Page 14 - Agency Project

Inquiry into Leadership

Learning Uses Evidence-

Based Practice

The Agency Project uses inquiry based learning principles, which in turn are
directly linked to evidence-based practice. This simply means :

The project aims to improve an aspect of your school. A team will
undertake an inquiry that involves posing questions and finding answers
to them. This in turn means looking for and collecting evidence. Evidence
is not just statistical test data, but can also include the collection of
opinions, observations, and other sources of information relevant to
your inquiry.

Evidence-based practice means that school leaders collect and examine data
and look at student records and results over time in order to identify trends
and take appropriate actions. At its simplest level, this is about examining the
evidence to ensure that every learner is improving – it is about accountability.
At a more complex level, it is about embracing the new and different
pedagogies and innovations that result from on-going research generated as
part of the information age.

Evidence-based practice is the conscientious, explicit, and judicious use of data
or other evidence to make decisions about one’s role as a school leader (or, for
that matter, teacher) and then the adoption of practices to ensure that daily
efforts focus on achieving outcomes. The evidence needs to be meaningful
and systematic, valued by the school and its community, and to demonstrate
clearly that learning outcomes continuously improve. Effective schools have
professional leadership teams that regularly evaluate school performance and
regularly use their findings to plan for improvement. They have high expectations
of students and a belief that every student has the ability to learn.

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