How: The Road to Transformation
Group 8 Education employs a range of programs and strategies to get to the core of educational transformation. All of our work is based on our model of outstanding teaching, our ten plus years of research, coaching methodologies and contemporary neuroscience.
Performance Development
Group 8 Education’s central and flagship service is called Performance Development and Coaching 3.0TM (PDC 3.0) and is a performance management system for schools i.e. a way for schools to improve performance over time. At face value this system is 80% formative (i.e. stimulates development) and 20% summative (i.e. provides appraisal) and can be sustained over time i.e. is a process that is repeated on an annual basis. Capacity is built into the school by the process itself so that it continues as part of the school’s normal operation. In contrast to other performance appraisal systems (that are only deficit models i.e. get teachers to perform to the level that they should be performing at) PDC 3.0 builds capacity into schools in areas that are simply absent in our current systems (this capacity was simply not designed into the education system) but which are key to developing resilient, creative and collaborative young adults, able to face up to an uncertain future with confidence. It is this aspect of the program that is transformative and also provides the basis for sustained improvement in performance.
Key features are:
Explicit linkage of purpose and plan to behaviour change
- induction of all staff into Annual Action Plan goals in the context of the need to change behaviour to meet those goals
- use of professional observation by coach/middle leader to focus attention on key areas for change
- student feedback to individual teachers and self-assessment against VIT standards are key inputs to self-reflection and learning goal development
- staff coached to develop clarity and commitment to a set of learning goals and actions to achieve them
Development of a learning culture
- explicitly puts teachers into the classroom in a learning mind state to model learning to students and to develop their practice faster
- peer observation of classroom practice so that teachers learn from each other
- structured stimulation of professional dialogue around classroom practice
Explicit development of the leadership role of middle leaders
- middle leaders induct their own staff into annual plan
- middle leaders observe their own staff in action against an agreed framework and key areas
- middle leaders coach staff to gain clarity and commitment to a set of leaning goals, mid year, and consolidation of their learning, at end year – and receive feedback on this coaching
- leaders at all levels trained as coaches – in a train, do, feedback, learn cycle – to model the key behaviours that underpin a learning culture
This is an annual process divided into two cycles – a short Induction Cycle and a longer Development Cycle. This process is sustainable over time allowing each year’s Action Plan to build on the previous year’s achievements.
Additional benefits of Performance Development and Coaching 3.0TM are:
- Time efficient for staff and leadership, distributed effort across all leadership levels and explicit empowerment of staff to take control of their own development within the framework of the Annual Action Plan
- Manual that provides step-by-step instructions of how to perform each step • Training of admin staff to set up support systems so that process is sustainable over time and data gathered at each step can feed into the next year’s action plan
Group 8 Education would like to recruit a cohort of schools to implement Performance Development and Coaching 3.0TM in the 2012 academic year.
Interested? Contact John Corrigan – 0418 432 316 Email: jcorrigan@gr8education.com