The conference was a good mix of educational and personal inspiration. I have put aside the speakers who concentrated on the personal because the educational speakers have messages from which a wider audience will benefit.
The most powerful presentation was from James Nottingham about the notion of labeling and the negative impacts of even the positive labels. I was particularly struck with his argument that grouping on ability had negative impacts for both the top and bottom groups. Interestingly this argument is based on the work on effect size by John Hattie. I hadn't realized that children in the top group go backwards because of the idea that they are naturally talented. When they find something difficult they think that it is not true and don't persevere.
Vivianne Robinson is a New Zealand educator who has been working in the area of leadership. Her overall message was to reinforce the idea that the Principal's key role is to develop a framework for school improvement which will engage the school in an action learning process.
