August 9, 2025 • 23 mins
Has something in this episode resonated with you? Get in touch!
Sustainable school improvement happens when change is done with teachers, not to them, and when professional learning builds genuine understanding rather than just compliance with programs.
• The key difference between compliance and commitment in school change
• Why program implementation alone isn't enough to transform practice
• Starting with strengths rather than deficits when approaching improvement
• Understanding the "why" behind instructional decisions, not just the "what"
• Creating genuine space for reflection and ownership in professional learning
• How collaborative approaches lead to more sustainable changes
• Balancing clear expectations with teacher professionalism
• The importance of understanding context before implementing solutions
• Why the "messier" path of collaborative change leads to better outcomes
• Helping all staff become data-informed practitioners
Join us next episode as we dive into the research on effective professional learning and explore what makes it truly transformative.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Jocelyn (00:00):
Welcome, welcome, welcome to the Structured
Literacy Podcast.
I'm Jocelyn and I am so pleasedthat you've joined me for this
episode recorded here inTasmania, the lands of the
Palawa people.
Today we're diving intosomething that absolutely makes
or breaks any improvementefforts in schools: how to make
(00:20):
sure change happens with people,not to them.
I've been thinking about thistopic a lot lately because I
keep hearing stories fromleaders who are genuinely trying
to do the right thing by theirteams, but somehow their
(00:41):
well-intentioned, professionallearning initiatives fall flat.
Teachers go through the motions, tick boxes, but nothing really
changes, they look up and insix months, what they thought
was going to happen just hasn't,and I'm wondering if that
sounds familiar to you.
Here's what I've learned;there's a world of difference
(01:08):
between compliance andcommitment, and I don't mean
that in the sense that peoplearen't committed to their jobs
or committed to the students.
I mean that change is reallyhard and the reason behind us
adjusting our practices has tobe something that is connected
to us, not something we do sothat we don't get into trouble.
(01:32):
When change is done to people,you might get compliance.
People show up, they nod in theright places, they complete the
required tasks and then go backto their classrooms and it's
business as usual.
Even if they've genuinely triedto give the practice a go to
start with, it can soon drop off.
(01:53):
When change is done with people, however, you can get
commitment, and commitment iswhat transforms practice.
And so what's the difference?
What are the mechanisms thatmove us from compliance and into
commitment?
When change is done to people,decisions are made in the office
(02:16):
and then handed down.
The what and the how arepredetermined.
People are told what to dodifferently and the expectation
is that they'll just implementit.
This approach treats teacherslike technicians who simply need
new instructions.
But when change is done withpeople, it starts with
(02:37):
acknowledging that teachers areprofessionals who bring
expertise, experience andinsight to the table.
Doesn't mean that there's nomore learning to do, though.
It does recognise thatsustainable change requires
people to understand not justwhat they're doing, but why
they're doing it and how itconnects to their existing
(03:00):
strengths and challenges.
And when I'm talking about thewhy, I'm talking about, yes, the
big picture why in terms of ourmoral obligation, but I'm also
talking about the why around theinstruction itself; what makes
practices effective.
(03:24):
And here's something that's beenweighing on my mind lately well
, not just lately, for a longtime actually, so much
professional learning centres onthe delivery of programs and
the use of resources.
Schools invest in newcurriculum, attend training
sessions on how to implementthem and then focus all their
energy on following the stepswith fidelity.
(03:46):
But beyond that initialintroductory phase, they don't
spend time on building realcapacity within their teams.
We're relying on the program orthe resource to do the heavy
lifting, when we all know thatit's the capacity and the
knowledge and experience of theindividual teacher that makes
(04:09):
the biggest difference.
When we focus solely on thewhat, when we're ticking boxes
on the program steps, we miss ahuge opportunity to support
people to develop as strategicpractitioners.
Strategic practitioners don'tjust tick boxes for compliance,
they make decisions for practicein response to the needs of the
(04:31):
students in front of them.
Now don't get me wrong.
When we are first learning,following the steps of the
program, exactly how it'swritten is precisely what we
should be doing.
This is a necessary part oflearning.
You mimic, you copy, you followthe steps.
The problem arises when that'swhere the developmental journey
(04:54):
ends.
Until we move from doinginstruction to understanding
what makes instructionsuccessful.
We simply won't see theoutcomes we know are possible.
Our teams will continue to workharder than they've ever worked
without the reward of thestrong student outcomes they
hope are possible.
(05:18):
There are a growing number ofschools who have been doing the
programs as written withfidelity for years who are now
looking up and realising thattheir data is no better than it
was when they started, and thisis simply not ok.
As a Principal in my LeadingLearning Success program said
during our initial goal settingfor her school, she said, "I
(05:39):
want our outcomes to equal oureffort.
We are working so hard, I wantthe results too.
" That statement hit me right inthe heart because it captures
exactly what's wrong with somuch professional learning.
We're asking people to workincredibly hard, but we're not
giving them the deepunderstanding they need to make
(06:02):
that hard work pay off.
This is where collaborativeprofessional learning comes in.
In truly collaborativeprofessional learning, you don't
start with predeterminedsolutions such as a program.
You start with defining yourcurrent context and building
clarity on where your strengthsand challenges lie.
(06:25):
You begin by asking your team,"what's happening in our
classrooms that we know ismoving the needle on outcomes.
Where are we not seeing this?
Where are our students thrivingand where do we want to see
growth?
" When teams start here,something magical can happen.
Instead of feeling like they'rebeing told their current
(06:47):
practice isn't good enough,teachers feel heard and valued.
They become active participantsin identifying where they want
to grow, rather than passiverecipients of someone else's
improvement agenda.
When teachers understand the whybehind the instructional design
, when they understand howchildren learn to read and write
(07:12):
and understand maths, they makefundamentally different choices
about their practice.
And this understanding can't beimposed from the outside.
It has to be built from withinthrough reflection, discussion
and collaborative inquiry.
(07:33):
One of the biggest mistakes Isee is that we're treating
teachers as if they're broken.
We're starting from a point ofdeficit.
We focus on what's not working,what's missing, what needs to
be fixed.
But collaborative professionallearning starts with strengths,
because, I can promise you,nobody in this work is starting
(07:56):
from zero.
In this collaborative work, weask what we're already doing
that's working well and we needto learn to understand why they
work.
When we know why our existingsuccessful techniques and
strategies work, then we canbuild on them.
(08:17):
But you can't build on thembefore you know why they're
successful in the first place.
You can't leverage them to helpyou tackle new challenges that
are always on the horizon.
And this isn't just thefeel-good stuff.
If you have listened to thispodcast for any length of time
or you've done any work with me,you'll know that I'm not the
(08:37):
light and fluffy sort.
This stuff is grounded in howadults actually learn and
develop their professionalknowledge.
When people feel competent andvalued, they're much more
willing to take risks and trynew approaches.
When they feel criticised orinadequate, they become really
defensive and resistant tochange, and I see this playing
(08:59):
out in schools all the time.
I love working with leaders whotake the time to really
understand their team's currentpractice before introducing new
approaches.
One of the big mistakes thatnew leaders make, whether that's
a new instructional leader in aspace or a new Principal, is
(09:20):
presuming they have all theanswers for the new context
before they understand the newcontext.
So they walk in with a planthat they've developed for some
other school and plonk it on thetable and say, right, this is
what we're doing here.
What they could do instead isspend time in classrooms, not to
evaluate or judge, butgenuinely understand what's
(09:42):
working and where the challengeslie.
They have to learn about thecontext.
They have conversations withteachers about their thinking,
decision making.
They build relationships, andthey observe students.
This groundwork is essentialbecause it helps leaders
understand not just whatteachers are doing but why
they're doing it.
And when you get the why behindcurrent practice, you can build
(10:07):
on that and evolve and grow somuch easier.
Now here's where some people geta little nervous around
collaborative approaches, and Icompletely understand it.
We worry that beingcollaborative means anything
goes, that there's no standardsor expectations.
(10:27):
We worry that collaborativeapproaches mean trusting, "I
feel it in my heart as a dataset, but that's not what I'm
talking about here.
What I'm talking about iscollaborative professional
learning needs clear boundariesand structure.
In fact, I think it needs morethoughtful structure than those
(10:47):
top-down approaches.
Think about it this way, whenyou're doing change to people,
the structure is simple, youtell people what to do and you
expect them to go off and do it.
But when you're enacting changewith people, you need to create
structures that allow forreflection, discussion,
questioning and gradualimplementation.
You need to balance givingpeople ownership with
(11:11):
maintaining clear expectationsabout what great practice looks
like.
We're not saying hand thedecision-making over to novices
in the space, but we are sayingthat we can work with people.
This might look like providinga framework for instructional
decision-making while allowingteams to determine how they'll
(11:33):
apply that framework in theirspecific context, with the
guidance of an instructionalleader and the school's existing
instructional framework toalign to.
Or it might mean setting cleargoals for students while giving
teachers some decision-makinginvolvement in how they'll work
(11:54):
towards those goals.
One of the most important thingsthat we can do to make change
happen with people is to creategenuine space for reflection and
ownership.
This means slowing down enoughto allow people to process new
(12:16):
information, connect it to theirexisting knowledge and think
through how it applies to theirspecific classroom context.
I can't tell you how manyprofessional learning sessions
I've been at, and I know thatit's been the same for you, when
new information is presentedand then immediately followed up
with this expectation thatyou'll just go off and do it,
(12:38):
here you go.
So we have an I do and a you do, and there we are.
But that's not how anyonelearns.
We need time to ruminate anddiscuss, to try small
experiments.
We need time to be able to makesmall mistakes that help us
understand the impact of ouractions.
We have to reflect on that andbuild confidence.
(13:02):
When we create space for thatkind of reflective practice,
something beautiful can happen.
Teachers start to own theirprofessional learning.
The deer in the headlights lookon their faces begins to
disappear and they begin to beexcited by the changes that are
coming, because they feel thatthey're building success and
(13:24):
they are.
They begin to see themselves asprofessionals in their own
classrooms who are responsiblefor being responsive to student
ideas.
They test things out, theygather evidence, they make
informed decisions about theirpractice.
And this is when real,sustainable change happens.
And I want to be really honestwith you here,.
(13:47):
collaborative Collaborativeprofessional learning takes
longer than the command andcontrol approach.
It's messier, it requires morepatience and skill from leaders
But here's what I'm seeingworking with schools all across
the country (14:04):
country the results are worth it.
When change happens with people, it sticks.
Teachers don't just implementnew practices,.
they They understand them, adaptthem within appropriate
boundaries and continue torefine them over .
as As they grow their skill and.
, They they become advocates forchange rather than reluctant
(14:25):
participants.
They start to see professionallearning as something that is
central to their professionallife, not a box to be ticked
once or twice a year.
Research consistently shows usthat professional learning is
most effective when it'ssustained, collaborative and
(14:48):
focused on specific studentlearning outcomes, and the next
episode of the podcast will beall about that, we're going to
dive right into the researchabout effective professional
learning.
But what the research doesn'talways capture is that human
element, the fact that teachersare more likely to engage
authentically when they feelrespected, valued and heard.
(15:11):
And we can read those words andnod along, but it's not until
you see the light in the eyes ofyour teachers that you really
take it to heart.
Last week I had a leader say,"ormally, when I'm working in
the inclusion space and I'mtalking with teachers about
their students, the onus is onthe student to participate, the
(15:35):
student needs to do this, thestudent needs to do that, the
student needs to be moremotivated.
But the most recentconversation I had was hmm, that
didn't work so well and I cansee that that student was
cognitively overloaded.
Next time I would do it thisway and the excitement from that
leader in helping that teacherto make that enormous leap from
(16:00):
feeling like they were helplessin solving the problem of that
moment to realising that thecuration of the learning
environment was within theircontrol, that is just so
satisfying and it just reallymoves me because I believe in
(16:20):
the transformationalpossibilities of this work.
So what does this mean for youas a leader?
What does it mean for you as aPrincipal or an instructional
coach or a deputy or a middleleader who's supporting a team?
What does it mean for you as anindividual teacher in a
(16:44):
classroom?
It means starting with your andyour team's existing strengths
and challenges rather thanpredetermined solutions.
Before you go sending peopleout to PL, before you go
spending money on expensiveprograms, we need to take the
time to understand our currentcontext before introducing
(17:08):
anything new.
We also need to createstructures that allow for
genuine collaboration andreflection.
We have to get the teamdynamics working.
We need to be more comfortablewith some messiness and
ambiguity in the short term.
When you're doing change withpeople, that path isn't always
(17:29):
linear.
There will be questions,pushback and varied rates of
implementation.
The people work is always thehardest, but if you can stay
committed to the collaborativeprocess and you have the right
tools at hand to provide youwith frameworks and pathways and
structures and support, you'llbuild much stronger capacity in
(17:51):
your team over the long term.
And that doesn't mean we can'thave clear expectations or that
you need to wait for unanimousagreement before moving forward.
You're not asking for anyone'spermission to improve a dodgy
data set.
It means finding ways to honourpeople's professionalism while
maintaining focus on studentoutcomes.
(18:13):
Both of those things can happen.
There's just something deeplysatisfying about watching a team
own their own professionallearning journey.
When teachers start askingquestions about student data,
when they begin seeking outresearch to inform their
practice, when they start havingrich conversations about
instruction, that's when youknow you've created the
(18:34):
conditions for sustainablechange.
I remember a day that I was ina school and I'd been working
with this school around theirphonics approach and they use
flexible groupings acrossclassrooms and have classroom
assistants take groups.
Now they don't just throw thechildren and the materials at
the classroom assistant.
What they did was they helpedthose staff become data informed
(19:00):
.
They knew how to read the data,so they were saying things
like, "ell, when I look at thedata, it shows me that there's a
couple of gaps in thesecorrespondences.
I think that's where I'm goingto start, so we're not leaving
gaps in our wakeIn this kind of leadership, it's
(19:22):
It's harder, but it's also morefulfilling.
Instead of feeling like we'reconstantly pushing people
towards change they don'tunderstand, you get to support
and guide a team that's activelyengaged in their own growth.
There's no magic wands here,but there are some structures
that can help.
(19:43):
So, as you think about theprofessional learning in your
school, ask yourself are wedoing things with our team or to
them?
Are we creating genuineopportunities for collaboration
and reflection?
Are we building on strengthswhile addressing challenges?
Are we helping peopleunderstand not just what to do,
but why it matters?
(20:04):
Remember, sustainable changedoesn't happen because someone
tells you to change.
It happens because youunderstand why that change is
needed, you feel supported inthe process and you have genuine
ownership over how that changeunfolds in your context.
Not one single one of us isself-employed, well, maybe me,
(20:26):
and even I don't get to doexactly what I want all the time
.
Leaders have to lead, there'sno doubt about it, but we can
bring our teams along for thejourney and make them active
participants in it.
Thanks so much for listening tothis episode of the Structured
Literacy Podcast.
Until next time, remember youwon't break those children, but
(20:47):
you also have to make sure thatyou don't break the grown-ups
either, especially yourself.
Choose professional learningthat honours your
professionalism and createsgenuine opportunities for growth
.
Until the next episode, that'sall from me.
Thanks so much, everyone.
Happy teaching, bye.
Welcome, welcome, welcome to the Structured
Literacy Podcast.
I'm Jocelyn and I am so pleasedthat you've joined me for this
episode recorded here inTasmania, the lands of the
Palawa people.
Today we're diving intosomething that absolutely makes
or breaks any improvementefforts in schools: how to make
(00:20):
sure change happens with people,not to them.
I've been thinking about thistopic a lot lately because I
keep hearing stories fromleaders who are genuinely trying
to do the right thing by theirteams, but somehow their
(00:41):
well-intentioned, professionallearning initiatives fall flat.
Teachers go through the motions, tick boxes, but nothing really
changes, they look up and insix months, what they thought
was going to happen just hasn't,and I'm wondering if that
sounds familiar to you.
Here's what I've learned;there's a world of difference
(01:08):
between compliance andcommitment, and I don't mean
that in the sense that peoplearen't committed to their jobs
or committed to the students.
I mean that change is reallyhard and the reason behind us
adjusting our practices has tobe something that is connected
to us, not something we do sothat we don't get into trouble.
(01:32):
When change is done to people,you might get compliance.
People show up, they nod in theright places, they complete the
required tasks and then go backto their classrooms and it's
business as usual.
Even if they've genuinely triedto give the practice a go to
start with, it can soon drop off.
(01:53):
When change is done with people, however, you can get
commitment, and commitment iswhat transforms practice.
And so what's the difference?
What are the mechanisms thatmove us from compliance and into
commitment?
When change is done to people,decisions are made in the office
(02:16):
and then handed down.
The what and the how arepredetermined.
People are told what to dodifferently and the expectation
is that they'll just implementit.
This approach treats teacherslike technicians who simply need
new instructions.
But when change is done withpeople, it starts with
(02:37):
acknowledging that teachers areprofessionals who bring
expertise, experience andinsight to the table.
Doesn't mean that there's nomore learning to do, though.
It does recognise thatsustainable change requires
people to understand not justwhat they're doing, but why
they're doing it and how itconnects to their existing
(03:00):
strengths and challenges.
And when I'm talking about thewhy, I'm talking about, yes, the
big picture why in terms of ourmoral obligation, but I'm also
talking about the why around theinstruction itself; what makes
practices effective.
(03:24):
And here's something that's beenweighing on my mind lately well
, not just lately, for a longtime actually, so much
professional learning centres onthe delivery of programs and
the use of resources.
Schools invest in newcurriculum, attend training
sessions on how to implementthem and then focus all their
energy on following the stepswith fidelity.
(03:46):
But beyond that initialintroductory phase, they don't
spend time on building realcapacity within their teams.
We're relying on the program orthe resource to do the heavy
lifting, when we all know thatit's the capacity and the
knowledge and experience of theindividual teacher that makes
(04:09):
the biggest difference.
When we focus solely on thewhat, when we're ticking boxes
on the program steps, we miss ahuge opportunity to support
people to develop as strategicpractitioners.
Strategic practitioners don'tjust tick boxes for compliance,
they make decisions for practicein response to the needs of the
(04:31):
students in front of them.
Now don't get me wrong.
When we are first learning,following the steps of the
program, exactly how it'swritten is precisely what we
should be doing.
This is a necessary part oflearning.
You mimic, you copy, you followthe steps.
The problem arises when that'swhere the developmental journey
(04:54):
ends.
Until we move from doinginstruction to understanding
what makes instructionsuccessful.
We simply won't see theoutcomes we know are possible.
Our teams will continue to workharder than they've ever worked
without the reward of thestrong student outcomes they
hope are possible.
(05:18):
There are a growing number ofschools who have been doing the
programs as written withfidelity for years who are now
looking up and realising thattheir data is no better than it
was when they started, and thisis simply not ok.
As a Principal in my LeadingLearning Success program said
during our initial goal settingfor her school, she said, "I
(05:39):
want our outcomes to equal oureffort.
We are working so hard, I wantthe results too.
" That statement hit me right inthe heart because it captures
exactly what's wrong with somuch professional learning.
We're asking people to workincredibly hard, but we're not
giving them the deepunderstanding they need to make
(06:02):
that hard work pay off.
This is where collaborativeprofessional learning comes in.
In truly collaborativeprofessional learning, you don't
start with predeterminedsolutions such as a program.
You start with defining yourcurrent context and building
clarity on where your strengthsand challenges lie.
(06:25):
You begin by asking your team,"what's happening in our
classrooms that we know ismoving the needle on outcomes.
Where are we not seeing this?
Where are our students thrivingand where do we want to see
growth?
" When teams start here,something magical can happen.
Instead of feeling like they'rebeing told their current
(06:47):
practice isn't good enough,teachers feel heard and valued.
They become active participantsin identifying where they want
to grow, rather than passiverecipients of someone else's
improvement agenda.
When teachers understand the whybehind the instructional design
, when they understand howchildren learn to read and write
(07:12):
and understand maths, they makefundamentally different choices
about their practice.
And this understanding can't beimposed from the outside.
It has to be built from withinthrough reflection, discussion
and collaborative inquiry.
(07:33):
One of the biggest mistakes Isee is that we're treating
teachers as if they're broken.
We're starting from a point ofdeficit.
We focus on what's not working,what's missing, what needs to
be fixed.
But collaborative professionallearning starts with strengths,
because, I can promise you,nobody in this work is starting
(07:56):
from zero.
In this collaborative work, weask what we're already doing
that's working well and we needto learn to understand why they
work.
When we know why our existingsuccessful techniques and
strategies work, then we canbuild on them.
(08:17):
But you can't build on thembefore you know why they're
successful in the first place.
You can't leverage them to helpyou tackle new challenges that
are always on the horizon.
And this isn't just thefeel-good stuff.
If you have listened to thispodcast for any length of time
or you've done any work with me,you'll know that I'm not the
(08:37):
light and fluffy sort.
This stuff is grounded in howadults actually learn and
develop their professionalknowledge.
When people feel competent andvalued, they're much more
willing to take risks and trynew approaches.
When they feel criticised orinadequate, they become really
defensive and resistant tochange, and I see this playing
(08:59):
out in schools all the time.
I love working with leaders whotake the time to really
understand their team's currentpractice before introducing new
approaches.
One of the big mistakes thatnew leaders make, whether that's
a new instructional leader in aspace or a new Principal, is
(09:20):
presuming they have all theanswers for the new context
before they understand the newcontext.
So they walk in with a planthat they've developed for some
other school and plonk it on thetable and say, right, this is
what we're doing here.
What they could do instead isspend time in classrooms, not to
evaluate or judge, butgenuinely understand what's
(09:42):
working and where the challengeslie.
They have to learn about thecontext.
They have conversations withteachers about their thinking,
decision making.
They build relationships, andthey observe students.
This groundwork is essentialbecause it helps leaders
understand not just whatteachers are doing but why
they're doing it.
And when you get the why behindcurrent practice, you can build
(10:07):
on that and evolve and grow somuch easier.
Now here's where some people geta little nervous around
collaborative approaches, and Icompletely understand it.
We worry that beingcollaborative means anything
goes, that there's no standardsor expectations.
(10:27):
We worry that collaborativeapproaches mean trusting, "I
feel it in my heart as a dataset, but that's not what I'm
talking about here.
What I'm talking about iscollaborative professional
learning needs clear boundariesand structure.
In fact, I think it needs morethoughtful structure than those
(10:47):
top-down approaches.
Think about it this way, whenyou're doing change to people,
the structure is simple, youtell people what to do and you
expect them to go off and do it.
But when you're enacting changewith people, you need to create
structures that allow forreflection, discussion,
questioning and gradualimplementation.
You need to balance givingpeople ownership with
(11:11):
maintaining clear expectationsabout what great practice looks
like.
We're not saying hand thedecision-making over to novices
in the space, but we are sayingthat we can work with people.
This might look like providinga framework for instructional
decision-making while allowingteams to determine how they'll
(11:33):
apply that framework in theirspecific context, with the
guidance of an instructionalleader and the school's existing
instructional framework toalign to.
Or it might mean setting cleargoals for students while giving
teachers some decision-makinginvolvement in how they'll work
(11:54):
towards those goals.
One of the most important thingsthat we can do to make change
happen with people is to creategenuine space for reflection and
ownership.
This means slowing down enoughto allow people to process new
(12:16):
information, connect it to theirexisting knowledge and think
through how it applies to theirspecific classroom context.
I can't tell you how manyprofessional learning sessions
I've been at, and I know thatit's been the same for you, when
new information is presentedand then immediately followed up
with this expectation thatyou'll just go off and do it,
(12:38):
here you go.
So we have an I do and a you do, and there we are.
But that's not how anyonelearns.
We need time to ruminate anddiscuss, to try small
experiments.
We need time to be able to makesmall mistakes that help us
understand the impact of ouractions.
We have to reflect on that andbuild confidence.
(13:02):
When we create space for thatkind of reflective practice,
something beautiful can happen.
Teachers start to own theirprofessional learning.
The deer in the headlights lookon their faces begins to
disappear and they begin to beexcited by the changes that are
coming, because they feel thatthey're building success and
(13:24):
they are.
They begin to see themselves asprofessionals in their own
classrooms who are responsiblefor being responsive to student
ideas.
They test things out, theygather evidence, they make
informed decisions about theirpractice.
And this is when real,sustainable change happens.
And I want to be really honestwith you here,.
(13:47):
collaborative Collaborativeprofessional learning takes
longer than the command andcontrol approach.
It's messier, it requires morepatience and skill from leaders
But here's what I'm seeingworking with schools all across
the country (14:04):
country the results are worth it.
When change happens with people, it sticks.
Teachers don't just implementnew practices,.
they They understand them, adaptthem within appropriate
boundaries and continue torefine them over .
as As they grow their skill and.
, They they become advocates forchange rather than reluctant
(14:25):
participants.
They start to see professionallearning as something that is
central to their professionallife, not a box to be ticked
once or twice a year.
Research consistently shows usthat professional learning is
most effective when it'ssustained, collaborative and
(14:48):
focused on specific studentlearning outcomes, and the next
episode of the podcast will beall about that, we're going to
dive right into the researchabout effective professional
learning.
But what the research doesn'talways capture is that human
element, the fact that teachersare more likely to engage
authentically when they feelrespected, valued and heard.
(15:11):
And we can read those words andnod along, but it's not until
you see the light in the eyes ofyour teachers that you really
take it to heart.
Last week I had a leader say,"ormally, when I'm working in
the inclusion space and I'mtalking with teachers about
their students, the onus is onthe student to participate, the
(15:35):
student needs to do this, thestudent needs to do that, the
student needs to be moremotivated.
But the most recentconversation I had was hmm, that
didn't work so well and I cansee that that student was
cognitively overloaded.
Next time I would do it thisway and the excitement from that
leader in helping that teacherto make that enormous leap from
(16:00):
feeling like they were helplessin solving the problem of that
moment to realising that thecuration of the learning
environment was within theircontrol, that is just so
satisfying and it just reallymoves me because I believe in
(16:20):
the transformationalpossibilities of this work.
So what does this mean for youas a leader?
What does it mean for you as aPrincipal or an instructional
coach or a deputy or a middleleader who's supporting a team?
What does it mean for you as anindividual teacher in a
(16:44):
classroom?
It means starting with your andyour team's existing strengths
and challenges rather thanpredetermined solutions.
Before you go sending peopleout to PL, before you go
spending money on expensiveprograms, we need to take the
time to understand our currentcontext before introducing
(17:08):
anything new.
We also need to createstructures that allow for
genuine collaboration andreflection.
We have to get the teamdynamics working.
We need to be more comfortablewith some messiness and
ambiguity in the short term.
When you're doing change withpeople, that path isn't always
(17:29):
linear.
There will be questions,pushback and varied rates of
implementation.
The people work is always thehardest, but if you can stay
committed to the collaborativeprocess and you have the right
tools at hand to provide youwith frameworks and pathways and
structures and support, you'llbuild much stronger capacity in
(17:51):
your team over the long term.
And that doesn't mean we can'thave clear expectations or that
you need to wait for unanimousagreement before moving forward.
You're not asking for anyone'spermission to improve a dodgy
data set.
It means finding ways to honourpeople's professionalism while
maintaining focus on studentoutcomes.
(18:13):
Both of those things can happen.
There's just something deeplysatisfying about watching a team
own their own professionallearning journey.
When teachers start askingquestions about student data,
when they begin seeking outresearch to inform their
practice, when they start havingrich conversations about
instruction, that's when youknow you've created the
(18:34):
conditions for sustainablechange.
I remember a day that I was ina school and I'd been working
with this school around theirphonics approach and they use
flexible groupings acrossclassrooms and have classroom
assistants take groups.
Now they don't just throw thechildren and the materials at
the classroom assistant.
What they did was they helpedthose staff become data informed
(19:00):
.
They knew how to read the data,so they were saying things
like, "ell, when I look at thedata, it shows me that there's a
couple of gaps in thesecorrespondences.
I think that's where I'm goingto start, so we're not leaving
gaps in our wakeIn this kind of leadership, it's
(19:22):
It's harder, but it's also morefulfilling.
Instead of feeling like we'reconstantly pushing people
towards change they don'tunderstand, you get to support
and guide a team that's activelyengaged in their own growth.
There's no magic wands here,but there are some structures
that can help.
(19:43):
So, as you think about theprofessional learning in your
school, ask yourself are wedoing things with our team or to
them?
Are we creating genuineopportunities for collaboration
and reflection?
Are we building on strengthswhile addressing challenges?
Are we helping peopleunderstand not just what to do,
but why it matters?
(20:04):
Remember, sustainable changedoesn't happen because someone
tells you to change.
It happens because youunderstand why that change is
needed, you feel supported inthe process and you have genuine
ownership over how that changeunfolds in your context.
Not one single one of us isself-employed, well, maybe me,
(20:26):
and even I don't get to doexactly what I want all the time
.
Leaders have to lead, there'sno doubt about it, but we can
bring our teams along for thejourney and make them active
participants in it.
Thanks so much for listening tothis episode of the Structured
Literacy Podcast.
Until next time, remember youwon't break those children, but
(20:47):
you also have to make sure thatyou don't break the grown-ups
either, especially yourself.
Choose professional learningthat honours your
professionalism and createsgenuine opportunities for growth
.
Until the next episode, that'sall from me.
Thanks so much, everyone.
Happy teaching, bye.
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