Learning to Think and Talk from Evidence: Developing System-wide Capacity for Learning Conversations

Abstract

The requirement for educators to meet recent policy mandates in the USA have provided major challenges for educators as they have found their jobs being redefined, in part, through an obligation to use evidence for accountability and improvement purposes. Sue Lasky, Gene Schaffer and Tim Hopkins provide a compelling account of the gap between the policy mandates and the reality of developing the skills of educators to meet them while continuing to run dis- tricts and schools and to teach the students within them. The conversations in this chapter take place over a weekend of professional development in the use of data for schooling improvement. In this supported environment, these committed educators learn new vocabulary and ways of thinking. Listening into these conversations, however, allows us to identify what more needs to happen for data to be used in ways likely to enhance professional learning about how to improve the quality of schools and the teaching and learning that takes place within them. K-12