Connecting the Two Perspectives
Diana spends considerable time thinking about how to link new ideas with the ideas that are already in her students’ minds. Sometimes she is explicit about the process and assists students in seeing the connections. She informs (akin to the directive perspective). At other times she sends students off on their own to discover the key connections. She empowers students to create their own understanding (akin to the co-creative perspective). As she reflected on her success in terms of high value-added scores, she said, “I think that’s why they do better. I evolve them.”
Diana works to turn her students into more empowered and effective versions of themselves, people who can make creative connections and learn on their own. As she teaches them, she says each insight provides a bit of energy, and they light up. In commenting on the feel-good effects of “lighting up,” she makes another observation about connections and a self-reinforcing process that helps her turn students into lifelong learners:
You see that light bulb come on in kids. You see them understand or make a connection visually in their eyes, or verbally they’ll say, “Oh.” That gives you chills as a teacher to know that you really hit a nerve with them. And when you hit those nerves, you wake those nerves up and they want that again. It is stimulating their brains, and they enjoy that. It is a good feeling. I know what it feels like. I want them to feel it. I think the more nerves I touch and the more times they feel it, the more they want it and the more they’re going to become lifelong learners [who are] self-motivated.
When students first join her classroom, most of them do not share Diana’s passion for science. She does not see this as a flaw in her students; she sees it as an opportunity to develop that desire. This process does not begin with her acting on the students. It begins with her acting upon herself. She does the internal work necessary to display her own enjoyment of learning. She claims that by demonstrating her own love of learning, she forms an emotional connection with students and “opens them up to what it feels like” to make new connections. Her excitement for learning becomes contagious. Diana does not just want students to learn new information (directive perspective); she also wants them to feel the excitement of making their own connections and discoveries (co-creative perspective).
Diana also speaks of making another kind of interpersonal connection that increases her likelihood of being successful with students. She practices empathy. She disciplines herself to imagine how her students might feel when she engages in a particular behavior. This practice psychologically connects her to her students. She joins with them in a new system of learning, wherein she and her students are connected in a loop that allows her to learn as she teaches: “I really try to empathize; I really try to be at one with them and on their level and connect with them …. I care about them …. I try to put myself in their place. What would I want to see? How would I learn? How would I get it? You have to constantly pique my interest or I’m going to be bored, so I try to constantly do the same with them, and that’s where I’m learning.”
As part of this interdependent, co-creative process, Diana helps her students articulate their interests. As a facilitator she finds ways to help students ask the questions they “really care about.” This phrase is important. It suggests that in her classroom, directive discussions about science become more authentic conversations. Authentic questions reflect genuine interests, and the conversations become more relevant. Engagement increases, and more dynamic teaching and learning patterns tend to emerge.
TEACHER’S TIP
Diana: Think about your lesson on the way to and from work.
Rehearse the general flow of what you plan to do.
Work on “weak spots” that you anticipate being less engaging.
Put yourself in your students’ shoes. Would you enjoy the lesson? Is it clear and easy to understand yet still interesting?
The students, for example, raise questions that surprise Diana. The questions sometimes exceed her ability to answer. While some teachers might dread these moments and fear they will undermine their authority, Diana seeks to stimulate these kinds of questions. She sees them as a sign that she is succeeding. They indicate that the conversation is leaving the realm of the known and moving to a more meaningful place on the boundary between order and chaos. In these kinds of conversations, the students and the teacher both become more vulnerable. They are interdependent equals in the search for knowledge. In such a process, vulnerability is a strength that accelerates learning: “That’s where I do a lot of my learning …. It’s like, ‘Oh, I never thought about that’ or ‘You know, that’s a good question. That is a really good question.’ So that’s the natural evolution of the learning process in the classroom; it’s their responses, their questions, the situations that come up that you don’t expect. That’s where most of the learning takes place …. As I’m planning my teaching, as I’m executing it, all these new questions come up and there is just constant learning.”
Diana uses another important phrase. She speaks of the natural evolution of the learning process. Diana’s language describes how new patterns emerge, which is at the heart of the co-creative perspective. In this process her role as authority figure fades into the background, and the normal hierarchy goes dormant. Here, again, she emphasizes her equality with students: “Teachers don’t know it all. It’s not a bad thing. We can learn together, right along with them, and sometimes it’s not the answer that’s important; it’s what you learn in the search.”
In the search there is another transformational dynamic: Diana is no longer the center of attention, and neither are the students. At the center of attention is the process of learning. The class transforms from a hierarchy to an adaptive learning organization.
TEACHER’S TIP
Diana: It is very easy to get caught up in teaching the content that we are expected to teach and to focus on test results used to “evaluate” our effectiveness as teachers. What we fail to realize is that if we relax and make frequent connections to life experiences, the content and the positive results naturally follow. If students cannot relate to the material being taught, most of it will be forgotten despite our best efforts. Connections help students not only learn material but use it to make their lives better.
Ask your students to make connections to their own lives. Praise them when they make these connections on their own. Help them when they are having trouble making connections on their own.
Give them examples of how the learning relates to their lives or ways that you have applied the ideas in your life. I enjoy sharing stories about my travels around the world, our farm animals and all the gory details, my family, hunting experiences, and anything that can help my students make connections.
It is painful at times and takes much longer than the traditional “sit and get” style, but it cements their learning and gives meaning to what you are trying to share. While doing this our lives become richer, deeper, and more meaningful in the process. Students share their connections, and we begin to make logical sense of what we are teaching and why it truly is important. It is then that teaching becomes our lives, not our jobs, and we teach people, not content.
In the shift from hierarchy to an adaptive learning system, conversations emerge and activities self-organize. Diana finds herself needing to say less. The students own the classroom experience, and she is able to sit back and listen to them as they engage the learning process. At times she may redirect with some of the basic concepts from class (directive perspective), but the students are creating discussions with one another (co-creative perspective). Diana declares, “That type of setting is usually what I feel is the best learning because they’re learning from each other.”
TEACHER’S TIP
Diana: You have to plan lessons and put a lot of thought into how to best allow students to discover as much as possible on their own. It is not easy to do, but with practice everyone can master the skill of helping students uncover ideas on their own. This hard work pays off when students light up as they make these discoveries. It builds self-esteem and teaches skills that set up students to become lifelong learners. You have to give them foundations and skills, but then you have to let them apply them on their own. We sometimes take our work too personally and are unwilling to veer from our intended lesson. If a lesson is not going the way you think it should, change it midstream. If it takes an unexpected turn, follow it. The unexpected learning is sometimes the richest.
Throughout the interview Diana demonstrated a capacity for paradoxical thinking. Paradoxical thinking is the ability to integrate things that are normally separated. Diana exemplifies this perspective. For example, she integrates the notion of teacher and student as two elements of the same larger, dynamic learning system.