Standard 3 - Educational Research bPortfolio Reflection

Standard 3 – Teacher leaders improve teaching and learning through the use of educational research at the classroom and school levels.

Prior to engaging in the Teacher Leadership program, I was not very involved in utilizing research in my classroom or with my colleagues. I have participated in one or two loosely structured attempts at something similar to action research, but saw little success. From the start of the program I have seen the importance of conducting research to improve my knowledge of pedagogy and become the best teacher possible. As Sagor (2011) states, "even the most celebrated teachers, who are teaching the highest-achieving students, leave their classrooms frustrated, feeling that despite their best efforts, each individual student didn't progress as far as he or she might" (p. 1). This feeling of frustration has helped guide me through this program to focus on things that are going to help increase my ability as a teacher. Reflecting on my second and sixth quarters in the program where I took classes on applying research and action research, respectively, my understanding of what is necessary to grow as a teacher has increased. 

My introduction to research and its’ application came in Applying Action Research in School Settings. During this course, we learned to dig into the research to determine the validity of the findings presented. The practice of deciphering valid research from primary sources helped me refine my overall research ability and develop a better eye for valid academic research. The final product from this class shows the level to which my comfort for critiquing research has developed. In this paper, I read, and critiqued, research regarding mindfulness practices in schools. I was able to successfully articulate the issues and inconsistencies within the research, at least that which was reported, and determine what I other information should be reported to build the credibility of this article. This helped me moving forward with both research for my classes and papers, and when determining the action research project I chose to do the following Winter.

My Action Research in School Settings class allowed me to use the information gleaned from the applying research class and helped me understand what I needed to do to perform a successful action research project and report. As I stated earlier, I have had very little practice with performing structured research in the classroom, so having a bit of a guidance was very helpful. Reflecting back to my Survey of Instructional Strategies class, I had the opportunity to perform some action research, at least to some extent, with a colleague. This experience also gave me a bit of knowledge about what to do and expect when performing my own research in my classroom. The approach taken in the instructional strategies class was based off of collaborative work, but did not take a great deal of research outside of what we did for class. The collaborative work did provide a basis for determining what issues may be addressed in a classroom setting and what approach may be taken to help rectify them (as evidenced in my collaborative inquiry project).

In undertaking my action research, I first had to understand what approach I should take. As Ravid (2011) states, "Action research is conducted by practitioner-researchers in their own settings to solve a problem by studying it, proposing solutions, implementing the solutions, and assessing the effectiveness of these solutions" (p. 4). Working from this definition, I decided to look at the literature about technology and formative assessment in a high school math classroom. I was able to find very little, so I decided to do some research of this on my own. Performing this research did not yield a great deal of positive data, but was very useful in determining what steps should occur for me moving forward (see my action research paper). Because of this, I am continuing my research in the area of technology and formative assessment so that I can better utilize what I have started.

Moving forward, I will continue utilizing what I have learned from both my project and action research in general. As Sagor states, "The greatest value of what we learn from our action research lies in the power of the new knowledge and the insights we gained for informing our future actions and consequently benefiting our students" (2011, p. 163). Moving forward is where the real value of action research lies. The changes that I will enact as a result of my research from all of my classes is going to help me to become the teacher I hope to be. Figuring out where all of this research will take me moving forward, I was struck by another quote by Sagor, "If we are to become truly reflective practitioners, the thing we must always do before commencing action is to reflect deeply on what we already know about the challenges before us and use that thinking to design thoughtful theories of action to guide our future work" (p. 163).

Further, I plan to work with my peers on developing action research that may be applicable to my school. York-Barr, Somme's, Ghere, and Montie (2006) state that, "Action research, therefore, should also be considered as a way to promote reflection and learning in small groups or teams, and schoolwide" (p. 141). As a teacher leader, I will work to help all of my colleagues conduct their own action research, possibly together, to attack one of the many difficulties we all have. As Hattie (2012) urges, "A key role of learning leaders is to construct the learning of the adults in the schools" (p. 175). To help move my school in a positive direction, I need to take on the role of a teacher of students and of adults. This is one of the most important realizations I have had as a part of this teacher leadership program.


Sources:
Hattie, J. (2012). Visible learning for teachers: Maximizing impact on learning. New York, NY: Routledge.

Ravid, R. (2011). Practical statistics for educators. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
Sagor, R. (2011). The action research guidebook: A four-stage process for educators and school teams. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.
York-Barr, J., Sommers, W.A., Ghere, G.S., Montie, J. (2006). Reflective practice to improve schools: An action guide for educators. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.

EDU 6600 Reflection

Starting out, I did not give much thought to the ways in which adult learning and student learning are different. That is not to say that I did not recognize the differences, just that they were not something I really thought to think about. Throughout this course, we have been confronted by differences in the way adults learn and the way that learning activities should be structured in order to get the greatest effect. From the beginning of the course we looked at the modes through which teachers will gain the most understanding and be able to successfully transfer their learning to their practice. We learned that adults tend to learn best in situations where information is transferred through or within work experience (I imagine this is especially true for teachers). Because teaching is a profession where we learn so much as we do it, learning on the job is one of the ways that is highly successful in developing teachers and their skills.
As we have seen time and again during this Teacher Leadership program, reflection is one of the most important abilities that we can develop. Experiential learning is one of the modes for learning that requires reflection and response to that reflection. The process of experiential learning, as given by Hansman (2001, p. 47), consist of "modeling, approximating, fading, self-directed learning, and generalizing". This process consists of reflection on practice at nearly every step along the way and is tied closely to the the practice of job-embedded development, which happens to be my personal choice for learning or professional development. Zepeda (2013) reports that when taking part in job-embedded learning, teachers experience an increased ability to reflect on their practice, work with their peers with more ease, helps reduce isolation, makes learning relevant, helps in the transfer of new skills, supports continued development, and helps create a common language that all teachers and administrators utilize (p. 127-8). Through the development of these skills, teachers become more willing and able to work together and help create the school environment they desire.
One of the goals as a leader is to aid in creating an environment where learning is looked at as a lifetime continuum, rather than a moment in a persons life when they attended a school. This belief, along with the belief that all students are capable of reaching for and meeting high standards, is the crux of the perspective presented by Angelle, who states that, "Teachers who work in a culture of high expectations and continuous learning find that their leadership skills are actively called upon to contribute to the improvement of their school" (2011, p. 233). The overall effect of this type of atmosphere is that all teachers, leaders or not, feel lifted up and more confident in their abilities and the abilities of their students. This can lead to a massive shift in a school environment. I have been a part of a situation where leadership was not honored in any way and the school became stagnant and, frankly, a horrible place to work.
The culmination of our learning about the modes and methods for adult learning is our final product, a plan of action for an area of need in our school. Through the development of this action plan, we looked at demographics and some detailed information about our school. We then had to find an issue within our school that upon which we could have an effect. I chose to look at academic language development because there is a large population of ELL students and our students' ability to utilize academic language is going to enhance their ability to perform in all content areas. The plan is highly dependent upon site-based, job-embedded learning. This particular area of adult learning is something I have had the good fortune of experiencing with math instructional coaches. It has enhanced by ability as a math teacher tremendously and I know it can do the same for others. While the plan is not something that I am able to implement, there are some elements being utilized by our school over the course of this school year.
In looking through this quarter, I have learned a great deal about what will work well and not so well when dealing with adult learners. There are many different theories or approaches, but the mode I have found myself drawn to is job-embedded learning. This approach makes the learning something happening in the moment and applicable, rather than something theoretical happening in a conference. The plan developed, while not perfect, I believe would be useful in aiding students and their ability to utilize academic language proficiently. Overall, this class has provided me with a great deal of information as I work to become a teacher leader in my school.

Angelle, P.S., (2011). Teachers as leaders:Collaborative leadership for learning communities. In E.B. Hilty (Ed.). Teacher leadership: The “new” foundations of teacher education (pp.229-238). New York, NY: Peter Lang Publishing Inc.

Hansman, C.A., (2001). Context-based adult learning. New Directions for Adult and Continuing Education, 89, 43-51.

Zepeda, S.J. (2013). Professional development: What works. New York, NY: Routledge.

bPortfolio Reflection #3

I would like to see my school utilize lesson study in a genuine way. We did this a little bit with an earlier administrator and the results were okay. Back then, our focus was related more to just general teaching strategies, not something explicitly related to the goals of our school. I would like the opportunity to pursue this practice with my current peers and with the goal of finding research based practices that are highly effective in increasing academic vocabulary and literacy. As a Math teacher, choosing a topic so Humanities-based may be surprising, but there is a great deal of emphasis on modeling and utilizing language and literacy skills in Math and Science (the state assessments in particular) that this is the type of work that would be very useful for all. We could start by looking through our individual curriculum to determine a specific topic related to language/literacy acquisition. In Math, this may be something related to being able to identify the mathematical action words in a story problem that indicate what steps or process would be best. We would move on to creating a plan and developing a question or two we would want answered through our research. Again, in Math this could be related to the depth of understanding in Math-specific vocabulary, how this will be assessed, and what types of learning opportunities will be available to aid in this acquisition. We would then move to researching the areas hopefully being able to identify practices or strategies that will help in general and in our specific classes. By finding and utilizing these strategies, we are working on developing a common set of practices, or a set of practices that aim at the same result. Moving forward, we will reflect on the practices that worked well and not so well to determine what is going to work best. Then, we will start the cycle once again, looking for something that will help further lead our students to even more success.

Overall, this process will be hindered by a few things. First, time is always a factor. With all of the initiatives we must work on for the state or district, time is at a premium. Another thing that is going to be difficult is the research aspect. Teachers may be hesitant to take on something like researching strategies that could, potentially, take a great deal of time and may be difficult to find. Another issue that may arise is that some teachers may not feel comfortable working together to share their practice in ways that this process would require. This is the most difficult thing to overcome in my opinion. Teachers, young and old, have varying levels of comfort in people accessing their classroom or their teaching practices and this can too much to ask a person until they trust those with which they work. Developing a camaraderie or sense of common purpose is going to be vital to being able to do this work with success in any school situation.

The current state of collaboration at our school is not where we would all like it to be, but it is improving. There are elements of collaborative work, but there is not a great deal of structure, at least not as there is with the lesson study. Our collaboration occurs mostly as an entire staff and does not always allow the deeper work that could happen when working with a smaller group of 6-10 people. A next step we could take would be to split up our staff into similar areas of interest and then begin forming relationships that will allow us to dive deeper into our practice than we currently do. Overall, I think our school is doing a good job with where everyone is at in their practice. We have a great deal of early career or first year teachers who are figuring things out and much of our learning is directed toward them. As we progress through the year, I am certain that we will be able to work on a deeper level and begin collaborating with one of the models we have studied.

Adult Learning Practices at My School

Being an adult learner at my current site has changed significantly over the past six years. When I began at my school I felt like the practices used for adult learning were ineffective. Our professional development was consistently brief and discontinuous. I can remember one instance where we had one introductory training on teaching students growing up in poverty and then never heard or saw any information regarding this again. In another instance, we had a training on arts integration and then heard nothing about it again until the next training which was months away. Thinking back on how we, as adult learners, were expected to adapt any of the information presented with so little information and/or follow up, it is not surprising that many teachers felt as though we were unable to really use anything we were supposed to be learning.

The way that Zepeda presents adult learning is much more closely aligned to the way that my school works on initiatives now. For one, our learning is now more individualized or self-directed. This has allowed us to choose what we feel will be most productive to further enhance out practice. We have some freedom to participate in informal or incidental learning as presented by Marsick and Watkins. When we do our work in committees or in focus groups, we are given a chance to frame our learning and interact with each other through implementation and reflection. The shift in focus we have seen at my school is tackling learning in a much more context-based situation as presented by Hansman.

As our school has moved forward these past several years, we have begun to see the learning of teachers through the lens that many of the authors this week have presented. Whether through an individualized approach so we can focus on the information we feel will benefit our practice most or through the reflection we regularly incorporate, our learning practices are much more effective. The change that has taken place has given me a new perspective on how we should approach teacher development and has made me realize what effective professional development looks like. Our practices are not perfect, but they have moved in the right direction thanks to a change in administration and teachers who have spoken out to make our learning more productive.

EDU6600 Pre-Assessment Reflection

Leading the Change in Today's Schools

The Hilty, and Hirsch and Hord texts offer some great components of successful shared leadership as a means for changing our schools. Some of the components of successful shared leadership include group members having a shared vision or goal, having the freedom to research innovative practices and the support to implement those practices, and allowing members to utilize the strengths they possess. The idea is that schools want to ensure that students experience a democratic school that prepares them academically and socially for life in both the business world and the community in which they live. The approach from the side of a teacher, administrator, and community member must be united in vision and allow for work together while feeling as though influence is bidirectional. 

Some schools approach this through a research, implement, reflect, refine, sort of cycle. This approach can end up being self perpetuating and may result in significant change in the long run. Other schools work to change their schools through the work of small groups of people who are working to figure out the most effective practices and structures for their school. These groups may also be successful if there is a leader who helps guide the groups work while allowing for bidirectional influence. There are many other ways in which schools may choose to create change for the better. Regardless of the mode, all members must have some level of buy in for this work to be successful. 

Another aspect that is important to enact any sort of change in a school is that all members must hold the belief that all students can achieve success while being held to high standards. This belief is a must for any school that desires their students to experience a democratic education. There is definitely an element of social justice within the requirement of high standards for all. Though not all schools have the same resources and not all students have the same preparation, all students can be held to high academic and social skill standards which may help to provide a high quality educational experience for all.

In my experience, leadership has been somewhat limited to those in positions of power. There are many initiatives in my district that are sent to our principals with little direction or resources for implementation. My school has several small groups that work on different district initiatives and we do our best to achieve what is required of us, but I cannot help but feel as though there is a better approach. I work on the Family Engagement team at my school and we have worked to help increase the number of opportunities families have to engage with the school, but have made little headway. Most events are not well attended and some are even not attended. This has led to some members feeling rather hopeless about the work we do, including myself. I am not sure what I would change about the way in which this committee operates, but I feel that there must be a way to increase the engagement of our students' families with our school. Another area of leadership that I have been a part of is the Shared Leadership Team. This team consists of one teacher representative from each department, the principal, academic dean, family liaison, and counselor. My experience was very negative and most meetings resulted in our principal taking charge and pushing her agenda through (this administrator has since left our school and I have since left the Shared Leadership Team). There was definitely a unidirectional path of influence and it was rather clear that those in a position under the principal had little or no influence on the goings on within this team; it was "shared leadership" in name only. 

Through this course I hope to see examples of effective shared leadership from my peers. I also hope to learn about the elements that are necessary to build a community of collaboration and allow for equitable bidirectional influence. I also hope to further deepen my understanding of what it means to become a teacher leader within my school building.

End of Course Reflection – Standards-based Assessment EDU6613

Prior to this quarter, I have had limited practice using standards-based assessment, especially as it pertains to formative assessment. Having taken courses on instructional strategies, I have learned about various formative assessments, but not really how to incorporate it into an overall unit structure. Through this quarter, we have seen the value of formative assessment and how to incorporate this in our unit plans. We began looking through Embedded Formative Assessment (Wiliam, 2011) and creating our learning progression.

This process of looking through the trajectory of a unit and determining what the steps in the progression of learning looks like was a new task, particularly laying it out in some sort of format other than just looking through the book or curriculum provided. For me, this represented a start to really looking deeply at the focus standards of a unit and laying out what each step in reaching that standard looks like. My learning progression (Learning Progression) began as a rather well-defined process to get from one step to another, however, I was not sure how to determine whether my students had learned the material. I was afraid that my assessment of student understanding would not tell me what students had learned, similar to the story of Jy (Wiliam, 2011, p. 47). Through feedback provided by my peers, I was able to create formative assessments that I believe will be beneficial in correctly determining where my students are at in the progression. We then looked at ways to incorporate peer and self-assessment into the learning. This was once again aided by feedback received by peers and the professor and the opportunities that I have provided, I believe, are quality and will help me and my students a great deal to gauge learning.

The other major area we looked at was through our assessment into action paper. For this, I decided to research how to provide quality feedback to my students. This was a focus because I feel like I have either provided feedback that is too specific and does not really require thought to figure out, or too vague and is not useful in helping my students get to the next level of their learning. In order to figure out how to provide useful formative assessment, I found some good resources that allowed me a bit of insight into what it means to provide quality feedback. One of the articles I found provided some great information with a quote, “Feedback functions formatively only if the information fed back to the learner is used by the learner in improving performance” (Wiliam, 2012, p.120, emphasis in original). This quote really struck me because I had not come to the realization that it does not matter what sort of feedback I provide if it is not useful to help students improve their understanding. In my paper, (Assessment Into Action), I looked through several different resources, mainly articles by a couple authors, Dylan Wiliam and Susan Brookhart. Both authors have similar approaches to providing feedback which boil down to about three elements; feedback occurs while students are learning, feedback is appropriate for the understanding of a student (not too high or too low), and feedback must be used by students. One more element that I really had not thought about was provided by Brookhart (2012), where she asserts that feedback, “can’t work if students don’t have an immediate opportunity to use it” (p. 26). This was another element of new learning for me as I did not really think about immediate practice being necessary to build learning (although this seems a bit naïve now). The elements necessary for feedback to be high quality and effective are really informative and important to my practice moving forward.

This course really helped out with my approach to assessment, particularly formative assessment. We were constantly working with program standard 11, utilize formative and summative assessment in a standards based environment. This work is really important for me in becoming the teacher I want to be and will have a high level of impact on my practice moving forward. I will be able to utilize this information in any class and at any level. Overall, this class has provided me with a great deal of information to help improve my teaching, my analysis of where students are in their understanding, and ways that I can provide feedback to students to help them improve their understanding. Ultimately, my students will reap the benefit of this shift in approach as they will be able to build on their understanding far more independently than they could previously.  

Brookhart, S. (2012). Preventing feedback fizzle. Educational Leadership, 70(1), 24-29.

Wiliam, D. (2011). Embedded formative assessment. Solution Tree Press, Bloomington, In.

Wiliam, D. (2012). Feedback: Part of a system. Educational Leadership, 70(1), 31-34.