Rough+Draft+for+PBL+Paper

A very rough start. I took everyone's summary's on their topics and merged them together. I am crafting the introduction and will continue to wordsmith to get the flow of the paper. I think there are still a couple of members who haven't posted summaries yet so hopefully we will get them this week Please update any information by Sunday and I will pull it all together for your review by Tuesday. Thanks,Sarah

Principal O'Connor is facing the challenge that many other principals around the country are facing as the context of education continues to change over the years. Principals are no longer just in charge of the traditional roles of ensuring a safe environment, managing the budget and maintaining discipline. According to the National Center for School Leadership (NCSL) there are five key aspects of effective principals: Defining and communicating a school's educational mission, coordinating curriculum, supervising and supporting teachers, monitoring student progress, and nurturing a positive learning climate (Cunningham, p.144). The conflict that O'Connor is facing at Hickory Ridge is taking a toll both physically and emotionally on the energy levels of his staff. This drain is adding to a negative culture and enhancing instability between the new and old regimes within the school, which ultimately affects student achievement and community relations.

Utilizing strategies such as the Kagan Cooperative Learning Program to help both students and faculty solve problems and build a team atmosphere will help the divide in the faculty come together.

Utilizing a new management structure such as participative decision making to improve the schools educational mission as well as redefining the schools overall vision will serve to invigorate and unify the teachers to work together to achieve the given goals. Principal O'Connor would currently be considered an autocratic leader according to McGregor’s theory X approach. This is not working for this faculty and implementing a cooperative theory Y style of leadership will help encourage team effort.

An understanding of participative decision making (PDM) is essential to implementing the strategies that will work and eliminating the behaviors that create division among faculty. This aligns with the (NCSL) aspect regarding the supervising and supporting of teachers. Schools need to embrace all stakeholders in order to respond to the growing pressures of flexibility and quality as well as increase the levels of commitment from their teachers. The impact of (PDM) on school productivity is positive as it focuses on teachers; they are the closest to the source of the problems in the classroom. Participation in (PDM) from teachers can improve an administrators decision making processes by giving access to the important information that they see first hand in the classroom. It is also believed that teachers who help to make the decisions in a school are more than likely to have an increased willingness to implement these decisions in their classrooms. There are indirect benefits such as: teacher morale, job satisfaction and a reduction of conflict among teachers (Somech, 2010 p.179).

Principal O'Connor needs to change the divide that has emerged in the school. The new teachers have less respect for him and the old regime feels that the new teachers don't have a respect for the knowledge they possess. In utilizing (PDM) he can and will encourage teachers to find new opportunities and challenges. These will be found through sharing and combining the collective knowledge of the faculty. Creating a school in which teachers see their peers as mentors, team members and valuable resources will change the climate of the school. Teachers fitting in the model will bond and work harder to create innovations while those who do not will find another school to work within.

One of the main problems principal O'Conner's school is facing is the lack of a vision from all stakeholders of the school and community. There is a vision statement of the school, but this vision has not been modified in years. As schools change, so should the visions and missions of the school. The vision is the single most important aspect of change in a school. Without a vision, stakeholders to not have direction. Each year, it is important that visions be looked at, and revised if necessary. Even if visions do not need to be revised, teachers, staff, and community members of the school should always look at the mission statement to see whether these steps are the best way to conquer the vision.

According to Hill, "v ision is something that can guide us as individuals or as organizations to reach a point that we have given some thought to rather than simply arriving wherever we might end up. Vision has a lot to do with where you will be in two years, five years, or even at the end of your years. Having a vision and seeing that vision come into reality will also have a lot to do with how satisfied we are at the end of whatever time period we might choose to examine...

another characteristic of vision is that it can create a sense of anticipation that lets us experience a sense of fulfillment even before a goal is reached". Without a vision that all stakeholders agree upon, there is no direction and goal. Just as we post objectives and goals for the day with our students, schools must have visions and goals of where they would like to be that year as well. A mission statement should also be created with the staff of the school to help figure out the steps that are needed in order to reach the vision. The fact that the teachers and staff, including Mr. O'Conner, are very divided, and once they have put in place a common goal for the school, not only will they all be in the same place, but they will all have come up with it together as a group. This will bring the school closer, and will provide more comfort from all parties involved.

Kagan Cooperative Learning Program could lend a hand to the problem Hickory Ridge High School is having with test scores declining. This promising innovative program brings students together to work towards one goal of being academically successful. Teachers at Hickory Ridge High would attend trainings on how to implement the program by actively participating in the curriculum with the structures meant for students. Teachers actively learn how to execute structures by experiencing them firsthand. A structure is a step-by-step activity that is meant to increase student’s engagement and cooperation with each other. These activities allow the students to work together and collaborate in the learning process. When teachers are being trained on the program, the teachers of Hickory Ridge High will be asked to work together and to collaborate to complete the training. The teacher’s teams or cooperative groups will be determined by a Kagan structure, not by teachers choosing who to sit with. This allows teachers to get familiar with other staff members and to help gain mutual respect for each other. When working in an unfamiliar team, you are pushed to learn more about each other to successfully complete tasks and as an end result the faculty would be more united and understanding of each other’s talents and perspectives. Younger teachers at the high school could potentially learn something new as well as the more experienced teachers could have a new prospective brought to their attention that would help shape their teaching abilities.

One of Hickory Ridge High Schools main challenges is the division between the older and newer staff members. Principal O’ Conner needs to motivate and encourage his staff to work together toward one common vision statement. A school in the northeast that completed the Kagan Development Program successfully brought the staff together by using this modern program. The principal used structures with the faculty to build a sense of community and team within the school. (Bromley & Modlo, 2007) According to Bromley and Modlo, the principal and the other staff members who were trained to use structures, used them with the staff at monthly meetings, on conference days, with the Building Planning Team (a site-based decision-making group) and with other task forces within the school. The principal also offered to model cooperative learning structures in the classrooms of teachers who had not received the in-service training. If principal O’ Conner used these structures, he would then be looked at as an instructional leader supporting the teacher’s efforts to better meet the needs of the students. Once the principal took on this active role, he would establish a school climate that promoted experimentation and risk taking. (Bromley & Modlo, 2007)

One major component to Hickory Ridge High Schools reform stems from the continuous professional growth in leadership. Principal O’ Conner’s leadership style is having a huge impact on why the school is unable to grow and improve. According to McGregor’s Theory X approach, Principal O’ Conner currently falls into this category of an autocratic leadership style. The expectation of the district is to implement a new technology driven curriculum and to do so the principal will need to examine his Theory X assumptions and move more towards a democratic approach of leading his staff. According to Cunningham and Cordeiro, the Theory Y approach is collaborative and encourages team efforts to develop and express themselves to better the organization. Many of the staff members are young and motivated, so the transition from managing his staff to empowering his staff should help Principal O’ Conner shift his leadership style. Since the staff members would be given the opportunity to participate in the decision making process, the staff would feel more ownership and pride in the school. He also needs to recognize the staff member’s enthusiasm to collaborate which will lead to the teachers feeling more empowered and united. (Cunningham & Cordeiro, 2009)

In order for Principal O’ Conner to fully empower his staff members, he must give them the freedom to take risks and feel support from the administration, through walk-throughs and conferencing. Promoting collaboration throughout the school and within grade levels will create a better professional community and will result in teachers feeling motivated to create engaging, technological lessons. As the educators see their collaborations as a success, they will continue to work together towards achieving the goal of becoming a more effective school.

The fact that the younger generation of teachers and the older generation of teachers, including Principal O'Conner, are not willing to work together to create a positive change. The older generation seem to be 'stuck in their ways' and believe that their way is the right way, and is working just fine, while the younger generation seem to want to implement the new technology and strategies within the school to create the most 'up-to-date' changes within the school. It seems as though Principal O'Connor is not helping move the two divisions of people any closer together, hence, creating even more of a gap between the teachers. Collaboration is needed in order to create a vision and a change within a school, and it seems that this vision is not clear between all stakeholders, which is a major problem to face.

After further researching and thinking about the problem with this school at-hand, I discovered that we forgot to mention that the school is missing two very important things: a vision, in which all stakeholders agree upon, and a mission, in which all stakeholders can follow in order to reach the vision of the school. I found the following article, and am going to write about the research I have found regarding the need for vision and mission statements in a school, especially a school in which is going through reform.

Effective staff development contains three components crucial to success. Professional development must include supporting teacher growth, bridging the gaps, and giving teachers the tools to succeed. The new teachers and the veteran teacher need to see each other as allies and not enemies. They are all there for the greater purpose of educating children. These teachers bring a wealth of knowledge to the school and potentially to one another. Until Principal O’Connor fixes the broken and misguided relationships within the school walls he will not be able to retain the respect of the community. Hickory Ridge is in desperate need of bringing the staff together and working cohesively as a team.

Staff development with the focus on team building is a wonderful place to start. Kagan structures would be an excellent beginning. Kagan build teams using academic and non-academic themes. Adults want learning opportunities that are meaningful and practical to them, offer an immediate pay-off, involve reflection on their many experiences, and include social, active learning (Glathorn, 1990). A review of adult learning theories identified specific conditions that may promote learning in the workplace: (1) opportunities for individuals to work with and learn from others on an ongoing basis; (2) collaboration in group work and learning; (3) chances to work with and learn from others of similar position; and (4) variation, challenge, autonomy, and choice in work roles and tasks (Smylie, 1995). In contrast to these conditions, many professional development opportunities for teachers are mandatory, uniform for all teachers, ancillary to their daily work, and occur only periodically.

Most adult learning theories reflect a constructivist view of learning in which learners acquire new knowledge by constructing it for themselves (Smylie, 1995; Loucks-Horsley, Hewson, Love, & Stiles, 1998). Learning in a constructivist perspective is “understood as a self-regulating process of resolving inner cognitive conflicts that often become apparent through concrete experience, collaborative discourse, and reflection” (Brooks & Brooks, 1993, p. vii). Learning is not only a matter of transferring ideas from one that is knowledgeable to one who is not. Instead, learning is perceived as a personal, reflective, and transformative process where ideas, experiences, and points of view are integrated and knowledge is created. When a constructivist perspective is applied to teacher learning, a key focus becomes how teachers learn to make critically reflective judgments in the midst of action and how they subsequently change their actions in response to new insights (Zepeda, 1999).

The next step would be to develop a professional learning community. Learning communities become important ways of supporting individual construction of meaning and knowledge (Kinnucan-Welsch & Jenlink, 1998). A book club is a great good step to building relationship between the staff members. A recommended first book would be __Water the Bamboo__ by Greg Bell. This book can be an impetus of change for the mindset of the school; it provides self-reflection of values, vision, goals, managing change and relationships.

The concept of an "inquiry community" encompasses teacher research communities, teacher research groups, and critical friends groups. This conception of teacher community foregrounds the role of systemic inquiry conducted with the support of colleagues as a means of improving teaching and learning in schools.

Inquiry communities rely on teachers talking about their teaching and using other tools to investigate or reflect on it, as described below. The purpose of such inquiry is to spur changes in what teachers know and do. Cochran-Smith and Lytle (1992a) concluded that groups of teachers who engage in such activity critique common practice, expose and examine underlying assumptions, and find other ways to make the language and conceptions they use problematic.

Teacher research generally involves observations in classrooms or analysis of student work and teachers' own practices (Hubbard & Power, 1999). This work unfolds in groups that provide scaffolding and encouragement for the process of doing research and for more thoughtful teaching (Sagor, 1992). Such groups also create a venue in which teachers jointly engage in reading, writing, and discussion which enlarge their sense of the possible and desirable in their work (Fairbanks & LaGrone, 2006).

Action research would another option for this school to work with. Action research is the process of studying a real school problem with a focus on improving one's own teaching practice or enhancing the functioning of a school. Action research has been found to be "perhaps the most efficient and effective way to address the professional development of teachers" (Johnson, 2005, p. 44).

The teachers and staff at Hickory Ridge have a variety of expertise in their respective field; the veteran teachers know and understand the culture of the local community, the rookie teachers are entering Hickory Ridge with the most up to date knowledge on technology and best practices in education. If both groups of teachers can learn to work together rather than in spite of each other, Hickory Ridge will not only see an improvement in academics but also an improvement in the overall school community. The current reform plan for Hickory Ridge including the use of team building, Kagan exercises, and parental involvement has the potential to truly make an impact no only on student learning but also change the culture of the entire school community.

Productive approaches for assessing outcomes are becoming increasingly important; to begin with teachers and staff at Hickory Ridge must first evaluate their current teaching practices (Darling-Hammond, 2006).This can be accomplished in the form of a simple survey or an in-person interview; before the implementation of the school reform at Hickory Ridge Mr. O’Conner could ask his staff to rate their current level of expertise as well as their willingness to collaborate with other teachers both at their current grade level and within their school. After the team building, Kagan exercises, and staff development workshops Mr. O’Conner could have his staff complete the same survey or meet privately with each staff member to discuss any changes in their attitudes. The results of both the surveys and/or interviews could be analyzed to determine if the teachers and staff have changed their views in regards to working collaboratively with their colleagues.

Robert Marzano, the author of The Art and Science of Teaching explained that in order for students to be successful, they need a learning goal that they’re working towards, a scale to measure the goal, and a tool to track their progress (Marzano, 2007). The same theory and practice can be applied to the teachers and staff at Hickory Ridge, they have a learning goal (collaborative teamwork) that they are working towards. A scale/measuring tool needs to be developed in order for teachers and staff members to track their individual progress towards meeting their goal. Marzano suggest creating a rubric for each goal and using that rubric as a scale to measure progress over time. Once teachers know and understand what is expected they will be better able to accomplish their goals. Mr. O’Conner would be responsible for collecting the data from his staff and tracking the progress of the school as a whole.

As the superintendant of the Wingfield School District I would also perform several observations at Hickory Ridge both before the implementation of the school reform, during the school reform and again at the end of the school reform. I would keep track of the changes in the school community during each visit, paying special attention to the tone of the teachers as they work with each other. I would make sure to visit during staff meeting days as well as during team and leadership meetings. With the use of surveys, interviews, checklists, and teacher observations, the effectiveness of the school reform at Hickory Ridge can be measured accurately.