The Importance of Reflection in SBM/PLC Action Planning

Video Transcription

In this tutorial, we'll explore the importance of continuous reflection, and I will model the reflection process for you using a sample school improvement plan and action plan. Let's get started.

Let's begin by discussing why it is so important to continuously reflect on our existing action plans. In very basic terms, continuous improvement requires reflection on our action plans. If we don't reflect on the implementation of our action plans, we might make the same mistakes over and over again, which limits our capacity for improvement. In fact, Brookfield's critical thinking theory identifies reflection as a necessary process that makes both inquiry and change possible.

There are several elements that our reflection on our action plans should include. First, we need to reflect on the alignment between the action plan and the vision, mission, and goals that the plan was intended to be aligned to. Second, our reflection needs to include both time and opportunities for adjustment or revision of our action plan based on a review of the most current data and information and feedback.

And finally, we need to evaluate whether the vision and the mission that we are aligned to are still relevant. This is especially important to consider if there has been any type of a shift in the leadership or teaching staff or demographics in your school or district.

So I would like to model the reflection process for you. To do so, I will be referring to this sample action plan that was developed in alignment with this set of school improvement plan missions, visions, and goals. Feel free to pause the video to take a closer look at the vision, mission, and goal chart or at the sample action plan.

So when we are reflecting on our existing action plans, the first element that we wanted to include in our reflection was a review of the alignment. Recall that this action plan was developed based on the team-level goal that focused on having teachers implement two new instructional strategies that would make use of classroom technology in order to enhance instruction and improve student achievement.

So as a team, we would then look at the individual steps in this action plan to make sure that we felt strongly that all of the various steps were truly in alignment with that goal. One potential concern that a teacher might bring up during this reflection would be that the training that the group is attending is focused on technology-rich instructional strategies and resources. But it doesn't indicate anything about whether this training was also focused on strategies that would improve student achievement, for example.

So there may have been a concern that these were sort of tricks that educators could use to make use of the classroom technology, but maybe they weren't research-based strategies. Maybe they weren't particularly impactful. In fact, perhaps at the November 17th meeting the PLC might have found in that formative assessment data and in the student feedback that these strategies weren't particularly effective. And so the team might want to modify their approach moving forward based on this area of misalignment, that there was maybe too much focus on the technology and not enough of a focus on making sure that the strategies being implemented were going to serve students and make sure that teachers were helping to improve student achievement.

So in that second element in the reflection, making sure that there are time and opportunities built in to adjust or revise the action plan, clearly that is present here. On November 17th and on December 9th, the PLC had scheduled in time to analyze the data and feedback and then to make any changes that might be deemed necessary as a result of the feedback in the data.

The final element of the reflection is considering whether the vision and the mission are still relevant. And considering that we just have a time frame of a couple of months here in this action plan, it's probably pretty unlikely that the vision and mission would have already become out of date or irrelevant. But perhaps when it gets closer to the end of the school year, the team would want to do some more reflecting on this idea and just ensure that everyone is on the same page and headed in the same direction.

So when the team has identified an adjustment or a change that needs to be made, one potential resource for facilitating that adjustment is the SMART acronym for writing SMART goals. The team can always refer to this acronym in order to write clear and concise goals that are in perhaps better alignment with the overarching goals of the PLC or the school or the district.

So in the case of my reflection here, when the team is considering maybe putting more of a focus on impactful educational strategies or instructional strategies, they might refer to the S part of the acronym, the specific part of the goal. And they may specify that not only do we want teachers to implement two new instructional strategies, but we want to make sure that those are research-based, high-impact instructional strategies, perhaps some of those strategies identified by Marzano or by John Hattie. And this would help refine that SMART goal and make sure that teachers are having the most possible impact on student achievement.

Obviously, my reflection was a hypothetical one. The process of reflecting collaboratively with the members of your team on the topic of your action plans can be a very valuable experience. The reflection process should improve your team's approach and should ultimately result in improving the outcomes of the initiative.

This process of reflection and making adjustments as necessary should happen both at the individual level and at the team level. Reflection will have a great deal of impact on your team in terms of capacity building, implementation, sustainability, and continuous improvement efforts. Continuously monitoring your progress and then reflecting on that progress can be applied to all of these situations and can help you to be more effective in all of your practices. So for all of these reasons, individual reflection and team reflection are necessary components of the continuous improvement efforts that are part of your PLC or of your site-based management team.

So now it's time for you to stop and reflect. Reflect individually and, if possible, with your team on the topic of your current action plans. As you reflect on how this new information can be applied, you may want to explore the Additional Resources section that accompanies this video presentation. This is where you'll find links to resources chosen to help you deepen your learning and explore ways to apply your newly acquired skill set. Thanks for joining me today. Have a great day.