Leadership 5: Leading Improvement

Introduces the concept of a community of practice (and specifically a Professional Learning Community or PLC) as an effective process for engaging in inquiry and improvement work in the early childhood setting. This part draws on the voices of experts who have vast practical and research experience in developing PLCs.

Recognises the impact of the shared inquiry and improvement activities for both enhancing practice and the resulting outcomes for children, and for strengthening relationships between people. It teaches participants to develop supportive and safe environments and processes for teams to share and critique their professional practice.

Gets into the process of inquiry and improvement activities, drawing on the Spiral of Inquiry model and aligning Ministry of Education guidance on effective processes. Participants are supported to make careful assessments of their context to determine the most important areas and opportunities for improvement, and to begin to plan for a PLC meeting with their team to identify a focus for inquiry. Both fictional examples and case studies of practice are offered to illustrate the processes of inquiry in this and subsequent parts of the course.

Focuses on evaluating current practice in a chosen area of focus with a comprehensive look at a range of methods for data collection, as well as the evaluation of that data. Participants plan a PLC meeting on initial data collection in relation to the topic of focus.

Examines how leaders can support their teams to engage in effective meaning-making and theorising about practice from the data they have collected about practice thus far, as well as how they can signal and guide the emerging inquiry towards desired practices and outcomes.

Introduces complexity theory-inspired concepts for extending inquiries to engage greater creativity, innovation, and enjoyment. There is an emphasis on developing professional knowledge and understanding through professional learning and evaluative feedback.

Promotes experimentation with putting new ideas and strategies into practice, and draws on non-Western epistemologies and practices to extend the tools available to leaders with which to guide inquiry. The importance of evaluating initial impacts and making adjustments is explored.

Explores the evaluation of inquiry and improvement activities, processes, and outcomes, as well as how to draw inquiries to a close. There is also a focus on leaders’ wellbeing when facilitating inquiry and improvement cycles in their settings.