Faculty of Education, University of Wollongong

The 9th Annual Australian Centre for Educational Leadership Conference

26th February 2010

Venue: Building 67 University of Wollongong Campus

Inspiring Teachers: Aspiring Leaders

Keynote Speakers

Maria Gray-Spence

Maria Gray-Spence is the Regional Director, Department of Education and Training, Illawarra and South East Region.

Maria’s career in education has included Social Science and ESL teaching in country and suburban schools, in Australia and the USA, then consultant work and policy advisor in the Ministry of Education and Youth Affairs. She has held various leadership positions including Head Teacher, Leading Teacher, Principal and School Education Director.

Maria is passionate about public education and it’s capacity to improve the life chances of all students. She sees the building of the leadership capacity of all as an important component of this. This will be the focus of her presentation.

 

Professor Frank Crowther

Emeritus Professor Frank Crowther is recognised as a leading international scholar on the subject of Leadership. His most recent book, Developing Teacher Leaders, is an international best seller. He has been described as one of the leading advocates, within Australia and internationally, of the 21st century teaching profession.

Professor Crowther is a Gold Medallist of the Australian Council for Educational Leaders, and Fellow of both the Australian Council for Educational Leaders and Australian College of Education. In 2004 he was recognised by The Bulletin magazine as one of 100 Smart Australians and in 2006 he was made a Member in the General Division of the Order of Australia (AM). Frank is married, with three adult children and two grandchildren. His hobbies include regular fishing trips to the Swaines Reef and trekking. At the age of 63, he successfully trekked to the Everest Base Camp.

Keynote Address: "Teacher Leadership for Capacity Building: The IDEAS way"

Frank will outline the six fundamental "dynamics" associated with successful school capacity-building, derived from a major research study in Victorian IDEAS Project schools in 2008-9.

The forms of leadership that underpin the six dynamics were found to be varied, encompassing different roles and functions for principals, teacher leaders and middle managers. The functions of teacher leadership will be highlighted by Frank, with examples.

Professor Stephen Dinham 

Research Director Teaching, Learning and Leadership – ACER
Professorial Fellow – University of Melbourne
Visiting Professorial Fellow – University of Wollongong

Profession Dinham has conducted a wide range of research projects (more than 60 funded) in the areas of educational leadership and change, effective pedagogy/quality teaching, student achievement, postgraduate supervision, professional teaching standards, teachers' professional development, middle-level leaders in schools, and teacher satisfaction, motivation and health. He has an extensive publication record (more than 260 publications) of books, book chapters, refereed journal articles, and articles in professional journals, newspapers and magazines. His most recent book is How to Get Your School Moving and Improving

Professor Stephen Dinham is Research Director of the Teaching, Learning and Leadership research program at the Australian Council for Educational Research. He has held professional appointments at the University of New England, and the University of Wollongong.

Keynote Address: Teacher Leadership for Student Achievement

Drawing upon extensive research by the author as presented in his recent book How to Get Your School Moving and Improving, this paper examines the interrelationships between effective teaching and student achievement, as underpinned by two key enablers of teacher leadership and teachers’ professional learning. Also examined is the role that those holding formal leadership positions in schools can play in creating the conditions in which teachers can teach and students can learn.

 

Professor Jim Tognolini

Jim Tognolini is a Professorial Fellow at Wollongong University; Senior Research Fellow at the Oxford University Centre for Educational Assessment; Director of Pearson Research and Assessment; and, Adjunct Professor of Education at the University of Western Australia.
In his current position at Pearson Research and Assessment he is responsible for the design, implementation and on-going management of assessment systems and learning processes.
Professor Tognolini has been a psychometric consultant to the Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority; the Education Department of Western Australia; the Curriculum Council of Western Australia; the Tasmanian Department of Education; the New South Wales Department of Education and Training; the New South Wales Board of Studies; and, the Queensland Studies Authority. He has extensive experience in liaising with representatives at all levels of government and educational organizations within Australia and overseas on assessment, standards and particularly the use of measurement information in informing system level planning; monitoring of standards; and, utilizing data for improving school level teaching and learning.
He has given numerous keynote addresses and seminars in countries that include Singapore, Hong Kong, The United Arab Emirates, India, Jordan, New Zealand, Oman, South Africa, Indonesia, China and Thailand.

Keynote Address: Effective school leaders use information effectively to improve teaching and learning: An assessment perspective

Assessment is defined as the collection of information for a purpose.
Traditionally this purpose has been for helping students improve their learning. With the advent of technology and hence more sophisticated methods for interrogating data the purposes can be extended to include school-level indicators that can help school leaders monitor the success of strategies that they have implemented for improving learning within the school.

This presentation will look at data and some of the questions that leaders might use to set policy; generate strategies for implementing the policy; and, evaluate the relative success and consequences of their policies.