Considerations when Leading Effective Learning Communities
Leading effective learning communities is a worthwhile and
attainable goal for leaders of learning organizations. There are a number of
different small adjustments that a leader can make to move their team along the
continuum of learning. First and foremost for school leaders is focusing your
organization on the goal of effective teaching practices. There are three resources which I would like to highlight that allow you to centre these conversations. Additionally,
teachers must be given time to reflect on their teaching practice. How will
they know if they are being effective? Hattie (2012) in Visible Learning for
Teachers emphasizes the fact that teachers must make a significant impact on
the learning outcomes of their students to be effective. What are some
resources and ways to organize that can help us achieve our greatest potential?
Resources that Help Teachers Focus on the Learning of Students
The first resource is from Sharon Freisen (2009) at the
Werklund School of Education from the University of Calgary. She has given us a
window into effective teaching through the Teaching Effectiveness Framework. Found
within this framework are five overarching principles: teachers as designers of
learning, teachers designing worthwhile work, teachers weaving assessment
throughout their designs, teachers designing in the company of their peers and
teachers fostering the development of relationships between students and their
work. To unpack these ideas a thoughtful and intentional design on the part of
school leadership regarding professional learning is required. Leaders need to
think carefully of how they can organize opportunities to dig deep into these
principles such that teachers learn and reflect on their own practice. One such
approach is the use of case studies. There is a wealth of these found at
galileo.org in their classroom examples. Reviewing each these principles in
action, provides insights that are much greater than simply discussing them.
The second resource is from Dylan Wiliam’s five principles
of formative assessment found in his book, Embedded Formative Assessment. Friesen
(2009) recognizes this as one of the five principles of teaching effectiveness
and Wiliam contends, supported by extensive research, that this teaching
practice is the one that has the most significant impact on student outcomes.
His five principles include: clearly communicating learning intentions and
success criteria, facilitating effective classroom discussions to gather
information on what students understand, providing feedback that moves the
learning forward, activating students as learning resources for one another and
activating learners as owners of their own learning. Each one of these
principles requires a deep of study and reflection, which is more successful in
the company of others. They form the foundation of a common language for
teachers about moving learning forward and most importantly are grounded in
current research.
The final resource that I would like to highlight comes from
the Galileo Educational Network at the University of Calgary. The DisciplineBased Inquiry Rubric contains 8 dimensions for consideration. Each one could be
reframed into a question to promote teacher reflection on the design of a
lesson or series of lessons that they have designed on a particular topic. For
example: How does your design mirror the ways of knowing inherent in the
discipline?, How does your lesson provide opportunities for students to develop
competencies such as team work and perseverance?, What technologies could you
use that would be junior versions of what is commonly used in the
discipline?, What forms of
communications will they use that are inherent to the discipline? Have you
considered having an expert help to inform your design or to move students
learning forward? Each one of these questions highlights the core ideas of
discipline based inquiry by design. Using questions like these can sponsor
teacher reflection on the things that matter when it comes to designing
worthwhile work.
Structures to Support Teacher Learning
Dylan Wiliam (2015) also gives us some insight through his
work on leading teacher learning on how to promote these conversations from a
structural view. Firstly, he highlights the importance of structuring time and space
for what he refers to as the signature pedagogy of teacher learning. There must
be an expectation on the part of school leadership that teachers will work
collaboratively. Teachers must have a common understanding of what it means to
be professional, to centre their work on student learning and how to work
within a collaborative community. Having groups of teachers get together in an
ongoing and thoughtful way, centering their conversations on artifacts of
student learning or on the design of their lesson, where they can receive
feedback on their designs and make sound decisions about their next steps is
central to teacher learning.
He advocates for the formation of two learning communities
with whom staff should connect. One of the groups will include members of staff
who share a common content area. Discipline based inquiry that is designed by
teachers must be ground in a sound understanding of the discipline and the
content for which the teachers are expected to teach. Within this group,
teachers can ask for clarification, and share in the expertise of the
individuals who are teaching the same content information.
The second learning community would be composed of
individuals who are of different faculties or grade level groupings. The
conversations within these groups would be on sound pedagogy. Exploring and
probing each other for big ideas in effective teaching like: What are your
learning intentions?, How is this authentic to your discipline?, How are you planning
to assess these students prior to their summative evaluations?, How could you
make this task more rigorous? These types of probes, promoting teacher
reflection on their designs for learning would help the individual teacher move
their teaching practices along the continuum of effective teaching. Additionally these groups could focus on
student work. Using the looking at the work protocol (LAST) from visible
thinking, teachers could uncover what students are able to do, where they need
to go next and then plan for that.
Although time to meet is often offered as a barrier to
undertaking this structural shift, leaders of learning organizations should
consider how to find the time, giving the professional learning of their staff
priority. As Vivian Robinson (2011) highlights, there is no greater impact a
leader can have on the outcomes of students other than through the thoughtful
and intentional design of professional learning within a building on the part
of school leadership.
References
Friesen, S. (2009). What did you do in school today? Teaching Effectiveness: A
Framework and Rubric. Toronto: Canadian Education Association.
Galileo Educational Network Association (2008). Discipline Based Rubric for Inquiry Studies.
Retrieved from http://galileo.org/rubric.pdf
on October 20, 2015
Harvard Project Zero. Visible Thinking (n.d.). Looking At Student Thinking (LAST) Protocol.
Retrieved from: http://www.visiblethinkingpz.org/VisibleThinking_html_files/05_SchoolWideCultureOfThinking/05c_StudyGroupMaterials/02_LASTRoutine.html
on October 20, 2015
Hattie,
J. (2012). Visible learning for Teachers. Routledge (New York & London).
Robinson, V.M.J. (2011). Student-
Centred Leadership. San Francisco, CA: Jossey Bass.
Wiliam, D. (2011b). Embedded formative assessment.
Bloomington, IN: Solution Tree.
Wiliam, D. (2015). Sustaining classroom Formative
Assessment with TLCs. Presentation at NCSM, Boston, MA, April. Retrieved
from: http://www.dylanwiliam.org/Dylan_Wiliams_website/Presentations_files/2015-04-15%20NCSM.pptx
on October 20, 2015.
