Category: 5389 Developing Effective Professional Learning

Why Modeling?

It’s hard to disrupt the systems that we have in place. For starters, the system follows the Industrial Era model with the intent to supply a standardized workforce. Also, the systems are entrenched in our lives to the point where schools are necessary to support life as we know it. Finally, as Dr. H says, “we do what was done to us – we teach in the way that we were taught” (Harapnuik et al., 2018, p. 108). Either way, we must admit that education the system barely moved, if at all (Harapnuik et al., 2018).

The best way to make any change is to teach by modeling. 

This is because modeling is the main way that humans learn. In the video, Mother Nature’s Pedagogy, Peter Gray (2015) says, “Children are biologically designed to educate themselves through play and exploration. All we need to do is provide the conditions that would allow them to educate themselves.” Moreover, he observes that mixed-age children learn by observing and interacting with one another.

In What Babies Know About Physics and Foreign Languages, Gopnik (2016) notes that babies don’t just copy mindlessly, “they take note of who you are and why you act.” In other words – they make sense of the context of their learning.

Since modeling is such a pervasive learning method, it makes sense that we would model best practices in teaching as well.

How do we model self-directed learning?

Modeling-Based (Flipped) Professional Development at Rutgers University (McCammon, 2015) provided an “efficient and active learning environment.” To begin, the teachers recorded video lectures ahead of time that included all of the sit-and-get content (McCammon, 2015). Because they were not interactive, they were “60-80% shorter than live lectures” (McCammon, 2015). Some of the advantages of this include a self-paced learning environment and the ability of participants to review the information (McCammon, 2015). Another advantage is that because so much less time was devoted to lecturing, there was more time for active learning (McCammon, 2015). Instructors could use class time to ask and answer questions, encourage collaboration, and engage students in activities to demonstrate artifacts of their learning (McCammon, 2015). Finally, through modeling these activities, teachers had the opportunity to experience, observe, and interact with the material. Not only that but they now had a context for an engaging, authentic learning environment.

Modeling, COVA, and my PL

What I enjoy the most about my experience in ADL is that the program is authentic to me. Nothing that we do in ADL is “make work” as Dr. H frequently says. What he means by that is that we are doing work that is meaningful to our current job. Likewise, teachers need to be responsible for their own professional growth. That is, they need to grow in ways that are meaningful for their job.

In my Professional Learning, I intend to guide administrators and admin assistants to create an authentic, cross-department, professional goal. Then, they will use this goal to create an action plan to improve digital systems within and across departments. Finally, my team will coach them throughout the year as they work to meet their goal and make meaningful systemic changes. The ultimate goal is to devise systems that we can use to model a blended learning environment for teachers and students.

Ecosystems over Industrialization

“We must take our metaphor for leadership not from the machine but from the ways living systems organize. In living systems, growth is found in disequilibrium, not in balance. As leaders in educational transformation, our role is not to control but to enable the order to emerge naturally – and we are still learning how to do this well” (“Teachers Leading Their Own Professional Growth: Self-Directed Reflection and Collaboration and Changes in Perception of Self and Work in Secondary School Teachers,” 2006, p. 77).

References

Gopnik, A. (2016, July 30). Opinion | What Babies Know About Physics and Foreign Languages (Published 2016). The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/31/opinion/sunday/what-babies-know-about-physics-and-foreign-languages.html

Gray, P. (2015, January 30). Peter Gray: Mother Nature’s Pedagogy: Insights from Evolutionary Psychology. YouTube. Retrieved April 29, 2022, from https://youtu.be/G2BAJ_svbhA

Harapnuik, D., Thibodeaux, T., & Cummings, C. (2018, January 9). Dwayne Harapnuik Tilisa Thibodeaux Cynthia Cummings Lamar University. Learner’s Mindset….. Retrieved April 29, 2022, from http://tilisathibodeaux.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/COVA_eBook_Jan_2018.pdfMcCammon, L. (2015, April 15). Modeling-Based (Flipped) Professional Development at Rutgers University – Dr. Lodge McCammon. YouTube. Retrieved April 29, 2022, from

Why a growth mindset works doesn’t work works

Applied Digital Learning at Lamar is such a dynamic program. For example, it is quite metacognitive because it forces us to walk the talk as it models the skills we implement with our Innovation Project. However, because the ADL program forces us to use higher-order thinking skills, I’m not always sure where it is going. Take my journey with growth mindset thinking as an example. In our first meeting, Dr. H said that the growth mindset by itself doesn’t work. Those words stayed with me throughout the program, even in the class on creating a growth mindset implementation plan. I thought, “Why is he making us create a plan for this if it doesn’t work?” I was very uncomfortable throughout the course of 5302.

Follow my journey with the growth mindset:

Comfortable with the uncomfortable

This week we were tasked with reading two articles, one of which detailed the Ottawa Catholic School Board. In Case Study Report – Ottawa Catholic School Board (La Ferrière et al., 2016), the CEA shared “how the OCSB has transformed its classrooms into 21st-century environments that meet the needs of all learners.” Furthermore, the report detailed how “with the conversion of libraries to Learning Commons, increasing broadband, universal Wi-Fi availability and equitable Bring-Your-Own-Device (BYOD) policies, the OCSB has created a digital learning ecosystem focusing on collaboration, creativity, and critical thinking among” (La Ferrière et al., 2016). 

Mindset shift

As I read this article and watched the accompanying video, Innovation That Sticks Case Study – OCSB (EdCan Network Le Réseau ÉdCan, 2016), I was struck by the fact that such a structural change was led by a mindset shift. A lot of teachers in the district talked about being comfortable with the uncomfortable (EdCan Network Le Réseau ÉdCan, 2016). For example, they detailed a shift in culture that encourages collaboration, risk-taking, and a growth mindset (EdCan Network Le Réseau ÉdCan, 2016). With this mindset shift, teachers felt more confident to take risks, move forward with their learning, and try innovative things with their students (EdCan Network Le Réseau ÉdCan, 2016). Students could feel this energy as well, as they were not only allowed but encouraged to fail and try again. 

As I consider my plan for PL

“The driving force behind our Board’s success is the insight to lead with pedagogy and to support our pedagogical practices with technology. Our Board is able to leverage digital resources and technology with strong pedagogical alignment” (La Ferrière et al., 2016).

As I consider my professional learning plan, I know that one of my goals in my innovation proposal is to focus on improving digital processes. Therefore, my training focus will be to work with administrative assistants to develop their digital skills in transforming and innovating paperless workflows. This supports the framework described in Case Study Report – Ottawa Catholic School Board (La Ferrière et al., 2016) and is highlighted in the graphic below.

Framework for District-wide Level Change: 4 Pillars graphic

A culture shift, not a prescription

I am really starting to understand how the growth mindset fits into the big picture of ADL, creating structural change, and improving professional learning. The growth mindset is a culture shift, not a prescription. That is to say, you can’t just talk the talk of a growth mindset, you must walk the walk. Once we can get that culture shift all stakeholders might have comfort with failure and cognitive dissonance. With the right support in place, our teachers and staff will be open to the idea that the traditional model of “sage on the stage” is evolving and they will look to students as partners in learning (EdCan Network Le Réseau ÉdCan, 2016).

References

EdCan Network Le Réseau ÉdCan. (2016, May 19). Innovation That Sticks Case Study – OCSB: Risk Taking. YouTube. Retrieved April 20, 2022, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UAMcjUzdVnE

La Ferrière, L., Puentedura, R., & Fullan, M. (2016, May). Case Study Report – Ottawa Catholic School Board. EdCan Network. Retrieved April 20, 2022, from https://www.edcan.ca/wp-content/uploads/cea_ocsb_innovation_report.pdf

Picture This:

You’re seated at a long table. Your seat is stiff, flat, and backless plastic colored a dingy blue. As you shift in the attempt to find comfort, the student-sized seat creaks in protest. The long table in front of you was cleaned with an unknown chemical that left behind residue and a faint odor that will make you nauseous over the course of the three hours you’ll sit at this cramped cafeteria table. You and your colleagues sit too close for comfort; your colleague’s breath smells faintly of coffee and cigarette smoke that she tries to hide with a heavy, floral perfume. (Notably, this doesn’t work.) Papers rustle and phones ding quietly as the speaker at the front of the room clicks to slide number eight out of infinity while they drone on in monotone.

A small beam of light captures your attention and you watch as tiny bits of dust shift in synchronicity. You remember watching a dust mote in a sunbeam like that in your home as a child while your cat lay in the warm pool of light at the bottom. A soft smile reaches your lips, but your colleague draws you out of this daydream when she taps on your shoulder to ask if you have another pencil. You dig in your bag to retrieve a 0.7 Bic mechanical pencil in lime green. When you hand it to her, you bump your phone and its lock screen awakens. The time is 8:33 am. You have been in this professional learning for three minutes. 

It’s going to be a long day.

We’ve all been there.

As I conclude my 17th year in education, I can’t count how many professional development courses I attended where I learned about how to teach effectively that were presented in an ineffective way.

According to The Mirage (TNTP, 2015, p. 2):

“Districts are making a massive investment in teacher improvement – far larger than most people realize. Despite these efforts, most teachers do not appear to improve substantially from year to year – even though many have not yet mastered critical skills. Even when teachers do improve, we were unable to link their growth to any particular development strategy. School systems are not helping teachers understand how to improve – or even that they have room to improve at all.”

We overload teachers with professional development with the intent to help, but it is far from helpful (TNTP, 2015). And believe me when I say that teachers notice. A majority of teachers find the one-time workshop model of professional development useless (Gulamhussein, 2013).

What could effective PD look like?

According to Teaching the Teachers (Gulamhussein, 2013): 

Professional learning is not a one-and-done deal. It should be significant and ongoing. During implementation, teachers need support to address the specific challenges of changing classroom practice. Teachers should participate actively in making sense of a new practice during the initial exposure. Modeling is effective to help teachers understand a new practice. Teachers should engage in content and/or grade-level specific learning.

Sit-and-get learning may still be incorporated into this new system of professional learning, albeit infrequently. To ensure that it’s meaningful, there are steps we can take to improve our presentation skills.

Improving Presentations with Story and Slidedecks

Simply put, brain science supports the use of stories to convey information. As Nancy Duarte (2013) shared, the structure of stories has been used for 1000’s of years. Even pre-literate cultures used stories to pass down morals, values, and lore. How do we know? Think about the story I told at the beginning of this blog. Could you picture it? Did you hear the seat creak? Could you feel and smell the room? Did you see the beam of light, the droning presenter, or a long-lost pet? Stories pass through our rational frontal lobe and connect with our “heart”, or rather our limbic system. The connection between stories and presenting – while groundbreaking in how it could shape presentations – is not new, but old. That is, we have a literal, uncontrollable physical reaction when we connect with a story.

Incorporating Story

How should we incorporate a story into a presentation? There are a few different models presented. In her TEDTalk Nancy Duarte Uncovers the Common Structure of Greatest Communicators, Nancy Duarte (2010) shares a few models for storytelling. One example she mentions is Aristotle’s Three-Act Play, the Hero’s Journey, and finally Freytag’s Dramatic Story Structure. All of these different varieties include important information to include in a presentation. For example, use a structure that includes a transformation. Also, be certain to include a resolution. Finally, use the hero archetype to connect to the audience. That is use your presentation to make the audience the hero of the story. Then you, as the presenter, guide, mold, and manipulate them like the mentor that you are. 

Images from ReedsyBlog, Conor Neill, and ClearVoice.

Duarte (2010) ended her talk by comparing the structure that all compelling speakers use. She called this the Sparkline:

Her greatest instruction is to “plant resistance between what is and what could be” (Duarte, 2010). Duarte (2010) suggested:

• Modeling for the audience what you want them to feel.
• Use of repetition.
• Use metaphors and visual words
• Incorporate familiar songs and scriptures
• Draw on relatable experiences
• Directly compare what currently is to what could be.

For the last turning point, a good speaker should review the call to action and describe the new bliss (Duarte, 2010). In fact, “people will remember the last thing you said more than the beginning or middle” (Duarte, 2010). This reiterates the importance of the call to action in your presentation.

YOU are the Presentation

“Bad slide presentations don’t require a presenter to be interesting, informative, or even present” (Gonzalez, 2013). On the other hand, good slide presentations act as a “visual background” to the presenter (Phillips, 2014). They don’t overshadow the whole purpose of the presentation, which is to hear the speaker.

Yesterday, I was on facetime with our good friends Chance and Brandi. They have a seven-month-old named Kinsely who is the most beautiful, perfect baby I’ve ever seen. (I may be a biased aunt.) When I asked them how they were, Chance said that Kinsley was “doing this weird thing” where she screamed any time they left the room without her. Immediately, I pictured a pinwheel. You see, in the video How Presentation Zen Fixed My Bad PowerPoints (Gonzalez, 2013), the presenter demonstrated as she edited her slides from a list of bullet points to images with meaning.

→→→→→

Images from How Presentation Zen Fixed My Bad PowerPoints (Gonzalez, 2013).

The best part is that I could share what I learned with my friends. I told them that she hasn’t developed object permanence. When they leave the room, her baby brain thinks that they no longer exist. Also, my metacognition allowed me to recognize that I learned this because the slideshow was more meaningful with imagery than the list of bullet points. I am anecdotal evidence that Gonzalez’s (2013) slideshow improvements worked! Finally, I ensured them that this was a phase as babies develop object permanence around eight months.

In his TEDTalk How to Avoid Death by PowerPoint, David Phillips (2014) creatively demonstrated tips for a good slideshow. He said to keep your messages to one message per slide (Phillips, 2014). If there is more than one message, we only pay attention to one of them. Next, he said to include short, sweet bits of text and an image (Phillips, 2014). Regarding size, the most important part of your slide should be the biggest (Phillips, 2014). To demonstrate this, he changed the size of the heading and the body text, and my eyes followed the bigger item! He also said to use contrast to highlight certain parts of a table or slide (Phillips, 2014). Finally, he explained that the magic number of images or items to include on a slide is limited to six (Phillips, 2014). With six items, we just “see” them. After six, we must count the items to know how many there are. It was so fun to “watch” as my brain was tricked by his presentation. If you didn’t watch his video, find it here. It’s a must-see!

A New Bliss

What might it be like if adult learning looked like this? Maybe instead of a room full of colleagues learning the same information, you attend a brief meaningful introduction that lasts fifteen minutes. In that time, you are inspired by a story that pulls on your heartstrings and sets the tone for the day. Then you and a handful of colleagues discuss specific data and lessons in a guided PLC. Next, maybe you watch a mentor teacher teach a lesson that you need some help with. When you ask a question, she tells you to come back next period to teach the same lesson to the next group of kids. Then, she gives you feedback specific to you in a format designed by professionals. Finally, you end your day back in a PLC where you discuss and write to connect and reflect. Over the course of the next few weeks, a coach meets with you to continue to help you grow in specific, measured ways.

Meaningful, individualized professional learning is possible. The gap between what is and what could be is achievable.

References

Duarte, N. (2010). Resonate: Present Visual Stories that Transform Audiences. Wiley.

Duarte, N. (2010, December 10). TEDxEast – Nancy Duarte Uncovers the Common Structure of Greatest Communicators 11/11/2010. YouTube. Retrieved April 2, 2022, from https://youtu.be/1nYFpuc2Umk

Duarte, N. (2013, March 21). Nancy Duarte: How to Tell a Story. YouTube. https://youtu.be/9JrRQ1oQWQk

Gonzalez, J. (2013, September 16). How Presentation Zen Fixed My Bad PowerPoints. YouTube. https://youtu.be/vkrl1j0IW-c

Gulamhussein, A. (2013). Teaching the Teachers Effective Professional Development in an Era of High Stakes Accountability. Center for Public Education. https://www.dropbox.com/s/j13c5mk092kmqv9/Teaching_Effective_Professional_Developmt.pdf?dl=0

Phillips, D. J. (2014, April 14). How to Avoid Death By PowerPoint | David JP Phillips | TEDxStockholmSalon. YouTube. https://youtu.be/Iwpi1Lm6dFo

TNTP. (2015). The Mirage. TNTP. https://tntp.org/assets/documents/TNTP-Mirage_2015.pdf