Teacher-led reforms have a big advantage — Teachers

Abstract

Becoming a better teacher by learning and implementing new ways of teaching requires time, effort, persistence, and a belief that new strategies will enhance student learning. But when educational leaders try to improve teachers and teaching from the outside, by bringing in reformers to transform how teachers engage in the core business of teaching, reforms rarely stick because the first transformation that must occur is in the perspective of initially resistant teachers. This transformation in perspective comes, in part, from teachers working to improve the quality of teachers and teaching in their own schools by developing a common vision, trust in teacher leadership, and openness to learning. Teachers who promote change can make a lasting impact.

The College Science Learning Cycle: An Instructional Model for Reformed Teaching

“…One of the most common challenges cited by instructors reforming their courses is lack of time: time to find or develop new course materials and time to master new skills and approaches (Krockover et al ., 2002; Pfund et al ., 2009; Brownell and Tanner, 2012; Stanulis et al ., 2016). The CSLC, embedded in backward design, is intended to help instructors save time by avoiding the paralysis that accompanies indecision or lack of direction when developing materials for a new teaching approach.…”

“…The thousands of current and future educators who have received excellent training through efforts like the National Academies Summer Institutes (Pfund et al ., 2009) or the Faculty Institutes for Reformed Science Teaching (FIRST IV; Ebert-May et al ., 2011), among others, may struggle to work within their current time constraints to make the changes necessary to better serve their students. Regardless of approach, transforming a traditional lecture into a student-centered active-learning classroom takes time: time outside class to develop new instructional materials to support and evaluate the new approach and time in class to develop the expertise to effectively implement new strategies (Krockover et al ., 2002; Stanulis et al ., 2016). To address this challenge, this paper introduces an instructional model—a learning cycle—to provide college science faculty with a consistent, structured approach to constructing teaching materials for a reformed scientific classroom.…”

English Teachers’ Subjectivities: Contesting and Resisting Must-be Discourses

“…Although several studies have explained the relation reform and teachers' resistance to change as a matter of fear to change (Fullan & Hargreaves, 2013), scarce participation in the reform elaboration (Stanulis et al, 2016;, coupled with the inability of reform to negotiate principles and ideologies (Terhart, 2013) that are important to understand how to implement a policy from above, evidence that few studies (Guerrero & Quintero, 2016) have paid special attention to teachers' discourse and non-discourse practices to contest a policy when they already had decided upon a course of action. When we embarked on this research, we were noticeably seduced by the idea of revising the relation policy-subjectivity via National Bilingual Plan effects on it, but archeology procedures helped us to trace back an important event in the history of languages teaching in Colombia, namely the turn to English as a marketing device of citizenship, that affected the idea of learning languages as cultural devices.…”

A qualitative study of teacher leadership in secondary schools in central Missouri

“…Teacher leaders are especially important in promoting educational reforms Gilad, 2014;Margolis & Deuel, 2009;Nappi, 2014;Ross, Lutfi, & Hope, 2016;Sinha et al, 2012;Stanulis, et al, 2016). contended "increasing the extent of teacher leadership in a school can bring positive change to schools" (p. 142), and both student and adult learning can flourish.…”

“…In some cases, teacher leaders have assumed such leadership roles. This is a compelling time, as teachers are rising above expectations and are taking on greater responsibilities, fulfilling increased roles, and affecting change both within and beyond their classrooms in meaningful ways (Akert & Martin, 2012;Edwards & Hineuber, 2015;Martin, 2007;Nappi, 2014;Stanulis, Cooper, Dear, Johnston, & Richard, 2016). For these reasons, the time is right to examine what the literature reveals about this resurgence in leadership and more specifically, about the concept of teacher leaders, including a better understanding of who they are, what they do, and the impact that they have on the districts where they teach.…”