What Transformational Teaching and Learning for Change™ Is. . .

Transformational Teaching and Learning for Change is an innovative model designed to make sure that all learners achieve at their maximum potential. It is a model used by learning enterprises that are seriously interested in co-creating systemic change and building capacity that lasts. Transformational Teaching and Learning for Change is defined as follows:

• The practices and processes involved in collaboratively co-creating self-directed learning communities that lead community members to change their teaching/learning behaviors and engage in career and lifelong learning for the purpose of maximizing learning for those in their sacred trust.

Transformational Teaching and Learning for Change™ is a comprehensive, non-traditional, ongoing teaching and learning for excellence model that:

• Supports learning and coaching excellence for all stakeholders;
• Encourages leaders, teachers/trainers, parents, students, staff, and other stakeholders to learn from experiential, problem-based, learner-centered instructional approaches and services;
• Helps equip stakeholders with the problem-solving, teamwork, communication, literacy, ethical, and learning-to-learn skills required for effective lifelong learning;
• Helps learners cultivate "The 6 C's," essential competencies for 21st Century citizenship. These competencies require learners to demonstrate that they can Communicate, Connect, Collaborate, Create, Compute, and Thinking Critically-as they use these competencies to solve a variety of real-world problems;
• Helps learners meet high standards for performance, achievement, and success;
• Engages learners in continuous improvement of their practices; and,
• Creates the systemic change needed to transform individuals, teams, and the learning enterprise itself.

Transformational Teaching and Learning for Change ™ provides a viable model for bringing about, not just school and learning function "re-form," but true teaching and learning excellence and transformation. In order to change, learning enterprises must create learning communities that empower all key stakeholders to collaborate in order to design and operationalize teaching and learning excellence laboratories that provide models for other learning entities interested in replicating their success. Participation in these learning communities then transforms the practices of leaders, teachers/trainers, staff, and other learners; helps them use data to accurately assess their teaching/training and learning needs; engages them in ongoing, comprehensive teaching and learning; coaches and mentors them through the change process; and helps them assess the impact of their efforts, in order to continuously improve their performance.

• Communicate - Make meaning (through reading, writing, technology, speaking, non-verbal cues, observing, practicing, and listening) for themselves that they can then convey to others.
• Create - Use a variety of media (writing, movement, poetry, technology, mind mapping, diagramming, drawing, speaking) to produce new products, images, and performances. Engage with various forms of art and in artistic processes.
• Collaborate - Work with others to achieve a common goal and/or purpose. Get things done in committees, task forces, teams, and groups. Learn to be responsible to themselves and their learning teams, families, organizations, and communities.
• Compute - Use mathematical, scientific, technological, symbolic, and other problem-solving models to derive effective solutions to problems.
• Make Connections - See and understand relationships among seemingly disparate pieces of information and/or experiences, discern patterns, and transfer skills and competencies from one setting to another. Act with the understanding of the interdependence of global life; and
• Think Critically - Make accurate inductions, deductions, inferences, judgments, and decisions, based on valid reasoning and reliable evidence. Apply various strategies to solve mathematical, scientific, human, and other complex challenges and issues.

Because many of today's students leave high school without acquiring the necessary skills to be successful in college or to compete for meaningful employment, Transformational Teaching and Learning for Change uses an "ability-based curricula." This approach to teaching makes explicit the expectation that students will be able to do something with what they learn.

This innovative model of global teaching, learning, and leading practice is one that can, once and for all, demonstrate how forward-thinking and acting learning institutions can teach all learners - regardless of age, sex, experience, class, color, socioeconomic background, and/or ability levels. Ultimately, Transformational Teaching and Learning for Change will serve as a beacon of best teaching, learning, and leading practices - practices that will serve as models for other learning enterprises. The experiences of Learning4Change clients will pave the way for them to experience not only success in their learning endeavors, but also success as productive, self-reliant, lifelong learners.

Transformational Teaching and Learning for Change results in transformational learning excellence that helps learners:

• Use data to assess their strengths, weaknesses, and needs;
• Integrate scholarship, knowledge, skills, critical thinking, and ethical behavior with practical application;
• Achieve their teaching/training and learning goals;
• Provide meaningful experiential learning and working experiences, with heavy emphasis on the applied part of learning;
• Provide exemplary, customer-friendly services and programs;
• Develop the competencies, discipline, and habits of mind needed to perform effectively in a global, diverse world of work;
• Bridge the divide between theory and practice through utilization of an ability-based curriculum, i.e., learners must be able to demonstrate that they can do something with what they have learned;
• Use technology and various media, as appropriate, to streamline processes and systems and to work more efficiently and communicate globally;
• Coach and mentor members of their organizations through the change process; and,
• Instill the disciplines of lifelong learning, careful discernment and a personal commitment to creating not just a living, but a life.

Transformational Teaching and Learning for Change is a learner-centered model for teaching, learning, and assessment that includes the following steps:

1. Where are we going? Needs Assessment - Our teaching/learning excellence team goes through a comprehensive assessment of learners' current strengths and challenges.
2. Where's our road map? Data-driven Decision-Making - Based on the results of our learners' needs assessments, our teaching/learning excellence team designs the kinds of learning and training programs-learning interventions-that will help learners achieve measurable results. The outcome of this process is an action plan for learners.
3. How will we get there? Intervention/Solution Design and Implementation - Our learning excellence team works closely with learners to design the learning interventions-tactics, strategies, processes, procedures, activities-they need to learn and succeed.
4. How can we help each other learn? Mentoring and Coaching - Members of the learning excellence team then coach learners and each other-in interdisciplinary groups-through the teaching, learning, and assessment process.
5. How will we know learners have arrived? Ongoing Assessment - All along the way, the teaching and learning excellence team develops indicators-methods they use to assess whether and to what extent the learning interventions are working. If things are not working as they would like, team members correct their efforts in mid-stream, in order to stay on course with targeted learning outcomes.
6. How can we make this better? Refinement and Enhancement - Based on the ongoing assessment of team efforts, team members refine and enhance the learning interventions that have been put in place.
7. How do we continuously improve our efforts? Re-implementation - Based on the data derived from ongoing assessment, team members "tweak" and refine their learning interventions. Then they re-implement, in order to continuously improve learning efforts-and results.

Transformational Teaching and Learning for Change™ is a bold, innovative way of making sure that all learners succeed. It puts the learner at the center of the learning process and then engages faculty, staff, parents, and other partners in the ongoing processes of assessing needs, designing interventions, and then continuously improving efforts in order to see that all learners persist, succeed, achieve-and use-their learning. Transformational Teaching and Learning for Change recognizes that the purpose and goal of real education is personal, team, and organizational transformation. It equips learners for life and work that helps them transform themselves and their lives and betters their communities as a result.