5301-4.Week 4 Reflection

This week's text referred to a handful of methods to use when seeking to explore, support, and sustain change (presumably for the better) within a setting such as education.  The four methods were: Force Field Analysis; the Delphi Method; the Nominal Group Technique; and the CARE Model.  I appreciate learning about new methods such as these.  It’s like buying a new tool that you can add to your toolbox for later use.  The goals of education are fairly common, but the methods needed to arrive at the destination need to vary depending on the people you are working with.  I was thinking about how I could use each of these methods for previous and even anticipated areas of staff inquiry (such as my action research project).  I recently talked to a colleague (a fellow band director who is now a principal at a K-3 elementary building that is in the first weeks as a school with a balanced calendar) who shared how the idea of a balanced calendar first came onto their radar.  It started at a staff meeting where he asked the staff to fill out a 7-question survey regarding their mission/vision and where they are at as a school and a staff in striving to achieve their mission/vision (a modification of the Delphi Method).  He shared the comments with his staff.  About 8 comments spoke towards or specifically about looking at a year round calendar.  The staff’s ownership began to take root as the concept of a balanced calendar began to blossom.  The projects that I have been associated with that brought true results and were the most worthwhile were the projects that utilized some form of strategies similar to what was shared in this week’s text.