“When you only have one guy with a shovel, you can’t build a dike to hold back the sea.”
Orson Scott Card
Ever been to the beach and tried to build a sand castle when the tide was coming in? Futile effort. Particularly if it is a solo effort. Perhaps if the whole family was engaged in building a berm you might have a chance, but the victory will be short-lived. The incoming tide will eventually overwhelm your efforts or a rogue wave will obliterate your work. If you are the only one in your system with a vested interest in building an effective school data team, then your ability to tend to the data in a manner that will influence instruction will eventually be overwhelmed by other administrative responsibilities. Given the need to share tasks, the operational paradigm of Distributed Leadership is essential for the success of school data teams.
Distributive Leadership is more of a cultural construct then it is a set of protocols. Distributed Leadership is not about assigning a task to another person, it is a cultural phenomenon. And be aware, the distributive leadership required for data teams is a new paradigm for many districts, so therefore it will be considered as either an intrusion or as an innovation. It is an intrusion if there is no sense of ownership and it occupies time that teachers would otherwise spend on “getting their work done”. It is a welcome innovation if it is an efficient and effective process that guides instructional practices and decisions about students.
Decisions about students include using student performance data to determine which interventions are necessary and what form of differentiation is required. Changes to instructional practices include using student performance outcomes to help determine pacing, the targeting of specific standards, and in identifying the best instructional practices.
Richard Elmore’s (2000) article, Building a New Structure for School Leadership, states that there is a need to focus on instruction, but administrators who focus on instruction are rare. He states that leaders need to harness organizational coherence and that Distributed Leadership allows various competencies to emerge and coalesce. However, Elmore finds that while changes do occur, improvements are rare.
Andrew Hargreaves (2005) work studying educational reform during the last three decades with high school teachers in New York and Ontario concludes that sustainable educational leadership requires distributing leadership. However, he finds that Distributed Leadership will be hindered by the prevailing culture of teacher autonomy. Hargreaves (2001) asserts that occupations have their own “emotional geography” (p. 4) and that teachers are reluctant to acknowledge that other teachers may be more effective. Unfortunately this interferes with one of the goals of looking at disaggregated data; which is to identify best performance/best practices that exist within a school. The hope is that you can discover a strategy or practice that has success, meaning that one teacher will have more success on any given topic when compared to others. This is one reason why the practice of data teams must be considered in context to the school culture and climate.
Assuming that you can weave the Distributed Leadership into the culture of the school, what does it look like in practice? The literature on distributed leadership is unclear as to what form it takes and how it impacts school leadership (Harris, 2004). Harris states that we need proof for what constitutes effective practice or otherwise we are just contributing to multiple theories and constructs which may prove misleading. Fortunately, a 4-year long case study of the use of data teams in five urban school districts in Rhode Island helps in articulating effective practices (LaChat & Smith, 2005). Also, in a Q-and-A session titled, Making Data Teams Work, Douglass Reeves names school systems in Elkhart Indiana, Norfolk Virginia, and Fort Bend Texas as examples of districts with good practices.
The initial findings of the study by Lachat and Smith from five high-poverty, low-performing, urban high schools demonstrate that there are four main factors influencing the effectiveness of school data teams: 1) the quality and timeliness of the data, 2) the ability of the technology and data-warehousing system to provide disaggregated data, 3) utilizing a clear set of questions to collaboratively look at the data, and 4) the role of school climate, culture, and leadership has on the willingness of the teachers to engage in the process. The authors of the study state that the schools had varying degrees of success in implementing data teams. This initial study does not offer student performance data to support the work, but they do cite anecdotal examples of progress being made due to consideration of data.
So what is the function of your school-wide data team? Do they shepherd the work produced in the instructional data teams? Are they a clearing house, funneling results and data to the pertinent parties? Do they serve as cheerleaders for the process, acting as culture builders? Take a tip from Mark Parker, Nike’s designer and CEO, who commented after attending a session of Nike’s think tank for innovation, where new ideas for shoe designs are vetted: “Edit and amplify. I’m trying to amplify the innovation agenda further, and short-list the things that will make the biggest difference. That’s an art and a science” (McGirt, 2010, p. 69). So for schools, the science part may be the disaggregation, dissemination, and dissection of the data; and the artistry is the culture building.
Edit and amplify.
Have your school-level data team discuss the key data points for your school and have them share in the work of building the data-driven decision process. But, if you are reluctant to give up your shovel and feel that if you alone worked with enough focus and determination you could get the job accomplished, then let me remind you of the legend of John Henry. John Henry was a miner that single-handily tried to outperform a steam-driven drill. The good news is that he completes the task, the bad news is that he then collapses and expires. Don’t let data be the death of you, don't let the volume of data inundate you; distribute the load by creating the culture that will embrace the data analysis process in order to improve the teachers’ instructional practices.
Make a good day,
Tod
PS. Card, O. S. (1999). Ender’s Shadow. New York: Tom Doherty Associates Book. Quotation from page 364.
PSS. Elmore, R. F. (2000). Building a new structure for school leadership. Retrieved from the Albert Shanker Institute website http://www.ashankerinst.org/downloads/building.pdf
PSSS. Hargreaves, A, (2001). Emotional geographies of teaching. Teachers College Record, 103(6), 1056-1080.
PSSSS. Hargreaves, A. (2005). Editorial statement. The Educational Forum, 69(2), 101-110.
PSSSSS. LaChat, M. & Smith, S. (2005). Practices that support data use in urban high schools. Journal of Education for Students Placed at Risk, 10(3), 333-349, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc.
PSSSSSS. McGirt, Ellen (2010, September). Artist. Athlete. CEO. Fast Company, 148. 66-114. Retrievable at http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/148/artist-athlete-ceo.html
PSSSSSSS. Reeves Q & A: Making Data Teams Work, retrieved from http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/District_Dossier/data/
Tuesday, December 28, 2010
Sunday, November 28, 2010
sometimes it gets messy
I worked late today; I’m driving home; its past dinner time; my wife is at a church function; the kids are all out doing x, y, or z; so I can either go home and scrounge up something to eat, or stop in at my favorite local barbecue place. Easy decision. Flaggstead Smokehouse Texas-style BBQ, here I come! One of the things I like about BBQ is that it is a very casual, and yet intimate experience. The only way to eat ribs is to pick them up with your hands and gnaw right on the bones. One does not eat BBQ ribs with a knife and fork. You have to get sloppy, messy, and get right down to the bone.
Administrative leadership is a lot like that when you have staff members that are reluctant to perform their assigned responsibilities. Dealing with them can be messy as you navigate past the excuses and get right down to their bone of contention (they will always have a reason for not complying with the issue at hand). Each person will have his or her own unique reason. This is where it gets personal, you have to slow down and discover through dialogue (dialogue as in two people sharing ideas rather than just you asking questions and them providing answers) what the leverage point is to that would provide the opportunity for them to change their mind.
Navigate is the key action word here. One must steer the conversation around potential tangents, past pet peeves, and avoid emotional trigger points. You can only avoid them if you know they exist, which is evidence of how deep the relationship exists between you and that individual. If the relationship is shallow, then you are more likely to run aground on some issue that lies just beneath the surface veneer of professional politeness.
All this underscores the fact that effective leadership is contingent on establishing relationships. Relationships are essential for communication. Noted author and editor, Bernard Bass, states that “leadership and followership are reciprocal” (p. 590). The reciprocity allows for meaningful dialogue when disagreement occurs or when a staff member is reluctant to complete their duties or responsibilities. Without a reciprocal-based relationship, reluctance can elevate to defiance if the conversation is interpreted as confrontational.
Thomas Sergiovanni summarizes the virtues of leadership as hope, trust, piety, and civility. He states that wise leaders rely on others and therefore work to increase their capacity for action as well as fostering hope and faith. Thus, hope, faith and the expectations for action coalesce to form a “covenant of obligations” (p.116). Covenant is a strong word choice, one I believe that is chosen to recognize the power of relationships.
Relationships are the key to action. Bass addresses the bottom line; “The real test of leadership lies not in the personality or behavior of the leaders, but in the performance of the group they lead” (p. 598). In this era of accountability, everyone must perform at high levels. Everyone means that the leader needs to do more than invite everyone to the table, he or she must address those individuals that do not perform and resolve the issue.
There is risk involved in having this type of conversation. Tim Schneider, a consultant dealing with leadership issues, states that one must always weigh the risk of pursuing this level of conversation. In recognition of the difficulty of engaging in this type of discussion, he refers to them as courageous conversations. He offers some tips to structure the process; “…a courageous conversation must have a clearly defined objective. That objective must then meet the standard of being for the organizational good and not just for the benefit or comfort of the leader….the language is not passive and that action is required to complete the transaction.” It is reaching acceptance of the required action steps that is key to moving forward.
Having a direct conversation with an under-performing staff member will never be a clean, clear process since the uniqueness of each personality involved means that there is no single template for the dialogue (although the goal may be universal to all staff), therefore it will be a messy process. If a solid reciprocal relationship has been established, then following through on the covenant of obligations will be easier to accomplish, but the process will always remain a little messy.
You know even before you go into a BBQ joint that its going to be messy, but you recognize that it is an essential part of the experience; so use that same recognition to have a courageous conversation and don’t let the potential messiness stop you.
Make a good day,
Tod
PS. Bass, B. M. (1981). Looking back. In R. M. Stodgill (Ed.), Stodgill’s handbook of leadership: A survey of theory and action (pp. 584-598) New York: Free Press.
PSS. Sergiovanni, T. J. (2005). The virtues of leadership. The Educational Forum, 69(2), 112-123.
PSSS. Tim Schneider’s article, Courageous Conversations retrieved from http://www.evancarmichael.com/Human-Resources/3485/Courageous-Conversations.html
PSSSS. Flagstead Smokehouse Texas BBQ
Administrative leadership is a lot like that when you have staff members that are reluctant to perform their assigned responsibilities. Dealing with them can be messy as you navigate past the excuses and get right down to their bone of contention (they will always have a reason for not complying with the issue at hand). Each person will have his or her own unique reason. This is where it gets personal, you have to slow down and discover through dialogue (dialogue as in two people sharing ideas rather than just you asking questions and them providing answers) what the leverage point is to that would provide the opportunity for them to change their mind.
Navigate is the key action word here. One must steer the conversation around potential tangents, past pet peeves, and avoid emotional trigger points. You can only avoid them if you know they exist, which is evidence of how deep the relationship exists between you and that individual. If the relationship is shallow, then you are more likely to run aground on some issue that lies just beneath the surface veneer of professional politeness.
All this underscores the fact that effective leadership is contingent on establishing relationships. Relationships are essential for communication. Noted author and editor, Bernard Bass, states that “leadership and followership are reciprocal” (p. 590). The reciprocity allows for meaningful dialogue when disagreement occurs or when a staff member is reluctant to complete their duties or responsibilities. Without a reciprocal-based relationship, reluctance can elevate to defiance if the conversation is interpreted as confrontational.
Thomas Sergiovanni summarizes the virtues of leadership as hope, trust, piety, and civility. He states that wise leaders rely on others and therefore work to increase their capacity for action as well as fostering hope and faith. Thus, hope, faith and the expectations for action coalesce to form a “covenant of obligations” (p.116). Covenant is a strong word choice, one I believe that is chosen to recognize the power of relationships.
Relationships are the key to action. Bass addresses the bottom line; “The real test of leadership lies not in the personality or behavior of the leaders, but in the performance of the group they lead” (p. 598). In this era of accountability, everyone must perform at high levels. Everyone means that the leader needs to do more than invite everyone to the table, he or she must address those individuals that do not perform and resolve the issue.
There is risk involved in having this type of conversation. Tim Schneider, a consultant dealing with leadership issues, states that one must always weigh the risk of pursuing this level of conversation. In recognition of the difficulty of engaging in this type of discussion, he refers to them as courageous conversations. He offers some tips to structure the process; “…a courageous conversation must have a clearly defined objective. That objective must then meet the standard of being for the organizational good and not just for the benefit or comfort of the leader….the language is not passive and that action is required to complete the transaction.” It is reaching acceptance of the required action steps that is key to moving forward.
Having a direct conversation with an under-performing staff member will never be a clean, clear process since the uniqueness of each personality involved means that there is no single template for the dialogue (although the goal may be universal to all staff), therefore it will be a messy process. If a solid reciprocal relationship has been established, then following through on the covenant of obligations will be easier to accomplish, but the process will always remain a little messy.
You know even before you go into a BBQ joint that its going to be messy, but you recognize that it is an essential part of the experience; so use that same recognition to have a courageous conversation and don’t let the potential messiness stop you.
Make a good day,
Tod
PS. Bass, B. M. (1981). Looking back. In R. M. Stodgill (Ed.), Stodgill’s handbook of leadership: A survey of theory and action (pp. 584-598) New York: Free Press.
PSS. Sergiovanni, T. J. (2005). The virtues of leadership. The Educational Forum, 69(2), 112-123.
PSSS. Tim Schneider’s article, Courageous Conversations retrieved from http://www.evancarmichael.com/Human-Resources/3485/Courageous-Conversations.html
PSSSS. Flagstead Smokehouse Texas BBQ
Saturday, October 30, 2010
what is good?
Good, better, best. A chocolate chip cookie is good. A freshly baked, still warm from the oven chocolate chip cookie is better. And a (you’ll love this innovation) freshly baked chocolate chip cookie sandwich is the best. I’m talking about taking two chocolate chip cookies still warm from the oven and putting a spoonful of the cookie dough between them! It doesn’t get any better than that.
When it comes to the concept of the quality teaching, what is good? First off, the concept of quality itself is difficult to articulate. Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance is a classic college read that explores the concept of quality. Robert Pirsig wrote a second novel that explores the concept even deeper (Lila: An Inquiry into Morals, 1991). The fact that the main character in the first novel goes crazy trying to figure out the definition of good represents how hard it is to craft a sensible definition. Articulating a definition of quality teaching is an equally arduous task (Fenstermacher & Richardson, 2005). But our culture is predisposed to establish rigid definitions for concepts (Pritscher, 2001).
We want to know what we think we know, in writing, preferably concise enough to fit on a bumper sticker. David C. Berliner, a professor in the College of Education at Arizona State University, has delved into the topic of defining quality teaching. He defines quality teaching as having two major components: good teaching and effective teaching (Berliner, 2005). Berliner considers good teaching to be the strategic use of accepted teaching practices and defines effective teaching as the resultant level of student achievement. What I appreciate about this approach is grounding the evaluation of teaching in student performance outcomes.
There is a however, a downside to this approach. Delineating standards for what constitutes achievement constricts the definition of quality…the standards themselves then assume the basis for the definition (Eisner, 2002). Subsequently, the quality of effective education is defined by the level of student achievement as referenced to a set of established standards. And as we all know, measuring student achievement data via standards-based exams is mandated by NCLB (Imig & Imig, 2006). NCLB dictates that every state must establish a set of standards to gauge student achievement and thus these standards-based examinations become the prime measure for defining the quality of effective education.
Cycling back to Berliner’s definition and examining its two components: good teaching is the use of best practices and effectiveness is measured by performance on established standards. But the only data that the public sees and that is reported for compliance with NCLB are the test scores, not reports of teaching practices. The federal push for the Common Core of State Standards will supplant the state standards, further cementing that student performance outcomes on the annual exams will now define the quality of education.
The pendulum has been in full swing for some time; that the standardized test scores are the metric for the quality of teaching. My fear is that space for novelty, the joy of discovery, and the romance of learning will get lost in the process. Will there still be time for those special moments as educators strive to incorporate hundreds of standards into their instruction?
Can you raise scores and not engage good educational practice? We all recognize that a chocolate chip cookie without chocolate chips is not good (my children would always put those back in the bin and search out the ones with the most chips). So if you follow a scripted lesson plan devoid of spontaneity and passion, you may be effective in raising scores but not be engaged in good teaching. Let me be frank about my bias, I prefer my cookies with the maximum number of chips, so I fall on the side of good teaching and effective teaching as being inseparable. We need to celebrate success in all areas, standardized tests, student engagement and teachers’ rapport with their students. After all, the best chocolate cookies are the warm ones.
Make a good day,
Tod
PS. Berliner, D. C. (2005). The near impossibility of testing for teacher quality. Journal of Teacher Education, 56(3), 205-213.
PSS. Eisner, E. (2002). What can education learn from the arts about the practice of education? Journal of Curriculum and Supervision, 18(1), 4-16.
PSSS. Fenstermacher, G. D., & Richardson, V. (2005). On making determinations in quality in teaching. Teacher's College Record, 107(1), 186-212.
PSSSS. Imig, D. G., & Imig, S. F. (2006). The teacher effectiveness movement: How 80 years of essentialist control have shaped the teacher education profession. Journal of Teacher Education, 57(2), 167-180.
PSSSSS. Pirsig, R. M. (1991). Lila: An inquiry into morals. New York: Bantam. His website: http://robertpirsig.org
PSSSSSS. Pritscher, C. P. (2001). Quantum learning: Beyond duality. Amsterdam: Rodopi.
When it comes to the concept of the quality teaching, what is good? First off, the concept of quality itself is difficult to articulate. Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance is a classic college read that explores the concept of quality. Robert Pirsig wrote a second novel that explores the concept even deeper (Lila: An Inquiry into Morals, 1991). The fact that the main character in the first novel goes crazy trying to figure out the definition of good represents how hard it is to craft a sensible definition. Articulating a definition of quality teaching is an equally arduous task (Fenstermacher & Richardson, 2005). But our culture is predisposed to establish rigid definitions for concepts (Pritscher, 2001).
We want to know what we think we know, in writing, preferably concise enough to fit on a bumper sticker. David C. Berliner, a professor in the College of Education at Arizona State University, has delved into the topic of defining quality teaching. He defines quality teaching as having two major components: good teaching and effective teaching (Berliner, 2005). Berliner considers good teaching to be the strategic use of accepted teaching practices and defines effective teaching as the resultant level of student achievement. What I appreciate about this approach is grounding the evaluation of teaching in student performance outcomes.
There is a however, a downside to this approach. Delineating standards for what constitutes achievement constricts the definition of quality…the standards themselves then assume the basis for the definition (Eisner, 2002). Subsequently, the quality of effective education is defined by the level of student achievement as referenced to a set of established standards. And as we all know, measuring student achievement data via standards-based exams is mandated by NCLB (Imig & Imig, 2006). NCLB dictates that every state must establish a set of standards to gauge student achievement and thus these standards-based examinations become the prime measure for defining the quality of effective education.
Cycling back to Berliner’s definition and examining its two components: good teaching is the use of best practices and effectiveness is measured by performance on established standards. But the only data that the public sees and that is reported for compliance with NCLB are the test scores, not reports of teaching practices. The federal push for the Common Core of State Standards will supplant the state standards, further cementing that student performance outcomes on the annual exams will now define the quality of education.
People complain about teaching to the test, this is a case of the test is the teaching.
The pendulum has been in full swing for some time; that the standardized test scores are the metric for the quality of teaching. My fear is that space for novelty, the joy of discovery, and the romance of learning will get lost in the process. Will there still be time for those special moments as educators strive to incorporate hundreds of standards into their instruction?
Can you raise scores and not engage good educational practice? We all recognize that a chocolate chip cookie without chocolate chips is not good (my children would always put those back in the bin and search out the ones with the most chips). So if you follow a scripted lesson plan devoid of spontaneity and passion, you may be effective in raising scores but not be engaged in good teaching. Let me be frank about my bias, I prefer my cookies with the maximum number of chips, so I fall on the side of good teaching and effective teaching as being inseparable. We need to celebrate success in all areas, standardized tests, student engagement and teachers’ rapport with their students. After all, the best chocolate cookies are the warm ones.
Make a good day,
Tod
PS. Berliner, D. C. (2005). The near impossibility of testing for teacher quality. Journal of Teacher Education, 56(3), 205-213.
PSS. Eisner, E. (2002). What can education learn from the arts about the practice of education? Journal of Curriculum and Supervision, 18(1), 4-16.
PSSS. Fenstermacher, G. D., & Richardson, V. (2005). On making determinations in quality in teaching. Teacher's College Record, 107(1), 186-212.
PSSSS. Imig, D. G., & Imig, S. F. (2006). The teacher effectiveness movement: How 80 years of essentialist control have shaped the teacher education profession. Journal of Teacher Education, 57(2), 167-180.
PSSSSS. Pirsig, R. M. (1991). Lila: An inquiry into morals. New York: Bantam. His website: http://robertpirsig.org
PSSSSSS. Pritscher, C. P. (2001). Quantum learning: Beyond duality. Amsterdam: Rodopi.
Thursday, September 23, 2010
walk the walk, talk the talk
My neighbor's 10 year old son, Timmy, is the best fisherman in the entire world. He has caught over one million fish, some that were humongous in size, and he almost caught a shark once in a rather daring escapade that involved many heroic acts on his part. I have never seen the boy fish, but he sure knows how to talk the talk. Have I challenged him on the veracity of his stories...no. And as for "walking the walk", have I witnessed that...no. In your school, have you been able to observe teaching on a regular basis to validate the fidelity of your instructional program?
Sorry about that question, we all know that there is not enough time in the day to perform the multiple classroom observations needed to improve practice. And, conducting the conversations which are required to deeply examine the needed innovations in classroom practices can be difficult. But, what if there was an efficient process that could promote professional dialogue and pave the way for innovations?
Walk-throughs, if conducted efficiently, can serve as an important vehicle for school reform. The key aspect to validate a 5-minute walk-through as a legitimate tool for decision making is that the sample size must be large enough in order to make the data robust. So practically speaking, how can an observation form be structured that will generate the data that will serve as entry points for conversations about increasing the level of student performance/expectations?
You might be inclined to say, “I’ll just focus on one big idea because that will be quick and easy, allowing me the chance to visit more classrooms.” Blooms Taxonomy is a logical choice to be the focus (since it tends to be the signature mechanism in education for denoting a hierarchy of the various levels of thinking). However, while Bloom’s Taxonomy is a big target, it is also somewhat amorphous, and therefore it is problematic to articulate Blooms Taxonomy into a format other than a checklist of words that can be circled when observed. Furthermore, this approach would only serve to record the current level of practice. It is a focus on the darkness of the tunnel, rather than looking at the light at the end of the tunnel.
Focusing on current practice does not move a school forward, it is a stagnate conversation.
A major feature of the protocols cited in Instructional Rounds in Education is to focus on what the optimum level of practice looks like. This avoids the infatuation with dissecting the problem, and puts the energy into articulating what the next level of practice looks like. After all, the goal of reform is to change practice. Noted educational writer Edgar Schein states in his book, Organizational Culture and Leadership, that people need an alternative practice readily available as a substitute for failed structures.
So spend your time on what matters most…the solution.
The innovation from a reform perspective is to increase the occurrence of higher order thinking skills being exercised by the students. The key word here is exercise; as in what is the task the students are being asked to perform. In Marzano’s The Art and Science of Teaching, he cites multiple research studies that demonstrate that the student activity with the largest impact is: identifying similarities and differences (with huge effect sizes with values up to 1.65! p.64.) In addition, comparing and contrasting is a universal process that can be observed in all disciplines and in a wide range of formats. It is an easy target to identify, leading to an efficient observation and data entry process. A simple set of check boxes under the heading Identifying Similarities and Differences, is it evident in [] a question on worksheet, []supported by a graphic organizer, [] a component of verbal questioning/class conversation.
While the opportunity to be in the classrooms is available, other school initiatives can be readily reinforced at the same time. To further support the rationale for including more than one focus area on the walk-through form, please consider this excerpt from an interview with Kevin Kelly (the founder of Wired magazine) as he discusses the connections between technology, humanity, and the evolution of society:
“Inventions never happen in a vacuum. Every idea requires the support of four or five other ideas. There’s a necessary subset of other surrounding inventions that are required. As they appear, the new idea becomes more obvious. It’s an ecological growth.”
May I suggest two other items to put on the form because they are quick and easy, as well as a good support of other district/school initiatives: Is the homework posted and is there evidence of Cooperative Learning. Two aspects Cooperative Learning can be observed: 1) Is the physical environment arranged in a fashion that promotes peer-to-peer interaction (e.g., desks in pairs rather than separate rows); and 2) Are the students directed by the teacher to engage in academic conversations with their peers.
I know that you may have originally wanted just one focus, but having three that will support a improved level of performance and is an example of the ecological approach to viewing reform stated in the earlier quotation from Kevin Kelly. Big problems need a big approach. Another way to phrase it comes from Police Chief Martin Brody in the movie Jaws when he finally sees the size of the problem up close, “You’re gonna need a bigger boat.”
The intent of all the data collection is to spark a conversation about our profession and our practices. It is not about whether I saw this or I didn’t see that. Amy Irvine relates how framing a conversation as an either-or argument is counter productive: “Each side is glaring, garish even, in its shriek of righteousness …. we respond from a black-and-white paradigm, the potent dualities of us versus them resound with a faint, prehistoric echo. Instead of man against weather, or man against beast, it’s Republicans vs. Democrats, tree-huggers vs. wise-thinkers, Buddhists vs. Bible thumpers. The appeal of such binary thinking is that we are able to name not only who we are, but also what we are not. We draw the dividing line like a firebreak, and it holds back the advancing enemy while we retreat to safer ground” (p. 45).
Retreating from having difficult discussions is not a solution. “It comes down to this: by retreating from that which we oppose, we render lifeless all opportunities for intimacy, and for community. To smile and step away is as fatal to possibility as is brandishing a finger of blame” (p.47). By selecting a focus on the optimum condition, the conversation can center on the steps needed to achieve it. This positive perspective will allow for more productive conversations.
For a fine example of taming the logistics of the walk-through process, consider Matt Ryan, the principal of East Hartford High School, who supervises a staff of over 150 teachers in a school of 2000 students in a culturally diverse semi-urban district. He has mapped his school into quadrants, set a schedule to visit each section, and has designed a memo pad in which to jot down the data. By the third week of school this year he has already visited 154 classrooms! 154 visits while fulfilling the typical daily tasks of an administrator in an urban school district! A truly exemplary example of practical leadership. The strength of the all that data provides the credibility to engage in a serious dialogue about reforming practices. It all boils down to operationalizing one simple mantra…
Walk it, talk it.
Make a good day,
Tod
PS. City, E. A., Elmore, R. F., Fiarman, S. E., Teitel, L. (2009). Instructional Rounds in Education: A network approach to improving teaching and learning. Boston; Harvard Education Press. http://www.hepg.org/hep/book/99/InstructionalRoundsInEducation
PSS. Irvine, A. (2010, Jan/Feb). Spectral Light: Beyond black and white thinking in the new, old west. Orion, 42-48. Audio of the article is available at orionmagazine.org, or as a podcast on iTunes.
PSSS. Lawler, A. (2010, Jan/Feb). Tending the Garden of Technology. Orion, 36-41. Published by The Orion Society and the The Myrin Institute, Great Barrington, MA.
PSSSS. Marzano, R. J. (2007). Art and science of teaching: A comprehensive framework for effective teaching. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development,
PSSSSS. Ryan, Matthew J., East Hartford High School, East Hartford, CT. http://www.easthartford.org/page.cfm?p=4
PSSSSSS. Schein, E. (2004). Organizational culture and leadership. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass
PSSSSSSS. Jaws video clip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kkl3eXAHTRM
Sorry about that question, we all know that there is not enough time in the day to perform the multiple classroom observations needed to improve practice. And, conducting the conversations which are required to deeply examine the needed innovations in classroom practices can be difficult. But, what if there was an efficient process that could promote professional dialogue and pave the way for innovations?
Walk-throughs, if conducted efficiently, can serve as an important vehicle for school reform. The key aspect to validate a 5-minute walk-through as a legitimate tool for decision making is that the sample size must be large enough in order to make the data robust. So practically speaking, how can an observation form be structured that will generate the data that will serve as entry points for conversations about increasing the level of student performance/expectations?
You might be inclined to say, “I’ll just focus on one big idea because that will be quick and easy, allowing me the chance to visit more classrooms.” Blooms Taxonomy is a logical choice to be the focus (since it tends to be the signature mechanism in education for denoting a hierarchy of the various levels of thinking). However, while Bloom’s Taxonomy is a big target, it is also somewhat amorphous, and therefore it is problematic to articulate Blooms Taxonomy into a format other than a checklist of words that can be circled when observed. Furthermore, this approach would only serve to record the current level of practice. It is a focus on the darkness of the tunnel, rather than looking at the light at the end of the tunnel.
Focusing on current practice does not move a school forward, it is a stagnate conversation.
A major feature of the protocols cited in Instructional Rounds in Education is to focus on what the optimum level of practice looks like. This avoids the infatuation with dissecting the problem, and puts the energy into articulating what the next level of practice looks like. After all, the goal of reform is to change practice. Noted educational writer Edgar Schein states in his book, Organizational Culture and Leadership, that people need an alternative practice readily available as a substitute for failed structures.
So spend your time on what matters most…the solution.
The innovation from a reform perspective is to increase the occurrence of higher order thinking skills being exercised by the students. The key word here is exercise; as in what is the task the students are being asked to perform. In Marzano’s The Art and Science of Teaching, he cites multiple research studies that demonstrate that the student activity with the largest impact is: identifying similarities and differences (with huge effect sizes with values up to 1.65! p.64.) In addition, comparing and contrasting is a universal process that can be observed in all disciplines and in a wide range of formats. It is an easy target to identify, leading to an efficient observation and data entry process. A simple set of check boxes under the heading Identifying Similarities and Differences, is it evident in [] a question on worksheet, []supported by a graphic organizer, [] a component of verbal questioning/class conversation.
While the opportunity to be in the classrooms is available, other school initiatives can be readily reinforced at the same time. To further support the rationale for including more than one focus area on the walk-through form, please consider this excerpt from an interview with Kevin Kelly (the founder of Wired magazine) as he discusses the connections between technology, humanity, and the evolution of society:
“Inventions never happen in a vacuum. Every idea requires the support of four or five other ideas. There’s a necessary subset of other surrounding inventions that are required. As they appear, the new idea becomes more obvious. It’s an ecological growth.”
May I suggest two other items to put on the form because they are quick and easy, as well as a good support of other district/school initiatives: Is the homework posted and is there evidence of Cooperative Learning. Two aspects Cooperative Learning can be observed: 1) Is the physical environment arranged in a fashion that promotes peer-to-peer interaction (e.g., desks in pairs rather than separate rows); and 2) Are the students directed by the teacher to engage in academic conversations with their peers.
I know that you may have originally wanted just one focus, but having three that will support a improved level of performance and is an example of the ecological approach to viewing reform stated in the earlier quotation from Kevin Kelly. Big problems need a big approach. Another way to phrase it comes from Police Chief Martin Brody in the movie Jaws when he finally sees the size of the problem up close, “You’re gonna need a bigger boat.”
The intent of all the data collection is to spark a conversation about our profession and our practices. It is not about whether I saw this or I didn’t see that. Amy Irvine relates how framing a conversation as an either-or argument is counter productive: “Each side is glaring, garish even, in its shriek of righteousness …. we respond from a black-and-white paradigm, the potent dualities of us versus them resound with a faint, prehistoric echo. Instead of man against weather, or man against beast, it’s Republicans vs. Democrats, tree-huggers vs. wise-thinkers, Buddhists vs. Bible thumpers. The appeal of such binary thinking is that we are able to name not only who we are, but also what we are not. We draw the dividing line like a firebreak, and it holds back the advancing enemy while we retreat to safer ground” (p. 45).
Retreating from having difficult discussions is not a solution. “It comes down to this: by retreating from that which we oppose, we render lifeless all opportunities for intimacy, and for community. To smile and step away is as fatal to possibility as is brandishing a finger of blame” (p.47). By selecting a focus on the optimum condition, the conversation can center on the steps needed to achieve it. This positive perspective will allow for more productive conversations.
For a fine example of taming the logistics of the walk-through process, consider Matt Ryan, the principal of East Hartford High School, who supervises a staff of over 150 teachers in a school of 2000 students in a culturally diverse semi-urban district. He has mapped his school into quadrants, set a schedule to visit each section, and has designed a memo pad in which to jot down the data. By the third week of school this year he has already visited 154 classrooms! 154 visits while fulfilling the typical daily tasks of an administrator in an urban school district! A truly exemplary example of practical leadership. The strength of the all that data provides the credibility to engage in a serious dialogue about reforming practices. It all boils down to operationalizing one simple mantra…
Walk it, talk it.
Make a good day,
Tod
PS. City, E. A., Elmore, R. F., Fiarman, S. E., Teitel, L. (2009). Instructional Rounds in Education: A network approach to improving teaching and learning. Boston; Harvard Education Press. http://www.hepg.org/hep/book/99/InstructionalRoundsInEducation
PSS. Irvine, A. (2010, Jan/Feb). Spectral Light: Beyond black and white thinking in the new, old west. Orion, 42-48. Audio of the article is available at orionmagazine.org, or as a podcast on iTunes.
PSSS. Lawler, A. (2010, Jan/Feb). Tending the Garden of Technology. Orion, 36-41. Published by The Orion Society and the The Myrin Institute, Great Barrington, MA.
PSSSS. Marzano, R. J. (2007). Art and science of teaching: A comprehensive framework for effective teaching. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development,
PSSSSS. Ryan, Matthew J., East Hartford High School, East Hartford, CT. http://www.easthartford.org/page.cfm?p=4
PSSSSSS. Schein, E. (2004). Organizational culture and leadership. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass
PSSSSSSS. Jaws video clip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kkl3eXAHTRM
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
summer reading 2010
Pre-reading questions:
1. Considering the title of the poem Summer Noon by Tryfon Tolides, what adjectives might you expect to appear in the poem?
2. How would those adjectives compare to the descriptive words or phrases in a poem titled Autumn Noon?
Summer Noon
soft stories cradled
the past into afternoon naps,
sun above, scorching;
flies, buzzing;
heat, singing through the window;
warm, curled up, blanket, warm;
time ticks on the shelf;
half awake, muttering voices
lull through dreams,...
sleepy, sleepy,...warm sun...
If you had to write a poem titled September School Day at Noon, what adjectives would you use? What adjectives would you hope that your students would use? Your teachers? Parents? What are you doing to cultivate those positive sentiments on the first day of school?
Make a good day,
Tod
PS. Summer Noon is from Tryfon Tolides's self-published work, pictures and screams.
1. Considering the title of the poem Summer Noon by Tryfon Tolides, what adjectives might you expect to appear in the poem?
2. How would those adjectives compare to the descriptive words or phrases in a poem titled Autumn Noon?
Summer Noon
soft stories cradled
the past into afternoon naps,
sun above, scorching;
flies, buzzing;
heat, singing through the window;
warm, curled up, blanket, warm;
time ticks on the shelf;
half awake, muttering voices
lull through dreams,...
sleepy, sleepy,...warm sun...
If you had to write a poem titled September School Day at Noon, what adjectives would you use? What adjectives would you hope that your students would use? Your teachers? Parents? What are you doing to cultivate those positive sentiments on the first day of school?
Make a good day,
Tod
PS. Summer Noon is from Tryfon Tolides's self-published work, pictures and screams.
Thursday, July 29, 2010
cruising for trouble
I went on my first cruise this summer and although I was originally very skeptical about the whole excursion, I am having a wonderful time: All-you-can-eat-food buffets, plenty of activities, as well as the option to do absolutely nothing. Thousands of people enjoy the experience, but I was originally worried about being sea sick, and there are those stories of people falling overboard...
Now I wasn't so worried about falling overboard, it actually sounds kinda tabloidish (the I-gave-birth-to-Bigfoot's-baby type thing). I do understand the drunk jokester taking an uncoordinated splash, and the angry spouse with the well timed push, but a fall of an innocent cruise line guest sounds unlikely. However, when I look over the railing, with the sunlight glinting off the water, the boundless horizon, it is all fully mesmerizing...
The voice that whispers, just do it, combined with the surreal nature of being on the ship is very discombobulating. I have empathy for Odysseus and understand why he had to lash himself to the mast to resist the temptations of the Sirens. I believe that I now have a better appreciation for the student, who for no apparent reason, pulls some irrational bone-headed stunt. He or she can not resist the urge.
Not that I'm blaming Walt Disney for being the impetus for juvenile delinquency, but checkout these lyrics from The Little Mermaid song "Under the Sea" (since they promote the promise of the counter culture):
The seaweed is always greener
In somebody else's lake
You dream about going up there
But that is a big mistake
Just look at the world around you
Right here on the ocean floor
Such wonderful things surround you
What more is you lookin' for?
~
Under the sea
Nobody beat us
Fry us and eat us
In fricassee
We what the land folks loves to cook
Under the sea we off the hook
We got no troubles
Life is the bubbles
Under the sea...
Please find a way to lash these students to your school, lest they make that mad leap and sink to the bottom.
Make a good day,
Tod
PS. Photo credit: http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/staticfiles/NGC/StaticFiles/Images/Show/41xx/416x/4163_Man_Made_Worlds_Largest_Cruise_Ship-4_05320299.JPG
PSS. Lyrics: http://www.stlyrics.com/lyrics/classicdisney/underthesea.htm
Monday, June 28, 2010
fear of the known
In the classic black and white horror and science fiction movies of the 1950’s, there is always the scene of a terrified shrieking woman running away from the monster in the film, but she is so terrorized that she trips and falls, allowing her to be captured by the fiend. What is it in education that we fear the most? Is it the fear of failure that traumatizes us? Or is it the concept of change that is the most intimidating?
From an administrator’s perspective, the fear of failure is trumped by the fear that he or she will be unable to rectify the problem. From a teacher’s viewpoint, the fear of failure is the Siamese twin of the trepidation associated with change. The co-joined fears are that any proposed change in practice does not guarantee results. The persistent obstacle to reform is the fear that we will suffer through the hardship of change and not achieve success.
The antonym of failure is success. If you work in an underperforming school, the concept of success is sometimes mollified and progress is considered synonymous to success. But even progress portends a journey into the unknown. But since it is associated with success, the fear is ameliorated. Frank Herbert offers this perspective, “The concept of progress acts as a protective mechanism to shield us from the terrors of the future.”
The fear of change can be paralyzing. Roland Barth’s article on school leadership states that people’s inherent resistance to change makes reform initiatives futile. (Futile is a pretty strong word choice!) He states that some patterns of behavior and instruction are so entrenched in the culture of the schools that it is taboo to even discuss the possibility of changing them. Any attempt to engage the topic will have disastrous results. Barth offers a powerfully descriptive analogy, that these types of taboos are the “third rail of school leadership” p. 8. Sometimes the emotions associated with a traditional practice are so strong that even the softest attempt at a engaging in rational argument results in argument, not rational thinking. Ayn Rand describes this type of dilemma in her book, The Fountainhead (p.163) in this manner:
“There is always the incalculable human element of emotion. We can’t fight that with cold logic."
School leaders will often hesitate to challenge the traditional patterns of behavior; this is the fear of the known. So, what path is open for a leader to explore? Barth states that engaging in cultural change requires courage. Even the Cowardly Lion understood this component of leadership: “What makes the elephant charge his tusk in the misty mist or dusky dusk?…courage!”
While I can not offer any strategies to enhance courage, I will share this calming mantra found in Frank Herbert’s novel, Dune: “Fear is the mind killer. Fear is the little death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it is gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.”
Make a good day,
Tod
PS. Barth, R. S. (2002). The culture builder. Educational Leadership, 59(8), 6-11.
PSS. Herbert, F. (1965). Dune. New York: Berkley Publishing Company [Progress, p. 321, Fear, p. 8]
PSSS. Rand, A. (1943). The fountainhead. New York: Signet.
PSSSS. Cowardly Lion’s speech audio clip: http://americanrhetoric.com/mp3clips/newmoviespeeches/moviespeechthewizardofozlioncourage.mp3
PSSSSS. The original Mummy movies trailers: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XL8ruJ0kEB4&feature=related
From an administrator’s perspective, the fear of failure is trumped by the fear that he or she will be unable to rectify the problem. From a teacher’s viewpoint, the fear of failure is the Siamese twin of the trepidation associated with change. The co-joined fears are that any proposed change in practice does not guarantee results. The persistent obstacle to reform is the fear that we will suffer through the hardship of change and not achieve success.
The antonym of failure is success. If you work in an underperforming school, the concept of success is sometimes mollified and progress is considered synonymous to success. But even progress portends a journey into the unknown. But since it is associated with success, the fear is ameliorated. Frank Herbert offers this perspective, “The concept of progress acts as a protective mechanism to shield us from the terrors of the future.”
The fear of change can be paralyzing. Roland Barth’s article on school leadership states that people’s inherent resistance to change makes reform initiatives futile. (Futile is a pretty strong word choice!) He states that some patterns of behavior and instruction are so entrenched in the culture of the schools that it is taboo to even discuss the possibility of changing them. Any attempt to engage the topic will have disastrous results. Barth offers a powerfully descriptive analogy, that these types of taboos are the “third rail of school leadership” p. 8. Sometimes the emotions associated with a traditional practice are so strong that even the softest attempt at a engaging in rational argument results in argument, not rational thinking. Ayn Rand describes this type of dilemma in her book, The Fountainhead (p.163) in this manner:
“There is always the incalculable human element of emotion. We can’t fight that with cold logic."
School leaders will often hesitate to challenge the traditional patterns of behavior; this is the fear of the known. So, what path is open for a leader to explore? Barth states that engaging in cultural change requires courage. Even the Cowardly Lion understood this component of leadership: “What makes the elephant charge his tusk in the misty mist or dusky dusk?…courage!”
While I can not offer any strategies to enhance courage, I will share this calming mantra found in Frank Herbert’s novel, Dune: “Fear is the mind killer. Fear is the little death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it is gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.”
Make a good day,
Tod
PS. Barth, R. S. (2002). The culture builder. Educational Leadership, 59(8), 6-11.
PSS. Herbert, F. (1965). Dune. New York: Berkley Publishing Company [Progress, p. 321, Fear, p. 8]
PSSS. Rand, A. (1943). The fountainhead. New York: Signet.
PSSSS. Cowardly Lion’s speech audio clip: http://americanrhetoric.com/mp3clips/newmoviespeeches/moviespeechthewizardofozlioncourage.mp3
PSSSSS. The original Mummy movies trailers: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XL8ruJ0kEB4&feature=related
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
optimism
"Some problems are best solved with an optimistic approach. Optimism shines a light on alternatives that are otherwise not visible."
Herbert, B. & Anderson, K. J. (2007). Sandworms of dune. New York: Tom Doherty Associates LCC (p.468)
Herbert, B. & Anderson, K. J. (2007). Sandworms of dune. New York: Tom Doherty Associates LCC (p.468)
Saturday, April 24, 2010
15-second rule
We are all familiar with the 5-second rule: You accidentally drop a cookie on the floor, but if you pick it up within 5 seconds then you have successfully rescued it before it could absorb a lethal dose of pathogens.
The 15-second rule is a little different.
And since this is the time of the year for interviews, it is an appropriate point for exploration. You may have heard the advice that first impressions are very important. My dad, who spent much of his career as a recruiter at colleges for one of the Big Eight accounting firms shares his perspective; he said that he knew within the first 30 seconds of an interview if he wanted to hire the person, and then spent the next 30 minutes trying verify it. Malcolm Gladwell, in his book What the Dog Saw: And Other Adventures, cites research by Frank Bernieri that suggests that it is the first 15 seconds of a job interview that dictates the outcome. The study rated candidates on nine criteria based on a 30 minute interview. A second set of evaluators were only shown a 15-second video clip of the candidates and their rankings were compared to the rankings from that of the full interview and … the rankings matched up! 15 seconds equals 30 minutes. One conjecture offered to explain this phenomenon is that this is an instinctual response that has enabled humans to successfully ascertain friend from foe when we existed in a less civilized state.
K. J. Maher’s 1995 study, The Role of Cognitive Load in Supervisor Attributions of Subordinate Behavior, finds that leaders will classify employees based on initial stereotyping. The leader’s initial classification gains permanence due to the limited interaction between the supervisor and the staff. Another reason the stereotyping remains stable is that the leaders tend to suffer from high cognitive load (which is a fancy way of saying that they are too busy to reconsider the first impression).
Attribution Theory involves the manner in which people seek to divine a reason for the success or failures of others (Martinko, 1995). The four rationales typically used to make this determination are based on a presumption of a persons’ ability, an assumption of the level of effort required to gain success, the complexity of the task, and luck. These beliefs then influence subsequent behaviors, which then perpetuate the initial belief. So contrary to Popeye’s adage, “ I am what I am”; you are what I think you are.
So, how can the interview process be structured to lesson the effects of the 15-second rule? The first thing to do is to confront the issue head on and inform the members of the committee. Personally, I distribute pages 380-387 from Gladwell’s book and make it a point of conversation. But since it is so instinctual, wariness must be reinforced with some frequency. Being cognizant of the impact of first impressions is important to maintaining validity of your committees’ interview protocols. In Denis Phillips’ work on subjectivity and objectivity, he advocates that researchers must show that they have examined their bias and predictions about the outcome of their study.
Examine your predictions.
One of the perks of being an adult is the ability to go ahead and eat a cookie that has fallen to the floor without being scolded (Unless you count your mother’s voice in your head that says, no, you shouldn’t be doing this). If we want to, we can ignore the 5-second rule. We may also wish to ignore the 15-second rule. In fact, if it is indeed an instinctual response honed over the ages to meet the demands of a potentially savage world, then perhaps we should embrace the 15-second rule.
In the context of embracing the 15-second rule, an interview might just consist of sharing a pitcher of milk and cookies and using the vibe of a social setting to ascertain the compatibility of the candidate. If that sounds too casual, then there is another way to structure an interview that provides time for socializing and at the same time avoids some of the flaws inherent to committee work (for details see my January, 2010 blog, Committee Work?); try a round robin one-on-one interview. Each committee member is housed in a separate room with their own set of questions and they rotate in a new candidate every 15 minutes. It may only take 10 minutes to complete the questions, allowing 5 minutes of social inquiry that can help repudiate or reinforce the first impression. Before the committee reconvenes, each member independently ranks the candidates and then the opinions are aggregated before a discussion of relative merits occurs. A bonus to this process is the rotation allows you to complete four separate hour-long interviews in one hour!
The 15 second Rule; embrace it or try to eviscerate it, but the minimum is to acknowledge that it has potential to permanently influence decisions about the people you will hire to teach our children for the next 35 years. 15 seconds = 35 years, that stat alone should be enough to scare you into changing your ways. How does the 5-second rule for food fallen to the filthy pet-hair-covered-stinky-bare-foot-walked-on-germ-infested kitchen floor influence your decision making? Go ahead, eat that cookie...
Make a good day,
Tod
PS. Gladwell, M. (2009). What the dog saw: And other adventures. New York: Little, Brown and Company.
PSS. Maher, K. J. (1995). The role of cognitive load in supervisor Attributions of subordinate behavior. In M. Martinko (Ed.), Attribution Theory: An organizational perspective (pp.7-14). Delray Beach, Fla.: St. Lucie Press.
PSSS. Martinko, M. J. (1995). The nature and function of attribution theory within organizational sciences. In M. Martinko (Ed.), Attribution Theory: An organizational perspective (pp.7-14). Delray Beach, Fla.: St. Lucie Press. Google books: http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=_J1rdq_lKH8C&oi=fnd&pg=PA193&dq=%22k+j+maher%22+role+of+cognitive+load&ots=DWQEs3cy3x&sig=AoiN3VRTRRv7QgxmErM7ZHuaJHk#v=onepage&q&f=false
PSSSS. Phillips, D.C. (1990). Subjectivity and objectivity: An objective inquiry. In Eisner and Pushkin (Eds.), Qualitative Inquiry in Education: The continuing debate.
PSSSSS. Popeye: http://www.salon.com/books/review/2006/12/09/popeye
The 15-second rule is a little different.
And since this is the time of the year for interviews, it is an appropriate point for exploration. You may have heard the advice that first impressions are very important. My dad, who spent much of his career as a recruiter at colleges for one of the Big Eight accounting firms shares his perspective; he said that he knew within the first 30 seconds of an interview if he wanted to hire the person, and then spent the next 30 minutes trying verify it. Malcolm Gladwell, in his book What the Dog Saw: And Other Adventures, cites research by Frank Bernieri that suggests that it is the first 15 seconds of a job interview that dictates the outcome. The study rated candidates on nine criteria based on a 30 minute interview. A second set of evaluators were only shown a 15-second video clip of the candidates and their rankings were compared to the rankings from that of the full interview and … the rankings matched up! 15 seconds equals 30 minutes. One conjecture offered to explain this phenomenon is that this is an instinctual response that has enabled humans to successfully ascertain friend from foe when we existed in a less civilized state.
K. J. Maher’s 1995 study, The Role of Cognitive Load in Supervisor Attributions of Subordinate Behavior, finds that leaders will classify employees based on initial stereotyping. The leader’s initial classification gains permanence due to the limited interaction between the supervisor and the staff. Another reason the stereotyping remains stable is that the leaders tend to suffer from high cognitive load (which is a fancy way of saying that they are too busy to reconsider the first impression).
Attribution Theory involves the manner in which people seek to divine a reason for the success or failures of others (Martinko, 1995). The four rationales typically used to make this determination are based on a presumption of a persons’ ability, an assumption of the level of effort required to gain success, the complexity of the task, and luck. These beliefs then influence subsequent behaviors, which then perpetuate the initial belief. So contrary to Popeye’s adage, “ I am what I am”; you are what I think you are.
So, how can the interview process be structured to lesson the effects of the 15-second rule? The first thing to do is to confront the issue head on and inform the members of the committee. Personally, I distribute pages 380-387 from Gladwell’s book and make it a point of conversation. But since it is so instinctual, wariness must be reinforced with some frequency. Being cognizant of the impact of first impressions is important to maintaining validity of your committees’ interview protocols. In Denis Phillips’ work on subjectivity and objectivity, he advocates that researchers must show that they have examined their bias and predictions about the outcome of their study.
Examine your predictions.
One of the perks of being an adult is the ability to go ahead and eat a cookie that has fallen to the floor without being scolded (Unless you count your mother’s voice in your head that says, no, you shouldn’t be doing this). If we want to, we can ignore the 5-second rule. We may also wish to ignore the 15-second rule. In fact, if it is indeed an instinctual response honed over the ages to meet the demands of a potentially savage world, then perhaps we should embrace the 15-second rule.
In the context of embracing the 15-second rule, an interview might just consist of sharing a pitcher of milk and cookies and using the vibe of a social setting to ascertain the compatibility of the candidate. If that sounds too casual, then there is another way to structure an interview that provides time for socializing and at the same time avoids some of the flaws inherent to committee work (for details see my January, 2010 blog, Committee Work?); try a round robin one-on-one interview. Each committee member is housed in a separate room with their own set of questions and they rotate in a new candidate every 15 minutes. It may only take 10 minutes to complete the questions, allowing 5 minutes of social inquiry that can help repudiate or reinforce the first impression. Before the committee reconvenes, each member independently ranks the candidates and then the opinions are aggregated before a discussion of relative merits occurs. A bonus to this process is the rotation allows you to complete four separate hour-long interviews in one hour!
The 15 second Rule; embrace it or try to eviscerate it, but the minimum is to acknowledge that it has potential to permanently influence decisions about the people you will hire to teach our children for the next 35 years. 15 seconds = 35 years, that stat alone should be enough to scare you into changing your ways. How does the 5-second rule for food fallen to the filthy pet-hair-covered-stinky-bare-foot-walked-on-germ-infested kitchen floor influence your decision making? Go ahead, eat that cookie...
Make a good day,
Tod
PS. Gladwell, M. (2009). What the dog saw: And other adventures. New York: Little, Brown and Company.
PSS. Maher, K. J. (1995). The role of cognitive load in supervisor Attributions of subordinate behavior. In M. Martinko (Ed.), Attribution Theory: An organizational perspective (pp.7-14). Delray Beach, Fla.: St. Lucie Press.
PSSS. Martinko, M. J. (1995). The nature and function of attribution theory within organizational sciences. In M. Martinko (Ed.), Attribution Theory: An organizational perspective (pp.7-14). Delray Beach, Fla.: St. Lucie Press. Google books: http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=_J1rdq_lKH8C&oi=fnd&pg=PA193&dq=%22k+j+maher%22+role+of+cognitive+load&ots=DWQEs3cy3x&sig=AoiN3VRTRRv7QgxmErM7ZHuaJHk#v=onepage&q&f=false
PSSSS. Phillips, D.C. (1990). Subjectivity and objectivity: An objective inquiry. In Eisner and Pushkin (Eds.), Qualitative Inquiry in Education: The continuing debate.
PSSSSS. Popeye: http://www.salon.com/books/review/2006/12/09/popeye
Sunday, February 28, 2010
olympic glory
Success!
My favorite Olympic moment…watching a former student, Erin Pac, win the bronze medal in the woman’s bobsled.
It was not easy. Erin was suffering from a hamstring injury, her relationship with her brakeman over the last couple of years vacillated between cohesive to periods of non-communication and separation, and Erin readily acknowledged the fear factor of careening 90 miles per hour down the track at Whistler.
The 50-50 turn. The 50-50 turn at the Whistler bobsled track got its nickname because it seemed that half of the riders crashed at that junction. What serves as the 50-50 metaphor in your school system?
During the interview after winning the bronze medal, the brakeman Elana Meyers was asked what she was thinking before the final run; “We just tried to stay relaxed and have a little fun.” Combine that outlook with years of dedicated hard work and truly wonderful things can happen.
Dedication, faith and perseverance, the willingness to endure pain and face your fear, AND maintaining the perspective of having fun. A great winning combination for all of us to consider and celebrate.
Make a good day,
Tod
PS. Erin Pac’s website:
http://pacusabobsled.com/
PSS. Video of last 2 runs and post-race interview:
http://www.nbcolympics.com/video/assetid=22c4baa2-d326-475e-8729-7ceae6b4f475.html#day+u+s+women+grab+bobsled+bronze
PSSS. Nice news story and interview:
http://www.nbcolympics.com/news-features/news/newsid=448453.html
PSSSS. Photo credit: http://media.masslive.com/republican/photo/-909559927122a80f_large.jpg
Sunday, January 31, 2010
committee work?
Last Tuesday, I am on the highway driving home from work during rush hour and yabadabadoo three cars go barreling past me. The speed limit is 55 mph, the traffic is flowing at 65 mph, and these three cretins must have been going at least 85, zooming in and out of traffic lanes like it was a video game slalom race. The only thing worse than yahoos like that is the slowpoke driver in the center lane, plodding along, seemingly oblivious to the fact that they are being passed on the left and the right. According to an article on traffic flow, the major cause for traffic jams is due to people passing other cars. Passing cars cause slowdowns because people will invariably press on their brakes when someone passes them in tight quarters, causing a cascade of brake lights throughout the pack of cars which results in slower traffic flow.
Some drivers are fast, some slow, some suffer road rage, some are asleep at the wheel, while others are only casually involved because they are busy talking on their cell phone…while the ideal situation is everyone moving at the same pace with a vigilant, high-level of attention. Fat chance.
Have you ever worked on a committee that suffered from a traffic jam driven by conflicting personalities or opposing agendas? Or worse yet, spent copious amounts of time on a committee that yielded a product that resembled an accident more than the outcome from a logically considered strategic analysis? Committees are supposed to collect the insight from a range of stakeholders and arrive at a solution that surpasses the ability of an individual working alone.
Unfortunately, collaboration has no philosophical heritage in Western Civilization (Miles & Miles, 1999).
Given that statement, the implementation of the Professional Learning Community paradigm needs very careful consideration (but that is a tangent to be explored at a later date). Committees characterized by collaboration and consensus is in conflict with our philosophical heritage. Malcolm Gladwell, refers to research by a psychologist working for IBM’s Human Resources department, Geert Hofstede, that supports this conclusion. One of the “Hofstede Dimensions” is individualism vs. collectivism and data shows that Americans score the highest on the character trait of individualism when compared to other countries.
A positive spin on that is that if your committee has an individual with expertise, then that should produce quality decisions. Unfortunately, Libby, Trotman and Zimmer (1987) find that the inability of the groups to recognize expertise in group members results in the failure to capitalize on the expert knowledge. Often the extrovert controls the conversation and not the expert. If the collaboration occurs at the direction of whomever happens to initially gain control of the conversation, then it takes a socially courageous individual to buck the trend. Think Henry Fonda in the Twelve Angry Men.
There are many flaws that can interfere with the success of group work. Bernard Bass’s study on leadership finds that successful collaboration may be hindered by social loafing and groupthink. James Surowiecki’s book, The Wisdom of Crowds, investigates the problems inherent in group work. He defines groupthink as a consensus reached without the benefit of an articulated debate of ideas and options. Surowiecki states that conformity can result from social momentum or it may occur because alternative ideas are not available; “imitation is a kind of rationale response to our own cognitive limits” (p. 54). Throw in "confirmation bias", which is when we unconsciously only seek the information that conforms to our underlying intuitions, and we have the scenario for a pretty limited decision.
An “information cascade” is another problem inherent to group work. We have all experienced the situation where a grand idea is introduced and other members of the committee respond in unison with information in support of the idea. There is a primitive delight in this manner of escalation, similar to adding more wood to a campfire until there is a huge blazing bonfire. Surowiecki states that during an information cascade people will ignore their individual insight in order to join the herd, contributing to a sequence of uninformed choices. What happened to the beautiful blending of expert opinions?
All that sounds pretty gloomy, but there is hope; after all Surowiecki’s book is titled the Wisdom of the Crowds. He refers to research on small group dynamics (p. 176) that shows success is achieved when there is a clear agenda, all members give input, and attention is given to the nuances of each members‘ personal insight. Surowiecki states that the best strategy to maximize the insight of each group member is to have each person offer judgments independently and simultaneously (as in write down your top three candidates for the new position), and then aggregate the responses. A discussion or debate then can begin with each member having their own opinion to work from. This helps avoid an information cascade along one line of reasoning.
A divergent opinion can only be value-added if it is expressed. A great example of this phenomenon is provide by Malcolm Gladwell in his book Outliers. Commercial aircraft are designed so that it takes more than one pilot to run the plane. The strategy being that the second pilot can inform the captain of any malfunctions or errors. However, this only works if there is open communication. The data of airplane crashes around the world shows that most airplane crashes occur when the captain is flying and the second pilot does not convey clearly the pending trouble or is intimidated and fails to explicating inform the captain of the pending disaster.
“In small groups, diversity of opinion is the single best guarantee that the group will reap the benefits from face-to-face discussion” (Surowiecki, p. 183).
Face-to-face discussion is the forum that supports the formation of a committee in the first place. If you don’t need face-to-face real-time discussion (where people can readily sense the emotional impact of their ideas/opinions), then just solicit ideas via an email or some form of web-based document editing process. Diversity of opinion is good. “One of the real dangers that small groups face is emphasizing consensus over dissent” (p. 180). Consensus without consideration of conflicting opinions can result in a sheltered forum which produces a decision that can not withstand the harsh realities of implementation in a diverse workplace. It is much better to have an idea fail to withstand scrutiny in a committee than fail in its implementation. Surowiecki does caution about “group polarization” where dissent radicalizes points of view rather than moderating them (Again, think of the movie, Twelve Angry Men and the last holdout in the debate).
Committee work may suffer from road rage, backseat drivers, or incompetent navigation. But Surowiecki offers hope that with a clear agenda/roadmap and an intentional inspection of independent viewpoints, then small group decision-making can be a successful journey. Have a nice trip.
Make a good day,
Tod
PS. Bass, B. M. (1998). Transformational leadership: Industrial, military, and educational impact. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
PSS. Gladwell, M. ((2008). Outliers: The story of success. New York: Little, Brown and Company.
PSSS. Libby, R. Trotman, K. & Zimmer, I. (1987). Member variation, recognition of expertise, and group performance. Journal of Applied Psychology, 72(1), 81-87.
PSSSS. Miles, R. & Miles, G. (1999). Leadership and collaboration. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Inc.
PSSSSS. Surowiecki, J (2004) The wisdom of crowds: Why the many are smarter than the few and how collective wisdom shapes business, economics, societies, and nations. New York: Doubleday.
PSSSSSS. Clip of Fred Flintstone’s commute:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2s13X66BFd8
PSSSSSSS: Twelve Angry Men trailer:http://www.tcm.com/mediaroom/index.jsp?cid=95851
Some drivers are fast, some slow, some suffer road rage, some are asleep at the wheel, while others are only casually involved because they are busy talking on their cell phone…while the ideal situation is everyone moving at the same pace with a vigilant, high-level of attention. Fat chance.
Have you ever worked on a committee that suffered from a traffic jam driven by conflicting personalities or opposing agendas? Or worse yet, spent copious amounts of time on a committee that yielded a product that resembled an accident more than the outcome from a logically considered strategic analysis? Committees are supposed to collect the insight from a range of stakeholders and arrive at a solution that surpasses the ability of an individual working alone.
Unfortunately, collaboration has no philosophical heritage in Western Civilization (Miles & Miles, 1999).
Given that statement, the implementation of the Professional Learning Community paradigm needs very careful consideration (but that is a tangent to be explored at a later date). Committees characterized by collaboration and consensus is in conflict with our philosophical heritage. Malcolm Gladwell, refers to research by a psychologist working for IBM’s Human Resources department, Geert Hofstede, that supports this conclusion. One of the “Hofstede Dimensions” is individualism vs. collectivism and data shows that Americans score the highest on the character trait of individualism when compared to other countries.
A positive spin on that is that if your committee has an individual with expertise, then that should produce quality decisions. Unfortunately, Libby, Trotman and Zimmer (1987) find that the inability of the groups to recognize expertise in group members results in the failure to capitalize on the expert knowledge. Often the extrovert controls the conversation and not the expert. If the collaboration occurs at the direction of whomever happens to initially gain control of the conversation, then it takes a socially courageous individual to buck the trend. Think Henry Fonda in the Twelve Angry Men.
There are many flaws that can interfere with the success of group work. Bernard Bass’s study on leadership finds that successful collaboration may be hindered by social loafing and groupthink. James Surowiecki’s book, The Wisdom of Crowds, investigates the problems inherent in group work. He defines groupthink as a consensus reached without the benefit of an articulated debate of ideas and options. Surowiecki states that conformity can result from social momentum or it may occur because alternative ideas are not available; “imitation is a kind of rationale response to our own cognitive limits” (p. 54). Throw in "confirmation bias", which is when we unconsciously only seek the information that conforms to our underlying intuitions, and we have the scenario for a pretty limited decision.
An “information cascade” is another problem inherent to group work. We have all experienced the situation where a grand idea is introduced and other members of the committee respond in unison with information in support of the idea. There is a primitive delight in this manner of escalation, similar to adding more wood to a campfire until there is a huge blazing bonfire. Surowiecki states that during an information cascade people will ignore their individual insight in order to join the herd, contributing to a sequence of uninformed choices. What happened to the beautiful blending of expert opinions?
All that sounds pretty gloomy, but there is hope; after all Surowiecki’s book is titled the Wisdom of the Crowds. He refers to research on small group dynamics (p. 176) that shows success is achieved when there is a clear agenda, all members give input, and attention is given to the nuances of each members‘ personal insight. Surowiecki states that the best strategy to maximize the insight of each group member is to have each person offer judgments independently and simultaneously (as in write down your top three candidates for the new position), and then aggregate the responses. A discussion or debate then can begin with each member having their own opinion to work from. This helps avoid an information cascade along one line of reasoning.
A divergent opinion can only be value-added if it is expressed. A great example of this phenomenon is provide by Malcolm Gladwell in his book Outliers. Commercial aircraft are designed so that it takes more than one pilot to run the plane. The strategy being that the second pilot can inform the captain of any malfunctions or errors. However, this only works if there is open communication. The data of airplane crashes around the world shows that most airplane crashes occur when the captain is flying and the second pilot does not convey clearly the pending trouble or is intimidated and fails to explicating inform the captain of the pending disaster.
“In small groups, diversity of opinion is the single best guarantee that the group will reap the benefits from face-to-face discussion” (Surowiecki, p. 183).
Face-to-face discussion is the forum that supports the formation of a committee in the first place. If you don’t need face-to-face real-time discussion (where people can readily sense the emotional impact of their ideas/opinions), then just solicit ideas via an email or some form of web-based document editing process. Diversity of opinion is good. “One of the real dangers that small groups face is emphasizing consensus over dissent” (p. 180). Consensus without consideration of conflicting opinions can result in a sheltered forum which produces a decision that can not withstand the harsh realities of implementation in a diverse workplace. It is much better to have an idea fail to withstand scrutiny in a committee than fail in its implementation. Surowiecki does caution about “group polarization” where dissent radicalizes points of view rather than moderating them (Again, think of the movie, Twelve Angry Men and the last holdout in the debate).
Committee work may suffer from road rage, backseat drivers, or incompetent navigation. But Surowiecki offers hope that with a clear agenda/roadmap and an intentional inspection of independent viewpoints, then small group decision-making can be a successful journey. Have a nice trip.
Make a good day,
Tod
PS. Bass, B. M. (1998). Transformational leadership: Industrial, military, and educational impact. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
PSS. Gladwell, M. ((2008). Outliers: The story of success. New York: Little, Brown and Company.
PSSS. Libby, R. Trotman, K. & Zimmer, I. (1987). Member variation, recognition of expertise, and group performance. Journal of Applied Psychology, 72(1), 81-87.
PSSSS. Miles, R. & Miles, G. (1999). Leadership and collaboration. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Inc.
PSSSSS. Surowiecki, J (2004) The wisdom of crowds: Why the many are smarter than the few and how collective wisdom shapes business, economics, societies, and nations. New York: Doubleday.
PSSSSSS. Clip of Fred Flintstone’s commute:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2s13X66BFd8
PSSSSSSS: Twelve Angry Men trailer:http://www.tcm.com/mediaroom/index.jsp?cid=95851
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