Feedback in Professional Learning Communities

204 Pages·2012·2.63 MB·English

Feedback in Professional Learning Communities: Exploring Teachers’ and Administrators’
Experiences and Implications for Building Systemic and Sustained Learning

A DISSERTATION
SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF THE GRADUATE SCHOOL
OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA
BY

David Jonathon Roloff

IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS
FOR THE DEGREE OF
DOCTOR OF EDUCATION

Dr. Susan Damme, Adviser

October, 2012
© David Roloff 2012
i

Acknowledgements
Thank you first to the Chair of my dissertation committee, Dr. Susan Damme. Strong and
steady each step of the way, when my circumstances teetered erratically and seemed nearly
unmanageable you were a caring, patient and supportive guide. I am amazed by your ability to
allay fears and so kindly and calmly help others plot a path forward. I could not have had a more
compassionate, thoughtful or welcome collaborator. I will be forever grateful for you.
Thank you also to those who served on my dissertation committee: Dr. Joyce Strand, Dr.
Mary Ann Marchel and Dr. Julia Williams. At each stage of this journey you have encouraged me
to be more, to critically challenge assumptions, to engage with ideas and ask big questions. I am
thankful to have been guided by your insight and placed in your trusting care.
Thank you to the professors whom I had the joy of learning with and from. The wisdom
of your instruction, the value of your critiques, your thoughtful guidance along the way and your
warm and caring natures made me eager to return and pushed me to grow. Similarly I need to
thank the members of my “C2” family who have left indelible marks on my life in ways too
countless to recount here. It has been an unbelievable journey and my life has been made
immeasurably richer with each of you walking it by my side. You are an amazing group of
educators and “we” are going to change the world; yes “we” are.
The participants in this study, two amazingly insightful administrators and eight caring,
dedicated and perceptive teachers also deserve a mountain of thanks. Thank you all for allowing
me to peer into your professional practice, for being open and honest and thoughtful and
reflective; understanding how you have experienced professional learning communities is
invaluable to those contemplating such structures and critical work as teachers, schools and
educational systems work to support student and teacher learning. Thank you for sharing your
experiences with me and for the ways you give of yourself daily to improve the lives of children.
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Finally, I am thankful to my family: to my wife, Deb, and to my two sons, Isaac and Ian,
who have given up so very much so that I could pursue this dream. It seems impossible that this
writing already marks the culmination of the doctoral process and, although it often seemed quick
in my world the time which I have been “away” was much longer for each of you as you gave me
up to nights and vacations studying and weekends away. You have each given me the best of you
as I have struggled through this process. Your laughs and smiles and gracious understanding and
support gave me the strength to stand when I stumbled, to push ahead when it all seemed too
much. This is our success: our success as a family who loves and laughs and supports and
understands. It would have been impossible without you. Thank you for giving of yourselves so
that we could take the journey.
iii

Dedication
This dissertation is dedicated to my parents, Donald Florian and Sandra Mae Roloff, who
taught me early on that nothing is impossible if you are only willing to apply yourself, give the
best of yourself to the process and have faith. Your life-long love and support have made this
accomplishment possible.
iv

Abstract
American educators are provided with far less time to improve their professional practice than
their international counterparts, often experience professional development in short and disjointed
ways, and work in systems whose structures too frequently isolate them from the practice of their
colleagues. Professional learning communities (PLCs), however, recognize that improved teacher
learning is essential to improved student learning and thus create structures which engage
educators in regular, job-embedded, collaborative action research directly tied to their individual
teaching contexts. However little is known about the specific feedback which educators in PLCs
provide and the ways in which various feedback loops in educational systems assist in improving
teacher practice. How does feedback made available through a PLC model impact the practice of
teachers and administrators? This phenomenological study utilized a pre/post design to explore
the role of feedback in the lives of two administrators and eight high school English educators at
a central Wisconsin high school. The findings discuss the ways in which participants gave and
received feedback prior to their involvement in PLCs and how feedback changed as their school
and district adopted a PLC model. The study identified five major themes: 1) the need to build
trust to encourage an open sharing of practice; 2) reduced isolation, improved collaboration and
increases in the amount of and teachers’ desire for additional feedback; 3) a shift from covering
content to assessing student learning through instructionally-sensitive data sources; 4) the need to
consider feedback and power implications when mandating structures, increasing transparency
and enhancing accountability so as to improve feedback and reduce frustration; and 5) critical
considerations in systemic structures including fostering collaboration, making feedback
meaningful, and addressing the key issue of time. The study concludes with recommendations for
teachers, administrators, district policy makers and researchers, pointing to ways in which those
working in educational systems can develop feedback structures which heighten teacher learning.
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Table of Contents
Acknowledgements ......................................................................................................................... i
Dedication ..................................................................................................................................... iii
Chapter 1. Introduction .................................................................................................................. 1
Background ....................................................................................................................... 3
Statement of Problem ........................................................................................................ 8
Statement of Purpose......................................................................................................... 9
Research Questions ........................................................................................................... 9
Significance of Study ...................................................................................................... 10
Definition of Terms ......................................................................................................... 12
Assumptions and Limitations .......................................................................................... 13
Nature of the Study ......................................................................................................... 16
Organization of the Remainder of the Study ................................................................... 16
Chapter 2. Literature Review ....................................................................................................... 18
Introduction ..................................................................................................................... 18
The Role of Professional Development ........................................................................... 18
Professional Learning Communities ............................................................................... 24
Revisioning the Work of Teachers and Administrators in PLCs Through a
Systems Lens ............................................................................................................. 28
Creating Effective Feedback Systems ............................................................................. 44
The Need to Understand Various Forms of Feedback ..................................................... 54
Summary ......................................................................................................................... 59
Chapter 3. Methodology .............................................................................................................. 61
Design of the Study ......................................................................................................... 62
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Sampling ......................................................................................................................... 64
Instrumentation ............................................................................................................... 65
Reliability and Validity ................................................................................................... 67
Bracketing ....................................................................................................................... 68
Response Bias ................................................................................................................. 69
Data Collection ............................................................................................................... 70
Data Analysis .................................................................................................................. 71
Ethical Considerations .................................................................................................... 72
Setting ............................................................................................................................. 73
Participants...................................................................................................................... 75
Chapter 4. Results and Discussion ............................................................................................... 79
The Historical Development and Current Context of Central High’s PLCs .................... 80
Results and Discussion .................................................................................................... 83
Theme #1: Building Trust to Encourage an Open Sharing of Practice with Colleagues .. 84
Theme #2: The Role of PLCs in Reducing Isolation, Fostering Collaboration and
Increasing Feedback and Increasing Teachers’ Desires for Additional Feedback ..... 95
Theme #3: Shifting from Content and Coverage to Student Learning and
Instructionally Sensitive Data................................................................................... 105
Theme #4: Considering Feedback and Power Implications when Mandating
Structures, Increasing Transparency and Enhancing Accountability in PLC
Systems .................................................................................................................... 113
Theme #5: Critical Considerations in Systemic Structures: Fostering Collaboration
not Isolation, Making Feedback Meaningful in the Near and Long Terms to
Individuals and Systems, and the Allocation of Time .............................................. 124
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Chapter 5. Conclusions and Recommendations ......................................................................... 140
Summary of Results ...................................................................................................... 144
Recommendations, Suggestions and Considerations ..................................................... 150
Final Thoughts .............................................................................................................. 158
References.................................................................................................................................. 160
Appendices
Appendix A. Invitation E-mail - Administrators ........................................................... 165
Appendix B. Research Proposal - Administrators ......................................................... 168
Appendix C. Invitation Letter - Teachers ...................................................................... 171
Appendix D. Administrator Interview Guide ................................................................ 173
Appendix E. Teacher Interview Guide .......................................................................... 176
Appendix F. Teacher Focus Group Guide ..................................................................... 180
Appendix G. Informed Consent Form - Administrators ................................................ 183
Appendix H. Informed Consent Form - Teachers ......................................................... 187
Appendix I. Institutional Review Board Approvals ..................................................... 191
1

Chapter 1. Introduction
Education takes place, at its core, in the individual interactions between a teacher and a
student and the quality of this interaction is therefore of critical importance to the success of our
nation’s school-aged children (Sanders & Rivers, 1996). Such a belief drives school systems
throughout the country to mandate professional development for our nation’s teachers, requiring
that they spend time attending outside coursework and workshops or selecting from school or
district offerings. Unfortunately short workshops which result in little change in educator practice
are, according to Darling-Hammond (2010), the most frequent type of learning opportunity
provided to U.S. teachers. When professional development is isolated, disjointed and
decontextualized from the work conducted in teachers’ classrooms the work of Darling-
Hammond (2010), among others, suggests there is little impact on actual teacher practice.
Even if such professional development is successful, once the experience is completed
teachers still too often return to the isolation of their own classrooms, effectively cutting off
themselves and their students from the collective knowledge of their peers. In such educational
contexts students move from one teacher to the next, often with little continuity across grade
levels and content areas; the result is a disjointed and unequal educational experience from year
to year (Senge, Cambron-McCabe, Lucas, Smith, Dutton & Kleiner, 2000). The success of our
students therefore depends not only on individual teacher quality but also on the collective
capacity of our educational systems. Students, schools and school systems reap the cumulative
benefits when the number of expert educators in a system increases. When systems are organized
in ways which provide teachers with frequent and extended opportunities to dialogue, seek out,
share and actively apply professional knowledge, such benefits are made available throughout the
system (Elmore, 2004; Darling-Hammond, 2010).