Supporting Adult Development: Advancing School and System Practices by Ellie Drago-Severson

Note: This is a overview of the presentation by Ellie Drago-Severson at Learning Forward Annual Conference in Anaheim 
Session number: G02
Tuesday, 12/6/11, from 9 to 12noon and 2:30 to 4:00pm

Supporting adult learning and development is important for building adults’ internal capacity and also because it is directly linked to increasing children’s academic achievement. Implementing practices that support adult growth can also build school and system-wide capacity. In this day-long session you will: explore adult-developmental theory and how it supports adult growth and capacity building; learn about and apply four key developmentally-oriented pillar practices for sustaining adults’ development: teaming, inviting adults to take leadership roles, engaging in collegial inquiry, and mentoring (developmental coaching); understand developmental principles informing this new learning-oriented model, why they are essential to personal and professional development and how to build growth-enhancing school and district learning communities.

This interactive workshop provides principals, AP’s, teachers, professional developers, curriculum developers, coaches, district leaders, policymakers and all educators with an opportunity to develop a deeper understanding of how to support other adults’ growth and one’s own by learning about and applying adult developmental theory and a new learning-oriented model of school leadership that centers on supporting adult growth and offers promising practices for that can be implemented in your school or system. You will learn about:

• Adult-developmental theory (Kegan, 1982, 1994, 2000) and apply it to supporting development, building internal capacity, and improving practice (through mini-lecture, writing, and applying understanding to case exercises);
• A new learning-oriented model of school leadership (Drago-Severson, 2009, 2011, 2012) that centers on supporting adult development; and promising pillar practices for that can be implemented in your school, district and coaching practice to build growth-enhancing communities that attend to adults’ developmental diversity and improve student achievement. More specifically, through mini-lecture, private reflection, writing, dialogue, case discussion, action planning for your school/system/coaching, you will learn about and apply: (1) a new learning-oriented model of school leadership and apply it to your particular context and individuals; (2) four pillar-practices-for sustaining adult growth, comprising this model; (3) engage in applying ideas and practices (action planning), and (4) understand adult learning principles that inform this model, and why they are essential to effective personal and professional development.
• Enhancing capacity for shaping school and district communities that sustain continuous adult learning and positively impact student achievement; and
• How developmental theory and pillar practices can enhance leadership, teaching and improve practice.

Making the Most “Sit and Git”, Richard Jones, Executive Director

We all have been there! I am referring to those large group presentation workshops that are all presenter talk to a passive audience. There are very few presenters who are so highly engaging that we enjoy listening to them for a long period of time. Our mind drifts; we think about other things and suffer through the presentation. Another weaknesses of large-scale workshops is that it assumes that everyone in the audience has exactly the same needs for information. When confronted with these situations, today we have the convenience of smart phones that we can browse the Internet, text our colleagues and friends, or even play games.

But large-scale workshops persist, not because they're effective but because they are efficient as a form of professional learning. We can serve large numbers of people and everyone gets the same message. This is important for establishing a common language around an initiative or communicating to an entire group personally in building a common vision. When confronted by a large-scale workshop, whether as a participant or more importantly as a presenter, here are some tips for making the most out of this “sit and git” session.

• Create a Back Channel Conversation. Instead of having everyone use their smart phones for personal use, create a Twitter list or threaded discussion where participants can actively engage in feedback and share comments right during a presentation.
• Smart Phone Polling. If you want to see how the audience is reacting or learning, set up a online poll that participants can respond to via smart phone with “real time” display of results.
• Provide Frequent Movement. We all need to move. Our mind begins to drift when our body fails to move. If the session is long, be sure to put in movement breaks every 20 to 30 min., giving participants an opportunity to stand, move their hands stretch and stimulate their brains.
• Turning to a Shoulder Partner. Avoid overloading people with too much information. After a concept or important piece of information is presented, ask participants to turn to a person next to them and restate in their own words what they've learned or the reactions to that new piece of information. When turning an audience loose to talk, be sure to have a specific chime or mechanism to bring people back together and end their conversations.
• Share Materials. There are always more expensive materials around a particular workshop topic; share these materials in advance. But, don't expect everyone to read them in advance. Also share the materials afterwards so people can follow up and read more information. This may allow having a shorter presentation in providing information in written form.
• Use Card Reflections. When people write, it reinforces their ideas. Give people cards on which to write their reflections. Actually collect these cards as an “exit ticket” to ensure that everyone has written down some information. Cards can also be used for participants to write down questions for the presenter and these can be collected, screened and answered as part of the presentation. Writing and reflecting are important learning tools that can be done within a large-scale workshop.
• Follow-up Discussions. Whenever possible try to create an opportunity for audience members to move from a large-scale presentation to small-scale discussions. Train facilitators around the topic, so that they may lead small groups to discuss and reflect on a topic from the large-scale presentation.
• Reflect and Write via Technology. It's important for individuals to have the opportunity to reflect. We often do this by writing on the handout and taking notes. However this can be extended into other forms of writing by using the technology. Create a wiki or threaded discussion that everyone has access to and continue to share thoughts around a particular topic.

Following some of these suggestions can enable us to have a better quality learning experiences both as a presenter and participant in “sit and git” sessions. Sometimes we can’t avoid a large-scale workshop is professional development activity. However, we can make it effective by having less sitting and more getting.

Seeing Teaching and Learning With New Eyes- Richard Jones, Executive Director

Most of us are visual learners. We gather information when watching video. We appreciate lectures with high-quality visuals and we brainstorm through graphic organizers.

However when we create professional development we often forget about our preference for visual learning. We require teachers to read books and articles and suffer through lectures and workshops. My often used statement about limited effectiveness of presentations is, “I have never seen a teacher change his or her teaching as a result of sitting through a workshop or reading a research report.” I am convinced that teachers only change instruction through emotionally connected experiences that cause them to reflect about their own teaching or the opportunity they have to watch someone else teach. We need to acknowledge the value that observation presents to continuous professional learning.

I was recently working with the high school engaged in an innovative activity that reminded me how important observation can be to professional learning. This high school is in the process of creating career academies and in preparation for that required an activity where each teacher was to observe two classes. A mechanism was provided for coverage of their existing classes with substitutes and teachers were allowed to choose which colleagues they wanted to observe. They were held accountable for the visits with a specific deadline and a reflection form in which they were asked to identify teaching practices that they found applicable to their own teaching. One requirement was that they were asked to observe at least one teacher in a completely separate instructional area. For example academic teachers were required to observe career and technical education teachers and vice versa.

The reflections on this activity revealed powerful professional learning among the staff. Teachers commented that they had never seen the students so engaged, or observed the creative work that students were able to do or observed the positive relationships among teachers and students and how hard students worked to please some teachers. These observation experiences gave teachers an opportunity to look at their own teaching and learning through new eyes. They saw students they knew, or at least they thought they knew, working very differently in their colleagues classrooms. They saw colleagues, who they thought they knew, at least socially, using highly effective teaching techniques. Teacher cited examples about how they would look at their own teaching differently.

I’m reminded of the old fable of the blind men observing an elephant and depending upon whether you felt the trunk, the tail, or the leg, your descriptions of the elephant were very different. When teachers look at teaching and learning in their own discipline and from their own experience which they are very familiar with, they are actually blinded because they are continuing to see teaching and learning as it has always existed. However, but by making observations of other teachers working with their students in a different content area, it gives them new lives to reflect on their own teaching and learning. This is a powerful professional learning opportunity, not generated by research or an outside expert, but with teachers working with one another in the school to see and reflect about teaching and learning through the power of observation. 

21st century Personal Learning Network - Richard Jones, Executive Director

I still remember my first year as a teacher. It was one of the most exciting, challenging and frustrating experiences of my life. I survived my first year and realized that I was beginning to make a difference in the lives of several young people. It convinced me that my career should follow a path in education.

One of the people that helped me survive my first year of teaching was an elderly teacher named Joe, who worked across the hall. Joe always welcomed me to wander into his classroom at the end of the day to vent my frustrations and seek his advice. He always had time for me, constantly offered encouragement and wisdom from his 30 years in teaching. Looking back, I realize Joe was part of my personal learning network that enabled me to become a competent teacher.

We all have our personal learning networks of colleagues in our school, mentors from previous jobs, or family members who work in education. These people offer advice, a sympathetic ear, or new ideas enabling us to continue to improve in our craft.

The challenges in education continue to mount with so much expected of us on a daily basis. Teachers work hard satisfying an ever-increasing number of administrative requests and increasingly complex demands from the dozens of students we see on a daily basis. To meet these, we all must be continual learners, acquiring new skills, trying new approaches and contributing to our schools collective success. It is becoming increasingly difficult to find time for the casual chats with people face-to-face that may be part of our personal learning network. However, social networking tools and the Internet allows us to develop a unique 21^st-century personal learning network.

Over the last several months I have become convinced that Twitter is a powerful professional learning tool. Twitter is not about pumping out marketing  information to the masses like a web site or email. Twitter gives individuals the choice to read information that meets his or her immediate needs. This is empowering professional development where you can listen to experts anywhere in the world. You can ask questions and receive advice from talented educators. Whether you are reading short messages from a leading author or reading blogs from other 3^rd grade teachers, there is a wealth of knowledge to be gained.

We all enjoy reading books by popular authors such as Dan Pink (@DanielPink) or Stephen Covey (@StephenRCovey), Ken Robinson (@SirKenRobinson) or watch TED Talks (@TED_TALKS). We are eager to attend presentations by education thought leaders like Heidi Hayes Jacob (@HeidiHayesJacob), Steve Barkley (@stevebarkley) or Diane Ravitch (@DianeRavitch). These talented authors not only write books periodically but they use twitter and they write and offer advice every day. If you’re interested in what they have to offer you can tune in and listen to their advice. Every moment hundreds of teachers are writing and sharing advice about their effective teaching. Any teacher can seek out these individuals and listen to their advice.

Will Richardson, (@willrich45) and Rob Mancabelli (@RobMancabelli) have created a new book; Personal Learning Networks available from Solution Tree in May. 

Twitter may be in the popular media as a way to follow entertainment personalities or it can be used by companies to market their products. But, you control and decide who to follow and pay attention to.  

You can create your own personal learning network and listen to educators who will help to make you a better teacher. Join twitter, create your network and follow learning forward New York (@LFNewYork) where you will learn about cutting-edge practices in professional development.  BTW, I tweet under @RDJLeader

Passion Provokes Action by Richard Jones, Executive Director

“Forget dry statistics, real change comes from real feelings.” This quote comes from Chip and Dan Heath in a recent article in the February issue of Fast Company. I have mentioned before the powerful and practical books by the Heath brothers, Made to Stick, and Switch. These two books provide excellent mental models and practical advice for leadership and change in any organization, but especially schools.

Those of us in leadership roles in schools are likely to share the responsibility for some of the most significant future changes in education. We “cut our teeth” on standards and new Regents examinations and new accountability requirements. However the looming budget cuts and common core standards and next-generation assessments are likely to result in more significant changes than we have experienced in the last two decades. To sustain the burden of leadership, it is helpful to think of ideas from outside of our everyday education realms.

In the Fast Company article, the Heath brothers tell the story of an overweight young woman who, after many unsuccessful diets, finally had an emotional epiphany and committed herself to losing weight. She ultimately lost 150 pounds and wrote a book about her experience called the “Clothesline Diet.” The insight from this experience, is that this young woman knew intellectually what needed to be done, but until an emotional event triggered her passion, she was unable to make any progress. We need to recognize that organizations are not machines driven by carefully prescribed procedures that can be quantitatively measured. School organizations are comprised of people and those people are heavily influenced by emotions.

For example, the emotions around budget cuts and impending staff cuts are likely to generate more pain and loss of productivity than the actual cuts themselves. In the book Switch, the Heaths use a mental model of a rider and an elephant to describe leadership in change and the power of emotions. The rider represents, intellect and planning for appropriate change. Without plans there is little movement. So the rider (plans) are essential for moving an organization forward. However, the elephant is a metaphor for emotions, much more powerful than the rider. While the rider may direct the elephant in a specific direction, any emotional event can trigger the elephant to take control. When this happens, all plans are abandoned! 

This is a useful metaphor for us to recognize that we not only need plans as we move forward but to engage the positive emotion and energy of staff.  Leaders need to engage staff on an emotional level, with positive optimism to overcome negative fear.

We use the term passion to describe the energetic infusion of emotion in a positive direction. Leaders must exhibit passion in order to move any group of people forward. Passion is key. Without passion there would be little religion, love, innovation in this world. Effective leaders need to arm themselves with passion for their work, inspire passion in others and pay attention to passion that may be counterproductive in the organization moving toward its goals. Be proactive with your passion and lead your school to positive action.

Events vs. Routines by Richard Jones, Executive Director

Did you enjoy the holidays? Did you spend quality time with friends and family? Did you make any New Year's resolutions? 

We all enjoy the holidays this time of year. These are special events that create great memories and are times for celebration. However, in the days that follow,

some of us experience feelings of depression as we descend from the emotional highs of gifts, gluttony and greetings. We slip back into our routines and pay our credit card bills. Events like holidays cause peaks and valleys of emotion. Without special events, our lives are dull. It is events, we look forward to. Events give us memories, but it is routines that give us meaning. Events come and go with the emotional highs and lows. It is our routines that make a difference. Think about the stereotypical New Year's resolution. We all profess to lose weight, exercise, eat better and be more patient and tolerant. Most of these resolutions fade into distant memory until we dust them off, next year at this time. However, those resolutions that we do successfully transfer into routines make a difference and lead to a better life.

What does this have to do with professional learning? Well, I ask you do think about professional learning. Is it an event or a routine? In your mind is professional learning one of those Superintendent's day presentations or workshops? It is an event like an online course we complete, or a conference we attend. We enjoy and remember those professional learning events. They give us memories but do they make a difference.

It is the professional learning routines that make a difference and lead to true growth within the profession. Think about how your learned a new software application. You may have been excited about a learning event when you were introduced to an exciting new application, but if you failed to fold this software into your routine, you soon forget it and lose the skills. It is the new things you do on a daily basis that make a difference, new things you try, conversations you share, constant reflection on your work. These are professional learning routines.

Even within professional learning, we tend to think of evaluation of professional learning as events - an evaluation form, a survey or even a test. Those evaluation events are memorable and give us some data. But to truly make a difference, evaluation needs to be a routine - more formative evaluation. When we do formal workshops and presentations (there is still a place for workshops) we should use technology to solicit ongoing feedback as to how participants are processing the new learning, right during the workshop. What is repetitious? What is novel? What is practical? In addition to conducting surveys, let's incorporate professional learning evaluation into team meetings, walkthroughs, even submission of daily lesson plans.

Convert events into routines, it will improve professional learning and help you reach one of those New Year's resolution goals.