3. Welcome to our collaborative
learning environment.
Today, we have attempted to create an
environment for something special to
take place:
A collaborative learning environment in which you
are a participant and a presenter.
We have high expectations for you!
4. What is a collaborative and
reciprocal learning
environment?
11. Collaborative and Reciprocal Learning
Environment
• Focus is on the learner
• Interaction is critically important
• Primary learning mode is working in groups
• Practical: deals with problems faced in real
world
12. Your invitation to enter into a
learning focused conversation
Why you might want to do that:
• Build your capacity
• Unpack your understanding of who you are
as a learner
• Strengthen your knowledge, ability, skill
• Make you a better teacher and leader
• Be able to improve the structure and process of
your own classroom/site/district
13. Your invitation to enter into a
learning focused conversation
Why you might want to do that:
• Help yourself; help others
• You are not alone (a very
powerful understanding)
• Validation of current practices
• Know that you belong as you get to know
colleagues
14. Learning-focused Conversations:
The Continuum of Interaction Stances
Sharingexpertise,
providingtechnical
assistance
Shared planningand
problem solving
Non-judgmental
interactionto support
reflectionand develop
capacity
CoachCollaborateConsult
15. Learning Focused Conversation:
Guiding Questions
Consulting Collaborating Coaching
What information,
ideas and technical
resources will be
most useful to this
person at this time?
What are some ways
to balance my
contributions with
this person’s
experience and
expertise?
What mental and
emotional resources
might be most useful
for this person right
now?
17. Learning Focused Conversation:
Cues
Consulting Collaborating Coaching
Credible voice
• Neutral language or
personal pronouns
Approachable voice
• Collective pronouns
Approachable voice
• Second person
pronouns
“I think that …”
“It is important to …”
“Here is one way to
think about that”
“Let’s think about …”
“How might we …”
What are some of
your...?”
“How might you... ?”
19. Let's think about how we can
accomplish this ...
I invite you to take a risk and participate as a
reciprocal learner:
• Be real, be authentic, be open and engaged
• Bring yourself
• Your lifelong history and experience
• Your values and perspectives
• Your knowledge and practice
• Your learning style and philosophies
• Your intention to co-create
20. Be a reciprocal learner
... even if that's outside your usual
comfort zone
Be accepting and willing to share
without insisting that your stance is
the only "right" one
Strive to make meaning from new
experiences of the day
24. The following slides are
provided to show each
part of Slide 14, the
heavily animated slide on
continuum of stances.
This can aid in the
production of handouts,
if you wish.
I’m so honored to be here with you today and to have been invited as an alumnae and member of the St. Mary’s College learning community, to frame our day together and share some constructs for our time together.
For me, these are powerful constructs that have impacted my professional practice because they call me to be a life-long learner and provide strategies by which I can grow professionally and personally.
Welcome to our collaborative learning environment.
Today, we have attempted to create an environment for something special to take place:
A collaborative learning environment in which you are a participant and a presenter.
We have high expectations for you!
We are going to discuss briefly two structures that further a collaborative and reciprocal learning environment:
-- the professional learning context our our California Teachers summit using an Ed Camp model
-- the stances of participating in learning-focused conversations
In this construct, we look at the conditions, competence, and culture within the context of the summit. Let’s unpack it.
Context is the conditions of the larger environment that exert influence but are not within our control per se. The context is the background, the scene, the setting, the circumstances.
At the Summit, the context of our being a participant and presenter are supported by the Ed Camp conference model.
The Summit is an “unconference” model.
Unlike traditional conferences, our sessions are not planned.
The range of sessions will be generated by your interests and advocacies.
Conditions are the architecture surrounding our summit and our reciprocal and collaborative learning.
For our Summit today:
A level playing field ofr discussion is created.
No hierarchy – we are all equal presenters and participants.
All parties can take an active role in dialogue.
I invite you to ponder: What conditions support your learning?
For me, I value a reciprocal and collaborative learning environment in which:
Risk taking is encouraged, exploring new possibilities is honored
Communication is thoughtful
Asking questions is welcomed to gather knowledge and build understanding
Today will be great for me, because there will be a match between who I am, and what I value … and the Summit.
Again, what conditions support your learning?
Competence is our skills and knowledge that influence our participation in the summit.
Today, each of us brings our “best professional practice” repertoire to the summit. Think about that.
We bring our prior knowledge and experience, which support our current capacities.
It is from our individual current competence that we can listen, speak, and contribute … and learn.
And because there’s a varied group in attendance today – each with our own competence – we each can expand our continuum of shared learning.
To me, this is reassuring, as I don’t have to be the expert. I can learn from and with others.
What “best professional practices” and competencies do you look forward to sharing and reflecting on with your colleagues today?
Culture: For today, that means the shared values, beliefs, expectations, assumptions, and behaviors related to learning and professional growth. It’s “the way we do things around here;” we haven’t necessarily intentionally created a culture, but a culture most assuredly exists today in this room. You can’t see it, but it is here. We bring shared norms that affect what is acceptable and not acceptable here today.
But we can also intentionally create culture by embracing mutually agreed norms. The summit invites us to create and learn ina collaborative culture.
Reciprocal learning occurs when learning behaviors thrive such as: risk taking, problem solving, generation of multiple solutions and strategies, and shared agreements.
Culture is also created and impacted by our developing an understanding and acceptance of our own cultural proficiencies, learning styles, and perspectives … together with those of our colleauges.
Who am I? Who is my colleauge? Who are we that are making up our collaborative learning community? What is my critical consciousness that challenges inequities?
So … in the context of our summit, we invite you to be an engaged participant in our collaborative and reciprocal learning environemnt where:
Focus is on the learner
Interaction is critically important
Primary learning mode is working in groups
Practical: deals with problems faced in real world
The second structure I’d like to speak to is the Learning Focused Conversation.
In our collaborative and reciprocal learning environment of our summit, we invite you to enter in a learning focused conversation throughout the day.
Why might you want to enter into our learning focused conversation?
Simply … To Build Capacity!
Your own capacity – and that of your colleagues.
For me, the learning focused conversation is what makes teaching and learning such a powerful act … because it is capacity building. And it is a result of our summit’s context.
A learning focused conversation is a means by which we can participate in our reciprocal and collaborative learning environment.
This construct is adapted from the work of Laura Lipton and Bruce Wellman, mentors of mine and perhaps know to you.
In a learning focused conversation, you can adopt one of three stances. The stance you are using at any moment can change in response to your partner in the conversation.
The goal of a learning-focused conversation is to develop capacities by reflecting, generating ideas and options, and increasing personal/professional awareness and skills.
The learning-focused conversation moves continuously back and forth on a continuum of stances, supporting a rich conversation.
You can be in a Consultive stance, where you share your expertise, providing technical assistance. You are more of the expert; you provide the answers. You talk a little more, you partner listens a little more. The guiding question on the consulting stance is “What information, ideas, and technical resources will be most useful to my colleagues at this time?”
Here, you recognize in a colleague’s inquiry a need for resources that could assist and support them. Offering context-specific examples can assist a colleague in their understanding -- by offering perspectives on a colleague’s questions or concerns, and naming possible causes or approaches to them – provides information and new knowledge. The expertise you share helps your colleague in generating their own new approaches and solutions.
You can be in a Coaching stance, where you help you partner reflect and develop capacity in a non-judgmental interaction. You facilitate your partner’s learning not by giving the answers, but by asking the questions. You talk less. Your partner talks more and, in reflection, finds their own answers. The guiding questions in the coaching stance is “What mental and emotional resources might be most useful to my colleague at this time?”
Here, you recognize that your colleague desires to reflect on their practice and manage their personal learning. Your recognize their expertise and potential. In the coaching stance, you use inquiry, pausing and probing for details. Thus, your colleague can produce ideas, and explore the “whys” and “hows” of choices, possibilities, and connections.
Or you can be in a Collaborative stance, where you are your partner talk about the same amount, doing shared planning and problem solving. Here, the guiding question is: “What are some ways to balance my contributions with my colleague’s experiences and expertise?”
In this stance, colleagues offer ideas, solutions and analysis. Each colleague provides support for idea generation, and is respectful of their colleague’s ability to generate ideas and solutions. Thus, there is joint ownership of the information and actions generated. This collabortative stance has the widest range of participant, leading to greater insights among the participating colleagues.
You and your partner in a learning-focused conversation can move back and forth on this continuum. Today, I invite you to be aware of what stance you are adopting, and to exercise your ability to change your stance as the situation calls for moving from one stance to another.
Again, here are some guiding questions for each stance. I invite you to take a moment to consider how you can participate today in each stance.
Learning-focused conversation is a developmental approach to supporting collegial learning.
Exercising the roles and functions of each stance supports a growth-oriented dialogue.
A learning-focused conversation acknowledges that – as reciprocal learners – we always have areas for growth. The primary goal of a learning-focused conversation is to increase our capacity to:
Reflect on our own practice
Self-assess
Set goals, and
Monitor for continuous improvement.
As you participate in your learning-focused conversation today, I bring your attention to the multiple layers of “conversation” occurring simultaneously:
Inner dialogue, your conversation with yourself and your colleague’s conversation with himself
A conversation about the subject itself …. talking about what you are talking about, and
A conversation about the learning … talking about what you are learning from what you are talking about.
Be aware of these multiple conversations – they will guide the stance you choose in your dialogue.
In conclusion, I want to encourage you to be a reciprocal learner today.
Be real – be authentic – be engaged – and bring your genuine self to the dialogue.
I look forward to working with each of you today as reciprocal learners …
I look forward to learning with you and from you and witnessing how you all building capacity in each other.
It has been a very great pleasure to speak with you today. Thank you.
