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Chapter 1
Inspiration to Change
How do you increase the morale of teachers so that they embrace new initiatives, without overwhelming the teachers and administrators with new responsibilities?
One of the greatest challenges leaders face is motivating teachers to incorporate best practices, especially tenured teachers who sometimes ignore innovations. Improving teacher effectiveness is a difficult undertaking for several reasons. Educators are already overwhelmed with social and academic responsibilities. Most educators already have developed habits of working alone instead of with colleagues, which hinders the improvement process. Experienced teachers have seen innovations come and go; therefore, they resist new programs. The format of workshops and other trainings often ignores principles of adult learning, making it difficult to internalize new information. The public educational system is structured in such a way that educators, regardless of their effectiveness, receive the same recognition and pay as their colleagues. As a result, enthusiastic teachers gradually lose motivation to improve.
Scenario
Mr. Rodriguez is a principal at Cedar Ridge Middle School. Test scores in language arts and math have not improved in the past two years. Fearing that his school might be placed on the district's list of schools in need of improvement, he feels pressured to make some changes, so he visits several high-performing schools to learn more about their programs. He also spends hours applying for grants that would allow his school to adopt several of these programs. Wanting to provide his teachers with the best training possible, Mr. Rodriguez arranges for presenters from several companies to come to his school at the beginning of the year and introduce new ways of teaching reading, writing, and math. Because the district has placed a strong emphasis on curricular integration, all teachers are required to attend the workshops, regardless of what they teach.
Mr. Rodriguez enthusiastically greets his teachers as they arrive for the first workshop; however, many of these teachers do not share his enthusiasm. Comments such as "Here we go again!" and "Why do we have to do this?" are overheard as teachers shuffle to their seats (nontenured teachers up front and experienced teachers near the back where they can carry on quiet conversations throughout the training).
Over the next three days, one of two things happens. Some of the presenters share enormous amounts of information, requiring teachers to flip quickly through piles of resource materials. Other presenters offer little or no insight. Much to his dismay, Mr. Rodriguez notices that his teachers' morale seems to deteriorate with each passing day. However, he reassures himself that once the school year gets under way they will find time to read the materials provided by the training and incorporate these new programs.
Several months later, Mr. Rodriguez notices that most of the training resources sit unopened on teachers' shelves. Even those who were excited at the time of the training aren't implementing the programs. With constant threats and reminders, Mr. Rodriguez can get his teachers to use bits and pieces of the training, but once he stops pestering them, they continue with the same routines they have used for years.
Theory
Professional development must include three important components to be meaningful: (1) all training activities should incorporate principles of adult learning; (2) professional development ought to provide teachers with multiple, varied exposures to new information; and (3) staff development should encourage teachers to practice new skills until they can apply what they have learned.
Application of principles of adult learning increases the productivity of professional development. The theory of andragogy, popularized in the United States by Malcolm Knowles (1980), proposes several basic assumptions about adult learning:
- Adults need to be self-directing. Autonomy is fundamental to adult learning. Allowing teachers to choose professional development of personal interest increases the likelihood that they will transfer newfound knowledge into classroom instruction. However, the degree of teacher autonomy should equal their developmental needs as discussed in Chapter 3.
- Adults have accumulated a vast reservoir of life experiences that should be tapped throughout the learning process. Teachers value the experience they have gained through years of teaching. Ignoring these experiences can lead to resistance, defensiveness, or withdrawal from the learning activity. Thus, the more effectively innovations are linked to teachers' previous experiences, the more likely they will accept new practices. Collaboration, when used appropriately, can help teachers make this connection. Because adults rely heavily on past experiences to learn new information, it is unrealistic to expect teachers to abandon everything they have previously used to fully and completely embrace new innovations. As a result, strategies implemented by teachers are seldom identical to the way strategies were originally presented.
- Adults learn when they feel a need to learn. Knowles (1972) explains, "The adult ā¦ comes into an educational activity largely because he is experiencing some inadequacy in coping with current life problems" (p. 36). Unless educators feel dissatisfied with some aspect of their teaching performance, chances are good they will not feel a need to learn something new. The secret to success is helping educators develop a strong desire or need to learn without discouraging them. Assessment and evaluation, when used appropriately, can create this need.
- Adults are performance centered. For this reason, they are interested in learning practical information that can be applied to help them solve real-life problems. When planning professional development, ensure that each training session provides meaningful strategies that can be applied immediately; otherwise, teachers are unlikely to transfer what they learn to the classroom.
- Adult learning is primarily intrinsically motivated (Knowles, 1984). Teacher participation in learning activities is based on personal needs rather than externally imposed requirements to encourage teacher participation. According to Stephen Brookfield (1986), intimidation or coercion has no place in motivating adult participation.
In summary, the ideal learning environment for teachers is one that values individual professional expertise, allowing them to choose practical strategies of personal interest that can be immediately applied to solve problems in the classroom.
Individuals learn and retain information when the learning process involves multiple and varied exposures to content over a fairly short period of time (Nuthall, 1999; Nuthall & Alton-Lee, 1995; Rovee-Collier, 1995). Rather than presenting excessive information through one-shot workshops, professional development should be a daily, ongoing process in which teachers study small amounts of information in detail and then apply this information multiple times in a variety of circumstances.
Practice bridges the gap between knowledge and application. According to Marzano, Pickering, and Pollock (2001b), individuals need to practice a new skill about 24 times before they reach 80 percent competency. Professional development must be presented in a manner that provides teachers with multiple opportunities to practice new strategies, in order to reach a level of competency where teachers feel comfortable applying what they have learned.
Implementing Fusion
Step 1: Identify best practices.
The motivational system of Fusion is based on the pursuit of best practices. The use of effect size can be helpful to schools when determining the effectiveness of instructional techniques. "An effect size expresses the increase or decrease in achievement of the experimental group (the group of students who are exposed to a specific instructional technique) in standard deviation units" (Marzano et al., 2001b, p. 4). Researcher Jacob Cohen (1988) explains that an effect size of 0.20 can be considered small, an effect size of 0.50 can be considered medium, and an effect size of 0.80 can be considered large (pp. 25ā26).
Although it is important to use research to identify best practices, many exceptional teachers use effective strategies that perhaps have not been researched to the extent that an effect size has been determined. Disregarding these practices for the lack of a formal research base would do a great disservice to education. Therefore, use common sense as well as formal research when identifying best practices.
Step 2: Provide teachers with a Menu of Alternatives.
As best practices are identified, place them in categories (see Figure 1.1). The Menu of Alternatives is meant to be versatile. Schools are encouraged to add or eliminate practices or categories based on methodologies schools value.
Figure 1.1. Menu of Alternatives
Strategies | Level 1: $50 | Level 2: 2 points
Venn diagram
Reciprocal teaching
Decision making
Making connections
Determining importance
Management | Level 1: $75 | Level 2: 3 points
Rules and procedures
Carrying out discipline actions
Teacher and student relationships
Maintaining an appropriate mental set
Technology | Level 1: $100 | Level 2: 4 points
Activstudio
Podcasts
PowerPoint
Approaches | Level 1: $300 | Level 2: 12 points
Identifying similarities and differences
Reinforcing effort and providing recognition
Nonlinguistic representation
Sustained Silent Reading
Assessment | Level 1: $200 | Level 2: 8 points
Pre- and post-test
Periodic assessments
Teacher goals
Student goals
Student binders
Programs | Level 1: $400 | Level 2: 16 points
Accelerated Math
Reading Renaissance
Rebecca Sitton Spelling
Writing Workshop
Curriculum | Level 1: $500 | Level 2: 20 points
Enhance personal knowledge
Deliver quality instruction
Measure student progress
Organize unit binder
Strategies are single instructional techniques that facilitate the learning process. They generally are simple and straightforward. For example, the Venn diagram is a strategy that enhances learning.
Mike has been teaching for 20 years. He would like to refine his skills by learning how to use metaphors to teach content. At the beginning of the school year, he chooses "Metaphors" from the Menu of Alternatives. Throughout the year, as teachers participate in Fusion, Mike learns how to incorporate metaphors into his instruction.
Any technique or mannerism used by teachers to maintain safe, comfortable, and orderly environments that preserve the dignity of students, promote high expectations, and maximize on-task behavior would be placed under classroom management.
Megan is a first-year teacher. Similar to other new teachers, she struggles with classroom management issues. Her principal has advised her to learn more about classroom procedures. Megan selects "Rules and Procedures" from the Menu of Alternatives and then studies How to Be an Effective Teacher the First Days of School (Wong & Wong, 2005) to learn how to better manage her classroom.
Technology is divided into two subcategories, the first being teacher centered. A teacher-centered focus on technology encourages competency in the use of word processing, spreadsheets, computerized grading systems, and other sources of technology that facilitate or enhance teachers' ability to meet student needs.
Gwen would like to incorporate the use of technology into her instruction but doesn't know where to begin. Her principal recently purchased interactive whiteboards for every teacher in the school and has encouraged Gwen to learn how to use this technology. To accomplish this goal, she chooses Activstudio (Pearce, 2009) from the Menu of Alternatives and uses Fusion to help her learn the basics of this software.
The second technology focus is student centered, helping students use technology to facilitate learning. Teaching students how to develop multimedia presentations is an example of a student-centered focus on technology.
Stephen has been using Activstudio for two years now. He feels comfortable with his personal competence but would like his students to learn how to use the interactive whiteboard. Stephen sets a goal to teach his students how to use Activstudio to refine their thinking of important concepts presented in class.
Approaches are a combination of two or more strategies used to facilitate the learning process. For example, Identifying Similarities and Differences (Marzano et al., 2001b) is considered an approach to instruction because it contains four strategies: comparing, classifying, metaphors, and analogies. Expertise in each of these strategies is necessary for teachers to truly understand the Identifying Similarities and Differences approach to instruction.
Becky is an English teacher who wants to enhance her ability to teach students how to summarize information and take notes. For this reason, she decides to focus on mastering summarizing and note taking (Marzano et al., 2001b). Her goal is to learn combination note taking, rule-based summarizing, and reciprocal teachingāstrategies that will improve her students' ability to summarize information.
Effective use of formative and summative assessment is a crucial part of education. Formative assessment encourages teachers to closely monitor student progress throughout the learning process, whereas summative assessment determines student competence at the conclusion of a learning experience. Chapter 5 suggests ways educators can increase the productivity of assessment.
Raul is a veteran teacher who wants to better prepare his students for state tests. He decides that aligning formative assessment with state standards will help him monitor student progress more effectively. Therefore, he selects "Assessment" from the Menu of Alternatives and uses Fusion to help him accomplish this goal.
Commercial programs, adopted by schools or districts to target a specific content area, are another category on the Menu of Alternatives. For example, Writing Workshop (Calkins & Martinelli, 2006) is a program that focuses on the specific content area of writing. Programs can be quite complex, requiring great amounts of effort on the teachers' part to learn and implement them.
Springville Elementary School has recently adopted the Rebecca Sitton Spelling program (Sitton, 2006). The principal has made it clear that he wants every teacher to use this program with fidelity. For this reason, the faculty makes Rebecca Sitton the focus of professional development and uses Fusion to learn this program.
Curriculum refers to the development of organized units of instruction that make education relevant to students. Chapter 7 provides guidelines on ways teachers can enhance their personal knowledge of their content area, develop curriculum that corresponds with state and district standards, deliver instruction that engages students in higher levels of Bloom's taxonomy (Bloom, 1956), measure student progress, and organize resources into unit binders that can be used throughout teachers' careers.
Peggy and Rita are 6th grade teachers and have been involved with Fusion for the past four years. They have reached a point where they would like to integrate the strategies they have learned into thematic units of instruction. Therefore, Peggy and Rita's focus for this year is to use time devoted to Fusion to collaboratively develop a unit that is aligned with state standards, incorporates the practices they have learned, and engages students in higher levels of Bloom's taxonomy. Much of their professional development time will be spent searching for high-quality resources and organizing this information into a format they can use from year to year.
Step 3: Encourage teachers to experiment with best practices.
The motivational system of Fusion is divided into two levels of mastery. Level 1 exposes teachers to new instructional practices in a nonthreatening manner.
Fear of failure prevents many individuals, especially adults, from trying new things. For example, adults who have never played basketball more than likely will not join a city basketball league simply because they do not want to embarrass themselves in front of their peers. A similar attitude prevails for teachers who believe attempting new instructional practices means possible failure. For this reason, the purpose of Level 1 is to encourage teachers to take risks by experimenting with new teaching methods in a nonthreatening environment. Teachers with absolutely no summative authorityāthat is, power to fire, give raises, and so forthāoversee Fusion. This approach takes much of the threat out of peer observation. Also, realistic expectations prevent teachers from experiencing failure. As long as teachers have practiced an instructional strategy several times and can demonstrate a basic level of proficiency, they have completed Level 1. Finally, after finishing Level 1, teachers are rewarded with a one-time stipend based on the category of the instructional practice.
Paying teachers a stipend on completion of Level 1 is important. Not all teachers are motivated by money, but many are. The stipend acts as an external motivator to encourage teachers, even hard-to-motivate ones, to experiment with new instructional practices they otherwise would not attempt to learn. Also, similar to how a long-distance runner feels when crossing the finish line at the end of a challenging race, the stipend helps teachers feel a sense of achievement and satisfaction after learning a new instructional practice. This sense of closure is rewarding and motivates teachers to repeat the learning process. Finally, what better way is there to upgrade education than to reward teachers for improving their teaching skills? Rewarding ambitious teachers who continue to develop professionally provides schools with an incentive to attract and retain excellent teachers. Figure 1.1 (p. 16) shows the Menu of Alternatives with stipends assigned to each category. The amounts listed are for illustrative purposes; the amount of the stipend for each c...
