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Full-Text Articles in Education
Transforming Education And Changing School Culture, Gary Houchens, Ric Keaster
Transforming Education And Changing School Culture, Gary Houchens, Ric Keaster
Educational Administration, Leadership, and Research Faculty Publications
An increasing number of schools and districts are building a common language of instruction and collaborative structures for instructional problem solving through the use of instructional rounds. Pioneered by Richard Elmore and colleagues at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, instructional rounds build on the model of medical rounds used in teaching hospitals and engage teachers and administrators in data collection and analysis around a school-wide problem of practice. This case study examines the experiences of the Simpson County Schools in Franklin, Kentucky, where one of the authors formerly served as a district administrator. In 2009, the district initiated a …
Deep Impact: How A Job-Embedded Formative Assessment Professional Development Model Affected Teacher Practice, Thomas A. Stewart, Gary Houchens
Deep Impact: How A Job-Embedded Formative Assessment Professional Development Model Affected Teacher Practice, Thomas A. Stewart, Gary Houchens
Educational Administration, Leadership, and Research Faculty Publications
This study supports the work of Black and Wiliam (1998), who demonstrated that when teachers effectively utilize formative assessment strategies, student learning increases significantly. However, the researchers also found a “poverty of practice” among teachers, in that few fully understood how to implement classroom formative assessment. This qualitative case study examined a series of voluntary workshops offered at one middle school designed to address this poverty of practice. Data were gathered via semi-structured interviews. These research questions framed the study: (1) What role did a professional learning community structure play in shaping workshop participants’ perceived effectiveness of a voluntary formative …
Double-Loop Learning: A Coaching Protocol For Enhancing Principal Instructional Leadership, Gary Houchens, Janet Hurt, Rebecca Stobaugh, John L. Keedy
Double-Loop Learning: A Coaching Protocol For Enhancing Principal Instructional Leadership, Gary Houchens, Janet Hurt, Rebecca Stobaugh, John L. Keedy
Educational Administration, Leadership, and Research Faculty Publications
Executive coaching has become increasingly commonplace in both the corporate and non-profit sectors as a means of improving professional effectiveness but there is a dearth of empirically-based protocols geared specifically toward the growth needs of school principals. This qualitative case study explores the implementation of a principal coaching protocol using a theories of practice framework based on concepts originally articulated by Argyris and Schön (1 974) and further explicated by the authors in previous publications. This study examined the extent to which a coaching protocol based on theories of practice enhanced principals’ self-perceived capacity for reflection and effective instructional leadership. …
Theories Of Practice: Understanding The Practice Of Educational Leadership, Gary Houchens, John L. Keedy
Theories Of Practice: Understanding The Practice Of Educational Leadership, Gary Houchens, John L. Keedy
Educational Administration, Leadership, and Research Faculty Publications
Argyris and Schön (1974) first articulated the concept of theories of practice, and elements of the concept have become standard vocabulary in literature on organizational learning. Relatively few empirical studies, however, have explored the legitimacy of this concept for understanding how educators approach problems in their professional practice (Lipshitz, 2000). As accountability pressures for school improvement mount, the imperative for understanding effective school leadership behaviors makes the concept of theories of practice more appealing. The purpose of this article is to examine the structure of theories of practice as understood by Argyris and Schön and the implications for understanding the …