Professional Development Through Professional Learning Communities

1. Professional Development Through Professional Learning Communities PYTD 500 The Adult Learner Dr. June Schaeffer Northern Michigan University Winter 2009 Lily Anderson, Jim Bilski, Roger Cole, Vicki Dunlap, Beth Farragh, and Margaret Danielson Hanson

2. The Professional Learning Community: Bilski Middle SchoolPine Creek School District • The Professional Learning Community at Bilski Middle School will strive to implement change through the interactive involvement of the professional staff. • The Professional Learning Community at Bilski Middle School will focus on change based on identified goals, support data, and through the implementation and evaluation of effective learning strategies.

3. PLC: Focusing on ChangeSuggestions for Administrators: • Identify opportunities for change • Motivate your professional staff and adult learners • Inspire professional staff through effective leadership • Challenge professional staff by providing leadership opportunities within the PLC • Provide models of effective strategies for change • Encourage buy-in and celebrate accomplishments • HAVE HIGH EXPECTATIONS BACKED BY ACTIONS

4. Learning Theories That Administrators Should Understand When Working With Professional Learning Communities • A Comparison of Assumptions about Human Nature and Behavior by Leaders in Management and Education • Table 14-1- Text; pages 257-258 • An Excerpt • Assumptions re: Human Behavior: 1-4

5. 1. Human Nature and Behavior Theories • Assumptions re: Human Nature: (McGregor) (Controlling) • The average human being (hb) inherently dislikes work, will avoid it if he can • Most people must be coerced, controlled, threatened in the interest of organizational objectives. • Average hb prefers to be directed, wishes to avoid responsibility, has little ambition, wants security. • High capacity for imagination, ingenuity, creativity, in solving organizational problems is widely distributed in population • Intellectual potential of average hb is only partially utilized

6. 2. Human Nature and Behavior Theories • Assumptions re: Human Nature (releasing) • Expenditure of physical/mental effort is as natural at play or rest • Man exercises self-direction/self-control in services of objectives in which he is committed, when external control/threat of punishment is not the only means demonstrating effort toward organizational objectives • Commitment to objectives is a function of the rewards associated achievement

7. 3. Human Nature and Behavior Theories • Assumptions Implicit in Current Education: (Rogers) (Controlling) • Student cannot be trusted to pursue own their learning • Presentation = learning • Aim of education is to accumulate brick upon brick of factual knowledge • Creative citizens develop from passive learners • Evaluation is education and vice versa. • Self-initiated learning involving the whole person-feelings and intellect-is the most pervasive and lasting • Creativity in learning best facilitated when self-criticism/evaluation are primary, and evaluation by others is secondary

8. 4. Human Nature and Behavior Theories Assumption Relevant to Significant Experiential Learning (Releasing) • Human beings have natural potentiality for • learning • Significant learning takes place, subject matter • perceived by student as relevant to own • purposes • Significant learning is acquired through doing • Learning is facilitated by student’s responsible • participation in the learning process

9. Professional Development Calendar • Beginning of school year meet to discuss implementation of Professional Learning Communities. • PLC Communities are groups of people focused on improving student achievement through collaboration and mutual support. • PLC will meet at least monthly throughout the calendar year. • After school is out PLC will meet for two days to evaluate the effectiveness of the PLC plan.

10. Professional Development Calendar Sequence In a similar fashion to Knowles approach in chapter 6, “Angragogical Process Model for Learning,” our professional development time frame has been aligned to best fit the needs of the adult learner. (Knowles; The Adult Learner; p. 116). • Day one: • 1. Preparing the learner • a. Providing information on how to be an independent, self-directed, learner • b. Proactive learning • c. Develop realistic expectations • d.Begin thinking about the content • 2. Establishing the climate • a. Physical climate • b. Access to resources • c.Personal climate-open and safe to learning • 3. Planning • a. Establish protocol and process to involve students in planning of course design, structure, activities, etc…

11. Day Two • 1. Diagnosis of Needs for Learning • a. Building the model of competence • b. Developing the mind set of the learner • c. Self assessment of the learners • 2. Setting of Program Objectives • a. Developed cooperatively • 3. Designing Learning Plans, Experiences and Activities • a. Setting the stage for • i. The Professional Learning Communities • b. Choosing the problem areas identified by learners Day Three and Four • 1. Professional Learning Committee (PLC) Meetings • a. The PLS’s will meet monthly to work on established goals and objectives • b. Use meeting agenda a log sheet

12. Day Five • 1. Reconvene as large group • a. Evaluation of the program; Fifth dimension. (Knowles: The Adult Learner. P. 134) • b. Re-diagnosis of learning needs • c. Re-examining of model of competence • d. Re-examining self assessment of learners • e. Re-examining cooperative objectives

13. PLC: Correlates of Effective Schools • Strong Leadership • Clear and Focused Mission • Safe and Orderly Environment • Climate of High Expectations • Frequent Monitoring of Student Progress • Positive Home/School Relations • Opportunity to Learn and Student Time on Task

14. Making the Complex, Simple Three Big Ideas • The professional learning community model requires the school staff to focus on learning rather than teaching, work collaboratively on matters related to learning, and hold itself accountable for the kind of results that fuel continual improvement.

15. Develop Group Norms and Guidelines for PLC • Guidelines: • Allow the PLC to develop its own norms • Have open and honest dialogue • Be reflective • Develop trust and understanding • Norms: • Be open and respectful • Refrain from sidebar comments • Present ideas vs. personal agendas • Focus on common goal

16. Norms of a Healthy School Culture • Collegiality • Trust and Confidence • High Expectations • Caring, Celebration and Humor • Honest and Open Communication • Protection of What’s Important • Maintain an orderly environment

17. Moving for Collegial to CooperativeRichard DuFour • Four Essential Questions: • What do we want students to know? • How will we know when they’ve learned?How will we respond when they don’t? • What will we do for students who’ve already mastered the content? • C. VanAlstine, Moving the Team From Collegial to Cooperative, p.44, The School Administrator, May 2008.

18. Creative Leadership • Creative leadership, “Releases the energy of the people in the system and managing the processes for giving that energy direction toward mutually beneficial goals.” • “A form of leadership that releases the creative energy of the people being led.” • Knowles, M.; Holton, E.; Swanson, R., The Adult Learner,The Definitive Classic in Adult Education and Human Resource Development, p. 256.

19. Creating a Collaborative Culture • “A collaborative culture begins with a shared understanding of where you want to go, together.” • “The professional learning community model requires staff to focus on learning rather than teaching, work collaboratively on matters related to learning, and hold itself accountable for the kind of results that fuel continual improvement.” • Tim Brown, Solution Tree Associates, July, 2008.

20. Big Idea #1: Shifting From Teaching to Learning • Grading Practices: What constitutes a grade? • Homework Practices: What variable do we consider? • Assessment Practices: Standards? Student Involvement? Feedback? • Instructional Practices: Differentiation? • Intervention Programs: Urgent, Systematic, Targeted. • Collaboration: Impacting Professional Practices?

21. Learning • “Learning emphasizes the person in whom the change occurs or is expected to occur. Learning is the act or process by which behavioral change, knowledge, skills, and attitudes are acquired.” • Knowles, M.; Holton, E.; Swanson, R., The Adult Learner,The Definitive Classic in Adult Education and Human Resource Development, p. 10.

22. School and Clarity of Purpose • “At the heart of a school’s culture are its mission and purpose-the focus of what people do. Although not easy to define, mission and purpose instill the intangible forces that motivate teachers to teach, school leaders to lead, children to learn, and parents to have confidence in their school.” • Deal, T., and Peterson, K., 2008

23. Big Idea #2:Creating A Trusting, Collaborative Environment • The Will To Learn: • A trait that exists in all people. • An intrinsic motive: one that finds both its source and reward in its own experience. • Becomes a problem when students are confined, a path becomes fixed. • Imposing limits will zap spontaneous learning. • Curiosity, desire for competence, aspiration to emulate a model, and a deep-sensed commitment to others and to operate jointly with them towards an objective. • Knowles, M.; Holton, E.; Swanson, R., The Adult Learner,The Definitive Classic in Adult Education and Human Resource Development, p. 98.

24. Collective Commitments and Correlates of Effective Schools • Strong Instructional Leadership • Clear and Focused Mission • Safe and Orderly Environment • Climate Of High Expectations • Frequent monitoring of Student Progress • Positive Home/School Relations • Opportunity To Learn and Student Time On Task

25. Shared Mission, Vision, Values, Goals, Communicating The Message • “We build significance through the use of many expressive and symbolic forms: rituals, ceremonies, icons, music, and used symbols as a foundation of meaning. Organizations without a rich symbolic life become empty and sterile. The magic of special occasions is vital in building significance into collective life.” • Bolman and Deal, 1995.

26. Collaboration • “A systematic process in which we work together, interdependently, to analyze and impact professional practice in order to improve our individual and collective results.” • DuFour, Eaker, and DuFour

27. NORMS HELP ESTABLISH TRUST • The standards of behaviors by which we agree to operate while we are in this group • Creating team norms • Give each team member 5-7 post-it-notes. • Give team members 5 minutes to identify norms and write them on the Post-It-Notes. • Put all post-it-notes in middle of table. • Give team 15 minutes to group the Post-It-Notes in silence. • Give the team 20 minutes to discuss groupings and prioritize norms. • Write Prioritized norms on chart paper to post.

28. Utilize Meeting Agendas and Logs Meeting Agenda for: ______________________________________ Meeting Date:_________ Time:_________ Place: _______________ Meeting facilitator: ________________________________________ Meeting Participants: ______________________________________ Meeting Tasks: Time: Objectives: Results/Follow- up: ________________________________________________ Task 1 ________________________________________________ Task 2 ________________________________________________ Task 3 ________________________________________________

29. Collaborative Culture • “Educators who are building a professional learning community recognize that they must work together to achieve their collective purpose of learning for all. Therefore, they create structures to promote a collaborative culture.” Richard DuFour, On Common Ground

30. Consensus • We arrive at consensus when twocriteria are met: • 1. All Possible points of view have been heard • 2. The will of the group become evident even to those who most oppose the solution. • DuFour, DuFour, and Eaker

31. Team Protocol-Consensus • Building consensus on the critical questions that constitute the foundation of a learning community is and important step in developing the capacity to function as a professional learning community.

32. Big Idea #3:Results Oriented • PLC Characteristics: • Collective Inquiry • Action Orientation and Experimentation • Commitment to Continuous Improvement • Results Oriented

33. Key Areas of Focus

34. Common Assessment • Agreement of essential skills • Agreement on the method of assessing those skills (knowledge, reasoning, performance, product) • Agreement on standard of measurement • Agreement on level of proficiency • Created in collaboration with team members • Agreement to examine results to form instruction and design interventions for mastery.

35. Four Corollary Questions • What do we want students to learn? • How will they know they have learned it? • What will we do if they don’t? • What will we do if they do? “Teachers of the same course or level should have absolute common agreement on what they expect all their students to know and be able to do.” Reeves, 2008

36. What do we expect students to learn? • Identify essential outcomes for each course within the context of State expectations (MMC: Michigan Merit Curriculum) • Clearly define learning targets under each essential outcome (i.e.: Reading) • Discuss and decide on common expectations (learning outcomes) • Identify necessary pre-requisite skills • Sequence course content and establish pacing guidelines

37. Writing SMART Goals • S: Strategic and Specific • M: Measurable • A: Attainable • R: Results Oriented for Students • T: Time Bound Anne Conzemius and Jan O’Neill The Handbook for SMART School Teams, ASCD, 2001

38. Bilski Middle SchoolSchool Improvement Plan 2008-2009 • All students will show growth in reading comprehension, writing, and analytical skills. • Goals developed based on data collected over three year period (2005-2008). • Strategies and interventions decided on collaboratively • Plan to be implemented this year (2008-2009). • Results will be evaluated. • See Reading Goal for example……………….(next slide).

39. Goal: All students will show growth in reading comprehension in all content areas. • Support Data: • English/Language Arts, Mathematics, Social Studies and science MEAP, Fall 2007 • Accelerated Reader Tests, Fall 2008 • Bannach, Bannach, and Cassidy Survey Data: Spring 2008 • Standardized Assessments: The three year average of Grades 6,7,8 in ELA, Math, SS, and Science MEAP scores will show continuous improvement. (Fall, 2008-2010). • Local Assessments: Scores will continuously improve on the school-developed SQ3R activity. • Strategy #1: All students will utilize SQ3R for understanding informational text. • Activities to implement the strategy: • Develop guidelines explaining task activity for all content teachers • Reading Committee Responsible • Timeline: January 1, 2008-March 30, 2009 • Evidence of Completion: Completed Document • Share Guidelines with Staff: • Reading Committee Responsible • February 2009-March 2009 • Evidence of Completion: Meeting Agenda continued….

40. Reading Goal • Activities to Implement the Strategy (continued) • Teachers will decide per grade level and per content area what informational reading selection they will use to present SQ3R. • Content Area Teachers: Responsible • Timeline: March 2009-March 2009 • Evidence of Completion: Lesson Plans • Teachers will present the SQ3R activity in class. • Content Area teachers: Responsible • Timeline: April 2009- April 2009 • Evidence of Completion: Lesson Plans • Teachers will implement the SQ3R Strategy in each content area • Content Area Teachers: Responsible • Timeline: May 2009-May 2009 • Evidence of Completion: Student grades on use of SQ3R strategy to given Reading Committee • Repeat steps #3-5 on an annual basis in 2009-2010 and 2010-2011

41. Celebration Sheet Celebrating Staff/Student Achievement Team:_________________________ Date: __________________ Focus Area: ___________________________________________ Goal: ________________________________________________ Quantitative Results: (Numbers) • ____________________________________________________ • ____________________________________________________ • ____________________________________________________ Qualitative Results: (Positives that occurred) • ____________________________________________________ • ____________________________________________________ • ____________________________________________________ What we learned: • _____________________________________________________ • _____________________________________________________

42. Conclusion • How do we motivate adult learners? (as leaders) • “DuFour, a former superintendent recommends in a Journal of Staff Development Article, “Pull Out Negativity by Its Roots,” that education leaders address this problem by asking teams to develop operational guidelines, also referred to as group norms. The group norms will be used to channel team members’ behaviors and to communicate the groups’ obligations to one another. Group norms establish protocols for how the team will conduct business. The eliminate parti pris, or hidden agendas, and communicate a common understanding of acceptable and unacceptable behavior.” Carrie VanAlstine Moving the Team From Collegiate to Collaborative The School Administrator, May 2008

43. Conclusion • As a whole group we’ll reconvene to assess the effectiveness of the PLC and learning outcomes. • Jigsaw activity with large group to summarize and coordinate PLC accomplishments

44. Consider This… “One of the most significant findings from research about adult learning is that when adults go about learning something naturally (as contrasted with being taught something), they are highly self-directing. Evidence is beginning to accumulate, too, that what adults learn on their own initiative, they learn more deeply and permanently than what they learn by being taught.” Knowles, M.; Holton, E.; Swanson, R., The Adult Learner,The Definitive Classic in Adult Education and Human Resource Development, p.265

45. PLC and Development of Learning Contracts/ A Summary • 1. Diagnose Your Learning Needs • 2. Specify Your Learning Objectives • 3. Specify Learning Resources and Strategies • 4. Specify Evidence of Accomplishment • 5. Specify How the Evidence Will Be Validated • 6. Review Your Contract with Consultants • 7. Carry Out the Contract • 8. Evaluate Your Learning Knowles, M.; Holton, E.; Swanson, R., The Adult Learner,The Definitive Classic in Adult Education and Human Resource Development, p. 266-271.

46. Teaching Through Inquiry • “The will to learn is an intrinsic motive, one that finds both its source and its reward in its own exercise. The will to learn becomes a ‘problem’ only under specialized circumstances…” Knowles, M.; Holton, E.; Swanson, R., The Adult Learner, The Definitive Classic in Adult Education and Human Resource Development, p. 98

47. Consider… • “The problem exists not so much in learning itself, but in the fact that what the school imposes often fails to enlist the natural energies that sustain spontaneous learning-curiosity, a desire for competence, aspiration to emulate a model, and a deep-sensed commitment to the web of social reciprocity (the human need to respond to others and to operate jointly with them toward an objective). Knowles, M.; Holton, E.; Swanson, R., The Adult Learner, The Definitive Classic in Adult Education and Human Resource Development, p. 98