Masterclasses

Masterclass 1: If you don't lead with small data, you'll be led by Big Data
Professor Pasi Sahlberg, Finnish educator, author and scholar

Session description: Schools are increasingly governed by numbers: statistics, achievement tests, data walls, spreadsheets, and online surveys that provide masses of data to monitor progress and to improve teaching in schools. More recently, digital devices powered by algorithms and learning analytics have entered the education sector promising to deliver ‘intelligent solutions’ to schools and policy makers alike. This hands-on workshop builds on participants’ experiences and explores what ‘big data’ might mean for their work. Through a simulation exercise participants in this session will take a closer look at “small data” as a professional response to broader concerns regarding the datafication of schooling. Key questions asked in this masterclass are: Can big data make education better? What is small data and how can it help leadership? What is worth fighting for in schooling, when most of what we need to know is available online, all the time, for everyone?

Masterclass 2: The student voice

Cheryl Vardon, Chief Executive and Principal Commissioner of the Queensland Family and Child Commission

Session description: In this masterclass session, participants will explore how data from Queensland’s children and young people can guide investment in education and lead to improved student outcomes. The content will be drawn from the Queensland Family and Child Commission’s This place I call home: the views of children and young people on growing up in Queensland study. The role of parents, families and communities and the pathways that could exist from student views to social and economic policy will be tabled and discussed. 

Masterclass 3: Maximising impact in a school
Professor John Hattie, Laureate Professor of Education, The University of Melbourne

Session description: In this masterclass, participants will hear about strategies for determining what instructional leaders need to know and apply within the school context to ensure change produces improvement. They will be involved in reflection on strategies that have been successful to identify and address student needs and to track the impact of in-school initiatives. Participants will consider how to build leader capacity to coach teachers in the use of learning progressions and informing data. They will also look at strategies for school communities to identify what is working well, what are the next steps and how to get there for supporting the next lift in educational outcomes in Queensland.

Masterclass 4: Giving all our children a great start to learning in the early years
Professor Sharon Goldfeld, Deputy Director, Centre for Community Child Health, Royal Children's Hospital Co-Group Leader, Policy Equity and Translation, Murdoch Children’s Research Institute

Session description: Too many children are born into circumstances that do not provide them with a reasonable opportunity to make a good start in life. By the time Australian children start school, clear inequities in their development and wellbeing are already evident —driven by their life circumstances coupled with the failure of health, welfare, and educational systems to ameliorate these impacts, despite enormous investment and effort. In this masterclass session, participants will learn about the unequal impact of social change initiatives on children’s health and development and discuss what needs to happen in policy in order to help schools make a difference at the health/education interface.

Masterclass 5: Principals and school discipline dynamics
Dr Natalie Swayn, Director, Behaviour, State Schools Operations, Department of Education

Session description: In this masterclass session, participants will learn about the key factors which affect the disciplinary decisions of principals, and the competing demands and pressures increasingly impacting the leadership context for these staff. Research on effective previewing and reviewing complex decisions such as school exclusion will be presented, including findings from interviews with Queensland secondary school principals on features which weigh heavily in their thinking during these significant school events.

Masterclass 6: Not your average integrity presentation
Dr Nikola Stepanov, Queensland Integrity Commissioner

Session description: In this interactive masterclass, the Queensland Integrity Commissioner, Dr Nikola Stepanov, will workshop integrity and ethical dilemmas that Principals may be facing. The interactive session will explore the culture and values that foster ethical behaviour and decision-making, and highlight the risks which can undermine integrity in schools. The Commissioner will also bust some common myths about corruption and misconduct with the use of case study examples (and a touch of humour). Join Dr Stepanov for a ‘not your average’ integrity session, especially if you are a Principal from one of the Commissioner’s past schools - Maryborough High, Cloncurry State, Sunset State, Pialba State, and a special mention to School of the Air, Mt Isa!