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Critical Friends Groups
Purpose and Work
By John R. Passarini Ed.D.
A major component of the
Disney American Teacher Program is a significant commitment to
Professional Development. Disney has collaborated with The National
School Reform Faculty, sponsored by the Harmony School Education
Center in Bloomington Indiana to instruct all of the Disney American
Teacher Honorees to build Critical Friends groups as a Vehicle for
Improving Student Learning. I was fortunate to be a recipient of
this instruction. The National School Reform Faculty (NSRF) is
rooted in four beliefs:
- That school people,
working together, can make real and lasting improvements in their
won schools;
- That teachers and
administrators must help each other turn theories into practice
and standards into actual student learning;
- That the key to this
effort is the development of a “learning environment” based on
public, collaborative examination of both adult and student work;
- That to create this
community, practitioners need high-quality training and sustained
support.
At the heart of NSRF’s
program are the concepts of Facilitative Leadership, Responsive
Facilitation, and Critical Friendship. Critical Friendship, an
essential ingredient for learning communities, is best achieved
through providing deliberate time and structures to promote adult
growth that is directly linked to student learning. One common
example of this work is Critical Friends Groups, or CFGs. The
purpose of a CFG is to support educators’ professional development
in order to improve student learning. The learning is done within
the context of a professional learning community with colleagues.
The focus of a CFG is
often in the form of a question. For example, What do we want to
focus on in order to improve our practice so that student learning
increases and the achievement gap closes? Therefore, within the
professional learning community, we utilize tools, strategies and
insights that help us acquire the knowledge, skills and perspectives
we need to address the question(s) we have about our practice. The
tools required to achieve these goals are;
- Present consultancy
dilemmas;
- Examine / learn from
student work, as well as other data focused on student learning;
- Do peer observations
and then debrief;
- Engage in text-based
discussions;
- Examine teacher /
educator work.
I am prepared and eager
to work with your school or district to develop CFGs that will
improve student learning. To contact me just click on the link to
my
mailto:jpass33@earthlink.net
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Dr.
John R. Passarini
