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by Rosa Say

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Peer to Peer Coaching the Managing with Aloha way (P2PC for short) is a tool I bring to as many workplaces as I possibly can: As with The Daily Five Minutes ® (D5M), I am always looking for a place to insert P2PC into the opportunities we have while working together, whatever their coaching or learning program with Say Leadership Coaching may be.

Here is the short form of Peer to Peer Coaching. 5 Steps you can count on one hand while practicing it:

The 5 Steps of Peer-to-Peer Coaching

1. Ask a question about what you would like to be coached on.

2. Be completely open-minded about the answers you get.

3. Get whatever clarity you need, and then, Say thank you.

4. Follow-up by creating some new habits aimed at improvement.

5. Check back with the person you spoke with in about a month, and ask them how you are doing, and for more coaching if you still need it.

P2PC becomes a dynamic feedback loop when you schedule the conversation consistently (different subject matter is bound to come up) and take turns starting at number 1. in mutually beneficial relationships invoking the Law of Reciprocity.

Writing this article for Talking Story came to mind for me while sharing an example of using P2PC on Managing with Aloha Coaching connected to the value of Ho'ohanohano, delivering dignity and respect.

You can read it there at Are you a high maintenance manager?

What is the Managing with Aloha "way" with Peer to Peer Coaching?

Others will build pretty elaborate processes or coaching programs around P2PC.

The MWA Way is to think of it as a simple, straightforward conversation, resist specific rules (like with confidentiality and being politically-correct) and just talk story. Jump in as you would to any other conversation you look forward to with a positive expectancy about the outcome, and build better relationships at the same time.

Like the rest of our SLC-MWA Tools, I do encourage you to make P2PC part of the expectations of your organizational culture:

1. Name it and call it out: Add Peer to Peer Coaching to your company vocabulary so it is part of your Language of Intention. Associate it with Kākou, the "Language of We" so it is company-wide as an expectation.

2. Use it in all WOW projects, and with your teaming expectations ( Lōkahi).

3. Require it in the toolkit of all managers, and make it clear that mentoring and coaching others in P2PC is part of their role. Reward them accordingly.

4. Start it with new employees on Day One On The Job by explaining what it is within the hiring process ( just as with the D5M). Be sure they begin to practice it before their probationary period is up.

5. Have your leadership team talk about it constantly ( spaced repetition) and be its poster children. Consistently ask yourself: Do we practice P2PC in the manner best aligned with our core values?

One of our assumptions is that "Peer" means for everyone and between everyone as it takes hold in a company culture, with Peer meaning every employee-turned-business-partner (which is the MWA way within our 'Ohana in Business „¢ model). New employees may ease into the culture starting with the conventional coaching by their manager, but eventually P2PC becomes the way that everyone at every level of an organization coaches everyone else respectfully and with that positive expectancy of "Who better to learn from [about improving myself] than from these people who know me best by merit of working with me most often?"

So what's in it for you, and what are those benefits?

There are several of them! How about 20 to start?

~1~ Ease and accessibility ranks high in the benefit column: You get the coaching you need in the place you probably spend most of your time at (besides your home) and begin to regard the workplace as a library of human knowledge. Ask anyone who is now self-employed and working from home after any stint in the corporate workplace how much they miss this.

~2~ The first benefits of P2PC are usually with workplace productivity, both yours and the productivity you expect and want from others. Kind of ironic how this happens: When they first begin to practice P2PC people think that the task work of productivity is safe and unemotional versus jumping into behavior issues they have with each other; they "warm up" to P2PC with productivity conversations. However as we all know, irregular levels of productivity between people builds resentment quickly, so how great that this is the first, and pretty immediate benefit!

~3~ Respect grows within an organization when there is the assumption that sound, wise, and thoughtful answers are to be found within the other people working there. We respect each other's intelligence, and each other's capacity for even more learning. Recently someone championing an elder project told me "When an elder dies a library burns." I think that is true of everyone, even children.

~4~ Knowledge becomes more quickly accessible when P2PC is highly valued as the best way to access answers we realize others may have for our personal growth and self improvement. We begin to think of conversations as Learning Curriculum 101 because it is faster and easier than reading a whole book or taking a course.

~5~ Then, if we do opt to read a book or take a course too, the person we had that great P2PC conversation with potentially becomes a learning buddy, and we coach each other toward achieving better comprehension and retention with our subject matter. Further, in working together we share immediate action applications.

~6~ Therefore, P2PC becomes considered the transactional deposits to a company's intellectual capacity, a capacity which steadily grows toward abundance. P2PC conversations translate to knowledge currency in the organization's bank account of knowledge, and the network of account holders grows: Soon people approached for coaching will also bring others into the conversation, saying, "I know who else you should ask about this, for I got some good coaching from them about something similar."

~7~ The quality of ALL conversations in the workplace improve as a result of the practice people get in P2PC. This is a conversation about personal coaching, and emotional care is required in anything that is personal. However I encourage you to jump in because I do believe that when people are asked for help, others naturally respond in a caring and thoughtful way. I trust in our humanity when we are face to face in one-on-one conversations with each other.

~8~ That said, P2PC is a workplace tool equally good for one-on-one conversations and for team conversations. For example, a 360 ° feedback conversation could be thought of as Peer to Peer Coaching.

~9~ If you use focus groups or task forces for different initiatives, the 5 Steps in P2PC can also be used as the Rules of Engagement quickly explained as conversational guidelines used in the forums of newly-assembled groups. For example, the 5 Steps work great with customer or community focus groups who may or may not share the core values that are adhered to within the organization, by stating what they are in a matter-of-fact, more process-related way.

~10~ The Law of Reciprocity directly affects workplace relationships. In the MWA way of doing it, people are expected to both initiate P2PC and make room for the P2PC conversation as gracious and generous receivers, willing to coach others. The giving and receiving is highly regarded in evaluating working relationships and the performance levels which should naturally flow when those relationships are mutually rewarding.

~11~ Informal leaders become revealed, so that you can tap into their wisdom in other forums as well. By leaders I mean those who seem to generate the most ideas and suggestions for improvement. These are the people who have clear pictures in their heads about what a more compelling future looks like in every situation, and not just with the big strategic vision stuff. They are visionaries too, and on an everyday scale that is hugely beneficial within any organization. To those growing within their own leadership tendencies, there is always a better way for something.

~12~ This is the way that P2PC consistently trains everyone else too. Commiseration and whining have no place in P2PC: The conversation is one initiated with the assumption that improvement IS possible and baby steps in getting started are within reach.

~13~ Managers repeatedly report that behavior improves altogether when P2PC becomes part of an organizational culture. In essence, people become more proactive over time: They self-correct by noticing their own behavior opportunities before they get surprised with receiving coaching for it within P2PC they had initiated on something else.

~14~ I love this next one: As a direct result of step number 2. Be completely open-minded about the answers you get, people willingly put themselves in coaching situations where they learn to listen better and with more open-minded humility. "Yeah buts," excuses and empty justifications slowly but surely are eliminated, for the P2PC has inherent impatience for what already may have happened, and is focused on what CAN begin to happen.

~15~ Eventually, departmental silos can be minimized or disappear altogether when P2PC spreads via the friendship networks within companies. A "coach" becomes anyone within an organization who you suspect may have a great answer for you ~ anyone.

~16~ Managers who wholeheartedly invest in P2PC repeatedly report back to me about the wealth of previously untapped knowledge that they have discovered within their people. To paraphrase, it often sounds something like this, "Who knew these people were so brilliant? Why didn't they ever tell me this stuff before?" How is this a different benefit than the others listed so far? Managers grow in the faith and belief they have in their people; they expect more so that they themselves feel released... babysitting and micro-managing steadily disappears. The quality of delegation improves dramatically.

~17~ Personal initiative and accountability grows as people take responsibility for helping each other over and above getting the job done. This happens because...

~18~ Work processes become redefined in terms of people-production versus task-production. A beautiful, beautiful thing in any workplace with far-reaching implications.

~19~ Coaching becomes aligned with self-improvement and growth, and progressing from "good to great." Any stigma of coaching only being for poor performers, problem children or must-salvage-this cases goes away. When considered alone, the benefits of coaching are numerous, and giving people practice at it at work will have ripple effects which extend to their families and their volunteer, civic and community work.

~20~ P2PC results in increased trust within an organization, and that may be the greatest benefit of all. People will sometimes ask me why trust is not one of my values in MWA. I think of trust more as a result of living all our other values: People trust us when we have earned their trust because we are trust-worthy. Living our values consistently has made our behavior predictable for others to count on and trust in. P2PC is a trust-builder in that the person being coached is stating an intention to work on something and improving. That verbal statement of intention begs a commitment we have to follow up on if our future word is to mean anything at all.

There are more benefits to Peer to Peer Coaching. I could easily write another article from the point of view of how P2PC relates to each of the nineteen values of Managing with Aloha, and to a few others that I did not specifically call out in that book.

What I tried to do here is list those which I most often hear back about from my SLC coaching clients, for P2PC has been in the MWA Toolkit from day one. Like the D5M, I think of P2PC most with the Hawaiian value of 'Ike loa, to know well, for in a world of human beings who count on each other, the learning of who people are and the knowledge they represent is our greatest gift. Life is not a solo journey.

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The 20 Benefits of Peer to Peer Coaching (and the MWA Way of doing it)

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Peer to Peer Coaching the Managing with Aloha way (P2PC for short) is a tool I bring to as many workplaces as I possibly can: As with The Daily Five Minutes ® (D5M), I am always looking for a place to insert P2PC into the opportunities we have while working together, whatever their coaching or learning program with Say Leadership Coaching may be.

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by Johnson & Rigby

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by Braden Welborn

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Teacher collaboration-when it's good, it's very, very good, but when it's bad, it's horrid.

Many educators believe that implementation of the Common Core Standards offers an unprecedented opportunity for collaboration among teachers. What do educators already know about the benefits and pitfalls of collaboration?

Marsha, a science teacher from Kansas, posed this question to colleagues on the Center for Teaching Quality's Teacher Leaders Network discussion board. Drawing on their own successful (and miserable) experiences, teachers identified key attributes of effective collaboration:

Clarity of Purpose

Top-down mandates for collaboration often fail. But systemic collaboration is not necessarily impossible-just tricky to design. And clarity of purpose is critical.

Some teachers noted that there are times-like when data shows students are struggling with a certain subject area-when mandated collaboration can work, as long as everyone understands its purpose.

Anne, a former state teacher of the year, described how she'd seen a school district achieve remarkable results after one middle school principal formed "small learning teams of teachers to accomplish a specific purpose." Their goal? Improving reading instruction.

The teams cut across all instructional staff and had training in how to collaborate successfully. They studied about reading strategies together; designed, implemented, and assessed lessons; and made adjustments. All teams exchanged "big ideas" with each other regularly. The process spread from school to school-and the district saw impressive achievement gains.

"So I actually don't think professional learning communities have to be made up of volunteers who see the value of collaboration at first," Anne said. "Sometimes collaboration has to be mandated in order to ratchet up teacher learning in areas of student need. But if it is mandated, there must be training in the 'how to' and a culture of positive support, coupled with time, recognition, and incentives."

Individual Commitment

A high school English teacher quoted a blues standard: "If it don't fit, don't force it."

She pointed out, "Each member of the collaboration team would have to be convinced that their time and energy would benefit students, and there would have to be a process of coming to real consensus on what the intended outcomes for students should be. Commitment to that baseline focus would be necessary to hold the group together long enough for trust to develop."

Time

Bill, a Massachusetts teacher, observed that there's a difference between "the professional, collegial trust I'll give anyone on first blush" and the deeper kind of trust that is necessary for collaboration. And the latter takes time.

Time. This word came up over and over again-along with "money." As Steve in Vermont put it, "Sooner or later, boards and administrators will have to confront the fact that if collaboration is desirable, it will have to be purchased, either with cold, hard cash or by eliminating vestigial tasks that don't contribute to student learning."

Many teachers had seen "good ideas" fail because they were mandated system-wide by those who underestimated the time needed to support the effort. One teacher offered a highly technical term for such scenarios: "a hot mess."

Also important is how collaboration time is structured-or not structured.

Steve's district has mandated "collaboration times" before and after school-but they are highly scripted, with protocols and reports. He suggests a different approach: "Why not create unstructured times in the school work day and avoid filling that time with stuff? Then encourage people to break out of their routines and talk with each other. See if it happens organically."

Indeed, several teachers reported that their best collaborative experiences took place informally during shared planning time. Bill explained: "So many good initiatives for the school emerged from us bouncing ideas off each other randomly as we stumbled on them, then built off each other's excitement."

Understanding How to Collaborate and Communicate

Ernie, a Nevada educator, pointed out that the effectiveness of shared planning time depends on teachers' understanding of how to use that time.

Noting that Learning Forward's standards for professional learning address this, Ernie wrote, "Unfortunately, so much of what we do in schools comes in a neat little package with checksheets-and teachers aren't encouraged to dig deep into discussing their practice and creating strategies to address the needs of their students." Some teachers may need guidance in how to make the most of opportunities to collaborate.

Gail, an instructional coach, agreed. Active listening (as opposed to multi-tasking) is key: "When group members truly listen to one another, they are able to communicate their ongoing regard for one another and build the trust that allows them to collaborate effectively."

Susan in Virginia added that establishing norms can help keep things running smoothly, even though some group members can find this to be an "unnecessary formality."

Supportive Administrators

At Kathie's school in California, the collaboration opportunity afforded by early release for students on Tuesdays was "a total waste of time in most departments." But that changed when a new principal informed teachers "how close we were to being taken over by the district due to flat test scores" and "made it clear that teachers were accountable for improvement, but also trusted to come up with their own solutions." The principal "added fun to the mix as well." The results? Focused, meaningful collaboration quickly led to significant increases in test scores.

Freedom to Explore

Freedom to explore can refer to the ability to choose one's own professional learning community-within the school building or even beyond it. As a couple of teachers asked, why not look to Twitter as a home for substantial collaboration?

Even when collaboration occurs in formal groups, a skilled facilitator can amp up the freedom factor. A group at Mary's school was focused on improving writing instruction, but the leader often seized upon ideas and (without discussing them) immediately began planning for implementation. Mary cringed, thinking, "That is the way to kill a good idea." When the leader shifted her approach to give teachers more voice and room for creativity, lively discussion and action resulted.

There's no magic formula for successful collaboration. But this dialogue demonstrates that teachers know a great deal about what works-and what doesn't.

What do you think contributes to effective collaboration? What should teachers, administrators, and policymakers keep in mind when facing Common Core implementation? Weigh in here, or join the conversation at Teaching Ahead this month.

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Teacher collaboration-when it's good, it's very, very good, but when it's bad, it's horrid. Many educators believe that implementation of the Common Core Standards offers an unprecedented opportunity for collaboration among teachers. What do educators already know about the benefits and pitfalls of collaboration?

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Education World

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The New Teacher Advisor

Be a team player. It's one of those sports analogies used frequently in the business world -- and in education. District and school administrators also want team players. The days of closing the classroom door and creating a self-contained world are over. The autonomous classroom simply doesn't exist -- and for good reason. Our students need more than just one person to guide their education. They need the added power of several brains working together for their good. Yet collaboration does not always come easily.

Teachers are, for the most part, determined course setters. We also have strong opinions about what works and what doesn't work. That determination and self-direction are beneficial for our students; those characteristics facilitate learning and help us make it through each day. Put a group of determined, opinionated individuals in the same school, however, and you often have a recipe for headaches. How, then, can such strong personalities work together as a team?

The first requirement is a willingness to work with others and the ability to recognize that you can't do it all on your own. No one can meet all the needs of all the students who walk through our doors without help. It just isn't possible. The best way to find that help is by asking questions.

If you have a mentor, look to your mentor for guidance. Write down questions as they occur to you. (Don't think you'll remember them later, because you won't.) When you get an opportunity, ask the questions. If you don't have a mentor, look for a veteran teacher in the building -- one you know has a positive outlook on teaching. Ask if that person would mind helping you out. Most will be glad to offer their knowledge and expertise. Administrators are another good source of information. Don't be afraid to ask them questions. You are showing your willingness to learn and your willingness to go to others for help.

The second step is to seek out the support faculty and staff. Those are the people in the school who know your special students best. They can help you decipher IEPs and modify assignments for those students who need it. You also can learn how to modify your lessons to best meet the needs of different students in your classroom. Schedule some time to sit down with the department chair and/or the teacher who works with your students and pick their brains. Ask for advice -- and listen to it. That kind of collaboration benefits your students greatly.

The third requirement is to be humble. Listen to the wisdom gained by veteran teachers. Although you might think that some of their ways are outdated, don't discount their skill and knowledge. Ask questions and really listen to the answers. It isn't always easy to be humble when you've waited so long to get into your own classroom. You'll save yourself a lot of extra grief by asking and listening, however.

The fourth step is to plan with other members of your grade level team. What is being taught in Math, Science, Social Studies, and so on? Can you find a way to connect your topics and objectives to those being taught in other classes? The more you work with other subject area teachers, the more you'll be able to help your students see that the world does not exist as separate parts. Everything is interconnected. If you are in a self-contained classroom, share ideas and brainstorm lessons together. You might have a great idea for presenting a lesson, but another teacher might be able to add to that idea and make it better.

Don't forget about the other professionals in your building. The librarian is an excellent resource and should be consulted frequently. Let him or her know what you are teaching and ask for ideas or resources. The art, music, and phys-ed teachers also might be able to enhance your lessons with ideas and their own special strengths. Each person in your building has a variety of strengths and talents. Get to know each one so youre better able to call on those different resources within the building.

Collaboration takes hard work and effort. Its not easy, but it's worth it. Ultimately, your students are the ones who benefit, but you don't lose out either. In the process of collaborating with different colleagues within your school, you are building relationships that will last, and making a place for yourself within the school community. Being a team player is a win-win situation for everyone.

Education World®
Copyright © 2011 Education World

Last updated 1/27/2017

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Education World: Be a Team Player: Collaborate with Colleagues

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Be a team player. It's one of those sports analogies used frequently in the business world -- and in education. District and school administrators also want team players. The days of closing the classroom door and creating a self-contained world are over. The autonomous classroom simply doesn't exist -- and for good reason.

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by Jason Perez

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Isolation can be a side effect of becoming a teacher. It is very easy to get caught in the trap of walking into a classroom, shutting the door, and tending to your own students. This is how many schools function, with educators sharing nothing more than a parking lot. Some people like it this way, but an effective teacher is someone who wants to grow in the profession. An effective teacher wants collaboration.

What is collaboration?

Each day teachers gather in hallways, lounges, or other communal locations to talk. They talk about their families, movies they watched, difficulties they've had with students. Some would define this type of collegial discussion as collaboration. While these discussions are crucial to maintaining the morale and sanity of any faculty, do they help anyone grow as an educator?

Professional Learning Communities co-creators Rick DuFour, Rebecca DuFour, and Robert Eaker would define collaboration as teams of teachers who work interdependently to achieve common goals - goals linked to the purpose of learning for all - for which members are held mutually accountable. This type of definition seems to take all the fun out of teacher planning time, but it is exactly what needs to be in place in order to build strong students and strong teachers.

How does it begin?

When opening Heritage Trails Elementary in 2010, I had the opportunity to interview some of the very best teachers in my school district. The very first question I would ask each applicant was, "What is your ideal school environment?" The overwhelming answer was an environment where people could share ideas and learn from each other. This proved to me that the majority of educators wanted collaboration. This would become the vision for the school: collaboration with a purpose.

Although there is a willingness to work together, few teachers have direct experience with quality collaboration. This can lead to power struggles and frustration if there is not an understanding of the stages of team development. Educational researchers Parry Graham and William M. Ferriter labeled these stages forming, storming, norming and performing.

1. Forming

This is the easiest stage where a team comes together with a sense of excitement and anticipation. People begin to learn about each other and develop processes for how their group will function. It is not unusual for a few dominant personalities to try to lead the discussions.

2. Storming

Teaching styles and practices can be a very sensitive and personal area for many educators. Those who are used to working in isolation can find it difficult to share ideas or have their practices questioned. This can sometimes lead to conflict within the collaborative team. It's not unusual for members to feel defensive or overloaded in this stage. There has to be a realistic expectation that not all groups will function at the highest level from the very start. Working together can lead to conflicting views of educational practices and team goals. Keep in mind that through conflict, growth will occur.

3. Norming

As educators continue to collaborate, they begin to see the positive side to collaboration. Teams begin to see an increase in productivity, interpersonal relationships improve, and meetings begin to focus on achieving consensus through shared input.

4. Performing

When a team reaches a high level of functioning, the academic and professional growth goes through the roof. When teammates disagree about a topic, they can discuss it with a sense of collegiality and an understanding that the ultimate goal is an improvement of the learning environment for everyone. Regardless of the stage of development, progress is easy to identify as long as collaboration exists.

Why does it matter?

Collaboration is not always a concept that is greeted with open arms. Educators who have had success working in isolation may view this process as an invasion of their pedagogy and a waste of time. Harry K. Wong, a well-known educational author, states that the trademark of effective schools is a culture where all teachers take responsibility for the learning of all students. The key to strong collaboration is recognizing that a student shouldn't be the responsibility of only one teacher, but of all teachers.

Not only will effective collaboration improve teacher performance, but it also will improve student performance. Educational environments such as Waggoner Road Junior High and Baldwin Road Junior High in Reynoldsburg, Ohio, experienced a 20 percent increase in math scores from students whose teachers participated in constant collaboration. How does this happen? Increased effective collaboration exposes teachers to improved practices, which leads to stronger pedagogy. The more effective a teacher is, the more a student will benefit.

Teacher interaction can no longer be defined by the parking lot they share or the idle discussions in the lounge. A professional culture requires teachers who are willing to share, support, and explore together. Developing a collaborative culture will result in reducing teacher attrition, improving student learning, and creating the type of school that everyone searches for when they decide to become an educator.
Dr. Jason Perez is the head principal at Heritage Trails Elementary in Moore, Oklahoma, as well as a faculty member at Concordia University - Portland, where he teaches Master of Education in Curriculum and Instruction courses, and an adjunct faculty member at the University of Central Oklahoma, where he teacher Master of Education Administration courses.
Learn More: Click to view related resources.

Richard DuFour, Rebecca Dufour, Robert Eaker, "Revisiting Professional Learning Communities at Work," Solution Tree Inc.

Parry Graham, William M. Ferriter, "Building a Professional Learning Community at Work," Solution Tree Inc.

Harry K. Wong, "Collaborating With Colleagues To Improve Student Learning," newteacher.com

Tyrone L. Olverson, Sandra Ritchey, "Teacher Collaboration in Raising Student Achievement," All Things PLC

Barnett Berry, Alesha Daughtrey, Alan Wieder, "Collaboration: Closing the Effective Teaching Gap," Center for Teaching Quality

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What is Teacher Collaboration? Benefits and Importance

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Isolation can be a side effect of becoming a teacher. It is very easy to get caught in the trap of walking into a classroom, shutting the door, and tending to your own students. This is how many schools function, with educators sharing nothing more than a parking lot.

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by Andrew Jones

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Coaching v mentoring: what works best for teachers?

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Teacher Andrew Jones explains the difference between coaching and mentoring, and how they suit different professional development needs

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by Lieu Wai Yee

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by Pam Robbins

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by Pam Robbins

Summary and Suggestions

This chapter defines peer coaching and addresses the objection that often surfaces in reaction to the word coach. Various types of peer coaching activities are discussed, and three approaches to peer coaching are explained.

If you are using this chapter as part of a workshop, after presenting the definition, consider asking participants to respond to the following question: "In the best of all possible worlds, what would you want peer coaching to look like, sound like, and feel like at your site?" Record participants' responses and then ask participants to brainstorm what they would like to call their program. Examining desired outcomes and naming the program serve to build ownership and commitment.

Peer coaching is a confidential process through which two or more professional colleagues work together to reflect on current practices; expand, refine, and build new skills; share ideas; teach one another; conduct classroom research; or solve problems in the workplace. Although peer coaching seems to be the most prominent label for this type of activity, a variety of other names are used in schools: peer support, consulting colleagues, peer sharing, and caring. These other names seem to have evolved, in some cases, out of teacher discomfort with the term coaching. Some claim the word coaching implies that one person in the collaborative relationship has a different status. This discomfort is to be expected because the label may imply to some an inequality among colleagues that is inconsistent with the historical norm of a nonhierarchical structure within the teaching ranks. As research and experience inform us, "The reality is that a teacher has the same 'rank' in his or her last year of teaching as the first" (Sizer 1985). Teachers have the same classroom space, number of students, and requirements. Regardless of how coaching relationships are labeled, they all focus on the collaborative development, refinement, and sharing of craft knowledge.

Peer coaching has nothing to do with evaluation. It is not intended as a remedial activity or strategy to "fix" teachers. Several school systems have supported peer coaching as a way to increase feedback about instruction and curriculum. One teacher, reflecting on the support that peer coaching offers before the formal evaluation process, described it as "a dress rehearsal before the final performance." Another spoke of peer coaching as "a time when you can take risks and try out new ideas, instructional strategies, or different approaches to the curriculum and discuss the results with a trusted colleague."

Types of Peer Coaching

Peer coaching is as individual and unique as the people who engage in it. Some peer coaching involves two or more colleagues working together around the shared observation of teaching. In this instance, there is generally a pre-conference, an observation, and a post-conference.

The teacher who invites a coach in, referred to as "the inviting teacher," steers the coaching process. The inviting teacher identifies the focus of the observation, the form of data collection, guidelines for the coach's behavior in the classroom during the observation, the parameters of the discussion of observed teaching, and the date and time of the observation. This approach will be discussed in detail in Chapter 4.

Other types of peer coaching might involve a pair or a team of teachers co-planning a lesson or curriculum unit. Still other types might involve problem solving, videotape analysis, or study groups. Some coaching may occur between an expert and a novice or between experienced and less-experienced teachers.

Shulman (1991) suggests still another approach in which teachers share stories about teaching experiences. This approach conceptualizes teaching as a narrative act and provides a nonthreatening way for teachers to share pedagogical knowledge. For example, within a small group of teachers, one teacher discussed how she explained to students why certain elements on the periodic table are called noble elements. The metaphor she related to students suggested that noble people have everything they need; therefore, students should remember that noble elements don't need anything, either. Another teacher recalled a story of how nobility tend not to mix with other social groups. Noble elements, accordingly, don't mix with other elements. By sharing stories in this way, teachers increase their technical repertoire within a "safe" context-teachers feel safe because the activity in which they collaboratively engage is storytelling and cannot be confused with advice giving, an activity shunned in many school cultures.

Other teachers have used the peer coaching process to conduct action research. In this situation, a teacher formulates a set of hypotheses about classroom practices and develops a plan to test them by asking a colleague to observe and take notes. Later, the colleagues discuss and analyze the data. Some teachers have kept reflective journals of their findings over time.

An additional form of out-of-classroom coaching is called "Talk Walking" (Caro 1991). This strategy is designed to help teachers engage in (1) collegial dialogue focused on instructional and curricular issues and (2) physical exercise, an element frequently missing from the teacher's work day. When Talk Walking is used in a workshop, it can help teachers integrate new learnings with existing classroom practices.

After a workshop segment has been completed, teachers are asked to reflect on how they might use the content they have just learned back on site. They then pair up and go outdoors for a walk, during which they discuss their reflections about the applicability of the training to their own classrooms.

Talk Walking can also be used in the schools, independent of a workshop. In this setting, teachers arrange a time to meet for a walk during which they might discuss plans for a specific lesson, reflect upon a unit that has been taught, talk about specific students, or share recent reflections or learnings related to curriculum and instruction.

Collegial dialogue of this nature has both cognitive and physical implications for teacher growth. It also fosters the development of trust among colleagues committed to sharing craft knowledge and serves to create professional norms of experimentation while encouraging teachers to learn from one another. In the all too busy day of a teacher's life, Talk Walking brings exercise and fresh air-two important elements for teaching and thinking-into the daily routine.

The forms peer coaching can take are limitless. It might focus on instructional strategies, curriculum content, classroom management practices, specific students, particular problems, or instructional skills such as questioning techniques or process skills to generate higher-order thinking. These activities might occur within the classroom or in the teachers' lounge or workroom. Two individuals, a trio, or a team might work together in peer coaching arrangements. Figure 1.1 shows a variety of the forms peer coaching can take. These may be formal arrangements and involve a structured pre- and post-conference focused around an observation, or informal arrangements such as a storytelling session.

Figure 1.1. Forms of Peer Coaching Activities

In peer coaching, the focus is on the teacher as learner. Fullan, Bennett, and Rolheiser-Bennett (1990) describe four aspects of the teacher as learner-the technical, the reflective, the research, and the collaborative-which are played out in a variety of coaching experiences. They suggest:

The mastery of a technical repertoire increases instructional certainty; reflective practice enhances clarity, meaning and coherence; research fosters investigation and exploration; collaboration enables one to receive and give ideas and assistance. Each aspect has its separate tradition of research and practice.

These aspects should be integrated and offer a useful framework for conceptualizing a variety of coaching activities that have at their core the notion of the teacher as learner.

Approaches to Peer Coaching

There are a variety of approaches to peer coaching. One type is designed to help teachers transfer into classroom practice new skills they have learned in a workshop or training session. This type of coaching usually follows training in specific strategies or methods. For instance, if the training has addressed the elements of a lesson strategy such as concept attainment, the coaching process would revolve around how the teacher is implementing that strategy in the classroom. Teachers pair with consultants or one another so that feedback can be given about the application of the new strategy in the classroom. The focus of peer coaching activities in this context is directly related to the workshop or training content. Research has shown that this approach promotes skill transfer (Joyce and Showers 1980).

However, if this is the only form of coaching that teachers experience, the process may become routine and the coaching may turn into coaching as unreflective practice (Hargreaves 1989), wherein teachers simply go through the motions of labeling the implemented behaviors and consequences. When this happens, the aspects of the lesson about which the teacher is genuinely curious may go unaddressed (Robbins 1984). To be effective and sustained over time, coaching activities must have a deliberate focus. And the focus must be one that matters to the individuals involved.

Other approaches to peer coaching involve colleagues working collaboratively around issues unrelated to a specific focus generated by shared training. This type of peer coaching relies on a teacher-specified focus. Here the approach is intended to increase professional sharing, to refine teaching practices, and to enhance teacher reflection. It may also include conducting action research, solving problems related to instruction or curriculum design and delivery, or resolving problems with specific students.

Regardless of the type or approach, peer coaching efforts all share a collaborative quest to refine, expand, and enhance knowledge about the teaching profession. These approaches make learning about the business of teaching accessible to all teachers in the workplace. While coaching activities may involve only segments of a school staff, collectively they can increase the climate of collegiality if they become an integral part of life at the school and if the school culture provides a hospitable environment. But this is not always the case. Ironically, some of the same factors that provide a rationale for coaching cause coaching attempts to be stifled or fail. Chapter 2 addresses this irony.

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by Pam Robbins This chapter defines peer coaching and addresses the objection that often surfaces in reaction to the word coach. Various types of peer coaching activities are discussed, and three approaches to peer coaching are explained.

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The What, Why and How of Action Research

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The What, Why and How of Action Research

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by Emily F. Calhoun

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by Eileen Ferrance

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Brown Digital Repository | Collection | The Education ...

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This collection holds materials from the Education Alliance at Brown University. The Education Alliance was a reform support organization committed to advancing equitable educational opportunities that prepare all student populations to succeed in the 21st century. From 1975-2021, the Alliance partnered with schools, districts and state departments of education to apply research findings in developing solutions to educational challenges.

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by Richard Sagor

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by Richard Sagor

A succinct definition of action research appears in the workshop materials we use at the Institute for the Study of Inquiry in Education. That definition states that action research

is a disciplined process of inquiry conducted by and for those taking the action. The primary reason for engaging in action research is to assist the "actor" in improving and/or refining his or her actions.

Practitioners who engage in action research inevitably find it to be an empowering experience. Action research has this positive effect for many reasons. Obviously, the most important is that action research is always relevant to the participants. Relevance is guaranteed because the focus of each research project is determined by the researchers, who are also the primary consumers of the findings.

Perhaps even more important is the fact that action research helps educators be more effective at what they care most about-their teaching and the development of their students. Seeing students grow is probably the greatest joy educators can experience. When teachers have convincing evidence that their work has made a real difference in their students' lives, the countless hours and endless efforts of teaching seem worthwhile.

The Action Research Process

Educational action research can be engaged in by a single teacher, by a group of colleagues who share an interest in a common problem, or by the entire faculty of a school. Whatever the scenario, action research always involves the same seven-step process. These seven steps, which become an endless cycle for the inquiring teacher, are the following:

1. Selecting a focus

2. Clarifying theories

3. Identifying research questions

4. Collecting data

5. Analyzing data

6. Reporting results

7. Taking informed action

Step 1-Selecting a Focus

The action research process begins with serious reflection directed toward identifying a topic or topics worthy of a busy teacher's time. Considering the incredible demands on today's classroom teachers, no activity is worth doing unless it promises to make the central part of a teacher's work more successful and satisfying. Thus, selecting a focus, the first step in the process, is vitally important. Selecting a focus begins with the teacher researcher or the team of action researchers asking:

What element(s) of our practice or what aspect of student learning do we wish to investigate?

Step 2-Clarifying Theories

The second step involves identifying the values, beliefs, and theoretical perspectives the researchers hold relating to their focus. For example, if teachers are concerned about increasing responsible classroom behavior, it will be helpful for them to begin by clarifying which approach-using punishments and rewards, allowing students to experience the natural consequences of their behaviors, or some other strategy-they feel will work best in helping students acquire responsible classroom behavior habits.

Step 3-Identifying Research Questions

Once a focus area has been selected and the researcher's perspectives and beliefs about that focus have been clarified, the next step is to generate a set of personally meaningful research questions to guide the inquiry.

Step 4-Collecting Data

Professional educators always want their instructional decisions to be based on the best possible data. Action researchers can accomplish this by making sure that the data used to justify their actions are valid (meaning the information represents what the researchers say it does) and reliable (meaning the researchers are confident about the accuracy of their data). Lastly, before data are used to make teaching decisions, teachers must be confident that the lessons drawn from the data align with any unique characteristics of their classroom or school.

To ensure reasonable validity and reliability, action researchers should avoid relying on any single source of data. Most teacher researchers use a process called triangulation to enhance the validity and reliability of their findings. Basically, triangulation means using multiple independent sources of data to answer one's questions. Triangulation is like studying an object located inside a box by viewing it through various windows cut into the sides of the box. Observing a phenomenon through multiple "windows" can help a single researcher compare and contrast what is being seen through a variety of lenses.

When planning instruction, teachers want the techniques they choose to be appropriate for the unique qualities of their students. All teachers have had the experience of implementing a "research-proven" strategy only to have it fail with their students. The desire of teachers to use approaches that "fit" their particular students is not dissimilar to a doctor's concern that the specific medicine being prescribed be the correct one for the individual patient. The ability of the action research process to satisfy an educator's need for "fit" may be its most powerful attribute. Because the data being collected come from the very students and teachers who are engaged with the treatment, the relevance of the findings is assured.

For the harried and overworked teacher, "data collection" can appear to be the most intimidating aspect of the entire seven-step action research process. The question I am repeatedly asked, "Where will I find the time and expertise to develop valid and reliable instruments for data collection?", gives voice to a realistic fear regarding time management. Fortunately, classrooms and schools are, by their nature, data-rich environments. Each day a child is in class, he or she is producing or not producing work, is interacting productively with classmates or experiencing difficulties in social situations, and is completing assignments proficiently or poorly. Teachers not only see these events transpiring before their eyes, they generally record these events in their grade books. The key to managing triangulated data collection is, first, to be effective and efficient in collecting the material that is already swirling around the classroom, and, second, to identify other sources of data that might be effectively surfaced with tests, classroom discussions, or questionnaires.

Step 5-Analyzing Data

Although data analysis often brings to mind the use of complex statistical calculations, this is rarely the case for the action researcher. A number of relatively user-friendly procedures can help a practitioner identify the trends and patterns in action research data. During this portion of the seven-step process, teacher researchers will methodically sort, sift, rank, and examine their data to answer two generic questions:

What is the story told by these data?

Why did the story play itself out this way?

By answering these two questions, the teacher researcher can acquire a better understanding of the phenomenon under investigation and as a result can end up producing grounded theory regarding what might be done to improve the situation.
Step 6-Reporting Results

It is often said that teaching is a lonely endeavor. It is doubly sad that so many teachers are left alone in their classrooms to reinvent the wheel on a daily basis. The loneliness of teaching is unfortunate not only because of its inefficiency, but also because when dealing with complex problems the wisdom of several minds is inevitably better than one.

The sad history of teacher isolation may explain why the very act of reporting on their action research has proven so powerful for both the researchers and their colleagues. The reporting of action research most often occurs in informal settings that are far less intimidating than the venues where scholarly research has traditionally been shared. Faculty meetings, brown bag lunch seminars, and teacher conferences are among the most common venues for sharing action research with peers. However, each year more and more teacher researchers are writing up their work for publication or to help fulfill requirements in graduate programs. Regardless of which venue or technique educators select for reporting on research, the simple knowledge that they are making a contribution to a collective knowledge base regarding teaching and learning frequently proves to be among the most rewarding aspects of this work.

Step 7-Taking Informed Action

Taking informed action, or "action planning," the last step in the action research process, is very familiar to most teachers. When teachers write lesson plans or develop academic programs, they are engaged in the action planning process. What makes action planning particularly satisfying for the teacher researcher is that with each piece of data uncovered (about teaching or student learning) the educator will feel greater confidence in the wisdom of the next steps. Although all teaching can be classified as trial and error, action researchers find that the research process liberates them from continuously repeating their past mistakes. More important, with each refinement of practice, action researchers gain valid and reliable data on their developing virtuosity.

Three Purposes for Action Research

As stated earlier, action research can be engaged in by an individual teacher, a collaborative group of colleagues sharing a common concern, or an entire school faculty. These three different approaches to organizing for research serve three compatible, yet distinct, purposes:

Building the reflective practitioner

Making progress on schoolwide priorities

Building professional cultures

Building the Reflective Practitioner

When individual teachers make a personal commitment to systematically collect data on their work, they are embarking on a process that will foster continuous growth and development. When each lesson is looked on as an empirical investigation into factors affecting teaching and learning and when reflections on the findings from each day's work inform the next day's instruction, teachers can't help but develop greater mastery of the art and science of teaching. In this way, the individual teachers conducting action research are making continuous progress in developing their strengths as reflective practitioners.

Making Progress on Schoolwide Priorities

Increasingly, schools are focusing on strengthening themselves and their programs through the development of common focuses and a strong sense of esprit de corps. Peters and Waterman (1982) in their landmark book, In Search of Excellence, called the achievement of focus "sticking to the knitting." When a faculty shares a commitment to achieving excellence with a specific focus-for example, the development of higher-order thinking, positive social behavior, or higher standardized test scores-then collaboratively studying their practice will not only contribute to the achievement of the shared goal but would have a powerful impact on team building and program development. Focusing the combined time, energy, and creativity of a group of committed professionals on a single pedagogical issue will inevitably lead to program improvements, as well as to the school becoming a "center of excellence." As a result, when a faculty chooses to focus on one issue and all the teachers elect to enthusiastically participate in action research on that issue, significant progress on the schoolwide priorities cannot help but occur.

Building Professional Cultures

Often an entire faculty will share a commitment to student development, yet the group finds itself unable to adopt a single common focus for action research. This should not be viewed as indicative of a problem. Just as the medical practitioners working at a "quality" medical center will hold a shared vision of a healthy adult, it is common for all the faculty members at a school to share a similar perspective on what constitutes a well-educated student. However, like the doctors at the medical center, the teachers in a "quality" school may well differ on which specific aspects of the shared vision they are most motivated to pursue at any point in time.

Schools whose faculties cannot agree on a single research focus can still use action research as a tool to help transform themselves into a learning organization. They accomplish this in the same manner as do the physicians at the medical center. It is common practice in a quality medical center for physicians to engage in independent, even idiosyncratic, research agendas. However, it is also common for medical researchers to share the findings obtained from their research with colleagues (even those engaged in other specialties).

School faculties who wish to transform themselves into "communities of learners" often empower teams of colleagues who share a passion about one aspect of teaching and learning to conduct investigations into that area of interest and then share what they've learned with the rest of the school community. This strategy allows an entire faculty to develop and practice the discipline that Peter Senge (1990) labeled "team learning." In these schools, multiple action research inquiries occur simultaneously, and no one is held captive to another's priority, yet everyone knows that all the work ultimately will be shared and will consequently contribute to organizational learning.

Why Action Research Now?

If ever there were a time and a strategy that were right for each other, the time is now and the strategy is action research! This is true for a host of reasons, with none more important than the need to accomplish the following:

Professionalize teaching.

Enhance the motivation and efficacy of a weary faculty.

Meet the needs of an increasingly diverse student body.

Achieve success with "standards-based" reforms.

Professionalizing Teaching

Teaching in North America has evolved in a manner that makes it more like blue-collar work than a professional undertaking. Although blue-collar workers are expected to do their jobs with vigilance and vigor, it is also assumed that their tasks will be routine, straightforward, and, therefore, easily handled by an isolated worker with only the occasional support of a supervisor.

Professional work, on the other hand, is expected to be complex and nonroutine, and will generally require collaboration among practitioners to produce satisfactory results. With the exploding knowledge base on teaching and learning and the heightened demands on teachers to help all children achieve mastery of meaningful objectives, the inadequacy of the blue-collar model for teaching is becoming much clearer.

When the teachers in a school begin conducting action research, their workplace begins to take on more of the flavor of the workplaces of other professionals. The wisdom that informs practice starts coming from those doing the work, not from supervisors who oftentimes are less in touch with and less sensitive to the issues of teaching and learning than the teachers doing the work. Furthermore, when teachers begin engaging their colleagues in discussions of classroom issues, the multiple perspectives that emerge and thus frame the dialogue tend to produce wiser professional decisions.

Enhancing Teacher Motivation and Efficacy

The work of teaching has always been difficult. But now it isn't just the demands of the classroom that are wearing teachers down. Students increasingly bring more problems into the classroom; parental and societal expectations keep increasing; and financial cutbacks make it clear that today's teachers are being asked to do more with less. Worse still, the respect that society had traditionally placed upon public school teachers is eroding, as teacher bashing and attacks on the very value of a public education are becoming a regular part of the political landscape. Consequently, teacher burnout has become the plague of the modern schoolhouse.

Many teachers now ask, "Am I making any difference?" Regardless of all the negative pressures on teachers, the sheer nobility of the work keeps many dedicated educators on the job, but only so long as they can get credible answers to the "efficacy" question. However, without credible evidence that the work of teaching is making a difference, it is hard to imagine the best and brightest sticking with such a difficult and poorly compensated line of work. Fortunately, evidence has shown that teachers who elect to integrate the use of data into their work start exhibiting the compulsive behavior of fitness enthusiasts who regularly weigh themselves, check their heart rate, and graph data on their improving physical development. For both teachers and athletes, the continuous presence of compelling data that their hard work is paying off becomes, in itself, a vitally energizing force.

Meeting the Needs of a Diverse Student Body

In a homogeneous society in which all students come to school looking alike, it might be wise to seek the one right answer to questions of pedagogy. But, as anyone who has recently visited an American classroom can attest, it is rare to find any two children for whom the same intervention could ever be "right on target." The days are gone when it was possible to believe that all a teacher had to do was master and deliver the grade-level curriculum. It is now imperative that classroom teachers have strong content background in each of the subjects they teach, be familiar with the range of student differences in their classrooms, and be capable of diagnosing and prescribing appropriate instructional modifications based upon a knowledge of each child's uniqueness.

Crafting solutions to these dynamic and ever changing classroom issues can be an exciting undertaking, especially when one acknowledges that newer and better answers are evolving all the time. Nevertheless, great personal satisfaction comes from playing a role in creating successful solutions to continually changing puzzles. Conversely, if teachers are expected to robotically implement outdated approaches, especially when countless new challenges are arriving at their door, the frustration can become unbearable.

Achieving Success in a Standards-Based System

In most jurisdictions standards-driven accountability systems have become the norm. Although they differ somewhat from state to state and province to province, fundamentally these standards-based systems have certain things in common. Specifically, most education departments and ministries have declared that they expect the standards to be rigorous and meaningful, and that they expect all students to meet the standards at the mastery level.

The stakes in the standards movement are high. Students face consequences regarding promotion and graduation. Teachers and schools face ridicule and loss of funding if they fail to meet community expectations. Of course, none of that would be problematic if we as a society knew with certainty how to achieve universal student success. However, the reality is that no large system anywhere in the world has ever been successful in getting every student to master a set of meaningful objectives. If we accept the truth of that statement, then we need to acknowledge the fact that achieving the goal of universal student mastery will not be easy. That said, most people will agree it is a most noble endeavor in which to invest energy and a worthy goal for any faculty to pursue.

The reality is that our public schools will not prevail with the challenges inherent in the standards movement unless they encourage experimentation, inquiry, and dialogue by those pioneers (the teachers) who are working toward meeting those challenges. For this reason, it is imperative that these 21st century pioneers, our classroom teachers, conduct the research on "standards attainment" themselves.

So the time is right for action research. The teachers, schools, and school systems that seize this opportunity and begin investing in the power of inquiry will find that they are re-creating the professional practice of education in their locale as a meaningful and rewarding pursuit. Conversely, school systems that enter the 21st century unwilling to invest in the "wisdom of practice" will likely find it increasingly hard to fill their classrooms with enough teachers who are both capable of and willing to tackle the challenges that lie ahead.

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by Richard Sagor A succinct definition of action research appears in the workshop materials we use at the Institute for the Study of Inquiry in Education. That definition states that action research is a disciplined process of inquiry conducted by and for those taking the action.

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by Hong & Lawrence

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Action Research in Teacher Education- Classroom Inquiry Reflection and Data-Driven Decision Making

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by Wendy Pillars

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As a veteran teacher, I have plenty of instructional strategies under my belt, but this past year I needed new tools. A group of students (mostly English-language learners) were struggling to achieve even minimal growth in reading. As 3rd graders, they were entering the testing phase of schooling-but were two or more grade levels behind.

My colleagues and I knew we had to boost these students academically in order not to lose them socially.

Multiple teachers were collaborating to serve the students, yet it seemed as if everyone was trying their own variations on the same approach. I wanted to sift through the redundancies and streamline my end of their instruction.

I decided to get back to the basics. Specifically, to better understand how learning happens at the neural level-and to translate some recent research findings into practice in my classroom.

I was about to conduct what is known as Action Research (AR), although I didn't learn this term until my project was underway. AR is not a new concept to many teachers, but grand stuff for those of us whose graduate courses in research were, ahem, one or two decades in the past.

AR is more proactive than reactive. It is deeply and systematically reflective, and pertains to real concerns, challenges, and goals within your classroom. Typical goals of AR include evaluating outcomes, enhancing student achievement, and improving educational practices.

Although I'm no expert, I certainly gleaned some valuable lessons from testing the AR waters.

AR is best when it's optional. It should be driven by your own desire to tackle an issue in your classroom or school. You-not an outsider-are designing the project to improve your own teaching practice. Allow it to be your own.

Ground yourself with a specific question. Your own classroom challenge will inform this question, of course, and initial background reading will give it nuance and depth. A definitive research question provides an indispensable focal point for your action plan, and its clarity will rein you in during inevitable wanderings.

Ask an individual, or even a team, to join you. I had a tremendous learning experience on my own last year. But a Professional Learning Community could conduct much more productive AR, especially if co-teaching occurs and students switch frequently among teachers. This ensures continuity of practices, encourages collaborative perspectives and ideas, and provides collegial motivation.

Make your goals public. My quest was encouraged by a grant that allowed me to attend a conference and purchase months' worth of reading materials. This made me accountable. My goal had become public, initially to my funders, then to my colleagues. And my teaching became transparent like never before.

Stick to the gist of the plan. The typical process of AR is cyclical: question, plan, reflect, take action, observe, reflect some more, rethink and re-plan, repeat. My experience was that reflection occurred throughout the cycle-I questioned everything, from students' emotional affect, to my methodology, to the amount of content presented. I wanted to change course several times. Be open to the unknowns (and take notes for later!), but resist temptations to try something different until it's time to do so.

Relate your learning to your students' learning. The AR process sometimes overwhelmed me, until I compared it with my students' journeys. I considered the risks I press them to take, the vulnerabilities they may feel, and the power of their (and our) community. I thought about the questions I ask them and encourage them to ask of themselves. This helped me continue-and remember to embrace failure.

Let students know what's going on. I felt it was important and respectful to tell my 3rd graders what I was doing. I believe this also boosted their metacognition, as they saw themselves learn explicitly in different ways and compared the whats, hows, and whys of their own learning. Remember that the AR relationship is not that of "observer and subjects"-all participants are learners.

Allow for obstacles. No matter how well you plan and analyze, the AR process involves human beings. Consider obstacles to be unavoidable. Approach them as opportunities to rethink your strategies or to think more deeply before moving forward.

Results from AR are rarely conclusive, so anticipate the desire to ask more questions, dig deeper or extend your research, and improve your instructional practice in new ways. This shouldn't preclude the sharing of your findings with others.

AR is timely to implement, in spite of everything on your plate. Whenever there's a problem, curiosity, or question, you can begin. Results may or may not be immediate, and it can certainly be a challenge to balance instruction with research planning and analysis. But the process will improve your confidence, affirm you as an engaged, reflective professional, and help strengthen your resolve regarding specific classroom goals and outcomes.

I learned a lot last year. Of course, I didn't come close to finding a panacea. But I did discover several strategic tweaks I could make to my instruction, some of which are outlined in Teachers as Brain-Changers: Neuroscience and Learning and What Neuroscience Tells Us About Deepening Learning.

I gained unexpected insights, too, thanks to learning about the process of AR. Consistent, systematic reflection has provided renewed purpose to my teaching, as I realized how "unaware" I had become.

And I have more questions than when I started, which is how AR becomes a delightfully cyclical addiction.

The word "research" used to be daunting to me. It reminded me of dusty tomes, eccentric professorial rants, and meticulous APA formatting. But now I realize that AR can be a way to practice what I preach, take my own learning deeper, and improve my effectiveness as a teacher. I hope you'll give it a try, too.

See you at the drawing board.

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What Teachers Need to Know About Action Research

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As a veteran teacher, I have plenty of instructional strategies under my belt, but this past year I needed new tools. A group of students (mostly English-language learners) were struggling to achieve even minimal growth in reading. As 3rd graders, they were entering the testing phase of schooling-but were two or more grade levels behind.

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by Garcia, Abrego & Calvillo

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by Abrego, Abrego & Morgan

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adult learners; partnerships; higher education; collaboration; active learning; professional development

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Creating Win-Win Partnerships And Adding Relevance To Educator Preparation | Abrego | Contemporary Issues in Education Research (CIER)

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Creating Win-Win Partnerships And Adding Relevance To Educator Preparation