The author: Jim Knight, Research Associate, KU-Center for Research on Learning. This article originally appeared in the March 2000 issue of Stratenotes, a newsletter for SIM Professional Developers.
"Interviewing my participants was one of the best things I did all year for staff development. I learned more about their needs, and even more important, I developed a personal relationship with the staff. I had been providing training at the same school for a year and a half, but I had never really connected with the teachers before. After the interviews, for the first time, the teachers treated me like someone they wanted to be with, someone they wanted to listen to." --Janice Buselt, Campus Support Teacher, Wichita School District.
A relationship, a friendship, or a partnership is often nourished more by listening than by telling. As Dr. Stephen Covey has concisely observed, our opinions will be better respected by others if we "seek first to understand" through "empathic listening." "Empathic (from empathy) listening gets inside another person's frame of reference. You look out through it, you see the world the way they see the world, you understand their paradigm, you understand how they feel" (Covey, 1989, p. 241).
Most of us know through experience that listening is the best way to open up or strengthen a personal relationship, and we likely practice that approach with varying degrees of success each day. We may not, however, have structured listening into our approach to professional development. Recently, Strategic Instruction Model professional developers from the St. Louis Special School District and the Wichita School District have done just that: They have made listening the point of departure for the sessions they lead by conducting interviews with participants before workshops. This short paper will explain how they have made "seeking first to understand" an integral part of their approach to professional development. The paper answers two questions:
The next edition of Stratenotes will contain a follow-up article that explains how information gathered during pre-workshop interviews can be integrated into professional development sessions.
Professional developers who have experimented with pre-workshop interviews report that interviews remarkably alter the culture of their sessions. Irma Brasseur, a doctoral student and SIM Trainer at the Center for Research on Learning, comments that because interviews enable her participants to get to know her at the individual level, the participants are much more receptive to the material she presents during her workshops. Irma observes that "when I interview teachers, they come to see me as one of them, as opposed to someone being forced on them. They come into my sessions knowing I'm there for them, not against them, and that makes all the difference in the world."
Interviews help professional developers achieve three goals. First, they enable the gathering of specific information about teacher challenges, student needs, and cultural norms specific to a school district. Second, they provide an opportunity to educate participants about the content and process of a coming workshop. Third, they provide an opportunity to develop one-to-one relationships with teachers before the group presentations. This third point is especially important in schools where the cultural norms are opposed to professional development.
Interviews are most effective when they are at least 30 minutes long, and more effective when they are 45 minutes to one hour (generally, one planning period per interview). However, a great deal of information can be gathered from 10- to 15-minute interviews, and if a facilitator wants to meet 20 teachers in one day, 15-minute interviews make the most sense. Whenever possible, interviews should be conducted one-to-one. A 10-minute one-to-one interview, generally, is more valuable than a two-hour focus group meeting with a school team. During one-to-one conversations, people generally speak much more openly than they do even when there are two people participating in the interview. Since effective professional development often involves overcoming negative cultural norms, creating a setting where teachers can speak frankly is especially important.
During the interview, you should take detailed notes and record teachers' real comments as much as possible. You might want to tape-record interviews so that you can revisit what has been said during sessions. Some professional developers play their tapes in their car tape deck a day or two before their sessions, to stay in touch with the issues teachers are facing. In general, teachers accept the tape recorder as a tool you need, so long as you are clear that the interview is confidential. As your interviews proceed, common themes will naturally surface, and your questioning might become more focused.
Your goals during an interview in most cases will be the same regardless of the amount of time you have available. Professional developers report that it is most valuable to seek answers to three general questions:
When you have more time to conduct interviews, you can broaden or focus the scope of your questions depending on the nature of the professional development session you are planning to lead. (A fairly extensive list of interview questions from which you might draw to structure your interview is included below.)
Of course, gathering interview data is only the beginning. Once you have interviewed all the teachers who will be attending your session, you will need to organize and synthesize the data so that it can be used in your workshops. Just how you can accomplish that goal will be explained in the next issue of Stratenotes to be published in April. Most importantly, though, by interviewing teachers you can mark your session as one that will be characterized by an authentic attempt to practically respond to the everyday realities experienced in each individual's classroom. If you "seek first to understand," you may find that participants are much more willing to make the effort to understand the ideas that you want to share during your session. As Dr. Covey has observed, "to have influence, you have to be influenced. That means you have to really understand" (Covey, 1989, p. 243).
Covey, S. (1989). The seven habits of highly effective people: Restoring the character ethic. New York: Simon & Schuster.
