Change in the educational world comes slowly, not because of a lack of motivation or desire, but because everyone gets stuck in the whirlwind of important and required day-to-day tasks, and teachers lack the time, resources and support to make big changes. Granny et al. (2013) in their book Influencer: The Science of Leading Change combine a behavioral science and business point of view to create a detailed strategy of how to influence organizational change. Their strategy starts with identifying vital behaviors that have the most influence over your desired result followed by the six sources of influence that will support people to make the desired changes. Identifying the most influential vital behaviors is crucial to influencing change in an organization, and Grenny et al. (2013) recommend following four vital behavior search strategies: notice the obvious, look for crucial moments, learn from positive deviants, and spot culture busters. I have created an influencer strategy for the social studies department at my school, and I started by first considering the vital behavior search strategies.

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Notice the obvious:

Every educator in America knows that students are more engaged when they have choice, ownership and voice through authentic learning experiences. The problem has always been the amount of time and resources needed to create these lessons. By creating a support group and time set aside for planning and collaboration, teachers will be more likely to create authentic, project based learning experiences.

 

Look for crucial moments:

Even educators who are interested and dedicated to implementing project based learning can fall short because they are short on time. Instead of taking the time and risk of creating new lessons using PBL (project based learning), educators fall back on more traditional lessons that they have used in the past. The PBL support team will assist teachers with the planning process by providing one resource at every meeting, in addition to the support the other PBL teachers will provide at each meeting. 

 

Learn from positive deviants:

There are teachers across the campus who are implementing authentic learning experiences and project based learning, but teachers are often unaware of this because the daily whirlwind keeps them busy in their room with little time to see other teachers and discuss lessons. In addition to the classroom teachers, the PBL support team is made up of administrators, instructional coaches, technology teachers and the librarian not only because they are experts in areas that will benefit PBL, but also because they interact with teachers across subjects and grade levels. They can share what other teachers are implementing in their classrooms to increase collaboration and support the teachers new to PBL. 

 

Spot culture busters:

Standardized tests are a way of life for most middle and high school subjects, and administration expects these tests to provide data of student progress. Authentic, project based learning does not fit within a standardized test, which could be a serious obstacle to implementing PBL. To move beyond this obstacle, the goal is for teachers to create one PBL unit each semester, which allows plenty of time to collect data from standardized tests. The administration is involved in the support group meetings, PBL lessons observations, and semester celebrations for full transparency and to showcase the high level of engagement and critical thinking that takes place during authentic learning experiences.