Implementing Walkthroughs: One School's Journey

In order to support the new mission of education where students achieve at high levels, schools need infrastructure, in terms of processes, procedures, and capacity building, to support the collaboration between administrative instructional leadership and teachers' professional development with the goal of student learning and achievement. Walkthroughs are a tool used throughout school districts with a limited base of research. This mixed methods case study describes one middle school's journey with walkthroughs. This dissertation explores and describes three main aspects of walkthroughs: process, perspectives, and recommendations. Administrators and teachers shared their experiences through personal interviews, focus group interviews, the Concerns Based Adoption Model Stages of Concern Questionnaire, and documents. Findings suggest that classroom walkthroughs work best in school climates that have an established level of trust between administrators and teachers. Walkthroughs, with classroom observations led by all teachers in the school, allow teachers to engage in professional dialogue about expectations for teaching and learning for all students in all content settings. Walkthroughs are a process that takes time to implement, should be ongoing, and require a transparent flexible process to meet individual school needs. If the need or expectation is to change teaching practices, then teachers need to be involved in all aspects of instructional supervision in collaboration with administrators on a continual basis.

Name thesis:degree_name

Doctor of Education

Level thesis:degree_level

doctoral

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Educational Leadership and Policy Studies

Department dc:contributor.department

Educational Leadership and Policy Studies

Grantor dc:publisher

Virginia Tech

Year dc:date.issued

2010

Author dc:creator

• Payne, Elizabeth T.

Chair dc:contributor.committeechair

• Mallory, Walter D.

Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember

• Eller, John F.
• Tripp, Norman Wayne
• Twiford, Travis W.

• classroom observation
• instructional supervision
• walkthrough

Statement dc:rights

• In Copyright

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

Dc Identifier Other

etd-12112010-130928

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/30049