Virtual reality classroom simulations: how school leaders improve instructional leadership capacity

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew Militello ◽  
Lynda Tredway ◽  
Lawrence Hodgkins ◽  
Ken Simon
Keyword(s):  
Virtual Reality ◽  
Instructional Leadership ◽  
Teaching Practice ◽  
School Leaders ◽  
Classroom Observation ◽  
Academic Discourse ◽  
Advanced Technology ◽  
Classroom Observations ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Study Results

PurposeThe purpose of this study was to explore the utility of a virtual reality (VR) classroom experience for improving the capacity of instructional leaders. Specifically, school leaders used VR to build their classroom observation and analysis skills to prepare to have more effective post-observation conversations with teachers. The authors provide insights from multiple data points that highlight the affordances of the virtual setting for improving classroom observation skills.Design/methodology/approachDrawing on the application of simulations to practice classroom observations, the authors developed a VR experience in which participants tag observable elements of academic discourse using codes from two observation protocols. The protocols identify elements of equitable student access: how teachers call on students and how they design questions. Seventy-five school leaders used the VR platform to observe a classroom scenario and code evidence of equitable classroom access. The authors analyzed data from tagging in the virtual reality scenario and triangulated these data with survey data focused on observation practices from participants' schools. A reflection component is included on the platform to collect these qualitative data.FindingsThe study results indicate that the virtual reality platform provides an innovative process for leadership professional development focused on building school leaders' capacity to identify elements of academic discourse during classroom observations. Participants reported that the opportunity to practice classroom observations in a risk-free environment was useful. However, for school leaders to fully transfer the data to using in conversations with teachers, they benefit from leadership coaching.Originality/valueThis study ascertains the potential effectiveness of an advanced technology for enhancing instructional leadership by using evidence-based classrooms observations to drive improvements in teaching practice. Beyond the utility of the virtual reality tool, this study provides a proof of concept for the next generation of instructional leadership through teacher observations with augmented reality.

scholarly journals Riding Out the Storm: Out-of-Field Teaching Practice in Indonesia

Humaniora ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 161
Author(s):  
Esti Rahayu ◽  
Shuki Osman
Keyword(s):  
Professional Learning ◽  
Teaching Practice ◽  
Qualitative Case Study ◽  
School Leaders ◽  
Document Analysis ◽  
Classroom Observations ◽  
Extended Time ◽  
Learning And Teaching ◽  
Teaching Learning

As out-of-field teachers existence led to change in teachers, this research aimed to explore their commitment to learning and teaching, and how their schools supported them. Five Indonesian teachers who started teaching as out-of-field teachers and their school leaders were interviewed for this research. The qualitative case study was employed to explore the problem through interviews, classroom observations, and document analysis. The findings reveal that the initial commitment to teaching, learning, and growing is an investment for further actions throughout the teaching practice. The schools provide necessary assistance through the induction and during their in-service in the provided and requested professional learning, being trusted and acknowledged by school leaders, and having resourceful colleagues. From their schools’ support, the out-of-field teachers become more knowledgeable and remain as teachers for an extended time.

Small Chunks, Deep Learning

2022 ◽  
pp. 276-299
Author(s):  
Ken N. Simon ◽  
Lawrence Hodgkins ◽  
James Argent
Keyword(s):  
Deep Learning ◽  
Instructional Practices ◽  
School Leaders ◽  
Academic Discourse ◽  
Observational Evidence ◽  
Classroom Observations ◽  
Qualitative Review ◽  
Central Aspect

Project I4 is a cohort-based, year-long program incorporating micro-credential experiences as a key element of learning for school leaders. The project focuses the micro-credential (MC) design, implementation, and study on a central aspect of a school leader's work: classroom observations and post-observation conversations. The leaders learn to observe academic discourse in STEM classrooms. To fully engage in the learning from the MC, leaders collect observational evidence on equitable instructional practices and use the evidence to have coaching post-observation conversations with teachers with the aim of changing instructional practices in classrooms. In the authors' model, a key component for the MC experiences is the opportunity for school leaders to work with leadership coaches in equity-centered networked improvement communities (EC-NICs) of 5-6 persons. This chapter presents a qualitative review of 10 school leaders from the first Project I4 cohort.

District offices fostering educational change through instructional leadership practices in Australian Catholic secondary schools

2019 ◽  
Vol 57 (5) ◽  
pp. 501-518 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jane Wilkinson ◽  
Christine Edwards-Groves ◽  
Peter Grootenboer ◽  
Stephen Kemmis
Keyword(s):  
Instructional Leadership ◽  
Secondary Schools ◽  
Case Studies ◽  
Educational Change ◽  
Leadership Practices ◽  
School Leaders ◽  
Content Type ◽  
District Office ◽  
Major Reform ◽  
District Offices

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine how Catholic district offices support school leaders’ instructional leadership practices at times of major reform.Design/methodology/approachThe paper employs the theory of practice architectures as a lens through which to examine local site-based responses to system-wide reforms in two Australian Catholic secondary schools and their district offices. Data collection for these parallel case studies included semi-structured interviews, focus groups, teaching observations, classroom walkthroughs and coaching conversations.FindingsFindings suggest that in the New South Wales case, arrangements of language and specialist discourses associated with a school improvement agenda were reinforced by district office imperatives. These imperatives made possible new kinds of know-how, ways of working and relating to district office, teachers and students when it came to instructional leading. In the Queensland case, the district office facilitated instructional leadership practices that actively sought and valued practitioners’ input and professional judgment.Research limitations/implicationsThe research focussed on two case studies of district offices supporting school leaders’ instructional leadership practices at times of major reform. The findings are not generalizable.Practical implicationsPractically, the studies suggest that for excellent pedagogical practice to be embedded and sustained over time, district offices need to work with principals to foster communicative spaces that promote explicit dialogue between teachers and leaders’ interpretive categories.Social implicationsThe paper contends that responding to the diversity of secondary school sites requires district office practices that reject a one size fits all formulas. Instead, district offices must foster site-based education development.Originality/valueThe paper adopts a practice theory approach to its study of district support for instructional leader’ practices. A practice approach rejects a one size fits all approach to educational change. Instead, it focusses on understanding how particular practices come to be in specific sites, and what kinds of conditions make their emergence possible. As such, it leads the authors to consider whether and how different practices such as district practices of educational reforming or principals’ instructional leading might be transformed, or conducted otherwise, under other conditions of possibility.

Social justice leadership, instructional leadership, and the goals of schooling

2020 ◽  
Vol 34 (1) ◽  
pp. 81-95
Author(s):  
Haim Shaked
Keyword(s):  
Social Justice ◽  
Instructional Leadership ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
School Principals ◽  
School Leaders ◽  
Teaching Quality ◽  
Social Justice Leadership ◽  
Content Type ◽  
New Research ◽  
School Principalship

Purpose School principals should see themselves as social justice leaders, who have the ability to allow all students to succeed, regardless of their characteristics and backgrounds. At the same time, school principals are also called upon to demonstrate instructional leadership, which emphasizes the teaching and learning aspects of school principalship. The purpose of this paper is to examine the relations between these two roles of today’s school principals. Design/methodology/approach To investigate the relations between social justice leadership and instructional leadership, this paper adds the question of the goal of schooling to the mix. After identifying possible goals of schooling, the paper conceptualizes social justice leadership and instructional leadership, respectively, while also examining their relations with schools’ major goals. Possible commonalities and contradictions between social justice leadership and instructional leadership are discussed. Findings The prevalent expectation that school leaders should give top priority to ongoing improvement of teaching quality and academic outcomes may be seen as reducing school leaders’ involvement in some aspects of social justice leadership, such as nurturing students’ active citizenship. Research limitations/implications This paper opens new research avenues. Based on the findings of this paper, the connection between principals’ perceptions regarding the goals of schooling and their leadership behaviors should be explored. Practical implications It seems advisable to discuss the interplay between social justice leadership and instructional leadership with prospective and current principals, as well as with other school stakeholders. Originality/value Insofar as the relations between social justice leadership and instructional leadership have not been explored so far, this paper narrows a gap in the available knowledge.

Rethinking professional learning for teachers and school leaders

2016 ◽  
Vol 1 (4) ◽  
pp. 270-285 ◽  
Author(s):  
Deborah M. Netolicky
Keyword(s):  
Professional Learning ◽  
Transformational Learning ◽  
Teaching Practice ◽  
School Leaders ◽  
Trans Form ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Narrative Study ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Learning Schools

Purpose Situated within the conversation of the global push for teacher quality and for professional learning that positively shapes teaching practice in order to improve student learning, the purpose of this paper is concerned with transformational learning that actively shifts cognition, emotion, and capacity (Drago-Severson, 2009). Design/methodology/approach This paper is set against the backdrop of one independent, well-resourced Australian school during its professional learning intervention. It draws together findings from a narrative study that examined the lived experiences of 14 educators. The educators interviewed for this study included the researcher (also an educator at the school), two teachers, and 11 school leaders at middle and executive levels. Findings While the study set out to explore how educators’ experiences of professional learning (trans)form their senses of professional identity, it found that it is not just professional learning, but epiphanic life experiences that shape professional selves and practices. Learning is highly individualized, not one-size-fits-all. It is that which taps into who educators see and feel they are that has the most impact on beliefs, thoughts, behaviors, and practices. Originality/value This study suggests that transformational professional learning can occur in a wide range of life arenas. It recommends that the definition of professional learning be broadened, that teachers and schools think more expansively and flexibly about what it is that transforms educators, and about who drives and chooses this learning. Schools and systems can work from their own contexts to design and slowly iterate models of professional learning, from the bottom up and the middle out.

How do teaching quality and pedagogical practice enhance vocational student engagement? A mixed-method classroom observation approach

2020 ◽  
Vol 34 (6) ◽  
pp. 987-1000
Author(s):  
Yanmin Zhao ◽  
James Ko
Keyword(s):  
Student Engagement ◽  
Mixed Method ◽  
Teaching Practice ◽  
Classroom Observation ◽  
Teaching Quality ◽  
Pedagogical Practice ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Quantitative Sample ◽  
Field Notes ◽  
Vocational Learning

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to investigate vocational teaching behaviours in facilitating pedagogical practice concerning students' classroom engagement.Design/methodology/approachA mixed-method approach with quantitative classroom observations and qualitative field notes was conducted at two higher vocational institutions in Guangdong province, south of China. Sixty lesson observations were rated combining with supplementary field notes from 20 teacher participants analysed through a comparative coding process.FindingsMeans of dimensions of teaching behaviours and student engagement were calculated based on taking the averages of the means of items theoretically associated with each dimension. Through thematic analysis of observational notes, vocational instructions and students' engagement in vocational learning environment were more diversified in terms of vocational teaching practice, which manifested that vocational teaching behaviours focused more on adjusting students' practical learning.Research limitationsThe limitation is shown that the quantitative sample is small, yet affords greater depth of data for further discussion.Originality/valueThis study develops its setting and orientation by applying the classroom observation instrument into the Chinese high vocational context and offers more in-depth insights and exploration of the characteristics of teaching practice in vocational classrooms.

Principal and teacher instructional leadership: a cultural shift

2019 ◽  
Vol 34 (3) ◽  
pp. 576-585 ◽  
Author(s):  
Miriam D. Ezzani
Keyword(s):  
School Improvement ◽  
Instructional Leadership ◽  
Professional Learning Communities ◽  
Learning Communities ◽  
Professional Learning ◽  
School Leaders ◽  
School Principal ◽  
Cultural Shift ◽  
Content Type

Purpose The purpose of this paper (case study) is to capture a novel school culture that values instructional leadership (school leaders and teachers) and serves students in ways that create a culturally responsive and socially just schooling environment. Design/methodology/approach A qualitative methodology was best suited for the collection and analysis of data with the hope that the study will assist practitioners in seeing the connective threads that bind school leaders, teachers, students and parents in an organizational cultural shift that is student focused. Interviews and observations of professional learning communities, meetings and classrooms were the types of data collected and analyzed. Findings The principal and assistant principal were professionally and ethically challenged with an all too familiar problem – 30 percent of their Latinx and economically disadvantaged students scored below proficient in reading comprehension. To address this opportunity gap, consideration was given to data-informed decision-making; professional learning communities; and distributed leadership for social justice. Findings suggested that problems of practice are solved when educators engage in a continuous culture of learning through authentic dialogue focused on student data with an eye on equity. Originality/value Although research demonstrates that school improvement works best when principals distribute leadership to teachers, principals tend to maintain the share of the responsibility. Examples of instructional leadership beyond the school principal are rare. This case study provides an example of how principals can build leadership capacity in teachers and develop them to be instructional leaders.

Do information technology (IT) capabilities affect hotel competitiveness?

2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 447-460
Author(s):  
Nan Hua
Keyword(s):  
Design Methodology ◽  
Financial Data ◽  
Content Type ◽  
It Systems ◽  
Study Results ◽  
It Capabilities ◽  
The Usa ◽  
Lagged Effects ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Direct Measures

Purpose This paper aims to examine the impacts of IT capabilities on hotel competitiveness. Design/methodology/approach This study adapts and extends Hua et al. (2015) and O’Neill et al. (2008) by incorporating the specific measures of IT expenditures as proxies for the relevant IT capabilities to explore the impacts of IT capabilities on hotel competitiveness. Findings This study finds that expenditures on IT Labor, IT Systems and IT Websites exert different impacts on hotel competitiveness. In addition, IT capabilities exert both contemporary and lagged effects on hotel competitiveness. Originality/value This study is the first that uses financial data to capture direct measures of individual IT capabilities and tests the individual impacts of IT capabilities on hotel competitiveness from both contemporaneous and lagged perspectives. It uses a large same store sample of hotels in the USA from 2011 to 2017; as a result, the study results can be reasonably representative of the hotel population in the USA.

The deputy principal instructional leadership role and professional learning

2017 ◽  
Vol 55 (1) ◽  
pp. 33-48 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ann Leaf ◽  
George Odhiambo
Keyword(s):  
Instructional Leadership ◽  
Professional Learning ◽  
Ad Hoc ◽  
Team Building ◽  
Leadership Role ◽  
Instructional Leaders ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Practical Implications

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to report on a study examining the perceptions of secondary principals, deputies and teachers, of deputy principal (DP) instructional leadership (IL), as well as deputies’ professional learning (PL) needs. Framed within an interpretivist approach, the specific objectives of this study were: to explore the extent to which DPs are perceived as leaders of learning, to examine the actual responsibilities of these DPs and to explore the PL that support DP roles. Design/methodology/approach The researchers used multiple perspective case studies which included semi-structured interviews and key school document analysis. A thematic content analysis facilitated qualitative descriptions and insights from the perspectives of the principals, DPs and teachers of four high-performing secondary schools in Sydney, Australia. Findings The data revealed that deputies performed a huge range of tasks; all the principals were distributing leadership to their deputies to build leadership capacity and supported their PL in a variety of ways. Across three of the case study schools, most deputies were frequently performing as instructional leaders, improving their school’s performance through distributing leadership, team building and goal setting. Deputy PL was largely dependent on principal mentoring and self-initiated but was often ad hoc. Findings add more validity to the importance of principals building the educational leadership of their deputies. Research limitations/implications This study relied upon responses from four case study schools. Further insight into the key issues discussed may require a longitudinal data that describe perceptions from a substantial number of schools in Australia over time. However, studying only four schools allowed for an in-depth investigation. Practical implications The findings from this study have practical implications for system leaders with responsibilities of framing the deputies’ role as emergent educational leaders rather than as administrators and the need for coherent, integrated, consequential and systematic approaches to DP professional development. Further research is required on the effect of deputy IL on school performance. Originality/value There is a dearth of research-based evidence exploring the range of responsibilities of deputies and perceptions of staff about deputies’ IL role and their PL needs. This is the first published New South Wales, Australian DP study and adds to the growing evidence around perceptions of DPs as instructional leaders by providing an Australian perspective on the phenomenon. The paper raises important concerns about the complexity of the DP’s role on the one hand, and on the other hand, the PL that is perceived to be most appropriate for dealing with this complexity.

Exploring privacy and trust for employee monitoring

2015 ◽  
Vol 115 (1) ◽  
pp. 88-106 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shuchih Ernest Chang ◽  
Anne Yenching Liu ◽  
Sungmin Lin
Keyword(s):  
Organizational Culture ◽  
Employee Performance ◽  
Full Time ◽  
Negative Effects ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Positive Effects ◽  
Study Results ◽  
Employee Monitoring ◽  
Communication Privacy ◽  
The Relationship

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to evaluate privacy boundaries and explores employees’ reactions in employee monitoring. Design/methodology/approach – The research used the metaphor of boundary turbulence in the Communication Privacy Management (CPM) theory to demonstrate the psychological effect on employees. The model comprised organizational culture, CPM, trust, and employee performance in employee monitoring to further investigated the influence exerted by organizational culture and how employees viewed their trust within the organization when implementing employee monitoring. Variables were measured empirically by administrating questionnaires to full-time employees in organizations that currently practice employee monitoring. Findings – The findings showed that a control-oriented organizational culture raised communication privacy turbulence in CPM. The communication privacy turbulence in CPM mostly had negative effects on trust in employee monitoring policy, but not on trust in employee monitoring members. Both trust in employee monitoring policy and trust in employee monitoring members had positive effects on employee commitment and compliance to employee monitoring. Research limitations/implications – This research applied the CPM theory in workplace privacy to explore the relationship between employees’ privacy and trust. The results provide insights of why employees feel psychological resistance when they are forced to accept the practice of employee monitoring. In addition, this study explored the relationship between CPM and trust, and offer support and verification to prior studies. Practical implications – For practitioners, the findings help organizations to improve the performance of their employees and to design a more effective environment for employee monitoring. Originality/value – A research model was proposed to study the impacts of CPM on employee monitoring, after a broad survey on related researches. The validated model and its corresponding study results can be referenced by organization managers and decision makers to make favorable tactics for achieving their goals of implementing employee monitoring.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document