Slides for my interactive presentation at Project Zero Melbourne

1. Protocols for Professional
Conversations
Project Zero Melbourne
5-6 March 2016
Cameron Paterson
cpaterson@shore.nsw.edu.au
@cpaterso

4. Understanding Goals
• What are protocols?
• How can they deepen our understanding
of teaching and learning?
• How can they improve the way we work
together?

5. Your questions……

6. The Question(s):
Think of the professional conversation in which
you learned the most.
 What made it powerful?
Think of the least productive professional
conversation you’ve ever had.
 What made it so difficult?

7. Microlab Protocol
Purpose: To address a specific sequence of
questions in a structured format with small
groups, using active listening skills

8. Three Essential Qualities of a
Professional Learning
Conversation
CLARITY
SAFETY
EQUITY

9. Protocol
A structure for guiding a conversation

10. Features of Protocols
 Roles
 Norms
 Purpose
 Steps
 Facilitation
 Reflection

11. Classroom isolation
leads teachers to fall
back on the
‘apprenticeship of
observation’ that
they undertook as
school students.

12. A video that shows why teachers are going out of their minds:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2014/02/28/a-video-that-shows-why-teachers-are-going-out-of-their-minds/?tid=sm_fb

13. ‘Spray and
pray’

14. Undergraduate Professional Graduate Advice from
Courses Reading Courses Colleague
What Influences Teacher
Professional Practice?
1=“Notinfluential”4=“Veryinfluential”
1.8
2.3
2.6
3.6
0
1
2
3
4
Dr Douglas Reeves, The Leadership and Learning Center

15. Teachers get better by working in teams on teaching issues

17. “Watching most teams operate in schools
is like watching Astroturf grow. “
(Professor Richard Elmore)

18. 5 Minute
Stretch
Break

19. Consultancy Protocol
Purpose: To help presenters think more
expansively about a particular, concrete dilemma

20. Using Protocols
 They are tools for the work of supporting
teacher and student learning (not the work
itself).
 They must be chosen with a specific purpose
in mind.
 It takes some practice before they can be
used most effectively.

21. How do protocols help?
 Create opportunities for and allocate time to
essential conversations about teaching and
learning.
 Provide routines and structures to scaffold
collaborative analysis and planning.
 Support interactions that enable us to
develop and demonstrate our understanding
of and respect for the variety of perspectives
and experiences by our colleagues.

22. Protocols
(Almost) all protocols will enhance:
Clarity
Safety
Equity

23. Some Protocols Do More
 Observing
 Listening
 Asking questions
 Using conditional language
 Question-finding and question-refining
 Learning

24. Critical Friends:
https://www.teachingchannel.org/blog/2015/01/14/building-a-
culture-of-collaboration/

25. Challenges of Using Protocols Well
 the “learning curve.”
 Deciding when to use a protocol.
 Choosing the appropriate protocol.
 Resisting the impulse to problem-solve (at least
for a time)
 Documenting learning and building on previous
discussions.
 Facilitation.
 Time, time, time.

28. Image: Aaron Davis

30. One-Minute Essay
1. What was the most
important insight ?
2. What is your most
important question?

31. Credit:
Tina Blythe