This week, Michael Fullan presented the 2007 Ann D. Clark Lecture to an audience of 380. It was great to see such a diverse cross section: teachers, system staff, academics, politicians and administrators from public education and health.
He spoke about the Six secrets of change for effective schools and systems:
1. Love your employees
2. Connect peers with purpose
3. Bullying backfires
4. Learning is the work
5. Transparency rules
6. Systems learn
Michael is no stranger to Australian educators, many of whom have drawn insights from his books on educational change and leadership. We have been fortunate to have had Michael with us over the past three days, working with school leadership teams and senior staff. It’s been a wonderful opportunity to work with such a respected educational leader who has offered his vision, insight and inspiration. Click here to listen to the 2007 Ann D. Clark lecture.
Michael believes schools must compare themselves with themselves and other schools to ensure effective performance. He also referred to a study by Michael Barber for the McKenzie Group that found highly professional teachers were the key to top performing schools and systems.
These sentiments were also echoed by Michael Chaney of the Business Council of Australia, last week. His concern is the brightest students do not chose teaching because the profession has been de-valued by society and the remuneration provides little incentive.
There has been a tendency to focus on student learning at the expense of teacher learning. Investment in teacher training and professional learning is critical in building successful schools and systems particularly if we want to see real improvements in literacy and numeracy.
We continue to expect the very best from our teachers, I think that it is critical that we support them by exposing teachers to the best thinkers and writers on schooling today. Micheal certainly fits this criteria!
5 responses so far ↓
» Book Helpdesk Technoblog // November 1, 2007 at 3:59 pm |
[...] It was great to see so many staff from St. Michael’s turn out to listen to this year’s Ann D. Clark lecture, given by Michael Fullan. [...]
NickP // November 1, 2007 at 8:06 pm |
Sounds like we could do with hearing more from Michael Fullan in the UK!
NickP // November 2, 2007 at 10:18 pm |
Not sure why, but my message got truncated – I meant to ask whether you could help me with the url for the mp3 file – it doesn’t seem to work, returning an url not found error.
Thanks!
Greg Whitby // November 5, 2007 at 7:08 am |
Nick
The link was tested and works. If you’re still having trouble try
http://www.parra.catholic.edu.au/files/MichaelFullan/michael_fullan_adclecture.mp3
Greg Whitby // November 9, 2007 at 11:45 am |
Nick, keep in touch, this is the beginning of an emerging relationship with Michael Fullan and the York Districts of school in Onterio canada. We are interested in partnerships that leverage our strategies and those who take a similiar approach to build both teacher and leadership capacities. We are aligning all our support from the system the school and the classroom to deliver as much support as possible for the teacher in the learning space