COURSE GOALS:
All course objectives are for the purpose of helping students
address the four commitments of the SPU School of Education.
Competence
- Students will learn the major
theories of adult learning and how they apply to ongoing professional
improvement
- Students will
demonstrate knowledge about effective professional practices.
- Students will
analyze the context and needs of a school.
- Students will
plan appropriate actions for improving communication and collaboration
within the school setting.
Character
- Students will
examine factors related to collaborating with peers that hinder or promote
student learning.
Service
- Students will
apply knowledge about school improvement practices that will maximize
student learning.
Leadership
- Students will articulate elements necessary to create systems that are positioned to maximize student learning.
This course substantially transformed my leadership
capabilities, and specifically, my ability to lead, and support adults in their
learning, and professional development. Prior to this class, I had a profound
understanding of how children learn, and how to support, and encourage their
learning, but did not consider the intricacies of adult learning. Now I
understand that they only way to effectively lead, and teach other teachers, is
to have a deep understanding of how adults learn best, and to create trainings,
and professional development opportunities that accommodate these learning
styles. Additionally, this course has given me the necessary tools and
resources to promote positive communication and collaborative models for
professional learning, along with the background necessary to create protocols,
and documents that positively impact adult learning, and as a result, student
achievement.
I
was always very aware that adults learn differently than students, but my
understanding of the extent of this, was incredibly limited. As PLC leader, it
has always been my paramount goal to ensure that every member feels endlessly supported
and valued, and that there is a strong sense of mutual trust on our team. I
thought that this, along with careful, intentional planning on my end as the
leader were the key ingredients to a successful, and impactful PLC. Now I
recognize that these efforts are only impactful if I also design our PLC centered
around how adults learn best. Zepeda (2012)
explicates conditions that must be in place to ensure effective adult learning.
Among these conditions she states that successful adult learning must “be based
on ownership, appropriateness, structure, collaboration, internalization, and
motivation” (Zepeda 2012). As a result, on my team this year through working
with my teammates to select the work that is most critical, and that we are
most passionate about all teachers on my team have been empowered to hold a
deep sense of ownership and pride in our work, which creates an internal, and
collective commitment to working tirelessly with colleagues to create the most
meaningful and impactful lessons and interventions to support student learning.
We feel immense ownership over our grade level PLC and our protocols, and clear
expectations allow for us to be highly collaborative and productive. Our mutual
commitment to planning interventions to support our most impacted students
provides us all with a deep sense of ownership and commitment to our work. We
are motivated to work diligently to meet our goals, and, to specifically create
tools to support and empower our historically underserved populations. This
passion, and ownership of our work allows us to work very productively and passionately
together. Zepeda also continuously mentions the importance of establishing a
productive, positive collaborative environment. We are highly supported and
encouraged by our administration, and have cultivated a deep respect for one
another. These conditions have laid the foundation for an incredibly
productive, positive, and effective PLC structure.
My
thinking has also changed significantly in how I approach the trainings I lead.
Now that I have a deeper understanding of how adults learn, I have altered, and
will continue to alter my delivery approach to best meet those needs. My new knowledge of informal or incidental adults
learning, and the profound impacts of this type of learning has shaped the ways
I will approach PLC work, as well as teacher trainings to strengthen this
component of my practice. When planning a training or creating a PLC agenda,
currently I plan every solitary minute to ensure maximum productivity. I
prewrite our discussion questions, and dictate the direction of our
conversations prior to each meeting. While is many ways, this is the work of an
effective PLC team, it also, could potentially take away from opportunities for
incidental learning, or for our team to construct knowledge collectively. While
I will still plan an agenda that addresses the most critical tasks, and data
analysis, I will also create opportunities for incidental learning to occur. In
teacher trainings, this could surface through teachers exploring lessons or
using manipulatives independently to construct knowledge, rather than to
directly model to train them. Based on what I know about the value of
learning in context, I will also ensure that teachers have an ample amount of
time to interact with new content, and to practice new skills. I will allow
teachers to practice each skill, and support their learning as active
participants.
Another area in which my
insight has been broadened is on the concept of transformational learning which
Malik (2016) explains as “learning that results in a change in how we see
ourselves.” This is an intricate process consisting of four major components “experience,
critical reflection, reflective practice discourse, and reflection” (Marriam,
Caffarella, & Baumgartner 2013). It is so important to understand that many
teachers, notably those with years of rich teaching experience, can be reluctant
to make significant changes in their practice, or implement new programs. As a
teacher leader and trainer, it is critical that I understand this, and recognize
that making changes can equate to taking risks for some teachers. As a leader,
I have the platform to positively empower, and influence teachers to take on
this work. I believe that this starts through my team’s PLC work. In our reading, Teacher
Leadership by Hilty, she states, “well-composed and well-functioning teams
can exert substantial social and normative influence over their members,
shaping their thinking, beliefs, and behaviors” (Hilty, 2011, p. 275). This
concept is what has motivated me to create documents and protocols to maximize
the effectiveness and productivity of PLC work at our school to first implement
with my team, and to eventually take the most effective of our practices, and
share them with other teams. I have been asked to help develop, or tighten up
our PLC protocols schoolwide, and as a result, I have created documents to help
strengthen the work we are already committed to. Prior to this course, I
assumed that by just meeting, sharing data, and altering our instruction as a
result we were doing high level PLC work. Now, I recognize that there is more
to it than that. Lewis, Perry, & Murata (2006)
explain the process of collaborative PLC work in four steps consisting of
studying the curriculum, and formulating goals, plan, conduct research, and
reflect. As a result, I created a document that will allow teachers to
backwards plan units, which has allowed our team to select the most informative
data to analyze, and bring to our meetings. We use an
assessment map to backwards plan our delivery, and to break our culminating
critical task into smaller formative subskills that allow us to intervene
earlier, and support student learning through the unit. Secondly, we use
preliminary data and lesson outlines to determine the most difficult components
of concepts, and highlight potential student misconceptions that allow for us
to alter our instruction.
This course has undoubtedly had the greatest influence
over my growth and improvement as a grade level, and school leader this year.
As a result, I will be able to use what I know about how adults learn, effective
professional practice, and my understanding of our school, and our needs to restructure
our collaborative PLC structures to maximize productivity and leverage genuine
engagement from all team members. I am fortunate to be able to actually
implement my final project plan to maximize the productivity and impact of
professional learning communities next year, with the documents and protocols I
have created. I am currently piloting these documents on my grade level team,
and have worked with other grade level team leaders to discuss altering these
documents to best meet the needs of their teams and students, and
implementation. This course has not only improved my leadership capabilities,
and ability to empower my team, but has also led me to improving the PLC system
schoolwide. Prior to this course, I worked diligently the be the most impactful
team leader possible, but now I have the tools, understanding of research, and
how adults learn to impact schoolwide professional collaboration and growth.
References
Hilty, Eleanor Blair.
(2011). Teacher Leadership: The "new" Foundations of Teacher
Education. A Reader. New York:
Peter Lang Publishing.
Hirsh, Stephanie, and
Hord, Shirley M. (2010). Building Hope, Giving Affirmation. The
Learning
Forward Journal, 31(4). Retrieved
from
Lewis, Catherine & Perry, Rebecca & Murata, Aki. (2006). How
Should Research Contribute to
Instructional
Improvement? The Case of Lesson Study. Educational Researcher. 35. 3-14.
Malik, M. (2016). Assessment of a
Professional Development Program on Adult Learning Theory.
Libraries and the Academy,
Zepeda, Sally J. (2008). Professional
Development: What Works. New York: Eye on Education.
