Forming Collaborative Teams

Tuckman’s 4 stages of team development are essential to creating an effective professional learning community.  The stages are:

1.       Forming – During this first stage of team development, individuals come together and ask essential questions about the team’s purpose and goals :  why are we here, their role in the group: ( member, facilitator, recorder, timekeeper, etc.), how they can contribute to the group (establish agreements), and their level of commitment to the work of the team.

2.      Storming – During this stage members have some sense of understanding about purpose, role, commitment and contribution and conflicts arise about member influence, processes, and beliefs  that make members uncomfortable(they have to work through disagreements in order to get to the next stage)

3.      Norming – During this stage members revisit, refine, extend agreements that were made in the beginning and start to work as a team with a shared vision, goal, commitment and value team work as opposed to working individually

4.      Performing – During this stage, the team is highly productive, there is synergy among members, members recognize benefits of working collaboratively

Garmston and Wellman discuss behaviors or capabilities that each group member should possess.

The 4 group member capabilities are as follows:

1.       To know one’s intentions and choose congruent behaviors

2.      To set aside unproductive patterns of listening, responding, and inquiring

3.      To know when to self-assert and when to integrate

4.      To know and support the group’s purposes, topics, processes, and development

      On the journey to becoming a team, there are certain stages of development that must be mastered.  Ginny Lee, in her article about moving from groups to teams, discusses the first two stages of team development created by Drexler, Sibbet, and Forrester.  They developed 7 stages of team performance model that describes this process. 

The following are the first two stages:

1.       Orientation – explain the purpose of the team and why each member was selected

2.      Trust building – share hopes and concerns about building this team

     My recommendations for strengthening my collaborative school-based team and for promoting professional collaboration at the school are simple.  We need to embrace not only a culture of achievement but a culture of collaboration, as well.  Our focus must be to improve student achievement.  Clear agreements must be in place and all members must adhere to them.  In addition, each member must perform their role in the group.  Finally, we must commit to having real discussions and dialogue about what works, what doesn’t and making necessary changes.

What do you think?  Please share your thoughts and feedback.

 

 

 

 

 

Effective Learning Schools or Professional Learning Communities...

A Learning School is defined as one in which professional learning takes place every day in order to improve the school, utilizing the professional learning community approach.  In order to support our school’s growth in becoming a learning school and developing a professional learning community, we should focus on professional development that is comprehensive, sustained, intensive professional learning and continuous cycle of improvement.

These are closely aligned to our school and district goals, especially those that our administrator mentioned when she created a strategic plan for the upcoming school year and identified school goals that pertained to teacher quality, instruction, school climate, and leadership.   
Adaptive schools must continually ask those focusing questions:  Who are we?  Why are we doing this? and Why are we doing it this way? 
Those in charge must realize, among other things that vision, values, and goals must be clear and time, money, and human energy are valuable resources that help to achieve school goals. 

Furthermore, recognizing the importance of planning, teaching, analyzing, and evaluating (things that make up the four phases of instructional thinking), having a repertoire of teaching skills in which to refer, and knowing about students and how they learn, are key elements to becoming an adaptive learning community in which everyone learns every day.

What do you think?  Share your thoughts and feedback.

Learning Forward's 5 Core Beliefs

Learning Forward, formally known as National Staff Development Council have the following 5 core beliefs:

1. Effective professional learning is fundamental to student learning.
2. All educators have an obligation to improve their practice.
3. More students achieve when educators assume collective responsibility for student learning.
4. Successful leaders create and sustain a culture of learning.
5. Improving student learning and professional practice requires ongoing systemic and organizational change.

In addition, they have 7 standards for professional development, as follows:

1.      Learning Communities – professional learning that occurs within learning communities committed to continuous improvement, collective responsibility, and goal alignment.

2.      Leadership – professional learning that requires skillful leaders who develop capacity, advocate, and create support systems for professional learning.

3.      Resources – professional learning that requires prioritizing, monitoring, and coordinating resources for educator learning.

4.      Data – professional learning that uses a variety of sources and types of student, educator, and system data to plan, assess, and evaluate professional learning.

5.      Learning Designs – professional learning that integrates theories, research, and models of human learning to achieve its intended outcomes.

6.      Implementation – professional learning that applies research on change and sustains support for implementation of professional learning for long term change.

7.      Outcomes – professional learning that aligns its outcomes with educator performance and student curriculum standards.

Please provide your thoughts and feedback.

How does your school measure up?

The following video highlights qualities of effective professional development.  Share your thoughts and experiences.

http://www.schooltube.com/video/b6a02610a5424e579a87/

Are these professional development standards practiced at your school?

Read each statement and indicate the responses that most accurately reflect your professional experiences at your school. You may indicate your responses by placing an “X” next to the number that corresponds to your response or you may print out the survey and circle your response.

0-Never             1-Seldom         2-Sometimes    3-Frequently     4-Always

1. Our principal believes teacher learning is essential for achieving our school goals.	0   1    2    3    4
2. Our school uses educational research to select programs.	0   1    2    3    4
3. We have opportunities to practice new skills gained during staff development.	0   1    2    3    4
4. Our faculty learns about effective ways to work together.	0   1    2    3    4
5. Teachers are provided opportunities to gain deep understanding of the subjects they teach.	0   1    2    3    4
6. Teachers are provided opportunities to learn how to involve families in their children’s education.	0   1    2    3    4
7. The teachers in my school meet as a whole staff to discuss ways to improve teaching and learning.	0   1    2    3    4
8. Our principal’s decisions on school-wide issues and practices are influenced by faculty input.	0   1    2    3    4
9. Teachers at our school have opportunities to learn how to use technology to enhance instruction.	0   1    2    3    4
10. Teachers at our school learn how to use data to assess student learning needs.	0   1    2    3    4

Source: National Staff Development Council’s Standards Assessment Inventory

© Copyright, National Staff Development Council, 2004. All rights reserved.

Does this describe professional development at your school? If not, please explain.

Read each statement and think about the degree to which the statement describes professional development efforts at your school. Indicate how strongly you agree or disagree with each statement by placing an “X” next to the number that corresponds to your response or you may print out the survey and circle your response.

1  – Strongly Disagree      2 – Disagree     3 – Agree       4 – Strongly Agree

1. Teachers design professional development based on the needs of their students.	1    2    3    4
2. Teachers learn in teams several times a week.	1    2    3    4
3. Teachers’ professional learning goals identify the knowledge, skills, practices, and dispositions to increase teaching quality and student learning.	1    2    3    4
4. Professional development that occurs away from school supports professional development that occurs at the school.	1    2    3    4
5. Principals and teacher leaders facilitate collaborative professional learning teams in our school.	1    2    3    4

Source: Killion, J., & Roy, P. (2009). Becoming a learning school (p. 15). Dallas, TX: National Staff Development Council.

What are your beliefs about professional development?

Read each statement and indicate how strongly you agree or disagree with each using the 1–4 scale below. You may indicate your responses by placing an “X” next to the number that corresponds to your response or you may print out the survey and circle your response.

1  – Strongly Disagree       2 – Disagree       3 – Agree          4 – Strongly Agree

1.     Principles shape our thoughts, words, and actions.	1    2    3    4
2.     Diversity strengthens an organization and improves results.	1    2    3    4
3.     Leaders are responsible for building the capacity in individuals, teams, and organizations to be leaders and learners.	1    2    3    4
4.     Ambitious goals lead to powerful actions and remarkable results.	1    2    3    4
5.     Maintaining the focus of professional learning on teaching and student learning produces academic success.	1    2    3    4
6.     Evaluation strengthens performance and results.	1    2    3    4
7.     Communities can solve their most complex problems by tapping internal expertise.	1    2    3    4
8.     Collaboration among educators builds shared responsibility and improves student learning.	1    2    3    4

Source: Hirsh, S., & Killion, J. (2009). When educators learn, students learn: Eight principles of professional learning. Phi Delta Kappan, 90(7), 464–469. Retrieved from the ERIC database.