Transcript Document 7109640

The Idea of a School That Learns
-- Schools can become vital
by accepting a learning
orientation, not by
regulations or commands.
-- Everyone in a school
system works together and
learns from one
another.(Learning
Organization)
The five Learning disciplines:
1.
Personal Mastery: The results that you want to create in your life
through your personal vision.
2. Shared Vision: Teachers, administrators, and staff in a school
working together towards common goals.
3. Mental Models: Reflection and discussions among all members of
the community without feeling uncomfortable or scared.
4. Team Learning: Collective thinking and group interactions which
draw forth from all members individual talents.
5. Systems Thinking: People learn to deal with change that leads to
growth and stability over time.
-- Schools must continue to meet the current needs of society.
-- Building a school that learns involves a learning classroom, a learning
school, and a learning community.
The Learning Classroom
a. Teachers: They are continuous
and lifelong learners who promote
learning in students lives.
b. Students: The ones who are cocreators of knowledge and
participants in the development of
the school.
c. Parents: They are crucial to the
success of their children by getting
involved in the schools. Often,
parents see school as an
uncomfortable place just as it was
when they attended to school.
The Learning School
• A. Superintendents: Possess more formal authority than
anyone else in the school system. However, he is the leader
who can effectively shape a learning school system.
• B. Principals, School Leaders, and Higher Education
Administrators: The people who set the tone for the school.
Not just a supervisor, but a lead teacher and lead learner.
• C. School Board Member, Trustees, and University
Agents: Policy setters who can model organizational
learning through their own practices.
The Learning Community
• Community Members:
A community and it’s
schools are reflections
of one another.
• Lifelong Learners:
Schools and
communities are
always learning from
one another.
Core Concepts About Learning in
Organizations
• Every organization is a product of how its members think and interact
~ Encourage collegiality and positive staff morale. Learning is
connection.
• You are teaching students as well as the subject.
• Good teachers bring students into community with themselves and
with each other. Learning is Driven by Vision.
• Most critical to a schools success.
• Vision is more than just improving test scores, increasing graduation
rates, or increasing attendance. It is about developing personal and
shared goals and relating them to needs of your students, your school,
and your community.
ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE
• The Strategy of
Organizational
Change A. Introduce
organizational learning in
the classroom,school, and
community.
B. Focus on one or two
new priorities.
• C. Involve everyone in
learning and change.
Entry points ( for Successful
Educators)
•
•
•
•
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•
•
•
Create a learning classroom
Systems thinking in the classroom
A school’s shared vision
“I want my child in a learning school”
Personal vision
The ethical dimension
From the outside in
Guiding ideas.
Industrial Age System of
Education
• Observations, Assumptions, Public
Demands (standardized testing), Responses
A. Student Alternatives : Cope or Disengage
Industrial Age Heritage of
Schools(product efficiency Vs. quality
learning)
A. Scientific Revolution of the 1600/1700s fuels Industrial
Revolution
B. Machine Age and Organizational Management
C. Assembly Line image; Grade levels, Uniform
schedule/bell/curricula
D. Problems created included:
~ labeling students
~ uniformity of products
~ teacher-centered learning
~ student self-discipline Vs. teacher discipline
Problems are dealt with by the educational
field by speeding up the line to increase
output, not necessarily learning, not new
solution presented
Educators feel trapped and
disempowered
A. Change because of crisis
B. Change without crisis
C. Change cannot occur
D. Change is seen as the enemy
Education as a product of the age
a. Lack of competition
b. Roots to Industrial age too strong to change
c. Students and teachers follow the game plan and learn
behaviors, not material
d. Students develop into “pleasers” and non risk takers
e. Students sense of self and commitment for the future is
mostly not developmental
Industrial Age assumptions about
learning
• Children are deficient and school fix them
• Learning takes place in the head, not the body as a
whole
• Everyone learns, or should learn, in the same way
• Learning takes place in the classroom, not in the
world
• There are smart kids and dumb kids
Industrial Age assumptions about
school
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•
•
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Schools are run by specialist who maintain control
Knowledge is inherently fragmented
Schools communicate “the truth”
Learning is primarily individualistic and competition
accelerates learning
Conditions for Innovation
• Radical Change has not been sustainable
• Innovation takes decades, not years
• Signs of breakdown in assembly line school concept:
– Stress
– “Haves and Have Nots” disparity
– Growing inequity
• Conditions that no longer exist
– Women have broader career choices
– Traditional family and community structures
– Monopoly of information
– Number of industrial workers had dropped
An alternative to the Machine
Model of Schools
• Revolution is slow in
education
• Machines vs. Living
systems
• Schools should be
organized around
appreciation of living
systems, not machines
Traits of Educational Process tied
to “Active Learning” and “Living
Systems”
• Learner-created learning
• Encouraging variety/multiple intelligences
• Analyzing the interdependent and changing
the world
• Linking social relationships to friends,
families and communities
• Continual research and questioning
CHAPTER II
A PRIMER TO THE FIVE
DISCIPLINES
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
PERSONAL MASTERY
MENTAL MODELS
SHARED VISION
TEAM LEARNING
SYSTEMS THINKING
1. PERSONAL MASTERY
• Personal mastery is a set of practices that
support people in keeping their dreams
whole while cultivating an awareness of
current reality around them.
• It is an individual matter through solo
reflection which represents a lifelong
process.
• Rubber band analogy - most natural desired
resolution of the tension is for our reality to
move closer to what we want.
PERSONAL MASTERY
• Schools should set a context where people
have time to reflect on their vision.
• Reflecting on the vision establishes an
organizational commitment to the truth
wherever possible.
• Schools should avoid taking a position
about what other people should want or how
they should view the world.
2. MENTAL MODELS
• Our behavior and attitudes are shaped by
the images, assumptions, and stories that we
carry in our minds of ourselves, other
people, and the world.
• Exercise from text
• Differences between mental models explain
why two people can observe the same event
and describe it differently.
MENTAL MODELS
• They limit people’s ability to change.
• It has a direct relevance for challenges in
schools.
• Reflexive loop
• Two types of skills are central to this
practice:
– Reflection - slowing down our thinking process
– Inquiry - holding conversation.
3. SHARED VISION
• It will foster a commitment to a common
purpose.
• It is a set of tools and techniques for
bringing aspirations into alignment with
common goals or purposes.
• In building shared vision, a group of people
build a sense of commitment together.
• Visions based on authority are not
sustainable.
SHARED VISION
• It requires time, care, and strategy.
• It spreads through personal contact.
• To accomplish the shared vision, members
must meet in person to talk about what they
really care about.
4. TEAM LEARNING
• It is designed to get the team thinking and
acting together.
• They do not need to think alike; but they
will learn to be effective together.
• It regularly transforms day-to-day
communication skills.
TEAM LEARNING
• It is based on the concept of alignment.
• Group members must function as a whole
by having a common awareness of each
other, their purpose, and their current
reality.
• It starts with the ability to respect each other
and to establish some common mental
models about reality.
TEAM LEARNING
• The most effective practice we know
emerges from dialogue.
• The practice of dialogue is to pay attention,
to not only the words, but to the tone and
the body language.
TEAM LEARNING
• Dialogue encourages people to suspend
assumptions by reflection.
• There are three types:
– Surfacing assumptions (making yourself aware
of your own assumptions)
– Displaying assumptions (making your
assumptions visible to yourself and others)
– Inquiry (taking a new look at all assumptions)
5. SYSTEMS THINKING
• It provides a different way of looking at
problems.
• It involves looking at components as a large
structure instead of isolated events.
• It is the study of system structure and
behavior.
BUILDING BLOCKS OF
SYSTEMS THINKING
• Reinforcing processes - when small changes
become big
• Balancing processes - pushing stability and
resistance
• Causal-loop diagrams - shows influence
from one element to another
• Stock-and-flow diagrams - shows
interrelationships in a mathematical way
Creating Classrooms That Learn
• “Class” derives from the roman word classis
meaning a summons or call.
• “Room” comes from an old English word
meaning open space.
– Classrooms are environments of continual
openness where people are called together to
study the world around them.
Teacher As Designer of the
Learning Environment
• The classroom is primarily
a product of the ways
people think and interact.
• Methods for improving
the quality of thinking and
interacting can make
everything more powerful
in the classroom.
Teacher As Designer
• Book presents a variety of teaching
techniques and classroom designs from all
disciplines and teaching methods.
– Representation of ways to develop better
capabilities by redesigning the way teachers,
students, and parents think and interact in class.
All Children Can Learn
• Research suggests everyone has potential to
achieve something significant if conditions
support learning and if each individual’s
capabilities are valued.
• Mental models in educators and parents
affect ideas about human potential.
– Winners vs losers.
– Advanced vs disadvantaged / dumb.
All Children Can Learn cont.
• Recognizing that students learn in multiple ways
and that abilities are not fixed at birth is
imperative.
• Concentration on changing ways people think and interact
is a must.
• Hope draws many people to teach in the
first place; Remembering that all children
can learn helps keep that hope alive.
Designing a Learning Classroom
• The following steps
aid in the design of the
classroom as a
learning environment
that makes your
presence, your
relationships and
everyone’s learning
process more
effective.
Step 1
“If I Had a Learning Classroom.”
• Imagine a classroom that learns, don’t
worry about the curriculum or arrangement
of time.
– A series of questions is used to guide the
educator through this visualization process
(p.106).
– Be specific and express details.
– There is no right or wrong.
Step 2
“Enhancing The Definition”
• Broaden your idea by considering
statements that other educators and writers
have made envisioning the learning
classroom.
– Page 107 has some useful statements to help
further develop your classroom image.
Step 3
“What Would It Bring Me.”
• Once your classroom image has been
developed, consider the following
questions.
–
–
–
–
What sort of benefits would happen as a result?
What would it bring to the students?
What would it bring to me personally?
How would it be different from the classroom
where I teach now?
Step 4
“Selecting and Refining the Top 5.”
• Choose the five characteristics of a learning
classroom that are most compelling to you
(whether or not they are plausible).
• Include one or two that you think you may
never be able to do.
Step 4 continued
• Refine the abstract into more specific detail:
– What conditions are necessary?
– What is an example?
– How might it address a student’s learning need?
Step 5
“How Would We Get There?”
• What would you have to do to achieve each
component of your vision?
• What practices would you follow?
• What capabilities would you build-in yourself and
in your students?
• What policies would be put in place: at classroom,
school, community, and even state levels?
Step 6
“What Stands In the Way?”
• Consider opposing forces you might face
from students, parents, other teachers, the
school, community and state.
• Consider the innate challenges that would
arise as a natural consequence of your
making the change.
Step 6 continued
• Opposing forces are a natural consequence
when an established practice is threatened.
Consider the following:
– Where might these forces come from?
– How might you accomplish your goals without
provoking the opposition?
Step 7
“I’ll Know I’m Making Progress If …”
• Consider each of the five characteristics you
chose in step 4 and the obstacles you
described in step 6. Name one or more
“indicator” (piece of evidence that would
signal that you have made some progress)
for each set.
Step 8
“First Experiments”
• Design an experiment for yourself that
might be effective in creating a learning
classroom.
• Arrange in a couple of weeks to conduct an
evaluation of the experiment.
• Based on the experience, add further design
to your framework to work towards the
learning classroom.
I. A Five Disciplines
Developmental
Journey
Background: Children’s Capabilities
• System thinkers
• Iceberg concept
– Memorize the names of arteries, but may not
grasp the concept of the blood flow
• Children must have higher order thinking skills
• Most of the time schools are asking students to
memorize
II. Teaching
Structural Tension
What is the point of
education?
• To help young people learn how to
create the lives they truly want to
create
The key to the creative process is
STRUCTURAL TENSION.
STRUCTURAL TENSION
is established through contrast
between our desired state (goals,
desires, aspirations) and our current
reality in relationship to those goals.
Tension is resolved by taking
actions that bring the goals
and reality closer together.
It takes DISCIPLINE to define
the end result you want to create,
and to define reality objectively
outside of distortions of our
assumptions, theories, and
concepts.
It takes DISCIPLINE to:
• Confront frustrations,
disappointments, and setbacks
• Learn from mistakes and successes
THINKING ABOUT WANTS
What do you want?
Parental and educational
protection inadvertently censors
young adults not only from trying
to create what might matter to
them, but also from even thinking
about trying.
• Because of this protection, people never
develop the discipline for going the extra
mile.
• They never learn the lessons so important to
developing character or the ongoing
learning skills needed to accomplish
anything difficult.
IT BEGINS WITH A
QUESTION
• What do you want to create?
– Define your goal
The habit of defining goals,
visions, and aspirations develops
a true skill…a skill young people
need to learn if they are to master
their life-building process.
Once one knows what he/she
wants, then education takes on a
focus and purpose.
JUST THE FACTS:
• People distort reality because reality often
includes things one doesn’t like.
• Children lie to avoid criticism and
punishment.
• Children lie because they see it as socially
acceptable.
DON’T lie to children- TELL
THE TRUTH!
Learning requires the ability to
evaluate our actions.
One must be able to separate who
they are from what they do.
THE LESSON OF ACTION
• Action produces results that are evaluated,
which leads to adjustments of future
actions.
• How well did we move toward our goals ?
Actions are choices:
1) Fundamental:
basic values
2) Primary choice:
•
major results in life
Goals, aspirations, ambitions (structural tension)
3) Secondary choice:
support primary choice
III. A SHARED VISION PROCESS
for the CLASSROOM
• Open discussion on first day of school
• Out of this comes a vision for classroom
etiquette and procedure; how one wants to
be treated, and how one feels class should
run.
VI. ASSESSMENT as LEARNING
• Formal knowledge
• Applicable knowledge
• Longitudinal knowledge
• Assessment should make individuals aware
of all three types of knowledge.
• The result should spark reflection and
suggest approaches for further development.
We don’t need less judgments, we
need more informed judgments.
• We need assessments that are designed for
learning, not assessments used for blaming,
ranking, and certifying.
How do we make this shift possible?
• Timeliness
– The closer students are to the learning
demonstration, the more meaningful the
feedback.
– Suggest school schedules so that teachers have
regular conference times with students to
review and give feedback.
• Honesty
– Face the data seriously or there won’t be a need
to change.
• Reflection
– Set up a system where students assess
themselves.
-Much of the reflection will take place in a
conference with the teacher. The hard part is
listening to what the students have to say and
letting what the students say design instruction.
-Now grades are an evaluation process. Students
manage their own judgments about progress.
-If started early, by the time a student is 17, he or she
should be responsible for, and skilled at,
presenting evaluations to parents.
This will communicate to everyone that the
school believes assessment is a process for
learning, not just for accountability.
Teachers should also reflect on their own
teaching. It’s important to not just assess
teaching, but also to assess the assessment.
VII. Intellectual
Behaviors
Intellectual Behaviors
•
•
•
•
•
Persistence
Decreasing Impulsivity
Listening to Others (with understanding
and empathy)
Flexibility in Thinking
Metacognition (Awareness of our own
thinking)
Intellectual Behaviors
•
•
•
•
•
Striving for Accuracy and Precision
Questioning and Problem Posing
Drawing on Past Knowledge and
Experiences
Creativity
Precision of Language and Thought
Intellectual Behaviors
•
•
•
•
Gathering Data Through All the Senses
Displaying a Sense of Humor
Wonderment, Inquisitiveness, and Curiosity
Cooperative Thinking and Social
Intelligence
VIII. A Pedagogy for
the Five Disciplines
• Who is stuck in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off?
• Generative Knowledge
• Transmitting Knowledge
• Transformative Knowledge
Productive Conversation
Check IN
• Check in provides students time to make a
very brief statement and focus their
attention on the task at hand.
• Many variations and few rules.
• Some will talk about problems and share
experiences. Others may only say “I’m
here”.
• Teacher participation is important.
Opening Day
• Introducing mental models in the first
session of a course can open up an
atmosphere of trust and inquiry throughout
the course.
• Emphasize “We learn together”.
• Listen to each other.
Cue Lines
• Conversational lines to use in impasses and
other difficult situations.
Cue Lines
• When
• Strong views are
expressed without any
reasoning or
illustrations….
• You Might Say….
• “You might be right,
but I’d like to
understand more.
What leads you to
believe…?”
Cue Lines
• When…
• The discussion goes
off on an apparent
tangent…..
• You might Say….
• “I’m unclear how that
connects to what
we’ve been saying.
Can you say how you
see it as relevant?”
Cue Lines
• When….
• You doubt the
relevance of your own
thoughts….
• You might say….
• “This may not be
relevant now. If so,
let me know and I will
wait…”
Balancing Advocacy and Inquiry
• Lay out your reasoning:
• “Here’s my view and here’s how I’ve
arrived at it. How does it sound to you?
What makes sense to you and what doesn’t?
Do you see any ways I can improve it?”
• Shared perspectives yield more creative and
insightful realizations.
Protocols for Improved
Advocacy
• What to do
• What to say
•State your assumptions,
and describe the data that
led to them.
•“Here’s what I think, and
here’s how I got there.”
•Make your reasoning
explicit.
•I came to this conclusion
because…...
•Even when advocating:
listen, stay open, and
encourage others to
provide different views.
•“Do you see it differently?”
Protocols for Improved Inquiry
Ask others to make their thinking process visible
•• What to do
•• What to say
•Use unaggressive
language, particularly with
people who are unfamiliar
with these skills.
•Instead of “What do you
mean?” or “What’s your
proof?” say, “Can you help
me understand your thinking
here?”
•Explain your reasons for
inquiring, and how your
inquiry relates to your
own concerns, hopes, and
needs.
•“I’m asking about your
assumptions here because..”
Protocols for facing a point of
view with which you disagree
•• What to do
•Make sure you truly
understand the other person’s
view.
•Explore, listen and offer
your own views in an open
way.
•• What to say
•“If I follow you correctly, your
saying that…”
•Ask, “Have you considered…”
and then raise your concerns and
state what is leading you to have
them.
Protocols for when your at an
Impasse
•• What to do
•• What to say
•Embrace the impasse,
and tease apart the
current thinking on both
sides.
•“What do we both know to be
true? Or, “What do we both
sense is true, but have no data
for yet?”
•Look for information
that will help people
move forward.
•“What do we agree on, and
what do we disagree on?”
•Don’t let the
conversation stop with
an “agreement to
disagree.”
•“I don’t understand the
assumptions underlying our
disagreement.
The Advocacy/Inquiry Palette
The advocacy/inquiry palette:
Reframing the Parent-Teacher
Conference
• Strive to “confer” not conference.
• The conference should be influenced by
each person, and each participant’s views,
including the student’s.
Reframing the Parent-Teacher
Conference
•
•
•
•
Educator can ask:
What strengths do you see in you child?
What does your child say about school?
What kinds of activities , at school or
elsewhere, seem to frustrate your child
most?
• What goals do you have for your child?
Reframing the Parent-Teacher
Conference
• Parents can ask:
• How does my child interact with you and
other adults?
• How does my child interact with
classmates?
• How does my child work in teams?
• Who do you pair my child with and why?
Mapping
• Set goals and monitor them.
– Brainstorm everything you can think of that
represents an aspect of the child’s life.
– This activity needs to include the parent.
Don’t eat the pizza…
Exercises for taking stock of the classroom experience.
• Invite alumni back from the next school
level as guest speakers.
– Let 9th graders tell 8th graders about high
school, and 6th about 5th, etc.
Don’t eat the pizza...
• The Time Capsule
– At the end of the year or semester, students
design a “time capsule” of advice and
perspectives for the students who come after
them.
– Minimal teacher input: Offer constructive
critique, but resist making changes in content.
This is an exercise for kids by kids.
Check Outs
• Similar to “Check Ins”, provide a sense of
closure.
• At the end of a unit allow every individual a
chance to speak:
– What did you find particularly interesting?
– What would you like to know more about?
– What are you still confused about?
Retrospective Reflection
• Questions to aid a group in reflection:
–
–
–
–
Have we been open to other people’s ideas?
Did everyone get a chance to speak?
Did we move toward our common goals?
Did we model the kind of behavior we would
like to produce?
– Were we in flow? Did we feel the conversation
move forward with its own creative
momentum?
The Classroom Reflective
Journal
• A weekly journal kept about:
–
–
–
–
class discussions,
papers and assignments being worked on
any other reactions to the course.
Turned in weekly and read by the teacher.
Objectives of Systems Dynamics
in Education
• To understand the complex nature of the
systems in which we work and live
• To Develop Personal Skills in Clarity,
Consistency, Courage, and the ability to see
interrelatedness of concepts
• To shape an outlook and personality to fit
the 21st Century
Systems Thinking in the
• Applying skills to
predict, examine
interactions, and
relationships
• Vision and “The Big
Picture”
• Causal relationships
• BOTG (behavior over
time graphing)
Classroom
Systems thinking in the
classroom
•Causal loop diagrams
•System archetypes
•Stock and flow diagrams
•Simulations and Stella Models
– +learner centered grouping
– +interdisciplinary bridging
– +Concept Mapping
Benefits of Systems Thinking
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Drawing inference skills
Specialization of knowledge
Complexity of thinking
Vision
Interrelated dimensions of thinking
Higher order processing
Depth of knowledge expanded
Disadvantages to Systems
Thinking in the Classroom
• Confidence required with basic
mathematical skills
• Easily frustrating
• Learning styles vary
• Time consuming
• Loss of discussion and brainstorming
Implications for School Leaders
• Systems thinking develops forces students
to become more critical thinkers
• Improved skills for employers of the 21st
century
• New concept for learning to break
traditional learning patterns
• Teachers create better “thinking” lessons
• Overall impact on school is to create higher
standards for thinking and problem solving
which can lead to improved test scores
Objectives of Systems Dynamics
in Education
• To understand the complex nature of the
systems in which we work and live
• To Develop Personal Skills in Clarity,
Consistency, Courage, and the ability to see
interrelatedness of concepts
• To shape an outlook and personality to fit
the 21st Century
Systems Thinking in the
• Applying skills to
predict, examine
interactions, and
relationships
• Vision and “The Big
Picture”
• Causal relationships
• BOTG (behavior over
time graphing)
Classroom
Systems thinking in the
classroom
•Causal loop diagrams
•System archetypes
•Stock and flow diagrams
•Simulations and Stella Models
– +learner centered grouping
– +interdisciplinary bridging
– +Concept Mapping
Benefits of Systems Thinking
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Drawing inference skills
Specialization of knowledge
Complexity of thinking
Vision
Interrelated dimensions of thinking
Higher order processing
Depth of knowledge expanded
Disadvantages to Systems
Thinking in the Classroom
• Confidence required with basic
mathematical skills
• Easily frustrating
• Learning styles vary
• Time consuming
• Loss of discussion and brainstorming
Implications for School Leaders
• Systems thinking develops forces students
to become more critical thinkers
• Improved skills for employers of the 21st
century
• New concept for learning to break
traditional learning patterns
• Teachers create better “thinking” lessons
• Overall impact on school is to create higher
standards for thinking and problem solving
which can lead to improved test scores
A SHARED VISION FOR SCHOOLS
A vision is NOT:
Developed from a two day retreat
Developed from a two hour assembly
Taking peoples input, selecting some of it and discarding the rest.
A vision IS:
Establishing a series of forums
People working together
Developing the future direction of the school
The result:
All will get outcomes they respect and can make a commitment to.
The relevant choices are better than those that any individual could come up
with on his own.
The Overall Process Design
First:
The process addresses tensions over current problems and concerns.
Second: A shared vision is “generative”: People talking about their deepest
and desires for their children and community.
Third: Action; re-creating the school teacher.
Components:
The nine-year conversation
Parents and administrators meet at the school or community building
They are not permitted to talk about a specific teacher
No hidden agenda
They meet to listen and learn together
Everyone introduces themselves
Start with concerns?
hopes
Components Continued
Mental models
Pre-meeting: ask a group of students, “What would you like to learn in
school this year?” Ask a group of teachers “What would you like your
class to accomplish this year?”
– Step 1: Parents: What would you like your children to learn this
year in school? What would you like your children’s
experience to be?
– Step 2: Student
– Step 3: Teachers
– Step 4: Making connections-display all three mental models;
check off similarities; talk through the differences
“The truth about kids is…”
“Was your life as “scheduled” as your child’s life? If you’re
like me, you used to play more on your own. They’re more
used to structure.”
The Ramifications:
Parents will form their own networks
They will often go on meeting without us
We can become learners from parents
Parents can learn that we are open to their concerns
The twenty-five year conversation: back at school
Teachers and staff
Report the major themes
Divide into subgroups: curriculum, resources and money, school climate, technolog
Consider key problems
Prioritize the results to set the course of direction
Talk about vision for the school as educators-past and future
Community vision meetings
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Groups: parents of older children with parents of younger children…
People introduce themselves
Select the five most critical concepts and record on separate cards
Each idea, answer with two questions:
• What should be the role of the school in addressing this issue?
• What should be the role of the parents?
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Discuss and present to the whole group
Group now sees one another’s priorities and problems
They now know that their critical concerns have been raised
The are ready to talk about a shared vision for the school system
New session, same groups, teamed differently
Imagine that they have created, three years from now, the school they
most want
– Consider the questions on p. 298
– Prioritize results (select 5-10)
– Bring vision process to the school teams and committees to incorporate
the new visions into the work they’re already doing
Implementing and refining the vision
The central vision team (administrators, teachers, parents and sometimes
students) develop key strategic priorities for the school.
Checklist:
Vision: school vision, goals, and curriculum:
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What are the critical aspects of a school vision called for by the schools?
How do they fit together?
Create a description as a starting point for further dialogue.
If these components were in place, what would that get you?
If these components were in place, what would that get you?
You may never reach the goals you set here, but you need them to help
you, and others, chart your direction.
Checklist Continued
Current reality:
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What processes and programs work best for your school?
How have these assessments changed over time?
How has student performance changed, year by year?
How has the quality of instruction changed over time?
Compare demographics.
Look closely at teacher training, school goals, educational
philosophy, and school climate.
Strategic priorities:
– How can staff and curriculum development be improved?
– How can the school environment be improved?
– Consider security, community relationships, facilities, student
needs, parking, and traffic.
– Where can parents drop off and pick up their children with less
fear of traffic?
– What resources are available?
Accountable teams
– Set up accountable teams to develop the points into new projects.
– They should develop a vision for one particular area of the school, establish a
few critical first goals, and experiment with reaching those goals.
– Teams: school climate, assessment committee, technology
– The teams should develop two measurable goals, create pilot programs,
evaluate the pilots, and report the results at the end of the year
Find a Partner
Teaching is a lonely profession. Find a partner to share new ideas with. An
innovator needs someone to talk with for encouragement and perspective-and
someone to grow with as an innovator.
EDUCATING ALL THE CITY’S CHILDREN
Gerry House, Superintendent. Moving from Chapel Hill to Memphis City Schools
Plan:
-Apply the same principles of leadership that had worked in Chapel Hill.
-Arrived two months early to get to know school board.
-Visited churches and schools to get to know community leaders and the
people in the community.
Developing the mission statement
What do we want our school district to be?
Memphis City Schools will educate all children to become successful citizens and
productive workers in the twenty-first century.
Goals adopted by school system and community:
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Higher achievement for all students.
Community support for the schools.(Site-based management)
Greater investment in staff.
A new kind of accountability for student achievement.
Promise Street School-A vision of what can be
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Same demographics as system
One percent dropout rate
All students would learn through discovery and pursuing answers to questions
Attendance rate and student achievement improvement
Children learn to read from 6-8 years in order to master other subjects
Technology and staff development to allow all administrators to evaluate their
own schools
A Bridge to the Next Century
CROSSING THE BRIDGE TO THE NEXT CENTURY:
1. A new belief system
• Academic performance
• Responsibility and accountability
2. Higher standards(community developed and owned)
• Capabilities-reading, math, writing, technology, and citizenship
• Content standards(set by teachers)-courses required for graduation
Algebra I, & II, geometry, chemistry, physics, biology, foreign
language, and the arts.
3. School reform
• Redesign schools to achieve goals
– New American Schools (NAS) design
– Partnership with outside organization
• Must meet all aspects of school
– Heavy investment in staff development and self accountability
for student performance
Crossing the bridge continued
Thirty-two schools (of 162) adopted a new design
Increased state test scores
The following year all 162 schools adopted reforms
Scores improved during the first five years
Parents were more interested in schools
Open enrollment
Superintendent works closely with principals
Principal’s Academy every August and seminars
4. Support for families and children (years 6-8)
• Provided children with high-quality pre school experiences from birth to age
five.
• Work with teenage mothers to develop parenting skills and reading skills.
• Helped adults in the community to earn GED.
What is Our Core Purpose?
MIAMI UNIVERSITY AT OHIO MODEL
Organization must know the importance of having a clear understanding of their
fundamental purpose.
 Why do we exist?
 What do we want to accomplish?
 What do we believe about teaching and learning?
GUIDING IDEAS-SHARED VISIONS THAT SHAPE AND RESHAPE THE
ORGANIZATION.
 What do we stand for?
 What do we desire to create?
 What pushes our thinking?
 How can school leaders transform schools?
REFLECTIVE/TRANSFORMATIVE LEADERSHIP-The
Process
Valued dialogue and skillful discussionteam learning on small basis.
 Deliberated on the definition of leadership.
 Talked about the cultural, political, and moral contexts of schools.
 Discussed school leadership as a moral and craft practice.
 Utilized outside facilitators.
 Resolved mental models and articulated deeply held beliefs.
*PROCESS EXEMPLIFIES THE DEVELOPMENT OF A SHARED
VISION THROUGH TEAM LEARNING.
END RESULT OF MIAMI OF OHIO PROJECT
• Two year lengthy process.
• Only doctoral program in Ed. Administration in Ohio to receive exemplary
rating.
• Teaching is more powerful and transformative.
• Teaching practices considered within context of the community.
GUIDING PRINCIPALS IN SUMMATION
• Educational leadership must be reconstructed so that transformation of schools
becomes its central focus.
• The primary goal of public schools is to educate children for the
responsibilities of citizenship.
• School leadership is an intellectual, moral, and craft practice.
Guiding Principles Continued
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Educational practice must be informed by critical reflection.
Leadership is not equated with positions in a bureaucracy.
Diversity is a necessary element of education.
There must be a commitment to community.
MAKING A DANGEROUS SUBJECT SAFE
The Goshen Central High School-”Learning Activism”
How do students foster a shared vision for a school and galvanize a school
community?
Current Reality
Triangle Of Design, Circle of Culture
Predetermined Uncertainty
The $19,000 Question
Success to the Successful
Shifting the Burden
A System Diagnoses Itself
The Great Game of High School
1. Triangle of Design, Circle of
Culture
• Culture is rooted deeply in
people. It is embodied in
their attitudes, values, and
skills which stem from
personal backgrounds, life
experiences, and
communities in which
they belong.
How can culture be changed?
Change the structure!
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Policies
Practices
Rules
By-laws
Channels of authority
*The relationship between culture
and structure produces change
in people.
School Culture
School Culture
Attitudes
Values
Skills
High Performing Schools
Teachers feel:
School Communities are marked by:
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Invigorated
Challenged
Professionally engaged
Empowered
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Reflective dialogue
Unity of purpose
Collective focus on student learning
Collaboration and norms of sharing
Openness to improvement
Deprivation of practice and critical
review
Trust and respect
Renewal of community
Supportive and knowledge leadership
Domain of Action
Efforts you can make to create a culture of learning.
Focus your action by:
• Guiding Ideas
• New Organizational Arrangements
• New Methods and Tools
Guiding Ideas
Statements of principles and values that an
organization stands for.
• Purpose
• Direction
Articulate in an understandable language.
Talking evokes change.
Organizational Arrangements
Means in which resources are made available.
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Decision making structures
Allocation of space and time
Feedback and communication mechanisms
Planning processes
Builders of Learning
The following arrangements have been found to
facilitate the development of professional
community and collective accountability for
student success:
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Scheduling time and space for teachers to talk
Interdependent teaching structure
Physical proximity
Communication structures
Teacher empowerment and school autonomy
Rotating roles
Methods and Tools
• Learning classrooms, schools,
and communities can be built.
Tools help to:
• Foster aspirations
• Promote reflective
conversations
• Develop capability for
conceptualizing complex issues
Valuable tools for building learning
communities:
 Collaborative assessment
conferences
 School quality review
 Visual dialogue
Collaborative Tools
• Triangle will collapse
without the three domains
working together.
2. Pre-Determined Uncertainty
• Looking into the future and predicting
various outcomes through scenario planning
helps organizations develop strategies to
handle any situation that may arise in the
future.
• The scenario planning process is time
consuming.
Cultural Capital
• The prevailing curriculum and the processes
by which it is taught is geared to an uppermiddle-class, white, male, Anglo-Saxon,
and verbal/analytical pattern of thinking.
Strategies for escaping the
“vicious spiral”
Do everything possible to join the “virtuous
spiral” group
Break the rules
Raise awareness of the dynamic as a whole
Shifting the Burden
 Begins with an urgent problem
 Two calls to action
Variation1: Addiction (Losing
our Capability)
• A system becomes addicted to solutions that
don’t really work.
• They become addicted to the quick fix and
unable to escape it.
• Ex. Limiting services and programs in order
to help students pass the test
Variation 2: Shifting the burden
to the Intervenor (The
Professionals)
• The people with the problem become
dependent on the intervention and never
learn to solve problems.
• The insiders or the people are the only ones
that can sustain the changes needed to solve
the problem.
• Ex.Classroom teachers that depend on
special area teachers to solve the problem.
Variation 3: Eroding Goals
(Isolating the Poor Performers)
• When the gap between desired performance
and poor performance grows so great, that
instead of trying to improve performance
people settle for a lower level of
achievement.
• Ex. Schools that prohibit students from
extracurricular activities because of poor
grades.
Communities of Practice Theory
• Organizations tend to conduct their work
less through a hierarchical chain of
command and more through informal
networks of people who pass on messages
and values in thousands of subtle small
ways throughout the day.
Measures That Make a
Difference in “Burnout”
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Dialogue about the “great game” of high school
Offer a variety of extracurricular activities
Recruit burnout faculty
Set up representative elections for student council
Consider multi-grade classrooms
Link the shared vision process to shared vision efforts
Involve everyone
Toward A New Model of Educational Leadership
Four components to leading without control:
Engagement
- Diagnosing
- Reflecting
- Identifying
Systems Thinking
Leading Learning
Self-Awareness
2. Peer Partners
Benefits
Set agenda.
Cultivate relationships.
Bring insights and resources home.
Encourage bold initiatives.
Set examples.
Give change time.
Create a safe place.
3. The Superintendent’s Progress (PM, SV)
Phase I.
Phase II.
Phase III.
Phase IV.
“Lone Ranger”
Relationship Builder
Emerging Learner
Leader
The most critical role of the central office is
supporting learning about learning.
4. A School Board That Learns (SV, TL)
The school board in Alameda, CA
Developed a vision statement of what the district should look
like in 2004.
The Barriers Built Into The System
“Command-and-control” budgeting
Board members influenced by the constituencies.
Parents want things the way it’s always been.
Constant turnover.
Limited team learning.
Media critical of mental modes discipline.
Physical setup of the meeting room not conducive.
Toward a Learning School Board
Create a public record of private conversations.
Resist the temptation to invoke business examples.
Keep returning to the observable data.
Set up alternative meeting formats.
Practice talking about values.
Model the behavior you want from the schools.
5. Feet to the Fire (SV, TL)
NAU revamped its liberal studies program.
All courses had to be
- coherent
- relevant
- sustainable
Plans were shared and modified.
Faculty members were slow to embrace a new program.
Under the Gun
Implementation
Commitment and mutual respect
Building a shared commitment
Key to building commitment:
- setting some ground rules
- establishing a set of group guidelines.
Establishing Ground Rules
Utilize the “ladder of influence” (p. 68).
Balance advocacy and inquiry (p. 222).
Honor confidentiality.
Overcoming Resistance
Met with departments.
Assumed conflict presents opportunities.
Teaching As An Intellectual And Community Activity
Involved conversations among students and teachers.
Focused on teaching as opposed to learning.
Shift from being teaching organizations to learning organizations.
6. Learning as Governing and Governing
as Learning (PM, SV, TL, MM, ST)
The Chelmsford Public Charter School story
In 1995 a group of parents in a middle class Boston suburb
used the five learning disciplines to design a public school
that all the constituents - administrators, parents, teachers,
and students - could cocreate together.
Co-creating A Vision For The School
School Board
Set up a school where all were continual learners.
Teachers
Attended conferences and were trained.
Principal
Modeled the learning disciplines.
Students
Learned by practicing in real-life situations.
Sharing The Governance
The school board and staff met and reached a consensus.
The students present ideas to the school board/staff members.
The students help solve problems.
“You Don’t Get Letter Grades, Do You?”
Graded as “novice, apprentice, proficient, or distinguished.”
Marked “not yet successful, successful, highly successful, and
very highly successful.”
Given a set of objectives for projects.
Do real-life skill work.
Do quality work.
Make up work.
Assessed with rubrics.
Given pop quizzes.
Check in homework.
Sustaining The Effort
Every year the school examines what’s been done.
It asks the question: What can we improve on and where do
we need to go now?