World Class Schools
2 total works
The OIQ Factor: Raising Your School's Organizational Intelligence
by William Powell and Ochan Kusuma-Powell
Published 15 July 2013
This fascinating book, written by two experts in school improvement, is for teachers and school leaders who are looking for ways to raise the organizational intelligence quotient (OIQ) of their classrooms and their schools. It is ideal for those who perceive themselves as the facilitators of learning - for students, for colleagues and for themselves. If schools are to be transformed and transformative, teacher-learners will lead the way. Simplistic and superficial approaches to improving student learning simply don't work. School improvement isn't a technical challenge; it is an adaptive one. It requires a change not just in behaviors and skills, but in values, beliefs and even identity.
Many, perhaps even most schools, are not reaching their potential to be places of collective learning. The authors believe that one of the greatest impediments to realizing this vision is the deleterious effect of traditional systems of teacher evaluation. Rather than infantilizing teachers, we need to empower them. Traditional forms of teacher evaluation have failed. They are riddled with negative expectations about teachers and what motivates them. Taken together, these underlying assumptions form a pernicious cloud of counterproductive expectations that many teachers will "live down to". Inadvertently, the traditional system of teacher evaluation has created a vicious cycle of "self-sealing logic." It is now time for teachers to reclaim their profession, the process of which involves a relentless focus on adult learning: professional learning that is self-directed. The more dynamic and stimulating the culture of adult learning, the more dynamic and stimulating student learning will be.