The Cohen et al
Model explains why investment in professional development development by low
capacity schools and school systems often has no effect or negative effect on
morale and performance. An organization should be able to :
Þ support the teacher in navigating
the complex interactions among the new skills and knowledge he/she has
acquired, existing patterns of student engagement and the modifications to
curricula and content that may be necessary to execute the new practices in
this particular setting with these particular students.
Þ Offer consistent messages to
principals, teachers and students about what goals are most important and what
resources are available to support the work of meeting them.
Þ Make no judgements about
performance of teachers and students without first ensuring that the conditions
for high performance have been met
Þ Have no expectations from its
people to demonstrate knowledge and skills that they haven‘t had the
opportunity to learn.
These conditions create a
formidable agenda of organizational redesign for most schools and school
systems. For this the organizational system would have to;
Þ Have considerable expertise about
the instructional practices they expect teachers to acquire. That expertise
would have to entail, not just teaching teachers how to teach differently, but
actually working with teachers in their classrooms to solve problems of
practice in a way that supports continuous improvement.
Þ Manage its resources to support
and fund the work of teachers and professional developers in sustained
interaction.
Þ Set priorities, clearly stating
what problems of instructional practice are central and which peripheral to
overall improvement before deciding how to allocate professional development
resources. Schools would have to become learning environments for teachers as
well as for students.
Þ Make public and authoritative
distinctions among teachers and administrators based on quality, competence,
expertise and performance.
Þ Identify people who know what to
do, to develop the capacity of those in the organization to learn what to do
and to create settings in which people who know what to do teach those who
don‘t.
Effective professional
development requires the development of expertise as an organizational capacity
and this requires differentiated organizational roles.
The issues that need to be
looked into are;
Þ Objective and comprehensive
evaluation of teachers.
Þ The belief that all teachers are
equal in their skill and knowledge. This undermines the possibility that
teachers can learn from each other in powerful ways, as well as learning from
experts who are not part of their immediate circle of colleagues.
Þ Teaching is a largely
undifferentiated occupation.
Þ Teachers work in isolation from
each other.
Þ The culture of passivity and
helplessness that pervades most institutions. Teachers and administrators learn
this culture of passivity and helplessness as a consequence of working in
dysfunctional organizations, not as a consequence of choosing to think and
behave that way. Improving the organization will change what adults learn.
Þ The excuse that problems of ―change‖
and improvement will require a long time and lot of money.
So the practice of improvement
is about changing three things fundamentally and simultaneously:
1.
The values and beliefs of people in schools about what is worth doing and what
is possible to do;
2.
The structural conditions under which the work is done; and
3. The ways in which people
learn to do the work.
Forging working
relationships in a multicultural environment requires genuine commitment,
empathy, and sensitivity from administrators, educators, and staff members.
Here are some key principles to remember:
Respect individual
differences.
Just as teachers respect
students for their uniqueness, they ought to respect colleagues for their
unique values, beliefs, and opinions.
1. Get out of the comfort zone. We tend to be most comfortable with those people who are like us. But
clustering with only members of our own group prevents us from getting to know
our colleagues.
2. Refrain from making judgments about others. One must not use one‘s own group's standards as a
frame of reference. "Different" does not mean "inferior."
There is intrinsic worth in every human being.
3. Learn to communicate more effectively. Become proficient in "low context" and
"high context" communication. Listen and watch closely. Be empathetic
to those learning the English language. Speak slowly and distinctly (not
loudly) in order to be understood.
4. Accentuate the
positive. Share the positive
aspects of your culture. Build up a positive environment through praise and
appreciation.
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any suggestion on my side