Assignment- Developing the learning culture amongst staff of an educational institution Overview Develop a plan for the development of a learning culture within your school or learning institution (use the current or last school or learning institution that you worked in. This can include professional practice or long-term relief settings). Assume that you have been given responsibility by the principal or line manager to develop the learning culture amongst the teaching staff members of your school (note: this can be a segment or aspect of the school such as a department, learning area, etc – but it must be in the context of leadership and include multiple staff). Requirements: A statement about the context of the school or learning institution – who we are Ensure the school or learning institution remains anonymous (use a pseudonym). This section will include location, facilities, demographics, social economic status, mission, and vision statements. Carry out an assessment of the learning culture of your workplace as it stands. Note that this should be an assessment of the extent to which the elements of the learning culture are evident amongst the way the staff work – it is about their learning – not that of the students in the school. You should use either of the following frameworks to organise your assessment (details of these will be presented in the lectures and tutorials. Both are available on Bb). The framework choices are: The ACER Professional Learning Community Framework (PLCF) and the 5 elements of Domain 2 or Ellyard’s eight elements of a learning culture (see Ellyard, P. (2001 / 2007) Ideas for the new millennium. Carlton South, Vic: Melbourne University Press) Try to collect data sets and evidence that will allow you to undertake a rigorous assessment. This ‘may’ include, document analysis of the schools / institutions policies, prospectus, website, curriculum plans etc. Surveys and interviews of staff. Metrics and data including internal and external school results, (e.g. national testing results – NAPLAN, ATAR or international equivalents). Anecdotal reflections and analysis by you and others….and so on. Note: that the essential parts of this assignment are the assessment of the extent to which you currently have a learning culture amongst the staff of your educational institution, and suggestions for improvement based on this assessment. Provide some recommendations (3 to 4 key recommendations) for the development of a learning culture within your school or learning institution Clear and concisely articulated actions or strategies based on your analysis. These will be ones which are likely to deliver long term improvements to the learning culture – what we should do. Support your recommendations using literature. This section provides the rationale and the evidence which will support your recommendations. Make sure you draw upon and accurately acknowledge relevant literature. This is the item that deals with the theoretical understandings that you have applied – why we should enact the recommendations. Some tips: Use Ellyard’s components or the ACER PLCF and the 5 elements of Domain 2 to frame the recommendations. Draw on literature and policy from the field to lend weight to the recommendations. As a rule of thumb, a couple of authors per recommendation is a convincing/minimum approach. Note: “Jones (2017) and Brown (2016) highlight” or “Various authors (Jones 2017; Brown 2016) suggest” or “Jones (2017) clarifies Brown’s (2016) earlier ascertain that….”
