Module 2 Prof Ed 11
Module 2 Prof Ed 11
Paulo (Title)
Panangipakaammo ti Leksyon
(Lesson Introduction)
What makes a great school? High educational standards and strong test
scores might be common responses to that question, but these elements alone are not the overall
arbiters of achievement. More often than not, school culture plays an overwhelming role. School
culture is the beliefs, perceptions, attitudes, and written and unwritten rules that influence every
aspect of a school. The importance of school culture goes deeper than rules and attitudes, however,
touching on aspects as varied as diversity, student wellbeing, and even the order within classrooms
and common areas. Being such a far-reaching concept, it falls upon every member of a school’s
staff to help promote an enriching school culture
Sociologists recognized the importance of school culture as early as the 1930s, but it wasn't
until the late 1970s that educational researchers began to draw direct links between the quality of
a school's climate and its educational outcomes. Harvard researcher Ron Edmonds, often regarded
as the father of the "effective schools" movement, included "safe, orderly climate conducive to
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learning" on his influential list of school level factors associated with higher student achievement.
"The school's atmosphere is orderly without being rigid," he observed, "quiet without being
oppressive, and generally conducive to the instructional business at hand."
School Culture
- norms, values, beliefs, traditions, and rituals built up over time. Deal and Peterson
(1998)
- set of norms, values and beliefs, rituals and ceremonies, symbols and stories that make
up the ‘persona’ of the school. Dr. Kent .D. Peterson (2010)
- beliefs, attitudes and behaviors that characterize a school in terms of how people treat and
feel about each other, the extent to which feel included and appreciated and rituals and
traditions reflecting collaboration and collegiality”. Gary Phillips (2001)
- beliefs, perceptions, relationships, attitudes, and written and unwritten rules that shape
and influence every aspect of how a school works.
- encompasses more concrete issues such as the physical and emotional safety of students,
the orderliness of classrooms and public spaces, or the degree to which a school
embraces and celebrates racial, ethnic, linguistic, or cultural diversity.
- results from both conscious and unconscious perspectives, values, interactions, and
practices, and it is heavily shaped by a school’s particular institutional history.
- the way things are done in the school (the personality of a school), the underlying
norms and values that shape patterns of behavior, attitudes and expectations between
stakeholders in the school.
1. Positive/Awesome Cultures
-are conducive to professional satisfaction, morale, and effectiveness, as well as to
student learning, fulfillment, and well-being.
• The individual successes of teachers and students are recognized and celebrated.
• Relationships and interactions are characterized by openness, trust, respect, and
appreciation.
• Staff relationships are collegial, collaborative, and productive, and all staff members
are held to high professional standards.
• Students and staff members feel emotionally and physical safe, and the school’s
policies and facilities promote student safety.
• School leaders, teachers, and staff members model positive, healthy behaviors for
students.
• Mistakes not punished as failures, but they are seen as opportunities to learn and
grow for both students and educators.
1. Social-Emotional Learning
A great deal of the discussion around academic achievement fails to mention a decidedly
non-academic form of learning: social and emotional learning (SEL). SEL helps students to
develop key traits – problem-solving, teamwork, character, and grit – that will serve them well in
the long-term. Self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills, and
responsible decision-making give students a firm foundation.
2. Reinforcement of Behaviors
Teaching positive and appropriate behavior, instead of punishing misbehavior is the goal
of Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports, or PBIS. An existing Multi-tiered System of
Support (MTSS) will go a long way toward addressing the needs of the entire school, thus
providing a better learning environment.
3. Strong Relationships
A typical day in the classroom can involve many activities, but among the most important
is building positive student-teacher relationships. A teacher who takes the time to engage with
students reaps the benefits of increased cooperation in the classroom. Once a school has clear,
schoolwide classroom rules and consequences, teachers should focus interactions on praise,
encouragement, and recognizing both small and large successes.
4. Staff Recognition
Rewarding teachers and staff by acknowledging their efforts often results in happier, more
effective team members and contributes to better workplace morale. Happier teachers and staff lead
to happier students and increased learning. Rewarding teachers and support staff while also
rewarding students is a win-win-win situation for all.
Awesome School Culture is a Team Effort. It may be tempting to place the responsibility of
creating an awesome school culture on just a handful of people. However, the truth is that it
involves everyone. Positivity should flow from administrators to staff to students and parents and
back again, much like waves on a shore. Everyone participates, and everyone benefits. For schools
with a PBIS initiative in place, awesome school culture is one of the byproducts of a consistent
focus on positivity.
According to Deal and Peterson, research suggests that a strong, positive culture serves
several beneficial functions, including the following:
• Rituals: celebrations and ceremonies, rites of passage, and shared quirks and mannerisms.
• Hero Making: role models, hierarchies, public rewards, and mentors.
• Storytelling: shared humor, common anecdotes, foundation myths, and both oral and
written history.
• Symbolic Display: decoration, artwork, trophies, and architecture.
• Rules: etiquette, formal rules, taboos, and tacit permissions.23
• Physical Safety. The physical environment must be safe, and welcoming, and must support
learning.
• Social Relationships. The school must encourage positive communication and interaction
among students, teachers, and the wider community.
• Emotional Environment. Students must feel emotionally supported to encourage high self-
esteem and a sense of belonging.
• Academic Support. The academic environment must be conducive to learning and
achievement for all students.
2. Negative/Toxic Cultures
Characteristics
1. No clear sense of purpose. If school administrators and teachers don't
share a common goal, they will work toward their own agenda, which will
eventually create conflict.
2. Hostile relations among staff, students, and parents. When elephants fight,
it's the grass that suffers. When the adults in the room fight, no one can focus well
on the most important thing: the students.
3. An emphasis on rules over people or mission. This issue is often created
at the district level. Teachers are more focused on the rules than on serving students
and feel they have little latitude to do their jobs.
4. An absence of honest dialogue. Principals who avoid difficult
conversations with teachers and address issues by reassigning the teacher or
changing a teacher's schedule aren't truly serving kids.
5. More self-preservation than collaboration. When self-preservation takes
priority over serving kids, it's difficult for good ideas and talented teachers to stick
around.
6. Active back channels over formal lines of communication. If more is
being said and accomplished in unofficial meetings after the staff meeting, it's a sign
that teachers and faculty don't trust each other. If the rumor mill controls everything,
it leaves an opening for people to make their own narratives. Whoever controls the
narrative controls your school culture.
7. Punishment instead of recognition, and rewards and behavior motivated
by the avoidance of punishment. If colleagues punish bad behavior and don't reward
good behavior, the culture encourages students and staff to do the minimum to avoid
getting punished, but not to excel.
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8. A palpable lack of safety. If people are afraid to speak up, they can't
address problems head on. When teachers aren't free to be vulnerable, they don't
feel safe in uncomfortable conversations.
9. A small group who controls the conversation. If a few dominant voices
control the culture of your school, toxicity thrives. It's imperative to find ways to
help everyone speak up.
10. An absence of risk taking. People are afraid to do what they feel is right
for kids because they're afraid to step away from the pack. If teachers try nothing
new, the kids are the ones who suffer.
1. Fundamental beliefs and assumptions, or the things that people at your school consider to be
true. For example: “All students have the potential to succeed,” or “Teaching is a team sport.”
2. Shared values, or the judgments people at your school make about those belief and assumptions
— whether they are right or wrong, good or bad, just or unjust. For example: “It’s wrong that some
of our kindergarteners may not receive the same opportunity to graduate from a four-year college,”
or “The right thing is for our teachers to be collaborating with colleagues every step of the way.”
3. Norms, or how members believe they should act and behave, or what they think is expected of
them. For example: “We should talk often and early to parents of young students about what it will
take for their children to attend college.” “We all should be present and engaged at our weekly
grade-level meetings.”
4. Patterns and behaviors/attitudes or the way people actually act and behave in your school. For
example: There are regularly-scheduled parent engagement nights around college; there is active
participation at weekly team curriculum meetings. (But in a weak culture, these patterns and
behaviors can be different than the norms.) If the attitude of the teachers is indicative of
disenchantment, apathy and dissatisfaction then his will undoubtedly be reflected in the school’s
culture.
The strategies are written under the assumption that a leader is in place which seeks to
change the culture of a school and is willing to work hard. It is important to note that many of these
strategies will require modifications along the way. Every school has its own unique challenges
and as such there is no perfect blueprint for refining school culture.
These general strategies are not the end all be all solution, but they can aid in the
development of a positive school culture.
Research strongly buttresses the central role of culture to school. All of these studies and
others point to the multiple ways school culture fosters improvement, collaborative, decision
making, professional development and student learning
While it might be tempting to dismiss the notion of school culture as too nebulous,
particularly when test scores and student-teacher ratios are prioritized as signs of achievement, the
truth is that improved school culture contributes to greater school success. Broadly speaking, when
school culture is strong, teachers and students have a greater incentive to strive for their maximum
potential. This is because their satisfaction, morale, and fulfillment all grow as school culture
blossoms.
Strong school culture breeds dedicated teachers. With the encouragement provided by a
healthy school, teachers are more likely to prioritize their professional development and aptitude
by improving their skills, expanding their base of knowledge, and connecting with their students.
Motivated teachers are more apt to tailor their approaches to students’ individualized learning needs
(where possible), better prepared to guide their students toward excellence, and more willing to
praise their students for a job well-done.
The list of benefits that a strong school culture can provide reflects the following:
Kyle Wagner, a former educator and founder of Transform Educational Consulting, laid
out pivotal strategies for building effective school culture, which are:
1. Planning a bridge program for new students and staff. Administrators should start by
introducing a school’s newcomers to the institution’s ethos and expectations as soon as
possible. This allows them to make an easy transition and fit in with the school culture.
2. Making school-wide goals visible. By making the school’s mission and goals publicly
accessible (as opposed to tucked away in a back office), the entire school can understand
and share in a similar purpose and work toward it collaboratively.
3. Keeping a loyal opposition. Through inviting constructive criticism, multiple viewpoints
are expressed, and school leaders can address deficiencies in their proposed policies.
4. Establishing collaborative networks. Seeking the aid of outside experts can help provide a
neutral point of view on a school’s challenges and introduce objective solutions for
improving school culture. The viewpoint of a trusted third-party can sometimes offer a
perspective no faction within the school could have conceived.
5. Holding school-wide rallies and assemblies. Daily gatherings of a school’s staff and student
body help further instill the idea that the school is a unit working toward shared goals, and
it offers an opportunity to build positivity through celebrating achievements and laying out
expectations.
• Behind Your Back: It’s a fun twist on gossiping. It can be done at the start of a staff meeting
or as a professional development exercise.
• Gratitude Board: Create a place in the teachers’ lounge or in the hallway where people can
post notes expressing their gratitude for each others’ actions.
• Sunshine Committee: Create a social committee at your school where a few “volunteers”
find ways to build staff morale and create positive events or activities throughout the year
for your school personnel. It can be simple ways of showing appreciation, building trust,
and adding fun to the day.
• Student Council Coffee Cart: Just decorate a book cart with a tablecloth and a vase of
flowers; add fresh coffee, tea or hot chocolate, and pastries. Have your student council
students go from classroom to classroom treating the teachers.
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• School-Wide Rallies: Consider celebrating achievements, creating traditions, or
reinforcing school values and personal student goals. It can build school spirit and unity as
well as showcase individual and school successes and strengthen school culture.
• Toot That Horn: You’re all aware that much of the media gives more coverage to the
negative than the positive. Unfortunately, it tends to get more attention. So, if you want to
improve your school culture, you must become a school success advocate and make
injecting positive school stories a goal. The positive stories that reflect the successes
happening in your classrooms every day are all around.
• Communicate Well: Look at each of your communication methods, including your school
website content, e-mails, phone messages, newsletters, social media, electronic signage,
and media contacts. If you don’t communicate, your audiences will fill in the blanks with
guesswork. Control the message and build a positive culture.
• Encourage, Inspire, and Motivate Daily: Educating is tough work. You're responsible for
outcomes without any control over the influences existing in a student’s life. But, it is well-
documented (and the reason people stay in the profession) that high-impact schools are the
ones that foster positive relationships between teachers and students.
• Keep Enemies Close: If you struggle with vocal opposition, one way to help your school
culture become strong and stay that way is to invite a few of those typically opposed
members to provide their opinion before you implement any new initiative. You may see
that this early involvement turns opponents into proponents.
• Help Parents Get Involved: An effective school culture needs parent
engagement. However, school personnel often misunderstand the challenges that keep
parents from getting involved or even showing up at school events (like parent conferences).
1) Problem: they feel like no one ever listens to them. Solution: survey your parents
to find out what is most valuable to them—what obstacles they face.
2) Problem: they are too busy with multiple jobs and children in several schools.
Solution: ask them how they prefer to be contacted, and use whatever works, including
phone calls, texting, or a home visit.
• Build Student Ownership: To involve students in building a strong school culture and
letting them leave their own positive mark on it,
Cultural differences are the various beliefs, behaviors, languages, practices and expressions
considered unique to members of a specific ethnicity, race or national origin. Some examples of
cultural differences as they pertain to the workplace include teachers who are younger or older than
their co-workers, employees who hold higher degrees than others in the workplace and individuals
who grew up in either metropolitan areas or small towns. It is said that employees often have more
similarities than they do differences, but those differences can sometimes outweigh the similarities.
While these various differences can create a more vibrant office, they can also lead to more than a
few problems resulting from culture clash.
Among the most important elements of cultural differences are power distance, uncertainty
avoidance, long term orientation, individualism and collectivism, and masculinity and feminity.
1. Trust and Confidence – Teachers believe that parents and leadership trust their professional
judgment and commitment to improve. They are encouraged to bring new ideas and have
reasonable autonomy around instructional planning and purchasing of resources.
2. Honest, Open Communication – Teachers own responsibility for their communications, strive
to speak to colleagues and administrators directly or tactfully when they have a concern. They feel
that disagreements are resolved in a constructive manner and criticism is an opportunity for self-
improvement.
3. Colegiality – teachers help each other and work together. They believe that they can learn from
colleagues and are confident they have knowledge to share too.
4. Caring, Celebration and Humor- As a faculty, they take time to show care for each other, have
ways of showing support throughout the year and even laugh and celebrate together, big or small
successes.
5. Experimentation – Teachers feel encouraged to experiment with new ideas and techniques and
are moved to always look for more effective ways of teaching.
6. Appreciation and Recognition – teachers believe that in the school, good teaching is honored
and recognized. People take time to recognize their work, notice the good job they do and take time
to recognize others.
7. Involvement in Decision Making – Teachers feel that people take time to listen to them, that
their input are important and their struggles are treated in serious manner.
8. High Expectations – teachers are held accountable to standards of practice and are expected to
practice collegiality and work together continually as educators.
9. Reaching Out to the Knowledge Base- Teachers believe that the school wants them to continue
growing and observe peers and invests on creative ways to facilitate learning from others and admit
that they do not know everything.
10. Tangible Support – Leaders give time and attention to the growth and development of teacher
and periodically give feedback to improve craft. Teachers are not afraid to ask questions.
11. Traditions – Teachers believe that school events leave them feeling that they belong to a
special community. Traditions allow everyone to stay connected as community.
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