In 2013, Dr. Steven Katz and Dr. Lisa Dack published their book Intentional Interruption based on highly intensive field work that they had done attaching themselves to a number of schools to work closely with educational leaders and teachers in different districts in order to create long term positive impact on teaching and learning, as well as organizational improvement.
Steven and Lisa have deeply committed themselves to helping schools to thrive and to increase student learning, achievement success and well-being.
As the biggest predictor of student success is the quality of classroom practice, what teachers are doing with students in the classroom on a daily basis has the largest chance of making a positive impact on their learning.
In their book Intentional Interruption, Steven and Lisa set out to identify barriers that get in the way of professional learning and to focus on what schools can do to not only identify these barriers but how they can put specific strategies into action to ‘interrupt’ these barriers to help maximize the impact that teachers can have on student learning.
In this conversation, we do a quick tour of each chapter, highlighting the key points written about and discuss what educational leaders and teachers can do to deeply foster an professional learning environment where everyone can thrive and flourish.
Both Steven and Lisa unpack the different between being a ‘lead knower’ and a ‘lead learner', as well the important difference between professional development and professional learning. They give us a brief look into strategies to interrupt habitual thinking that holds teachers back and share protocols that can be used to facilitate collaborative meetings in more meaningful and purpose ways.
I highly encourage you to get your hands on a copy of this book if you are interested in knowing more about these important ideas and how they can be applied with consistency in a school setting. Thanks for tuning into this episode
About Steven Katz
Dr. Katz's research interests include program reform in teacher education; building capacity through collaborative learning networks; the relationship between the psychological foundations of learning & development and classroom assessment; building capacity in evidence-informed decision-making for school improvement; teacher belief about mind and learning; impactful professional learning in school and system improvement
Connect With Steven: STEVEN.KATZ@UTORONTO.CA
About Lisa Dack
My interests lie in bridging Developmental Psychology and Education to better understand the learning process in children and adults. In particular, I am interested in what it takes for children and adults' learning opportunities to have a lasting impact. My research focuses on teacher and leader professional learning and in understanding what professional learning opportunities look like when they truly change thinking and professional practice.
Connect with Lisa: lisa.dack@utoronto.ca
Special thanks to Bronx based band Conversing with Oceans and Alex Bondarev for creating the podcast music.
https://www.conversingwithoceans.com/
Opening music written and performed by New York-born musician Scott Ferrare. You can find his work at: https://scottferrare.hearnow.com
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