typepad€¦ · web viewcohesive groups with less individual talent often outperform groups with...

Professional Capital

Professional Capital: Transforming Teaching in Every SchoolAndy Hargreaves and Michael FullanBook Notes compiled by Jane Sigford

Chapter One—A Capital IdeaThere are two ideas about creates and keeps good teachers and makes good teaching:

Business capital—purpose of education is to support business, markets, technology, testing, as profit-making institutions

Professional capital—That education is investment in developing human capital from early childhood to adult life, to reap rewards of economic productivity and social cohesion in the next generation.

o Made up of different types of capital—human, social, and decisional

o Human—organized in terms of social capital—it’s individual capital too in that individuals can change the system. The collective, the social capital, can truly change the world. Teachers who have high social capital, who work and create a collaborative community, increase their student’s scores. High social capital and high human capital must be combined. P. 4

o High social capital does generate increased human capital. P. 4 Individualism does not create the same growth as those schools with high social capital. [Jim Collins in Good to Great would agree in that Level 5 leaders would look through the window, not the mirror. Note mine

o Professional capital is the product of human capital, and social capital, and decisional capital. When the vast majority of teachers come to exemplify the power of professional capital, they become smart and talented, committed and collegial, thoughtful and wise. Their moral purpose is expressed in their relentless, expert-drive pursuit of serving their students and their communities, and in learning, always learning, how to do that better. P. 5.

Wrong Strategies: England and US going wrong path by emphasizing business capital, not human capital as is being emphasized in Finland, Singapore, Canada.

Chapter Two: Competing Views of TeachingTwo Views of teaching:Business View:Good teaching—

Demanding but technically simple Quick study requiring only moderate intellectual ability Hard at first but can be mastered readily Driven by hard performance data about what works and where to put

energies Comes down to enthusiasm, hard work, raw talent, and measureable

results Often replaceable by online instruction.

Professional capital says good teaching is:

1


Technically sophisticated and difficult Requires high levels of education and long periods of training Perfected through continuous improvement Involves wise judgment informed by evidence and experience Collective accomplishment and responsibility Maximizes, mediates, and moderates online instruction, p. 14

Misplaced Focus on Individual Teacher Quality Most abused educational research finding these days is “the quality of

the teacher is the single most important determinant in the learning of the student.” P 15

This was from an agricultural economist—William Sanders—who took two students, used a value-added model to study over a 3-year period of time, but never shared his research methodology.

We have to transform the entire profession, not concentrate on the poor teachers who don’t perform.

Sharpening the Focus on the Quality of the Profession Countries who do well have created cultures where top graduates of

universities are attracted to teaching. In US teachers often come from roughly bottom 30% of academic

class. Working conditions must also be seen as desirable, not situations

where buildings are not cared for, the neighborhoods are dangerous, and equipment is not maintained or available.

Flaws in US Strategy1. Rewarding the Individual—Merit pay doesn’t work except in jobs where

the work is standardized and simple. Teaching cannot be reduced to a cookbook, set of basic skills.

2. Relying on Standardized Measurement—It’s not metrics that drives people performance, it’s what inspires you. We need to change the culture and increase professional capital.

3. Ignoring the School Environment: For too long teachers have worked in isolation. What matters is creating a culture of collaboration, working together, using the collective wisdom and increasing the performance and networks of a team.

Chapter ThreeStereotypes of Teaching

What is Teaching—Because we have all been “through school” we have a tendency to believe and perpetuate the following stereotypes

Teaching is a precious gift and some people are “born” teachers. You can recruit those who seem to have this natural gift, like Teach for America.

Teaching is a practical craft that can only be learned with thousands of hours of training and/or work with mentor teachers. Instead, we need to give teachers instructional strategies that work, combining expertise, best practice, and research.

A laundry list of teaching strategies as in Teach like a champion. However, teachers who work in a collaborative team and effective network are more likely to improve student learning.

2


A precise science. Instead, the great teachers are those who use intuition, creativity, and relationships in addition to best practice, skill, and knowledge.

A data-driven enterprise—Data is important but it stresses improving one item at a time, instead of using a systems approach

Part art and part craft that can’t be captured in test scores. A sacred calling—Great teachers sacrifice, work long hours and

weekends without expecting remuneration, etc. However, would people in business expect their employees to work all hours without pay?

Teaching is many faceted. Many stereotypes. Caring is admirable but sometimes caring teachers can overprotect

children and fail to challenge them Checklists work for simple procedures like fire drills but not for

complex learning tasks Key Performance Indicators—can be good for some things like blood

cell counts but not how to inspire someone to be passionate about reading or singing.

Being good at teaching and being passionate about it can also lead to self-indulgence that keeps some teachers isolated and not sharing

Role of evidence can be over exaggerated—some things are based on experience and intuition.

Teaching as WorkHow the job is shaped will determine what type of people are attracted to the profession and how the teachers turn out

Working conditions are ordinary at best The expectations of the work seem to be getting worse, particularly in

the US.Teaching Today

Continuities: Teachers today say they are overloaded, isolated, have increasing

expectations, contradictory demands, and no real forum for ordinary teachers to make themselves heard—

Feels like the job is never over. However, the joys are never over either. The trick is to find ways to manage the frustrations and preserve the

joys.Intensification

Challenges today may not be different but they are more intense, more pervasive, p. 37

Schools have fewer resources, larger class sizes, students with more issues, more outside pressures,

What US needs to learn is that the standardized curriculum is less response to culturally diverse learners which are increasingly our population. This standardization also creates less satisfaction in teaching.

Us reforms have been “at best misguided and at worst malicious, take the joy out of teaching and learning, drove many teachers (sometimes the brightest and most enthusiastic ones) out of the profession,

3


destroyed classroom creativity, and reduced teachers’ capacity to respond to diversity. P. 38

In US district bureaucracies are inflexible. Unions seemed entrenched. Aging teaching profession appears set in its ways, overprotected by its contracts and unwilling to change. Parents want things to go back to the way they remember them. These desperate times call for desperate measures. P. 39

Failed SolutionsThe US has tried the silver bullet approach too many times. Examples of failed silver bullets

Closing failing schools and dispersing students and administrators—They just ended up in other failing schools

Bringing in smart and inexpensive young teachers into urban schools such as Teach for America. Within 3-5 years 2/3 of them move on creating more instability and leaving little of a legacy for the long run

Moving principals out—creates further instability. Should train and work with networks instead

Providing relentless timelines for yearly improvement—Takes time to show improvement

Charter Schools—evidence on whether they are better than public schools in general is at best uncertain. P. 40

Performance-based evaluation for teachers based on student growth? —What is the accuracy? Using only one year’s data to make decision? Not best practice

These silver bullets are “slick political promises but almost always concentrate on the wrong things—not structural changes. P 41In short, too many current US policy strategies are based on foundation of wrong drivers and flawed fallacies.” P. 41The 4 wrong drivers are:

1. Negative accountability2. Individualistic solutions3. Fascination with technology4. Piecemeal or fragmented solutions

Five fallacies of misdirected educational change are:1. Excessive speed,2. Standardization3. Substitution of bad people with good ones4. Overreliance on narrow range of performance metrics5. Win-lose interschool competition

Better Alternatives are:1. Professional capacity building2. Collective responsibility, teamwork, and collaboration3. Moral commitment and inspiration4. More rather than less professional discretion 5. Personally engaging curriculum and pedagogy with technology as its

accelerator6. Better and broader performance metrics7. School-to-school assistance rather than punitive intervention from on

high8. Systemic policies that are coherent and cohesive

4


These measure transform the hearts, minds, and culture of the profession and spread the impact across the range of institutions

New Opportunities and Challenges Older generations giving way which brings fresh enthusiasm but we

need support of elders to prevent burn-out More human resource support for teachers these days—teachers no

longer alone but coaches can turn into compliance officers Experienced teachers are being used as mentors and group leaders

but sometimes that becomes quick-fixes and the old grumblings and resentments get carried forward

More interactive professionalism among teachers but it can be hyperactive and turn into quick fix discussions, rather than developing long-term solutions

Better and more available data about student progress—but this can direct teachers’ efforts only toward tested basics

Know more about other high-performing countries but we tend to dismiss them too quickly if they don’t fit our ideology or exact circumstances

Paying more attention to leadership and leadership development but this can put too much faith in heroic individual saviors, rather than in communities of leaders who work together over time.

Conclusion:We are at crossroads of educational reformThis requires leadershipRequires focusing on developing teachers’ professional capital as

individuals, teams, and as a profession. Chapter Four-Investing in Capability and Commitment

Evidence and ExperienceEvidence in Excess—Some caveats to use in looking at evidence and data:

1. Evidence-based decisions can be tainted with self-interest (if tied to publisher textbook or programs and their founders e.g.)

2. Cast-iron evidence can get rusty later on—Be careful what you base your conclusion on. Are you using best practice strategies in drawing conclusions?

3. Evidence-based principles are used very selectively and sometimes politically—ELL learners often learn better if taught in their own language but politicians sometimes find that hard to sell to their public

4. Evidence isn’t always self-evident—Balanced literacy can mean different strategies to different practitioners e.g.

5. Evidence on what to change is not the same as evidence on how to change—Pilot projects may not work when enlarged or transferred to another location e.g.

6. Positive initiatives based on evidence in one area can inflict collateral damage on programs and teaching in other areas—Excessive emphasis on literacy and mathematics can harm teaching in the humanities and arts, e.g.

7. People can cook the data—some states have even falsified tests to show gains for NCLB

5


8. Evidence-based teaching somewhat like evidence-based medicine—People still need to use judgment, intuition, practice and mistakes can still be made

9. Evidence comes from experience as well as research—Research sometimes verifies what experienced teachers already know.

Joining Research into practice As student population grows more diverse and complex, individual

classroom autonomy becomes a liability Teaching cannot be proscribed line by line

Best Practice and Next Practice Needs to be a mix of best practice (what we know works now) and next

practice (what we are creating as best practices of the future) Teachers need time, like in Finland, to inquire into what they are doing.

US teachers spend more time with students but don’t have time as in Finland and Singapore to refine and reflect upon that teaching.

The top teaching practices that have biggest effect sizes include: (John Hattie’s book)

Reciprocal teaching Feedback Teaching students self-verbalization or self-questioning Meta-cognition strategies Problem-solving teaching p. 52

Hattie says it is important for teachers to work with group of other professionals and operationalize those strategies because:

1. Teachers are among the most powerful sources of influence on learning

2. Teachers need to be directive, influential, caring, and actively engaged in the passion of teaching and learning

3. Teachers need to be aware of what each and every child is thinking and knowing, to construct meaningful experiences in light of this knowledge

4. Teachers need to know the learning intentions and success criteria of their lessons, know how well they are attaining these criteria for all students, and know where to go next in light of the gap

5. Teachers need to move from single ideas to multiple ideas…such that learners are able to construct and reconstruct knowledge and ideas whatever specific method is being used at one time.

6. School leaders and teachers need to create [learning] environments where error is welcomed as a learning opportunity and where discarding incorrect knowledge and understanding is welcomed. From Hattie’s Visible Learning.

Hattie—“What is most important is that teaching is visible to the student, and that learning is visible to the teacher.” P. 53 in Fullan

CapabilityCapability is more than competence—it’s skills and qualities that lead to accomplishment—it’s generative. Hattie’s work again—it’s not about using a list of techniques, but about having a lust for success. P. 58

6


Teachers soar when they want success and when they know how to get it and when they know it’s achievable.

Expertise alone is inadequate with the desire and drive of teachers’ purpose and passion.

CommitmentQuestion: How do you sustain commitment over time and avoid burnout?

Career stage—Highest levels of effectiveness occur around 8-23 years in job. So if strategies for improving teacher quality concentrate on years 3-5 and then the teachers move on, we have failed to maximize return on investment of money and time

Leadership—3/4s of teachers who demonstrated sustained commitment said that good leadership helped them sustain their commitment over time. Better leaders produce better teachers

Colleagues: Teachers sustain commitment when surrounded by excellent colleagues. Apathetic and cynical colleagues can erode commitment.

Workload and policy—biggest issue for teachers experiencing declining commitment—affects almost 60% of them. High performing countries provide teachers with strong support and give them professional discretion to create curriculum and work together. Many countries are reducing intrusion and emphasis on mandated annual testing—countries like Finland, Alberta, Canada. US and England still emphasis too much although England too is reducing numbers of tests

Commitment (combination of purpose and passion) has direct effect on self-efficacy (teachers’ beliefs that they can actually make a difference. P. 62

Capability and commitment are reciprocal in professional capital. They drive each other.

Career Helps to get to know teachers and know what stage of life and career

they are in Michael Huberman’s research identified six career/life phases within

teaching.1. Phase 0-3: commitment: support and challenge2. Phase 4-7: identity and efficacy in the classroom3. Phase 8-15: Managing changes, growing tensions4. Phase 16-23: Work-life transitions, challenges to

motivation and commitment5. Phase 24-30: Challenges to sustaining motivation6. Phase 31+ years: Sustaining/declining motivation

There are 3 key phases: first years, final years and middle (about 8-23 years)

Final stages: “Schools, systems, and countries end up with the teachers they deserve. It’s really a question of how much each society supports and values its teachers, and what it does to build and develop the teaching profession. P. 65

Can’t all be lumped into a category:

7


o Disenchanted—those who have invested and have seen rug pulled out. These teachers need to get re-enchanted to be inspired and regain some of the magic.

o Negative focusers-toxic jerks who are resistant to any change and end up teaching for wrong reasons—system needs to get tougher on them

o Positive focusers—have learned to ignore distractions of repetitive reform efforts. Concentrate instead on where they can make a difference

o Renewal group—those who renew commitment by finding challenge and being challenged throughout their careers.

Teacher Renewal kept alive by: Starting and spreading new projects and not just implementing them Finding colleagues who can create something exciting with you

together Helping struggling peers in your own school and in other schools Receiving resources for change that sometimes go direct to the

teacher and not always via the supt and then the principal Being part of high-level conversations where teacher can come across

as being just as smart and confident as principal or policymaker Being open to change but not exploitable by fashion Managing upward and challenging the system when you have to, so

you can help your students Grasping that as soon as something is operating like clockwork—then

it’s probably time to change it. P. 67It’ll all turn out all right in the end; if it isn’t all right, then it really isn’t the end. “The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel” Need to make renewal part of daily work of teachers. P. 68

Starting Out Around 30% of US teachers leave in early years. Important to get right people in profession to start with-need high

quality training and top graduates to enter the profession and we should recruit from the top performers in college

Teachers leave because of the quality of the school’s culture and its level of support

Different types of cultures and their effects on new teachers1. Veteran-oriented—very experienced colleagues who dominated

culture—new teachers feel isolated and unsupported, tend to keep heads down to focus on survival and among most likely to leave profession.

2. Novice-oriented culture: new teachers felt energized but soon exhausted and prone to burnout because of demands of constant curriculum writing and absence of more experience colleagues willing to point out shortcuts and show them the ropes

3. Mixed—mentoring is part of wider culture and all teachers help each other.

Secret is to make sure new teachers get individual support, and work in well-led, dynamic, strongly supported schools where there is a belief in student

8


success, a knowledge of how to bring it about, and a willingness and eagerness for everyone to keep learning and improving.

Mid-Career Most overlooked group By about 8 years teachers felt established, competent, and confident

in how to deal with students Confident, but not complacent, open but not innocent We need to support this group more than any group because of the

best return on investment and will generate real forward movement in system as a whole

Commitment, Capability, and Career

Research by Corey Drake Least experienced teacher felt positive about reforms but had lowest

level of understanding of reforms and least able to teach the reforms Mid-career—more capable of using reforms Late career—less understanding of reforms and least willing to

implement because of suspicions of external reform Points to 3 flawed strategies in changing teaching profession:

1. Should not impose instructional change uniformly on everyone because people are in different stages of careers

2. If you invest all energy on early career teachers, you will fill schools with transient teachers who are keen but not as capable.

3. If you defend rights of late career to choose whether or not to engage, you will then be defending those who are not capable of making reforms

Therefore: Important to concentrate on the “dream teachers” those who have at least 4 years experience and are committed and passionate. [The conclusion of this chapter from pp. 75-77 has excellent points about investing in capability and commitment. Worth reading in its entirety.]

Chapter Five: Professional CapitalProfessionals and Professionalism

Being a professional is how you behave. It’s how other people regard you, having quality and character.

Always the debate if teaching is a profession like medicine. Classic definitions of a profession includes:

Specialized knowledge, expertise, professional language Shared standards of practice Long and rigorous processes of training and qualification A monopoly over the service provided Ethic of service, even sense of calling, in relation to clients Self-regulation of conduct, discipline, and dismissals Autonomy to make informed discretionary judgments Working together with other professionals to solve complex cases Commitment to continuous learning and professional upgrading

Status with Quality When teachers teach like a pro, people trust us because there are highly qualified people who have undergone rigorous training that connects theory

9


to practice and stay many years in the job, constantly perfecting their craft. P. 83.

Status Over QualityHowever, longer periods of training does not always give us better

professionals in teaching or anywhere else Changing the teacher training programs is under assault currently to

prepare more highly qualified teachers. What we need is for teachers to be highly trained professionals and to

be professional. We can build professional capital to increase teachers’ capacity help all students learn and achieve.

Conditions and QualityInadequate preparation and poor working conditions go tighter. It is on

the job where professional capital is realized or not. Peers are strongest source of innovation. Professional capital is being

generated, circulated, and reinvested all the time because it is endemic to the culture of the profession and is embedded in the daily work of teachers. P. 87

High quality interaction depends on: Conditions to meet (more time) Expectations and frameworks of learning and curriculum are

challenging and open for teachers to innovate and inquire into their practice together

Ongoing timely data, rather than standardized test scores, that can be used for diagnostic purposes

Outstanding, stable leadership that an galvanize professionals as a team

Opportunities as well as incentives to learn from colleagues in other classrooms, other schools, and even other countries

Three Kinds of CapitalProfessional capital is made up of human, social and decisional capital which is necessary to transform the teaching profession into a force for the common good.

Professional capital is essential for effective teaching and it is most essential in the most challenging educational circumstances.

Human capital—the knowledge and skills that can be developed in people. About having and developing the requisite knowledge and skills About knowing your subject and knowing how to teach it. You cannot increase human capital just by focusing on it in isolation—

must use teamwork—enabling teachers to learn from each other within and across schools—this is social capital

Social capital Exists in the relations among people How the quantity and quality of interactions and social relationships

among people affects their access to knowledge and information; Their senses of expectation, obligation and trust

10


How far they are likely to adhere to the same norms or codes of behavior.

Increases knowledge because it gives you access to other people’s human capital.

Societies that have low levels of trust have higher levels of income inequality

Social capital one of cornerstones to transform the profession. Behavior shaped more by groups much more than by individuals. Cohesive groups with less individual talent often outperform groups

with superstars who don’t work as a team. Professional development does not have much impact on student

learning when it relies on individual learning and does not focus on follow-thr0ugh support for teams of teachers to learn together. Social capital matters.

Success in any innovation is determined by the degree of social capital in the culture of your own school.

Decisional capital Essence of professionalism is ability to make discretionary judgments. Teachers need to practice their craft (10,000 hours to be expert in

Malcolm Gladwell’s work) to develop decisional capital that makes you a skilled professional and not just a keen amateur. P. 95

Reflective Practice Has 2 aspects—reflecting in action and reflecting on action

Both are central to professional practice Has to be built into people’s practice as part of the day Becomes action research and inquiry which leads to continuous

improvementChapter Six: Professional Culture and Communities

6 kinds of professional culture in schools Individualism Collaborative cultures

o Balkanizationo Contrived collegialityo Professional learning communitieso Cluster, networks and federations

1. Individualism Most common state used to be one of professional isolation Isolated teachers only get sporadic feedback from performance

evals Uncertainty, isolation, and individualism are a toxic cocktail

leading to classroom conservatism because teachers had no access to new ideas

Some factors that lead to individualism and isolationo Architecture—egg crate classroomso Evaluation and self-preservation; sporadic or little

supervision and little feedback. Leads to self-interesto Guilt and perfectionism—teachers set impossibly high

expectations for themselves in a job with poorly defined limits

11


o Pressure and time—imposed repetitive change can exacerbate isolation because teachers have to time to collaborate

Individualistic teachers become increasingly the same, and at the cost of their effectiveness—afraid to take risks or to annoy colleagues by having noise levels rise

Can’t eradicate individuality entirely because that allows for voices of dissent and some creative development.

2, Collaborative CulturesCollaborative schools do better than individualistic onesLevels of collaboration:

Scanning and storytelling—exchanging ideas, anecdotes, and gossip Help and assistance-usually when asked Sharing—of materials and teaching strategies Joint work—teachers teach, plan, or inquire into teaching together

In collaborative cultures, failure and uncertainty are not protected and defended, but instead are shared and discussed with a view of gaining help and support.

Walkthroughs and instructional rounds are other quick-fix technologies that will again produce pitifully low returns unless there has been prior investment in knowing one’s staff and colleagues and building relationships with them. P. 113

Finding time to develop collaboration, trust, and respect doesn’t just happen accidentally or completely spontaneously

Collaborative cultures not only can be informal but they also must always be informal because without investment in underlying relationships, collaboration will be stilted, forced, and even damaging.

Collaborative cultures build social capital and therefore also professional capital in a school’s community. Talk together, plan together, work together—that’s the simple key. The bigger challenge is how to get everyone doing that.

1. Balkanization: Cultures made up of separate and sometimes competing groups, jockeying for position and supremacy like loosely connected Balkan states.

Teachers may not be isolated, but they are quite insulated. Some groups feel competitive with other groups and cannot manage

their envy. Leads to poor communication, indifference, or subgroups going their

separate ways. Can lead to squabbles about space and territory. Familiar to departmentalized high schools Search for collective responsibility for student learning across grades is

one way to circumvent these dangers of balkanization

12


In places like Alberta and Finland they realize that teachers across grade levels must work together and be in charge of curriculum writing which erases balkanization

2. Contrived Collegiality Characterized by formal, specific bureaucratic procedures to increase

the attention being given to join teacher planning and other forms of working together

Collaborative cultures do require some guidance and intervention but not through fear and force.

o Coaching—Peer coaching relationships can take many forms.Coaching in context of mandated reform can often fall short of its ideas leading to hurried, anxious, and one-sided interactions. o Peer pressure—can be valuable when peers are knowledgeable.

Cognitive coaching and challenge coaching can provide feedback that will deepen reflection and provoke inquiry. BUT sometimes it can be another technical way to implement an external mandate and then it doesn’t accomplish the goal

o Planning time—no magic formula for perfect planning time. The important principle, is to set expectations for collegial tasks through discussion and development with teachers rather than over-managing the specifics of collegial time. p. 124

Contrived collegiality—collaboration on steroids. Difference between arranged and contrived collegiality is whether there is already enough trust, respect, and understanding in a culture for any new structures or arrangements to have the capacity to move that culture ahead. When collaboration left strictly to teachers, it can lack bit. In the end, somebody has to lead collaboration, and neither group should ignore or override the other.

o We do not know yet how bets to develop and sustain these collaborative cultures over long periods of time. Because of this, contrived or at least arranged collegiality is likely to characterize many early attempts for many years to come. When it is used in a facilitative, not controlling way, contrived or arranged collegiality can provide a starting point and a necessary first step toward building collaborative cultures with focus and depth. P. 126

3.Professional Learning communities: Have 3 elements:a. Communities—continuing groups and relationships committed to

and have collective responsibility for a common educational purpose, committed to improving their practice in relation to that purpose, and committed to respecting and caring for each others’ lives and dignity as professionals and people.

b. Learning communities: Improvement driven by commitment to improving students’ learning, well being, and achievement. Process heavily informed by professional learning and inquiry into students’ learning and into effective principles of teaching and learning in general, and where any problems are addressed through organizational learning in which everyone in the organization learns their way out of problems instead of jumping to quick-fix solutions.

13


c. Professional learning communities: collaborative improvements and decisions are informed by but not dependent on scientific and statistical evidence, where they are guided by experienced collective judgment and pushed forward by grown up, challenging conversations about effective and ineffective practice.

i. Too often plcs have been one more program to be implemented rather than a process to be developed

ii. Avoid connecting them to innovative and ambitious learning goals but stick to technicalities of specifying narrow performance goals, defining a focus, examining data, and establishing teams.

iii. It’s more about pulling people toward goals. Create positive energy and excitement in relation to a commonly valued goal and you will always pull lots of people toward you.

iv. Opposite of overwhelming force is unlimited choice. Too much choice can be bad for us because it leaves us confused, frustrated, and unhappy. Better to “nudge” or prod people in one direction

v. In general, we need to move the debate away from pushing PLCs per se and into the arena of developing professional capital.

vi. Courageous leaders of PLCS are not bullying and self-congratulatory. They are humble and self-reflective. They know when they have overstepped the mark.

vii. PLCs are not about implementing outsiders’ agendas but promoting professional capital and all of its three components—decisional, human, and social.

4. Clusters, Networks and Federations. Just as teachers learn from others within their teams and

schools, they learn even more from collaboration among schools.

These forms of learning can be powerful system builders leading to the mutual development of new capabilities and commitments, or they can become the system-level equivalent of comfortable collaboration (shared practice) or excessively contrived collegiality which all too often characterizes collaborative efforts within schools.

Chapter Seven: Enacting ChangeProfessional Capital Agenda

How Change Occurs This change is more like a “movement” which occurs when

dissatisfactions with and tensions of the current system reach a breaking point. As the strain grows, rebellious acts crop up and there are some beginning positive alternatives.

In early stages process will not be smooth. Early instigators are prepared to overcome stereotypes as well as fatalism and fear of

14


others. Goal is to change the thinking of others in a way that generates more positive peer power and leads to partnership with former adversaries.

Action Guidelines: Fundamental goal is to do things that bridge the chasm, reach for

partnership, and replace polarization with integration—in ways that make every effort to respect each other’s positions without capitulating to them.

Guidelines for teachers (refer to What’s worth Fighting for in Your School by Fullan)

Become a true pro—study and practice; achieve your 10,000 hours of performance

Start with yourself; examine your own experience—Think about your practice and 3 actions you might take to be more effective

Be a mindful teacher—take time to plan for the future and reflect on the past. Stop to mediate, listen to music, exercise, etc. Begin with yourself

Build your human capital through social capital—Take an inventory of your strengths and weaknesses. Build on strengths and work with others to overcome weaknesses

Push and pull your peers—use peer interactions to maximize organization’s collective capabilities and improve its problem-solving capacities

Invest in and accumulate your decisional capital—What decisions do you control. Extend your sphere of influence. Get feedback on your practice and reflect on it with peers.

Manage up: help your leaders be the best they can be—Reach out to school and district administrators to support collaborative learning wherever you can.

Take the first step—one definition of leadership is doing something first, before anyone else is willing or able to.

Surprise yourself—Teach something new. Seek out variety. Avoid groupthink. Visit other teacher’s classroom.

Connect everything back to your students.—It’s all about how much students learn

Guidelines for school and district leaders—6 guidelines Promote professional capital vigorously and courageously—do your

teachers see you as a constant learner? Are you proactive not reactive? Do you create professional capital in all people

Know your people: understand their culture—Must stay connected to teachers’ and students’ learning.

Secure leadership stability and sustainability—stable and sustainable leadership does not drag a school or system from one initiative to another, condemning its educators to manic depressive mood swings rather than consistency of orientation and focus.

Beware of contrived collegiality (and other irritating associates)”my” vision, “my” school etc—says principal owns the school rather than it being everyone’s collective responsibility. Then management becomes manipulation. Beware of anyone coming back from a conference and saying “Now let’s do PLCs” That’s contrived.

15


Read out beyond your borders-Form a network, a collaborative beyond your borders to hare and learn from one another

Be evidence-informed, not data-driven—Don’t become so overloaded with data that you forget to discuss anything else. Important to always know students, not just as data points. Data walls tend to draw attention to shortfalls, not success. Don’t let data narrow the focus to literacy and math—keep the scope broad and inclusive

Guidelines for state, national, and international organizations Know where you are going—know who and where you are going as a

system. Say this as a district, state and nation. Break your own mold—Let’s start with a bit of structured insurgency

with a few brave and bold politicians, then connect them together as kindred spirits at all levels of the system to become a movement of gargantuan proportions. P. 175

Obey the law of subidiarity; push and partner, stimulate and steer—Issues resolved by least centralized competent authority among people who are closest to the issue. Let highly capable people think up and take the action. Let teachers write and implement the curriculum. Let capacity grow

Redesign the professional career –Provide coaching, create opportunities for early leaders to grow; use grants and exchanges to develop new opportunities. Offer sabbaticals, early retirements, etc.

Bring teachers back in—teachers’ unions need to be active participants to change our paradigms. We need to update our practices

Be the change—Build a team focus, develop partnerships, pull and push people forward, hone in on knowledge base of research and experience, refine and review your judgments and your capacity to make them over time, be transparent and collectively responsible to students.

Pay people properly where they serve the greatest need—need to change pay structure. Provide incentives to work in most challenging schools, with most challenging students

Get out and about more—form networks, go to national conferences, constantly learn from efforts and achievements of others, wherever they are in the world.

We can treat teaching as just a short-term investment of business capital, and finance the present by mortgaging our children’s future. Or we can make teaching a sustainable investment for professional capital, and give birth to a world of many happy returns to come. P. 186

16

typepad€¦ · web viewcohesive groups with less individual talent often outperform groups with...

Documents