Protocols for Professional Learning Conversations: Cultivating the Art and Discipline

By offering guidelines for safely challenging assumptions, building common language, and giving and receiving feedback on educational practices, protocols play a vital role in helping educators have professional learning conversations that lead to improved student learning. In Protocols for Professional Learning Conversations, author Catherine Glaude provides a variety of protocols designed to create a culture that encourages productive conversations between and among teachers and administrators. Twenty-eight sample protocols guide educators through a variety of situations. These protocols navigate conversations in a way that ensures all parties play an active part in improving student achievement, teacher effectiveness, and assessment methods. The protocols are designed to: Provide ample time for reflection Promote deep listening Allow participants to learn from others challenges and successes Help participants to gather feedback to improve teacher practices and student learning Improve and focus action research Help participants analyze the effectiveness of assessments Glaude acknowledges the sensitive nature of these conversations and outlines sample ground rules for conducting learning conversations, providing feedback, and receiving feedback. She also provides guidelines that enable participants to customize ground rules to address the organization s individual challenges. The protocols presented in this book progressively build comfort and a climate that welcomes constructive, collaborative conversations among participants by first looking at a common reading assignment and gradually building to more advanced conversations that focus on improving individual practice as participants become more comfortable with this collaborative process. Guidelines for creating and adapting your own advanced protocols are also provided.