An integral part of any teacher professional growth process is in participating in teaching triangles or teaching squares. These professional triangles are squares formed with your colleagues are used as a foundation to do some collective reflection and facilitate the visiting of each other's classes, either online or in person. This kind of collaboration allows for informal exploration of teaching practices and provides a non-threatening way of securing feedback so we can improve our practices. If you have never participated in this kind of process before, here is how it is explained at Washington University in St. Louis:
Teaching Triangles is a semester-long, reciprocal classroom observation and reflection program geared towards helping faculty think through their teaching practices in a supportive, structured environment. In Teaching Triangles, faculty observe and are observed by two colleagues. Observations are meant to stimulate personal self-reflection on teaching practice (not meant to provide direct commentary on colleagues’ performances). Participants engage in non-judgmental, formative feedback and discussion throughout the semester with other members of their Triangle following the observations. The CTL forms triangles and provides a structure for observation and reflection. Each Teaching Triangle consists of three faculty members committed to working together on their teaching for the semester. Triangle participants will agree to visit each other’s courses at least once during the semester to observe their colleagues teach. This observation will not be evaluative; direct commentary on colleagues’ performance is not part of this process. Instead, colleagues will write down their observations of the class session, and, following the class, reflect on their own practice having experienced what it’s like to be in another faculty member’s classroom. Following the observation and the initial reflections, triangle colleagues will convene to discuss their teaching, using some guiding questions provided by the CTL. From: https://ctl.wustl.edu/programs/teaching-triangles/#:~:text=In%20Teaching%20Triangles%2C%20faculty%20observe,commentary%20on%20colleagues'%20performances). Bowdoin College also uses teaching triangles and suggests these questions as a conversation/reflection guide: What happens in a teaching triangle? Each teaching triangle consists of three faculty members. After an initial meeting early in the semester to discuss logistics and establish expectations, each triangle member commits to visiting the other members’ classes at least once. Following all the class visits, the triangle reconvenes to reflect on teaching utilizing some of the questions below.
From: https://www.bowdoin.edu/baldwin-center/pdf/teaching-triangles-overview.pdf As you can see, the emphasis is on reflection and exploration not evaluation or judgment. In our NorQuest professional growth process resources there are several documents that might help you to facilitate such discussions and help you gather your thoughts. If you are from a small department or would rather get feedback from someone other than your close colleagues, the Educational Developers are always available to come, visit and chat! Several years ago, we published a blog on how this is done at NorQuest. Here is the link: Arranging a visit with an Educational Developer.
0 Comments
At many post-secondary institutions, faculty is encouraged to form teaching triangles or teaching squares to sharpen practice.
With a teaching triangle, three instructors would form a mini “Community of Practice” in which they might meet regularly (once or twice a month), visit each other’s classrooms, and share discoveries and learnings with each other. I know of several departments at NorQuest that have used such a model as part of their FED work with faculty. At some colleges, such as Thompson Rivers University, teaching triangles are facilitated through their Centre for Excellence in Teaching and Learning. I like what they explain the concept on their webpage. The educational developers from TRU are careful to point out that “the goal of each observation is not to critique the faculty member being observed, but for the two faculty members in attendance to reflect on what they have learned about teaching from observing their colleague. Over the course of a semester, each member of the triangle will be observed once and be an observer twice. These classroom visits will be preceded by an opening meeting with a CELT team member to discuss your group’s goals for the triangle and a follow-up debriefing once the observation process is complete.” More information can be found on their page The Teaching Triangles Program . Other institutions, like the University of Calgary or the University of Alberta, use a variation on this called “Teaching Squares”. In an article for Faculty Focus, Teaching Squares Bring Cross-Disciplinary Perspectives, Neil Haave (from the University of Alberta) suggests that teaching squares are an “opportunity for faculty to reflect on their own teaching in light of colleagues’ teaching examples. Could I do something like that? Would that approach work with the content I teach? I might be able to use that, but what would I need to change so that it better fits with my teaching style? Are my students ready for a strategy like that?” At both U of C and U of A, these teaching squares are meant to be cross-disciplinary. In our context that might mean that each of the four members might come from a different faculty. Variations on this might include faculty members with a wide range of experience or very different roles (teaching, curricula development, librarian, WIL support, etc.) or teaching in a different modality (face-to-face, synchronous online, Hyflex, asynchronous online). So why am I sharing this? Well, at Norquest we encourage instructors to participate in peer observations as part of your FED reflections. The FED support pages on the Academic Hub contain all kinds of resources and observation guides to help instructors do these kinds of observations. But all too often these observations are done be close colleagues who may be too close to see the big picture in your teaching. Or they might be done by someone who feels that peer observation is really another phrase for “peer evaluation”, and that would be a bit of an issue too. Observations and consultations should avoid evaluative language and critiques like “you should have…” and instead focus on “how might we…”. The rationale behind the NorQuest peer observation process is to facilitate growth and reflection on the part of both the instructor being observed and the colleague doing the observation. Perhaps teaching squares or triangles could be a natural extension of our already ongoing Communities of Practice? If you want to know more about teaching squares, I found two very helpful guides, one from Dupage Faculty Development, The Teaching Squares Handbook , and another from the Taylor Institute for Teaching and Learning (University of Calgary), Teaching Squares; Observe and Reflect on Teaching and Learning . Both publications are creative Commons and downloadable. In the past few weeks I have been reflecting on teacher leadership, and more specifically, the roles of team lead, associate chair and chair. While the role might seem appealing to many, it strikes me that anyone considering taking on one of these roles might first need to do a bit of soul searching. Teacher leaders that I have worked with over the years have all shared how difficult the transition could be. One day they were just another colleague, sharing a laugh in the faculty lunch area and the next day they have “gone over to the dark side” and “become one of them”. Their motives, decisions, work habits and leadership style became fair game to be questioned by others, and they felt like they lived in a bit of a fish bowl. That is not to say that these people didn’t enjoy being in this leadership position, they just had to learn that actually working in the position was a little different from observing it as another instructor. Teacher leaders are called upon to provide real and timely leadership in three different ways; they need to provide professional, administrative and instructional leadership. Depending on the size of the department and the duties assigned, this can mean: advocating for students and faculty, balancing budgets, mapping out the scope and sequence of a program, assigning course loads, scheduling classes, problem solving, and dealing with challenging personalities. On top of all these tasks, teacher leaders must be change agents, advocating for quality practice, encouraging professional reflection, and pressing for improved student learning and achievement. Complicating all of this is the fact that roles like team lead or associate chair are usually term appointments and often come with a considerable teaching load in addition to leadership responsibilities. People in these roles have said that they feel caught between two worlds; they aren’t really in the overall leadership team and stream, but they are no longer in the community of instructors. Stepping into such leadership is not easy; the work cannot be done half-heartedly. So why would one bother to take on such a role? So why take on teacher leadership?Teacher leaders have a single guiding purpose - to build capacity in others. They use their talents to influence, shape, support, and catalyze change that results in increased student achievement. Their actions reveal their fundamental belief that they more they build capacity in others, the more they contribute to sustaining long-term, deep transformation that allows others to address today’s challenges and to be prepared for facing those that arise tomorrow. (Killion, 2011, p. 11) I love this quote from Joellen Killion. Although it refers more to those who take on teacher leadership roles in the K-12 system, I think it captures the essence of why instructors consider taking on academic leadership roles like team lead, project lead, associate chair, or chair. For the most part, people take on these roles because they want to make a difference, a difference for the students and for the staff that they have come to know so well. In addition to the need to make a difference for students and colleagues, those looking to move into leadership roles may also be enticed to do so for any combination of six different factors:
Who should take on such a role? From my experience, there is no one profile of the ideal candidate for an academic leadership position. I have seen very different types become very successful leaders. Some of these people saw an associate chair position as a stepping stone in their career; they had their sights on institutional leadership (Look out Carolyn, here I come!). Others were almost reluctant leaders. They hated to leave their classrooms and the students who gave them energy, but they also felt an obligation to the program, to their colleagues and to the students, to take on a leadership role that might ensure the viability of the program. Regardless of how or why each stepped into the role, all of these new leaders needed to develop a new set of skills. Working with students in an online or face-to-face environment is much different from working with colleagues who are masters in their own domain. A teacher leader’s greatest challenge is in building trust, gaining credibility, and establishing purposeful, productive relationships. These leaders are sometimes faced with apathetic, reluctant or resistant colleagues. Often, they are “caught in the middle”, having to roll out unpopular or demanding decisions or initiatives that they might have previously had questions about. This delicate challenge means that they must instead use credibility and kinship as practicing instructors to gently lead–through encouragement, support and even courageous conversations. As such, effective leadership involves constant negotiation and it requires tremendous flexibility, tact and perseverance. What are the keys to success? Some of the important leadership actions or processes that prospective teacher leaders might ask themselves about before making the leap have to do with:
Several years ago, I asked successful “teacher leaders” to share their strategies for creating positive working relationships with their colleagues. They suggested that life will go easier if you:
References: Killion, J. (2011). A bold move forward: consortium outlines new standards for teacher leaders. Journal of Staff Development, 32 (3), 10-12. Kuntz, J. (2015). Exploring the Experience of AISI Instructional Teacher Leaders. (Doctoral Thesis) University of Alberta. Department of Secondary Education. Accessed online at: https://era.library.ualberta.ca/downloads/41687m37h (Permanent link) Early conceptions of mentorship When I was younger, I had a very narrow view of mentorship. I think this view was rooted in my knowledge of literature and popular culture. Mentors were sages, who dripped with wisdom while they led you to discover inner truths about your purpose in life and how to fulfill the role you were predestined for. In my mind, mentors were individuals like Merlin was to young Wart (future King Arthur), or Yoda and Obi Wan Kenobi were to Luke. I didn’t really think I had mentors, and I certainly never thought that I would be in a position to mentor anyone. This conception of mentoring started to change once I became a teacher (38 years ago!). I needed mentorship! As a young educator, far from family (3000 kms) and what I considered to be home, I struggled in isolation with the demands of teaching, and with providing instruction and guidance to teens. In my first week of teaching I had one student tell me that “My dad says I don’t really have to listen to you; you’re only a kid!” (To be fair, I was pretty young looking and only 21.). I also had a parent tell me: “If my kid steps out of line, just cuff him across the back of the head. You have my permission. It’s the only thing that seems to work.” This was not something I was going to do. Complicating matters even more, I was the new English and French teacher. There were those in the small community who viewed the young teacher from the big city university with suspicion: “Just what outlandish ideas and viewpoints will he be telling our kids? And who really needs French anyways?” At first, I thought that my principal, John, would be the best mentor. He was a skilled educator and he was taking his Master’s in Educational Leadership while he provided direction to our small school. However, very soon I learned that I could not be totally open and vulnerable with John. While he had his role as educational leader on our campus, he was also responsible for assessing his cadre of teachers. And every time I came to him with my challenges in classroom management, he could not help but make “mental notes” about my struggles, which somehow ended up on my teacher evaluations. As well, his notion of discipline (leaning towards intimidation and the threat of corporal punishment) did not mesh with my desire to create a learning climate based upon engagement rather than compliance. It was hard to navigate, especially when I was uncertain in my own approach and the culture of the school was out of synch from my own experience. Soon I learned to come to John only with my deeper, philosophical questions about the whys and wherefores in teaching and chose not to discuss classroom dynamics with him. John liked to “hold forth”; he had much to share in terms of effective planning and assessment. I’d sit in his office and take in his wisdom, while he pondered pedagogy, puffing on his pipe. (Yes, back then they did smoke in the schools!) I learned a lot from John. As for mentorship about classroom routines, rules and relationships, I went to another colleague, Jake. Jake taught Science and Math, and he was easy to talk to. He was not prescriptive but self-deprecating and collaborative. Jake had taught off and on, taking some years off to work as a bricklayer to make some “real money” (Christian schools didn’t pay very well…) before jumping back into the profession he loved. Jake had had his struggles with classroom management and could relate to many of the challenges I was going through. He was/is a gentle, kind soul, and sometimes the students could take advantage of that. Jake’s wife was also a teacher, and they would invite the young guy to their house for dinner and conversation. It was a great place to visit, to play games with their kids and feel comfortable and listened to. At that time, I could only hope that someday I might pass on the same kind of mentorship that I received from both John and Jake. Mentorship in its many forms Fast forward 38 years! Last week Miranda Hui and I attended a virtual conference on mentorship hosted by the Taylor Institute (the University of Calgary). As Faculty Developers, we were looking at the possibility of starting some kind of cross-faculty, interdisciplinary, mentorship program at NorQuest. What could we learn from other post-secondary institutions? How might a program be structured or supported? How could the program be encouraged and yet voluntary, allowing participants to make a match based upon need, personality and perspective? What kinds of activities and conversations might mentor and mentee engage in? How might such an endeavor help our faculty and ultimately, our students? And privately–we wondered–could effective mentorship ever be organized? Or does mentorship happen organically, when professionals find “kindred spirits” or go searching for “critical friends” so they can grow in practice and pedagogy? I’m not sure that we found answers to all our questions, but we did make a lot of great contacts and we discovered some wonderful resources to share with our faculty and guide whatever plan we might come with. Some of the things that we learned or further affirmed at the conference are that:
Anyways, that’s the thought. Now I need to check with my mentors, to see what they think! Reference Barrette-Ng, N., Nowell, L., Anderson, S.J., Arcellana-Panlilio, M., Brown, B., Chalhoub, S., Clancy, T.L., Desjardine, P., Dorland, A.M., Dyjur, P., Mueller, K., Reid, L., Squance, R., Towers, J., & Wilcox, G. (2019). The Mentorship Guide for Teaching and Learning. Calgary, AB: Taylor Institute for Teaching and Learning Guide Series. Wow. one whole year. That's how long it's been since this whole Covid warped reality has been with us. Remember the first time you had to line up outside the Safeway store and then, when you got in there were arrows on the floor and empty shelves where there should have been toilet paper and canned goods? Remember going out on an errand in the middle of the day to find the streets deserted? I thought that we might go through a short lockdown of working from home for a few months but eventually we would be back at the college together - hopefully by September. But it hasn't turned out that way. And there are so many things I miss:
These informal interactions, would often lead to powerful conversations and important insights. They also gave us an opportunity to “switch off” if we needed to. Covid-19 has really complicated the role of the Faculty Developer. This year, like everyone else, your Faculty Developers have been pushed in ways we never imagined. Our roles have changed, we’ve had to learn quite a number of new technologies, and we’ve had to find new ways to reach out and connect with the instructors we serve. It has been an intense, anxiety-inducing, exhausting, and surprising year. For our Faculty Development team, the intensity ratcheted up almost right away. Overnight, our instructors were suddenly thrust into situations and roles they weren’t quite prepared for. And It was our responsibility to support them. As Faculty Developers, it meant shifting to more of an “emergency services” role. Oh, we weren’t dealing with life and death medical emergencies but there were emergencies all the same. Joan and Maryna were constantly dealing with Moodle and BBCU emergencies. Instructors were struggling with the new online environment and their requests for support needed to have immediate responses. It was “all hands on deck” as training sessions and resources were quickly developed. Moodle Help was swamped with emails. And while instructors wrestled with the technology and isolation, they also struggled with self-confidence and the fear that their face-to-face persona and classroom interactions would not transfer very well to the new environment. Sarah and I also learned, very quickly, how to be of service to faculty who were trying to be engaging and compassionate in this online reality – without burning themselves out. As a team, our Faculty Developers were extremely busy, but also somewhat energized. It was a time when our roles were stretched to the limit. We were an “essential service”. That felt good. But, as instructional coaches, we also experienced – both first and secondhand – the real frustrations of our colleagues and students, and we often felt powerless to change things. And that was hard. Then came the growing anxiety, when we, like everyone else, realized that this wasn’t just a short-term event. Just how were the lockdowns affecting our NorQuest students? Would our enrollments fritter away to nothing? What would this mean for the future of many NQ programs? How would the isolation, uncertainty, shrinking budgets, and pandemic pressures affect the instructors and the teams that we work with? How was it affecting our close colleagues? Like many other departments, our team shrunk in size as seconded people were sent back to their departments. For the past couple of months, it has just been the Joan and Jeff show. For my part, I found it much harder to get a full night’s sleep. My head was swimming with all of the questions above and many more. How could I continue to support faculty, when it was so hard to reach them? Like many of you, I started to put in longer and longer days. Having no commute, I could now start work at seven and I was often online from that point right till supper hour. And the breaks were few and far between. Nobody came by my desk and suggested going for a walk to Second Cup or catching a bite at the Commodore. In an attempt to reach more instructors, our faculty development team shifted our approach. We had to find new ways to connect with our instructors and promote collaborative reflection. These ways included the Monday Morning Musings, one-on-one meetings with new instructors, Marvelous Moodle Minutes, Faculty Talking Circles, and, more recently, the Faculty Community of Practice and the Learning Teams. At the same time, we each found ourselves on quite a number of committees and working teams, and we began to look at projects that might better support faculty by bringing resources and supports under one umbrella. And that was exhausting. The days began to seem like one long video meeting - as one meeting ended the next would begin. Only after work hours ended, would I have to do the “heavy lifting”, when I could plan, write and think without the interruption of emails, Teams chat, or Teams meetings. That’s why I took the last week off. It was an attempt at a “circuit breaker”. Let’s see if I can establish some healthier routines! Find a better work/life balance. Practice what I preach… But for all the stresses and disappointments, there have been some bright moments. We’ve learned how to more effectively teach in synchronous online environments and structuring assessments in ways that students need to apply and understand rather than simply choose or remember. We've also learned many things about setting up our Moodle courses so that they're more interactive and less of a repository of readings and assignments. Hopefully many of these learnings will not be lost when we go back to doing something closer to face-to-face learning. NorQuesters have also found many ways to connect with each other even though we are not on campus in the same numbers. NorQuest Esports, faculty socials and trivia nights, Unscripted presentations, fellowship meetings, informal department “check-ins”, and learning teams are just a few of those ways. And hope is on the horizon. Like many Albertan seniors, my mom and my in-laws have had their first vaccine shots and that gives me a bit of comfort. In my very first email / blog I wrote about the challenges ahead and one line that resonated with more than a few people was "Just Breathe". I think that we need to keep coming back to that. This pandemic has asked us to learn patience, to be perseverant and not to be panicked or paranoid. I’m just thankful for our community at NorQuest. We’ve really had to draw on each other this past year, and that’s also not such a bad thing. Let's see what the next year brings. Arranging a visit from a Faculty Development Advisor Before the onset of Covid, Joan, Sarah and I would often conduct numerous classroom visits to provide feedback, support and coaching to those instructors who were interested. It was one part of the job that all three of us loved to do. We were able to know individual staff a little better, we could see them in action and feel their passion for teaching, and we were left with a better sense of the programs and the learners we are supporting at the college. And we were able to learn such interesting things! I remember one busy day when I started the day watching nursing students insert IV lines, then learned about irony and voice in a University Transfer course, before finishing the day with business students who were sharing their ideas for a project plan. Since the move to online learning, we haven’t been experiencing the same volume of requests for visits. There may be a number of reasons for this:
However, I wonder if many of our faculty were even aware that such an opportunity exists. Are they aware that individual faculty can get clear and concrete feedback from someone outside their department? That they can get feedback from someone whose number one job is to support teachers in every phase of their career? From someone whose job is to encourage and coach and not to evaluate? So, I thought I might use this week’s musing to describe just how a faculty observation works, to demystify the process and provide assurances that it is a friendly and confidential way to get structured feedback. Step One: Arranging a Visit! Setting up a classroom observation with a NorQuest Faculty Development Advisor (FDA) is very easy to do. You just send an email to [email protected] and ask for a visit. Myra will forward your request to the team and we’ll figure out whose schedule works best with yours. Or, if you already have a relationship with one of the FDAs and feel quite comfortable with that person, can just send them an email. At the moment we only have two FDAs, Joan and myself. But, by the end of March we should have a third, Miranda. Step 2: Setting the Context The next step would be to arrange a quick “check in” with the FDA you are working with. Before Covid, we used to meet instructors informally for a coffee by Tim Horton’s, but I guess now it will have to happen via Teams. In this check in, your FDA will want to know a little more of the context for the observation:
We also might point you to some of the feedback observation guides that were developed by Kim Goebel a few years back for observations like this or for when colleagues observe each other. These are available on the Q on the Faculty tile of the Resources page. There are a number of forms to choose from. Several are for non-teaching roles but there are at least three with slightly different lenses from which to view a synchronous teaching situation from. You can choose which of the forms you would like to use. The one Joan and I prefer asks the instructor to suggest three areas for the FDA to give feedback on. So, if you ask for feedback on your pacing and tone, that’s just what you’ll get! Step 3: The Actual Visit If the visit takes place in real time, whether online or face-to-face, it is a good thing to prepare your students for the FDA visitor. Letting the students know that you’ve invited an instructional coach to your class to observe you in action, lets them know that they are not the ones being observed. When we would conduct these observations in physical classrooms, Joan, Sarah and I would just jump right into the lesson. I relished the part of playing the student, but I tried not to be the brat that I was in junior high. Typically, I sat amongst the students, participated in all the activities, jotted a few notes, and even asked nearby students why they were taking the course, how they learned best and where they were in the program. With the move to online, such participation has become easier and harder. No longer do I stick out among them like a thorn among the roses (Just who is that old guy anyways – and what is he doing here?). Nor do I have to hide my note-taking from the students. I’m free to take part in the chat, the breakouts and the discussions. But it is harder to accurately gauge the student experience. I can’t read their faces, see their body posture, or notice when they start to check out and surf the net. I can only relate my own experience of the lesson and make notes about the kinds of interactions going on through the chat, the discussion (in the main and breakout rooms), and the activity on in-class assignments (for instance working in shared documents). Step 4: The Debrief After the observation, the FDA will need a bit of time to process their notes and think carefully about the task you gave them. Their job is not to criticize, solve or direct. Their job is to describe what they saw and experienced and ask thoughtful questions about your choices in planning and practice. Does your sense of what transpired in that class align with the student experience or with what the observer noticed? If you were to adjust the lesson, what might you change? What other possibilities might there be that could support the students as they dig deeper into the content, or as they develop their skills and attitudes? Typically, I will compile a page or two of observations, questions, and considerations and I share this document with the instructor I am debriefing with. Together we walk through the document, pausing to reflect and discuss and explore. When the debrief is over, I leave the instructor with a copy of the notes/observation form. Then, as a matter of courtesy and privacy, I delete the file from my computer. The instructor should have the only copy. What and observation is... and what it is not!To allay any fears or misgivings, I thought I’d end this musing with some assurances.
An observation from an FDA is:
An observation from an FDA is not:
This last point is one that I want to comment on further. The role of an FDA is not to evaluate faculty or to “fix” them when they are broken! We are faculty and our primary responsibility is to encourage, support and stretch our colleagues. We are instructional coaches, not instructional supervisors! This simple distinction means that we will not report on our observations to your chairs or deans! Classroom visits are completely confidential. And this confidentiality should go both ways. You are free to use the feedback, ideas and observations when you write your annual growth plans, as a way of showing how you are working on your professional goals. Your chair or dean might be interested to know that you did invite and FDA to your classroom and that together you identified some learning goals for the current year. However, individual instructors should not turn around and use a visit from an FDA as evidence of their “exceptional teaching” to impress supervisors or prospective employers. In fact, the observation notes themselves will not support this. We try to refrain from using evaluative terms like excellent, good or mediocre. Instead, our notes will be full of simple observations, questions and considerations. These notes are meant to initiate reflection and dialogue, not grade or rank. The notes are for you; not for anyone else! So, as we continue to work through teaching from home, remember that support is still here! You don not have to face it all alone. In fact, online teaching has provided a little more flexibility. If your FDA cannot make it to the online class, you could still provide a link to the recording. Or, if you are more interested in reflecting on how your learning is structured, you could ask an FDA to give you feedback on how you’ve set up your course on Moodle and how you work to provide students multiple avenues for learning – through synchronous, blended and asynchronous lessons. Just how clear are the major learning outcomes to your students? Do they clearly know what they need to do to be successful? Have you provided support, but also allowed them the agency to make choices and learn even more than you might expect? Anyway, we’re just an email away! Forming and NormingThe NorQuest Faculty Community of Practice NorQuest has officially started. At the time of writing this we have approximately 40 members who will be participating through networking, online gatherings, resource sharing, team inquiry and mentorship. One of the first things done was to establish Learning Teams, each with a particular instructional focus. Combining some of the 8 suggestions we have settled on three independent groups:
Each group will now be looking to have an initial meeting so they might chart out their next steps. If you would like to join one these teams, just shoot me an email and I’ll add you. It is not too late, we’re only taking the first few steps! I’m hoping that, in the first couple of meetings, each team will have a chance to form and norm. They’ll need to consider their purpose, how often they would like to meet (and when) or how they would like to carry on conversations and inquiries. To support each group in this initial planning I put together a few questions that might help them focus and perhaps build a bit of a “team charter” 1) What would you like your team to be called/known as? (these names were only place holders) 2) Who are the members of your team? 3) How might you describe your team to others who may want to join? (in 2-3 sentences): 4) What are your team’s major goals? Do you hope to:
8) How will you know that the team should shut down? The last question is often one that often gets overlooked. However, from years of working with learning teams (Professional Learning Communities), I know that teams eventually lose their steam and members look to find a new challenge. This life cycle corresponds with Bruce Tuckman’s five stages of group development: forming (gathering the team and choosing a focus), norming (deciding on the processes and procedures), storming (experiencing tension as boundaries are pushed), performing (producing important work) and adjourning or mourning (fulfilling the original purpose or losing focus and energy) (Tuckman, 1965 and Tuckman & Jensen, 1977). It is important to acknowledge this cycle and perhaps even re-visit question #8 on a regular basis to check whether the team is alive and relevant. In the coming months, we will also look at developing a bit of a cross-faculty mentorship group. I realize that a number of departments already have some type of mentorship for new hires, but there is room for something that would function across the institution. When I asked if instructors were interested in participating in such a program, quite a number said that they were. Some were instructors who were new to NorQuest, but many were not. And there were instructors who said that they would like to participate as both a mentor and a mentee. There were areas of teaching that they were quite confident in, but there were some other areas where they would appreciate a sympathetic friend who might provide them with feedback or share approaches techniques or apps or help them work through the intricacies of Moodle and BBCU. It’s my belief that the larger Community of Practice together with the targeted Learning Teams and a Mentorship Program could provide an important vehicle for community building and professional development for faculty at all stages of their career in post-secondary education at NorQuest. Now we’ll just have to see if this becomes a reality! References: Tuckman, B. W. (1965). Developmental sequence in small groups. Psychological Bulletin, 63(6), 384–399. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0022100 Tuckman, B.W., & Jensen, M.A.C. (1977) Stages of Small-Group Development Revisited. Group & Organization Studies. 2(4), 419-427. https://doi.org/10.1177/105960117700200404 Last Week's Faculty Talking Circles - The InspirationThe growth of any craft depends on shared practice and honest dialogue among the people who do it. We grow by trial and error, to be sure—but our willingness to try, and fail, as individuals is severely limited when we are not supported by a community that encourages such risks. (Palmer, 1998, p. 144) A week ago, we had two Faculty Talking Circles at NorQuest College where we continued to explore the concept of learning teams. I asked these faculty groups several big questions. The first was “What, in your experience, allows a learning team to work well?” In the chat and discussions individual faculty said that, in their experience, a learning team works well when there is:
This group also suggested that it might also help to have:
Most of all, our colleagues suggested that a learning team would need to be passionate and committed “owners” of the learning team. A powerful learning team should be built by instructors - for instructors. Thankfully, these observations validated the musings from Jan 11! So on to my next few questions: “Do you have an idea for a team?”, “Who should form these teams?” and “What should their goals be?” Instructors wrote suggestions on a Padlet and we took turns discussing some of them. Ideas for learning teams included a/an:
These were wonderful ideas! That said, I cannot count how many times I have worked with groups of keen individuals and gotten to this point, only to have the enthusiasm ebb out with a bit of time and the pressure of staying on top of daily teaching commitments and student concerns. So how might we take some of these ideas and establish learning teams that meet regularly, sustain a clear and practical focus and make a difference for team members and for our students? One idea: A NQ Faculty Community Of PracticeThe onset of Covid and the switch to online everything has left many of our instructors feeling overwhelmed and disconnected. LRN sessions are not as popular as in the past; people cannot find the time to invest in one-off workshops that may or may not apply to their current teaching contexts and pressures. However, if these same people knew that they could regularly connect with colleagues who face the same challenges and then collectively address ongoing concerns it might lead to professional growth, community building and alleviate some anxiety and stress.
So here’s my idea going forward. I think it is time for NorQuest to establish a Faculty Community of Practice. This umbrella group would be able to facilitate the networking, sharing, and resource development necessary for a wide range of learning teams. Your faculty developers would help to coordinate this community, but they would not be the ones who lead it. The NQ FC of P would be a true professional learning community. Some thoughts: With tight budgets and Covid cutbacks, it would be difficult to secure funding or dedicated time to run this Community of Practice. While being supportive, our college leadership would not be able to carve out something for us. That said:
A plan: I know that we have a core group of dedicated and innovative instructors who might champion learning teams. I have been in their classrooms (online and F2F) and I have listened to their reflections and presentations. Now we just need to find out if there is enough interest to make a go of this idea.
If all goes well, we might be able to stage several NorQuest College Community of Practice Showcase afternoons. This would allow individual groups to share what they have tried and learned with colleagues. However, at this point, let us just see if there is enough interest to go forward. Many thanks to Mabyn Grinde from Lakeland College who attended our last talking circle, shared the Parker Palmer quote and the suggestion that “Members of a learning team need to be owners, not renters!” Palmer, Parker J. The Courage to Teach: Exploring the Inner Landscape of a Teacher's Life. San Francisco, Calif. : Jossey-Bass, 1998. The Promise and Pitfalls of Professional Learning Communities Instructors learn about their craft in many different ways:
In today’s musing, I want to focus on the fifth way, collaborative professional learning through focused inquiry and sharing. This is where a small group of people meet regularly to discuss promising practices, implement thoughtful changes in their daily planning and practice, and share their efforts with the group in order to promote program improvement and optimize student learning. This kind of collaborative learning is sometimes called a “Community of Practice”, a phrase coined by Etienne Wenger in 1991 (see: https://wenger-trayner.com/introduction-to-communities-of-practice/ ). Communities of Practice involve practicing professionals (not researchers or academics) who form a learning community based upon a shared commitment or domain of interest. Another term sometimes used to describe collaborative learning is a “Professional Learning Community” or PLC. I am much more familiar with this term. PLCs are narrower than Communities of Practice; they have very specific goals and focus on tangible results. So what is a PLC? In the late 1990’s American educators such as Dufour and Eaker (1998) and Hord (1997) advocated for goal-oriented, accountable, teacher collaboration as the best way to transform underperforming schools, boost teacher morale and improve student achievement. PLC advocates were quick to link Professional Learning Communities to adult learning principles put forward in the 1970's by Malcolm Knowles (2005), successful adult learning links to need, self-concept, foundation, readiness and orientation. Professional Learning Communities should build upon:
A Professional Learning Community should value and validate teachers, drawing upon internal motivators rather than external (credits or recognition). Of course there are some preconditions; in order to be successful, PLCs need to meet regularly, sustain their inquiry and action research for an extended period (years rather than months), and focus their energies on reasonable and measureable targets (establish SMART goals). From my experience from 20 years of working with PLCs, I have seen groups that worked wonderfully well, creating a culture of continuous improvement. These PLCs encouraged teachers to learn together, explore new ideas, and implement changes that paid great dividends for their students. I have also seen PLCs that quickly dissolved into coffee socials or worse yet, bitch sessions. One group that I had a loose connection with ended up spending their allotted PLC time on rejigging the wording on their multiple choice assessments - which was a far cry from their original intention of helping adolescent readers develop the confidence and skills to meet the literacy demands of challenging texts and tasks. At one point, when certain Alberta school districts became frustrated with the inefficiency of their PLCs (some districts provided money and time for PLCs but little leadership), they tried to mandate for tangible results. They advocated for “data-driven” PLCs, but this action ended up frustrating teachers who felt that they had to tweak their teaching to get better scores on standardized exams (Provincial Achievement Tests and Diploma Exams) rather than engage in meaningful learning and reflection. In the end, this push to focus and control PLCs backfired. Teachers felt conscripted and handcuffed. Here at NorQuest, my experience with PLCs has been limited. Some faculty might want to call the Innovative Teaching Group a PLC, but the group was too large, the meetings too infrequent and the focus was too scattered for it to be a real PLC. However, the Innovative Teaching Group did foster inquiry, reflection, sharing and networking. The NorQuest Learning Circle on Intercultural Competence that Sarah Apedaile spearheaded last year was much closer to being an actual, factual PLC. This group was smaller, regularly checked in, engaged in thoughtful readings and discussion, implemented changes in their classrooms and shared their learnings. I also believe there may be other groups around the college that more closely reflect the spirit of a PLC. I know of curriculum development groups, professional reading groups and other focus groups that are making a real difference for students and instructors. Why do some PLCs thrive while others lose their way? Well, from my perspective (and from some of the literature I consulted) a PLC has to allow for ownership and agency. Externally mandated PLCs often work against instructor investment. Andy Hargreaves, a PLC proponent from Britain, cautions against PLCs which design or follow too rigid a protocol and ultimately create a “"prison of micromanagement that constrains it" and will foster a “contrived collegiality” (Hargreaves as quoted in Vause, 2009, p.88). Educators need to know that they are able to shape the direction, set the goals and respond to immediate and longer-term issues that affect them and their classrooms. All too often, teachers see PLC work as an add-on or a fad and feel that “this too shall pass”. Some teachers actually view it an assault on their own professionalism; the very fact that an institute or district mandates PLCs is an assumption that they, as teachers, are lacking in skill, commitment or collegiality. PLCs should be built from the ground up, by the teacher participants - in response to real issues, not manufactured or arbitrary agendas. Given the educational context, their experience, and their knowledge of their community, PLC members should be able to collaboratively and individually frame a vision for their department and the type of learning they hope to achieve. There also needs to be ample space for dissent as well as discussion and time enough to really reflect upon and respond to the issues they face. To be successful a PLC needs to acknowledge experience. PLCs should be about shared exploration not didacticism. Faculty developers, chairs (and associates), and lead teachers charged with leading change through a PLC process should be especially aware of this. I have observed too many well-meaning instructional leaders lose credibility because they figured they could “fix” the pedagogy of their colleagues. Especially off-putting was when leaders started preaching about “best practices” and tried to hammer home recent research. Many teachers felt their own methods devalued (since they were not using “best practices”) and their experience discounted just because something may (or may not) have been proven in an entirely different context. A PLC needs to have a mission that goes beyond student achievement and program improvement. It cannot be just “reformative” but must tilt towards being “transformative” (Servage, 2008). In most cases, the PLCs I have worked with were reformative; teachers discovered new strategies or made adjustments in the way they planned or assessed. The truly powerful PLCs I worked with pushed educators to experience significant change forcing them to rethink their whole view of student learning and their role as a teacher. These “transformations” often revealed a shift in understanding related to core beliefs about planning, curricula, assessment, engagement, program relevance, critical literacy and many other foci being were working on. These transformations gave a glimpse into what PLCs could and should be. What is the real purpose of a PLC? Most proponents of PLCs would agree that PLCs are meant to:
Educators need to ask these questions:
Ultimately, I believe the key in building and maintaining a healthy PLC is in promoting and allowing for individual agency. Those who place student achievement as the only core of PLC work (“It’s always and only about student learning.”) actually denigrate the role of teacher as learner and constrict creativity (see Servage, 2006). Student learning may be the muse, but if the PLC is to succeed and thrive as a model for professional development and adult education it must allow for self-actualization, align with the principles of adult education, and avoid getting trapped in the world of data-driven reformation as opposed to professional and personal transformation. So how does this impact NorQuest? As we move forward in response to various initiatives like Reimagining Higher Education and our efforts to create a NorQuest College culture, and as we respond to pressures associated with the current teaching conditions brought on by Covid-19 and economic and structural pressures, PLCs and/or Communities of Practice hold promise. They present encouraging models to build community and resiliency. Moreover, I am eager to support the efforts of those who would like to start one of these learning communities or nurture the efforts of an existing one. In fact, in the next few months our faculty development team will be piloting a “Faculty Community of Practice” as we move to consolidating our support materials and providing access to instructors and academic leaders at NorQuest. However, I am conscious of the pitfalls too, and I am hoping that we can build this community and accompanying PLCs from the ground up, with 1) shared vision, 2) committed participation, 3) regular, sustained and focused work, 4) meaningful and honest inquiry and discussion, and 5) inspired leadership.
References:
Merry Christmas and many happy dossiers? It is almost that time! That time for leaving behind your daily teaching commitments and stressors. That time for lazy mornings and a bit slower pace. That time for going into decorating and hyper-baking mode. That time for getting together with family and friends, playing board games, attending services, giving gifts and binging on Christmas specials or watching “It’s a Wonderful Life” just one more time. Or is it? Covid is looking to dampen this Christmas, just a little bit. Instead of going up to the mountains or frequenting the mall, you might find yourself spending more time at home than usual. However, I have a solution! You shouldn’t feel bored, there’s something you can do! Maybe this is the year when you finally pull together your teaching dossier! What is a teaching dossier? Well, it is not the dossier like the Canadian Security Intelligence Service keeps on all of us…. A teaching dossier is a document or an online webpage that contains an instructor’s philosophy, goals, accomplishments, reflections and feedback on teaching. It is a little like a hybrid between your professional growth plan (PGP; remember Halogen?) and your curriculum vitae. Many teaching colleges require their faculty to keep a dossier as part of their growth, supervision and evaluation process. It gives academic leaders (chairs, managers and deans) a muse for ongoing discussions with instructors and professors. At first, teaching dossiers (back in the 1990’s) were 10 to 15 page Word or PDF documents organized much like a report, with headings and appendixes. In 2020, many professional dossiers exist as online webpages, which can be re-visited and updated at any time (which sure helps with version control!). What’s in a teaching dossier? The contents of a teaching dossier depend upon your purpose and your institutional requirements. In colleges and universities that require faculty to maintain dossiers, there are very specific requirements in terms of content and format. NorQuest College does not have any firm requirements but suggests the following:
Of course, depending on who you are and your role and experience, some sections might be a little easier to complete than other sections. Initially, you may not be able to speak to each of these sections. A beginning instructor would be wise to include only the 1) biography, 2) responsibilities, 3) philosophy, 4) teaching approach and examples, 5) service work, and 6) feedback. It takes time to develop enough experience and examples for the other sections (curricula work, scholarship, leadership and awards). Why make a dossier? Well it seems like a lot of work, and it certainly can be. However, making a dossier can be some of the best professional learning you can do. It forces a person to step back and consider why they teach, how they teach and whether the two align (Does your philosophy match with the kinds of activities and assessments you give? Do you practice what you preach?). It also helps in identifying strengths and growth areas by looking at all the evidence (feedback, resources developed, course data). Dossiers can be important touchpoints when:
Where would I start? I will be running the dossier workshop again next week. If you are curious, just sign up and see what it is all about. Alternatively, if you do not have time, just shoot me an email and I will send you more information or we can set up a one-on-one teams chat. Merry Christmas! This will be my last musing before the Christmas break. I hope to resume the musings on January 4. |
AuthorJeff Kuntz Ph.D. ImagesExcept where indicated, images used in the blog posts are personal photos, images from NorQuest College or images from Pixabay. Pixabay is a vibrant community of creatives, sharing copyright free images, videos and music. https://pixabay.com/ Archives
March 2024
Categories
All
|