Assessment
The purpose of any
school is to provide a quality education and its prime responsibility is to
ensure that students have opportunities to learn. If there are factors that are
affecting the learning process then they need to be dealt with. For the past
three years, our school has been exploring brain based learning. As the brain
in seventy eight percent water dehydration impairs “attention, critical
thinking, learning and memory” (Jensen,2007, 73,). It was decided by the administration that
students needed to drink water to increase student performance. The brain based
approach emphasizes much on water and there are many studies to support this.
The administration used this “to create a sense of rational for the change process
(Dr. Bligh)
Culture
The school believes
that students need to stay in class to learn. There has been a system in place
for many years that allows students to leave class, in emergency situations,
with a green hall pass. This system is
part of the schools culture and every teacher follows this system. New staff
members are also made aware of this. This has also been built into our teacher
appraisal system i.e. when an evaluator is present, they will watch how many
students leave the classroom and why. With new initiative, some changes would need
to be made to the culture.
Vision
There were many
meetings and professional development sessions associated with brain based learning
and each one reinforced the same idea: a dehydrated brain performs poorly. The
majority of teachers all understood and accepted the need for change. There were some that were skeptical of the
whole idea but played along as administrators created minor levels of anxiety
by saying that they would note this during walk through evaluations. (Hitt,
Miller & Colella, 2009)
Plan
With the new knowledge,
the administration knew it had to make changes to the hall pass system.
Teachers were told that if students needed to drink water then they should be
issued with a hall pass to allow them to do that. Hall monitors and Assistant
Principals would monitor students to ensure discipline. Water bottles would be
provided by the Principal on state test days. The library, cafeteria and
vending machines would sell bottled water to the students.
Implementation
At first, things went
smoothly. It seemed the change was a success. Teachers were issuing hall passes
to students who wanted or needed water. Hall monitors and APs were making sure
that discipline was kept at all times. The administrators walked through
classrooms to make sure teachers allowed students to access water during the
period.
The problems first
started with business classes. Normally these classes did not any liquid into
their classes as spillage on the equipment would be problematic. With the new
vision in place, they were told to follow suit. Students started bringing water
bottles into the classes and within the first week water spillage had caused
damage to some equipment. In other parts of the school, water bottles and lids
were littering hallways and classrooms. Teachers were complaining that they
were spending a lot of time picking up bottles and lids. Some students were
constantly keeping them in their mouths like feeding bottles, which was
becoming a distraction. Teachers felt that they spent more time writing passes
than teaching. The other major problem was that some students would ask for a
hall pass to go to the water fountain and instead meet up with friends in the
hallway. Increase water consumption also increased restroom breaks. Due to these
physical altercations between students increased, especially in restrooms where
APs and hall monitors were not present.
Institutionalizing
The change never
reached this point. Within a few weeks, administrators made the announcement
that hall passes would again be kept to a minimum; students would not be
allowed out of the classroom unless it was an emergency. Although, the
administration did not admit it openly, the teachers “read between the lines
for real messages and their true intent” (Lee, 2008, 24). Teachers understood the change to be a
failure. Students were not allowed to leave the classroom to drink water. The
problem with the water bottles was deemed a classroom management issue and teachers
were left to deal with it.
How could the above
situation improve?
I believe the change
was valid and necessary. I think the problem was with the plan and the
implementation. Firstly, students should have been reminded that they need to
drink water between passing periods. As each period is only 50 minutes,
students do not need to take water into classrooms with electrical equipment.
There should a recycling bin, for plastic bottles, available in the hallways
and classrooms. In the classroom, students should be told to keep their water
bottles in their back packs and should only take them out when necessary. Every
teacher should ensure before the end of class that all trash has been taken
care of. Administrators can provide incentive to senior students for taking
responsibility of the trash i.e. a contribution, from the Principal, to the
prom fund.
I think the
administration should have had “periodic team meetings” (Anderson, 2010) with
department heads to see how the change was progressing and to give feedback
from teachers about making changes to the plan.
I think when a change
fails and the leaders do not attempt to acknowledge the failure, it creates
resistance for any future changes. I think it is very important for leaders to
admit failure and propose alternative plan (Beach, 2006). In this case the
administration should have looked at the failing aspects of the plan and made
changes.
Would anybody have
taken a different approach?
Please note: water in the classroom was just a
small component of the brain based learning initiative. There were many other
changes that were more successful and our administration does a wonderful job
with many changes. I picked this one to discuss this week as it highlights some
problems with change in organization.
Beach, L. R. (2006). Leadership
and the art of change: a practical guide to organizational transformation.
Thousand Oaks, Calif.: Sage Publications.
Behavior: A Strategic Approach
(2nd ed.) by Hitt, M. A., Miller, C. C., & Colella, A. Copyright 2009 by
John Wiley & Sons Inc.
Jensen, E. (2007). Introduction to
brain-compatible learning(2nd ed.).
Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.
Lee, T. J. (2008). Actions speak loudly. Communication World, 25(4), 24–28.
Organization Development:
The Process of Leading Organizational Change by Anderson, D. L.
Copyright 2010 by Sage Publications,
Video Program: “Sustaining Change” Dr.
Michelle Bligh
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