Collective Inquiry: Looking Ahead to Rounds

Our leadership team met this afternoon to plan the next school-wide collaboration on December 12th. The focus of the final collaboration for the fall semester will be 21st century pedagogy and faculty rounds. Prior to next week’s collaboration everyone should review last week’s post and video from November 27th – Is Change Inevitable? This will lead into our discussion about the future of instruction and learning.     Regarding the faculty rounds process, our intent is to move forward as a staff with a strong understanding of the purpose and outcome. This form of professional development is a critical part of our building improvement plan. Let’s not forget the purpose of this practice: “The idea behind instructional rounds is that everyone involved is working on their practice, everyone is obligated to be knowledgeable about the common task of instructional improvement, and everyone’s practice should be subject to scrutiny, critique, and improvement” (City et. al, 2009). The PDC book study wraps up on Thursday, December 6th with a discussion on the next two chapters of Visible Learning for Teachers.  Book study group members will discuss strategies to employ at the end of lessons (chapter 8) and the mind frames of teachers, school leaders, and systems (chapter 9).  A second cycle of this book study will be offered in the spring.  Please consider joining our discussion on Thursday afternoon, or signing up for the spring book study.        In chapter five of “Inevitable: Mass Customized Learning,” Schwahn & McGarvey address the topic of learning, specifically the practices employed in schools that influence learning and what research says about how students learn. An important chapter quote states that “…practices and procedures in schools and in classrooms are often not congruent with the research…with what we know.  It is as if we are pretending not to know…pretending not to know that: humans learn in different ways, there are many ways to be intelligent, and humans learn in different time frames” (Schwahn & McGarvey, page 76). The authors suggest that educational research has provided certain principles about learning, many of which we choose to make subjective. Framing these principles as beliefs opens the door for “choice, options, and opinions” (page 77).  One consistent theme emerges whether we consider faculty rounds or the two books mentioned above: everyone brings a set of theories about learning into the classroom and it has a definite impact.  Hattie (pg. 23) states that “It is some teachers doing some things with a certain attitude or belief system that truly makes the difference” and “Teachers come into classrooms with very strong theories about students and often resist evidence that their students do not conform to these theories.”  In collaboration, we must engage in collective inquiry and focus on results. What are your thoughts or questions as we approach school-wide collaboration next week? Please forward any questions to a member of the leadership team as we finalize plans. References Schwahn, C., & McGarvey, B. (2011). Inevitable: Mass customized learning. CreateSpace. City, E., Elmore, R., Fiarman, S., & Teitel, L. (2009). Instructional rounds in education: A network approach to improving teaching and learning. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Education Publishing Group. Hattie, J. (2012). Visible learning for teachers: Maximizing impact on learning. New York, NY: Routledge.