Using cases for school principal performance standards: Australian and New Zealand experiences.

This article reports an international validation of a framework for performance standards for school principals. The framework, generated in Australia in 1996-1997, was applied in New Zealand in 2000. The framework involved an innovative method of establishing standards for principals' performance, based on a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods of making judgements about the quality of principals' work. Using cases of critical incidents in which principals made decisions in their everyday work, the essential elements of quality performance, together with a set of dimensions on which performance varied, were identified. This study explored the application of these essential elements and dimensions in a context in which similar school system restructuring is in progress. Three questions were addressed: How valid are the Australian cases in the New Zealand setting? How applicable to the New Zealand setting are the three continua—ditties, interpersonal skills, moral dispositions—that comprise the framework? And finally, How applicable to the New Zealand setting are the particular duties, interpersonal skills and moral dispositions? This study supports three conclusions. First, cases generated in one context are not applicable in a different cultural setting. However, the method of developing cases is readily applied cross culturally. Second, the values underpinning the framework developed in Australia are similar to, but not the same as, those about which principals in New Zealand assess principal performance. Third, there are similarities, but also important subtle differences, in the particular dimensions on which the framework is grounded. The study indicates the validity of using cases to generate performance standards for school principals

A grounded theory about how teachers communicated high expectations to their secondary school students

High teachers’ expectations are associated with improved student academic achievement. However, no research explains how students experience their teachers’ expectations, from their points of view. A new theory was developed to achieve the study’s aim of accounting for how high expectations were experienced by 25 students in Western Australia. The findings offer educators student-focused perspectives of how to convey high teacher expectations that lead to improved student academic outcomes. Straussian grounded theory (Strauss, 1990) methods were used to generate substantive theory together with the Year 10 students in three Western Australian public schools, through data including more than 100 classroom observations and 175 interviews. The theory generated from the data provides a lens for understanding how teachers communicated high expectations through confidence, approach, relationship, and environment. Students identified practices that communicated high expectations that add to existing knowledge in the literature. The students recognised high expectations, then described how they responded by becoming motivated, engaged in learning, and acting to improve their academic outcomes. Teachers might draw on the substantive theory to inform classroom interactions that communicate high expectations in their own teaching contexts

Teenagers learn through play too: Communicating high expectations through a playful learning approach

Play-based learning is an approach used in early childhood education that is well supported by research on its varieties and effectiveness for young children’s learning. Play-based learning meets the developmental needs of young children, but new research presented in this paper suggests that teenagers learn through play too. The experience of 25 Year 10 students in three Western Australian government schools was drawn upon to generate grounded theory about how students experience their teachers’ expectations of them, which included findings that playful learning approaches communicated high teacher expectations. The students were shadow-studied in their classrooms and interviewed at the end of each day. Teachers were appraised as having high expectations when they included a playful learning approach, characterised as creative, exploratory, hands-on, fun and non-didactic. The students reflected that this led to increased motivation and academic success. A foundation for conceptualising play in teenagers’ education is provided, suggesting how secondary school educators can harness play and communicate high expectations for learning through their pedagogical approach

Applying standards for leaders to the selection of secondary school principals

The purpose of this paper is to report innovative research aimed at ascertaining whether standards for school leaders could be applied to the process of selecting senior secondary school principlas for appointment. Specifically, psychometrically robust measurees of performance are sought that would sufficiently differentiate performance to support judgement about whether or not to appoint candidates in the public educational authority of Western Australi

‘Believe in me, and I will too’: A study of how teachers’ expectations instilled confidence in grade 10 students

Teacher expectation research has continued to establish an association between what teachers expect of their students and what students accomplish academically. These expectations affect students when they are communicated by teachers through differential treatment in the class, but no qualitative research has sought adolescent students’ points of view about how they experience teacher expectation effects. This paper presents new research findings that explain how Grade 10 students experienced their teachers’ expectations in ways that they reflected impacted their academic outcomes. Classic grounded theory methods were used to develop this new knowledge, which has implications for how teachers are educated for, and practice, interacting with secondary school students. The findings are grounded in data from more than 100 interviews with students and 175 classroom observations in three Western Australian metropolitan public secondary schools. Students’ voices are projected, explaining how their teachers convey high academic expectations through classroom interactions that instil confidence in students. The discussion invokes a connection to Bandura’s Social Cognitive Theory and its enduring tenants of self-efficacy beliefs and mastery learning experiences

Student voices that resonate – constructing composite narratives that represent students’ classroom experiences

Words and stories have the power to resonate with people. Composite narratives can be constructed using multiple participant accounts, representing their experiences while also capturing the properties and categories of qualitative research findings. The ability of composite narratives to represent the multiple facets of theory construction through a singular narrative point-of-view is unique and provides a concise and credible method to present research findings. This paper explains how composite narratives can be constructed to present the research data that findings are built upon through an illustrative example of the process. The example of a composite narrative presented in this article is one of a larger set from a grounded theory study about a substantive group of Australian students’ experiences of their interactions in the classroom that communicate their teachers’ expectations of them. Narratives have the power to affect change in society by enhancing the transferability of research findings, presenting research findings with impact because they are engaging and memorable for readers. Qualitative researchers who are interested in composing composite narratives to reflect multiple participants’ different experiences, through interview data, will benefit from the justification and example of the technique, which provides a model for future research

In search of wellness: Allied health professionals\u27 understandings of wellness in childhood disability services

Purpose. Wellness approaches are not routine in childhood disability services, despite theoretical and empirical support and an increasing demand for them from health consumers and disability activists. We aimed to investigate how health professionals define or understand wellness and its practice in the context of childhood disability. Method. A qualitative, interpretive approach was taken. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 23 health professionals (allied health therapists and managers) providing early intervention and ongoing therapy within four Australian childhood health and disability services. Years of experience providing services to children with disabilities and their families ranged from 6 months to 30 years (M = 9.41, SD = 9.04). Results.  The data revealed a noteworthy impediment to incorporating wellness into practice – the difficulties in the allied health professionals reaching consensus in defining wellness. There appeared to be distinct differences between the four services, while there appeared to be no appreciable difference based on the individual professional\u27s years of experience or allied health discipline. Conclusions.  The effect of organisational culture should be considered in efforts to embed wellness in childhood health and disability services in order to address client well-being, empowerment, choice, independence and rights to meaningful and productive lives

In search of wellness: Allied health professionals\u27 understandings of wellness in childhood disability services

Purpose. Wellness approaches are not routine in childhood disability services, despite theoretical and empirical support and an increasing demand for them from health consumers and disability activists. We aimed to investigate how health professionals define or understand wellness and its practice in the context of childhood disability. Method. A qualitative, interpretive approach was taken. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 23 health professionals (allied health therapists and managers) providing early intervention and ongoing therapy within four Australian childhood health and disability services. Years of experience providing services to children with disabilities and their families ranged from 6 months to 30 years (M = 9.41, SD = 9.04). Results.  The data revealed a noteworthy impediment to incorporating wellness into practice – the difficulties in the allied health professionals reaching consensus in defining wellness. There appeared to be distinct differences between the four services, while there appeared to be no appreciable difference based on the individual professional\u27s years of experience or allied health discipline. Conclusions.  The effect of organisational culture should be considered in efforts to embed wellness in childhood health and disability services in order to address client well-being, empowerment, choice, independence and rights to meaningful and productive lives