The development of an action research based approach to ... Collaborative Action Planning .doc ·...

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Mol an Óige Collaborative Action Planning -a guide to transforming schools and training workshops into centres of learning for all 1

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Mol an Óige

Collaborative Action Planning -a guide to transforming schools and training workshops into

centres of learning for all

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Mol an Óige is a YOUTHSTART funded project based in County Tipperary, developing and testing innovative approaches to the issues relating to educational disadvantage. The project is promoted by a consortium of the following agencies:

North Tipperary VEC (lead partner) Mid Western Health Board

Irish Business and Employers Conference FÁS

Tipperary Rural and Business Development Institute Irish Congress of Trades Unions

South Tipperary VEC Mary Immaculate College

Published by: Mol an ÓigeTeach an LéinnKenyon StNenaghCo. Tipperary

© 2000

No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form without acknowledging the authors and the Mol an Óige project.

Authors: Dan Condren, Rose Tully, Mary Slattery, Philip Mudge, Norberta O Gorman

ISBN: 1-903445-00-0

Mol an Óige welcomes comments and enquiries about this document and other aspects of its work. These should be addressed to:

Dan Condren, Mol an Óige, Teach an Léinn, Kenyon St, Nenagh, Co. Tipperary

This publication is supported by the YOUTHSTART strand of the EU Human Resources Initiative EMPLOYMENT.

The Department of Enterprise and Employment has overall responsibility for administration of EMPLOYMENT

Printed by Liger Print, Nenagh, Co. Tipperary.

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Contents

Structure of this Report.......................................................................................................................................5

FOREWORD................................................................................................................................ 6

Mol an Óige, the project.....................................................................................................6The Origins of Mol an Óige.................................................................................................................................6

Values underpinning the project..........................................................................................................................7

COLLABORATIVE ACTION PLANNING............................................................................................8

1. Introduction................................................................................................................. 81.1. What is Collaborative Action Planning?.....................................................................................................8

1.2. Action Research........................................................................................................................................9

2. The Development of Collaborative Action Planning..............................................102.1. Rationale.................................................................................................................................................10

2.2. The Emergence of Collaborative Action Planning in the First Round Project, Jan 96 – Dec 97...............11

2.3. The Development of Collaborative Action Planning During the Second Round Project - Our Learning...12

2.4. How Collaborative Action Planning Operated..........................................................................................13

2.5. Collaborative Action Planning in Primary Schools...................................................................................14

2.6. Collaborative Action Planning in Post-Primary Schools...........................................................................15

2.7. Collaborative Action Planning in Training Workshops..............................................................................15

2.8. The Mol an Óige Project as a Learning Partnership................................................................................16

3. Outcomes of the process.........................................................................................163.1. The Value of the Collaborative Action Planning Process.........................................................................16

3.2. Learning Support.....................................................................................................................................17

3.3. Teacher Professional Development.........................................................................................................17

3.4. New Teaching Methodologies..................................................................................................................18

3.5. Parents as Partners in Their Own Child’s Education...............................................................................19

3.6. Maximising Resources.............................................................................................................................20

3.7. Framework for Care.................................................................................................................................20

3.8. Networking...............................................................................................................................................20

3.9. Collaborative Action Planning as a Strategy for Real Change.................................................................21

4. Resource Requirements for Collaborative Action Planning.................................22

5. Findings from the external evaluation of the process...........................................23

CASE STUDY A: “A MATTER OF CHANGING PRIORITIES”..........................................................24

How one primary school used Collaborative Action Planning to develop individual education plans as a means of delivering learning support............................................................................................................................24

CASE STUDY B: “THE BEST OF BOTH WORLDS”......................................................................30

Using Collaborative Action Planning to overcome the effects of isolation for teachers and students in small primary schools.................................................................................................................................................30

CASE STUDY C: “CHANGING MINDSETS”.................................................................................35

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How a post-primary school used Collaborative Action Planning to design and implement its own models of interventions to meet the needs of students at risk............................................................................................35

CASE STUDY D: “TEAM TEACHING AND LEARNING FROM EACH OTHER”...................................41

How working collaboratively enabled teachers in a post-primary school to focus on students as individuals and to build on their strengths..................................................................................................................................41

CASE STUDY E: “MEANING AND PURPOSE ARE KEY ELEMENTS IN SUCCESSFUL LEARNING”......47

How a Youthreach centre used Collaborative Action Planning to support literacy interventions in the centre...47

CASE STUDY F: “YOU FEEL SPECIAL WHEN SOMEONE COMES TO MEET YOU”........................53

How working collaboratively raised the self-esteem of students and tutors.......................................................53

A GUIDE TO INTRODUCING COLLABORATIVE ACTION PLANNING IN SCHOOLS AND TRAINING WORKSHOPS............................................................................................................................ 57

The Motive........................................................................................................................................................57

Role of the Principal / Centre Manager..............................................................................................................57

The Co-ordinator...............................................................................................................................................58

The Team..........................................................................................................................................................58

What the team will do........................................................................................................................................58

The Action Plan.................................................................................................................................................58

Start small.........................................................................................................................................................59

Beginning the process.......................................................................................................................................59

Effective meetings.............................................................................................................................................59

How to get through an agenda..........................................................................................................................60

How to evaluate................................................................................................................................................60

What to do if things are not working out............................................................................................................61

Feedback between the team and the principal and staff...................................................................................61

Aspects of support by Mol an Óige which may not be available to schools beginning the process........................................................................................................................ 62

Planning Time...................................................................................................................................................62

Consultancy......................................................................................................................................................62

Networking with other schools and agencies.....................................................................................................62

6. Collaborative Action Planning and School Development Planning.....................63

7. Bibliography..............................................................................................................69

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Is this school/ training workshop a learning institution? Who is learning in here?

Are students learning? Are all students learning? Who do they learn from? How does the way we do things help them to learn? Is their experience here going to be helpful to them now and in later life?

Are staff members learning? What are they learning? Who are they learning from? Does the institution recognise and value their learning? How does it encourage and support their learning?

Are parents, families, community and school management learning? What are they learning? How does the school/training workshop support and encourage this learning?

In short, is this school/workshop a real learning community, a centre of learning for all?

From Mol an Óige presentation to schools and workshops

Who is learning in this school?Is the school organised for teaching or learning?

Structure of this Report

Section 1 This section of the report deals with the development of Collaborative Action Planning as a model for intervention in schools and details the lessons learned in the process. It describes how the process worked in schools and summarises the main outcomes from the process

Section 2 This comprises of six case studies of Collaborative Action Planning, two each from primary and post-primary schools and training workshops.

Section 3 This section provides guidelines to schools or training workshops interested in implementing Collaborative Action Planning.

Section 4 This section analyses Collaborative Action Planning in the context of School Development Planning as promoted by the Department of Education and Science.

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FOREWORD

MOL AN ÓIGE, THE PROJECTMol an Óige was a four year project, (January 1996 –March 2000), supported by the Youthstart strand of the EU Human Resources Initiative EMPLOYMENT. It is promoted by North Tipperary VEC in partnership with the Mid-Western Health Board, FAS, IBEC, ICTU, Mary Immaculate College, TRBDI, and South Tipperary VEC.

The target group for the project were 10-19 year-olds at risk of failing in school for whatever reason, or who had left school early. As it is a systems development project, however, we did not work directly with the target group, but with the providers.

The project aimed to develop and test a model of targeted interventions to empower providers (educational and other) to respond more flexibly and adequately to the needs of young people in the target group, and to ensure that these young people benefit to the maximum from the services provided.

The objectives of the project included:

To establish the causes and nature of early school leaving

To promote language, literacy, numeracy and general learning interventions for the target group

To promote the inclusion of parents as partners in their children’s education

To develop a model for inter-agency co-operation

To ensure that transitions within and between education, training and employment are negotiated successfully by the target group

To develop models of community support for the target group

Thus, the project sought to develop a collaborative, holistic approach on the part of education providers in order that services provided might be more responsive to the needs of young people in the target group. This paper describes the development and testing of a strategy for achieving such an approach. This strategy is called Collaborative Action Planning.

As part of our own practice of ongoing review and improvement, the team conducted regular interviews and meetings with teachers, held seminars, received regular written evaluation reports from schools, attended team and co-ordinators’ meetings and conducted a comprehensive structured interview in each school at the end of the year. Teachers’ comments arising out of these provide the evidence base for this report.

The Origins of Mol an ÓigeNorth Tipperary VEC had long been involved in innovative projects aimed at improving the educational experience of all students, including those at risk of failure in the system. The availability of EU funding in 1995 was seen as an opportunity to further develop their ambitions in this regard. Consequently, a team of senior teachers and principals was assembled to devise a project which would address in a systemic way the causes of failure in the education system. Mol an Óige was the result.

It was initially planned as a two year project, 1996 and 1997. The particular question which animated the project was: ‘Since failure in school and early school leaving are predictable in many instances from an early age, why are they not preventable?’. Criteria for selection of Youthstart projects were that they must be bottom-up, they must be innovative and they must create a multiplier effect, i.e., their effect must extend beyond the project itself. For these reasons, it was decided that teachers participating in the process must have ownership of what

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they were attempting (it must be their project, not ours) and that it must equip them with new skills and understandings that would continue to influence their practice after the project ended. We adopted the motto that ‘it is not what we do, but what we leave behind that will determine the success of the project’. In fact, the project received funding for two more years, 1998 and 1999, for what is referred to in this report as the second round project.

Values underpinning the projectThe values underpinning the project included the following:

A recognition of the ability of all children and young people to learn

The right of all children and young people to receive an education appropriate to their needs, abilities, aptitudes and learning styles

The right of all to experience respect from agencies and professionals

The responsibility of organisations collectively, and of individual practitioners, to develop their practice in order to respond to the needs of all their clients

A belief that the provision of organisational and institutional frameworks which are empowering for both professionals and clients will result in a better quality experience for both

A belief that young people and their parents should be central in decision-making processes relating to their education and welfare.

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COLLABORATIVE ACTION PLANNING

1. INTRODUCTIONMany factors converge within a school or training workshop to influence the learning for individual students in the institution – who learns, how they learn, what they learn, from whom etc. The single most important factor, however, is the atmosphere within the classroom, and the relationships fostered by that atmosphere – between teacher and class, between teacher and individual students and between the students themselves. Many outside influences bear on the nature of these relationships. These include examination pressures, whole school ethos, teachers’ personal and professional circumstances, students’ personal circumstances, parental pressures etc. All of these interfere with essential learning relationships and are potential sources of stress for teacher and individual student alike.

Collaborative Action Planning is a strategy developed and tested during the course of the Mol an Óige project, designed to enable schools to respond in a flexible way to meeting the needs of all students, in particular those whose needs are not currently being catered for in the education system. In particular, it seeks to impact positively on the learning relationships within the classroom as well as on whole-school practice. This is something that many school management strategies which have been developed in a business environment and applied to school life fail to do. As one principal put it: ‘I could change everything except what happened in the classroom’. Collaborative Action Planning, in contrast, is a strategy devised and tested by teachers and school managements, and shown to have an impact on learning for teachers and student within the classroom.

Collaborative Action Planning seeks to impact positively on the learning relationships within the classroom as well as on whole school practice

Hargreaves (1994) refers to the ‘persistent failure (of schools) to engage the emotions and motivations of many of their students and considerable numbers of their staff’. Collaborative Action Planning addressed this by seeking to transform the school into a centre which promotes the learning of all. As well as being educational in intent, it is based on the principles of action research which is a ‘study of changing a situation from the inside’, (Winter, 1995), and is thus educational in process also. It is designed to be flexible, permitting schools to adapt it to address their own situations.

Since Collaborative Action Planning is a developmental process, this chapter describes it in the context of its evolution, illustrating how it led to, and in turn responded to, new learning.

1.1. What is Collaborative Action Planning?Collaborative Action Planning is a process that allows a team teachers, in the context of the mission of the school, to:

identify the needs of the school and the specific needs of the students in their care plan, implement and document a course of action to meet these needs evaluate and adapt their practice in the light of their experience

It is a strategy which seeks simultaneously to:

meet the needs of students meet the needs of teachers influence whole school practice in relation to the target group

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Collaborative Action Planning is not a solution to immediate problems. Rather, it is a process which offers schools an opportunity and time to address these problems in new ways. Collaborative Action Planning draws heavily from the principles of action research.

1.2. Action ResearchAction research has become recognised as a powerful tool for personal and professional development based on critical reflection of one’s own practice. It offers a proven, rigorous and fundamentally educational methodology for developing one’s professional theories and practice

Elliott (1989) defines action research as ‘the study of a social situation with a view to improving the quality of action within it’. He added that ‘total process – review, diagnosis, planning, implementation, monitoring effects – provides the necessary link between self-evaluation and professional development’.

Action research seeks to encourage professionals to develop the theory of their own professional practice as well as the practice itself (e.g., McNiff, 1993; Lomax, 1996). This is important because

“the separation of one from the other stultifies both: theory separated from practice slips into abstract speculation and the ramifications of jargon; practice separated from theory slips into self-justificatory reaction or self-perpetuating routine” (Winter, 1989).

The Collaborative Action Planning model has been strongly influenced by the ideas of McNiff and Whitehead. They suggest that real educational reform begins with a sense of dissatisfaction with present practice. In particular, it is prompted ‘when (one’s) values are being denied in (one’s) practice’ (Whitehead, 1989). The following series of questions and steps (adapted from McNiff, 1995) represents an action research approach to developing one’s personal professional practice, and forms the basis of the Collaborative Action Planning process developed by Mol an Óige and participating schools/training workshops.

What is our concern?

Why is it a concern? (Which of our educational values is being denied in my practice)

What could we do about it? (What are possible solutions? – choose one)

How would we know if we were succeeding in improving matters? (What would be the evidence? – criteria for success?)

We implement the solution

We evaluate its effectiveness

We modify our ideas and practice in the light of the evaluation

What have we learned in relation to our own professional practice from the process?

Has the process suggested any new avenues for exploration? (Do we wish to pursue them? – if so, a new action/reflection cycle begins)

McNiff refers to the above as a ‘generative action reflection cycle’ – generative in that it not only produces learning, but also suggests new avenues for further learning. The cycle may look simply like common sense. It is the rigour with which it is applied that transforms it into a learning process. The Collaborative Action Planning process provides a framework which facilitates such rigour within the school/workshop setting.

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2. THE DEVELOPMENT OF COLLABORATIVE ACTION PLANNING

2.1. RationaleThere is ample evidence that outside interventions and provision of additional resources alone do not necessarily produce real change, but become ‘add-ons’ to current practice. This is often because interventions designed to change practice within schools do not engage with the every-day realities as experienced by those who will be expected to implement them, i.e., management, teachers, parents and students. Hence, in developing a model of Collaborative Action Planning, it was necessary to articulate and constantly review the assumptions about schools upon which it is based. Among the assumptions about the causes of failure in the educational system which underpinned the Mol an Óige project were the following:

Failure in the educational system does not occur suddenly, but is predictable from an early age.

Teachers recognise that some students in their classroom are failing but often feel powerless to prevent it happening. This sense of powerlessness and failure in relation to some students, is a significant source of stress for many teachers.

There is a low level of co-operation between schools and the other agencies charged with the welfare of the target group. This leaves teachers very isolated when dealing with difficulties with which they are faced and with which they feel ill equipped to cope. A greater level of co-operation could result in a more co-ordinated provision of care for the target group as well as increasing the capacity of each agency to cope.

Even within schools, teaching can be a very isolated profession – the culture in many schools is such that teachers do not learn professionally from each other. Teachers often lack adequate professional peer support.

The concept of ‘professional care’ is one that is not well understood in schools. One consequence of this is that failure to meet all the needs of a student can be seen as a personal failure on the part of teachers. It also results in blurred criteria for judging success by teachers, and results in a notion that ‘good teachers do not have failures’.

School principals, for a variety of reasons, experience difficulty in offering the leadership needed to change the culture within their schools.

Schools and teachers have not, in general, been successful in including parents, particularly those of the target group, as partners in their own child’s education

Additional resources are often seen as an opportunity to compensate for inadequacies in current practices, rather than as an opportunity to improve these practices. In this sense, they become ‘add-ons’ to current provision, rather than being integrated into that provision.

Teachers’ professionalism is often overlooked. They are rarely asked what issues they regard as a priority for the students in their care, or how they would propose to address these, yet they are constantly expected to implement new programmes, into which they have no input, to address all kinds of educational and social issues.

Our education system is inhumanly indifferent to the damage it does to some teachers and in turn to their pupils

In summary, Collaborative Action Planning was informed by thinking such as Swan (1991): . It sought, then, to address the needs of students and of teachers simultaneously. It was intended to be a learning experience for participating teachers and schools as well as for Mol an Óige. In short, it sought to make school a learning institution for all.

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2.2. The Emergence of Collaborative Action Planning in the First Round Project, Jan 96 – Dec 97

Mol an Óige began in January 1996. At the outset, we developed separate strategies for each of the objectives. For the central objective of addressing the literacy and numeracy needs of the target group, we sought to encourage teachers to use an action research methodology. This involved identifying some needs of the target group/individual student which they wished to address, deciding what actions they might try, drawing up a written action plan, monitoring and evaluating progress and learning from the process. During the first round of the project, teachers in about thirty primary schools developed action plans, and some very interesting ideas emerged and were tested (Mol an Óige, 1997). A number of significant findings, however, made us review our ideas and practice. Among these were:

all participating schools were small (mostly four teachers or fewer), and no post-primary school developed an action plan

only one teacher took part in most schools, and the process did not spread out to influence the general practice in schools

Reflecting on our experience during the first round project, a number of learning points emerged which we needed to address during the second round of the project. Among these were the following:

What we were offering was not what schools wanted – in most cases they felt that all they required was additional resources and personnel. In addition, what we were asking was seen as an additional burden in an already heavy workload. We felt that if we could offer a small amount by way of planning time, teachers would respond wholeheartedly.

We came to realise that what we were attempting was nothing less than a change of culture within the school, and schools did not know how to go about it. In many cases, they saw change as an event rather than a process. Thus, we needed to develop a model that schools could use to begin a process of change. We would not see the process completed, but we could show them a way forward and help them get started.

We had focused on developing action plans to meet the needs of the target group; we had not stated explicitly that what we were trying to do was also designed to meet the needs of teachers, and we felt that the project was not as educational for them as we had hoped. We needed to be explicit about our intentions, and we needed to build in procedures to enable teachers to focus on their own learning.

We found that even where individual teachers were developing action plans, they found it difficult to interest their colleagues in joining in the process. We concluded that we needed to build teamwork into the process.

We were encouraging a bottom up approach to school development. We realised that management needed to be involved in order to produce significant whole-school development. We also realised that individual teachers attempting to change their practice could end up even more frustrated in an unresponsive school structure. We needed to devise a process that would have the active support of the principal, but be not necessarily be led by him/her – it needed to be both bottom up and top down.

Many schools saw our project as threatening, and as a reflection of some inadequacy on their part. They frequently asked questions such as ‘What are we not doing that you think we should be doing’. We needed to find some way in which we could become involved in a learning relationship with schools, and we needed to say clearly to them that both they and we were learning from the relationship.

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In short, we needed to devise a single strategy which would incorporate all the objectives of the project. Such a strategy must have a simultaneous focus on three of the key elements crucial to enabling schools to respond to the needs of the target group:

meeting the specific learning needs of individual students ongoing teacher professional development continuous school improvement.

We needed a single strategy which would simultaneously focus on:- meeting students individual learning needs- meet professional development needs of teachers- promote whole school development

We called the strategy Collaborative Action Planning, and it formed the basis for the second round project. It draws heavily on principles of research-based professionalism, and is educational both in its intent and in its methodology. The development of the model was also fine-tuned by researching the introduction of the process in six schools.

2.3. The Development of Collaborative Action Planning During the Second Round Project - Our Learning

The second round project began in January 1998. All schools and Youthreach/training workshops in North Tipperary, and in Clonmel and Tipperary Town in South Tipperary were invited to participate in developing and testing the Collaborative Action Planning process during the 1998/9 school year. Out of a total of 118 schools and workshops, 35 primary schools (38%), 13 post-primary schools (56%) and 4 training workshops (66%) took part. We worked with them in a learning partnership in which they were learning from their experience and we were developing the model of Collaborative Action Planning and our own support role in the process.

The following is a summary of some of the main learning to emerge in the development of Collaborative Action Planning during the second-round project, and of our responses:

The nature of Irish schools is such that teachers have not had experience of collaborative planning. Thus, in devising interventions, it cannot be assumed that the provision of planning time will result in its being well used. There is clear evidence, for example, that where planning time is made available to schools, as in the Leaving Certificate Applied or Junior Certificate Schools Programmes, it is often not used effectively. Section 3 of this guide, offering clear guidelines for implementing Collaborative Action Planning, is a response to this learning

In the early networking meetings we found that teachers focused on the learning for the students from the process. We needed to constantly prompt them to reflect on their own learning also so that there would be lasting benefit from the project. We needed to focus on schools as learning institutions. An important question is ‘who is learning in this institution?’

Significant realities in the everyday life of teachers in many schools are a sense of isolation, and an absence of structures for collaboration within schools or networking with neighbouring schools or other professionals. These realities limit the range of professional dialogue that takes place in many staff-rooms, make it difficult for professional peer support to develop, and have serious implications for the emergence of leadership among staffs. There is a need for a new definition of teacher professionalism. The confusion of ‘professionalism’ with ‘expertise’ and of ‘professional care’ with ‘personal care’ results in isolation and stress for teachers, and militates against professional collaboration either with colleagues or with

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professionals from other agencies. We propose a ‘reflective practitioner’ model of teacher professionalism.

We need a new definition of what it is to be a professional as a teacher. The confusion of ‘professionalism’ with ‘expertise’ and of ‘professional care’ with ‘personal care’ results in isolation and stress for teachers, and militates against professional collaboration either with colleagues or with professionals from other agencies

Identifying how to avail of the support of parents, statutory and voluntary agencies, and the community in general in meeting the needs of the target group proved difficult and challenging to most schools. Collaborative Action Planning must be rigorous if it is to be successful in dealing with challenging issues.

In some larger schools the team of teachers involved in Collaborative Action Planning found themselves isolated. They found that there was not a structure for communication with the rest of the staff and management. They found that other teachers could undo the approaches they were developing. Sometimes, other teachers not involved in the process felt excluded. We modified the model so that for the coming year, teams should establish clear mechanisms for ongoing mutual feedback with school management and staff.

We believed that decision-making authority should be devolved to institutions and, within institutions, to teachers/tutors. We believed that decision-making and leadership functions can be developed more effectively through teamwork, and that teamwork offers the peer support to question existing provision, to try new ideas and to effect a change of culture in the school/workshop. We believed that this would be empowering for staff and management. Our experience indicates that while this can be the case, it requires substantial technical support. Without that, it will not be an empowering experience.

2.4. How Collaborative Action Planning OperatedA team of teachers, with a co-ordinator, managed the Collaborative Action Planning process in each school. The team typically consisted of about five volunteers (fewer in smaller primary schools). This team, in consultation with the principal/manager and with the rest of the staff, was responsible for identifying the needs that they wished to address and drawing up an action plan to respond to these needs. They also, at the outset, established formal procedures for ongoing communication and feedback between the Action Planning team, management, and the whole staff.

The team met weekly (or fortnightly in some primary schools) to plan actions and monitor and evaluate progress. The action plan itself developed during the process, refining aims and proposed actions in the light of the lessons learned. The Collaborative Action Planning process also developed such skills as structuring meetings to be productive, developing collaborative approaches to responding to the needs of the target group, and ensuring that the process is a learning one for participating teachers and for the whole staff as well as for students in the target group. These skills enhance the capacity of the institution to respond more flexibly to meet the needs of the target group.

The Mol an Óige project provided clear guidelines for drawing up action plans. The plan identified the target group, the needs to be addressed and the actions proposed in response. It also detailed the process - times for planning meetings, roles of different participants etc. The project also encouraged schools and workshops as a matter of importance to identify how the support of parents, statutory and voluntary agencies, and the community in general could be availed of in meeting the needs of the target group.

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Mol an Óige provided planning time to schools to enable the planning meetings to take place. In addition, monthly meetings of the co-ordinators from different schools were held and proved to be an important developmental aspect of the whole process. Mol an Óige also played a consultancy role with schools in developing the process and in meeting the professional development needs of staff arising from involvement in the process.

Regular (preferably weekly) effective meetings are central to the process. These enable a team to work through a plan, to evaluate its success, to modify it in the light of experience and to learn from the process. This is in contrast to ordinary staff meetings which have a wider remit, are more infrequent, and do not generally afford an opportunity for critical reflection.

Collaborative Action Planning is rigorous – regular, structured meetings; constant evaluation; a commitment to openness, collaboration and continuous improvement; the written action plan; ongoing feedback to and from the principal and the rest of the staff; and the focus on teachers’ own learning are all essential elements. It is this rigour which makes the process inherently educational, and which distinguishes it from simple ‘common sense’.

The process developed in different ways in different schools and workshops. Some generic differences were apparent between the approaches in primary and post-primary schools and workshops. But even within these sectors, different institutions developed the process in very different ways.

2.5. Collaborative Action Planning in Primary SchoolsCollaborative Action Planning was much slower to take root in primary schools. Some schools were very tentative in their initial commitment, and a few were late participating. Throughout the project, 35 schools participated, some in a more structured way than others. Of these, 25 were involved for the full duration of the project.

Formal staff meetings and formal planning have not traditionally been a feature of many primary schools. In particular in smaller schools, teachers constantly discussed school issues over morning break and lunch, and did not see the need for formal meetings. Consequently, many were initially slow to avail of formal planning time and needed encouragement from Mol an Óige to do so. Gradually, they used a variety of strategies, the most common being to employ a specialist teacher such as a music or drama teacher to take, for example, four classes each week for half an hour. This freed the class teachers for half an hour each to do other work or to plan with the learning support teacher, and the planning meeting then took place weekly (or fortnightly) after school. Other strategies for finding planning time included administrative principals or infant teachers making time available to staff, or time made available by grouping classes together for appropriate activities or assemblies and freeing up teachers for planning meetings. By the end of the project, 75% of schools were using planning time, and all found it useful. Larger schools designated some time weekly for the co-ordinator to carry out the tasks of the role.

As the majority of primary schools were small the team often (but not necessarily) consisted of the full staff. The principal was a member of the team in all but three schools and in two of these s/he attended meetings fairly frequently. The principal was often the co-ordinator, but in a number of schools another teacher took on this role in the second year of the project. In almost every school the learning support teacher was a member of the team.

Individual education plans are now a feature in many participating primary schools

In the initial stages, teachers did not know how or even what they should plan about in relation to students. We found that developing individual education plans for specific

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children provided, for many, a beginning point for the process. Individual education plans are now a feature in many participating schools, and have led to other developments in support of learning, such as shared reading programmes, cross-age tutoring, self-esteem building programmes and homework support. In most schools using individual education plans, teachers are sharing the tasks involved in implementing the plan (see case study A).

While most participating primary schools continue to use withdrawal, individually or in small groups, as the main form of learning support, 38% now have scheduled meetings between the learning support and class teachers to link the work done in withdrawal to the class programme. Another modification of the withdrawal process has involved withdrawing brighter and weaker students together which allowed learning support to be delivered in a more inclusive way. One teacher commented that brighter students sometimes have needs in the area of social and communication skills which can be met by working in small mixed ability groups. One teacher commented that this overcame the problem of her being seen as the ‘slow teacher’. In four of the participating schools the class teacher supported the students who were experiencing difficulties while the learning support teacher worked with the rest of the class.

2.6. Collaborative Action Planning in Post-Primary SchoolsPost-primary schools found it easier, initially, than primary schools to use planning time. When the timetable for the year was being drawn up, teachers in the Action Planning team were each timetabled for one period per week fewer than normal, and this time was used for the planning period. The co-ordinator was timetabled for a number of additional free periods to perform the duties of the role. This time was given, instead, to a part-time teacher for the year, and the cost of this was recouped from Mol an Óige.

There was also a greater awareness in post-primary schools of the need to collaborate and plan, and there were more things to plan about. This was mainly because teachers share students in post-primary schools. However, the skills of making planning effective and learning from the process had to be developed in most schools. It was only when teachers focused on their own learning that real change took place.

It was when teachers focused on their own learning that real change took place

In all schools which had the services of a learning support teacher, s/he was a member of the team. The principal was a member in only three schools. The choice of co-ordinator and the role of the principal were very important to the success of the process. In general, it was preferable that the learning support teacher not be the co-ordinator. This was found to increase the isolation of the role, whereas being a team member helped reduce the isolation. In the case of the principal, while his/her active support was essential, it was deemed generally preferable s/he not be a member of the team, but attend meetings frequently. Many proposals developed by the Action Planning team involved significant change in school policy or practice. For example, developments in discipline or whole-school literacy policy have timetabling and management implications. Some degree of involvement by the principal in the development of such proposals was desirable; in some cases where this was not the case and the proposal was rejected, it led to frustration on the part of the team.

2.7. Collaborative Action Planning in Training WorkshopsFour training workshops participated in Collaborative Action Planning – two Youthreach, one combined community training and Travellers workshop, and one Youthreach progression centre. The process in workshops began much later than in the schools – in most cases it only began during 1999/2000. This was partly because Mol an Óige staff prioritised schools and

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partly because the model had been developed for the school situation and had to be modified for training workshops. In the workshops, the target groups consisted of all students. The Action Planning team usually consisted of most members of staff. Arranging planning meetings proved difficult in some centres where most of the staff were part-time. Centres received 5-6 hours per week for planning time from Mol an Óige, and in some cases this was used to pay for attendance at meetings.

In general, centre staff were more open to change and innovation than schools. This reflected their size, the young people with whom they worked, their greater flexibility in terms of curriculum etc. and the isolation which many centre staff experience. All centres participated in a wide range of inservice activities. In many cases, all centre staff including the manager participated.

The high proportion of Travellers in some of the workshops meant that specific issues relating to them as a group were high on the agenda, e.g., inclusion, obtaining work placements.

2.8. The Mol an Óige Project as a Learning Partnership The range of supports offered by Mol an Óige was very important in the development of the process. The single most crucial element of that support was in establishing a learning partnership with schools/workshops. The fact that Mol an Óige was learning from their experience was very empowering for schools, encouraging them to be innovative and to focus on their own learning, and removing the fear of failure. It also meant that they were very willing to provide us with information about their learning as they knew we needed their help to develop our model, not to check up on them. This in turn enabled us to understand better what was happening at school level, to learn from it, and to respond more appropriately.

Focusing on the learning rather than on obtaining additional resources which would compensate for inadequacies in current practice was very important in another way also. It ensured that the project fundamentally influenced institutional understandings and practice and did not become simply an ‘add-on’ to current practice. The focus in Collaborative Action Planning was not on doing a lot of new things, but in doing things more effectively.

3. OUTCOMES OF THE PROCESS

3.1. The Value of the Collaborative Action Planning ProcessTeachers have discovered the need and the benefits of collaborative working and have found the process liberating. At a meeting of post-primary principals at the end of the 1998/9 school year, their request to Mol an Óige was to continue to support the planning process – this was far more important to them than material resources. For 1999/2000, they committed themselves to matching the planning time provided by Mol an Óige with an equal amount from their own resources. A number of primary schools have approached their Boards of Management about supporting planning. Two have drawn up proposals for resources from their trustees and two others have obtained funding from their local ADM projects to continue to develop their actions. The following are some comments by participants in the process:

“Collaborative Action Planning helped us crystallise in our own heads what we wanted to do, what was practical to do. We learned the value of team effort” – teacher

“Children are benefiting from more informed practice and organisation” – learning support teacher

“Action Planning kick-started a lot of things. It shook up teachers, made us look into ourselves and our own talents” – primary school principal

“Collaborative Action Planning was helpful in introducing the whole concept of school planning” – principal

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“Collaborative Action Planning (was) an exercise in whole school planning. We feel that the work might have been achieved, but it would have been done in a haphazard way without the guidance from Mol an Óige” – principal

“Action Planning has given the team a good professional structure and guidelines. We now need to integrate the learning throughout the whole school. I believe it will mushroom in our school” – post-primary school team member

“We had to go through the process many times to grasp it. Outside help and guidance were very necessary and helpful” – principal in small primary school

“The meetings were not so easy at first … our expectations became more realistic as time progressed” – primary school team member

3.2. Learning Support

Many schools and workshops have moved from withdrawal to more inclusive models of learning support.

Many schools working with Mol an Óige developed new procedures for the delivery of learning support, moving from a predominantly ‘withdrawal’ model to more inclusive models where the learning needs of all students are met within the class. Many schools, both primary and post-primary, also developed more collaborative models where the learning support teacher was a resource to other teachers and, increasingly, to parents. These new models have led to initiatives such as team teaching, individual education plans, cross-curricular approaches to literacy, active learning methodologies, peer/cross age tutoring and more differentiated teaching methodologies.

“I have more involvement with classes and teachers rather than withdrawal of individuals or groups. There is more sharing of ideas and a shared common purpose” – learning support teacher

“Team teaching is more productive and we found it easier to motivate students” – teacher

“The Collaborative Action Planning process enabled us to develop individual action plans. Progress, or lack of progress, was more clearly defined and our awareness of the needs of students was highlighted and our plans became more focused” – primary school co-ordinator

“One child who was always late now comes in on time because of being with a peer-reading tutor” – primary school principal

“More learning is taking place in the classroom – fewer discipline problems and the moral support of having another teacher in the classroom …” - post-primary learning support teacher referring to the benefits of team teaching

“During the Collaborative Action Planning process, we gradually moved away from the withdrawal model which was predominant heretofore. So far this change in emphasis is working well and is likely to continue in the future” – primary school learning support teacher

3.3. Teacher Professional DevelopmentIn a very real sense, Collaborative Action Planning can be viewed as a new model of in-career professional renewal and development for teachers/tutors. The process itself was developmental, and enabled teachers to share their skills and learning. In focusing on meeting the needs of the target group, it enabled them to identify aspects of their practice where they needed new professional skills and understandings. It also provided the peer support necessary to question existing practice, to try out new ideas and to learn from the process. Hence, the process itself was developmental professionally for teachers, and it has also proven to be an effective catalyst for teachers engaging in further in-service activities.

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All participating post-primary schools and workshops and over 60% of primary schools engaged in inservice activities related to their action plans.

A very important aspect of teacher professional development was the formal sharing of the experiences that occurred during the project. Apart from regular presentations to staff meetings and networking meetings, participating schools made formal presentations of their own learning at seminars, inservice courses and conferences organised by Mol an Óige. For example, four ‘Collaborative Action Planning Seminars’ were held during the two years, each attended by over fifty teachers from participating schools, at which representatives from four or five schools on each occasion described their own work and learning. These were really remarkable occasions, described by one long-serving school principal as ‘revolutionary’. They greatly encouraged innovation and empowered teachers to try new ideas, recognising that failure is just part of a learning process. In all, over thirty schools and workshops made public presentations of their work and learning at such occasions.

Another aspect of the project which had profound influence on encouraging development were transnational visits to partners in Pontypridd College and Birmingham. These visits forced participants to examine not only their current practice, but also the explanations for that practice, and so gave a great impetus to the search for new approaches. Among the developments influenced significantly by transnational experience were individual education plans, new concepts of learning support, co-operative discipline, and mentoring.

The range of inservice activities undertaken included

Evening courses

Staff days

Short workshops with a small group of interested teachers within a school, or jointly to small groups from different schools, arranged in relation to teachers needs emerging from the action plans

Team meetings, co-ordinators meetings, Collaborative Action Planning seminars etc were important inservice activities

Inter-agency training

Transnational visits

The In-Career Development Unit of the Department of Education and Science were very supportive of developments in these areas.

This high level of involvement by participating institutions in professional development, arising out of Collaborative Action Planning has facilitated changes in awareness, attitudes and practice towards the students in the target group.

It provided the opportunity to learn from each other

“Collaborative Action Planning put the problems of early school leaving and the vulnerability of the target group on the agenda” - principal

“Now I know that it is more important that the child learns strategies for learning rather than content” – primary school principal

“It provided the opportunity to learn from each other” – from summary by Action Planning team

“Collaborative Action Planning has encouraged more openness among the planning team. People are more inclined to offer and ask for help” – primary school co-ordinator

In a very real sense, Collaborative Action Planning can be regarded as a new model of teacher in-career professional development.

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3.4. New Teaching MethodologiesInvolvement in Collaborative Action Planning has encouraged teachers to explore participative, young person-centred practices. The following table outlines the range of innovation in schools arising out of the process:

ActivityNumber of

participating schools/workshops

Number of teachers/tutors

involved

Team teaching 10 56

Co-operative discipline 23 130

Esteem building programmes 17 82

Individual Education Plans 12 41

Literacy programmes 22 38

New teaching methodologies (in addition to above) 11 152

Mentoring 6 24 (students)

Cross age / peer tutoring 7 92 (students)

Home-school reading initiatives 13 22

Collaborative approaches to learning support 25 126

Homework support 7 21

Initiatives in using ICTs in learning support 28 73

Transnational visits 34 79

In many cases, the introduction of new methodologies has been supported by school based in-service activity.

“We discovered that we had shortcomings in our own skills” – school Action Planning team

“There was something positive and tangible happening in class – a particular sound, a buzz that is very different from indiscipline. It is the noise of active work” – teacher after incorporating active learning methodologies into her teaching

“Inservice arising out of Collaborative Action Planning is more relevant and this makes it more effective” – teacher.

3.5. Parents as Partners in Their Own Child’s EducationMany schools had no culture in of including the parents of the target group as partners in their own child’s education, did not initially see this as a priority area for action, were unsure how to begin a process of parental inclusion or were nervous about formalising such a process. One trenchant view expressed was that:

“if parents are the root of the problem, they cannot be the solution”

However, through Collaborative Action Planning, most schools made various efforts to work more closely with parents. Among the strategies used were shared reading programmes; pre-reading and pre-writing programmes; involving parents in drawing up and implementing individual action plans; helping parents to help their children with, e.g., phonics, spellings,

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tables; ensuring that home-school contacts were not always problem oriented; and seeking the advice and support of parents in understanding and devising appropriate responses to students’ needs. The result is that in many cases, schools and teachers have developed contexts in which parents and teachers can work together and where both can feel comfortable. Results have been very positive.

Many schools and teachers developed contexts in which parents and teachers can work in partnership and where both feel comfortable.

“We are breaking new ground working with parents in this way” – primary school principal on shared reading

“We have begun to realise that parents are an untapped source of help … their lack of confidence may be misconstrued (by teachers) as indifference … we saw that in cases where support was not forthcoming it was more difficult for the students needs to be met” – primary school teacher

“I enjoy working at home with my child … it is time consuming but worthwhile – it has given me more patience and understanding … he is more confident about his attempts at writing and his reading has improved immensely” – parent involved in pre-reading/writing programme

3.6. Maximising ResourcesParticipation in Collaborative Action Planning has enabled schools to maximise the benefits for the target group from current resources. This is particularly evident in the learning support area where students received support from more people, and in more integrated ways. The emergence of leadership and assertiveness among staff on behalf of the target group is also significant in this regard.

“Staff are now badgering me to introduce the JCSP and the LCA next year” – principal

3.7. Framework for Care

Students do not always perceive teachers as caring professionals. Collaborative Action Planning provided a framework in which the care of teachers could be experienced by students

. The Collaborative Action Planning process provided a framework that enabled the care of teachers to be experienced by students in the target group. A greater number of teachers became involved in supporting students, helping the target group to experience a greater sense of belonging within the school. The process also enabled teachers to be more caring of each other in their professional activities.

“Teachers had more awareness of the needs of students … more tolerance about rigid application of school rules” - teacher

“I am more aware now of the child’s overall needs and will ask ‘are you enjoying school better’” – teaching principal

“We now actively encourage students to help one another through seating plans, peer tutoring, Gaisce schemes etc” - principal

The team offered camaraderie and support which I appreciated very much, being a new member of staff” – teacher

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3.8. NetworkingMol an Óige encouraged networking in many different forms, and this proved a very important stimulus and support to the Collaborative Action Planning process in schools and workshops. Networking took place at many different levels:

between teachers/tutors within the school/workshop

between schools/workshops

between schools/workshops and other agencies and community

Networking took several forms. The monthly meetings between co-ordinators from different schools/workshops were very important in sharing ideas, developing the role of co-ordinator and stimulating new thinking and action. Various inservice activities organised jointly in response to needs arising from the Collaborative Action Planning process were also very important. Perhaps the most important and innovative networking activity took place in the Collaborative Action Planning seminars described above (section 3.3).

“Teachers in small schools especially feel isolation, frustration and lack of confidence. … We have learned a lot from each other and are sharing a lot more … we have built up trust and confidentiality (sic) … everybody shared concerns and suggestions. It was great to meet teachers from other schools and have a chance to learn from their ideas” – principal of small primary school

The Collaborative Action Planning process enabled groups of small primary schools to work together in three very different initiatives to provide a wider range of experiences for their students. These examples of small schools collaborating with each other have important ramifications for the viability of the small school in rural Ireland. In one such initiative, four one and two teacher schools co-operated to provide a range of social experiences for their students that would not have been possible in the individual schools. Shared activities included joint school tour, concert, quizzes, games coaching and sports day (see case study B). A second group of six small schools worked together in a Schools Integrated Project (SIP) to develop the use of ICTs as a motivating tool in teaching and as a learning medium in particular for students who may not succeed with traditional methods. Teachers held regular action planning meetings to develop and share classroom management techniques maximising the benefits of the ICTs and to avail of shared training. For students, the project provided experiences of sharing and collaborating with classes in other schools which proved exciting and motivational. Three participating Gaelscoileanna collaborated to review software available in Irish and to explore the possibilities for networking that e-mail offers to students in Gaelscoileanna.

3.9. Collaborative Action Planning as a Strategy for Real Change

Collaborative Action Planning is for teachers/tutors who wish to develop their own professional practice collaboratively with their colleagues as a means of meeting the needs of their students.

Collaborative Action Planning is for teachers/tutors who wish to develop their own professional practice collaboratively with their colleagues as a means of meeting the needs of their students. It is a useful management strategy for principals and managers who believe that empowering staff is necessary to bring about real improvement in the school experiences of young people whose needs are not currently being met. It does not require the full staff to participate, but it is important that all staff are kept informed and that the learning is shared by all. In this sense, Collaborative Action Planning offers a process by which the enthusiasm and creativity of a group of teachers can lead to significant change without the risk of them being frustrated by their peers.

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“We were all working hard and doing good things, but all in our own classes. We were not sharing ideas” – primary school principal commenting on practice prior to Collaborative Action Planning.

“Planning is becoming part of teaching. The learning support teacher and class teachers need to meet. Teachers can’t plan separately for children” – primary principal

There is significant evidence of real benefits resulting for students from Collaborative Action Planning. For example, 12 out of 13 post-primary schools indicate improved attendance and significantly improved retention rates among the target group. One principal commented that they ‘sometimes even smile at me when I meet them in the corridor’ because they are no longer in her office so regularly. A number of schools noted that the target group were no longer the focus of complaints at staff meetings – ‘they weren’t even mentioned’ – and many schools noted better academic achievement, increased participation in class, more positive attitudes, and increased self-esteem. The following are some comments from students:

“Teachers are kinder to me and I’m getting on better in school” – student

“It’s easier doing it yourself than a teacher showing you” – comment by student on new, active learning approaches adopted by her teacher

“When you do projects on the computer it’s a lot more fun and easier than writing on paper. It is fun even though you are learning!” – student

4. RESOURCE REQUIREMENTS FOR COLLABORATIVE ACTION PLANNING

Important supports for Collaborative Action Planning provided by Mol an Óige included:

Planning time: for primary schools this was usually 1-2 hours per week, and 6 hours at post-primary level (of which 50% came from their own resources in the second year of the project). Training workshops received an average of six hours per week.

Inservice provision: A range of in-service information, contacts and support activities were sourced, and substitution for participants was provided

Acting as a resource team that teachers/tutors could call on for professional support

Encouraging rigour – written action plans, effective meetings, regular reporting etc – and providing written guidelines

Initiating a range of activity in support of innovation on behalf of the target group, e.g., mentoring, inter-agency training and support, inservice activities, school attendance initiative etc. which schools/workshops could draw on

Supporting schools and training workshops to look outward as part of their action plans to enlist the support of parents, other agencies and the community

Providing material resources to facilitate action plans. This was quite small – usually not exceeding £500 per school

In addition Mol an Óige established links with the Mid-Western Health Board, An Garda Síochána, and the In-Career Development Unit of the Department of Education and Science to provide appropriate professional development activities.

Resources provided by Mol an Óige were designed to enhance the capacity of teachers and school to respond to the needs of the students in their care, not just to ‘buy in’ expertise.

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The level of resources provided by Mol an Óige was quite small, and it should be possible for schools and workshops to provide them from their own resources. For example, post-primary schools participating in the Leaving Certificate Applied, Transition Year or Junior Certificate Schools Programmes receive about five and a half-hours co-ordination time per class per week. A number of schools indicated that the Collaborative Action Planning process showed them how to use this time effectively.

The fact that schools and training workshops received very little in terms of resources was, in fact, one of the strengths of the project. It meant that they could not look to ‘buy in’ expertise to address the problems which they identified, but would have to develop their own resources to do so. This, in turn, meant that the actions undertaken influenced current practice in the school or workshop, and did not simply become an ‘add-on’. As one school principal commented:

“You have got us thinking of ways to solve problems ourselves without always thinking that we need to go elsewhere. This morning, for example, three junior students with problems in maths came to my attention, so I arranged for three good fifth years to help them at lunch time”

This small allocation of financial resources was also a necessary approach in a time-limited project as it meant that there was a much greater likelihood of the actions being continued after the lifetime of the project. A very important finding of the external evaluation was that 80% of participants were of the view that actions begun as a result of their school’s participation in Mol an Óige would continue in its absence.

The one important element that schools/workshops have said they will miss is the support, animation and co-ordination provided by the Mol an Óige team.

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5. FINDINGS FROM THE EXTERNAL EVALUATION OF THE PROCESSAn external evaluator, John Canavan, Department of Political Science and Sociology, NUI Galway evaluated the project. The particular focus of the evaluation was the Collaborative Action Planning process in schools, and was based on the results from a survey of participating schools. 74 teachers from 19 primary schools and 104 teachers from 9 post-primary schools responded in complete confidence to the survey. The following are some of the findings:

Of those involved in the project (i.e., principals, co-ordinators and team members):

80% said that the actions begun in their schools can continue after the lifetime of the project

86% said that the ideas from Collaborative Action Planning influenced school practice

81% said that the process had made an impact on their own practice

Of principals questioned:

96% said that the Mol an Óige project was money well spent

Over 80% said that Collaborative Action Planning improved their own practice96%of participating principals said the project was money well spent

In general, the findings of the evaluation are very positive. However, three areas of weakness emerged in the evaluator’s report. These were:

the limited extent to which the project influenced wider school life, particularly in post-primary schools

lack of time and timetabling difficulties

a concern about what will happen when the support of Mol an Óige is withdrawn

Impact of Collaborative Action Planning

The following is one of the conclusion of the evaluation:“The actions of the Mol an Óige project and the Action Planning teams would have little meaning if they did not have any impact. It is clearly the case that in relation to the participating schools, teachers and pupils, the vast majority of those participating in the project believe that such impacts have taken place. They believe that school practice has changed in their schools, that their own practice has been positively affected and that the children who have been targeted in the various school level Action Planning projects have benefited from them. What is most notable in the analysis of Mol an Óige impact is the diversity of ways in which it is played out. This diversity is explainable by the generic and highly flexible nature of the model.”

The evaluator’s report, ‘The Mol an Óige Project – the View from the Schools: an evaluation of the project’ (Mol an Óige, 2000) is available on request.

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CASE STUDY A: “A MATTER OF CHANGING PRIORITIES”

How one primary school used Collaborative Action Planning to develop individual education plans as a means of delivering learning support

School: Presentation Primary School, Clonmel

Principal: Ann Doyle

Action Planning Team 98/99: Mairead Conway (co-ordinator), Ann Doyle (principal), Noelle Lambert, Sr Pius Canavan, Patricia Sweeney, Noreen O Regan, Kathleen O Donoghue.

Action Planning Team 99/00: Kathleen O Donoghue (co-ordinator), Ann Doyle (principal), Mairead Conway, Noelle Lambert, Sr Pius Canavan, Patricia Sweeney, Noreen O Regan, Joan Taylor, Phil Burke.

INTRODUCTION

The Presentation Primary School, Clonmel has 305 students and sixteen teachers. The school had a full time learning support post for many years and since May 1999 has a full-time resource teacher. The students come from very mixed social backgrounds. The school has a particular commitment to supporting students who are experiencing disadvantage. Through the Collaborative Action Planning process teachers in the school have developed a team approach to devising and implementing individual education plans for students who are experiencing difficulty in their learning.

BEFORE COLLABORATIVE ACTION PLANNING

Before Collaborative Action Planning, withdrawal was the main approach used for remedial tuition

Before the school started Collaborative Action Planning, withdrawal was the main approach used for remedial tuition. Each term the learning support teacher drew up a programme of work for students who were identified as needing extra help in literacy or numeracy. This programme was drawn up in consultation with the class teacher, but the main focus was the work done in small groups with the learning support teacher. The learning support teacher commented that they frequently found that there was discontinuity between work done in withdrawal and that done in class.

In an effort to bridge this gap, the learning support teacher and some class teachers had tried out different teaching arrangements and, over time, the role of the learning support teacher had been changing. The teachers sometimes had exchanged roles and the class teacher had taken responsibility for working with the weaker group. At other times teachers had tried team teaching, with the learning support teacher and class teacher working together in the classroom. The learning support teacher had started to do personal/social development with small groups of students who were identified as particularly needing this support.

Building positive self-esteem and developing personal/social skills were recognised as important aspects of learning support. As the consultative/co-ordination aspect of the role had begun to develop, an increasing amount of the learning support teacher’s time was being used for meeting and consulting with students, their parents/carers and colleagues.

The school reports that Collaborative Action Planning provided a significant impetus to developing these ideas ‘in a more structured and formal way’. The school worked with Mol an Óige over two school years 1998/99 and 1999/2000.

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SELECTING THE TARGET GROUP In September 1998 the full staff surveyed the needs of all classes in the school. They then agreed that priority for 1998-1999 would be given to sixteen 6th class students as there was only one year left in which to work with them. Rather than distributing the sixteen students between the two 6th class teachers, the decision was made to place all sixteen students in one class and to support them within a mixed ability group of 32 students. Grouping students in this way was not usual school practice but the decision was taken in order to concentrate efforts and resources in providing an intensive programme for this group in their final year in the school.

In the group, thirteen students were experiencing difficulty in literacy and numeracy, lacked motivation or were not achieving their potential academically. Five were presenting with serious aggressive/ confrontational behaviours that were interfering with their own learning and the learning of the others in the class. There were concerns about one student’s poor school attendance and personal hygiene problems. The school had requested a psychiatric report for another student. Several students were very quiet in class, had low self-esteem, poor social skills, were reluctant to connect within the school and were not developing talents or interests in out-of-school activities.

In the second year, fourteen students in the mixed ability 4 th class were targeted and a second teacher opted to become involved. Six of this group presented with academic needs and the teacher believed that five others, while doing reasonably well, were not achieving their full potential. Several in the target group presented as being immature, and needed encouragement to become more independent, to take on responsibility and generally become more self-confident. Teachers were concerned about the behaviour of four students, who were either initiating or getting involved in negative behaviours in the playground.

HOW COLLABORATIVE ACTION PLANNING WORKED

The Action Planning Team

The school had a two-strand structure for planning.

a) The class teacher and learning support teacher met for a planning meeting for two hours each week. In the early stages, they met with individual students and their parent/carers to draw up individual education plans (suggested headings for individual educational plans are included in Appendix A). Subsequent planning meetings focused on monitoring progress and making changes to the plan or the organisation of the class, in addition to follow-through sessions with individual students and/or parents/carers. In preparation for team teaching, the teachers worked together to draw up the English and maths programmes for the full class.

b) The class teacher and learning support teacher were then supported by colleagues at a monthly meeting of the full Action Planning team. There were 7 teachers on the Action Planning team in the first year, 9 in the second, and they met for an hour after school. At these meetings the team discussed how they could offer practical support, they reflected on the learning for themselves as teachers arising from the process, and they discussed issues of practice and policy as they emerged. Regular reports were made at staff meetings to keep the remainder of staff informed and colleagues who were not on the Action Planning team were invited to support some of the actions.

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Planning Time

It was critical to the project that planning time was timetabled formally during school hours for the class teachers and the learning support teacher.

It was critical to the project that planning time was timetabled formally during school hours for the class teachers and the learning support teacher. An action plan was submitted to Mol an Óige and on the basis of the actions proposed, Mol an Óige provided the school with five hours planning time weekly, and this planning time budget was used to employ substitute teachers to release the class teachers to plan. The substitute teachers covered subjects such as drama, music art/crafts, enterprise and PE. The school also employed a counsellor to facilitate personal/social development groups. Finding quality substitution was always a challenge. Local teachers interested in teaching a series of one-hour lessons were identified, including a number of post-primary teachers who were interested in doing some sessions in their specialist subject areas with a younger age group.

The Role of the Action Planning Co-ordinator

The project involved a wide range of activities and a considerable amount of time and energy needed to be put into co-ordination, including the setting up meetings, linking with teachers, linking with parents, and with a variety of statutory and community agencies. The learning support teacher took on the role of co-ordinator in the first year. A recommendation she made at the end of the year was that, because learning support teachers already have a linking role in relation to learning support, it might encourage wider involvement and more sharing of tasks if another member of the team took on the co-ordination of team matters. In the second year, the role of the Action Planning team co-ordinator was recognised as a long-term priority within the school and became a B post of responsibility. As such it was then open to any interested member of staff to apply for the post. (The learning support teacher already held a post of responsibility. A different member of staff was appointed to the post.)

A COLLABORATIVE MODEL OF LEARNING SUPPORT

In September of each school year, the class teacher and learning support teacher began the process of drawing up individual education plans for each student in the target group. This required close co-operation between the teachers and the weekly planning meetings were crucial. Instead of withdrawing students, the teachers shared responsibility for English and maths by team teaching. In general they found that mixed ability groups worked best for some oral and creative aspects of English, while groups based on ability were effective for other aspects of English and for maths. The class teacher valued having the support of another teacher in the room and the arrangement did mean having to have a tighter structure around keeping to the timetable.

The practice of team teaching was extended more generally during the second year of Collaborative Action Planning and five teachers in the school were involved in different variations of collaborative teaching. ‘Staff members who were open to new ideas have seen the benefits of working as a team…teachers are now more willing to offer and seek assistance’.

teachers are now more willing to offer and seek assistance from each other

All the members of the Action Planning team took a particular interest in the target group and became involved to different degrees. They made a special effort to be friendly and to find opportunities to affirm the students as opportunities arose in the normal school routine. Some

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team members exchanged classes on occasions with the teacher of the target group in order to give the students a wider range of experiences. To encourage those students who had many difficulties in their own learning to feel more capable and valued, teachers involved the target group in their own classes doing a variety of activities including cross-age tutoring for reading and for developing computer skills, and storytelling to small groups. The team co-ordinator in the second year arranged to change supervision duty from the junior to the senior playground in order to have the opportunity to chat with the target group. ‘Now I see a lot more of the target group children … their overall response is much more pleasant and co-operative than it used to be’.

INVOLVING PARENTS/CARERS Having the clear framework provided by the individual education plans meant that teachers were more confident about consulting and involving parents. They had regular contact with all but one of the parents/carers of the target groups, and the students benefited from having more consistency between home and school. The effort to involve student Z’s social worker when no parent support was forthcoming was not effective, perhaps because it was not sufficiently well planned. Instead this student had regular student-teacher meetings to support her. In the case of another very quiet and withdrawn student, discussions with her parent to encourage her to become involved in extra-curricular activities were not successful because of a lack of follow-through on the arrangements. The teachers found that individual education plans were more successful when parents were actively involved in the process. ‘Parents gave valuable support … we saw, in cases where support was not forthcoming, that it was more difficult for the student’s needs to be met’.

Parents were given very concrete ways of helping their child at home. Many parents did a training programme for shared reading. One parent trained to do a phonics programme with the learning support teacher with her child present, and followed this up by doing drills at home with her child. Agreements about homework were made with two other parents to be clear when they should and should not become involved in homework.

Three-way meetings involving students, parents/carers and teachers for goal setting were a central part of the individual education plan process.

Three-way meetings involving students, parents/carers and teachers for goal setting were a central part of the individual education plan process. These goals could relate to personal/ social, academic or behavioural needs, e.g. doing homework, behaviour over lunchtime, committing to become involved in extra-curricular activities. Some parents found the approach used in school very helpful and several adopted the same approach when dealing with home issues.

The frequency of meetings with parents/carers depended on the progress being made, and the amount of time that the teachers could manage. Teachers noted that time constraints were always an issue. In the case of student Y who was in residential care, meetings with her carers took place on a weekly or fortnightly basis at the beginning of the year to support the individual education plan. Her carers found this process very effective, commenting: ‘it makes us aware of what is going on for the child … her work … interactions with her peers’. Later in the year, meetings were needed less frequently and interim discussions on the phone worked well.

The learning support teacher found that it was useful for all when teachers, parents and students clarified their roles, particularly in relation to homework. ‘Involving students with parents discourages parents from taking responsibility for things which are students’ business and encourages students to take responsibility’

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OUTCOMES FOR STUDENTS

The individual needs of the students in the target group were addressed more effectively by using individual education plans. The teachers involved reported that Collaborative Action Planning allowed them to ‘look more specifically at individual needs, and recognise and follow-up on needs that were not so evident previously.’ As a result of the collaborative teaching approaches used, there was more consistency across the curriculum for students. Teachers believe that this consistency in the learning programme and shared goal setting contributed to students being better motivated and more willing to engage in their work. Students commented ‘we did a lot more interesting things’, ‘it was different from other years’. They also benefited from having more teachers involved: ‘we had smaller groups and different teachers which will be a help for next year’ (6th class student referring to post-primary).

Teacher observation and testing has shown a general improvements in literacy skills in both years. The Micra T stens of the target group in 4 th class have risen by one or two points in many cases within six months. While a number of the 6 th class group made obvious improvement in standardised results, overall improvement in literacy was not as obvious.

The students commented particularly on enjoying and benefiting from the personal and social development programme. ‘It was something new and interesting … we learned and experienced new and different things’. Another said: ‘at first I was very shy and drama made me loosen up and also I got to mix with other people I don’t usually mix with’ . One teacher noted that ‘some children appear to be more confident and willing to participate. One child who rarely spoke in class was able to stand up and make a presentation to the class’. Students have developed the skills needed for effective meetings including listening and negotiating by being involved in Circle Time (Mosely, 1996) and class meetings (Dinkmeyer et al., 1980) which all contributed to having a positive and encouraging classroom atmosphere.

95% of students in both target groups became involved in a wide range of extra-curricular activities, including sports, art and music, either in the school or in the wider community. Supporting students to get involved in out-of-school activities took a great deal of time and energy. For the vast majority of students, teachers believe it contributed to a more positive sense of self and generally influenced greater motivation even within school.

The teachers reported more co-operation generally in their classes, one noting that gradually there were fewer instances of aggressiveness, while a second teacher saw ‘a marked improvement in the behaviour of the class which has been commented on by quite a number of staff’. All the teachers involved said that there was more openness in student/teacher relationships. While the aggressive and confrontational behaviours of student Z, referred to earlier in the context of having no parent support, continued at intervals, they were generally less severe and less frequent. She became an enthusiastic and consistent member of the school basketball team, took up draughts and participated in the Community Games, and proved herself to be very motivated and successful in the enterprise group. Her school attendance improved from 68% in the previous year to 87%.

LEARNING FOR TEACHERS

The sharing of ideas helped teachers to feel more supported and less isolated

Teachers report that Collaborative Action Planning gave them an effective process and an effective team structure that will be applied in the future to other aspects of school planning. The teachers learned the value of teamwork, finding ‘the sharing of ideas helped [them] to feel more supported and less isolated’. The class teachers of the target groups found the practical peer support and encouragement of the team very important. One made the

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comment ‘I was able to learn from their experiences and it was great to know that they were willing to involve themselves with the target group’. At the monthly meeting the team brainstormed ideas and evaluated how the lessons learned could transfer to other groups in the school. Several of the ideas discussed were applied by other team members within their own classes during the project.

The teachers report that they had a greater understanding of ‘the importance of allowing children to work at their own pace, no matter what the issue – academic social or behavioural’. The process also confirmed for them that building positive self-esteem and developing personal and social skills are fundamental aspects of an effective learning programme.

Students were working at their own rate all day, not just at ‘remedial’ time

The learning support teacher felt that working collaboratively can be a more effective use of her time and that team teaching can be a more productive way to deliver learning support. ‘Students were working at their own rate all day, not just at ‘remedial’ time. It was not as obvious that students needed ‘remedial’ help. I found it easier to motivate children’. But it did take time to get the balance within the learning support timetable between student contact and advisory/consultancy time. ‘It was a matter of changing priorities’.

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CASE STUDY B: “THE BEST OF BOTH WORLDS”

Using Collaborative Action Planning to overcome the effects of isolation for teachers and students in small primary schools

Co-ordinators 98/99: Olwen Roe (principal), St Mary’s NS, Templemore; Martin Meade (principal), Knock NS, Roscrea; Noreen Dwan, Castleiney NS, Templemore; Mary Fogarty (principal) Shanakill NS, Templemore.

Co-ordinators 99/00: Olwen Roe (principal), St Mary’s NS, Templemore; Martin Meade, (principal), Knock NS, Roscrea; Noreen Dwan, Castleiney NS, Templemore; Bríd Coffey, Killea NS, Templemore.

Principals who supported the process: John Treacy, Castleiney NS, Mary Fogarty, Shanakill NS, Eileen Curtin, Killea NS.

INTRODUCTION

Over the two school years 1998/99 and 1999/2000, a group of one and two teacher schools in North Tipperary used the Collaborative Action Planning process to work together to jointly draw up a programme of inter-school activities. There were four schools involved each year and there were a variety of reasons why they undertook this shared venture. They wanted to:

increase the range of social opportunities for their students

broaden the curriculum being offered in their schools by undertaking activities that were often not practicable for small schools individually but were more manageable on a shared basis

develop professional peer support locally for the teachers and help to reduce the professional isolation often experienced within smaller schools

The benefits of small schools linking with one another to discuss their shared concerns was first proposed by the Mol an Óige Project Development Officer because schools, particularly small schools, had frequently identified that they felt isolated in their work situation. The outcome of their first meeting was that the four schools decided to become involved together in an Collaborative Action Planning process to provide a wider range of learning and social opportunities for their students and to develop professional support for teachers.

The schools aimed to provide a wider range of learning and social opportunities for their students and to develop professional support for teachers

When the project started in Sept 1998, Castleiney, Knock and Shanakill National Schools were two-teacher rural schools with 23, 26 and 10 students respectively. St. Mary’s NS, was a one-teacher with 14 pupils in the town of Templemore.

The second year of Collaborative Action Planning brought some changes to the group. A second teacher was appointed to St. Mary’s, Templemore. The school in Shanakill closed and another local school, Killea NS which had 36 pupils, joined the cluster. The principal in Killea was keen to join the cluster because she had got very positive reports from the other schools involved.

THE EXPERIENCE OF ISOLATION IN SMALL SCHOOLS

Before becoming involved in this project, the teachers say they were working very much on their own. Several teachers reported that they had ‘no contact with similar schools in the

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locality’ during their careers teaching in small schools. One teacher summarised what was most important about what she had gained from involvement with the cluster: ‘what I wanted was more contact with other teachers’.

Teachers were concerned too about the isolation experienced by students. While they valued all the advantages of the family atmosphere of small schools, they also believed that there were limitations and disadvantages in their situations. They felt their students needed to socialise with larger numbers of children to ‘get used to being in crowds especially informally and at break time’. The teachers saw this as being extremely important for supporting their students to make the transition from primary to post-primary and believed that this type of experience would ‘boost their confidence and make the move less daunting’.

The teachers believed too that larger schools frequently have better facilities, including assembly areas, PE and library facilities. They believed that in small schools the opportunities for team sports are often more limited and the children have less experience of playing in a trained team, and had less experience of competitive sports. One teacher commented on the importance of offering a broad curriculum so that all students have every opportunity to develop their individual skills and talents. ‘Many children who might not be academically gifted…often come into their own on the sports field … even organising the school sports day is more restrictive in a small school’ in so far as it is not ideal to have only a small group of children of mixed ages for such events.

even organising the school sports day is more restrictive in a small school

The schools involved also identified difficulties organising field trips and school tours. The cost of transport is often prohibitive for a small school, making such events very costly for pupils if schools book transport individually.

PLANNING TIME Planning meetings took place during school hours in the one-teacher school. The group decided that they would meet to plan for an hour once a month. Each school applied to Mol an Óige for one hour of planning time and employed a substitute to free up teachers to meet. Substitute teachers were employed to teach particular subjects like arts/crafts or music during this hour. Obviously the principal, as the only teacher in the one-teacher school, attended the meeting. In the two-teacher schools, whichever member of staff was the Action Planning co-ordinator represented the school. In two cases this was the school principal, in the other it was the assistant teacher. Even in a two-teacher school having a co-ordinator for a particular project offered the teachers a useful structure for sharing responsibilities within their school.

Mol an Óige also made £500 available to each school to develop the actions of the plan. This money covered some of the costs of transport to/from events, hire of facilities for joint events and the fee for a musical director who was employed by the cluster.

NEW PROFESSIONAL RELATIONSHIPS AND DIALOGUE

The group had an agreement that all schools in the cluster did not have to commit to becoming involved in every activity. Building new relationships and working co-operatively was a gradual process within the cluster of schools. One teacher admitted that it was very hard to adjust to making compromises after having worked in isolation for so long. The schools acknowledged that there was some wariness in the group, as they had not the experience of this type of professional exchange prior to this initiative. Another teacher commented:

“We were all used to doing things in our own way, in our own time … [we] had to find common ground, a way of working together and come to trust one another. We started slowly and cautiously. This was a real learning experience for the teachers who were getting used to compromising, listening to the others’ points of view and getting ideas from other schools”.

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Even travelling between schools for meetings appeared very time-consuming for a group who previously had rarely had reason to be out of their own schools during school hours.

The project did not happen without occasional difficulties. The group needed to have decisions recorded when, at a later time, members differed in recalling arrangements. ‘Time and familiarity eased the situation’. The group agreed to take turns to chair the meetings, draw up the agenda and record the minutes. Agreeing on what activities to undertake and timetabling these activities involved much discussion and compromise. Phone contact was required throughout. The group dealt with this by starting with smaller events. ‘We started on less complicated ventures … each activity laid the foundation for another venture’. One participant said that the documentation required by Mol an Óige, which included a section on allocating tasks, helped focus the group.

ACTIVITIES PLANNED

In the first year the group decided that their priority was to organise activities so that the students could have the opportunity to be with other children to socialise in a large groups. The first event that the schools undertook together was to travel to a play in another North Tipperary town. One of the teachers said ‘it took unbelievable organisation’ to manage the logistics, especially to make sure that ‘no school would have to spend half the day on the bus’. Being on the bus was in itself an educational experience. ‘The children mixed and chatted on the bus and the outing was a great success. Some of the children were subsequently able to e-mail their new friends’. The cluster group also arranged that the County Arts Officer would come to one of their meetings to discuss services such as drama and storytelling that were available in the county for schools.

The cluster became more ambitious and a wide range of activities were planned and subsequently evaluated at their monthly meetings. They organised a joint concert and employed a musical director. At this stage the schools wanted some younger students to enjoy the social benefits of these new opportunities, and both a junior and a senior choir were set up. Children from each school were involved in both choirs and the teachers report that the children loved it. They had the chance to visit different schools for rehearsals over the ten weeks of preparation. The children were working in groups that were four times as large as they were used to, and other activities like computer work, games and quizzes were tied in with the rehearsals to encourage further social and learning opportunities. The children got to know one another and got to work with the teachers from the other schools. The choirs performed then to a large audience that included not just their families and friends but others who were total strangers.

As working relationships developed, the four schools also agreed to go on their school tour together. The schools also came together in a local GAA field for a shared Sports Day that first year. It had the great advantage that all the children got the chance to compete with others of their own size, on equal terms.

The schools organised a joint school tour, sports day, table quizzes, and basketball coaching

The Action Planning team continued to meet, and joint activities continued through the second year of the project. Table quizzes were organised, mixing the students on each team so that the children were getting to know one another and the schools were co-operating rather than competing. They decided to take on a basketball coaching programme together. This was a new sport for all and it was chosen because teachers believed that this sport would encourage lots of participation while requiring a minimum of equipment. The schools jointly hired a local hall, employed an experienced basketball coach and organised that the children

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train together. They planned inter-school friendly matches ‘to keep the children focussed, fit and bring them gently into the competitive side of team sports’.

Parents were kept informed about the different activities over the period of the project. At a school meeting, one parent told how pleased she was that her daughter, who is the only child in her class group in her school, has developed friendships with students of the same age groups in the other schools. Some parents had been worried initially about the time commitment involved in the activities of the cluster. When the project was underway, there was a strong change of attitude from these parents and when they saw the outcomes for the children, they were very supportive and appreciative.

BENEFITS FOR STUDENTS

The teachers believe that the children have gained a great deal from the experience. They benefited from being exposed to a wider curriculum and a wider range of activities. Speaking of the theatre visit, one 12 year old said ‘it was my first time to see live actors and it was very enjoyable’. Students in general got used to working and playing in larger groups. ‘There is a big leap from kicking a football around with a few children of assorted ages and skills to playing in a trained team, with team positions and tactics, against another team of your peers’. They made friends and their social skills and self-confidence have increased. One student ‘finally found her talents highlighted on stage’ while another had ‘the experience of not always being the best at all academic tasks’. One student heard an orchestra live for the first time ever while another learned that there were others weaker at games than she was. Becoming involved in sports was very important for one particular student who was not very good at academic work. This student excelled in basketball. His teacher noticed a considerable change in his self-esteem and commented ‘I noticed a general improvement in his overall integration with the other children in the school’.

BENEFITS FOR TEACHERS

Collaborative Action Planning was the most refreshing activity I have been involved in since I began teaching fourteen years ago

The teachers in the cluster group say that there was huge benefit for them professionally in interacting and working with colleagues in their own locality. One of the teachers said ‘Collaborative Action Planning was the most refreshing activity I have been involved in since I began teaching fourteen years ago’. The participating teachers shared ideas and exchanged professional views. One teacher described it as having ‘broadened horizons’ and found that contact with other teachers ‘acted as a pressure valve’ which was very important in the isolation of the small school setting. Teachers commented too on learning useful lessons on how to organise effective meetings, how to listen to others and how to document the process. ‘We were all enjoying the chance to meet and could have spent the time talking shop without ever getting down to the main task were it not for the guidelines provided by Mol an Óige’.

Working in this collaborative way also allowed the teachers to share their particular professional strengths. This sharing and observing the work of the specialist teachers who were ‘bought in’ also helped to enhance the school programme especially when perhaps the teachers in a small school were not particularly skilled in an area of the curriculum. While all the participating teachers wanted the extra activities for their students, it was sometimes difficult in their multi-class situation to find time to fit in everything. Teachers noted that their time management skills improved with the project.

SUSTAINING THE LINKS INTO THE FUTURE

In evaluations the teachers report that they believe that the project has been very successful. This group of schools believe that they have ‘the best of both worlds … the family atmosphere of the small schools and the sociability and extra opportunity of the larger group’. The

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schools all say that they plan to continue the links made and continue to support one another professionally. They intend to set up a web site for the cluster, and the joint sports day, sporting links, drama and shared school tour were seen as particularly practical ventures for doing together in the future. All the schools hoped that their linking would continue and they have already started to make links with other agencies that are in a position to give support to their project.

Members of all four boards of management took part in a meeting at which a number of schools, including the cluster group, outlined what they had done through Collaborative Action Planning. One outcome of the meeting was that the schools in the cluster have established a new link with Tipperary Rural and Business Development Institute (TRBDI) in relation to IT training for staff.

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CASE STUDY C: “CHANGING MINDSETS”

How a post-primary school used Collaborative Action Planning to design and implement its own models of interventions to meet the needs of students at

risk.School: St. Anne’s Secondary School, Tipperary Town

Principal: Donie O Byrne

Action Planning Team 98/99: P.J. Ryan (co-ordinator), Mairead Hayes, Willie O Brien, Dora O Mahoney, Sandra Rossiter, Niamh Ryan, Mary Fahy, Nancy Leahy.

Action Planning Team 99/00: P.J. Ryan (co-ordinator), Marie Walsh, Mairead Hayes, Anne Ryan, Mairead Stapleton, Mairead Bradshaw, Mary Murphy, Kathleen Ryan.

BACKGROUND

St. Anne’s is an all girls secondary school with approximately 340 students. In recent years the school feels that a growing number of students have enrolled in the school with learning difficulties, low self-esteem, poor social skills and inadequate home support. Prior to Collaborative Action Planning individual teachers sought to support students as best they could within the confines of teaching their subject but without any formal structure to meet the needs of students experiencing difficulties.

The school has a part-time learning support teacher who is timetabled for eleven hours support per week. Students are withdrawn in consultation with the subject teacher, usually from maths and English, as it is felt that these are the areas where they were experiencing most difficulty. However due to the fact that she worked more or less in isolation from other staff it was not possible to work with all students in need of support. After junior cycle the support was discontinued. In a number of cases it emerged that some students had received remedial support in primary school but this was discontinued in sixth class. As a result when the student came into post-primary, it was possible for a couple of months to elapse before the school became aware of a student’s difficulties.

COLLABORATIVE ACTION PLANNING

The team met for thirty-five minutes weekly at lunchtime and had their teaching time reduced by on class period per week to accommodate this.

The school began Collaborative Action Planning in September 1998. The principal issued an open invitation to staff to participate. Seven teachers, reflecting a variety of different subject and interest areas, formed an Action Planning team. On submission of their action plan to Mol an Óige the school was allocated six hours planning time per week. The team met for thirty-five minutes weekly at lunchtime and had their teaching hours reduced by one class period to accommodate this. The co-ordinator was allocated one and three quarter hours per week to oversee the development of the process in the school, liase with Mol an Óige and attend co-ordinators’ networking meetings. At the end of the first year of Collaborative Action Planning the team felt it was very important to involve as many staff members as possible, including those in specialist areas. They also felt that Collaborative Action Planning was a very effective framework for developing the potential of the Year Head structure. As a result a second Action Planning team was set up in the school and a further seven teachers became involved in the process. This was the only school that formed a second Action Planning team. It included the year heads responsible for the targeted students, the learning support teacher and a retired staff member who was working on a voluntary basis as a Home

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School Community Liaison co-ordinator. The Action Planning co-ordinator from the original team worked between both teams to ensure continuity. For the 1999/2000 school year, the school received three and three quarter hours planning time per week from Mol an Óige and matched the remainder of the time needed from their own resources.

Target group

In the first year of Collaborative Action Planning the team identified thirteen students across three class groups in Second Year with literacy and numeracy difficulties, low self-esteem, lack of motivation and poor home support. In the second year of the process support continued to be given to this group and was extended to include a further eleven students with similar difficulties also belonging to this year group. Two of the students were from the Travelling community and in addition to needs in common with others, their isolation and exclusion were also an issue.

Initiating Change

The school began the process of change by inviting Mol an Óige to give an input on Collaborative Action Planning to all staff as the team felt that it was necessary for everyone to be aware of its presence in the school and how it worked. Two teachers also travelled to Pontypridd College in Wales, and developments in areas such as IT and team teaching were influenced by their visit.

INTEGRATION V INCLUSION

One of the guiding principles for the team at the beginning of the process was to develop strategies that would be inclusive of and beneficial to all students. This was necessary because of the fact that those targeted for support were not an entire class group but a number of students from different classes in Second Year. The team also wished to provide support in a very sensitive and discreet manner, mindful of the low self-esteem of some students. They realised that this required a willingness on their part and on that of the school to restructure the school’s delivery of its service in response to the diversity of students’ needs. They found this very difficult and the first months of Collaborative Action Planning ‘were very challenging’.

The first months of Collaborative Action Planning were very challenging

As is the case with many schools there was little communication on a professional level with neighbouring schools and the team felt that the co-ordinators’ networking meetings were very helpful and enlightening. In particular a Collaborative Action Planning seminar facilitated by Mol an Óige held at the end of the first term in the first year of the project introduced them to new ideas and methodologies. At the seminar, teachers from six schools described how Collaborative Action Planning was working in their school and presented their professional learning from the process. For the majority of teachers it was their first time to do this. The team came away from the seminar with greater clarity and focus as to how they could develop an inclusive approach. At the second such seminar the co-ordinator presented the process as it had developed in the school.

The team indicated that the approach, which they had developed in the first year of the project, made it easier for them to provide support in an inclusive way to two students from the Travelling community. Traditionally the support offered to Traveller students was withdrawal, which increased their isolation from other students. As a result of Collaborative Action Planning withdrawal has been significantly reduced and replaced with inclusive strategies such as mentoring and peer tutoring. Responding to their experience these students said that ‘they would prefer to be in class with other students’. In addition the team felt that their approach benefited students in general in terms of understanding another culture.

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Students did not like withdrawal. They would ‘prefer to be in class with other students’

PARENTAL INCLUSION

From the very beginning of the process the team felt it was important to explain to parents what they hoped to do and why, and to get their consent and that of their child to participate in the process. Their initial contact was through letter and phone calls to which few of the parents responded. Involving the parents of the target group proved more difficult than anticipated. It became clear to the team at an early stage that many of the parents had at this point seven or eight years of negative experience in relation to their child’s education. Some of them had bad memories of their own time in school and, in a very small number of cases, had literacy difficulties themselves.

There was very significant learning for the team in relation to parents.

There was very significant learning for the team in relation to parents. Teachers came to realise that although they cared deeply about their students, this was not necessarily the message that the parents received, as contact with them was mainly through the formal structure of the parent/teacher meeting or through contact with home when there was a problem. The team sought to develop opportunities to encourage positive communication between home and school.

Mid-Term Reports

An early response from the team was the sending home of mid-term reports focusing on strengths and achievements. The team in consultation with the year heads designed a monthly report that highlighted areas where they were experiencing success. They also worked on the language used in these reports, as traditionally comments made by some teachers ‘can be critical and off the cuff’. Parents always received these reports prior to parent/teacher meetings and there was warm encouragement from the teachers to attend the meetings. The parents’ response to the reports was very positive. They said that they were more informed about their child’s school life and if an issue arose it could be dealt with before it became a huge problem. The team also saw it as a way of encouraging parents to identify their children’s needs and to work together to solve them.

Developing the Role of the Home School Community Co-ordinator

The Home School Community co-ordinator visits the homes of three to four students with attendance difficulties on a regular basis. The Home School Community co-ordinator is on both Action Planning teams as it was felt that to develop effective links with parents, the co-ordinator and teachers must complement and support each other’s work. The team is also now very much aware of the need to involve parents in their child’s learning if support is to be really effective, and in the future would like to work with and train parents around specific areas where they can help their child.

Although developing positive links between the school and home has been difficult and very time consuming the team feels it has been worth it. There is a very definite improvement in the attendance of the parents of the targeted students at parent/teacher meetings and the team has said that ‘the parents are getting more confident in their contact with the school and less fearful when the school approaches them’.

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DEVELOPING LITERACY AND NUMERACY SKILLS

Team Teaching

One of the strongest and clearest points that came across in the team’s communication with parents was their sensitivity to anything that would label their children in a negative way. They were happy for them to receive the extra support but did not want them to be singled out in any obvious manner.

One of the strongest and clearest points that came across in the team’s communication with parents was their sensitivity to anything that would label their children in a negative way. They were happy for them to receive the extra support but did not want them to be singled out in any obvious manner. In fact two of the students originally targeted refused to become involved for fear of this. For this reason the team decided to experiment with team teaching to address literacy and numeracy difficulties. A maths and science teacher planned together on a weekly basis to team-teach in maths for one class period in the week. The team said that the increased contact with students increased their awareness of students’ needs and in some cases ‘they were surprised at the level of difficulties some students were experiencing’. The students enjoyed working together and teachers noticed that the students were ‘livelier in class and participated more’. They felt that students did not feel embarrassed or singled out when they needed support. In terms of their learning from this experience the team felt that for the teachers involved it is very important to develop a partnership approach based on mutual respect and trust and that the role of each teacher be clearly defined. They also emphasised the importance of identifying the kind of areas that are best suited to this approach and to plan around them. Overall they felt that the benefits of team teaching far outweighed the preparation time involved and plan to develop this approach in other subject areas.

Mentoring / Peer Tutoring

Close contact with the individual students raised awareness of their difficulties within and without school, including their low self-esteem, their attitude to school and teachers, and their belief that the school body did not care about them. To begin to address these feelings the team discussed a number of possibilities including mentoring. A number of teachers attended an inservice on mentoring facilitated by Mol an Óige. They decided to develop this area but, aware of the importance of appropriate training, confidentiality and monitoring, it was decided to begin the process within the school with each team member acting as mentor to two students in the target group. Again parents and students were consulted as to how they felt about it and, again, both sides were very concerned about labelling.

At the initial stage of its development the mentors met the students on a daily basis in an informal way and chatted to them about school life and areas they enjoyed or where they were experiencing difficulties. The students responded positively to teachers’ interest in them. One student said ‘I found my teacher mentor very helpful and a good idea. She showed great interest in me and encouraged me to do my best.’

Peer Tutoring

The team felt that mentoring was reasonably successful but looked at ways of developing it further. During the project they decided to link it with peer tutoring using students from transition year and fifth year. Through this dual process they hoped to build on their improved self-confidence and develop their literacy and numeracy skills. The support was broadened to include five more students including the two students from the Travelling community.

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There was a lot of discussion as to how peer tutoring would work. The team devoted a number of meetings to the selection of tutors and guidelines for working with the target group, drawing up a structured time frame for meeting the students and deciding on the areas where the support was needed. It was also important to be aware of personality differences and the ability of the tutor to understand and be sympathetic to the student's needs. The tutor met with one student for one class period on a weekly basis concentrating on areas of difficulty in English, Irish and maths. The mentor continued to meet with the student on a daily basis, formally or informally, as the need required. The mentor also met on a weekly basis with the tutor and the student together to discuss progress. The tutors and the students enjoyed working together. One of the target students said that ‘I find tutoring helpful especially in maths. Some things I find difficult she helps me with them’. The tutor said, ‘I find tutoring very useful as I must be clear myself what I am teaching. It would be very helpful for anyone who wants to become a teacher. It is very good to help me understand how to work with and respect a student for what she is’. In all, fourteen students were involved in tutoring.

Students’ sensitivity and fear of being different surprised the team, as it was something they had not thought too much about. They were now much more conscious of what they said and how they said it

While this worked very well, again the students were very concerned that the support being offered would not label them negatively. The team said that the students’ sensitivity and fear of being different surprised them, as it was something they had not thought too much about. They were now much more conscious of what they said and how they said it. They were also more concerned about withdrawal from class for support and its potentially negative effect on students.

Homework Support

In light of the difficulties students were having with learning the team reviewed the schools approach to homework. They found that some students were spending several hours at night trying to do homework that was beyond their capability as in many cases they had not understood the classroom work on which it was based. Students also found the amount of homework daunting and on many occasions left it undone. This in turn created more difficulties for them when they returned to school next day and the team felt that their fear of getting into trouble or ‘looking stupid’ in front of their classmates probably led to students staying away from school. The situation certainly affected the teacher/student relationship and their self-esteem. The team discussed their learning with the teachers of the target group in relation to making homework more relevant and achievable. They agreed to look at this and also to work with the team to provide homework support after school in the evening. Parents and students were again consulted and ten students availed of the support. For future development in this area the team feels that the students and the parents should sign a contract committing themselves to the process.

PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT ACTIVITIES ARISING OUT OF COLLABORATIVE ACTION PLANNING As the Collaborative Action Planning process developed the team became aware that to successfully implement their strategies they needed some inservice support. The school participated in the following activities facilitated by Mol an Óige:

Mentoring

Multiple Intelligences

Co-operative Discipline

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Presentation of their learning at an Action Research Seminar

Two teachers from the school visited Pontypridd College

BENEFITS/OUTCOMES FOR STUDENTS

The team is very positive about the benefits of Collaborative Action Planning for their students. They feel that there has been ‘significant change’ in the confidence and self-esteem of the students. This is reflected in their attitude to school and teachers and their increased participation in class. In the case of the small number of students who were poor attenders, this has improved considerably due to the strategies put in place by the team and the constant follow up, monitoring and encouragement they received to attend school.

LEARNING FOR TEACHERS

When the school began Collaborative Action Planning they found the process both challenging and frustrating. Identifying the needs of students who were failing and developing appropriate strategies to meet those needs led to a questioning of long held beliefs and traditional teaching methodologies. It also led to reflection on the pupil/teacher relationship and its importance to a child’s self-esteem for learning, and an acknowledgement of the central role of parents in their child’s school life. Confronted with all of this the team found it difficult to know where and how to begin their process of change. However they found that the weekly planning meetings and the rigour of the Collaborative Action Planning process, together with contact with other schools through the co-ordinators networking meetings and seminars where schools presented their learning to each other, helped them to focus and find direction.

Confronted with all of this the team found it difficult to know where and how to begin their process of change. However they found that the rigour of the Collaborative Action Planning process helped them to focus and find direction.

All teachers on the Action Planning team say that ‘mindsets have changed’ and there is a more tolerant and caring attitude towards students, with a greater openness to exploring alternative approaches to addressing their difficulties.

The teachers are very positive about the teamwork and professional peer support generated by the process. Due to the nature of school structures there was little culture of this and they feel that Collaborative Action Planning provided the opportunity to share ideas and to learn from each other. It also motivated them to try out new approaches.

In light of their greater understanding of students’ needs the team feels that the school plan should clearly identify areas of need and show what support the school will provide to address those areas.

The principal said that ‘the school always promoted learning in a caring environment. As part of the Mol an Óige project the school has been given the framework to design and implement its own modes of intervention to help students to achieve their full potential’

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CASE STUDY D: “TEAM TEACHING AND LEARNING FROM EACH OTHER”

How working collaboratively enabled teachers in a post-primary school to focus on students as individuals and to build on their strengths

School: St. Ailbe's School, Tipperary Town

Principal: Pat Moroney

Action Planning Team 98/99: Maura Quinlan (co-ordinator), Bridget McCormack, Simon Carroll, Patricia Ryan, Deirdre Clifford

Action Planning Team 99/00: Maura Quinlan (co-ordinator), Bridget McCormack, Patricia Ryan, Deirdre Clifford, John Lonergan, Kay Clancy, Dan Byrne, Gerry Coleman

BACKGROUND

St Ailbe's is a vocational school with approximately 680 students, boys and girls. The school attracts students with a wide range of abilities and from varying social backgrounds. The very able students are well catered for and their examination results reflect this. However, a number of students have learning difficulties. Some of these have a higher than average level of absenteeism and a few drop out prior to the Junior Certificate examination. The school has a learning support teacher and prior to Collaborative Action Planning she worked mainly in isolation from other teachers and withdrew students who needed extra support. There was not adequate time to work with those with serious needs or to make interventions at senior cycle. The school does not yet have the services of a Home School Community Liaison co-ordinator.

The school is very committed to the needs of all its students and has put a number of initiatives in place including the Leaving Certificate Applied and Junior Certificate Schools Programmes.

COLLABORATIVE ACTION PLANNING

In its desire to further support students experiencing difficulties the school became involved in the Collaborative Action Planning process in 1998. Six teachers including the learning support teacher volunteered to form an Action Planning team. On submission of their action plan the school was allocated six hours planning time by Mol an Óige. The team met for half an hour on a weekly basis at lunchtime and had their teaching hours reduced by one class period in the week to compensate for this. The co-ordinator had an additional one and a quarter hours for the overall organisation and development of the process in the school, feeding back the lessons to Mol an Óige and attending co-ordinators networking meetings. A difficulty in the first year arose from the fact that not all team members taught the target group. For the second year of Collaborative Action Planning a number of other teachers expressed an interest in becoming involved in the process and the core Action Planning team expanded to eight. The school was allocated three and a half hours planning time from Mol an Óige for the school year 1999/2000, and the school matched this from its own resources.

Target Group

The team identified a Second Year Special Needs group of fourteen boys and two girls. They choose this group as they saw them as most at risk of dropping out of school because of their behaviour and their high level of absenteeism. They also had difficulties with literacy and numeracy, had low self-esteem, a very short attention span and in general ‘were bored with school’.

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We began to focus on the causes rather than the symptoms of the problems

Initially the team focused on the behaviour and absenteeism of the students. But as the Collaborative Action Planning process developed, their understanding of students’ needs changed and they felt that the students’ lack of motivation, low self-esteem and difficulties with literacy and numeracy were major contributing factors to their disruptive behaviour and poor attendance. ‘We began to focus on the causes rather than the symptoms of the problems’. In the second year of the process they continued to work with the same target group.

Initiating Change

The team began the process of change by inviting Mol an Óige to make a presentation to all staff so that those not directly involved would understand the process and would support the team in the strategies they developed.

DEVELOPING LITERACY AND NUMERACY SKILLS

The Junior Certificate School Programme

The school is involved with the Junior Certificate Schools Programme and the team felt that the structure and methodology of this programme was very appropriate in addressing the students needs, particularly in the area of literacy and numeracy development. However they did not have a structured framework to ensure its effective implementation. They felt that to maximise the value of the programme they needed a more co-ordinated approach. Although the programme encouraged a team approach and the development of cross-curricular learning, the team had only been meeting a few times per year. The team used the Collaborative Action Planning framework to further explore and develop its potential and effective implementation.

Team Teaching

The presence of the learning support teacher on the Action Planning team reduced the isolation of her job and increased the awareness of teachers of the number of students experiencing difficulties and the extent of those difficulties. This gave rise to discussion as to the effectiveness of withdrawal, the negative implications of it for students’ self-esteem and the exploration of alternative methodologies to support students with learning difficulties. In addition to this, class sizes in the school are generally quite large with an average of 26 students in each one. The broad range of abilities in classes, even in a streamed situation, meant that on average four or five students needed extra support and it was often difficult to get around to them individually. Discipline was also an issue and the team felt that the fact that students’ needs were not being met contributed to discipline problems.

At this stage a number of schools participating in the project were exploring the possibilities of team teaching, as they felt that this was a very positive form of learning support. In March 1999, Mol an Óige facilitated an afternoon input on team teaching for five such schools. Five teachers from the school, including some from outside of the Action Planning team attended, and three of them began team teaching with the target class. The introduction of team teaching also fitted very well with the methodology of the Junior Schools Certificate Programme and its commitment to the development of a whole-school literacy policy. At a later stage in the year the Junior Certificate Schools Programme support team gave a full staff inservice on team teaching.

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The introduction of team teaching also fitted very well with the methodology of the Junior Schools Certificate Programme and its commitment to the development of a whole-school literacy policy.

Sixteen teachers are presently involved in team teaching. Irish, English and maths teachers go into the home economics class, the home economics teacher into an English class, the science teacher into metalwork, and science teachers and Irish teachers work together. In most cases, the team teaching occurs once or twice per week. It has been implemented on a totally voluntary basis for First, Second and Third year classes. The school has used a number of different approaches. In some cases a group within the class is targeted and one teacher works with them. In other situations both teachers work together helping individual students as they need it. The team has said that this approach has also encouraged teachers in different subject areas to work together to see how they can link their respective subjects to make learning more relevant for students. A maths teacher who goes into the Home Economics class realised that she could link the teaching of weights, measure and volume to this area in their cookery lessons. The learning support teacher said that this approach has made teachers very aware of students’ learning difficulties and the need for all teachers to support literacy development, and that they have become more involved in supporting this development.

Students have adapted well to team teaching and can see the benefits of it for themselves. The following are among some of the comments they made: ‘can get more work done’, ‘not as embarrassed to ask questions’, ‘when you need extra help it’s very good’, and ‘you don’t get away with as much’.

The staff response is also positive. Those involved feel that discipline has improved, the atmosphere in the classroom is more relaxed and ‘there is less pressure all round’. It also means that there are ‘two available to tackle a problem if one occurs’. Those involved stressed the importance of class preparation because sometimes the teacher coming in can be ‘at a loose end’, especially if it’s not one’s own subject area.

Those involved stressed the importance of class preparation because sometimes the teacher coming in can be ‘at a loose end’, especially if it’s not one’s own subject area.

MOTIVATING STUDENTS AND RAISING SELF-ESTEEM

Use of ICT

While the team felt that they had to begin with strategies to address learning and behavioural difficulties, they also felt that they had to focus simultaneously on the students’ lack of motivation and low self-esteem. These were underlying causes of many of the students’ difficulties and needed to be addressed if other issues were to be resolved. They brainstormed a number of ideas and also invited students to make suggestions as to how they liked to learn. Their immediate response was computers and the principal timetabled two classes on a weekly basis for ICT. The students ‘loved it and were very motivated’. A surprise to the team was how good their keyboard skills were. This led to further links with other subject areas such as Civics Social and Political Education, which required them to write reports on their action projects. They now typed these and felt a greater sense of pride in their work, particularly as such reports were being assessed as part of the examination process. At the end of the year they received certificates showing the level of competency they had attained.

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The team felt that the skills displayed by the target group and the effect on their self-esteem raised awareness among teachers of the usefulness of IT as a teaching and learning methodology for the target group. It was the team’s experience that ‘it does not matter how weak they are, given the right medium they can all learn’.

It does not matter how weak they are, given the right medium they can all learn

Active Learning

The team looked at the core subject areas of Irish, English and maths and explored approaches that would motivate and encourage students to participate in their own learning. Once a week the group had an Irish culture module which looked at culture not just in terms of language but as part of their broader experience which included music, song, dance and stories. To encourage active, self-directed learning the students were encouraged to research topics of their choice. As a result, ‘participation and motivation were the winners here. They loved this class and, for a change, were positive about Irish’.

Fourteen teachers attended inservice training facilitated by Mol an Óige on active learning methodologies in English and maths.

The team also wished to develop the idea of ‘learning taking place outside of the classroom environment’ and brought the group to an outdoor pursuits centre. Prior to the trip the students had a number of tasks to carry out including booking the centre, costing it and arranging transport. The focus on the day was on basic map skills and canoeing and also on encouraging students to take responsibility and to work as a team. They had to adapt to new surroundings and situations away from the safety of the school. ‘It was daunting even for the tough guys’. As a follow up to the day they had to write a report which was incorporated into their English class as part of the ongoing development of cross-curricular learning.

Their CSPE project is also in active learning mode – gardening. They have put up hanging baskets and tidied up a small green area in the school, which has developed a sense of school pride in them.

The use of student profiling has been introduced and has enabled teachers and the students themselves to recognise and build on their own strengths.

Positive Approaches to Discipline

The team felt that the Collaborative Action Planning process significantly changed their thinking on a number of issues. One of the most important of these was the new insights they gained into students’ behaviour and the causes of it. They felt that much of the inappropriate behaviour was linked to other issues in their lives, both within and without the school, and they were concerned that punitive approaches to discipline, along with a number of other factors, may have contributed to their poor attendance and in some cases caused students to drop out. They wished to develop a process that would encourage and support students to take responsibility for their own behaviour and designed a bonus points system with the motto that ‘if students are sanctioned for inappropriate behaviour, they should also be rewarded for appropriate behaviour’. The team targeted areas such as homework, uniform, punctuality, absenteeism and respect for others. The system worked by awarding students a maximum of ten points in each area on a weekly basis. The points were theirs to keep or to give away. When they turned up in school late or without homework etc. two points were deducted. There was a reward negotiated in advance for students who did not fall below a certain number of points within a given time-frame. As the team developed and refined the system they found that the shorter the time-frame, the more chance students had of success. This led to a greater desire on their part to repeat the process.

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If students are sanctioned for inappropriate behaviour, they should also be rewarded for appropriate behaviour

PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT ACTIVITIES ARISING OUT OF COLLABORATIVE ACTION PLANNING

It was the view of the team that they needed to develop new skills for some of the initiatives they wished to develop. As a result they and several other members of staff participated in a number of inservice activities facilitated by Mol an Óige. In some cases these were school based, on other occasions a group of schools came together to receive training in an area of common interest. The team felt that the participation of other staff members helped to break the isolation they sometimes felt and also meant that their learning in relation to the needs of the target group was taken on board by a greater number of teachers, which in turn benefited the targeted students.

The following were among the inservice activities arising out of Collaborative Action Planning:

Active learning methodologies in English and Maths

Team teaching

Mentoring

Developing individual education plans

Co-operative Discipline

Literacy Across the Curriculum

Two teachers visited Pontypridd College and the principal visited Birmingham

BENEFITS FOR STUDENTS

Staff report that the attendance of students in the target group has improved. They are not in trouble as often – ‘they are not angels but they are more aware of their behaviour, of what is appropriate and what’s not’. They appear much more confident and with better self-esteem. In many cases, they are much more willing to participate in school events.

LEARNING FOR TEACHERS

The team felt that they had gained a greater awareness and a deeper understanding of students’ needs and the factors that affect their learning. These included lack of family support, the need to highlight strengths as well as needs, the importance of getting to know the students as people, ‘not merely as 2B’ and ‘the damage to students when they are constantly pigeon-holed’.

The attitudes of a greater number of teachers towards students experiencing difficulties have changed considerably. There is also the awareness that the school has to respond to the needs of those students using a consistent, whole-school approach.

The co-ordinator commented that:“Understanding how awful they feel because of the experience of constant failure was very enlightening for the team. We now had a ‘cause’ and a ‘reason’ for poor behaviour and poor attendance, and could approach these problems in a new way. We hope that if we can deal with the cause, it will improve behaviour and attendance.”

Understanding how awful they feel because of the experience of constant failure was very enlightening. We now had a ‘cause’ and a

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‘reason’ for poor behaviour and poor attendance, and could approach these problems in a new way

The team did a lot of work on the self-esteem of students as they feel that this is central to their learning. They also felt that developing new skills and teaching methodologies was an essential part of this process.

Through the Collaborative Action Planning process ‘we learned to work as a team – this was all new to us’. Working as a team enabled teachers to concentrate on students as individuals, to continuously review the support they were offering, to ‘learn from each other’ and to support each other professionally.

INCLUSION OF PARENTS

The parents of the target group tend not visit the school. When they do it is usually because they have been sent for in relation to their child’s behaviour and the experience is therefore negative and confrontational. A number of reasons prevent parents from coming to the school and one of them is their own literacy levels which makes them feel inadequate.

Teachers found the area of parental involvement difficult to develop.

Teachers found the area of parental involvement difficult to develop. However, there is a greater awareness of the need for such involvement, and this will be a focus for future action. Homework journals have been introduced as a means of keeping in contact with parents. These are signed every night.

RESPONSE OF THE PRINCIPAL

Speaking at a conference, the principal said:“The impact of this project on teachers has been lively debate on the issue of educational disadvantage at staff meetings, with a greater willingness among staff to give their time and energy to collaborative planning and review meetings. Teachers are also more aware of the benefits of listening to students’ opinions, needs and aspirations and of the need to set mutually agreed, realistic goals in respect of learning, discipline and attendance”.

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CASE STUDY E: “MEANING AND PURPOSE ARE KEY ELEMENTS IN SUCCESSFUL LEARNING”

How a Youthreach centre used Collaborative Action Planning to support literacy interventions in the centre

Centre: Tipperary Youthreach

Manager: Brendan Ryan

Action Planning Team: Joanne Barry (co-ordinator), Brendan Ryan, Anne Bourke, Ailbe Coleman, Mary Fitzpatrick, Michael Connolly, Barbara Wheeler Connolly, John Neville.

BACKGROUND TO THE CENTRE.Youthreach Tipperary opened in 1992. It provides vocational training and education for young early school leavers between the ages of 15 and 18. The programme seeks to promote a sense of self worth and identity as well as pride in ability and work. It is a learner centred environment with an emphasis on work experience and ‘hands on’ practical activity. At the moment 35 students attend the centre. 24 of these are female and 11 are male. 12 are from the travelling community.

The centre promotes three core educational dimensions:

Personal and social development

Vocational skills

Communication skills

These are an integral part of all programme content.

The programme in Youthreach is offered in two phases, foundation and progression. Foundation level is delivered through the N.C.V.A. Foundation Level Certificate. Progression pathways that students may chose from include Leaving Certificate Applied and Linked Work Experience. Central to all areas is the personal and social development of the young person.

MAIN ISSUES FOR THE CENTRE

Literacy

54% of the cohort were not functionally literate and 25% had severe difficulties. Prior to Collaborative Action Planning their literacy needs were the exclusive responsibility of the learning support teacher.

A survey conducted across CDVEC Youthreach centres found that in excess of 60% of participants were not functionally literate and that 20% had severe literacy difficulties. Diagnostic testing in Tipperary Youthreach closely mirrored these results with 54% of the cohort not functionally literate and 25% with severe difficulties. Prior to Collaborative Action Planning the literacy needs of the students were the exclusive responsibility of the learning support teacher. In terms of time, just under three hours per week were allocated to her. Approximately half of this was used for group class time and the remainder for the withdrawal of individual students experiencing serious difficulties. Given the level of need of so many students it was felt that the current provision of learning support was inadequate.

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Retention

It is the centre’s experience that retention of students who have already opted out of education is always challenging. For those with severe literacy problems it was becoming increasingly problematic as they found it extremely difficult to engage in class based activity of any sort and therefore became frustrated. In addition to this a number of other social and psychological factors such as poor home support and low self-esteem further endorsed their sense of failure.

Addressing the problem of literacy development and other issues affecting the ability of students to remain in the centre and access qualifications became the main focus of Collaborative Action Planning.

COLLABORATIVE ACTION PLANNING

Mol an Óige allocated the centre three hours planning time per week. Forty minutes of this was devoted to team planning and the remainder was used by the co-ordinator for the overall development of the process.

Youthreach Tipperary wished to develop a whole centre approach to a number of areas as they felt that this was the most effective way to meet students’ needs. They saw Collaborative Action Planning as providing that framework within which to do this and in February 1999 they became involved in the process. All staff members wished to be involved and on submission of an action plan Mol an Óige allocated the centre three hours planning time per week. Forty minutes of this was devoted to team planning and the remainder was used by the co-ordinator for the overall development of the process, discussion and planning of strategies with individual teachers and attendance at co-ordinators’ networking meetings facilitated by Mol an Óige. As the centre already had a structure in place for weekly staff meetings it was decided to hold Action Planning meetings immediately afterwards. This had the benefit of ensuring that the day to day issues of the centre were dealt with separately and Action Planning time could focus on specific areas of concern to staff and the development of appropriate responses to them. It also meant that the entire staff was fully informed and involved in all initiatives. The staff felt that this was important if significant change was to take place.

Target Group

A foundation group of eight students were initially identified. All had literacy difficulties ranging from moderate to severe and a number of them had serious behavioural problems. The group expanded in September 1999 to include five new students in the centre, also with serious literacy difficulties.

INTERVENTIONS

The team felt that by developing a whole centre approach to literacy they could go some way towards addressing one of the most fundamental needs of the students. This in turn would allow them to access qualifications. They developed a number of strategies in response to this.

Cross Curricular Learning

As a starting point the team felt that they needed to address the lack of engagement of the students and their sense of frustration and failure. The team initiated a cross-curricular approach to N.C.V.A. Foundation Level. At this level students take eight modules with Maths and Communications as core subjects. The team worked to explore and develop links between all the modules in order to deliver them as a continuum rather than each module in

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isolation. One such initiative became known as the ‘garden shed’ project. It involved the teachers from woodwork, metalwork, maths, graphics, communications and ICT working together to link their respective subject areas to design and build a garden shed.

Collaborative Action Planning framework gave tutors the structure to develop a team approach. Students became very aware of the teamwork of the tutors and adopted a team approach themselves.

Both staff and students responded very positively to the initiative. The teachers have said that the Collaborative Action Planning framework gave them the structure to develop a team approach. Students became very aware of the teamwork of the tutors and adopted a team approach themselves. In addition students began to relate subject areas to each other and to understand the inter-relationship between disparate subjects such as woodwork and reading. Another development to this cross-curricular approach to learning was the exploration and development of students’ interests, such as fishing and wildlife, to achieve educational outcomes. Using students’ interests as the starting point for literacy and numeracy generated enthusiasm, which led to increased participation on their part. It was the learning for the team that ‘meaning and purpose are key elements in successful learning’.

Raising self-esteem

The team was constantly aware of the low self-esteem of students and sought to integrate esteem building in the development of their various initiatives. It was decided to introduce a folder which students brought with them from class to class so that work could be added to it or an aspect of it could be reinforced. Thus work in woodwork classes could be used during literacy sessions or as part of the students’ ICT classes. The folder became a source of pride for students as it began to fill with work. This added to their sense of achievement and had a very positive effect on their self-esteem. The team was always conscious of the need to nurture the self-esteem of their students but felt that the experience of this process highlighted the very clear connection between self-esteem and the student’s capacity to learn.

Collaborative Action Planning highlighted the very clear connection between self-esteem and the student’s capacity to learn.

All Teachers as Literacy Teachers

At the beginning of Collaborative Action Planning the team had set out to develop a more effective approach to address their students’ literacy difficulties. They felt that the process enabled them to work as a team and to experiment with different approaches. It also helped them to develop their literacy policy in a step by step manner so that when the co-ordinator, who is also the learning support teacher introduced the idea of all teachers as literacy teachers there was general consensus that ‘literacy is everybody’s responsibility’’. All members of staff became involved in the development of literacy skills. Each tutor drew up and taught a list of key words in their respective subject areas. Word banks were built and later on frameworks to develop writing skills were introduced. The work in each subject was re-enforced and further developed in the literacy classes. While initially there was some concern that incorporating the development of students’ literacy skills into the various subject areas would be very time consuming, it soon became apparent that this was not the case and the benefits to students were felt to far outweigh the time involved.

Literacy is everybody’s responsibility

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Code of Behaviour

As the challenging behaviour of a number of students was an ongoing issue the team saw Collaborative Action Planning as a means of reflecting on, not only the behaviour exhibited, but also the underlying causes of it. The current structure emerged from discussion and negotiation between staff and students and covers a range of issues including bullying, respect for staff and other students and abusive language. Since its inception it has been further refined by the reflective process of Collaborative Action Planning and consultation with the students. While a series of sanctions for misbehaviour were mutually agreed there is also a merit system which endorses positive achievements such as effort in class, progress in a particular area, improved attitude or behaviour. The system is also linked to attendance, as this is one of the key issues that the team set out to address. Students who do not have a full attendance record for the week cannot be considered for an award. When the student accumulates a specific number of merits they receive a prize. The staff feels that this approach to discipline and managing behaviour gives students ownership of their actions and the consequences of them. It also recognises the achievements of weaker students because of its individual approach.

PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT NEEDS OF STAFF

The professional developments needs of the team emerged on two levels. On the one hand the team feels that the planning process deepened their understanding of students needs and also provided them with a framework to experiment with new approaches and to learn from them as part of the process of developing strategies to meet students’ needs. They also feel that weekly planning and ongoing reflection and evaluation enabled them to develop and adapt a plan that in other circumstances could have become a fixed entity. On another level the team’s exploration of a variety of teaching methodologies gave rise to a desire for new skills and training to effectively implement new approaches. An important factor here was that in most cases the manager and the entire staff of the centre participated in inservice training as it was felt that, in order to initiate fundamental change, as many staff members as possible should attend. Such areas included:

Weekly planning and ongoing reflection and evaluation enabled the team to develop and adapt a plan that in other circumstances could have become a fixed entity.

Teaching Literacy

The learning support teacher is also the co-ordinator of the Action Planning team and used some planning meetings to give initial training to staff on the integration of literacy teaching into all subject areas. One of the important outcomes of this was that one of the centre’s own staff members delivered the training to her colleagues and as she is the learning support teacher it also had the added benefit of changing the perception of her job and including more staff in learning support. This was not something that had previously happened. The team feels that because it arose out of a collaboratively planned action it was relevant and desired by staff and not something that was imposed in isolation.

Multiple Intelligences

Five staff members including the manager of the centre attended three full days inservice over a three-month period on the exploration of Gardner’s (1983) approach to teaching and learning. The staff felt that this would further enhance the development of the centre’s cross-curricular approach to learning and increase ‘understanding of the many ways people learn’. During the three-month period all staff developed a number of lessons using the multiple intelligences approach and presented their learning and the work of their students to staff

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from other centres participating in the inservice. They felt that this approach enabled them to embed their learning in everyday practice.

Individual Education Plans

Four members of staff visited Pontypridd College in Wales and were particularly influenced by the use of individual education plans (Appendix A) to support students with serious difficulties. As Collaborative Action Planning developed they used the framework of the process to design and implement such plans for some of students from the target group.

BENEFITS TO STUDENTS

The sense of achievement and self-esteem of students has increased. Because of the cross-curricular approach, work completed in one subject is now linked to the content in another e.g. roofing in Metalwork/Building Construction became a topic to write about in English. This helped students to recognise the value of their work.

The ability to read and write became less of a hot issue

The ability to read and write became ‘less of a hot issue’. Prior to Collaborative Action Planning, literacy classes were not popular with this group. The fact that literacy was now being addressed in all classes removed the ‘dread’ element.

LEARNING FOR STAFF

The staff feels that Collaborative Action Planning helped them to prioritise and focus in a structured way on the needs of their students and to plan for them as individuals. It also highlighted the importance of reviewing and evaluating planned actions so that they continue to be effective. Collaborative Action Planning also provided a framework for a team approach to problem solving that the centre feels is working for them and one of the outcomes has been its value as ‘a team building exercise’ and ‘the development of a strong sense of staff cohesion’.

The staff feels that it has enabled them to develop a firmer literacy policy and to plan a cross-curricular approach to N.C.V.A. It has focussed attention on the many needs of the students and reduced frustration and anxiety levels

By channelling students’ interests the staff discovered some surprising results. A class-fishing trip saw a leader emerging from the ranks that was previously difficult to motivate. Another valuable lesson learned as a result of this trip was that of peer learning. Experienced fishermen in the group undertook to teach the other members about fishing. Organisational skills also emerged.

The manager of the centre said that the process ‘has improved communication with the students and enabled the staff to look at and respond to their individual needs’. He also felt that it has provided them with a strategy to plan at an early stage for students when they arrive in the centre and to design individual education plans to meet their needs.

DIFFICULTIES

The time-scale of the cross-curricular approach to N.C.V.A. was initially set as a 3-month target. However it soon became apparent that this was not a realistic target and that the development of such a process needs six months to a year.

Students experienced over-emphasis on literacy at the beginning; having finished one literacy class they seemed to have deal with more of the same in the next class. Discussion with the group around the importance of literacy to each subject was not particularly effective.

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The importance of literacy won through each time

Some members of staff were concerned that dealing with literacy became very time consuming to the detriment of work in their own areas. However the importance of literacy won through each time.

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CASE STUDY F: “YOU FEEL SPECIAL WHEN SOMEONE COMES TO MEET YOU”

How working collaboratively raised the self-esteem of students and tutorsCentre: Youthreach, Roscrea

Manager: Geraldine O Brien

Action Planning Team: Geraldine Egan and Edwina Knight (co-ordinators), Geraldine O Brien (centre manager), Thelma Carroll, Margaret Hennessy, Mary Haugh, Donal Coonan, Bridie Malone, Therese Mulcahy

BACKGROUND TO YOUTHREACH, ROSCREA, CO TIPPERARY.The Youthreach Programme was set up in 1989 by the Department of Education and Science and the Department of Enterprise and Employment to provide two years integrated education, training and work experience for early school leavers in the 15-18 years age group.

The Youthreach training centre in Roscrea opened ten years ago and can accommodate up to 35 students. At the moment it caters for 12 boys and 20 girls. 15 students are from the Travelling community. The centre has a full-time co-ordinator and 8 tutors, all of whom are a part-time. Vocational education training is provided in a number of areas including literacy and numeracy, catering, horticulture, hairdressing and woodwork. There is a big emphasis on social and personal education.

There is a big emphasis on social and personal education.

Prior to its involvement with the Mol an Óige project the centre had identified a number of issues that it felt it needed to address. These included discipline and literacy development as well as training and support for tutors. The staff also wished to develop a number of extra-curricular areas as part of the social and personal education programme and to develop closer links with the community.

Needs of the students

The centre feels that in recent years, students are presenting with a wider range of needs than in the past. This is particularly true in relation to literacy and numeracy skills. For example, 55% of students have a reading age of 9, 25% a reading age of 8, and 9% a reading age under 7. In addition to this (and because of it) many have low self-esteem and serious behavioural problems. Many of them have little home support – four are living outside the family home. Almost all come from backgrounds of high unemployment.

Travellers

As the number of Travellers in the centre has grown in recent years, the centre has had to address the issues of acceptance and inclusion – both within the centre and in the community in general. This is particularly evident when the students are looking for work experience. In addition to this some of the students find conflict between their new-found identity in the centre and the culture of their community. Their concern with this and other issues can cause tension and conflict with staff and other students.

BEGINNING COLLABORATIVE ACTION PLANNING

Youthreach Roscrea had been working with the Mol an Óige project since 1996. Seven tutors had visited Pontypridd College in Wales and, as a result, the centre had been exploring new ideas in learning support and in the use of ICTs as a learning medium. Collaborative Action

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Planning began in the centre in February 1999. All staff were invited to participate and in the initial stages all, including the manager, were involved. On submission of their action plan to Mol an Óige they were allocated three hours planning time per week. The team met for forty minutes on a weekly basis and two staff members were appointed to co-ordinate the process and to liase with Mol an Óige and other participating centres. In the second year of Collaborative Action Planning the team was reduced to six due to the fact that all staff are part-time and it was difficult to arrange a suitable time for them to meet. The manager of the centre now attended on a monthly basis as she wished to empower staff and give them freedom to develop initiatives. As the process developed procedures were put in place to ensure that teachers not directly involved were aware of the work of the Action Planning team. This included circulating minutes, inviting feedback on proposed initiatives and giving a brief report at monthly staff meetings.

ACTIONS TO RAISE SELF-ESTEEM

Drama

Although the students had serious difficulties with literacy and numeracy the team felt that if learning was to take place they had to address the issues of the students’ lack of motivation and low self-esteem. During their planning meetings they explored a number of possibilities and decided to consult with students to establish areas of interest. A large number of them were very interested in drama and music and expressed an interest in putting on a show. The team consulted other staff members and the result was a production of Grease. All students were involved and willingly gave up lunch and spare time to rehearse. They ‘loved it’. The tutors felt that despite the hard work it was very successful as the students felt very positive about the experience.

Mentoring

Mentoring is still at a developmental stage and needs a lot of co-ordination, which is very time consuming.

As many of the students have very poor home support and have very few opportunities to experience success in their lives the team felt that the support of an adult friend would be of benefit to them. It would also be a means of developing links with the community as at times the centre feels quite isolated. Some members of the team became involved in a mentoring training programme facilitated by Mol an Óige. The staff invited a number of members of the community to act as mentors and at present four people are supporting four students. They meet every second week for about an hour. It is still at a developmental stage and needs a lot of co-ordination, which is very time consuming. An ongoing problem is the attendance of students and their failure to keep appointments. Rescheduling is often difficult as the mentors have a number of other commitments. However, for those who have committed themselves the response is very positive and students are ‘delighted with their new friends’. ‘You feel special when someone comes to meet you’. ‘It takes time to get used to the person but it’s good.’ The staff is also happy to have outside influences.

Foróige Involvement

Again to encourage students to develop interests and to take responsibility contact was made with Foróige who set up a committee of students to start a tuck shop. Students sold shares to staff to fund the venture. Staff in general had a large input and when they withdrew supervision students lost interest. When the team reflected on the failure of this initiative they felt that perhaps they had disempowered the students as too much direction came from staff. The team indicated that this was an important learning point for them in relation to motivating students.

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LITERACY INTERVENTIONS

Developing a whole centre approach to Literacy

Staff are now developing appropriate materials and worksheets in consultation with the learning support teacher to make literacy relevant to their subject areas.

The team identified poor literacy skills as one of the reasons for students dropping out of, not only school, but the centre as well. It also had consequences for their self-esteem. The focus on individual students’ needs through Collaborative Action Planning increased the team’s awareness of the need for an integrated approach to the teaching of literacy. They discussed this with all staff and as a result all tutors attended night classes organised by the Adult Literacy Organisation to develop their skills. Staff are now developing relevant materials and worksheets in consultation with the learning support teacher to build on the training they received. While it is an extra workload on all tutors the team has said that it has raised awareness of the need to address literacy problems and overall this whole centre approach to literacy development is working well.

Individual Education Plans

Team members who visited Pontypridd College in Wales saw how individual education plans were used as part of the learning support structure. They now felt that they could use the Collaborative Action Planning framework to build on current learning and further the development of a holistic approach to addressing students’ needs. The individual education plans are developed in co-operation with the students thereby encouraging them to take responsibility for their learning. Each tutor is responsible for four students and time is allocated for staff/student meetings and preparation of individual education plans. The team feels that the plans should make assessment of students’ progress more effective. They also feel the mentoring programme would fit very well with this structure enhancing the support for the individual student

Multiple Intelligences

Because self-esteem and motivation as well as learning difficulties were issues that needed to be addressed, the staff wished to look at other approaches to teaching and learning. Together with four other training centres the manager and all staff members attended a three-day inservice over a period of three months on multiple intelligences. The idea behind the timeframe was to give staff an opportunity to discuss what they had experienced and to work together to plan and develop a multiple intelligence approach to their respective areas. Staff from the centres shared their learning with each other. The staff felt that it led to ‘better teamwork among staff and students’ and ‘more learning is taking place’. Tutors are also spending more time on preparation and this is resulting in ‘easier’ classes for staff . ‘Classes were more relaxed once they were planned’. Students felt that classes ‘went faster’ and were ‘more enjoyable’.

POSITIVE DISCIPLINE

The regular meetings and the reflective process of Collaborative Action Planning gave rise to a greater understanding of the needs of students and the causes of their behaviour.

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The team felt that the regular meetings and the reflective process of Collaborative Action Planning gave rise to a greater understanding of the needs of students and the causes of their behaviour. The centre had identified the challenging behaviour of students and the conflict that this caused as one of the central issues it wished to address through Collaborative Action Planning. Two members of staff attended a six-week course on positive approaches to discipline to reduce conflict, raise self-esteem and encourage students to take responsibility for their behaviour. Arising out of this a team member did a one-day training course on facilitating this approach with all staff in the centre to enable a more positive policy on discipline and behaviour management to develop

OUTCOMES FOR THE CENTRE

The team felt that it enabled staff to focus more clearly on the needs of the students and to explore a variety of approaches in addressing them. It also helped them to address their own needs particularly in the area of training and new teaching methodologies. The structured planning meetings have led to a better communication structure and less isolation, particularly among part-time staff. There is now more team spirit among staff and more inclusion. Time for evaluation and planning is now being acknowledged as a necessity.

Time for evaluation and planning is now being acknowledged as a necessity.

The team felt that although many of the interventions are in the early stages the self-esteem of both students and tutors has improved considerably.

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A GUIDE TO INTRODUCING COLLABORATIVE ACTION PLANNING IN SCHOOLS AND TRAINING WORKSHOPS

Collaborative Action Planning is not for everybody – certainly not in the initial stages. It is only for principals and managements who wish to empower and encourage leadership among their staff, who believe that collaboration and peer support are essential for real change, who believe that the school should be a learning institution for all, and who are prepared to commit resources to this end. It is only for staff members who wish to work with colleagues to seek new ways of meeting their students’ needs and their own, who recognise that there are often no easy answers and that finding new, better approaches involves trial and error, and critical reflection, both personally and collaboratively. It is for schools/workshops who believe that the way to respond to students needs is not just to add on new initiatives, but also to use existing resources and skills in new and more effective ways. Above all, it is for people who wish to develop their professional practice in line with their professional values.

The MotiveCollaborative Action Planning is designed to promote a collaborative learning and working environment within the school/workshop. Such an environment will provide a safe place for teachers/tutors to:

identify the individual needs of all the students in their care and explore methodologies for responding to these needs

evaluate current practice, individual and collective, against their own professional values

develop professional peer collaboration which makes it safe for teachers/tutors to discuss and reflect on their own practice, to try out new ideas and to develop their own professional understandings and practice in the process.

Role of the Principal / Centre ManagerIn order to initiate and support a Collaborative Action Planning process in the school, the principal/manager must:

facilitate a team of volunteers to begin the process, and give the co-ordinator the support and recognition necessary to lead the process

timetable weekly/fortnightly meetings and support professional development activities arising from the process

provide support for the team to try new practices, recognising that all efforts will not be successful and that failures are a necessary part of learning in teaching as elsewhere

be prepared to encourage leadership to emerge from among the team

recognise that the process may highlight issues in relation to whole school policy and practice which will require responses by management and the whole staff, and be committed to provide appropriate responses

establish mechanisms for ongoing communication and feedback between team, management and staff

recognise that collaboration with parents, professional agencies and communities are necessary to meet the needs of some students.

The principal need not be a member of the team, but should attend some of the meetings.

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The Co-ordinatorThe role of the co-ordinator is crucial to the success of the Collaborative Action Planning process. Ideally, the co-ordinator should be a person who:

has the skills to facilitate the team process

has the respect of staff

is open to change

will liaise with the principal, management and staff

will organise professional development activities relating to issues arising from the process

will be open to working with parents, professional agencies and communities to meet the needs of individual students.

The TeamThe team should consist of teachers/tutors who:

seek to co-operatively address the needs of their students

understand and are committed to teamwork and to sharing ideas and skills

identify new roles and share responsibilities

are open to developing their understanding, attitudes and professional skills

recognise that failure as well as success is a necessary part of learning

are willing to critically reflect on, and evaluate, their own practice, and to listen to the experiences of colleagues, students and others

What the team will do draw up a list of needs of students in the school.

prioritise from this list the issues they will address in the action plan.

draw up an action plan to address these issues.

meet weekly/fortnightly to monitor and evaluate progress, propose new courses of action etc.

record decisions, ideas and lessons

ensure feedback to and from the principal/manager and all staff members

The Action PlanTypical headings for an action plan include:

a) Name of co-ordinator and Action Planning team members

b) Names of students targeted in the plan

c) Needs of students to be addressed in action plan ( individual / group needs)

d) Actions planned to address needs (these may include individual education plans)

e) Hoped for outcomes for:

students

teachers

school

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f) Procedures for implementation of action plan:

timetable for planning

different roles/responsibilities of members of the Action Planning team

g) Structures for:

communication/feedback from staff and principal/manager

involvement of parents

collaboration with other agencies/services

involvement of community individuals/organisations

h) Procedures for evaluation

i) Resources (professional development, materials and time) needed to implement the action plan

See Appendix B for suggested template for action plan.

Start small Begin with a small number of students. Choose actions which are possible to implement. Recognise that as the process proceeds new ideas for action will emerge. Also realise that during the year the plan will evolve and may develop in new directions.

Beginning the processAt the beginning of the Collaborative Action Planning process, it is important to clarify the roles of all participants, what each can contribute and the lines of communication between team, management and the rest of the staff. Issues such as the following need to be decided:

Who will draw up the agenda and how will all team members have an opportunity to contribute to it?

Who will chair meetings? – will the chair rotate?

Is it the role of the co-ordinator to take and write up minutes?

Will each team member be assigned a specific role?

What are the issues that need clarification in relation to working as a team?

Effective meetingsRegular (weekly or fortnightly) meetings of the team are essential. Meetings must be clearly focused and well structured. The following are some suggestions to make meetings effective:

Have a set time for weekly (or fortnightly) meetings

Start and finish meetings on time

Develop an atmosphere of trust among the team so that difficult issues can be discussed critically in a professional but not in a personal sense

Always have an agenda. Make sure that the agenda is related to the action plan in order to avoid the risk of being drawn off track by responding to the latest emergency in the wider school.

Ensure that each member of the Action Planning team has the opportunity to contribute items to the agenda. A typical agenda will include:

Minutes Matters arising

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Review of progress since last meeting Priorities for this meeting Decisions taken / Actions arising AOB

Keep minutes of each meeting (see Appendix C for suggested template). Minutes should not record who said what, but should include the following:

Decisions taken: - who will implement them? how? when? hoped for outcomes – how will we know if they are successful?

Main points to emerge from discussion

How to get through an agenda Each team member should be encouraged to contribute to discussion at the meetings.

Once a decision is reached and recorded, the chairperson should move the discussion forward to the next item on the agenda. It may be necessary to prioritise the agenda, and items not reached in a meeting may need to be put on the agenda for the next meeting. Sometimes items need preparatory work done before being discussed at a meeting. In other cases, it may be possible for a few teachers to deal with an item outside the meeting, and report back to the next meeting.

It should be recognised that meetings have different functions, and so meetings should have different aims. Some meetings will be given over to planning a specific action, some should focus on reviewing and planning specific aspects of the action plan, e.g., inclusion of parents, and some should focus on evaluation of the process to date.

A general outline at the beginning of the year indicating when different types of meetings will be held would be very helpful, e.g. specific evaluation meetings will be held in, say, November, February and May.

How to evaluateOngoing evaluation is an integral part of the process. It is done by critically reflecting on the outcomes for students, the learning for teachers and the implications for whole-school policy and practice. Evaluation should be based on evidence. Evidence should be sought in such areas as developments in students’ work, attendance, behaviour, participation in class, attitudes, and relationships with peers and teachers. Such evidence can be collected by, for example:

assessment of students’ personal, social and/or academic progress

student profiles, portfolios/samples of work

teacher observation notes of participation in class, behaviour, attitudes, relationship with peers and other teachers

student self-evaluation

notes from parent/teacher/student meetings

Comments from colleagues, management and parents on the outcomes of the process should also be sought as evidence.

It is important to evaluate the process as well as the outcomes. This can be done also by eliciting the views of team members on how the process has impacted on their work with students, with colleagues, with parents etc, both individually and collectively, and on what they have learned from it

The action research guidelines, Section 1.2, (p. 9), are helpful for evaluation.

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What to do if things are not working outCollaborative Action Planning is a developmental process. This means that not everything will work out as planned, and that some things will need to be looked at a second time or approached from a different angle. It is vital that something not working is not equated with failure. Rather, it is a challenge which provides an opportunity for learning for the team members.

In order to deal with problems as they arise, the team should have open relationships with each other. The following checklist might be helpful in looking at such issues:

Devote a meeting to examine the issue. In particular, examine:

was the problem identified correctly? (what is the problem and, especially, why is it a problem?)

was the proposed course of action appropriate? Look at the issue from the student’s point of view – why did it not work from that

perspective?

Look at the issue from the parent’s point of view – why did it not work from that perspective?

Exactly what other information, understanding, or skills are needed to deal with the issue? Would an inservice activity provide what is needed?

Seek advice and support, for example from:

Principal/centre manager, deputy, class/subject teacher, learning support teacher, year head, class tutor, guidance counsellor, school chaplain, etc

Other agencies (Health Board, social services, youth services, School Attendance Officer, psychological services, Department of Education and Science, local community etc.)

Include other students in the action Brainstorm other possible approaches

Feedback between the team and the principal and staffFeedback in both direction between the team on the one hand and the principal and staff is vital. The following are suggestions from the experience of Mol an Óige to facilitate such feedback

Consult with all staff members in drawing up action plan

Circulate action plan to all staff members and invite comments and suggestions from them.

Report from team to principal/manager, staff and Board of Management on a regular basis

Principal to attend Action Planning meetings monthly

Send minutes of meetings reports, etc. to principal/manager, staff, Board of Management

Input from team at staff meetings

Set up meetings with class teachers, year heads, learning support teacher, resource teacher, visiting teacher service, staff representatives on Board of Management etc

Invite other staff members to attend meetings and participate in actions

Newsletter per term

Questionnaire that will elicit the views and suggestions of all staff

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ASPECTS OF SUPPORT BY MOL AN ÓIGE WHICH MAY NOT BE AVAILABLE TO SCHOOLS BEGINNING THE PROCESS

Planning TimeThe amount of planning time provided by Mol an Óige was so small that it could be provided by schools if it were seen as a priority (see section 4, page 22).

ConsultancyMol an Óige staff played an important role in identifying contacts, facilitators for inservice activities, resource materials etc. Current professional networks of teachers, principals, Department of Education and Science support units and education centres would need to be used for this purpose.

Networking with other schools and agenciesAn aspect of Collaborative Action Planning, as developed by Mol an Óige, that was very important to its success was networking. Networking between schools took place at monthly inter-schools co-ordinators’ meetings, action planning seminars and conferences, jointly arranged inservice activities, joint action plans, transnational activities, visits between schools etc. Networking between schools and other agencies was also very important. Among the benefits of networking were reduced isolation of teachers, cross-fertilisation of ideas, courage to be open and try new practices, providing triggers for new ideas and actions, and promoting new forms of professional dialogue.

It is very strongly recommended that schools becoming involved in Collaborative Action Planning seek to network and collaborate with other participating schools.

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6. COLLABORATIVE ACTION PLANNING AND SCHOOL DEVELOPMENT PLANNING

Collaborative Action Planning is not the same thing as School Development Planning nor is it a substitute for it, but the processes can be complementary. School Development Planning is a large-scale exercise ‘undertaken by the school community’ and involves all aspects of school policy and practice. Collaborative Action Planning, on the other hand, is more narrowly focused in scale and scope, involving a team of volunteer teachers supported by the principal, and focusing on an aspect of school practice where the team feels there is need for an improvement.

School Development Planning hopes to improve the educational experience of students beginning with an overall review of the current situation, establishing an overall vision and plotting a way forward. A potential difficulty with this approach is the scale of the undertaking which may make the ongoing process (after the plan is written) too burdensome to respond to the specific needs of individual students. Collaborative Action Planning is an experimental and innovative process which seeks to improve the school experience for individual students through enabling teachers to develop their professional practice to reflect their educational values and those of the school. It seeks to provide an innovative centre within the school which will test and develop new approaches to meeting the needs of individual students, and to feed the learning from the process into whole-school policy and practice. A potential difficulty in this model is ensuring that the learning from the team feeds into and influences practice in the whole school community. Both the School Development Planning and Collaborative Action Planning models have built in procedures for addressing these potential weaknesses.

However, it seems clear that the school plan could provide a framework within which the lessons from a Collaborative Action Planning process would influence school policy and practice. It also seems clear that Collaborative Action Planning could provide a strategy, within School Development Planning, to ensure that the planning process is developmental – for students, teachers and school. This links also with the idea of the ‘development section’ of the school plan as outlined in the White Paper (Department of Education, 1995:158).

The following table outlines some of the key elements of Collaborative Action Planning and School Development Planning:

Collaborative Action Planning

Undertaken by a team of volunteer teachers

Begins with aspects of individual students’ experience which the team wishes to address

Issues chosen by team

Team meets weekly/fortnightly, team meetings focus on learning from action plan (learning for student, teacher and institution)

Hopes to develop learning for a team of teachers and to feed back the learning into the whole school policy and practice

Based on action research – educational in methodology as well as intent

School Development Planning

Undertaken by the whole school community

Addresses all issues relating to school life

Issues chosen by whole school community

School plan is a product (though not the only outcome)

Aims to influence practice of individuals by providing common vision, aims for organisation

Based on management principles

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7. POSSIBLE FURTHER DEVELOPMENT OF COLLABORATIVE ACTION PLANNING

The following analysis of the needs of the target group is contained in a proposal for further developing the work of the Mol an Óige project submitted to the Department of Education and Science in January 2000. It is based on the learning of the project, and the recognition by the NCCA Junior Certificate Review Progress Report (Department of Education and Science, 1999) that

“for a student whose strengths lie outside the academic, there is little alternative to ‘underachievement’ and failure”

7.1. Analysis of the target groupTony McGuire, speaking at a conference on mentoring organised by Mol an Óige stated that from his experience working with schools in Birmingham,

60% benefit from the system

40% have needs unmet by their school experience. Of these:

25% are the disappointed

10% are the disaffected

5% are the disappeared

Our experience is that similar categories of students whose needs are not being met can be recognised in the Irish education system, and that the percentages would be broadly similar. These categories can be recognised as follows:

Category 1: Some of these students are among the 17% who currently do not complete the senior cycle. Others are among those who go through the system and complete the Leaving Certificate, but whose imaginations and intellects are not fully engaged by the system. Their strengths and efforts are often unrecognised by the system. This results in underachievement, boredom and lack of fulfilment for the student.

Category 2: These are the students whose learning styles and strengths are often untapped, and for whom failure is a common experience in the system. The type of learning support provided often fails to meet the needs of these students, and many develop negative attitudes to school. These students often find it difficult to cope with school, and schools often find it difficult to respond to their individual needs.

Category 3: These are the students who find it very difficult to cope with school, perhaps because of difficult family or social conditions, and who need additional support within and without the school. Schools also find it difficult to cope with them and, in many instances, have neither the skills nor the resources to do so. Many in this group exhibit behavioural difficulties, poor attendance, serious academic underachievement and social disaffection. They are highly likely to drop out of school early.

For all of these students, the range of criteria for success used by schools is too narrow to recognise or validate their worth, efforts and achievements. They all experience, in varying degrees, a lack of relevance in what they are asked to do, and frustration at the lack of appreciation of themselves and of their efforts within the education system.

While recognising the dangers inherent in attempting to categorise students too rigid, identifying these categories within the target group will be helpful to schools in their responsibility to “promote and foster an environment that encourages children to attend school and to participate fully in the life of the school” (Education Welfare Bill, 1999: section 10)

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7.2. ResponsesThe proposal by Mol an Óige suggests a range of responses targeted to students in each of these categories. Collaborative Action Planning is seen as a providing the framework for the development of each of these responses.

Category 1 students: For many students in this category, a more responsive delivery of the curriculum, use of a wider range of teaching methodologies and co-operative approaches to discipline would prove very beneficial. (The introduction of the Leaving Certificate Applied and Junior Certificate Schools Programmes have shown this). The Action Planning process has shown that it can enable schools to develop such responses.

Category 2 students: In addition to the more responsive approaches outlined above, these students require that existing learning supports and other specialist teaching resources be delivered in a more holistic manner, and are not used to compensate for an overall experience of school which is harsh or unrewarding. Individual education plans and new approaches to learning support will, typically, play a significant role in addressing the needs of these students.

Action Planning has shown that it can enable teachers to develop responses such as these. However, in some cases adequate intervention will require the provision of some additional learning support resources to schools.

Category 3 students: For many of these students, the discontinuity between their experiences of school and of life outside is so great that a purely school-based response will not enable them to relate with the values and ambitions of the education system or to experience fulfilment there. To meet their needs, the school must participate in collaborative, multi-agency approaches with parents/guardians, peer groups and other statutory and community organisations to provide an integrated framework within which the young person can develop understandings and connections between the experiences of school and life outside. Such collaborative approaches will seek to develop an integrated multi-agency care plan for the young person. The innovative and essential element in this proposal is in involving the school centrally in such a care plan.

The integrated care plan will be drawn up by a collaborative process involving all agencies with responsibility for children most seriously at risk. The inclusion of the young person and his/her parents/guardians in drawing up, implementing and reviewing the plans will be central to the process. It will involve a commitment of personnel and resources from all agencies, and will detail the responsibilities of each agency including specific targets and time frames. Procedures for ongoing monitoring, review and consultation will be established.

The individual education plan will form a core component of the integrated care plan.

There are other young people under the school leaving age who have already dropped out of the system. Separate responses to address their needs form part of the Mol an Óige proposal.

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APPENDIX A: INDIVIDUAL EDUCATION PLANS

The class teacher/tutor, parent, student or learning support teacher can initiate individual education plans. All of these, and possibly others, will be involved in drawing up and implementing the plan. In all cases, the inclusion of parents/guardians and the student are central to the process.

The strengths and interests of the student provide the starting point for the plan. The needs of the child – personal/social, behavioural and academic are identified. Specific, realistic and time-limited targets are set and the frequency of review meetings is agreed. Actions for addressing the needs are drawn up, along with clear roles and responsibilities for the student, parent, various members of the school/workshop staff and others. The resources and supports needed to implement the process are included and addressed in the plan. These may be material resources, personnel or training for any of the parties involved. Among the issues addressed in implementing the plans were self-esteem building, new teaching methodologies responding to the individual learning style of the student, appropriate forms of learning support, empowering parents to support their child’s learning, etc. Depending on the needs identified, other local agencies, statutory or voluntary, may have a contribution to make and may be invited to become involved at different stages of the plan. Local community interests in the arts, sports etc. can have an important a role in helping the young person to become involved in community life.

The Individual Education Plan is reviewed and developed through the Action Planning process by revising the plan in the light of the lessons learned by all involved.

Typical headings for an Individual Education Plan:

Name of student

Strengths/interests

Needs to be addressed – personal/social, behavioural, academic

How parents will be involved

Short-term goals/targets

Expected long-term outcomes

Actions

Resources needed – personnel, training needs, materials

Involvement of other staff members

Involvement of other agencies – Health Board, Gardaí, community/voluntary groups

Procedures/arrangements for monitoring and evaluation of plan

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APPENDIX B: SUGGESTED TEMPLATE FOR AN ACTION PLAN

NEEDS

STRENGTHS/INTERESTS: INVOLVEMENT OF

PARENTS

MONITORING/ TARGETS/GOALS:

EVALUATION (Short Term)

NAME:______________________________

EXPECTED OUTCOMES:RESOURCES (Long Term)

ACTIONS:WIDER COMMUNITY

OTHER INVOLVEMENT OFAGENCIES/SERVICES OTHER STAFF

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APPENDIX C: SUGGESTED TEMPLATE FOR MINUTES OF ACTION PLANNING MEETINGS

The following headings were used as a template for keeping records of Collaborative Action Planning in many primary schools.

RECORD OF ACTION PLANNING MEETINGS

School:

Date: Time:

Attendees:

Matters arising from Minutes read:

Review of progress since last meeting:

Priorities for this meeting:

Decisions Taken/Actions Arising:

Allocation of Tasks:

A.O.B.

Date of Next Meeting:

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8. BIBLIOGRAPHY

Buckley, H. (2000): Working Together, Training Together, Nenagh: Mid-Western Health Board.

Department of Education and Science (1997) “Education (No. 2) Bill”, Dublin: Government Publications

Department of Education and Science, (1999a), NCCA Junior Certificate Review Progress Report, Dublin: Government Publications

Department of Education and Science, (1999b), The New Deal: A plan for Educational Opportunity, Dublin: Government Publications

Dinkmeyer, D., McKay, G. and Dinkmeyer, D (Jr.). (1980): “Systematic Training for Effective Teaching”, (STET), Circle Pines, Mn: American Guidance Service

Elliott, J. (1989) “Educational Theory and the Professional Learning of Teachers: an overview” in Cambridge Journal of Education”, 19 (1) 81-101

Government of Ireland (1995) Charting our Education Future: White Paper on Education, Dublin: Stationary Office

Government of Ireland (1999) Education (Welfare) Bill, Dublin: Stationary Office

Hargreaves, A. (1994) Changing Teachers, Changing Times: teachers work and culture in the post-modern age, London: Cassell

Holland, M., (1999), An Investigation Of The School Experiences Of Young People In North Tipperary Who Left School Early, And Of The Factors Which Led To Their Leaving Nenagh: Mol an Óige Joint Committee on Education and Science, (1999), Report of The joint Committee on Education and Science on Early School Leaving, Dublin: The Stationary Office.

McGuire T. Presentation on Mentoring Delivered at Templemore Arms Hotel Co. Tipperary March 8th 1999

McNiff, J (1995) “Action Research for Professional Development: concise advice for new action researchers” Dorset: September Books

McNiff, J. (1992) Creating a Good Social Order through Action Research, Bournemouth: Hyde.

McNiff, J. (1993) Teaching as Learning: An Action Research Approach, London and New York: Routledge.

McNiff, J., McNamara, G., & Leonard, D. (2000) Eds.: “Action Research in Ireland,” Dorset & Dublin: September Books

Mosely, J. (1996): “Quality Circle Time in the Primary Classroom”, Cambridge: LDA

Swan, D. (1991) “Recognising Inservice Education as the Key to Educational Reform and Teacher Renewal” in Swan, D. (Ed.) Teachers as Learners: inservice education for the 1990s,

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Dublin: The Standing Committee of the Teacher Unions and University Education Departments

Whitehead, J. (1989) “Creating a Living Educational Theory from Questions of the Kind, ‘How Do I Improve My Practice’” in Cambridge Journal of Education 19 (1) 41-52

Winter, R. (1989) Learning from Experience: principles and practice in action research, London: Falmer Press.

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Other Publications by the Mol an Óige project

Title Published

The Mol An Óige Project – a systemic response to the challenges of educational disadvantage and social exclusion in Co Tipperary

2000

Community Mentoring: a strategy to raise the self-esteem of young people at risk of failure in the education system

2000

Towards Inclusion in Learning Support Provision: developments in the concept and practice of learning support in the Mol an Óige project

2000

The Primary Educators: the experiences and views of parents whose children are facing difficulties in school

2000

An Investigation of the Experiences of Young People in North Tipperary who Left School Early, and of the Factors which Led to their Leaving

1999

Student, Home and School: a partnership approach to assisting students with social, emotional and personal problems

1999

The Mol an Óige Project – the View from the Schools: an evaluation of the project 2000

The Mol an Óige Project – the View from Training Workshops 2000

Addressing the Issue of School Attendance in Co Tipperary: the experience of the Mol an Óige project

2000

Cherishing all our Children Equally: report on the proceedings of the dissemination conference, October 1999

1999

The Young Offenders Initiative and the New Start for Prisoners Project 2000

The YOGIE Partnership: Emerging Innovative Transnational Approaches to Addressing the Needs of Potential and Actual Early School Leavers

2000

The Development of Inter-Agency Collaboration in Co. Tipperary that Includes Schools and Training Centres

2000

Directory of Services in North Tipperary 1999

Mol an Óige: the project and the lessons (report on the first round project) 1997

In addition, the following publications refer in a significant way to the work of the Mol an Óige project:

Buckley, H. (2000): Working Together, Training Together, Nenagh: Mid-Western Health Board

This is a report on the North Tipperary Inter-Agency Training Programme undertaken jointly by the Mid-Western Health Board, the Garda Síochána and Mol an Óige.

Condren, D (2000): “The Mol an Óige Project: developing and testing a model for applying action research at systems, institutional and classroom levels in order to promote a better educational experience, particularly for children at risk of failure in the system” in McNiff, J., McNamara, G., & Leonard, D. (2000) Eds .: Action Research in Ireland, Dorset & Dublin: September Books

This paper contains an exploration of the Mol an Óige project as an application of action research at systems, institutional and classroom levels

Youthstart Thematic Cluster Group and Mainie Jellett Project (2000): Someone who Believed in Me – the Practice of Mentoring, Advocacy, Guidance, Information and Counselling [MAGIC] Activities for Young People, Dublin: Irish Youth Work Centre

This publication outlines the work and learning of the seven YOUTHSTART projects which formed the ‘Guidance’ cluster. The Mol an Óige project was a member of the cluster.

Interim report on the School integrated Project ‘The Role of ICTs in Learning Support’ April 2000, available from Portroe NS.

This is an interim report on the development of ICTs in the SIP project involving six rural primary schools in Co Tipperary. It is available from Portroe NS, the lead school in the project

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