COACHING PEDAGOGICAL CHANGE
By Paul Wellman
INTRODUCTION
The late, great UCLA basketball coach John Wooden once noted, “failure is not fatal, but failure to change might be;” In a more severe vein, Marine Corps barracks are littered of images of “Complacency Kills” written over each and every doorway. These expressions and everything in between embrace change and refinement as a way to grow and advance, yet it seems a global epidemic of resistance to change exists as it pertains to education and online teaching, stifling the multitude of research, effort, and resources that strive for advancement:
(Germany’s educational resistance to Standards Based Learning is just one example) http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/13632434.2013.793494?needAccess=true
As such, this blog attempts to highlight personal and cultural factors that build up educator resistance to pedagogical change while simultaneously seeking to propose possible techniques to promote pedagogical refinements, especially as they pertain to online learning, in an effort to spur achievement growth that can fluidly adjust to learner needs.
THE RESISTANCE TO PEDAGOGICAL CHANGE
Perhaps the resistance to pedagogical change (especially in regards to online learning) stems from the natural proclivity of human experiences (as also evinced by coaching):
“Many coaches [teachers] learn how to coach [teach] as a consequence of being an apprentice to another coach [teacher], often a coach [teacher] they admire, and base their own practices on those of their mentor. Not surprisingly, it can be challenging reflecting on, and possibly critiquing, taken-for-granted practices that are associated with valued memories that may have also become integral to a sense of self.” (Cassidy, pg. 17)
Educators are subject to the educational institutions, observations, and student teaching experiences of their formal educational process. Before this, most educators have participated in some extracurricular activity or hobby that provides mentor/mentee relationships, shaping their idea of how best to approach pedagogy (whether consciously or subconsciously). When looking at the average age of educators and when their initial instruction on how to teach came, there is no doubt that most instruction and learning took place in traditional learning environments. As such,
“Calls for change imply that the pedagogical approaches our own professors and mentors modeled and taught us might not be the best way to engage large numbers of diverse populations of undergraduates in our discipline. This effort potentially also involves telling faculty that what they have been doing for the past 5, 10, or even 30 yr may not the most effective approach, especially for today's students.” (Brownell and Tanner)
How then can educators help coach other educators to accept and adopt online learning practices? Bringing about change includes so many factors for teachers, who now become students, to consider and account for. In this way, the odds of resistance occurring are almost unavoidable. The basic structure (factors & results) of any new pedagogical change at an institutional level is best envisioned through the graph below:
Educators know that promoting a change that ultimately has follow through and success can be difficult. Positive change requires (as seen above) a hoard of variables that play off one another in ways that can produce a multitude of results.
DISPROVING ASSUMPTIONS ABOUT ONLINE LEARNING, EDUCATING AND CHANGE
“It has been hypothesized that it is the youngest faculty that are the most digitally aware, and have had the most exposure to and comfort in work with digital resources. Older faculty are sometimes assumed to be less willing to adopt the newest technology or digital resources. However, when the level of OER [Open Educational Resources] awareness is examined by age group, it is the oldest faculty (aged 55+) that have the greatest degree of awareness, while the youngest age group (under 35) trail behind. The youngest faculty do show the greatest proportion claiming to be“very aware’ (6.7%), but have lower proportions reporting that they are “aware” or “somewhat aware.”’
These results, among others, are important to dispelling the stereotypical notion that older learners and educators are unwilling and more resistant than younger counterparts to embracing pedagogical change in an online medium. Secondarily, there seems to be a better recognition by experienced professionals of what resources exist to employ and implement changes through a technology format.
Furthermore, inhibitors to change, from the perspective of the stakeholder attempting to promote change, may often be inaccurately attributed:
The last four minutes of the video in particular discuss the “under the surface” factors that are like “cold symptoms.” Change, like many educational endeavors, are so rooted in the relational aspect that it is impossible to evoke meaningful change without first considering the populace and environment at the personal level. The newness and rapacity of the drive towards student-centered, flipped, blended, and other online integrated pedagogical techniques is no doubt a contributor to the work environment standing to benefit from a more empathetic approach to coaching pedagogical change.
MOVES TO EMBRACE PEDAGOGICAL CHANGE THROUGH COACHING
“The unpredictability of pedagogical design resonates loudly when digital media collides with official classroom spaces. This digital, or new, media is more than just a collection of digital or screen-based devices or platforms; rather, it encompasses a conglomeration of shifting tools, practices, norms, and expectations that help create particular kinds of spaces, activities, and ways of being.” (Rust, Julie, Pedagogy Meets Digital Media)
The first of many necessary steps to promoting pedagogical change as it pertains to online teaching and learning is to acknowledge the shift that is being asked of stakeholders. Much like the above video from Heather Stagl and the image of the TPACK model, any shift in approach must consider the root cause of personal reactions to such a change as well as the paradigm shift of the mentality and approach towards education. It is outwardly expressed by many educators that, “insufficient training, time, and incentives are among the most commonly cited barriers for faculty change, and the focus of most of the current efforts to understand and promote faculty pedagogical change.” (Brownell and Tanner) As such, acknowledging how to get educators to perceive a benefit from change is crucial. John Tagg notes in his journal article “Why Does the Faculty Resist Change?” that there is a “status-quo bias” creating an “aversion to change pervasive preference for leaving things as they are… through a weighing of gains versus losses.” In this way, educators will need to understand how the long-term benefits of pedagogical moves that include online learning will be worth it for both themselves and their students. While the most obvious incentive is to push monetary benefits such as stipends, grants, etc, these extrinsic motivators often don’t promote the long-lasting, real change visionists desire.
Randy Rieland’s article “7 Ways Technology is Changing How Art is Made,” “features a wide variety of digital artists who are using technology to push art in different directions, often to allow gallery visitors to engage with it in a multi-dimensional way.” This is only one small example of how technology is revolutionizing both theory and practice, and it is only one miniscule example among the hoard of others — of which the list is growing exponentially. The understanding of how online integration and technology of educational best practices is essential for learners to be better prepared for forward thinking and real world skills is represented well within the SAMR Model (Image Below):
Educators need to know what they don’t know, but this cannot be delivered in a condescending, overwhelming format that leaves bewildered educators disgruntled and rejecting change. Instead, providing examples of activities with concepts like SAMR will be necessary to gaining acceptance and follow through. When an educator can see how pedagogical change through online integration can create more efficient, accountable, meaningful learning environments, then the coaching towards proficiency may exist by way of being validated. Furthermore, “It empowers children to see the whole picture and not feel they are just following the steps handed to them.” (Martinez, pg. 1218 of 5629 Kindle version) In this sense, educators will see their more dynamic learning environment foster more meaningful and wide reaching relationships as they pertain to authentic learning experiences.
Much of the discussion around change accurately centers around components of coaching and mentoring. “Great leaders practice balancing trust and autonomy while providing strong mentorship.” (Couros, pg. 127) Many educators may feel that a colleague has no more expertise, prestige, or value than themselves when it comes to the implementation of pedagogy. As such, approaching mentor/mentee relationships requires a complex series of steps that take into account relational as well as retainment factors.
(In this REL Mid-Atlantic Teacher Effectiveness webinar, participants explored how instructional coaching can encourage teachers to adopt new practices and improve academic outcomes for students.)
There is no magic way to get everyone on board with such changes; however, the resources below offer worthwhile ways that have statistical relevance in achieving pedagogical change as it pertains to the promotion of online learning:
(A guide for coaching adults in education through coaching program)
(Best practices for online teaching strategies)
CONCLUSIONS
Coaching a pedagogical change to a more technology oriented online experience is plagued by cultural stereotypes, unfamiliarity that breeds resentment, and the need to educate professionals on the benefits and necessity of such a move. Fortunately, the amount of resources that are validated by statistical research and understanding basic human (learner) needs makes such change more obtainable than ever. It is crucial that educators begin to reconstruct their pedagogical approaches to more readily align with best practices that are producing both higher achievement and student ability to create meaningful, tangible products that enhance their ability to be forward thinking contributors to society, not status quo workers.
WORKS CITED/REFERENCED
Brownell, Sara E., and Kimberly D. Tanner. "Barriers to Faculty Pedagogical Change: Lack of
Training, Time, Incentives, and…Tensions with Professional Identity?" Life Sciences
Education, vol. 11, no. 4, 2012, www.lifescied.org/content/11/4/339.short. Accessed 10
Nov. 2017.
Cassidy, Tania, Robyn Jones, and Paul Potrac. Understanding Sports Coaching: The social,
cultural and pedagogical foundations of coaching practice. London, Routledge, 2004.
Couros, George. The Innovator’s Mindset: Empower Learning, Unleash Talent, and Lead a
Culture of Creativity. San Diego, Dave Burgess Consulting, Inc., 2015.
Hill, Phil. "APLU Panel: Effects of digital education trends on teaching faculty." E-Literature, 12
Nov. 2014, mfeldstein.com/aplu-digital-education-trends-teaching-faculty/. Accessed 7
Nov. 2017.
Martinez, Sylvia L., and Gary Stager. Invent to Learn: Making, Tinkering, and Engineering in
the Classroom. Torrance, Constructing Modern Knowledge Press, 2013.
Mulcahy, Dianne. "Learning spaces and pedagogic change: envisioned, enacted and
experienced." Pedagogy, Culture, and Insight, vol. 23, no. 4, 15 June 2015,
www-tandfonline-com.prxy4.ursus.maine.edu/doi/full/10.1080/14681366.2015.1055128.
Accessed 6 Nov. 2017.
Rieland, Randy. "7 Ways Technology is Changing How Art is Made." Smithsonian, 27 Aug.
2014,https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/7-ways-technology-is-changing-how
-art-is-made-180952472/. Accessed 7 Nov. 2017.
Rust, Julie. "Pedagogy Meets Digital Media: A Tangle of Teachers, Strategies, and Tactics."
CONTEMPORARY ISSUES IN TECHNOLOGY AND TEACHER EDUCATION, 2016,
www.citejournal.org/volume-17/issue-2-17/english-language-arts/pedagogy-meets-digital
-media-a-tangle-of-teachers-strategies-and-tactics/. Accessed 7 Nov. 2017.
Stagl, Heather, Actor. How to Deal With Resistance to Change. , YouTube, 2015,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=79LI2fkNZ2k. Accessed 7 Nov. 2017.
Tagg, John. "Why Does the Faculty Resist Change?" Change: The Magazine of Higher
Learning, Jan., web.peralta.edu/pbi/files/2010/11/John-Tagg-article-Jan-20121.pdf.
Accessed 6 Nov. 2017.
Terhart, Ewald. "Teacher resistance against school reform: reflecting an inconvenient truth."
School Leadership & Management, vol. 33, no. 5, 2013, pp. 486-500,
www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/13632434.2013.793494?needAccess=true.
Accessed 6 Nov. 2017.
Zembylas, Michalinos. "Adult learners’ emotions in online learning." Distance Education, vol.
29, no. 1, 9 May 2008,
www-tandfonline-com.prxy4.ursus.maine.edu/doi/full/10.1080/01587910802004852.
Accessed 6 Nov. 2017.
Great blog, Paul. I especially appreciated the piece and reference to "7 Ways Technology is Changing How Art is Made". I bring quite a bit of art into my class using our devices and have been questioned by a colleague about it and how, "it is not art". It is working with these people that makes being a Tech Lead more challenging. But we continue to push forward, correct?
ReplyDeleteGreat read! will be sharing with colleagues!