May 1, 2014
Edmonton Catholic Schools
TRANSFORM!
Professional Development Model
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May 1, 2014
What is TRANSFORM and how did it begin?
Transform is Edmonton Catholic Schools professional learning framework designed to achieve
Alberta Education’s (2010a) Inspiring Education vision. This framework emerged when Alberta
Initiatives for School Improvement funding was cut on March 8, 2013. At that time, our
Superintendent, Joan Carr, asked for a plan to continue ongoing teacher learning in order to take
up the call of the Alberta government to meet students’ learning needs through the Inspiring
Education agenda. The Assistant Superintendent of Learning Services Innovation, the Transform
Manager as well as our consultant staff and the Transform Steering Committee of over 20 varied
stakeholder representatives contributed to and cocreated a PD plan that began in 2013-2014 (year
one) and continues in 2014-2015 (year two).
In year one (2013-2014), we had almost half of our schools (42/88) volunteer to work with
district consultants on a weekly basis for up to one full day or two half days per week for one
semester (five months).These schools were called “host schools” because they had a minimum of
two lead teachers planning, teaching, documenting and reflecting on an ongoing basis to explore
research-informed changes in their practices and to share what they were learning within and
beyond their school with host consultants. When they shared within our district, these schools
hosted other schools called “visiting schools”. Visiting schools were provided with substitute
release time to send lead teachers to a site that the teachers selected because of pedagogical
changes being explored. These descriptions of the pedagogical explorations were published in a
District Digital Newsletter. When the host schools accepted visitors from outside of our district, we
called these sessions “delegations” and so far, we have hosted over 200 teachers and
administrators from Red Deer Public, Red Deer Catholic, Calgary Catholic and Westwind School
jurisdictions. These delegations are coordinated by the Transform Manager and do not appear in
the digital newsletter. In year two, host schools from 2013-2014 are now called “Continuing Host
Schools”, and they will choose from one of three plans (See a detailed description on p. 6), which
provide them with resources to enrich their instructional leadership opportunities within their
sites to grow their teacher leader teams.
TRANSFORM is shifting towards student-centred practices. All ECSD schools are participating in
TRANSFORM!, which is a differentiated professional development model. This model is focused on
supporting teachers to develop and strengthen student-centered classroom pedagogies
(philosophical principles) and practices:
TRANSFORM = 10 Pedagogical Shifts
Teacher-centred
Content-based
Student as Recipient
Topic-driven
Short-term Assignments
Memorization
Summative Assessment
Competitive
Single Grades
One-size-fits-all
Print-based
Student-centered
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Competency-based
Student as Inquirer & Creator
Cross-curricular Themes
Project-based Learning
Higher-level Thinking
Formative Assessment
Collaborative Learning
Multi-grades
Differentiated & Personalized
Multimodal (print, visual, digital)
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May 1, 2014
TRANSFORM is shifting towards competency-based education. These pedagogical shifts of
practice are central to achieving Alberta Education’s (2010a) Curriculum Redesign Ministerial
Order (May 6, 2013) that confirmed that there is a commitment to revise K-12 programs of study
to emphasize competencies (interrelated knowledge, skills and dispositions), not just content
(knowledge and skills).
TRANSFORM is participating in Alberta Education’s Prototyping Research. In Understanding
Shifts (2010b), Alberta Education committed to revising programs of study collaboratively with
school-based staff. The focus is on having the Ministry of Education and school educators
collaboratively document and reflect on what it means: 1) to include the competencies in K-12
programs of study; and 2) to plan, teach and assess the competencies as part of everyday teaching
and learning. ECSD will provide teachers and administrators with the opportunity to participate in
prototyping research because of our role as a lead District K-3.
TRANSFORM will be supported by a constellation of communities of practice (Wenger, 2000)
through digital and face-to-face knowledge mobilization within and beyond ECSD. ECSD will
work with partners such as Edmonton Regional Learning Consortium (ERLC), Alberta Education
and post-secondary institutions to develop a constellation of communities of practice (Wenger,
2000) within our district and beyond.
What are the Components of this Differentiated PD Model?
Each of our 91 school and departments (Learning Services Innovation (LS-I) and Learning Services
Enhancement (LS-E) has a TRANSFORM team that explores and supports others at their sites (and
beyond) to engage in FIVE components of district professional learning:
Component 1:
District-wide
PD Days & Common
Resources
Component 2:
Digital PD
Opportunities
Component 5:
Parent
Engagement
Materials
Component 3:
Instructional
Leadership
PD
Component 4:
Host or Continuing
Host Schools
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May 1, 2014
What is involved in the district-wide PD days (component 1)?
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4 dates of live streamed presentations about Inspiring Education and Examples of K12 practices enacting this vision: Sept. 26/14; Jan. 23/15; Feb. 20/15; Apr. 17/15
Consultants, teacher leaders and principals will have prepared sessions (up to 15
choices) available in a face-to-face setting.
The sessions offered face-to-face will also be offered as web-based Professional
Development Packs (pre-prepared) made available to designated school-based
facilitators to offer at their individual school sites.
We offer facilitator support sessions to designated individuals at schools to assist them
with planning and delivering school-based PD.
What are the digital PD opportunities (Component 2)?
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Webinars will be created to support the PD in all components of this model.
PD guides and video exemplars are available now and continue to be created as part of
our PD model.
Professional Learning Collaboration Spaces dedicated to discussing how we are
messaging the Inspiring Education journey to our parents.
Student Speak Out Collaboration spaces to share students’ views of their journey of
developing 21C competencies as engaged thinkers, ethical citizens with
entrepreneurial sprits.
What happens for Leadership PD (Component 3)?
Throughout the year, Edmonton Catholic School principals participate in professional
learning sessions (Catholic Educational Leadership meetings, TRANSFORM Tuesdays,
Leadership Academy) focused on developing instructional leadership and 21C practices of
administrators within our district. These sessions are led by the TRANSFORM steering
committee of principals who design PD that develops principals as instructional leaders of
21C teaching and learning practices, one of ECSD’s Eight Dimensions of Catholic Educational
Leadership.
What is involved in being a host school or continuing host school
(Component 4)?
ECSD will realize TRANSFORM pedagogical shifts through job-embedded professional
learning via a host and visiting school concept.
Host Schools
A host school has:
 Two teacher leaders
o Who may or may not be part of the school TRANSFORM team.
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May 1, 2014
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o Who SHARE up to 15 HALF days of substitute release time to work with a
district staff member through at least two cycles reflective practice (appr. 34 weeks per cycle or 6-8 weeks for two cycles). This substitute release time is
shared between the two teachers. This has been increased by 5 additional half
days from last year based on principal request.
o Who prepare PD for their staff about their experiences enacting a pedagogical
shift and the impact on student learning and achievement.
Each host school will take part in one phase, and possibly two phases
(in consultation with the Manager).
Reflective Practice Coaching Cycle
HOST Schedule
Phase 1: Sept. 15- Jan. 31
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Some schools will choose to begin
immediately.
Some schools may choose to begin in
October.
Phase 2: Feb. 1-June 15
 Some schools will start in February.
 Other schools may choose to start in
March.
Note: Coaching resources will be identified, developed and shared through our face-to-face and
digital communication opportunities with principals, assistant principals, coaches and
teachers.
What are teachers and district staff doing at a host school?
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Teachers and district staff plan a lesson (s) with other teachers at their site and from
visiting sites to achieve a particular pedagogical shift in their practices.
Teachers and district staff teach and document students’ learning with the help of
other teachers, including district staff.
Documentation of students’ learning is key for staff to reflect on their practices and
whether and how student developed the identified competencies and outcomes
defined by the K-12 programs of study.
District staff actively support each phase of the reflective practice cycle by providing
resources, suggestions, coteaching/teaching, codocumenting/documenting, coreflecting on whether and how students developed particular knowledge, skills and
dispositions through the exploration of practices (e.g., solution fluency) that enact
particular pedagogical shifts.
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May 1, 2014
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Teachers and district staff develop a plan for how the teacher leaders and principals
involved in these reflective cycles will grow other teacher leaders after district staff is
no longer involved (capacity-building and sustainability).
Continuing Host Schools
School communities that have been host schools in 2013-2014 are now choosing from one of
three plans to be continuing host schools:
Plan A: Lead Teacher Plan:
o Supports: The school receives a 0.1 FTE (elementary/junior high school) or a 5credit course release (high school) to have one person lead a team of teachers
to engage in planning-teaching-documenting-reflecting cycles to explore one or
more pedagogical shifts throughout the year to explore student-centred
practices.
o Supports: The school receives almost $5,000.00 in substitute release monies to
support other teachers to work with the lead throughout the year.
o High Deliverables: There are relatively high deliverables for the lead teachers
(to lead two district-wide PD session; to support principals to message the
Inspiring Education vision to parents and staff; to coordinate consultant time to
assist with the reflective practice cycle of professional learning throughout the
year; to cocreate, with teacher leaders, a short video story of their school’s
journey).
Plan B: Building a Team by Twos:
o Fall: The school receives substitute release monies for two teachers to work
with a district consultant to plan-teach-document-reflect on a change of
practice based on one or more of the ten pedagogical shifts.
o Fall-Winter: The school receives additional sub funds for two more new
teachers to join the original two teacher leaders to engage in the same
reflective practice cycle.
o Winter-Spring: The school receives additional sub funds for two more new
teachers to join the four teachers to engage in reflective practice coaching.
o Medium Deliverables: The school lead teacher team engages in the same types
of activities as the lead teacher, but they do it as a team and they do not have to
prepare two district-wide PD sessions.
Plan C: School Leadership Team
o Supports: The school designates two or more lead teachers to form a
Transform team and this team shares 15 HALF days of substitute release time
to plan-teach-document-reflect on one or more pedagogical shifts of choice.
o Low Deliverables: The school lead teacher team is expected to share their
journey with staff and to make clear connections to the Inspiring Education
agenda. The team may also be asked by the principal to share with parents
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May 1, 2014
what is happening as far as the school’s transform journey as it connects to
Inspiring Education.
What does knowledge mobilization involve between host and continuing
host schools (Component 4)?
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Every school receives 15 HALF days of substitute release time to visit schools
within or outside of our district to share student-centred teaching and learning
practices and pedagogies.
What is involved in developing and using parent engagement materials
(Component 5)?
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Lead teachers from the continuing host schools that choose take part in Plan A
will work with consultants to cocreate materials to share the Inspiring
Education agenda and what it looks like in schools in ECSD and beyond.
The materials will be made available on our public ECSD website as well as our
portal.
Schools will rely on these materials to support messaging what is happening in
their schools and the school district to carry forward the Inspiring Education
agenda, including curriculum and high school redesign.
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