Optimising leadership: Conceptualising cognitive constraints of sociality and collaboration in Australian secondary schools

IF 1.1 Q3 EDUCATION & EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH
J. Casey, Susan Simon, W. Graham
{"title":"Optimising leadership: Conceptualising cognitive constraints of sociality and collaboration in Australian secondary schools","authors":"J. Casey, Susan Simon, W. Graham","doi":"10.1177/1365480220958498","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"School improvement frameworks and their associated reform efforts often have limited durability and are frequently not fully implemented. Improving their viability, requires a more realistic understanding of contextual organisational structures and the school culture in which the reform is to be implemented. Internationally, and in Australia specifically, education research has informed policy heavily promoting collaboration as a school improvement strategy, with the aim of building teacher capability and student achievement. Consequently, secondary school leaders are charged with promoting the need for teachers to collaborate meaningfully with hundreds of students, carers, parents and colleagues each week across the ‘silos’ of subject departments and grade levels in their school. Social Brain Theory suggests that there are cognitive limits on the number of natural face-to-face social interactions that one can have and maintain. Relationships require significant investment in time and frequency. Additionally, sociality is much more cognitively demanding than at first thought, having unforeseen influence on improvement efforts. The number of interactions required in a collaborative environment, an individual’s likely cognitive overload and the ‘silo’ nature of the school’s organisational structure must all be considered. This paper offers an alternative theoretical framework to support policy makers and leaders in optimising school improvement efforts.","PeriodicalId":45995,"journal":{"name":"Improving Schools","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.1000,"publicationDate":"2020-09-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1177/1365480220958498","citationCount":"3","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Improving Schools","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1177/1365480220958498","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q3","JCRName":"EDUCATION & EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 3

Abstract

School improvement frameworks and their associated reform efforts often have limited durability and are frequently not fully implemented. Improving their viability, requires a more realistic understanding of contextual organisational structures and the school culture in which the reform is to be implemented. Internationally, and in Australia specifically, education research has informed policy heavily promoting collaboration as a school improvement strategy, with the aim of building teacher capability and student achievement. Consequently, secondary school leaders are charged with promoting the need for teachers to collaborate meaningfully with hundreds of students, carers, parents and colleagues each week across the ‘silos’ of subject departments and grade levels in their school. Social Brain Theory suggests that there are cognitive limits on the number of natural face-to-face social interactions that one can have and maintain. Relationships require significant investment in time and frequency. Additionally, sociality is much more cognitively demanding than at first thought, having unforeseen influence on improvement efforts. The number of interactions required in a collaborative environment, an individual’s likely cognitive overload and the ‘silo’ nature of the school’s organisational structure must all be considered. This paper offers an alternative theoretical framework to support policy makers and leaders in optimising school improvement efforts.
优化领导:概念化澳大利亚中学社会性和协作的认知约束
学校改进框架及其相关改革努力的持久性往往有限,而且往往没有得到充分实施。要提高它们的生存能力,就需要对实施改革的组织结构和学校文化有更现实的了解。在国际上,特别是在澳大利亚,教育研究已经为政策提供了大量信息,将促进合作作为一种学校改进策略,目的是提高教师能力和学生成绩。因此,中学领导有责任促进教师每周与数百名学生、护理人员、家长和同事进行有意义的合作,跨越学科部门和学校年级的“孤岛”。社会脑理论认为,一个人可以拥有和维持的自然的面对面的社会互动的数量是有认知限制的。人际关系需要大量的时间和频率投入。此外,社交对认知的要求比最初想象的要高得多,对改进努力有着不可预见的影响。协作环境中所需的互动数量、个人可能的认知过载以及学校组织结构的“孤岛”性质都必须考虑在内。本文提供了另一种理论框架,以支持政策制定者和领导者优化学校改进工作。
本文章由计算机程序翻译,如有差异,请以英文原文为准。
求助全文
约1分钟内获得全文 求助全文
来源期刊
Improving Schools
Improving Schools EDUCATION & EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH-
CiteScore
5.50
自引率
0.00%
发文量
4
期刊介绍: Improving Schools is for all those engaged in school development, whether improving schools in difficulty or making successful schools even better. The journal includes contributions from across the world with an increasingly international readership including teachers, heads, academics, education authority staff, inspectors and consultants. Improving Schools has created a forum for the exchange of ideas and experiences. Major national policies and initiatives have been evaluated, to share good practice and to highlight problems. The journal also reports on visits to successful schools in diverse contexts, and includes book reviews on a wide range of developmental issues.
×
引用
GB/T 7714-2015
复制
MLA
复制
APA
复制
导出至
BibTeX EndNote RefMan NoteFirst NoteExpress
×
提示
您的信息不完整,为了账户安全,请先补充。
现在去补充
×
提示
您因"违规操作"
具体请查看互助需知
我知道了
×
提示
确定
请完成安全验证×
copy
已复制链接
快去分享给好友吧!
我知道了
右上角分享
点击右上角分享
0
联系我们:info@booksci.cn Book学术提供免费学术资源搜索服务,方便国内外学者检索中英文文献。致力于提供最便捷和优质的服务体验。 Copyright © 2023 布克学术 All rights reserved.
京ICP备2023020795号-1
ghs 京公网安备 11010802042870号
Book学术文献互助
Book学术文献互助群
群 号:481959085
Book学术官方微信