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Leading Professional Learning, Part C - Managing Complexity, Recognizing…

- - - - Successfully navigating this complex process would mean that a cohesive system of teachers and middle leaders would critically examine the strengths and weaknesses in our programmes, self-identifying areas of improvement, and implementing necessary changes on a systemic level.....Sadly, this is not how the objective is unfolding...now decribe the challenge - the objective is failing to connect with those who are most responsible for achieving it
- - - - LF 2020, p. 36 - Bringing a systemic focus involves valuing and prioritizing coherence around a shared purpose within and across systems
        
        p. 38 - We also need to be aware of whether or not we have ensured that there is a shared vision across all system levels. The lack of a shared purpose may explain disconnection with some key players.
      - Quick Fixes
        
        timp 2020 p. 19 - ‘Quick fixes’ are tempting to look for because it is difficult for school leaders to sustain an improvement focus for sufficient time and in sufficient depth to reach the desired outcomes in a very crowded change agenda. There is always pressure to do more and, as a result, to do too much, too superficially, with little impact.
        
        WASC context - spreading thinly - pseudo inquiry
        
        Timp 2020 p. 23 - Grabbing new and appealing ideas is understandable but it works against coherence and sustained focus, which will, in the end, yield more sustainable change.
      - Timp 2020 p. 22 - one major challenge to coherence that affects us:
        Sometimes these tensions also come from within the school itself as individuals and groups of teachers prefer to put their efforts into other priorities that they see as more relevant to their jobs.
        
        not connecting to the instructional core
      - Context of Schools
        
        Bryk 2015 - Teachers work more complex than ever
        
        Rob 2017 - Creating coherence is difficult, especially in schools which often have multiple change agendas, and which appear as loosely coupled organizations with high amounts of teacher autonomy and barriers to greater professional community (from p. 3)
      - Murphy 1992 p96 - One of the most powerful and enduring lessons from all the research on effective schools is that the better schools are more tightly linked - structurally, symbolically, and culturally - than the less effective ones. They operate more as an organic whole and less as a loose collection of disparate subsystems.
      - Rob 2017 - Coherence gained by linking goals to a motivating vision, leaders can articulate a credible theory of improvement about how to close the gap between current realities and goals, vetically aligned, and sufficiently flexible to feedback. Oppositie - lower coherence - unrealisitc goals, or failure to articulate a theory of improvement despite understanding the goal. or when they have little effect on those whose efforts are required to achieve them (from p. 11)
        
        how and why of coherence
  - - - Timp 2020 p. 19 - Without good evidence, improvement efforts can quickly become ‘activity traps’ with anecdotes substituting for rigorous information
        
        basis for our evidence?
    - - Timp 2020 p25 - What is important is that the plan has very specific information that includes who, what, when, where and how, with regular evaluative probes to monitor progress in leadership, teaching and learning built into the plan to assess progress.
        
        Rob 2017 p23 - improved coherence through:
        a documented theory of improvement linked goals and strategies
        
        City 2009 p46 - The more explicit that people are about their theory, the easier it is for others to hold them accountable for getting the desired result-and for following the through-line.
        
        p25 - Many school leaders are disappointed that teachers show resistance or do not engage fully with an improvement agenda. This is predictable if they are not involved in identifying what needs to change and what support is needed to implement it.
        
        p25 - Most plans have professional development for teachers as the main way to address student learning needs but are rarely specific about issues with the current learning environments, teacher attitudes or skills that are to be the focus of change.
        
        Monitoring of plans - seek regular evidence of progress towards goals
        p26 - Theories for improvement do not stay static for a year but, at each review point (at least once a term), the next steps in the plan are adjusted according to previous progress. In this way they become working documents with all those involved helping to design the next term’s work.
        
        Timp 2020 - Specificity works against distractions and maintains coherence
        
        p26 - The thinking that goes into this kind of planning works against being distracted, with all suggestions for new activities being assessed for coherence with the plan.
        
        Timp 2020 - co-construction the theory of improvement - improves understanding, buy-in
        
        Timp 2020 p33 - Thinking in longer cycles than a year... is imperative to increase the ability to build coherence and sustain focus, and thus to improve student outcomes. Revisiting and revising goals and your theory for improvement annually is important— and should be done with evidence in hand—but keeping going until you get there is important for making lasting improvements.
        
        This fits with our multi-year process - look longer term and take considered time to cover each base properly.
        
        Bryk 2015 p66 - Identifying the Specific Problem to Be Addressed.
        There is a natural propensity to describe the problem initially in very broad terms....But, framed in this fashion, they are simply too broad to attack as improvement problems. They are the aggregation ofcountless processes over extended periods of time and multiple contexts. To move improvement requires identifying a specific target.
        
        accreditation - what does this mean for stakeholders?
        
        p. 67 - At this macro level, the problem appears so large as to be overwhelming
        
        Bryk 2015 - As evidence surfaces we get to the heart of learning to improve - continually refining our theory
      - City 2009 p.40 - Definition:
        A theory of action can be thought of as the story line that makes a vision and a strategy concrete. It gives the leader a line of narrative that leads people through the daily complexity and distractions that compete with the main work of the instructional core. It provides the map that carries the vision through the organization. And it provides a way of testing the assumptions and suppositions of the vision against the unfolding realities of the work in an actual organization with actual people.
        
        p. 42 - how, exactly, would the system get from its current state to the one required by the vision?
        
        City p56 - A simple and incomplete theory is better than no theory at all....The process of developing a good theory of
        action is iterative for a reason-it is a learning process.
        
        Rob 2014 p807 - Definition: how to act, under particular conditions, in order to achieve the intended consequences.
        
        Espoused theories vs. theories in use - what we claim are the basis of our actions vs. what we actually do or how we behave (from p808)
        
        p808 - Data obtained from questionnaires, interviews, focus groups, diaries, or any other type of self-report provide evidence about people’s espoused theories and should not be used to draw conclusions about actual actions and practices. Such inferences can only be drawn from the evidence provided by recordings, observations, or carefully checked behavioral reports. Many studies fail to make the distinction between espoused and in-use theories of action and draw mistaken conclusions about practice from interview and questionnaire data.
        
        paralels between pseudo and genuine inquiry
        
        p808 - The target of interventions is not behavior
        per se but the theories-in-use that sustain it.
      - City 2009 - Framework of instructional rounds - if/then statements that are testable, modifiable, and become commonplace over time (from p. 41)
        
        begin with a causal statement of what the participant (leader, teacher) does, and what constitutes a desirable result in the classroom
        
        this point contrasts with complexity theory which emphasizes non-linear causal relationships
- - - - LF 2020, p. 37 - We can also work systemically by keeping the big picture in mind and helping others to do this too.
        
        Timp 2020 p27 - "A critical mantra for building coherence and maintaining focus is ‘keep the main thing the main thing’.
        
        shapes choices about what is given time and energy
        
        Rob 2017 p13 - We evaluate schools as more strongly coordinated in this domain when senior leaders maintain a constancy of purpose by being proactive about developing the appropriate strategies and systematically learning about their effectiveness
        
        City 2009 p48-9 - grand strategies of improvement at the system and school level typically lack enough operational detail to help people understand what the story line behind the strategy is and whether the strategy is working.
        
        We know what - we don't know how and why
        - Differentiate between - vision, strategy, and theory of action (starting from a high level of abstraction and destilling it down to a host of contingencies) from p. 49
      - LF 2020, p. 37 - Once a purpose or focus is developed, leaders of change have a role in keeping action in what might seem disparate parts of the system directed toward this and working in multilevel teams to ensure that the shared vision and theory for improvement are constantly negotiated and reinforced across the various organizational levels in a school.
        
        p. 38 - Bringing a systemic focus contributes to our overall intention to keep the work manageable across all system levels and maintain a focus on a common vision so as to prevent stakeholders pursuing a string of unconnected initiatives because it seeks to tie things together and look for links. This can be challenging in busy schools where time for communication is limited.
        
        City 2009 p52 - the drive for specificity and discipline that comes from a close examination of whether a theory of action is working (in other words, testing the hypothesis) carries rewards in increasing the connection of vision and strategy to practice.
      - Timp 2020 - Plan on a page - easily digestible and assessible
        
        p27 - Ideally, one version should be reduced to a ‘plan on a page’ so it can be readily displayed and referred to regularly during all schooling improvement and planning activities, with two questions constantly being asked: ‘Are we on track?’ and ‘What do we need to adjust?’
        
        Scale of Improvement
        
        Bryk 2015 p72-3 - Even if time and resources were no object, it would be nearly impossible to know at the outset how a vast ensemble of changes should fit together. Rather, we seek to identify a small but powerful set of drivers to initiate improvement. At the same time, we remain aware that elements left in the background may subsequently move to the foreground as improvement activity proceeds.
      - City 2009 - Falsifiability:
        Falsifiability means testing our best theories, identifying where they fail, and modify them accordingly
        
        We cannot do this due to an error in the feedback loop - we don't know what is working or not
    - - LF 2015, p. 9 - Definition
        The spiral of inquiry is a learning process driven by a mindset of curiosity. It opens up a new space for professional learning by beginning with learning challenges that the students are experiencing.
    - - Hohepa 2--9 p45 - Leadership promotes teacher learning via communities that are focused on improving student success. To establish such communities, leaders may need to challenge or change cultures that are not focused on collegial discussion of the relationship between what is taught and what is learned.
        
        Our context - lack of focus, unclear objectives
  - - - LF 2020, p. 5 - Adaptive expertise also demands high levels of metacognition: being aware of both the cognitive and affective aspects of decisions and continual engagement in cycles of inquiry to improve them. It involves being open to critical feedback about one's decisions, and seeking this from students, colleagues or others.
        - lack of awareness around PL process
    - - LF 2015, p. 7 - These two processes need to be strongly grounded in evidence (our third characteristic) if responsiveness to students is to go beyond weakly theorised personal beliefs, with curiosity more than individual musings. Professional learning that develops adaptive expertise makes use of a range of evidence as the basis of complex decision-making processes. Evidence related directly to the context is fuel for new thinking about teaching and learning and provides feedback on our efforts to improve.
    - - OpPed 2011, p. 392 - This collective sense of capacity then directly affects the diligence and resolve with which a school, and thereby its teachers, chooses to pursue goals
    - - Rob 2017 p36 - although learning how to coordinate and learning the work of improvement are intimately connected, expertise is needed to ensure that the work of improvement is learned and coordinated in ways that steer educators away from practices that are ineffective and toward those thatare more effective.