If we improve instruction, we improve student learning. This has been my belief since embarking on a career in education administration. School and district-level data analysis consistently reveal that the students with the most significant academic growth are assigned to teachers with the best instructional practices. The question of replicating our most vital teachers’ practices in all classes remains a concern.
Therefore, thousands of dollars are spent annually sending teachers to conferences that promise to improve teaching and learning. However, in my experience, I have found that most teachers enjoy the meetings and return to the confines of their classes, where they fail to implement anything, they have learned. This prompted me to explore other ways to encourage implementing best practices. Learning walks is one of the strategies that I have found to be most effective.
Learning walks allow teachers to visit their colleagues’ classes to glean best practices that will assist them in their instruction. The power of the walks comes from having teachers witness best practices successfully implemented in their learning community. However, educators must have clear procedures to benefit from this strategy. Through my experiences, I have found that there are four key steps to getting the most out of learning walks.
Educate
Leaders need to educate their teachers on the benefits before they attempt to implement new structures. In the same way that teachers are expected to make the content relevant for students, those in instructional leadership must do the same for teachers.
Everyone in the learning environment must understand how learning walks have been used in other environments and the results of the implementation. In addition, their concerns must be heard and addressed. Having this initial conversation shows respect for everyone’s perspective and allows an opportunity to lay out a clear plan for implementation.
During the education phase, it is important to model expectations. One of the disservices to teachers are putting requirements in place, but not modeling effective implementation. Knowing what learning walks look like, sound like, and feel like before participation will aid in ensuring buy-in with the majority of the staff.
As a team, build procedures that work for your school. Being that you are in your building more than an outside expert, you and your team are the most qualified to decide how learning walks will look in your environment. Implementation can occur once the team has a clear definition of what learning walks are and are not.
Pre-Conference
It is important to pre-conference with the team prior to the actual learning walk. During the pre-conference, discuss norms for the visits. The norms should be established to meet the needs of your school’s learning environment. For example, one norm may be to whisper with at least one student to ascertain what they are learning. While this may work in one school, it may have the opposite effect in another school. It is important to ensure that learning walks are established to meet the school’s needs.
The team leader should point out areas that they would like the team to concentrate their attention. If student engagement is an area, then having the team document some of the strategies that are being used to increase engagement in the classes would be appropriate. Discussions such as where to stand in the classroom and how long the team is expected to remain in the room should occur during the pre-conference. It is imperative to clear up as many questions and concerns as possible during the pre-conference.
The Walk
Having clear focus helps to make the actual walk more beneficial. Providing each individual with a documentation tool helps to keep everyone focused. The tool should be structured in a manner that allows everyone to capture what was agreed upon by the team.
The walk should never feel like a “gotcha!” to the teacher who is being observed. Comfortability by the observer and the observed yields the greatest results. The goal is for the teachers to view an authentic lesson and not the dog and pony show that sometimes occur during observations.
The walk should be respectful in nature. During implementation, it is important that the observer does not interfere with the lesson. Although there may be obvious areas in the visiting classroom that need immediate improvement, the observers must understand their role is to look and glean from the positives. Focusing on the positives in every lesson allows the observers and the observed space to feel safe about participating in learning walks.
Post-Conference
Failing to have a post-conference after an instructional walk has the same impact as not having a post-conference after a teacher observation. It reduces the impact to a minimum. This time is so valuable because it allows the team an opportunity to dissect what they saw and answer lingering questions.
More importantly, the leader is able to hear from small groups of teachers at a time. This allows a chance to understand what good instruction looks like from the teachers’ perspective. From there discussions on what this looks like in the learning environment can occur authentically and without judgement.
Creating a plan for moving forward should occur during this time. Coming up with agreements among the team about what would have a positive impact on student achievement will increase teacher buy-in. The greater the buy-in, the more likely that the change that is needed will occur. The agreement ensures that everyone has a stake in working to make sure that the plan works. It is at this point in the process that learning walks transition from being an administrative mandate to a team agreement.
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