Building Teacher Capacity: An Architecture

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Building Teacher Capacity An Architecture for
Professional Learning and Practice
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• Building Teacher Capacity
• Architecture A Metaphor for Professional
  Development
• An Architecture for Professional Development
  Messages and Meanings
• The Role of School Leaders in Building Teacher
  Capacity through Professional Development
• Some Observations on Leadership, Professional
  Learning, and
• Capacity Building in Schools

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What might be other metaphors?
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Key Components/Considerations for Designing
Professional Development

• Educational Reform
• Teacher Capacity
• Leadership
• School Improvement
• Professional Work
• Professional Learning Communities
• Other Local Needs

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Strategies for Building Teacher Capacity

• Clear Job Descriptions
• High Expectations Communicated
• Training Education
• Coaching and Mentoring
• Written Performance Reviews

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• How else might we build teacher capacity?

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Building Teacher CapacityAn Architecture for
Professional Learning and Practice
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Architecture An Evocative Metaphor

• Rich Language And Images
• Suggestive Comparisons
• Unifying Concept
• Generative, Empowering Organic

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Professional development refers to learning
opportunities that engage educators creative
and reflective capacities in ways that
strengthen their practice.
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It Takes Place By

• Learning and example?
• Engagement an example?
• Improved Practice an example?

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Design Signature
Professional development is about
learning Professional development is
work Professional expertise is a journey, not a
credential Opportunities for professional
learning are unbounded Student learning,
professional development, and organizational
mission should be/are intimately
related Professional development is about people
not programs
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Workshops and Conferences
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Convenience Courses
..
Drive-in professional development
Super-size me!
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Collaborative Action Research Teams
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Professional Development that Addresses School
Capacity
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LEADERS AND PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
LEARNER
ARCHITECT
MANAGER
EVALUATOR
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Leaders And Learners The Weave Of Their Fabric

• They are
• Stewards
• Models
• Experts
• Instructional Leaders

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• Architect Creating Learning Spaces
• Alignment people, instruction,
• curriculum, resources
• Empowering Teachers
• Identify Individual/Collective Needs
• On-going Planning
• Teacher Talk- Dialogues
• Focus on Student Learning

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• Leader/Manager
• Communicator
• Supporter
• Manage resources

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• Evaluator
• Supervision, Assessment, and
• Evaluation
• Assessing Needs
• Balance- Student, School, Teacher
• Needs
• Inquiry-based Decision Making

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SCHOOL LEADERS TOOLBOX

• Vision-- shared purpose
• Reflective dialogue
• Trust respect
• Interdependency
• Collegiality
• Inquiry focused of learning
• Deep knowledge of teaching
• learning

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An Ethical Architecture for Professional developm
ent
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A Hippocratic Oath

• Do no harm.
• Do nothing to increase misery, injustice, or
  inequity.
• Do nothing to perpetuate ignorance, passivity,
  forgetfulness, dispiritedness, or disbelief in
  change.

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Creating spaces for learning and leadership
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Professional Development As Work

• From
• An add on
• Individualized
• Activity/event centered
• Outside of work
• Outside Expertise
• Focus on changing the individual

• To
• Essential work
• Collaborative learning
• Linked to practice and student learning
• Embedded in dialy work
• Internal capacity for improvement
• Focus on the collective

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Requirements

• Shift inb structures from fragmented to
  holistic, goal oriented
• Shift in culture from lone ranger to mutual
  trust from episodic to continuous from
  disengaged to engaged

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Professional Development In Work

• Individual
• Collectively
• Collaboratively
• Formal and informal
• What are the challenges?
• What can be the components?
• Wha could be the metaphor for this?

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Professional Development Outsidfe of Work

• What are the possibilities?
• How do we harness outside PD for inside
  targeted growth?

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Final observations on architecture, professional
learning, and leadership

• People and their humanity
• Ethics- an essential component
• First, do no harm
• Architecture as mobile, evolving structure
• Slow food movement
• Utilitas (function), Firmitas (structure),
• Venustas (beauty)

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What are you thinking?

• What goals, functions, and structures are you
  thinking about using in your project and why?
• A reference-Improving Schools From Within by
  Roland Barth (1990)