Table 2.1: Ways of Knowing (Pages 40 & 41 in Leading Adult Learning)

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Ellie Drago-Severson for NESA LEADERS, 18 October 2012, Workshop #1

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Ellie Drago-Severson for NESA LEADERS, 18 October 2012, Workshop #1

Table 2.1: Ways of Knowing (pages 40 & 41 in Leading Adult Learning)

Stage
Kegan’s (1982) Terms
Drago-Severson’s Terms / Stage 0
Incorporative / Stage 1
Impulsive / Stage 2
Imperial
Instrumental / Stage 3
Interpersonal
Socializing / Stage 4
Institutional
Self-Authoring / Stage 5
Interindividual
Self-Transforming
Underlying thought structure
Subject (S)
Object (O) / S: Reflexes
(sensing, moving)
O: None / S: Impulses, perceptions
O: Reflexes
(sensing, moving) / S: Needs, interests, wishes
O: Impulses, perceptions / S: The interpersonal, mutuality
O: Needs, interests, wishes / S: Authorship, identity, psychic administration, ideology
O: The interpersonal, mutuality / S: Interindividuality, interpenetrability of self-systems
O: Authorship, identity, psychic admin., ideology
Definition of self / Orients to self-interests, purposes, and concrete needs. / Orients to valued others’ (external authorities) expectations, values and opinions. / Orients to self’s values (internal authority). / Orients to multiple self-systems; open to learning from other people.
Orienting concerns / Depends on rules and the “right”. Is concerned with concrete consequences. Decisions are based on what the self will acquire. Others are helpers or obstacles to meeting concrete needs. Person does not yet have the capacity for abstract thinking or generalizing. / Depends on external authority, acceptance, and affiliation.
Self is defined by important others’ judgments.
Is oriented to inner states.
Self feels responsible for others’ feelings and holds others responsible for own feelings.
Criticism and conflict threaten the self. / Self generates and replies to internal values and standards.
Criticism is evaluated according to internal standards.
Ultimate concern is with one’s own competence and performance.
Self can balance contradictory feelings.
Conflict is viewed as natural and enhances one’s own and others’ perspectives to achieve larger organizational goals. / Is committed to self-exploration.
Engaging with conflict is an opportunity to let others inform and shape thinking.
Conflict is viewed as natural to life and enhances thinking.
Is able to understand and manage tremendous complexity. Is substantively less invested in own identity and more open to others’ perspectives. Constantly judges and questions how self-system works
Guiding questions for self / “Will I get punished?” “What’s in it for me?” / “Will you (valued other/authority) still like/value me?” “Will you (valued other/authority) approve of me?” “Will you (valued other/authority) still think I am a good person?” / “Am I maintaining my personal integrity, standards, values?” “Am I competent?” “Am I living, working, loving to the best of my ability?” “Am I achieving my goals & being guided by my ideals?” / “How can other people’s thinking help me to enhance my own?” “How can I seek out opinions from others to help me modify my own ways of understanding?”

Drago-Severson, E. (2009). Leading Adult Learning: Supporting Adult Development in Our Schools. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press

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Ellie Drago-Severson for NESA LEADERS, 18 October 2012, Workshop #1

Mel How is your principal helpful to you in your work? How is she unhelpful?

Her feedback is what helps me most. Her comments make me feel like I’m doing a good job. And when she offers suggestions for improving, I know that she is offering them because she really cares about me—not just as a teacher, but as a person. It makes me want to do more for her and to be an even better teacher. Sometimes, when I answer a question during a faculty meeting, she tells me that I didn’t get the whole thing correct, but she always has something good to say about what I said. She makes me feel like at least I’m learning something about the new curriculum. Sometimes, when she tells me that I didn’t do something quite right in my teaching, I feel so badly. I don’t like to disappoint her. When she says something like this, she also lets me know that she knows that I’m really trying and that makes me feel better. A lot of times at school, she’ll say, “Mel, what do you think about this or that?” It’s really not helpful to me when she does that because I’m not sure how I’m supposed to learn new practices if she doesn’t tell me what I should know. I ask her a question because I don’t know what I think.

Fran How is your principal helpful in your work? How is she unhelpful to you?

My principal is very helpful to me. She always tells me exactly what I need to do. In our school there are rules and policies so that none of us can say that we don’t understand what to do. I like that. She gives us clear directions and explains everything. That’s good. When we meet after an observation, she tells me what I did right and what I need to do to improve my teaching. And, when I ask her how I should implement the improvement, she shows me other models for doing it and explains the steps. It’s very helpful. The one thing that I’m confused about is that she makes us do these free-writes at the start of some faculty meetings. She tells us, “Just write what you’re thinking.” And sometimes she asks us how we’re feeling about school or our work. I don’t think this is helpful. I already know what I’m thinking, so why do I need to write it down? Plus, she doesn’t even collect it. She says, “It’s just for you!” I wish that she would just focus on what I need to do for my annual evaluation. That’s what would really help me.

Daye How is your principal helpful in your work? How is she unhelpful to you?

My principal is most helpful because she encourages me, and everyone at school, to think for ourselves. I’ve had other principals who don’t do this; they just wanted me to follow their rules and do what they want. I really appreciate that my principal makes room for us to discuss things—she allows us to do our own thinking. That’s what really helps me feel satisfied at work. She respects my decisions—she doesn’t need or want me to check in with her about every instructional choice I make in my classroom or with my team. I also appreciate that she looks out for my growth as a teacher-leader. She suggested I be appointed to our school’s parent-school council—and that’s been a terrific experience in many ways. The part that is hardest for me is that sometimes she gets annoyed when I critique her practices or ideas for improvement or give her feedback on things. Like the time when so many teachers in a recent faculty meeting had no clue what she was talking about or why she wanted to implement the initiative when the old one was working so well. And I told her about that and how I thought she could help us. At school, and in my life, I question things. Just because she’s the principal, I’m not going to stop that. I guess that’s something that I find unhelpful.

Developmental Supports and Challenge for Adults with Different Ways of Knowing

Pillar Practice / For Instrumental Knowers / For Socializing Knowers / For Self-Authoring Knowers
Teaming / Supports: Provide clear conversational guidelines, concrete goals, step-by-step procedures and directions, & due dates.
Challenges: Gradually introduce tasks requiring abstract thinking; encourage movement beyond “right” answers. / Supports: Demonstrate acceptance of individuals; Model disagreement without threatening interpersonal relationships.
Challenges: Encourage perspective broadening and internal value generation through supportive dialogue. / Supports: Provide opportunities for promoting, analyzing and critiquing one’s own goals, theories and ideas.
Challenges: Encourage acceptance and consideration of conflicting or discordant ideas and perspectives, especially those that are diametrically opposing to one’s own.
Providing Leadership Roles / Supports: Offer concrete goals signaling success; Model sharing rules, purposes and goals with others. Provide models of best practice.
Challenges: Encourage consideration of multiple perspectives, as well as the testing/analysis of alternative solutions and/or pathways. / Supports: Confirm value of and confidence in others; Encourage sharing one’s voice recognize person’s achievements risk taking.
Challenges: Encourage individual generation (rather than co-construction) of values, standards goals. Safely introduce scaffold conflict. / Supports: Provide opportunities to demonstrate competencies, critique proposed ideas and initiatives and contribute to developing vision.
Challenges: Gently push these adults to consider alternatives, perspectives and problem-solving approaches not in direct alignment with their own.
Collegial Inquiry / Supports: Share concrete examples of practice; provide specific advice, skills, directions, and information; set definitive outcomes.
Challenges: Promote dialogue and discussion of multiple perspectives; Push for transferability of concepts and abstract thinking. / Supports: Create group norms that allow for disagreement; Provide opportunities to share perspectives in pairs or triads before sharing with larger groups or supervisors.
Challenges: Encourage toleration of conflict, model engaging in with it, encourage the development of individual beliefs. / Supports: Create structures for demonstrating competencies and free dialogue; encourage self-reflection and open sharing of opinions.
Challenges: Emphasize the importance of tolerance and openness during debate; encourage sincere consideration of opposing viewpoints and opposing perspectives.
Mentoring / Supports: Discuss purposes objectives for mentoring relationship; offer expertise & advise; share reasoning.
Challenges: Encourage movement beyond “correct” solutions; facilitate abstract discussion & consideration of others’ perspectives. / Supports: Explicitly acknowledge and confirm others’ beliefs and perspectives; suggest “best” solutions to complex problems and challenges.
Challenges: Encourage mentee to establish own values and standards, and to tolerate conflict without feeling threatened. / Supports: Allow mentee to demonstrate own competencies, critique own work and move forward with self-determined goals.
Challenges: Engage in dialogue and offer additional goals, viewpoints, and problem-solving alternatives for contemplation.

Source: Adapted from Drago-Severson, 2009, Drago-Severson & Blum-DeStefano, 2011 (to appear in Drago-Severson, Blum-DeStefano, & Asghar, 2013).

Handout #4: Participants’ Leadership Strategies for Developmental Supports and Challenges when Designing Learning Initiative to Support Growth

Strategy / Examples
Differentiating Professional Learning (18/20) / Using free-writes, pair-shares, journaling, and group work to support teachers and colleagues with diverse ways of knowing; identifying individual needs to avoid making judgments based on behaviors; meeting colleagues “where they are.”
Emphasizing Collaborative Reflection
(14/20) / Establishing norms and ground rules for confidentiality; scheduling opportunities for meeting and collaboration; discussing cases or dilemmas of practice; emphasizing careful and caring listening.
Teaming (13/20) / Establishing and/or encouraging departmental, grade-level, or cross-boundary teams to evaluate curricula, policy, data, student performance, etc.
Mentoring (7/20) / Pairing experienced and inexperienced teachers in mutually beneficial ways (e.g., pairing newer and veteran teachers to provide symbiotic support with technology and classroom management, professional practice).
Providing Leadership Roles (11/20) / Encouraging experienced or expert teachers to share their knowledge locally and in wider settings, and recognizing that teacher leaders require different supports to be successful in this work.
Re-Structuring Meeting Times (12/20) / Approaching administrative and professional development meetings as collaborative opportunities; Keeping trust and open communication at the forefront of faculty meetings through differentiation (see above).
Using Protocols (7/20) / Developing or importing protocols to structure important conversations and reflections with clear expectations and ground rules.

Drago-Severson, Blum-DeStefano & Asghar (2012, 2013, forthcoming)

#5:Application:Action Planning

ACTION Planning: Our Process…

1)Please Select a Professional Learning Initiative you’d like to develop more fully in light of today’s learnings

2)Please Select a Partner

3)Please Reflect & Write Privately about how you want to use the ideas we discussed today in relation to the three threads of LF’s Design Standard to enhance your design (3 minutes)

4)First Partner Shares and Receives Coaching/Feedback (6 minutes, total)

5)Checking In & Checking Out and Reflection on next steps (3 minutes total)

Step Back & Checking-In / Checking-Out

a)Please reflect on together on this process. How is the coachee feeling? Thinking? How is the coach thinking? Feeling? What went well? Next steps for coachee? (2 minutes)

b)Private Writing/Reflecting time(1 minute)

Possible Guide for Inquiry & Sharing: Each Partner has 10 minutes to share and receive feedback coaching

1.Briefly describe the professional learning initiative &how you will use learnings from today to enhance?

2.What do you need help with at this time?

3.What is your next step?

4.Checkin with Each Other & then jot down final reflections before switching roles

REPEAT STEPS 3-5 With YOUR PARTNER

Would you and your partner like to talk in the future about your practice with your partner? If yes, do you want to set a time and day?

Selected Readings

Adult Development

Basseches, M. (1984). Dialectical thinking an adult development. Norwood, NJ: Ablex.

Belenky, M., Clinchy, B., Goldberger, N., & Tarule, J. (1986). Women’s ways of knowing. NY: Basic Books.

Berger, J. (2004). Dancing on the thresholds of meaning. Journal of Transformative Education, 2(4), 336-351.

Boes, L. (2009). Undergraduate Experiences of Service-Learning Pedagogy: A Constructive-Developmental Study. Unpublished Doctoral Dissertation. Harvard Graduate School of Education, Cambridge, MA.

Cranton, P. (1996). Professional development as transformational learning. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Daloz, L. A. (1999). Mentor: Guiding the journey of adult learners. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Drago-Severson, E. (2012). Helping educators grow: Practices and strategies for leadership development. Cambridge: Harvard Educational Press.

Drago-Severson, E. (2009). Leading adult learning: Supporting adult development in our schools. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin/Sage Press.

Drago-Severson, E. (2007). Helping teachers learn: Principals as professional development leaders.Teachers College Record.

Drago-Severson, E. (2004a). Becoming adult learners: Principles and practices for development. NY: Teachers College Press.

Drago-Severson, E. (2004b). Helping teachers learn: Principal leadership for adult growth and development. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press, Inc.

Drago-Severson, E., Blum, J., & Asghar, A. (2013, forthcoming). Learning and leading for growth: Preparing school leaders to build capacity in our schools. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press/Sage, Inc.

Drago-Severson, E. & Pinto, K. (2004). From barriers to breakthroughs: Principals’ strategies for overcoming challenges to teachers’ transformational learning. Journal of School Leadership.

Drago-Severson, E., & Santos, M. (2005). Adult Learning and Development Today. In D. Ness (Ed.), Encyclopedia on Education and Human Development. M. E. Sharpe Publishers.

Drago-Severson, E., Helsing, D., Kegan, R., Broderick, M., Popp, N., & Portnow, K. (2001b). Three developmentally different types of learners. Focus on Basics, 5(B), 7-10.

Drago-Severson, E., Helsing, D., Kegan, R., Popp, N., Broderick, M., & Portnow, K. (2001c). The power of a cohort and of collaborative groups. Focus on Basics, 5(B), 15-22.

Kegan, R. (1994). In over our heads: The mental demands of modern life. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.

Kegan, R. (1982). The evolving self: Problem and process in human development. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.

Kegan, R., Broderick, M., Drago-Severson, E., Helsing, D., Popp, N., Portnow, K., & Associates. (2001). Toward a “new pluralism” in the ABE/ESL classroom. Cambridge, MA: National Center for the Study of Adult Learning and Literacy.

Kegan, R., & Lahey, L. L. (2009). Immunity to Change: How to overcome it and unlock the potential in yourself and your organization. Boston: Harvard Business School Press.

Kegan, R., & Lahey, L. L. (2001). How the way we talk can change the way we work. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass/Wiley.

Kohlberg, L. (1969). Stage and sequence: the cognitive-developmental approach to socialization. In R. A. Goslin (Ed.), Handbook of socialization theory and research. New York: Rand McNally.

Levine, S. L. (1989). Promoting adult development in schools: The promise of professional development. Boston: Allyn and Bacon.

Levine, S. L. (1999). A passion for teaching. Alexandria, VA.: ASCD.

Levinson, D. J. et al. (1978). The seasons of a man’s life. New York: Ballantine Books.

Levinson, D. J. et al. (1996). The seasons of a woman’s life. New York: Ballantine Books.

McCallum, D. C. (2008). Exploring the implications of a hidden diversity in group relations conference learning: A developmental perspective. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Teachers College, Columbia University, NY.

Nicolaides, A. (2008). Learning their way through ambiguity: Explorations of how nine developmentally mature adults make sense of ambiguity. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Teachers College, Columbia University, NY.

Parks, S. (1986). The critical years: The young adult search for a faith to live by. San Francisco: Harper Row.

Perry, W. (1970). Forms of intellectual and ethical development in the college years. NY: Holt, Reinhart & Winston.

Rooke, D., & Torbert, W. (2005). Seven transformations of leadership. Harvard business review, 1-13.

Tennant, M., & Pogson, P. (1995). Learning and change in the adult years: A developmental perspective. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Vaillant, G. E. (1977). Adaptation to Life. Boston: Little, Brown & Company.

Adult Learning

Ackerman, R. H., & Maslin-Ostrowski, P. (2002). The wounded leader. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass/Wiley.

Ackerman, R. H., Donaldson, G. A., & Van Der Bogert, R. (1996). Making sense as a school leader. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Arnold, R. (2005). Empathic intelligence: Teaching, learning, relating. Sydney: University of New South Whales.

Bloomberg, L. D. (2005). Learning From a Distance: Creating Connected Communities Through Peer Dialogue Journals. Perspectives: The New York Journal of Adult Learning, 3,2, 33-44.

Brookfield, S. (1995). Becoming a critically reflective teacher. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Covey, S. R. (2005). The 8th habit: From effectiveness to greatness. New York:Simon & Schuster.

Donaldson, G. (2006). Cultivating leadership in schools. New York: Teachers College Press.

Donaldson, G. (2008). How leaders learn: Cultivating capacities for school improvement. NY: Teachers College Press.

Fiddler, M., & Marienau, C. (1995). Linking learning, teaching, and development. In K. Taylor & C. Marienau (Eds.), Learning environments for women’s adult development. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.