TOPIC -- Transforming Professional Centeres Name-----Sarvada Nand Group-- -4 UP India In Step Group

Learning Communities and

Introduction. This is for a small-scale reform project intended to improve the quality and effectiveness of teachers Professional learning Centers at the District Lucknow UP. In particular, this proposed project will implement and evaluate

current status of Professional learning Centers and the changes for the betterment of Teachers and improve their achievement level by a modified approach to organizing their classes in different way with the help of their own field experiences for primary and upper primary classes. Low expectations for student achievement and poor quality professional development go hand in hand. Alternatively, high expectation for student learning requires changes not only in instructions but significant alterations in leadership practices, curriculum, assessment, and various form of support service for students. Such changes demand not only the acquisition of new knowledge and skills on the part of teachers but demands an environment where they can develop themselves professionally. arrangement the Professional Learning Communities As an organizational is seen as a powerful

Teachers Development approach and an important strategy for school change and improvement. Context and Rationale. The Lucknow District is located in the middle- area in Uttar Pradesh India in the heart of the Great Gangetic Plain, city is surrounded by its rural

town and villages. Lucknow is having four Tehsils and eight Blocks for administrative purposes. For the purposes of Elementary Education an office of Zila Basic Shiksha Adhikari (District Education Officer) is in place which is also known as District Project Office (DPO). DPO, s role and responsibility focus mainly to ensure enrollment of the children in the age group of 6 to 14 in age appropriate classes, their retention and quality education for learning. Rational deployment of teachers is also an important work of this office. We have to make sure that where the need for Teacher is required we must post or transfer the Teacher keeping in mind the PTR of the school. At this DPO office under its jurisdiction we have approximately 2 lacks students enrolled in primary and upper primary schools where they complete their study up to 8th standard. For imparting them education we are having around 6 thousand teachers. I have been the District Education Officer of the Lucknow for one and half years. I lead an office for all the in service teachers, overall supervision of the academic scenario of entire district and have to insure the enrollment and retention of all the children. For Administrative purposes and to assist me in my functioning we have a setup in DPO headed by me. To assist me there is a DY. DEO, District Coordinator for Training, Community, Gender, Civil Work, Inclusive Education, Alternate and Innovative Education and an Assistant Account Officer in the office. Apart from it MIS in charge, Computer Operators and Clerical staff is also there to assist me and make office functional. For the proper administration and functioning in Blocks there is an institution or office of Block Level headed by a BEO (Block Education Officer). Due to wide area of supervision to assist BEO, five subject experts as 2

ABRC(Assistant block resource coordinator), a computer operator and an accountant are posted in this office to give academic support to the Teachers. Blocks are divided in Clusters and Coordinator) to help Teachers. In my more than ten years experience in this job and field visits to these Block Resource Centers, and Cluster Resource Centers, along with many scholars and their research findings I have noticed it that all education reform proposal beginning with NPE 1986, DPEP (1995-2003) and SSA (2001) have conceived these institution for putting focus on In-service teachers professional development. As we know NCF2005, mention it specifically that Teachers autonomy is essential for ensuring a learning environment that addresses childrens diverse needs. As much as the learner requires space, freedom, flexibility and respect, the Teacher also requires the same. It is therefore, essential to enable and support them in exercising choice. There is a need to encourage an atmosphere that facilitates collaborative efforts among Teachers, there must also be mechanism for conflict resolution. But in at the cluster level there is a CRC(Cluster Resource

practicality these are not running in the way which it was thought. Block Resource Centers and Cluster Resource Centers are not equipped with the desired infrastructure, they lack in physical resources as well as human resources and lacking modern facilities also. Professional Development attitude is missing. Teachers are engaged with many non-teaching works which hampers teaching and their professional development. But it is important to note that We have system as above mentioned for Professional Development of the Teachers, our little effort with dedication and commitment will transform them in true spirit. We all know that 3

Professional Learning Communities and communities of practice are the terms often given to schools in which staff members provide meaningful and sustained assistance to one another to improve Teaching and student learning. Embedded within school learning communities are teams that meet regularly and provide technical and social support. Without the support such communities provide, the challenges of overcoming the inertia of the status quo and persisting in making complex changes in practice can see insurmountable. Successful PLC have at their base high quality relationship, collegiality, reflection, risk taking and collaborative problem solving. Topic. My reform project topic is improvement of Block Resource Center, and Cluster Resource Center and transform them in true spirit as Professional Learning Centers. My long-term goal is to make every school a Professional Learning Centers in itself and formulate working and vibrant Professional Learning Communities among Teachers so that it leads to enhance the learning outcome of children. As we know a collective focus on the learning of all the Teachers and a shared responsibility for student learning is key for Professional Learning Communities. Creating and Sustaining a Learning Community Professor Cristopher M Clarke In his paper Hello Learners; Living Social

Constructivism has mentioned that the idea of cultivating a learning community as both a means for education and a worthy end in itself is usually attributed to biologist, curriculum theorist and philosopher of education Joseph Schwab (1975; 1976). Both before and after Schwabs now classic articles on learning community were published, good teachers everywhere knew that successful education requires community. Jerome

Bruner, in his 1996 book The Culture of Education, uses the expression community of learners to signify much the same ideal: a classroom group in which the culture stands as the antithesis of the traditional transmission model. Fur Bruner, a community of learners models ways of doing or knowing, provides opportunities for emulation, offers running commentary, provides scaffolding for novices, and even provides a good context for teaching deliberately. It even makes possible that form of job-related division of labor one finds in effective work groups: some serving pro tem as memories for the others, or as record keepers of where things have got up to now, or as encouragers. The point is for those in the groups to help each other get the lay of the land and the hang of the job (Bruner, 1996, p. 21). Bruner continues by claiming, contrary to

traditional critics, such sub-communities [of mutual learners] do not reduce the teachers role or his or her authority. Rather, the teacher takes on the additional function of encouraging others to share it. Characteristics of Learning Communities. Learning communities take form in

indefinitely great variety each is unique, but all share five common characteristics: 1. The learners must come to know one another. A community of strangers is a

contradiction. 2. A learning community must share the common purpose of learning by all members about explicit topics, subjects or themes. 3. Learning in community is an active process. Every member is actively engaged in cooperative and individual projects in support of his or her learning and that of the group.

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Learning opportunities and activities within a learning community are authentic, that is, members must see and feel that what they are learning is of real value to themselves and ideally, to others as well.

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A sustainable learning community is a pleasant place to be.

Goals My goals for this reform proposal is Mentioned below; A Ensuring enhancement in student learning level B Ensuring Professional Development of Teachers C Culture of collaboration among themselves D Developing vibrant and working PLC among Teachers. Aims and Objective. Change is the permanent feature. Pedagogy, Content, curriculum and subjects specific areas are changing fastly.just to keep pace with it and develop own learning Teachers need assistance and tools. Keeping broadly these in my mind my objectives are as follows; 1. Improvement in understanding and skills of participants Teachers 2. Improvement in classroom transactions 3. Establishment of continuous support system for participant Teachers 4. Enhancement in learners achievement Action Professional Development is a continuous process and for achieving above mentioned goals and objective we have to develop a road map and plan it

meticulously. I am going to begin it with sharing my thoughts in a meeting with my senior officer like Secretary Basic Education ,Director (Basic Education), Director SCERT, District Magistrate and Principal DIET. I will seek there guidance and suggestion and incorporate it in my action plan. Senior officials participation will make them familiar about my reform proposal for change and it will help me in implementing reform proposal in a better way. SAMPLE Im going to implement my Action Plan in Block Chinhat. The NPRC is Maleshemau. Initially we will take two Primary School and Two Upper Primary School for our purposes. I have selected these schools keeping in mind that they are not very far from my office and they are having same qualities which are common in all schools. It will be convenient for everyone to monitor, evaluate and assess them. Activitities In the first week of January 2014 we are going to organize a meeting in which concerned Block Education Officer, all Assistant Block Resource Coordinators, concerned Cluster Resource Coordinator, the Head Teacher and Assistant teacher of selected sample school will participate. While sending agenda of the meeting we will send a questionnaire to them to assess their knowledge in this subject. It will help us in molding their thought frame that they are going to be a part of some important program and stimulate them for greater participation. Questionnaire sample like this A- What do you understand by professional development? B-How can you improve learning outcome of the students? 7

C- What support and assistance is required from resource person and administrative officer for your development? D- What resources you require at your learning centers? E Do you have any PLC in your School? F What should be the feature of a good PLC according to you? The response which we will get from them will lead us to think in targeted way. IT will create environment of discussion, provide opportunity to every member to share his thoughts on the topic without fear and favor and take their suggestions in consideration. Keeping their views, suggestions in mind we are going to organize a two day orientation program in second week of January 2014 for the concerned group. .In this orientation we will focus the current status of Professional Learning Communities/ Centers and incorporate members thought in this issue and their views that how we can develop them in true sense. We will address stages of concern of other members and make it clear that how we are going to begin to formulate Professional Learning Communities and how we are going to strengthen Professional Learning Centers, so that there should be no doubt in any members mind. My role will be of facilitator. For conducting this meeting limited resources is required which can be easily managed by contingency fund and with the help of my District Project Office team.

We are going to activate , sensitize and orient our DRG ( District Resource Group), and BRG (Block Resource Group) Cluster Resource Coordinator and Head Teachers to make progress in shared vision and participate in

implementation of this program in the third week of January .we are incorporating it and bringing it into the practice in the school that every day at the end of the classes concerned Head Teacher with sit along with other Teacher and discuss how was the day today regarding teaching, what was good and what according to them gone not well. What is their programme for tomorrow and what support they require? It is the responsibility of the Head Teacher and Cluster Resource Coordinator to collect these information and evaluate it if some assistance is required he has to deliver himself or If he finds that some intervention is required from the subject expert than we have to deliver according to specific needs of the teacher. This activity will bring formulation of Professional Learning Communities at school level and lead to collaboration among Teachers and bring a feeling of working together and growing together. My role will be of facilitator only, I have to take cooperation of Principal DIET, and other members of District Resource Group, Block Resource Group and Cluster Resource Coordinator. I have to develop a tool for all these members that they are doing their job in right direction or not. For their monitoring we are going to monitor them with their reports which mainly consists on these points;

1. Which school you visited. Date and time? 2. With which Teachers group you worked? 3. What are the weakness and strengths of the teachers in your opinion? 4. What help they require and at what level? 5. How do you supported them? 6. Do you require any assistance for dealing with Teachers? The answers or response which we will got from the members of District Resource Group and Block Resource Group will be evaluated by our core group and we will take action as per the findings of the report. My role will be of coordinator between DIET, DRG, BRG and my office. We will provide monitoring handouts to all members and make them free to use resources of Block Resource Center or District Project Office for this purpose. We will use regular budget allocated under Research, Evaluation and Monitoring head. On Maleshemau Center we will provide physical infrastructure like proper sitting conditions for the teachers, relevant books and literature in the form of their library and computer with internet facilities for their use in the last week of January itself. Arrangement of these resources doesnt require more fund because some resources we are already having and for rest it require little budget which we can manage from regular budget allocated under Research, Evaluation and Monitoring head. We will utilize the allocated budget of CRC and BRC for these purposes also. We will invite some NGO,s also for their support and will try to engage some Corporates for their social funding for better infrastructure and facilities.

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We are going to form subject groups or teaching communities in the first week of February 2014 who will meet weekly in their PLC. On the first Thursday the language teachers will meet, on second Thursday science teacher will meet, on third Thursday maths teacher will meet, on fourth Thursday social science, Arts, and Physical Education teachers will meet and discuss their strength and weaknesses. In every PLC, meeting the concerned subject expert will be there to assist them and DIET mentor will be also present to facilitate them. On their meeting and discussion they will discuss mostly on these issues. 1. What is their vision about child and her/his learning? 2. What is their vision about good classroom practice and transaction? 3. What is their vision about evaluation of the child and school? 4. What is their thought and vision about curriculum, syllabus, and text book? 5. Do they find any Teacher among themselves, who is performing better? 6. How their PLC,s are helping them to develop or improve ? Every last Saturday of month there will be a discussion on PLC Centre among concerned CRC, subject experts, DIET mentors and District coordinator training. Through these PLC, meeting we will create learning environment and provide opportunities for teachers to interact with other teachers and construct their own knowledge. the agenda or the discussion of their meeting in PLC,will be prepared in such a manner so that it can lead teachers to think that apart from text book how other material can helpful and supportive to them in their effective transaction in classroom practices. Teachers will discuss on curriculum, syllabus and text book

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that how can it become better and relevant. They will share their teaching practices experiences and if anybody has done remarkable job than try to implement in their practices also, that teacher can be role model for them within their own which will not only boost their morale but motivate them positively. My role for conducting these activities are to make sure that it started to implement in such a way which it is conceived. I will interact with every important member of this chain to make it happen. I will ensure that subject oriented PLC starts their interactions, meetings in the given time frame and the questionnaire which we have formulated for their monitoring should starts to reach us timely. For coordinating all the steps I have to continuously engage my team and motivate them to work in desired way. We are going to provide our teachers continuous and regular school support in their class room transaction from Second Week of February 2014 onwards. We will do mentoring, sometimes modelling, so that they can transact in a better way. Modeling lesson and mentoring will be subject basis and mentors will observe the classes of the teachers. We will make teacher aware of their strengths and positive feedback to overcome on their weaknesses. To make improvement in their classroom transaction we will arrange required training for them in CRC, so that their skills improve. My role for meeting these targets will be to find out expert teachers for modelling and mentoring. I will take help of DIET and Block Education Officers to make a panel of subject experts Teachers and effective Teachers. Our team will work with these

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identified Teachers and before sending them to these schools we will interact with them and share our thoughts and vision for the running program. We will provide them their observation sheets also for our monitoring and evaluation purposes. EVALUATION AND ANALYSIS PLAN Analysis and evaluation are the most challenging part of any reform project. Just to make aligned to the Goals and Objective we have to check our progress and to assess that we are moving in the right direction or not. For assessing project we are concentrating in following manner; Action Feasibility the topic which I have taken for my reform proposal is Developing Professional Learning Communities and strengthening Professional Learning Center is need of the hour because we know that with the collaboration and share vision we all can learn, and grow professionally and develop ourselves. It is possible to implement because it leads to develop everyone and doing it in practice doesnt require huge money or resources. For action feasibility analysis Im going to develop Daily Project Journal to fully describe the actions/interventions as it will be implemented day by day, to document the energy and resources required to implement the action, day by day. It will help us to record the learnings through impediments and successes of implementation. Participant satisfaction analysis our orientation programs, meetings, surveys, questionnaires and inspection reports will provide us this vital information that how much participants are satisfied with the program, its vision, thought and the way we are implementing. To evaluate participants satisfaction in this program that 13

everything is going in the desired direction we are going to use short surveys asking participants about their satisfaction with the project. We will take their interview/conversation protocol for post interventions with participants. We will right down our daily project journal in which we will mention our own satisfaction and frustration with the work in progress. The intention for doing this activity is mainly focused to describe the satisfaction or lack of satisfaction of all participants as they experience the action change. It will make us to know that participants are eager to continue and expand the action. Immediate consequences Analysis we will use the collected data on post intervention outcomes and observe side effects to make claims about the short term benefits of the action. Immediate consequences analyses sometimes employ prepost designs. To evaluate immediate consequences we will take short, simple prepost measures of participants knowledge, skill or attitude at the beginning and end of the first action cycle. The intention for these activities will be to make able a claim that the action has had a small positive effect on the learning and performance of participants. Local theory of Analysis we will use data and informed reflection to construct a testable theoretical explanation of how and why a change in a process of teaching and learning operated as it did in one local context. To evaluate local theory we will take help of our daily project journal to note patterns which will explain how locally observed patterns fit into a larger framework.

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I am going to observe their classes with the help of District Resource Group, Block Resource Group members . To monitor the activity we will develop check list, test scores in the form of pre-test and post- test, we will do time sampling randomly. Head Teachers will meet on the daily basis with their Assistant Teachers and monitor their daily progress, Cluster Resource Coordinator and subject experts will meet weekly and office will also meet them monthly to check their progress. If something is not going in desired way then we will sit in our group and discuss it that what the causes are for it and how can we overcome. We are going to meet the concerned group members every fortnight and get their feedback. Every teacher in their Cluster Resource Center meeting is going to write down their learning outcome and the pros and cons of this initiative. Initially we will focus on teacher contact and observe them and on the basis of our observation we will evaluate them and if we find that some attitudinal changes are coming or not, their level of participation in Professional Learning Communities, and sharing of their experiences will be the key indicators of their monitoring and finally the transaction in classroom practices will be the focus area for evaluation and monitoring. Its a continuous process so we will evaluate and provide continuous support to grow and improve their professional development. Potential Benefits. If all goes well as I hope it will, we will learn a great deal about the practical challenges of organizing field experiences of enhancement in Teachers learning levels. Potential Outcome for Teachers is expected like this;

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1 It will increase Teachers quest for knowledge and they can learn more about changes world over and can implement new ways of teaching in their classroom practices. 2 It will increase their confidence and bridge the gap as well and minimize their isolation. 3 It will increased commitment to the mission and goals of the school and education policies. 4 Shared responsibility for the total development of student and collective responsibility for students success. 5It will make Teachers more satisfied, higher morale, and lower rates of absenteeism. Benefit for Students 1 Lower rates of absenteeism 2 Decreased drop-outs 3 Increased learning outcome. Benefit for resource persons and officer It will leads them to new learning and create learning atmosphere. It will bring harmonious relation between every member of the learning community.

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It will enhance morale and motivate community for continuous professional development.

Reference 1. National Curriculum Framework 2005 2. NCFTE 2009, 3. REFLECTIVE TEACHER by NCERT. 4. THE GOOD TEACHER by Cristopher Clarke,

5. implementing change by Gene E.Hall and Shirley M. Hord . 6. Hello Learners; Living Social Constructivism by

Cristopher M. Clarke Arizona State University 7. Powerful Professional Development for Teachers and Principals by Dannis Sparks. 8. Jerome Bruner and his book The culture of Education.

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