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Illinois School Board Journal
November/December 2003

From higher education's perspective:
To help teachers change, first understand 'vision'

by Kim Pittman

Kim Pittman is an associate professor in the College of Education at Aurora University in Aurora, Illinois.

The state standards movement, which involves curriculum reform and student assessment, has gained most of the attention in the realm of recent school reform. But the difficult task is to move from the adoption of good state standards to actual changes in classroom practice.

Some believe that because the standards have not considered inputs from instructional leaders or teachers, the new state rules and regulation may lead to minimum commitment of principals and teachers, or teacher conformity and loss of teacher control. Others feel that teachers will merely teach toward the tests, at the expense of in-depth knowledge and critical thinking.

In the real world of classrooms and schools, these are practical concerns. Teachers are wrestling with the natural tension between personal accountability and student performance on standardized tests.

Teachers and their work are at the very core of the educational enterprise. In a time of increasing diversity in our society, the press for accountability and a resulting shift of educational goals and priorities place new demands on teachers. At the same time, the role of institutions of higher education in the preparation and continuing education of teachers is being questioned.

Thus, it is important to understand the process of teacher change and to identify effective ways of fostering teacher learning. But first we need to understand the teachers' vision of the classroom, because understanding these visions will help teachers balance the internal struggle for personal accountability and curriculum reform.

How can understanding vision help support and sustain teachers? According to Linda Darling-Hammond, a professor of education at Stanford University, one of the most powerful predictors of teachers' commitment to teaching is a "sense of efficacy - the teacher's sense that he or she is making a positive difference in the lives of students."

In "Learning to hope or hoping to learn?" Karen Hammerness, a graduate student in Stanford's College of Education, goes a step further by identifying three key ways that vision may help support such a sense of efficacy. First, vision may provide a means to reveal and examine teachers' beliefs, providing a way both to validate and build on teachers' hopes and dreams. Making vision explicit may also help provide a foundation for new teachers' developing theories. Second, vision may provide an avenue to help new teachers uncover their beliefs and goals - examining, challenging and further articulating their beliefs and assumptions through the sharing of visions. Finally, examining vision may provide a means to assist teachers to understand and deal with the gap between their hopes and their practice.

In a recent study, 64 teachers from Community Unit School District 300 in Carpentersville were asked to examine key life experiences that have influenced the ways in which they recognize, understand and articulate values that have shaped their teaching identities. They also were asked to examine some of the values that underlie their approach to teaching and the relationship to practical theories, as well as identify real and ideal images of classroom practice.

All grade levels from kindergarten to grade 12 were represented in the sample: primary teachers (K-2) - 32 percent; intermediate teachers (grades 3-5) - 20 percent; middle school-junior high teachers (grades 6-8) - 20 percent; and high school teachers (grades 9-12) - 28 percent. They averaged eight years of experience. All of the teachers held bachelor's degrees and all were in a graduate program seeking a master's in educational leadership. Males were 42 percent of the sample; females composed 58 percent.

Through the use of metaphors and questionnaires, teachers identified their vision of a "real" classroom practice and an "ideal" classroom practice. An open-ended questionnaire assessed teachers' tacit beliefs related to their teaching identity. The questions specifically focused on identifying their values and beliefs about teaching, past experiences that influenced career choices and motivation for continuing in the field by asking the following:

• What key experiences in your life influenced your current ideas about teaching and yourself as a teacher?
• Describe a memorable learning environment (preferably at a level you currently teach). Give background including any family, social, cultural, ethnic, economic or political influences on this environment. How did the physical environment impact you? How did the teacher impact you? How did your classmates influence you?
• What important values underlie your approach to teaching?
• What main aspects of your work have remained constant over time?
• hat does commitment to subject matter mean to you?
• In your own experience as a teacher, how has the group context (social dynamics) of your own education helped you clarify and develop your beliefs about teaching?

In addition, teachers were asked to construct a metaphor to describe their teaching. By constructing images, and then assigning language to those images, teachers reconstruct their experiences in ways that translate tacit understandings into concrete expressions of personal and professional identity. Metaphor analysis corroborated by questionnaire data provides a strategy to link teacher action and reflection within the context of professional development.

To build metaphors, teachers were asked to describe the role of the teacher and the student in the teaching/learning process, to describe how learning occurs and to include teaching strategies they considered most effective.

As an example, one teacher described the role of a teacher in terms of being an usher at Wrigley Field: The teacher leads the student participants to their seats, so they can attend the ball game. The usher is available to direct them and answer questions ... and to monitor them if they get out of line. The students can take in all the sights, sounds and smells of the game available during the time they are in Wrigley Field. And when that particular game is over, they are ushered back out of the ballpark, to be replaced at the next game by different participants.

Other metaphors described teachers' roles as a beacon, a river, a gardener or even a gemologist, taking rough stones and polishing them for future use.

Generalizations about images of "real" classroom practice revealed that teachers felt former employment, student teaching, coaching, day camp counseling, school programs, the military and parents were the most influential in terms of their current classroom practice.

Important values that emerged from these past experiences overwhelmingly were knowledge of subject matter, knowledge of individual student strengths and weaknesses, a respect for the profession, a sense of personal accountability, a sense of humor, patience and understanding, mutual respect and trust, and trustworthiness and fairness.

Remembered characteristics of former teachers include: enthusiastic teaching, a genuine concern for the student as a person, passion for subject area, nurturing and caring, interesting, shared real life stories, organized and prepared, and control of the classroom.

The learning environment was safe and nurturing, as well as academically stimulating. Lessons included hands-on and experiential learning. The teacher provided a learning environment that fostered self-esteem and student responsibility. Important values that teachers feel will remain constant over time are a sense of honesty, high expectations, accountability and a sense of responsibility.

In terms of educational reform, teachers' priorities were differentiated instruction and personal accountability. The focus was on the individual classroom and not the school community as a whole. The majority of teachers felt that standards-based reform, site-based management and professional development initiatives do not impact their day-to-day decisions.

But, when teachers describe their images of "ideal" classroom practice, the emphasis is on the physical layout. The teachers describe an "ideal" classroom as a very large room that emulates a research and design model that would allow for many real-life experiences. This room would have ample supplies and materials to allow for project-based learning. The learning environment would be so engaging that classroom management would be minimal. The environment would be enthusiastic, fun and caring. The room would be large with numerous interest centers and areas for deep thinking and the walls would be covered with information.

In addition, the teachers describe the interaction between themselves and their students as one in which they explore questions together in a fun and exciting climate with mutual respect for one another. There would be more discussions and conversational learning, and less lecturing. Discovery learning is modeled by student interest rather than by teachers' choice or textbooks. It would be a much more democratic classroom.

Certain essential democratic processes make learning more efficient, more widely spread throughout the classroom, and more likely to have lifelong effects. The student would take ownership and responsibility for learning that would involve teachers helping students learn how to make intelligent choices. Students also would learn how to negotiate conflicts so they can work together more effectively and respect and appreciate one another's differences.

Also, they describe their role in the classroom as a facilitator. Teachers see themselves as responsible for checking in with students, guiding them by asking specific questions. The teacher would be more of a participant in the class discussions. The students would be the teacher. Students also would be responsible for creating their own educational agendas and goals, for questioning information they have encountered and for critically thinking through real world problems. The students would solve these problems with lots of technology at their disposal.

Teachers also emphasize learning "basic skills." However, they explain that this doesn't imply the basic skills frequently equated with memorizing facts and figures. Rather, they envision students participating in projects because they feel that such investigations can enable students to develop and apply the same basic knowledge they might gain in a traditional setting, while gaining an understanding of how the world works around them.

Although the teachers' vision focuses on students becoming independent thinkers able to approach problems with confidence and thoughtfulness, this focus moves beyond the classroom. They envision a school in which the community reinforces and reflects those goals for students. The teachers envision duplication of school programs at home so that parents and students assume more responsibility for learning. They also envision a less fearful administration that helps facilitate and improve school/home communication and a more collaborative partnership so that teachers didn't always feel like they had to defend their methods.

An analysis of the gaps between the teachers' images of the "real" and "ideal" classroom practice reveals two interesting ideas. The first gap exists in the area of classroom methods. Teachers envision many "best practice" strategies in the ideal classroom. However, fears of personal and public accountability prohibit them from using many of the suggested "best practices" in the real classroom.

While some may think that experiential, collaborative or self-chosen tasks are "easier" for students, teachers using state-of-the-art practices know that the opposite is true. "Letting" students choose their own topics for writing, for example, makes their task harder, not easier.

The second gap exists in the area of focus within the vision. When teachers describe the external factors that influence their decisions of their "ideal" classroom, it involves a much more collaborative school community effort. However, the focus of the real classroom vision is on the individual classroom. The teachers envision a future classroom where parents assume more of a partnership role with the teacher in educating the child.

To close the gap, teachers use a number of coping strategies for not being in their "ideal" classroom. First, the disillusionment and attitude shifts from a progressive mode to a more conservative mode. Teachers become reluctant to change anything.

Second, the gap between vision and reality leads some teachers to believe that students are incapable of attaining their high expectations, so the teachers lower their expectations. In addition, the teachers may start to doubt their own effectiveness.

Ultimately, this produces teachers who are resistant to many reform efforts. This calls for a professional development model to address the concerns and needs of the teacher in an "ideal" classroom.

Since the relationship between teachers' beliefs and reform efforts demonstrates that beliefs have a powerful impact on their willingness to adopt new curriculum and teaching strategies, school board members may want to analyze their district's professional development policies to see if they support the following:

• Teachers should be encouraged and supported to recognize the steps they need to take to reach their vision and come to terms with the time required to take on such a role.
• Teachers should have an opportunity to articulate their visions more explicitly to help develop a clearer sense of their purposes for teaching and their commitment to the profession.

In fact, helping teachers figure out ways to hold onto their ideals while confronting the realities of the classroom may be of special importance in this era of increased accountability.

Focusing on vision may help us better understand why committed, thoughtful teachers consider leaving the profession, as well as why equally committed and thoughtful teachers remain inspired in their work. But perhaps even more important, teachers' vision may also provide us with a particularly powerful means of focusing on how to support teachers by enabling us to validate their commitments, challenge and deepen their beliefs about teaching and learning, and help them develop clear, attainable steps that assist them to move closer to their ideals.

Three major goals of professional development programs are change in the classroom practices of teachers, change in their attitudes and beliefs, and change in the learning outcomes of students. Of particular importance to efforts to facilitate change, however, is the sequence in which these outcomes most frequently occur.

Professional development programs, based on the assumption that change in attitudes and beliefs comes first, are typically designed to gain acceptance, commitment and enthusiasm from teachers before the implementation of new practices or strategies. They involve teachers in planning sessions and survey needs to ensure that the new practices or strategies are well aligned with what teachers want. But, as important as these procedures are, they seldom change attitudes significantly or elicit strong commitment from teachers.

Significant change in teachers' attitudes and beliefs occurs primarily after they gain evidence of improvements in student learning. These improvements typically result from changes teachers have made in their classroom practices: a new instructional approach, the use of new materials or curricula, or simply a modification in teaching procedures or classroom format.

The crucial point is that it is not the professional development per se, but the experience of successful implementation that changes teachers' attitudes and beliefs. They believe it works because they have seen it work, and that experience shapes their attitudes and beliefs.

If teachers have been consistently unsuccessful in helping students from educationally disadvantaged backgrounds attain a high standard of learning, then they are likely to believe these students incapable of academic excellence. If, however, those teachers try a new instructional strategy and succeed in helping such students learn, their beliefs are likely to change.

If we want to close the gap between the "real" and "ideal" classrooms, then a different sequence in professional development may be necessary. "Seeing is believing" may be what results in actual change to a belief that all children can achieve academic excellence.

Darling-Hammond, Linda. "Teacher professionalism: Why and how?" Schools as collaborative cultures: Creating the future now, 1990

Hammerness, Karen. "Learning to Hope, or Hoping to Learn? The Role of vision in the Early Professional Lives of Teachers," Journal of Teacher Education, 2003

Hammerness, Karen. "Seeing through teachers' eyes: An exploration of the content, character and role of teachers' vision," unpublished doctoral dissertation, Stanford University, 1999