1. Using Teacher Inquiry as Professional Development
Aloha Lavina
Bangkok Teachers Network 2012
2. True or False
Professional development is a workshop given
by an expert who is not a school community
member.
Professional development is based on teacher
deficiency.
Professional development is linked to school
improvement.
3. True or False
Problem solving with my colleagues is part of my
professional development.
Student learning has nothing to do with teacher
learning.
Professional development is best when it is
done outside of the school.
4. How do we lead learners?
Match the leadership slogans with the type
of leadership and the relationships that
each style fosters.
Workbook p. 2
5. “The success of a school depends
above all on the quality of
interactions
between teacher and teacher,
and teacher and administrator.”
- R. L. Barth
7. How do we Focus the Community?
• What type of environment do we want?
• What would we have to do to become a
beehive?
• Jot down words and phrases on Blue Post its.
• Post your Blue Post its on the Essential
Agreements Wall.
9. Professional Learning Priorities
• Think of your school action plan.
• Pick a priority and state it as a teacher learning
priority.
• Write your priority on a blank A4 sheet.
• Leave the topic you wrote on your table.
• Take your Green Post it and Orange Post it and go
around the tables to see the topics.
• Post the Green Post it on a topic you’d like to
learn.
• Post the Orange Post it on a topic you could
facilitate teachers to learn.
10. Connect – Extend – Challenge
If you are…
• …an Administrator, how will you support
teacher learning with resources and time?
• …a Teacher Leader or Department Head, how
will you embed the learning into teaching and
curriculum?
• …a Classroom Teacher, how will your learning
impact your students’ learning?
11. Coaching to Sustain Professional Learning
NON
Peer THREATENING
Cognitive Coaching Model
(Costa, 1994)
observation Observation:
Teacher who is
being observed
sets the
observation goal
REFLECTIVE
Inquiry PRACTICE
Post-
Group conference:
Did actual
APPLICATION decisions
Pre- and
conference: Teacher behaviors in
Setting a Learning Reflecting
the
classroom goal Goal together
classroom
match what
the teacher
intended?
22. Tug of War
• Ponder the priority learning for your faculty
you named earlier.
• What understanding does your faculty have of
this topic? Write this on a yellow post it.
• What challenges remain? Write this on a
yellow post it.
• Post the sticky notes on the Tug of War string.
The assumptions that frame professional development can either limit the learning in the school, or expand it and let it flourish.
Professional development has shifted from the transmission model, where an EXPERT delivers content to a group of teachers, to transformational, where the teacher is an active learner and the workshop leader is a FACILITATOR or guide through the learning.3 minutes----- Meeting Notes (11/9/12 18:22) -----Leadership is essential.
5 minutesVision is necessary to frame the school’s pathway. But just vision without collaboration still fragments a school. Collegial leadership and coaching type of leadership makes everyone in the school a part of the school improvement effort, and fosters OWNERSHIP of the school’s direction and future.
AND WHAT IF we were working together by learning something that would enhance our student’s learning?We would have interactions based on a common goal beneficial to our students, ourselves, and our school. Parallel goals mean synchronicity, coherence in professional development.
What type of environment do we want? What evidence would we have that tells us we are ready to be a beehive?
5 minutesNorms Workbook page 3
What do the documents in your school right now tell you what your school wants to be like? Examples: mission statement, language policy, assessment policy, student learning expectations, learner profile, action plan or strategic plan.5 minutes
Add at the end: this is how we sorted the inquiry groups at our school. Our internal PD is based on teacher needs, teacher choice. We have 100 percent commitment to school goals, and we document this through the professional portfolio. This has transformed our school culture. WORKBOOK page 4
This is a way to provoke reflective thinking from Project Zero at Harvard. CONNECT: between your role and the learning goal. EXTEND: to those you lead, and CHALLENGE: NAME the challenges you will have to face to get your team to where they need to be. 10 minutes
Workbook page 5 (10 minutes)Take a look at this model of coaching. How would a teacher benefit from this model?How would you help a teacher through this model?What consequences might it have for learning?
Reflection is a by-product of coaching. Through coaching, teachers begin to consciously link their teaching decisions with student learning outcomes.Reflection needs to be ongoing to facilitate this shared school culture through the beliefs that emerge as teachers learn together. Here are some patterns that may emerge… 10 minutes
Research shows that as a change is introduced into an organization, practice dips, or decreases in quality. This is because people are still sorting out through their learning and probably experimenting with application. This is a healthy part of change. It can be managed by providing time and resources, such as coaching, to help people through their ‘dip’ 5 minutes
5 minutesA good reflection tool to take the temperature, to see what worries might interfere with teachers moving forward in their inquiry, and provide the necessary support whether it is through time, resources, or coaching.
This is also from the Project Zero visible thinking strategies. Collect the post its. 5 minutes