So often I hear (and I have also felt) the frustration how overwhelmed or unclear administrators and teachers are on how to solve top priorities or where to even go next with making the most of professional learning communities in order to get traction, be productive, and be efficient. However, we do have to be careful that we, as leaders, do not sometimes place our own judgements on the assumption that teachers are not interested in learning. It may be a case of pausing to reflect and listen to what they want or need to learn about, rather than assuming they do not want to learn at all. However, it may also be, that when we ask ourselves and other colleagues, most say, they just want to get to the point, know where to go next, and get things done with the purpose of impacting student and adult learning in the most effective way. They don’t want to spend hours on endless to do list or more initiatives. They want to feel passion and purpose and be renewed in their profession. In fact, professional renewal is essential in good teaching and leadership. Lori Neilsen talks about professional learning as a consistent revision of who we are are what we do (Davies, Herbst, and Reynolds, 2012). The hard part is making professional learning effective enough to make a difference and to energize rather than deplete us. In what ways do we, as leaders, implement systems and structures to ensure renewal and revision are happening? To break it down even more….I really wanted to take a deep dive into how leaders make professional learning matter, rather than time filled with random initiatives and to do lists.
As always, I look to many professionals who are experts in leading professional learning. I often refer to Anne Davies, Sandra Herbst, Amy Porterfield, and Michael Hyatt. All of these leaders know and believe in the power of learning and dedicate their work to developing systems and structures to ensure learning happens, traction happens, and in turn passion,renewal, energy, and purpose. The most common trend I have noticed as I research about professional learning is that there needs to be multiple vehicles and points of entry to ensure that it meets different learning styles and needs. Herbst and Davies state that when we pay attention what learners know, what they need to know, and their preferred ways to learn, engage, and construct their own ways to learn so that it is the most impactful for their style, is when learning is most effective. The key is to model good learning practices and provide a venue to build experiences that work for everyone (Herbst, Davies, and Reynolds, 2012).
Let’s look at some ways to do just that:
Set the Learning Up In A Way That Teachers Learn and Talk About What They Are Interested In Learning About. Set up your meetings so that there is reflection time, rituals to let the day go, and set up protocols for contributing to their own professional learning that makes sure learning is energizing. Give them time to connect and just talk, and provide choice about who they talk to or what they are learning about. It is also important that you center the learner so that it is the participants doing the engaging in live conversation. The learning that is happening has to be something that makes a difference and matters to them. That, in itself, will energize learners. Present your meetings in the idea that learning is inspiring. Carve time out for teachers to talk about what is going on in their classrooms and perhaps what they are wondering about. Ask the question, “What was surprising to you this week?” Sometimes our own narrative of the day/week can become the source of learning. You will be amazed at the conversations that light up and how they will share and connect because you are centering the learner. How you welcome them also matters. Set it up so they walk in and connect. Make it about the people who are present before diving into content. Make sure there is a for learning, for discussion, and for information section in each meeting. Recognize that there are some meetings where for learning doesn’t fit and roll with it. Most importantly, have snacks or quiet music and water! We are a learning organization therefore learning has to matter and actually happen with adult learners too!
Co-Construct Meeting Protocols. Ask the question, “What is Important Around A Good Adult Learning Experience?” Ask them what learning looks like to them and then co-construct criteria around that so they have clear expectations of the quality of conversation and learning that is expected. The best part, is they created it, so they have ownership of that. They may reflect on things like: allowing the learner to talk more rather than just sit and learn, reflection on the work that is happening in the classroom, having choice in what they learn, etc.
The Meeting Does Not Always Have To Be Inside or Sitting. Think about the venue you are always holding your meetings in. Is there a chance to go outside and learn? Perhaps there are parts where the teachers could do a walk and talk or go into each other’s classroom to reflect, gather evidence, and learn about specific learning outcomes. Maybe it is during connection time where you get them to connect with someone new and they take them into their classrooms to share the work they are doing. A scavenger hunt is always a hit! Have your teachers walk around the school and take a picture that is in alignment with the goal and discuss it. Sitting and listening is hard and should never be longer than 12 minutes. If you get them up and moving, energy will resurface. By centering the learner and making it about them, renews joy, passion, collaboration, and purpose.
Check for Continuous Feedback. The primary purpose of this is to assess whether or not the ideas have been understood, applied, articulated, and learned. Provide space for feedback to happen, listen and make note of the common patterns and trends of the feedback.
Be Consistent With the Learning Instead of Piling on New Things. Stick with it and do not assume that a shift in practice will occur after a single workshop or learning session. Herbst, Davies, and Reynolds state that any type of conceptual understanding requires multiple opportunities to do the work with feedback. I always like to think about it like a catch and release. Learn about it in short spurts, give time to implement with feedback, reflect, determine next steps, refine and do it again.
Offer Different Opportunities to Engage – Champion talks about different levels of engagement that we flow in and out of when we are learning. These stages are: initiation, skill development, implementation, and institutionalization. Initiation occurs when you are learning about it and raising a level of awareness. The second level is actually doing it and having a forum for trial and error. The third level is more reflective with the purpose of making adjustments, and refinements. The last level is sustaining and maintaining these behaviors and strategies. Adult learners are just like children. Like learning to ride a bike, we start with a guide, we watch, the guide walks alongside us, then releases us for short times, we make adjustments, we try again, and eventually it becomes automatic. Adult learners want to be engaged, have choices, be supported, and be involved in assessing how it is going and perhaps some shifts that need to be made. The learning has to matter to them too.
Engage Learners in COLLABORATIVELY Constructing Knowledge. By participating in the construction of knowledge, rather than just having the learning sit and listen, allows the learning to move from surface, to deep, to transfer learning. The important part to remember when you are involving the adult learners in co-constructing criteria and expectations is to have some sort of a roadmap ahead of time of the big rocks or milestones to give you clarity when navigating them through the process. It is important to know the outcome of what you want them to learn, identify what you already know, and develop a path to close the gap. Once you have this, construct this same roadmap with them making changes and adding to your pre-meditated ideas along the way.
Include the 3 Phases Of Learning – Activate, Acquire, and Apply. This allows for time to learn, time to implement with feedback, and time for reflection and application of shifts in craft and practice. I learned this from Sandra Herbst and it really gave me clarity on the outcomes that I wanted to achieve and which phases I may need to be in to implement and actually achieve these outcomes when leading adult learners. This also set a pace that was achievable rather than rushing through one idea after another and creating overwhelm. It made sure there was time to learn, reflect and practice with support. With each phase, the intensity and expectations increased, learning moved from overview to learning teams engaging in action research, book studies, team teaching, and transfer level learning.
Present Ways to Engage In Action Research – Have teachers determine their top priority and set their own accountability by identifying strategies and milestone deadlines. Next, provide multiple ways and carve out space for them to participate in action research. This might include some adult learners choosing to engage in a peer coach or tutor, study groups, enrolling in a college course, team teaching, book studies, etc. By doing this, it ensures that the learning is relevant to them, it provides choice and ownership, and the learning is unique to their style. It also invites collaboration.
Set an Expectation and Provide Support for Teachers to Collect Evidence, and Share Their Progress, Experience, and Results. In fact, I recommend setting up at least three to five meetings per year to carve time aside to coach each other and have conversations on progress. Leaders should also plan to meet 1-2 times a year to consult, review, and support in smaller one on one meetings.
Consider a Balance Between Required Learning and Invitational Opportunities. Consider having meetings that are sometimes alternate or invitational. Meetings also might be longer or shorter rather than always sticking to the designated time frame. These next ideas came from the book Transforming Schools and Systems Using Assessment. Herbst, Davies, and Reynolds suggest having a plan that includes meeting that all staff have to attend and some meetings where only some attend. This helps to meet the diverse learning needs that occur in schools. Some examples of this might be that some teachers choose a book study for those that are more linguistic learners. Another group may be more social and opt to join a Dine and Discuss series that explore articles and research over dinner. For the visual learners, their jam might be to observe lessons followed by a debriefing protocol or perhaps they may team teach together. Herbst goes on to state, that when staff come together during mandatory sessions, there was structure and time provided for teachers to make connections and share the learning from their diverse learning experiences.
Refer to and/or Bring In The Experts. As the saying goes, you are never a prophet in your own land. Therefore consider bringing in an expert or external consultant on strategic points. Then follow up with meeting after to check in and follow up on how they implemented the actions. Having an expert pushes the learning to the next level. Another idea might be to change titles for teachers or give them titles. You might have a french language learning coordinator, a math consultant, readers workshop coach, assessment for learning coordinator, etc. This really validates what they are experts in beyond their title as classroom teacher and how they could contribute their own expertise. Once the lead teachers have been identified, make time for training them on how to coach and facilitate groups. They may have some time blocked off so they can get into classrooms to coach during school hours as well. These teacher leaders might also be responsible for gathering evidence of the work happening in their area of expertise. They would also be responsible for modeling the actions and strategies, planning clusters of lessons, and supporting the professional growth of their colleagues.
Look For Feedback From Your Staff. Check in with them using surveys on how they view professional learning and how effective it is. Also include a self assessment and have them reflect on what they are meeting, not yet meeting and working towards. Meet with the teachers to review their self assessments and use that data to address areas of need, notice trends, and plan next steps.
Triangulate Evidence of Professional Learning. Gather evidence to evaluate the impact of the professional learning that is happening around the building. Notice products such as lesson plans, work samples, test scores, school plan outcomes, etc. Engage teachers in conversations of their own self assessment that get them to reflect on their past practice and how it has shifted over time. Administrator’s can also gather evidence of their own observations of the learning practices being implemented in the classroom. Pausing and reflecting is such an important part of realizing whether or not the strategies and professional learning is actually making an impact.
Frame your Learning Time in 3 Chunks. 1) Activate their minds by getting then to reflect and begin with the learner rather than the content. 2) Acquire – Give teachers time to have dialogue and discussion around a certain piece of evidence, question, problem, work sample, etc and allow them time to examine and reflect on their day to day work. 3) Apply – Give teachers time to plan forward and commit to next steps
Model Your Own Professional Learning, Planning Forward, and Active Construction of Knowledge. It is so important to learn and walk alongside your colleagues. This will put them in a place where they will root for you. Do this through knowledge of interaction and practice that parallel the professional learning that is happening and the expectations you expect teachers to do.
Now that you have your list, let’s briefly talk about those ‘reluctant’ learners. We have to be careful not to assume that learning is NOT actually happening with these learners or that they simply are not interested or do NOT want to learn. Have private conversations with the ones who claim they just want to be left alone or just want the housekeeping and get out. People will do what they can and… maybe in that moment, that person just has too much of a story going on in their personal lives to take more on. Recognize that and be careful not to put that person permanently in the world of resistance but rather perhaps in the world of just ‘not right now. ‘ Give them time and space but then have another conversation later to perhaps place more nudging onto their professional learning goals.
I know…this is a big list to boost renewal and energy into professional learning! However, it is a list that can make a big impact and get the traction to move the learning needle forward. You don’t have to do it all yourself. Start building networks and teams of teachers and create those multi-layered teams, develop a plan to grow together, and frame learning with questions and experiences that push beyond the perfect or right strategy. It is so important to center the learner through their strengths, experiences, and learning styles. Professional learning is worth the amount of thought and work that leaders put into it and is the essential ingredient to boost passion and purpose once again. Learning is something that we choose to do and it often follows a passion. As Anne Davies so graciously states, “Follow the Lead of the Learner.” Do not make learning something that is mandated. After all….that is what we are experts on….learning! We are a learning organization after all!
Want more? I have a Guide to Workshopping Your Meetings to help you get started on your professional learning planning.
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Davies, A., Herbst, S., and Parrott Reynolds, B. 2012. Transforming Schools and Systems Using Assessment: A Practical Guide. Courtenay, BC: Connections Publishing.
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