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Bestseller!

Leading Through Quality Questioning

Creating Capacity, Commitment, and Community

By: Jackie Acree Walsh, Beth Dankert Sattes

Discover how questions, not answers, help drive school improvement by applying the principles of quality questioning to four critical leadership functions: maximizing, mobilizing, mediating, and monitoring.

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Product Details

Grade Level: K-12
ISBN: 9781412960618
Published By: Corwin
Year: 2010
Page Count: 144
Publication date: March 21, 2010

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Author(s) Table of Contents Reviews

Description

"A leader's job is not to have all of the right answers, but to ask the right questions. Not only does this book address self-inquiry for school leaders, it offers tools and learning support for leaders committed to improving and refining their inquiry-based leadership."
—Betty Burks, Deputy Superintendent
San Antonio ISD, TX

"One does not immediately think of questioning as a leadership tool. Yet the compelling and engaging strategies thoughtfully described in this book will make any leader realize the power of an artful question. This is an invaluable handbook for those eager to listen differently to people, enter into dialogue about sensitive topics, and structure opportunities for people to talk constructively."
—Joellen Killion, Deputy Executive Director
National Staff Development Council

"Walsh and Sattes have captured the essence of one of the key features of a good leader: the ability to coach others. Their quality questioning framework helps school leaders understand that the way they structure a question can be the key to building organizational capacity."
—Yvonne V. Thayer, Certified Professional Coach
Senior Director, Making Middle Grades Work, Southern Regional Education Board, GA

"A must-read for all school leaders. This practical guide on how to create an inquiry-oriented approach to decision making enables adult learners in the school to sustain school improvement."
—Betsy Rogers, School Improvement Specialist
Jefferson County School District, AL

"The focus of the book complements the work we are currently doing in our school district to create reflective practitioners. The Leading through Quality Questioning Framework is a clear and concise way to get the big picture of how questioning can be used to foster a culture of continuous improvement. The chapters that follow allow the reader to put the meat on the bones of the framework!"
—Christopher Corallo, Director of Staff Development
Henrico County Public Schools, Richmond, VA

Use quality questioning to bring out the best in your learning community!

Quality questioning is a process for engaging individuals in reflection, critical thinking, and collaboration. The authors demonstrate how questions, not answers, drive school improvement and growth for a learning community. This handbook for school and district leaders applies the principles of the best-selling book Quality Questioning to four critical leadership functions:

Maximizing individual and organizational capacity
Mobilizing individuals and groups to build ownership and commitment across a community
Mediating conflict by helping individuals find common ground and focus on shared purpose
Monitoring progress toward identified goals

Key features

This valuable resource includes:

Focus questions at the beginning of each chapter are perfect for self-reflection or group study
Vignettes that illustrate how quality questioning helps administrators to succeed
An overall understanding that all members of the school community are better able to support and sustain inquiry-oriented classrooms when teachers and school staff operate within a professional community of inquiry.

Author(s)

Jackie Acree Walsh

Learn more about Jackie Walsh's PD offerings

Jackie Walsh is an independent educational consultant who partners with educators across the country to enhance teaching and leading in classrooms, schools, and districts. Her passion and primary area of expertise is questioning—for both student and adult learning. Based in Montgomery, Alabama, Jackie is also the lead consultant for the Alabama Best Practices Center, which affords her the opportunity to work with networks of school teams, district teams, instructional partners, and superintendents.

Jackie’s early experience as a high school social studies teacher contributed to her passion for questioning. As a designer and facilitator of professional learning for teachers, instructional coaches, and administrators, she links quality questioning practices not only to student thinking and learning but also to adult learning and reflection. Her commitment is to collaborative design that customizes learning to the context of the learners. Her experience spans work in K-12, higher education, a regional research laboratory, and a state department of education.

The author and co-author of numerous books and articles focused on quality questioning, Jackie seeks to make research and best practice accessible to practitioners. Her books, co-authored with Beth Sattes, include: Quality Questioning, 2nd Edition (2017), Questioning for Classroom Discussion (2015), Thinking Through Quality Questioning (2011), Leading Through Quality Questioning (2010), and Quality Questioning, 1^st Edition (2005), She received her A.B. from Duke University, M.A.T. from the University of North Carolina (Chapel Hill), and Ph.D. from the University of Alabama. Follow Jackie on Twitter @Question2Think; email, walshja@aol.com.

Beth Dankert Sattes

Learn more about Beth Sattes' PD offerings

Beth Dankert Sattes is a co-developer with Jackie Acree Walsh of Questioning and Understanding to Improve Learning and Thinking (QUILT), a nationally validated professional development program on effective questioning. They are also co-authors of Inside School Improvement (2000) and co-presenters of the Video Journal in Education series Questioning to Stimulate Thinking (1999). These two former classroom teachers have trained hundreds of administrators and teachers across the nation in effective questioning. Their other joint ventures have focused on creating effective professional development for educators, sharing leadership for continuous school improvement, and creating a culture for high-performance learning communities. A recent example of their work is the design and delivery of professional development for school improvement specialists—consultants or staff who work to develop the capacity of schools to improve achievement for all students. They have also developed professional development modules on improving school culture (for the Southern Regional Education Board) and leading learning communities (for the Alabama Leadership Academy). Beth Dankert Sattes holds a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Vanderbilt University and a master’s degree in early childhood special education from Peabody College. Both Sattes and Walsh have served as faculty for the National Staff Development Council’s Academy.

Contact Beth Sattes at beth@enthusedlearning.com.

List of Tables and Figures

Preface: What Have We Learned From Our Work? Quality Questioning is Not Just for the Classroom Anymore

Acknowledgments

About the Authors

1. Quality Questioning: Why Is This an Important Practice for Leaders of Learning Communities?

2. Questioning as a Process: What Are the Essential Elements?

3. Maximizing: How Can Leaders Increase Individual and Collective Capacity?

4. Mobilizing: How Do Leaders Build Constituent Commitment to Act?

5. Mediating: How Does Quality Questioning Help Create Common Ground?

6. Monitoring: How Do Leaders Use Quality Questioning to Facilitate Reflection on Progress Toward Identified Goals?

7. Promoting Adult Learning and Growth in Schools: How Can Leaders Nurture Communities of Quality Questioners?

Resource A: Examples of Closed and Open-Ended Questions

Resource B: Structured Group Processes That Engage Members of the School Community in Thinking and Dialogue

Resource C: The Quality Questioning Quotient (QQQ): A Self-Assessment

References

Index

Reviews

"A leader's job is not to have all of the right answers, but to ask the right questions—questions that help the team dig deeper into more meaningful solutions. Not only does this book address self-inquiry for school leaders, it offers tools and learning support for leaders committed to improving and refining their inquiry-based leadership."

Betty Burks, Deputy Superintendent
San Antonio ISD, TX

"One does not immediately think of questioning as a leadership tool. Yet the compelling and engaging strategies thoughtfully described in this book will make any leader realize the power of an artful question. This is an invaluable handbook for those eager to listen differently to people, enter into dialogue about sensitive topics, and structure opportunities for people to talk constructively."

Joellen Killion, Deputy Executive Director
National Staff Development Council

"Walsh and Sattes have captured the essence of one of the key features of a good leader: the ability to coach others. Their quality questioning framework helps school leaders understand that the way they structure a question can be the key to building organizational capacity."

Yvonne V. Thayer, Certified Professional Coach
Senior Director, Making Middle Grades Work, Southern Regional Education Board, GA

"A must-read for all school leaders. This practical guide on how to create an inquiry-oriented approach to decision making enables adult learners in the school to sustain school improvement and that fosters a higher level of thinking that will benefit students, parents, and the community."

Betsy Rogers, School Improvement Specialist
Jefferson County School District, AL

"The focus of the book complements the work we are currently doing in our school district to create reflective practitioners. For the past year we have been training our school administrators and teacher leaders in how to support the professional growth of our faculty by using coaching language. The concept of applying quality questioning provides the perfect vehicle for furthering our work in reflective practice! The Leading through Quality Questioning Framework is a clear and concise way to get the big picture of how questioning can be used to foster a culture of continuous improvement. The chapters that follow allow the reader to put the meat on the bones of the framework!"

Christopher Corallo, Director of Staff Development
Henrico County Public Schools, Richmond, VA

“This is a wise, practical, and inspiring work that offers great advice on how leaders can keep inquiry at the heart of adult learning. Any coach, principal, or superintendent who is interested in accelerating professional learning will find this book useful.”

Jim Knight, Research Associate, Center for Research on Learning, University of Kansas
Author of Instructional Coaching

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