As more teachers begin realizing the need to rewrite curriculum there is also the very real realization that of how much work and planning is needed in order to successfully write and implement a new curriculum. It requires teachers to have a set of skills, a common goal, time to write, examples of what to do in class, etc. The Knoster Model was created to help teachers (and honestly anyone) in managing a complex change. Take a look at the model and we'll go through a quick overview of the steps. For a more in-depth explanation, take a look at the article I wrote for ACTFL's The Language Educator. Overview of the Graphic:
Essentially, this graphic provides teachers and department leaders with a formula for success. The formula is vision + skills + incentives + resources + action plan = success. Each one of those pieces is needed (not sequentially) in order to implement a successful change. As you move down the graphic you'll see that there are pieces that are missing and each one leads to a different result that is not success. Let's take a look at each formula. Missing Vision: When a vision is missing for a complex change it can lead to confusion for teachers. Essentially, this is the buy in that is needed for teachers to help make the change. They need to see why a change is needed, what you're envisioning for this change and what they should expect. When teachers understand why a change is being implemented, there is more buy-in especially for the hard work that is ahead of them. Without this clear vision, there is a lot of confusion that can derail a project because teachers don't understand the essential 'why' behind the project. Missing Skills: Teachers come to the table with varying degrees of skills. Some are meant to find authentic resources, others are meant to develop assessments and others have a critical lens for social justice. We should tap into all of those great potentials and let each of those teachers lead in the areas they shine. That's not to say that each teacher needs to develop each of those skills before you can move on. It's saying that as a collective group, there should be certain non-negotiable skills and certain variable skills. Those skills let teachers have the confidence they need to carry on with a complex change. When a teacher is asked to do something without possessing the necessary skills there will be great amounts of anxiety that can cause a curriculum writing project to halt all together. Missing Incentives: Incentives for teachers sounds like an oxymoron. Isn't this part of their job? Yes and no. It's part of their job to teach and develop curriculum but at the current rate of things there is no time to do this well while also balancing the thousands of other things we need to do well. This is where incentives come in. Giving teachers specific time in their day to work on curriculum or finding money to pay them for their time outside of the contractual school year are ways to give teachers incentives to work on this difficult task. Unfortunately, without a certain level of incentives, there will likely be resistance because teachers don't have the time to manage all of their day to day work along with this curriculum writing. See the Complex Change blog post I wrote about reactions to change for some ideas as well. Missing Resources: You can't ask a teacher to do something without providing them examples of what they should be doing. Period. Asking a teacher to use videos in class without explaining how is a recipe for disaster. Asking a teacher to teach grammar in context without resources is going to lead to all kinds of problems. Teachers need a toolbox of resources where they can see examples, models and guides to help them through the process. This is a huge part of the task and it also requires a certain amount of teacher training on how to develop or use those resources. When a teacher feels they have the resources they need, they feel confident. However, when those resources are missing there's a sense of frustration because they don't know what they are doing or what they are aiming to be able to do in the curriculum writing process. Missing Action Plan: You can have all of the visions, skills, incentives and resources in the world but if you have no plan of how to implement them it will never get off the ground. This action plan needs to be step by step and attainable to all teachers. There should also be input from the curriculum writing team so that you know that the steps are achievable and at an appropriate speed. Without this action plan, there is a strong likelihood of false starts happening where some people are ready to teach new curriculum while others still thought they had time to write or adjust to the idea. This model has been a good guiding principle for many districts as they manage rewriting curriculum in light of new state and national standards. Try planning in this way and let me know how it goes for your school/team!
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