Disciplined Collaboration: Professional Learning with Impact

Disciplined Collaboration: Professional Learning with Impact ■■■■■ ....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... Disciplined Collaboration: Professional Learning with Impact Michelle Jones and Alma Harris call for professional learning with impact – which means moving away from traditional training programmes and towards collaboration with colleagues on real issues that will make a difference to practice in the classroom. They show how this is being delivered through their Disciplined Collaboration approach being pioneered in Australia. 14 ■■■฀Introduction Without question, high quality professional learning is critical to school and system improvement. A great deal of evidence reinforces that professional learning is the key to improving teacher quality and improving learner outcomes. But efective professional learning is easier said than done. To make any real or lasting diference Policy and practice ■■■฀A Question of Impact Around the globe, every year, thousands of teachers routinely participate in hundreds of hours of professional development and training. he implicit assumption is that attending courses equates with professional learning and that by participating in these events somehow professional practice will change. Now without question, there are some good courses, powerful programmes and efective professional learning sessions. But the return on this large-scale investment, in the form of improved professional practice that leads to better learning outcomes, is still highly questionable. here are a number of key reasons. First, many professional learning programmes or courses assume knowledge gained from such training can be readily transferred. In other words that ideas, knowledge and skills gained in one situation can be easily applied to another. Conversely, evidence would suggest that changes in professional behaviour or classroom practice are more likely to result from job embedded learning or learning in context. Second, teachers still tend go to external training or professional development events alone. hey experience the training independently and however good that training might be, ....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... to pedagogy and professional practice professional learning has to be focused, rigorous and purposeful. While we know that collaboration among teachers is a powerful form of professional learning. If it is to have any sustained impact there has to be a clear methodology or theory of action that is consistently used. In summary, professional learning with impact has to be ‘disciplined’ (Harris and Jones, 2012) So much of what passes as collaborative professional learning may score high on professional engagement, entertainment or enjoyment but can often rate fairly low on measures of efectiveness, usefulness or impact. he world of professional learning is full of hyperbole, assumption and commercial opportunism but often woefully devoid of concrete evidence concerning impact and outcomes. In the professional learning literature, the issue of ‘what, if any, diference does professional development or learning actually make’ is not predominantly centre stage. 15 the possibility of convincing colleagues back at schools of its merits will be low. It is like telling someone about a really good ilm that you watched. Second hand, it simply doesn’t have the same have efect. hird, much depends on the quality of the training and its relevance to the participating teacher or teachers. Much of the professional learning ield is still driven by commercial interest where proitability rather than applicability is the main goal. Consequently, the latest fads or fashions are quickly re-packaged, marketed and made available to teachers not because they are the best thing but simply because they are the latest thing. Finally and most importantly, there is still a predominant view that professional learning is primarily about the teacher and not the learner. Now clearly the teacher is important, as this is where professional expertise resides but the focus or endpoint of professional learning should be the learner. Can you imagine a doctor or dentist attending a training session on the use of a new drug or technique and then choosing not to apply that learning for the direct beneit of their patients? hat would seem ludicrous. But so often, that is exactly what happens with so much professional learning and development. Teachers engage with the training, possibly enjoy it and even learn from it, ill in the happy sheet and leave. It is as if the training is the end in itself rather than a means to an end. While there are many programmes, courses and training sessions that are not like this but they are still in relatively short supply. here is still far too much professional learning without impact. So what does professional learning with impact look like, necessitate and require? If you were to ask teachers this question, the short and honest answer is not a professional course, not an external programme not even a Masters degree. here is still little independent evidence to corroborate that these forms of professional learning correlate signiicantly with sustained changes in professional practice. Courses and programmes can develop professional knowledge and understanding. Masters programmes can introduce teachers to theory, research and forms of systematic enquiry. However, time and time again teachers say that it is relevant and appropriate guidance from a colleague that would be most likely to change their professional practice. Disciplined Collaboration: Professional Learning with Impact ■■■■■ Collaborating with colleagues in a systematic way on a real issue or problem is still the most powerful form of professional learning we have. Frequently, this is the response that school leaders and teachers give when asked the question, ‘what has inluenced your professional practice most?’ It comes down to one thing and one thing only - the advice, expertise or guidance from trusted peers. Now before rushing headlong to the conclusion that ‘coaching or mentoring’ is the ready-made answer to professional learning with impact, think again. Even though coaching and mentoring is fundamentally about collaboration, mutual trust, professional dialogue etc. there is no automatic guarantee of impact. While a great deal of emphasis, and indeed investment, is placed upon mentoring and coaching as a productive form of professional learning, the many claims made about its beneits need some qualiication. Any causal relationship between coaching or mentoring and improvements in learner outcomes remains largely unsubstantiated (Darling Hammond et al, 2009). ....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... ■■■฀Meaningful Collaboration 16 here are studies that show that when the mentoring or coaching activities have a clear instructional focus, then this professional interaction does enhance teacher performance and learner outcomes. For example, where coaches are used speciically to improve the teaching of literacy or maths in schools in a ‘hands-on’ way, they can make a diference. However, when coaching is a form of quasi counselling among professionals the sum is signiicantly less than the parts. he important point here is that when coaching or mentoring has a clear instructional focus and that expertise, rather than just experience, is genuinely and authentically shared with others, the efects can be dramatic. Where coaching or mentoring is just a free fall into low-level emotional handholding then the opposite is true. If coaching or mentoring amounts to little more than a ‘learning conversation’ without substance, then once again the beneits claimed for this form of professional learning will not be fully realised. Where such conversations are content-free or where coaching or mentoring is little more than a form of mutual therapy the net efect will be zero, in terms of positive changes Policy and practice A major literature review, conducted as part of an Institute for Education Sciences evaluation of the Reading First program, reported mixed findings on the impact of coaching on improving instructional practice. It was noted that unless the instructional practices promoted through the processes of mentoring or coaching are in and of themselves effective then a positive impact on teaching and learning is unlikely. Changes to professional practice require much more than simply sharing or processing ideas or questions through mutual relection or discussion. Even with clear guidelines or rubrics, much will depend upon the level of expertise of those participating in the ‘learning conversation’ and their skill at being able to analyse, relect and co-construct through mutual dialogue. ....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... to instructional practice. Teachers may feel a whole lot better but this may be only tangible outcome. 17 ■■■฀Professional Learning with Impact To have a true impact, professional learning, in whatever shape or form it takes, needs a clear model or theory of action to support, structure and guide the professional learning. Comments such as ‘the collaborative work had an impact because teachers talked about positive changes in the classroom’ or ‘the collaborative work has made a diference as teachers say that they now communicate more and share materials between schools’ is simply not good enough. hese statements reveal a high degree of buy in or a ‘belief’ that change has happened but little more. At this juncture, many would argue that not every professional learning experience or professional development programme can, or indeed, should have an impact on student learning. So then why on earth invest in it in the irst place? Surely, the whole point of professional learning is to bring about positive change in the classroom, to improve learning, to have an impact on learners? Otherwise why bother? If we are serious about changing professional practice rather than simply Disciplined Collaboration: Professional Learning with Impact ■■■■■ across Australia. The programme commenced in November 2012 and the long-term aim is to generate local approaches to innovation and change that can be shared more widely across the system. he ‘Disciplined Collaboration’ work is part of the broader and extensive implementation of a ‘Charter for the Professional Learning of Teachers and School Leaders’. his Charter states that a high quality professional learning culture will be characterised by ‘a focus on the professional learning that is most likely to be efective in improving professional practice and student outcomes’ (AITSL, 2013) Based on international research, the Charter identiies effective professional learning as being ‘relevant, ....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... conirming that practice, then it is imperative to invest in the most powerful forms of professional learning i.e. those that make a diference to learning and learners. In Australia, a new programme is currently underway that aims to support professional learning with impact through using a model of disciplined professional collaboration (Harris and Jones, 2012). he ‘Australian Institute of Teaching and School Leadership’ (AITSL, 2013) is currently piloting the ‘Disciplined Collaboration and Evaluation of Professional Learning (DCEPL)’ programme with seven schools in six states 18 collaborative and future focused’ (AITSL, 2013). It also identiies the importance of developing a learning culture within a school and underlines that professional learning should be based on changing teachers practice to meet students’ learning needs. As highlighted above, this is easier said than done. Consequently, the current programme of ‘Disciplined Collaboration’ is intended to provide a platform, an infrastructure and a way of working to support school leaders and teachers in turning the aspiration of professional learning with impact into a day-to-day reality. ■■■฀Disciplined Collaboration here is insuicient scope in this article to describe the ‘Disciplined Collaboration’ model in full, and so what follows is a very brief overview of the model with a few preliminary observations about the progress made, to date, by schools in Australia. Initially, it is important to clarify what makes the DC model a departure from previous or existing models of professional collaboration. It could be claimed that this is just old wine in new bottles - but there are two major diferences. First, within the DC model teachers are trying out new collaborative strategies while simultaneously trialling and reining new pedagogical approaches. In other words they are ‘learning to connect’ while Policy and practice ■ Collaboration (establish the group; scrutinise data and evidence to define students needs; identify a focus and method of enquiry; agree impact measures), ■ Innovation (enquire into new pedagogical practices and new collaborative approaches and then trialling them; relentless review of student learning to inform refinement of strategies and practice) and ■ Impact (monitor, assess and analyse the impact on learner outcomes resulting from changes to pedagogy). With disciplined collaboration (DC) teachers use a consistent methodology to share ideas, enquire together, to apply new knowledge and to reine their evaluative skills in a supportive environment (AITSL, 2013). he DC model is premised and predicated upon teachers working interdependently in order to address an issue or problem facing a speciic group of learners, identiied through the collective analysis of data. hrough a process of systematic and focused collaborative enquiry, the aim is to trail, reine and test new classroom practices and approaches that can make a positive diference to learning and learners. ....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... developing, trialling and reining new professional practices. In other models, it is assumed that the skills of collaboration and the interdependent ways of working are natural, innate or self-evident. Not so. As in any form of team or group work, collaborative working is a skill that has to be learned. To collaborate or connect in order to learn, teachers need to irst ‘learn to connect’. Second, unlike many other collaborative models, impact is built in from the outset. he DC model requires teachers to engage in continuous consideration of student data in order to monitor progress and gauge impact throughout all three stages. Within the DC model, impact is not an afterthought; it is not re-engineered or recycled feedback. It is not a bolt-on piece of congratulatory self-report. Impact is at the core of the DC model. It is embedded in each of the three stages through the continuous scrutiny of the evidence about student learning. he three stages of the DC model are as follows: 19 Evidence shows that the most efective collaborative teams or professional learning communities are not those that seek solutions to self-evident problems. Instead, they collectively enquire and investigate in order to highlight a problem to address in imaginative and new ways. Efective collaborative teams are problem seeking and not problem solving. his requires mutual enquiry, reciprocal accountability and risk taking - but it also requires discipline. If collaborative working is to be truly innovative, it also has to be rigorous and adopt a consistent and systematic methodology. Here systematic does not mean systematised with implications of control and routinized behaviour. Rather systematic means that the collaboration is focused, carefully planned and ultimately aimed at generating new ideas, understanding and knowledge that will make a diference to professional practice and ultimately to learner outcomes. Initial data from the schools in Australia reveals that the DC model is increasingly defining and refining collaborative professional learning within the participating schools. Emerging evidence shows a shift in the extent, nature and density of collaborative professional practice and a consistent focus on creating new professional understanding, knowledge and skills focused upon improved learner outcomes. Inevitably, the schools are at diferent stages in the DC process but some of the schools are already able to demonstrate that their collective work is making a diference to teaching and learning. In one school, the focus is upon improving spelling through using consistent, efective and transparent spelling strategies across the school and making these strategies explicit to learners so they can be better at spelling. his is not just a spelling policy but instead is a concerted efort to change pedagogy in order to improve learners’ metacognitive abilities and their ability to spell. In another school, every teacher is in a collaborative team that has a speciic learner need to address. hese teams are adopting the DC methodology to frame their collective enquiry with the prime purpose of changing and improving pedagogical practice so that learner outcomes change. As the programme continues, the descriptions of DC practice will become richer and more detailed. Ultimately, the progress made will depend Disciplined Collaboration: Professional Learning with Impact ■■■■■ Not a soft option Meaningful changes in classroom practice don’t just happen; they occur through careful design and hard work. New professional learning involves trying something different, working at it, feeling uncomfortable or frustrated, and adapting, reining or changing practice as a direct result. he bad news is that the DC model is not a soft or easy option. It requires diligence, patience and relentless persistence to make the professional collaboration truly efective. It is not something that happens just once. It is not something that springs from an inspiring professional development course and then disappears forever. It is not just the latest gimmick geared to entertain rather than educate. ....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... upon the teachers themselves and their collective will, skill and persistence to improve learner outcomes. Disciplined collaboration is hard work, as those working in the Australian schools will testify. At the heart of the model is a fundamental belief that teachers working together in a systematic, rigorous and focused way can change professional practice for the better and in so doing can make a positive diference to learner outcomes. Other than focused professional collaboration, there is little else has the power to improve learning and teaching so signiicantly. Consequently, we know how to secure professional learning with impact. his is the good news. he challenge now is to make it happen. Alma Harris is Professor at the Institute of Educational Leadership, University of Malaya. Michelle Jones is Deputy Director at the Institute of Educational Leadership, University of Malaya. References: Australian Institute of Teaching School Leadership (AITSL) (2013) Disciplined Collaboration and Evaluation of Teaching and Learning (DCEPL) AITSL http://www.learn.aitsl.edu.au/node/88 ■ Carmichael, L. (1982). Leaders as learners: A possible dream. Educational Leadership, 40(1) ■ Dufour, R. and Eaker, B.(2009) New Insights into Professional Learning Communities at Work in Fullan, M (2009) The Challenge of Change, Corwin Press, CA ■ Earl L. et al (2006) How Networked Learning Communities Worked, Vol 1, The Report, Aporia ■ Elmore, R. F. (2002) Bridging the Gap Between Standards and Achievement: The Imperative for Professional Development in Education. Washington, DC: Albert Shanker Institute. ■ Hargreaves, D.H. (2011) Leading the Self Improving School, Nottingham, National College. ■ Hargreaves, D. (2011) Leading a Self-Improving System, Nottingham, National College. ■ Harris, A. (2009) Evaluation of D and R (Leadership) Networks, SSAT and NCSL ■ Harris, A. (2012) AERA Educational Change Special Interest Group, ‘Lead the Change Series’ Issue No. 20 March 2012 ■ Harris, A. and Jones, M. (2011) Professional Learning Communities in Action, Leannta Press. ■ Harris A. and Jones M. (2012) Connect to Learn: Learn to Connect. Professional Development Today Vol. 14, Issue 4. LEARNING WITHOUT LIMITS 1 Using art to develop critical and creative thinking By Tony Hurlin Price: £65.00 plus VAT Includes whole school licence so you can put it on your virtual learning environment How to challenge and involve pupils of all abilities by teaching the key skills of critical and creative thinking through paintings, pictures and prints. The materials in this pack will help all teachers to: • Recognise the value of building a repertoire of techniques, to teach thinking through looking at examples of important art • Learn and understand the core principles of critical and creative thinking and how to apply these in all lessons • Explore 6 techniques in detail and learn how to apply these to lessons they have already planned • Reine and adapt the techniques to meet the needs of speciic groups of pupils including able learners • Develop conidence in talking and learning at deeper levels of meaning with all pupils This pack uses thinking and interpretion skills as part of critical skills development at KS2 and as a practical application for the principals of the Intelligent Learning Learning Without Limits 1 Programme. It can be integrated with the Intelligent has been created through Learning Programme or used on its own. looking at the practical experiences of teachers It includes a teacher’s handbook, CD-ROM with seeking to foster critical and powerpoint presentation and seven A4 laminated creative thinking abilities in all their pupils. reproductions of paintings discussed in the handbook. 20 Order Hotline: 0121 224 7599 or visit www.teachingtimes.com