Training Components Concept Understanding Application
(executive use) Presentation of Theory
Skill Attainment (mechanical use)
Modeling by Trainer(s) Practice and Low-risk Feedback (in the training setting)
85% 15% 5–10%
85% 18% 5–10%
Coaching
85% 80% 10–15%
90% 90% 80–90%
Coaching
Joyce and Showers (1988) claim, “The actual organization of peer coaching is relatively simple—peer coaches need time to watch each other work and time to talk.” In this brief statement, Joyce and Showers reveal key principles of peer coaching. First, teachers learn by watching each other teach. As a teacher watches a colleague’s teaching performance, she mentally rehearses the model as it was presented during training and compares it to her colleague’s teaching demonstration. She also compares the colleague’s teaching to her own use of the strategy or technique. The mental act of observing and analysis increases the understanding of the practices being demonstrated. When a teacher ob-serves a colleague teaching, she is learning from the teaching performance of her partner—she is the one being coached.
The concept of coaching drawn from athletic coaching is not the pattern for peer coaching. In athletic coaching, an older, more experienced person instructs and critiques the performance of a younger athlete while not actually performing himself or herself. In their coaching model, Joyce and Showers (1995) recommend omitting critiques and feedback following observa-tions of teaching. Providing technical feedback requires training that is beyond what could be reasonably expected of teachers who are attempting to learn to use the same practices they are observing others use. Furthermore, eliminating feedback in coaching “has not depressed implementation or student growth” (Joyce et al., 1989).
Other key principles of coaching are the need for a common understanding of the theory and concepts that make up the teaching practices being studied and a common language so that professional discussions are more productive. These principles can be achieved through shared training experiences or through group study of a book such as this one.
What are the direct benefits to teachers of participating in peer coaching?
Teachers who participate in peer coaching practice new skills more frequently and persist in using them through the difficult early stages of implementation. Teachers who are not involved in peer coaching may say that they intend to use what they learned during training, but there is little evidence that they actually follow through and make the new strategy a part of their repertoire (Showers, 1982).
Peer coaches are able to apply new strategies to content and situations that differ from those they observed during training. Teachers who are not peer coaches are less able to transfer what they learned to new and different situations (Showers, 1984).
Peer coaches retain skills and knowledge longer than teachers who are not peer coaches. This trend is probably related to the “uncoached” teachers’ lack of continual use of the skills and knowledge (Baker & Showers, 1984). Without the support of a peer coach, teachers frequently return to strategies with which they are more familiar.
Coaching facilitates the development of professional and collegial relationships based on shared language and a school culture that promotes continuous improvement.
It reduces isolation and encourages teachers to explore important issues together in an atmosphere of openness (Little, 1982; Garmston, 1987; Ponticell, 1995).
Peer coaching provides teachers with a clearer picture of their own teaching performance and where it could be improved (Ponticell, 1995).
Teachers scored significantly higher on variables associated with self-assessment, planning, and instruction as a result of participating in peer coaching (Phelps, 1986).
Collaboration and collegiality
Working in a study-team structure builds collegial relationships and norms of shared responsibility for teacher and student learning. Study-team functioning is enhanced by new and different strategies for professional development. Hargreaves (1995) writes that one of the most promising of “these emergent strategies of teacher development is the principle of collaboration and collegiality.”
What is the principle of collaboration and collegiality? According to Little, this principle
“goes well beyond a loosely constructed sense of ‘getting along’ and ‘working well together’” (Little, 1990). Collaboration and collegiality describe interactions among teachers that have the following three characteristics:
They involve a sharing of the responsibilities for tasks related to teaching and/or the improvement of teaching.
They demonstrate a willingness to expose one’s teaching performance as well as one’s beliefs about teaching and learning to the scrutiny of others.
They produce collective action.
Study-team members collaborate when they work together to develop a unit of instruction—
assigning tasks to different individuals so that the final product is constructed of the work of many, and no one person is responsible for all of the pieces. They share the responsibility for creating the unit. Teachers also are collaborating when they share the responsibility for certain outcomes despite the fact that individuals or sub-groups contribute differently to the effort. For example, when a group of intermediate-grade teachers agree to work toward improving students’ ability to learn through reading in the content areas (the sciences and social studies), they will not all take the same actions in supporting that goal, but because they share the responsibility for achieving it, they are collaborating.
As teachers enter into an open exchange of ideas for improving students’ ability to compre-hend more difficult texts, they are opening themselves and their practices up to examination by their peers. This is another form of collaboration and collegiality. Finally, when teachers at an elementary school agree to begin each day by reading aloud to students to enrich their exposure to children’s literature, they are collaborating by acting collectively.
How does collaboration benefit teachers and their students? Advocates of collaboration and collegiality describe many worthwhile benefits from engaging in activities like those described above. Some of the benefits that pertain to improving the effectiveness of professional development activities are as follows:
Collaboration and collegiality provide moral support for teachers as they experi-ment with new strategies. While moral support is described as a “weaker” form of collaboration, it can be significant when you feel you are moving in uncharted waters.
Collaboration can impact student achievement by improving teaching practices.
This improved effectiveness can result from being willing to take risks and try new strategies or from having access to a greater variety of strategies and approaches through collaboration with your peers. Collaboration may even improve a teacher’s sense of efficacy (Ashton & Webb, 1986).
Teachers are more likely to reflect upon their own practices if they are involved in a collaborative dialogue about teaching. If the collaboration includes observing a fellow teacher’s instructional practices, then a teacher will be able to consider her own teaching in the light of what she saw in her colleague’s classroom. The observation of another teacher’s instructional practices makes reflection on one’s own teaching more useful because it provides a concrete model for comparison (Joyce & Showers, 1988).
Collaboration promotes a norm of continuous improvement. By reflecting on current practice and seeking ways to do things better, teachers create a culture that sees planned change as an expectation of the professional staff. Therefore, change is viewed as a never-ending process, and improvement is viewed as a journey, not a destination.
Using collaboration as a way to enhance teacher learning is not without potential problems.
Be aware of the following situations, and use care to avoid them:
Engaging in collaborative activities because it sounds progressive but having no clear or direct link to professional development and the improvement of teaching and learning.
Confining collaboration to providing moral support and the exchange of materials without interaction about their use. These are safe and comfortable areas that allow teachers to collaborate without addressing classroom practices or topics that might bring confrontation among peers (Little, 1990).
Using collaboration to produce conformity rather than unity.
Forcing collaboration as an administrative requirement. Mandating that teachers collaborate during their planning periods is a sure way to make teachers lose interest in the shared work of teaching. Requiring the use of collaboration to aid the imple-mentation of mandated programs is also a form of forced collaboration.
Suggestions for moving from research to action
Consider these steps in translating the idea of a professional learning community from research-based theory into action:
Identify the kinds of professional learning community activities your group would like to emphasize as you begin the collective study of reading and effective instructional practices.
Select one or more of the activities you want to emphasize and build time for those activities into your next study-team session.
Assign the “action responsibility” for leading or guiding each activity to one or more of your team members to ensure that the necessary tasks are completed. (See a suggested format for action responsibilities in the appendix.)
As your study team becomes comfortable with those activities, add in new activities from your list to continue to build a professional learning community.
One way to begin to reach consensus on the type of professional learning community most suitable for your group or faculty is to list activities that seem to fit your needs. The table below lists activities that represent the day-to-day relationships of teachers in a professional learning community. It also identifies the benefits teachers derive from participating in these kinds of activities. As you read through the list, think about which benefits would be helpful to you and your colleagues.
Collaborative activities like those described in the table do not just happen. They must be planned and those plans must be executed. A good way to ensure that plans are made and completed is to assign the “action responsibility” to one or more of your team members. Action responsibilities Professional Learning Community Activities
Direct Benefits 1. Using shared planning to develop
units, lessons, and activities
2. Learning from one another by watching each other teach
Divides the labor, saves time because no one has to do it all, and increases quantity and quality of ideas
Provides concrete examples of effective practices, expands the observer’s repertoire of skills, and stimulates analytical thinking about teaching
3. Collectively studying student work to identify weaknesses and plan new ways to teach to those weaknesses
Increases quantity and quality of insights into student performance, focuses efforts on
“the bottom line”—student learning, and increases professionalism and self-esteem of learning community members
4. Sharing articles and other professional resources for ideas and insights;
conducting studies of books on teaching and learning
Expands pool of ideas and resources available to members of the professional learning community
Continued
Professional Learning Community Activities
spell out what is to be done and when the tasks are to be completed. This list of tasks can be developed collectively or by the person to whom the action responsibility is assigned. Without clear action responsibilities, even the most effective plans can fail. Another way to organize collaborative activities is to rank them by level of emphasis.
Some activities among those rated as deserving high levels of emphasis may be easier to put into action than others, so it may be wise to select one or two of those as your starting point.
As you add to your list of professional learning community activities, remember that some of these activities will be closely related to things you have been doing and, therefore, will operate smoothly from the outset. Others, however, may require some experimentation and adjustment to make them fit your study team’s schedule and work style.
Direct Benefits 5. Talking with one another about what and
how you teach and the results your teaching produces
Decreases feelings of isolation; increases experimentation and analysis of teaching practices; increases confidence of teach-ers; and provides teachers with greater access to a range of teaching styles, models, and philosophies
6. Providing moral support, comradeship, and encouragement
Enables teachers to stick with new prac-tices through the rough early stages of learning to use new skills, decreases burnout and stress, and increases team members’ willingness to try new methods and to share ideas and concerns with other members of the professional learning community
Professional Learning Community Activities
7. Jointly exploring a problem, including data collection and analysis, and conducting action research
Improves quality of insights and solutions and increases professionalism
8. Attending training together and helping each other implement the content of the training
Helps professional learning community members get more out of training and enables them to go to one another with questions or to get clarification about what was presented during training 9. Sharing the responsibility for making
and/or collecting materials
Allows for more efficient use of time and takes advantage of particular talents or interests of professional learning 11. Using collective decision making to reach
decisions that produce collective action
Makes a strong statement of shared responsibility and commitment to one another’s learning
12. Providing support for “help-seeking” as well as “help-giving”
Helps professional learning community members feel secure in asking for help and advice and enables professionals to give assistance and advice without establishing one-up/one-down relationships
Professional Learning Community Activities Using shared planning to develop units, lessons, and activities
Level of Emphasis High
Providing moral support, comradeship, and encouragement High Collectively studying student work to identify weaknesses and
plan new ways to teach to those weaknesses
High
Moderate Sharing the responsibility for making and/or
collecting materials
Learning from one another by watching each other teach Using collective decision making to reach decisions that produce collective action
High Moderate