by Terry Heick
It’s not the pondering behind an thought that ought to trouble us, however reasonably the impact of the concept.
#edtech. Content material-based tutorial requirements. PLCs. Video streaming. Use of information. Mandates to be research-based in our habits. Distant educating. Differentiation. Social media within the classroom.
None of those concepts are good or unhealthy in and of themselves. They’re simply concepts. They’re value-neutral–inert in isolation. We solely cost them after we internalize them–consider them utilizing our distinctive schema, think about them in circumstances acquainted to us, or in any other case contextualize them comfortably to keep away from cognitive dissonance.
By internalizing them, we clean their tough edges for simpler consumption. Who desires to really feel like they’ve an incomplete understanding of one thing? At this level, although, the concept has misplaced its authentic form. It’s misshapen–the identical distinction between an actual canine and one a clown twists up in brown and white balloons.
Transferring from an idea or thought to one thing we perceive in our personal phrases is not any small shift. And comes with a loss. By internalizing an thought, we additionally connect feelings to them–hopeful optimism, head-shaking skepticism. Or indifference.
For instance, I really like the concept of customized studying, so I connect optimistic emotions to it that may lead me to cognitive distortions downstream, the place I oversimplify its operate or catastrophize our continued misunderstanding of its potential in schooling. I champion it, however the ‘it’ (customized studying, on this case) is merely an thought. The it + context is completely different. That is chemistry.
Consider it as sample: Thought–>Integration–>Impact.
The thought alone is beneficial solely as a matter of imaginative and prescient or artistry. As a tutorial or mental train. As a matter of playful dialogue or good old style bench racing.
The combination is a matter of design and engineering (designer and engineer being two minds of a trainer).
Concepts, integrations, and results all matter, in fact, however it’s all additionally recursive: One impacts the opposite, the concept impacting the mixing, the mixing affecting the impact, the impact shining new gentle on the concept. Perhaps then, as a substitute of a linear Thought–->Integration–>Impact, we’d assume as a substitute of one thing extra like a triangle:
Thought
Integration Impact
Altering Our Considering
And as a substitute of “Is that this a superb thought?”, we’d ask different questions:
What’s ‘it’? What are its elements? What does it appear like complete?
What’s it doing?
How is it working?
What does it ‘value’? Impact? Change?
How does it help lecturers–make educating a inventive and mental and human act as a substitute of a matter of coverage, process, and survival?
What are its results–and never slender results in pursuit of a single purpose, however reasonably macro results on a factor in its native place?
In schooling, these may be redressed as:
What has standardizing content material right into a slender vary of content material areas accomplished to studying?
How has a gamified system of schooling labored for kids as they search to grow to be complete human beings able to good work, compassion for the individuals round them, and nuanced digital and bodily citizenship?
See additionally What Ought to A Faculty Do?
How has schooling retreated right into a tangle of coverage and jargon impacted the capability of households and communities to be served by their very own studying?
How do lecturers reply when known as to be ‘research-based’? Does that encourage them to pour over peer-reviewed journals of rising pedagogies to solely herald “confirmed” methodology into their classroom? Or does it ship them to Google to seek for ‘research-based tutorial methods‘ the place they discover the identical 6-8 examples which are tossed limp and lifeless into their subsequent lesson plan as a result of that’s what they had been informed to?
Let’s broaden our view. Let’s fake for a second that we are going to ultimately have the ability to design a system of educating and studying the place each single scholar will have the ability to grasp each single tutorial normal their native authorities has set out for them. What’s the impact of this method? Of this mastery? What are we assuming concerning the requirements and their mastery? That they’ll create a nation of crucial thinkers that do wonderful issues?
And this method–what are we assuming about it and its results? What does it ‘do’ to youngsters? After they graduate from this hypothetical machine, will they’ve a robust sense of self-knowledge, knowledge, place, and familial legacy? Of crucial pondering, work, and love? If not, is that okay?
Is that even the meant impact we’re in search of? If not, what’s? We must always know, proper?
Concepts As Results
A flipped classroom is nice, sure? 1:1? Maker schooling? The 3D printer within the library? Sure, as concepts. So what are they doing? What are their results? The thought is all the time impartial.
A ‘good thought’ is advertising based mostly on emotion and look. How is it been carried out, and extra critically, what are its results? Expertise. Workshop-based PD. Snark on twitter. That grouping technique you had been planning on utilizing tomorrow.
And watch out of the metrics or proof you’re in search of. That new questioning technique could have 65% extra engagement from college students however could have stymied the scholars from wrestling with the query on their very own. Identical with trainer self-directed PD, 3-minute hallway switches, or labeling a faculty as ‘good’ or ‘unhealthy.’ Saying one thing is a ‘good thought’ can solely be accepted if we transfer instantly right into a dialog about integration, after which on impact.
“What are its results?” is a fancy query that deserves our pondering and most cautious genius. However one much more worthy of our collective affection may be, “What’s it doing to our kids as they search to grow to be extra human–to develop intellectually, creatively, and in knowledge and love?”
We’d then crane our necks additional downstream than we’re accustomed to in order that we’d see what we–and so they–are shifting in direction of collectively.
