Browsing by Author "O'Connor, Barbara"

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    5 Chapter Five -- Optimum Learning Literature Synthesis: Supporting the Implementation of Standards
    (2019-06-30) Stelmach, Bonnie; O'Connor, Barbara; Brandon, Jim
    This synthesis of the literature is designed to undergird our 4-university longitudinal mixed methods study Optimum Learning for All Students Implementing Alberta’s 2018 Professional Practice Standards. Our ambition is to gain insights into how and how well Alberta’s Teaching Quality Standard, Leadership Quality Standard, and Superintendent Leadership Quality Standard are being put into place, how the standards are impacting practice, and what changes occur over time in teaching and learning. Indeed, our longitudinal design is premised on “uncovering sustained changes and implementation success” (Derrington, 2019, p. 8). Given this, our goals in preparing this manuscript were to (a) synthesize scholarship on policy processes so that we can situate our inquiry into the standards in a process-oriented way; (b) provide a jurisdictional review of standards-based approaches to teaching and leadership and what we know to be effective with respect to this approach so that we can discern how Alberta’s standards and pathways to certification are positioned compared to others who have gone before us; and (c) synthesize scholarship that demonstrates the link between the professional practice standards and quality teaching and leadership so that we are anchored to evidence when interpreting the forthcoming empirical data. Considering the comprehensiveness of the professional practice standards, we covered the waterfront, so to speak. But though we plumbed many strands and sources of knowledge, we do not claim it to be exhaustive or necessarily complete.
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    Optimum Learning for All Students: Highlights from the Research Literature
    (2019-05-14) Stelmach, Bonnie L.; Hunter, Darryl M.; Brown, Barbara; O'Connor, Barbara; Brandon, Jim
    Highlights are shared from an extensive review of the research literature on optimum student learning, quality teaching practices, quality leadership practices, as well as the research on other countries/jurisdictions where a ’standards-based’ approach to teaching, school, and system leading have been adopted. Representatives of the four-university research team from the Universities of Alberta, Calgary, Lethbridge, and Concordia University of Edmonton share insights from the literature that are foundational to the Alberta Education authorized 4-year longitudinal mixed-methods research study designed to assess, deepen, and extend the implementation process for Alberta’s three professional practice standards: The Teaching Quality Standard, the Leadership Quality Standard, and the Superintendent Leadership Quality Standard. Slides were presented at the ULead Conference in Banff, Alberta on May 14, 2019.