Educational Services Division
School Leadership Team Training
This fall, teams of educators from all over Santa Cruz, Monterey, and San Benito Counties have come together in one room to participate in a series of workshops sponsored by the Santa Cruz County Office of Education and centered around The Art and Science of Teaching , by Dr. Robert Marzano. Dr. Marzano advocates a model for ensuring quality teaching that balances the necessity of research-based data with the equally vital need to understand the strengths and weaknesses of individual students.
Presenters Dr. Debra Pickering and Dr. David Livingston, with the Marzano Research Lab, have challenged local educators to rethink the way they approach teaching and ensure that they use teaching strategies that have a high probability of effectiveness. Along with that, administrators are increasing their understanding of, and ability to use, specific approaches to supervising and supporting the effective implementation of instructional practices.
School Leadership Teams, including administrators and teachers, are getting an to opportunity learn how to use research-based instructional strategies. As a result of their participation, many schools have already discovered ways to begin implementing the strategies they have learned. Enthusiastic participants have taken back their new learnings and shared ideas around effective teaching with the rest of their staff at staff meetings, in hallways, and during lunch room conversations. In some cases, teachers have been provided with release time in order to observe their peers practicing the use of these new strategies.
The focus of lesson planning and delivery shifts then from "teaching goals" to "learning goals". Supporting the teachers in making this shift, Marzano suggests asking and answering the following ten questions when developing lessons:
- What will I do to establish and communicate learning goals, track student progress, and celebrate success?
- What will I do to help students actively interact with new knowledge?
- What will I do to help students practice and deepen their understanding of new knowledge?
- What will I do to help students generate and test hypotheses about new knowledge?
- What will I do to engage students?
- What will I do to establish or maintain classroom rules and procedures?
- What will I do to recognize and acknowledge adherence to or lack of adherence to rules and procedures?
- What will I do to establish and maintain effective relationships with students?
- What will I do to communicate high expectations for all students?
- What will I do to organize lessons into a coherent unit?
After three sessions, participants were given the challenge of utilizing an "action based research" approach to determine how effective their implementation of selected strategies has been in promoting student learning. Teachers were asked to select a strategy of focus, in a specific content area and unit of study. Once they have made these choices, they work together to develop pre- and post- tests, which are used to evaluate student outcomes. Teachers will use a control group and an experimental group of students, so that they can determine if the use of the strategy was truly the key to student success. All of their results will be turned into the Marzano Research Laboratory for further evaluation and evidence of effective teaching practices. Teachers have selected strategies such as compare and contrast, experimental inquiry, non-linguistic representation, tracking progress by students, generating and testing hypotheses, and many more to practice and test.
Working together in teams is encouraged as teachers evaluate their practice, reflect on their outcomes, and make decisions around future instruction. Participants report that these collaborative sessions have led to meaningful conversations with their peers around homework and grading practices as well. Teachers are redesigning homework to ensure that it enhances student learning in a meaningful way and is not just busy work. They are examining the practice of using tools such as rubrics to evaluate student work in a way that provides students with explicit examples of what it means to be proficient at an assigned task. Students are also being taught how to set and track their own learning goals.
Marzano's research has shown that in order for schools to work they must provide a guaranteed and viable curriculum, challenging goals, effective feedback, parent and community involvement, a safe and orderly environment, as well as collegiality and professionalism. Teachers must provide effective instructional strategies, classroom management, and classroom curriculum design keeping in mind that students bring several factors to the table including their home environment, learned intelligence/background knowledge, and motivation.
Based on this professional development series, districts will be equipped with tools to create a system that nurtures student feedback on learning goals at the classroom, school, and district levels. Combining the use of standards-based grading using formative assessments, encouraging the use of strategies that support effective teaching in every classroom and building on students background knowledge all work toward promoting student achievement.
For more information on professional development opportunities at the Santa Cruz County Office of Education, visit the calendar or contact the Curriculum and Instruction Department.
