learning that lasts changing our minds - literally! ministry of education and sdcbc webcast...
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Learning That Lastschanging our minds - literally!
Ministry of Education and SDCBC Webcast
Wednesday, May 4, 2005
Bruce Beairsto
Superintendent, School District No. 38 (Richmond)
The Plan
• Remember some things we all know about learning but may forget to use in planning for professional development
• Give a bit of time to process the ideas during the talk (but only partially)
• Leave you with some concepts that will help to design professional development that can actually change minds, and thus behaviours
Environment Mind Behaviour
Attention - Interpretation - Intention - Volition
How Do We Change Our Behaviour?How Do We Change Our Behaviour?
Attention - Interpretation - Intention - Volition
subconscious
Growth and Development
Assess Results
Adopt New Behaviour
Growth through Training
Informational Learning
Transformational Learning
Internalize Mental Model
Development through Education
Seek aPluralisticWorldview
Psychic Development through Maturation
Self-Transformational Learning
Graphic incorporates ideas from Argyris, Mezirow and Kegan
The Implementation Dip
Brief Paired Discussion
What encourages and what discourages people
from venturing into the implementation dip?
Discourages Encourages
Learning is a Continuous Process
Not Knowing
Not Doing
Knowing
Doing
Writing
Playing the Violin
Teaching
Stages of the Learning Process• Acquisition
– explain, model, set up practice with guidance, allow to practice independently and debrief
• Fluency– repeated practice, greater ease of use, begin to “chunk”
• Maintenance– sustain and extend skill through practice in natural
performance settings, correct errors that may slip in
• Generalization– use skill across multiple settings with adaptation, make
connections, develop self-regulation
adapted from a synthesis developed by Joe Lucyshyn, UBC
Small Group Discussion
To what extent do existing professional
development programs satisfactorily support
all four stages of the learning process?
and
How might we improve in this regard?
Observe
Learning Through Reflectionaka Continuous Improvement
Plan
DoInterpret
CuriosityCuriosity
CommitmentCommitment
ProfessionalismProfessionalism
Technical and Adaptive Learning
II
IIII
IIIIII
Nature ofNature of
ProblemProblem
Nature ofNature of
SolutionSolution
Type ofType of
WorkWork
Type ofType of
LearningLearning
ClearClear FamiliarFamiliar TechnicalTechnical GrowthGrowth
UnclearUnclear UnfamiliarUnfamiliar AdaptiveAdaptive DevelopmentDevelopment
Leadership without easy answers. (Heifetz, 1994)
Partially Partially FamiliarFamiliar
GrowthGrowthandand
DevelopmentDevelopment
TechnicalTechnicalandand
AdaptiveAdaptive
Partially Partially ClearClear
“… the harsher the reality, the harder we look to authority for a remedy that
saves us from adjustment. By and large, we want answers, not questions.”
Dinner Discussion
Is it your experience that people prefer answers to
questions, particularly in times of stress?
and
If so, why?
and
What might change that?
Growth and Development
Assess Results
Adopt New Behaviour
Growth through Training
Informational Learning
Transformational Learning
Internalize Mental Model
Development through Education
Seek aPluralisticWorldview
Deep Development through Maturation
Self-Transformational Learning
Graphic incorporates ideas from Argyris, Mezirow and Kegan
Dimensions of Deep Learning
• Knowledge
• Skills
• Concepts (Mental Models)
• Assumptions
• Dispositions
World ViewWorld Viewsubconscious
Barriers to Deep Learning
• Fatigue (Physical and/or Psychic)
• Fear– Failure
– Unlearning (deconstruction)
• Expertise– Defensiveness (Argyris)
– Projection (Perkins)
Promoters of Deep Learning
• Volunteer participation and perceived safety
• Intrinsic motivation
• Desire to understand (not merely know or do)
• Perceived relevance
• Active engagement, making connections
• Sustained attention (especially when embedded in work)
• “Professionalism” and/or Moral Purpose
• Learning in a supportive group
• Group norms of curiosity and thoughtfulness
Small Group Discussion
The deepest learning is embedded in daily work,
driven by professionalism and moral purpose, and
sustained by a safe, supportive culture of inquiry.
How can pro-d workshops help to create and sustain a
culture of inquiry? How might they suppress it?
Innovative Community Learning
ExternalizationExternalization
InternalizationInternalization CombinationCombination
SocializationSocialization
Tacit Explicit
Exp
lici
t
From
Tac
it
To
The knowledge-creating company: How Japanese companies create the dynamics of innovation. (Nonaka & Takeuchi, 1995)
Small Group Discussion
What besides workshops should a pro-d program
provide in order to promote deep personal learning
and innovative community learning?
Staff Development
IndividualIndividual DistrictDistrictSchoolSchoolStudyStudyGroupGroup
MultiMultiSchoolSchool
ProvinceProvince
ProfessionProfession
The Continuous Improvement Ideal
Avoid the comfortable pew of certainty and “live the questions” of your life by cultivating a mind that is:
– prepared for a constant, graceful skepticism
– perpetually ready to revolt against its own conclusions
– open to any possibility, including impossibility
– democratically hospitable to other views
– profoundly questioning, but buoyantly hopeful
– able to bear the light of a new day
Reengineering management: The mandate for new leadership (Champy, 1995)
Growth and Development
Assess Results
Adopt New Behaviour
Growth through Training
Informational Learning
Transformational Learning
Internalize Mental Model
Development through Education
Seek aPluralisticWorldview
Deep Development through Maturation
Self-Transformational Learning
Graphic incorporates ideas from Argyris, Mezirow and Kegan
References Argyris, C. Various
Heifetz, R. (1994). Leadership without easy answers. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Kegan, R. & Lahey, L. (2001). How the way we talk can change the way we work: Seven languages for transformation. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Perkins, D. (1995). Outsmarting IQ: The emerging science of learnable intelligence. New York: Free Press.
Perkins, D. (2003). King Arthur’s round table: How collaborative conversations create smart organizations. New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons.
Learning That Lastschanging our minds - literally!
Ministry of Education and SDCBC Webcast
Wednesday, May 4, 2005
Bruce Beairsto
Superintendent, School District No. 38 (Richmond)