good and spend the time doing better. Stephen Covey – Sharpen the Saw
  5. Educational practice that continually rises to the top in terms of effectiveness are:
    1. Curriculum improvement – this is not textbooks, or purchased materials. It is how well teachers know the standards and how to teach them. 
    2. Formative assessment practice
    3. Social and emotional aspects of learning – Wiliam stated there is not very much data at the moment to prove or disprove this, but feels strongly that this is an area of major importance (yes, Professor Wiliam, we concur!).
  6. Strong correlations between Danielson’s Framework (as a teacher tool, not as an evaluative measure) and formative assessment practice. Here is a crosswalk of Domain 3 Instruction.domain 3
  7. Effective PLC’s  and TLC’s (Teacher Learning Community). Wiliam argues that these are complementary but are not the same, and therefore should be two different groups.  In his view PLC’s focus on improving systems of learning, and TLC’s focus on improving increased teacher capacity. PLC tlc The TLC leader should be part of a PLC that reports to the principal.  These slides illustrate the complete thinking and suggested framework: PLC and TLC
  8. Creating a community of educational practice. To quote Myron Dueck,  “When people are reflective, they become more effective.”  This is an excellent blog about teachers using the: #ObserveMe Movement  

Resources (PDF’s of the presentation slides):

Leadership for Teacher Learning Institute: Wiliam leadership

Curriculum Design: Wiliam curdesign

Assessment Design: Wiliam assmdesign

Assessment Literacy: Wiliam assmliteracy

Formative Assessement: Wiliam Formassm

Thinking and Learning Brochure, if you would like to peruse presenters: 15th Annual HBE Conf Brochure

Link to the Thinking and Learning Conference: Thinking & Learning 2018