Unlocking Group Potential to Improve Schools

Robert J. Garmston - Co-Developer, Cognitive Coaching and Adaptive Schools
Valerie von Frank - Michigan State University, USA

Foreword by Michael Fullan

Other Titles in:
Group Facilitation | Professional Learning Communities

April 2012 | 280 pages | Corwin

How great groups make great schools

Training leaders how to conduct effective meetings is important, but it's not enough to ensure that the professional development process is valuable. This field book shows educators how to develop group culture, enhance facilitators' skills, and optimize the group's most precious resource—its members. The authors describe how to form working committees, task forces, grade-level, and department teams, and faculties that are more effective and better equipped to resolve complex issues around student learning. Specific topics include

Understanding eight principles that underlie effective groups
Learning the five standards for effective meetings
Setting clear goals and roles
Practicing new ways of talking for improved collaboration
Examining perceptions and mental models
Enhancing energy sources
Working with conflict
Developing basic facilitation skills

This practical guide's special features include the newly updated seven norms of collaboration, a sample team assessment survey, instruments for assessing meeting effectiveness, an extensive bibliography, and practical examples embedded throughout the text. Practitioners will find a valuable road map for leading effective, student-focused school improvement efforts.

Available Formats

ISBN: 9781412998895	Paperback	Suggested Retail Price: $42.95	Bookstore Price: $34.36
ISBN: 9781452283838	Electronic Version	Suggested Retail Price: $39.00	Bookstore Price: $39.00

Should you need additional information or have questions regarding the HEOA information provided for this title, including what is new to this edition, please email sageheoa@sagepub.com. Please include your name, contact information, and the name of the title for which you would like more information. For information on the HEOA, please go to http://ed.gov/policy/highered/leg/hea08/index.html.

Foreword

Preface

Acknowledgments

About the Authors

Introduction

I. Getting Work Done

1. Building Effective Groups

2. Understanding Group Roles

3. Examining Decision Making

4. Creating Focused Agendas

II. Developing Collaborative Communities

5. Forming Smarter Groups

6. Learning the Way Groups Talk

7. Challenging Mental Models

8. Working With Conflict

III. Developing a Sense of Community

9. Becoming a Self-Directed Group

10. Enhancing Energy Sources

IV. Developing Facilitation Skills

11. Developing Facilitation Skills

12. Learning the Language of Facilitation

13. Intervening Successfully

14. Setting up the Room

Conclusion

Appendix A: Large Group Room Configurations

Appendix B: Sample Inventory

Appendix C: Seven Norms of Collaboration: A Supporting Toolkit

Index

Key features

Examines group work through the use of numerous examples, brief cases, and reflective exercises.

Useful for staff development for professional learning communities or at state or district levels when forming collaborative working groups that will meet for an extended period of time for significant tasks that require effective working relationships.

Appropriate for leadership courses for administrators who will work with groups at the school level.