Partnership As Leadership

Learning outcomes

• Begin exploring the CSTP Teacher Leadership Skills Framework

• Make connections to previous learning on mindsets and mental models

• Identify areas for growth in relation to the CSTP Framework

Activities

Review the CSTP Teacher Leadership Skills Framework and

Bookmark this resource in your LIFT Bookmarks Form or a curation tool of your choice.

Discuss these questions with your learning partner.

• This framework makes a distinction between two domains -- Knowledge/Skills and Dispositions. In what ways are skills and dispositions different from one another?

• In what ways are dispositions related to mindsets and mental models which you examined in Module 1? In what ways are they different?

Respond to the following prompts in your LIFT Portfolio.

1. As you look at the six domains defined in the framework, which of these areas will be an area where you want to grow the most?

Learning outcomes

• Examine instructional coaching as a model for professional learning and partnership

• Identify positive impacts that result from instructional coaching and partnership

Activities

Explore the resources What Teacher Training Methods Result in Changes in Classroom Practices and Instructional Coaching Playbook

Discuss these prompts either with your partner or consider them on your own.

• Reflecting on your own experiences with professional development, how often do you actually implement the ideas and strategies which you learn in training?

• Examining the multi-colored diagram in the Instructional Coaching Playbook with the heading 'Why do teachers need instructional coaches,' there are five areas

  • Transforms teacher learning

  • Improves teachers' practice and students' learning

  • Increases teacher retention

  • Improves school culture

  • Improves powerful use of technology

Which of the five areas resonates most with you? Why

Respond to these questions in your LIFT Portfolio.

1. Which of these five areas would be most compelling in your school or context?

2. Given the longstanding research on the impact of coaching (see Deep Dive below), why do you think instructional coaching isn't more widely implemented?

3. As an educator, what have your experiences been either learning or working with instructional coaches? Does this research align with your own experience?

Bookmark useful links using your LIFT Bookmarks Form or a curation tool of your choice.

The Evolution of Peer Coaching

"Successful peer coaching teams developed skills in collaboration and enjoyed the experience so much that they wanted to continue their collegial partnerships after they accomplished their initial goals. Why not create permanent structures, we wondered, that would enable teachers to study teaching on a continuous basis?....Adding peer coaching study teams to school improvement efforts is a substantial departure from the way schools often embark on change efforts. On the surface, it appears simple to implement—what could be more natural than teams of professional teachers working on content and skills? It is a complex innovation only because it requires a radical change in relationships among teachers, and between teachers and administrative personnel."

Beverly Showers and Bruce Joyce have researched educational peer coaching for decades. This article from ASCD provides a concise summary of their research (as of 1996) and a retrospective review of their research and findings.

Job-Embedded Professional Development: What It Is, Who Is Responsible, and How to Get It Done Well

"Job-embedded professional development (JEPD) refers to teacher learning that is grounded in day-to-day teaching practice and is designed to enhance teachers’ content-specific instructional practices with the intent of improving student learning (Darling-Hammond & McLaughlin, 1995; Hirsh, 2009). It is primarily school or classroom based and is integrated into the workday, consisting of teachers assessing and finding solutions for authentic and immediate problems of practice as part of a cycle of continuous improvement (Hawley & Valli, 1999; National Staff Development Council, 2010)."

This issue brief by the National Staff Development Council and other partners helps define job-embedded professional learning, explores models for this professional development strategy, and how it can be effectively implemented in schools. Instructional coaching and partnership are based on the idea of job-embedded professional learning. As such, this brief provides additional detail and definition to the ways in which instructional partnership can occur in practice.