Generating Enhanced Reflective Learning
The new economy and the new world of work are all about learning. As you know, you cannot survive in any profession unless you’re able to engage and learn new things. To that end, the success of school is most directly driven by the development of individual and team learning capacities (DuFour, DuFour, & Eaker, 2008). Furthermore, a school with a lot of learning resources will be even more effective if it is well led. The purpose of this chapter is to present a key concept that revolves around the ability to enhance and improve the learning power in your school: generating enhanced reflective learning power. You’ll also be introduced to several leadership strategies that support the development of this key concept.
Before we get into the definition of this leadership concept, we need to spend a moment talking about learning power. I deliberately use the term power in this context to describe the flexible and, indeed, expandable force that exists within all of us, within every group, and yes, within your school as a whole to learn new things and to apply that learning. If you believe in successful collaboration, you recognize that there is more learning power in a well-connected cohesive group than one that obviously hasn’t invested in appropriate group processes. Certain schools are able to respond to challenges and demonstrate their learning power better than others by being able to problem solve and find resolutions faster. Being a leader who conceptualizes learning as a fluid force in your organization will help remind you to consistently lead in a way that allows you to maximize this power.
Paradigms of Yesterday
Despite the fact that schools are institutions of learning, the design of their functionality and the habits and dispositions of leaders had nothing to do with promoting learning. In fact, some of the most essential elements associated with organizing schools were counterproductive to the learning process. For example, Taylor believed strongly in measuring everything with time (Kanigel, 1997). Clearly schools haven’t totally shed this obsession; being fixated on seat time is an example of adherence to Taylorism.
Moving students away from a teacher after one year, which forces teachers to leave behind knowledge of family, learning styles, and so on, is another example of a systemic bureaucracy built around the assumptions and expectations of a system not focused on learning impact. In addition, there is very little evidence that the early framers of modern schools kept teacher learning in mind, since they established a system designed to isolate teachers and keep them dependent on school leaders for direction and information. That system also provides teachers with very little room to work together.
Because of our bureaucratic history, we often put a greater emphasis on control and hierarchy than we do on maximizing learning. If you were to ask most students in the United States whether there is more pressure to learn or more pressure to conform, what do you think they would say? In business, you are often evaluated by how well you work, learn, and hopefully innovate as a team. How often are students in most U.S. schools required to do the same? Or are they discouraged from working together? Obviously, schools are changing dramatically, and your deliberate efforts in focusing on learning will make a big difference in that continued evolution.
Keep in mind that one of the real advantages to reflecting, learning, and evolving is that the organization begins to grow in directions that may not have been expected. In Taylor’s time, the notion that an organization would evolve in a particular direction that wasn’t prescribed was unthinkable. Again, what you learned was largely determined by those who were stacked above you in the organizational chart. In general, Taylor had no interest in workers exploring new ways of executing their job functions. There was fear that this would create an imbalance that would disrupt the carefully orchestrated system (Kanigel, 1997). Think about the generations of innovation we have likely missed while toiling away in systems where only a handful of people are asked to really think. Schools are complex enough organizations, and no matter how well led they may be, we have to take advantage of every available thinker.
Key Concepts for Today
Mastery of this key concept, generating enhanced reflective learning, is demonstrated by your capacity as a leader to be a wellspring of inspiration and provide a direction for learning in the school. In the LEAF model, you must have a clear and present impact on the quality and quantity of individual and team learning expressed throughout the school. Exude a love of learning, and take action to support learning at every turn. When decisions are made regarding policy or practice, quickly consider the learning implications for students, staff, and yourself. Hold learning sacred, and take all the steps necessary to make learning a way of life for everyone in the school.
Learning is both continuous and unpredictable. Whether we plan for it or not, our brains attempt to make sense of our life experiences through a process called consolidation, wherein our ideas and experiences are reflected on, compared, analyzed, and selectively stored long after the experience or learning moment has passed us by (Reason, 2010). Even the notion that you “need some time to think about it” is a habit of thinking things through—usually on the run. How many times have you said you are thinking a problem through without actually sitting down and staring off into space? Instead, your brain does it automatically. Ideas or solutions will come to you organically often when you don’t expect them.
I use the term reflective to generate the action phase that leaders should promote within their organization. Purposeful reflection is a well-established habit of many successful leaders. Richard Andersen, the former CEO of Northlands and the former superintendent of Joe Robbie Stadium, explained to me that one of his best strategies as a CEO was to build time into his schedule where he did nothing but purposefully reflect on his challenges ahead. Following his lead, I have run my company with a strategy of deliberately positioning signs and artifacts designed to remind me of the major objectives I need to attend to on a consistent basis. Keeping these objectives within my line of vision is incredibly helpful. Clearly, the steps you take as a leader to organize yourself, to improve your own learning, and to create conditions where you’re enhancing the learning of others make a substantial difference as you serve.
Strategies for Today: Leading for Excellence and Fulfillment
Who wouldn’t want leaders who can support learning and make everyone around them better for it? While this concept is simple, putting it into action certainly isn’t. Furthermore, it is a never-ending job. The strategies I recommend in this section will serve to enhance the development of reflective leadership in your school. Any one of these approaches will help. If you do all of them, it certainly puts you in a position to more quickly develop in this area.
Hire With Teacher Learning in Mind
Although there are many criteria for hiring new teachers or staff members, one of the most important questions you can ask during the interview is what new learning skills or abilities these new hires will bring to your school. What can they teach you? Furthermore, what will their individual learning capacity do for the collective learning capacity of their department, a particular set of teams they might be on, or the school as a whole? Gaining a perspective on a new candidate’s willingness to continue to learn and grow will be a great help in clarifying if he or she is right for your school.
Supervise for Learning Versus Doing
While most states are implementing annual teacher evaluation systems that are increasingly standardized, it’s still important to frame the supervisory process around what’s being learned as opposed to what’s being observed. This is perhaps more easily said than done. Having met with a number of teachers who thoughtfully reflect during supervisor check-ins, I have observed that, in many cases, the conversation revolves around a specific supervisory artifact, some nuanced aspect of the instrument, or some hairline differentiator between rating points. While these are worthwhile professional conversations, attention to that level of detail at the expense of the wider picture can drag even a good method to a halt.
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