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Research to Practice

Improving Outcomes for Students withDisabilities at the Secondary Level

Jim Knightjknight@ku.edu

www.instructionalcoach.org

What Are We Going to Talk About?

What is our challenge?How has KU-CRL responded to the

challenge?What barriers have we faced?What have we tried to get around those

barriers?What have been the results?

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What is the CRL?

Founded in 1978Mission: Dramatically improve the

performance of at-risk students in grades4-12 through research-based interventions

• $70+ million dollars of contracted R&D• International Professional Development

Network• 275,000 teachers in 3,500 school districts

Demands/Skills

Years in School

Our Challenge: The Performance Gap

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How has KU-CRL Responded?

Learning Strategies

Content Enhancement

What are learning strategies?

Learninghow to learn

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““ItIt’’s strange that we expects strange that we expectstudents to learn, yet spendstudents to learn, yet spendso little time teaching themso little time teaching themabout learning!about learning!””

Norman, 1980

What’s an example learning strategy

Form a word Insert a letterRearrange the lettersShape a sentenceTry combinations

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What kinds of learning strategieshave been created?AcquisitionStorageExpression and Demonstration of

Competence

Big Idea #1: Strategic Instruction is…

IntensiveExplicit

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Intensive Instruction requires …

TimeEngagement

Big Idea #2: Strategic Instructioninvolves …Modeling (I do it, we do it, you do it!)ScaffoldingFormative AssessmentConstructiveGeneralization InstructionSchool-wide support

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Self-Questioning-2001n= 133

7th Grade Science Class: Growth Scores

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Big Idea # 3: Fidelity Matters n= low-fi 564; hi-fi 1302

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What is content enhancement?

Barrier-freeinstruction

.Content Enhancement: Big Idea # 1

All content is not equal

Too often, the clock is more importantthan the content

Effective instructions involves planning toensure that proper emphasis is given to moreimportant information

Proper emphasis could involve more time ormore intensive or explicit instruction

all most some

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Content Enhancement: Big Idea # 2

SELECTING the critical outcomes.

MAPPING content structures.

ANALYZING learning difficulty based on:

REACHING enhancement decisions by selecting powerful...

TEACHING strategically through explicit...

EVALUATING enhancementsREEVALUATING outcomes

Quantity ComplexityInterest BackgroundRelevance OrganizationAbstractness

Teaching Devices

Teaching Routines

Not harder, but …

Elida CordoraNAMEDATEThe Unit Organizer BIGGER PICTURE

LAST UNIT /Experience CURRENT UNIT NEXT UNIT /Experience

UN

IT S

ELF-

TEST

QU

ESTI

ON

S

is about...

UN

ITR

ELATIO

NSH

IPS

UNIT SCHEDULE UNIT MAP

CURRENT UNIT1 32

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5

6

7

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The roots and consequences of civil unrest.

The Causes of the Civil WarGrowth of the Nation The Civil War

Sectionalism

pp. 201-236

1/22 Cooperative groups - over pp. 201-210

1/28 Quiz

1/29 Cooperative groups - over pp. 210-225

"Influential Personalities" projectdue

1/30 Quiz

2/2 Cooperative groups - over pp. 228-234

2/6 Review for test

2/7 Review for test

2/6 Test

Areas of the U.S.

Differences between the areas

Events in the U.S.

Leaders across the U.S.

was based on

emerged because of became greater with

was influenced by

descriptive

cause/effect

What was sectionalism as it existed in the U. S. of 1860?

How did the differences in the sections of the U.S. in 1860 contribute to thestart of the Civil War?

compare/contrast

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What examples of sectionalism exist in the world today?

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A mammal is a warm-blooded vertebrate that has hair and nurses its young.

CONCEPT DIAGRAM CONVEY CONCEPT

NOTE KEY WORDS

OFFER OVERALL CONCEPT

CLASSIFYCHARACTERISTICS:

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Always Present Sometimes Present Never Present

Examples: Nonexamples:

PRACTICE WITH NEW EXAMPLE

TIE DOWNA DEFINITION

EXPLORE EXAMPLES

1

32

4

5

6

7

33 Key Words Mammal Vertebrate

warm-bloodednurse their young

has hair

walks on 2 legs walks on 4 legs

cold-blooded

human snake

elephant

whale

+

+

+

duckbillplatypus

swims in water

alligator

shark

bird

elephant

human

warm-blooded

nurse their young

whale

bird

shark

walks on 4 legs

can fly

cold-blooded

bat

can flymoves on the ground

O

Concept Diagram

Concept Mastery Results

Test scores of students with disabilities on unit tests

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Effects of Content Enhancement onStudents with Disabilities

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Overcoming instructional challenges

Content Enhancement Routines havebeen developed to enhancePlanning & leading learningExplaining texts, topics, & termsTeaching conceptsUncovering structuresIncreasing peformance

Content Enhancement: Big Idea # 3

To ensure mastery of content, teachersneedDeep knowledgeClearly articulatedExplicitly taught

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Content Enhancement: Big Idea # 4

Studentsbenefit fromlearning routines

What challenges do we face?

Traditional one-shot

in-service does notlead to change

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What do teachers think ofprofessional development?**(**over 150 interviews in a wide mixture of school districts in 7 states)

Too theoreticalDoesn’t respond to real needs Impractical InsultingToo little follow-upCultural norms oppose traditional

professional development

What is a coach?

“The broader field of coaching includeslife planning, career counseling, healthand nutritional advice, New Age aurareadings, and training in skills from publicspeaking to flirtation”

Stafford Shermann & Alyssa Freas, (November, 2004)“The wild west of executive coaching” Harvard BusinessReview

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What is an Instructional Coach?

an on-site professionaldeveloper who

collaborates witheducators to identify

and assist withimplementation ofproven teaching

methods

Instructional Coaching

Enrollment Pre-conference

(a) identifying intervention (b) explaining intervention

Modeling Observing De-constructive

Feedback On-going collaborating Reflection

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Reinforce Contentand Standards Knowledge

Act at the Momentof Greatest Need

NourishRelationships

Provide OngoingSufficient Support

Provide PowerfulInterventions

AddressBurning Issues

Why Instructional Coaches are Successful

Coaching responds to changeparadoxesTop-down & bottom-upEasy & powerfulSelf-organizing and highly organizedGetting commitment by not

demanding itPersonally modest & professionally

strong-willed

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Paradox #1: Effective coachingprograms are bottom-up and top-down

We take a partnership approach

Our work embodies the principles of equality,choice, voice, reflection, dialogue, praxis, andreciprocity

We want to be “just like any other teacher in theschool”

Paradox #1: Effective coachingprograms are bottom-up and top-down

“the direct approach of naming thegoal and mobilizing to achieve itdoes not, and cannot work insomething as complex as changeagentry”

Michael Fullan

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Paradox #1: Effective coachingprograms are bottom-up and top-down But the principal …

Must be theinstructionalleader

Paradox #2: easy & powerful

ideas, values, technologies that do the job with theleast demand on psychic energy will survive. Anappliance that does more work with less effort

will be preferredMihalyi Csikszentmihalyi

-this also applies to knowledge transfer in schools;interventions that are powerful and easy to useare the going to be adopted by teachers

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Paradox #3:

Self-organizingand tightlyorganized

Ideas Spread Like a Virus ( )

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Paradox #4: Getting commitment bynot demanding it Anyone with power can demand commitment But, external commitment

is temporary leads to poor practicesengenders resentment

Internal commitmentcan be permanent leads to high-quality practicesengenders positive attitudes

(Argyris, 2000)

Change Paradox # 5 Personallymodest & professionally strong-willed Effective leaders (Collins, 2001)

…embody a paradoxical mix of personal humility andprofessional will.

… display a compelling modesty, are self-effacing,understated

… display a workman like diligence, are more plowhorse than show horse

… attribute successes to factors other than themselves… look in the mirror and blame themselves when things

go poorly

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So …

What research has beenconducted on coaching?

The Partnership Approach: Engagement form

Num

ber o

f Tea

cher

s

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

(not engaging) (very engaging)

Figure 5 : Engagement Form/Median Scores

Traditional Training

Partnership Learning

30

25

20

15

5

0

10

35

(neutral)

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Workshop evaluation:comprehension

Num

ber

of T

each

ers

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

30

25

20

15

5

0

10

(Agree)(Disagree)

Figure 1 : Teacher's combined median ratings for comprehension.

Traditional Training

Partnership Learning

Ratings

Implementation Question**

Partnership Learning: 59Traditional Training: 14

**Now that you have learned about twostrategies, which of the two do youbelieve you are most likely to teach?

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Table one: Teachers’ perceptions of the value of observingInstructional Coaches modeling practices(n = 107)

3.18/7Do teachers think coaches have enough contentknowledge to model all the instruction in teachers’classes.

6.13/7Do teachers think they learned other teachingstrategies while watching a coach model?

6.22/7Do teachers think watching a coach modelpractices made them more confident aboutimplementing?

6.4/7Do teachers think watching a coach modelpractices increased their fidelity to instructionalpractices?

6.51/7Do teachers think watching a coach modelpractices made it easier to implement?

Instructional Coaching(n = 82)

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Academic Year 03-04

Topeka had its greatest gainever on standardized tests, andthe greatest gains in the state

http://www.topeka.k12.ks.us

Jim Knight, Project DirectorPathways to Success/Instructional Coaching Institutes

Kansas University Center for Research on Learning (KU-CRL)

(785) 550-8708

jknight@ku.edu

www.instructionalcoach.org

To carry on our conversation…