Implementing Change in Instructional Delivery of Classroom Curriculum: A Phenomenological Case Study of Classroom Teachers Implementing a Problem-Based Learning Approach Critical Review of the Literature, Qualitative Research Methods and Results

1
Implementing Change in Instructional
Delivery of Classroom Curriculum A
Phenomenological Case Study of Classroom Teachers
Implementing a Problem-Based Learning
Approach Critical Review of the Literature,
Qualitative Research Methods and Results

• Maura A. Hart
• Oral Defense Presentation
• April 24, 2009

2
Introduction

• The research literature regarding the concept of
  school change will be examined through three
  lenses
• 1. The constructs of school change
• 2. The work of the school teacher
• 3. The institutional context and culture of
  schools

3
3 Areas of Literature
4
School Change versus Educational Reform

• Educational Reform
• Wide-scale, systemic efforts to
• create changes on an institutional level
• Examples
• No Child Left Behind, 2001
• National standardized testing

• School Change
• Change in education on a school building or
  school district level
• Examples
• Embracing The Responsive
• Classroom
• Introducing a teaming approach to
• teaching

5
Part 1 School Change as Defined by Michael Fullan

• Change itself proves Protean, its
  implementation Sisyphean. We try to define it,
  analyze it, plan it management experts speak of
  mastering it- all in vain (Evans, 1996 p.4).

6
Three Phases of Change (Fullan, 2001)
Student Learning Organizational Capacity
7
Three Phases of Change(An average of 5-7 years)

• Initiation
• Driving factors
• Purpose or Scope and source of change
• Implementation
• Driving factors
• The characteristics of the change project
• Local roles
• External factors
• Institutionalization
• Driving factors
• Social infrastructure
• Habits

8
5 Change Types (Fullan, 2001)

• Teacher Change social, emotional or cognitive
  growth
• Curricular Change Alterations in classroom
  instruction
• Systemic Change Embracing the institution
  itself
• Innovation Specific new materials or teaching
  practices
• Reform Changes to the system reflecting a
  politically driven values change

9
3 Components of Change (Fullan, 2001)

• (1) The possible use of new or revised materials
  
• (2) The possible use of new teaching approaches
• (3) The possible alteration of beliefs

10
Complexity Theory

• Unpredictable and non-linear
• Systems that are too complex to accurately
  predict the future
• Systems avoid extremes of order (- )
• Underlying patterns help with navigation
• Complex systems cycle through continuous learning
  and change
• Over time the cycle becomes predictable

11
The Quest Program Rosetta Marantz Cohen (1995)
A Comparison to Fullans Change Process

• 1. Change Types
• Teacher change, curricular change, innovation
• 2. Components of the change
• Use of new materials
• Use of new teaching approaches
• Eventual alteration of beliefs
• 3. Initiation
• The purpose, scope and source of change were
  varied
• 4. Implementation
• 9th grade interdisciplinary 90 minute English
  and History course
• logistical difficulties, differences of opinion,
  confusion (parents and students
• 5. Institutionalization
• Increased participation
• Improvement in program quality and team

12
Part 2The Work of the School Teacher
13
The Personal Process of School Change

• Deep change requires new ways
• of thinking and behaving
• (Quinn, 1996)

14
The Alteration of Belief SystemsA deep learning
cycle (Peter Senge 2000, p. 26)
15
Robert Quinn (1996)

• Deep change differs from incremental change in
  that it requires new ways of thinking and
  behaving. It is change that is major in scope,
  discontinuous with the past and generally
  irreversible. The deep change effort distorts
  existing patterns of action and involves taking
  risks. Deep change means surrendering control
  (p. 3).

16
Research supports that teachers are reluctant to
change for varied reasons.

• Mary Kennedy (2005)
• Teachers hold a number of important beliefs that
  are relevant to teaching beliefs about the
  nature of school subjects and what is important
  to learn about them, about how students learn and
  what motivates them, about how teachers influence
  students, and so forth. Researchers who have
  studied teachers beliefs (Kagan, 1992 Kennedy,
  1991 Pajaras, 1992) have identified their
  relevant features they tend to be very durable
  and resistant to change they are part of an
  internally consistent network of ideas, a factor
  that also makes them resistant to change and
  they are used to filter and interpret new
  experience in a way that reinforces the beliefs
  instead of challenging them(p. 13).

• Andy Hargreaves (2004)
• (Results reveal that teachers find change)
  entails abandoning all the familiar routines and
  relationships (and the) changes that teachers and
  other adults encounter are accompanied by
  profound feelings of loss (p. 288).

17
3 Characteristics of the work of the teacher
shown to negatively impact the change process

• Overwork
• Isolation
• Technical Uncertainty (Rosenholtz, 1989)

18
Pervasive deterrents to teacher change
19
Teacher Time Workload

• Researchers agree there is a sharp imbalance of
  teacher time and teacher workload
• (Fullan, 1991 Hargreaves and Giles, 2003
  Kennedy, 2005 Newman, 1998 Senge, 2000 Wagner,
  1994).
• Daily lesson preparation Formal and informal
  student assessment
• Extra-curricular duties Constant daily
  interruptions
• Increase in social work National trend toward
  larger class sizes
• Committee work Professional development
• Parent communication Administrative duties
• Greater accountability Increased emotional
  needs of students.

20
A Day in the life of a teacher
Tony Wagner (1994) Large numbers of teachers appear too weighed down by their own professional malaise to consider how to respond to the increased emotional needs and demands of the students (p. 63).
Michael Fullan (1991) Teachers and principals are dangerously overloaded. More social work responsibilities, greater accountability, and having to deal with a wider range of abilities and behaviors in their classrooms are now all part of the teachers lot (p. 4).
Peter Senge (2000) There is a sense of lightening striking from the outside. Six parents have already left messages for you to return their calls. The local newspaper just reported test scores for every school in the region. The assistant superintendent just returned from a curriculum conference bursting with ideas. You would be happy to work on the new curriculum committee if there were time in the day, but your planning periods have been cut. The school board has chosen new textbooks and rearranged the bus and cafeteria schedules theyre talking about adding five or six extra students in every class to save money (p. 101).
Judith Newman (1998) Life in the classroom is life in the fast lane. Given the way most classrooms and schools are structured these days, interruptions are common. Teachers and students have to run fast just to stay in place. By the end of the day, most people are just too tired to take courses, read professional articles, or write brief reflections in a journal (p. 8).
21
Teacher Isolation

• The problem of isolation is a deep seated one.
• Architecture often supports it.
• The timetable reinforces it.
• Overload sustains it.
• History legitimizes it (Fullan, 1991).

22
Factors that Impact Teacher Isolation

• Lack of time
• Too much work
• School structure
• Schedule structure
• Self selection into an autonomous profession

23
Teacher Technical Uncertainty

• A technical culture is labeled uncertain if the
  outcomes of work are highly unpredictable where
  because of the variability in their students, for
  example, teachers do not reach automatically for
  solutions to the myriad learning problems they
  confront. Uncertain means there are few
  well-established techniques codified technical
  knowledge- to help teachers meet students widely
  varying needs (Rosenholtz, 1989, p. 4) .
• Technical uncertainty leads to a lack of
  self-efficacy.

24
Factors that Impact Technical Uncertainty

• Teacher isolation
• Teacher overwork
• Self estrangement (Webb, 1983, p. 85)
• Lack of feedback from administrators, parents,
  colleagues, students
• Lack of a support system
• Constrained financial resources (particularly
  teacher remuneration)
• Targets for social and economic ills

25
Part 3 The Institutional Context and the
Culture of Schools
26
Institutional Obstacles to School Change

• Hargreaves (2003) Instead of fostering
  creativity and ingenuity, more and more school
  systems have become obsessed with imposing and
  micromanaging curricular uniformity. In place of
  ambitious missions of compassion and community,
  schools and teachers have been squeezed into the
  tunnel vision of test scores, achievement targets
  and league tables of accountability (p. 1).

27
Institutional Obstacles to School Change

• Lack of resources of both time and money
• Top-heavy in management
• two and three tiered administration systems,
  school boards, local and state mandates, tax
  payers, parents
• At the whim of local control
• Increased Federal Government regulations
• No Child Left Behind forces a narrow alley of
  method and curriculum and inspires fear
• Size
• Understanding the education systems
  capabilities in the context of the resources it
  has and the processes it employs reveals
  formidable obstacles to reinventing schools
  (Christenson, Aaron Clark, 2005 p. 548).

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The Culture of Schools

• School culture affects every part of the
  enterprise from what faculty talk about in the
  lunch room to the type of instruction that is
  valued, to the way professional development is
  viewed, to the importance of learning for all
  students (Deal, T., Peterson, K., 1999).

29
Bryk and Schneider, Trust in Schools, (2002)

• 4 organizational conditions which foster school
  change
• orientation to innovation
• outreach to parents
• professional community
• teacher commitment to school community.
• There is strong statistical evidence linking
  relational trust to improvements in student
  learning the pattern of results proved highly
  consistent across all four organizational
  outcomes (p. 115 119).

30
Schools are distinguished from one another by
the interactions that are encouraged,
discouraged, or met with some degree of
indifference (Little, 1982, p. 326)

• Cultural factors which diminish the creation of
  positive school change
• isolation
• lack of control of curriculum and method
• teacher vulnerability
• situational norms built over time
• neglect
• lack of collegiality.
• (Little, 1982 Rosenholtz, 1989 Stoll Fink,
  1999 Stolp, 2004)

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Literature Review Conclusion
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Qualitative Research Methods
34
Introduction The world is changing at a
breathtaking pace and schools are not.

• Obama (2009) In a global economy where the most
  valuable skill you can sell is your knowledge, a
  good education is no longer just a pathway to
  opportunity it is a pre-requisite. Right now
  three quarters of the fastest growing occupations
  require more than a high school diploma. And yet
  just over half our citizens have that level of
  education. We have one of the highest high
  school drop out rates of any industrialized
  nation. We know the countries that out teach us
  today will outcompete us tomorrow.
• Friedman (2006) It is now possible for more
  people than ever to collaborate and compete in
  real time with more other people on more
  different kinds of work from more different
  corners of the planet and on a more equal footing
  than at any previous time in the history of the
  world using computers, e-mail, fiber optic
  networks, teleconferencing and dynamic new
  software (p. 8).
• Wagner (1994) American schools (are) in
  shambles, threatened by a rising tide of
  mediocrity. As a result the countrys economic
  survival (is) endangered (p. 1).
• Evans (1996) The futility of school change is
  legendary. Perhaps no American institution has
  been reformed more often, with less apparent
  effect than the school (p. xi).
• Christenson (2005) Two decades of education
  reform have resulted in little real change (p.
  545).

35
Research Question

• What is the experience of the classroom teacher
  as she changes her method of instructional
  delivery from that of a teacher-centered, lecture
  based tradition to a student-centered,
  problem-based learning approach?

36
Researcher Background and Interest

• A classroom teacher and in-school change agent
  for 15 years
• Prior work experience as a Consultant for the
  Department of Education (Northeast Educational
  Research Center)
• Adjunct faculty member teaching core courses in
  the Education Department at Antioch University
  Keene, New Hampshire
• School coach and consultant
• Mom of little girls.

37
Conceptual Framework

• Rossman and Rallis see the case study as
  in-depth and detailed explorations of single
  examples to understand the larger phenomenon
  through close examination of a specific case
  (2003, p. 104).
• This Phenomenological Case Study examines the
  phenomenon of the change process of individual
  teachers within the bounded context of their
  school and classrooms.

38
Setting

• Twin River Technical Center
• Rural, Northeast United States
• Serves public high school students from five
  sending schools
• Geographic area of about 450 miles across two
  states
• 18 teachers
• Some offered courses welding, carpentry, public
  safety, law, certified nursing aid, business,
  travel and tourism
• Mission statement emphasizes the changing
  workplace and helping students to become
  life-long learners

39
Participants

• 12 total teachers ranging in years of teaching
  experience from 0 to 30
• Range of personal education experience
• Some had no formal teacher training some had
  Bachelors degrees in their subject area but not
  in education, others had Masters Degrees in
  their subject area but not in education others
  had Bachelors degrees in education as well as
  their subject area,
• 2 teachers were in their second year enrolled in
  a Masters Degree Program for Experienced
  Educators at Antioch University

40
Data Collection

• Interviews with three teachers at three different
  times of the school year (fall, mid-winter, and
  late spring)
• Three focus group sessions (fall, mid-winter, and
  late spring) with four or more teachers during
  each
• Document collection journal entries and survey
• Field notes from formal and informal
  observations
• three faculty meetings (fall, mid-winter, and
  late spring)
• Classroom observations

41
Approach to Data Analysis

• We are capable of coming to know about events,
  ourselves and other people in different ways.
  The way in which we know about things guides how
  we act (Fisher, 1991, p. 3).
• With this Social Constructivist approach to data
  analysis I was able to embrace the individual
  perceptions and interactions of my participants
  with an eye for meaning which they attributed to
  events, and the ways in which they responded to
  these meanings.
• With this framework, I was better able to avoid
  presupposition of the participants experiences
  and perceptions in order to more clearly
  understand their experiences of their change
  process.

42
Data Analysis

• Predominant data analysis construct used
  Constant Comparative Method (Straus Corbin,
  1998).
• Immersion in the data
• Micro analysis for identification of categories
  and themes
• Open, axial and selective coding
• Matrixes, charts, concept maps and researcher
  memos
• Data analysis coincided with data collection
• Individual and focus group interviews were
  affected by questions generated by data review
• The survey was a spontaneous tool also
  generated by data review

43
Research Validity

• Triangulation in multiple data sources
• Diversity in experiences and philosophical
  orientations of participants
• Repetition of data collection
• Member checks of transcriptions and initial data
  analysis
• Informal professional study group
• Single Critical Friend
• Non-field oriented, informal Critical Friend

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Results

• Background-
• In 2006, the TRTC faculty read, discussed, and
  adopted some of the ideas presented in Thomas
  Friedmans book, The World is Flat (2006).
• In chapter seven, Friedman asks, what is the
  right kind of education to prepare our young
  people(p. 302)?
• Friedman identified four abilities
• To learn how to learn
• Have a sense of passion and curiosity
• To be skilled at managing and interacting with
  other people
• To constantly develop right brain skills (think
  out of the box, synthesize the big picture)

46
The Critical Skills Classroom

• The faculty decided to take a methodology course
  to help them better prepare their students for
  the near future described by Thomas Friedman.
• The Critical Skills Classroom utilizes a
  problem-based learning approach to instruction
• It is
• Experiential
• Problem-based
• Standards or outcomes driven
• Collaborative in nature

47
Category I The Practice of Changing
Instructional Delivery from Traditional to
Problem-Based

• Range of emotional investment and attitude
• Variety of strategies used to make the change
  happen
• Experiencing writing challenges (turning the
  curriculum into problems for students to solve)

48
Emotional Investment and Accompanying Attitude
Complete Surrender

• I think it will be extremely powerful. Thats
  it. Im not afraid to take the risk, but I do
  want to go in with some information. I can just
  try. Just try. And the most risk is, ok that
  didnt work. Well, you might get embarrassed.
  Theres no mystery, and Ill be straight with
  you. Im committed with two feet. You only get
  out of it what you put into it. Jason
• Giving it half is simple. I want to do it all!
  Ive got this wonderful plan in my head that Im
  going to be able to do all of it! And its
  organized and its outlined! -Lisa

49
Emotional Investment and Accompanying
AttitudeQuestioning and Combining Theory and
Practice

• Its like any other good training that you go
  to. You know you pick and choose what pieces of
  it fit into your repertoire
• I dont see Critical Skills as something thats
  going to come in and replace the way Ive been
  doing things. I think its going to enhance.
  Mary
• For me it isnt change. It is simply having
  something I can sink my teeth into with support
  and structure. -Gina

50
Variety of Strategies Used to Make Things Happen

• Talking with other teachers formally (through a
  CFG) and informally
• And then to see it come back revised! Oh my
  gosh, it was likeactually we all made the same
  mistake and we could learn by your mistake!
  Robert (reflecting on a CRG protocol)
• Oh I will just chase someone down the hall if I
  see them! -Kathy
• Observing other teachers
• It was really something to see it in action in
  Ellies room. It made it concrete for me.
  -Robert
• Journal writing
• It helps. I can work things out with it.
  -Jason
• Focusing on single tools and strategies at a time
  
• Were doing a lot with the carousels, with the
  sweeps and daily reflections. -Mary
• Connecting new knowledge with past practice
• Its kind of come full circle for me take some
  of the knowledge that I gained ten years ago and
  reinvigorate what I do in the classroom. -Kyle

51
Experience Writing Challenges

• Just to take even verbal challenges Ill just
  wing it off the top of my head but Ill put it in
  challenge form. Robert
• That first one, I bit off way too much! Robert
• Im never positive of how long its going to
  take! Kathy
• I am attempting to work on challenge writing for
  my accounting class but I am struggling
  horribly! -Mary

52
Category II Teacher Focus on Students

• Teacher Student relationship
• Lack of student skills
• Pay-back of Problem-Based learning methodology

53
Teacher-Student Relationship

• At the end of lab, I will debrief individually
  with students and with the whole class. Many
  times I walk out to the bus with students to
  finish up the conversation Students need to be
  approached in a fashion that makes them feel good
  about themselves. Dan

54
Lack of Student Skills

• I get so frustrated with students these days
  because they are just looking for the answer and
  I cannot respect that. Jason
• What I see myself needing now, and I thought it
  was patience, but its not really patience. Its
  a tolerance for where theyre at and a
  willingness that they are not where I want them
  to be. And they may not get there. My tolerance
  for students not willing to take risks really,
  really dropped. Kyle
• Students dont have the confidence. When I ask
  them what they could do next (when problem
  solving), its as if they just crumble. We
  (referencing schools in general) must be doing
  something wrong. They (students) dont know how
  to answer those questions. Is it lack of
  initiative? I dont know, but its lack of
  something, or a lot of things! -Mary

55
Pay-back of Problem-based Learning Methodology

• And now when I give them a task, theyre like,
  cant we do a challenge? The kids really they
  love it and they get a lot our of it. I mean, I
  can see the difference even in our conversations
  that they really got (the concept) of the work
  Mary
• And they (students) were like, can we use a
  computer? and can we make a Power Point? and
  can we do this? and can we do that? You know
  they just get right into it. It sure beats
  teaching to the test! Deirdre
• Everything gets re-connected backIt links
  together for them (students) and they are like
  Oh! Now I see where this fits! For me, that is
  satisfying. -Ellie

56
Category III Working Within a Culture of Change

• Shared Goal helping students learn and master
  the necessary skills to be successful in the
  Twenty-first Century
• Common Experiences
• Text
• Course
• CFG participation
• Shared language
• Successes and failures in the classroom
• Support

57
Common Experiences

• You can commiserate with your colleagues, like,
  oh my God, that totally blew up in my face!
  You know, well be able to sympathize with each
  other because we all know what were trying to
  do. Mary
• I liked learning that everybody else was making
  mistakes too! I was pretty sure it wasnt just
  me, but I was just as glad to find out for sure!
  -Robert

58
Shared Language

• Let me tell you about one of my Critical Skills
  Moments. -Dierdre
• I would say that one of the immediate influences
  that this has had on us as a building and staff
  is its given us a common language. We are able
  to talk to each other about whats going on in
  our classroom and have a common platform to do
  that Having that (terminology) in common has
  enabled us to have more open conversations with
  each other across programs. Ellie
• I think it would be scary (if the rest of the
  staff didnt know what I was talking about.) It
  is really hard to sum up for any person what the
  Critical Skills model is all about.

59
Support

• Colleagues, support staff
• Administration and Guidance
• Infrastructure
• CFGs
• Students
• Parents

60
Teacher Community

• I think one of the obstacles that Ive overcome
  already on this program is that well, being
  hired a week ago. I know a lot of you face
  value, because Ive been through this school and
  Ive volunteered here a lot. But you know, I
  held up a one yesterday (referencing when they
  were asked to indicate their comfort level with
  the other members of the faculty at the beginning
  of the first day of a two day long session, by
  one of their Critical Skills Classroom
  instructors) on how well I knew all of you. And
  through this model, creating our own community of
  staff, today I held up a four I was just very
  excited that that obstacle of knowing who I can
  turn to for what type of thing, well I just feel
  very comfortable! -Wyatt

61
Category IV The Personal Experience of
Implementing Change

• Perceptions of Self
• My parents are teachers. Its always been a
  part of who I am. Kyle
• Its a constant struggle. But when I set out to
  do this (earn her Masters degree while
  implementing Problem-based learning in her
  classroom), I said, Im going to be selfish for
  the next two years. And thats a hard decision
  but Ive got to do it. Mary
• A way to compare it, I guess, (would be) if I
  were a piece of clay going in to be made by an
  artist into something You know its my first
  year of teaching, everything that Ive been
  taking in from Methods and from this program is
  what I know about teaching its who I currently
  am as a teacher. -Wyatt

62
Personal Challenges of Change

• Lack of time
• Number one on the list of challenges is time.
  It seems to always be the challenge to develop
  and deliver what I would consider quality
  activities with authentic assessment and not
  spend every waking hour planning, developing and
  implementing that. Kyle
• None of us have time to do that. I mean there
  are only so many hours in the day! Mary
• Am I behind? Absolutely! About four units!
  Robert
• I always seem to find myself in this pressure
  cooker each and every year due to the fact that
  I have so much to cover state competencies,
  college dual enrollment curriculum, operating the
  school store, our youth leadership group and the
  normal class interruptions. -Mary

63
The Journey of Change

• Thats where Ive always wanted my classroom to
  be. I just couldnt figure out how to get there.
  So now Im seeing the possibilities of where I
  can go. My philosophy hasnt changed. How I am
  getting there has changed. Mary
• For me its been a rollercoaster! Days where
  Im gung ho behind it and days where the delays
  and snow days and missing half your classes
  because of sickness and whatever, its just too
  much! -Lisa

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65
Discussion

• Very little research looks at the experience of
  the teacher in school change, yet it is the
  classroom teacher on whom the onus frequently
  falls (Fullan, 2001 Wagner, 1994 Hargreaves,
  2003).
• Furthermore, this case study examined a school
  change phenomenon that is rare in schools today
  that of virtually an entire faculty adopting,
  learning and implementing a new classroom method
  together.

66
Findings from this Case Study that Resonate with
Existing Literature

• Teachers approach change in the classroom in a
  deeply personal way
• Lack of time continues to be a dominant deterrent
  to teacher change
• Inherent isolation and the resulting feelings of
  lack of self-efficacy can be mini-millized by
  establishing a culture of change with an
  infrastructure of supports
• Administrators who participate in the change
  process with teachers
• Establishing Professional Learning Groups and
  making time for them to meet
• Providing common experiences which promote shared
  language

67
Results From this Case Study that Are Not
Resonant with Existing Literature

• Teachers in this case study were driven to change
  by a focus on helping students and sharing a
  common goal
• Teachers wanted to help students learn the skills
  necessary for success in their lives after school
  (Friedman, 2006).
• Strong relationships with students were
  meaningful to the teachers
• Teachers overwhelmingly felt that student skills
  were lacking
• Teachers were inspired and motivated by resulting
  changes they saw in students as a result student
  immersion in Problem-based learning

68
Teacher ChangeA Theoretical Framework
69
Future Research

• A longitudinal study of this phenomenon
• A deeper probe of this phenomenon
• Similar case studies of teachers implementing
  different types of instructional method to do a
  comparative analysis
• Similar case studies of teachers implementing
  change in different grade levels

70
Conclusion

• Im really afraid that what were sending out of
  our high schools is not prepared. And its not
  that theyre not smart. Its that we, in the
  last 20 years have changed our educational
  structure to a point where we want to make sure
  we look good so that we do rote skills and they
  (students) can regurgitate the information so
  that they look good on a standardized test.
  (Students) dont think for themselves. They
  dont want to problem solve. They dont. Its
  too much work. -Kyle