Facilitating Learning Teams using
the Professional Learning Cycle
Adobe Connect for Board Teams of Learning
Team Facilitators
January, 2011
Student Success/Learning to 18
SS/L-18ITEB 2010 The Professional Learning Cycle
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Session Materials
PowerPoint slide summary
Handout 1: Facilitation Approaches and Standards
Handout 2: A Professional Learning Cycle
Handout 3: Plan - Data Sets
Handout 4: Observe - Shared Practice Scenarios
Handout 5: Collaborative Inquiry Continuum
See confirmation email or
http://community.elearningontario.ca/index-en.asp
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Poll
I have facilitated learning teams using a Professional
Learning Cycle:
1. never
2. as a shared responsibility with
others
3. a few times
4. many times
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A rose by any other name…
Collaborative Inquiry
e.g.
•TLCP
•Action Research
•Lesson Study
The Professional Learning
Cycle is driven by student
learning needs.
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Professional Learning Cycle
The goal of the Professional
Learning Cycle Strategy is to
increase student engagement
and achievement by
providing a process for
professional learning that is
driven and focused by
student learning needs.
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Agenda
Minds On
 Poll
 Welcome and Introductions
 Purpose and Context
Action
 Facilitation
 Approaches and Standards
 Complementary Roles

Shared Practice




PLAN
ACT
OBSERVE
REFLECT
Consolidation
 Reflection and Next Steps
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Session Purpose
Share practice and build capacity in
facilitating learning teams using the
professional learning cycle
Sharpen the focus on identifying
and addressing student learning
needs on an ongoing basis
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E-Protocols
• Use signals (bottom left hand
corner)
• Use “Raise hand” to volunteer to
speak
• Identify yourself before speaking
• Use the CHAT Pod to communicate
with the whole group or privately
with a colleague by selecting from
the drop down menu
• Mute your phone or polycom when
not speaking to the large group
(*6)
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Introductions
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Provincial Context: Core Priorities
High Levels of Student
Achievement
Reducing the Gaps in Student
Achievement
Increased Public Confidence in
Our Publicly Funded Schools
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Student Success/Learning to 18
Focusing on the Core Priorities,
Grades 7-12
 Programs (e.g., SHSM)
 Interventions (e.g., Credit
Recovery)
 Effective Instruction (i.e., DI
Professional Learning Strategy)
ALL
SOME
Necessary for some; good for all
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School Effectiveness Framework
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School Effectiveness Framework
School and Classroom Leadership
• 2.4 Job-embedded and inquiry-based
professional learning builds capacity, informs
instructional practice and contributes to a
culture of learning
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Learning Teams
Professional learning team
meetings have one primary
purpose: improved teaching and
learning in an area of identified
student need.
The aim is… to provide a way for
teachers to become increasingly
accomplished instructors for the
Source:
ultimate benefit of students … not
The Evolution of a
(simply) to develop professional
Professional Learning
Team, Tools for Schools
learning teams.
(NSDC), Nov./ Dec. 2008
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Implications of School-based Inquiry Teams
Using a collaborative inquiry model:
• (Shifts teacher) attribution of improved
student performance to … teaching rather
than external causes
• (Gives focus to) an academic problem long
enough to develop an instructional solution
SOURCE:
Moving the Learning of Teaching Closer to Practice: Teacher Education Implications of
School-based Inquiry Teams 1, Ronald Gallimore, LessonLab Research Institute & UCLA,
May 2009
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Agenda
Minds On
 Poll
 Welcome and Introductions
 Purpose and Context
Action
 Facilitation
 Approaches and Standards
 Complementary Roles

Shared Practice




PLAN
ACT
OBSERVE
REFLECT
Consolidation
 Reflection and Next Steps
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Knowing the Learner
POLL
• Think about your experience as a
facilitator and select the option
that best describes you as a
facilitator:
A.
B.
C.
D.
E.
Mickey Mouse
The Librarian
Einstein
Elmo
Eeyore
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Facilitation Approaches and Standards
Read A and B:
A. Approaches – Instructional and Facilitative
B. Standards
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HANDOUT 1
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Facilitation Approaches and Standards:
Board Groups
1. For either A. Approaches or B. Standards, think
about examples of when you have attended (might
attend) to one of these aspects of facilitation and
how you did it.
2. Raise your hand when you are ready
to share a comment or example.
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Facilitator Role
The facilitator . . .
•leads the processes used in a meeting,
•choreographs the energy within the group,
•maintains a focus on one content and one
process at a time.
Adapted from:
Garmston and Wellman, The Adaptive School, p.27
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Collaborative Inquiry Continuum
When meeting
as a learning
team, our work
together is
facilitated…
HANDOUT 2
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21
Complementary Roles
Think: How do facilitators/
informal leaders and formal
leaders support each other in
their roles?
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Informal and Formal Leaders
Informal
Formal
• Instructional leadership
• Operational and instructional
leadership
• Articulate vision
• Role of authority
• Set direction
• Roles are a function of
relationships, influence and
activities
• Lead, participate and share –
activity-based and expertise
driven
• Organize, manage, design and
build collaborative processes and
communities
• Support teachers in learning –
advocacy, time and resources,
delegate, distribute power
• Create conditions for collaboration
Katz, Earl, Jaafar (2009). Building and Connecting Learning Communities, p.61
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Leadership and Student Learning
After teaching, the second most influential factor on student
learning is leadership (shared; formal and informal).
Most-effective leadership dimension:
 promoting and participating in teacher
learning and development
Vivian Robinson, 2007, School Leadership and Student Outcomes:
Identifying What Works and Why in Earl and Katz, Creating a Culture
of Inquiry in Blankstein, 2010: Data Enhanced Leadership
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A Professional Learning Cycle
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HANDOUT 3
25
25
Collaborative Inquiry
… a way of ensuring that collaboration
goes beyond casual story swapping and
becomes true, intentional joint work that
results in new understandings that will
move practice forward
Katz, Earl & Jaafar, (2009). Building and
Connecting Learning Communities, p.74.
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Professional Learning Cycle
STUDENT LEARNING
EDUCATOR LEARNING
For each unit/module:
PLAN
• examine student data and work to identify
areas of need
• determine/access professional learning in
order to address areas of student need and to
differentiate to reach all
ACT/OBSERVE
• implement, adjust, engage in professional
learning, share practice
REFLECT
• examine student data and work to determine
impact, lessons learned, next steps for student
and educator learning
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DATA / EVIDENCE-BASED
ALIGNED
Depth
Board
(BIP)
School
(SIP)
Classroom
(planning for teaching and learning)
collaborative inquiry –
professional learning cycle
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Example
Literacy: Writing
Board
(BIP)
Literacy: Writing
Gr. 9 & 10 Applied/Open
Literacy: Writing
Gr. 9 Tech Ed and Visual Arts,
Gr. 10 Computer Studies:
Common Assessment area Expression and Organization
of Ideas (Achievement Chart)
SS/L-18ITEB 2010 The Professional Learning Cycle
School
(SIP)
Classroom
(planning for teaching and learning)
Professional Learning Cycle
(collaborative inquiry)
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PLAN
Student learning
need focuses
educator
learning
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PLAN
In the CHAT Pod, please list:
1. one or more examples of data/evidence your team could
examine to determine a student learning need
2. the identified student need
EXAMPLE:
Evidence:
- Assignment completion;
- E, G, S, Ns for ‘independent
work’ learning skill;
- Attendance
SS/L-18ITEB 2010 The Professional Learning Cycle
Need:
increased student engagement
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PLAN - Debrief
1. Read through the examples
2. What similarities and differences do you
notice?
3. Questions? (Raise your hand)
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Precise Focus on Student Learning Needs
(Closing the Gap)
For each unit/module consider:
• specific groups of students (e.g., in the 40-59%
range, disengaged and underachieving OR
• 4 or 5 students with varied needs
STUDENT LEARNING
TEACHER LEARNING
• Who are they?
• Why does each group/student typically achieve
in this range?
• How can these needs be addressed in the
upcoming unit/module?
• How do these needs relate to the needs of
others in the class?
• How can instruction be differentiated to reach
all learners?
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Data Set Topics
HANDOUT 3
Select a data set to examine:
Data Set 1: Career Studies
Data Set 2: Cross-curricular - Reading Readiness
Data Set 3: Math - Solving Linear Equations
Data Set 4: Cooperative Education - Reflection
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Data Sets
Based on the data/evidence:
• Identify an area of student
need
• Determine a focus for
educator learning
• What evidence would
indicate that the need has
been addressed?
• Note your responses in the
Chat Pod for that Data Set.
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HANDOUT 3
35
Collaborative Inquiry Continuum
When meeting
as a learning
team, our work
together…
HANDOUT 2
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ACT
Implementing
strategies to meet
student needs
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Are Canadian Youth Engaged at School?
• Although many students are engaged at
school, overall levels of social and
academic engagement are quite low.
• Levels of intellectual engagement – which
tap into students’ sense of interest,
feelings about the relevance of school
work, and motivation to do well in class –
are significantly lower than levels of social
and academic engagement.
• Levels of student engagement decline steadily throughout
the middle and secondary school grades.
http://www.cea-ace.ca/res.cfm?subsection=wdy
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A Focus on Instruction
Motivation  high effect size
John Hattie (2008), Visible Learning, p.240
… motivation is highest when students are
competent, have sufficient autonomy, set
worthwhile goals, get feedback, and are
affirmed by others.
Hattie, Visible Learning, p.48
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A Focus on Instruction
Teachers are among the most powerful influences in
learning…. John Hattie (2008), Visible Learning, p.240
… teachers using particular teaching methods,
teachers with high expectations for all students,
and teachers who have created positive studentteacher relationships … are more likely to have
above average effects on student achievement.
Hattie, Visible Learning, p.126
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A Focus on Instruction
SS/L-18ITEB SS/L-18ITEB
2010 The Professional
2010 Differentiated
Learning Cycle
Instruction Professional Learning Strategy
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ACT – Four Corners
1. What is the role of formal and
informal leaders in the ACT
phase?
2. How might the ACT phase look
different for different team
members?
3. What logistical challenges do
you foresee and how might
these be overcome?
4. Identify ways to assist or
support teachers as they adjust
their instruction based on what
they learn about their students.
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ACT
ACT––Four
Four Corners
Corners
• Select a question to
discuss as a team or to
think about as an
individual.
• Raise your hand if you
would like to share a
point with the large
group.
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Collaborative Inquiry Continuum
When meeting
as a learning
team, our work
together…
HANDOUT 2
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44
OBSERVE
Sharing
instructional
practice to
monitor student
learning and
enhance educator
learning
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Student Work
“One of the most powerful ways to
ensure that any (learning team) stays
focused – whether within or across
schools – is by making sure that it is
anchored by actual student work.” p. 76
“Having actual student work is at the
center of the collaborative inquiry
exercise. It creates the opportunity for
evidence-driven, focused professional
learning conversations.” p. 76
SS/L-18ITEB 2010 The Professional Learning Cycle
Katz, Earl, Jaafar,
2009 (Corwin)
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OBSERVE: E-Group Scenarios
1. Select a scenario in which
you are interested or have
had previous experience.
2. Note your
response/thoughts to the
question in the chat pod for
that Scenario.
3. Raise your hand if you
would like to share with the
whole group.
SS/L-18ITEB 2010 Differentiated Instruction Professional Learning Strategy
HANDOUT 4
47
Collaborative Inquiry Continuum
When meeting
as a learning
team, our work
together…
HANDOUT 2
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48
REFLECT
Examining evidence
to reflect on
student and
educator learning
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Reflect
Key Questions for Reflection
•
•
How might you assist your learning team in
determining whether the strategies they
have used have made a difference?
How will you help members of your learning
team determine what they have learned and,
based on student learning needs, their next
steps for professional learning?
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Collaborative Inquiry Continuum
HANDOUT 2
When meeting
as a learning
team, our work
together…
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Agenda
Minds On
 Poll
 Welcome and Introductions
 Purpose and Context
Action
 Facilitation
 Approaches and Standards
 Complementary Roles

Shared Practice




PLAN
ACT
OBSERVE
REFLECT
Consolidation
 Reflection and Next Steps
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Consolidation
Reflection
• Think about something that has resonated
for you or that is particularly relevant for
your board team.
• Raise your hand if you would like to share
with the large group.
Next Steps
• Meet as a team to review the session and
plan next steps.
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Thank you.
anne.clifton@ontario.ca
karen.greenham@ontario.ca
linda.staudt@ontario.ca
shawna.eby@ontario.ca
demetra.saldaris@ontario.ca (manager)
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