Reflections on visits to Harvard

In summer 2006, two groups of educational practitioners from Scotland visited the Harvard Graduate School of Education where they participated in the school’s programme in professional education. The first group, facilitated by Graham Thomson, Director of SCSSA, consisted of recently appointed headteachers. This group attended an eight-day programme: Improving Schools: The Art of Leadership.

This programme provided strategies for establishing priorities and building support while addressing  issues such as leading and managing change, implementing curricular innovation and exploring successful models for school improvement. The second group, led by Margaret Alcorn, National CPD Co-ordinator, included a recently appointed executive director of education and children’s services, a quality improvement officer and headteachers. This group participated in The Art of Leadership: Leadership for Large Scale Improvement.

The paper aims to:

• provide a summary of how the visits to Harvard impacted on the learning of the participants
• consider how they have shared their learning with others; and
• suggest ways that a future visit might be improved in order to maximise its value for the participant.