Problems are what make us interested to learn more.  Problems are the sign of a curious or creative mind.  Problems are really just challenges in disguise.  People who go looking for interesting problems are people who create and invent and discover things.  Someone who never looks for problems will rarely learn anything new.  And the ‘bad’ problems, the kind that truly do make you mad or sad or get you into trouble, well, try to turn them into ‘good’ problems by asking questions about them, or looking at them from a different direction.  You’ll see how quickly some of those ‘bad’ problems will disappear. (Lichtman, 103 pag.)

If we want our learners to ask more questions, shouldn’t we also ask more questions?  What is a good problem – a challenge or opportunity – that we want to take on?  Do we think about leading learning for our students by the example we set and the discussion we have about our learning, thinking, experiments, and actions? Do we lead learning by finding and accentuating the strengths, talents, and bright spots of every learner?

“You are all good questioners.
“You are all good problem finders.
“You are all good analytic thinkers.
“You are all good problem solvers, even for the difficult problems.
“Now we need to take the last step. I want you to become creational thinkers.
“What does that mean?  It means that you jump from analysis to synthesis; from critically evaluating what someone else has handed you to creating something to be critically evaluated by others; from reordering information to creating information. It means forging a path instead of following one. (Lichtman, 148 pag.)

I agree that “bad problems” can be turned into opportunities if we ask questions to understand from different perspectives.  How might we see through a different lens?

I argue with an “I can’t” mentality.  What if we discuss what can be and go from there?  I aspire to send a message grounded in believing in every learner; in other words, I aspire to change “I can’t…” to “I can…” with every learner.

I aspire to model partnering to shift from critically evaluating others to asking to be critically evaluated.  What if we bright spot work? Will we improve trust and relationship to the point where being critically evaluated is not deemed negative but actually sought?

I aspire to forge a new path, collaboratively, with learners.  I aspire to be a co-learner, to walk a path together.  I agree to try. I aspire to believe in every learner.

I aspire to listen more, question more, and learn more.

I aspire to become a falconer.

_________________________

Lichtman, Grant, and Sunzi. The Falconer: What We Wish We Had Learned in School. New York: IUniverse, 2008. Print.

The course runs from July 15 through September 27, and learners work at their own pace through the eight concepts. From the overview:

Concepts:

1. Knocking down the myths about math.
   Math is not about speed, memorization or learning lots of rules. There is no such thing as “math people” and non-math people. Girls are equally capable of the highest achievement. This session will include interviews with students.
2. Math and Mindset.
   Participants will be encouraged to develop a growth mindset, they will see new evidence of the brain and learning and of how a growth mindset can change students’ learning trajectories and beliefs about math.
3. Teaching Math for a Growth Mindset.
   This session will give strategies to teachers and parents for helping students develop a growth mindset and will include an interview with Carol Dweck.
4. Mistakes, challenges & persistence.
   What is math persistence? Why are mistakes so important? How is math linked to creativity? This session will focus on the importance of mistakes, struggles and persistence.
5. Conceptual Learning. Part I. Number sense
   Math is a conceptual subject- we will see evidence of the importance of conceptual thinking and participants will be given number problems that can be solved in many ways and represented visually.
6. Conceptual Learning. Part 2. Connections, Representations, Questions.
   In this session we will look at and solve math problems at many different grade levels and see the difference in approaching them procedurally and conceptually. Interviews with successful users of math in different, interesting jobs (Sophie, film maker, Sebastian Thrun, inventor of self-driving cars etc) will show the importance of conceptual math.
7. Appreciating Algebra.
   Participants will be asked to engage in problems illustrating the beautiful simplicity of a subject with which they may have had terrible experiences.
8. Going From This Course to a New Mathematical Future.
   This session will review where you are, what you can do and the strategies you can use to be really successful.

Will you let me know if you register?

What small shift can we make in our current practices to model communication in 2013?

Reflect and dream big while also taking small, or not-so-small steps to plan on how to move a classroom or a school to dynamically describe, document, report, and celebrate learning. How might we honor and leverage current cultural buzzwords and Eduspeak – risk-taking, failure, personalizing learning, design-thinking, grit, and authentically make these concepts part of our learning report for each child?  At the end of this session, you should be able to say

• I can think about and discuss how to report progress, learning, and growth in 2013.
• I can facilitate a conversation at my school about our learning philosophy or our grading philosophy and what is important in our community.

Learning Progression (120 minutes):

15 mins
Quick write and share, see below
10 mins
Snapshots of other feedback options – don’t be constrained by our current norm
25 mins
Using the provided whiteboards, draw, write, design, etc. the ideal progress report considering the child at the center, families needing feedback, and   teacher workflow.
05 mins
Share with another group.  If you’d like to share your ideation digitally, take a photo of your work and email it to walked60son@photos.flickr.com
15 mins
Gallery Walk to view all ideas – feedback and questions (see below)
15 mins
Think, pair, share: In 2013, what should be included in a progress report?
10 mins
Progress Report Ideation – 3 distilled ideas
15 mins
Next steps…

Quick write and Share:

Individually respond to the following prompts – digital copy if you want to share

• Bright spots from current practices in progress reporting:  What are some positives about our current progress reports?
• Wish list for progress reporting:  What changes would make the progress report more personalized and put the child at the center?
• Anything else?  Knowing that progress reports are an important connection between home and school, what would be in a progress report that is a joy to report (for teachers) and read (for families) rather than a stress?

Gallery Walk

• Browse the boards displayed in the media center.  Take notes on the bright spots you find and where you have questions. Record your thoughts on the linked Google doc.

Think, pair, share:

• In 2013, what should be in the next iteration of our progress report?
  Note: Let’s talk about what we should do, not what we are doing. Let’s talk about what will best serve our children and their families, not what we like and don’t like.

#MICON13: Leading Learners to Level Up – or Ask; Don’t Tell

“Questions are the way points on the path of wisdom.” ~ Grant Lichtman. This session will focus on the art of questioning as a formative assessment tool. Work on becoming a falconer…leading your learners to level up through questions rather than lectures. Come prepared to develop formative assessment strategies and documents to share with learners to help them calibrate their understanding and decode their struggles. Be prepared to share your assessments with others for feedback and suggestions.

Foundational ideas:

By learning to insert feedback loops into our thought, questioning, and decision-making process, we increase the chance of staying on our desired path. Or, if the path needs to be modified, our midcourse corrections become less dramatic and disruptive. (Lichtman, 49 pag.)

But there are many more subtle barriers to communication as well, and if we cannot, or do not chose to overcome these barriers, we will encounter life decisions and try to solve problems and do a lot of falconing all by ourselves with little, if any, success. Even in the briefest of communications, people develop and share common models that allow them to communicate effectively.  If you don’t share the model, you can’t communicate. If you can’t communicate, you can’t teach, learn, lead, or follow.  (Lichtman, 32 pag.)

If we want to support students in learning, and we believe that learning is a product of thinking, then we need to be clear about what we are trying to support. (Ritchhart, Church, and Morrison, 5 pag.)

In order to engage in high-quality assessment, teachers need to first identify specific learning targets and then to know whether the targets are asking students to demonstrate their knowledge, reasoning skills, performance skills, or ability to create a quality product.   The teacher must also understand what it will take for students to become masters of the learning targets.  It is not enough that the teacher knows where students are headed; the students must also know where they are headed, and both the teacher and the students must be moving in the same direction.  (Conzemius and O’Neill,  66 pag.)

If you are a teacher in a district with conventional report cards, you can still use the two grading principles that honor the commitment to learning: (1) assign grades that reflect student achievement of intended learning outcomes, and (2) adopt grading policies that support and motivate student effort and learning.  You can do this by clearly communicating your ‘standards’ (in the sense of expectations for work quality) to students and grading on that basis. (Brookhart, 23 pag.)

The idea of using formative assessment for practice work and not taking a summative grade until students have had the opportunity to learn the knowledge and skills for which you are holding them accountable can be applied directly to your classroom assessments in a traditional grading context. (Brookhart, 24 pag.)

We want more students to experience the burst of energy that comes from asking questions that lead to making new connections, feel a greater sense of urgency to seek answers to questions on their own, and reap the satisfaction of actually understanding more deeply the subject matter as a result of the questions they asked.  (Rothstein and Santana, 151 pag.)

The excitement of learning, the compelling personal drive to take one more step on the path towards wisdom, comes when we try to solve a problem we want to solve, when we want to solve, when we see a challenge and say yes, I can meet it.  Great teachers lead us just far enough down a path so we can challenge for ourselves. They provide us just enough insight so we can work toward a solution that makes us, makes me want to jump up and shout out the solution to the world, makes me want to step to the next higher level. Great teachers somehow make us want to ask the questions that they want us to answer, overcome the challenge that they, because they are our teacher, believe we need to overcome. (Lichtman, 20 pag.)

Session structure (120 minutes):

15 mins      Introductions – who we are, what if we explore and prototype
15 mins      Ignite (ish) and challenge
30 mins     Ideation and prototype 1
15 mins      Small group feedback with Q&A
20 mins     Prototype 2 refined from feedback
20 mins     Share session
05 mins     Wrap up and conclusions

Examples of works in progress:

• Computational fluency: Negative Exponents (Algebra I)
• SMART GOAL rubric
• PLC rubrics
• Injustice Project Reflection from Philip Cummings (rubric)

_________________________

Resources cited:

Brookhart, Susan M. Grading and Learning: Practices That Support Student Achievement. Bloomington, IN: Solution Tree, 2011. Print

Conzemius, Anne; O’Neill, Jan. The Power of SMART Goals: Using Goals to Improve Student Learning. Bloomington, IN: Solution Tree, 2006. Print.

Lichtman, Grant, and Sunzi. The Falconer: What We Wish We Had Learned in School. New York: IUniverse, 2008. Print.

Ritchhart, Ron, Mark Church, and Karin Morrison. Making Thinking Visible: How to Promote Engagement, Understanding, and Independence for All Learners. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, 2011. Print.

Rothstein, Dan, and Luz Santana. Make Just One Change: Teach Students to Ask Their Own Questions. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Education, 2011. Print.

Identifying problems as a way to move others takes two long-standing skills and turns them upside down. First, in the past, the best salespeople were adept at accessing information. Today, they must be skilled at curating it— sorting through the massive troves of data and presenting to others the most relevant and clarifying pieces. Second, in the past, the best salespeople were skilled at answering questions (in part because they had information their prospects lacked). Today, they must be good at asking questions— uncovering possibilities, surfacing latent issues, and finding unexpected problems. (Pink, 132 pag.)

What if we simply think about the changes in history? Do the learners in our care ever experience current history lessons and learning? What about math? Are we “stuck” in an AP Calculus track for “good” math students? Do we learn enough probability and statistics? What about combinatorics or fractals and recursion?

How are we curating information? Are we teaching how to curate information and uncover possibilities? Are we striving to make connections from our discipline to the work of others? Do we model learning, curation, and connecting ideas?

Real learning, whether in the classroom or the real world, occurs when an individual takes a personal stake in solving a problem that is meaningful to him or her. The person finds a visceral, tangible difference between the world as they expect or want it to be and the world as it is. They will wrestle and prod and provoke the problem, using all of their tools and resources, until they either resolve the conflict to a point of satisfaction or just give up. Dissonance immediately leads to questioning: we ask “why,” “why not,” and “what if” until answers of satisfactory magnitude are found that either eliminate the dissonance or decrease it to a level of acceptability. (Lichtman, 104-105 pag.)

Why is it so uncomfortable to linger in and embrace the struggle? Do we see struggle to learn as failure?  Do we believe that if we don’t learn it the first time, we fail? What if we encouraged learners to discuss and reflect on the struggle?

First, resist the urge to react. Nine times out of ten, we are trying to solve the wrong problem. Reaction without analysis and understanding will almost always result in an inadequate solution. It may be easy, but it won’t be right. Remember where problems come from; dissonance. Find the dissonance. (Lichtman, 116 pag.)

I argue with labeling events (or people) as failures.  What if, when you fail, you try again? Isn’t this event then just a stumble?    I assume, again, that I have attention blindness and need others to help me with perspective. I agree that, while difficult, we should ask more questions before problem solving.  I aspire to dwell in problem-find analysis and questioning long enough to uncover multiple possibilities and find unexpected problems.

I aspire to listen more, question more, and learn more.

I aspire to become a falconer.

_________________________

Lichtman, Grant, and Sunzi. The Falconer: What We Wish We Had Learned in School. New York: IUniverse, 2008. Print.

Pink, Daniel H. To Sell Is Human: The Surprising Truth about Moving Others. New York: Riverhead, 2012. Print.

[Cross posted on Flourish.]

Good teachers ensure that their students learn the subject material to an acceptable or superior level.  Great teachers all do one thing well:  they create dissonance in the minds of their students and guide them in the resolution of that dissonance. (Lichtman, 105 pag.)

We as teachers must create opportunities for thinking.  However, even when opportunities for thinking are present, we must still recognize that thinking is largely an internal process, something that happens “under the hood” as it were.  (Ritchhart, Church, and Morrison, 30 pag.)

Asking authentic questions – that is, questions to which the teacher does not already know the answer or to which there are not predetermined answers – is extremely powerful in creating a classroom culture that feels intellectually engaging.  Such questions allow students to see teachers as learners and foster a community of inquiry. (Ritchhart, Church, and Morrison, 31 pag.)

In all cases dissonance, the recognition that “I” have a problem, leads first to questioning and then to growth of knowledge or experience.  The individual is directly, in some cases, passionately involved, self-interested in the outcome, in finding answers and more questions and more answers until the dissonance is reduced to an acceptable level.  This is the true process of learning.  It can be tumultuous, exciting, uplifting, rocky, enlightening, or all of them at once.  (Lichtman, 105 pag.)

We want more students to experience the burst of energy that comes from asking questions that lead to making new connections, feel a greater sense of urgency to seek answers to questions on their own, and reap the satisfaction of actually understanding more deeply the subject matter as a result of the questions they asked.  (Rothstein and Santana, 151 pag.)

I agree that great teachers create dissonance in the minds of learners and guide them to find paths to resolution.  I agree that this is really hard to do.  I argue with myself. I argue with myself a lot. It is okay for learners to struggle and wrestle with concepts, problems, and goals.  I assume the goal is to retain what is learned.  I assume we aspire to teach and learn rather than present and regurgitate.  I assume that sometimes learners will go home frustrated. I aspire to be strong enough to stand firm and guide learners through the struggle rather than give the solution or solve the problem for them.  I aspire to check “under the hood” for deep understanding.

I aspire to listen more, question more, and learn more.

I aspire to become a falconer.

________________________

Lichtman, Grant, and Sunzi. The Falconer: What We Wish We Had Learned in School. New York: IUniverse, 2008. Print.

Ritchhart, Ron, Mark Church, and Karin Morrison. Making Thinking Visible: How to Promote Engagement, Understanding, and Independence for All Learners. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, 2011. Print.

Rothstein, Dan, and Luz Santana. Make Just One Change: Teach Students to Ask Their Own Questions. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Education, 2011. Print.

[Cross posted on Flourish.]

Sun Tzu says: Hence a wise general makes a point of foraging on the enemy.
This means that many aspects of the solution you seek lie within the problem itself.  Come to the problem unburdened by preconceptions and use the information along the way to guide you. (Lichtman, 96 pag.)

If we lead learning by following the learners’ questions, won’t we be coming to the problem relatively unburdened?  Through history and experience, I might assume that the learners in my care will struggle with the approaching concept.  What if I facilitate a question-generating session and see where the questions lead?

The provenance of authentic questions doesn’t rest solely with the teacher, however.  When students ask authentic questions, we know they are focused on the learning and not just completion of assignments.  Students’ authentic questions are a good measure of their intellectual engagement. (Ritchhart, Church, and Morrison, pag. 32)

What if we collect multiple questions – authentic questions – from our learners? Will the collection of questions lead to the same product or outcome with increased interest and engagement?

The act of prioritization – the ability to assign importance properly is an intellectual task involving a wide range of skills, including comparison, categorization, analysis, assessment, and synthesis. (Rothstein and Santana, 88 pag.)

Are we able to teach more because we follow their thinking paths? In addition to teaching content, will we teach comparison, categorization, analysis, assessment, and synthesis?

Great teachers create opportunities for students to ask questions that excite them to self-discovery.  Great leaders, in business, politics, sports, or families, create opportunities for others to be self-successful.  Many of our heroes are heroes because they find a way for us to find something within ourselves – courage, kindness, leadership, charity, vision – that we might not have found without their help.  They prepare us to be prepared to take advantages of opportunities. (Lichtman, pag. 33)

I aspire to find solutions that may be within the problem.  I argue that it takes collaboration, communication, and empathy to find the myriad of perspectives in any complex problem.  I agree that great teachers help uncover critical human-centered qualities that need to be offered to the world.  I aspire to be a teacher that prepares learners to be prepared.

I aspire to listen more, question more, and learn more.

I aspire to become a falconer.

________________________

Lichtman, Grant, and Sunzi. The Falconer: What We Wish We Had Learned in School. New York: IUniverse, 2008. Print.

Ritchhart, Ron, Mark Church, and Karin Morrison. Making Thinking Visible: How to Promote Engagement, Understanding, and Independence for All Learners. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, 2011. Print.

Rothstein, Dan, and Luz Santana. Make Just One Change: Teach Students to Ask Their Own Questions. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Education, 2011. Print.

[Cross posted on Flourish.]

Questions, however, can lead to many new points of information.  Questions are the source of inquiry and creativity.  They multiply the diversity and scope of the learning process.  (Lichtman, 43 pag.)

Isn’t this what we want for our learners? Am I confident enough to collect questions before, during, and after a lesson?  Am I flexible and talented enough to lead learning by following the learners’ questions?

The importance of curiosity and questioning in propelling learning is easily seen in our experience as learners.  We know that when our curiosity is sparked and we have a desire to know and learn something, our engagement is heightened.  (Ritchhart, Church, and Morrison, 13 pag.)

Can I spark curiosity and facilitate need-to-knows that heighten engagement?

We want more students to experience the burst of energy that comes from asking questions that lead to making new connections, feel a greater sense of urgency to seek answers to questions on their own, and reap the satisfaction of actually understanding more deeply the subject matter as a result of the questions they asked.  (Rothstein and Santana, 151 pag.)

Satisfaction, deep understanding, urgency to learn, and bursts of energy…Wow!

Even after extensive efforts to develop understanding, we find that we may be left with more questions than when we started. These new questions reflect our depth of understanding.  This depth and ability to go below the surface of things is a vital part of our ongoing development of understanding.  Rather than look for or accept the easy answers, we push to identify the complexity in the events, stories, and ideas before us.  In this complexity lay the richness, intrigue, and mystery that engage us as learners. (Ritchhart, Church, and Morrison, 13 pag.)

I wonder if, in my past, I taught kids to be relieved to find an answer. Did I push them to find multiple paths, solutions, approaches, and answers? Did we strive for richness? Did we press to go below the surface? I know I struggled with depth and breadth. I know I struggled with the balance of coverage and understanding.

I have been argued with – lots – about these ideas. How will learners be able to ask questions if I have not taught them anything? Do we assume that learners are blank slates when they arrive to us? Do we ask first or tell first?

I agree that questions lead to new points of information.  I argue that the learner was not ready to learn what was just delivered if they turn right around as ask the question that was just answered.  I assume that they are ready to learn when they ask a question. I aspire embrace the challenge of ask first, follow their our questions, and make course corrections to lead learning.

I assume that I fall victim to attention blindness as described by Cathy Davidson in Now You See It: How the Brain Science of Attention Will Transform the Way We Live, Work, and Learn, last summer’s reading.  I argue that I can do better, but I need help.  I agree that learning episodes will be more engaging if I attend to the questions of the learners rather than exclusively the way I think and plan.  I aspire to lead learning by multiplying the diversity and scope of the learning process.

I aspire to listen more, question more, and learn more.

I aspire to become a falconer.

________________________

Lichtman, Grant, and Sunzi. The Falconer: What We Wish We Had Learned in School. New York: IUniverse, 2008. Print.

Ritchhart, Ron, Mark Church, and Karin Morrison. Making Thinking Visible: How to Promote Engagement, Understanding, and Independence for All Learners. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, 2011. Print.

Rothstein, Dan, and Luz Santana. Make Just One Change: Teach Students to Ask Their Own Questions. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Education, 2011. Print.

[Cross posted on Flourish.]

… power leads individuals to anchor too heavily on their own vantage point, insufficiently adjusting to others’ perspective. (Pink, 72 pag.)

I agree. This is really yet another call to focus on learning rather than teaching.  If I, the teacher, focus on my work and the job I do too heavily, then I may miss the fact that some in my care are not learning what I think I’m teaching.  (How many times have I been surprised about what my learners do not know?)

Sun Tzu writes: The art of war is of vital importance to the State.  It is a matter of life and death, a road either to safety or to ruin. Hence it is a subject of inquiry, which can on no account be neglected.

This means that facing challenges, both problems and opportunities, is vital to personal success.  This is the arena in which we can grow, excel, create, and expand. Without these challenges we wither. Because of this importance, it is equally vital to examine the way in which we meet the challenges by questioning our path from the outset. (Lichtman, 51 pag.)

Learning is of vital importance.  How do we face the challenges of ensuring that everyone learns? How do we grow, excel, create, and expand our abilities to differentiate, enrich and intervene, so that everyone is making progress.  Can we overcome the subtle, and not so subtle, barriers in communication, expectations, confidence, and support? How do we teach learners to overcome these barriers too?

As a result, the ability to move people now depends on power’s inverse: understanding another person’s perspective, getting inside his head, and seeing the world through his eyes. (Pink, 72 pag.)

Offering learners multiple ways to become aware of what is to be learned and designing experiences to lead learning and practice should enable and empower the learner to grow stronger and more confident.

I’ve been thinking a lot about power and influence.  I do not have the power to make anyone learn.  Learning is within the power and control of the learner.  I have a sphere of influence and an ability to persuade.

Think of this first principle of attunement as persuasion jujitsu: using an apparent weakness as an actual strength. Start your encounters with the assumption that you’re in a position of lower power. That will help you see the other side’s perspective more accurately, which, in turn, will help you move them. (Pink, 72 pag.)

I instantly loved the phrase persuasion jujitsu.  The American Heritage Dictionary breaks down jujitsu or jujutsu as  jū, soft;  + jutsu, technique.

I aspire to develop persuasion jujitsu, a soft technique, when teaching and learning.  I agree that it is critical to understand the learner’s perspective.  I argue with the idea that because I was a student once, I have that understanding.  I assume that I need to walk more in the shoes of a learner in 2013 rather than reflect on the needs I had as a student long ago.

Can I model lifelong learning and openly discuss my learning with others? Can I teach persistence, risk-taking, and overcoming failure struggle if I share, question, and collaborate?

I aspire to be a positive influence. I aspire to examine the way in which I meet challenges.

I aspire to listen more, question more, and learn more.

I aspire to become a falconer.

________________________

Lichtman, Grant, and Sunzi. The Falconer: What We Wish We Had Learned in School. New York: IUniverse, 2008. Print.

Pink, Daniel H. To Sell Is Human: The Surprising Truth about Moving Others. New York: Riverhead, 2012. Print.

[Cross posted on Flourish.]

Questions are waypoints on the path of wisdom.  Each question leads to one or more new questions or answers.  Sometimes answers are dead ends; they don’t lead anywhere.  Questions are never dead ends.  Every question has the inherent potential to lead to a new level of discovery, understanding, or creation, levels that can range from the trivial to the sublime. (Lichtman, 35 pag.)

Spending today as a student-learner has been valuable and interesting.  Along with 20 of my colleagues, I spent the day learning about teaching reading using the Orton-Gillingman approach.  With zero background knowledge and no experience, I stretched to be considered in the novice category.  In other words, this was all new learning for me.  While I have heard and seen the acronym REVLOC, it had no meaning to me.  It does now.

I cannot tell you how many times today a question was asked with the preface “I’m sure this is a dumb question.” It makes me wonder…Do we not see ourselves as learners too?  Do we honor and value the questions our students have? Do we honor and value the questions we have?

The seventeenth-century British statesman, scientist, and philosopher, Francis Bacon, who advanced the idea of the scientific method, said “Who questions much, shall learn much, and retain much.” [emphasis added]  Centuries later, one of the students quoted in this chapter made pretty much the same argument: ”You can’t learn unless you ask questions. [emphasis added]  Unless you ask questions, nobody knows what you are thinking or what you want to know.”

If we have asked a question about a subject or concern, we are much better attuned to the information coming back to us.  We are, therefore, more likely to retain it.  (Rothstein and Santana, 135 pag.)

How do we elicit questions from the learners in the room who are not quite brave enough to risk asking a question for fear of how they will be perceived by others? What if we bright spot, value and honor questions? Can we adjust our own thinking and actions to create a community where learning is transparent?

Interrogative self-talk, the researchers say, “may inspire thoughts about autonomous or intrinsically motivated reasons to purse a goal.”  As ample research has demonstrated, people are more likely to act, and to perform well, when the motivations come from intrinsic choices rather than from extrinsic pressures.  Declarative self-talk risks bypassing one’s motivations.  Questioning self-talk elicits the reasons for doing something and reminds people that many of those reasons come from within. (Pink, 103 pag.)

What if I ask more questions? Can I teach so that agitation and irritation are the same or at least aligned? What if I structure learning episodes where learners are invited/encouraged/required to ask questions? Can I teach what needs to be learned by listening to and following the path of the learners?

What can be learned if we question our way through an entire lesson? Is it possible to allow students to steer the lesson through their questions? Will listening to student questions help us diagnose, assess and chart a course in real-time? Can we lead learning by following their thinking?

Our educational systems have been constructed entirely around the goal of providing the correct answer to a question provided by an instructor or handed out on a standardized exam.  This system provides a form of valid comparison for the results of a group of students, and it provides a foundation of shared information amongst those who have followed a course of study.  Unfortunately, the real world, particularly the real world of the coming century, does not and will not work this way.  Our heroes are not defined by how well they answered canned questions or what they scored on their SATs precisely because these outcomes do not determine success in real-world situations.  The real revolution in education and training, if it comes, will be overtly switching our priority from the skills of giving answers to the skills of finding new questions. (Lichtman, pag. 35)

I argue that we will be able to teach more if we start from our students’ questions.  I’ve been told it is impossible to teach what needs to be learned from a starting point of the students’ questions.  I’ve also seen the results when brave teachers have put aside their assumptions and tried.  See the Kara Leaman’s comment on my blog.

I agree with the idea of interrogative self-talk.  How often do I prevent myself from learning, questioning, and risking by the way I reason with myself? Can I change the chatter in my head to be one who questions much, learns much, and retains much?

I assume that we are all here to learn.  We function in a learning community. We aspire to be lifelong learners.  I aspire to offer my colleagues as much grace and encouragement as I need to learn and grow. I aspire to be patient will every learner when they have questions.

Can I grow into an irritant-agitator practicing the art of questioning?

I aspire to value, honor, and encourage questions from learners.

I aspire to listen more, question more, and learn more.

I aspire to become a falconer.

________________________

Lichtman, Grant, and Sunzi. The Falconer: What We Wish We Had Learned in School. New York: IUniverse, 2008. Print.

Pink, Daniel H. To Sell Is Human: The Surprising Truth about Moving Others. New York: Riverhead, 2012. Print.

Rothstein, Dan, and Luz Santana. Make Just One Change: Teach Students to Ask Their Own Questions. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Education, 2011. Print.

[Cross posted on Flourish.]