In October 1996, we met with participating teachers to discuss the extent to which they were able to take lessons from the mini-sabbatical into their regular teaching. We were very encouraged by reports of six teachers who attended this meeting. Two teachers in the medical magnet high school had become more involved in the work-based learning part of that program. One teacher taught his students how to be observers in the workplace and provided some structure to the daily journals that they kept. Previously, students wrote journals, but these were not used in any systematic way to help them reflect on their work experiences. This teacher also reported becoming "more conscious about keeping out of the way" and letting students work on their own.
The other teacher at the medical magnet high school also reported change in several aspects of her teaching. For example, she decided to let the students work in groups to develop criteria for their own laboratory assignments in science class. In some respects, the students' criteria were more challenging than her own had been, yet the students seemed most willing to meet high standards that they had set for themselves. This teacher also reported "backing off" and letting students work more on their own. This seemed to be working well even for the weaker students, who still show an eagerness to learn. Finally, this teacher reported rewriting her curriculum to include more projects. Both teachers in this school reported a desire for more staff development. They have had serious discussions with other teachers in the school about their mini-sabbatical experience and are attempting to find more planning time to work with interested teachers.
Three teachers at one of the transportation career academies reported working more closely than they had in the past. All teachers reported that they incorporated the curriculum unit developed during the mini-sabbatical into their regular courses. The English teacher had two new teaching assignments, which she believed the mini-sabbatical helped prepare her for. The school newspaper had been "dropped in her lap." She organized the activities so the paper's editor-in-chief conducts the class, with the teacher providing support as needed. She also acquired two "sheltered" English classes for students transitioning from their native language to English. Since the classes were fairly large, she organized students into four-person teams and designated a leader for each. Although the students seemed a bit uncomfortable at first with this arrangement, the teacher felt the students were capable of working in a team situation. The mini-sabbatical training helped her realize the importance of having high expectations for students if you want them to achieve.
The only teacher-trainer in the group, in her role as coordinator of a new math, science, and technology magnet school, was still hopeful about incorporating some aspects of the mini-sabbatical into her teacher-training activities. She had not yet had the opportunity to do so because of other pressing business related to developing and expanding a new school. (The school added a grade level and half the school's teachers are brand new--many with emergency credentials.) Her intent, however, was to train her teachers as soon as possible. When we talked to her again a year later, she was back in the classroom and only making a little progress.
On the positive side, this teacher had maintained contacts with the worksite where she did her observation. The senior science students were assigned the "moon colony" project and employees from the DWP have agreed to act as "consultants" to the students. After teaching them the techniques she learned in the mini-sabbatical, she planned to have students do job shadowing for two days. Ideally, industry mentors should be involved resources to teachers on a continuing basis.
All of the teachers said they spent more time reflecting on their teaching and thinking about new ways to motivate students. Teachers also discussed barriers to change, both for themselves and for diffusing new ideas or modes of practice to other teachers in the school. Sometimes these were resource issues, such as getting books on the "approved" list so the school would pay for them. Several teachers felt that block scheduling might help advance teaching and learning integrated curricula, but only one school had this arrangement.
Teachers expressed frustration at institutional barriers to change. The English teacher who taught students how to write journal observations about their work placements, for example, could only do this for one year. To have time to participate in the work-based learning portion of the program and teach his regular classes, the school dropped one of his English class assignments but nearly doubled the size of the remaining two. The teacher eventually decided that his English classes were suffering because of the extra work, so this year he decided to no longer supervise journal writing.
The mini-sabbatical began with a premise about what teachers needed to know in order to teach in STC programs--knowledge about work and knowledge about designing classrooms and assessing students. It also began with the premise that any staff development process for teachers should adopt an adult teaching model, including such features as opportunity for reflection, collaboration, and active learning. Our pilot test indicates that the mini-sabbatical content and process, with some small modifications noted earlier, is an effective approach for changing teaching practice. We believe that our approach is a useful starting point for developing both inservice and preservice programs for teachers, particularly those involved in STC programs.