Carol Jones
Monash University
This article is based on a series of interviews that Carol Jones, in her capacity as editor of PEEL SEEDS did with teachers who had been running in-service activities about PEEL (Ed).
"Hell, yes!" said Rod Greer of Stawell Secondary College when asked whether running his first PEEL in-service was a big step. "To have someone come up and ask you to run an in-service at a Geography Teachers Conference . . . well."
In Learning from the PEEL Experience, Ian Mitchell and Jeff Northfield argue that our current educational system is not "adequately tapping into the potential expertise of teachers in the areas of educational research, innovation and change," (page 146). They go on to say that "innovations are rarely designed around the assumption that teachers will contribute important and original components, and teachers are rarely confident of their ability to do so."
Perhaps this failure to recognize teachers as experts is what discourages many from sharing their knowledge and experience with their colleagues in other schools. When first approached to take that in-service, Rod Greer described himself as feeling inadequate to the task. He thought, "I’m not an expert. There’s all these gurus in education." He did it anyway!
As PEEL has been classroom based, when requests for in-service activities have arisen they have often been made directly to schools. Robyn Speedy of Presbyterian Ladies’ College describes herself as a fairly extroverted person but she found running her first in-service a big step, as PEEL ideas were fairly new then and that made it even more risky.
David Burke of Portland Secondary College found it an enormous step. He was invited to workshop the entire staff of another school. He said yes straight away and later wondered what he’d got himself into. David took an even greater risk when he abandoned all his planning after a sleepless night in the motel, the night before the workshop. David decided that he wanted to encourage ownership from the outset so he began by posing the question, "What are some things that worry you about your students’ learning?" and took it from there. He found that he ended up covering much of the material he’d planned anyway.
Ian Mitchell, now of Eumemmering Secondary College, is concerned to tailor in-services to the group. He likes to know who they are, what previous contact, if any, they’ve had to PEEL ideas, why he’s been asked there, and where they see themselves heading. These days he always includes a workshop of activities in any in-service as well. In earlier days the repertoire of procedures people had already trialled was much smaller.
Robyn has focused very much on "What do we do?" activities in the workshops she has run . . . "things people can see would work for them."
Rod Greer feels that he probably tried to take things too quickly in the first couple of workshops he ran. "People might have found it threatening to their own position." Now he tries to "draw people to the point where they say, "I can do what I’m doing better." He feels that the poor learning tendencies are the "crunch" of PEEL.
David would agree with this. He finds that the concerns teachers express in workshops relate very closely to these poor learning tendencies, particularly passive learning.
Mitchell and Northfield also observe that one early in-service was well received because "the Laverton teachers were highly credible because they shared successes and failures from their own classrooms. This has been a consistent outcome of teacher-led in-services." (page 141).
All the teachers interviewed for this article agree. Ian Mitchell says, "You’re being provocative so you pull failures from your own classes." Robyn explains that saying, "I did this last week," or "I’m going to do this next week", is particularly effective. And according to David, not being a polished presenter can actually be a plus because you come across as being sincere. "The anecdotes are my own," he says.
All agreed that running in-services has benefited their professional lives both tangibly and intangibly. It has added to their job satisfaction by leading them into new areas. Rod says that it has expanded the way he sees his job. He feels it has given him a broader perspective on education and that his has made him a better teacher. Ian writes in Learning from the PEEL Experience", "Another benefit of doing in-service work is the intensive reflection on one’s own practice that is often involved in the planning." (page 25)
Of course you can’t expect miracles after a single workshop but Ian says he always comes away with the feeling that the ideas have touched at least one or two people. But to go further than that needs a commitment from the people involved. "Great workshops don’t go any further unless there’s complete follow-up from the teachers and students involved." Someone from that school needs to be prepared to take on a leadership role. Robyn also warns that a one-off in-service can be dangerous because people may think, "Oh, that’s PEEL, we’ve done it. Whereas it’s such a huge thing."
If you are thinking of taking that first step, David Burke’s words might be encouraging. "People fear things. They fear talking to a lot of people. Once they step across that line the risks they are taking will be well rewarded."
Copyright © PEEL Publications, 2002