LEARNING ORIENTED LEADERSHIP

This week my reading and thinking was focused by an article sent to me by Debra Jennings, a member of New Jersey’s State Professional Teaching Standard Board. I serve as a facilitator to the board and it is currently supporting a statewide initiative for every school to have a School-based Professional Development Committee which functions as a Professional Learning Community guiding teacher professional learning to increase student achievement.

The article, Helping Teachers Learn: Principals as Professional Development Leaders, by Eleanor Drago-Severson — 2007 was published in Teachers College Record.

The author explores how principals support teacher learning and highlights their creative responses to challenges. She describes four broad initiatives principals employ to support teacher learning.

#1 Teaming

Almost all principals used teaming to promote individual and organizational learning through various forms of partnering and adult collaboration. Many organize their schools for teamwork (e.g., curriculum teams, teaching teams, literacy teams, technology teams, and diversity teams) because they think that teaming opens communication, decreases isolation, encourages collaboration and joint inquiry, and creates interdependency.

Principals reported that teaming provides opportunities for individuals to articulate and become more aware of their own and other people’s thinking—and assumptions. Working with teachers in teams offers diverse points of view when considering important changes in the school, goals, and accountability for meeting them. Several principals, for instance, explained how teams sometimes challenged well-established school norms, which, in many cases, spurred these principals and their schools to reevaluate and collaborate to invent strategies for change (e.g., literacy programs, and technology initiatives). Thus, teaming holds the potential to be a context for growth and development both of team members and of the school.

My personal experiences as a teacher working on teams and as a consultant working with vertical teams, and professional learning communities supports the team as a driver of teacher learning. Sometimes teachers are learning from each other and at other times they are learning together. Teaming can increase risk taking and thus learning.

#2 Leadership Opportunities

Research shows that inviting teachers to assume leadership within their schools supports teacher learning. To support teachers in leadership roles, Blase and Blase (2001) maintain that principals need to develop teachers’ skills as data collectors, decision makers, and problem solvers; create opportunities for teachers to engage in dialog; build upon teachers’ expertise in their disciplines and pedagogy; and join teachers as colleagues in the educational process. Leadership roles are undeniably related to the practice of teaming because working in teams affords opportunities for individuals to assume leadership roles.

Just this week I had the opportunity to work with 12 high school teacher leaders who are the leadership team for restructuring their high school into Small Learning Communities. After working and learning with me throughout the day, these leaders facilitated groups of ten staff members exploring beliefs about teaching and learning that should influence the choices of design. The connection between their leadership role and the motivation of learning is clear.

#3 Collegial Inquiry

“Collegial inquiry” is an instance of reflective practice, which can occur in pairs or groups…a dialog that centers on reflecting on one’s assumptions and values as part of the learning process. It is widely accepted today that professional development must shift toward creating opportunities for teachers to reflect on their practice, their assumptions guiding practice, and how practice can be improved to better support learners’ success. Collegial inquiry provides opportunities to develop more complex perspectives by listening to and learning from others. The majority of the principals invite adults to engage in collegial inquiry, explaining that it encourages “self-analysis” and supports individual and organizational learning. Collegial inquiry takes different forms that include public discussion, private reflection, collaborative goal setting and evaluation, and engaging in conflict resolution.

Just this week I was part of a 3 4 5 vertical team meeting where teachers began discussing their view of using tangible rewards to students as motivation for practicing skills that were needed for mastery. There was sufficient difference in assumptions and beliefs to fuel conversation. It was obvious that teachers respect for each other’s practice promoted listening, considering, and self analysis.

#4 Mentoring

Mentoring is necessarily related to the practices of teaming, providing teachers with leadership roles and engaging in collegial inquiry; engaging as a mentor is a leadership role and mentoring relationships create opportunities for perspective broadening and examination of assumptions. However, mentoring is different in three ways. First, mentoring creates leadership roles that are less public and formal; it offers leadership opportunities to adults who might prefer a more private setting. Second, mentoring is often employed to introduce new community members to the school, to increase their sense of belonging and ownership of the mission in social settings. Third, mentoring most often operates in one-on-one relationships, though some programs have components of group mentoring. Working with mentors over time can offer a more personalized learning option. Mentoring helped teachers to broaden their perspectives, share expertise and leadership, and support their own learning. Many principals remarked that mentoring benefited mentees and mentors, who also grew as a result of the relationship. Mentoring enables adults to explore their own thinking and contradictions, enhancing self-development.

My experience with mentors of beginning teachers and teachers who work with student teachers supports the belief that both parties of the partnership learn. Mentors often find that their consciousness of their own practices increases often from the mentees questions. That consciousness often leads to improved practice.

This closing quote from Eleanor Drago-Severson illustrates school leaders important role in teacher development.

Principals who create professional learning opportunities that renew adults’ passion for learning while intentionally attending to how they make meaning of their experiences will support adult growth and enhance teaching. This is essential to student success, the health of our schools and our teachers, and the vitality of principals. Learning-oriented leadership focuses on the developmental aspects of adult learning and how principals and other school leaders can support them. It holds great promise for helping us achieve these goals as we strive to meet the new and complex challenges of education and leadership today.

DIFFERENTIATING TEACHER GROWTH: THE PRINCIPAL'S AND COACH'S TASK

In earlier postings, I have discussed the important partnership of principal and coach to build continuous teacher growth. One critical element of that partnership is identifying teachers’ current (individual) development stage or skill level and planning the appropriate support for the teacher’s growth.

In a new book from ASCD, Building Teachers’ Capacity for Success….. A Collaborative Approach for Coaches and School Leaders, authors Pete Hall and Alisa Simeral reinforce the need for administrators, coaches, and teachers working together. They suggest three driving forces (pg23):

Building individual relationships with teachers
Increasing teacher capacity
Strengthening teams and PLC

I have been becoming increasingly convinced that working with teams and PLC’s is the most efficient way for coaches to impact teacher skills and thus student learning.

Hall and Simeral present four developmental stages through which teachers generally progress as they become skilled in the art of self reflection. Identifying a teacher’s stage suggest strategies for the coach and principal to provide support. Here is a minimal list of identifiers: (pg 41-42)

Unaware Stage-Teachers tend to focus on routines, have no differentiation of instruction, define problems inaccurately and collaborate with colleagues on a superficial level.

Conscious Stage-Teachers make excuses for problems, have little student engagement in active, meaningful learning, occasionally differentiate, and collaborate inconsistently with colleagues.

Action Stage-Teachers accept responsibility for the success of all students, have lessons linked to standards, make regular use of assessment to monitor student progress and collaborate on a limited basis with colleagues.

Refinement Stage-Teachers reflect before, during, and after taking action, use assessment to drive daily instruction, modify lessons and plans to meet students needs and pursue opportunities to work and learn with colleagues.


You’ll find in depth descriptions and the coach’s role and strategies for fostering reflective growth in Building Teachers’ Capacity for Success.


Here is a strategy I have offered coaches and principals developing a differentiated plan for working with staff.

Identify classrooms in your school that are closest to full implementation of your vision for learning.(Student and Teacher Behaviors)

Identify classrooms in your school that must change the most to reach full implementation of your vision for learning.(Student and Teacher Behaviors)

Rank your classrooms along this continuum.

How many teacher fall in each section?


Label teachers current status

• Unwilling
• Unaware
• Getting Ready
• Started
• Developing

Design appropriate coach and principal behaviors to support.

PROVIDING THE EXPERIENCES STUDENTS NEED: A LIVE EVENT EXAMPLE

I was recently working with a leadership team of teachers and administrators from a 6-8 middle school. After a discussion defining the desired student achievement they sought, we explored “what students needed to do” to move closer to the desired achievement. Here is a partial list of what they brainstormed:

-Invest themselves in learning
-Seek and use tutoring services
-Find it “cool” to be successful in school
-Set higher goals
-Be goal focused
-Desire to be successful and believe they can
-Be future/career focused
-Become active in the community
-Join clubs and teams at school
-Get family involved in learning/school
-Have increased self esteem and self respect

During the holiday break, I pulled a book from my “when I get time to read stack” and discovered a middle school teacher who used an awesome live event to give her students almost all the experiences listed above. The book, Ms. Cahill for Congress, tells the story of Tierney Cahill , who as a sixth grade teacher in Reno, Nevada shared with her class during a lesson on the Greeks, “all citizens have the right to run for office.” Her students who believed that you needed to have a million dollars to run quickly offered the dare, “ Well then, why don’t you prove it, Ms. Cahill…”Why don’t you run for office? You’re a fair person, you’re funny, you’d be great.” (page 4)

When Ms. Cahill accepted the dare under the condition that her class would manage the entire campaign, she set in motion a live event that caused two sixth grade classes to learn their required state and district standards plus much more. Her class that year managed her run in the primary which led to a victory and set in motion the task for her next year’s class to manage the race for congress.

Working in committees, students researched the “hows" and "whats” of the campaign. They practiced the skills necessary for answering the campaign phone, which was in their classroom. They had to explain that a math lesson could not be interrupted and the caller should call back at recess or leave a number for Ms. Cahill to call back. They learned the nonverbal skills of “ how to stand and make eye contact” when campaigning door to door”.

Here are two quotes from Tierney Cahill that illustrate the beliefs of teachers that make live events generate learning:

“ …. if they ( the students) actually participate in something that is real and they’re stakeholders because their decisions impact the direction we go, I think the learning is going to be phenomenal.” (pg 41)

“…. I knew that I wouldn’t be the one figuring out what we needed to do. They (the students) would. I would simply be the one asking all the questions. That’s how I teach.”(pg 44)

Ms. Cahill’s greatest teaching may have occurred after she conceded the election to her challenger. If you read the book, let me know what you think.

Writing in the December 15th edition of the Washington Post (Most Textbooks Should Stay on the Shelf), Jay Mathews states:

“It is often a good sign that the textbooks are stacked on a corner bookshelf or window sill, gathering dust.”…” Big books have failed to hold the attention of teenagers leafing through the pages with music blasting in their earbuds and text messages filling their cellphone screens. Facts and ideas, in my experience, are more likely to sink in if introduced in group exercises, exploiting the adolescent urge to belong. Teachers have their classes organize book clubs, recreate the Constitutional Convention, raise animals, write and perform plays, publish online magazines.”

Can you imagine how many real, authentic documents Ms. Cahill’s students read and studied as they planned and executed their campaign? I do believe that her students had many of the experiences necessary for creating great student achievement .It is my hope that 2009 will be a year where many students at all grade levels learn in Live Events.