Case 1: Dissonance as a Catalyst for Improvement
Ngā Tukitukinga hei Whakapakaritanga

The focus of this case is supporting teachers to improve their practice by modelling ways of working that:

• “walk the talk” (that is, that align with the content of the professional development);
• use dissonance as a catalyst for improving practice;
• support in-depth, self-directed change for teachers;
• are based on the appropriate use of evidence and data.

Delwynne Stevenson, a facilitator at Team Solutions, Auckland, was concerned that her usual practice was not having the impact she was hoping for, and so she inquired into how she could better support teachers to achieve substantive and sustained improvements to their practice. The context of Delwynne’s inquiry was her literacy work with teachers from Waiharara School in Northland, and she conducted her inquiry in collaboration with her colleagues at Team Solutions.

Leading ISTE learning for this case

This case describes the growing understandings of an ISTE and the two teachers she is working with from a small rural school. One of its strengths is that everyone in the case recognises that they are learners, that they are “in this together”; we clearly see concurrent and interdependent development in the ISTE’s and teachers’ practice over a sustained period of time.

This kind of collaborative inquiry and learning may well be mirrored by the experiences of ISTEs in the group you are leading, both as they open up their practice to one another and as they work with teachers to improve outcomes for students.

In the experiences of Delwynne and the teachers, we recognise how valuable dissonance can be as a catalyst for improvement. The case has the potential to also raise dissonance for your group of ISTEs and to motivate them to inquire into their practice. This could be in terms of the overall themes of the case – for example, as ISTEs ask themselves “To what extent do I foster self-efficacy in the teachers and students I work with?” Or it could occur in relation to specific details from the case – for example, when, on the last screen (“Learning and impact”) of the case, users are encouraged to compare two apparently irreconcilable views on the value of modelling.

How this case reflects the ISTE inquiry and knowledge-building cycle

Diagram text version

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