Teachers, Transition & Time: Learning for Educational Change
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Transcript of Teachers, Transition & Time: Learning for Educational Change
Teachers, Transition & Time: Learning for Educational Change
Alan S. MackenzieAcademic Director
Backward design?
A Simple Equation
Development =+ Change
Time
Positive
A complex, changing profession
• Language• Society• Curriculum• Methodologies: Interactive, CLIL• Tools: ICT, flipped classroom• Learner autonomy• Global citizenship• 21st Century Skills
The next new thing…
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Our Changing Profession
OLD• Transmission• Repetition• Grammar• Receptive skills• Language as a
subject
NEW• Facilitation• Use• Communicative
competence• Productive skills• Content/ Language
Integration
New teaching profession skill set:
• Classroom management• Information management• Learning management• Extensive, appropriate use of ICT in
and out of class• Dynamic teaching• Working with students in real time and
reacting to their communication needs• Curriculum redesign• Materials development• Subject teachers need language skills
Why 90% of educational changes fail
• Lack of full understanding of theory behind practice• Misrepresentation of practice• Minimal teacher buy-in• A few committed professionals working against huge
apathy• Watering down of the original aims• Lack of administrative support• Need of most teachers to ‘get by’ in a stressful
working environment
Human response to changeWilliams (1999). Futures 31/6
It All Takes Time
• Understanding what changes are• Agreeing with them• Learning how to go about implementing them• Planning a course of action• Developing the skills to be able to put the action plan
into practice• Experimenting with those skills (trial, error, success)• Implementing the action plan• Evaluating your success• Reformulating your action plan
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Change Management
• Must be – Clearly communicated– Understood by all involved– Structured carefully– Supported– Monitored
• Takes time
Transition: Key success factors
• Explicitly define processes of learning, as well as teacher and learner roles and relationships within those processes
• Provide reflection and learning opportunities for teachers as well as learners
• Improve the materials used for teacher learning
• Introduce monitoring tools, or adapt existing tools to scaffold teacher learning and make the transition process smoother
Why do people resist change?
1. negative towards all that is new or different
2. not interested in the idea because of other goals/ don’t see need
3. don’t understand the message and/or the consequences of the change
4. don’t trust the person who communicates the change
5. Fear: more work, lack of skills, failure
Do we have a choice?
Life
LearningChange
isEmbrace
Expect
Celebrate Live
Model
Lifelong
Resistance is futile!
• Takes more energy to resist than to change• Negative social behaviour• You’re going to have to do it eventually anyway, why
not do a good job of it?
Managing continuous change
• Changing educational culture through:
– School leadership
– Collaborating on development projects
– Monitoring teaching and learning standards
– Providing appropriate in-service development opportunities
– Investing in IT
Promote continuous development
– Teachers are learners too (or should be!)– Everyone can change what they do (BUT they
need to be supported and it can take time)– Making small changes in teaching practise can
have large effects on learning– Question assumptions about teaching practise and
beliefs about learning
Build trust to decrease fear
• Empathise with your teachers• Compare their situation to your own learning• Admit your own failures• Share your fears with them• Ask for help• Encourage sharing
Engage teachers in development
• Create opportunities for discussion• Involve teachers in planning• Have them set their own development agendas and
timelines• Agree a development plan with them• Listen to their concerns and react
Avoid resistance
• Explain clearly and give time for discussion and questions
• Listen!• Answer all questions openly and honestly• Admit when you don’t know something, but• Commit to finding solutions• Find the solution and use it or share it
Create opportunities for reflection
• Learning journals• Idea sharing in and out of the staffroom
– Regular meetings to share good teaching ideas– Sharing action research– Encouraging conference presentations– Promoting publishing
Encourage regular observations
• Look at what the learners are doing• Have non-judgmental discussion about plans and observations• Enquiry-based: How can we…
– make activities more interactive?– help students to learn more effectively?– adapt activities to make them more enjoyable?– cut teacher talking time?
Mind your language!
Judgemental• Good, bad, fine, ok• You didn’t…• You should…• If I were you, I’d…
Non-judgemental• Interesting, according
to/different from the lesson plan• Why did you…?• If you were to do it again, what
would you change?• When X happened, did the
learners do what you expected? Why?
• Have you ever tried…?
Monitoring Development
• How do you know change is happening?
• What system do you have in place to monitor change?
• What tools can you use to enable you to see change happening?
• Build your evaluation system before the change happens
• Ensure it is practical and meaningful
Change Process Result
Support System
Monitor and evaluate
Useful tools for monitoring change
• Observations• Self-reports• Focus groups• Structured interviews• Surveys/ Checklists
Portfolios: Recording development
• Quality is more important than size• Evidence of learning is more important than
certificates. SAMPLES of:– lesson plans– materials– student work– learning journal
• Text is more important than pictures
Rewarding Development
• Be positive and constructive in feedback• Share information about good ideas• Identify talent• Promote good teaching and teachers• Reward development with…more development
Human response to changeWilliams (1999). Futures 31/6
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