“Is he an expector?” – Evaluating inclusive practices in our school s and in our classrooms.

1. “Is he an expector?” – Evaluating inclusive practices in our schools and in our classrooms. Finn Ó Murchú Fionnbarra_omurchu@education.gov.ie 0872198700 ILSA 12

2. Inclusion = ? • PEOPLE – relationships/interactions/collaboration • LEARNING • Leadership • Access/Participation/Benefit • Responsive and Responsible flexibility • Actions (putting in place/removing) • Attitude and values • Belonging and being valued ( adults also ) • Improvement/Experimentation/Outcomes • Challenge • Self-evaluation • TIME ILSA 12

3. Who are we talking about? SEN in 3D (OECD 2005, DES 07) • Disabilities (NCSE) Individual with assessed low and high incidence needs • Learning Difficulties (DES) Learning support based on school size • Disadvantage (DEIS etc – via DES) Socio-economic factors and learning • EAG • Adults and other students ILSA 12

4. Who are we talking about? Only some students or all students? How are students including one another? How are adults being included? Who are we not talking about? ILSA 12

5. Change wisdom in practice • IEPs -SESS engagement with schools / One - pager ILSA 12

6. Understanding change “The programme started in 2003. It took us a few years …change is very difficult. For people to change you have to make incremental success early”. Billy Walsh “There are many ways to measure success”. Rob Penny Continuum of improvement..Finn ILSA 12 Team-Teaching St Declan's 290812 6

7. CBAM – Hall & Hord (2006) • Nonuser – may have heard but not using • Orientating – interested in the innovation • Preparing – getting ready to apply it • Mechanical – applying but clunky • Routine – now using smoothly • Refined – extending application into new areas • Integrative – connecting to other innovations • Refocusing – searching for other innovations ILSA 12

8. Themes 2: Identification of needs 1: Whole school policies 3: Special Educational Needs support team 10: Links with other agencies 4: Organisation of supports 9: Communication with parents 5: Learning and Teaching 8: Leadership 6: Assessment & Achievement 7: Attendance & Retention Themes in reports ILSA 12

9. INCLUSIVE LEARNING Expectations Engagement Communication Belonging Relationships Collaboration Well-being Hope Attitude and Values Flexibility Inclusive learning experiences ILSA 12

10. What’s fair to expect • Resources accounted for • Best use of resources including purposeful timetabling • Co-ordinated / co-ordinator • Primary school transition • Access to knowledge • Policies and practice • Legislative compliance… ILSA 12

11. What’s good teaching for good learning • Brophy’s 12 interdependent principles • John Hattie Visible Learning for teachers • Barrie Bennett Art and Science of teaching • Cooperation (pressure, reciprocal…) • Application (model, apply, practice, alter…) • Feedback (listening, responding, changing, learning) • Questioning (who, when, how…) • Engagement ( meaningful, enjoyable, challenging) • Climate (motivation, trust, perserverance…) ILSA 12

12. My challenge • Danger of valuing whats measurable rather than measuring whats valuable • Not knowing the point(s) on the time continuum – context, conditions and constraints • Not all student learning outcomes are clearly visible • Einstein all that can be counted may… ILSA 12

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14. 2.Team-teaching - 5 configurations • Lead and support • Classic team-teaching • Station teaching • Alternative teaching • Parallel teaching ILSA 12

15. Our work as cigirí – cúpla ceist • Why are you team-teaching? • Whose idea? Self-selected/press-ganged? • What’s the purpose/focus? • Is this your subject area? • Always this configuration? • Does it remove the need for the SNA during team-taught lessons? • Would you like to try other configurations? • What’s in it for you? • What’s in it for the students? • How do you know its working? • Is this a new ‘secret garden’? ILSA 12

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17. School self-evaluation • The classroom is where it’s at! • What do YOU value most about what you do, and where do you most frequently do what you value? • Let’s be inspired by the inclusion agenda • Let’s be empowered by SSE and by what we do as well as plan to do…in class or about classes ILSA 12

18. Self-evaluation in class All of the above plus…(here’s what I’ve seen) • Cooperative learning – Johnsons fifth of 5 basic principles • Reflective task – Leaving Certificate Applied • Student work samples being used appropriately in a range of ways • Teacher questioning/ student questioning • Feedback (Hattie, 2009) • Thinking (Co-operative learning and literacy) ILSA 12

19. Self-evaluation in class All of the above plus…(here’s what I’ve seen) • Presentation by an individual/group • range of questions asked from floor by peers • rubric to determine ratings for presentation, content, learning • supplementary questions following initial answers ILSA 12

20. Self-evaluation in class All of the above plus…(here’s what I’ve seen) • Paired-writing Composing, creating, editing, reviewing redrafting, publishing, displaying, applying criteria… ILSA 12

21. School Self-Evaluation • Schools must speak for themselves – John McBeath • Schools must speak with themselves • Self-evaluation is first for yourself (not others) • Self-evaluation as an event • Self-evaluation as pedagogical practice • Multiple sites and opportunities (ie Peer, JPL,work samples) • Multiple players (parents, students…) • Not always quantitative nor tangible • More everyday event than an Event ILSA 12

22. “Am I an expector?” Self--evaluating inclusive practices in our schools and in our classrooms. ILSA 12

23. Expectations and evaluations • What do I expect of myself? • What do I expect of my students, colleagues, parents…? • What do they expect of me? ILSA 12

24. Reality check Enablers but also disablers for SSE • Evaluate what and how? • Conditions and contexts ‘fear of failure’ v ‘failure is our friend' • Uncertainty can prevent as well as inspire • Getting the balance between internal and external evaluation • Trust of oneself and of others • Culture of ‘nice’ versus culture of asking the hard questions • Time • Common language of teaching among teachers ILSA 12

25. National convention • “Driving the Effective School – Instructional Leadership as the foundation for Self Evaluation and Team-Teaching". • Chief Inspector Harold Hislop Keynote speaker • October 12th-13th , Mt Wolsely Tullow Co Carlow • Clare Creedon Co Cork VEC Clare Creedon ccreedon@cocorkvec.ie ILSA 12