Developing and Sustaining a Collaborative Learning Culture

As a follow to the June 2019 discussion, when endeavoring to develop and sustain a learning culture, effective leaders must mitigate learning overload.  The following discussion seeks to provide strategic protocols for promoting collaborative teams.  These include a professional learning community, which can reduce stress and fear while optimizing organizational learning. 

An effective school collaboratively reaches consensus on the mission, core values, and beliefs (Lezotte & Snyder, 2011).  Thereafter, collective inquiry is effective for building shared knowledge.  This process, “in turn, allows them to make more informed (and therefore better) decisions, and increases the likelihood they will arrive at consensus” (DuFour, DuFour, & Eaker,  2008, p. 17).  Given the identified benefits of a collaborative professional learning community (PLC), Dufour et al were “convinced educators would benefit from both greater clarity regarding the PLC concept and specific strategies for implementing the concept” (p. 15).

Effective communication promotes collaboration, thereby optimizing the learning organization’s ability to reach consensus.  Schmoker (1999) posits teams outperform individual efforts, therefore, "learning not only occurs in teams but endures" (p. 12).  An effective learning organization utilizes the following three beliefs to optimize teams and the PLC concept:

1.   the team believes strongly in each member's capacity to develop practical solutions to everyday teaching and learning problems;

2.  there is a belief that regardless of a school's social or economic circumstances, improvement can and will occur;

3.     the team arrives at each meeting anticipating that informed trial and error will inevitably lead to better teaching and hence to higher learning (Schmoker, 1999, p.20).

Utilizing six elements of an effective PLC helps educators benefit in a number of ways from working together.  These include developing a clear, shared vision.  This element optimizes the group’s ability to develop a collaborative culture focusing on learning, engage in collective inquiry, remain action oriented, commit to continuous improvement, and adjust further based on results (Dufour et al., 2008).  Thus, the six elements of an effective PLC promote learning by doing.  As with many processes developed for sustaining success, the six elements work most effectively when treated as an interdependent, cyclical process. 

To be successful, the PLC requires “reculturing the traditional culture of schools and districts” (Dufour et al., 2008, p. 6).  Crucially, the shift needs to be cultural and not merely structural, thereby embedding sustained improvements in “the assumptions, beliefs, values, expectations, and habits that constitute the norm for that organization” (p. 90).  A skillful educational leader begins developing an effective collaborative culture by understanding the improvement process rather than merely the systemic change process.  A skillful educational leader and empowered educators trust in established and agreed upon non-negotiable goals (NNGs) and values while embracing both school-based and teacher autonomy. 

An instructional leader can create a defined learning culture to optimize structured organizational learning by utilizing strategies that encourage high levels of effectiveness.  The first pursuit in this endeavor is to mitigate learning overload.  Learning overload prevents effective educational leaders from realizing progress and achievement of stated goals (Reason, 2010).  Citing Kennedy (2006) and Franklin (2005), Reason (2010) notes, “We can’t alter the brain to hold more information, but we can change our approach to learning in ways that reduce overwhelm and prepare us to deal with institutional challenges more effectively” (p. 99).  Every stakeholder’s reticular activating system (RAS) impacts his or her attention and motivation.  Therefore, the RAS influences how efficiently staff addresses the organizational focal points.  The effective leader recognizes this and seeks to “clearly identify the learning focal points that matter” (p. 100) as a way to mitigate stressors that overwhelms one’s perception and attention to organizational focal points. 

Learning organizations attend to what Vygotsky called scientific concepts (Tudge & Scrimsher, 2003).  Scientific concepts are psychological tools such as language, formulas, memory techniques, concepts, rules, symbols, and signs.  Properly designed class instruction utilizes and learns through these psychological tools, which reduces learning overload by optimizing metacognition (Bohlin et al., 2008)

In the pursuit of defining a learning culture, effective leaders also seek to optimize structured organizational learning by utilizing a system proven effective for promoting change.  The following eight-step protocol (Reason, 2010), promotes success while reducing learning overload:

Step One: Acknowledging Learning Limits

Step Two: Lightening the Learning Load

Step Three: Identifying Learning Focal Points

Step Four: Establishing Emotional Relevance

Step Five: Establishing Inquiry

Step Six: Identifying Essential Goals and Outcomes

Step Seven: Making the Focal Points Public

Step Eight: Funneling New Ideas Into Current Focal Points (pp. 103-112)

Reason (2010) posits, “The identification of learning focal points, empowering questions, and must-have outcomes won’t reduce all the confusion in an organization” (p. 112).  However, the eight-step protocol noted above optimizes the learning organization’s ability to prioritize elements essential for promoting student learning and sustaining reform.  Clarity and focus mitigates fear and stress, thereby improving the organization’s culture of learning while reducing learning overload. 

The improvement to the collaborative culture begins with recognizing promotion of student learning in schools that are loosely coupled by design requires a tightly coupled system in relation to the established non-negotiable goals (NNGs).  Beginning with district leadership, a culture based on “defined autonomy” (Marzano & Waters, 2010, p. 8) communicates NNGs to both the internal and external stakeholders.  Otherwise, change can be either slow or nonexistent.

An effective educational leader confidently handles more autonomy or increased degrees of freedom.  By contrast, novice principals or leaders at struggling schools need more guidance and direction from district-level leaders.  An effective leader recognizes when and how staff can work autonomously and collaboratively, thereby developing or removing staff as necessary and promoting a culture of high expectations within the school (Eck & Goodwin, 2010).

Purpose driven inquiry (Reason, 2010) can be utilized with either small groups or the entire school community.  Reason presented a six-step protocol useful for small and systemic projects alike:

Step One: Identifying the Question and Knowing Why We Ask It

Step Two: Igniting Collective Curiosity

Step Three: Defining Strategic Action

Step Four: Defining Accountability

Step Five: Making the Agenda Public

Step Six: Maintaining Engagement (pp. 78-86)

Establishment of non-negotiable goals (NNGs) are a product of earlier collaboration, which promoted staff empowerment.  Determination to collaborate, time to meet, willingness to ask serious questions, creating an action plan, and always meeting with an agenda, promotes communication aligned to those established NNGs.  Therefore, Reason’s (2010) six-step protocol for purpose driven inquiry mitigates learning overload while encouraging communication directed at sustained improvement and organizational learning. 

Effective accountability requirements hastened the emergence of professional learning communities (PLC).  Marzano and Waters (2009) believe, a PLC “suggests a group of people sharing and critically interrogating their practice in an ongoing, reflective, collaborative, inclusive, learning oriented, growth-promoting way; operating as a collective enterprise” (p. 56).  The PLC and any potential action research must address the need to develop and sustain a systemic culture of continuous improvement that promotes learning (DuFour, et al, 2008). 

Positive change needs new thinking, willingness, humility, collaboration, and a collective vision grounded in a clear mission.  Unintended consequences, which often fall into the pool labeled “negative change,” typically ignore those characteristics connected with positive change.  Ideally, this discussion successfully emphasized it is not enough to want to change or need to change, for to effectively change, an organization must experience positive change.

To Cite:

Anderson, C.J. (July 30, 2019) Developing and sustaining a collaborative learning culture.

              [Web log post] Retrieved from http://www.ucan-cja.blogspot.com/

References

Bohlin, L., Durwin, C., & Reese-Weber, M. (2008). Ed psych: Modules. NY: McGraw-Hill.

DuFour, R., DuFour, R., & Eaker, R. (2008). Revisiting professional learning communities at

            work: New insights for improving schools. Bloomington, IN: Solution Tree Press.

Eck, J., & Goodwin, B. (2010). Autonomy for school leaders. School Administrator, 67(1),

24-27.

Lezotte, L. W., & Snyder, K. M. (2011). What effective schools do: Re-envisioning the

            correlates. Bloomington, IN: Solution Tree Press.

Marzano, R. & Waters, T.(2009). District leadership that works. Bloomington, IN: Solution

            Tree Press

Reason, C. (2010). Leading a learning organization: The science of working with others.

Bloomington, IN: Solution Tree Press.

Schmoker, J, (1999) The Key to Continuous School Improvement (2nd ed.) Arlington, VA: ASCD

Tudge, J., & Scrimsher, S. (2003). Lev S. Vygotsky on education: A cultural-historical,

            interpersonal, and individual approach to development. In B. J. Zimmerman &

D. H. Schunk (Eds.), Educational psychology: A century of contributions

(pp. 207–228) Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.

    There are myriad factors potentially influencing educational leaders and their potential effectiveness.  Effective leaders of sustainable learning organizations recognize certain factors are more influential than others for creating sustained success.  Effective leaders optimize the learning organization’s sustained success by:

·     Sharing common values to guide the organization’s collaborative vision (Lezotte & Snyder, 2011; Sheppard & Brown, 2009),

·      Inspiring stakeholders’ emotions toward innovation and right action rather than triggering fear-based immovability (Reason, 2010; Immordino-Yang & Damasio, 2007), and

·      Using institutional memory and symbolic language to influence cultural change (DuFour, et al.,2008; ). 

       Let’s examine and evaluate the influence of these factors upon the creation of a sustainable learning organization.  Effective Schools Research examines sustainable learning organizations and consistently finds “effective schools have strong and effective leadership” (Lezotte & Snyder, 2011, p. 51).  A hallmark of effective leadership in schools is the ability to communicate the mission to all stakeholders, understand the principles and values needed to optimize learning, and possess the knowledge to manage the organization’s programs.  Therefore, knowledge of key factors influencing the creation and sustainability of the learning organization is essential. 

An effective school reaches clarity and consensus on the mission, core values, and beliefs.  It is then important to develop ongoing processes to avoid mission drift.  Effective schools strategically stave off mission drift when it periodically reviews and renews “the organization’s mission, values, and beliefs” (Lezotte & Snyder, 2011, p. 67).  Educators benefit in many ways from working to develop a clear, shared vision (Dufour et al., 2008). 

It is effective practice for an organizational leader to assure the presence of a clear mission, shared vision, and non-negotiable values.  The purpose of this effective practice is to optimize the collective commitment to reinforcing the foundation of the learning organization’s culture.  Approaches for promoting this practice have been available to learning organizations for decades.  For instance, Anderson and Pigford (1987) cited earlier work by Rutherford to explicate the following five effective leadership qualities:

1.      Have a vision:  Work toward a shared understanding of the goals, progress toward their achievement and coordinate curriculum, instruction, and assessment.

2.      Translate the vision into action:  Work as a team, emphasize school wide goals and expectations.

3.     Create a supportive environment:  Promote an academically-oriented, orderly, and purposeful school climate.

4.    Know what's going on in the school:  Find out what teachers and students are doing and how well.

5.  Act on knowledge:  Intervene as necessary accommodating different teacher personalities, styles, and teaching strategies (pp. 67-68).

     A consistent exhibition of vision toward a clear mission, commitment to learning for all, and shared responsibility for success certainly appears to be the minimal ethos of an effective school.  Citing Jenkins, Louis, Walberg, and Keefe (1994, p. 72), Lezotte and Snyder (2011) posit the most significant feature common to world-class schools is the ongoing effort to become “learning organizations with a commitment to continuous problem-solving and a sense of shared responsibility for improvement” (p. 67).  A learning organization’s culture promotes collaboration, which is profound because the ethos of a school either promotes or suppresses collaboration between teachers and stakeholders. 

     Leaders must find a balance between motivating their learners and minimizing negative emotions.  While self-destructive schools gravitate toward fear and stress, institutions making a difference consistently exhibit love, courage, and hope (Reason, 2010).  Therefore, this range of emotions either positively or negatively affects organizational learning. 

     Diverse emotions can result in either ruminating or sagging emotions.  An effective leader does not leave the emotional tenor of a school to chance.  Rather, he or she promotes an emotional climate that focuses attention to optimize conditions for learning. 

Regardless if the perception is the need to accept or the need to overcome, change will be the result.  The greatest concern is the impact of such change upon the learning organization.  A trusting relationship between a leader and her or his followers is often based on how, when, where, and why the leader uses power (Bartram, 2007).  The ability to influence others to do something defines power.  Often the success or failure of a leader results from how and when she or he accesses and utilizes power through various mechanisms of rewards or punishments.  

     Leadership behavior affects stakeholder perceptions of trustworthiness.  This is important to researchers and managers interested in how leadership behaviors influence other areas of the organization (Caldwell & Hayes, 2007).  Key characteristics associated with most leadership theories include the ability to quickly assess situations, move accordingly for the benefit of the group, and to engender trust from followers (Burke, Sims, Lazzara, & Salas, 2007).  Quickly assessing situations and moving accordingly for the benefit of the group is what Roach et al (1999) called “wisdom in spontaneity” (p. 17).  Emotional Intelligence theorists call this social awareness and relationship management (Bradberry & Greaves, 2009).

     Ceremony and other structured memory construction activities exhibit the ability to form traditions within learning organizations that provide thoughtful reconstruction of historic events, thereby reinforcing particular values or beliefs.  The understanding of organizational events culturally frames the shared beliefs, values, and norms.  In this way, culture affects organizations at several levels.  Just as within society as a whole, an organization will also seek to preserve its own culture.  Thus, the creation of an effective learning organization requires the establishment of an organizational culture open to possibilities of what the institution can become. 

    Sustained improvement results when leaders of learning organizations structure time so institutional teams are empowered to meet regularly.  Effective leaders recognize goal achievement is necessary to sustain the improvement effort.  This commitment embraces the truth that teams outperform individual efforts because "learning not only occurs in teams but endures" (Schmoker, 1999, p. 12).

      Derived from personal experience and research, Reason (2010) posits a nine-step protocol for creating an organizational vision, reinforced by effective mental representations. 

Step One: Evaluating Personal Belief Systems

Step Two: Evaluating Context

Step Three: Evaluating Existing Mental Representations

Step Four: Evaluating Current Degree of Intention

Step Five: Establishing New Degrees of Intention

Step Six: Evaluating Current Belief Systems

Step Seven: Establishing New Actions to Support a New Vision

Step Eight: Reviewing the Learning Context

Step Nine: Continuously Reexamining the Vision (pp. 64-69)

         For instance; based on his or her own K-12 experience, virtually every adult has a mental model or mindset of a real school (Tyack & Cuban (1995).  This mental representation becomes omnipresent for him or her.  Such an internalized mental representation, relative to schools, is typically associated with strict rules about how a school actually works.  Therefore, to promote educational reform or institutional change, the negative mental representations held by stakeholders require reformation. 

        The quest to optimize learning at the highest levels is contingent upon perception, memory, and learning.  By rethinking or replacing older, less functional traditions, metaphors, or symbols, a learning organization can identify and promote new stories to create different mental representations capable of moving the organization toward positive change.  Perceived relevance affects attention.  Attention affects how effectively and efficiently learning occurs.  “The emotional tenor of a school is up to those who work in it” (Reason, 2010, p. 5).  Emotional states can affect individuals as well as organizations.

      As an organizational change strategy, storytelling is an integral tool because stories have the potential to create experiences; whereby a strategy is comprehended more diversely and personally (Adamson, Pine, Tom & Kroupa, 2006).  Therefore, “storytelling builds stronger teams and a stronger sense of community” (p. 36).  Images created through metaphorical language influence thought processes.  For instance, Jung (1964) wrote extensively on the instinctive nature of symbolic thought, suggesting symbols transcend cultures. 

        Identifying existing metaphors that are actually constructive and then replicating or expanding their scope optimizes the relationship between the learning organization and the organization’s culture.  Collective efficacy allows identification of the most positive aspects of an organization’s culture (Goddard, Hoy, & Hoy, 2004).  Thereafter, developing and perpetuating these messages could create effective, sustained change.

     Effective leadership produces collective, energized, collaborative commitment to the clear mission, shared vision, and non-negotiable values of an organization.  This alignment will deepen sustained, trustworthy, and emotionally fulfilling organizational learning.  By contrast, ineffective leadership exacerbates negative emotions and suppresses collaboration among stakeholders, which hinders organizational learning. 

To Cite:

Anderson, C.J. (June 30, 2019) Sustaining organizational learning. [Web log post] Retrieved from http://www.ucan-cja.blogspot.com/

 

References

Adamson, G., Pine, J., Tom, V. S., & Kroupa, J. (2006). How storytelling can drive strategic change. Strategy & Leadership, 34(1), 36-41

Anderson, L., & Pigford, A. (1987). Removing administrative impediments to instructional improvement efforts. Theory Into Practice, 26(1), 67-71.

Bartram, T. (2007). The relationship between leadership and follower in-role performance and satisfaction with the leader.  The mediating effects of empowerment and trust in the leader. Leadership & Organizational Development Journal, 28(1), 4-19.

Bradberry, T., & Greaves, J., (2009) Emotional intelligence 2.0.  San Diego, CA: TalentSmart

Caldwell, C., & Hayes, L. A. (2007). Leadership, trustworthiness, and the mediating lens. Journal of Management Development, 26(3), 261-281.:

DuFour, R., DuFour, R., & Eaker, R. (2008). Revisiting professional learning communities at work: New insights for improving schools. Bloomington, IN: Solution Tree Press.

Goddard, R. D., Hoy, W. K., & Hoy, A. W. (2004). Collective efficacy beliefs: Theoretical developments, empirical evidence, and future directions. Educational Researcher, 33(3),  3–13.

Immordino-Yang, M.H., & Damasio, A.R (2007). We feel, therefore we learn: The relevance of affective and social neuroscience to education. Retrieved from:

            http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1751-228X.2007.00004.x/abstract

Jung, C. G. (1964) Man and his symbols London, England: Aldus Books in association with W.H. Allen

Lezotte, L. W., & Snyder, K. M. (2011). What effective schools do: Re-envisioning the correlates. Bloomington, IN: Solution Tree Press.

Marzano, R. & Waters, T.(2009).  District leadership that works. Bloomington, IN: Solution Tree Press

Schmoker, J, (1999) The key to continuous school improvement (2nd edition). Alexandria, VA. ASCD

Sheppard, B., & Brown, J. (2009). Developing and implementing a shared vision of teaching and learning at the district level. International Studies in Educational Administration, 37(2), 41-59.

Tyack, D., & Cuban, L. (1995). Tinkering toward utopia: A century of public school reform. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.