4/8: Reading Reflection - High Impact Leadership by John Hattie

High Impact Leadership by John Hattie

4th August 2016

Key points taken form the reading:

• Two types of school leaders - instructional & transformational leadership
• transformational leadership focus on teachers e.g. setting visions and creating goals
• instructional leadership focus on the students e.g. concerned with the impact that teachers and the school are having on the students learning

(Key points describing attributes of high-impact instructional learners)

• high impact leaders are able to create a space were everyone successfully learns and where learning is welcomed rather than tolerated
• both teachers and students being able to look at errors as an opportunity for learning 
• visible learning so students clearly understand what they are learning and the progression e.g. learning intentions and success criteria known and seen so students are able to understand the purpose of their learning and are able to monitor their progress
• as students move towards student-centered learning they are able to discuss about what they are learning in classes, not what they are doing

My copy of the reading with highlighted notes and points can be found: https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B8SyJqn0M1mhaG9zSmxxWVU0bUE

Even after reading this and recognising that instructional leadership aims to focus on student-centered learning I failed to reflect this in class today. In my girls PE class instead of allowing students the opportunity to sort themselves out into even teams, with a range of abilities before their netball assessment today, I took charge. I went through the assessment papers (which the girls had graded themselves) and read out their names to put them in teams. To make sure the girls didn't get mixed up I asked them to move out to certain areas. After all names had been read I then asked them to come back in to listen to instructions of getting bibs etc. In short I wasted a lot of time when simple instructions of get into even groups of mixed ability would have ended with a similar result. I could have also given the instruction that once the teams have been sorted to get bibs on and jump onto a court ready to play. 

By giving those simple instructions not only would I have saved time but also presented students with an opportunity to organize themselves and have a choice of who was in their team.