OER4Schools/Engaging the community: Difference between revisions

* using the Leadership for Learning framework to structure discussion with a parent, colleague, head teacher or inspector  

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* you will ...

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You have seen and heard many different ways of teaching and learning that challenge your previous views of classroom teaching. The challenge now for you is to be able to communicate some of these learning to a wider community of stakeholders. The objective for this session is to explore ways of talking with parents, other teachers, other schools, headteachers, school/college leadership team, inspectors, Ministry of Education officials, and other education stakeholders about new and exciting teaching and learning in your classroom and school. As a result, you will be able to have more confident and effective discussions and deliberations with these stakeholders. In this session, we also consider the role of students. They are often forgotten although they are the most important stakeholders in and outside the classroom!

In this session we consider how to introduce, discuss and listen to feedback from the key partners in children’s learning, namely, their parents and family, school colleagues and administrators, and the wider education bureaucracy. With change come challenges and opportunities for cooperation and developing new ways of thinking, knowing, and learning.

{{activity|Small group activity:| Use 'table mats' to record observations and reflections on LfL in the classroom.|30 }}  Let’s try putting this idea of looking at students' learning through a combined LfL lens into practice.

= Involving parents – the issues =

In this part of the session, we are going to use the LfL framework (introduced in the previous session) in talking with parents.

{{activity|Reading and whole group discussion}} (10 min) Read the following text, and then have a brief discussion as to how you see possible roles for parents. These are some possible discussion questions:

#You might consider the roles of parents in supporting children’s learning, in supporting the school, or in supporting interactive methods of teaching?

Parental involvement in their child’s education at school is a known predictor of future academic success. Developments in pedagogies as you have explored over the course of this professional learning resource are second only in importance to consistent, positive parental involvement in a child’s education. With this in mind, engaging parents in the school community and their own child’s daily education is a top priority of any leading teacher.  

The first priority is to ensure parents and other key education stakeholders feel welcome and that their presence if valued in its own right. Navigating ways of expanding participation by individual parents is something you will explore through this session. You will explore the utility of the Leadership for Learning framework as an instrument for organising your thoughts, and you will also explore ways of communicating to parents the learning process and their child’s individual learning in an understandable and meaningful way.  

'''Leadership for Learning applied to talking to parents.'''  

* increased parents’ presence in the school and  

One of the barriers to effective parents’ meetings, is the '''teacher’s ability to communicate effectively''', ensuring both an '''open and honest conversation''' about their child’s learning that includes both positive and issues arising.  A good way of ensuring that we professionalise these often very personal conversations is to discuss the process and content of the learning, and not the child him/herself. How can we do this? We can use the LfL framework as a starting point.  

= Involving parents – role play =

{{activity|Whole group brainstorm}} As a group, do a brainstorm about what parents might say to a teacher, what they might want to know, or what they might complain about, or what they might praise.

{{activity|Role play in pairs}} Break into pairs, assign roles (“teacher”, “parent”), and do a role play for 5 minutes. The person playing the parent asks questions or raises concerns (based on the brainstorm you have just done), and the teacher tries to answer those question, or discuss the issue. Then swap roles.

{{activity|Big group discussion}} Come back together as a group. Discuss the role plays. How did it go? How did you address the parents’ suggestions and concerns? How did this relate to Leadership for Learning? Make a note of any particular points that you could use in the future when discussing with parents.

{{activity|Whole group brainstorm}} As a group, do a brainstorm about what another teacher, headteacher, or government inspector might notice about your class? What might they be concerned about? What is their understanding of student learning? See whether you can come up with a broad range of questions or issues another teacher, headteacher, or government inspector might raise. As these issues are brought up, see whether you can relate them to the LfL principles. How can you diplomatically challenge their assumptions about what teaching and learning should be like, if these are counter to your own views of interactive teaching? How would you defend what you have been doing in your classroom as a result of the OER4Schools programme?

* The inspector says …. “You need to do pace groups – in Zambia, we do pace groups!” - what do you say? Perhaps you can remind the participants of the “banana group” in Agness’ class who kept going off to sit in other groups (Unit 3.3.2), and of the incident of some of Judith’s students laughing at the group who got all wrong answers in a maths lesson (3.3.3). (Agness and Judith use mixed pace groups now because they found that more students participate.)

With each of these items (and any other items raise), see whether you can draw out one or more LfL principle(s) that relate to the question.

{{activity|Role play in pairs}} Break into pairs, do another set of role plays, as above, but now with one person being the teacher, the other one being another teacher, a headteacher, or an “inspector”. The person playing the other teacher / headteacher / inspector asks questions or raises concerns (based on the brainstorm you have just done), and you try and answer those question, or discuss the issue. Do a role play for 5 minutes. Then swap roles.

Limit the time to 5 minutes.

{{activity|Discussion}} Come back together as a group. Discuss the role play. How did it go? How did you address the concerns that came up? What were the suggestions and concerns? How did this relate to Leadership for Learning? Be explicit about which LfL principle a particular point relates to.

In the discussion issues around payment and transparency might come up. Often we dwell so much on money and not work, e.g. trying to attend workshops just to gain money, but putting work as a second priority. This could apply to people at all levels, and indeed corruption is a big disease in many countries.  

{{activity|Role play performance}} Choose three people to perform a role play in front of everybody. The theme for the role play is the use of ICT at the school. One of you is the teacher, and the others are a parent and an inspector. Here are two ideas that you can explore in the role play:

{{activity|Whole group discussion}} Discuss the role play. How differently would the discussion be between the teacher-parent and teacher-inspector? What does that suggest to you about the role of the teacher in communicating student learning? Discuss in particular whether the parent and inspector were convinced about the use of ICT, and what sort of message they have taken away from this. Do you think there will be value in having a discussion whereby the parents, teachers, head teacher and inspector are '''ALL''' present?

{{ednote|text= It may be very tempting to make use of the LfL framework as some kind of ‘repository’ to find solutions to answer parents or inspector’s queries (perhaps eventually as some kind of ‘FAQ’) '''We are not trying to give you ‘stock’ answers to reply to your stakeholders.''' It is important to note that using the LfL lens provides opportunities for all the stakeholders to come together to deliberate on the many issues of student learning from different perspectives. The teacher should not feel that he/she has to have an answer to all the questions that are fielded by the other stakeholders. In fact, it may be better in the first few discussions, to LISTEN closely to the views of the different stakeholders before stating your own. It is easy to become very defensive of all the ‘new things’ that the participants have learnt so far. The conversation and discussion should be seen as a reflective and developmental one. This will eventually help the community as a whole to come together to support each other in your endeavours to provide quality teaching and learning experiences for your students. }}

{{activity|Group discussion}} Discuss the five LfL principles in relation to the students. What might the LfL principles mean for students?

{{activity|Reading and discussion in pairs}} In the homework, we will ask you to discuss the LfL principles with the students in your class. Discuss in pairs: How would you do this? Can you draw on material from the previous and this session to draw something together? The following text has some suggestions! Read through it together, and discuss. Make a plan for a session with your students.