Browsing by Author "Mombourquette, Carmen"

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    7 Chapter Seven -- Optimum Learning Literature Synthesis: What is Quality School Leadership?
    (2019-06-30) Mombourquette, Carmen; Sproule, Leonard; 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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    Leadership to Support Teacher Beliefs and Practices of Fostering Critical Thinking
    (2017) Tapajna, Richard; Brandon, James; Mombourquette, Carmen; Spencer, Brenda; Brandon, James; Boz, Umit; Mombourquette, Carmen; Spencer, Brenda; Lenters, Kimberly; Brien, Kenneth
    The purpose of this qualitative case study of an urban school district in southern Alberta was to examine the role of school leaders in supporting the development of teacher beliefs and practices to foster critical thinking by students. In Alberta, this is particularly relevant to school leaders who are required to support teachers to implement the Ministerial Order on Student Learning (Alberta Education, 2013) requirement that students think critically across subject and discipline areas for learning, work, and life. The literature review examined definitions, development, and educational significance of critical thinking by all children. Current research concerning the relationship between teacher beliefs and teacher practices to foster critical thinking was explored. Leadership practices to support teacher change were surveyed, with a focus on setting clear goals and expectations, involvement in instructional programming, and promoting and participating in a positive school learning climate. Qualitative questionnaires, classroom observations, semi-structured interviews, focus group discussion, and document review methods were used to collect data and examine the phenomenon from multiple perspectives. Findings indicated that while teachers believe fostering critical thinking is an important goal of education, they believe some students are less able to benefit from critical thinking opportunities. Teachers and school leaders identified supportive leadership practices to help develop teacher beliefs and practices to foster critical thinking by students. The twelve findings are synthesized to provide meaningful recommendations for school leaders and for future research.
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    Optimum Learning for All Students Implementing Alberta’s 2018 Professional Practice Standards 2021-2022 Year 3 Survey Report
    (2022-08-03) Friesen, Sharon; Chu, Man-Wai; Hunter, Darryl; Brown, Barbara; Parsons, Dennis; Stelmach, Bonnie; Schmidt, Edgar; Adams, Pamela; Burleigh, Dawn; Mombourquette, Carmen
    Alberta Education commissioned this 4-year longitudinal, mixed methods research study, which is designed to assess, deepen, and extend the implementation process for Alberta’s three professional practice standards: The Teaching Quality Standard (TQS) the Leadership Quality Standard (LQS), and the Superintendent Leadership Quality Standard (SLQS). This report presents the survey findings from the third year of the study. Findings are presented for each of the three standards. Results overall indicate: 1. educators across the province are in the adapting stage of implementation--– where teachers, school leaders, and superintendents are still adapting in their practice to novel problems– they reported much flexibility. The ongoing public health situation continue to require flexibility and continuing adaptivity. The standards and their implementation do not appear to be rigidifying practice since interquartile ranges and standard deviations remain professionally healthy for fostering discussion and multiple perspectives. 2. leaders must continue to engage the wider community. While small gains have been made in year 2 of the study, year 3 results indicate that leaders are negatively experiencing most of the impact from the ongoing pandemic. 3. forms and formats of professional learning and leadership development to build capacity in teachers, leaders, and superintendent leaders continue to shifted markedly. What that means for changing educator behaviour and enacting standards to support “optimal” learning remains unclear, and 4. Organization drivers indicate the need to create more hospitable administrative, funding, policy, and procedures to ensure that the competency drivers are accessible and effective as well as to ensure continuous quality monitoring and improvement with particular attention needed to student outcomes.
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    Optimum Learning for All Students Implementing Alberta’s 2018 Professional Practice Standards A Longitudinal, Mixed Methods Research Study: 2019-2020 Provincial Year 1 Survey Research Report
    (2021-04-15) Friesen, Sharon; Chu, Man-Wai; Hunter, Darryl; Brandon, Jim; Brown, Barb; Louie, Dustin; Stelmach, Bonnie; Schmidt, Edgar; Adams, Pamela; Burleigh, Dawn; Mombourquette, Carmen; Parsons, Dennis
    Alberta Education commissioned this 4-year longitudinal, mixed methods research study, which is designed to assess, deepen, and extend the implementation process for Alberta’s three professional practice standards: The Teaching Quality Standard (TQS) the Leadership Quality Standard (LQS), and the Superintendent Leadership Quality Standard (SLQS). This report presents the survey findings from the first year of the study. Findings are presented for each of the three standards. Results overall indicate: 1. educators across the province are in the adapting stage of implementation. The standards and their implementation do not appear to be rigidifying practice since interquartile ranges and standard deviations remain professionally healthy for fostering discussion and multiple perspectives. 2. leaders must engage the wider community in schools. Those competencies in leading those within the system are stronger than for leading those beyond the system. 3. pedagogy as it relates to First Nations, Métis and Inuit foundational knowledge, alongside traditional Western ideas in mathematics and the sciences, are a challenge.
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    Optimum Learning for All Students Implementing Alberta’s 2018 Professional Practice Standards A Longitudinal, Mixed Methods Research Study: 2020-2021 Provincial Year 2 Survey Research Report
    (2021-04-15) Friesen, Sharon; Chu, Man-Wai; Hunter, Darryl; Brandon, Jim; Brown, Barb; Louie, Dustin; Hunter, Darryl; Stelmach, Bonnie; Schmidt, Edgar; Adams, Pamela; Burleigh, Dawn; Mombourquette, Carmen
    Alberta Education commissioned this 4-year longitudinal, mixed methods research study, which is designed to assess, deepen, and extend the implementation process for Alberta’s three professional practice standards: The Teaching Quality Standard (TQS) the Leadership Quality Standard (LQS), and the Superintendent Leadership Quality Standard (SLQS). This report presents the survey findings from the first year of the study. Findings are presented for each of the three standards. Results overall indicate: 1. educators across the province are in the adapting stage of implementation--– where teachers, school leaders, and superintendents are still adapting in their practice to novel problems– they reported much flexibility. The public health situation in 2020 and 2021 have required such flexibility and continuing adaptivityThe standards and their implementation do not appear to be rigidifying practice since interquartile ranges and standard deviations remain professionally healthy for fostering discussion and multiple perspectives. 2. leaders must engage the wider community in schools. Those competencies in leading those within the system are stronger than for leading those beyond the system. While small gains have been made in year 2 of the study, leaders must continue to engage with the public to continue constructing public confidence. 3. forms and formats of professional learning and leadership development have shifted markedly over the past year, and will continue to shift after the pandemic. More technological delivery of customized courses, more collegial approaches in virtual learning space, and greater demand for both credentialed and non-credentialed learning will be necessary. What that means for changing educator behaviour and enacting standards to support “optimal” learning remains unclear.
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    Optimum Learning for All Students: A Research Study of Teaching Quality Standard, Leadership Quality Standard, and Superintendent Leader Quality Standard Implementation and Enactment in Alberta
    (2023-06-30) Friesen, Sharon; Brown, Barbara; Chu, Man-Wai; Parsons, Dennis; Hunter, Darryl; Stelmach, Bonnie; Adams, Pamela; Mombourquette, Carmen; Burleigh, Dawn; Edgar Schmidt
    February 7, 2018, the Ministerial Order in Alberta of three Professional Practice Standards conceptualized the professional practice of Alberta teachers, school and system leaders, and superintendents using a nested design which provided consistency in the way K-12 educators practice in Alberta. The four-year longitudinal convergent mixed methods study began in March 2018, prior to the beginning of the required implementation of the three standards and concluded in June 2023. Four research questions guided this study. Survey and case study were gathered from a total of 5536 teachers, 1832 leaders, and 106 superintendent leaders over the four years. Fifteen findings were identified through a process of merging the quantitative and qualitative data over four years. The study concluded there was a strong interplay between the professional practice standards as policy and the implementation into practice, the implementation of the standards was successful in the face of the 2.5 years of COVID in the midst of their implementation, the participating 35 school authorities cultivated a culture of continuous professional learning and improvement, implementation enhanced educators' understanding of First Nations, Métis, and Inuit Knowledge, participants used an evidence-informed approach to guide practice, and all participants acknowledged the role of external supports and collaboration to realize policy in action.
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    Teacher Leader Perspectives of Implementing a High School Redesign Model
    (2021-06-30) Shirley, Jessie Lynn; Chapman, Olive; Koh, Kim; Kowch, Eugene; Mombourquette, Carmen; Potvin, Bernard
    Teachers’ involvement in the implementation of school reforms could vary widely and this impacts the extent to which they embrace change in their practice; the extent to which they take on leadership roles; and the extent to which the change is understood. This single case study investigated lead teachers’ perspectives of the Alberta High School Redesign Model [AHSRM], their process of implementing the AHSRM and the impact of the AHSRM on their teaching and professional thinking. The participants were eight teachers from a single high school in Alberta. As lead teachers, they had full responsibility for interpreting and implementing the AHSRM in their school. Data sources included individual and focus-group interviews, as well as classroom observations. Findings revealed that teachers were able to interpret most of the foundational principles, the purpose of the AHSRM, and the importance of the AHSRM, which supported the implementation process of the redesigned pedagogical structure in their school. Their level of success in the implementation depended not only on the AHSRM foundational principles, but also on the pod structure and their teamwork. The implementation process enabled them to make significant changes to their teaching that included creative instruction and assessment practices, as well as other approaches that provided a more positive educational experience for both students and teachers. Overall conclusions find that although high school reform is a complex and demanding undertaking, the AHSRM can provide a basis for teachers to make important, meaningful changes to their practice and professional thinking. In addition, when the redesign focus is on pedagogical structure, teachers are key to the implementation process. Finally, the pod structure is an important and potentially effective way to implement a high school redesign model. This study has implications for school administrators, teachers, and researchers who are involved in, or considering teachers’ participation in implementing the AHRSM or similar redesign models. Key Terms: Alberta high school redesign model, pedagogical structure, student-centred learning, lead teacher, self-directed learning