Richard Dufour





Focusing Schools on Learning

Introduction
I have chosen to focus my research on the work of Richard Dufour because one of the best ideas I have come across in my educational career is Professional Learning Communities (PLCs). There are two things about PLCs that I want to focus on. The first is that students need to be taught as individuals. We can no longer have education a ‘one size fits all’ program. The second is that decisions in schools need to be based on results. What works needs to trump the ‘this is the way we have always done it’ mentality. I have only been in education five years but I have already seen my share of fads and trends come and go. PLCs seem to have the flexibility and focus that can help each school district and school change and adapt to become more successful.

Professional Learning Communities
In his book Professional learning communities at work, Dufour starts Chapter 2 by providing a history of the formation of public schools (Dufour, 2007). He noted at the time – late 1800s to early 1900s – there was an industrial revolution going on and that this revolution was growing our economy and the prevailing sentiment of the time was that schools needed to prepare citizens to be future factory workers. Thus, schools were set up in a factory line style—ine them up and push them through and the end products should all be the same and function well.

Dufour summed it up when he said, “Schools continue to focus on procedures rather than results…” (p. 22). He argues that we can no longer have this mentality, and gives two reasons why. One is that all students are different and what works for one will not work for another. They are not made of iron and welded and shaped to a mold, they are a lot more complicated than that. And two, the world is a much different place with a lot of different job opportunities and options than there were 100 years ago. Schools need to prepare students to be thinkers and to be able to adapt and learn for the jobs of the future.

Personal Thoughts
In the article I read by Dufour, “Professional learning communities: A bandwagon, an idea worth considering, or our best hope for high levels of learning?”, I learned that one of the critical questions each PLC needs to ask is: Are we using assessments to identify students’ needs and adjust our approach and strategies to help each student become proficient? Flexibility and individuality in education are crucial in today’s schools.

Dufour had a lot to say on the subject of results oriented education Dufour. The best quote I found that sums it up was this:

…a professional learning community realizes that its efforts to develop shared mission, vision, and values; engage in collective inquiry; build collaboration teams; take action; and focus on continuous improvement must be assessed on the basis of results rather than intentions. Unless initiatives are subject to ongoing assessment on the bases of tangible results, they represent random groping in the dark rather than purposeful improvement.

My favorite definition of insanity goes something like this, ‘doing the same thing and expecting different results’. If we do not assess understanding often we will not know if what we are doing is working. When we get the results of an assessment that show the students are not learning we cannot just re-teach it the same way- that is insanity. We need to be flexible and adjust the ways we do things when needed. Not just every student is different, but every class is different. We cannot do the same thing on the same day every year. The pace and learning styles of each class is different and we need to develop the skills and attitude that can adjust and change right along with our students and classes. Another of the essential questions for a PLC Dufour mentioned was, “Does our team work interdependently to achieve SMART goals that are Strategic (linked to school goals), Measurable, Attainable, Results-oriented (focused on evidence of student learning rather than teacher strategies), and Time-bound?” We as individual teachers can ask ourselves the same question about our classes.

Treating students in our schools as individuals instead of a product in an assembly line is crucial to the success we are seeking in education today. There can no longer be a ‘same day, same page’ mentality. If we are on the ‘same page, same day’ bandwagon then inevitably some students will be left behind. We need to go at a pace and in a way that is different for each class because each class is different. Our pace and procedures need to be based on assessments not curriculum maps and programs.

Author or Authors
Kyle Haws.