Leadership Development

Collaborative Problem Solving

Shared by Donna Azodi

Exemplary principal preparation programs demonstrate the importance of and provide internship opportunities for collaboration for transforming principal practice (Darling-Hammond, LaPointe, Meyerson & Orr, 2007). As students initiate their action research planning, they begin by conducting an informal poll of a representative cross-section of their colleagues asking them to identify their top two or three needs or concerns for their campus. Once they have organized their colleagues' perceptions of campus needs, students meet with their campus mentor to discuss the poll results and work collaboratively with the mentor to identify an action research study that will benefit their campus.

Once the research topic has been established, students meet with a stakeholder group of colleagues to conduct the 5 Why Process. http://www.toyota-global.com/company/toyota_traditions/quality/mar_apr_2006.html

https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newTMC_5W.htm

This process provides an opportunity for collaborative problem-solving where colleagues state the need or issue being addressed and ask why that need or issue exists. Discussion follows until the group has decided on their answer to the first why question. This is followed by a second question asking why that circumstance exists or does not exist, again followed by a collaborative discussion. This process is followed until the root cause of the identified need or concern has been established. The group may reach the root cause before asking the fifth why question.

Once the root cause has been established, students use this information in developing their problem statement and research question(s). Students have indicated that they found use of the 5 Why Process to be an effective collaborative problem-solving strategy and plan to use it in their leadership role on campus.

Question Thinking and Q-Storming

Shared by Linda Purrington

In our search for tools and strategies in our action research course strand to help our students further develop their leadership skills and experience transformation in the process, we discovered question thinking and Q-storming in Marilee Adam's book, Change Your Questions, Change Your Life: 10 Powerful Tools for Life and Work.

Adams describes question thinking as " a system of skills and tools using questions to expand how you approach virutally any situation. You develop the skills to refine your questions for vastly better results in anything you do" (2009, p. 25). Q-storming, is a question thinking tool that is a more advanced means of brainstorming.

"Q-storming is based on the premise that 'every question missed is a crisis waiting to happen'. It is a method for discovering those questions to make breakthrough differences in decision-making, problem-solving, strategic planning, innovation, operational excellence, and culture" (Retrieved from http://inquiryinstitute.com/resources/q-storming/). Rather than brainstorming answers, ideas, or suggestions to problems, the goal of Q-storming is to come up with as many new questions as possible in order to prompt new ways of thinking and acting related to situations/issues/problems. You begin the process by describing the issue/problem and your goals for change. Next, you figure out what assumptions you have about the situation. After you have clarified your goals and assumptions, you start brainstorming new questions and record them on chart paper. Giving time to this step, seeing all of the questions in writing, and reflecting upon them, promotes more objective thinking and can lead to breakthroughs and transformation.

In a vignette that Adams story tells in Change Your Questions, Change Your Life, two characters engage in Q-storming in order to discover a means for helping a team work better together and move a project forward. The initial brainstormed questions reflected more of a judger mindset; more automatic reaction oriented, blame-focused, and win-lose relating in nature. As the process continued, the questions became more reflective of a learner mindset; thoughtful choice oriented, solution focused and win-win relating.

In our action research course strand, we invited all of the students to read Change Your Questions, Change Your Life. We then invited Marilee Adams as a virtual guest speaker to present to and interact with our students regarding their understanding of question thinking skills and tools and possible application in their respective action research projects. It was exciting over time, to observe students become more intentional about adopting a learner mindset, surfacing and challenging assumptions as a more regular practice, framing issues and problems in more positive and productive ways, and asking questions that led themselves and others to discover more powerful outcomes and solutions. Students described how question thinking and Q-storming helped them and their teams to get "unstuck", become more innovative, and work together more collaboratively.

Teacher Leadership and Action Research

Margaret Riel

In thinking about leadership and action research, my reflections go back to a large scale survey project with my friend and colleague Hank Becker. One of our areas of analysis was teachers leadership which we then compared to use of technology. We wrote a chapter on teacher leadership with technology in The Handbook on IT in primary and secondary Education (included below). We were looking at leadership and technology use through a national survey of 4,000 teachers. We arranged the responses to the questions into what was a pyramid path to a generative or adaptive form of expertise. A pyramid because the group of teachers who are seen as leaders got smaller as more characteristics of leadership were added. At the base, teacher leaders are those who knew how to learn from practice. They are not just teaching but they are actively learning from their teaching. One effective way to do this is through action research which leads to and evolving generative expertise. This expertise helps teachers make good choices as they develop as educators. At our second level of teacher leadership, we placed educators who shared what they learned with others locally. It was not a simply telling but sharing in ways that helps others develop new skills. This is also commonly a vital part of action research. These teachers developed a set of skills that are often referred to as "service leadership" skills. Their leadership was not manifested by creating the plans that everyone else "should" follow, but rather these were teachers with the skills to foster great groups who together changed their practice in effective and innovative ways using evidence to guide them. In our survey research, we identified a group of teachers who appeared to be strong local leaders, but they did not research out beyond the school context. Another group of teachers responses suggested that they were able to extend their reach over distances and across time. Over distances they can played leadership roles in conferences and professional communities. Over time they created conceptual artifacts (papers, videos, blogs, books, or podcasts) that shared their wisdom with teachers who can benefit from following their intellectual footsteps. While in the paper we were not looking specifically at action research, it is clear that action research helps teachers to continue the pyramid path to leadership.

Here are some questions that use with students to help them to think about their own role as leaders.

• How will you lead from your position?

• What problems do want to set for yourself

• How can you extend what you are learning in your classroom to help you and others learn more?

• What are your action research questions?

I offer this chart that I use in my teaching that is linked to leadership, if you accept that a leader is an educator with adaptive expertise (contrasted with innovative or routine expertise), then action research is the path to this essential form of generative knowledge.

Finally I add this video from a small collection of videos produced for the blended-model community of practice for educators implementing the Digital Learning Process, developed by Ferdi Serim and described in Digital Learning: Strengthening and Assessing 21st Century Skills, (2012) published by Jossey-Bass