What You Will See Happen...
1. Shifting Focus from What Teachers Teach to What Students Learn
Generally, when districts or schools develop methods to improve classroom practice, the focus is on teacher behaviors. This approach tends to separate the act of teaching from the act of learning. When the focus is reversed, teachers develop a deeper understanding of how learning occurs and what they can do to increase student achievement. Often, teachers, engaged in reflection, examine the impact of instruction on learning and explore different strategies to help students reach learning goals, but the resulting changes in practice come from an internal source rather than external one. It is the individual’s change in perspective that creates a powerful impact on student learning.
To help bring about this shift in teachers’ thinking, administrators must create a safe environment where teachers will feel comfortable discussing dilemmas and quandaries about their practice. At first teachers will feel lost in this process. They are more accustomed to meet, decide, and implement, rather than question and investigate. However, as they engage in reflective dialogue about learning, they will begin to internalize new ideas that will necessitate changes in their classrooms.
The curriculum director at Southway School District asked the principals of the middle school and two elementary schools to select teachers from their campuses to meet in the early fall to begin aligning their science curriculum. She also asked one of the principals to serve as the facilitator for the group’s discussions. The principal’s role was to engage the teachers in reflective dialogue as they looked at their science curriculum and how to best meet the needs of their students.
To encourage reflective introspection, you might provide:
1. Specific discussion opportunities
on your campus for staff to talk honestly about classroom
issues of importance. Typical topics of discussion might
include: test scores, text books, learning styles, and
student motivation. Please note these are not problem-solving
sessions.
2. Invite a guest facilitator to dialogue with
teachers on an issue of importance to them. Possible
guests might include writers, teachers from a near by
district, or university faculty.
As the group members began their discussion, they first discovered that a dinosaur unit was taught at every grade level between kindergarten and sixth grade. In fact, some teachers found that different levels were using the same pre-packaged materials. It became evident that no one wanted to give up the unit. The group facilitator asked the teachers to state why they felt it was important to teach dinosaurs at their particular grade level.
As the teachers responded, they said:
My students just think dinosaurs are so cute that they behave at their best in order to participate in the activities.
I love dinosaurs myself–it is my favorite unit.
The kids are always asking to study dinosaurs.
I use dinosaurs as a way to introduce a unit on archeology. I even have them "discover" dinosaur tracks in the field behind the school.
As they talked, one of the teachers asked "What do these reasons have to do with the needs of the students?" There was a long pause.
Over the next few weeks, the teachers began to dialogue about the importance of students finding the learning relative and interesting. They began to talk about why they chose topics for study. One teacher stated that her students always did poorly on topics if they found them disinteresting. Another teacher said, "But why are we teaching dinosaurs? Do we want the kids to know about the cycle of life and species extinction or fossils or what? We’re talking about what kids enjoy. What we enjoy. Our decisions have to be based on what they need to learn and how we help them learn it."
In order to prompt the teachers to delve more deeply into the concept of purposeful learning,the principal presented a lesson, based on an inquiry learning model. The teachers found themselves so engaged in the activity that they hated for it to end. The principal then said, "You all enjoyed this activity. What would be my purpose in using this lesson? What would I hope my students would learn from this activity?"
As they answered these questions, the group members began to consider the importance of clearly identifying what is important for students to know and be able to do. They found that when students enjoy the learning they participate more fully, but enjoyment is not enough. Each unit that they teach has to fit into the larger picture of the district’s goals as well as their own classroom goals.
While this decision could have been made quickly by an administrator, it would not have achieved the same results as using the reflective process. As the teachers began to analyze why they taught the dinosaur unit, they also began to question their approaches to teaching other content. It was the first of many changes in their thinking about curriculum that came from meeting as a reflective group. Teachers came to new understandings about their own teaching needs as well as the needs of their students. They were able to exchange ideas and to look closely at themselves–do they focus their instruction on their needs as teachers or on the needs of their students? This kind of reflection can only occur when educators have a safe environment that allows them to talk about the tensions in the practice of teaching.
Next page: Examining Education Issues and Ideas with Colleagues