A Paradigm Shift in Staff Development

A Paradigm Shift in Staff Development

By Dennis Sparks

Journal of Staff Development, Fall 1994 (Vol. 15, No. 4)

During the past 20 years, it has gone by many names--inservice education, staff development, professional development, and human resource development. But whatever it was called, it too often was essentially the same thing--educators (usually teachers) sitting relatively passively while an "expert" "exposed" them to new ideas or "trained" them in new practices. The success of this endeavor was typically judged by a "happiness quotient" that measured participants' satisfaction with the experience and their assessment regarding its usefulness in their work.

Fortunately, all of this is at long last being swept away by irresistible forces that are currently at work in education. History teaches us the power of a transforming idea, an alteration in world view so profound that all that follows is changed forever. Such a paradigm shift is now rapidly transforming the discipline of "staff development."(I will use this term throughout because our professional language has not yet caught up with the paradigm shift that is described below)

Three Powerful Ideas

Three powerful ideas are currently altering the shape of this nation's schools and the staff development that occurs within them.

1. Results-driven Education. Results-driven education judges success not by the courses students take or the grades they receive, but by what they actually know and can do as a result of their time in school. Results-driven education for students will require that teachers and administrators alter their attitudes (e.g., from grades should be based on the bell curve to the belief that virtually all students can acquire the school's valued outcomes provided they are given sufficient time and appropriate instruction) and acquire new instructional knowledge and skills.

Results-driven education for students will require results-driven staff development for educators. Staff development's success will be judged primarily not by how many teachers and administrators participate in staff development programs or how they perceive its value, but by whether it alters instructional behavior in a way that benefits students. The goal of staff development and other improvement efforts is becoming improved performance by students, staff, and the organization.

2. Systems Thinking. This second transforming recognizes the complex, interdependent relationships among the various parts of the system. When the parts of a system come together, they form something that is bigger and more complex than those individual parts. Systems thinkers are individuals who are able to see how these parts constantly influence one another in ways which can support or hinder improvement efforts. Because educational leaders typically have not thought systemically, reform has been approached in a piecemeal fashion.

An important aspect of systems thinking is that changes in one part of the system--even relatively "minor" changes--can have significant effects on other parts of the system, either positively or negatively. To complicate the situation, these effects may not become obvious for months or even years, which may lead observers to miss the link between the two events.

For instance, graduation requirements may be increased, teachers may be trained in some new process, or decision-making may be decentralized with little thought given to how these changes influence other parts of the system. As a result, "improvements" in one area may produce unintended consequences in another part of the system (e.g., increasing graduation requirements in science without appropriate changes in assessment, curriculum, and instructional methods may increase the dropout rate).

To address this issue, Peter Senge (1990), author of The Fifth Discipline, encourages organizational leaders to identify points of high leverage in the system--points that he refers to as "trim tabs." Change introduced into these areas can have a positive ripple effect throughout the organization (e.g., a change in assessment strategies may have a significant effect on curriculum and instruction).

3. Constructivism. Constructivists believe that learners build knowledge structures rather than merely receive them from teachers. In this view, knowledge is not simply transmitted from teacher to student but instead constructed in the mind of the learner. From a constructivist perspective, it is critical that teachers model appropriate behavior, guide student activities, and provide various forms of examples rather than use common instructional practices that emphasize. telling and directing.

Constructivist teaching will be best learned through constructivist staff development. rather than receiving "knowledge" from "experts" in training sessions, teachers and administrators will collaborate with peers, researchers, and their own students to make sense of the teaching/learning process in their own contexts. Staff development from a constructivist perspective will include activities such as action research, conversations with peers about the beliefs and assumptions that guide their instruction, and reflective practices like journal keeping-activities which many educators may not even view as staff development.

Changes in Staff Development

Results-driven education, systems thinking, and constructivism are producing profound changes in how staff development is conceived and implemented. Some of the most important of these changes are:

From individual development to individual development and organization development. Too often we have expected dramatic changes in schools based solely on staff development programs intended to help individual teachers and administrators do their jobs more effectively. An important lesson from the past few years, however, has been that improvements in individual performance alone are insufficient to produce the results we desire.

It is now clear that success for all students depends upon both the learning of individual school employees and improvements in the capacity of the organization to solve problems and renew itself. While the knowledge, skills, and attitudes of individuals must continually be addressed, quality improvement expert W. Edwards Deming estimates that 85% of the barriers to improvement reside in the organization's structure and processes, not in the performance of individuals.

For instance, asking teachers to hold higher expectations for students within a school that tracks students pits teachers against the system in which they work. As systems thinking has taught us, unless individual leaming and organizational changes are addressed simultaneously and support one another, the gains made in one area may be canceled by continuing problems in the other.

From fragmented, piecemeal improvement efforts to staff development driven by a clear, coherent strategic plan for the school district, each school, and for the departments that serve schools. Educational experts such as Seymour Sarason (1990) and Michael Fullan (1991) have criticized schools for their fragmented approach to change. School improvement too often has been based on fad rather than on a clear, compelling vision of the school system's future. This, in turn, has led to one-shot staff development workshops with no thought given to follow-up nor to how this technique fits in with those that were taught in previous years. At its worst, teachers are asked to implement poorly understood innovations with little support and assistance, and before they are able to approach mastery, the school has moved on to another area.

An orientation to outcomes and systems thinking has led to strategic planning at the district, school, and department levels. Clear, compelling mission statements and measurable objectives expressed in terms of student outcomes give guidance to the type of staff development activities that would best serve district and school goals. In turn, district offices such as staff development and curriculum see themselves as service agencies for schools. This comprehensive approach to change makes certain that all aspects of the system (e.g., assessment, curriculum, instruction, parent involvement) are working in tandem toward a manageable set of outcomes that are valued throughout the system.

From district-focused to school-focused approaches to staff development. While districtwide awareness and skill building programs sometimes have their place, more attention today is being directed at helping schools meet their improvement goals. Schools set their goals both to assist the school system in achieving its long-term objectives and to address challenges unique to their students' needs.

School improvement efforts in which the entire staff seeks incremental annual improvement related to a set of common objectives (e.g., helping all students be-come better problem solvers, increasing the number of students who participate in a voluntary community service program to 100%) over a three- to five-year span are viewed as the key to significant reform As a result, more learning activities are designed and implemented by school faculties, with the district's staff development department providing technical assistance and functioning as a service center to support the work of the schools.

From a focus on adult needs to a focus on student needs and learning outcomes. Rather than basing staff development solely upon the perceptions of educators regarding what they need (e.g., to learn about classroom management), staff development planning processes are more often beginning by determining the things students need to know and be able to do and working backward to the knowledge, skills, and attitudes required of educators if those student outcomes are to be realized. This shift does not negate the value of teachers' perceptions regarding their needs, but rather places those needs within a larger context.

From training that one attends away from the job as the primary delivery system for staff development to multiple forms of job-embedded learning. Critics have long argued that too much of what passes as staff development is "sit and get" in which educators are passive recipients of received wisdom. Likewise, a great deal of staff development could be thought of as "go and get" because "learning" has typically meant leaving the job to attend a workshop or other event.

While well-designed training programs followed by coaching will continue to be the preferred method for the development of certain skills, school employees will also learn through such diverse means as action small-group problem solving, observing peers, journal writing, and through involvement in improvement processes (e.g., participation in curriculum development, school improvement planning).

From an orientation toward the transmission of knowledge and skills to teachers by "experts" to the study by teachers of the teaching and learning processes. Teachers will spend an increasingly larger portion of their work day in various processes that assist them in continually improving their understanding of the teaching and learning process. Action research, study groups, and the joint planning of lessons, among other processes, will be regularly used by teachers to refine their instructional knowledge and skills.

From a focus on generic instructional skills to a combination of generic and content-specific skills. While staff development related to cooperative learning, mastery learning, and mastery teaching, among other topics, will continue to have their place, more staff development of various forms will focus on specific content areas such as mathematics, science, language arts, and social studies. Recent studies have revealed the importance of teachers possessing a deeper understanding of both their academic disciplines and of specific pedagogical approaches tailored to those areas.

From staff developers who function primary as trainers to those who provide consultation, planning, and facilitation services, as well as training. Staff developers are more frequently called on today to facilitate meetings or to assist various work groups (e.g., a school faculty, the superintendent's cabinet, a school improvement team) solve problems or develop long-range plans. While staff developers will continue to provide training in instructional areas, results-driven education and systems thinking have placed teachers, administrators, and school employees in new roles (e.g., team leader, strategic planning team member) for which training in areas such as conducting effective meetings is required for their successful performance.

From staff development provided by one or two departments to staff development as a critical function and major responsibility performed by all administrators and teacher leaders. Job-embedded staff development means that superintendents, assistant superintendents, curriculum among others, must see themselves as teachers of adults and view the development of others as one of their most important responsibilities. Individuals who perform these roles are increasingly being held accountable for their performance as planners and implementors of various forms of staff development.

As responsibility for staff development has been spread throughout the school system, the role of the staff development department has become even more important. Staff development departments are assisting teachers and administrators by offering training and ongoing support in acquiring the necessary knowledge and skills to assume their new responsibilities, by providing one-to-one coaching of these individuals in their new roles, and by facilitating meetings that are best led by individuals who are outside that particular group, among other responsibilities.

From teachers as the primary recipients of staff development to continuous improvement in performance for everyone who affects student learning. To meet the educational challenges of the 21st Century, everyone who affects student learning must continually upgrade his or her skills- school board trustees, superintendents and other central office administrators, principals, teachers, the various categories of support staff (e.g., aides, secretaries, bus drivers, custodians), and parents and community members who serve on policy-making boards and planning committees.

From staff development as a 'frill" that can be cut during difficult financial times to staff development as an essential and indispensable process without which schools cannot hope to prepare young people for citizenship and productive employment. Both the development of school employees and significant changes in the organizations in which they work are required if schools are to adequately prepare students for life in a world that is becoming increasingly more complex. Fortunately, results-driven education and systems thinking provide us with the intellectual understanding and the means to create the necessary reforms.

Conclusions

The shifts described above are significant and powerful. They are essential to the creation of learning communities in which everyone-students, teachers, principals, and support staff-are both learners and teachers. All of the things described above will serve to unleash the most powerful source of success for all students, young people who are in the daily presence of adults who are passionately committed to their own lifelong learning within organizations that are continually renewing themselves.

References

Fullan, M. (1991). The new meaning of educational change. New York: Teachers College Press.

Sarason, S. (1990). The predictable failure of educational reform. San Francisco: Jossey Bass.

Senge, P. (1990). The fifth discipline. New York: Doubleday.