Microlab Protocol

Microlab Protocol As we continue to support professional learning that is embedded in daily practice (e.g. collaborative inquiry)– how has your role changed?

Microlab Protocol What are some successes, challenges and/or concerns based on your role supporting adult learning that is embedded in daily practice?

Microlab Protocol When you think about your practice, what is the one thing you won’t compromise? What’s at the heart of what you do? What do you stand for?

Debriefing Microlab Protocol

Principals as Co-learners

Significant-Connections-Questions As you read, make note of: • What is significant in this model? • What connections do you make to the model? • What questions do you have after reading the monograph?

Teacher Inquiry Cycle What knowledge and skills do our students need? What knowledge and skills do we as teachers need? What has been the impact of our changed actions? Deepen professional knowledge and refine skills Engage students in new learning experiences Helen Timperley, 2007 Collaborative inquiry is NOTthe latest fad.

Student Success

Visible Learning Into Action – Impact Cycle Professor John Hattie

Effective CI Processes

Collaborative Inquiry

Carousel “Think-a-thon” • Groups of 4(5); identify recorder for the group • Reflect on, discuss and record your thinking related to the “Observations about the work…”, and the 3 questions listed • Rotate clockwise to next station when prompted (identify new recorder) • Repeat process…

Stage 1: Framing the Problem Determine a Meaningful Focus • Student learning need • Educator learning need • Principal learning need Develop an Inquiry Question Formulate a Theory of Action

Observations About the Work… • Questions generated aren’t always “burning” questions. • Teams have difficulty identifying common student learning needs, and connecting these to their own learning needs. • The purpose for developing a theory of action is often misunderstood and therefore it loses its reflective potential. • Teams have difficulty deeply understanding the problem or challenge of practice (too broad).

Consider the ‘Observations About the Work’ made during stage 1 of the collaborative inquiry cycle: How are these observations similar or different from your experience? What other observations have you made? What are some strategies/practices you’ve used to strengthen aspects at this stage in the cycle? Carousel “Think-a-thon” Discuss and Record

Stage 2: Collecting Evidence • Develop Knowledge, Competencies, and Shared Understandings (engage in new learning) • Implement Changes in Practice • Develop a Data Collection Plan

Observations About the Work… • Teams adopt a ‘wait and see’ outlook (end of term or semester grades, or EQAO/OSSLT scores) to assess impact. • Observations, conversations, and student work products seem to be less valued than pencil-paper test data. Lots of evidence is being collected but much of it does not relate to the student learning need that was identified. • Rather than implementing changes in practice, sometimes participants continue to do more of the same. • Teams are quick to change a strategy when there has been a loss of fidelity, or when the task is too big.

Stage 3: Analyzing Evidence Consider Implementation Data Analysis (share and analyze evidence) Examine Assumptions

Observations About the Work… • When analyzing student work, discussion is characterized in ‘generalities’ rather than the specifics of student learning and the attempt to understand student thinking. • Due to the often messy nature of this adaptive work, team members avoid digging deeper to ask what and why something has been done, what the impact has been, how they know, and how their own assumptions may be influencing their work. • Theories of action are long forgotten. Structures for reflection are not in place, reflective practice is not ongoing and does not occur at a deep level. Teams cannot explain the legacy of their work (what is the difference that’s made the difference – how do we know?) • The actions and tasks students were engaged in did not connect to and elicit the desired student learning outcomes.

Stage 4: Documenting, Celebrating, and Sharing • Document (did the change make a difference?) and Sharing • Celebrate • Debrief the Process • Reflect on Next Steps

Observations About the Work… • Facilitators are feeling pressured to document ‘tangible’ evidence while trying to honour the often messy process of learning – the process/product tension. • Teams have not established a process that helps to create and recognize ‘small wins’. They feel defeated because they haven’t achieved everything by the end of one particular cycle. • Teams typically wait until the end of the end of the collaborative inquiry cycle to debrief. • For teams that discover their practice did not make a difference, recognition and celebration is equally important as it is for teams who’ve realized positive impact.

What is your most pressing need at this time? What do you need to learn more about to strengthen the work? How and when will you engage in this learning? How will you connect your inquiry/learning to the learning needs of your students and teachers? Reflecting on Your Work Gallery Walk

Now what? Question Tree

Path 1 Path 2 Path 3 Path 4 REFERENCE: Donohoo, J. (in press). Collaborative Inquiry: Bringing Teacher Leadership to Scale. Corwin Press, Thousand Oaks, CA.

Microlab Protocol