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Seven-Step Process for Responding to Angry Parents

The frequency with which educators are confronted with angry parents has increased over the past few years. The trend is not surprising given the uncertainty, fear, and disruption families have experienced during the pandemic. Meanwhile, political forces have, at times, conspired to create doubt and suspicion regarding instructional content and regarding the intentions and strategies employed by educators. These factors can be the source of considerable angst and emotional distress for parents. It follows that much of the emotion, including anger, gets directed at teachers. The prospect of meeting with an angry parent can create significant anxiety. Teachers may not know the source of the anger. They may feel uncertain about how and whether they can respond adequately. Handling the situation successfully will most certainly require a plan. Fortunately, there is a process teachers can employ in these circumstances that can help them navigate emotions, respond to concerns, and move forward. Consider this seven-step approach: First, look at the situation as an opportunity to solve a problem, not as a personal attack. This perspective allows you to avoid taking a defensive position and seeing the situation as “win-lose.” Approach the situation with more objectivity. In some cases, this approach can even enable you to enlist the parent as a partner in finding a solution. Second, listen carefully for understanding, rather than defending or explaining an action. As much as possible, avoid interrupting other than to seek clarification. Allowing the parent to vent can be the first step in moving the situation toward resolution. Equally important, you’re likely to hear information and discover important clues that later can form the foundation of an effective response. Third, focus on the emotions the parent is sharing, rather than responding with logic or additional information. Your understanding and respect for the emotions and empathizing with the distress the parent is feeling can be as crucial to resolving the situation as the ideas you share and commitments you may make. You don’t have to agree with the parent’s perspective to be accepting and respectful of their emotions. Fourth, summarize what you’ve heard to confirm your understanding, rather than correcting or judging what has been said. Your goal is to assure the parent that you’ve been listening to understand, not to prepare a counter argument. Listening is one of the most respectful actions you can take and being listened to can be a powerful dissipater of anger. Fifth, express confidence that you’ll find a solution, even if you don’t yet have a fully formed outcome in mind. This also is the point in the conversation where you might tactfully share additional information, including information that may be counter to the perceptions of the parent. You may point to additional information you need to collect and clarify. Doing so may mean suspending the conversation until you’re able to build a better understanding and develop options for moving forward. However, you need to be specific about the timing and focus of the next steps to avoid giving the impression that you're stalling or avoiding the problem. Sixth, offer multiple potential solutions, rather than choosing a single option to consider. Your choice to contemplate more than one course of action can open the door for the parent to provide input and create greater acceptance of and ownership for the next steps in the process. However, you need to clarify and confirm what will happen next to avoid confusion and avoid undermining the trust you’ve built. Seventh, follow-up with the parent to provide an update on actions taken, share any additional relevant information, and confirm any other commitments you’ve made. This information typically is best communicated in person or via another form of live conversation to avoid any misunderstanding and to reinforce the relationship you’ve built. Dealing with an angry parent may not be a comfortable prospect. But teachers can approach the situation with confidence and optimism if they have a plan to guide them through the emotional context—that communicates respect and responsiveness, and that leads to a thoughtful, responsive, and mutually acceptable outcome.

October 14, 2022

Six Ways to Assess Learning in an Era of Siri and Alexa

We know that many traditional assessment approaches, such as true/false and multiple-choice questions, prove ineffective in measuring depth and breadth of knowledge. A short answer assessment format is better but still reveals little about depth of understanding, ability to make connections, and ability to grasp concepts. For many of us, the written essay has been the preferred choice for understanding student comprehension. However, recent and emerging advances in artificial intelligence alarmingly call all of this and other assessment strategies into question. Today, if students need to access historical facts, they can consult Siri or Alexa. If they need an answer to a math question or access to a formula, Siri, Alexa, and other sources quickly provide it. The same is true for many other fact-based assessment strategies. Now the stakes have been raised with the release of an essay-writing technology that responds to a prompt by searching the internet, organizing information, and writing a multi-paragraph narrative on the topic. Developed by OpenAI, Generative Pre-Trained Transformer 3, also referred to as GPT-3, has access to 540 billion words and operates using 175 billion parameters. And these resources mark only the beginning. Driven by artificial intelligence, similar technologies continue to be developed and made available, naturally tempting students to use them whenever they can. So, how can we understand what students have learned when true/false, multiple choice, short answer, and now even essays can no longer be relied upon to provide credible information about what students know? The good news is that there remain many useful assessment strategies from which we can choose. In fact, these strategies have been around for as long as or longer than the approaches technology currently renders less useful. Here are six strategies that can give us information going well beyond whether students know basic facts to reveal understandings of context, connections, and consequences. First, students can participate in dialogue on a target topic. Prompts, queries, and probes invite students to reveal what they’ve learned in the context of a conversation. Dialogue also gives students opportunities to share information learned beyond core objectives—information that tends to be overlooked in a more traditional assessment format. Second, we might arrange for students to partake in debate on a concept or perspective related to their learning. Debates give students opportunities to synthesize and share what they’ve learned while also considering how others might view the same content. Further, debate encourages students to delve deeper into a topic, improving their opportunities to prevail in a competitive context. Third, students can demonstrate a learned skill or concept. Demonstrations give students opportunities to share their learning with an audience, thus making the learning and assessment more authentic. The process of preparing a demonstration helps students integrate and sequence their learning in ways that deepen understanding and increase retention. Fourth, we can ask students to take a position on something they've learned and prepare to defend their perspective. This approach encourages students to move beyond facts to consider the value, significance, and consequences of what they learned. Like debate, this activity helps students learn structures of argument. Fifth, students can produce a diagram explaining their learning and how it relates to other concepts and applications. Diagramming relationships among people, events, concepts, and consequences helps students display learning while placing it in context. Sixth, students can perform a dissection of an event, piece of writing, or oral presentation to demonstrate understanding of individual parts, their relationships to the whole, and their implications. While we might think of dissection as an activity performed in a biology class, the same concept applies in a variety of settings with an array of content. Artificial intelligence presents many implications for how we teach and assess learning. Obviously, we’ll have to continually evolve and modify our strategies and techniques. There also remain times, conditions, and roles for the use of traditional assessment strategies, including essays. We must remember that learning occurs with the individual student and the meaning they assign to it. Our assessment strategies must reflect this reality.

October 06, 2022

Fighting the October Funk

October can be a challenging month emotionally and motivationally. Some call it “slump month.” Summer seems like long ago. The end of the first grading period quickly advances. Parent-teacher conferences approach. The seasons are changing. Turning leaves, while beautiful, signal the coming of winter. Meanwhile, sunlight hours dwindle, the end of daylight savings time is eminent, and Thanksgiving break is weeks away. The combination of these factors and others can leave you feeling tired, lethargic, and out of balance, causing our energy and enthusiasm to ebb. New initiatives and skills you committed to learn and practice can remain challenging. You may be experiencing what’s called the Implementation Dip—a time after learning something new but before feeling competent and comfortable with your new skills and practices. The good news is that you don’t have to give in to the October funk. You can take control, shift your perspective, and take advantage of the opportunity to re-energize. Here are ten actions to counter the forces of October and take charge of your mood. Celebrate the success of getting started. Most anxiety from the opening weeks of school typically is behind you. The routines you planned are in place, and you’re familiar with your students. Their year-long learning journey is underway. Now is a suitable time to reflect and celebrate the progress made in the opening weeks of the year. Pause to assess what is going well, what needs adjusting, and what needs eliminating. It may be time to withdraw helpful scaffolding you provided to students to frame and focus their learning. Perchance it’s time to seek feedback from your students about how the year is going, solicit their ideas, and add diverse practices and procedures in response. Consider scheduling exams and major assignment submissions for early in the week. Having a few days to finish grading tasks before the weekend frees up time to relax and push school responsibilities into the background. Keep negative feedback and criticism in perspective. Negative comments and critical advice don’t define you. They represent information you can evaluate, and you can assess the worthiness and usability of what you hear. If it doesn’t fit, let it go and forget it. Decide a time to finish your day and leave. Time constraints often help you prioritize and manage your time. They also force you to decide what must be done now and what can wait until tomorrow. Having accomplished the crucial tasks, you can better enjoy the evening. Find time for yourself. The frenzy of starting a new year can leave you so focused on caring for others that you neglect your own needs. Perhaps reestablish sleep patterns and adjust your diet. Additionally, carve out undesignated, personal time to do nothing or do something fun. Capture the change from daylight savings time. Perhaps start an exercise routine. Set aside time for reading or another activity in which you’ve wanted to engage but have not had the time. Use this as an opportunity to move an end-of-the-day activity to the morning when you have more energy and fewer competing activities. Schedule time with colleagues and friends. Meeting for dinner, planning a hike, visiting the zoo, or going to the theatre provide good options. However, the time might be most refreshing if you make a “no school talk” agreement during your downtime. Commit to making someone’s day. Share your appreciation for someone in your life. A face-to-face conversation is best. The next best thing—a written a note of gratitude. You might offer to help a colleague with a project. This also is a suitable time to encourage a student, by pointing out their strengths and noting what they do well. Remind yourself that what you’re feeling is natural. It is common for educators to experience an “October Funk.” You can also remind yourself that this phase is temporary. You’ll soon find yourself feeling re-energized as the year unfolds, seeing progress, and looking forward to what lies ahead. With some patience, self-care, and perspective adjustment you’ll find your motivation and momentum returning and moving you forward.

September 30, 2022

Five Things to Notice in Your Classroom That Will Make Your Week

During the morning math lesson, Jonnie notices an elaborate spider web in an upper corner of the room and asks how spiders can possibly create something so beautiful and deadly. Later in the morning, Rogan proclaims that it’s magic how the sun creates a spectrum of color in the rainbow outside the window. Then, during the math lesson, Shondell suggests that the base-10 number system was invented because combined, we have ten fingers. Each of these comments might be considered off task and not part of the day’s academic agenda. Yet, they open possibilities for rich discussion and learning. We can ignore them, or we can seize the moment and explore with students the meanings and implications they introduce. Unfortunately, the pace and focus of activities playing out each day in our classroom make it easy to miss some of the most delightful, amazing, and important—but not on the agenda—happenings playing out before us. We tend to see what we look for and pay attention to. If we become too focused on what we planned and want to accomplish, we can miss or even become impatient with the unexpected, unscripted, and serendipitous around us. Yet, these spontaneous incidents can offer humor, pleasure, and stress release, if we pay attention and appreciate them. They also can add to student learning and make our work more satisfying and rewarding. Just because we didn’t notice something doesn’t mean it didn’t happen. Our attention and actions interpret for students what matters and what they should pay attention to. Of course, a lot happens simultaneously in classrooms. We can’t catch every comment and observation, then leverage them for learning. We also can’t always set aside the intended lesson and learning to take advantage of the unplanned. Still, recognizing teachable moments, meaningful inquiries, and surprising insights can transform the learning experiences of our students and make our teaching more significant and pleasurable. If we want to ensure capturing these serendipitous opportunities for learning, laughter, and lifting spirits that can lie hidden in our classrooms, there are at least five places we can look:

Watch for the off-hand comment that reveals a quiet sense of humor. Listen for the ironic observation; connections made between two seemingly unrelated statements, actions, or happenings; or a surprising twist on situations or relationships.
Listen for the surprising answer that reveals a creative perspective worth exploring, or a comment that suggests a novel application of information. Listen for questions, such as “Is this like…?” or “Might this be…?”
Pay attention to unanticipated questions that suggest a curious mind. We might find cues in questions, such as “Why?” “What if?” “Why not?” or “How might…?”
Notice questions that reveal a rich imagination. We may hear statements and questions beginning with “I wonder…” and “Could it be possible that…”
Be ready for comments regarding a detail or related issues that point to a gift for observation. Some students see what others miss or ignore. These students may not say much, but they see much.

Our noticing and valuing the unexpected, serendipitous, and humorous happenings in our classroom can create delightful discussions, compelling discoveries, and day lightening laughter. They can lessen our stress, lighten our mood, and lead us to appreciate the opportunity to work with such sensitive and gifted children and young people. In short, they can make our week.

September 30, 2022

The Secret of Generating Better Learning Outcomes

Our society applauds, respects, values, and compensates the final product of successful effort. We might think that preparing students for the “real world” means focusing attention on perfection and the final products students submit. While time allows for this focus, we must consider that our primary work is in helping students learn. For example, when new employees undergo training, often emerging ideas are refined and new products or services result. True ability focuses on learning growth, best processes, and progress toward success. Excellent processes create quality products. When preoccupied with students’ final products, we risk students losing perception, appreciation, and value for the learning process. Not surprisingly, copying someone else’s work and other graceless actions that fail to generate learning and build learning paths become the unimaginative and desperate options students consider. When focused on processes rather than preoccupied with results, learning accelerates, and students become more invested. Unless we help them to become aware of learning processes and how they lead to success, we risk students thinking that what matters most is the grade, not the learning journey. Here are four reasons to help students focus on the process as much as the destination. A focus on process:

Gives students permission to reflect on and learn from mistakes. Risks present less scary when students see them as part of the learning path.
Helps students see that learning emerges as the result of a journey. The destination may be a beacon for direction, but the journey to learning is what matters most.
Provides greater focus on what leads to learning rather external rewards. Approval and other symbols of success become a reflection of rather than the purpose for learning.
Offers students greater control over decisions, steps, and strategies that lead to learning. Students gain greater ownership of and gain increased sense of efficacy about their learning.

So, how can we help students increase focus on the processes of learning and be less preoccupied by grades and other symbols of accomplishment? Here are four strategies to consider. First, break down major assignments and projects when introducing them to students. For example, begin with students contemplating potential topics, generating questions worth exploring, or engaging in other generative processes. Students might develop draft outlines for the learning work they want to do and seek feedback from classmates and you to refine and clarify their work. Next, students might develop portions or drafts of their work to share for further feedback and suggestions. As the work unfolds, the learning journey can be captured in successive decisions, drafts, and other documents that tell the story from initial exploration to final presentation. Second, have students keep a log of their thinking, initial attempts, mistakes made, learning gained, and how what they have learned is applied to and integrated with their evolving work. This level of reflection helps students become more aware of their thinking and learning as the work unfolds. Their learning reflections also will fill with meaning and likely will be remembered long after the work is finished. Third, focus guidance, support, and feedback on the process of learning. When you focus engagement on what and how the student learns, you reduce preoccupation with grades, while valuing the learning journey. Your questions and observations about what students notice, how they adjust, and the difference their thinking makes in their learning provide powerful stimuli and foster focused influence for learning. Fourth, display learning journey evidence. Students might create bulletin boards, write blogs, or create graphic images with artifacts to document their learning journey. Posting, sharing, and documenting their learning journey sends a powerful message about the purpose and value of what they have accomplished without distraction from artificial symbols, such as grades. There’s no question that quality learning outcomes are integral to the long-term success of our students. However, learning outcomes result from decisions, strategies, and other processes that lead to the success our students deserve. Attention to the processes of learning inevitably leads to learning products that reflect the quality we seek.

September 23, 2022

Teach Students to Respond Rather Than React

One of the post-pandemic challenges we face is helping our students to learn, or relearn, how to live, learn, and work with others. Long periods without frequent human contact followed by having to deal with the in-person words and behaviors of others have left many students without effective, flexible interpersonal skills. The absence of these skills can lead to hurt feelings, verbal confrontations, and even physical conflicts. The situation is not likely to improve without our intervention and support. One aspect of interpersonal skills where we can assist students is building an understanding of the significant difference between reacting and responding to the behavior of others. We can start by sharing with students what it means to react and how they can choose to respond. Our message to students might be something like this: (Adjust for age and maturity) When someone says or does something to us that we perceive as hurtful, unwarranted, or disrespectful, we have a choice to make. We can allow our emotions to direct our behavior, or we can pause, consider, and decide the best action to take. Our reptilian brain urges us to react based on our assumption, perception, or emotion of the moment without consideration of the context, intent, or consequences. Our actions are spontaneous and not necessarily reflective of our skills, values, or goals. We may not even be fully conscious of the choice we make, but it is a choice. We can also choose to pause in order to consider, reflect, and decide what we should do next. Important is to consider the perspective and intentions of the other person and what response would be best for us. What someone said or did does not have to dictate our behavior. How we respond is our choice. If we allow another person to dictate our behavior, we give up our power and become vulnerable to their manipulation. We also risk engaging in actions that do not reflect who we are and who we want to be. Following up this discussion by sharing examples of ineffective or unproductive reactions and the consequences that follow the choice to react without thinking provides opportunity for deeper reflection. Contrasting those examples with others that demonstrate more effective responses and avoid needless and hurtful conflict serves our advantage. Further, students can brainstorm and practice strategies to respond rather than react to words and actions that might hurt their feelings or make them angry. Additional strategies for students to consider can start with these five ideas:

Asking a question to clarify the other person’s intent.
Calling out the words or behavior as hurtful or disrespectful.
Assuming the positive intent of the person and claiming confusion with what they meant.
Asking to talk later when everyone has calmed down.
Ignoring the comment or action and walking away.

We might also share this five-step strategy using the acronym PLACE, depending on the age and maturity of our students:

Pause. Rather than allowing emotions to control, take a deep breath and create space to think.
Label what you are feeling. Are you angry, frustrated, confused, or feeling something else? Naming your emotions makes them easier to control.
Ask what is causing your feelings. Why are you feeling the urge to react? What will you accomplish by reacting?
Choose a response. What do you want to accomplish? What other actions might you consider? How might this choice lead to a good outcome? How might the other person react or respond to the step you contemplate?
Empower yourself. Consider that you are making the choice of what to do, not the other person. You are acting from a position of power and control. You have not discounted or given away your power.

Of course, as adults we too can encounter situations that tempt us to react rather than respond to the words and actions of others. The good news is that the same strategies we teach our students can be effective for us.

September 16, 2022

Share Your Tips & Stories

Share your story and the tips you have for getting through this challenging time. It can remind a fellow school leader of something they forgot, or your example can make a difficult task much easier and allow them to get more done in less time. We may publish your comments.

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Nine Ways to Engage and Support Grandparents Who Are Parenting

In recent years, the number of grandparents who provide primary care for their grandchildren has grown significantly. In 2019, approximately 2.5 million school aged children depended on their grandparents for primary care. Predictably, the disruption and mortality associated with the pandemic significantly expanded the number of children and grandparents who find themselves in this situation. Of course, grandparents now parenting grandchildren face many of the same challenges encountered by parents of school aged kids. But grandparents often face additional difficulties. Consider that grandparents may have had little notice before moving into the role. Thus, they are unprepared for the parenting challenges and expectations they face. Unexpectedly shifting from the role of grandparent to parent can be a daunting prospect. Grandparents often have little recent experience in establishing expectations, setting limits, and disciplining children and young people. This can be further complicated when their grandchildren are coming from an environment filled with chaos, disruption, and lack of supervision. Meanwhile, grandparents typically are unfamiliar with how schools operate today. Much has changed since they and their children were in school. Instructional approaches have shifted, the curriculum may be unfamiliar, and technology is much more pervasive and relied upon. Often reaching advanced ages where their physical health is deteriorating, grandparents also may not have the emotional energy they had during the time their children were growing up. Further, the ways in which schools engage with parents today likely is different than what grandparents experienced, even a few years ago. Websites, texts, emails, and other technology-based strategies on which school personnel depend to communicate with parents may be unfamiliar and intimidating. Grandparents may be much more familiar with written notes, telephone calls, and face-to-face meetings as a primary means for communicating with school personnel. Fortunately, there are several steps and strategies we can employ to help these grandparents become more comfortable, engaged, and successful. Our guidance and support can play a crucial role in helping grandparents assist their grandchildren to succeed socially, emotionally, and academically during some difficult times. Here are nine ways in which we can help. First, we can connect grandparents with public and private resources they can tap to meet needs beyond what the school can provide. Grandparents often don’t know where to start to access financial, social, and healthcare support in their efforts to stabilize their situation and support their grandchildren. Second, we can build our understanding of the circumstances that led to the grandparents serving as parents. Students now parented by grandparents often face significant social, emotional, and behavioral challenges because of their circumstances prior to coming under their grandparents’ care. The more we know, the better able we are to effectively respond to their needs and provide support. Third, we can establish clear, consistent, and convenient lines of communication. Some grandparents will be tech savvy and ready to secure information they need via websites, texts, emails, and other technology-based tools. Others may be more comfortable with and responsive to a telephone call, written note, or face-to-face meeting. Some temporary “hand holding” can make a big difference. Fourth, we can share information about the content and organization of the curriculum in which their grandchildren will be engaging. Knowing what their grandchildren will be learning can remove some of the anxiety and uncertainty grandparents may feel. Also, we can share teaching strategies we employ with which the grandparents may be unfamiliar. For example, a focus on conceptual understanding and problem solving may be confusing to grandparents who experienced an education that depended heavily on memorization. Fifth, we can offer grandparents specific suggestions regarding how to help with homework and how to support students in other ways as they experience challenges and setbacks in school. We need to be mindful of the academic background and skills grandparents possess to support their grandchildren. We must avoid overloading or establishing expectations that grandparents cannot meet. Sixth, we can share with grandparents school-based and other resources their grandchildren can access to support their learning. After school academic support, online tutoring, and virtual learning supports are examples. Seventh, we can encourage grandparents to become more involved. For example, they can join parent-teacher organizations, serve on committees, volunteer, and participate in other activities that help them to connect and contribute within the school community. Eighth, we can connect grandparents with support groups specific to the needs of grandparents who are parenting. If this type of service is not already available, we can consider creating it. Mutual support, opportunities to learn more about parenting grandparent needs and issues, and building stronger relationships with the school can make a substantial difference. Ninth, we can resist making assumptions about what grandparents know and need. Grandparents have varied backgrounds and often face unique challenges in their new role. Our asking, listening, and understanding can help us to avoid unnecessary missteps and provide insights regarding what we can do to help grandparents and their grandchildren to be successful.

September 08, 2022

A Powerful Progression of Learning Forces Waiting to be Tapped

We know the power of assorted forces, factors, attitudes, and understandings that support and drive learning. Our work becomes immeasurably daunting without them. We use these powerful features to stimulate interest, focus attention, instill hope for success, and sustain effort whenever we encounter difficult learning. Among the most common of these learning forces are a growth mindset, grit, curiosity, and passion. A growth mindset emboldens students to keep trying, employ multiple strategies, and adjust their efforts to achieve important learning goals. Grit sustains learners when they struggle or feel stuck. Curiosity powerfully drives new learning. Passion for a topic, skill, or other endeavor creates focus and commitment often more compelling than compliance to adults’ expectations and demands. These four forces, employed in progression, launch potent synergy for powerful learning. A growth mindset leads students to understand that learning and becoming proficient in an area of interest or passion is possible, despite temporary setbacks. A growth mindset helps students see that success can be within reach if they employ smart effort, tap effective strategies, and engage the resources available to them. An initial attempt that fails is nothing more than feedback regarding where more learning is needed. When learning is challenged, setbacks, missteps, and mistakes lurk. Despite high level interest and commitment, we need grit to persist and ultimately succeed. Learners need to remind themselves that successful learning can begin when they feel stuck. Grit carries learning through extremely difficult learning challenges. Angela Duckworth and other researchers observed that grit, so powerful, is more predicative of success over a lifetime than intellectual ability. Curiosity opens our minds to possibilities for exploration, questions to be answered, and mysteries to be solved. We can think of curiosity as a mental radar constantly exploring occurrences around the learner and what can be learned. A recent study reported in Pediatric Research found that learners from high poverty families who remain curious show academic gains at a level equal to their more economically advantaged classmates. Curiosity propels us to new interests and emerging passions that can drive learning to amazing levels. When we tap into the intense interests or passions students bring to their learning, we unleash what can be a nearly unstoppable force. Intrinsically driven learning can be nurtured, harnessed, and sustained without artificial rewards, prodding, or threat of negative consequences. However, learning driven by passion does not always come easy. Developing new skills, learning new content, and building new habits often require multiple attempts before attaining success. Learners need to understand that unsuccessful initial attempts invite us to adjust and try again. As noted earlier, these four forces—growth mindset, curiosity, grit, and passion—especially when harnessed as a progression, work to create nearly unstoppable learning power. Though effective on their own, when we want to create a powerful learning encounter, together they can be the fuel we need.

September 08, 2022

Unlock an Unstoppable Force for Learning

There is little question that poverty can exert a heavy influence on student learning and school success. In schools across the nation, the level of poverty experienced by students nearly predicts achievement scores. Yet, a longstanding and growing body of research points to a school-based, culture-driven strategy consistently demonstrating power to overcome poverty’s influence on student learning outcomes. The power of this deceptively simple approach resides in the understanding that the nature of our commitment, effort, and persistence determines, or at least marks a noteworthy influence on learning outcomes. Commonly referred to as efficacy, 1970s psychologist Alfred Bandura popularized this construct. Recently, efficacy’s role in schools received renewed attention among researchers. Specifically, researchers now seek to examine the relationship more closely between what teachers believe about their collective capacity to influence student learning outcomes and its effect on student achievement. This strand of cultural research, known as collective teacher efficacy, recently yielded surprising and important findings. As early as 1993, Bandura concluded that the effects of collective teacher efficacy in a school could more than outweigh the negative learning effects of low socio-economic status. In the early 2000s, studies conducted by Roger Goddard (University of Michigan) concluded that collective teacher efficacy had a stronger relationship to mathematics and reading achievement than socio-economic status. Studies also show that when teachers create high levels of collective efficacy, parent relationships tend to be stronger and more positive. Even more recently, John Hattie’s meta-analysis of research on collective teacher efficacy concluded that it ranks at the top among the most powerful influences on student achievement. Obviously, this is great news for educators as this strategy has its roots in the school and is not dependent on families or even students. Thus, regardless of external school circumstances students face, the presence of collective teacher efficacy can powerfully and positively influence their achievement. Researcher and author Jenni Donohoo in her book, Collective Efficacy: How Educators’ Beliefs Impact Student Learning, describes six enabling conditions that support high levels of teacher efficacy. The six conditions are:

Advanced teacher influence. She describes advanced teacher influence as opportunities for teachers to participate meaningfully in important school-wide decisions.
Goal consensus. Donohoo notes when there is strong consensus on key goals that greater consistency and alignment of effort result, thus synergizing everyone’s impact. Interestingly, this condition, even by itself, shows to increase student achievement.
Teachers’ knowledge about one another’s work. This condition highlights the importance of collaboration, sharing, and mutual trust among staff members. Its presence also provides teachers with more frequent opportunities to learn from the effective practices of colleagues.
Cohesive staff. Cohesion does not necessarily mean that everyone always agrees, but it does imply an agreement on fundamental educational issues. Disagreements more likely inhabit tactics and methods for addressing important issues, not the issues themselves.
Responsiveness of leadership. This condition speaks to the importance of respect and concern demonstrated by school leaders, including protecting teachers from issues that distract from and compete with teaching time and focus.
Effective systems of intervention. These processes and practices ensure students receive timely, effective, responsive support when they struggle or need additional assistance to be successful.

Importantly, each condition identified by Donohoo as supporting collective teacher efficacy consist within the collective control of schools and educators. They do not necessarily require additional funding, waivers from regulations, or specialized outside expertise. However, they do require commitment, effort, and a strong belief in ourselves and our ability to make a difference.

September 02, 2022

Capture (and Access) the Secret to Happiness

The power of gratitude to drive our happiness is no secret. Gratitude improves our satisfaction and motivation. It builds our sense of pride. Gratitude carries us through difficult times when we remember that we have much to be thankful for, while also recalling our successes and contributions. Unfortunately, in the context of busy days and an active life, we easily miss much of what feeds our gratefulness. Research shows that for us to absorb and retain words and experiences that generate gratitude they must capture our attention for at least twenty seconds. This may not seem like much time. But a brief comment, observation, or compliment about a difference we made, assistance we offered, or a problem we solved often moves quickly past our attention. We notice it momentarily then swiftly forget it. Meanwhile, an unkind word, a critical comment, or skeptical look too often stays with us, leaving us to dissect, speculate, and obsess over what it meant and what we should take from the experience. Again, researchers explain this as an ancient brain response to potential danger. Our brains are wired to pay longer attention to signs and signals of danger than they are to positive messages. The good news—there are several steps to help us become more aware of and better retain those things for which we are grateful. We can recall and relive these experiences when we need a lift, seek motivation, or just need a reason to feel good. Let’s explore four strategies that bolster and embed gratitude-generating occasions in our memories, making them available when we need them. First, immediately after hearing a comment, compliment, or a positive experience, we should reflect on its significance and how it makes us feel. Not only does this step extend our initial feelings about the experience, but it also sends a signal to our brain that what happened is important and needs to be stored. Second, we can reach out to a friend, family member, or trusted colleague to recount what we experienced. Of course, we need to do so in the spirit of sharing good news and something for which we are grateful, not in a bragging manner. When we tell someone about what we experienced, we further embed the memory. We also have someone who is aware of the experience who can remind us of it should we forget. Third, we can repeat to ourselves what we heard or experienced. At the end of the day or just before we fall asleep is a good time to do this. Like other information in life that we want to retain, repetition is a great way to strengthen our memory. Fourth, we should record the experience to review and revisit in the future. Making a note or creating a record of a gratitude-generating experience further sets the information in our memory. Equally valuable, months or even years later we can return to what we have recorded to recall and relive the experience. Even better, if we keep these notes and records together, they offer a powerful, years-spanning set of reminders of experiences for which we can be grateful. The research on gratitude and the twenty seconds necessary for it to stick also has implications for when we offer a compliment, point out an important contribution, or share our gratefulness for the kindness and caring of others. We need to do more than make a general statement or quick observation. The more specific we can be about the impact, the greater the detail we can share. As well, the more we explain how they made us feel, the more likely we will reach the twenty second benchmark and increase the impact and retention of our words. When we encounter rough patches in life, or even a difficult day, we frequently forget the wealth of things for which we can and should be grateful. However, if we make it a practice to reflect, recount, repeat, and record gratefulness-generating experiences as they happen, we create a treasure chest of grateful memories to revisit and relive.

August 26, 2022

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