Scaling up professional learning: technical expectations and adaptive challenges

Dobbs, Christina L.; Ippolito, Jacy; Charner-Laird, Megin

doi:10.1080/19415257.2016.1238834

Cited by 12 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 42 publications

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“…We wanted to ask them what they knew and felt capable of related to adolescent literacy practices, not what we thought they knew. Knowing where to begin is crucial for professional learning, as research notes how content area teachers will explore adolescent literacy in their classroom if provided guidance, mentoring, and support throughout the learning process (Dobbs et al, 2017;Lesley, 2014).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For instance, there is often a misconception about what "counts" as text, with an emphasis on textbooks and other print-based materials and an overreliance on Lexile numbers instead of examining how non-print-based texts can provide the provocativeness, ambiguity, and complexity that yield high-level critical thought (Savitz et al, 2023;Strong et al, 2001). Therefore, professional learning should ensure mutual understanding and the ability to select and use complex, equitable texts within instruction, where certain texts are not privileged in specific content areas over others (e.g., ELA, SS, science, and math); there is a need to explore and understand how other content areas (e.g., music, fine arts, and physical education) also use texts to connect with adolescents (Chandler-Olcott, 2017; Dobbs et al, 2017;Hinchman & O'Brien, 2019;Lent & Voigt, 2019).…”

Section: Equitable and Authentic Textsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Secondary Teachers' Adolescent Literacy Efficacy and Professional Learning Considerations

Savitz,

Morrison,

Brown

et al. 2023

Reading Research Quarterly

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School requests for professional learning on adolescent literacy often stem from low or stagnant reading scores on state standardized assessments and legislative policies that require educators to complete literacy coursework. These decisions are often made without teachers' voices, requiring teachers to take coursework they may not need or learn in ways that may not align with their content. To address this issue, we used our researcher‐created and validated survey to ask middle and high school teachers about their self‐efficacy toward adolescent literacy based on various professional characteristics, such as years of experience, teaching grade levels, content area, and taking the state‐required literacy courses. Findings note that certain disciplines are more efficacious toward specific literacy practices, and taking state‐required literacy courses is insignificant. Our implications are written for literacy scholars and teacher educators to revisit the premise and promise of the 2017 ILA Standards for K‐12 literacy professionals, emphasizing the importance of being cognizant of our strengths and highlighting the need for collaborating and learning with and from teachers of all disciplines.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Equitable and Authentic Textsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Secondary Teachers' Adolescent Literacy Efficacy and Professional Learning Considerations

Savitz,

Morrison,

Brown

et al. 2023

Reading Research Quarterly

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“…Educators who take on adaptive challenges do best when that process is collaborative, involves gathering data specific to the organization and its particular challenges, and uses resources already inherent to the organization (Tyre & Von Hippel, 1997 ). This kind of professional learning, then, aligns with the characteristics of quality, efficacious professional learning that is most likely to result in successful and sustained organizational change (Dobbs et al, 2017 ).…”

Section: Review Of Relevant Literaturementioning

confidence: 92%

“…In LEAs, professional learning typically helps to strengthen professional capacity, systematize processes, or undertake investigations of data for eventual instructional decision-making (e.g., Osmond-Johnson & Campbell, 2018 ). Much educator professional learning in the U.S., however, has long been toothless in the service of successful and sustained change efforts because it fails to meet teachers’ needs, tends to be decontextualized, and lacks ongoing implementation support (Dobbs et al, 2017 ; Hubbard & Datnow, 2020 ). Heifetz’s technical and adaptive challenges model is thus a helpful lens to (a) understand the nature of challenges inherent to today’s LEAs and the solutions needed to tackle those challenges, and (b) help organizations (e.g., SEAs) and administrators (e.g., principals) structure professional learning that creates the conditions for teams of educators to “confront existing values and norms” (Daly & Chrispeels, 2008 , p. 33) and revise the “organizing frameworks” they use to develop and implement change efforts (Bartunek & Moch, 1987 , p. 484).…”

Section: Review Of Relevant Literaturementioning

confidence: 99%

“Stuck in this wheel”: The use of design thinking for change in educational organizations

2022

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Many of today’s educational organizations around the world contend with complex challenges. Yet, longstanding practices and norms in educational systems can hamper educators’ abilities to identify and address these challenges, such as only principals leading change efforts or the use of misaligned “quick fixes” for ill-defined challenges. A design-based approach to organizational change, on the other hand, holds promise to reframe change in local educational agencies like schools. Design thinking is one way to enact a design-based approach, but little research has investigated the process’s use to help educators conceptualize and implement change. Drawing upon transformational learning theory, this United States-based mixed-methods study examined a year-long professional learning workshop sponsored by a state education agency that used design thinking to reframe how participants orchestrated change in their contexts. Results indicated that design thinking helped participants devise more nuanced understandings of themselves and the change process in their contexts, yet, most participants’ actions continued to be influenced by longstanding practices and norms of the U.S. educational system. We close by discussing implications for practice and policy, particularly the need for professional learning experiences that prompt educators to critically reflect upon their mindsets and how their actions may differ from those mindsets. This greater understanding can better position educators to engage in change efforts that address increasingly complex challenges in education.

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“…Yet, PD often focuses on standardized outcomes. Scholarship that tracks outcomes risks obscuring teacher learning as context-specific co-constructed social processes that occur across time and interactions (Dobbs et al, 2016). A focus on outcomes alone overlooks the complexity of English teachers' professional learning (Avalos, 2011) and its necessary connection to language relationships.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Improving professional development relationships that support teacher learning

Lillge

2019

ETPC

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Purpose Current top-down literacy reform mandates have reenergized attention to professional development (PD) outcomes. Still, questions remain about why English teachers struggle to apply their learning. Refocusing attention on understanding the complex yet critical relationship between professional development (PD) facilitators and teachers offers one explanation. Design/methodology/approach Using a telling case from an interactional ethnography, this paper illustrates how through their language-in-use teachers and facilitators can productively resolve conflicts that, if left unaddressed, can prevent teachers from acting on their professional learning. Findings A set of discursive moves – flagging, naming, soliciting and processing – provide a toolkit for surfacing and successfully resolving conflict in PD interactions. Research limitations/implications These moves offer a way of prioritizing the importance of teacher–facilitator relationships in future research aimed at addressing the longstanding conundrum of how best to support English teachers’ ongoing professional learning. Practical implications Teaching facilitators and teachers how to collaboratively address inevitable conflicts offers a needed intervention in supporting both teacher and facilitator learning. Originality/value Previous research has affirmed that facilitators, like teachers, need support for navigating the complexity of professional learning interactions. This paper offers a language for uncovering why teacher–facilitator interactions can be so challenging for teachers and facilitators as well as ways of responding productively in-the-moment. It contributes to a more capacious understanding of how these relationships shape diverse English teacher learning.

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Scaling up professional learning: technical expectations and adaptive challenges

Cited by 12 publications

References 42 publications

Secondary Teachers' Adolescent Literacy Efficacy and Professional Learning Considerations

Secondary Teachers' Adolescent Literacy Efficacy and Professional Learning Considerations

“Stuck in this wheel”: The use of design thinking for change in educational organizations

Improving professional development relationships that support teacher learning

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