May 1995
by Crystal Torgunrud, Joel Nostbakken, Coral Mitchell, Irene Friesen

Summary of Report
Report
Mapping the Territory
Design of the Study
Observations of Staff Interaction Patterns
Effects of the Study
Hurdles Along the Way
Implications and Discussion
Conclusion
References
Appendix A
Appendix B
OBSERVATION CHECKLIST

HANDBOOK ON ORGANIZATIONAL LEARNING (Summary)

The process of organizational learning is the way in which individuals within a group communicate information, develop common understandings, solve problems, make group decisions, acquire new knowledge and learn together in ways that will ultimately increase the effectiveness of the school organization. This handbook will show teachers how to develop specific conditions within the school environment in order to listen to and learn from colleagues and to work collaboratively to improve schools.

Why is Organizational Learning Important?

Organizational learning aims at increasing staff learning by enhancing the supportive conditions within a school. We observed the following positive outcomes when organizational learning was put into practice in our school.

Individual Benefits

• access to innovative ideas from colleagues;
• opportunity to express opinions and to raise issues;
• increased sense of inclusion and belonging;
• greater awareness of colleague's attitudes, feelings, and beliefs;
• increased personal reflection and self-awareness;
• increased sense of self-worth and self-efficacy.

Interpersonal Benefits

• closer professional relationships;
• increased professional conversation;
• reduced tension and conflict;
• valuing of diversity among staff;
• cohesive group functioning.

School-Wide Benefits

• increased consistency in dealing with school issues;
• increased effectiveness in school-wide problem solving and decision making;
• shared vision in school policy, curriculum, and instruction
• shared responsibility in all aspects of decision making;
• effective collaborative leadership;
• positive working climate.

Benefits for Students

• school-wide consistency in treatment of students;
• reduced tension in classrooms;
• larger repertoire of instructional strategies in classrooms;
• effective delivery of new curricula

The actions of individual teachers greatly affect the actions of colleagues and the functioning of the school. We have a responsibility to ensure that the adult relationships within the school are healthy and growth-promoting.

Organizational Learning in Action

To learn and work as a contributing member of a larger group, individuals must feel that their opinions are valued. It is also vital to establish group commitment towards a shared vision, achieved when people feel a sense of ownership for the effectiveness of the group. Before describing the processes of organizational learning we want to explain briefly the principles of collaborative leadership; collective learning; positive working climate; and the roles of the school administrators, the general staff, the reflection meetings, and reflection meeting facilitator.

Collaborative Leadership

Just as teachers need to recognize the effect of their actions on others, so too administrators need to consider the effects of their leadership style on the teaching and learning of the professional staff. In order to implement the processes suggested in organizational learning, the administration in a school must be committed to collaborative leadership. In this model, teachers are invited to share in the decision making, problem solving, and general operation of the school. Shared leadership gives teachers a sense of ownership, responsibility, and control. This empowerment results in an increase in teacher effectiveness and commitment to the operation of the school. For collaborative leadership to be authentic, teachers must feel that there is a genuine interest and need for their involvement and that their input will not be ignored.

Collective Learning

Teachers have traditionally learned and worked in a somewhat isolated environment. But organizational learning challenges us to recognize that we have a responsibility not only to our students but also to our colleagues and to the functioning of the school as a whole. When we look at our staff role in this light, we can make opportunities to learn from our colleagues and to share our knowledge with them. Organizational learning asks us to see teaching not as an individual effort but rather as a collective effort. If group learning is to take place, many factors need to be considered. Individuals learn in a variety of different ways and any attempt at collective learning must honour different learning preferences. In our school we found the following preferences:

Learning Preferences

• engaging in professional conversations;
• sharing thoughts, feelings, concerns, needs;
• discussing issues, ideas, concepts;
• thinking divergently -- getting off topic, chewing it around, and coming back again;
• asking questions for information, clarification, feedback, support;
• creating meaning for ourselves and among our group;
• experimenting, examining, analysing, evaluating, trying again;
• reflecting alone and with colleagues;
• receiving inservice, information, and help from knowledgeable others;
• observing others;
• learning at our own pace and comfort level;
• making connections with past experiences and practice

Influence on Collective Learning Efforts

A number of individual, group, organizational, and contextual conditions influence the degree to which collective learning is actualized. The following table outlines the influences we found to be significant. Attempts to engage teachers in collective learning need to be accompanied by a reflective analysis of the existing and potential effects of these conditions. We remind readers that the effects may be positive or negative, and a careful assessment of current conditions may point to the need for some prior work on improving certain conditions before collective learning is initiated.

Positive Working Climate

An essential component of school life is the environment in which teachers work. If collective learning is to occur within a group, a certain level of trust must exist between all staff members. In order to share beliefs, feelings, and opinions with others, teachers need to believe that what they say will be valued and respected. A positive and trusting work environment allows teachers to feel free to share information and reduces the sense of tension and pressure. The processes of invitation and affirmation are two means by which existing working climates can be improved. Invitation involves the conscious act of including fellow colleagues into the life of the school with behaviour such as asking another's opinion, inviting someone to join a conversation, encouraging participation in group efforts, or simply making others feel welcome through subtle body language. Affirmation is the process by which we ensure that those around us are respected and that they know their contributions are valued. Additionally, we need to recognize when we have said or done something that hurts another person, and to take steps towards rebuilding trust. We believe invitation and affirmation to be important processes because teachers functioning in a respectful, open, and trusting environment are better able to learn and work cooperatively.

Defining Roles

Role of Administration

For the successful implementation of organizational learning, school administrators must give complete support to the process. A collaborative leadership style is essential for the development of an empowered staff and a trusting climate. Consequently, administrators must feel comfortable in relinquishing some power and authority in decision making. Furthermore, administrators need to recognize that their own work is supported and enhanced when they learn from the teachers on staff.

Role of General Staff

Not only the administration but also the general staff needs to support organizational learning and to be given opportunities to understand the processes. A complete and successful implementation requires the commitment of as many of the staff as possible, including both teaching and support staff. All staff members need to make a conscious effort to actively involve themselves in invitation, affirmation, and reflection. These processes help to develop an effective working climate and improve the quality of collective learning, and each staff member has a responsibility in this regard.

Role of Reflection Meetings and the Reflection Meeting Facilitator

The implementation of organizational learning in the school involves the process of reflection. Group reflection meetings provide a forum for much of the collective learning, problem solving, and decision making to take place. Reflection meetings are different from staff or committee meetings because they are primarily intended to encourage reflection and professional conversation rather than decision making or information sharing. In order for reflection meetings to run effectively, they must focus on school-wide issues, problems, policies, or concerns. Each staff member should be free to question, to clarify information, to share beliefs, and to listen to their colleagues' ideas. Reflection meetings give administrators the opportunity to practice collaborative leadership regarding school-wide decisions. The discussions are also critical in collective learning endeavours as staff members develop common understandings regarding new initiatives or develop consistency with school operations.

A trusted and respected member of the staff needs to be selected as the facilitator of the reflection meetings. The role of the facilitator is to ensure that the reflection meetings are productive and meet the objectives mentioned above. The facilitator must be someone committed to the processes of reflection, collaboration, and collective learning, and must be able to focus on these processes in order to ensure that any outcome is reached in a collective manner. The facilitator must not attempt to influence the outcomes by leading discussions in predetermined directions or toward desired outcomes.

This individual must model invitation and affirmation throughout reflection meetings to allow for open and honest communication, collective learning, and decision making. The tasks performed by the facilitator are:

• focus the agenda of the reflection meeting
• encourage discussion
• clarify and summarize information
• manage transitions between topics
• affirm teacher participation
• invite more quiet members into the discussion
• be sensitive to the needs of the group

Organizational learning: Implications for the classroom

Outcomes such as an enhanced working environment and increased feelings of staff empowerment result from participation in the reflecting, inviting, and affirming processes. In reflection meetings, group learning and common understandings occur regarding school-wide issues. The skills and processes learned by staff members in a large group setting can be transferred to work done in smaller groups that focus on classroom concerns. Committees that are set up to examine such issues as new curricula, school-wide behaviour management, professional development, and school events will discuss a narrower range of issues that in reflection meetings, but the use of invitation, affirmation, and reflection in these settings is still beneficial. They free individuals to express opinions, to share information, and to examine problems, thus allowing the committees to generate new and innovative solutions to a variety of classroom-related issues.

The supportive work of committees and more relevant professional conversations between colleagues allow teachers to feel a certain confidence in taking risks, trying new techniques, and implementing new programs. In this way, the small-group utilization of organizational learning practices forms a bridge to use the processes developed in the large group in areas specific to the classroom.

Students ultimately benefit from a staff committed to functioning as empowered members of the school organization. The tangible effects of organizational learning are realized by students as they are exposed to teachers who are more relaxed, more committed to school-based initiatives, and more consistent in relation to school goals and instructional purposes. Common understandings and consistent approaches provide the school with a more stable foundation for teaching and learning.

Steps in the Process

To begin the use of organizational learning in a school context, someone must initiate the process. This individual must be a respected and valued staff member who has a good understanding of organizational learning or who is willing to learn about it. It will be their job to garner support and to motivate the staff. To help a new staff understand and appreciate the potential of organizational learning, the initiator can use the processes of invitation and affirmation. By setting up an open, trusting environment, staff members will feel free to question and learn about organizational learning. Benefits realized in another staff could be used to show concrete examples of and experiences with organizational learning. Some of these benefits have been listed earlier in this handbook. Interested staff members are encouraged to go back to these benefits and discuss how they could help their particular situation. The method of beginning organizational learning could follow the following guidelines:

1. Seek administrative support

Without genuine support and collaborative leadership organizational learning cannot function effectively. Administrators should be approached first and be given the time to understand how organizational learning can fit into and benefit the school structure and function. The school administration needs to be completely aware of the necessity of their explicit support for organizational learning. If staff do not see complete support for organizational learning, they will almost certainly not participate freely and completely. Administrators may want to seek clarification from another administrator who has first-hand knowledge of organizational learning or from other staff members who experienced the benefits of organizational learning.

2. Inform and explain organizational learning to the entire staff

To benefit the whole school, each staff member must be given a chance to understand organizational learning and to choose to participate. An important early step is to introduce and teach some of the methods and processes that are involved with organizational learning. This explanation may be given by an outside source. In the school, organizational learning can be seen to be happening when the following indicators are evident. These indicators often follow the three phases shown here:

3.Seek a facilitator

The facilitator will guide reflection meetings. To fulfill this role, they must be trusted by other staff members, knowledgeable about organizational learning, and capable of listening and encouraging staff members to participate.

4. Find key school-wide issues on which to focus

A school-wide issue will allow the staff to focus and work toward a common goal and to learn from one another. These issues are likely to change often. Some examples are:

• common crisis or need
• large staff turnover
• new administration
• new curricula or policy
• stagnation
• serious lack of agreement or inconsistency in the school

5. Commit to several months' involvement

To truly understand and appreciate the possible benefits of organizational learning, majority participation in several reflection meetings over an extended period of time is crucial.

6. Engage in reflection

At reflection meetings the facilitator will model reflection and help the staff to take ownership for generating common understandings of a school-wide issue, for developing effective solutions, and for learning from and with colleagues. As reflection is mastered, smaller groups could incorporate these skills into committee meetings.

The scheduling of reflection meetings would be set by the facilitator in consultation with the staff. Possible times for these meetings could be found at monthly staff meetings, professional development days, lunch hours, or the occasional supper meeting. Committee meetings that make use of reflection would likely be held more often and during school hours.

The agenda for the meetings should be set before the meeting. The facilitator can gather concerns from the staff by means of interviews, a suggestion box, or informal meetings during the day. If the staff is comfortable with the process of reflection, they could set an agenda at the beginning of the meeting. Each teacher could suggest a topic or pass.

Problems that might inhibit reflection include:

• repetition of issues
• story telling
• "blowing your own trumpet"
• failure to deal with sensitive issues
• narrow agenda issues (e.g., committee issues raised at staff level)
• lack of ownership of issues or solutions
• lack of administrative support
• domination by a small handful of teachers
• lack of personal reflection and analysis

A successful reflection meeting can provide a sense of staff support, cohesiveness group consensus, shared vision, and energy to continue learning and teaching.

Conclusion

When we think of the work of teachers, we usually focus on their classroom role. The primary responsibility of teachers is the children in their classroom and we tend to assume, therefore, that teaching is an individual effort. But classroom teachers are also members of the school staff. They attend staff meetings together, they sit on committees together, they make school-based decisions together, and they relax with one another in the staff room. The concept of organizational learning compels us to pay attention to the staff role of the teacher, a role that is sadly neglected in many schools and school divisions. In our experiences with organizational learning, we realized that what we do as individuals has a significant impact on the actions and reactions of our colleagues and on the operation of the school. In short, we found that we had a responsibility to conduct ourselves in ways that promoted the learning and growth of our colleagues and that supported effective school functioning.

For the most part, schools and school systems worry about providing appropriate instruction and adequate learning opportunities for the children. These are important issues that cannot be neglected. But we found that the learning of our students was closely connected to our own professional learning. Our teaching was enhanced when we felt safe to explore new possibilities-- and when we had new possibilities to explore. Organizational learning calls us to pay attention to the conditions in the school that affect the learning of teachers and to develop supportive, growth-promoting conditions.

Our experiences in this study suggest that organizational learning is a complex process with both cognitive and affective aspects, and that it takes a long time to embed the principles and practices in a school. Organizational learning is not "something more" but rather "something different." In other words, it is a different way of performing the basic functions of school life. If is a way of creating a community of learners among the teachers, a way of creating for teachers the conditions they need in order to learn collectively and to teach effectively.

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ORGANIZATIONAL LEARNING FOR SCHOOL EFFECTIVENESS

Report of an Action Research Project conducted by the staff of W. P. Bate School

In recent years much discussion has gone on about the need to develop learning communities among teachers. Various frameworks for achieving that task have been proposed, one of which is organizational learning. However, when teachers are asked about the organizational learning climate in their school, the usual response is something like this: "The what? I have no idea what you're talking about".

In the 1993-94 school year, we conducted an action research project in an elementary school in order to find out what organizational learning might mean for teachers and how they might go about "doing" it. At the end of that year, we realized that we had only scratched the surface or organizational learning. We applied to the Dr. Stirling McDowell Foundation for support to move our research into the next phase: applying what we had learned about effective group learning to a number of different aspects of school life in order to increase school effectiveness. In this report we document the procedures we followed in conducting the investigation and we outline the discoveries we made along the way. To set the stage for the report, we will provide a brief review of some literature that links organizational processes, learning communities, and school effectiveness.

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Mapping the Territory

In general the notion of the learning community has been linked to educational change and school renewal. The assumption is that in order to generate sustainable change that results in improved teaching and leaning, we need to create collective learning processes that are characterized by reflective analysis of current conditions and by exploration of new possibilities. In other words, school renewal is enhanced when teachers have opportunities to learn from and with one another. The principles and processes underlying that phenomenon have been approached from a host of perspectives, but some points of convergence can be seen.

A common starting point for the discussions has been the notion of school culture. The essence of the concept is that groups of people who live or work together gradually develop a particular set of beliefs about the "correct" ways to think and behave. This belief system creates perceptual filters that shape what information is noticed, what problems are considered important, and how situations are defined, interpreted, and managed (Douglas, 1986; Finny & Mitroff, 1986; Schein, 1992). Sackney and Dibski (1994) distinguish between individualistic and collaborative cultures. They maintain that individualistic cultures serve to isolate teachers from one another, to suppress important information, and to promote the status quo. By contrast, a collaborative culture is characterized by "an atmosphere wherein joint planning, collegiality, support, trust, experimentation, creativity, and reflection are the norm" (Sackney & Dibski, p. 4). The argument is that teacher learning, professional growth, and school improvement are more fruitful in a collaborative culture than in an individualistic culture.

One question of concern, then, is the extent to which schools are characterized by collaborative cultures. In an extensive review of the literature on collaboration in schools, Macleod (1994) uncovered a continuum of cultural characteristics moving from isolation and individualism (most schools) through contrived collegiality and small-group collaboration (some schools) to a community of learners (very few schools). In her review, she found much advocacy for collaborative school cultures as a source of school improvement (eg., Barth, 1990; Fullan and Hargreaves, 1991; Sergiovanni, 1994), but little concrete evidence of authentic collaboration that generated a true community of learners. Her own study of four middle years schools supported that conclusion. While the teachers in her study believed that collaboration was an important and valuable process for improving educational practices, "collaboration was not a naturally occurring phenomenon, neither was it a widely accepted professional practice consciously built into school culture" (p.152). Instead, she found in each school a deeply entrenched and pervasive culture of individualism that promoted independent work, "parallel play", "trick-trading", and "materials-sharing", but little, if any, meaningful collaboration (p. 161). Her results join with the bulk of the literature in presenting a somewhat pessimistic view of school cultures in relation to collaborative practices and educational change.

Although other vehicles for school improvement may be beneficial, the development of a community of learners has the potential to generate changes that lead to real and sustained improvement in teaching and learning. As teachers reflect together on current practices and conditions, as they critically scrutinize the consequences of those practices and conditions, and as they consider the merits of new possibilities, they can begin to see areas warranting change, and they can strengthen their confidence in the aspects of education that are working well (Mitchell, 1995). In fact, several researchers have argued that the current issues in education cannot be adequately addressed unless we begin to "reculture" schools as learning communities (Barth, 1990; Deal, 1990; Fullan, 1993; Hargreaves, 1994; Sackney & Dibski, 1994).

What, then, might a community of learners look like? In 1990, Senge conceptualized a learning organization as being characterized by five disciplines: (1) systems thinking -- the ability to see separate events, ideas, and people as interconnected, mutually influencing aspects of an indivisible whole; (2) mental models -- the process of raising to awareness one's own beliefs about good practices; (3) personal mastery -- taking responsibility for one's own personal and professional growth and development; (4) shared vision -- the act of joining individual visions into one compelling image of what members wish for the organization; and (5) team learning -- raising all relevant information for public discussion, and balancing advocacy of one's own position with reflective inquiry into alternative positions. He believed systems thinking to be the fundamental discipline that grounded all the others, and he identified a number of organizational "learning disabilities" that arose primarily from a failure to understand the interconnections, interactions, and mutual influences among people and events.

Senge's work has attracted world-wide attention. He struck a cord with his idea that what individuals do or don't do really does matter, that it really does make a difference to our organization and to the people with whom we work. According to Wheatley (1992) and to Garmston and Wellman (1995), the fundamental change is the recognition that we are not "islands unto ourselves" but that we are embedded in a web of relationships, and that we need new organizational processes that honour that embeddedness.

Recently, educational researchers have begun to develop some behavioural guidelines for generating effective organizational processes in schools. A synthesis of some of the literature (Barth, 1990; Duke, 1993; Firestone, 1993; Fullan, 1993; Fullan & Miles, 1992; Hargreaves, 1995; Joyce & Calhoun, 1995; Leithwood, Jantzi & Steinbach, 1995; Mitchell, 1995; Sackney & Dibski, 1994; Sackney, Walter & Hajnal, 1995), yields the following list of behaviours:

• Sharing professional expertise, ideas, and materials
• seeking out and discussing new ideas, trends, and research in teaching and learning
• experimenting alone and together with new concepts and strategies
• reflecting alone and together on assumptions about teaching and learning
• developing an awareness of systemic influences and relationships
• examining the consequences of existing practices and conditions
• reflecting together on school goals, purpose and vision
• developing a shared vision
• developing common understandings and a common professional language
• setting personal and school goals for improvement
• sharing sensitive issues, needs, concerns, and problems
• sharing and celebrating successes
• sharing information openly and honestly
• valuing the ideas and opinions of colleagues
• participating in collaborative planning, teaching, problem solving, and decision making
• understanding the inevitability of disagreement and conflict
• managing differences and conflict through inquiry and problem-solving
• correcting disruptive power imbalances
• shaping policy at the school level

We believe that the behaviours listed above represent a starting point for understanding what a community of learners might look alike, and that additional studies are likely to add substantially to our current understanding.

Certainly, our own understanding of organizational learning has changed considerably since we began experimenting with it. In brief, we found that organizational learning was enhanced when we engaged in personal and group reflections, in professional conversations, in affirming one another as professionals, and in inviting all teachers into the conversations. In other words, the cognitive processes of reflection and conversation were supported by the affective processes of affirmation and invitation. Our "muddling through the process" of organizational learning unfolded through three distinct but interrelated phases: naming and framing in which we built trusting relationships, developed common understandings, developed a shared vision, and identified current practices; analysing and integrating in which we examined and evaluated existing practices, expressed and tested assumptions, and considered new possibilities; and applying and experimenting in which we used the information generated in the previous phases to manage school tasks and to try out new practices. We found that our experiences with organizational learning opened our eyes to the responsibilities we owed to our colleagues and to the school, and they spurred us to develop closer collegial relationships. From that foundation, we could begin to consider the aspects of teaching and learning that warranted some changes. An overview of our discoveries can be found in Appendix A.

Creating a learning community is not an easy task. Although we made considerable strides in understanding what organizational learning entails, we do not claim to have created a learning organization. Some of the more troublesome barriers to effective organizational learning have been defined in terms of teacher isolation, hectic schedules, stressful school circumstances, rigid operating procedures, authoritarian leadership, unauthentic involvement, tight control mechanisms, lack of access to new ideas, and teacher passivity (King, et al., 1995; Macleod, 1994; Sackney, et al., 1995). Some of those difficulties threatened our experiences, too.

While overcoming the barriers to organizational learning may seem extraordinarily challenging, the benefits of facing the challenge are enticing. Sackney, et al. (1995, p.4) argue that many change effort shave pursued changes in the schools, but that sustainable improvement results from changes of the schools. "Changes in" expect teachers to travel the path of individual learning; "changes of" give them fellow-travellers on the journey. The support and interaction provided by a learning community reduces the fragmentation inherent in individual learning and change, and offsets the tendency for individual change to wither away (O'Neil, 1995). Furthermore, the professional knowledge and judgement of the group of educators working in a particular school is crucial to the generation of solutions and improvements that are sensitive to that specific context (Glickman, 1991; Negin, 1993). We are not islands unto ourselves. And what we as individuals do really does make a difference -- not only to our students, but to our colleagues and to our school. The metaphor of the learning community pushes us to a recognition of our part in creating a positive and growth-promoting web of relationships.

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Design of the Study

Two years prior to this study, we had sparked an episode of organizational learning when we initiated a school-wide behaviour management program. That program had been developed in response to a pressing need in the school. As we reflected on our experiences and explored the notion of organizational learning, we wondered if the principles and processes we had discovered could help us to deal more effectively with other changes that were perhaps not so pressing in nature or that had been initiated from outside the school. Thus this study was born.

Objectives

The primary research question we wished to address was, "To what extent does the application of organizational learning processes increase staff effectiveness in various aspects of school operations?" For our purposes, we understood organizational learning to entail the following indicators:

1. Using reflective self-analysis to raise to awareness hidden assumptions and beliefs
2. Engaging willingly in professional learning and growth
3. Understanding a wide range of influences and interrelationships
4. Sharing information openly and honestly
5. Developing a spirit of trust, empathy, and mutual valuing
6. Examining current practices critically
7. Experimenting with new practices
8. Raising sensitive issues and information for discussion
9. Recognizing the inevitability of disagreement and conflict
10. Managing differences of opinion through inquiry and problem-solving
11. Engaging in dialogue in order to understand the frames of reference of other individuals
12. Changing personal frames of reference, if appropriate, as a consequence of team dialogue
13. Developing common understandings and common language patterns
14. Developing a shared vision
15. Engaging in collaborative practices with respect to teaching, committee work, decision-making, and planning
16. Correcting disruptive power imbalances.

The process by which these indicators were likely to emerge consisted of:

1. reflection -- critically analysing individual and group practices
2. conversation -- engaging in professional dialogue regarding the school's philosophy, programs, and practices
3. affirmation -- honouring colleagues as competent professionals
4. invitation -- including all staff members in discussions and decisions.

In the 1994-95 school year our objectives were:

1. to make organizational learning processes a regular part of everyday school routines and practices
2. to apply organizational learning processes to the implementation of the new K-5 language arts curriculum, the 6-8 math curriculum pilot, and the ongoing behaviour management program
3. to use organizational learning processes to orient new staff members to the school
4. to assess the connections between the use of organizational learning processes and the teacher's sense of professional effectiveness.

We identified seven characteristics that we believed to be indicative of school effectiveness:

1. developing common understandings of school philosophy and programs
2. generating a sense of ownership for school programs and operations
3. gaining a sense of comfort with implementing programs
4. feeling comfortable to express ideas and opinions in the large group
5. recognizing and appreciating the diversity of individual approaches to education
6. functioning cohesively as a group while respecting individual differences
7. developing a positive working climate and supportive work relationships.

Data Collection and Analysis

Data were collected by audio recordings and transcripts of orientation activities, program committee meetings, reflection meetings, and observations of interaction and communication patterns during activities and meetings. Samples of committee and reflection meetings and of observation checklists are provided in Appendix B. Data were analysed deductively by comparing data units with indicators of organizational learning and with definitions of staff effectiveness, and inductively by comparing data units with one another to extract notable themes and patterns.

Steps In The Process

Our first task was to reacquaint ourselves with the terminology of organizational learning and to familiarize new staff members with the indicators and the processes that we had followed the previous year. To that end we held a reflection meeting the first day of school after the summer holidays, during which we reflected on our experiences with organizational learning. The following comments demonstrate some of our understandings at that time:

I think that we did a lot of learning as a group last year and we went through a learning process and it was sometimes very slow and sometimes unusually quick, but learning can encompass a whole variety of different things as well. There's professional learning, there is learning about people that you work with. There's learning about new ways in which you can bring things to your kids. Teachers, as we know, are not singularly defined as what we do is just to bring knowledge to kids. There's so many aspects to our lives and so many responsibilities that we have and that we share, and learning happens in all those domains and it's not always the same in each aspect. I mean, personal learning is obviously different from group learning.

I've got really comfortable in not having to have so much security. I feel like because it's a reflection meeting . . . I don't have to have that security. I'm just throwing out an idea and I don't have to have it really well formulated because maybe somebody else will pick up on it or know better than I or whatever.

That's the nature of the reflection meeting, you know, that people can say things that they think and feel comfortable and secure enough with the friendships that they've developed on staff and their colleagues that they won't be perhaps looked down on or they'll still be part of the group, no matter what.

We also discussed some of the benefits we had noticed the previous year.

I think the reflection meetings helped us better understand each other, how we think, how we work, how we go about doing things, and therefore gave us a better way of interacting with different people on staff.

It just made me feel a lot more comfortable just going to anyone and talking over things and being able to make mistakes and talk about problems I had and being able to share things, frustrations I was going through.

When you talked at reflection meetings everybody knew what you were thinking and it sort of had the whole group have a lot of bonding there, and it made the relationships a lot different.

That first meeting set the foundation for subsequent applications of organizational learning in the school, and served to re-generate ownership for applying organizational learning in the school.

Reflection Meetings

Subsequent reflection meetings were held at least once a month from September through April, with a total of 11 reflection meetings throughout the year. Topics discussed at various reflection meetings included the school partnership project with a local business; new classroom initiatives, strategies, and curricula; school-wide behaviour management, positive reinforcement, and social skills programs; playground and hallway supervision; photocopying problems; timing of reflection meetings; involvement of less- involved staff members; evaluation of school conditions and current organizational learning processes; guiding principles of the school; leadership style of the school administrators; resolution of staff conflicts; and various student-related issues.

We discovered that the role played be the facilitator for reflection meetings was a critical aspect in generating organizational learning. In brief, the tasks performed by this person were to focus the agenda, to encourage discussion, to clarify and summarize information, to manage transitions between topics, to affirm teacher participation, to invite quieter members into the discussion, and to be sensitive to the needs of the group. The following excerpts from various reflection meetings show some of the ways these tasks were expressed:

I wondered if there had been any issues or concerns or anything that you came up with over the past month that you wanted to talk about in this meeting that we can put up on the board.

How experimental are we? How experimental do we want to be?

You said you're not getting any help from out there. Can you develop that there?

You're suggesting that there are still issues that get buried or not dealt with, that you would like to see the staff, and you are taking a personal responsibility for that, to approach those differences from the kind of spirit we talked about, a spirit of trust, inquiry, and understanding.

Are you okay with leaving those kinds of decisions in the hands of the partnership committee? . . . I wondered now if we could talk a little about some of the new things that you're trying out in your classrooms?

You should really be commended for even agreeing to do this kind of reflection meetings with the kind of schedule that you are keeping. In most schools teachers would say, "Forget it. It's an intrusion. We don't have the time. I'm already up to my eyeballs with this."

Any other thoughts on that issue? I would encourage you to think about perhaps not having one in December because I'm already picking up just incredible amounts of tension here. As soon as we start going through the calendar and looking at the dates, I can just see bodies tightening all around the room.

The reflection meetings served several functions in the school: (1) to raise issues and concerns; (2) to clarify basic procedures; (3) to air frustrations; (4) to develop common understandings and common goals; (5) to enhance school operations; (6) to develop better understandings of colleagues; (7) to develop deeper levels of staff cohesion; and (8) to learn new concepts and perspectives. The following excerpts provide some glimpses of the nature of reflection meeting conversations:

The last couple of days I've been kind of stressed. One of my students has pushed me very far and very hard and I was at a point yesterday where I removed myself because I felt either I walk away from this or I'm going to do something that I could get myself in trouble for.

There's problems in that there are certain staff members that aren't here right now. I mean, if people keep missing, they're not a part of it, and so I think that's really important. If we're going to have these meetings, everybody has to be here.

I'm not that familiar with the procedures but I've caught on that you can just about say anything you want.

E: What is the policy on coming and going home through the front door?

C: Good question.

L: They're not supposed to, but a lot of them are doing it, aren't they?

I: A lot of the parents take them out there.

L: A lot of kids are going out there with parents.

E: I don't have problems with parents. If they're coming by with an adult they could go through the roof, I don't care. [laughter] But there was one fellow I stopped the other day and he said, "Well, I always take this route." So, I was taken aback and I thought maybe I'm stepping out of line.

The reflection meetings of the previous year had been more analytic and evaluative than they were in this study. Veteran members found these meetings to be characterized by more story telling and suggestions and, consequently, were less interesting. However, new staff members, who had nothing with which to compare these meetings, commented on how useful they found the process of group reflection.

Committee Meetings

The committee meetings served as a bridge between reflection meetings and classroom operations. The reflection meetings helped teachers to develop common understandings, to generate shared purposes and consistent approaches, and to build trusting and supportive relationships among the staff members. These outcomes provided foundations for applying organizational learning processes in various committee meetings. And the work done in the committees enabled the staff to realize more effective teaching practices in their classroom.

We tracked the application of organizational learning processes in three school committees: K-5 language arts, 6-8 mathematics, and school-wide behaviour management. The K-5 language arts committee consisted of all K-5 classroom teachers, the teacher librarian, the special education teacher, and the school principal; the 6-8 math committee consisted of all 6-8 teachers and the school principal; and the behaviour management committee consisted of eight self-selected staff members and the school principal. Organizational learning unfolded differently in each committee because of the different priorities they faced.

The language arts committee was primarily concerned with procedural strategies, new materials, and implementation concerns. One particularly stressful procedure they faced early in the year was that of completing the new student progress report. The teachers took two meetings to develop understanding about the wording of the items on the report form and to discuss obstacles they had encountered in completing the report. The following excerpts demonstrate some of the dilemmas they discussed in relation to the progress report:

If you take a look at H it's got all that list, " Uses picture, phonetic prediction, punctuation, structure and context cues to read for meaning." To me, the way that we would have to do that is take out all of that stuff and just say, "Uses cues, context cues to read for meaning."

In: Well, just looking at your first one in grade two, it says, "Distinguishes similarities and differences in words, letters, and sounds." Like, you're going to write all that on one little comment?

L: That's the same thing in grade one. Now, how do I mark all three of those together?

Ir: Because you're just doing letters, probably.

A: So in your program summary you would take each section and write up your section so that it works with your program.

B: It makes it hard to be accurate.

L: Well, exactly. I like to test for all those things and some of these things I don't have a clue how I'm going to test every individual on everything.

J: I think what they are saying is, this is for the students. The students use this media effectively, not the teacher uses media. And I'm not trying to say that you should be grading, don't get me wrong.

L: But is turning on the computer using it or is sitting at the computer using it? I don't stay with them, but to me if they're using it, I think they're learning how to use it.

J: Okay, I guess a person with a one would be able to just take a disc, go over, fire it in the machine. If that button's not working, get under there, click, that one. But if, for instance, you go over, take the disc, plug it in, and they have to be able to read the information and press the return key, maybe they're working at a three.

L: And is that a good use of my time, to be checking that out? And evaluating that and recording it on there? I don't think so, at all. I think that's . . .

J: How much time does that take, though?

L: I've got 27 kids.

After the first reporting period, the teachers became more comfortable with the new curriculum. Subsequent meetings dealt primarily with materials and instructional strategies for the new curriculum, and often took the form of idea sharing. Because the teachers were so concerned with the daily demands of curriculum implementation, they seldom moved into a reflective analysis of the philosophy of the program or of their own philosophy of teaching. However, the meetings incorporated a number of collective learning processes. In the early days, the meetings were helpful for airing frustrations and developing understandings. Later, they were useful for clarifying meanings and for learning new strategies.

The behaviour management committee was in its third year of operation. In previous years, they had developed, implemented, evaluated, and revised the program. In the year of this study, they were expanding the program to add positive reinforcement and social skills components. Consequently, their discussions focussed on ways to integrate these aspects into the existing program:

It's really important that we don't inflict on teachers a program that they're not ready to buy into. There has to be a commitment on the part of the teacher. The way we identified students for this program was kind of separate and apart from the teachers. We didn't ask for a lot of input from the teachers that were going to be receiving them. And they didn't know a lot about the program and B. didn't know a lot about the program and I didn't. We just knew that we wanted to do something with kids. So, maybe you have to identify the teacher that will make the commitment and then work with the kids that have difficulties in that class.

To even know, maybe, that there is other people that don't buy into it is important. We don't really know that because they're not in these meetings, or they're not part of the committee or haven't been at meetings. We don't know what their opinion is.

L: I think that's the thing with at-risk students. We want to solve that. We want to take those at-risk students and put them not at risk. And we can try different things and we can do the best we can, but I don't think we can do that. We can't cure them, and I think that's the problem we keep running into. We keep wanting to cure them.

C: We keep wanting to make it better.

L: We can only do what we can.

C: I want it to be better for all those kids that are having problems. I hate to see that they're having all those problems, and you want it to be better. But maybe that's an unrealistic goal. Maybe the goal is how can we make it workable. How can we make it okay rather than perfect . . . You have to give yourself, I think, a different goal. What I expect out of one kid can't be necessarily what I expect out of another. So success might not mean it's gone away.

J: It's so individualized. Each student is different. Well, we all are different, but in terms of why they're at risk and what we have to do for them is all so individual. This is one we've spun our wheels on a long time and we talked about it. It comes up quite often in our discussions about school-wide positive reinforcement. When we had that sharing session, we ` found that people were really doing a lot of positive reinforcement in their classrooms. But we kind of stumble through this.

This committee had a firm philosophical foundation for the behaviour management program. Now they were connected with making the school more effective in dealing with students who had severe behavioural problems. In general collective learning in this committee focussed on discovering new strategies for helping such students manage their school experiences more successfully.

The 6-8 mathematics committee met only once in a formal capacity. In this meeting, the teachers grappled with understanding the philosophy and practice of conceptual teaching:

A lot of the teaching now deals with reflection, thinking about concepts, talking about them, explaining them, writing about them, and doing them. But if you look at the way the curriculum is set up and the activities that are set up there's very few teacher-directed activities where a teacher sits there and gives notes, which is quite frankly how I taught polygrams, quadrilaterals, and triangles last year.

When we work with manipulatives and when we work with the concrete we have fun with it. Kids have fun. But sometimes the step that's missed is going to the abstract, and so I always think of the concrete, to the symbolic . . . But sometimes people work at the fun end and then that connection is never made to the abstract and so they have to work on that . . . Talking about drill and practice, we can't forget that that's important too. Kids have to know the basic number facts and we don't want to throw everything out. Drill and practice around the basic number facts is crucial.

In this meeting, the importance of invitation became clear. One teacher had listened throughout most of the meeting. When he was explicitly invited to share his thoughts he offered a perspective that had not previously been heard:

It was the first time that we actually had a chance to try any of the manipulatives ourselves. The first two meetings were philosophy. It was kind of boring, actually. I found the first few not that terribly exciting, where this one was a hands-on type of thing where we actually were introduced to all the manipulatives, or to many of the manipulatives, and we had a chance to try them and see how much fun they could be. When you try them and see how much fun they are, then you can see how kids would like them. I mean, if we as adults can have fun with them, obviously kids will too.

Although this committee met formally only once, informal conversations occurred frequently during the year as the teachers wrestled with the implementation of the mathematics curriculum. Because this was a pilot project, the teachers attended several Department of Education information meetings, and they facilitated two workshops in their school system during the year. In other words, their collective learning was supported not just by the committee meeting but also by external learning opportunities. However, it was during the school-based conversations that common understandings and common approaches to the new curriculum were developed.

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Observations of Staff Interaction Patterns

At each reflection and committee meeting, interactions were tracked in terms of how teachers managed collective information functions such as expressing opinions, clarifying information, making suggestions, and the like. An example of one such observation checklists included in Appendix B. Some interesting patterns emerged from these observations. In general, teachers' interactions were characterized largely be sharing information, expressing opinions, and making suggestions. Only infrequently did they ask for or clarify information. Decisions could seldom be traced to one individual. For the most part, decisions emerged from the conversations as teachers considered various alternatives. Of further note was the discovery that a small number of teachers were seldom heard in group deliberations. We did not find any one individual controlling the collective processes, but we found some individuals to be more vocal than others. Consequently, their opinions were usually reflected in the final outcomes. That does not necessarily imply that the less vocal people disagreed with the expressed opinions, as seen in these comments:

Some of us just like to listen to the rest of you. [laughter] We learn from your great wisdom.

I'm not one to just jump in with a comment before I've had time to listen to what others think and to take from them what I really feel and then form my own ideas. And I think that's what I meant by the fact that we all learn differently.

Interestingly, the people who were the most uncomfortable with the unbalanced interaction pattern were the ones who spoke the most frequently. We found invitation to be a necessary process for including as many teachers as possible, and affirmation to be important for allowing each individual to participate or not, as they saw fit.

Transcripts of Recorded Meetings

During our committee meetings and reflection meetings we did not make significant use of previously recorded transcripts. However, for some individuals the transcripts served as a reflection device through which they saw organizational learning processes that had been used, the topics that had been discussed, and the climate that had been established for those discussions to flourish.

In the final data analysis we noted that the transcripts helped to show individual and group philosophy and helped us to achieve a more analytic perspective on underlying issues which tended to get lost during the actual discussions. Had we used the transcripts more consistently during reflection and committee meetings, we would have been better equipped to deal with such issues as they arose. However, we did not have sufficient time in our meetings to reflect on the transcripts as well as to consider the day-to-day issues and needs. Analysing the transcripts would have meant spending considerably more time in meetings. The problem of finding sufficient time to make effective use of the transcripts remains an unsolved problem.

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Effects of the Study

In the year prior to this study we established some foundations in relation to what organizational learning is and how we might go about applying the processes in our school. Our work in this study focussed on the application aspect. While we do not claim to be experts in organizational learning we can report a number of positive effects that we experienced.

Improved Flow of Communication

We came together in reflection meetings and committee meetings to discuss many different aspects of our world of work. These discussions brought issues to the forefront, provided opportunities to air frustrations, placed previously buried information in the public domain, and helped us to evaluate our own efforts more realistically.

School-Wide Consistency

Through organizational learning processes, we were able to develop common understandings, common language, shared perspectives, and consistent approaches. This consistency served to promote several positive effects on teachers and students. As teachers, we experienced a "staying sane by staying focused" consequence that gave us a sense of confidence with the steps we took with students and with the curriculum. We realized that we were not alone, that others shared our concerns, and that our colleagues' ideas were useful. Students became less confused as the teachers began to act more consistently. The students learned the common language (eg. "Choices and consequences"), and they knew what to expect regardless of the teacher with whom they were dealing. We found that students played fewer games with the teachers. For example, testing the limits of teachers other than their classroom teacher diminished greatly.

Group Cohesiveness Among Staff

As one teacher stated, "We're very open when we feel safe". Organizational learning processes helped us to know where everyone was coming from, and this knowledge generated an acceptance of individual differences and created a sense of belonging and connection among colleagues. Increased respect, trust, and safety among the staff gave us a feeling of support during difficult times. Students also benefitted from a more relaxed atmosphere in the school as teachers modelled respectful, consistent treatment in the classroom.

Collaborative Leadership

Collaborative leadership was developed in the following ways: group planning, raising issues, solving problems, making decisions, and setting directions. Teachers developed a greater ownership for the welfare of the school and for school-wide operations. Collaborative leadership broke down the distinction between administrators and teachers. We were now partners in the process. Fortunately, we were blessed with school administrators who valued collaborative leadership and who were willing to learn from teachers. Their approach to the staff gave us a sense of self-worth and self-efficacy, thereby enabling us to make a positive impact on the school.

A Springboard for Personal and Professional Growth of Teachers

From our conversations we developed a knowledge base from our colleagues as we learned new strategies from others. The atmosphere of the school became more educationally focused when the teachers as a whole gained common understandings of and consistent approaches to the curriculum. This had a two-fold effect on teachers: 1) it helped us to evaluate more effectively our own efforts in the classroom; and 2) it gave us confidence and support to experiment. From that foundation, the students benefitted from our enhanced repertoire of instructional strategies and materials.

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Hurdles Along the Way

As with any human endeavour, we had hurdles to clear as we tried to understand organizational learning and as we began to use it. These problems showed up in two areas: organizational road blocks and problems in reflection meetings. Problems in both areas can be anticipated and in many cases prepared for beforehand, thereby facilitating quicker solutions.

Timing and Scheduling

We experienced many organizational problems in the timing and scheduling of meetings. Staff reflection meetings, ideally, should be scheduled so all staff members can be present. We used professional development days and staff meetings to allow for all staff members to be present and to participate. Meetings sat at noon hours suffered from decreased attendance as many staff were busy of committed to other school events. These meetings were also shorter and less productive, as time to reflect was shorter. Furthermore, staff members often had to leave early for supervision.

As most organizational learning happens in reflection and committee meetings, it was not surprising that most problems surfaced in these meetings. Although we tried to schedule meetings so that all staff members could be present, some staff members chose not to participate actively. Reduced participation could be a problem if a few members dominated the reflection and problem solving. The less-involved staff members were continually invited to participate, and they made their own choices as to level and type of participation. We believe that majority participation is essential, but we also believe each individual should have the right to choose not to participate. This dilemma is not easily solved.

Sensitive Issues

Sensitive issues reared their heads from time to time and were often ignored or deliberately by-passed. This trend caused some discomfort for the whole staff and left some problems unsolved. Sensitive issues could be dealt with by having the facilitator focus on the issue in a general sense without discussing people or personalities. For example, if a staff member is not participating adequately in the school life, the issue could be discussed in terms of staff roles and expectations with no direct reference to any staff member.

Staff Ownership

As a staff we sometimes found it hard to generate ownership for some issues. School issues such as behaviour management seemed easy for us to understand, discuss, and resolve. However, when we felt less control over the issue, we had difficulty establishing ownership. Implementing provincial curricula was just such an issue. Many committee meetings focussed on problems and frustrations with the curriculum, not with reflecting on how best to implement. We need to remind ourselves that schools are embedded in a larger community and that we have a responsibility to push through the frustrations and to implement these curricula as best we can. Airing frustrations and restarting old issues was not always helpful during reflection meetings, and we had to remind ourselves to focus on collective learning and on school-wide issues.

Agenda-Setting

The agendas for reflection and committee meetings were usually well set and valid, but not always followed. School-wide issues were set for reflection meetings, and issues such as curriculum implementation were set for committee meetings. However, especially at the beginning of our project, the agendas were often abandoned as staff wandered into separate issues or tried to solve committee problems at reflection meetings. Furthermore, some topics came up repeatedly and led to meetings that were irrelevant to some staff members. We found it important to keep reflection meetings focused on school-wide issues such as school-wide behaviour management or supervision, and committee meetings on more specific issues such as specific curriculum and planning of school functions. This distinction enabled staff members to have a focal point and to participate more positively.

Reflection Meeting Facilitator

In the second year of the project some reflection meetings were not as effective or as focussed because the facilitator was not in the school on a full-time basis. We found that agendas set with a full-time, in-school facilitator were more focussed and dealt with current issues that needed to be addressed. In future, a respected staff member should act as facilitator so that topics for meetings are current, pressing, and appropriate to either the reflection or committee level of meeting.

Misuse of Meetings

Staff members had to be careful not to misuse reflection or committee meetings. Misuse came when some members chose not to reflect but rather to give examples of their personal solutions or problems. Lack of time to reflect was always a problem and was magnified if a minority of staff members got the reflection meeting off topic. Misuse also occurred when some staff dominated discussions or gave irrelevant responses. We emphasize that the reflection meeting should be a time for collective learning, not necessarily for personal aggrandizement or counselling.

Less-Involved Staff Members

A sensitive issue that appeared several times was the problem of the less involved staff members. Staff members who were not at reflection meetings, did not participate, were not on committees, or were not active in staff meetings became a source of frustration to other staff members. When the less informed staff members focussed solely on their class and not on the school, other teachers believed them to be less informed about common understandings. Inconsistency in the use of the behaviour management room and in general supervision responsibilities are two examples of areas that suffered when some staff members were less informed. Solutions and understandings generated at reflection meetings were lost to these individuals, and at times they were "out of step" with the rest of the school. Ultimately it is their choice, and not all staff members will "buy in" to every program. Lack of participation did not stop the organizational learning, nor should it have stopped it. Involved members continued to invite participation and then proceeded to make as effective use as possible of the meetings. However, total participation would have enhanced our collective learning efforts.

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Implications and Discussion

Incorporating organizational learning into our school over the past two years has brought to the forefront several issues we need to consider for the future. These include: continuance of collective learning in the presence of new administration and staff; increased involvement and commitment of staff; the selection of a facilitator for organizational learning within our school; and the implementation of externally-developed programs.

New Administration/Staff

The beginning of each school year brings with it a challenge to all staffs working within the context of organizational learning: new staff members and/or a new administration. In each situation steps must be taken to ensure that the new staff members develop an understanding of the benefits realized when practising organizational learning, and that they acquire a basic knowledge of the specific skills and processes involved. We want to emphasize that organizational learning is not simply a helpful "add-on" to an existing organizational structure for school operations. Rather, it offers a complete framework for approaching all aspects of the daily functions of a school. In other words, organizational learning is not something else; it is the way we do things.

When determining how to go about informing and motivating new administrators and/or staff, we need to keep in mind the guiding principles behind organizational learning. We must begin by inviting the new staff members into all aspects of school life. If individuals feel welcomed by conscious acts of the "old" staff, they will begin to feel the safety and support of a positive working climate. In the case of new administration, it is vital that time be taken to explain organizational learning, the related processes, and the beneficial outcomes. This initial explanation must be perceived in a supportive and positive way by the new administrator so that it is not seen as an attempt to coerce or to assume control. It is also essential that the administrators understand the significance of their role in the ultimate success or failure of organizational learning within the school.

We cannot emphasize strongly enough the need for the school administrators to promote and to support organizational learning. They must commit themselves to practising collaborative leadership in order for the implementation of organizational learning to be successful. In the collaborative leadership model, teachers are invited to share in the decision making, problem solving, and general operation of the school. Teachers must feel that there is a genuine interest and need for their involvement, and that their input will not be ignored.

When administrators feel comfortable in relinquishing some power and authority in various aspects of decision making, shared power and shared leadership emerge, and give teachers an added sense of ownership, responsibility, and control, which ultimately increase teachers' effectiveness and commitment to the operation of the school. The need for inviting new administration to become committed to collaborative leadership and to organizational learning is obvious. Once the administration is on-side, other new staff members can more easily be included in organizational processes.

We must also invite all new staff members to take part in and to learn about the processes of reflection, conversation, affirmation, and invitation by participating in reflection meetings. We believe that once immersed in a supportive working environment, the reflective process, collective learning, and collaborative leadership, new members of the staff will understand the need for and the value of organizational learning in the school context.

Expansion of Involvement

Whether our school was just beginning organizational learning or had worked through the process for almost two years, there was always a need to ensure the inclusion and involvement of as many staff as possible. This raises the question of ownership and responsibility for the involvement of colleagues. The general staff has the responsibility to invite others to become involved in organizational learning processes. It is important that all people feel welcome and involved in the staff and the school. They should be made to feel that their contributions and involvement are genuinely desired, needed, and valued. However, it is not the role of the general staff to overtly push or demand involvement from an unwilling party.

Ultimately the responsibility for staff involvement and commitment to organizational learning rests with the administration. They can stress to the less involved staff the importance of their involvement as a part of their staff role. This emphasizes, once again, the necessity of having the complete support of the administration regarding organizational learning.

Selection of Facilitator

Over the past two years the facilitator in our school has been someone from outside our staff. Looking towards next year, we are faced with the need to select a staff member to act as the facilitator for reflection meetings. The individual selected as facilitator must be a trusted and respected member of the staff. The facilitator must be committed to the processes of reflection, collaboration, and collective learning. He/she must be knowledgeable about the issues affecting the staff and school, and should be someone that the staff trusts and can confide in. During reflection meetings the facilitator must be able to focus on the reflective process and ensure that any outcomes or decisions are reached in a collective manner. He/she must not attempt to influence the outcome by leading the discussion in predetermined directions or toward desired outcomes. The facilitator must model 'inviting' and 'affirming' behaviours throughout the reflection meetings to allow for open and honest communication, collective learning, and collaborative decision-making.

Implementation of Externally-Developed Programs

Our first experiences with organizational learning focussed on our learning in relation to a school-wide behaviour management program. In the project reported in this paper, we tried to extend organizational learning into the area of curriculum implementation. We found that organizational learning was not as effective in that area. Staff members were not as committed to learn about the curricula because they had not been involved in creating them. The new curricula put outside pressure on the teachers who were already committed to school-wide issues and who felt little ownership for the externally-developed programs. Our experiences suggest that externally developed programs are not likely to be implemented to the same degree as internally-developed programs. This outcome challenges teachers to focus beyond the school in their use of organizational learning. We must recognize that we are embedded in a larger system and that we have responsibilities to other stakeholder groups outside the school. Organizational learning can help us to move past resistance and resentment and into reflection and analysis in relation to externally-developed initiatives.

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Conclusion

When we think of the work of teachers, we usually focus on their classroom role. The primary responsibility of teachers is the children in their classroom, and we tend to assume, therefore, that teaching is an individual effort. But classroom teachers are also members of the school staff. They attend staff meetings together, they sit on committees together, they make school-based decisions together, and they relax with one another in the staff room. The concept of organizational learning compels us to pay attention to the staff role of the teacher, a role that is sadly neglected in many schools and school divisions. In our study, we realized that what we do as individuals has a significant impact on the actions and reactions of our colleagues and on the operation of the school. In short, we found that we had a responsibility to conduct ourselves in ways that promoted the learning and growth of our colleagues and that supported effective school functioning.

In that regard, the difference between advocacy and inquiry is significant. In advocacy, we take a position, marshal our arguments, and defend our own position, even if it means attacking the positions of others. In inquiry, we place our own positions on hold in order to inquire into the positions of our colleagues and to understand the reasons for their positions. We found that we were better able to perform our staff role when we approached our discussions from a spirit of inquiry rather than from one of advocacy. Inquiry enabled us to move past polarization in order to develop common understandings and to reach consensus in relation to issues, misunderstandings, or differences. We believe that inquiry is a fundamental principle of organizational learning, and is one that should be explicitly taught to staff members and promoted in group deliberations.

For the most part, schools and school systems worry about providing appropriate instruction and adequate learning opportunities for the children. These are important issues that cannot be neglected. But we found that the learning of our students was closely connected to our own professional learning. Our teaching was enhanced when we felt safe to explore new possibilities -- and when we had new possibilities to explore. Organizational learning calls us to pay attention to the conditions in the school that affect the learning of teachers and to develop supportive, growth-promoting conditions.

Our experiences in this study suggest that organizational learning is a complex process with both cognitive and affective aspects, and that it takes a long time to embed the principles and practices in a school. Organizational learning is not "something more" but rather "something different." In other words, it is a different way of performing the basic functions of school life. It is a way of creating a community of learners among the teachers, a way of creating for teachers the conditions they need in order to learn collectively and to teach effectively.

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References

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Appendix A

Organizational Learning: An Overview
Phases of Organizational Learning

Organizational Learning: An Overview

Phases of Organizational Learning

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Appendix B

Excerpt from a reflection meeting
Excerpt from a committee meeting
Observation Checklist

REFLECTION MEETING - November 17, 1994

Co: Welcome to the reflection meeting, I had asked you to bring chapter seven which is sort of the final report from last year and in particular the implications of the study, I thought we might want to spend some time looking at those and talking about whether or not they make sense, and what they might mean for this year. So I'd asked you to go through them ahead of time and maybe make some comments or mark some places that you thought were interesting that you might want to talk about, and I wondered if we're ready to do that? [long pause]

In: Well I found it interesting just going over the beginnings, with the reflections on of what we were doing in the study, just sort of looking at what happens when we get busy and this is a prime example, I think, of where we are right now. With people having less time . . .

Co: What page are you on?

In: I think it was, I was just checking to see where I have it highlighted, I think 187, no 189, "When life in the school was particularly busy or stressful, the teachers found less time and energy to commit to the research project and to collaborative practices". And I think, you know, that's probably still the feeling right now with having finished report cards and everything last week and just sort of going, "ah!" feeling good that we're done, but having got three or four reminders to get caught up on chapter seven and I think people are still feeling like, you know, we're not quite caught up. But it was interesting too when we look back I at least for, when I was looking at some of the things that we had in here and what we, the process we went through and how we got to where we are. An I thought, looking back to about 183 where it talked about how we started getting away from story telling and started doing some of the analyzing and looking at some of the things that we did in 187, looking at cycling back the naming and framing each time, that before we moved into the analysis and application we went back to that stage. Then came back around to understanding current learning habits, that the reflection meetings went through that cyclical process each time, and that we sort of start back at the naming and framing and then come back around to what we were doing to get to analyzing and integrating which we really didn't do last year, very little of it. And now to the stage where we can look at something and say, "This is a concern or a problem and how do we want to handle it, "like, our behaviour management meeting this week, we got a lot of things done very quickly and sort of built up an agenda, went through things and sort of took on tasks and sort of decided where we were going to go with it from there.

Cr: I think with regards to implication of the study, I read a sentence on page 201, the bottom of the first paragraph, "if teachers can discuss the issue of contributions to school operations . . . ", and I would say, "and any issue that refers to any conflict", "in a spirit of trust, inquiry, and understanding, perhaps creative ways can be found to bridge the divide and to honour the needs both of the individual and of the school." I think that that is so important and I think of that as still an area, that we have difficulty with. I think there are often still conflicts whether it be between the whole staff or whether it be between individuals. And the easiest thing for us still to do is to ignore them and say "Well, hopefully, they'll go away." And I think that we need to know that we have done that effectively in the past and that if it's done in the true spirit of both of us, or both people moving forward, then I think it's important that we continue that and bring that back to focus, cause I know that there's somethings that I maybe haven't, approached that I wanted to or wished I did, in that true spirit.

C: Let me sort of try and clarify what you're saying in a nutshell. You're suggesting that there are still issues that get buried or not dealt with, that you would like to see the staff, and you are taking a personal responsibility for that, to approach those differences from the kind of spirit that we talked about, spirit of trust, inquiry and understanding.

Cr: Yes, but I think that we can't forget that it can be done well and it can be done with leaving both parties' dignity intact. And actually getting a solution to the problem. But we sometimes tend to just leave it.

Co: Bury it. I'd like other comments in reaction to Cr's observation.

J: Is this conflict, or whatever you identified, something that is simply between two people or would it be sorted out or is it something that would be sorted out at something like a reflection meeting.

Cr: I think talking basically, I think, conflicts between individuals that I noticed, you know, passing by in the hallway or those types of things and I think that there are some, I know I've had some difficulties with, a couple things and I've never said them to people that, you know, possibly didn't know that they were a problem for me. Just because it was easier at the time and it took less time and effort just to bury it rather than dealing with them. Cause I think that we can get to a point where if you don't deal with them, and don't deal with them, and don't deal with them, then we start sort of going into our own shells, I think.

J: Well I guess what I'm asking you, is what part do all of us have to play in that? Is it an individual's job to go to that other person or are, I'm trying to figure out the format in which all conflicts can be resolved.

Cr: I think we as individuals need to be confident enough in our own professionalism and in others' professionalism to try to deal with concerns when they arise. I guess what I'm saying, cause I think that we tend to let them go.

Co: What might it look like to deal with those kind of sensitive issues from a spirit of trust, inquiry, and understanding. How might you do that? What could you say?

Cr: "I need your help."

Co: Okay.

Cr: Or, "I'm feeling frustrated when" "I" statements, and just to actually bring them out.

In: Maybe even saying, "I'm having a problem with the way such and such is going." Would that help sort of to get to the point of the issue.

Cr: I you express what you're feeling first then you're not blaming. I think we need to stay away from blaming and just focus on our feelings first, when you approach somebody else. Because saying, "I'm having a problem with the way that you're treating someone", then it's a blame.

L: They might just say, "So what?"

Cr: I can deal . . . I know, but "I feel uncomfortable when . . ." , and if the person says, "So what", then at least I know.

L: No, I'm saying if they say, "Do you have a problem", if you're not part of it, they might say, "Well, so what".

Cr: Exactly, and at least if they see that they . . .

L: But if you say something like "I feel," yeah . . .

Cr: "I feel uncomfortable when . . . this happens", then you're opening conversation and not stopping it.

L: Yeah.

In: Like I wouldn't go to someone and say, "I'm having problems with what you're doing", I'd say, "I'm having a problem with such and such a situation", you know, like, then you're not blaming someone.

Ir: That's it, when you say "what you're doing" then it's a blame.

B: But then they might think if it's your problem, deal with it.

In: That might be one way to get started on it. [long pause]

Ir: It is hard to do that, even to take the time, I mean time is always such a factor here. To do that we have to find time to go to that person and say, "I'm having, whatever", or however you want to word it. It's a time factor a lot of times.

J: It's a really good point. We shouldn't keep things within ourselves, if someone's annoying you, or if you need clarification on this situation. And I think it's true, the busier you are, the easier it is to just ignore it at that moment and say I'll get back to it. Sometimes it accumulates.

In: We need to deal with it earlier.

H: It's not an easy thing to do.

AV: That's interesting, I know that.

H: And I'm the best example, I get frustrated, like, complain or talk or grump to others instead of meeting with head on. Sometimes when I'm emotional, the mouth opens and the brain shuts down. And I'm afraid of that.

Ir: And unless you really know someone well, and have worked with them for awhile, you might not have that rapport, with staff to feel free for you to just say what you really feel. Plus the time thing too, you know, it takes time to get to know people and to feel comfortable enough so that you can feel free to be yourself and to express exactly how you feel.

L: Like, that's one of my biggest concerns, in thinking about that kind of thing and I think to myself, "What if I make things worse", you know. It's sort of one way or the other, what if because, it's like you say H, because I open my big mouth. What if it really, you know . . .

H: Not you.

[laughter]

Co: So what if you did make it worse, L?

L: I'd feel worse.

Ir: Then you'd be busy trying to find ways to make that other person feel better and the whole issue would be scrapped.

Co: So you're saying you'd compensate . . .

Ir: You wouldn't want someone else to feel badly because of something you'd said. You'd try to make them feel better, forget about the bottom line.

Jo: I think either way though, it gets worse. It just depends on how it's going to get worse. Is it going to get worse for you, personally just sitting there and getting frustrated, cause then nobody knows it's getting worse, but it is for you. Or it gets worse because you meet it head on and you don't say what you, or it hasn't come out right the first time and you tell them and then, you know, then you can work through sort of the valley and come up the other side but either way it hurts. If you don't comment to that person sooner or later. Then you have to accept that it isn't a problem.

E: You might have to get a mediator in, another person.

Jo: Oh I'm saying just do it anyway, it's going to be a problem for you, and if you can't speak about it then it isn't that big a problem.

E: Generally if you don't deal with a thing you talk to someone else about it, which makes it worse again, right?

Jo: That's what I'm saying, it does get worse, you know, unless it was something fairly minor that you could forget about.

In: You know sometimes it's something that you say in passing that's a side comment or, but it's taken the wrong way and it blows up to something that's a lot bigger than it is and sometimes, like, you know, that there's an issue that you want to deal with and you just sort of put it off and then the next thing you know it is a lot bigger. Like I was just saying to H, "Let's use us as an example", we were doing something last spring that we never, you know, we started talking about something and we were doing some planning and had intended to, you know, that we were going to get time to talk about this, and time to talk about this, and it never came around until finally this fall, I brought it back up and I said, "Howie, have we got time to talk about this?" and we sat down and dealt with it and it was a really good way to start the year. And, you know, like, we both felt, you know, like, it was something that was unfinished from last spring and we wanted to get it off the plate and out of here and I think that, you know, it's something that we do, you have to really make a real concerted effort and it's hard. It's really hard.

BEHAVIOUR MANAGEMENT COMMITTEE MEETING - November 15, 1994

J: I called the meeting not because we have a lot of burning issues, but because when I look back at my notes we said we were going to meet there once or twice at least before Christmas just to see how things were going. There are two things that I wanted to discuss, this was about using the Opportunity Room for time out for a couple of our students. And then the question do we want to go back to zero after Christmas like we did last year. And then, I don't know whether you want to discuss volunteers or not but are there any other agenda items?

Cr: I think just updating students.

J: Oh, okay. Updating, do you mean . . .

Cr: Well we can talk about it when we get there.

J: Okay. I'd talk about statistics but I don't have any to share. I think we should get back to that sometime. In we were just throwing out possible agenda items. Do you have anything that you need to?

In: Oh volunteers you've got them already. Do we need to make any changes?

Co: One thing that came up two or three times in the committee meetings last year when I was looking through the transcripts was the idea of a school-wide positive reinforcement program and I don't know what you've thought about that this year. But even in February and March we were still talking about what we wanted to do with that.

[interruption]

J: Anything else we have to add to this? Maybe some things that will appear after we start.

Cr: Substitutes.

In: There was one more thing I was thinking about and that was maybe doing more to inform new parents, new families to the school, and it might mean again just making a visit later in the, in January just to sort of start the new year off again and go over something or maybe do it earlier.

Cr: Updating students.

In: Yeah.

J: Anything else?

Cr: Substitutes.

H: Try to get volunteers.

In: You mean substitute teachers to our school who, yeah, it's a good one.

H: I was thinking substitutes in terms of teachers filling in for . . .

Cr: That was [inaudible]

In: And maybe just talk about how we expect and how we explain the program to them or how we let them know what it's all about.

Cr: How to use the program.

J: Any other items?

H: We're not going to get through all of these today anyway. Let's go.

In: Let's go with those.

J: And some they won't take long, like this first one, we have a couple of kids that, in working with the teachers, we just said let's use the Opportunity Room as a time out. And I think what we could do, like, these are kids that have gone past the six, seven mark. And one of them is A O and the other one is R L. And, like I cannot keep suspending them from school, they won't be learning then, I mean, you just can't go into that suspension mode after number six, you have to work out a plan. So, we've met with Mr. and Mrs. L, ln and I did, and talked about just using it as a time out so that they would go down for a specified period of time rather than as a, you know, it's related to class room as opposed to playground in most cases. And A, in the same way, like he just needs to get out of there. D needs to have him out of there, you know till the end of art or whatever it might be. But I'm wondering if we maybe can put some people together on some tasks here, if we're going to do that maybe we should have some kind of form that goes down rather than a conduct report. Maybe kind of like "Time Out", yeah a "Time Out Report" or something like that.

Cr: That's a good idea. Time Out Report. Absolutely.

H: With only space just for how many minutes they should be there.

J: And it would be a page and you know so it fits into our, I think we should still keep track of it in our book. But maybe it could, so it would have be a whole page, three-hole punched. So maybe would anyone care to work on that form?

Cr: I'd be interested.

J: Cr and . . .

Cr: It shouldn't take very long.

In: And also like in R's case, he can ask for the time out as well, like he knows and that's something that would be good to have as well.

Cr: Time out. Requested. Teacher requested, student requested. And then reason why.

J: We tried that with A too but A doesn't kink of catch on to it as well. Needs to get out. So okay, does that sound reasonable?

Cr: I think that's a very good idea J, not just reasonable, cause those kids need to get out of there and that's the best place for them.

J: Next part, after Christmas, last year what we did was we gave everybody a new start after Christmas, you know, and I still haven't done the statistics from January to June, we've got quite a stack of them there in terms of how many visits and what the visits were about, like was it playground or related to classroom behaviour and that kind of thing. I still haven't been able to do that, and I guess that means getting down to statistics. But it seems to me that there was, you know, before Christmas we have four months, after Christmas we have six months and it seems like kids get into a lot more difficulty in terms of getting up to the numbers four, five, six and so on. And there's a lot more severe kinds of things you have to deal with because it's over a longer period of time. Now, I'm just wanting to toss that around in terms of do we go back to zero at the end of Christmas, like if we divide the school year in half it would be the end of January and it would be like the semester system in high schools and at the end of January go back to zero or whatever. Could we toss that one around?

Cr: I think that makes sense to kids. And I think when we have the break holiday it makes sense to kids cause it's a break. And it also makes sense to teachers, cause we come back new and fresh and we basically give ourselves a clean slate and it just, it has to be at some break, where there's a significant break, either that or Easter and, but it has to make sense. And I think that time off of school makes sense.

J: It does.

In: I was going to suggest we do two breaks, like, one start fresh in January and then start fresh again after the Easter break which sort of divides the year into thirds.

J: The first third is pretty big, then.

In: When we get into spring we have another whole new change of everybody is back out in the playground and we just get started again. And I think we've had a lot of the kids really tally up their visits in the spring last year. But January for sure is a fresh start.

J: Well, I feel the same in terms of the holiday is a good break. It wouldn't make enough sense to the kids to say we are now half way through the year to start over again, like, it we didn't do it that way. We still need the, I know, I guess it's the holiday or the half-way point I would go, it's not enough to say to the kids it's January. So after Christmas . . .

Cr: I think it just makes sense to them. Like, they don't understand making a clean start without separating it, like, it's, I think that we can separate that as adults, but I don't think kids are able to do that as well, I don't know, that's my opinion.

J: What about In's suggestion now, so when is Easter this year? Do you know? I've got it in my book.

S: Right at the end of April.

J: The end of April?

Cr: Yeah.

H: That wouldn't be a third, that would almost be . . .

In: But just sort of the idea, you know, but also, like, not miss sort of just doing that automatically, like, I'd say let's look at what things look like between January and the Easter break, it may not even be a need to do that. But I'm just suggesting that if we're getting a lot of kids that are getting way up there again.

Cr: I think that there's a lot of classes, like, going on trips and stuff. I know in our end we, if someone has landed in O.R. eight times since January, we'd think twice about them on trips. And it's nice just to have those things so we can talk to them.

H: And even for camp this year, I'm thinking really hard about some students, maybe, they've been there many times, we're going to take them.

Cr: Like we're going to start looking, like now. This is clean slate time and your behaviour here indicates what we are comfortable with and improvements from behaviour, I mean, obviously would be noted but . . .

J: Okay, so I think what we're saying is that we'll do zero after Christmas but then let's, I think, in terms of what you're talking about, I think we really have to emphasize with the kids, especially with these kids like, this isn't automatic. We got a long haul, we got six months, we did this in four months. Everybody in our school now knows how this thing works, and even including all the new students. From now on, six months and we determine that, we really have to emphasize that in the spring we have field trips and so on and that there are other consequences that may result, if you go beyond the five, six visit.

Cr: Because what I could see happening is all the kids that want to go to camp may have a great last two months, but they're just total jerks before cause they know it's gonna be wiped out.

In: Oh, I wouldn't say you don't consider their behaviour, like I mean, if you're looking at if they have not had acceptable behaviour, even though you're giving them another fresh slate there, that behaviour still counted, you know.

Cr: No but if you're giving them a fresh slate, you've got to give them a legitimate fresh start, you know, and if you're telling that the fresh start for the O.R. but it's not in my head then that's I don't think fair either. You've got to go all or none.

In: That's not what I meant, I meant that when you give them the fresh start in January that they know that it counts towards camp and everything else. And I was just making the other one as a suggestion for something you look at and see as something we might consider doing in the spring, I didn't mean that it's something that we have to do, it's just a suggestion for looking at other possibilities if there's still a major change in number. But definitely the trips and everything are a real incentive, so we might not need to look at anything else.

Cr: And I think that what J said, like I mean after kids are getting to six and seven visits they're going on an individual plan like, and so maybe we just look at those kids on an individual basis when we get there.

J: So, I guess the only difference we thought of last year was that let's really emphasize with the kids the six months time of school left and that there are other consequences that mey come into this as we go along. Okay, is that . . .

In: Good Friday is April the 14th.

J: So is that okay with everybody that we do it that way? Number three, I don't know what I was going to say about volunteers except that we still do not have a full complement. Don't worry why it's happened this year. We have two parents, Mrs. S, she comes in on Tuesday afternoon and Mrs. N now comes in Thursday mornings. Wednesday is R. This morning we had T C but she's got a teaching job, L was in this morning but that won't last for long. Friday, Mr. C wants to be here all day Friday so. Monday is covered, K in the morning and D in the afternoon.

Cr: So what's left that's not?

J: Pardon me?

Cr: Which ones aren't

J: Thursday afternoon and Tuesday morning.

Cr: Maybe we can look at those people that are on full time, staff to possibly give up one. Like I know I would be willing on one of those days to sit in there for one of my preps.

In: I don't have any release time Tuesday afternoon or Thursday mornings.

Cr: Well then, obviously then you would'nt be included but those people that do. No but those people that do, like whether I do my marking in the opportunity room or whatever. Cause we have to be covered and you've got too much to do.

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OBSERVATION CHECKLIST

STAFF MEETING - October 6, 1994

Sharing Information

JB, LC, BN, CT, BN, IF, JB, HM, AV, JB, BN, EK, CT, JN, HM, HM, CT,

CT, AV, CT, HM, BN, JB, BN, HS, SO, JB, AV, CT, JB, HM, AV, SO, HM,

CT, CT, LC, IF, IG, CT, HM, JB, SO, IF, JB, CT, LC, JB, SO, IF

Asking for Information

SO, JB, SO, EK, AV, SO

Clarifying Information

Expressing a Position

LC, IF, JM, JM, BN, IF, IG, HM, CT, IF, CT, JB, CT, IF, HM, AV, CT, SO,

HM, AC, AV, EK, BN, CT, AV, AV, CT, LC, IF, JB, IF, CT, IF, BN, CT, BN

IG, HS, SO, AV, JB, SO, JB, AV, CT, JB, CT, AV, CT, AV, SO, JB, BN, JB,

JB, EK, JB LC, IF, EK, IF

Agreeing with another's position

BN, AV, BN, HS, SO

Disagreeing with another's position

HM

Clarifying another's position

Making a decision

JB

Making a suggestion

LC, IF, AV, CT, IF, JB, HM, CT, AV, CT, CT, CT, IF, CT, IG, HS, JB, CT, JB,

HM, CT, CT, JB, JB, JB, IF, EK, LC, CT

Setting direction

JB, CT

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