As facilitators of change in the school system, Teacher Librarians (TLs) need to be familiar with how teachers perceive change and how to adjust to help them create change (Oris, Intro to CBAM). The Concerns Based Adoption Model (CBAM) can be used by TLs to help teachers who are wanting to change aspects of their practice. The model contains seven stages of concern and seven levels of use. This is a crucial skill for TLs. TLs are responsible for :”facilitating collaborative engagement to cultivate and empower a community of learners” and “cultivating effective instructional design to co-plan, teach and assess learning” (C.L.A., 2014) in order to support student and teacher growth.
*Above is a video supporting the importance and benefits of collaboration between TLs and teachers.
As a TL I have to be receptive to teachers' concerns and questions regarding the delivery and resources for curriculum implementation. For this report, I will look at two separate cases. Explain the teacher’s pedagogy and how I can help improve their pedagogy using the CBAM process from the tables below. “The Concerns- Based Adoption Model addresses each one of these assumptions: the individual’s concerns about an innovation, the particular manner in which the innovation is delivered or implemented, and the adaptation of the innovation to the individual” (Oris and Huang, Into to CBAM).
Every term I give teachers the option of collaborating for at least one term. Each teacher can sign up for one term and pick one or two blocks per week to collaborate.
Jonathan
Jonathan is one of our English grade 6/7 teachers. He approached me wanting to teach students how to do research online. He wanted me to come to his class to promote and explain why students should use our digital resources instead of copying from Google and Youtube.
He is very confident with technology. He knows about the biases of researching and his student’s tendency to use information that may be unreliable and false. I remember discussing in another LIBE course how most students use Google for research. Google can give you a multitude of results but it's up to the students to decide which ones to choose. My friend was telling me how she showed her class an untrue video (Spaghetti grows on trees) from Youtube and it was so persuasive that some of the students believed it was true.
He had the students do research on the school Ipads. He let students pick what they wanted to learn more about and had them research. He didn’t put any requirements on the type of sources they used. He supervised the process and questioned the students if they had unreliable sources in their project.
Taking Jonathan to a higher level of integration, application and embedding of the potential resources into practice
His Stage of Concern is a level one: Informational, because he did not know the digital resources that were available through our Library Learning Commons (LLC) and wanted to find out how students could use them. His Level of Use is also a level one: Orientation, because he is taking the initiative to ask and learn more about the digital resources we have on our website.
*Videos by BBC on April Fool's Day: Spaghetti grows on trees.
Experiences and methods
He had the students do research on the school Ipads. He let students pick what they wanted to learn more about and had them research. He didn’t put any requirements on the type of sources they used. He supervised the process and questioned the students if they had unreliable sources in their project.
Taking Jonathan to a higher level of integration, application and embedding of the potential resources into practice
His Stage of Concern is a level one: Informational, because he did not know the digital resources that were available through our Library Learning Commons (LLC) and wanted to find out how students could use them. His Level of Use is also a level one: Orientation, because he is taking the initiative to ask and learn more about the digital resources we have on our website.
I created a plan following the chart above on relationships between level of concern and level of use. We met and discussed the resources that were available and how the students could use them. This moved him from level one Stage of Concern to level two: Personal, because we discussed how students will have better resources to get information from. Consequently, this moved him from Level of Use level one to level two: Preparation to teach students the digital resources they could use because they are curated sources from specialists.
After our meeting he picked four different sources to teach the students so that they would use it in their projects. This means that his Stage of Concern is at a management level because he is collecting and planning to present it to the students and Level of Use has changed to mechanical level.
After our meeting/planning, Jonathan taught his class all he knew about the digital resources. The class went on to explore them and use at least one digital resource in their project. I noticed that this put him in level four, Stage of Concern: Consequence because he supervised how the students explored the digital resources and made sure students understood the resources they had available to them. This places him into Level of Use four: Routine because he has made some changes and established using the new found resources for the project.
Sherryl is a very kind and patient teacher. This is her first year of teaching and despite doing her best, she feels overwhelmed. She has a very challenging class, with students who need a lot of support at school. In addition to being her first year and the challenges in her class, our district has taken the initiative to focus on literacy. The literacy district specialists have developed a pillar system for teachers to follow with lessons and guides that will optimize the delivery of the curriculum and help students.
Experiences and methods
After attending a professional development on the “Pillars of Literacy”, Sherryl became more overwhelmed and confused about the process. Her experience and methods with this innovation are at a level two Stage of Concern: Informational because she would like to know more about the pillars and how to implement them. Her Level of Use is level one: Orientation because she wants to learn more.
Taking Sherryl to a higher level of integration, application and embedding of the potential resources into practice
When we met to plan our unit, she communicated how she felt overwhelmed and asked if I could take charge of the unit to demonstrate how one would use the pillars resources to teach the literacy unit.
We began by developing a class profile in which we discussed her student’s strengths and stretches. Her students are within a wide spectrum. Some students are below grade level in reading and writing, some are proficient and a couple are above grade level.
As I went through the lessons, Sherryl began to get a better idea on how to incorporate and lead the use of the innovation. This is when Sherryl moved to level three Stage of Concern: management because it's where she organized and gathered information on how to teach the innovation she was learning (from my modeling). Before each lesson we would discuss what the lesson would look like, why we were doing it and how it was going to help the students. I would include her in the planning of following lessons by asking her opinion on various lesson ideas. Sherryl’s Level of Use was level three: Mechanical because she organized how she would use the innovation.
After our meeting/planning, Jonathan taught his class all he knew about the digital resources. The class went on to explore them and use at least one digital resource in their project. I noticed that this put him in level four, Stage of Concern: Consequence because he supervised how the students explored the digital resources and made sure students understood the resources they had available to them. This places him into Level of Use four: Routine because he has made some changes and established using the new found resources for the project.
Sherryl
Sherryl is a very kind and patient teacher. This is her first year of teaching and despite doing her best, she feels overwhelmed. She has a very challenging class, with students who need a lot of support at school. In addition to being her first year and the challenges in her class, our district has taken the initiative to focus on literacy. The literacy district specialists have developed a pillar system for teachers to follow with lessons and guides that will optimize the delivery of the curriculum and help students.
Experiences and methods
After attending a professional development on the “Pillars of Literacy”, Sherryl became more overwhelmed and confused about the process. Her experience and methods with this innovation are at a level two Stage of Concern: Informational because she would like to know more about the pillars and how to implement them. Her Level of Use is level one: Orientation because she wants to learn more.
*The Pillars of Literacy as they appear on the district portal.
Taking Sherryl to a higher level of integration, application and embedding of the potential resources into practice
When we met to plan our unit, she communicated how she felt overwhelmed and asked if I could take charge of the unit to demonstrate how one would use the pillars resources to teach the literacy unit.
We began by developing a class profile in which we discussed her student’s strengths and stretches. Her students are within a wide spectrum. Some students are below grade level in reading and writing, some are proficient and a couple are above grade level.
As I went through the lessons, Sherryl began to get a better idea on how to incorporate and lead the use of the innovation. This is when Sherryl moved to level three Stage of Concern: management because it's where she organized and gathered information on how to teach the innovation she was learning (from my modeling). Before each lesson we would discuss what the lesson would look like, why we were doing it and how it was going to help the students. I would include her in the planning of following lessons by asking her opinion on various lesson ideas. Sherryl’s Level of Use was level three: Mechanical because she organized how she would use the innovation.
Second term following a professional development day Sherryl reported to me that she refined her lessons and understood how to implement them better. She came up with ways to adapt her teaching. This moved her level four Stage of Concern to consequence and her Level of Use to level four: Routine and Refinement.
Conclusion
As a TL, using the CBAM approach with teachers that I am collaborating with will help me recognize the Stages of Concern and Levels of Use that they are experiencing. Knowing that will help me move them along to higher levels of concern/use. All teachers have their own special set of skills. They bring these special skills to collaboration and it is respectful to acknowledge those skills while encouraging them to try something new. I am very proud of Sherryl and Jonathan for being extremely organized and committed teachers who are trying to keep up with the needs of their 21st century learners.
Citations
Oris, Alex. Intro to CBAM – Concerns-Based Adoption Model. sites.google.com/site/ch7cbam/home/introduction.
Canadian Library Association (CLA). The Leading Learning: Standards of Practice for School Library Learning Commons in Canada. 2014 Ottawa ON, Canada: Canadian Library Association’s Voices For School Libraries Network and the CLA School Libraries Advisory.
Loucks-Horsley, S. (1996). The concerns-based adoption model (CBAM): A model for change in individuals. Retrieved from https://s3.wp.wsu.edu/uploads/sites/731/2015/07/CBAM-explanation.pdf
Richmond School District No. 38 Portal. Pillars of Literacy 3-5. https://portal.sd38.bc.ca/group/41bjggo/Pages/default.aspx#/=. Retrieved February 28th, 2023.
BBC: Spaghetti- Harvest in Tocino. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tVo_wkxH9dU&t=88s. Retrieved February 28th, 2023.
