Collaborative research based learning

Essay Instructions:

Final Response to Challenge B Please review Challenge B before creating your Final Response. Your Final Response may build on ideas you generated in your Initial Response and/or in the Discussion. It also may be developed from ideas suggested by your colleagues. The Case At the first retreat, the small groups engaged in lively discussion. The participants agreed that if the district's improvement efforts are to succeed, the principals must empower their teachers and set up their schools so that such success is likely. This would entail helping staff understand continuous school improvement and the need for the change that is involved. At the end of the retreat, the superintendent pointed out that a school's capacity for organizational learning is key to continuous school improvement. She explained that becoming a learning organization involves collaborative, research-based learning and decision making and a culture characterized by professional trust and positive interpersonal relationships. In a school that is a learning organization, she noted, people are focused on, for example, examining student performance, finding the most effective strategies to impact student learning, and learning how to implement those strategies. The principals then decided that the second retreat would focus on preparing them to build capacity for organizational learning in their individual schools in order to effectively participate in the district's continuous school improvement efforts. The Challenge The facilitators recognize that it is no small task for a school to become a learning organization. In anticipation of the second retreat, they generate a list of questions to research that will help their groups discuss and reflect on what it takes to become a learning organization. In your Final Response to Challenge B, you will create a document that synthesizes your thinking about the following questions: Why is organizational learning, which is characterized by collaborative, research-based learning and decision making, critical to a school's ability to engage in continuous school improvement? How do developing and analyzing student performance data and effective practices within a school, as well as studying relevant research, promote organizational learning that supports continuous school improvement? What school characteristics promote organizational learning that supports continuous school improvement, and what can school leaders do to develop and cultivate these characteristics? What do teachers and staff need to know and be able to do in order to effectively engage in organizational learning that supports continuous school improvement? What can school leaders do to foster such knowledge and skills?

Essay Sample Content Preview:

RESEARCH PAPER Name Institution Affiliation Course Date of Submission Research Paper Schools should deepen their understanding of collaborative research based learning as the organizational learning because it is the core leadership capacity. School improvement always calls for an enhancement on the knowledge, skills as well as dispositions of both the teachers and support staff. Whichever approach the school appends to, success in making the school a learning organization is always pegged on providing resources and the necessary support to the teachers so as to either strengthen the existing expertise or learn new practices (Black & William, 1998). Continuous improvement calls for continuing professional development irrespective of whether the initiatives that are being implemented are new or whether the school staffs are seeking to enhance the effectiveness of some programs that are already in place. Organizational learning and the resultant learning organization is the means by which the teaching fraternity, the administrators as well as other employees within the school acquire, enhance and refine the skills, knowledge and commitment that is necessary for the creation and support of high level learning for the students. Educators continue to face great pressure from federal, state and local accountability policies requiring them to improve the achievements of the students, and it being so, the use of data has become necessary for educators as a way of evaluating the academic progress of the students (Timperley & Parr, 2007). Nevertheless, there are some unanswered questions about the way the educators should use the data to make institutional decisions that support continuous school improvement. The foundation on which instructors become responsive to the learning needs of the students is the availability of a detailed data on what the students can do and what they know so far (Mulford, 1998). High quality assessment undertaken by the teachers on the students can provide such information which is very important in organizational learning as a way of attaining continuous school improvements. For so long now, we have known much about the importance of using assessment data on students to improve teaching practice and the general process of continuous school improvement. However there was a general lack of proper assessment tools, and also did not know much about the use of these assessment tools and how they could improve the teaching experience in ways that would be beneficial to the students. The situation has now however changed and there are a number of conditions that have been identified so that the assessment data on student`s performance and effective practices can have the expected impact on the organizational learning. The data is important as it provides the teaching fraternity with the all important curriculum-relevant information. The data also provides sufficient knowledge to the teacher...

Updated on January 26, 2024

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