International Summit On The Teaching Profession Preparing Teachers And Developing School Leaders For The 21st Century Lessons From Around The World

Nations around the world are undertaking wide-ranging reforms to better prepare children for the higher educational demands of life and work in the 21st century. What are the skills that young people will need in a rapidly changing society, and what competencies do teachers need to effectively teach those skills? What can teacher preparation and continuing professional development do to prepare graduates to teach well in tomorrow's classroom? What are the different roles and responsibilities of upcoming school leaders, and how do countries succeed in developing these leaders? To help governments effectively address these and other key issues, the U.S. Department of Education, the OECD, and Education International brought education ministers, union leaders, and other teacher leaders together in the second International Summit on the Teaching Profession in March 2012. This publication summarizes the evidence that underpinned the summit and highlights its conclusions. Foreword Acknowledgements Table of Contents Introduction Chapter 1 - Developing Effective School Leaders A changing profile of school leadership Box 1.1 Ontario – Improving education through more effective school leaders Figure 1.1a How much autonomy individual schools have over curricula and assessments Figure 1.1b How much autonomy individual schools have over resource allocation Figure 1.2 School principals’ views of their involvement in school matters Supporting, evaluati ng and developing teacher quality Goal-setting, assessment and accounta bility Strat egic resource management Leadership beyond school walls Figure 1.3 How selected countries have defined school leaders Box 1.2 Australia’s approach to school leadership and its National Professional Standard for Principals Distributing leadership Developing leadership for tomorrow’s educati on systems Box 1.3 Characteristics of leadership-development “exemplary programs” Box 1.4 Cultivating school leadership in the United States Selecting suitable candidates Box 1.5 Selecting and training school leaders in Singapore Box 1.6 Sampling school leadership in Denmark and the Netherlands The availability of training Figure 1.4 Leadership development in selected countries Box 1.7 Leadership development in Scotland Box 1.8 Leadership-preparation programs in Finland and Norway Appraisal of school leaders Conclusions Notes References Chapter 2 - Preparing Teachers to Deliver 21st-Century Skills Changes in the demand for student skills Box 2.1 ATC21S – Assessment and Teaching of 21st-Century Skills A demanding agenda for teachers Box 2.2 Singapore’s TE21 Model of Teacher Education Figure 2.1 Consequences of teacher performance as reported by teachers Box 2.3 Teacher education in Finland Understa nding learning to improve teaching practices Inquiry-based teaching and learning Box 2.4 Teach less, learn more Figure 2.2 Approaches to teaching Incorporating assessment into teaching Box 2.5 Curriculum-embedded assessments: Scotland and Sweden Collaborative learning Box 2.6 A Learning Community, CEIP Andalucía, Seville, Spain Box 2.7 Student Team Learning (STL) group work methods Advanced technology in the classroom Box 2.8 Teacher collaboration in cyberspace Box 2.9 The Le@rning Federation, Australia and New Zealand Box 2.10 1:1 Initiatives - one student, one digital device Box 2.11 Courtenay Gardens Primary School, Victoria, Australia Box 2.12 Community Learning Campus, Olds, Alberta Canada No single best method Designing ecosystems for a 21st-century teaching profession Box 2.13 Funding innovation – The UK’s Sinnott Fellowship Research and development Box 2.14 Best Evidence Synthesis Program, New Zealand School organization Box 2.15 Preparing teachers to lead improvement in Japan and China Figure 2.3 Student-teacher relationships and student performance Box 2.16 The Pedagogy and Content Routine (PCR) – a “Kernel Routine” Box 2.17 Open Access College, South Australia Box 2.18 Culture Path, Kuopio Finland Box 2.19 Projektschule Impuls, Rorschach, Switzerland Designing expert systems for teachers Conclusions Notes References Chapter 3 - Matching Teacher Demand and Supply The challenge of teacher shorta ges Figure 3.1 Perceived shortage of mathematics and science teachers Figure 3.2 Relationship between school average socio-economic background and school resources Making teaching an attractive career choice Box 3.1 Throughout Singapore, teaching talent is identified and nurtured rather than being left to chance Box 3.2 Teachers and schools assume responsibility for reform in Finland Compensati on schemes to match teacher supply and demand Figure 3.3 Teachers’ salaries relative to those of workers with college degrees Figure 3.4 Decisions on payments for teachers in public institutions (2009) Box 3.3 Multiple incentives to attract excellent teachers to disadvantaged schools in Korea and in North Carolina Box 3.4 Individual pay in Sweden Box 3.5 Additional support in school for teachers in England Establishing effective employment conditions Ensuring high-quality initial teacher education Providing for attractive careers Box 3.6 Providing greater career diversity in Australia, England and Wales, Ireland and Québec (Canada) Meeting the need for ongoing professional development to address issuesof teacher supply Box 3.7 Professional development for teaching minority students in New Zealand Box 3.8 Innovative teacher-preparation programs in the United States Figure 3.5 Comparison of impact and participation by types of development activity Figure 3.6 Reasons for not taking more professional development Figure 3.7 Areas of greatest need for teacher professional development Conclusions Notes References Reflections on the 2012 International Summit on the Teaching Profession Annex A - Selected comparative data on education from OECD sources Figure A.1 Comparing countries’ performance in reading Figure A.2 Comparing countries’ performance in mathematics Figure A.3 Comparing countries’ performance in science Figure A.4 Relationship between school average socio-economic background and school resources Figure A.5 School principals’ views of how teacher behavior affects students’ learning Figure A.6 School principals’ views of how teacher behavior affects students’ learning Figure A.7 Compulsory and intended instruction time in public institutions (2009) Figure A.8 Average class size, by type of institution and level of education (2009) Figure A.9 Teachers’ salaries (2009) Figure A.10 Teachers’ salaries and pre-service teacher training requirements (2009) Figure A.11 Organization of teachers’ working time (2009) Figure A.12 Number of teaching hours per year (2000, 2005-09) Figure A.13 Participation of teachers in professional development in the previous 18 months (2007-08) Figure A.14 Amount of professional development undertaken by teachers in the previous 18 months (2007-08) – teacher characteristics Figure A.15 Amount of professional development undertaken by teachers in the previous 18 months (2007-08) – school characteristics Figure A.16 Types of professional development undertaken by teachers (2007-08) Figure A.17 Teachers who wanted to participate in more development than they did in the previous 18 months (2007-08) Figure A.18 Teachers’ high professional development needs (2007-08) Figure A.19 Support for professional development undertaken by teachers (2007-08) Figure A.20 Frequency of mentoring and induction programs (2007-08) Figure A.21 Recruitment of principals, 2006-07, public schools Figure A.22 Reasons for not participating in more professional development (2007-08) Results from the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development's (OECD's) Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) have shown that the degree to which education systems succeed in equipping students with important foundation skills varies significantly. Since the quality of teaching is at the heart of student learning outcomes, it is an appealing idea to bring together education leaders from high performing and rapidly improving education systems to explore to what extent educational success and some of the policies related to success transcend the specific characteristics of cultures and countries. To this end, in March 2012 the second "International Summit on the Teaching Profession" was held in New York, hosted by the U.S. Department of Education, the OECD and Education International. The Summit brought together education ministers, union leaders and other teacher leaders from high-performing and rapidly improving education systems, as measured by PISA, to review how to best improve the quality of teaching, teachers and school leaders. This publication underpinned the Summit with available research about what can make educational reforms effective, and highlights examples of reforms that have produced specific results, show promise or illustrate imaginative ways of implementing change. The Summit was organized around three interconnected themes: (1) Developing Effective School Leaders; (2) Preparing Teachers to Deliver 21st-Century Skills; and (3) Matching Teacher Demand and Supply. Selected comparative data on education from OECD sources are annexed. Individual chapters contain references and notes. (Contains 37 figures and 35 boxes.) This book uses PISA data to show that a substantial proportion of students in OECD countries now attend schools that have high degrees of autonomy in different areas of decision making. But effective school autonomy depends on effective leaders, including system leaders, principals, teacher leaders, senior teachers, and head teachers, as well as strong support systems. That, in turn, requires well-distributed leadership, new types of training and development for school leaders, and appropriate support and incentives