The project Heads UP “Headmasters Using Professional Learning Communities” invents and implements a model for leadership development in order to support school leaders (heads/vice heads) to lead their teachers better into school improvement and necessary teaching development. By setting up Professional Learning Communities (PLCs) , which are proven to be an effective method for advanced training, the project supports school leaders to increase their competencies on leading in special learning communities with leadership colleagues. Thus PLCs for heads are run for the first time.In the face of the challenge of successful teaching of children with diverse needs in all countries (heterogeneous classes, inclusive education, integration of refugee children etc.), an effort on teaching development has imperatively to be taken. By supporting school leaders to raise their leadership skills they can manage better to lead their teachers into improving and to take on those teaching challenges more successfully.The method of PLCs provides a professional learning environment, in which all participants mutually gain further experience and knowledge because they oblige into a cooperative group and give each other support in developing according to individual needs.Since working in a PLC allows each member to follow different targets and get support for their own target, PLCs have the potential to combine individual needs with collective learning and thus serve as diversity oriented method. It takes into consideration special backgrounds and working circumstances of the members and promotes equal opportunities for diverse interests. Through this innovation a long term change towards more engaged professional learning in schools in order to enhance the competencies of heads and teachers will ultimately provide better learning options for the diverse pupils.The model of the project is called PLC-"Doubledecker" (like a biplane) because it joins school leaders into PLCs and encourages them to build up likewise learning communities for teachers. Initial point is the data proved knowledge that school leaders can stimulate teachers’ learning and by that have an impact on pupils’ achievements. Despite the obvious benefits of PLCs, they have not yet become common at European universities and schools. And although leadership development has been broadly discussed on an international perspective, leadership training is only implemented nationally. The project overcomes that gap and combines national and international activities for professional development and opens up a transnational learning environment. In the HeadsUp project teacher educators, leadership trainers, school authorities, heads and researchers cooperate in order to offer a transnational perspective and a broader range of experience in good practice of leading and teaching diversity. The project builds up a school based transnational network for leadership and school improvement. In each of the six partner countries PLCs of heads will be set up and their progress will be supported by learning options distributed by alearning platform, conferences, concelling in an innovative way. In turn, the heads will implement PLCs for teachers in their schools and thereby provide better teaching and learning opportunities for the pupils.On the national and international level, the project provides a new model and deepens the awareness of professional development in schools. Its evaluation not only contributes to the exchange of practical experience but also to the international scientific debate on leadership development and to a data-based councelling of regional and upper authorities and of policy makers. It also provides a model that can be adapted to other profit or non-profit organisations. On the local and regional level, the project will stimulate better teaching and classroom management as a result of better leadership. For the universities it will provide experience from which additions to the curriculum in higher teacher education can be deduced and taken on in classes on teaching professionalism. The project adds significantly to the development of teacher education, which is a main task of the European Union and follows the European request on innovation for cooperative and self-run professional learning and of a contribution to more successful teaching heterogeneous students’ and integrate refugee children productively.
Successful students’ learning in inclusive settings also integrating refugee and migrated children well is the overall goal of current school development activities in Europe. Empirical results prove that school leaders (SL) can influence better teaching and classroom management by setting up structures for teachers' learning. Professional learning communities (PLCs) are broadly discussed as successful method for teachers’ development. For leadership development they are hardly known, though. The HeadsUP project developed the method for professionalization of SL leaders to get them well experienced in PLC-work and raise their competencies on leadership and school development. According to this experience, school leaders focus better on their teachers' learning and invest in setting up teacher-PLCs in their schools and thus contribute to better students learning. This Double-decker model is the core idea of the project. In the field of leadership training the project is unique because it closes the gap that arises from an internationally run debate on leadership development that is not consequently leading into internationally linked learning opportunities. In the international scientific community, leadership development is a broadly discussed topic, but still there is little connection between the international debate and the ongoing training of school leaders, which is usually carried out with a national or even just regional orientation. The project "HeadsUP- Heads Using Porfessional Learning Communities" will overcome this gap by connecting leadership development on a transnational level and arrange a wide learning opportunity across counties. Combining the activities of regional working SL-PLCs in each country with transnational exchange methodically structured meetings, leadership conferences and through learning material, the project provides learning opportunities ranging from good-practice in leading and teaching diversity all over the countries to scientific expertise. In the project finally 22 SL-PLCs with 3-6 SL each work in six European countries. The partners laid out a learning environment by additionally facilitating the PLCs and getting them connected on several occations in the transnational network. Most of the SL initiated teachers-PLCs at their schools. Some focused primarily on their own learning and development of their PLC. The five universities, Weingarten, Feldkirch, Trondheim, Nikosia und Málaga and one municipality, Linköping, worked successfully together in the project and managed to gain new differentiated knowledge on SL-PLCs and how to run them successfully. The new knowledge they turned into five intellectual outputs which adress different audiences. A comprehensive Manual provides conceptual and practical hints for setting up PLCs. An Evaluation Report offers an empirical analysis of requirements, processes, benefits etc. of SL-PLCs. The Guideline gives a short introduction into the project, the method and some leading orientation for the establishment of SL-PLCs and leads readers to the Webpage. The webpage provides all intellectual outputs and give various insights in the activities and results of the multiplier events and the experiences by the particpants (www.plc-headsup.eu). Since the multiplier events were carried out as leadership conferences always referring to both, teaching successfully in inclusive settings and professionalizing well with PLCs, what there is to learn can be retraced by slides, pictures and summaries. Finally, a Learning Platform serves as an example how to support PLCs by blended learning and what kind of material and ways to exchcange can be applied. Through the intellectual outputs the consortium distributed the new method and the results of the exploration to the practical and also to the scientifical discourse on professional development at national/international conferences, by publications in scientific and school oriented papers and numerous exchanges, some conserted expert talks within the regional networks. It adressed two main groups of stakeholders: schools, school authorities and staff committees, teacher trainers and researchers in the field of leadership and school development. Current discussions in the network of the partners are enriched by the experiences won in the project. Setting up SL-PLCs was an initial point for the project team to engage furthermore in developing schools with PLCs. Even after the project ended the consortium still disseminates the results towards the two discourses and quotes it in all the papers the partners write on PLCs. Currently the consortium engages aditionally in adapting the method to other groups in the education system in order to have the benefit of the great idea also at universities (students-PLCs) and at higher level of school authorities (directors-PLCs). Practicing PLCs already in university studies provides schools with teachers that are already competent on PLC-work in the future.