Increasing the Shared Personal Practices of Educators

By Dr. Carmen J. Black

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• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Sep 17, 2010
• ISBN: 9781453544433

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Copyright © 2010 by Dr. Carmen J. Black.

Library of Congress Control Number:       2010910875

ISBN:         Hardcover                               978-1-4535-4442-6

                   Softcover                                 978-1-4535-4441-9

                   Ebook                                      978-1-4535-4443-3

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Contents

Chapter 1 INTRODUCTION

INTRODUCTION TO STUDY

THE NATURE OF THE PROBLEM

POSSIBLE CAUSES OF THE PROBLEM

PURPOSE OF THE PROJECT

BACKGROUND AND SIGNIFICANCE OF THE PROBLEM

RESEARCH QUESTIONS

DEFINITION OF TERMS

SUMMARY

Chapter 2 REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

INTRODUCTION

ASPECTS OF SHARED PERSONAL PRACTICES

THE PEER REVIEW PROCESS

DEVELOPING PEER OBSERVATION PRACTICES

SUMMARY

Chapter 3 METHODOLOGY

INTRODUCTION

PARTICIPANTS

PROCEDURES

INSTRUMENTS

PEER OBSERVATION TIME LINE

SUMMARY

Chapter 4 RESULTS

INTRODUCTION

RESULTS

QUALITATIVE FINDINGS OF DATA

RESULTS RELATIVE TO RESEARCH QUESTION 1

RESULTS RELATIVE TO RESEARCH QUESTION 2

SUMMARY

Chapter 5 DISCUSSION

INTERPRETATION OF THE RESULTS

IMPLICATIONS

LIMITATIONS

THREATS TO THE STUDY

RECOMMENDATIONS

References

Appendix A

Appendix B

Appendix C

Appendix D

Appendix E

Appendix F

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Completing this task can be credited to the help of many. First, I must acknowledge God in heaven to whom I dedicate this book. For it is he who appointed me to procure the opportunity for leadership enhancement. Completing this journey has taken faith, fortitude, wisdom, self-control, quality time, and determination. However, through it all, I constantly reminded myself that the struggle was not greater than the prize.

This work is also dedicated to my dear husband. John, you always encouraged and supported my efforts to reach this goal. Thanks for being there. To my two beautiful daughters, Deja’ and Mia’ Black; girls, you never complained about the long hours I put in to complete this task. You both maintained your positions as ladies socially when I could not accompany you to public and school events. You also maintained a winning attitude about your own educational development throughout this process. I cherish and love you both with all my heart.

Next, this book is dedicated to my loving parents, William N. and Mary T. Jessie. Your professional careers as prominent educators and leaders in the community always inspired me. Your constant encouragement to stay focused, persevere, and never give up until the job is completed, gave me the resilience and patience to complete this task. Thank you for being such great role models in my life. I do love you both unconditionally.

Last but not least, I would like to thank all of the volunteering peer group participants. Without your cooperation, this report of literature would not have been possible. You consented to sharing your personal practices as instructors and help to create a reliable piece of research that educator’s world wide may now reference in validating the urgency to observe and share instructional practices, which will assist in strengthening our current professional learning communities. Team Work Makes It Work! (Dr. Carmen J. Black, 2008)

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this book was to examine any increments of shared personal practice behavior exhibited by educators, working as peers in a metropolitan Atlanta, Georgia, elementary school. All noted behavioral changes were accomplished through the utilization of an informal peer observation program titled, Looking at Teaching and Learning Through Peer Observation (Thompson, 2002). This program was developed by Annenberg Institute for School Reform at Brown University.

The questions guiding this investigation focused on the aspects of shared personal practice, peer review, and peer observation. There were two concerns investigated in this work of literature:

1. What impact does peer observation have on decreasing instructional? isolation?

2. What impact does peer observation have on increasing the shared? personal practices of educators?

The problems found on this campus included instructional isolation and a lack of time for educators to share instructional practices. These problems were detected through qualitative methods of inquiry, Including formal and informal interviews conducted by the researcher with teachers, a Professional Learning Community Questionnaire administered to the instructional staff published by professional learning community advocates, Huffman, Hipp, Moller, Pankake, and D’Ette (2003). The procedures utilized within in this investigation included reliable sources of literature linked to shared personal practices, peer review, and peer observation. The author, (Dr. Carmen J. Black) investigated and implemented the informal peer observation program, Looking at Teaching and Learning Through Peer Observation, with the hopeful intent that it would decrease instructional isolation and increase the shared personal practices of educators working within a professional learning community setting.

As anticipated, the results of this investigation indicated that the implementation of peer observation practices did indeed increased the shared personal practices of the peer observation groups thus, reducing instructional isolation. Reflective comments gathered from each anonymous participant revealed that peers readily accepted and offered constructive comments to one another, reduced isolation practices, and learned new ways to perfect their instructional practice.

Chapter 1

INTRODUCTION

INTRODUCTION TO STUDY

The setting for this study was a single metropolitan Atlanta, Georgia, elementary school, linked to an established school district. This school is located in a rapidly growing, middle class neighborhood surrounded by established businesses. Businesses in this school community that render financial support to educate the students at the elementary school are considered partners in education. They are also considered accountable stakeholders and the educators responsible for educating this student population strive to maintain their highly qualified status.

As the terms stakeholders, accountability, instructional practices, and highly qualified educators surface in the educational community, the need for educators to strengthen and increase their instructional practice emerges. Enhancing instructional practice is vital to the framework of teaching (Danielson, 1996). Highly qualified educators increase their instructional effectiveness when they actively participate in peer review activities. According to Eaker, DuFour, and DuFour (2002), an important element of this process involves learning from each other (p. 8).

Peer review activities promote professionalism and accountability standards for teachers. Allowing teachers to participate in the peer review process creates a collaborative culture where educators can constructively evaluate and facilitate the instructional development of colleagues (Lieberman, 1998). Educators that share quality reviews of one another’s instructional practices create strong collaborative organization (McEwan, 2002). Constructive feedback of peers sharing practices may be conducted in both formal and informal settings (Huffman, Hipp, Moller, Pankake, & D’Ette, 2003). According to Huffman et al., Teachers learn together, apply what they learned, reflect on the process, and, in turn, discuss the results of the practice (p. 145). Educators that learn collectively to share their personal practices improve their professional development as instructors (Danielson & McGreal, 2000).

McEwan (2002) stated, the highly effective teacher is an instructional virtuoso: A skilled communicator with a repertoire of essential abilities behaviors models, and principles that leads all students to learning (p. 81). However, how do the educators know the effectiveness of their instructional delivery?

According to Danielson and McGreal (2000),

Evaluation procedures are those methods (the how) that teachers use to document or demonstrate their skills and knowledge (the what of the criteria of good teaching). The how and the what of course must be aligned. For every aspect of performance deemed essential to good practice, teachers must have a way to document their skill. (p. 55)

Pelletier (2006) stated, the evaluation will tell you how successful you have been and what needs to be modified or expanded for the next year (p. 5).

Danielson and McGreal (2000) reported that

. . . in traditional evaluation systems, supervisors or administrators typically conduct observations and write up the evaluations. But, alternative approaches suggest that other educators might play a role in at least some of the required activities . . . school staffs should set up alternative forms of evaluation that are directed at enhancing instruction through formative techniques and individual or team self-directed inquiry—also as continuous activities. (pp. 18-57)

Thus, an acceptable alternative approach that encourages teachers to assist one another with increasing and enhancing the quality of instruction they elicit is a concept identified as of peers helping peers (Fisher, Balch-Gonzalez, Neuman, King, & Pelcaht, 2002). This alternative approach to observing instructional practices has existed in some school districts across America since 1980 (Lieberman, 1998). When peers observe one another’s instructional practices, review instructional strengths and weaknesses, discuss instructional techniques that line up with student learning, and provide constructive feedback to one another, their overall instructional practice strengthens (Blase & Blasé, 2006).

According to Goldstein and Noguera (2006),

A more thorough and thoughtful approach to teaching evaluation exist, one that provides support to teachers who need help and promotes instructional leadership. Peer assistance and review reduces the burden on principals, the isolation of the classroom teacher, and sometimes and even the antagonism and hostility between labor and management by involving teachers in the formal evaluation of other teachers and making them responsible for employment recommendation. (p. 32)

The researcher implemented an informal peer observation program that educators on this metropolitan Atlanta, Georgia, campus used as peers to decrease instructional isolation and increase their shared personal practices. The peer observation program utilized was developed for Annenberg Institute for School Reform at Brown University. It is titled, Looking at Teaching and Learning Through Peer Observation. Thompson (2002) stressed that

Looking at Teaching and Learning Through Peer Observation is a professional development tool that helps create dialogue among educators who want to establish