Over the last 5 years (at least), I have been intentionally meeting with teachers across diverse schools, districts, and states to learn more about their experiences. When I sit down with teachers and ask for their insights, I always learn something new. I learn what works, what is challenging, and what they want to be more effective, successful and happy in their evolving role.

As our world evolves and the power of technology increasingly impacts how we live, learn and work, it also impacts how we design our learning environments and experiences in schools. I want to share some common needs across these conversations that can provide insight into how to better support teachers, but first I want to share a few things that I am often reminded of in each of these conversations.

• Teachers are committed to their role in ensuring that their students are successful in life and school and are working really, really hard.
• Educators do not exist in a vacuum. The context of the community, families, leadership, the students as well as their own experiences impact them and how they teach.
• Beyond leadership vision and or expectations, peer pressure is alive and well in schools and this is one of the most powerful forces in determining willingness to try new things and impacts the enjoyment of the job greatly. 
• This job is hard! Both in and out of the classroom educating children is emotionally rewarding and exhausting and takes the most special group of people to do this work and we can do a much better job supporting them.
• Finally, in each of these conversations with teachers in small focus groups, leadership meetings or in workshops I am often told how thankful they were to share their experiences. Too often, this conversation was the first time that someone had asked about their opinion and for their experience. I am always glad I ask because I learn so much about the local context as well as more global trends.
  

Based on my conversations and experiences, here are 5 common trends that I hear from teachers that would support them in their evolving role to help them meet the needs of their students. 

1. Develop a Shared Vision

As I shared in the foreword of Innovate Inside the Box, “The challenge I see in classrooms and hear about in conversations with students, teachers, administrators, and families is that there is misalignment between our aspirations—what we believe that learners need—and what we actually do in schools. Too often, our past practices and mindsets about change prevent us from developing learner-centered experiences aligned with our vision”  To build a shared understanding of the vision and how our practices can help us get there, we need to move beyond words and talk about what we want for our learners. Beyond grades and test scores, what are the competencies that we want to develop? Then, to get ther we need to better understand what learning experiences are critical and what we want our classrooms to look like, what teaching and learning practices align with our goals.  

It’s not that teachers want to just be compliant- it’s that they have a huge responsibility as they enter their classrooms every day to do what’s best for their students and make sure they are successful today, tomorrow, and in their distant future. When teachers have high expectations oriented toward the right goals and support, they often meet and exceed them (just like our students). 

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2. Provide Personal Learning Pathways

Part of being learner-centered is ensuring that the teachers have time, support, and trust to do what is best for learners in their classrooms and throughout the school. As a great number of demands are placed on teachers, teacher retention and burnout are increasing, and the revolving door, in many cases, negatively impacts the schools and their students. Not surprisingly, teachers leave schools where they are not supported or valued or feel ill-equipped or unable to meet students’ needs. We can prevent this by looking for ways to create conditions that empower all learners and inspire leaders rather than demand followers.

Educators need time, trust, a culture of risk-taking, support, resources, and models. Yet like each of our learners, teachers often have different strengths, challenges, and goals, 

Providing time, resources and structures that enable personalized professional learning pathways provides multiple access points and systems of support to develop the desired competencies. Teachers regularly suggest the following structures be embedded in the workday to facilitate their growth and development:

• Communities of inquiry to find and solve problems together
• Online resources to learn topics of choice at their own pace
• Opportunities to observe other teacher’s practice
• Opportunities to experiment in a safe environment to integrate what they have learned

Read more here

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3. Align Your Resources

Creating a high-quality foundation to build from is critical to supporting teachers in this important work.  In my book, Learner-Centered Innovation, I describe how resources and frameworks allow for creativity and innovation when they provide the foundation—not the ceiling—for what teachers can build on, adapt, and innovate. Based on the context, the resources, and the desired learning goals, teachers can leverage foundational resources across the following continuum to meet the needs of the learners:

• Replicate—Uses externally designed curriculum and resource in existing sequence and format as designed
• Adapt—Uses externally designed curriculum and modifies existing sequences and format based on the learning goals
• Integrate—Curates resources from a variety of sources to meet the needs of the learners and learning goals
• Innovate—Creates new and better learning experiences based on the context, learning goals, and needs of the learners.

As I reflect on my own experiences and the countless educators I have observed and worked with, it is clear that the best teachers do not use a single approach or follow one curriculum; they create the context and experiences for diverse students to learn and grow. If we can provide high-quality learning experiences that teachers can replicate, this should be the foundation that educators can build from. To meet the needs of learners and innovate in their classroom, collaboration, resources, and coaching can and should be built into the workday to support teachers to move across the continuum. 

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4. Provide Coaching and Feedback

Teachers have been far too isolated and the teaching profession is plagued by a culture of closed doors.  Although this is changing, observations and feedback or coaching to support teachers rather than evaluate are still far from common practice in most schools I visit.  When given the opportunity, teachers appreciate observing peers and reflecting on their own practice and want to do it more. Teachers want feedback from colleagues they trust and have a relationship with to provide more regular feedback to push them to the next level. Too often feedback and observation come in the form of evaluation rather than in the spirit of growth and development.

If we want to improve skills and knowledge and the application of them in our classrooms, we must move beyond telling people what to do and get into classrooms to help them problem solve, reflect, tweak, and learn together and collectively figure out how to move forward.

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5. Build Collective Efficacy

Teachers regularly cite lack of time as a barrier, however they recognize that not all time is used as productively as possible, especially when it comes to collaborative time.  Teachers like to learn from their peers and thrive when they have regular collaborative learning opportunities during their workday. John Hattie and the team have found that collective teacher efficacy (CTE), which is the belief of the staff of the school in their ability to positively affect students has been found to correlate strongly with student achievement. “A school staff that believes it can collectively accomplish great things is vital for the health of the school and if they believe they can make great change they very likely will.” 

Establishing a shared vision and facilitating this time to ensure teachers regularly plan, analyze, and determine the next steps for effective teaching and learning is a critical factor in its success.  When these structures are in place teachers often learn new strategies and increase their effectiveness and efficacy through the collective knowledge and support of the learning community.

Read More Here

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Teachers want clear expectations but autonomy to teach in a way that meets the needs of their students and works for them.  Too much structure is stifling but too little can be just as crippling. Leaders are crucial in setting the culture and tone of how teachers learn and take risks in their practice. To innovate, the learning community must embody a mindset and create systems that allow for continuous growth and development. 

I hope these insights are helpful but I also hope that you don’t just take my word for it and that more than anything you turn to the teachers in your community and ask them what they need to support educators and their evolving role.