Pre-planning
As envisioned, the programme would be carried out in two phases. The first would involve the Middle School and Senior School Technology teachers, including the Middle School Coordinator. The second would involve the Years 1 to 6 classroom teachers, including the Primary School Coordinator.
Initially, a core group of seven teachers were involved in the project; over the whole programme all of the school's Technology and primary school teachers were directly involved.
Before work could begin on plotting out the framework of the strategic plan, several preliminary actions had to be taken and others set in motion. In some cases these were relatively simple and clearly-defined; others were longer term, requiring shifts in attitudes or teaching approaches; still others are on-going, in which the process has become an end in itself.
External Facilitator Cliff Harwood came in to guide and oversee the process. One of his earliest steps was to establish a professional learning community in the department. Before the teachers could develop and share a common vision for change, Cliff believed that a climate of professional trust and respect had to be established among the participants.
Establishing a professional learning community required the commitment of the teachers to a new level of professional interaction based on a genuine respect for the professional abilities of their peers and for their contribution to individual student learning.
"They got down to having professional conversations, as opposed to social or administrative conversations, where they actually talked about student learning," said Cliff.
Before work could begin in earnest on developing the strategic plan, it was necessary to establish a baseline of common understandings of Technology amongst the group, Cliff interviewed each teacher to establish exactly where he or she was at in terms of their understanding of the Technology curriculum and undertook an audit of what they were teaching.
