What have I learned???

I'm struggling a bit with the second part of my ETL504 assignment, the bit where I need to discuss how my learning in a particular area has developed. I do get to choose which area I talk about, (from a list including 'quality management', 'innovation and change', 'conflict resolution'...) but I'm not sure that I have enough to say about any one of the choices! This is the part when I stop and think - so, what exactly did I learn? And it's all a bit of a blur...

I'm supposed to use my learning journal (this blog) to guide my discussion. I've been reading through my posts labelled ETL504, and I do say a lot! But can I demonstrate any real development of thought on any one topic? I feel that we have had so much to cover that it's been a bit like one of those tours where they say, "If it's Monday, then this must be Paris!". Except I'm saying, "If it's week 5 this must be 'negotiation'!".

I hope that you see my point. I'm saying that we have moved so quickly through so many different topics, that I'm finding it hard to chart my development on any particular topic.

I'm sure that I must have learned something! I just have to capture that learning and get it down onto paper.

Complexity and the Change Process

Fullan, M. (1999). Complexity and the change process. In Change Forces: The sequel (pp. 13-30). London: Falmer Press.

An organisation can be thought of as a living system. It changes and grows over time, and cannot be assembled in one single act of creation or change. It is one thing to see an innovation up and running, but quite another to get there in your own organisation.

One of the most important aspects of change and innovation is knowledge creation. An organisation creates knowledge by finding the sources of knowledge and disseminating it throughout the organisation.

We should be inspired by the mandates and vision that comes from above. Top-down mandates and bottom-up energies need each other. Success comes when initiatives combine accountability (from above) with the development of individual capacity (at the bottom).

We should make sure that any initiatives combine sound pedagogical theory with explicit strategies for change. The local context is a crucial variable.

Differences and conflict, if respected, help us learn more and have creative breakthroughs. Sharing of tacit (hidden) knowledge among individuals with different backgrounds, ideas, values, and perceptions is a vital first step.

"Small groups of self-selected reformers apparently seldom influence their peers." (Elmore, 1995, p. 20)

Organisations going through change are complex almost to the point of chaos. Allow for flexibility within a structure of priorities, targets, deadlines and responsibilities. Create opportunities and processes for communication within the organisation.

High quality interconnectedness and emotional support allows collaborative cultures to keep tackling hard problems.

In education, there are so many new policies, innovations and competing pressures, that unconnectedness becomes a problem. Principals are essential as integrators and synthesisers. What is important is to create procedures for making meaning from tacit knowledge to bring it into the open to be shared. Also important is to create ways to integrate or connect each now opportunity with the organisations central focus.

Doing the Happy Dance!

Hooray! I have submitted my ETL501 pathfinder-and-critical-analysis assignment.

Now I have to get my head back into ETL504 to finish off my Portfolio (sounds fancy, but it's really just a multi-part assignment).

While flicking through yesterday's (Sunday) paper over lunch, I was reading my favourite column, Sarah Wilson's This Week I... in which she describes her ongoing experimental journey, trying anything and everything to make life more meaningful, happier, sweeter. I really enjoy her column, because I too want to make my life more meaningful, happier and sweeter. And a lot of the things that she tries are things that I might like to try too.

Anyway, for a while now I've been wishing that she blogged, because I think her blog would be one I'd like to read, and voila! Follow this link to check it out.

It's nice when something that you wish for happens!

As for ETL504, I'm getting my head around development in leadership theory, and how they might relate to the role of the teacher librarian. There's plenty to get my teeth stuck into!

I had a lovely break from the angst of uni assignments today. I had a lunch date with some girls that I went to high school with (we finished 20 years ago!), their husbands, and children. We had lunch in a nice, upmarket hotel not far from where we grew up. It has been updated quite a bit since our high school days of underage drinking! Now it has a lovely family-friendly bistro with an indoor play area for kids.

It's always great to catch up with the girls, we make sure that we "do lunch" about four times a year. But it had been ages since we'd caught up with all the kids. Of course everyone sees their own kids every day, and doesn't always realise just how much they've grown since the others saw them last. But with cries of "look how big they are!", we all admired each other's children!

Josh was thrilled not to be overrun with girls for once (he has lots of girl cousins!), at five boys to three girls the boys were in the majority. We hardly saw him all afternoon - the play area and the other boys kept him occupied. It was a little bit harder for Alana, at eleven she was the oldest child, and officially too old for the play area (designated for children up to 10). She did go in a few times with the younger girls, but couldn't quite stand up inside it and had to stoop a little! Poor thing!

Now I'm back home and back to work. I feel like the last couple of readings that I'm plowing through are finally getting to the heart of the matter. ETL504 is called "Teacher Librarian as Leader", and I finally feel like I'm understanding what this subject is getting at. Better late than never. I just hope that I can translate what I'm learning into assignment gold!

Lambert, L. (1998). What is Leadership Capacity? In Building Leadership Capacity in Schools (pp. 1-9). Alexandra: ASCD.

This article adds to the ideas explored in the last one by Hargreaves & Fink. It too, is concerned with how to maintain the momentum of change and improvement in schools beyond the tenure of any particular leader. It too explores the idea of leadership being shared among the school community rather than residing in one person.

Lambert explores the idea that a school must create its own internal responsibility for direction in order to maintain momentum and stay afloat. A significant number of teachers (presumably ideally all of them) should understand and be committed to the shared vision and central work of the school. This understanding will involve more than just knowledge about the innovation or program, but also leadership skills including the ability to capture the imagination of colleagues, negotiate changes and tackle conflicts.

This broadens the traditional concept of leadership into a shared endeavour of a community as they work towards a shared purpose. It is about learning together and creating shared meaning, generating ideas together, reflecting and having conversations. These conversations will lead to plans, strategies, responsibilities and continuous feedback and improvement.

Lambert suggests that it is important to use action research to generate information about how well students are learning. Then it is important to compare beliefs and expectations with the results of the research. This comparison is where a dialogue begins to work out strategies for the implementation of innovations. And once implementation is underway, the talking shouldn't stop. Teachers should continually tie what they are doing in the classroom to the shared purpose of the school.

These conversations can only take place in an environment of trusting relationships.

Now what, you may ask, does the picture at the top of this post have to do with the content?

Hargreaves, A. & Fink, D. (2003). Sustaining Leadership. Phi Delta Kappan, 84(9), 693-700.

"the vast majority of educational change that deepens learning and allows everyone to benefit from it neither spreads nor lasts." (Hargreaves & Fink, 2003, p. 694)

Sad, but true.

What makes educational improvement sustainable?

Sustainable improvement demands committed relationships. It contributes to the growth and the good of everyone. It requires investment in building long-term capacity for improvement, and creates an environment that stimulates ongoing improvement. To make changes that last, improvement must truly foster learning, not merely change schooling. It must be supported by available resources. And it must not negatively affect others.

The question is: How can leaders ensure that changes in their schools are sustainable improvements?

School leaders must make sure that their central focus is on learning. They must maintain this central focus even in the face of competing pressures that pull their attention away from it. Long-term improvement matters more than short-term results, and true learning will be reflected in higher test scores and the like in the future.

The overwhelming demands of leadership can only be met by using everyone's intelligence and skills. Distributed leadership is more than mere delegation. It means creating a culture of initiative where all teachers are encouraged to propose new directions and innovations. Leadership can not rest on the shoulders of the heroic few.

Leaders must make plans to ensure that their improvements do not disappear when they leave. They must put processes and structures in place to ensure some continuity beyond the scope of their own leadership.

I think one of the most important points that this article makes is about the relationship of resources with the sustainability of change. There is no point making grand plans for change if you don't have the available resources for it. There is no point spending all your money on initiating change, if you don't have any money left for ongoing maintainence of it. Any plans for school improvements should be made with the available resources (time, money, staff etc) firmly in the picture.

Henri, J. (1994). Thinking leadership: What place vision? School Libraries in Canada, 14, 12-14.

"Vision becomes the life blood of leadership when it is shared." (Henri, 1994, p.12)

"The art of leadership can be seen as the ability to influence people to strive willingly for the attainment of group goals." (Henri, 1994, p.12) Or, to strive willingly to attain the vision.

Thus leadership, in the exercising of influence, involves the use of power.

Henri considers four types of power. Types one (the authority of position) and two (factional self interest) are often preferred because they are uncomplicated and effective in the short term. But it is types three (technical expertise or knowledge) and four (the ability to empower others) which Henri says have long term benefits.

Leaders who are able to identify obstacles to the attainment of the vision, and are able to harness technical expertise to overcome these obstacles, are demonstrating type three power.

Leaders wo are able to shape and focus the motives and goals of group members, and contribute to their personal growth, are demonstrating type four power.

Leaders who employ type three and four power then work through the following steps:

1. Work with the group to develop the vision.

2. Work with the group to overcome short term barriers to the vision.

3. Provides the resources and strategies to enable the group to overcome persisting barriers.

Within schools, the environment is characterised by multiple problems, constant change and often contradictory pressures. In this environment, leaders must work to encourage flexibility so that group members can employ alternative strategies . Leaders should also harness the power of collaborative problem solving.

This last sentence is, I think, an important point. Why have each member of staff work independently, with varying degrees of success, to overcome similar problems. Why not combine energy to work together to solve these problems. Teachers shouldn't be isolated in their classroom trying to work towards a vision that they have little connection with. Instead, teachers should work together to not only define and refine the vision, but work on strategies to work towards it.

Leadership and Strategy

Cheng, Y.C. (2002). Leadership and Strategy. In T. Bush & L. Bell (Eds.) The Principles and Practice of Educational Management (pp.51-69). London: Paul Chapman Publishing.

Today I am working on my ETL504 assignment. I have decided to alternate on the two assignments from day to day. A bit schizophrenic? Maybe so, but it's working for me so far. I don't allow myself to get too bogged down on one or the other, and I avoid having one that is excellent while the other not even started.

The rationale of the 504 assignment is to provide me with an opportunity to document my progress towards the learning objectives of the course, which are primarily concerned with organisational and leadership theory, strategic planning, and communication, collaboration and teamwork.

I have discovered a couple of readings that I have somehow missed along the way, so I'm making sure that I get totally up to date.

Reading 7, Leadership and Strategy, is an overview of leadership theory in the context of educational organisations. Cheng contrasts traditional leadership theories with transformational leadership, strategic leadership, and organisational learning.

Traditional leadership theories focus on management techniques and interpersonal skills. They assume that the goals of an organisation are a given, and encourage leaders to adapt their behaviour to circumstances to work towards these goals.

A transformational perspective sees the leader as not only adapting to circumstances, but transforming them, working to shape organisation members' beliefs, values and attitudes. Organisational goals, rather than being fixed, are seen as ambiguous in a changing environment. The leader is not only focused on goal achievement, but also on goal development and organisational culture building.

See p. 58 for a table that outlines the different domains and dimensions of this kind of leadership, covering everything from "Motivate members to love students and education and have a strong passion to pursue excellence in teaching and learning" to "Interpret the conflicts in a constructive way and value the importance of win-win solution".

Cheng then goes on to discuss the challenges for leaders in a climate of debate over educational quality and reform of educational practice. See p. 61 for a table that summarises different strategies for achieving education quality, including "Encourage participation and promote social interactions and positive classroom and institutional climate" and "Establish a strategic plan for institutional development".

Strategic management in educational organisations is becoming a necessity in a rapidly changing environment. Strategic leadership can be seen as leadership that allows the strategic management process, which keeps the organisation continually improving and developing, to work efficiently.

The changing educational environment is also leading to an emphasis on organisational learning. The essential question is how can leadership facilitate teachers' continuous reflection on actions and learing to improve their teaching and daily practice?

So what have I learned from this reading. It is a very hard task to do leadership well. Like many things, to do just a so-so job is not too hard, but to do it right takes commitment. I wonder how many of these leadership domains and dimensions are intuitive for experienced leaders? They may not be able to articulate exactly what they're doing and why, but I think a lot of Principals are aware of the pressures on schools and teachers, and instinctively know that they have to do more than just say "mush! mush!" and keep everyone's nose to the grindstone. They have to make what happens within schools a meaningful experience for both staff and students.

Stay tuned for more exciting instalments in "the wonderful world of ETL504".

Avoiding work with...more work.

Needing a break from my ETL504 assignment, I've started working on my second ETL501 assignment. Yes, I am a bit weird!

For ETL501 I have to create an electronic pathfinder - "a tool used by teacher librarians to create an annotated list of relevant, mediated resources for a specified group of students on a curriculum related topic". I also need to write a critical reflection of the process of creating the pathfinder. So prepare to hear a lot about how I'm going with my pathfinder!

What have I done so far? My first step was to choose a curriculum related topic. My background is as a mathematics teacher, so for my earlier assignment I evaluated mathematics websites related to graphing. For the record, I believe that maths teachers rely far to heavily on the old "chalk and talk" and the good old textbook. Far fewer people would say "I'm no good at maths" or "I hate maths" if we broadened the range of resources and teaching and learning activities for maths. But for this assignment I'd like to try working with a different subject area.

I've been looking at the Science syllabus for Stages 4 and 5 (Years 7 - 10). I'd like to try something related to either 4.9.3 the structure of the Earth, 4.9.4 the atmosphere, 4.9.5 the hydrosphere, or 4.9.6 the lithosphere. It sounds interesting to me, and I can see the potential for relating the content to current environmental issues. I did a quick search using the keyword "earth science" on the NSW State Library online catalogue, and there seem to be plenty of print resources with potential. I've also found Geology.com , which seems like a good place to start in terms of electronic resources. So I'm on my way!

Secondly, I had to decide on a platform to use to create my pathfinder. I've started something on pbworks, but don't get too excited. So far all it has is a heading. My pathfinder will be a wiki - perfect for a teacher librarian wanting to work collaboratively with teachers.

So that's as far as I've gotten so far, and if you know of any fabulous resources relating to earth sciences, then let me know!

From
Savage, W. (1989). Communication: Process and Problems. In C.Riches & C.Morgan (Eds.), Human resource management in education (pp. 103-119). Open University Press.

• Communication is necessary to coordinate effort
• the process of communication includes the message, the encoding and decoding process, and the means of communication
• some communication is unintentional- especially personality and behaviour
• much of what we communicate is evaluative
• within an organisation communication must include upward as well as downward flow
• the problem of ‘filtering’ can be solved by ensuring that ethics are adhered to and admission of mistakes is seen as a mark of professionalism
• informed and involved people as less susceptible to rumours.

From

Mackay, H. (1998). Resolving conflict through listening. In The good listener: Better relationships through better communication (pp. 189-199). Sydney: Pan Macmillan.

• conflict is not always bad
• resolving conflict requires good communication skills and a commitment to ensure that the conflict is not allowed to damage relationships
• both parties must want resolution and be prepared to compromise
• active listening and restating the other’s point of view ensures that both sides are being heard, the sting will be taken out of the argument so that cooperative discussion can take place.

From

Cohen, S. (2002). The seven pillars of negotiational wisdom. In Negotiating skills for managers (pp. 171-187). New York: McGraw-Hill.

• preparation is the foundation to negotiation
• understand the value of your ongoing relationship with your negotiating partner
• understand your own and the other party’s interests clearly
• know your BATNA (best alternative to a negotiated agreement) and keep an eye on it during the negotiation
• think outside the box for creative solutions
• treat everyone fairly
• make sure both parties are committed to coming to an agreement
• communicate with transparency which builds trust
• listen carefully and demonstrate with your communication style that you respect the other party and are committed to a good result.

For the second part of my assignment, I have to evaluate how well I did during the group work at communicating and collaborating. The Mackay and Cohen articles relate mostly to confict, which I'm glad to say we just didn't have in our group. I wasn't required to use any negotiating or conflict resolution skills, at least not overtly. Conflict implies to me open disagreement, while negotiation makes me think of competing interests compromising to reach an agreement. Neither of those scenarios existed during my group work experience.

Some reflections on information services and group work assignments.

I have been working through Topic 5 of ETL501 Information Services to Staff and Students. There hasn't been much action on the forum yet, but I want to put my thoughts down 'on paper' before they fall out of my head!

In the introduction of the topic was a very depressing statement: "But TLs know that the demand for their services can never be met, particularly in a school where the TL is the only information professional available and this can lead to frustration." You think???

I'm not sure if I want to do a job that is impossible! A job where it is impossible to succeed, if you want to measure success as providing the service that you are employed to provide. I don't think my personality is very well suited to doing a job where I can never meet demand. I know in my heart that I would be in danger of working harder and harder thinking that somehow, if I just worked hard enough, I'd be able to do it.

The first question that I am asked to consider is to list three key factors which a teacher librarian needs to take into account before offering information services.

1. What does the school hope/expect to get from the library? What services will fit with the school's agenda?

2. What resources do you have to play with (including time, staff and money)?

3. Are there any special considerations in terms of the particular school context that need to be taken into account?

The next question is in regard to a particular service that the teacher librarian might provide - pathfinders. These are lists of resources for particular topics, a bit like annotated bibliographies. Valenza, at http://informationfluency.wikispaces.com/Ten+reasons+why+your+next+pathfinder+should+be+a+wiki

discusses why she thinks wikis are the way to go. I can sum up her argument for you: Because wikis can be edited. They are flexible ("splendidly organic") and can be collaborative ("Imagine all the people, building pathfinders together. You may say I'm a dreamer...").

Another service that the librarian might provide is "selective disseminated information" or "current awareness". This is the process by which the librarian keeps on top of all new literature and developments in education, and circulates relevant information to teachers. It's starting to be very clear why the teacher librarian is so frustrated - one teeny tiny part of their job involves staying abreast of all new literature and developments in education, for the benefit of their colleagues.

I'll save the rest of Topic 5 for another day...

So - how's my group work assignment going - I hear you wondering! Good. It's finally coming together, and not a moment too soon, as it's due on Monday! We have all, separately and collectively, worked hard and made good contributions. Now we just have to pull it all together to be ready for submission.

My group members have been easy to work with - no complaints there. I've started doing some reading on factors that make for successful teamwork and collaboration, in preparation for the second part of the assignment. (I know - as if it wasn't enough to produce a powerpoint presentation on a proposed professional article, we also have to write an annotated bibliography with at least eight references that heavily influenced our presentation, and rate our performance as a communicator, collaborator and team member using authentic criteria that we have written after considering the professional literature!) Something that keeps coming up is the fact that the task needs to be well designed, and there must be support and leadership shown by the instructor who has set the task. Interesting...

I don't think our task was well defined, and the goal posts seemed to keep moving day by day as new emails were sent out by the lecturers giving new requirements. Suddenly there were specific word limits and font sizes for slides, could we site six references or more?, did we have to say which journal we were writing for or not?, what exactly constitutes a professional reference?, and by the way - you have to submit a log of your collaboration efforts with the assignment. Totally exhausting! There doesn't seem to be a section in the assignment for evaluating the perfomance of the teaching staff though, what a pity!

A Manifesto for the School...Are we taking over the world?

Beare, H. (2001). Building a manifesto for the school as a provider. In Creating the future school (pp.113-127). London: Routledge/Falmer.

Some chapter titles are more scary than others...

"Make your own and the school's objectives explicit, simple, and crystal clear." (Beare, 2001, p. 113)

This chapter deals with the issue of how to organise the school to ensure that it achieves its core goals. It discusses the use of school charters, in which an agreement is made between a school and the Education Department covering:

• the school's current profile and underlying philosophy
• the school's curriculum and learning program (including targets)
• the school's learning environment
• the school's accountability
• the school's management
• the school's resources

This document includes what the school is now like, what is stands for as an institution, what its priorities are, what criteria it will be assessed on, and how each of its functioning parts are to be made to conform with its vision statement. This document could also be called a strategic plan.

School charters or strategic plans should help a school to be more specific about its intentions, more efficient and effective, and more accountable for educational outcomes.

The quality of learning outcomes should rank above all other considerations.

The steps to take in writing such a document include:

1. draw a profile of the school as it is at present
2. compose a vision statement for the school
3. bring the school's objectives, priorities and budget in line with the vision

The fundamental principles of the school's vision must be translated into a practical plan of action. Each objective will be written as a set of implementation strategies with targets and performance indicators to measure progress. The responsibility with coming up with 'winning tactics' is entrusted to the teaching staff, as long as they are consistent with the overall strategy. A useful technique is determining where we want to be, then working out where we need to be at intermediate points along the way in order to achieve the ultimate objective.

When the document is complete, it should ensure that everything within the school conforms with the vision, the objectives, and with the detailed plan. Everyone in the school is working toward the same goals and is on the same page. Anything that falls outside the agreed goals and priorities is not given resources.

What is not said in this chapter, but is obvious to me, is that for this to work, the whole school must participate and have ownership of the vision, objectives and plans of the school. Without this, there is either a dictatorship, or anarchy.

Are your eyes glazed over yet?

Welch, L. (2006). Groundwork: the situation analysis. In the other 51 weeks: A marketing handbook for librarians (pp. 25-43). Wagga Wagga: Centre for Information Studies.

This article looks at planning for the library from a marketing point of view.

Good marketing relies on making the client paramount in our considerations. We can think of our (the library's) client as the school itself, or our clients as our students and teachers. I think we probably need to look at it both ways.

The SWOT technique helps us to analyse our current situation:
S - strengths
W - weaknesses (clients go elsewhere) This is quite an issue for a school library. How many students or teachers search independently for information or reading material at home on the internet or at the public library etc.
O - opportunities (new trends to be capitalised on) This also seems quite applicable to the school library scenario. Often by the time schools get new technologies, they are not so new anymore!
T - threats (things that effect the library's ability to deliver) Again very relevant. Budget and staffing shortfalls are obvious threats, as is the necessity for teacher librarians to be scheduled for RFF.

The library's goals must be consistent with the school (of course). The 'success' of the library depends on its performance being recognised within the context of the goals of the school.

Schools with a strong culture have clear identifiable values. Unfortunately some schools have struggled with change and have not got a clear vision or mission. A mission statement should be brief, distinctive, enthusing and realistic. It should state the basic philosophy and purpose of the organisation. It should include both an opportunity and a statement of commitment.

Changes in technology, legislation, and social trends (etc) can change the organisational environment in which the library operates. The school itself must cope with these changes too.

In order to honestly appraise the current performance of the library, we must:
* List the client groups that the library serves and identify their real needs.
* List the current services and products provided.
* Identify the true cost of these services.
* Identify who uses the services.
* Ask 'What is the gap between what our clients want and what we offer?'.
* Consider what should be retained, what should be modified and what should be discontinued.
* Ask 'What new offerings could we develop?'.

To transform rhetoric to action: translate the mission statement into specific objectives, then make goals which are quantifiable and state who, what when and how. Finally, decide on how resources will be allocated to meet the different goals.

Re-reading what I have written, there's a bit of this and a bit of that here. It all makes sense to me. I think though, that teachers and others working in schools are often so overworked and rushed that they seldom can take time to think through issues like this in a systematic way. I think they could relate to the cry, "We don't have time to do it properly!" The next challenge is to work out how to make the time to do it properly.

Are we there yet?

Reading, reading, reading,
Thinking, thinking, thinking,
Writing, writing, writing,
But what am I learning?

Davies, B.J. & Davies, B. (2005). The strategic dimensions of leadership. In B. Davies, L. Ellison & C. Bowring-Carr (Eds.), School leadership in the 21st century: Developing a strategic approach (2nd ed.) (pp.7-16). London & New York: Routledge Falmer.

Strategic leaders have the following characteristics:
1. They can link long-range visions to daily work.
2. They can translate strategy into action.
3. They can identify the projects to be undertaken to get where they want to go.
4. They are able to align people and unify organisations.
5. They can influence people and direct their actions through goals.
6. They can determine the critical moments when interventions will be able to develop new visions and/or strategies.
7. They have the insight to know when to do something as well as what to do.
8. They know it is important to help people to develop deeper capabilities and understandings to enable them to meet new challenges long term.
9. They have a sense of dissatisfaction or restlessness with the present, being able to see the 'leap' that they want to take.
10. They have the capacity to absorb, learn and to create an organisation which supports learning.
11. They are able to adapt as required and respond flexibly.
12. They are opportunistic and proactive.
13. They have leadership wisdom - a balance of various intelligences, personal values and the ability to resolve conflicts.

Don't these strategic leaders sound wonderful?!?

A School Without a Principal

This picture has abolutely nothing to do with this post. I just think it's cool!

This next article seems to be the perfect antidote to my last post about lack of leadership in my group work assignment team.

Barnett, D., McKowen, C. & Bloom, G. (1998). A school without a principal. Educational Leadership, 55(7), 48-49.

This article is the personal reflections of teachers working at Anzar High School in California. The school uses a team leadership model, and considers its 'Communication Guidelines' to be the centre of the school culture.

These guidelines include:
* Commitment to practicing good communication.
* Collectively owning problems and collectively solving them. This means that teachers are learning to anticipate problems that would not always be apparent to teachers. They commit to the idea that the needs of the school outweigh the needs of individual teachers or of the teachers as a group.
* Allowing conflict and being accountable for speaking up.
* Commitment to help and support others.
* Commitment to honesty.

The teachers sing the praises of their school team leadership model. They concede that it is challenging, but they truly believe that it works.

I wonder how many teachers would enjoy working in this type of school? I wonder how it will go in the long term?

And I wonder if there is anything in this that can be applied to my own experiences. Mu first impression is that this sort of teamwork is time consuming and takes quite a while to become established. Not ideal for a short term team with a deadline.

So, a bit more reflection on teamwork is in order. Last night my assignment group had a chat session to consolidate what we had individually managed in terms of the group task. It wasn't the most successful group session.

Firstly, it's hard to multi-task when you're using a chat facility. If you're talking via skype, you can be scanning a website or document on the screen or digging up an article from the pile on your desk, but when you're 'chatting' you need most of your attention trained on reading and typing. That was an issue for us, as someone would seem to drop off the earth for a while, but it was just that they were loading a new document onto google docs, or editing the powerpoint. It was virtually impossible to do two things at once.

The good news is, I learnt something new! I now know how to split my screen in two so that I can have the chat on one half, and another page open on the other half. Yay for me!

Secondly, I'm starting to feel the frustration building amongst the team members. Just little things, but I'm not feeling the love, the way I was when we began! I get the impression that a couple of people are trying really hard to play nice and get along!

In my most recent post about team work, I briefly considered the idea of leadership, noted that our group didn't have a leader, and wondered if we needed one. Well, I think we would be more effective with a leader, but I also think that it is impossible to have one in our case. I don't think anyone would want one of the group to take on that role. So it's not going to happen.

My next reading:

Beck, J. & Yeager, N. (1994). Making teams work: An underused window of opportunity. In The leader's window: Mastering the four styles of leadership to build high-performing teams (pp. 183-206). New York: John Wiley & Sons.

Why do teams sometimes fail? We have a culture of individualism. If a teamwork exercise is injected into an organisation which doesn't have structures to support teamwork, the 'team' is a gimmick, rather than something that is integrated with the daily workplace. I can relate...

How can teams succeed? Those in charge of leading teams must learn skills to make their team work. and if you don't have a leader...

Each team goes through developmental stages.
1. Forming
Group members need to know: 'Why we are here?' and 'What's my piece of the action?'.
Communication in this stage should be mostly downward from the leader to the group members. The leader should provide information, clear directions and complete explanations.
Our group is still trying to do this bit without a clear leader.
2. Focusing
This stage centres on buy-in and ownership. Structures, procedures and norms are established here. The leader should encourage questions, ideas and input, and facilitate communication. A lot of the communication at this stage should be upward, from team members to the leader.
Our group provides opportunities to communicate and add ideas and input, but we go around in circles a lot because we don't have a leader.
3. Performing
This stage is characterised by productivity. Group members need responsibility, the opportunity to use their knowledge and skills, and feedback and recognition of their efforts.
We are trying to be productive...
4. Leveling
The group needs a catalyst for change to refocus on new goals. The leader can give group members the opportunity to share in the problem solving process to re-clarify roles and the mission of the team.
Our group will never get to this stage, as we will disband once the assignment is done. (Please Roy, if you read this, I don't really want you to do this, but I think we'd learn a lot more if we were forced to keep our groups and continue to work on more projects.)

So, my main observation from this reading is that our group would perform much better with a leader. Hmmmm.

Reflections on Teamwork

Law, S. & Glover, D. (2000). Leading Effective Teams. In Educational leadership and learning: Practice, policy and research (pp. 71-86). Buckingham: Open University Press.

Law and Glover relate teamwork and the leadership of effective teams to the educational (school) context. I am going to consider the article from the point of view of one who is currently working in a team. How is our group for assignment 1 going? Can I see any pointers towards success or failure in this article?

A team is a group that is deliberately constructed for a particular purpose. Well, that's certainly true of us! We've been thrown together to:

1. Complete a set task (assignment 1A) which is a powerpoint presentation including the purpose and audience of our article, an abstract of our article, and a list of references.

2. Demonstrate our ability to collaborate on a task, communicate with one another, and 'team build'.

3. Provide us with opportunities and experiences in collaboration, communication and teamwork that we can later reflect on for assignment 1B.

The benefits of working in a team include:

• help/support
• coordinates activities
• generates commitment
• meets human need for belonging
• identifies learning needs
• provides learning opportunities
• enhances communication
• enhances working environment

So how does our team stack up? I think that completing the task of assignment 1A as a group, rather than individually, definitely provides help/support, identifies learning needs and provides learning opportunities. We share ideas, insights, helpful resources we have found and other knowledge. And if we didn't have such a DEADLINE to worry about, I would say that it definitely makes our work more "satisfying, stimulating and enjoyable" (Law & Glover, p. 73). But our group is 'artificial', in that we are not people working together in an organisation that have formed a team. In that case, I can see how a team approach would enhance communication and coordinate activities. It doesn't really apply in our case. How about the idea of generating commitment? I'm pretty sure that we're all pretty committed to passing our assignment! Are we more committed out of a sense of responsibility to the group? Lastly, the human need for belonging? I'm pretty sure that we're all having that need met outside our uni studies...

Law & Glover discuss the development of teams. Team members face issues along the road to team cohesion including "Am I part of this group?", "What degree of influence do I have in this group?", "What is the level of intimacy in this group?", and "Does the group like and accept me?". Often a team goes through the developmental phases of 'forming', 'storming', 'norming' and 'performing' (finally 'adjourning'). Teams may not work effectively if they haven't worked through their issues, resolved their leadership, or clearly defined their purpose, mission and objectives.

And here's where our group (and all the others grappling with this assignment) will have troubles. Firstly, we just don't have time for our team to develop. We need to go rapidly from 'forming' to 'performing', with very little time for us to overcome our worries about influence, acceptance and intimacy, or work through our objectives to come to a shared understanding. Secondly, leadership? What leadership? We have been thrown together as four equals. Do we have a leader? Do we need a leader? Will we each take on the leadership role at different times?

Next Law & Glover talk about conformity within teams. The team environment tends to push members towards conformity. Firstly, we use the other group members beliefs, attitudes and opinions to validate our own views, and secondly, we want to be liked and accepted. Is this dynamic at work in our group? Well certainly we're using our fellow group members as sounding boards to refine our own ideas about the task. "What do you think this means?", "Are we expected to...?", "I think...what do you think?", are examples of our discussions. I'm sure that at least a little part of us also wants to be liked and accepted, but I think more important is the fact that we are working to such a short deadline. This puts pressure on us to conform purely for the purpose of 'getting on with it'. Too much questioning and disagreeing wastes too much precious time that we could be using on the task itself.

I found the table on p. 81 of the Glover & Law article particularly interesting. It was adapted from the work of Belbin. It lists the different roles that can be undertaken by individuals working in a team and some of the characteristics, strengths and weaknesses of each role. For example, the 'Innovator' is a serious-minded individual who synthesises new ideas. While he/she has imagination, intellectual ability and creativity, he/she tends to prefer ideas over people, and can disregard practical issues. Fascinating stuff!

There is an increasing emphasis on teamwork in the field of school effectiveness. It seems that classroom relationships and management approaches reflect the larger school culture of relationships and management. And student learning outcomes are effected by student-teacher relationships.

Lastly, Glover & Law suggest some traps that teams can fall into which diminish their effectiveness:

• emphasising tasks over process
• too much discussion and not enough problem-solving action
• too little celebration of achievement (must not fall into this one!!!)
• too much reactive behaviour and not enough proactive thinking
• not enough development of team skills and behaviour

All in all, much food for thought.

Collaboration, Communication and Teamwork

These guys look like they're having fun, don't they? It's good to do things with a friend!

This semester I have a group work assignment. I wasn't feeling too enthusiastic, to be honest. It isn't that I don't like working with other people...nothing like that! It's just that I know how hard it is for me to fit in my uni study with all my other responsibilities. I know it is exactly the same for my fellow group workers. So I guess I worried that we would find it hard to coordinate our free time, and I also hated the thought of holding up other people's work by being too slow.

Another issue is the fact that we instinctively prioritise the group work above our other work so that we don't inconvenience the others, and then end up falling behind in other areas. It's hard to find the correct balance. Also, we tend to bend over backwards to be helpful and 'make it work', so to speak, rather than being able to just selfishly plow ahead on our own agenda.

So, anyway, how is it going so far? I'm glad you asked...

We have settled on a topic! Hooray! Greg is going to run it by our lecturer to get the go-ahead, but we're pretty happy with it. "Improving Student Learning by Aligning Information Services with the School's Mission Statement." Sounds impressive, huh?

Our skype conference call was a bit of a dud. We just couldn't seem to have all of us talking together and being able to all hear each other, and we weren't exactly sure what the problem was. Since we had all set aside the time to talk, and we really needed to settle on a topic, we used the chat room on our group work site instead. Linda and Greg helpfully updated our wiki so that we had a record of everything we discussed.

So now we're moving ahead on getting some resources together before our next chat on Wednesday night. It's great that we're making progress, but I must admit that because I'll want to make a good showing on Wed with the others, it will put pressure on my ability to do any other uni work. My other subject's first assigment will be suffering. There just aren't enough hours in the day, and I'm so talented at wasting time!

Anyway, onward and upward...

Hough, M. & Paine, J. (1997). Collaborative decision making with teams. (pp. 110-127). In Creating quality learning communities. South Melbourne: Macmillan.

Did not find this reading nearly as exciting as the last one!

This reading develops the idea of 'collaborative decision making' which is an open system where knowledge and power is shared. The decision making is undertaken by a team which is genuinely representative of all stakeholders.

The authors name a 'lead learning team', which writes the strategic plan for the school and projects outcomes in line with the shared vision and beliefs of the school. They then go on to write the annual management plan, detailing particular outcomes and strategies.

A 'task learning team', in contrast, is established to address a particular system within the school, and make recommendations to the principal in regard to implementation of their decisions. This approach leads to 'roving leadership', where any member of the school community is empowered to play a leadership role.

A Six Step Approach to Decision Making

Harvey, T.R., Bearley, W.L. & Corkrum, S.M. (2001). Core steps in decision making. In The practical decision maker: A handbook for decision making and problem solving in organisations. (pp. 17-34). Lanham & London: The Scarecrow Press.

I really enjoyed this reading. It made a lot of sense to me. It describes a six step process for approaching 'problems' in an organisation.

1. Mind set

I love this bit! Change your language to call the problem an 'opportunity' or a 'challenge', or even a 'situation that needs attention'. This will get you in the right head space for creative thinking.

Also, know your context. An organisation with a clear sense of vision and mission has a firm foundation on which to make decisions. Is that your circumstance? A trusting and supportive environment is more conducive to group problem solving. Does that describe your organisation? What are the parameters, or 'givens' of the situation, such as resources or legal requirements, which may effect decision making? Who are the 'stakeholders' in the situation? Are there any potential conflicts?

2. Problem Definition

There must be a clear understanding of the 'problem' by all stakeholders. You may need to determine the gap between expectations and existing conditions, clearly define a new opportunity, clearly define a new outcome, or set clear goals to move towards a vision.

3. Solution Criteria

This is a new idea for me, and I can clearly see its value. Here you must come up with a list of criteria that describe a 'good solution', including both MUST and SHOULD criteria.

4. Possible Solutions

Generate as many possible solutions as you can, and determine any consequences they have.

DO NOT MAKE ANY JUDGEMENTS AT THIS STAGE!!!

5. Solution Choice

Evaluate the possible choices against the solution criteria that you have written. This is wonderful - you have a clear and unbiased way of evaluating solutions! Your best solutions satisfy all of the MUST criteria, most of the SHOULD criteria, and have the fewest consequences. You may have to combine two or more ideas, or even 'go back to the drawing board'.

6. Implementation

Identify the steps required to implement the solution, the resources required, who will do what, and how progress will be measured.

After this process has been worked through, you should evaluate both the solution itself, to see if it is working, and the decision making process. Also, see if the solution is applicable to any other 'problems'.

As I said, to me this is a straightforward and practical process to put in place. What do you think?

What is Quality Management in Education or Quality Learning

From

Tribus, M. (n.d.) Quality Management in Education. Haywood, California: Author. Retrieved August 5, 2009 from http://deming-network.org/qmgt_inedu.pdf

What is the aim of applying quality management to education?

• to enhance the productivity of teachers
• to allow teachers and students to find greater joy in their work
• to ensure that students are more likely to make a positive contribution to society when they leave school

What is quality management?

It is a new, or different way of approaching the task of managing an organisation which endeavours to:

• harmonise the efforts of all players
• help workers to approach tasks with enthusiasm
• help workers to participate in work improvement
• change the relationship between managers and workers
• take a 'systems view' of things
• connect the organisations processes to its mission/purpose
• provide every member with opportunities for personal growth/development
• allow workers to be active, creative contributors
• constantly innovate and improve
• ensure that the interests of the workers and the greater good are served simultaneously
• help managers to create a nurturing environment, acting as mentors and facilitators
• shape a favourable future despite inevitable external change
• encourage teamwork
• encourage shared values and knowledge of the mission

This, to me, sounds like utopia! Things that have been missing for me in my work experiences are nurturing, mentors, a shared vision/purpose/mission, being encouraged to pursue personal growth, being encouraged to contribute creatively, and teamwork.

Principle 1 The people work in a system. The job of the manager is to work on the system, to improve it continuously, with their help.

Unfortunately, school systems are rarely interested in hearing suggestions for improvement from their teachers, and teachers don't always want to receive feedback on their teaching from students. Rather than specific, personal criticism, what is needed is a definition of what a quality experience would be.

Principle 2 Quality is never your problem. Quality improvement is the answer to your problem. Whatever the problem, begin by asking the question, "What does it mean to solve this problem with quality?" Then proceed to make your decision by putting quality first.

Quality is about how the teaching and learning experience unfolds. Students should be encouraged to discuss "Why am I here?", "What am I trying to do?", "What can the teacher do to help?", "How will we know when we're doing it?".

Principle 3 If you want to improve the product, put your attention on the process whereby the product is made.

It's obvious: if you want to improve students' achievements, concentrate on improving the teaching/learning process.

Principle 4 If you try to improve the performance of a system of people, procedures, practices and machines by setting goals and targets for the individual parts of the system, the system will defeat you every time and you will pay a price where you least expect it.

It's good to set goals for education, but don't use individual outcomes as the sole measure of success. Rather than test results, what should be foremost is ensuring that students increase their knowledge, know-how, wisdom and character. Different levels of competency should be defined for each aspect of learning, decided jointly with students. Teachers also need to help students to increase their autonomy, and develop the skills of defining problems and deciding what quality solutions are.

From Quality Learning Australia Pty Ltd. (2009). Principles of Quality Learning and Improvement. Retrieved August 5, 2009 from http://www.qla.com.au/pages/Principles.html

Quality Learning Australia also have a list of principles (12!).

1. People work in a system. Systems determine how an organisation and its people perform.
2. Shared purpose and a clear vision of excellence align effort.
3. Activities are components of processes. Improving systems and processes improves performance, relationships and behaviour.
4. Clients define quality and form perceptions.
5. Sustainability requires management of relationships with stakeholders.
6. Improvement is rarely achieved without the planned application of appropriate strategies and methods.
7. Knowledge and improvement are derived from theory, prediction, observation and reflection.
8. Facts and data are needed to measure progress and improve decision-making.
9. Systems and processes are subject to variation that affects predictability and performance.
10. Removing barriers to intrinsic motivation improves performance.
11. Change is a process not an event.
12. It is everybody's job to improve the systems and processes for which they are responsible by working with their people and role modelling these principles.

These principles are obviously more detailed that Tribus' four, but have the same flavour and general direction. Quality Learning Australia seems to have made an effort to be more concrete.

Streeton Primary School. (2000). The 12 quality principles. In G. Askew (Ed.), Q is for Quality (pp. 12-24). Yallambie, Victoria: Author.

This final article considers some examples of practical applications of the 12 quality principles. They are ordered, and expressed, a little differently than on the Quality Learning Australia website.

The examples include:

• All members of the school community know the key phrases used to identify the school. But, more importantly, they can explain the meaning behind these statements.
• Plans are documented. Everyone has access to them and understands them.
• A teacher listens as students talk about their needs, and uses tools to identify preferred modes of learning. Using this information the teacher and students develop individually orientated programs.
• Processes are in place to ensure the communication and recognition of ideas.
• Staff and students use a variety of tools to help with brainstorming, problem solving and decision making.
• The leadership team sets aside time to reflect on particular systems within the school, studying data and working on these systems to improve them.
• When difficulties arise, students and staff see them and their possible solutions in the light of the school's shared values and processes.

As I said at the beginning, utopia!