minecraft.
I am officially old and don't quite get what the kids are in to, but here is what I gather.
It is a video game, where you can build your own world with resources you find from walking around, cutting down trees, digging in the ground etc. You can freely create, or play in survival mode where you must protect yourself from enemies. You can also create (and destroy) with friends.
I downloaded it to see what the fuss was about.
An hour in, I had no clue what to do. This wasn't Super Mario, where I had a clear end point to reach. I was just walking around, occassionally bumping into animals, getting lost in the woods and eventually digging myself into a hole that I couldn't get out of.
I reached out to some 9 year old experts who stayed in with me at recess to teach me how to play.
They were pressing buttons I didn't know about, using lingo I couldn't follow while I sat back and was impressed by what I saw on the screen. In 10 minutes it appeared they did a lot.
What they did was not intuitive to me at all. How on earth did these kids figure out what to do?
Youtubers and just experimenting was their answer.
These boys have spent hundreds of hours researching, learning from other video gamers who pass on tips about the game's possibilities online and then go test it for themselves.
How was I supposed to know that I needed wood for a crafting table before I could build more complex things? The game itself never told me.
And that is the incredible part. #
The game itself is full of possibilities, but you aren't fed instructions within the game. Rather, an online community has arisen, which shares secrets, tips and guidance is part of the game itself.
These kids spend between 1-4 hours a day researching what to do next by listening and reading tutorials and then attempting to master the skills they have just been taught.
No one is telling them to do this.
No one is forcing them to practice.
No one is trying to motivate them with stickers or rewards for efforts.
No one is having to give them a reason to do this.
They have found something creative, which requires them to learn and master skills which are meaningful and fun to them with enough challenge and sense of connection to others that they are fulfilled. This game mimics life in the sense that there are ample possibilities to pursue whatever it is that interests you.
We can use this as a model for how to approach school. Kids don't lack motivation to learn.
We are just putting information in front of them and requesting the demonstration of skills that the curriculum writers have decided is important and then trying to find methods that work for teachers and institutions to assess the kids on.
Good teachers try to make it meaningful and at times succeed, but the system isn't set up in their favour.
Look at a child's motivation while playing/actively researching with Minecraft, the drive is there. We are just putting things in front of them that don't speak to them and challenge them in a way that is meaningful to them.
This leads to my next topic the flow of curriculum and inquiry based education as being mandatory for an authentic learning experience in school.
Those are coming soon.
Monday, August 24, 2015
Friday, July 31, 2015
ditch subjects for capacities we need as healthy adults
We are comfortable with stating that kids should be at a certain level of mathematic or language skill by a certain age, but what about certain levels of moral development?
Philosopher Ken Wilber addresses this idea starting at 40:30.
My view is that school is our social cultural incubator, whether we acknowledge it or not. We attempt to produce citizens ready to participate in our culture.
With the rapidly changing nature of the environment our children are walking in to, I believe that focusing on the development of cognitive skills and competencies alone will not serve the kids nor the world they are entering.
A little over a 100 years ago school report cards only indicated how many days of school the student missed, the number of detentions they had and how well they tended to their cleanliness. This was replaced with the evaluation and tracking of a student's cognitive development in basic math, language and science skills viewed beneficial to society.
I think it is time we sit down and take a look at what we are choosing to focus on in school once again. Start with what the world is needing and work back to inform what kinds of individuals and communities we need moving forward.
My hope is that basic math facts, forms of writing and simple science demonstrations aren't thrown out, but rather balanced with a fuller understanding of human development.
If I could decide on new "subjects" or areas of worthwhile development to monitor I would suggest:
- interpersonal development (relating to others, conflict management, stating what you want in effective manners)
- self-direction (how to research areas of interest on your own, or pursue your own goals)
- somatic awareness (mind body connection, awareness of impact of the body on emotions and various states)
- perspectives (the ability to acknowledge your own perspective and how it may differ from another)
- shadow work (being shown by others what we can't see about ourselves)
- self reflection (ability to identify and work with characteristics of one's self, motives etc)
There are several other skills I would suggest, but all of them center around the ability for individuals to develop higher level complex thinking.
What sounds more true to you?
a) I relate to the world around me through english, math, science, phys ed, history and art.
or
b) I relate to the world through interpersonal skills, an awareness of my values, short comings I acknowledge about myself, my gut reactions to things and by acknowledging that my agenda may not be valued by others.
While these might sound "out there", these suggestions are rooted in the science of adult developmental psychology which basically states that the more we can turn our subjective experience into an objective experience we can look at, the more development we experience.
The more we can see about ourselves, the more resources we have access to for ourselves, others and the world... which sounds useful to me.
Finally, focusing on these areas of development aren't seperate in my opinion. They can be integrated and used as lenses to look at stories, history, ideas in science, abstract mathematical relationships etc.
It might be a long way off before we are comfortable with the idea of evaluating and supporting a student's level of moral or self development, but my perspective is that choosing not to is a disservice to them and the world that they inhabit.
Your thoughts?
Philosopher Ken Wilber addresses this idea starting at 40:30.
My view is that school is our social cultural incubator, whether we acknowledge it or not. We attempt to produce citizens ready to participate in our culture.
With the rapidly changing nature of the environment our children are walking in to, I believe that focusing on the development of cognitive skills and competencies alone will not serve the kids nor the world they are entering.
A little over a 100 years ago school report cards only indicated how many days of school the student missed, the number of detentions they had and how well they tended to their cleanliness. This was replaced with the evaluation and tracking of a student's cognitive development in basic math, language and science skills viewed beneficial to society.
I think it is time we sit down and take a look at what we are choosing to focus on in school once again. Start with what the world is needing and work back to inform what kinds of individuals and communities we need moving forward.
My hope is that basic math facts, forms of writing and simple science demonstrations aren't thrown out, but rather balanced with a fuller understanding of human development.
If I could decide on new "subjects" or areas of worthwhile development to monitor I would suggest:
- interpersonal development (relating to others, conflict management, stating what you want in effective manners)
- self-direction (how to research areas of interest on your own, or pursue your own goals)
- somatic awareness (mind body connection, awareness of impact of the body on emotions and various states)
- perspectives (the ability to acknowledge your own perspective and how it may differ from another)
- shadow work (being shown by others what we can't see about ourselves)
- self reflection (ability to identify and work with characteristics of one's self, motives etc)
There are several other skills I would suggest, but all of them center around the ability for individuals to develop higher level complex thinking.
What sounds more true to you?
a) I relate to the world around me through english, math, science, phys ed, history and art.
or
b) I relate to the world through interpersonal skills, an awareness of my values, short comings I acknowledge about myself, my gut reactions to things and by acknowledging that my agenda may not be valued by others.
While these might sound "out there", these suggestions are rooted in the science of adult developmental psychology which basically states that the more we can turn our subjective experience into an objective experience we can look at, the more development we experience.
The more we can see about ourselves, the more resources we have access to for ourselves, others and the world... which sounds useful to me.
Finally, focusing on these areas of development aren't seperate in my opinion. They can be integrated and used as lenses to look at stories, history, ideas in science, abstract mathematical relationships etc.
It might be a long way off before we are comfortable with the idea of evaluating and supporting a student's level of moral or self development, but my perspective is that choosing not to is a disservice to them and the world that they inhabit.
Your thoughts?
Thursday, July 30, 2015
stop marking at home. it will help students.
I didn't take a single piece of student work home to mark this entire school year.
I was happier and my student's marks and work improved considerably.
Picture the heroic martyr like teacher taking home piles of marking. Staying up late, checking work, marking test papers only to return tired the next day at school but having taken one for the team so that the students are better off.
This image while good intentioned, needs to be replaced.
How did I do it without just being lazy?
- design assessments so that students conference with you to mark
- outsource as much marking as possible to the students
-don't create busy work for students
- use break time at work to mark
1) design assessments so that students conference with you to mark
As a Grade 4 team we designed every summative test (final exam) in English, Science, Humanities and to be marked with the student and teacher in a conference lasting between 5 - 10 minutes.
Students wrote papers, created presentations (which can be marked in real time) or built models etc. that they would bring to demonstrate their learning and how it met the criteria of the assignment.
I would also give them specific feedback in real time with examples, highlighting what was awesome and what I would suggest for improvements. We would both discuss our rational for the mark we would assign.
I used to take things home and write these notes, but quickly found that not only did I have to write a lot to ensure that students understood the nuances of my suggestions, but that they didn't read them or if they did, the written text had less impact than the 1 on 1 discussion.
Kids said:
"I understood why I got the mark I did and know what I would do differently next time"
"This was way better than the stress of writing a test in two hours and I didn't have to guess what Mr. Macleod was going to be marking us on"
"By conferencing it showed me things I hadn't thought about and gave me a chance to talk about them with Mr. Macleod instead of just getting a grade back"
2) out source as much marking as possible to students.
I remember taking up tests in Mrs. Pike's Grade 5 and 6 science classes and saying to myself "Oh, that was the correct answer, now I know". Having students mark as much of their own work as possible:
- helps them see directly what they misunderstood
- saves you time to do something more meaningful for the kids
- allows you to collect their marked work and simply record marks to help establish who needs help (transfering marks into your markbook takes approx 2 minutes vs the time it takes to mark each ssignment x the number of students in your class)
After we took something up I would make myself available for help right away saying "If you got 8 or more out of 10, you likely have it. If you had 7 or less out of 10 come see me now so that we can go over what you need help with".
BUT THEY'LL JUST CHEAT AND CHANGE THEIR ANSWERS IF THEY ARE MARKING.
nope.
Procedure is that we mark our work in a colour different than what we wrote it in and there is nothing allowed on our desks, allowing clear sight of what is happening in the room. As long as students demonstrate that I can trust them, this can continue. Not once all year did I have one instance of a student trying to alter an answer.
3) Don't create busy work for students (or yourself)
Ask yourself, is this worth having the kids do it and me look at it? If the answer is no... don't do it.
4) use break time to mark
Yes, some Math exams were not marked by students. I did them.
My class had pet gerbils this year, so once a day students stayed in my room to care for them, while I stayed in to supervise the kids. Yes it meant I was a little less social in the staff room than I would have liked this year, but spending 30 minutes at recess or over lunch marking meant I had that much more free time after school to prepare a healthier meal, go running, hang out with friends, meditate, see a band, sleep etc.
Break time at school spent relaxing is time you deduct from time outside of school.
I didn't take a single thing home this year to mark... yes I took some material home to plan... but I will continue to work on that this coming year by actually planning more with the students direct input.
By not taking anything home I:
- provided students with direct meaningful feedback
- spent more one on one time with students to enhance our relationships
- helped them develop ownership and an understanding of an assessment of their work
- allowed them to learn from their mistakes
- saved time so that I could engage in more meaningful tasks with them
- showed up to work more energized and found a healthier work life balance
- wrote a blog hoping to encourage you to do the same
I was happier and my student's marks and work improved considerably.
Picture the heroic martyr like teacher taking home piles of marking. Staying up late, checking work, marking test papers only to return tired the next day at school but having taken one for the team so that the students are better off.
This image while good intentioned, needs to be replaced.
How did I do it without just being lazy?
- design assessments so that students conference with you to mark
- outsource as much marking as possible to the students
-don't create busy work for students
- use break time at work to mark
1) design assessments so that students conference with you to mark
As a Grade 4 team we designed every summative test (final exam) in English, Science, Humanities and to be marked with the student and teacher in a conference lasting between 5 - 10 minutes.
Students wrote papers, created presentations (which can be marked in real time) or built models etc. that they would bring to demonstrate their learning and how it met the criteria of the assignment.
I would also give them specific feedback in real time with examples, highlighting what was awesome and what I would suggest for improvements. We would both discuss our rational for the mark we would assign.
I used to take things home and write these notes, but quickly found that not only did I have to write a lot to ensure that students understood the nuances of my suggestions, but that they didn't read them or if they did, the written text had less impact than the 1 on 1 discussion.
Kids said:
"I understood why I got the mark I did and know what I would do differently next time"
"This was way better than the stress of writing a test in two hours and I didn't have to guess what Mr. Macleod was going to be marking us on"
"By conferencing it showed me things I hadn't thought about and gave me a chance to talk about them with Mr. Macleod instead of just getting a grade back"
2) out source as much marking as possible to students.
I remember taking up tests in Mrs. Pike's Grade 5 and 6 science classes and saying to myself "Oh, that was the correct answer, now I know". Having students mark as much of their own work as possible:
- helps them see directly what they misunderstood
- saves you time to do something more meaningful for the kids
- allows you to collect their marked work and simply record marks to help establish who needs help (transfering marks into your markbook takes approx 2 minutes vs the time it takes to mark each ssignment x the number of students in your class)
After we took something up I would make myself available for help right away saying "If you got 8 or more out of 10, you likely have it. If you had 7 or less out of 10 come see me now so that we can go over what you need help with".
BUT THEY'LL JUST CHEAT AND CHANGE THEIR ANSWERS IF THEY ARE MARKING.
nope.
Procedure is that we mark our work in a colour different than what we wrote it in and there is nothing allowed on our desks, allowing clear sight of what is happening in the room. As long as students demonstrate that I can trust them, this can continue. Not once all year did I have one instance of a student trying to alter an answer.
3) Don't create busy work for students (or yourself)
Ask yourself, is this worth having the kids do it and me look at it? If the answer is no... don't do it.
4) use break time to mark
Yes, some Math exams were not marked by students. I did them.
My class had pet gerbils this year, so once a day students stayed in my room to care for them, while I stayed in to supervise the kids. Yes it meant I was a little less social in the staff room than I would have liked this year, but spending 30 minutes at recess or over lunch marking meant I had that much more free time after school to prepare a healthier meal, go running, hang out with friends, meditate, see a band, sleep etc.
Break time at school spent relaxing is time you deduct from time outside of school.
I didn't take a single thing home this year to mark... yes I took some material home to plan... but I will continue to work on that this coming year by actually planning more with the students direct input.
By not taking anything home I:
- provided students with direct meaningful feedback
- spent more one on one time with students to enhance our relationships
- helped them develop ownership and an understanding of an assessment of their work
- allowed them to learn from their mistakes
- saved time so that I could engage in more meaningful tasks with them
- showed up to work more energized and found a healthier work life balance
- wrote a blog hoping to encourage you to do the same
Friday, June 26, 2015
the day I was accidentally Circled by a room of 10 year olds
A room of twenty kids unintentionally showed me more about myself than I was capable of seeing.
Drama class.
Simple activity to discuss body language, facial expression and voice.
Task: Imagine there was going to be a movie made about our class, what would an actor have to do to portray you properly?
The intention was to explore different types of body language, voice and subtle ways of being that convey how we come across differently as "characters".
To help the kiddos, I used myself as an example and got them to come up with key aspects of how I am in the classroom. I'm ready to write words like "chill" "calm" and "easy going" on the board, "relaxed shoulders" "calm voice"etc.
First answer:
Stressed
Then,
not really very funny (which hurt, but I clarified that they really meant I don't act silly... phew)
Wears the same 3 shirts
To be honest, my ego kicked in and felt the students were just taking advantage of a chance to say mean things they have wanted to say all year. I contracted thinking "Really? Those are the first 3 things that come to mind when they think of me?"
We continued and several attributes that I viewed more positively emerged:
respectful, listens to kids, doesn't intimidate with voice or body language, smiles a lot etc.
There is a social meditation practice called Circling, where two or more participants put their attention on one another with the intention of remaining present and sharing whatever they are noticing/experiencing. Then they 'circle' back the impact the other is having on them and the impact on the other person is then 'circled' and so on and so on. This practice often ends up opening a person's eyes to something about themself that they don't see but others do.
I felt I had just been circled by my class. Stressed was not a word I associated with my image of myself as a teacher.
There is a saying often associated with Circling that a fish can't see the water it is swimming in, it needs someone else to point it out.
It left me shaken, so the next day I took a moment as we were settling in to share the impact their response had and that I was curious about what they see about me that I don't.
Their answer (to my relief) was that it isn't everyday, but that they often feel I am stressed, and often I am good at expressing the fact I am having a yellow or reddish day (see my previous post about our behaviour monitoring self assessment system) but that my face often looks stressed even if my voice and words are calm.
This has me curious about all kinds of things we don't quite see because we are swimming in the water of our class rooms.
How might your image of yourself be different than what your student's pick up?
Drama class.
Simple activity to discuss body language, facial expression and voice.
Task: Imagine there was going to be a movie made about our class, what would an actor have to do to portray you properly?
The intention was to explore different types of body language, voice and subtle ways of being that convey how we come across differently as "characters".
To help the kiddos, I used myself as an example and got them to come up with key aspects of how I am in the classroom. I'm ready to write words like "chill" "calm" and "easy going" on the board, "relaxed shoulders" "calm voice"etc.
First answer:
Stressed
Then,
not really very funny (which hurt, but I clarified that they really meant I don't act silly... phew)
Wears the same 3 shirts
To be honest, my ego kicked in and felt the students were just taking advantage of a chance to say mean things they have wanted to say all year. I contracted thinking "Really? Those are the first 3 things that come to mind when they think of me?"
We continued and several attributes that I viewed more positively emerged:
respectful, listens to kids, doesn't intimidate with voice or body language, smiles a lot etc.
There is a social meditation practice called Circling, where two or more participants put their attention on one another with the intention of remaining present and sharing whatever they are noticing/experiencing. Then they 'circle' back the impact the other is having on them and the impact on the other person is then 'circled' and so on and so on. This practice often ends up opening a person's eyes to something about themself that they don't see but others do.
I felt I had just been circled by my class. Stressed was not a word I associated with my image of myself as a teacher.
There is a saying often associated with Circling that a fish can't see the water it is swimming in, it needs someone else to point it out.
It left me shaken, so the next day I took a moment as we were settling in to share the impact their response had and that I was curious about what they see about me that I don't.
Their answer (to my relief) was that it isn't everyday, but that they often feel I am stressed, and often I am good at expressing the fact I am having a yellow or reddish day (see my previous post about our behaviour monitoring self assessment system) but that my face often looks stressed even if my voice and words are calm.
This has me curious about all kinds of things we don't quite see because we are swimming in the water of our class rooms.
How might your image of yourself be different than what your student's pick up?
Monday, May 25, 2015
3 Eras of Education.
When people talk about school, they might be talking about completely different things. Let me explain.
The children of most countries spend 5 days there from approximately ages 5-18. They are presented with information and perspectives from a curriculum that has been selected by the government's education department. Values that are deemed worthy from the country are focused on and fostered in kids and at the end of it all, we essentially say you have developed the way we wanted in the incubator and you are ready to be part of the adult portion of our society to contribute with your skills. (but you will likely want some refinement first in your particular area of interest in higher education first)
There are incredible upsides and horendous downsides to using school as our cultural incubator.
Before addressing those, let's look at the story of schooling. To give it a narrative I will look through three lenses:
Each of these represents a historical era of schooling, complete with its own set of practices, values and ideals to create citizens for the kind of society it wanted.
Modern public schooling emerged from Prussia in the early 1800s. Prussia wanted a better military.
They felt that waiting until soldiers were 12 to begin training was a waste of valuable time. What if they could start modeling the kinds of soldiers they wanted at an earlier age?
They started taking 5 year olds and teaching them basic Language, Math and Science skills that would make them more effective soldiers when doing service in the military.
After just a few years of this experiment, it was evident that Prussia was developing an incredibly effective army. So other governments around the world started to invest in Public Schooling. Government funded, state run educational institutions for (almost) all citizens.
I am aware that I am making huge generalizations here to capture the school experience across dozens of countries, but here is what this basic Era of Conformity Education focused on:
- respect and obedience towards authority (images of Kings, Queens, local military leaders on the walls)
- source of authority and punishment (otherwise punishment was in order, including physical violence against a disobedient student)
- memorization and recitation (all of the good thinking has already been done by people wiser than you, it is your job to make their ideas your own, by reciting poems, stories, text from great speeches, religious texts etc)
- your only real job is to not get out of line and learn to do what you are told
- students were rarely organized by year, but rather a teacher would instruct students from ages 5 through 13 in the same room. Typically individual desks in rows facing the front of the room.
What kind of soeciety was present at the time? One centered around military service and the growing industrial revolution.
What kind of people do you need to have a successful military and early industrial workforce (based on long days, repetitive tasks with machine like work)? Obedient people, who won't go off doing their own thing and messing with what the larger system requires of them.
Fun Fact: I have done some research on what report cards looked like from this era. The only kind of formal report commonly given by teachers about students provided information only on attendance, cleanliness, number of behaviour incidents and sometimes the numbers of lines memorized of a religious text. Just showing up, participating and not causing a fuss and staying tidy was all that was demanded of students.
Around the late 1800s, this model of schooling started to change due to the changing needs of the society. The industrial revolution brought with it a more free market economy and the pursuit of individual success was going to be what drove its success. We no longer just need obedient members of society.
We still need folks who will play by the rules, but they must be motivated to achieve success if our society will work.
By the 1890s schools started to take their curriculums and assign marks, based on the percentage of mastery that students could demonstrate.
All of a suddent you weren't just in the same cohort with others, you were attempting to achieve success for yourself against the government's selected topics.
All of a sudden students weren't ranked by cleanliness and lack of disruptions, rather based on how well they could do in relation to their peers.
Characteristics of this type of schooling involve:
- individual achievement, figuring how to strategically get ahead within the system, setting goals and accomplishing them.
- to share information so that students can be tested against what was presented.
- curriculum broken down into compartmentalized units for easy assessment
- celebrating specific cognitive skills over other competencies
- experimentation to reveal previously known conclusions to verify their validity
- your ideas and opinions about topics discussed are taken into consideration (class discussions, debates, presenting perspectives in an essay etc.)
- getting good marks, passing class, not failing.
- majority of tasks are done independently to ensure proper assessment of the individual (group work is usually used more for tasks that won't be marked)
- seating arrangement may vary, the classroom in primary typically has centers or specific areas where certain jobs or activities are worked on, like a work place.
By and large we don't think of this as an era of education, we think of it as school itself.
While conformity and obedience are still very much required, they are more indirect than in the previous era.
This era really started to show up in Canada and Europe in the early 1990s and has been bumping up against Achievement education and is still taking root. The overall ideas though have been spreading into schools all across the world.
Eventually it was hard to ignore that the achievement era marginalized a large percent of those in the system. It created a bell curve with some who found school too difficult and either dropped out or barely got through it, while others grew bored of the easy tasks. Just like a one size fits all T-Shirt, it will work for a few, but the shirt itself fails being a great shirt.
A one size fits all curriculum to measure students against simply doesn't work for all involved. So some educational systems started differentiating tasks, curriculum and expectations so that it met the needs of the student. Authority figures in both the Conformity and Achievement eras presented the curriculum that students had to live up to. Now, the needs and abilities of students have finally come online.
What has started to change in society that required us to start moving away from the achievement era?
This is a cartoonishly simplistic summary, but basically, it used to be the case that if you did well in school, you either got into a higher end of jobs than those who didn't, or you had access to higher level post secondary schools which opened even more opportunities for you. This world still exists to a small degree, but is not the reality for most. Students leaving schools in the Western World in 2015 are entering an extremely different economy and work force than someone entering the work force in 1965.
So what kinds of things are going on in our social cultural incubator now?
Some characteristics of this differentiated era include:
Consensus, shared understanding, sensitivity, post modern thinking, deconstructionism.
- attention by teachers and staff on not marginalizing a student based on ability
- all perspectives are welcome. No ideas or positions should be marginalized.
- less focus on content and more on critical skills
- group consensus intended to develop ideas through exploration, shared discussion and drawing one's own conclusions (think modern Math problem solving/presenting techniques Bansho etc)
- differentiated tasks with a lot more group and partner work
- Individualized Education Plans so that student abilities are taken into account and the curriculum is edited so that the challenge meets their needs
- Multiple Intelligences start to be take into consideration as it is obvious their are more than just cognitive ways to be successful
- students interests in relation to the curriculum are take into account through more inquiry based approaches to ideas that must be studied
This differentiated era represents the fact that the world no longer instantly supports those who managed to achieve well in school and takes into consideration that in our post modern, globally connected world there is no one position or perspective that is universally applicable anymore.
I simply wanted to present these 3 eras to you as a framework for almost all of my future blog posts.
Soon I will attempt to:
- highlight conflicts about the future of education in terms of Achievement and Differentiated Eras coming into conflict
- highlight the developmentally advantageous and oppressive drawbacks of each approach
- explain what I think the 4th era of education will look like that is just starting to pop up now, which I am dubbing Integral.
School is a societal cultural incubator.
The children of most countries spend 5 days there from approximately ages 5-18. They are presented with information and perspectives from a curriculum that has been selected by the government's education department. Values that are deemed worthy from the country are focused on and fostered in kids and at the end of it all, we essentially say you have developed the way we wanted in the incubator and you are ready to be part of the adult portion of our society to contribute with your skills. (but you will likely want some refinement first in your particular area of interest in higher education first)
There are incredible upsides and horendous downsides to using school as our cultural incubator.
Before addressing those, let's look at the story of schooling. To give it a narrative I will look through three lenses:
- conformity
- achievement
- differentiation
Each of these represents a historical era of schooling, complete with its own set of practices, values and ideals to create citizens for the kind of society it wanted.
Era 1 - Conformity (early 1800s - to present day)
Modern public schooling emerged from Prussia in the early 1800s. Prussia wanted a better military.
They felt that waiting until soldiers were 12 to begin training was a waste of valuable time. What if they could start modeling the kinds of soldiers they wanted at an earlier age?
They started taking 5 year olds and teaching them basic Language, Math and Science skills that would make them more effective soldiers when doing service in the military.
After just a few years of this experiment, it was evident that Prussia was developing an incredibly effective army. So other governments around the world started to invest in Public Schooling. Government funded, state run educational institutions for (almost) all citizens.
I am aware that I am making huge generalizations here to capture the school experience across dozens of countries, but here is what this basic Era of Conformity Education focused on:
Core Value for the Society:
- respect and obedience towards authority (images of Kings, Queens, local military leaders on the walls)
Role of the Teacher:
- source of authority and punishment (otherwise punishment was in order, including physical violence against a disobedient student)
Activities most commonly focused on:
- memorization and recitation (all of the good thinking has already been done by people wiser than you, it is your job to make their ideas your own, by reciting poems, stories, text from great speeches, religious texts etc)
Student's role:
- your only real job is to not get out of line and learn to do what you are told
School Environment to aid this:
- students were rarely organized by year, but rather a teacher would instruct students from ages 5 through 13 in the same room. Typically individual desks in rows facing the front of the room.
What kind of soeciety was present at the time? One centered around military service and the growing industrial revolution.
What kind of people do you need to have a successful military and early industrial workforce (based on long days, repetitive tasks with machine like work)? Obedient people, who won't go off doing their own thing and messing with what the larger system requires of them.
Fun Fact: I have done some research on what report cards looked like from this era. The only kind of formal report commonly given by teachers about students provided information only on attendance, cleanliness, number of behaviour incidents and sometimes the numbers of lines memorized of a religious text. Just showing up, participating and not causing a fuss and staying tidy was all that was demanded of students.
Era 2 - Achievement (late 1800s to present day)
Around the late 1800s, this model of schooling started to change due to the changing needs of the society. The industrial revolution brought with it a more free market economy and the pursuit of individual success was going to be what drove its success. We no longer just need obedient members of society.
We still need folks who will play by the rules, but they must be motivated to achieve success if our society will work.
By the 1890s schools started to take their curriculums and assign marks, based on the percentage of mastery that students could demonstrate.
All of a suddent you weren't just in the same cohort with others, you were attempting to achieve success for yourself against the government's selected topics.
All of a sudden students weren't ranked by cleanliness and lack of disruptions, rather based on how well they could do in relation to their peers.
Characteristics of this type of schooling involve:
Core Value for the Society:
- individual achievement, figuring how to strategically get ahead within the system, setting goals and accomplishing them.
Role of the Teacher:
- to share information so that students can be tested against what was presented.
Activities most commonly focused on:
- celebrating specific cognitive skills over other competencies
- experimentation to reveal previously known conclusions to verify their validity
- your ideas and opinions about topics discussed are taken into consideration (class discussions, debates, presenting perspectives in an essay etc.)
Student's role:
- getting good marks, passing class, not failing.
School Environment to aid this:
- majority of tasks are done independently to ensure proper assessment of the individual (group work is usually used more for tasks that won't be marked)
- seating arrangement may vary, the classroom in primary typically has centers or specific areas where certain jobs or activities are worked on, like a work place.
By and large we don't think of this as an era of education, we think of it as school itself.
While conformity and obedience are still very much required, they are more indirect than in the previous era.
Era 3 - Differentiation (approx the 1980s, but evidence since 1930s- present day)
This era really started to show up in Canada and Europe in the early 1990s and has been bumping up against Achievement education and is still taking root. The overall ideas though have been spreading into schools all across the world.
Eventually it was hard to ignore that the achievement era marginalized a large percent of those in the system. It created a bell curve with some who found school too difficult and either dropped out or barely got through it, while others grew bored of the easy tasks. Just like a one size fits all T-Shirt, it will work for a few, but the shirt itself fails being a great shirt.
A one size fits all curriculum to measure students against simply doesn't work for all involved. So some educational systems started differentiating tasks, curriculum and expectations so that it met the needs of the student. Authority figures in both the Conformity and Achievement eras presented the curriculum that students had to live up to. Now, the needs and abilities of students have finally come online.
What has started to change in society that required us to start moving away from the achievement era?
This is a cartoonishly simplistic summary, but basically, it used to be the case that if you did well in school, you either got into a higher end of jobs than those who didn't, or you had access to higher level post secondary schools which opened even more opportunities for you. This world still exists to a small degree, but is not the reality for most. Students leaving schools in the Western World in 2015 are entering an extremely different economy and work force than someone entering the work force in 1965.
So what kinds of things are going on in our social cultural incubator now?
Some characteristics of this differentiated era include:
Core Value for the Society:
Consensus, shared understanding, sensitivity, post modern thinking, deconstructionism.
Role of the Teacher:
- attention by teachers and staff on not marginalizing a student based on ability
- all perspectives are welcome. No ideas or positions should be marginalized.
Activities most commonly focused on:
- less focus on content and more on critical skills
- group consensus intended to develop ideas through exploration, shared discussion and drawing one's own conclusions (think modern Math problem solving/presenting techniques Bansho etc)
- differentiated tasks with a lot more group and partner work
Role of the student:
To share understanding of topics with others, present their thinking and yet see other's perspectives. Be prepared to be tested at their level of development.
School Environment to aid this:
- Individualized Education Plans so that student abilities are taken into account and the curriculum is edited so that the challenge meets their needs
- Multiple Intelligences start to be take into consideration as it is obvious their are more than just cognitive ways to be successful
- students interests in relation to the curriculum are take into account through more inquiry based approaches to ideas that must be studied
This differentiated era represents the fact that the world no longer instantly supports those who managed to achieve well in school and takes into consideration that in our post modern, globally connected world there is no one position or perspective that is universally applicable anymore.
I simply wanted to present these 3 eras to you as a framework for almost all of my future blog posts.
Soon I will attempt to:
- highlight conflicts about the future of education in terms of Achievement and Differentiated Eras coming into conflict
- highlight the developmentally advantageous and oppressive drawbacks of each approach
- explain what I think the 4th era of education will look like that is just starting to pop up now, which I am dubbing Integral.
Saturday, May 9, 2015
1 word to use with kids to become an enlightened problem solving wizard
During my first few years teaching I kind of sucked at helping kids sort out problems on the playground or in the class.
- I am not a parent.
- I don't spend much time around kids in my personal life.
- I am a peacemaker (text book type 9 in the enneagram personality test) and tend to avoid a lot of conflict in my own life.
I lack real life experience rationalizing with minds that can't handle syllogistic logic.
I took a PD course through Drake University a few years back with Bill Pike that gave me one word that changed everything.
Choosing
Example time.
A few kids on the playground are arguing and one aggressively pushes the other. You swoop in as teachers do in this situation before it escalates.
Typical sentence stems for firing up a convo with the kid might be:
- What do you think you are doing...
- I just saw you....
- (student name) What did do you think you are doing...
- I don't believe what I just saw, you just pushed so and so
- I don't like what I just saw...
- What did you just do to him?
Behind all of these sentences that we naturally defer to is an intention to ensure that we are protecting the kids involved (whole other issue for another time about rough housing, but for now let's just leave it at the school rules are no pushing and the kids just broke the rules of the school).
My mechanical and magical approach in these situations is:
In a firm, but non-aggressive voice say:
I saw you (state the behaviour objectively), why are you choosing to do that?
Small semantic shift from:
Why did you do that?
But the addition of the word choosing is literally like bestowing upon your words some kind of magical spell that instantly plunges a kid into a psychological re-examination of their entire existence and relationship to mind, matter and action.
Ok... maybe not quite like that, but....
The focus then becomes about the kid sharing the actual cause beneath the behaviour and a genuine conversation can take place, rather than one about laying blame or shaming a kid for their behaviour.
I have actually seen the sentence completely shift the kid's behaviour and attention instantly.
My experience shows that one of two things happens when a kid is presented with explaining why they "chose" what they did.
1.) The child starts blaming others or the situation.
In this case simply restate the question again until their answer contains a piece of ownership for their behaviour. This often then leads to the second thing that I see.
ie. I understand that they called you a name, but why did you choose to shove them?
2.) The child goes quiet and says "I don't know".
In this case, stick with them and give them some time to ponder it. Just restate the question, again and focus on asking them why they chose to do what they did instead of something else.
I have had to wait up to 4 minutes before, but the answers kids have given me have been golden.
Often, kids are just used to getting the sharp voice, harsh word, the look etc. which at best makes them stop the behaviour or symptom. Providing a kid a chance to reflect not only shows them that they are actually making decisions about their behaviour and attitude constantly, but also shows them that they can choose something more resourceful.
Sometimes they go quiet because no one has ever pointed out that they are choosing behaviours... they just do them and had never noticed they are in control.
Kids have spilled the beans with me before going right to the core saying "I guess I am afriad that no one will like me, so I would rather hurt someone instead so I can feel strong".
Let's be honest, how many adults could reflect and honestly share that?
Allowing a kid to share this at 8 years old might save thousands in therapy down the road, or a string of real crap relationships for themselves and others.
When this kind of insight comes to a kid I let them know that what they are thinking is OK and we all do things for reasons that we might not always be proud of. We then discuss next time what could be done differently and what would help them and others the most.
There may still be a consequence required based on school rules, but at least the kiddo makes the connection between behaviour, choice, rules and consequences.
Takes time and presence, but investing time now in kids seems more than worth it down the road if they can be more aware of the choices they make and the reasons behind them.
Just know that the kids you teach will likely hear the word choice and choose about a billion times during the year.
- I am not a parent.
- I don't spend much time around kids in my personal life.
- I am a peacemaker (text book type 9 in the enneagram personality test) and tend to avoid a lot of conflict in my own life.
I lack real life experience rationalizing with minds that can't handle syllogistic logic.
I took a PD course through Drake University a few years back with Bill Pike that gave me one word that changed everything.
Choosing
Example time.
A few kids on the playground are arguing and one aggressively pushes the other. You swoop in as teachers do in this situation before it escalates.
Typical sentence stems for firing up a convo with the kid might be:
- What do you think you are doing...
- I just saw you....
- (student name) What did do you think you are doing...
- I don't believe what I just saw, you just pushed so and so
- I don't like what I just saw...
- What did you just do to him?
Behind all of these sentences that we naturally defer to is an intention to ensure that we are protecting the kids involved (whole other issue for another time about rough housing, but for now let's just leave it at the school rules are no pushing and the kids just broke the rules of the school).
My mechanical and magical approach in these situations is:
In a firm, but non-aggressive voice say:
I saw you (state the behaviour objectively), why are you choosing to do that?
Small semantic shift from:
Why did you do that?
But the addition of the word choosing is literally like bestowing upon your words some kind of magical spell that instantly plunges a kid into a psychological re-examination of their entire existence and relationship to mind, matter and action.
Ok... maybe not quite like that, but....
The focus then becomes about the kid sharing the actual cause beneath the behaviour and a genuine conversation can take place, rather than one about laying blame or shaming a kid for their behaviour.
I have actually seen the sentence completely shift the kid's behaviour and attention instantly.
My experience shows that one of two things happens when a kid is presented with explaining why they "chose" what they did.
1.) The child starts blaming others or the situation.
In this case simply restate the question again until their answer contains a piece of ownership for their behaviour. This often then leads to the second thing that I see.
ie. I understand that they called you a name, but why did you choose to shove them?
2.) The child goes quiet and says "I don't know".
In this case, stick with them and give them some time to ponder it. Just restate the question, again and focus on asking them why they chose to do what they did instead of something else.
I have had to wait up to 4 minutes before, but the answers kids have given me have been golden.
Often, kids are just used to getting the sharp voice, harsh word, the look etc. which at best makes them stop the behaviour or symptom. Providing a kid a chance to reflect not only shows them that they are actually making decisions about their behaviour and attitude constantly, but also shows them that they can choose something more resourceful.
Sometimes they go quiet because no one has ever pointed out that they are choosing behaviours... they just do them and had never noticed they are in control.
MIND IS BLOWN
Kids have spilled the beans with me before going right to the core saying "I guess I am afriad that no one will like me, so I would rather hurt someone instead so I can feel strong".
Let's be honest, how many adults could reflect and honestly share that?
Allowing a kid to share this at 8 years old might save thousands in therapy down the road, or a string of real crap relationships for themselves and others.
When this kind of insight comes to a kid I let them know that what they are thinking is OK and we all do things for reasons that we might not always be proud of. We then discuss next time what could be done differently and what would help them and others the most.
There may still be a consequence required based on school rules, but at least the kiddo makes the connection between behaviour, choice, rules and consequences.
Takes time and presence, but investing time now in kids seems more than worth it down the road if they can be more aware of the choices they make and the reasons behind them.
Just know that the kids you teach will likely hear the word choice and choose about a billion times during the year.
Wednesday, May 6, 2015
Identifying States. Not on a map. But in the kid's experience.
Behaviour management can suck up a ridiculous amount of time, attention and zest for life from a teacher. Especially if the teacher sees a student's behaviour as their job to control.
You may have seen some variation of the Red, Yellow and Green chart.
Kid is having a typical day without disturbing the lesson their name on a clothes pin stays at green. Some kind of disruption and the teacher "puts them on yellow" as a warning, and then if they are "bad" again, they drop to Red and some kind of consequence is given.
I took this archaic approach and added Silver and Gold.
I also only allow the kids to move their names between the colours.
Oh... and we spent a considerable amount of time in class at the start of the year getting in touch with these various states and the students created strategies for how to shift their state from say Red to Yellow. ie. From a non-resourceful to more resourceful state.
We talked as a class about different ways we are at school and came up with these general categories to be associated with the colours.
Red. Worst kind of day possible at school.
Yellow. Ok. But a not so good day.
Green. Typically average good day.
Silver. Better than normal.
Gold. Best kind of day. On top of the world.
The kids came up with detailed descriptions of how they feel and what they might be doing in each state.
This gives us opportunities throughout the day to discuss the choice we can have in influencing our states. It also puts the behaviour management onto the student. It is then only my job to step in and be a student's "boss" when they are unable to be their own.
I even demonstrate humility by letting the kids know when I am in a Yellow to Red state and share how I might be struggling to demonstrate self-regulation.
The kids get it and this seems to help us manage some fairly emotionally articulate discussions...
oh yeah... and makes my life in the class a billions times easier because I am not attempting to micromanage the inner world of a 9 year old through control and discipline.
You may have seen some variation of the Red, Yellow and Green chart.
Kid is having a typical day without disturbing the lesson their name on a clothes pin stays at green. Some kind of disruption and the teacher "puts them on yellow" as a warning, and then if they are "bad" again, they drop to Red and some kind of consequence is given.
I took this archaic approach and added Silver and Gold.
I also only allow the kids to move their names between the colours.
Oh... and we spent a considerable amount of time in class at the start of the year getting in touch with these various states and the students created strategies for how to shift their state from say Red to Yellow. ie. From a non-resourceful to more resourceful state.
We talked as a class about different ways we are at school and came up with these general categories to be associated with the colours.
Red. Worst kind of day possible at school.
Yellow. Ok. But a not so good day.
Green. Typically average good day.
Silver. Better than normal.
Gold. Best kind of day. On top of the world.
The kids came up with detailed descriptions of how they feel and what they might be doing in each state.
Now that the students can identify these states that they pass through, I rely on them to reflect and self assess where they are at. Students "check in" first thing in the morning and are welcome to change their spot throughout the day when they notice a shift.
The morning bit helps. If a kid is boiling inside from a fight with their parents or issue with a friend, it is nice to know they feel out of control instead of me waiting for an example of it.
I can also address and check in with them in class about their state if a "behaviour" issue arises and verify if they were accurately identifying where they were at.
ie. (actual typical exchange in my room)
Me: Timmy, I saw you just toss Sally's book on the floor and you haven't appeared very focused on your work. What's up? What colour of behaviour is that?
Timmy: Yeah, that was kind of Red. I just wasn't really thinking.
Me: You had your name on Green. That does not appear like Green behaviour to me.
Timmy: Yeah, I feel I am actually almost Yellow.
Me: So what are you going to do to shift up to Yellow?
This is where students choose a strategy from the lists they generated for tips to get from Red to Yellow, Yellow to Green, Green to Silver and Silver to Gold.
This gives us opportunities throughout the day to discuss the choice we can have in influencing our states. It also puts the behaviour management onto the student. It is then only my job to step in and be a student's "boss" when they are unable to be their own.
I even demonstrate humility by letting the kids know when I am in a Yellow to Red state and share how I might be struggling to demonstrate self-regulation.
The kids get it and this seems to help us manage some fairly emotionally articulate discussions...
oh yeah... and makes my life in the class a billions times easier because I am not attempting to micromanage the inner world of a 9 year old through control and discipline.
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