Abstract:
There is considerable research support for the importance of using student achievement data for instructional improvement and that experts in dedicated professional development roles can be a key factor in helping schools make the connection between the data and instructional actions. Conversations between experts and school professionals, and among the professionals themselves, are critical to promoting professional learning in this important area. This qualitative study sought to investigate the characteristics of conversations between experts (facilitators) with expertise in data literacy, and school principals that were effective in building the principals’ capability with data, while at the same time building the principals’ capability to have similar conversations with teachers. The overall aim of both types of conversations was the use of data for instructional improvement. Data for the study were collected through observations of facilitator-principal conversations and the subsequent principal-teacher conversations. Further data were gathered by interviewing facilitators, principals and teachers at the beginning and end of the study. The data were coded and analysed using characteristics of effective conversations identified in the literature. The analysis of the results identified the instructional complexity of the facilitator role and the multi-levelled nature of the facilitator conversations with the principal. Building data content knowledge in ways that helped principals to work with teachers required a simultaneous appreciation of how to analyse data while also developing an understanding about the processes involved in helping teachers to approach the data analysis in a ‘culture of inquiry.’ The essential purpose, data use for instructional improvement, did not permeate the conversations. The thesis ends with a model that emphasises the need for the purpose of all data conversations to be explicitly linked to instructional improvement and identifies the multiple purposes and levels of the conversations. The analysis of the findings showed a need to be explicit about the various purposes of conversations and to ensure the conversational purpose is linked to the critical goal of using the data for instructional improvement.