‘Clearly shows the success that can occur when a staff learns together. I highly recommend this book to aspiring and beginning principals, as well as those with years of experience.’
—Paul Young, Executive Director, West After School Center
Former President, National Association of Elementary School Principals
Foster schoolwide professional learning through a collaborative action research model!
Action research is a popular method for individual educators to examine their practices and grow in their profession. In this how-to guide, readers will learn how Whole-Faculty Study Groups (WFSGs) use action research to involve an entire school in advancing staff learning and school performance.
The WFSG model is a type of professional learning community (PLC) that catalyzes school change with schoolwide action research as a central component. With over 20 years of experience, the authors draw from hundreds of examples and case studies to describe how implementing WFSGs can help students, teachers, administrators, and other staff members work collaboratively to improve teacher practice and student learning. The authors′ empirical data and comprehensive approach help deepen educators′ understanding of how to use meaningful action research to strengthen teamwork and realize school reform. Additionally, readers will learn how:
- The WFSG system compares with other approaches to action research
- The schoolwide action research process can be applied in a wide variety of school reform efforts
- Study groups can move from discussion to action
- Principals and district leaders can support schoolwide action research
Discover the ways WFSGs can enhance student learning and result in real school improvement in this highly relevant, must-have guide.
Зміст
List of Tables and Figures
Foreword
Preface
About the Author
1. Introduction
2. A Schoolwide Approach to Action Research
3. Creating Learning Teams and Professional Learning Communities
4. Conducting Schoolwide Action Research
5. Putting Action Into Action Research: Improving Teacher Practice
6. Putting Action Into Action Research: Improving Student Learning
7. Supporting Schoolwide Action Research: The Principal′s Role
8. Supporting Schools in Schoolwide Action Research
9. Taking Schoolwide Action Research to the Next Level
Epilogue
Resources
References
Index
Про автора
Carlene U. Murphy is founder and executive director of the National WFSG Center and the principal developer of the Whole-Faculty Study Groups® system of professional development. In August 2007, she began her 50th year of work in public schools. She started her teaching career in 1957 as a fourth grade teacher in her hometown of Augusta, GA. The next year she moved to Memphis, TN where she taught for 13 years, returning to Augusta in 1972 and retiring from the district in 1993 as its director of staff development. During her 15 years as the district’s chief staff developer, the district received many accolades, including the Award for Outstanding Achievement in Professional Development from the American Association of School Administrators and Georgia’s Outstanding Staff Development Program Award for two consecutive years. She was awarded the National Staff Development Council’s Contributions to Staff Development Award and served as the National Staff Development Council’s chair of the annual national conference in Atlanta in 1986, president in 1988, and board member from 1984 to 1990. The friendships she formed and cemented during the over thirty years of her close relationship with NSDC were life-changing. After retiring from the Augusta, Georgia schools, she has worked with schools throughout the United States implementing Whole-Faculty Study Groups. She has written extensively about her work in Educational Leadership and Journal of Staff Development and has written with Dale Lick two other books about the WFSG system: Whole-Faculty Study Groups: Creating Professional Learning Communities That Target Student Learning, Corwin Press, 2005; and The Whole-Faculty Study Groups Fieldbook: Lessons Learned and Best Practices from Classrooms, Districts, and Schools (co-editor), 2007. Another book with Karl Clauset and Dale Lick, Schoolwide Action Research for Professional Learning Communities: Improving Student Learning Through the Whole-Faculty Study Groups Approach (Corwin Press, 2008), focuses on the work of study groups and gives descriptive data from schools implementing WFSG. She now lives on a small horse farm just outside of Augusta in a four generational home, which includes her husband, Joe, daughter, three grandchildren and a great-granddaughter. Even with all the activities in such a home, she still finds time to write about her work, correspond with colleagues and read about the latest developments in education.