Supervision as Professional Development

and Renewal

Allison MackleySeptember 2010

Objectives Understand one framework for teacher

learning and supervision

Explore several practices of professional development and renewal

Gain insight into the power of collaborative culture

Building Capacity

Building the capacity of teachers is important because it is a key factor in improving student achievement.

With your table group, come up with a definition of “capacity” as it relates to this quotation.

Some Background Purpose of Supervision: To help teachers improve

What the teacher knows The development of teaching skills Teacher’s ability to make more informed professional decisions Be a better problem solver To inquire into his or her own practice

Traditional means of improvement: in-service in which supervisors choose programs

More recent means of improvement: professional development in which teachers play a key role in deciding the direction and nature of their professional improvement

Neither in-service nor professional development is expansive and penetrating enough to tap the full potential for teachers to grow personally and professionally (Bollin, Falk and colleagues).

Frameworks for Growth When supervision shifts away from providing

improvement experiences and opportunities, renewal begins to dominate (Bolin).

Supervision as renewal is more fully integrated into the everyday life of the school.

Teachers commit to sharing their practice and to helping each other create collaborative communities of practice.

Capacity as Personal and Professional

Think about a time that you wanted to learn how to do something (i.e. play an instrument, learn a language, perfect a hobby, etc.).

What drove you to do something about the fact that you didn’t have the knowledge or skill.

What would have happened if you didn’t pursue the knowledge or skill?

How does this relate to teaching?

In-service Training Directive and structured

Responsibility in hands of someone other than teacher

Emphasis on the development of job-related skills through the provision of training and practice experiences

Assumed that teachers have limited capacity or will to figure things our for themselves

Serves less to provide growth and more to meet legal requirements

Program activities selected and developed for uniform dissemination without giving serious consideration to the purposes of such activities or the needs of individual teachers

In-Service Assumptions

Knowledge stands above the teacher.

Knowledge is instrumental. It tells the teacher what to do.

Teaching is a job and teachers are technicians.

Mastery of skills is important.

Roles Teacher is consumer of

knowledge Principal is an expert

Practices Emphasize technical

competence Build individual teacher’s

skills Through training and

practice By planning and delivering

training

Professional Development Develops professional expertise by involving teachers in problem

solving and action research

Teachers and supervisors share responsibility for planning, development and provision of staff development activities

Focus is much less on training than on puzzling, inquiring, and solving problems.

Provides teachers with the opportunity to reflect on their practice and share with others.

Characterized by “intensity of personal involvement, immediate consequences for classroom practice, stimulation and ego support by meaningful associates in this situation, and initiating by teacher rather than outside” (Thelen).

Professional Development Assumptions

The teacher stands above knowledge.

Knowledge is conceptual. It informs the teacher’s decisions.

Teaching is a profession and teachers are experts.

Development of expertise is important.

Roles Teacher is constructor of

knowledge. Principal is a colleague.

Practices Emphasize clinical

competence. Build professional

community Through problem solving

and inquiry By emphasizing inquiry,

problem solving and research

Renewal The development of the personal and professional self through

reflection and reevaluation

Renewal implies doing over again, revising, making new yet restoring, reestablishing, and revaluing (Bolin).

Teacher engages in the process for himself or herself

Assumes a need for teachers to grow and develop on the job

Less of a function of polishing existing skills or of keeping up with the latest developments and more a function of solving problems and of changing as individuals.

Renewal Assumptions

Knowledge is in the teacher.

Knowledge is personal. It connects teachers to themselves and others.

Teaching is a calling and teachers are servants.

Development of personal and professional self is important.

Roles Teacher is internalizer of

knowledge Principal is a friend

Practices Emphasize personal and

critical competencies Build caring community Through reflection and

reevaluation By encouraging reflection,

conversation, and discourse

Designing Professional Development Opportunities Offer meaningful intellectual, social, and emotional engagement

with ideas, with materials, and with colleagues Take account of the context of teaching and the experience of

other teachers Offer support for informed dissent as a means to evaluate

alternatives and to scrutinize underlying assumptions for what is being proposed or done.

Place classroom practice in the larger context of purposes and practices of schooling.

Provide teachers with ways they an see and act upon the connections among students’ experience, classroom practice, and school wide structures and cultures.

Prepare teachers to employ the techniques and perspectives of inquiry in an effort to increase their capacity to generate knowledge and to assess the knowledge claimed by others.

(Judith Warren Little)

Empowering Teachers Enable teachers to exercise more control over their

classrooms.

More control is needed for teachers to make the changes in their practices that are necessary for them to teach more effectively.

Participation in a professional community of like-minded colleagues has a significant effect on their ability to know better what to do in the classroom and to adapt their teaching strategies to more effectively meet student needs.

(Milbrey McLaughlin)

Professional Community Ideal setting for teacher learning and for providing the

professional development opportunities which enhance this learning

Learning and teaching depend heavily upon creating, sustaining, and expanding a community of research practice.

Members of the community are critically dependent on each other

Collaborative learning is not just nice but necessary for survival

Interdependence promotes an atmosphere of joint responsibility, mutual respect, and a sense of personal and group identity.

Building a Professional Community

At your table group brainstorm several benefits of a professional community.

What must change in the current system to encourage the development of a professional community?

Benefits of a Professional Community Encourage teachers to reflect on their own practice

Acknowledge that teachers develop at different rates and at any given time are more ready to learn some things than others

Acknowledge that teachers have different talents and interests

Give high priority to conversation and dialogue among teachers

Provide for collaborative learning among teachers

Emphasize caring relationships and felt interdependencies

Call for teachers to respond morally to their work

View teachers as supervisors of learning communities in their own classrooms.

Research on Teacher Learning and Teacher Effectiveness According to Dennis Sparks and Stephanie Hirch

(National Staff Development Council), effective teacher learning is Focused on helping teachers become deeply immersed in

subject matter and teaching methods Curriculum-centered and standards based Sustained, rigorous, and cumulative Directly linked to what teachers do in their classrooms

We cannot expect teachers to use yesterday’s training to prepare today’s students for tomorrow’s future.

Effective Practices Programs conducted in school settings and linked to schoolwide efforts

Teachers participating as helpers to each other and as planners, with administrators, of in-service activities

Emphasis on self-instruction with differentiated training opportunities

Teachers in active roles, choosing goals and activities for themselves

Emphasis on demonstration, supervised trials and feedback; training that is concrete and ongoing over time

Ongoing assistance and support available on request

(Sparks and Susan Loucks-Horsley)

Results: Eisenhower Professional Development Program Structural Features

Form Duration Participation

Core Features Content Focus Active Learning Coherence

Specifically our research indicates that professional development should focus on deepening teacher content knowledge and knowledge of how students learn particular content, on providing opportunities for active learning and on encouraging coherence in teachers’ professional development experiences. Schools and districts should pursue these goals by using activities that have greater duration and that include collective participation. Although reform forms of professional development [i.e. study groups, mentoring, peer inquiry, teacher networks] are more effective than traditional forms [i.e. workshops], the advantages are explained primarily by greater duration of the activities.

Successful Professional Development Must be grounded in inquiry, reflection, and experimentation that are

participant driven

Must be collaborative, involving a sharing of knowledge among educators and a focus on teachers’ communities of practice rather than on individual teachers

Must be a sustained, ongoing, intensive, and supported by modeling, coaching, and the collective solving of specific problems of practice

Must be connected to and derived from teachers’ work with their students

Must engage teachers in concrete tasks of teaching, assessment, observation and reflection that illuminate the processes of learning and development

Must be connected to other aspects of school change

A Design for Planning Five components that constitute a design framework for

planning: intents, substance, performance expectations, approach, and responsibility

Consider the following questions to bring a sense of coherence to the planning process: What are we trying to accomplish? What will teachers be able to know and do as a result of

engaging in professional development? What aspects of good teaching will be the focus on our learning

efforts? How can we assess our progress as learners? In what ways can our professional development activities and

procedures be improved? How shall we proceed from here? Who will be responsible for what?

Intents It is essential to be concerned with four levels

of intent.

Knowledge level – I know it.

Comprehension level – I understand it.

Application level – I can do it.

Value level – I will do it.

Substance Four critical factors in good teaching which can be improved

through appropriate teacher growth and development (Louis Rubin):

Teacher’s sense of purpose

Teacher’s perception of students

Teacher’s knowledge of subject matter

Teacher’s mastery of technique

A comprehensive staff development program is concerned with all four of the critical factors.

Performance Expectations Know How – I know how to teach and help students learn. (Talk to me.)

I can teach effectively and am able to get students to learn. (Observe me.)

I will teach effectively and I will meet other responsibilities all the time, even when no one is looking. (Look at lesson plans, assignments, student work; Use walk-throughs.)

I will grow on the job. (Observe me, ask me to share ideas with colleagues, look for changes in my teaching practice.)

Self-employed professionals (doctors, accountants and others) are forced by competition and by visible product evaluation to give major attention to the will-grow dimension. Teachers have not felt external pressure for continuing professional growth. High-stakes testing and other performance expectations are bring more attention to this area.

Approach and Responsibility Traditional Approaches and Supervisory

Responsibility In-servicing teachers Best when a problem can be defined as a deficit in

knowledge of some kind Accompanied by clear objectives and conventional well-

executed instruction. Teachers assume passive role and are exposed to logically

structured programs and activities. Represent a minimum commitment to teacher growth and

development

Approach and Responsibility continued

Informal Approaches and Teacher Responsibility Exploration and discovery by teachers Provides teachers with a rich environment for

professional learning Teachers are personally involved, work

collaboratively with others and have immediate consequences for classroom practice

Approach and Responsibility continued

Shared Approaches and Shared Responsibility

Low-key, classroom-focused, teacher-oriented and particularistic.

Teachers’ capacities, needs and interests are paramount, but sufficient planning and structure is introduced to bridge the gap between these interests and school program and instruction needs.

Teachers are actively involved in contributing data, information or feeling; solving a problem; or conducting an analysis.

Supervisors share in the contributing, solving, and conducting activities above as colleagues of the teachers.

In colleagueship supervisors and teachers work together as professional associates bound by the common purpose of improvement of teaching and learning

Staff development activities generally require study of an actual situation or a real problem and use live data, either from self-analysis or from observations of others.

Feedback is provided, by supervisors, by other teachers, or as a result of joint analysis, which permits teachers to compare observations with intents and beliefs, and personal reactions of others.

The emphasis is on direct improvement of teaching and learning in the classroom.

Learning Communities

With your table group, list structures in your school that support learning communities.

What must change in your school to support learning communities?

To take away…

Ability is seen as an expandable repertoire of skills and habits, professionals are defined as individual who are continually learning rather than as people who already know. Their roles include both teacher and learner, master and apprentice, and these roles are continually shifting according to context.