by Terry Heick
It’s not the considering behind an concept that ought to trouble us, however fairly the impact of the thought.
#edtech. Content material-based tutorial requirements. PLCs. Video streaming. Use of knowledge. Mandates to be research-based in our habits. Distant instructing. Differentiation. Social media within the classroom.
None of those concepts are good or dangerous in and of themselves. They’re simply concepts. They’re value-neutral–inert in isolation. We solely cost them once 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 thought 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.
Shifting from an idea or concept to one thing we perceive in our personal phrases is not any small shift. And comes with a loss. By internalizing an concept, we additionally connect feelings to them–hopeful optimism, head-shaking skepticism. Or indifference.
For instance, I like the thought of customized studying, so I connect constructive 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 training. I champion it, however the ‘it’ (customized studying, on this case) is merely an concept. The it + context is completely different. That is chemistry.
Consider it as sample: Concept–>Integration–>Impact.
The concept alone is beneficial solely as a matter of imaginative and prescient or artistry. As an instructional or mental train. As a matter of playful dialogue or good old style bench racing.
The mixing is a matter of design and engineering (designer and engineer being two minds of a instructor).
Concepts, integrations, and results all matter, after all, but it surely’s all additionally recursive: One impacts the opposite, the thought impacting the mixing, the mixing affecting the impact, the impact shining new gentle on the thought. Perhaps then, as an alternative of a linear Concept–->Integration–>Impact, we’d suppose as an alternative of one thing extra like a triangle:
Concept
Integration Impact
Altering Our Pondering
And as an alternative of “Is that this a very good concept?”, we’d ask different questions:
What’s ‘it’? What are its elements? What does it seem like complete?
What’s it doing?
How is it working?
What does it ‘price’? Impact? Change?
How does it help lecturers–make instructing a inventive and mental and human act as an alternative of a matter of coverage, process, and survival?
What are its results–and never slender results in pursuit of a single aim, however fairly macro results on a factor in its native place?
In training, these could be redressed as:
What has standardizing content material right into a slender vary of content material areas completed to studying?
How has a gamified system of training labored for kids as they search to grow to be complete human beings able to good work, compassion for the folks round them, and nuanced digital and bodily citizenship?
See additionally What Ought to A College Do?
How has training 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 usher in “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 have been advised to?
Let’s broaden our view. Let’s fake for a second that we are going to ultimately be capable to design a system of instructing and studying the place each single scholar will be capable 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 essential thinkers that do superb issues?
And this method–what are we assuming about it and its results? What does it ‘do’ to kids? After they graduate from this hypothetical machine, will they’ve a powerful sense of self-knowledge, knowledge, place, and familial legacy? Of essential considering, work, and love? If not, is that okay?
Is that even the supposed impact we’re in search of? If not, what’s? We should always know, proper?
Concepts As Results
A flipped classroom is nice, sure? 1:1? Maker training? The 3D printer within the library? Sure, as concepts. So what are they doing? What are their results? The concept is at all times impartial.
A ‘good concept’ is advertising and marketing primarily based on emotion and look. How is it been applied, and extra critically, what are its results? Expertise. Workshop-based PD. Snark on twitter. That grouping technique you have 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. Similar with instructor self-directed PD, 3-minute hallway switches, or labeling a faculty as ‘good’ or ‘dangerous.’ Saying one thing is a ‘good concept’ can solely be accepted if we transfer immediately right into a dialog about integration, after which on impact.
“What are its results?” is a posh query that deserves our considering and most cautious genius. However one much more worthy of our collective affection could 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 would 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 the direction of collectively.
