Chapter 2: Creating a Professional Learning System
How can we design our professional learning to inspire instructors to become curious about how students learn and to engage in ongoing instructional improvement and reflection?
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In this chapter:
A Vision of Ongoing Professional Learning: A Vignette
A Vision of Ongoing Professional Learning: A Vignette
An outdoor science school’s instructional staff is gathering at the end of a multiday student program. As they wander in with their backpacks of teaching gear, they’re casually debriefing their teaching experiences. They grab food and sit down in small groups, continuing their conversations. After a few minutes, a leader invites them to discuss the question of the week that was introduced on the first day of the program: What can you do to encourage more exploration and a culture of curiosity in your learning groups? Instructors share what worked, what didn’t, and come up with ideas they’d like to try with the next group of students. The leader moves on to a reflective routine. One instructor volunteers to begin. He shares a challenging teaching situation he encountered in which a critical instructional decision needed to be made. Then, small groups discuss ideas about what an instructor might do in that situation. Finally, the first instructor shares what he actually did to address the challenge. The staff speaks thoughtfully during the small-group discussions, following their Group Agreements that were posted on a wall at the beginning of the season. A lively whole-group discussion follows as they come up with interesting alternatives and perspectives for dealing with the dilemma. There is some disagreement, but the conversation is consistently respectful and productive.
Not long ago, this same staff was less collaborative. Instructors taught more independently, were more guarded when talking about their teaching, and were more invested in sharing how successful their teaching experiences were. Now, program leaders are delighted that staff are more open and candid about sharing their struggles and improving their teaching and that they regularly engage in thoughtful discussions about pedagogy, equity, and inclusion, even during off-hours. Visiting classroom teachers have noticed improvement in instruction and have reported that they feel they can learn teaching strategies from watching field instructors.
In the past, “staff training” was a week at the beginning of the season, consisting mostly of program logistics, local natural history, and modeling of some student activities. However, this season had a different feel. Thought-provoking, in-depth sessions on pedagogy inspired ongoing discussion among staff about their own teaching. Key student activities were modeled, but they were integrated within professional learning sessions as practical examples of how to apply new approaches to instruction. Instructors participated in discussions about how to cultivate a learning culture among their students and themselves. Instructors became more curious, vulnerable, and honest with one another about their areas of growth and strength as teachers, and this deepened their discussions. They talked about how to get students to talk more in discussions and about how their own unconscious bias might be getting in the way of student learning. At the end of that first week, each instructor created a professional growth plan, which they refer to throughout the season, particularly during coaching sessions with senior staff. Throughout the season, they experienced more PL sessions. These were led by organization leaders teamed with other instructors as part of a deliberate effort to feature the expertise of different staff and to welcome different voices in professional learning. Organization leaders now actively encourage instructors to try out new teaching approaches, discuss progress, and plan what to do next. The reflective discussions about teaching and learning include veteran and new instructors and program leaders. Staff are encouraged to share their lived experiences during professional learning. It’s commonly understood that everyone has room to grow as teachers and leaders.
Debriefing the Vignette
Debriefing the Vignette
This vignette offers a glimpse of what a reflective staff culture might look like.
Group agreements have been established as guideposts for all staff discussions, which helps ensure equitable and respectful participation.
Staff culture celebrates vulnerability, reflection, collaboration, and sharing.
Staff are encouraged to show curiosity in discussing such challenging topics as struggles in teaching and unconscious bias.
Instructors are encouraged to continuously learn and improve their teaching.
Instructors show curiosity about teaching and learning and engage in ongoing discussion on the topic.
Instructors have made individual professional growth plans, encouraging agency in their own improvement as instructors.
Professional learning (PL) sessions on pedagogy happen regularly.
Veteran and beginner instructors are learning together and from one another.
Different staff are encouraged to lead and participate in professional learning.
Staff are encouraged to share their lived experiences.
Group agreements.
A productive, collaborative, engaging learning culture—one in which participants actively share their ideas and think with one another—is key to improving the quality of instruction throughout an organization. Developing group agreements sets up a productive learning culture by making strategies for participation visible and accessible. Group agreements also support instructors to be aware of how their participation affects group dynamics, inviting them to co-create an equitable and inclusive culture of learning and growth.
This is a set of group agreements that we have used with both adults and students: listen actively and share ideas; share and ask for evidence; disagree productively to deepen understanding; take space, make space; keep an open, curious mind; and build on one another's ideas. Many teams adjust these or create their own group agreements. Following are some possible resources to help you lead this process:
Anti-Oppressive Facilitation for Democratic Process: Making Meetings Awesome for Everyone.
The Adaptive School: A Sourcebook for Developing Collaborative Groups, 3rd edition, by Garmston & Wellman.
Group Agreements for Workshops and Meetings from Seeds for Change.
Agreements vs norms. Some books, programs, and schools use the term discussion norms. We chose not to use the term norms because it can send a message that there is one “normal” or accepted way to participate in discussions. This can lead to a marginalization of students of color and other groups because the “normal culture” is typically white, if it is unspoken (Solomon, et al., 2005). Group agreements can shift the culture to be more inclusive, highlighting a range of ways of participating and acting that are acceptable and placing value on hearing and integrating different perspectives.
A professional learning system. A high-quality professional learning system offers instructors and organization leaders a steady diet of well-planned, structured, and casual adult learning experiences that help participants construct deeper understandings of pedagogy, equitable and inclusive teaching practices, and important science concepts and science practices. It involves developing a learning community within which instructors are open to being challenged and pushed to improve their teaching skills and the design of student experiences. A quality professional learning system also includes time for reflection and discussion, mentoring and coaching structures to support instructor growth, and a brave environment for instructors to share and struggle with teaching ideas and to try out new strategies. Instructors’ professional learning and growth takes place during formal professional learning experiences. If instructors are truly engaged in the topic, discussion about teaching and learning will be ongoing. A culture of learning and improvement will seep into all aspects of their work. Professional learning is a continuous and never-ending process because there is always something new to learn.
References.
The References section lists the primary resources that shape how we think about professional learning.
The role of professional learning. Research about how people learn and about how equitable teaching practices can influence learning should influence how we teach. The BEETLES design principles (described in the Introduction to this Guide) are grounded in this research. Instructors who join your team will bring with them a rich array of lived experiences and perspectives. Quality professional learning will tap into and give voice to their strengths, while cultivating an environment of growth and reflective practice. Instructors and organization leaders can bring relevant research-based understandings about teaching, learning, and equitable instruction to support, challenge, and expand discussions about different approaches. BEETLES PL sessions are designed to facilitate this process.
Integrating equity and inclusion into professional learning. In order for the outdoor science education field to support and retain professionals of color, organizations must create more equitable, welcoming, and inclusive work environments. Professionals of color in the field report feeling like outsiders within the existing predominantly white culture (Romero et al., 2019). Using BEETLES professional learning materials and resources can support organizations to build a reflective, brave workplace in which topics about equity and justice and how to address them within instruction and within the work environment can be explicitly discussed. BEETLES PL sessions support education staff to engage in authentic dialogue about their approach to teaching and learning, their prior knowledge, their lived experiences, and how to make learning experiences more equitable and inclusive. These kinds of conversations play an often overlooked and underused role in building an inclusive work environment and in supporting staff to feel seen, valued, heard, and included. BEETLES professional learning can also facilitate shared learning among all staff, decentering expertise from the person in a position of authority and recognizing the valuable expertise and experience of all staff.
“I feel like, for me, I’ve only been doing environmental education for two years and I’m over it, I don’t want to do it anymore... I feel like my job would have been ideal if I didn’t feel so marginalized in the space. I feel like I have two jobs: I feel like I have to go do my job and also exist in a really really white space…”
–Instructor of Color focus-group participant.
(Romero et al., 2019)
Ongoing opportunities for professional learning are key for staff to feel valued as employees and to have access to resources to support their career advancement. Professionals of color, in particular, have reported feeling like there is a lack of opportunities and resources for career advancement (Romero et al., 2019). Using BEETLES implementation support tools—including coaching tools, guides for using videos for professional learning, and the What Would You Do? routine described in the vignette—can help ensure that professional learning is an ongoing process and help establish a foundation for reflection and growth among staff. PL sessions that increase knowledge of pedagogy help instructors make more informed instructional decisions and make learning experiences more consistent and equitable across a program.
Meeting new hires where they are.
As you hire new staff, some will have experience with learner-centered, equitable approaches that are based on what we know about how people learn, while others may have less experience with this kind of instruction and may need more support to shift away from less learner-centered equitable approaches they may have experienced themselves as learners.
“Teachers have grown up in the schools and the society we have, not the ones we want. They have had a powerful ‘apprenticeship’ of observation and experience” (Lortie, 1975).
“Teaching is structurally conservative. People choose to become teachers who were successful in these schools. They often take ‘the way things are’ for granted... what it means to do science, views of who is smart and who struggles to learn, who are troublemakers, how learning happens, what teachers should do and say” (Ball, 2021).
Four Elements of Effective Professional Learning
Four Elements of Effective Professional Learning
This section showcases four important elements of effective professional learning for organization leaders to consider:
Setting professional learning goals.
Choosing and sequencing professional learning experiences.
Using student activities as professional learning.
Building a reflective learning culture.
Want to know more about student activities?
Don't worry, the entirety of Chapter 3 (Supporting High-Quality Learning Experiences) focuses on student learning experiences.
1. Setting Professional Learning Goals
1. Setting Professional Learning Goals
The goals you choose will influence your decisions as an organization leader, from how you plan and sequence professional learning experiences to how you design and adjust features of your organization. Table 1 shows examples of how particular professional learning goals might influence decisions you’ll make.
Goals for professional learning are influenced by specific needs of your organization and by characteristics of your instructors. An organization that mostly uses interns as instructors might have different goals than an organization with more experienced instructors and/or credentialed teachers. You might find that you need to think about long-term and short-term goals for your program and how they are connected. For instance, creating a new curriculum based on the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) may be a long-term goal that influences your approach to the short-term focus of your professional learning. Many organizations start with three goals that are appropriate for most outdoor science organizations: (1) supporting more learner-centered instructional practices, (2) offering more nature-centered experiences for learners, and (3) increasing equitable and inclusive learner experiences. These improvement goals are interrelated and interdependent. Although BEETLES resources can be used flexibly to support a variety of goals, all our resources deliberately address and support equity, and learner-centered and nature-centered teaching and learning.
Learner-centered and nature-centered approaches.
Using learner-centered and nature-centered learning approaches is one piece of the work we can do to create equitable, inclusive, and culturally relevant learning experiences. When learners engage directly with nature, they all have access to learning, regardless of their prior knowledge or experiences. Through learner-centered discussion, learners make connections to their prior knowledge, share their lived experiences, listen to different perspectives, and have time to process the material. Productive discussions, when many voices are heard and the group builds off one another’s ideas, create experiences in which learners see themselves and one another as sources of expertise. This ensures that instructors don’t position themselves as the only source of accurate or important information. Participating in discussions supports learners to develop the ability to take on more advanced learning tasks. Discussions make learners’ thinking and ideas visible to the instructor. When instructors value, appreciate, better understand, and connect to learners’ lived experiences, they are able to create a more inclusive and culturally relevant learning space. Finally, multiple opportunities for discussion offer time and space for neurodiversity–allowing students to process information in different ways.
Using BEETLES professional learning (PL) sessions. All BEETLES professional learning resources focus on improving organization leaders’ capacity to support their instructors in becoming the best they can be. They are meant to be used by organization leaders to develop a community of learners among their staff and to offer a structure for reflection and growth to continually improve instruction and other organization elements. BEETLES PL sessions are based on best practices in professional learning and have been tested by leaders of dozens of programs with their instructors. Each PL session is based on the Learning Cycle and is designed to be an experience that inspires instructors to thoughtfully examine and make shifts in an aspect of their teaching.
Structure of sessions.
Each session is structured by phases of the Learning Cycle: Invitation: participants access their prior knowledge about the pedagogical topic and become interested in it; Exploration: participants engage in the topic, usually by experiencing an outdoor student activity that models the featured pedagogical topic in practice; Concept Invention: participants discuss teaching strategies used in the activity, linking theory with practical teaching approaches, as they make sense of the ideas they’ve been exploring; Application: participants consider how they might apply these ideas to their own teaching; and Reflection: participants reflect on what they learned and how they learned it. This sequence is based on research on learning and effective teaching practices.
2. Choosing and Sequencing Professional Learning Experiences
2. Choosing and Sequencing Professional Learning Experiences
BEETLES PL sessions can be successfully sequenced in a variety of ways. The sessions you choose and when you choose to do them will depend on your program’s specific goals, needs, and context. Table 2: BEETLES Professional Learning (PL) Sessions At a Glance offers an overview of all the PL sessions, along with comments about their use. There are also some common tried-and-true sequencing approaches that have proven successful for many organizations that are described in the "Common approaches to sequencing PL sessions" section (after Table 2, see below).
Design process and partners.
Find out more about our extensive design process and numerous partners across the country and globe!
Questions to help decide on sessions and the sequence for your program:
What do you see as current strengths and weaknesses of instruction in your program? Which PL sessions might help address weaknesses?
What are your professional learning goals? What do you want to accomplish?
What are teaching approaches and strategies you want instructors to consider when teaching and building programs?
What do your instructors currently think successful teaching and learning look like? Does their understanding match your program's goals? If not, what sessions might help shift their understanding?
If you don’t have support for making significant programmatic and instructional changes, which sessions should you present and what kind of tone should you use to minimize their resistance?
Which PL sessions do you think will be most relevant to your site and instructors?
What are the areas of expertise of staff members who will be presenting PL sessions? Which sessions do you think they could best lead?
Which sessions are most likely to work well to start out with, get instructors interested in shifting their instruction, and are least likely to cause resistance?
Choosing and sequencing PL sessions.
How to choose and sequence PL sessions is one of our most common frequently asked questions. Read this section carefully and think through the questions offered to figure out the best approach for your program.
BEETLES Professional Learning (PL) Sessions At a Glance. Table 2: BEETLES Professional Learning (PL) Sessions At a Glance offers information about each of the PL sessions available from the BEETLES website. The symbol (=) indicates those sessions that have been most recently revised to better support more equitable, inclusive, and culturally relevant teaching practices.
Equity and inclusion.
Although equity and inclusion have been important values for BEETLES since its inception, over the years we’ve learned that there were many aspects of equity and justice that we hadn't considered. In 2018, we began rewriting some PL sessions (and other resources) that reflect what we have learned through working closely with Justice Outside, a local organization with a national reputation for dismantling systemic racism within the field of outdoor education; José González, founder of Latino Outdoors; and Annie Sorrell from the Center for Native Peoples and the Environment (the center founded and directed by Robin Wall Kimmerer) at the State University of New York, College of Environmental Science and Forestry. This has meant: specifically calling out how BEETLES student activities and teaching practices support equitable, inclusive, and culturally responsive experiences for learners; featuring more quotes and perspectives of women and People of Color; replacing language that supported racist and ableist ideas; removing “deficit-based” language that implies that learners don’t already have tools or strategies for learning and adding language that references building on learners’ existing skills and assets; shifting from “Tell/Explain” to “invite/share/offer” to honor the expertise and experience participants already have; and adding language that acknowledges the existence and value of Traditional Ecological Knowledge as a way of knowing and understanding nature. For more information, see our blog: Partnering to Develop Equitable, Inclusive, and Culturally Relevant Student Activities. This is ongoing work, and we continue to have much to learn. We are committed to growing our understanding, reflecting, and adjusting our behavior and practices accordingly.
Non-BEETLES activities.
The model activities To Each Its Own; Plant Timeline; Mapping; Comparison; Zoom In, Zoom Out; and Species Account come from How to Teach Nature Journaling by John Muir Laws and Emilie Lygren.
Moon Balls.
This is the only indoor student activity in a BEETLES PL session. We feel strongly that student experiences at outdoor science schools should be outdoors whenever possible! However, we’ve found that this activity is such a powerful adult learning experience, that it's worth the trade-off. It can also be used with students for "rainy day" night programs.
Common approaches to sequencing PL sessions. Following are three approaches for sequencing BEETLES PL sessions. The first is the one we most commonly recommend, but all have been used successfully by different programs:
Practical Strategies → Teaching Theory → Science Pedagogy → Science Content. This sequencing approach, the most commonly used by far, starts out with sessions that feel more practical and less theoretical. During the initial PL sessions, instructors mostly experience practical teaching strategies (Practical Strategies). The strategies are fairly straightforward to use with students and often quickly influence instructional practice. Offering sessions focused on practical strategies early in implementation of BEETLES tends to stir up excitement about trying new approaches and openness to learning more. Organization leaders experienced in facilitating BEETLES PL sessions have found that starting out with a session that’s focused on theory can sometimes cause more resistance, especially with instructors who may be less accustomed to having academic peer discussions as part of their job. Many instructors tend to be more open to and curious about theory after they’ve had success with practical strategies. These early sessions can help build a sound foundation for nature-centered and learner-centered teaching. All BEETLES PL sessions include both theory and practice, but Making Observations, Field Journaling with Students, and Questioning Strategies are lighter on theory and heavier on practice and are great to begin with. Once instructors have some successful strategies under their teaching belts, they’re often ready to dive deeper into more theoretical sessions (accompanied by more strategies) such as Teaching and Learning, Promoting Discussion, Constructing Understanding, and Assessing for Learning (Teaching Theory). These sessions offer instructors opportunities to think more deeply about instruction, and the sessions may need more intentional effort for instructors to apply the ideas to practice. These sessions that are focused more on theory could be presented during a break in the middle of the season. Once instructors have some practice thinking about teaching theory and incorporating new research-based teaching methods into their own teaching, you could also offer PL sessions designed to deepen instructors’ knowledge of how to teach science practices (Evidence and Explanations, Nature and Practices of Science) (Science Pedagogy). You might also offer PL sessions designed to deepen instructors’ knowledge of science content (Adaptation and Evolution, Matter and Energy in Ecosystems) (Science Content). These sessions can also help bridge conversations between staff with varying amounts of science background and can inspire staff to learn more science!
Practical → Theoretical → Repeat Approach. Some organization leaders have found it effective to alternate between sessions more focused on practical strategies followed by those more focused on teaching theory. For instance: (1) more practical strategies: Making Observations, (2) more theoretical: Teaching and Learning, (3) more practical strategies: Questioning Strategies, 4) more theoretical: Constructing Understanding.
Time needed to present.
We asked Sean Hill of Sierra Nevada Journeys in Portola, California, how much time it took to present the Teaching and Learning session, and he said that it took him 8 hours. We asked what took so long, and he said that because he saw applying the Learning Cycle as the linchpin of revamping their entire curriculum, he decided it was worth spending the whole day on it. After a thorough presentation of the session with lots of discussion, they spent the rest of the day applying the learning cycle to their curriculum as the discussion continued. This process continued throughout their season.
Example Deep-Dive Approach. Some organization leaders have chosen to spend a substantial part of their professional learning time immersing staff in the teaching approaches from one or two BEETLES PL sessions; they fully explore a specific topic or instructional goal. If curriculum revision is a priority, it’s useful to spend a significant amount of time exploring the Teaching and Learning session and using the Learning Cycle as a planning tool to think critically about how to make improvements to existing curriculum. Feedback from our field-test sites indicates that the guiding questions included in each BEETLES PL session are rich, complex, and nuanced enough to offer recurring touchstones for a year of professional learning on a topic. Each PL session includes optional extension activities that leaders have used to create an ongoing process of reflection on a topic. Programs with veteran staff can benefit from a deep-dive approach, as it can inspire instructors to move out of their comfort zones and think intensively about a particular aspect of their teaching.
Supporting instructor learning.
More information on supporting instructor’s learning beyond the PL sessions is described in the final section of this chapter titled “Building a Reflective Learning Culture”.
More lessons learned about sequencing:
Planning for follow-up. Planning the follow-up support and feedback you will offer to instructors is just as important as planning for the sequence of BEETLES PL sessions themselves. It takes time and consistent feedback to thoughtfully integrate theory into practice. It’s useful to think about how to build upon and reinforce instructors’ learning after each session is presented. Every BEETLES PL session has a section titled “Applying Session to Instruction” that offers a variety of specific strategies and suggestions for following up with participants after that session.
Establishing a Rhythm. Each PL session is designed to inspire instructors to incorporate new ideas and teaching strategies into their instruction. The application of what they’ve learned to their teaching practice is the most challenging and important part of the learning. Many leaders have recommended that the PL sessions should be introduced and spread out over several weeks or months (instead of presenting several in a week or two) with opportunities for staff to try out things and reflect on them between sessions. Although not always possible, this allows instructors to experience applying each teaching approach before being introduced to the next one. Typically, when instructors have more time between PL sessions to practice and discuss what they‘ve learned, they feel less overwhelmed and are more successful in shifting their teaching practices.
How Have Program Leaders Decided on a Professional Learning Sequence?
We asked program leaders using BEETLES PL sessions what they considered when deciding on a PL sequence for their staff. Here are some of their responses:
“We felt that Making Observations was so central to what we do with our program that we wanted to do it right away.”
“Logically, we wanted to give participants a context for the program and how to implement it with the Constructing Understanding session. Then, we wanted the most practical uses of BEETLES for our staff, so we jumped right into Questioning Strategies. After that, it seemed the most logical to further those ideas with Promoting Discussion.”
“I thought about which one would be best for catching attention and creating buy-in from educators. I then thought of the best progression for understanding how we learn, how to make observations, how to look for/use evidence and encourage science-speak, reflect on our learning, and then how to put it all together with investigations.”
“Our perception of what staff needed. "Making Observations" was first as we thought it was really strong and wanted a sure ‘win’ on the first training.”
“Some of the graduate students starting in the fall had very little teaching experience, and we wanted to start with Making Observations and Questioning Strategies because we felt like they were foundational to the other learning sessions. We also felt that these were skills that were important for their own practice, and it was good to get them practicing and in the habit of making observations and questioning in their own learning.”
Additional considerations for using BEETLES professional learning (PL) sessions:
Introduce BEETLES to your staff. Before you start using BEETLES PL sessions, it’s worth taking time to think about how you’ll introduce the BEETLES project to your entire staff (not just instructors). BEETLES field testers reported that the way they introduced BEETLES had a surprisingly long-term influence on staff receptiveness. Some programs played up BEETLES as an exciting new set of resources and focused on getting instructors interested in contributing to making improvements in the program. Others alleviated staff worries about overwhelming changes by describing BEETLES as resources to support and improve what they were already doing well. A common strategy used to increase buy-in was tapping veteran opinion leaders on staff to lead the change by asking them to try out specific BEETLES activities to see how they work before introducing the PL sessions to all instructors. Your approach to describing the BEETLES materials will depend on your staff, your existing rapport, and your leadership style.
Set aside time to read and prepare for PL sessions. Read each PL session thoroughly before leading it with instructors. There are detailed preparation instructions in each PL session that are the result of widespread field testing with many organizations. Leaders reported that they spent a significant amount of time preparing for a PL session by reviewing the script, making notes, and referring to the background information provided for the presenter. All field-testers told us this was well worth the effort to increase their own expertise, to become familiar with the session content, and to avoid potential pitfalls.
Our sessions practice what we preach.
It’s common for instructors, especially novice instructors and especially in stressful situations, to fall back on teaching how they were taught. If you want them to teach with learner-centered strategies, then you should model those strategies when leading professional learning. Plus, it's just more effective.
Ask an instructor to help present the PL sessions. Since many organization leaders don’t have direct responsibility for teaching students, they often ask a lead instructor to present the student activity in each session. Almost all the PL sessions incorporate one or more BEETLES student activities that are examples of how to apply pedagogical ideas to teaching practice. Programs using BEETLES have found that it helps to have a respected instructor lead the activity with students before presenting the session, so they have firsthand experiences to share when presenting the activity to instructors during the PL session. This takes some preparation burden off the main presenter and shows confidence in your best instructors. When you help establish one or more staff as a BEETLES activity “expert,” your staff can approach them for advice when they are trying out activities.
“Part of a strong implementation should include building capabilities in staff to keep up BEETLES if one or two leaders leave. Plan for your eventual departure—cause it happens.”
–Corky McReynolds, retired program leader
Staff need to struggle with new ideas. The PL sessions offer field instructors opportunities to actively struggle with new ideas and approaches, which is critical to meaningful learning. Expect and welcome their efforts to make sense of the experiences, which may include some disagreement, even heated discussion, and challenge you and other leaders with tough questions about the process. Learners need this active process for deep learning, and it shows up differently in different types of learners. Sometimes, those who are the most verbal and open in their skepticism at first, end up being the most thoughtful implementers of new approaches.
Don’t shortcut the struggle in PL sessions! Meaningful learning takes time. Organization leaders who tried shortcutting the learning by skipping parts of sessions reported that they would not repeat that mistake again. The same was true for those who chose to convert parts of a PL session into a lecture in place of experience and facilitated interaction. Taking enough time for extended discussions and experiential learning is more effective than reading about a topic or listening to someone talk about it, and it will save you time in the long run. Successful organizations reported that discussion and struggle often continue well after the PL session is over, as instructors begin trying out new strategies. One organization got feedback from some staff that they wanted the sessions to move faster because they thought they understood the points quickly and didn’t need a full session on the topic. This organization also found that those same instructors were those who struggled the most with implementing ideas from the session into their instruction. If you are having trouble fitting a PL session into your time slots, consider splitting it into two shorter sessions. Each session offers suggestions about logical ways to split the session.
Length of sessions.
Each session takes about three hours to present. To some folks, that initially seems like a lot of time. Heck, you could take the content from a session and simply tell it to your staff in a fraction of that time. But if you want your staff to have meaningful shifts in the way they look at and practice instruction, that takes time. Each session is an experience staff move through that's designed to inspire instructors to think about some aspect of science education in a different way. Our field testers consistently reported that when they have shortcutted sessions, effectiveness decreased.
Tale from the Field: Focusing on the Long Term: How We Overcame Resistance
From Heather MacDougall, Director of Santa Cruz Outdoor Science School, Watsonville, California.
When we first started implementing BEETLES we met some resistance, but we’ve since made a big leap away from that. Here’s how:
We’ve changed the way we do job Interviews. We talk about how we’ve adopted a new curriculum: BEETLES. We let potential employees know right away that we’re going to expect them to be able to change their teaching style, and they need to be OK with that. We look for familiarity with BEETLES/student-centered teaching. We’ve also changed our interview questions: We ask, “Tell us how you would teach about decomposition or adaptation.” One of the things we’re looking for is whether or not they include a discussion on the topic. We also have them teach a lesson. We ask, “Are you open to learning new teaching styles and philosophies?” They always say, “Yes,” but it’s interesting what they add to that. We have about a two-year turnover on teaching staff, which allows us to grow and change our culture relatively quickly.
We’ve empowered our lead field instructor to have a pivotal role. Our lead field instructor has been a huge asset. They have some authority but are also teaching all the time. We’ve found that the lead field instructor needs to have 100% buy-in, because they need to be able to cheerlead. Since they also teach in the program, other instructors can more easily connect with them as a more experienced person doing the same work. They also see what’s going on out there more than a director does, so I trust them to make the call—what does the staff need now to keep growing? They can also share their own successes/struggles/reflections about teaching with staff and to set that as a norm and to help define the culture as self-reflective.
It takes a lot of work. It’s not easy. People will revert back, until you reach the tipping point when this way of teaching has become your program’s culture. We would focus on a student activity at the beginning of each week and let folks know that they all needed to teach it at some point during the week. At the end of the week, we’d talk about successes and challenges. This creates an “everybody’s doing it, so I better do it so I have something to share” feeling.
Through these and other discussions, I can get an idea of who’s doing it and who’s not. It’s where individuals’ relationship to BEETLES/teaching becomes apparent, and where their fears or challenges come out. Obstacles that get in the way of doing it, such as fears or if their value as a teacher feels threatened, come forward, sometimes because they say it, and sometimes you just notice it. Those issues we address individually. One instructor came to us from a very science=facts program. We had to have a lot of conversations about things like, “You don’t need to tell them all this information they can easily get online.”
The book Switch has been helpful to me. In it, the authors (Chip Heath and Dan Heath) describe how human decision-making is like a tiny rider on a huge elephant. The rider is logical thought that thinks it’s in charge. The elephant is emotion, and it always wins. They suggest that for change to take place, you need to direct the rider, motivate the elephant, and shape the path. An effective way to direct the rider is by focusing on what is working well and expanding on it. An experience or a story often is effective to motivate the elephant. Then you shape the path by making change “easy,” removing as many obstacles as you can. One of the ways we’ve done that has been by providing plenty of staff reflection and planning time, and it’s within the work day, not on instructors’ own time. They are given planning time every day. I think resistance comes from people’s emotions, not their rational thoughts, and I try to appeal to their emotional experiences by supporting them as they develop new teaching styles.
Top-down and peer-to-peer. Without some top-down directives to change, I don’t think changes would’ve happened, but the peer-to-peer influence is more powerful, and that’s part of why our lead instructor is so influential. That’s why I’ve given them a lot of power to do whatever they think is right to implement. One programmatic feature that helped inspire more peer-to-peer influence has been increased opportunities for peer observations. One week we didn’t have many students, so we had “peer observation week.” All instructors were paired up, and each pair took turns teaching or observing each other, using reflective teaching tools. That way, everyone got experience following/giving coaching/being coached. The staff learned from this, appreciated it, and wanted to do it again. A takeaway has been that they really appreciate peer review. Now, whenever we have a staff member who is not teaching during a program, they use reflective-observation tools and observe different staff each day.
Tale from the Field: Creating a Culture of Openness
From Drew Dumsch, Executive Director at The Ecology School, Saco, Maine.
I’ve heard from other program leaders about some of the resistance they encountered when introducing BEETLES to their staff, but when we introduced it to our staff, we didn’t encounter any resistance at all. I think that’s because we already had a deliberate culture of change and innovation in place. We hire with that expectation, and we train for it too. We inculcate the perspective that there are always new ideas around the corner that can improve what we do. I used to work at a program where it was more like, “This is what we do,” and I couldn’t stand it. We have a culture of openness, so when BEETLES came along, our staff were eager and excited to learn about it.
Differentiating professional learning for instructors with mixed experience levels. Outdoor organization leaders implementing BEETLES agree that each PL session offers opportunities for instructors’ with all levels of teaching experience to grow. But reaching veteran instructors can sometimes present a challenge because they might already feel confident teaching students and may not recognize that new skills and approaches could allow them to grow to be even more successful.
Strategies for working with experienced teaching staff:
Mix up the members of small groups during PL sessions so each small group includes a combination of less experienced and more experienced instructors.They’ll benefit from one anothers’ perspectives as they engage in discussions together. This helps distribute expertise among your instructors. Before you begin a session, invite veteran staff to be positive role models and mentors for less experienced staff. There are also advantages to sometimes creating space for more experienced instructors to group together and talk among themselves.
Don’t be too worried about having experienced instructors participate in a PL session more than once. These sessions are rich enough and the discussions are wide-ranging enough that instructors continue to learn, especially if you frame it in a way that encourages them to approach each learning opportunity with an open mind and a focus on learning and professional growth.
Introduce a PL session topic as a “challenge of practice” that all instructors can work on together. Veteran instructors can be put off by introducing a PL session as a new and better way to teach, which they may interpret as implying that what they’ve done before was somehow wrong. It may be less jarring to introduce the materials as useful tools for thinking about and making overall improvements to instruction in your organization. Encourage your staff to keep an open mind, to be reflective about their teaching, and to focus on continuing to learn. This will help out with the acceptance and adoption of innovations you introduce.
Choose experienced and respected staff to present the model student activities in each PL session so they’re helping take the lead in advocating for specific teaching approaches. Some veteran staff might be ready for additional leadership roles during a session, such as leading a whole-group discussion or a section of a session. Some organization leaders gradually handed off PL session-leading responsibilities to specific instructors.
Using slides. Leaders have had different responses to using the slides in BEETLES PL sessions. Many instructors say the slides help them learn and track information as it’s introduced during a session. Some staff, however, may be used to professional learning that is mostly simple, fun activities that are modeled, and they may resist using slides they might see as more academic and “classroomy.” Most slides are designed to support participants by reiterating key points or offering ideas and quotes that inspire thinking. Showing a slide usually eliminates the need to read information out loud to the group. Other slides are designed to show and keep track of the outline for the session or to provide group instructions. If your staff is unaccustomed to using slides during professional learning, then you can fairly easily alter the format to suit their needs. Some leaders have opted to present entire sessions outdoors, using printed copies of slides or whiteboards to record instructions and other important information during the session.
Taking the long view. Keeping in mind the long-term learning trajectory for your staff can ensure that instructors have the best chance to develop, practice, and improve their teaching. While you may be very excited to use BEETLES approaches, jumping in too fast or without enough framing might inspire resistance to new ideas. Your excitement for these approaches probably came about through some kind of learning journey. Let staff have time for their own journey, and they’ll be more likely to share your enthusiasm. Field instructors often get a lot of positive feedback for doing what they do, which can make it difficult to take a risk and try out approaches and strategies that might not work perfectly the first time. The belief that you are an amazing instructor can get in your way of improving. In order to improve at teaching, an instructor needs to first recognize that there’s room for improvement. Knowing that you can and need to improve at teaching is referred to as pedagogical discontentment. After a BEETLES learning experience, we hope instructors are excited to try out ideas that are new to them and that they are eager for improvement. Thoughtful framing, planning, and gradual implementation can make this more likely. You’ll need to discuss with your staff how these PL sessions can help them meet their goals for students and for their own teaching and how they can help improve the program overall. These conversations are the first steps in creating a reflective learning culture.
Pedagogical discontentment.
Pedagogical discontentment is a state of cognitive conflict when an instructor recognizes a mismatch between their science teaching pedagogical goals and their teaching practices. One potential result of this mismatch is that an instructor recognizes shortcomings in their teaching practices, which can lead to an increased openness to new ideas (Southerland et al., 2010).
Planning for possible challenges with leading PL sessions
What are some challenges you anticipate related to the PL sessions? How do you think your staff will respond?
How receptive do you think your staff will be to discussing pedagogical theory? How might you prepare them to be receptive? Does your staff see their job more as recreation leaders or as outdoor science instructors?
What will you do if your staff gets fired up about a topic and wants to talk about it for longer than the time allotted?
What can you do to help your staff implement the instructional practices? How will you know if your staff is incorporating what they learn into their practice?
3. Using BEETLES Student Activities as Professional Learning
3. Using BEETLES Student Activities as Professional Learning
BEETLES student activities can be used to create professional learning experiences for staff. The two primary methods of using student activities as professional learning are described below.
For more support and guidance on this topic, see the “Introducing Instructors to BEETLES Student Activities” section in Chapter 3.
Modeling student activities. Some organizations have introduced BEETLES student activities to instructors before presenting the PL sessions. This allows instructors who are new to this type of instruction to get a feel for it. Leaders using this “try it out first” approach recognized that it was important to encourage instructors to lead the activities as written, since instructors not familiar with the pedagogy may be tempted to skip steps of the Learning Cycle or to change broad questions into narrow questions without a thorough understanding of the underlying principles behind the teaching approach. After instructors had some experience leading model activities with learners in the field, they were curious and were anticipating the PL sessions, and they had instructional experiences to draw upon when participating in the session.
Using BEETLES professional learning sessions.
A few organizations have chosen to not use BEETLES PL sessions and to only use BEETLES student activities. While this might work as a way to start implementing BEETLES, there are some issues that arose. Instructors, including inexperienced instructors, often want to make student activities “their own” and make adjustments based on the needs of their students. Without an understanding of the pedagogy behind an activity, an instructor may unknowingly cut out important stages of learning, turn broad questions into narrow questions, and otherwise lessen the quality and effectiveness of the experience. Each BEETLES student activity has been written to be educative for instructors and includes explanations of pedagogy, but it’s difficult to learn this stuff just from reading it. Instructors have to go through their own learning experience to have their own “aha” moments about instruction, which is what the PL sessions offer.
Applying learnings to instruction. It’s crucial for instructors to apply new ideas to their own teaching soon after a PL session. It’s also important for the curriculum you’re using to be aligned with and supportive of the pedagogy you’re encouraging. Instructors, like any professionals, need the right tool for the right job. The more your organization’s written curriculum is in alignment with how you want your staff to be teaching, the more likely they are to make the instructional shifts you’re aiming for.
Staff turnover.
A common challenge among outdoor science education is staff turnover. A positive spin on staff turnover is that taking part in a reflective teaching culture while putting in a lot of time teaching learners can help instructors develop strong teaching perspectives and skills. Because many instructors in outdoor science education go on to work as educators in other contexts, investing in their professional learning is a way of improving education throughout our varied and interconnected education systems.
4. Building a Reflective Learning Culture
4. Building a Reflective Learning Culture
Supporting instructors to be reflective educators. An outdoor science organization can be an amazing laboratory for developing the “art of instruction” in which instructors push themselves and one another in positive ways, focus on developing teaching skills, consistently try out new student activities, and continually reflect on teaching and learning. In this kind of setting, becoming a good instructor involves more than just learning to consistently present activities and information in an entertaining way. When a teaching staff has a healthy reflective learning culture in place, you can feel it. It’s exciting and stimulating to be part of a community trying out new approaches and discussing successes and challenges with peers. Program leaders who support this kind of reflective culture can help new field instructors develop into thoughtful educators who go on to have rewarding careers in science education and beyond and who continue to impact the world in meaningful ways.
Signs that a healthy reflective learning culture is taking root:
Staff are discussing ideas and strategies for instruction on their own because they’re excited and interested in their learners and how to best reach them.
Staff have positive inside jokes related to earlier professional learning experiences or are applying ideas (i.e., constantly asking one another to name their source or cite their evidence for an explanation, using discussion strategies with one another during staff discussions).
Instructors regularly ask one another for advice and share stories.
Staff critically think about existing programming.
Staff question traditional practices/curriculum/programming choices.
(Brookfield, 1995; Loughran, 2002).
Establishing a reflective learning culture can be a foundation for growth and change within your organization. Research on teacher learning argues strongly for including reflective practice for both new and veteran teachers. Instructors who actively think about the effectiveness of their teaching—discuss these issues with colleagues and develop habits to improve—will make more progress.
Working toward a common goal. Establishing an identity as a reflective learning culture or a professional learning community can encourage instructors to adopt new approaches to teaching and learning. The central idea is that every member of the community is working toward a common goal of improving teaching in ways that improve learning for your intended audiences—and there is a regular structure in place to help everyone work together. Creating a vibrant reflective learning culture includes actively cultivating openness and growth among staff. Explicit goals for instructors to continually explore different strategies to improve instruction will support this culture. Two examples of goals are creating the best possible learning experiences for our students and trying to always learn and grow as educators. Staff also need meeting time to share examples of student work or to debrief how a new activity went in order to learn from one another. Reflective learning cultures use specific discussion protocols that structure conversations between leaders and instructors. When all staff are focused on achieving common goals and when organization leaders are focused on offering support to instructors through coaching and mentoring, a learning community can form, leading to improved performance and increased job satisfaction (Hord, 1997).
Professional learning community (PLC).
A PLC is created when educators engage in sustained discussions and activities together to learn about teaching and learning in order to be more successful at facilitating learning. Key components of PLCs are sharing teaching experiences with colleagues, discussing evidence of student learning, and creatively acting on suggestions for improvement.
Cochran-Smith, M., & Lytle, S. L. (1999). Chapter 8: Relationships of knowledge and practice: Teacher learning in communities. Review of Research in Education, 24(1), 249–305.
Donohoo, J., Hattie, J., & Eells, R. (2018). The power of collective efficacy. Educational Leadership, 75(6), 40-44.
DuFour, R., & Eaker, R. (1998). Professional learning communities at work: Best practices for enhancing student achievement. Bloomington, IN: Solution Tree Press.
Goddard, Y., & Kim, M. (2018). Examining connections between teacher perceptions of collaboration, differentiated instruction, and teacher efficacy. Teachers College Record, 120(1), 1-24.
Hord, S. M., Abrego, J., Moller, G., Olivier, D. F., Pankake, A. M., & Roundtree, L. (2010). Demystifying professional learning communities: School leadership at its best. R&L Education.
Hord, S. M. (1997). Professional learning communities: Communities of continuous inquiry and improvement. Austin, TX: Southwest Educational Development Laboratory.
Servage, L. (2008). Critical and transformative practices in professional learning communities. Teacher education quarterly, 35(1), 63-77.
Stoll, L., Bolam, R., McMahon, A., Wallace, M., & Thomas, S. (2006). Professional learning communities: A review of the literature. Journal of Educational Change, 7(4), 221–258.
Encouraging a growth mindset among instructors. An essential characteristic of a reflective learning culture is that members adopt a growth mindset. This means they understand that the abilities of individual learners (their students and themselves) can change and are not fixed or primarily due to innate talent. For example, an instructor who tries leading a discussion, and it doesn’t go well, might then decide not to try leading discussions again because they’re “not good at it” or because they are convinced their students can’t do it. An instructor with a growth mindset is more likely to think about what didn’t work, look into the sorts of instructor and student abilities they can develop to overcome that issue the next time, and then try again (and again, and again…). When instructors and organization leaders truly believe teaching abilities can grow (and that we all have room to grow!), they’re more willing to make adjustments to their instructional practices and try out new strategies and approaches. Organization leaders who nurture a growth mindset create an environment of receptivity that helps instructors build and improve their teaching skills.
Growth mindset.
Growth mindset emerged from the work of Carol Dweck, a Stanford researcher. Her TED talk offers a great introduction on the topic, and her book, Mindset, dives into more details.
Video Discussion Guides. BEETLES has eight student activity videos and six discussion strategy videos that can be used to encourage reflective teaching practices. These can all be used as standalone sessions but work well as a series over time to help establish a culture of reflective learning and a practice of ongoing discussion about teaching and learning among instructors. These videos can be interspersed with PL sessions; videos that relate to topics and/or activities addressed in the PL sessions can be chosen. PL sessions offer experiences that introduce instructors to pedagogical ideas along with strategies to implement them. Video Discussion Guides complement PL sessions and are much simpler to prepare and lead, since the leader isn’t in charge of directly introducing content to staff. With Student Activity Video Discussion Guides, instructors watch the video of an activity, discuss instructional moves, and read the write-up to prepare to lead it with students. These student activity videos don’t introduce pedagogy. Discussion Strategy Video Guides use videos to introduce information about different aspects of leading discussions, and then the group discusses these ideas. Watching and discussing these videos as a community can help instructors focus on teaching approaches to support them in leading learner-centered and nature-centered outdoor science activities. Afterward, every instructor can try out the student activity during a set time period (no longer than a week or two), with the expectation that they will meet with fellow instructors to discuss how it went. This process can inspire continued interest, discussion, learning, and improvement in instruction. As instructors plan and set goals for leading the activity, teach students, collect data on how it went (such as observations), debrief their experience, and then make adjustments for next time, they engage in iterative cycles of reflection and discussion about their successes and challenges. This shared reflective practice helps all instructors to plan for facilitating activities and make effective decisions while teaching students.
Curiosity about natural history.
Your staff culture should also encourage ongoing curiosity about natural history. Although some instructors come to the field with an existing interest and background in natural history, some don't and may need support to develop a practice for learning about local natural history. This might include a field-journaling or nature-study practice, learning opportunities led by knowledgeable staff or outside experts, choosing an aspect of natural history to focus on, or mentoring from other instructors who have more experience in the area.
Tale from the Field: Setting a Tone: How We Develop a Learning Culture Among Staff
From Ray Cramer, Senior Faculty for Teaching Practicum at Islandwood, Bainbridge Island, Washington.
As a graduate program, Islandwood has been focused on developing a culture of learning within their instructional staff for many years. Here’s a brief synopsis of how they do it.
Challenge people’s ideas of what science looks like and how we talk about it. This is a key feature of what we do with both students and staff. For example, instead of telling students, “We’re being scientists,” we encourage them to say, “We’re thinking like scientists.” This is a subtle, but important distinction. The first statement may ring false as students may think, “I’m not a scientist, I’m a fifth grader.” The second statement implies that no matter who you are, what you do, or your profession, everyone can develop their abilities to think like a scientist.
Develop a growth mindset. This is a key feature of what we do with both students and staff. A “fixed mindset” implies that we are born with certain abilities. One way we encourage a growth mindset with instructors is by telling them, “You can be a superstar instructor. It’s not innate, and it’s not a secret how to do it. We know what the skills are that you need to be a superstar teacher, and we know how to help you develop them. How? You need to embrace mistakes. You need to try to talk about reality—what really happened—as accurately and honestly as you can.” (We also use Islandwood's Dispositions of a Whole Life Educator).
Helping instructors apply principles. Cohorts of instructors build principles they want to follow when teaching, when talking to each other, when interacting with other groups, sharing space, when planning their day, etc. These agreements are posted in a staff area. They also have a list of principles of instruction that they each write, alter, and try to follow. These are also posted.
Instructors create professional growth plans. These are created with the help of a mentor and are modeled after those used by preservice teachers in credential programs in Washington state (see Islandwood's Dispositions of a Whole Life Educator, linked above). They look at dispositions, skills, and knowledge goals they want to focus on for that season. They’re aiming to keep all principles in mind, but their professional growth plan is the one they focus on. Their goals are informed by the principles but are different.
Observations of instructors. Instructors are observed once a week. The instructors are expected to tell the observer what to look for. If they say, “I’d like you to look for evidence of student engagement,” then we ask, “What does that look like? What exactly are the ‘look fors’ I should be watching for?” For example, “Am I responding equally to wrong answers without giving hints?” or “What’s the gender balance in those I am calling on?” We try to keep the observations “in their court.” It adds to the spirit of them being observed, not evaluated. It’s us working together to learn, grow, and look for evidence. They get a write-up of each observation. They also get a 5-minute video of their instruction. They’re encouraged to be directive about what they want recorded, and it should be something relevant. For example, “I want you to record the students’ reaction to this prompt ; ; ;” or “Can you film how I respond to students’ comments during discussion?”
Journaling. They journal every week, based on a prompt from practicum class from Monday. They don’t have to write on that prompt, but it’s a fall-back option. They are encouraged to take risks that get others reading and thinking. They’re asked to read each other’s blog entries and comment, and they get to see how many hits and comments they got. Their mentor gets an email any time there’s a post or comment, so they can see what the mentee is thinking about. This information feeds into our one-on-one meetings that happen every week.
Creating structures for coaching and mentoring staff. Many organizations using BEETLES PL sessions incorporate the topics and pedagogy from the sessions into their coaching and mentoring programs. Studies of professional learning models report that a critical aspect of improving teaching practices is receiving timely feedback from more experienced educators and peers. This has been a recurring theme among those successfully implementing BEETLES materials as well. Observing an instructor and engaging with them in discussion about teaching strategies and approaches can be a very effective way to improve specific teaching practices. BEETLES has reflective tools to use during these instructor observations. These tools offer guidance for organization leaders to observe how students respond during instruction, to get a sense of how instruction is landing with learners. These reflective tools include guidance on how organization leaders can offer feedback to instructors that can help them meet their goals and make adjustments to teaching. Field instructors often have opportunities to lead the same activities with different groups of students. This is a great opportunity for fine-tuning their teaching skills, particularly if they are given appropriate feedback. Including reflective time during staff meetings, creating paid opportunities for staff to get together and discuss their teaching, and organizing a structure for peer-coaching (among other things) supports continual improvement and allows instructors to learn from one another’s experiences.
Using protocols for coaching and mentoring.
Protocols for coaching and mentoring help structure discussions that encourage active and respectful participation and constructive comments and feedback, while discouraging complaints, digressions, excuses, or disparaging comments. They are designed to help participants share challenges and feel more supported. The National School Reform Faculty website has a wide variety of protocols to use with educators.
BEETLES Reflective Teaching Tools can be found here. They include a summary of reflective teaching, an outline for following up on PL sessions by asking staff to set instructional improvement goals and reflect on successes and challenges, a set of coaching tools (including Do’s and Don’ts and a variety of forms), and an observation checklist. Other reflective tools include How to Use Video Guides For Building Reflective Practice and the reflective routine What Would You Do?.
References about feedback and coaching/mentoring:
Feedback:
Scheeler, M. C., Ruhl, K. L., & McAfee, J. K. (2004). Providing performance feedback to teachers: A review. Teacher Education and Special Education: The Journal of the Teacher Education Division of the Council for Exceptional Children, 27(4), 396–407.
Thurlings, M., Vermeulen, M., Bastiaens, T., & Stijnen, S. (2013). Understanding feedback: A learning theory perspective. Educational Research Review, 9, 1–15.
More generally about coaching/mentoring:
Costa, A. L., & Garmston, R. J. (1994). Cognitive coaching: A foundation for renaissance schools. Norwood, MA: Christopher-Gordon Publishers, Inc.
Guccione, K., & Hutchinson, S. (2021). Coaching and Mentoring for Academic Development. Emerald Group Publishing.
Hooker, T. (2013). Peer coaching: A review of the literature. Waikato Journal of Education, 18(2).
Parker, P., Hall, D. T. T., Kram, K. E., & Wasserman, I. C. (2018). Peer coaching at work: Principles and practices. Stanford University Press.
Showers, B. (1985). Teachers coaching teachers. Educational Leadership, 42(7), 43–48.
Showers, B., & Joyce, B. (1996). The evolution of peer coaching. Educational Leadership, 53, 12–16.
Tale from the Field: A Structure for Reflection: How We Organize Our Post-Program Debrief Lunch Meeting Routine
From Ray Cramer, Senior Faculty for Teaching Practicum at Islandwood, Bainbridge Island, Washington.
This is an example of how the Islandwood Graduate Program (Bainbridge Island, Washington) structures their post-program debrief meeting to maximize reflection and learning.
Instructors get good food, sit in mentor/mentee groups, and discuss their week. Program leaders ask staff to not “give it all away” to the kids on the final day of their 4-day program, so they have some energy for the debrief lunch. The kitchen staff prepares a high-quality adult meal for this meeting. Once the kids are put on the buses, everyone on staff grabs a lunch, sits with their mentor/mentee group of 3–5, and engages in discussion about stories from the week and general chatting. Then these groups dig into discussing the “topic of the week” that was introduced on the first day of the program.
What would you do? Sometimes, the whole group engages in the routine: What Would You Do? An instructor describes a challenging instructional situation they found themselves in and stops short of describing the decision they made in the moment. The rest of the group is asked to discuss in table groups “What would you do?” if you were the instructor in this situation, including how that response is informed by their theory of learning. Some of these ideas are shared out with the whole group. Then the person who posed the question describes what they actually did. Before they share, the leader reminds everyone that there’s some risk involved for the person who is sharing. They’re putting themselves “out there.” The leader explains that the group just spent several minutes with lots of brainpower and little risk thinking about what to do, while the instructor in the actual situation had only seconds. It’s acknowledged that what the instructor did was probably less nuanced and elegant than the ideas they just suggested. This routine improves instructional decision-making and also helps keep the instructors open and vulnerable.
Whole-group share: “Stories from the week.” Next, folks who functioned in a semi-leadership role during the week lead “Stories From the Week,” calling on a few instructors to share highlights from the program.
Leaders share teacher feedback, logistics, gratitudes, announcements. Leaders share feedback and general impressions that classroom teachers gave with the whole group. Any logistics that need to be discussed are brought up (e.g., “There’s a fallen tree on Ridge Trail,” “The spotting scope needs repair,” etc.). Anyone in the group is invited to share gratitudes (“What are you thankful for from this week?”—people, opportunities, how kids approached the week, how teachers supported kids, etc.). Finally, any necessary announcements are made.
Outline of the Post-Program Debrief Lunch Meeting Routine:
Get good food and sit in groups with mentors
Discuss: Food, stories, question of the week
Whole group/small group: What Would You Do?
Whole-group share: Stories From the Week
Leaders share teacher feedback
Logistics
Gratitudes
Announcements
This whole process takes about 2 hrs. and 15 min., but it really functions as a feast for stomachs and a feast for the brain—and certain steps could be omitted to work within the context of your program.
The difference between evaluation and coaching. Coaching and performance evaluation are not the same thing, and it’s important to distinguish between them during observations. Evaluation efforts are mostly focused on determining how well instructors are meeting specific goals and expectations. Coaching, on the other hand, usually has the distinct purpose of helping instructors improve their teaching practice.
What Would You Do?
The What Would You Do? routine briefly described by Ray Cramer in the boxed feature “A Structure for Reflection: How We Organize Our Post-Program Debrief Lunch Meeting Routine” is available as a full write-up for organization leaders to use with staff.
Evaluation. When observing instructors for evaluation, the criteria for success should be clearly communicated well in advance and can take the form of a checklist of teaching or student behaviors. The evaluative feedback provided to the instructor is meant to let them know how well they’re meeting expectations.
Coaching. Coaching or mentoring focuses on observations rather than evaluations or interpretations. Coaching should help instructors develop their capacities for self-reflection in order to help them design and implement lessons that offer experiences and opportunities that best support their learners. The role of the coach is not to judge practice but, rather, to gather evidence that can be used to improve instruction. During a pre-lesson “conference,” the coach asks the instructor to choose a particular teaching strategy or technique they’d like to work on and what it might look like for their learners to demonstrate engagement and understanding. During the actual field-experience observation, a coach should record (in writing) what instructors and their learners do and say. The goal is to gather evidence of student learning that can be used to inform instruction. These notes should be as detailed as possible so the post-lesson conference can focus on specific instructional moves and their learner responses. Organization leaders have emphasized that instructors are much more open to feedback about their teaching when it feels like a collaborative discussion and when they feel like they have permission to try new, challenging things that they might not succeed at the first time. Coaches can support instructors to make their own thoughtful adjustments and improvements. Negative or positive evaluative feedback during this kind of learning process can actually undermine the instructors’ learning process.
Possible examples of feedback.
Possible feedback that instructors could ask for could include the following: “I’d like you to look for evidence of student engagement.” or “Am I responding equally to wrong answers without giving hints?” or “What’s the gender balance in those I am calling on?” Then, coaches/mentors can ask, “What does that look like for your students? What are the ‘look fors’ I should be watching that would indicate students are engaged?"
–Ray Cramer, Islandwood Graduate Program
Questions to Ask Yourself to Improve Staff Effectiveness
Organization leaders who have successfully implemented BEETLES have found it useful to ask themselves these kinds of questions:
What are the tools and strategies my staff need to make effective learner-centered and nature-centered experiences happen?
How can we make reflecting on instruction an integral part of our staff meetings?
How can we support instructors to grow and try out new things?
How can timely feedback be offered to staff that will help support their growth as instructors?
Does our professional learning system support professional growth, networking, and job satisfaction for all staff, particularly for professionals of color (e.g., affinity spaces, leadership development, opportunities to attend conferences)?
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