Why it’s important for leaders to believe in teachers’ capacity for growth

Many school leaders believe that virtually all students can learn at higher levels given skillful teaching, time, and persistent effort.

But I’m not sure, however, that all leaders believe that virtually all teachers can learn to teach in ways that enable high levels of student learning.

Let me tell you a story:

Some years ago I was working with a group of 50 or so teacher leaders in a large U.S. city. I asked them a question I often asked in such settings: “How many of you believe that virtually all students can learn more than was previously expected of them and that it is their teachers’ responsibility to teach them?” Every hand in the room immediately went up.

My next question was one I had never asked before: “How many of you believe that virtually all teachers can learn how to teach in ways that enable higher levels of student learning?”

An unanticipated pandemonium broke out in the room as some participants vociferously expressed their confidence that they could prepare teachers to be more successful with all students while others complained loudly that my questions had unfairly lead them into a trap.

One teacher leader said, “How can we expect teachers to teach at high levels if we don’t believe we can successfully prepare them to do so?”

Another said, looking at me, “You don’t understand the teachers we have here. They are often poorly prepared and unmotivated.”

A provocative and soul-searching conversation ensued as it shifted back and forth between those two broad perspective — “of course we can” and “it is unfair to expect us to be successful with these teachers” — in the same way that it might occur among teachers discussing their responsibility for the learning of all their students.

A year or so later one of the event’s organizers told me that discussion related to the issue of teacher leaders’ expectations for their colleagues arose in one form or another at many of their meetings that school year.

I was pleased to hear that because it is a critically important issue.

Just as it’s essential for principals and teacher leaders to believe that student learning can be improved by skillful teaching, it’s essential that principals and teacher leaders believe that through well-designed professional development and teamwork virtually all teachers can become effective, if not masterful.

Believing in the capacity of students to learn at higher levels without a parallel belief in the capacity of teachers to successfully teach them — given appropriate support — can only lead to frustration and failure.

Put another way: Leaders’ belief in teachers’ capacity to perform at higher levels + appropriate support = student success.

Do you agree with my assessment, or not?

Can I give you hope?

On some days I have mixed feelings about myself.

But on most days I appreciate that by nature and nurture I am a bit of a contrarian, meaning that I tend to see things a bit differently than most people. That certainly is true regarding a lot of what is considered “conventional wisdom.”

Recently as a hospice volunteer in a healthcare facility I saw a sign that said, “Give hope.”

The contrarian part of me immediately wondered if it is possible for one human being to give hope to another, and if so, under what conditions.

For instance, can I say to you, “You should be more hopeful,” or more simply, “Be hopeful,” and as a result you will think about the future in a new way?

Or, can I expect new attitudes by saying “Believe in the potential of all the students to learn more,” or “All of us can continuously improve what we do”?

In my experience, such expressions seldom produce the desired result.

But there are three things that I think can make a difference:

1. Be the qualities you seek.

• Be authentically hopeful.
• Embody continuous improvement in all aspects of your work and life and do so publicly, revealing both your successes and frustrations.
• Affirm through your words and actions your belief that all students can achieve at higher levels and that all teachers can develop the necessary skills to produce that learning.

2. Design structures that enable staff members to experience first hand the validity of a growth-oriented point of view in their daily work. 

• Organize all teachers into teams to increase the likelihood that they will be successful with all students.
• Have high expectations for team performance and provide the training necessary to ensure that performance.
• Provide time for regularly-scheduled team meetings.
• Establish processes for reporting team activities and accomplishments to other teams and to school leaders.

3. Celebrate “small wins” at every opportunity—one-to-one conversations, team and faculty meetings, and school-community events. When teachers and others are frequently reminded of the progress they have made that is often invisible to them on a day-to-day basis they become more energized and focused.

Can I give hope to you? I don’t think so, at least not in the way it is often meant.

But I can create an environment that increases the likelihood that you will experience possibility where previously you experienced none.

Creating those conditions, first in ourselves and then in the culture and structures of the school, is, I believe, a primary and fundamental responsibility of all school leaders.

Do you agree or disagree?

The amazing things you can accomplish in just 15 minutes a day

 A small daily task, if it be really daily, will beat the labours of a spasmodic Hercules. —Anthony Trollope

“Frenetic activity” is an apt description of the lives of many educators. With some, it is even a badge of honor that demonstrates their commitment and work ethic.

For others, it is a commonly-offered explanation for why they aren’t doing the things they know are most important, things like talking with teachers or colleagues about instruction, thoroughly preparing for upcoming conversations and meetings, exercising, and so on.

Here a some things that can be done in 15 minutes or less than can make a substantial difference in the quality of your work and life:

• Make a brief, focused visit to a classroom followed by a short note to the teacher.

• Write in a journal to gain clarity about a problem or determine a course of action.

• Prepare a thank-you note for someone whose efforts you wish to recognize or a note of encouragement for someone whose spirits you would like to lift.

• Write a weekly blog for colleagues or the school community.

• Write a book a year. (Fifteen minutes a day could easily produce a couple of hundred pages of text in a year. You wouldn’t even have to know what it was about at the beginning; it’s direction would reveal itself after a few weeks.)

• Determine your intentions for a meeting or conversation and sketch out a back-of-the-envelope plan. The clarity produced in even a few minutes of focused attention can change the direction and outcome of an event.

• Cease outward activity to be mindful of your breathing, feelings, and surroundings. Even a minute or two of such focused attention can make a substantial difference in your mood and stress level.

• Exercise. In 15 minutes you can walk a mile.

• Have a conversation with a colleague, family member, or friend. Spend a good share of that time listening deeply to the words and meaning of those with whom you are interacting.

• Develop an important and perhaps even life-changing new habit. Any of the above, for example, could become a valuable habit in just a few weeks.

I encourage you to identify one or two activities appropriate to you and your setting that in just a few minutes a day can make a difference for you and others.

And, in truth, we all have 15 minutes a day that could be spared to improve the quality of our work and lives.

What suggestions do you have for other worthwhile “15-minute activities”?

How bad things can happen to good people who lack emotional intelligence

School and school system leaders are far more likely to get into difficulty because of low social and emotional intelligence than because of deficiencies in their technical knowledge. At least that’s my observation.

Here’s why they get into trouble:

• Because these leaders often have a high need to control people and situations, they are unlikely to trust others or to delegate.

• Because of a lack of trust and poor interpersonal skills, these leaders seldom have supportive relationships with others and therefore are unlikely to value the development of such relationships within the school community.

• Because these leaders don’t know how to manage or express their feelings in appropriate and proportionate ways, they are likely to be angry, anxious, and/or cynical. Those feelings, in turn, are amplified across the school community and create what some experts call a “slow-death spiral,” which depletes energy and diminishes hope for a better future.

• Because these leaders are unable to accurately sense and respond to the feelings of others, their relationships are likely to be tumultuous and superficial and viewed as means to an end rather than as worthy ends in themselves to be nurtured and valued.

• And because leaders with low social and emotional intelligence have limited self awareness, they are unlikely to see any of the above in themselves.

Do you agree, or not?

 

How understanding the “knowing-doing continuum” can improve the quality of professional learning

I have divided professional learning outcomes into these five levels of the “knowing-doing continuum”:

1. Learning about: This is the adult version of “covering the content.” It is often expressed by the phrase “I had…” [During the 1980s I so often heard "I had Madeline Hunter" that I almost (but not quite) felt honor bound to tell Mr. Hunter about the rumors regarding his wife.]

2. Shallow understanding: The best example I can think of was a participant in a cooperative learning workshop who wrote on an evaluation: “I think this is a good idea, but you made us work in groups too much.”

3. Deep understanding: Learners can explain the idea or practice in some detail. They can also explain its benefits and limitations.

4. Experimenting with new behaviors/practices: The learner tries it out in the classroom or other setting to determine its effectiveness, sometimes with the guidance of an instructional coach or more experienced peer.

5. Developing new habits: Repetition over many weeks and perhaps months make the new practice routine and under teachers executive control, enabling them to determine when and how to use it.

I am sad to say…

…that based on my observations the vast majority of professional learning for teachers and administrators remains at levels 1 and 2. There are exceptions, of course, but they remain exceptions rather than the rule. (Please see my previous post to better understand the distinction between professional development and professional learning.)

The reason is fairly simple: Those who plan and finance professional learning continue to vastly underestimate the amount of time, energy, and resources that are required for a substantial number of educators to acquire the new habits of mind and behavior necessary to meaningfully improve teaching and learning for all students.

The solution requires planners of professional learning to take their responsibilities seriously:

• They study professional literature, particularly Learning Forward’s Standards for Professional Learning.
• They vow to do it right.
• They have hard conversations about current reality.
• They have hard conversations about what will be required to get to deep understanding and the development of new professional habits of mind and practice.
• They assess their progress in changing instructional practice and improving student learning.

Our students—particularly those in our most challenged communities and schools—deserve no less.

Do you agree with my observation and with the solution I propose to the perennial problem of low-quality professional learning?

Why the distinction between “professional learning” and “professional development” is important

Professional development in schools refers to the processes used in promoting professional learning and the context and other resources that support it .

Professional learning refers to the outcomes – what is learned, how deeply it is learned, and how well it is applied in classrooms. It is about changes in what teachers and leaders think, say, and do on a consistent basis.

Discussing professional development without discussing professional learning goals and outcomes is like talking about teaching separate from student learning.

Put another way, professional development is to professional learning as teaching is to student learning.

Just as ineffective teaching strategies produce little student learning, ineffective professional development produces little professional learning.

And just as ineffective teachers say, “I taught it, but they didn’t learn it,” ineffective planners of professional development say, “I developed them, but they didn’t learn it.”

Unless teachers and leaders professional development is sufficiently robust to improve professional learning — that is, to change what educators think, say, and do — student learning won’t improve.

I’ll have more to say about that tomorrow.

Why it’s essential to begin professional relationships with integrity

In Flawless Consulting, Peter Block wrote, “…when we bend over in the beginning [of a consulting relationship], we are seen by the client as someone who works in a bent-over position. When we avoid issues in the beginning, we are seen as someone who avoids issues.”

In a 1992 JSD interview I did with Block, he added: “We teach clients by our own actions how to work with us. It’s more difficult to renegotiate a relationship than to start it standing up in the first place.”

Block was cautioning consultants not to compromise their standards and/or integrity in the early phases of a relationship because of the likely long-term negative consequences of doing so to both the relationship and to the quality of their work.

That advice has lost none of its validity over the past 20 years and continues to have value for educators in various roles and settings.

Walking bent over has implications for:

• Teachers as they begin the school year or semester with a new group of students. (Teachers have long been told that it’s easier to ease rules and routines than it is to tighten up.)

• Novice principals as they begin their first leadership assignments.

• Experienced principals as they begin in new schools.

• Instructional coaches as they begin their work with teachers.

• Internal and external consultants as they begin their work with teams, schools, or school systems.

There are many reasons for becoming bent over in new relationships:

• A reluctance to make demands early in a relationship before an emotional bank account has been established.

• Anxiety about possible conflict;

• A lack of confidence in one’s point of view and/or skills;

• The desire to be perceived as a good team player;

• The importance of going along to get along; and

• The belief that initial problems can be easily remedied later.

What’s required to stand up straight…

It is essential that teachers, administrators, coaches, and consultants begin long-term relationships with crystal clarity about the desired outcomes of the work, the responsibilities of all parties to the “contract,” and the aspects of the work that are non-negotiable if it is to be successful.

In addition, courage may be required to suspend the work if agreements are not kept and integrity is compromised.

Standing up is difficult once we begin a relationship bent over. Walking away from work once begun that doesn’t ultimately serve the “clients” (which, in schools, almost always ultimately means students) is never easy.

That’s why it is critically important to begin new relationships with clarity, authenticity, and integrity.

As is true with almost everything in schools, students will be the ultimate beneficiary of our upright posture.

6 non-negotiables for beginning teachers

On the subject of “highly effective teachers,” Kappan Editor-in-Chief Joan Richardson wrote in her “editor’s note”  for the April 2013 issue:

“During practice teaching, we should be watching closely to determine if these candidates have a deep interest in how children learn. The best teachers aren’t just content experts. They not only understand how children learn; they are intrigued by the way that children learn. Content experts may get really excited about sharing their knowledge. But expert teachers get really excited because students are making it their knowledge. That’s a crucial distinction.”

Richardson’s recommendation started me thinking about the things that I think are essential to see at the beginning of a teacher’s career, in addition to a solid foundation of classroom management and instructional skills. Because I agree with Joan, I started with her suggestion for beginning teachers:

1. I would want evidence that new teachers are intrigued by the way children learn. Which would mean that they want to know in real time if and what students are learning.
2. I would want evidence that new teachers believe in the potential of all students to learn and grow.
3. I would want evidence that new teachers appreciate and enjoy the qualities of students at the level they are teaching.
4. I would want evidence that new teachers value and tap the strengths and resources provided by families and the broader community.
5. I would want to see evidence that new teachers believe they can always improve the quality of their teaching and of student learning.
6. I would want evidence that new teachers believe that working with others is essential to continuous improvement and that they are committed to the process of becoming an effective collaborator.

There are obviously many lists regarding the qualities of effective teachers.

But these six areas seem like essentials for beginning teachers.

What would you add to this starter list?

How just six words can make a big difference

Ernest Hemingway may or may not have written the first six-word novel: For sale: Baby shoes, never worn. Other writers took up the challenge.

Then came six-word memoirs. My favorite: Not quite what I was planning.

NPR’s “race-card project” asks listeners to “distill your thoughts, experiences or observations about race into one sentence that only has six words.” 

Workers have expressed their six-word views about their jobs. A favorite: He led by example. How refreshing. 

School communities benefit when principals and teacher leaders can concisely sum up important ideas in six words. When leaders take the time to engage in the demanding intellectual process of distilling their ideas, they are more effective and influential.

A few years back I coined the term “six-word leadership tool” to capture the ideas expressed in my blog posts and elsewhere. Here are a few with links to the posts they summarize:

Hopefulness connects and strengthens school communities.

Choose mindful skepticism over mindless cynicism.

Make integrity a core school value.

Pause to support learning and relationships.

Develop the habits of “positive deviants.”

Here are two “six-word leadership tools” that I created for this post:

• Express important ideas clearly and concisely.

• To influence, have proverb-like clarity.

What six-word expressions sum up your views regarding leadership, teaching, and/or learning or an important aspect of them?

The power and uses of checklists for teachers and administrators

Checklists are a simple but powerful way to improve individual and group performance. They are declarations of standards that ensure that important tasks are completed.

By routinizing certain procedures, checklists ensure that higher-order mental processes are available for complex, non-routine events, which is why they are regularly used by surgeons and airplane pilots, as well as by those engaged in other demanding occupations.

Physician Atul Gawande makes the case for checklists in his book, The Checklist Manifesto: How to Get Things Right. (An earlier post elaborates on the educational implications of this book and others by Gawande.)

While good checklists are precise, Gawande notes, “They do not try to spell out everything – a checklist cannot fly a plane. Instead, they provide reminders of only the most critical and important steps – the ones that even the highly skilled professionals using them could miss. Good checklists are, above all, practical.”

Checklists, Gawande adds, “… can help experts remember how to manage a complex process… They can make priorities clear and prompt people to function better as a team.”

To illustrate ways in which checklists can improve group functioning, Gawande explains how they can level hierarchy and distribute power in ways that can save patients’ lives when they require surgical team members to introduce themselves before surgery and to state their roles and unique perspectives regarding the procedure.

Checklists have a number of important applications in school settings:

• Checklists could be used by teachers in preparing lessons, like this checklist for project-based learning.

• Checklists could be used by principals and teacher leaders in preparing for faculty or team meetings based on the ingredients of successful faculty meetings that I offered in this post.

• Checklists could be used to increase influence using the elements contained in the SUCCESS acronym as a guide (see my previous post).

• Checklists could be used in developing both long-range and short-term professional learning plans for schools and school systems. Here are a few things that might be included on such a checklist:

___ Focuses on priority areas of student learning based on various sources of evidence, including but not limited to standardized tests;

___ Addresses core tasks of teaching such as the development of engaging student work and using assessments to promote learning;

___ Engages all teachers in learning, not just volunteers;

___ Occurs virtually every day as a routine part of teachers’ collaborative work on high-functioning teams—PLCs, grade level, department, or other structures;

___ Assesses effects of professional learning based on changes in instructional practices and improvements in student learning.

The acronym CREATE could be used to help planners remember those ingredients: Core tasks of teaching, Results for students, Every day, All teachers, Team-based learning, Evidence-based decision making.

What additional uses do you see for checklists in educational settings?