Procedural to Strategic: The role of the Instructional Leader in advancing teaching and learning

Grace Araya, Eyes on the Future Child Dev. Center

Debra Pacchiano, Ounce of Prevention Fund

The Ounce Policy Exchange Meeting, 2017

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Sometimes being a Leader in ECE can feel like…

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The Juggling Act

Compliance with Federal, state and city regulations

Meet funders mandates

Ensure adequate staffing

Maintain a balanced budget

Ensure a smooth operation (i.e. building maintenance & repair)

Meet accreditation and/or QRIS standards

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Key objectives for our time together…

You will receive feedback from a practice leader on the realities of advancing teaching and learning among multiple competing priorities.

You will hear on-the-ground successes and challenges with strengthening instructional leadership and routines of collaboration.

You will use this policy-practice feedback loop to identify how supportive policies, guidance, and support services are in your state with supporting the instructional leadership and professional learning environments I describe.

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How we will spend our time together…

The role of the Instructional Leader in advancing teaching and learn

Key leadership practices that help teachers be effective and how to create organizational supports

Job-embedded professional learning and reflective practice

Learning Activity: Video analysis of teacher learning

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My main role is to provide instructional leadership in order to advance teaching

and learning.

My main role is to run a smooth operation/program.Myth 1

Truth 1

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What is my role in advancing teaching and learning?

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Learning from the research on organizational conditions and Leadership?

“High-quality teaching and sustained student engagement within the

classroom depends in large measure on whether leadership and staff engage in

a culture of ongoing support and development.”

Pacchiano, D., Klein, R., and Hawley, M.S. (2016).”Reimagining Leadership and Professional Learning for Instructional Improvement: Applied Research Transforming Early Education.” Ounce of Prevention Fund.

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1. Instructional leadership is the driver of improvement, ensuring the effective implementation and continuous improvement of effective practice

2. Job-embedded professional learning is the vehicle (Essential Support: Collaborative Teachers) for improvement, supporting teachers in their continuous development, growth, and effectiveness

Two Critical Levers for Continuous Quality Improvement

Job-Embedded Professional Learning

Instructional Leadership

ExcellentClassroomInstruction

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• Passive recipients of training on goals and expectations established by others

• Compliance orientation in practice-implementation to maintain the status quo

• Social teaming and fragmented job responsibilities

Transforming Professional Learning for Teachers

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Current PD Mindset, Methods and Practice

Transformation to Learning is the Work

• Ownership of professional learning and co-construction of goals for growth and practice improvement

• Reflective, evidence-based, critical-thinking orientation

• Collective responsibility and professional collaboration for continuous improvement

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“…learning that is grounded in day-to-day practice and is designed to enhance professional practice with the intent of improving children’s learning and development...

It consists of teams of professionals assessing and finding solutions for authentic and immediate problems of practice as part of a cycle of continuous improvement.”

Defining Job-Embedded Professional Learning

Croft, A., Coggshall, J. G., Dolan, M., and Powers, E. (2010). “Job-Embedded Professional Development: What It Is, Who Is Responsible, and How to Get It Done Well.” National Comprehensive Center for Teacher Quality, Page 2.

Teaching is complex. Teachers improve practice through job-embedded professional learning

and reflecting on practice.

Teachers improve practice by going to trainings so that they can

“know better” and then “do better.”Myth 2

Truth 2

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What makes teaching so complex?

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What makes teaching so complex?

Teachers have to use their discretion to make a judgement in “unavoidable uncertainty.”

This compares to other fields that are considered very complex and professional: judges and doctors.

(Hargreaves & Fullan, 2012, p.93)

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How do you improve teachers ability to handle the complexity of their work?

Fields such as law and medicine develop professional capacity by learning in the context of the work, accompanying seasoned professionals and discussing with colleagues.

Teachers get better at making decisions by consistently examining their own practice and examining the work of their colleagues together over time.

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How do teachers actually learn and improve practice?

Teachers weave critical pedagogical narratives through engagement in professional learning and practice contexts.

Those narratives…

• Are a teacher’s “inner voice” driving sense- and decision-making about practice

• Used to “filter” discussion of practice and the uptake of new information

• Define a “way of being” as a teacher and a teacher’s “personal commitments” to practices.

How Teachers Learn and Improve

• Socially-constructed • internalized threads of dialogue about ideas,

practices, and affiliations with instructors, supervisors, coaches, and other teachers

• Socially-changed • through social activity and discourse within

professional community

Critical pedagogical narratives are:

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Knowledge Development: Ways of Knowing, Reasoning, and Sense-Making

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Knowledge Development: Ways of Knowing, Reasoning, and Sense-Making

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• “Knowing That.” Having factual and concept-based knowledge about something.Declarative

• “Knowing How” to do something step-by-step or condition-then-action. Procedural

• “Knowing Why.” Having a mental model that builds on and connects declarative and procedural knowledge to the why – can then reason about, predict and explain.

Schematic

• “Knowing When and Where” to apply knowledge and how to check if the application or innovation is working reasonably.

Strategic

Declarative

Procedural

Schematic

Strategic

I observe teachers once a month in the classroom to make sure that they are doing developmentally appropriate practices.

I use an observation form to write down my observations of teachers and then I meet with them to give them feedback on

their strengths and areas of improvement.

I observe teachers in order to understand their teaching practices and know how to support them; getting consistent

feedback helps teachers to be aware of their practice.

Before I observe, I discuss with teaches what teaching interactions they want me to observe. Then I collect data on

those interactions and we sit down and analyze them together.

Knowledge Development Trajectory: Leadership and Classroom Observations

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I need to create organizational supports where teachers can be great.

I just need to find great teachers.Myth 3

Truth 3

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What organizational supports help teachers to be successful?

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Job-Embedded Professional Learning

Reflective Supervision

Team Lesson Planning

Peer Learning Groups

Collaborative Data Dialogues

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Reflective Supervision

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Reflective Practice

“Reflective practice isn’t just an act of will or the result of encouragement. You have to build it into people’s practice, make it part of their day…more structured and

systematic” (Hargreaves & Fullan, 2012, p.99)

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Peering Learning Groups

“If you want to accelerate learning in any endeavor, you concentrate on the group.”(Hargreaves & Fullan, 2012, p.89) 27

Peer Learning Groups

“Some of the most powerful, underutilized strategies in all of education involve the deliberate use of teamwork—enabling

teachers to learn from each other within and across schools—and building cultures

and network of communication, learning, trust, and collaboration.”

(Hargreaves & Fullan, 2012, p.89)

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Team Lesson Planning

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Collaborative Data Dialogues

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How do I create organizational supports that help teachers be successful?

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Things to Consider…

Set a vision with the Leadership Team of what you would like to see in your organization

Take baby steps (remember it takes time to build systems)

Find creative ways to provide protected time

Make collaboration and reflection central to the work

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