Teacher Leadership Standard 3
Improve teaching and
learning through the use of educational research at the classroom and school
levels
Background
Educational research is the core in the educational world. We, as
teachers, hear words such as research based or best practices. These
words drive of our Teacher/Principal Evaluation Programs. Research drives our
practices in the classroom, communities, and professional learning communities.
Lastly, research informs my instruction with my students.
Prior to my experience at Seattle Pacific University,
research-base was a “catch-phrase” to enforce our practices within my
classrooms and within my professional community. Often times, Marzano’s Best
practices drives what I do professionally. These practices are packaged
together in distinct criterions to evaluate my skills as a teacher in a
Teacher/Principal Evaluation Program. It is framework designed to help me grow
as a teacher in all areas of my profession. Overall, this was my baseline for
understanding what research does for me professionally.
Impact
Over time and through the help from the courses through SPU,
research also influences change in daily interactions with my students.
Research-based practices are not only exclusive to teaching, but in building
relationships with students. For example, I completed a research project in my
Action Research course. In this course, I designed a study to track the effects
of positive interactions with my students. I wanted to see if it improved their
learning. Not only did it improve their learning, it improved my personal
teaching efficacy. I felt empowered to teach again after feeling the ever
pressure of teaching only to get students to pass a test and keep pace with a
pacing guide. As a result of discovering
the power of relationship, community building is a core part of my
instructional practice. It is embedded within my lessons. Student engagement
increased by implementing fun, empowerment, freedom, and belonging. Renowned
researcher and author of Habits of Mind, Arthur Costa focused his research
around this theory.
Issues and research
The majority of concerns I will always have in my current
situation is the teacher buy-in for the practices I have put in place. The
consensus from my peers is the pressure to follow a pacing guide. I often hear
“ There just isn’t time to build community these days.”
Marzano, which my district approved, has an emphasis on some kind
of community building. In his book, The Highly Engaged Classroom he states,
“Students’ perceptions of acceptance is the third determiner of how they feel
about themselves and the classroom environment”(p. 6). I understand with
increased acceptance comes increased learning. This is the very idea Zaretta
Hammonds addresses in her book Culturally Responsive Teaching and the Brain. To
her culturally responsive teaching is all about increasing learning capacity by
not dulling down curriculum, but responding to the student as a person.
With the overwhelming evidence that support building community,
implementing community building strategies should be natural. However, these
practices need to be directed from leadership. I was told that some
administration was surprised that it wasn’t in place. I think it is important
that our leadership give green light to alleviate the ambiguity around
community building. Only then can we move forward to thoroughly becoming
culturally responsive.
References:
Costa, A. (2016). Cognitive
coaching : Developing self-directed leaders and learners (Third ed.).
Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield.
Hammond, Z., &
Jackson, Yvette. (2015). Culturally responsive teaching and the brain :
Promoting authentic engagement and rigor among culturally and linguistically
diverse students. Thousand Oaks, California: Corwin, a SAGE Company.
Marzano, R., Pickering,
Debra, & Heflebower, Tammy. (2011). The highly engaged classroom
(Classroom strategies that work). Bloomington, IN: Marzano Research
Teacher/Principal
Evaluation Program. (2018, March 06). Retrieved March 31, 2018, from
http://www.k12.wa.us/TPEP/
