Education should necessarily require evolution. Societies, and thus the students who live in them, continuously evolve. We educators bear the responsibility of preparing students to exist within these societies, and thus as they change, so must we. The old cliché "if you're not moving forward, you're moving backwards" applies in education at least as much as it does in business and in foot races.
I suspect that all educators know this on some intuitive level, but to a few, the constant need to change can be an uncomfortable reality. We've all been subject to the "new initiative," some mandated-from-upon-high addition to our work load that defies common sense and produces little meaningful good in our classrooms. If the frequency or scope of these decrees is significant, it can jade even the most optimistic of teachers and cause us to become skeptical of any form of deviation from the status quo. But it does not alter the fundamental need for adaptation to a constantly shifting societal landscape. Nor does it alter our individual obligation to be the best we can be for the students we are charged with teaching.
Educational systems as a whole lack for a growth mindset. Politicians may pay lip service to reform, but, systemically, things tend to stay the same more than they tend to change. I think it is we teachers who have the greatest power to lead an inertial shift that brings about meaningful change within schools and our individual classrooms. If we ensure that each of us is operating with a growth mindset, the system upon which we operate will necessarily reflect that. Much has been written on this subject, including a whole book that I will admit I'm still meaning to read. What I have gleaned from the edusphere about growth mindsets thus far, however, is that when they are fostered in our students, we see greater resiliency, increased likelihood of overcoming setbacks and failures, and more long term success. I need to assume the same would be true of similar habits of mind in teachers.
As it is with most things, our ability to encourage a skill, a habit, or a mindset in others is often directly proportional to our own ability to understand and demonstrate that skill, habit, or mindset.
If we're going to preach growth, we should practice growth.
And before I get excessively preachy myself, I will freely admit that this has been a hard line for me to follow personally. In being reflective of my own practice, I've discovered a good many behaviors and thought patterns that directly oppose the principles of growth and meaningful professional development. I don't want to dwell too heavily on all the ways I'm doing things badly, but I think it's a useful endeavor to share a few of the behaviors that I know I need to work on in order to improve and grow as an educator. See if there are any here that you can relate to.
In reflecting on my practices as an educator, colleague, mentor, or mentee, I have at times...
- dismissed opinions or viewpoints that are contrary to my own without first considering them objectively, honestly, and with an open mind.
- been closed off (at times to the point of hostility) in both language and posture with others who have given me feedback that was anything less than ideal.
- been reluctant to engage with stakeholders outside my class (parents, colleagues, admin, etc.) out of fear of being judged or criticized harshly.
- made pedagogical/instructional choices that offered a lesser value to students based on my own reservations about how I would be perceived by a group (students, colleagues, admin, parents, public, etc.).
- avoided pursuing a potentially meaningful strategy or plan because it required admitting a deficit in my own knowledge or ability.
- was dishonest about something I said or did in a class in order to either to gain some manner of positive reward (prestige, esteem, etc.) or avoid some manner of negative repercussion.
- avoided seeking feedback about my teaching from students out of fear that the feedback would be less than ideal.
- gave up on or disengaged from something (a technique, a teaching strategy, an initiative, etc.) much earlier than was warranted by its level of difficulty, resistance, or failure.
- derided a colleague's practice in the presence of another colleague with the ulterior motive of elevating my own status.
- entertained criticisms of a colleague by students for no real purpose beyond "gossiping."
That's a pretty rough laundry list and probably isn't even complete. But I can't honestly espouse a mindset of learning, growth, and continued positive transformation if I can't emulate parts of that mindset, one of which is acknowledging the ways in which we sabotage our own growth. Once we are able to be mindful of our own limiting behaviors, it becomes possible to reverse them and their effects. It isn't easy, but the payoff can be limitless.
From there, we then can examine all of the things we hope for and try to instill in our students. Each of those goals and outcomes should be features that we have either instilled in ourselves, or at the very least are trying to. Do you want your students to be innovators? In what ways do you innovate as a teacher? Do you hope your students will become effective collaborators with one another? Where does collaboration take place in your practice? What does it look like when it is most effective?
There has never really been a point where ongoing learning wasn’t a critical part of a good teacher’s job. But there may also never have been a point where such a significant shift in mindsets among educators was necessary. There has perhaps never been a point where having a growth mindset as a teacher has been more critical, both for our own needs and for helping students meet theirs.
To that end I present a few approaches that I think can help us to achieve these ends:
1. Let's open our practices to our colleagues.
Whether you've been teaching for 20 years or 20 days, critical feedback always has the potential to be transformative. Constructive peer feedback has been transformative in my own practice, and I am convinced it should be a vital part of any systemic transformation. Seeking out a regular mentor/mentee relationship, finding opportunities to team teach (even if only briefly), or simply asking a colleague for some feedback about a lesson over a cup coffee can all offer a wealth of potential.
In their book Hacking Education: 10 Quick Fixes for Every School, Mark Barnes (@markbarnes19) and Jennifer Gonzalez (@cultofpedagogy) suggest using what they call a Pineapple Chart. The pineapple is a symbol of welcome and hospitality, and the pineapple chart is a mechanism that is used to let colleagues know when they are welcome in one another's classes. Being able to entertain critical feedback of our practices may be humbling and unnerving. However, coupled with a structured feedback system, such as the Critical Friends Protocol, the potential for growth is tremendous.
2. Let's use design frameworks to help each other identify critical outcomes and the paths for achieving them.
The folks over at Stanford (I hear they're smart there) have been putting together some pretty nifty tools in their Institute for Design. What's cool about their approach is that you don't need to be an expert in a particular field in order to be helpful to people in that field when using these design strategies. Participants in their workshops and classes come from a wide range of backgrounds and are able to use basic design architecture to give and receive tremendously useful ideas and feedback. Take a look at one of their crash courses to get a sense of how a group of people can help each other innovate and create. Applied as a tool for instructional design (or just about any other educational endeavor), great things can happen.
3. Let's advocate for personalization of our professional learning.
The educational establishment is coming around to the notion that one-size does not fit all for our students. The same sentiment needs to be applied with teachers and the way we approach professional learning. Are you an administrator or a jurisdictional leader? Ask yourself how your approach to professional learning emulates what you want to see teachers in your school(s) do with personalization in their classrooms. Are your teachers passive recipients of common PL offerings, or is there capacity for teachers to construct and implement growth plans in ways that are individually meaningful to them? One-size of professional learning does not fit all teachers any more than one-sized teaching fits all learners.
If you are a teacher and find your professional development to be narrow, unfulfilling, and unrelated to your practice, you probably aren't alone in the way you feel. We're all very capable of grousing and complaining about how useless a particular talk or in-service training session was, but are we ready and willing to craft an approach that obsoletes the model we're so quick to complain about? In a fully realized 21st century school, we imagine students empowered to the point where they are able to script their own learning outcomes and paths to achieving them. Before we are ready to work within such an advanced model, perhaps we should consider how we might script our own professional learning outcomes.
Find allies (strength in numbers after all), develop an alternative (otherwise it's still just complaining), and make your pitch with humble honesty. I don't know too many administrators so draconian as to deny a reasonable request at self-improvement, particularly if the requests are sincere, well considered, and detailed. For those who are stymied, perhaps we can put our heads together and develop some strategies for navigating (and in some cases toppling) barriers. Maybe a topic for a future blog...
4. Let's engage with the world outside our school's walls.
That you are reading this blog means I'm "preaching to the choir" on this one. I'm becoming a bit of a broken record with regards to advocating the cultivation of critical relationships outside the school community, but it's something I don't think can be overstated. It's a big world out there and a connected teacher will be much better able to connect students. YouTube, Twitter, Pinterest, blogs, podcasts, and webinars have already joined literature and conferences as staples in the connected educator's arsenal of professional resources. More tools continue to surface regularly, including collaboration tools like Voxer, Blab, and Periscope, allowing teachers to connect with more colleagues, more educational partners, and more ideas than ever before.
5. Let's not worry about getting it perfect on the first try.
We want our students to reflect, revise, and refine don't we? We need to do it too. Our first attempt at doing things differently might not produce all the results we're looking for right out of the gate. As in all design processes, iteration will be necessary. We have to take the time to be reflective with as much objectivity as we can muster, work on getting the approach right, and not simply falling back into the habits of comfort and control.
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Growth isn't always easy, but when it's sought in earnest and achieved, it is tremendously fulfilling. Ghandi said to "be the change you wish to see in the world." For an educator, no sentiment could be more relevant.
TL;DR: The first step to developing growth mindsets in our students is developing them in ourselves. Innovate, collaborate, self-advocate, reflect, refine, and accept critique in your practice, and you will be much better at helping your students do all of these things.
Vive la revolution!
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