Mental models, professional learning community, and the deep structure of school improvement: Case studies of service-learning.

摘要

This study offered an opportunity to explore what happens when seven elementary and middle schools in seven states attempt to foster a school-wide and lasting change in classroom practice. The schools all sought to implement service-learning as part of a nationwide network sponsored by the National Youth Leadership Council and funded by the DeWitt Wallace Readers' Digest Fund and the W. K. Kellogg Foundation. Service-learning is a experiential, largely youth-driven classroom pedagogy that integrates service into the academic curriculum and meets a genuine community need.;The conceptual framework for this study sought to identify the deep structure of school change by focusing on the role that teachers' instructional mental models and professional learning communities played in implementation. Implementation was defined as both breadth (i.e., teachers' use) and longevity (i.e., institutionalization).;The research design included both quantitative and qualitative measures. Three primary sources of data were used in the study---surveys given to all staff members, teacher and principal interviews with significant actors, and focus groups with key service-learning leaders and also non-users.;The salient variables differed for implementation breadth and longevity. In understanding why some teachers used service-learning and some do not, users and non-users were not different by age, gender, years at their current school, or teacher commitment. What differentiated service-learning users was their mental models about the nature of teaching and learning. This teacher group also had higher levels of efficacy and displayed a pattern of instructional practices (e.g., using the internet, cooperative groups) that was different than non-users. Teachers who used service-learning also enjoyed a significantly higher level of professional learning community, but that significance was overshadowed by the importance of their beliefs.;In the area of institutionalization, professional learning community but not mental models proved to be significant in supporting the long-term sustainability of service-learning. In a comparative case study of two schools, the stronger professional learning community was able to create greater agreement about a shared purpose, more support for change leadership, higher staff participation and ownership, more shared learning, less political conflict, less structural tensions, better communication, and more openness to change.