Last year, a school made personalized, student-centered learning a major focus of professional learning. Through workshops, staff meetings, PLCs, and coaching conversations, teachers explored how to:
- increase student voice and choice
- tailor instruction to learners’ strengths, needs, and interests
- create more collaborative and authentic learning experiences
- support students in setting goals and reflecting on their learning
The purpose was clear: not simply to implement new instructional strategies, but to create learning experiences where students increasingly assume responsibility for their own learning through greater voice, choice, reflection, and goal setting.
Throughout the year, some teachers experimented with these practices and began to see promising results. Others watched with interest, tried a few ideas, or chose to wait. Some, due to past experiences, even wondered if this would still be a focus when the new year begins. A single change in school administration can mean a different focus.
Now a new school year begins. The expectation is no longer to simply learn about personalized learning. Implementation is an expectation.
At this point, it’s tempting for leaders to ask, “How do we get everyone to believe this will work?”
That may be the wrong first question.
A more productive question is, “How do we help teachers experience enough success with these practices that their confidence and commitment grow?”
Thomas Guskey’s work on teacher change offers an important answer to that question. We often assume that if teachers believe in an innovation, they will implement it. Guskey’s research suggests the change process more commonly works in the opposite direction. Rather than beliefs changing first, teachers’ beliefs frequently change after they implement a new practice and experience evidence that it benefits students.
Instead of thinking about change as:
Beliefs → Practices → Student Outcomes
Guskey proposed a different sequence:
Professional Learning → Changes in Classroom Practice → Improvements in Student Learning → Changes in Teachers’ Beliefs and Attitudes
The implication for coaches and school leaders is significant. The early goal of implementation is not to convince every teacher that the initiative will succeed. The goal is to create conditions where teachers can implement new practices, receive support while doing so, and gather evidence of how those practices influence students. As teachers begin seeing students more engaged, more reflective, more collaborative, and assuming greater responsibility for their learning, confidence grows. Those successful experiences become the foundation for lasting commitment based on a new belief.
Changes in students’ learning production behaviors become the earliest evidence that the new practice is taking hold. They provide teachers with important feedback on the value of the change, long before end-of-unit assessments or standardized test results are available.
Guskey’s approach moves a coach’s focus from “selling a belief” to generating experimentation and reflection. A coach/teacher conversation might proceed like this:
Teacher: I understand the value of student-centered instruction for students to develop learning-to-learn skills. I just don’t see how it fits in my classes. I already struggle to get through the curriculum. Having students explore, debate, and discuss takes time. If I add that, something else has to give.
Coach: It sounds like your concern isn’t whether student-centered learning has value. It’s whether it can work within the instructional time you have.
Teacher: Exactly. If I fall behind, I’m the one who has to answer for it.
Coach: Time is a concern for most teachers. I’m curious, when you picture student-centered learning, what part of it do you think would have the greatest impact on your students learning if you could make it work?
Teacher: Probably having students explain and defend and even argue their thinking with each other, before having any input from me.
Coach: What makes that the concept stand out for you?
Teacher: Too many students wait for me to tell them whether they’re right instead of questioning themselves and each other.
Coach: Suppose you chose one upcoming lesson and we explored, “What do we gain, and what does it cost?” when generating increased student reflection and engagement. Is there one lesson coming up where you’d envision a benefit from students doing that reflection?
Teacher: Probably next week’s lesson starting a new unit on variables.
Coach: Rather than redesigning the entire lesson, what if we identified one twenty-minute segment where students worked in pairs or triads to develop or compare strategies before you explained them?
Teacher: That still takes extra time.
Coach: Likely. What you’d be looking to decide is “are the benefits worth the costs?” What student behaviors would tell you those twenty minutes were a worthwhile investment? What teacher moves might increase the likelihood of seeing those behaviors? Do you think 20 classroom minutes is a fair risk to take?
Teacher- Sure. I am going to have to describe some of the things I am exploring in my professional growth plan with my principal. This sounds like a doable first step.
Coach: I look forward to seeing what we find out. Think about one or two benefits that would be a valuable payoff for this investment of instructional time and we’ll meet to explore a design to test out. I’ll do a little search for some possibilities in the meantime.
Whatever the change your school is asking teachers to implement this year, keep returning to this question:
“How do we create experiences that allow teachers to discover the value of this work for themselves?”
The role of instructional coaches, teacher leaders, and administrators is not to convince teachers that change will succeed. It is to support thoughtful experimentation, encourage reflection, and help teachers notice the impact their decisions have on students.
When teachers begin seeing changes in students’ learning production behaviors—and those behaviors lead to improved learning outcomes—their commitment to new instructional practices becomes rooted in belief rather than compliance.
Support the process. The viewpoint will follow.
