New challenges of a new century with the quick development of technology and globalization puts in the forefront the necessity of organization changes and educating teachers, principals and superintendents in order to “increase student achievement and improve schools so that they can be true learning centers where all – adults and children – can grow” (Drago-Severson, 2009, p. 7). Many scholars suggest different models of organization change (Kotter, 1996; Anderson, 2009; Bennet & Bennet, 2008), but one of the possible patterns of organization change presented below, can be implemented in many cases to enhance teacher’s authority, to increase students’ learning activity and, finally, enrich students’ and teacher’s knowledge of a subject.
First, it is necessary to mention that most of scholars define different levels of organization change, for instance, Burke (2007, p.84) distinguished “Individual, Group, and Larger System” change, besides, many educators stress effective change implementation in teams (Anderson, 2009; Bennet & Bennet, 2008). The new model is also based on the team working pattern and can be called “Team Cooperation Model”.
This model can be used with a teacher who doesn’t see the way how to affect students and make them learn the necessary material, having lost the authority among students. Of course, some scholars argue that organization change initiative should likely come from the part of principles, and Blase et al. (2010) even suggested different ways how to improve school principals’ leadership. Thus, teachers should be the first to feel the need and suggest the models of organization change, since they are the first who meet the new issues and obstacles while teaching students.
The most important factor for this pattern is teachers’ individual understanding, readiness and commitment for change (Fisher, 2000, p.229). After understanding the necessity of change, but before implementing of any change model, teachers should consider all the details and issues which are to be changed (Sherman and Dinkmeyer, 1987, p. 147).
Thus, the first step in implementing the “Team Cooperation Model” is to consider whether it can fit to the specific situation, specific class. If it a teacher decides it can be useful, the next stage of its implementation should start. The teacher should prove the necessity of its implementation to faculty: highlight the obstacles the teacher and his colleagues meet in the class, suggest the possibility of improvement after organization change, explain the essence of this pattern, start discussion of possible deviations of the pattern in terms of particularities of students, and start its implementation. The third stage of this pattern implementation presupposes its promotion among students.
A teacher should launch discussion of the situation with students and suggest organization change as a way out, providing possible positive results of this pattern implementation, and suggesting that students will choose the topics for study, thus, creating their own program. After convincing students, the teacher divides the class into two major groups of strong and weak and handles them the list of topics among which students choose the most interesting and add some definite number of topics not enlisted.
This division is likely to bring almost all necessary topics, since strong students are eager to gain knowledge and are accustomed to new challenges, and weak students can choose some easier topics, which are still important in terms of gaining knowledge and keeping the students interested in the study. Of course, the teacher has “veto” right to keep some topics which are impossible to avoid, though the teacher should explain the importance and values of these topics.
The fourth stage of “Team Cooperation Model” is dividing the students in smaller groups which are to prepare definite topics and present the material to the rest of the class, and the rest of students should ask questions prepared at home, thus all the teams are involved in the thorough studying of the topic, trying to win in a kind of competition. It is very important for teacher to guide the students and help them with providing material. The most difficult parts are to be presented by the teacher, since the students lack the necessary skill of presenting material so that every student obtained the necessary skills and knowledge. This stage presupposes the start with some easy topic for students to cope with the task and see positive results of the model.
Though this model can be very helpful it is necessary to remember that in different environments every model produces different effects, and being useful in one school it can completely fail in the other (Fullan, 2001, p.129).
Another very important point to keep in mind is the possibility of opposition to implement the pattern within the faculty, since people are likely to stick to the traditional methods and even though implementing new ones they still act in terms of their current practices (Kezar, 2001). Some teachers and principals can argue that students can never choose the necessary topics and, moreover, to present the material to other students, but supporters of the pattern under consideration can prove that this method is very effective, since students get involved and try to obtain more knowledge and they act under teachers’ observation, which is the key to success.
Reference
Anderson, D.L. (2009). Organization Development. The Process of Leading Organizational Change. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications, Inc.
Bennet, A. and Bennet, D. (2008). A new change model: Factors for initiating and implementing personal action learning. The Journal of Information and Knowledge Management Systems, 38 (4), 378-387.
Blase, J., Phillips, D.Y., Blase, J.J. (2010). Handbook of School Improvement: How High-Performing Principals Create High-Performing Schools. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.
Burke, W.W. (2007). Organization Change: Theory and Practice. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications.
Drago-Severson, E. (2009). Leading Adult Learning: Supporting Adult Development in Our Schools. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.
Fisher, K. (2000). Leading self-directed work teams: a guide to developing new team leadership skills. New York: McGraw-Hill Professional.
Fullan, M. (2001). The new meaning of educational change. New York: Teachers College Press.
Kezar, A.J. (2001). Understanding and facilitating organizational change in the 21st century: Recent research and conceptualizations. ASHE-ERIC Higher Education Report. 28 (4). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Kotter, J.P. (1996). Leading change. Boston: Harvard Business Press.
Sherman, R., Dinkmeyer, D.C. (1987). Systems of family therapy: an Adlerian integration. New York: Psychology Press.