Learning to Change
May 12, 2008 by Diane
Thanks to a tweet from Jeff Whipple I found my way to this video produced by Pearson’s for CoSN.
The title – Learning to Change, grabbed me first and got me thinking before I even clicked the play button. We tell teachers they must change, but do we acknowledge that we must in many cases learn how to change? I think we’ve been doing a good job of this in the Comment Challenge this month. Participants are learning strategies to make and manage changes in our blogging practices.
I don’t need to say much more here – the video speaks volumes!
The last sentence will stick with me for a long while: If the death of education brings the dawn of learning that makes me very happy. Does that statement uplift you or bring fear to your heart?
Technorati tags: Jeff Whipple, CoSN, video, change, education, education reform, comment08
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Love the video, Diane–and you bring up a really interesting parallel to the Comment Challenge. Part of what engages people in making changes through something like the Challenge is that taking little baby steps toward change. These are bite-sized activities that don’t require people to commit to anything other than trying them out. I think that for a lot of people, the cumulative effect will be to have shaped their commenting practices in some really important ways, but it’s happening almost imperceptibly. It’s like the old proverb of the frog that gets throw into boiling water will jump out, but if the water is turned on and heated slowly, he’ll stay in and boil to death.
I also think that having a supportive community is really critical–people going through the baby steps with you, commiserating on how hard it may be, but also supporting each other in successes, etc. I don’t know that we always do a good job of helping people feel a strong sense of community when they’re trying to change.
Anyway–thanks for sharing. Lots of things to think about here.
Michele, I love the language that is used in this video! You mention the value of the “bite-sized activities” in which we are engaging in the Comment Challenge. I totally agree with you. They’re small, manageable, non-threatening – but still moving us forward in our thinking. It’s interesting to see the food/cooking analogy being used in the video.
“…place where teachers can come together and swap authentic ingredients”
“…people are testing out the ingredients to see what things work”
“…the ingredients are being assembled into some stunning recipes of what works…”
It’s graphic, familiar and non-threatening.
I’m with you – so much to think about. Thanks for doing some of your thinking out loud here!
Great video, thanks for sharing it. Wish I could say it was better amongst workplace learning professionals, but it’s not. I can’t understand why so many of my colleagues are ignoring learning the new tools. Not only for the learning value, but to keep employable themselves.
The last sentence totally charges me. Bring it on, I can’t wait.
@Christine. In many other professions “learning the new tools” is job-embedded. I’m convinced that this approach must happen in education as well. For instance my husband recently installed a retinal imaging system in his optometric practice. He brought a trainer to the office to work with the optometric assistants as they tried out the imaging system with patients. He booked fewer patients into the office on a daily basis during the initial weeks with the system so the staff wouldn’t be rushed while learning to capture the images the doctors needed. Not a single staff member asked “why are we doing this?”, or said “I’m sticking with what I’ve always done.” The expectation is that as things change to improve practice the staff will upgrade or add to their skill set. They seem energized by the challenge.
Couldn’t we do this in education – find projects/goals/outcomes where there would be teacher buy-in and then bring the supports to the classroom to help teachers develop the skills needed to reach the goals in situ? Teachers would have to let students see them learning, but is that so scary? Could this work in your field?