Teaching & Learning in Public: Professional Development Through Shared Inquiry

1. Teaching & Learning in Public: Professional Development Through Shared Inquiry Author/Researcher: Stephanie Sisk-Hilton Year: 2009 Publisher: Teachers College Press Book Summary by Kim Huett

2. Summary (1) • How can inquiry become part of a school’s culture “even when it goes against the existing norms of schooling” (p. 1)? • This book is a qualitative case study of a Lesson Study-influenced professional development experience and the professional development model that emerged. • First hand account of how teachers used inquiry methods to… • A) examine their own practice, and • B) improve their support of students to engage in inquiry

3. Summary (2) • School Setting: Quest Academy, an urban elementary public school • Over-arching School PD Model: Lesson Study (from Japan) • 1. All teachers were on board at first. • 2. The majority of teachers decided to break away from lesson study and pursue other PD models in pursuit of improving inquiry teaching and learning. • 3. A small group of teachers decided to stay with Lesson Study, using its strengths to better fit the underlying assumptions, “culture and context of [the school setting” (p. 2).

4. Summary (3) • 3. A small group of teachers decided to stay with Lesson Study, using its strengths to better fit the underlying assumptions, “culture and context of [the school setting” (p. 2). • 4. Sisk-Hilton refers to the model that emerged as the SKIIP Model, or Supporting Knowledge Integration for Inquiry Practice. • Five teachers (including the researcher) at the Quest Elementary a new, small urban elementary school, engaged in two years of collaborative professional development. They began with the Lesson Study model. The model changed over time to eventually become the SKIIP Model. Sisk-Hilton’s role shifted from “outside researcher” to “insider teacher” (p. 5) over the course of the project.

5. Over-arching themes • Tensions, that, “when appropriately balance, scaffold learning for teachers at the group and individual level” (p. 3) • Themes/Tensions:1. “Learning from the Group Versus Learning on One’s Own” (p. 3) • 2. “Evaluating Ideas Based on Impressions Versus Evaluating Ideas Based on Evidence and Criteria” (p. 3) • 3. “Acquiring New Knowledge Versus Maintaining Feelings of Efficacy” (p. 4)

6. background • Many reforms come from the “Zone of Wishful Thinking” (Sykes, 1999). • The goal of PD is to improve student learning. • Inquiry is an effective way to teach science when the goal is conceptual understanding and knowledge integration. • Gaps in research on link between effective science teacher practice and actual classroom practice. • PD Models to respond: • Teacher as Researcher models (individual teacher change, teaching as idiosyncratic and personal, no capture of cumulative knowledge) • Professional Community models (learning as social; improvement through collective endeavor; individual teacher is not the most effective locus of change; PC models have sustainability issues; potential to “privilege” university-originating research)

7. background • Neither the teacher-researcher nor PC models “equally privileges”… • Knowledge developed through teacher research of their own practice • Socially constructed knowledge created within groups of both classroom teachers and university researchers, and • Knowledge formed through university research • Neither model… • Has proven sustainable, or • Useful in terms of producing cumulative knowledge • Opportunity for a Model that does these things.

8. background • Lesson Study Model • Multiple variants; Practiced in Japanese schools; originating from a variety of groups • As a school, choose a broad goal and a subject-matter focus • Teachers meet in groups (grade level or common interest) to plan a research lesson to meet the goal; lesson within larger unit; focus on key concepts and student misconceptions • Team Planning over months with multiple revisions • Entire faculty observe lesson and take notes on student interactions and evidence of working toward the stated goal • Post-meeting for in-depth discussion of the lesson, with focus on student learning • Re-taught and re-studied • Cumulatively collected and stored for later retrieval

9. background • Lesson Study Model Makes Sense in Japan… • Common curriculum • Culture of collaboration • “school culture that values improvement throughout a teaching career” (p. 17) • “Stable national policies” (p. 17) • A number of “sociocultural issues” must be addressed to make LS viable in U.S.

10. Skiip Model • Sisk-Hilton urges PD leaders not to judge PD participants as inadequate, but rather to tailor PD to their needs and underlying beliefs. • Key Characteristics of SKIIP / SKIIP Professional Development Activities…. (p. 20) • Support multiple points of entry • Focus on building culture of collaboration with the goal of “joint work” • Account for/make explicit goal structures of techers and of model • Define criteria for success • Move from less to more practice-revealing activity structures

12. Recommendations • Introduce collaborative structures over time, from least intrusive to most intrusive. (p. 69) • Allow for formation of subgroups of trusted colleagues. (p. 70) • View participant changes to the model through the lens of potential strengths rather than “lethal mutations.” (p. 70) • Introduce new technologies “just in time,” to address an identified need. (p. 71) • Use indirect sharing of practice as a bridge to direct observation. (p. 99) • Introduce video technologies as a tool for self-analysis. (p. 100) • Provide multiple models for using colleagues as collaborators. (p. 100)

13. Recommendations (2) • Use group goal setting as both an initial collaborative activity and as a means of renegotiating shared work. (p. 130) • Presenter-controlled structures for sharing practice allow for shared problem solving while maintaining teacher autonomy. (p. 130) • High-risk, high-benefit activities may need to exist as an optional component in a repertoire of inquiry strategies (p. 130).