Classroom walk-through visits: a cultural reform effort

Reforming schools in the United States has been an ongoing process for the last two centuries. Most reforms were enacted with the intention of improving schools. School culture has been studied and examined in an effort to transform schools into dynamic and academically successful places where children can come every day to learn. This research study is aimed at learning about one recent cultural phenomenon that is occurring in many schools today, the classroom walk-through visit. As an outcropping of Professional Learning Communities, this rather new strategy offers tremendous potential to everyone in our schools: administrators, teachers and students. A multi-site comparative case study approach was used in which data from interviews, observations and collected documents were gathered, coded and analyzed in order to provide an understanding of the conditions in which classroom walk-through visits can change the teaching and learning that occurs in schools and classrooms. Triangulated data from three elementary schools in one school district was collected to ensure that the topic was studied thoroughly and accurately. The findings are reported through four categories that emerged from the analysis: Role of Educators; Role of Communicating the Vision; Role of Technology and Data; Role of Human Relations. The study makes recommendations for administrators and teachers in order for this cultural and instructional practice to be used more effectively. The intended purpose of this study was to provide school administrators and teachers with the knowledge and an understanding of the critical nature that culture plays in our schools. Armed with the knowledge that we, as educators, can change the ways in which we teach and instruct children and the way in which we work with other professionals in our building, we can greatly impact not only the learning that occurs but also the attitudes about learning