Bridging the Knowing-Doing Gap – Using Action Learning as a methodology for ICT Professional Development
Lindy McKeown, and Tanja Obstoj, Tanja.Obstoj.qed.qld.gov.au, Education Advisors – ICTs for Learning, Education Queensland.
Abstract
Two Queensland Education Advisors show how Action Learning provides a methodology for successfully bridging the gap between what teachers learn about the use of ICT in professional development and the classroom practice of those teachers.
The gap that exists between what people in organisations know and what they implement of what they know in practice is described by Pfeffer & Sutton (1999) as the “knowing-doing gap”. Their research delved into the ways many organizations fail to turn the knowledge their staff gain from professional development activities into action in the form of changed practice for improved outcomes. Although they found no simple solution to the knowing-doing problem, they developed a set of eight guidelines for action that were based on the recurring themes that lead to this problem:
· Knowing why before knowing how.
· Knowing comes from doing and teaching others how.
· Action counts more than elegant plans and concepts.
· There is no doing without mistakes. What is your organization’s response?
· Fear fosters knowing-doing gaps, so drive out fear.
· Collaborate, cooperate, share and look after each other’s welfare.
· Measure what matters and what can help turn knowledge into action.
· What leaders do, how they spend their time and how they allocate resources matters.
It was with these principles for action in hand that, as a district Education Advisor I approached my role and developed a strategy to build teachers’ capacity to achieve the benchmarks in Queensland ICTs for Learning program (The state of Queensland Department of Education, 2002) and the national goals expressed in “Learning in an online world: school education action plan for the information economy” (Department of Education, Training and Youth Affairs 2000). This collaboratively developed document defines the following School Education Goals for the Information Economy (p. 3):
· All students will leave school as confident, creative and productive users of new technologies, including information and communication technologies, and understand the impact of those technologies on society.
· All schools will seek to integrate information and communication technologies into their operations, to improve student learning, to offer flexible learning opportunities and to improve the efficiency of their business practices.
Empirical evidence was supported by the report Making Better Connections (Downes et al. 2001) on models for teacher professional development for the integration of ICTs in classroom practice identified what is currently happening in Australia as well as what research shows as best practice across the world. A knowing-doing gap exists in two vital elements of the professional development of educators in relation to the use of ICTs in schools. These were:
1. The Teacher Knowledge – Teacher Practices Gap;
and
2. The Professional Development Best Practice Knowledge – Professional Development Practices Gap.
Firstly, there is a knowing-doing gap between what teachers learn at professional development and training events and the extent and type of use of ICTs in schools. Schools and school systems have spent millions of dollars over the past two decades in Australia to establish ICTs as part of the fabric of schools. Despite this massive investment, we still see many teachers with only the most basic skills in the operation of computers and with the dominant pedagogy that is little more than the transmission of knowledge. (QLRLS Key Findings 16, 17 & 18. p.vii)
Secondly, there is a knowing-doing gap, especially at a systemic level, between what is known about effective professional learning for adults and the design and implementation of professional development programs for educators about the integration of ICTs in schools. (Downes et al. 2001, p.53) Vast amounts of published material are available in books, journals and on the World Wide Web on both these topics, yet still these knowing-doing gaps exist.
To address the challenges of finding a way to bridge both these knowing-doing gaps, Action Learning has been used as an inquiry-based professional learning strategy to not only develop new knowledge and understanding but to simultaneously reflect on the implementation of this new learning in practice. The knowing and doing are inextricably linked in Action Learning. As a methodology for professional learning, Action Learning demonstrates the criteria, identified through extensive research (Downes et al, 2001.p.19; Fullan, 1991.), for what constitutes effective teacher professional development. Sustained inquiry through teacher research projects is one of the strategies strongly recommended by the research literature, yet it is the least common undertaken at a systemic level. (Downes, et al. 2011, p53.) By changing the way teachers learn about ICTs to incorporate a “doing” element, we are able to simultaneously address both knowing-doing gaps.
This is the story of three generations of Action Learning programs that occurred in different contexts that include statewide and district implementations in face-to-face, online and hybrid formats. Pfeffer and Sutton (1999) would say to you that this paper in itself, regardless of how convincing the arguments for change within it are, will not necessarily be enough to change YOUR practice so that your professional learning events are more effective, as it can only affect what you know. Only you can alter what you do, so, as they did (Pfeffer and Sutton, 1999, p6), I encourage you to “engage more frequently in thoughtful action”. Put more simply, if by the end of this paper you think Action Learning sounds like a possible bridge for your knowing-doing gap, just do it.
What is Action Learning?
The basic premise of Action Learning as developed by Reg Revans is that
Learning = Programmed knowledge + insightful Questioning
or
L = P + Q
Action Learning:
· happens in the workplace;
· involves existing staff; and
· uses the actual work of the staff as the program material.
The Action Learning methodology involves groups of teachers within supportive, collegial networks engaged in professional conversations about what they have actually done. By tackling the issues facing them in their respective classroom or school within a helpful learning community, they are more likely to find solutions to problems that may be preventing them from improving student learning outcomes. A small group of action learners who work together form this collegial network called a ‘learning set’. The learning set supports this bridge between knowing and doing through questioning.
A lot of professional development offered to educators is in the form of imparting programmed knowledge (things we already know about a topic) in one-shot workshops with little follow-up. (Downes et al, 2001, p.18. Fullan, 1999) The Action Learning methodology ensures participants do more than hear about what could be done. Participants put elements of their learning into action during the professional learning experience to solve their own workplace problems. The cyclic nature of Action Learning requires reflection on the action followed by further learning and investigation to build better plans and is followed by more action. The questioning by the Action Learners about their practice, comparing it to their knowledge bridges the knowing-doing gap.
Participants are challenged to answer three questions:
· What are you really trying to achieve to improve student learning outcomes in your school?
· What is stopping you from doing this, or doing it better?
· What can you do about it?
Armed with these questions and a mission to do something about the issue at hand, Action Learners seek out the learning they need, make plans, take action, reflect on that action and continue learning.
Action Learning in Action
Between July 2002 and December 2003, Action Learning Programs were used to develop teachers’ knowledge and skills in the use of online learning, multimedia and web publishing by Lindy McKeown, Education Advisor – ICTS for Learning who is based in Ipswich in Queensland. The first of these programs was called Moving Online and was intended for a statewide audience, was conducted online and addressed the development of the participants skills and understanding of the use of The Learning Place, Education Queensland’s suite of tools and services for online learning.
One of the participants of the Moving Online Program was Tanja Obstoj, another Education Advisor – ICTs for Learning who chose as her Action Learning Project to replicate in a face-to-face mode the Moving Online program. This was entitled Project: Online.
Following on from the successes of Moving Online and Project Online, a suite of ICT Action Learning programs was conducted by Lindy McKeown in the Ipswich and West Moreton Districts in southeast Queensland. These formed part of a set of 12 Action Learning programs conducted by the Cross District Curriculum Team. Lindy was assisted in one of these programs by the two part-time district Learning Place Mentors, Carolyn Keighley and Jim D’Castro. Lindy, Jim and Carolyn jointly conducted a program entitled People Power Online that was very similar to the statewide Moving Online.
The following diagram illustrates the elements of these programs.
Explore / Plan and Act /Reflect
Core learnings organised by the program coordinatorAND
The participant’s own reading, discussion and research. / Participant’s workplace based project / Learning Set (group) discussions about projects in action.
AND
The participant’s own informal discussion and personal reflection perhaps including a learning journal (optional).
A Learning Buddy at the participant’s worksite.
Participants identify a workplace issue, problem or idea they want to pursue related to the theme of the Action Learning Program.
· The action learning project becomes the centre of the learning process. Participants work on this problem, issue or idea for the duration of the program.
· Core learnings are group learning events that may require reading, substantive conversations or activities. They are a time efficient way of addressing common learning needs of the group and introducing systemic messages.
· Collegial groups called action learning sets provide a forum for facilitated learning and discussion.
· Learning buddies are a site based colleague (for action learners whose set members are off site) who acts as a sounding board and co-learner but does not attend the formal program events.
· A Professional Learning EXPO celebrates and shares the learning from the Action Learning Projects.
Feedback in survey and interviews for all these programs was overwhelmingly positive about
· Retention rates for participation
· Action Learning as a methodology
· Participants’ levels of engagement
· Participants’ learning
· Participants’ use of new knowledge and skills in their workplace.
Recommendation
After experiencing first hand the consistent success of Action Learning as a professional learning strategy for bridging the knowing-doing gap for participants, we encourage you to get into action and try Action Learning as a professional learning strategy. In the words of man of action, Bruce Lee,
“Knowing is not enough, you must do.”
The following case study of Project Online gives the flavour of Action Learning in action.
…………………………………………………………………………………………………..
Project Online – Moving Projects Forward Through Online Learning
The Issue:
Mount Gravatt and Coopers Plains Districts are situated within the Brisbane Metropolitan Region and engage approximately 2600 teachers. Through various conversations with teachers in both districts, it was noted that many were keen to offer online learning to their students but were unsure how to do this.
The two Education Advisors (Mt Gravatt Education Advisor - ICT and Coopers Plains Education Advisor - Curriculum) felt they needed to engage and support teachers as they became learners and took the first step into integrating ICTs and online learning into their teaching and learning practice.
The question facing us was which teachers to engage and how to engage them?
The Project
The journey began when both Education Advisors became involved in the Moving Online Project. The Moving Online Project was set up as an Action Learning Model to engage teachers in using online tools and a grant $500 dollars was awarded to each participant. As participants, the Education Advisors pooled resources and decided to use the money to celebrate and share the outcomes of Project Online that lay ahead.
In a cross-district collaboration, the Education Advisors decided that it was imperative to the success of the project to build a learning community across the three districts to support the development of online skills. It has been shown that when building learning communities, “…the sense of inclusion and connectedness, the appreciation of diversity, and positive relationships that develop are an investment in the future of the learning community.” (Dalton, PLOT 2002)
The essence of building learning communities by using the Learning Place as a vehicle was paramount to the success of the project. It was also a valuable support to develop both the professional and practical competencies of teachers within the project.
The teachers were required to submit an application that included identifying a partner back at school to mentor and transfer their own learnings to over a given period. All learnings were going to accumulate in a celebratory showcase in May, 2003. Thirteen teachers were selected from a pool of applications across three districts.
The initial meeting was a face-to-face meeting on December 5, 2002 with the teachers and the partners they were going to mentor. During this meeting, the four aims of Project Online were directed at inspiring participants to engage in Project Online, regardless of their level of position or expertise. These aims were:
1. To build networks across districts – between teachers, across schools and across districts.
2. To acknowledge and utilise the collective strengths of participants - to build upon these and ensure a complimentary range existed across the districts.
3. To establish support mechanisms (both human and material) while considering learning styles and individual preferences.
4. To facilitate interdependence through focussing on good mentoring practices with participants to catalyse further engagement with the Learning Place.
In February 2003, the participants became Leading Teachers at a 2 day training seminar. The Leading Teachers were offered support in Action Learning, Unit Planning, Successful Leadership and Mentoring. We also focussed on the variety of tools the Learning Place had to offer, such as email, online chats, forums and the blackboard community, as this was to become the vehicle in which all teachers would engage their partners and students in.