Читать книгу How Schools Thrive - Susan K. Sparks - Страница 9
ОглавлениеINTRODUCTION
Coaching-based initiatives are being leveraged and developed to support and change organizational cultures strategically and with positive results.
— HELEN GORMLEY & CHRISTIAN VAN NIEUWERBURGH
In our first book together, Amplify Your Impact: Coaching Collaborative Teams in PLCs at Work (2018), we introduce a framework for coaching collaborative teams in a Professional Learning Community (PLC) at Work. In that book, we share examples of how coaching improves a team’s professional practice around the three big ideas—a focus on learning, a collaborative culture, and a results orientation—and the four critical questions—What do we want our students to know and be able to do?, How will we know when they learn it?, What will we do when they don’t learn it?, and What will we do when they have learned it?—of a PLC (DuFour, DuFour, Eaker, Many, & Mattos, 2016). In this companion book, How Schools Thrive: Building a Coaching Culture for Collaborative Teams in PLCs at Work, we share more concrete ideas and strategies for coaching collaborative teams around the successful implementation of the essential elements of a PLC. We have created this resource to use either in tandem with Amplify Your Impact or separately on its own.
Both texts explicitly advocate for and identify the advantages of a shift from coaching individual teachers to coaching teams of teachers. Both books are grounded in the PLC process and both focus on promoting the development of highly effective collaborative teams. Both Amplify Your Impact and How Schools Thrive are anchored in the concepts of clarity, feedback, and support and promote the use of tools like the strategy implementation guide (SIG) and the Pathways for Coaching Collaborative Teams (pathways; Thomas, 2016) to assist those who coach collaborative teams.
Although the two books share many common elements, they are different in other ways. A useful construct for understanding the differences is based on the work of Ron Heifetz and Marty Linsky (2002). Heifetz and Linsky (2002) believe that change presents itself as a bundle of technical problems and adaptive challenges, but that change never involves exclusively one or the other—technical problems or adaptive challenges. Solutions to technical problems are fairly quick, straightforward, and readily apparent, while answers to adaptive challenges typically take longer, are more nuanced, and are less obvious. Clearly, PLCs have both technical problems and adaptive challenges.
In Amplify Your Impact, we offer specific strategies that help teams with the implementation of the more explicit tasks of PLCs—things like prioritizing and unwrapping standards, identifying learning targets, developing common assessments, holding productive data conversations, and using protocols to ensure that results—not best intentions—drive decisions. These tasks are the most common starting places for schools working to become a PLC and are more closely aligned with the kind of technical problems Heifetz and Linsky describe.
In How Schools Thrive, we shift our attention to coaching teams around the essential elements of the PLC process—continuous improvement, collective inquiry, action orientation, and a focus on results—and make a conscious effort to drill deeper into the more complex aspects of the PLC process. Mastering these PLC essential elements share many of the characteristics Heifetz and Linsky (2002) identify as adaptive challenges.
Taking PLC Practice to the Next Level
In an effort to improve their schools, principals often ask, “What’s the next level of PLC training?” Or they might say, “My staff is ready for the next generation of PLC workshops.” This kind of thinking reflects the notion that advanced training equals advanced content and levels of proficiency, similar to the way algebra II follows algebra 1, but the truth is there is no PLC Plus or PLC 2.0. The elements of the PLC process are constant, and while the big ideas and basic tenets don’t change, what does change is the depth at which teams understand, and the fidelity with which they apply, the PLC process to their teams and in their schools.
During his work in schools, Richard DuFour, one of the architects of the PLC at Work process along with Robert Eaker, often shared that principals frequently asked him about the availability of advanced levels of PLC training. Rick always answered their question same way: “There are no advanced levels of PLC training; we didn’t hold anything back.” He would continue this thought with, “We have shared our best thinking about how to ensure high levels of learning for all; you must now go back to school and do something with what you have learned.” Bob Eaker agreed, adding that while there are no advanced levels of PLC training, he believed that teams can move beyond initial levels to more sophisticated levels of PLC practice.
We agree with both DuFour and Eaker; there are no advanced levels of PLC training, however, there are advanced levels of PLC practice. So, instead of asking about the next level of PLC workshops or training, a better question for principals would be, “How can we move teams to the next level of PLC practice?” For more and more principals, the answer to this question is found in the idea of coaching collaborative teams around improving their professional practice.
Eaker explains that teams in the early stages of the PLC process are focused on “getting started” and improve their practice when they begin to “drill deeper” (personal communication, 2018). When teams are getting started, they focus on putting structures in place. They work on things like developing a common language and establishing norms. They might prioritize and unwrap the standards to identify the highest leverage learning targets. Initial steps might also include designing common assessments, using protocols to facilitate productive data conversations, or creating master schedules that allow students to access more time and support without missing direct instruction in another subject. As terrific as all this work might be, Eaker suggests that improving a team’s practice requires that teams drill deeper into the PLC process.
When teams drill deeper, they work on the same big ideas and basic tenets as other teams that are getting started, but as they drill deeper, these teams acquire new insights, confront new questions, and explore new approaches that may promote higher levels of student learning. For example, teams might shift from analyzing scores generated on traditional assessments to using student work to measure learning or move beyond identifying learning targets to developing learning progressions that describe what proficiency would look like for each of the priority standards. These teams are focusing on the same work as the teams that are getting started, but at a deeper and more sophisticated level.
Eaker believes that not all teams, just like not all students, will learn and make adjustments in the same way, whether they are just getting started or drilling deeper; some teams will grow further and faster than others. He explains that teams can drill deeper by (1) adding more specificity to their practice, (2) monitoring their progress, and (3) celebrating their improvement efforts (personal communication, 2018). Principals, assistant principals, curriculum supervisors, instructional coaches, department chairs—virtually anyone serving in a coaching role—can accomplish all three of these outcomes when they coach collaborative teams.
We see it all the time: coached teams are more effective than uncoached teams, and schools go farther faster when the primary goal of coaching is to help collaborative teams, rather than individual teachers, improve their professional practice. For example, the positive impact of coaching teams was apparent during a recent action research project conducted during the 2018–2019 school year at the elementary level in Macomb County, Michigan (Thomas, 2019). The researcher’s purpose was to ascertain the impact coaching teams have on teachers’ efforts to improve their instructional practice. The project was based on the assumption that the more teachers reflect on their instructional practices as a team, the more likely those practices will improve.
To determine whether coaching has any impact, the researcher observed multiple team meetings, some with a coach present and others without a coach present. The researcher collected data on the number of times teams engaged in self-reflection on their own practices—a hallmark of teams moving from getting started to drilling deeper—and the results were encouraging. When a coach was present in the observed team meetings, teachers reflected on their practice an average of 6.5 times, compared to only 1.6 times when no coach was present. By coaching teams through the PLC process, there is an increased likelihood that teachers will reflect on their practice, thereby increasing the likelihood of improved student achievement.
Eaker makes a persuasive argument in support of coaching collaborative teams (personal communication, 2018), but anecdotal evidence is also beginning to emerge that supports his belief that schools can and do continue to improve their PLC practice. The findings from this action research would suggest that the best way to advance a team’s PLC practice and move them from getting started to drilling deeper is to consciously coach collaborative teams around the work of a PLC.
In Amplify Your Impact and again in How Schools Thrive, we propose that using a set of tools, the SIG and the pathways tool, helps support a coach’s work with collaborative teams in a PLC. It is helpful to consider the tools an airline pilot uses to understand the purpose and differences between these two tools.
Using Tools to Drill Deeper
Most would agree that being a commercial airline pilot is a complex and sophisticated job that takes years of training and hours of practice to master all of the skills necessary to safely fly an airplane. Most would also agree that lives are on the line if a pilot does not execute his or her job responsibilities correctly. Like a pilot, a teacher works a complex and sophisticated job that takes years of training and hours of practice to master the skills required to ensure that all students learn at high levels. It is also true that for a teacher, lives are also on the line.
When a pilot prepares to fly a plane full of passengers to a destination, he or she is required to file a flight plan. The flight plan clarifies where the plane is going and ensures the pilot has thoughtfully planned the most efficient and effective route possible. As the pilot creates the plan, he or she must take into consideration a variety of factors such as distance, weather, and the amount of fuel required to reach the destination. An effective flight plan confirms that the pilot has carefully considered all options and alternatives to ensure the plane safely reaches its destination in the shortest amount of time.
In addition to filing a flight plan, the pilot must run through a preflight checklist to verify that all of the details required to fly the plane safely are in place. This detailed listing includes checking routine but necessary items such as flaps, lights, and electrical circuits, just to name a few. It is interesting that, even after years and years of repeated practice, all pilots must go through this list of particulars, in a prescribed order, checking and double-checking dozens of details.
Flight plans and a preflight checklist are designed for pilots flying commercial aircraft, but there are similar structures with many of the same characteristics available to educators engaged in the PLC process. The SIG and pathways tools have been instrumental in coaching collaborative teams toward improved effectiveness and, as a result, improved student achievement.
The SIG
The SIG we introduce in Amplify Your Impact supports the development of highly effective collaborative teams. The SIG guides teams and provides them with direction as they make progress toward their goal of improving their PLC practice. The most effective principals and coaches have found SIGs to be an excellent way for teams to identify their current reality, clarify their next steps, and build their capacity to execute various elements of the PLC process. Much like the pilot’s flight plan, teams follow the SIG to help them move to the next level of best practice in the shortest amount of time possible.
In Amplify Your Impact we detail how schools can develop a SIG based on five prerequisites of a PLC (Many, Maffoni, Sparks, & Thomas, 2018).
1. Educators work in collaborative teams and take collective responsibility for student learning rather than working in isolation.
2. Collaborative teams implement a guaranteed and viable curriculum, unit by unit.
3. Collaborative teams monitor student learning through an ongoing assessment process that includes frequent, team-developed common formative assessments.
4. Educators use the results of common assessments to improve individual practice, build the team’s capacity to achieve its goals, and intervene and enrich on behalf of students.
5. The school provides a systematic process for intervention and enrichment.
When collaboratively developed, a SIG promotes ownership of the PLC process and provides a roadmap for improvement. This tool can also be called a continuum or rubric. Some schools use rubrics for evaluative purposes while continuums represent resources that guide the curriculum’s development. To be as precise as possible, we chose the term strategy implementation guide to describe the tool we use to help teams improve their PLC practices.
• Strategy acknowledges that PLC is our choice for an overarching school-improvement plan of action.
• Implementation describes the process coaches and teams engage in to create the conditions for high-performing collaborative teams.
• Guide conveys how coaches will use the document to provide feedback to teams.
The SIG allows coaches and teams to monitor their progress, determine current levels of collaborative practice, provide differentiated feedback, identify next steps, and set new goals.
The structure of the SIG unwraps the components of the PLC process by identifying anchor statements detailing the highest level of performance related to each of the five prerequisite conditions of a PLC. Additionally, each anchor statement is deconstructed into a series of descriptors placed along a continuum of implementation to identify the actions and behaviors of highly effective collaborative teams (see figure I.1).
Source: Many et al., 2018, pp. 59–60.
Figure I.1: Anchor statements in a SIG.
Visit go.SolutionTree.com/PLCbooks for a free reproducible version of this figure.
Teams begin the improvement process by reviewing the individual descriptors within a particular row of the SIG. In doing so, they identify which aspects of the PLC process are going well and which need more attention. Next, teams develop specific plans designed to move them from where they are to where they want to be. During this second step of the process, the SIG serves as a guide and helps teams monitor their progress. Finally, because SIGs represent an agreed-on standard of best practice, teams build on their own sense of efficacy as they make progress toward the goal of improving their PLC practice.
The process of creating a SIG requires schools to take into consideration varying factors that might alter their path and proactively identify alternative possibilities should any of those factors come to pass. Just like the pilot’s flight plan, the SIG is designed to become a plan for moving collaborative teams to an agreed-on destination in the most effective and efficient way possible.
In this book, we highlight the role of a coach in using element-specific SIGs while working with teams to develop the essential PLC elements of collective inquiry, continuous improvement, action orientation, and a focus on results.
The Pathways for Coaching Collaborative Teams
A similar connection can be made between the pilot’s preflight checklist and a team’s pathway tool. The concept behind the pathways is to identify the most critical and important steps in the PLC process and ask probing questions that move teams through a series of tasks in response to the four critical questions of a PLC (DuFour et al., 2016). Each task a team tackles in response to the critical questions could be considered a part of the preflight checklist that ensures the routine but necessary elements of an effective PLC are in place and working properly. Figure I.2 shows the pathway tasks associated with each of the critical questions of a PLC. These tasks reflect the fundamentals of the PLC process.
A parallel exists between the pilot’s preflight checklist and a team’s pathway tool. The concept behind the Pathways is to identify the most critical and important steps in the PLC process and ask probing questions as teams move through a series of tasks in response to the four critical questions of a PLC. Each task in response to the critical questions could be considered a part of the preflight checklist that ensures the routine, but necessary elements of an effective PLC are in place and working properly.
As an example, the tasks associated with responding to question 1, What do we want our students to know and be able to do?, include prioritizing standards, identifying learning targets, determining proficiency levels, planning units, and analyzing strategies. Coaches can help teams use the pathways to monitor the presence and effectiveness of the various essential elements. If teams discover implementation gaps, coaches can provide extra time and support to ensure the various tasks are aligned to best PLC practice. Just as a plane cannot fly if its flaps are not working properly, collaborative teams will not maximize student learning if the basic tenets and big ideas of a PLC are not in place.
Figure I.2: Pathways as they relate to the four critical questions of a PLC.
Visit go.SolutionTree.com/PLCbooks for a free reproducible version of this figure.
Something to keep in mind about a flight plan and a preflight checklist is that it is important to have both; they work in tandem. A pilot could have a flight plan that provides a clear understanding of where he or she is going and how to get there, but if he or she fails to engage in the preflight checklist and something is wrong with the mechanics of the plane, the pilot may never get off the ground. Likewise, a pilot could implement the preflight checklist, but without a flight plan, he or she could end up flying in circles. The same is true for the SIG and the pathways in a PLC; both are necessary for the development of highly effective collaborative teams.
Applying the Best Thinking
With How Schools Thrive, we do not attempt to create a new theory or model; instead, we hope to apply the best thinking in our profession to the goal of creating highly effective collaborative teams. We cannot take credit for identifying the essential elements of a PLC; the recognition for that goes to Rick DuFour and Bob Eaker, as the architects of the PLC process.
We also want to acknowledge the seminal work of Peter Senge, the author of The Fifth Discipline (1990). In his writings, Senge urges leaders to create learning organizations. Educators can draw parallels between Senge’s learning organization and PLCs. Senge (1990) argues that “what has been lacking is a discipline for translating individual vision into shared vision—not a ‘cookbook’ but a series of principles and guiding practices” (p. 9). We agree, and while many principles of Senge’s learning organization are reflected in the PLC process, we believe there is also a need to translate the good things we know about coaching individuals around improving their instructional practice into a shared vision of coaching collaborative teams around improving their PLC practices.
Since the release of Amplify Your Impact, we often hear comments like, “OK, you convinced me; it’s a good idea to coach collaborative teams, but can you tell us exactly what we should coach teams to do that will contribute to high levels of learning for all?” Good question! Once schools commit to coaching as the primary means of improving the effectiveness of PLCs, principals, coaches, and teacher leaders can more readily influence the way collaborative teams engage in the work.
This book will help identify the specific behaviors, routines, and habits that support a commitment to coaching collaborative teams. Creating a coaching culture while simultaneously promoting the team’s mastery of collective inquiry, continuous improvement, action orientation, and a focus on results through the use concrete tools and strategies such as a strategy implementation guide and pathways tool is the focus of How Schools Thrive.
This book is divided into three parts. The first two chapters make up part I, “Making a Commitment to Coaching Teams.”
Chapter 1, “Coaching to Create Habits of Professional Practice,” explains how coaching helps collaborative teams identify specific tasks, create effective and efficient routines, and develop effective and efficient habits of professional practice.
Chapter 2, “Identifying How the Essential Elements of a PLC Thrive in a Coaching Culture,” describes the impact that a healthy and resilient coaching culture has on collaborative teams in a PLC and explores what the essential elements of a PLC represent and provides a working definition for collective inquiry, continuous improvement, action orientation, and a focus on results.
In part II, “Understanding the Essential Elements of Highly Effective Teams in a PLC at Work,” we focus on drilling deeper within four essential elements of a PLC: collective inquiry, continuous improvement, action orientation, and focus on results.
Chapter 3, “Learning Together—The Power of Collective Inquiry,” defines collective inquiry and provides some pragmatic suggestions coaches should consider when promoting the idea that in a PLC, teachers begin the process by learning together.
Chapter 4, “Staying Restless—The Impact of Continuous Improvement,” defines continuous improvement and presents a number of specific strategies coaches can employ to highlight the importance of using a systematic approach when helping teams improve.
Chapter 5, “Being Urgent—The Value of an Action Orientation,” defines action orientation and offers several practical approaches coaches can use to help collaborative teams balance the right amounts of action and urgency.
Chapter 6, “Getting Better—The Significance of a Results Orientation,” supplies coaches with a series of concrete steps to help teams understand that an authentic results orientation is more than test scores, dashboards, and scorecards.
The final chapters make up part III, “Coaching Collaborative Teams in PLCs at Work.”
Chapter 7, “Assessing a Team’s Current Reality,” describes how those in coaching roles can assess the progress and development of collaborative teams with ways that coaches can use to differentiate clarity, feedback, and support based on the unique needs of individual teams.
Chapter 8, “Creating Collective Efficacy,” describes the important impact of collective efficacy and explores how coaches can use the four sources of efficacy in their work with collaborative teams.
Chapter 9, “Creating an Action Plan for Coaching Collaborative Teams,” presents a six-stage process school leaders can use to plan their coaching efforts.
The appendices present reproducible tools leaders can use to guide their coaching work with teams. Appendix A presents the stages of learning and essential elements of a highly effective PLC. Appendix B is an action planning template, and appendix C is a guide for communicating the action plan.
Moving Forward
Air travel has become a common experience for those visiting family, taking a vacation, or travelling for work; most of us have flown on a commercial airplane at one time or another. We enter the aircraft to a smiling crew member welcoming us aboard as we scan the row numbers and shuffle down the aisle. We squeeze into our seats, buckle up, and put our lives into the pilot’s hands as we take off down the runway. Although most of us don’t realize it, this experience is similar to what students go through every day. As we welcome them into the classroom with a smile and encouraging word, students also put their lives into our hands as we usher them onto a runway toward learning. It is our responsibility as educators to ensure that they arrive safely.
We believe if those in coaching roles will encourage mastery of the essential elements of a PLC, the result will be the development of highly effective collaborative teams in their schools. In How Schools Thrive, we provide concrete and specific ways that teams can dig deeper into their practice and foster advanced levels of PLC practice.
