Academic Optimism: A school with high academic optimism is a collectivity in which the faculty believes that it can make a difference, that students can learn, and academic performance can be achieved. Wayne Hoy et al.
Three years ago, I wrote a blog post entitled Urgency. This is how it began.
Have you ever really thought about the time that educators have to change the life of their students? Eric Jensen did in his book, Teaching With Poverty In Mind. Here’s the thinking.
1. Every student in your classroom gets 168 hours each week. (7 days x 24 hours)
2. Subtract the time kids have for sleeping, eating, grooming, and their busy lives. (12-13 hours per day x 7 days= 84-91 hours)
3. That leaves each child with a maximum of 84 hours each week, or 4,368 hours each year. Out of that block, you get at most 30 school hours each week (6 hours x 5 days) for 36 to 42 weeks a year. At the high end, you get 1,260 hours each year (30 hours per week x 42 weeks) for changing a student's life.
Photo by Lukas Blazek on Unsplash
Here's the key ratio: 1,260 hours out of a possible 4,368. You have 28 percent of a student's waking time. You are outnumbered by more than two to one. "With the small proportion of their lives that you do have access to, you cannot afford to waste a single class or school day. " Eric Jensen
Three years later, and the sense of urgency is even greater! A million kids will drop out of high school this year. That's unacceptable! It's frightening to me that so many kids are finding school so disengaging or that they lack so many skills that they lose hope and choose to drop out. This decision is one that will negatively affect the rest of their lives and future generations.
Teachers alone can't solve all of the causes of so many students dropping out. But they can make the decision to do all that's within their sphere of influence and control. Teachers can change what they do in their classrooms to have even better outcomes. To impact student lives, teachers may have to change some of their mindsets and practices. It may be uncomfortable. The journey may not be easy, but it'll be worth it.
So let's cut to the chase. At this time of year, there's plenty of data- sometimes more than we can use. Data tells part of a story. It should inspire us to take action!
What happens when the data isn't as favorable as we'd like? When students don't learn what we teach, it's easy to play the blame game. The easy way out is to blame the student's parents, last year's teacher, the district benchmark, test anxiety, the student, or a whole host of other excuses. Teachers also get caught explaining a student's failure to learn by reasoning that the student has too many barriers to learn, that he's unmotivated, or even that he's just not capable. Too many educators simply believe that they are not accountable to all students. It's easier to play the blame game rather than holding up a mirror and holding ourselves accountable for learning (our student's learning and our own).
I'm as guilty as the next person and have fallen into that trap. No teacher wants to feel or look incompetent. So after trying multiple strategies and feeling frustrated with the lack of progress, it's easier to play the blame game. "Teachers may feel forced into choosing, albeit many times unconsciously, between defining themselves as inadequate or the children as lacking" (Haberman, 1995)
Teachers alone can't solve all of the causes of so many students dropping out. But they can make the decision to do all that's within their sphere of influence and control. Teachers can change what they do in their classrooms to have even better outcomes. To impact student lives, teachers may have to change some of their mindsets and practices. It may be uncomfortable. The journey may not be easy, but it'll be worth it.
So let's cut to the chase. At this time of year, there's plenty of data- sometimes more than we can use. Data tells part of a story. It should inspire us to take action!
What happens when the data isn't as favorable as we'd like? When students don't learn what we teach, it's easy to play the blame game. The easy way out is to blame the student's parents, last year's teacher, the district benchmark, test anxiety, the student, or a whole host of other excuses. Teachers also get caught explaining a student's failure to learn by reasoning that the student has too many barriers to learn, that he's unmotivated, or even that he's just not capable. Too many educators simply believe that they are not accountable to all students. It's easier to play the blame game rather than holding up a mirror and holding ourselves accountable for learning (our student's learning and our own).
I'm as guilty as the next person and have fallen into that trap. No teacher wants to feel or look incompetent. So after trying multiple strategies and feeling frustrated with the lack of progress, it's easier to play the blame game. "Teachers may feel forced into choosing, albeit many times unconsciously, between defining themselves as inadequate or the children as lacking" (Haberman, 1995)
The antidote for blame is building self-efficacy. Guskey and Passaro (1994) define self-efficacy as "teachers' belief or conviction that they can influence how well students learn, even those who may be difficult or unmotivated." Teachers with more self-efficacy see the strengths and potential of each child despite the barriers. They have high expectations, encourage students to learn challenging content, differentiate instruction to meet students' needs, and engage students in relevant learning. They teach with greater enthusiasm, are less negative, are willing to innovate, and are persistent. Teachers with a strong sense of self-efficacy are more resilient and are continually learning. They are reflective- both while teaching and before or after teaching.
"Reflection can be difficult, even threatening, because it forces us to be honest with ourselves and recognize not only our successes but areas where we need to improve. It makes us take responsibility for our teaching and learning." (Scales, 2013)
Teaching is too difficult of a job to do in isolation. Teachers working alone cannot meet all of the needs of a diverse classroom. Sarason shared an idea in many schools, "These are my kids, my room, and my materials." There needs to be a shift of thinking to "These are our kids and we cannot help all of them learn what they must learn without a collective effort." We must rely on our PLCs to clarify priorities, to set common goals, to work together, to hold each other accountable, to support, and to learn together with a focus on student learning. We must switch our focus "from inputs to outcomes and from activities to results."
Self-efficacy beliefs determine how people feel, think, motivate themselves and behave. (Bandura) There is a strong relationship between self-efficacy and work-related performance. A teacher with more self-efficacy will most likely have students engaged at a higher level. A teacher with lower self-efficacy will most likely have classroom management issues because they lack the belief in themselves to be change agents. Great school leaders understand the link between self-efficacy, collective efficacy, and student achievement.
Collective teacher efficacy according to Tschannen-Moran and Barr (2004) is defined as "the collective self-perception that teachers in a given school make an educational difference to their students over and above the educational impact of their homes and communities."
Success breeds more success. The expectation of success is confidence. As teachers work and accomplish goals together, collective efficacy builds momentum to set even more ambitious goals.
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said, "We are confronted with the fierce urgency of now. In this unfolding conundrum of life and history, there is such a thing as being too late. Procrastination is still the thief of time. We must move past indecision to action. Now let us begin. The choice is ours, and though we may prefer it otherwise, we must choose in this crucial moment of human history.
Now is the time! Our students deserve to have teachers that are reflective practitioners who continually learn, improve, and are results oriented. It's not about perfection, it's about taking action. It's making those first steps on a journey that may require teachers to ask more questions, better questions, and to change traditional mindsets and practices.
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