How Protocols Empower Teacher Leaders to Lead and Teachers to Teach. CenterView

Abstract

Throughout the five-year Teacher Practice Networks initiative, teacher leaders have developed and demonstrated new leadership skills to help their peers engage in reflective professional learning focused on improving instruction. A common sentiment among teacher leaders is the realization that facilitating adult learning requires a different set of skills than teaching students, and that these new skills need to be deliberately learned and practiced. Using a tool, such as a protocol, in teacher-to-teacher professional learning both scaffolds teacher leaders' effectiveness to facilitate meaningful conversations and guides collaborative teacher communities to examine, reflect, and refine their practice. This "CenterView" describes three protocols designed to help teachers talk and listen in a focused way that can lead to change in practice. The three examples illustrate how teachers can use protocols to gain new insights and perspectives to apply to practice as they observe instruction, look at student work, or explore text with a critical lens. Helpful resources are included for exploring a wide range of protocols to meet different learning outcomes.