Case+Study+Document

The More Things Stay the Same the More We Need to Change Them

by The Special Specialists: Vanessa, Marty, Jenna, Sharona, Amber and Lucia (in the order of appearance)

It was a dark and stormy night; the rain fell in torrents—except at occasional intervals, when it was checked by a violent gust of wind which swept up the streets (for it is in the winter that our scene lies), rattling along the housetops, and fiercely agitating the flickering lights that struggled against the darkness. Mrs. Gordon had stayed up much later than she intended, but she just couldn't get those thoughts out of her head. The Adult Education Council meeting was over and she was left holding the bag once again. Few of the programs she put on the computer network for remedial instruction and tutoring were not being used by any of the facilitators. Now she had to explain why that was and what she was going to do to change things. This was really unexpected because no one had said anything to her about this before the meeting took place. She thought to herself, "Things have got to change—but how?"

Mrs. Gordon went into the kitchen to make herself a cup of warm milk; she thought that would settle her nerves and help her sleep. Finally she went into the bedroom and, as she pulled back her covers, she admired her new duvet. She was proud of her new bedspread selection, because it represented a change for her. She had always had a white bedspread with white pillows. But, this time she bought a bright yellow spread with French eyelets. She fluffed her pillows and hopped into bed, but continued to toss and turn. Thoughts just kept rolling around in her head. "Change," she said. "That's it, C-H-A-N-G-E-!" I changed my bedroom covers and I can change the way the technology professionals are using my remedial instruction and tutoring programs also.

She immediately hopped back out of bed and turned on her Mac laptop. She googled the term "Change Management," and read the Wikipedia search results. She learned that "Change Management is a structured approach to transitioning individuals, teams and organizations from a current state to a desired future state. Often, innovations are not put into practice because they conflict with deeply held internal images of how the world works, images that limit people to familiar ways of thinking and acting. (Senge, 1990) Change is successfully implemented in a culture of innovation, collaboration and coordination where all participants in the system are involved in the change effort."

In project management, change management refers to a project management process where changes to a project are formally introduced and approved." "That's what happened," she said. "I didn't collaborate or have an effective Change Management Plan!" Miraculously, the rains and the gusts of wind stopped at the moment she discovered what went wrong. She found a plan, a four step plan suggested by authors Kolbo and Turnage for faculty development initiatives and a framework for strategic change management from catalyst consulting to help her through the steps of change management:

1) Expand their focus. 2) Employ a wider variety of methods and delivery formats. 3) Focus on the delivery of learner-centered instruction. 4) Consider potential cultural impact that can be gained through technology. 

Excited that she finally found an answer to her current problem, Mrs. Gordon went to bed with a smile on her face and a plan in her mind. Mrs. Gordon awoke the next day with fresh ideas for how to get the facilitators to use her training programs. She thought to herself, "I must find a way to sell my training programs to the facilitators," because she knew that leadership is not only key to develop and to launch systemic change, but also a constraint of the change process. Shared decision making and frequent communication are components of critical importance in the successful systemic change process.

After her morning breakfast, she decided to set out to do just that. First, I will research and find data on how training programs like hers have helped facilitators at other training divisions. "I know this type of data exists," she said, "and with it I'd bet I can sell this training to my colleagues." She set forth to data mining the Internet on her Mac. Her outlook on change management had begun to get much more positive.

As she searched the internet, Mrs. Gordon soon found that she was not alone in her dilemma. It seems that helpful software programs often are not used by educators, but why? She looked at article after article about change management in education, there was a lot of information and great ideas. In her research, Mrs. Gordon discovered she had to do more than just provide more training for her facilitators. While knowledge of the programs is certainly important, she needed to boost the confidence of the facilitators, help them see the benefits of using the tools, and lastly change the culture, so that the expectation is set for the programs to be used by everyone. She realized that in order to develop a high-quality and effective professional development plan, she must closely examine the current district development plan and its impact on literacy instruction. While trying to come up with a strategy, Mrs. Gordon went to the kitchen and looked through out the window then decided to pour herself a cup of coffee. Then, an idea came to her mind; the key was to create an assessment based on the school staff's perception of what they considered an effective professional development plan and teacher's use of instructional practices. By considering their needs and helping her to employ a wider variety of methods and delivery formats, those two elements could highly enhance her approach in developing and expanding, not only a good professional development plan for her facilitators, but properly developing one that will have a huge impact on her facilitators. Now, it was time to include those ideas into the professional development plan.

With this in mind, Mrs. Gordon started to map out a professional development plan for her facilitators. She would develop a questionnaire and ask each facilitator to complete it in order to gain an understanding of why the programs she put on the network were not being used; this would act as her stake holder management step.

Questions on the survey would be structured so Mrs. Gordon and others can gain a clear understanding of each facilitator’s style, contructivist learning methods, technical skills, and group dynamics. This survey would identify the staff's Capacity for Change and help her focus on the delivery of learner-centered instruction of the staff.

After reviewing these answers, Mrs. Gordon was sure she would be able to either (1) find a creative way to encourage facilitators to use the programs on the network or (2) find a group of more appropriate programs for facilitators to use for remedial instruction and tutoring. This would serve as her Mobilizing for Change step. Now all she needed was to sustain the change, but in order to do this she would need to measure her success for getting the staff to use the remedial instruction and tutoring progams. That information could come from written critiques from the staff, but also the improved scores of the students who benefited from the programs which would show the cultural impact gained through the use of technology. That information may be slow to come, but in the future it would help her expand her programs to new heights and weed out the ineffective programs that were being used. **Questions:** 4. (J) Why is it important to gather feedback from program participants? How will this help create an effective change program? 5. (A) Why is it important to change the entire culture instead of just a few people that really need the change?
 * 1) (V) Why is Change Management important and who should be the stakeholders in the change management process?
 * 2) (M) What are the best methods of change management to help sell the change to those affected by it?
 * 3) (L) What type of assessments will be most appropiate to evaluate an effective professional development plan and teacher's use of instructional practices?

(J)(Helpful article: Ertmer, P., & Ottenbreit-Leftwich, A. (2010). Teacher Technology Change: How Knowledge, Confidence, Beliefs, and Culture Intersect. Journal of Research on Technology in Education, 42(3), 255-284. Retrieved from Professional Development Collection database.)

Senge, P. (1990). The fifth discipline. New York: Doubleday.

Kolbo, J. R., & Turnage, C. M. (2002, September/October). Technological applications in faculty development. The Technology Source. Retrieved Aug 5, 2010, from []

Image from [|www.catalystconsulting.co.za/ change.htm]