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Collegial Reflective Practice
Unfurling the Koru Within
Fay Greenslade October 2005
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About the Researcher? Fay Greenslade is a
practicing Resource Teacher Learning and
Behaviour (RTLB). She is married, is the mother
of two and step mother of two. This research is
part of her study towards a Masters of Education
degree through the University of Auckland. The
summaries included in this presentation are not
final and represent findings to date. If you are
interested in the final analysis of this research
(due Dec 2006), please e-mail Fay at
fays_at_paradise.net.nz
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What is this Research About?
The aim of this research is to understand the
lived experience of teachers who are using
Virtues Project strategies as a collegial
reflective practice tool.
The research question is What do teachers think
and say about their experience?
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What is the Virtues Project?
The THE VIRTUES PROJECT was founded in 1991 by
Linda Kavelin-Popov, Dr. Dan Popov and John
Kavelin. Through researching the diverse sacred
traditions of the world, Linda (psychotherapist),
Dan (pediatric psychologist) and John (Disney
designer) discovered over three hundred and sixty
commonly held virtues at the core of these
traditions. Irrespective of tradition, the
virtues gave the 'how to achieve meaning and
purpose in life. The Family Virtues Guide was
originally self-published in 1991. It has
subsequently been translated into many languages
and is now published by Penguin. The Virtues
Project Educators Guide was published in 2000
and is the foundation guide for many schools'
social skills programmes. Since its inception,
THE VIRTUES PROJECT has become a global
grass-roots network in over eighty five
countries. It functions within a range of
communities including churches, indigenous
groups, schools, penitentiaries, hospices,
corporate businesses, addiction recovery centers
and others. During the International Year of the
Family (1993), THE VIRTUES PROJECT was honoured
by the United Nations Secretariat and World
Conference of Cities and Corporations as a model
programme for families of all cultures. In New
Zealand, THE VIRTUES PROJECT was incorporated
into the Living Values School Development Project
(Lawley, 2003) and is currently used by a number
of schools in New Zealand to build healthy
cultures of character. For more information go
to www.virtuesproject.com
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Virtues are the human qualities in potential from
birth
Trust
Caring
Honesty
Assertiveness
Courage
Creativity
Tact
are just a few of them!
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WHY DO THIS RESEARCH?
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Personally Meaningful to Researcher Desire to
contribute (Before I kick the bucket!) Believe
that understanding is the key to unity, and
unity the key to SUSTAINABLE COMMUNITIES
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Theory
It is behind closed doors of the classroom
that national ideas are shaped, moral
traditions are imparted and social relationships
set down Snook, 2003 60.
Teachers make THE difference! (Baker, 2002
Fogherty, 2002 Hattie, 2002 Tuuta et al., 2004)
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Because the teacher is pre-eminent in
facilitating learning within a school
environment, it is the individual teachers
ability to model and encourage student
development of the desired attributes that needs
targeting. Because individual teacher behaviour
in the classroom either directly encourages or
discourages student learning it is the thinking
and beliefs underpinning that behaviour that
warrants consideration by the teachers
themselves. This is called reflective
practice. Although teacher reflective practice is
considered crucial to both teacher professional
development and ethical practice, literature
indicates teacher reflection time is rarely
planned for nor considered worthy of professional
development funding. This is contrary to
research which finds when time to reflect is not
valued, particularly opportunities for collegial
reflection and development of a collaborative
culture, teacher capacity is minimized,
motivation is eroded and teaching becomes very
stressful. In this state teachers risk poor
mental health and student learning is
significantly compromised.
Why Else?
Compassion for Teachers
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Journey So Far 2005 Term 2 Individual
interviews Wk 10 July Holidays 2 Day
Intensive Term 3 4 9 x fortnightly Virtues
reflection meetings 3.30 5.30. Term 3
Individual interviews Wk 9 Still To Come Term
4 Individual interviews Wk 8 Focus group
consultation Wk 10 2006 Term 1 Focus group
consultation Wk 4.
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Pre-data What did the teachers think about
being teachers before we started the reflective
practice group using Virtues?
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What Participants have thought about Being a
Professional All people acknowledged teaching was
considered a profession, though some felt its
real status was semi-professional due to the lack
of professional autonomy, opportunities for
professional development and reduced respect for
teachers as advisors or learned persons within
the wider community. People related professional
status to a number of factors The length of
training required and having a degree, the need
to abide by a code of ethics, having a high level
of influence on and therefore responsibility for
the wellbeing of others, the requirement for
ongoing learning/ professional development.
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When investigating the most beneficial things
people had done or were doing for their
development as a (professional) teacher, the
answers fell into two categories Learning from
life experiences and learning from educational
mentors, colleagues and students. Both forms of
learning were experiential, happened within the
participants learning environment (contextual),
happened in relationship to others over an
extended period of time and were personally
significant. When investigating the most
important aspect of being a teacher all responded
that it was about having trustworthy, respectful
and caring relationships with their students as a
means of encouraging student engagement in
positive learning/the curriculum.
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Most participants make little distinction between
their personal and professional domains. In most
cases, professional and personal lives and
learning are intertwined. Pedagogical theory is
often expressed as personal belief and intuition
based on life and school experiences. Most
participants have experienced (at some stage)
emotional and mental exhaustion from the high
relationship demands and constant decision making
required in their roles as teachers. Some
participants feel teaching detracts from family
relationships and vice-versa, family
circumstances and accompanying emotions impact on
teachers ability to generate/maintain virtuous
relationships within the classroom.
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What Participants Thought about Collaboration and
Collegiality All participants had a shared vision
of what a collaborative staff culture could look
like. Over the course of our reflective practice
meetings it become apparent that the most common
cause for teacher stress within school is
collegial/peer relationships that are not
collaborative. Concerns about teacher/student
relationship or the paper-war did not cause
undue stress. These problematic
peer-relationships seemed characterized by a lack
of respect and trust and a feeling that ones
contribution is not listened to or valued. People
feel particularly vulnerable when they are tired
(end of term, portfolios, reports etc) and during
the first two years of teaching.
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Perceptions of Efficacy All participants felt
they had the capacity to greatly affect the
learning outcomes of the students in their
classroom, irrespective of student socio-economic
or cultural background and that giving students
the tools of clear learning intentions greatly
contributed to this. They also considered their
relationship with each individual student as the
key encouraging factor in that students
engagement with learning (either positive or
negative). In addition, all participants said
they were concerned with the holistic development
and wellbeing of the child ie the spiritual,
emotional, physical and mental capacities
(hauora).
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SO What have we found out so far about the lived
experience of teachers who are using Virtues
Project strategies as a collegial reflective
practice tool?
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On a Personal Level Collegial Reflective Practice
using Virtues

• Is personally meaningful and beneficial to all
  aspects of life
• Creates closer bonds with and understanding of
  colleagues
• Strengthens personal resilience and sense of
  wellbeing
• Provides a positive language to use in any
  relationship
• Provides a safe environment to release work-based
  hurts
• frustrations (cathartic)
• Challenges old paradigms, habits and thinking in
  respectful ways
• Develops new, more positive self-talk patterns

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Impact on Professional Practice..

• Calls one to account through internal agency
  (integrity)
• Able to handle stressful situations much better
• More peaceful and calm internally
• Greater self-efficacy regarding tricky
  situations
• Enabled to be part of a shared vision
• Confident of peer support
• More compassionate towards others
• Skills and learning directly transferable to
  classroom

X
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How Valuable are those Impacts?
This is very cool, guys!

• Very valuable because
• Reconnects teacher to purpose
• Supports personal theories about teacher role
• Diminishes threat of burnout
• Gives hope and vision

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How Useful is Collegial Reflective Practice using
Virtues as In-service Professional Development?

• Because it meets the need for personal meaning
• Provides a practical process for professional
  collaboration and reflective practice
• Provides a supportive environment to identify
  gaps in own pedagogy and response to
  students/peers
• Provides language and understanding to support
  student/peer/self resilience (good mental health)
• Utilizes most effective teacher learning contexts
• Is critical ie Helps identify and address
  injustice/inequity and organizational problems
  within systems

Huge, mate! huge
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Example Format for a Collegial Reflective
Practice Session

• Wisdom reading/karakia to open
• Check-in round Achievement of last sessions
  goals (Non- interrupted. No cross-talking or
  comparing)
• Do a Virtues Pick
• Identify Gut Response to word/concept What
  emotions thoughts immediately feel/come to
  mind?
• Sharing of that response (If group is larger than
  8 make this a paired share)
• Read definition of Virtue from Virtues Guide
• Circle share any particular thoughts, questions,
  understandings or connections to prior knowledge
  that the definition generates
• Personal Reflection Time What comes up for me
  around this virtue in terms of a personal
  teachable opportunity
• Pairs Companioning about whats on top Follow
  the guide sheet (the one with the stairway down
  and then up!!) offer partner an opportunity to
  record any goal s/he may set themselves re the
  virtue/s they choose to focus on to develop their
  learning. Record it on their Virtues Card.
• Dont forget to honour your partner!
• Group sharing regarding process
• Wisdom reading/karakia to close