no size fits all vocational satisfaction: beyond surviving to thriving (in an inclusive educational...

NO SIZE FITS ALLVocational satisfaction: Beyond surviving to

thriving (in an inclusive

educational environment)

Ken Pudlas[[email protected]]

Discussion Points• Why are you here?

o Not in the metaphysical sense…

• What is your role in education?• How did you come to be in this field?• What are the best and worst parts of

what you do?• What hinders your vocational

satisfaction?

Contact: Ken Pudlas ([email protected]

Overview- Stories/Metaphors:

• New Shoeso Sources of discomfort

• Moose hunterso Found an easier method but

at what cost

• Cathy & Jordono Physically present – but not

invited


FoundationsTeaching is:• Art…• Science…• Learning…• Juggling act…• Vocation

o i.e. callingo Connotes passion

• Reflection:o Why did you enter

the education profession?

o What inhibits your satisfaction?

Thriving:• Grow vigorously and

healthily• To be successful (and

profitable)• Joy versus Happiness• Satisfaction • Beyond a paycheque

Self-efficacy• Power• Significance• Competence • Worth

Sources and Hindrances


Satisfaction – Self-efficacy

• Knowledge, competence, and various forms of self-knowledge and self-belief act in concert to provide adequate judgments and interpretations of efficacy-building information (Usher & Pajares, 2008, p. 790).

• This is consistent with the importance of head, heart and hands in leading to effective inclusive praxis.

Head

Hands

Heart


Big picture threats to satisfaction:

• DiversityoCultural / WorldviewsoAbilities

• Importance?o Social CohesionoNormalizationo Social Role

Valorization

• Models of service deliveryo Full inclusion

• PurposeoCommunity

o Efficacy of Full inclusion

o Possible reasons for outcomes

Story: Moose Hunters• What was the goal?• What was the

problem?• What is the lesson?


Goal?

O School:O A machine to be maintained? O Place where information is

transmitted and reproduced?O Educational movement

(worldview shift):O From modernity

O Hope of a unified science of teaching

O To postmodern turnO Celebrates both diversity

and communityO Clinical singularity versus

Communities of Collaboration


Goal:Educational

Mission Statement [British Columbia]

• “The purpose of the British Columbia School System is to enable all learners to develop their individual potential and to acquire the knowledge, skills, and attitudes needed to contribute to a healthy, democratic and pluralistic society and a prosperous and sustainable economy.”


Goal: FULL INCLUSION

[British Columbia]

• An ideology resulting in a pedagogy

• all students (regardless of any conditions that present barriers to their learning) are educated to the fullest extent possible in their normal ecology

• the classroom teacher bears the responsibility for all students

• Goal: community• Efficacy?• Requisites?



Head: Roots of FI• Normalization

o Wolf Wolfensberger

• Social Role Valorization

• Inclusiono A school is inclusive if

every student (person) is able to identify and connect with the school's social environment, culture and organizational life.

• Community

Social Role Valorization

“The application of empirical knowledge to the shaping of the current or potential social roles of a party (i.e., person, group, or class) -- primarily by means of enhancement of the party’s competencies & image -- so that these are, as much as possible, positively valued in the eyes of the perceivers”(Wolfensberger & Thomas, 2005).


Head: Inclusion• The principle of

inclusion …supports equitable access to learning by all students and the opportunity for all students to pursue their goals in all aspects of their education.

• The practice of inclusion transcends the idea of physical location, and incorporates basic values that promote participation, friendship and interaction.

• [Italics added]Contact: Ken Pudlas ([email protected]

Windfall & blow-down

hindered the moose hunters

• Barriers to vocational satisfaction?

• Barriers to Inclusive Educational Communities?

• Student population• Students’

perceptions• Teachers• Administrators


Windfall?Diverse

population

A multicultural country, and officially so designated, has basically indicated it is a country without a core culture, or the core culture that once gave it cohesion, identity, framework, anchor, has been jettisoned to embrace a multiplicity of identities — and thereby the unintended consequence is that there is a void in the centre.

Population by reported Mother Tongue, 2011


Devolving family unit

• 43 percent of

Canadian school

children do not

live with both

biological

parents

• Does it matter?

• Educator: in

loco parentis


Diverse Learning Needs

• Euphemistically referred to as classroom composition• Recall Langley Report on Inclusion• See p. 23 for Langley policy


Newest: ASD• Why Should I Care About Autism??• In short: rapidly growing prevalence• Info re ASD http://

www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nhsr/nhsr065.pdf • and a news article with different responses to the

study: http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2013/03/autism_survey_finds_1_in_50_am.html

• Note incidence and prevalence


http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nhsr/nhsr065.pdf



http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2013/03/autism_survey_finds_1_in_50_am.html



Peer Self-Concept Subscale Scores

Mean N S. D.

Students withNo Identified Special Needs

33.47 42 5.53

Students withIdentified Special Needs

28.10* 44 7.76

Total 30.72 86 7.25

*p < .01 (note that > score higher self-concept)

Windfall? Impediments to full inclusion: Students’ perceptions



Windfall?Teacher Efficacy

Perceptions

• May be considered as

SE = Success• _______________________________

Aspirations

• Aspirations:• Power• Significance• Competence• Worth

• Support concept of inclusion but…

• May be/feel ill-prepared

Full Inclusion:A Healthy Salad?

• Making it palatable

• Ingredients?• What happens

when left to stand?

• What are we doing to shake up the ingredients?

• Doing the right thing• Having the best

intentions• Having the right

ingredients• How to make it more

palatable?


Methods That Enhance Inclusion

• Five critical dimensions of successful inclusive classrooms have been identified as: 1. A Sense of Community & Social Acceptance2. An Appreciation of Student Diversity3. Attention to Curricular Needs4. Effective Management & Instruction5. Personnel Support & Collaboration


The Big PictureSCHOOL

ETHOSAdministrators’Characteristics

• Attitudes• Beliefs• Values• Abilities

Enabling Conditions

• Administrative Leadership and Support (District level)

• Professional Training and Development

• Pooling of Resources

• Curricular Change

CLASSROOM ETHOSTeachers’

Characteristics• Attitudes• Beliefs• Values• Abilities

Enabling Conditions

• Administrative Leadership and Support (School level)

• Professional Training and Development

• Pooling of Resources

• Curricular Change

STUDENT OUTCOMES/

EDUCATIONAL GOALS

as part of anInclusive

Educational System

•Academic & Social Competence

•Educational Equality & Equity

•Living and Learning in Community

•Lifelong Learning

•School-Home partnership

• Independent Learning and Thinking

Merging of

Regular and

Special Education

intoFull

Inclusion

ConsultationCollaborationAdaptation


Key aspects from the model

• From school ethos side:• Teachers’ Attitudes,

Beliefs, Values, Abilities are foundational

• Need to be personally inviting

• Need to be professionally inviting

• To that end administrators play crucial role

• From outcomes side:

• Note key role of community

• Note also the reciprocal actions and reactions

• The cause and effect relationships

Professionally inviting

Everything the teacher does as well as the manner in which he does it incites the child to respond in some way or another and each response tends to set the child’s attitude in some way or another (John Dewey, 1933)

Schools should encourage the development of all aspects of whole persons: their moral, social, aesthetic, emotional, physical, and spiritual capacities. Teachers should be willing to think critically about education theory and about what might be called “propaganda” and, If teachers want to teach students to think, they must think about what they themselves are doing (Nel Noddings, 2008)


Inviting schools: Five basic principles

1.People are able, valuable, and responsible and should be treated accordingly.

2.Educating should be a collaborative, cooperative activity.

3.The process is the product in the making.

4. People possess untapped potential in all areas of worthwhile human endeavour.

5. This potential can best be realized by places, policies, programmes, and processes specifically designed to invite development and by people who are intentionally inviting with themselves and others personally and professionally.


Concepts surrounding invitational education - four guiding principles

• Respect: o Everyone in the school is

able, valuable, and responsible and is to be treated accordingly.

• Trust: o Education is a cooperative,

collaborative activity where process is as important as product.

• Optimism: o People possess relatively

untapped potential in all areas of worthwhile human endeavor.

• Intentionality: o Safe schools are

best realized by creating and maintaining inviting places, policies, processes, and programs and by people who are intentionally inviting with themselves and others, personally and professionally.


Professionally inviting? Two assumptions:

1. Inviting/disinviting messages result from perceptionso Fortunately each

persons’ conceptual field can be continually enriched, expanded, and modified (e.g. professional development)

2. … messages significantly affect student self-concept, attitude toward school, relationships, and school achievemento Teachers also must see

themselves as able, valuable, and responsible

• Suggestions toward enabling teacherso Particularly with students with

exceptional needs1. Pre-professional education

regarding exceptionality2. Professional development



Thriving in your vocation?

• Equipping students:o importance of pro-social

skills training

• Equipping educators:o Positive results when

given special education coursework prior to entering profession

Prosocial Skills TrainingMeans and Standard Deviations for Social Skills, Peer Nominations, and Friendships

Pre-instruction Post-instruction

Mean SD Mean SDSocial Skills*

33.8 11.0 37.6 8.1

Peer Nominations

5.5 1.6 6.3 2.0

Friendships 10.5 4.0 12.0 3.6

*p < .01Contact: Ken Pudlas ([email protected]

Some substantiating literature• If schools are to become

more successful in educating students with disabilities, attitudinal, organizational, and instructional changes must fall into place (Block & Haring, 1992 as cited in Lasky & Karge, 2006)

• Success or failure of beginning special education teachers may be linked with:o The critical role of the site

principal (Lasky, Karge, Robb, & McCabe, 1995)

o Pre-service education (Pudlas, 2005)

• Special education is not a place or a program…special education is a set of services and supports that are provided to individual students to give them access to curriculum and to ensure that they continually learn and progress in that curriculum

(McLaughlin & Nolet, 2004 as cited in Lasky & Karge, 2006)


Important competencies of

instructional leaders

1. Display knowledge and skills in effective instruction, assessment, and discipline to provide support and feedback…

2. Acquire skills in establishing and supporting instructional teams

3. Willingness to support collaborative group interactions

4. A clear vision that results in commitment from the school and community


Core Beliefs of instructional leaders

• Congruent with invitational principles• Research suggests several core

beliefs (e.g. all children can learn), reflective of the beliefs of a diverse society, if reflected in a principal’s attitude, will enhance willingness to include even the most challenging students(Goor, Schwenn, & Boyer 1997)



Requisite Competencies

1. Knowledge of disabilities and the unique learning and behavioral challenges various conditions present.

2. Thorough understanding of the laws that protect the educational rights of students with disabilities

3. The ability to communicate with families and teachers about special education services, disability awareness, monitoring and evaluating special education decisions and services, and ensuring legal compliance

4. Understand and facilitate the use of effective research-based practices

5. A clear understanding of professional support needs such as manageable case loads and opportunities for professional development

6. Nurturing the professional development of others who are committed to innovations in effective instructional models and effective teaching and management skills.

(Lasky & Karge, 2006, pp. 30-33)


Personally & Professionally

Inviting?

• Two assumptions:1. Inviting/disinviting

messages result from perceptions

2. Messages significantly affect student self-concept, attitude toward school, relationships, and school achievement

• Teachers must also see themselves as able, valuable, and responsible

• Suggestions toward enabling teachers

• Particularly with students with exceptional needs


Professional competencies:

• Research-based strategies such as:1.Differentiating

instruction2.Anchoring

instruction3.Cooperative

learning4.Peer tutoring

5.Strategic learning

• Pudlas’: EAT s

• Characteristics:• Commitment of teacher time

in planning o Require administrator

support?• Teachers available for full

class time• All teachers have full

conceptual understanding (of content & students)

• Successful collaboration between teacher and student (and parents)

• Use of conceptual anchors o (create a shared

experience to build on)

1. Differentiating instruction:

• Beginning where students are o (rather than where curriculum says they

should be)• Use time flexibly• Use a range of teaching strategies• Create a community of learners where

teachers and students are partners• Use, for example, preferred intelligences

o (MI theory)• Cooperative activities – based on

authentic problems


2. Anchoring instruction

• Promotes higher-order thinking• Uses conceptual anchor (e.g. visuals) so

learners build mental modelo Allows for a common frame of reference

• Students then construct their own knowledge through disciplined inquiry

• Combined with problem-based or project-based learning

• Guidelines:o Choose appropriate anchoro Set guidelines for group structureo Practice general problem-solving skills

• E.g. defining the problemo Choose authentic problemo Have individual (as well as group) accountability


3. Cooperative learning

• Not all group work is cooperative learning

• Human brain is a social brain

• C. L. allows students to engage in instructional conversationso That clarify,

probe, solidify learning

Teachers: • Group purposely

o (heterogeneously according to strengths/needs)

• Model appropriate behaviour in groups

• Monitor learning o (consistently interview students)

• Encourage group to include diverse learners

• Clearly structure tasks with clear guidelineso May mean task analysis and precision

teaching application for those with diverse needs


4. Peer tutoring

• Proven successful for students with diverse learning needs

• Can be cross-age or same age

• Guidelines for class-wide peer tutoring:o Each member of pair share

roleso Train each in giving

feedback and error correction procedures

o Have each member practice – with teacher monitoring

o Begin with less complex drill and practice

o Choose materials appropriate to skill level

• Three important principles of instruction:o Individualization of the

targeted skillo Frequent opportunities

to respond & rapid pace of instruction

o Immediate corrective feedback

• Having teachers and special education assistants fully available to students permits close monitoring of specific skill deficits


5. Strategic learning

• Some students simply have not learned how to learno(no learning strategy)oDirect instruction of a specific strategy may pay dividends

• Example collaborative strategic reading process :oPreviewing (reading title and headings) and predicting (what the passage is about)oGet the gist o (restating most important idea)o Wrap up o (summarize what has been learned

and ask questions that teacher might ask on a test)

• Incorporates responsibility for mutual learning within cooperative learning format

• Uses think aloud techniques, modeling, and practice in using the strategieso i.e. verbal

mediation is modeled


Am I inviting?


Head + Heart: Empathy

• All created for intimacy and relationship

• Self –o Esteemo Wortho Efficacy o SE model

• What do exceptional persons/families want? Need?

• Practical helps?• Empathy• Understanding• Practical help (Micah

6:8 requires action!)• Respite• A listening ear• A cup of tea• NOT platitudes



Suggestion: EATs• Students’ problems

with learning, behaviour and performance can be a source of professional frustration and a threat to professional efficacy.

• Educators individually and collectively possess considerable knowledge and talent and learn best by actively working to solve problems.


Suggestion: EATs3. Educators can solve many

more problems when working cooperatively rather than by working alone.

4. These assumptions point to the importance of an educator support system within which the responsibility for decision-making and communication rests with the teachers themselves.

5. Educator Assistance Teams (EATs) can be a basis for:

• empowerment & control,

• educator initiative,• teacher initiated

actions,• professionalism,

and accountability.


Summary Proverb: • beware of putting new wine in

old wineskins (doing new things in old ways)o Remember the moose hunters

• Prosocial skills trainingo the missing link?

• Pre-professional developmento Removing the fear

• Professional developmento re-visioning and building

effective new paradigms

• The EAT model• one illustration

of simple steps toward increasing teachers’ sense of efficacy (able, valuable, responsible)

• Together building inviting inclusive communities for learning

Thriving in your vocation

• Vocation = calling• Pursue professional

efficacy with passion

• Be personally & professionally inviting

• One person can make a difference: be that person!


no size fits all vocational satisfaction: beyond surviving to thriving (in an inclusive educational...

Documents

o school

o place

modernity o hope

postmodern turn o

cathy jordon o

inclusion o possible

unified science of teaching

hindrances contact