What You Will See Happen...

3. Making Thoughtful Choices to Improve Student Learning

Dialogue with colleagues is critical to establishing an environment that supports long-term school and classroom improvement. As teachers engage in an interchange of ideas, they begin to examine their own practice and their assumptions about teaching, deepen their collective understanding, and develop support systems that encourage continual inquiry. They become more thoughtful about their practice and the strategies that they use to help students learn.

A group of three teachers at Northway Elementary School brought a concern about the achievement level of their students to their principal. They felt that more could be done to help students do well on assessments. The principal suggested that they solicit other teachers to form a committee to study this issue. She also suggested that the school counselor facilitate their discussion.

The original three teachers were joined by four other teachers and the counselor. As they talked, they found themselves reflecting on their practice–what they did as teachers and the students’ reactions to those actions. Soon, they found themselves discussing multiple intelligences, learning styles, cognitive processes, and other theories about how students learn.

The counselor modeled a lesson for the group and then asked them, "What strategies in this lesson helped you learn this material? What could I have done to increase the learning that took place?" This led to an intense discussion that revealed both their knowledge about learning theory as well as their gaps.

They decided to divide into pairs and investigate their knowledge gaps. Each pair would then come back to the group and share their findings. Some of the members brought back educational articles or videos, while others engaged the committee in interactive discovery about learning theory.

To promote this process,

1. Provide time in faculty meetings for teachers to share successful strategies that they are using in their classroom. Engage the whole group in a discussion of why these strategies are successful and how they could be used in other venues.

2. Provide short scenarios for staff to discuss in small groups. Using a scenario that is not from your campus creates a less fearful situation and allows participants to be honest in their discussion.

3. Ask teachers who have attended conferences to choose an issue of importance from the conference and engage in dialogue with other staff on this issue at a designated time.

Once they had completed their investigations, they discovered that it wasn’t just assessment that needed to be addressed but instruction and curriculum as well. The three elements could not be distinctly separated when working to improve classroom practice.

With this new knowledge in mind, they began a dialogue about their students’ needs and what they could do to create learning opportunities that would improve student learning. They implemented these ideas in their classrooms and then came back to the group to discuss what happened with their students. As they talked about their experiences, they identified new concerns or shared successes. They also began to talk with teachers who had not served on the committee. These teachers tried some of the same strategies in their classrooms and began to discuss their results with other teachers. The process of reflection and dialogue created an environment that allowed these teachers to gain an understanding of the integral relationship of curriculum, instruction, and assessment and to break the isolation of the classroom and share their new understandings with others.

While each of the teachers in this group might have gained some of these insights through workshops or trainings, learning a technique or theory from a presentation is not the same as creating understanding through reflective dialogue and classroom application. These teachers determined their own knowledge base through dialogue, devised a mechanism for learning more on selected topics, shared their new knowledge, and then restructured their own classrooms based on their new understandings and the needs of their students. More importantly, they shared their approach with other teachers, so that it became a more inclusive initiative.

Administrators, Too!

Recent studies have shown that successful administrators move beyond the day-to-day role of running a school or district and into a role of leadership that emphasizes shared leadership. They understand that the culture of change is as important in achieving desired goals as the structure of change. In order to do this, administrators also need opportunities to participate in reflective activities with colleagues as well.

Administrators can:

Join with other educators on a regular basis to talk about issues of importance. Again, these are not problem-solving sessions or administrative meetings, but opportunities to delve deeply into issues of importance.
Join informal and formal reflective sessions with the staff. Approach these sessions as an equal partner in the dialogue, not the boss and decision-maker.

Before You Begin the Reflective Process

As you begin implementing a reflective process, keep in mind that noticeable impact is slow at first. Before teachers can begin deep reflection, there will be a period of venting. It is a natural part of the process of change. Teachers have seldom had opportunities to contemplate this deeply about their own practice. It is a painful process at times, but ultimately a rewarding one. It is also important to convey that this process is also important to you. You are, in essence, giving them permission to be inventive in responding to the needs of their students.