An introduction to Learning Rounds Building a Learning Community
What is Learning Rounds? Learning Rounds is a new kind of collaborative, professional learning. It involves teams of staff observing and learning about and from teaching practice across the school. Observers create a base of evidence describing what they have seen. There are no evaluative comments or value-laden points. The team then discusses how they, their school or authority will use the data to bring about improvement. This evidence-based process leads to a continuous development of practice at personal, school and authority level. Staff learn together and both those observed and those observing develop and deepen their understanding of how to improve learning. As importantly, the process creates descriptive evidence that can generate effective change across a school or authority.
Why become involved in Learning Rounds? Because it makes a difference Learning Rounds can deliver high quality, sustainable improvements in the learning experiences of pupils in a range of contexts. It helps develop collegial practice and a positive ethos. Above all it is a motivating experience for participants. Because it builds learning communities Learning Rounds offers teams, schools, clusters and authorities a straightforward and effective way to build a learning community, owned and led by teachers, focussed on what matters.
Because it supports CPD for CfE Learning Rounds provides high quality CPD at 3 levels: 1. It promotes individual learning for each member of the observation team by building up understanding of what is effective learning and teaching 2. It develops the capacity of a school and authority to create a culture of collegiality and shared learning in order to improve the learning experience of pupils. 3. It creates new capacity to bring about system wide improvement
Because it’s affordable and sustainable Learning Rounds is not an event, but a professional learning process that can be embedded in practice. It offers a powerful and cost-effective way to deliver improvement in learning and teaching across schools and authorities. It does not require the services of visiting experts, but builds on the learning and experiences of a range of colleagues including establishment staff, authority personnel and other school partners. Learning is shared and collegiate. Schools and authorities have found different ways to achieve this, often at minimal or no financial cost.
Who does what in Learning Rounds? Initiator of LR Process This is the colleague or group of colleagues who initiate the Learning Rounds process. It is the role of the initiator to come up with a focus for the LR observation and to receive the descriptive feedback. The initiator also leads the Next Steps follow up discussion and planning. Initiators can be individuals, or teams. Examples of initiators include: local authority officers, a headteacher, a school Learning and Teaching group, cluster coordinates, CPD Coordinators, a group of subject or stage colleagues or a cross-sector an inter-service group who come together to enquire into a specific aspect of their work. Coordinator of LR Process This role, which can overlap with that of LR Initiator, involves organising the LR from the early discussions to managing the feedback process. It includes taking responsibility for the logistics, the scheduling and training, managing the day and collating the agreed feedback and presenting it to the LR initiator, be this an individual or group. Although Learning Rounds is a very collegiate and inclusive activity, it is essential that there is a nominated lead co-ordinator who has a comprehensive knowledge of the background to Learning Rounds and is familiar with the support materials and reference documents.
Observers The key learners in Learning Rounds are the team of observers. Observers learn from the practice they observe, often finding their perceptions both validated and challenged. Above all observing combined with the group discussions which follow, creates deeper understanding around the process of learning and teaching, especially on the learning experiences of pupils, and the process of effective change leadership. It is useful to have a mixed group who can bring diversity of experience and different perspectives. Members of the group are required to refrain from evaluative comment when involved in group discussion around the observed data. Examples of Observer Groups can include: staff from the same school in mixed discipline or age & stage groups, PTs from a range of schools in an authority, staff from cluster schools including special and early years establishments, mixed groups of school staff, including senior management and authority personnel, mixed groups of school/FECollege staff and other stakeholders – for example, psychologists, visiting specialists.
Observed Colleagues Colleagues volunteer to be observed. The Learning Rounds protocol means that there is no evaluation of the individual and the practice observed is described in non-evaluative language. There is no individual feedback. A composite set of descriptive data is drawn from the observations of many segments by the observation teams and is fed back to the LR initiator. Many colleagues who have volunteered have found the model valid and interesting and have become involved as observers in the next Learning Rounds. In some schools most colleagues have been both the observed and the observer and this has proved a very fruitful model in terms of prompting and sustaining systemic change. Video case studies The National CPD Team has created 2 short videos outlining Learning Rounds in Priorsford and Irvine Royal Academy which may be of interest. Click the links below to watch the videos
Priorsford Primary
Irvine Royal
More information Visit the National CPD Team blog posts on Learning Rounds Join the LR community on Glow contact cpdanswers@ltscotland.org,uk