A friend of mine recently shared a podcast with me that I’ve been listening to for the last couple weeks called myPD Unplugged. They are brief (30-40 minute) conversations between educators in the Long Beach Unified School District with occasional guests included. I’ve tried listening to a number of educational podcasts over the years and often find them too boring, too long, or poorly made. I skipped ahead to season two but I’ve found this podcast to be coherent, helpful, and the conversation to be well coordinated. (I also listen to podcasts at 1.5x speed so it’s even shorter!)
Anyway, I wanted to share this resource because I particularly liked a few of the episodes related to Collective Teacher Efficacy. As the factor related to student achievement ranked the highest on John Hattie’s 2018 meta-analysis of 252 factors, it is something that deserves a lot of attention in schools. In episodes, 2.1 and 2.2 along with later episodes 3.5 and 3.8, the hosts discuss the definition of true collective teacher efficacy, compare it to self-efficacy, and dig into strategies to make it come to life in a learning community.
As we move forward as a school, focused on student learning, it would be borderline unethical for us to overlook collective teacher efficacy. When we think about the work that we do as teaching teams, the conversations had in these podcast episodes are very similar to the conversations each team should be having. Collective Teacher Efficacy doesn’t just happen by chance, and while it can begin with strong social relationships it depends on a specific, dedicated focus on student data and intentional efforts to improve teaching practices.
The next time you’re out for a walk with the dog or on a short road trip, give myPD Unplugged a chance, specifically try episodes 2.1 and 2.2.
Pushing Forward 