Observing Leadership Roles in Shared Decision Making: A Preliminary Analysis of Three Teams

Despite recent attention to shared decision making as an approach to school reform, relatively little research has been conducted on the topic, and much of that research has relied on interviews and field notes, rather than systematic observation of team functioning. This investigation integrated systematic observations and interviews. The purpose of this study was to describe the leadership behaviors exhibited by principals, team leaders, and other team members (teachers, parents, students). We defined leadership according to team member contributions to decisions (decision content, decision-making processes, and statement function, such as initiating topics and making suggestions). This investigation used a comparative case study approach to examine the shared decision-making teams from three schools during the teams' first year. Results revealed variability in leadership across the three teams. Two teams were characterized by positive group process procedures with active involvement from a number of team members. A third team was dominated by the building principal with minimal input from most team members. This team appeared to be less productive than the other two. These findings are viewed in relationship to prior research literature concerning the ambiguity of team members' roles, lack of clarity concerning the power of shared decision-making teams, and the impact of school vision. Suggestions are made for future research.     

General and Special Educators' Perceptions of Preassessment-Related Activities and Team Members

The purpose of this study was to investigate the status of school preassessment teams in a midwestem state. Specifically, the study sought to determine perceptions of actual and preferred preassessment-related team activities and preferred permanent team members. This was accomplished through a preassessment questionnaire, distributed to randomly selected state-certified general and special educators, which was designed to identify general and special educators' actual and preferred rankings of preassessment-related activities. Survey results revealed agreement between general and special educators about their preferred permanent team members. Results of this investigation are discussed relative to their relation to prior studies of preassessment teams and directions for future research.     

Assessing the Acceptability of Problem-Solving Procedures by School Teams: Preliminary Development of the Pre-Referral Intervention Team Inventory

The responses of 472 educators were used to develop the Pre-Referral Intervention Team Inventory (PRITI), a 24-item Likert scale. Principal axis analyses resulted in a one-dimensional structure with high internal consistency that explained 57% of the total variance. Acceptability of team procedures was strongly and positively correlated with a measure of team members' interaction practices and negatively related to professional stress. These results suggest that (a) pending further analyses and development, the PRITI may prove useful for assessing school staff acceptability perceptions of pre-referral team consultation procedures and (b) team process variables are important predictors of the acceptability of pre-referral team consultation procedures to educators. Directions for future research are proposed.     

Lessons Learned From a Consultation Process Overseas

In this commentary I discuss three international school consultation experiences, highlighting aspects that serve as lessons for professional development and the implementation of effective and helpful strategies that meet the needs of children and youth in school systems. Relationships developed and maintained between the consulting teams and the consultees were oriented toward three intervention goals: psychoeducational services, well-being in adolescents, and instructional procedures. In general, the projects described in the three articles were successful and support the utility of international systems-level consultation as a means of helping improve the quality of outcomes in the school contexts in which they worked. I end my commentary by providing some general observations and questions to be considered when engaging in international school consultation.     

Decision-making in interdisciplinary treatment teams

Interdisciplinary teams for the treatment of child abuse and neglect are becoming more common. Studies have shown that decisions made by groups who have had the opportunity to discuss their perspectives are more accurate than judgments made by individuals. Why this may be true is not clear. The purpose of the present study was to discover the procedures an interdisciplinary treatment team uses in making decisions. A single interdisciplinary incest treatment team was observed over a 15-month period. Open-ended interviews with team members also were conducted. Findings show that the interdisciplinary treatment team made its decisions using procedures analogous to procedures used in social research to establish reliability and validity. The decision-making process of the team was characterized by multiple observations of family members by multiple observers in multiple settings over time. This decision-making process is similar to processes used by many other treatment teams. The findings of the present research, then, are likely to be generalizable to other teams whose decision-making processes are similar.     

Integration of Team-Building Skills into Food Chemistry Team Research Projects

ABSTRACT: As professionals, food scientists are expected to communicate effectively in interpersonal and team contexts. The objective of this study was to evaluate the impact of structured teambuilding activities on the development of interpersonal and team-work skills through team research projects in a food chemistry course. Team-building skills and the assessment of team performance were integrated into team research projects for a food chemistry course. Through these activities, teams exhibited the characteristics of effective teams. Students recognized that the development of good teamwork and communication skills are important for their future careers.     

湖南省篮球传统项目学校运动队建设现状调查——基于2011年湖南省中学生篮球比赛的调查

[摘要]为了解湖南省篮球传统校运动队的建设情况,对参加2011年湖南省中学生篮球比赛的21支球队进行了调查研究,结果表明各队均坚持常年训练和参加省市两级的中学生篮球比赛,但每年参加的比赛偏少,水平不高。影响其发展的主要原因是队伍构成不尽合理、学训矛盾突出和经费投入严重不足。建议制订针对性的发展规划,加强教练员和运动员的培养力度,加大经费投入力度以促进篮球传统校运动队的发展。     

Interprofessional partnerships involving school counsellors for children with special needs: a broad based systematic review using the PRISMA framework

Interprofessional educational partnerships can include a diverse group of helping professionals involved in consultation at both the school and community levels. Central to these partnerships should be school counsellors; this systematic review sought to understand the dynamics of these partnerships using the PRISMA framework. The review found that the role school counsellors can play on these teams varies from leader to convener but the specificity in terms of outcomes was missing. Noteworthy is the number of conceptual pieces, which is interpreted as researchers developing models that need additional testing. Future research should put the conceptual models available to directional testing; authors should include more information about the team’s development and each person’s role; and more attention should be paid to the outcomes of these team-based approaches.     

Understanding the Everyday Practice of Individualized Education Program Team Members

The Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act of 2004 states that individualized education program (IEP) teams are composed of members with distinct identities, roles, expertise, and histories. Although team members must work together to implement educational and related services for learners with special needs, little is known about how these members actually accomplish this throughout the school year. This study examined the practice of members on two elementary IEP teams through analysis of data from a yearlong case study using the communities of practice (CoP) framework. Contrary to idealized conceptualizations of IEP team practice as being equitable and occurring in meetings, the practice of members on both teams was controlled by a few team members and occurred during concise exchanges throughout the day. These findings underscore opportunities for innovating the practice of IEP team members to improve services for students with special needs.     

Effects of Consultation on Professional Learning Communities

ABSTRACT

School psychologists can impact student outcomes by consulting with teams around data. The current study investigated the effects of consultation with Professional Learning Communities (PLC) teacher teams. The study included four teacher teams, observing their PLC practices and providing consultation. Each team was observed with a PLC-implementation rubric using a multiple baseline design, including baseline, intervention, and maintenance phases. The specific areas of observation on the PLC Implementation Rubric were “How Effective Teams Work,” “What Students Need to Know and Do,” and “Assessment for/of Learning.” The data were visually analyzed and a nonoverlap of all pairs effect size was computed. During the intervention phase, each team chose an item to focus on from the same observation strand. Therefore, the data were analyzed on the single strand and the three strands taken together. The results from the study indicated a change in PLC implementation occurred when consultation was added, and the change was maintained after consultation ended. However, the improvements for each team during the intervention and maintenance phases were small in comparison to the baseline phase. In addition, teams displayed greater improvements in implementation fidelity on the single strand in comparison to the three strands taken together. Future research is needed to determine the impact of consultation with PLCs on student outcomes. Implications for research and practice, limitations, and future directions are discussed.     

Enhancing School-Based Mental Health Services With a Preventive and Promotive Approach to Universal Screening for Complete Mental Health

Universal screening for complete mental health is proposed as a key step in service delivery reform to move school-based psychological services from the back of the service delivery system to the front, which will increase emphasis on prevention, early intervention, and promotion. A sample of 2,240 high school students participated in a schoolwide universal screening to identify behavioral and emotional distress as well as personal strengths. School psychologists, as part of a multidisciplinary team, coordinated the use of these screening data to engage in preventive consultation with administration to make decisions regarding the refinement and expansion of mental health service delivery options. Schoolwide and individual student prevention and intervention activities were tailored according to screening results. The roles of the school psychologist and multidisciplinary team members are discussed as critical components of this approach to service delivery change. Implications for future consultation research, practice, and training are provided.     

Piloting a dispersed and inter-professional Lesson Study using technology to link team members at a distance

This article presents an evaluation of distance technology used in a novel Lesson Study (LS) approach involving a dispersed LS team for inter-professional purposes. A typical LS model with only school teachers as team members was modified by including university-based lecturers with the school-based teachers, using video-conferencing and online video sharing. The aim was to examine the experiences of using video-conferencing and video transfer technology to support the use of LS procedures to connect team members between schools and university. The meetings from two LS teams (primary and secondary) were recorded and analysed using a discourse analysis framework, and team members were interviewed after the LS cycle. Despite some technical difficulties, the communication between the dispersed members of the teams was largely smooth and successful. Extending LS teams and practice to include non school teachers, using distance-linking technology, can more effectively support teachers, while reducing the practical constraints of bringing other professionals into the LS team.     

A STATEWIDE STUDY OF SCHOOL-BASED INTERVENTION TEAMS: CHARACTERISTICS,MEMBER PERCEPTIONS,AND OUTCOMES

Surveys were administered to members of approximately 400 school-based teams participating in a statewide initiative promoting intervention-based assessment. Team members provided information about their teams' demographic characteristics, communication, leadership, and decision-making processes. Results were analyzed in terms of team features and characteristics as well as relationships between these features and several outcomes, including school faculty/staff perceptions of the acceptability of teams; ratings of school support for, and teams' mastery of, the consultative intervention-planning process; number of “traditional” multifactored evaluations conducted in the school; and actual student goal attainment. Significant relationships were found between structural and procedural aspects of team functioning and a number of these outcomes but not with student goal attainment. Results are discussed in terms of future research directions.     

The problems facing multidisciplinary teams: As perceived by team members

The present study investigated the problems that team members perceive to exist on multidisciplinary teams. One hundred forty-seven team members on 40 teams from four urban school districts completed a questionnaire that presented an exhaustive listing of potential team problems. Results indicated that the two most pressing areas of concern for urban, multidisciplinary team members were: too constrictive a set of team roles and goals, and teams functioning under extensive pressure with minimal support. Strategies to reduce problems and enhance team functioning are presented.     

Effects of a data use intervention on educators’ use of knowledge and skills

Data use is increasingly considered to be important for school improvement. One promising strategy for implementing data use in schools is the data team intervention. Data teams consist of teachers and members of the school leadership team, who collaboratively analyze and use data to solve an education-related problem at the school. This mixed-methods study aims at measuring the effects of working in a data team on the application of data use in ten secondary schools by using questionnaires and case study interviews. The results show that at the end of the intervention period, educators on the data teams did not apply data use more often for accountability actions, but seemed to be more aware of data use for school development and instruction. Furthermore, it seemed that the teachers made a start at applying data use for instructional actions.     

Contemporary practices in school psychology: A national survey of roles and referral problems

Eight hundred school psychologists who were members of the National Association of School Psychologists were mailed a survey designed to assess their roles, types of referrals, consultation practices, and crisis team involvement. Three hundred seventy (49%) completed surveys were analyzed. Assessment was the most common role followed distantly by consultation. Academic problems were the most frequent type of referral with reading being the most common concern. Of the behavioral referrals, externalizing problems were more frequent than internalizing concerns. Behavioral consultation was the most common model used but less than half of respondents follow all of the stages. Only forty percent use an evaluative component in consultation. A majority of the informants had some involvement with their schools' crisis team. Implications of these findings for training, professional development, and future roles are discussed. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Implementing Conjoint Behavioral Consultation for African American Children from a Low-SES,Urban Setting

This study investigated the effectiveness of conjoint behavioral consultation (CBC) for addressing externalizing behavior concerns in African American children at home and school in a low-socioeconomic status (SES), urban setting. A small-n, multiple-baseline design was employed across participants. Three of the six caregivers were unable to follow through with the consultation process, constituting a 50% completion rate. The three remaining caregivers implemented the empirically supported interventions with moderate integrity. Caregiver and teacher ratings showed that the procedural acceptability of CBC was high throughout the consultation process. The classroom teachers consistently found the behavioral interventions highly acceptable; however, the caregivers' perceptions of the interventions initially were less favorable and improved as the interventions progressed. Clinically significant gains were observed across settings for all children. Consultants should be prepared to modify consultation and intervention procedures to enhance social validity, integrity, and effectiveness with caregivers of low-SES.     

Direct Behavioral Consultation in Head Start to Increase Teacher Use of Praise and Effective Instruction Delivery

Chronic disruptive behaviors during early childhood are associated with many poor developmental outcomes including, but not limited to, school dropout and conduct disorder during adolescence. Much is known regarding effective intervention procedures for disruptive classroom behaviors by preschool children. Unfortunately, evidence-based intervention procedures may not be implemented with integrity in applied settings. Direct behavioral consultation may increase teacher intervention integrity because of direct training procedures used with teachers and students during routine classroom activities. This study evaluated a nondisruptive direct training method for increasing Head Start teachers' use of praise and effective instruction delivery. Results indicated that the direct training procedure implemented during routine instructional activities resulted in increased use of praise and effective instruction delivery that maintained following training. Additionally, increased use of praise and effective instruction delivery resulted in reductions in children's disruptive classroom behavior.     

Implementing change: an autobiographical case study of introducing a technology innovation within a West Midlands HEI

abstract

This article outlines the evaluation of student‐led group work as the major vehicle for a professional course in education (PGCE whole school studies) which relies heavily on work‐based learning. Group work is found to be an effective means of enhancing reflective practice. Problems of engaging whole group responsibility for the tasks and activities can be effectively managed through appropriate structuring of the learning experiences, induction programmes in team work, review and tutor facilitation. Two issues are identified as problematical in longer‐term work of this kind. The first is that of the social cohesion of the groups; where this works well the learning experience is enhanced, where not students are deprived of an effective learning experience. The other is that of the appropriateness of this form of learning for all preferred learning styles. A flexibility of approach is recommended.     

Supporting project teams: A framework used in a university‐community collaborative initiative

As commonplace as teams are in today's organizations, so too are the frustrations reported by members of many teams. Some of this frustration may be attributed to the lack of organizational support for team efforts. In this article, we draw on Kolb's components of clear direction and accountability, appropriate staffing and training, adequate information and resources, and rewards for team effort to describe and discuss a framework that was developed to support a series of 29 project teams. We use case study methodology to examine a university‐community initiative designed to increase collaboration between members of a university community and stakeholders external to the university. This design resulted in a continuous learning and feedback cycle that encouraged reflective thinking and improvement in procedures and outcomes. The focus is on the framework that was developed and executed to select, support, and evaluate these teams.