In an effort to enable the steep learning curve of the staff I have recruited to be part of this project, I threw together this quick summary of transformative learning and how the theory might translate into action within the Physical Education cohort in 2010. Preparation goes well. The teaching team has thus far redesigned the course overview, established a group within Diigo for bookmarking and cataloguing resources and slowly developed the team site on One Portal.
The next challenge for the staff involved is to perform a performance review and plan for development. I have created a template to streamline the process across my staff, beginning with a trial for the two transformative learners.
Transformational theory of Learning as applied to the Qld Senior Physical Education syllabus.
Transformative Learning is a theory of learning that goes beyond just content knowledge acquisition. It is a process where learners learn to think for themselves, developing freedom from unquestioning acceptance of what they have to come to perceive through life experience. Freedom is experienced through active engagement and questioning of how we know what we know. (Learning as Transformation, by Jack Mezirow & Associates, 2000, published by Jossey Bass, San Francisco)
Transformative Learning Theory, as originally described by Mezirow (1991, 2000), explores a learning process where learners become critically aware of their own implicit assumptions and expectations of the learning experience. Merriam and Caffarella (1999) further codify Transformative Learning into three phases, including critical reflection, reflective discourse, and action. Mezirow (2000) suggests that Transformative Learning often involves deep, powerful emotions or beliefs and is evidenced in action.
Implementation of the Transformative Learning Theory considers;
the teacher’s role in establishing an environment that builds trust and care and facilitates the development of sensitive relationships among learners. The goal is to create a community of individuals who are “united in a shared experience of trying to make meaning of their life experience”. The teacher also serves as a role model by demonstrating a willingness to learn and change.
the role of participants for creating the learning environment.
the role of the rational and the affective. Teachers need to consider how they can help students use feelings and emotions both in critical reflection and as a means of reflection.
Watkins and Marsick (1993) suggest that learning networks can become the medium for moving new knowledge through the learning organization and that such collaborative structures and processes enhance the organization’s ability to learn because they enable critical conversations and challenging of assumptions and norms.
Yorks and Marsick (2000) suggest two strategies that can produce transformative learning for individuals, groups and/or organizations: action learning and collaborative inquiry. Both strategies are concerned with learning around significant issues and can be directly applied to learning within Physical Education. A critical assessable criteria calls for solutions to problems. These solutions can be found through collaborative inquiry (drawing on the inquiry process as a framework for learning) and action learning. Integration of physical performance and academic learning allows the opportunity to develop and test hypotheses based on the targeted concepts. Action learning is a process involving a team or group working collaboratively on a project or problem-solving task. It involves the participants not only in the joint analysis, evaluation and reflection of the task, but also in reflecting on the process of how they worked, and taking personal and group learning from that process.
How will this look?
Learning to think for themselves:
selecting evidence and resources
determining suitability of resources for learning and validity of evidence
think about personal learning habits and preferences. Understanding data that predicts learning styles and preferences.
problem solving strategies
contributing to information streams
understanding thinking processes, in particular the difference between lower order and higher order thinking.
Freedom from unquestioning acceptance:
questioning norms (eg. Power in learning relationships, learning norms)
Determining assumptions and preconceptions from knowledge and learning
Use of tools to enhance learning
Response to feedback – seek further info themselves
Compare personal performance with assessment criteria
Choosing learning activities (in and out of lesson time)
Personal accountability for learning and achievement, and the reporting of such.
Teacher as a model learner:
public reflections
Engaging in critical conversations about teaching and pedagogy
Learning from students, acknowledging and publicising such learning.
Personal accountability for learning and achievement, and the reporting of such.
Use of feelings and emotions
differentiating choices influenced by pleasure from those influenced by learning.
identifying influences on learning, and management of those influences.
Collaborative inquiry:
contribution to information streams
collaboration on learning
providing assistance to enable learning of others
Reflection:
individual learning journal – reflect on learning choices, influences on such choices and extent of learning
data from surveys and achievement
teacher reflection (blog)
How will it be measured?
Achievement data (PE and across other subject choices)
Teacher surveys
Teacher performance data (eg. movement on SCPDF)
Student surveys
Student reflective blogs
Student surveys
Student reflection on achievement
Student reflection on contribution to information streams
Teacher reflections (blog?) – could be in LP project room.
My blog
Surveys of critical friends
Action / performance plans after reflection (teachers re. curriculum, teachers re. practice, students re. practice)
Skills:
Teaching student research, including identifying valid sources for referencing vs. appropriate sources for instruction and content.
Contribution to information streams (blogging, commenting, social book marking, resource wikis)
Attribution of sources
Choices in capture, storage, annotation and conversion of information.
In a recent meeting with my upline manager I was challenged regarding the selection of my staff for the transformational learning project. My upline manager expressed concern that I had chosen two young and relatively inexperienced staff members, and specifically two staff members without experience in implementing this particular syllabus. I appreciate and encourage this questioning as it ensures I am reasoned in the decisions that I make.
There was one critical factor in my selection of the staff. Choosing two teachers new to the school, who have not taught the specific subject previously, certainly enables radical change. And there is no doubt what I am asking for is a radical change. No teacher in this school has taught in this manner previously, and no student has learnt within this type of environment. I feared that if I recruited staff who had already taught the specific subject then I would be dealing with “tradition” and “hangover” from what has occurred previously. I don’t believe this would have enabled the success I am aiming for.
What has excited me is the professionalism displayed thus far by the project teachers. I permitted them open license to design a work program that enabled them to teach effectively. I have never been concerned about changing work programs, and in Health Education have made changes annually. This is the first change for Physical Education since the original work program was approved in 2004. In the re-writing of the program, both of the project teachers have independently accessed the syllabus to ensure what they are planning is appropriate. This has even resulted in them picking up on an error I made with suggestions for the program. Considering I did not ask or suggest they access the syllabus, in fact I expected they would propose a program and I would check it for syllabus suitability, has really impressed me. Coupled with this is the independent research they have each done on the transformative theory of learning to prepare themselves, which is impressive. Inexperience has not restricted them.
The project team met yesterday to finalise the program skeleton. In this meeting (held whilst on playground duty!) I believe a significant indication of progress was achieved. The teachers were discussing logical ordering of content across the two year program and decided that we should begin with a unit on Motor Learning. Their justification was based on the fact that the students would not have experienced this type of learning environment previously, and this allowed us to teach them “how to learn” and to specifically learn within the environment we are establishing. This to me was a breakthrough as it demonstrated an understanding of what they have volunteered to be part of, and deep thinking on how to structure the learning environment to enable success.
I couldn’t be happier with the progress of these two teachers. I’m excited by the changes they have proposed. I’m excited by the enthusiasm they are displaying. I’m impressed with the professionalism they are demonstrating at this stage of the project.
The next phase of the project will be collaborative visioning and the establishment of mechanisms for measurement. Our visioning will be based on a number of documents that I have grouped as “Documents informing the project” and categorised under a range of headings. I will outline these in another post. The teachers will be asked to familiarise themselves with the documents and then discuss how they will impact the project.
Thank to @joram10 and @bobrodgers54 I had the opportunity to present a webinar on leading school change in relation to eLearning to a group of teachers in Rockhampton today. I tweeted out the opportunity for others to attend and was pleasantly surprised when a number of colleagues accepted.
In preparation for this webinar, I made significant changes to one I had completed earlier (and linked in this blog). This time around I focussed on some ideas on how I increase capacity in four specific areas:
Institutional capacity
Student capacity
Staff capacity
Personal capacity
These are inextricably linked, however I hoped that by presenting them as four foci would allow attendees to vision their own potential action upon return to school.
If you are interested, click on the link below. Password is rocky. If you don’t scrobble the session takes about an hour.
Recently our long serving principal announce his retirement. Our current (acting) principal has spoken at staff and HOD-Admin meetings about preparing for change. I think his initial presentation to staff was generally misinterpreted, his follow up discussion to HODs more focused and understandable. His main point is that regardless of who is eventually appointed principal it is illogical to assume they will lead and manage as our retired principal did. In other words, we need to prepare for change, change that is inevitably going to happen but at this point is difficult to predict. The acting principal has suggested that when a new principal is appointed it would be easy for them to target the “low hanging fruit.” It was this comment of low hanging fruit that drew most criticism from the general staff, however the point he was trying to make is relevant. The obvious underperforming elements of a school would be easily noticeable by new leadership and be a logical target for refinement.
So do I have any “low hanging fruit.” Most definitely. We were asked to consider his reflections, or cultural observations, that he categorised as “pillars” and “dark matter.” His point of dark matter was that it may be occurring, but it is not obvious as a consistent, whole school approach or evidence is lacking. The dark matter as identified is;
focus on data driven improvement
strategy
shared accountability
holistic behaviour management
performance development
I definitely have some things to consider in this list. Data driven improvement across the faculty is lacking. We have mechanisms to review data, but it is mostly achievement data. I think there is other data we can gather and reflect upon for improvement. I need a process for this to occur to ensure my staff engage and take this seriously, because at this point most don’t. There is very little reflection on student achievement, student satisfaction and student engagement. The vast majority of our reflection and refinement is based on teacher opinion, a system which is lacking in my opinion.
Use of data could be tied into strategy. As could performance planning. Currently there are a number of things happening separately not connected to a faculty improvement strategy – I can feel a mind map coming on! I’ve been challenged to develop a school wide strategy for the advancement of digital pedagogy, so a faculty improvement strategy should be similar in design process. The problem is our school wide strategies are disjointed. These need to be refined before I can comprehensively develop a faculty level strategy.
There are definitely some challenges here for me as a leader and manager. Combined with the Vocational Education rectification processes identified in a recent internal audit, development of documents for a tertiary credit partnership, review and planning for the Digital Pedagogy License Advanced Community and planning for 2010 – this is going to be one hell of a busy finish to my working year.
This is a brief, generally unplanned farewell speech I delivered to my year 12s at our final lesson together this year. They are a very special group and have been a significant influence in my development as an educator. If interested, the recording is here.
Now that I have my staff selected, I believe my time is best spent exposing them to the software that will enable transformative learning. My first focus will be on software that enables sharing of information. In this initial phase I will install software that utilises data stored on the local hard drive. This is purposeful so that I can facilitate use of the team site for the project to share files.
FireFox is essential for the functionality of the add-ons, particularly on the Windows powered laptops provided to teachers in our organisation. Zotero is a notebook and research tool. We will build notebooks and share them out to the learners. FoxIt toolbar allows the markup and annotation of PDF files. Simply choose “Save As” when finished and all markups and annotations are saved as part of the file. X-mind is a concept mapping program, within which we will build learning maps for the units we implement. Each of these programs are cross platform. I’m aware there are platform specific programs that may perform these functions more effectively however I want a solution that can be modelled in class and implemented on any platform.
Tomorrow I will install these items on my staff’s laptops. I will then provide them with the Smart Classrooms Professional Development Framework file (PDF). They will be tasked with opening it within FireFox and using the markup tools to identify the indicators they believe they are currently demonstrating. As well as providing them exposure to PDF markup and file sharing via One Portal, this will also provide base data to map performance improvement upon.
Its been reassuring that both staff have been showing real interest in this and a desire to learn.
Yesterday I invited two staff members to be the teachers in this project. Both seemed excited by the invite which is a good thing. I have purposely picked them for a number of reasons.
Staff member A sits in the main HPE staffroom and I believe has the potential to be an excellent teacher. 2010 will be their 3rd year at our school. They are well organised and always working within timelines from myself or administration. They have spent large amounts of time preparing resources for their classes, and although this will change tact with this project the time commitment is important. Their learning management needs refinement, and I believe this process will allow them to critically reflect on their influence on the learning environment and improve their practice acordingly.
Staff member B is my most energetic and motivated staff member. They are constantly seeking advice and feedback on performance and show an ability to critically reflect and adapt their practice. They sit in a staffroom across the other side of the school, which should result in a spreading of the influence of the project. The fact that they like to talk about their teaching will aid this process. This will also encourage me to leave the main HPE staffroom more often to interact with my other staff. This staff member is well organised and always works within timelines. They seem to thrive in team situations, although I see the potential for leadership within them.
So now I am getting excited. At this point there are three priorities that need to be addressed. First and foremost I need to formalise the plan for the project. As it is an action learning project I need to frame it as such. This includes the recruitment of critical friends. I’d like to have critical friends for each of the following aspects;
syllabus implementation
staff development
student achievement and satisfaction data
pedagogical practices
digital pedagogy (incl. use of specific tools and processes)
There may be other areas I incorporate critical friends and no doubt they will become evident in the plan formalisation process. I have not yet identified the requirements or commitment of critical friends, but if you are interested in being one for this project then I encourage you to let me know. If you can’t dedicate the time (I know we are all busy) there will be opportunity to read our progress and comment as such.
Secondly I need to provide a range of readings to my staff to increase their understanding of transformative theory. I will do this through the creation and transfer of a Zotero notebook, demonstrating to them the use of such technologies that I want incorporated into the project. Thirdly, we need to meet to refine the work program so that it enables the success of the project. Aspects like the use of physical activities that allow the teachers to be “close” in the early stages. Our classroom is next to our hall, so if the first unit of work has an activity in the hall the teachers will be relatively close. This will enable student choice and teacher support of each other.
I can feel the momentum building. I am excited, I am heartened by my staff’s excitement. And I am strong due to your support. Those that are reading this and sending comments via the blog, twitter, email or facebook are keeping me strong. Thanks to those who have already volunteered to be a critical friend.
After a couple of attempts, I finally have a viewable video of the project pitch to staff online. I’m hosting this one on Vimeo as it is slightly longer than 10 minutes.
I’ve been asked to present this to the executive administration today, after which I will need to select staff to work within the project and begin professional development and specific planning. Exciting times.
Recently I had the opportunity to attend a leadership breakfast. These are an initiative of the district office of my employing organisation. They provide an opportunity for Principals, Deputy Principals, Heads of Department and school based leaders (such as year coordinators) to attend an informal breakfast with a keynote presentation. This latest breakfast was accompanied by a keynote presentation on feedback. The pitch of the presentation was centred around providing feedback to staff, however I believe it has equal application to our roles as teachers.
One salient point the presenter made was to consider the underlying messages that are interpreted as feedback. What are we doing that provides feedback to others about our feelings, thoughts, professionalism, intent, knowledge, concern etc? Are there reactions to students that may be providing feedback that does not enhance or support our image as professionals? I see examples of this regularly, comments from teachers that undervalue theoretical knowledge in HPE relative to practical performance. I hear comments (value judgements) on students’ nutritional choices that could be interpreted as more than friendly advice on health. This is potentially a minefield. Feedback can often be associated with fear. Negative feedback reinforces this. Ineffective provision of feedback can reduce performance, taking their mind off the job and focusing it on perceptions of who they are, not how well they are doing. We need to consider that in our teaching and management, and consciously counteract the fear component. So how do we do this.
The suggestions from the presenter centred around changing the role and understanding of feedback. Make feedback helpful. It should be a shared interaction, a process that enhances performance. We need to create a shared context and a shared focus. A shared context occurs in terms of background and support. All parties need to acknowledge existing relationships and any history. This can be particularly difficult if previous history involves negative situations with feedback. The shared focus is about understanding individual and collective goals from the feedback process. Is the feedback linked to goals and priorities.
I had the opportunity during the week to use my organisation’s installation of Elluminate (we call it iConnect) to deliver two virtual presentations. The first was part of a two day conference for Heads of Department to provide them information, knowledge and skills to lead their faculties towards a connected learning environment. This was my first attempt at presenting virtually and I must say it was an interesting experience. The fact that I could not see the audience, and the fact that this was probably their first experience with the technology for web conferencing, restricted the engagement I normally seek with a group. It was also interesting just simply plowing through and not stopping to answer questions or querying looks. I think the group was inhibited from asking questions due to the delivery method, something I will need to facilitate if I get the chance again.
If you ask @joram10 who was “the boss” for the workshop, there was most likely a distinct advantage to the web conference. She could send me messages in regards to timing. This allowed her to keep to the set agenda more firmly.
If you are interested in watching, you should be able to access the recording here. Password is hods. Enjoy.
