THE TEACHER AS LEARNER

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THE TEACHER AS LEARNER

• THEORY AND PRACTICE

2
TEACHING FOR SUCCESSNecessary Tools

• COMPETENCE
• CONFIDENCE
• EFFECTIVENESS

3
THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVES

• CHANGE AND INNOVATION
• SITE-BASED MANAGEMENT
• NEW SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT (CHAOS THEORY)
• STAFF DEVELOPMENT
• ADULT EDUCATION
• TEAMWORK
• LEARNING ORGANIZATION
• PROGRAMME PLANNING

4
CHANGE AND INNOVATION

• Inevitable The only thing that is constant and
  certain (Argyris and Schon, 1978)
• A process which occurs over a period of time
  and could be visualized as political and
  transformative because it involves learning
  (Levine, 1996)

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TYPES OF CHANGE

• By exception (to an existing belief system)
• Incremental (In stages over a period of time)
• Pendulum (So pronounced and different that they
  result in extremities)
• Paradigms (Fundamental rethinking of premises,
  assumptions, beliefs and values)
• Planned (Timely, goal-oriented, intentional,
  proactive, purposeful)
• Unplanned (Quick reaction to demand from
  internal/ external forces)

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TYPES OF CHANGE

• First-Order (Linear and continuous, superficial,
  one-dimensional)
• Second-Order (Multidimensional, multilevel,
  discontinuous, radical, aimed at reforming
  assumptions and perceptions. Generally organized
  and disseminated through strategically selected
  change agents)

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FORCES OF CHANGE

• Nature of the workforce
• Technology
• Economic shocks
• Competition
• Social trends
• World politics

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AREAS FOR CHANGE

• Structure
• Technology
• Physical setting
• People

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BARRIERS TO CHANGE

• ORGANIZATIONAL and INDIVIDUAL
• May present themselves before, during or after
  implementation.

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ORGANIZATIONAL BARRIERS

• Structural inertia
• Culture
• Expertise
• Climate
• Status Quo

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INDIVIDUAL BARRIERS

• Personality
• Needs
• Perception of the situation (What will change
  results of change)
• Habit
• Fear of the unknown
• Security

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THE EDUCATION SYSTEM

• ORGANIZATIONAL DISABILITIES (Kist-Kline, 2001)
• I am my position
• The enemy is out there
• The elusion of taking charge
• Fixation on events
• Parable of the boiled frog
• The myth of the administrative team
• The delusion of learning from experience

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MANAGEMENT OF CHANGE

• EMPIRICAL-RATIONAL Based on research, knowledge
  production and utilization e.g. Research
  Development and Diffusion (RDD) Model Personnel
  Selection and Replacement

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MANAGEMENT OF CHANGE

• POWER-COERCIVE Use of power instead of human
  relations to effect change. Eg. Political,
  financial, and or moral sanctions to achieve
  compliance

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MANAGEMENT OF CHANGE

• NORMATIVE-REEDUCATIVE The culture (values,
  attitudes, beliefs, norms) can be changed in a
  positive way through the collaborative actions of
  its members

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STYLES OF MANAGING CHANGE

• Education and communication
• Collaboration/ participation
• Intervention
• Direction
• Coercion

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SITE-BASED MANAGEMENT A PERSPECTIVE ON
MANAGEMENT OF CHANGE

• Major goal should be higher staff performance,
  more efficient use of resources, increased skills
  and satisfaction
• There is no one way of addressing the issue of
  change and innovation in an organization

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SITE-BASED MANAGEMENT A PERSPECTIVE ON
MANAGEMENT OF CHANGE

• Each organization has its own peculiarities and
  so management and organization strategies should
  be designed around the nature of the task at
  hand.
• Any blueprint issued by a central body will not
  be totally compatible, and so one developed
  particularly for and by the stakeholders would be
  more appropriate and successful .

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NEW SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT A PERSPECTIVE ON
MANAGEMENT OF CHANGE( Wheatley, 1994)

• Theory of self-organizing or dissipative
  structures (New ways of understanding
  disequilibrium and change, as well as the use of
  disorders in creating new possibilities for
  evolutionary growth. Equilibrium is stagnation)
• Chaos theory We operate in a world where chaos
  and order exist in tandem, and where stability is
  never guaranteed, but chaos always conforms to a
  boundary

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NEW SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT A PERSPECTIVE ON
MANAGEMENT OF CHANGE( Wheatley, 1994)

• Whole populations of a species can shift their
  behaviour and survive because the content of
  their field has changed, and because they
  individually have taken the time to learn the new
  behaviour.

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THE EDUCATION SYSTEM

• Individuals involved in organizational change
  experience the feeling of being mired down in the
  habit of solutions that once worked yet that are
  totally inappropriate.
• The problems faced by scientists to understand
  the world should teach individuals faced with
  changes/ challenges to embrace the despair they
  experience and see it as a step on the road to
  wisdom

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THE EDUCATION SYSTEM

• It should be used as a source of encouragement
  for educators to be in the unfamiliar position of
  not knowing and open themselves to radically new
  ideas.

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ADVANTAGES FOR THE EDUCATION SYSTEM

• As self-renewing systems, schools do not have to
  struggle constantly against the environment with
  it being perceived as the source of disruption
  and change.
• Insulation does not have to be sought to maintain
  stability. Rather they should become adept at
  maintaining an identity even while changing form,
  largely as a result of their internal capacity to
  create structures that are situationally and
  historically appropriate.

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ADVANTAGES FOR THE EDUCATION SYSTEM

• There is a fluid process where the system
  maintains itself in its present form or evolve to
  a new order depending on what is required, since
  it possesses the capacity for spontaneously
  emerging structures.
• Flexibility and adaptability does not mean they
  are mere passive reactors to external
  fluctuations. Instead, openness to environmental
  information over time spawns a firmer sense of
  identity and autonomy and makes the system less
  vulnerable to external change.

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ADVANTAGES FOR THE EDUCATION SYSTEM

• Such an organization is both sensitive to its
  environment and resilient from it, and so
  decisions are made based on factors such as
  internal competence measured through the
  principles of self-reference

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STAFF DEVELOPMENT

• AKA Personnel development, in-service education,
  professional development, continuing education
• Cyclical approach where the process begins and
  ends with the analysis of training needs.
• Training is not ad hoc, but needs are defined in
  accordance with a well-defined procedure that
  entails viewing such needs from the perspective
  of organization, department, job, and individual.
• The demands of the job will be made up of
  appropriate portions of knowledge, skills and
  attitudes.

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STAFF DEVELOPMENT

• Contextual factors must also be considered e.g.
  resistance, size and age of organization, past
  experiences, job commitment, length and nature of
  the programme, characteristics of the employees.

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ADULT EDUCATION

• AKA Lifelong learning
• The half-life of a professionals competency is
  defined as the time after completion of
  professional training when, because of new
  developments in their fields, practising
  professionals become roughly half as competent as
  they were upon graduation (Dubin, 1972)
• 20 of work time should be spent learning about
  recent developments in the discipline/ field.
  (George and Dubin, 1972)

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ADULT EDUCATION

• Learning occurs as a result of reflecting upon
  experience (Mezirow, 1997, 1978, 1981, 1990,1991
  Brookfield, 1995)
• Self-actualization of the learner, producing
  fully functional persons, the need for
  self-development and self-direction, critical
  reflection (Rogers, 1969 Knowles, 1980
  Brookfield, 1995)
• Learning must be pragmatic, meaningful, useful
  and take place in a non-threatening environment
  (Tough, 1968 Knowles, 1980 Jarvis, 1992)

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TYPES OF ADULT LEARNERS

• Goal-oriented who come to the learning context
  with specific goals to be accomplished
• Activity-oriented learners who learn only to keep
  themselves occupied.
• Learning-oriented learners who are seeking
  knowledge just for the sake of knowing (Houle,
  1961, 1968)

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BARRIERS TO PARTICIPATING IN ADULT EDUCATION

• Situational which arise from ones situation in
  life at a given time of job or home
  responsibilities.
• Instructional Practices and procedures that
  exclude or discourage working adults from
  participating in educational activities e.g.
  schedules, location, fees.
• Dispositional Those related to attitudes and
  self-perceptions about oneself as a learner. E.g.
  too old to learn poor educational background/
  achievement often leads to lack of interest and/
  or confidence in learning ability. (Cross, 1981)

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TEAMWORK

• Team/ Work group consists of two or more
  individuals, interacting and interdependent, and
  who come together to achieve particular
  objectives (Robbins, 2001)
• People who have a sense of collective efficacy
  will mobilize their efforts and resources to cope
  with external obstacles to the change they seek
  (Bandura, 1982).

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TEAMWORK

• Composition of a team focuses on variables that
  relate to how teams should be staffed, the
  ability and personality of team members, the
  allocation of roles, as well as diversity, size
  of team, members flexibility, and members
  preferences for teamwork.

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TEAMWORK

• All skills do not have to be in place at the
  beginning, but since the right mix is crucial,
  team members should take the initiative and
  responsibility to learn those skills in which the
  group is deficient, thereby allowing it to reach
  its fullest potential (Robbins, 2001)

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THE LEARNING ORGANIZATION PARADIGM

• Based on the assumption that learning
  organizations have five disciplines
• Systems thinking- Understanding system dynamics
  and seeing the long term and overall picture
  (Senge, 1990)

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THE LEARNING ORGANIZATION PARADIGM

• Personal mastery- continually clarifying and
  deepening the individuals personal vision,
  focusing of energy into the Cause, developing
  patience and seeing an objective reality
• Mental models-Deeply ingrained assumptions,
  generalizations and images that influence how
  persons understand the world, and therefore act.
  Fostering openness based on reflection. (Senge,
  1990)

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THE LEARNING ORGANIZATION PARADIGM

• Building shared vision- Willingness to initiate
  as well as adapt to changes.
• Team learning- Understanding and appreciating the
  whole as well as the interrelationship between
  the parts. (Senge, 1990)

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SCHOOLS AS LEARNING ORGANIZATIONS

• Since the underlying business of education is to
  facilitate student learning, systematic attention
  must be given to how teachers learn, and this
  does not mean sending them to off-site
  conferences and formal activities.
• Learning is always an on-the-job phenomenon that
  always occurs in the context where action is
  being taken.
• There is the need to create an environment where
  teachers can continually reflect on what they are
  doing and learn more and more what it takes to
  work as teams.

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SCHOOLS AS LEARNING ORGANIZATIONS

• Educational institutions are designed and
  structured in such a way that reinforces the idea
  that a teachers job is as an individual teaching
  his/her students and the focus on the individual
  is so deeply embedded in the teaching culture
  that it is very hard for people to even recognize
  it, much more see its disadvantages. It takes so
  much collaboration to bring about change that it
  may be easier to try to improve individual
  classrooms instead.

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RESEARCH FINDINGS

• Efforts have been made in the USA and locally
  with positive results.(Bambino, 2002 Critical
  friends Kist-Kline, 2001, A Schools learning
  disabilitiesBuckle-Scott,1997, Practising what
  we preach in SS Education PIPERR model, 2004,
  2005, 2006 Developing competence, confidence and
  effectiveness among educators in a changing
  system).

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THE WAY FORWARD

• In todays fast-changing environment educational
  organizations must ensure their survival by
  developing increased ability to sense and even
  predict the problems posed by their environments
  and invent solutions to them (Owens, 2004).

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THE WAY FORWARD

• There is the need for systematic planning based
  on the assumption that recourse by planners to a
  clearly identified design can help them to plan
  more effective training programmes. (Cookson et
  al, 1998).

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THE WAY FORWARD

• Planning should go through the following phases
• Training policy
• Needs assessment (Using appraisal, research)
• Development of a customized training plan
  consisting of programmes, activities, and events.
• Implementation
• Evaluation
• (Houle, 1972 Castetter, 1981 Nadler, 1984 Cole,
  1991 Henriques-Piper, 2005)