I have always been an admirer of people who can rise from failure. I seek to be honest in my self assessment and critique my own practices with a keen eye. I know that through this honesty improvements can be made.
After teaching in four schools in NZ and relieving in various schools in the UK, I believe that schools can be breeding grounds of comfort (read complacency). Failure is the nemesis of comfort - indeed it is uncomfortable (If it isn't then there is something seriously wrong!). 'Failing forward' is even more uncomfortable, as it involves facing failure head on and focusing on the reasons for failure as a means to evolution.
Although 'failing forward' is learning, and should come naturally for teachers, too often teachers can confuse their professional identities with their own beliefs of self worth and identity. This makes confronting professional failure all the more difficult.
If teachers were to be honest, we fail daily in our classrooms, and we can always be improving our practice. This is hard work and confronting, it is challenging and difficult. If it undertaken, it is worthwhile.
Another article read recently that focused on teacher observation as a form of PD. See it here on Luke Dyer's blog. At this school, all teachers were released on one day to teach a lesson infront of their peers (ie: each teacher takes a specific lesson infront of all other teachers in the school, before answering questions about their lesson, then repeat for each teacher). I think this is an amazingly effective way to both use the 'knowledge in the room' and to honestly improve (by failing forward) in a hopefully friendly and collegial environment. As was evidenced in Luke's blog, he seized the opportunity to be honest, to embrace the uncomfortable and learn, grow, develop - including effectively falling forward.
I know Reading Recovery teachers use a similar practice with their own peers each year, they describe the difficulty and reward involved in this process.
While some schools may not have the correct structure in place to run whole day PD sessions as described above, where all colleagues observe and question one another, I do think that school leaders have a huge responsibility to act in the right direction.
The right direction is striving to establish an environment where all staff develop the habit of honestly critiquing their own professional practices, observing and providing feedback to peers and embracing failure as a means to grow, develop and learn. Failing forward.
It is a truly amazing process and model for learning, as to be a teacher I believe that we need to also be a learner. The only problem that can occur is that when someone feels that they have been slighted by a comment, or a comment is not worded well.
ReplyDeleteI see that there are a few solutions to this...
1- clear guidelines as to comments and feedback or feedforward.
2- do it so often that you are 100% used to it and comfortable with your colleagues. You can learn so much from observing others and others can learn a lot from observing you.
3- Thirdly, and this could bypass the financial issue, is to choose an area of focus and then get each staff member to record a 5 minute clip of themselves in the chosen situation. If could be shared back with syndicates, teaching buddies or whole school.
The more we break down the walls of our classroom the better our teaching, and therefore our students learning, will be.
Thanks for your comments Luke, you are obviously from my school of thought that when a problem is raised - so too are solutions.
DeleteI like your third option, although it does come with its own difficulties (none of which are too big to overcome). Teachers recording their own practice could be a way to ease into the process, as the recording could be analysed first by the teacher themselves then as confidence and repetition come to the fore, others could be added into the process.
As I tried to say in my post, the key for me is that leaders in schools across the country embrace the uncomfortableness of such a task and commit to initiatives such as yours for the benefit of students and our future.