Supporting inspiring education
The wind turbines project has been going really well. Every time I run the workshop I get it that bit closer to my idea of a ‘perfect’ workshop; fun, creative, experiential, a great learning environment. I’m getting better at coaching the children through the process and really encouraging the learning through failure attitude.
The learning through games session went very well.
Participants enjoyed themselves and gave some good feedback on what they had learnt in the session as well as ways to improve it in the future.
Some of the games invented in the session are going on to be used in the participants own work - what a great result!
And here is an interesting artifact from the event. Everyone had 9 stickers to distribute as they thought fit. The results show what people thought were important values for learning or for playing games. It suggests that challenge, fun and engagement are key areas to address when creating games for learning.
I’ve also added another resource for this session.
How we give praise to children can have a significant effect on their beliefs about learning, their resilience and their test scores.
Carol Dweck has done a lot of research in this field, and published a series of studies in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 1998, Vol. 75, No. 1, 33-52.
128 children (10-12 years old) were given a set of moderately difficult puzzles and were then told they had done very well. A third were praised for their effort (”you must have worked really hard”), a third for their ability (”you must be smart at this”) and a third were given no additional feedback.
The children were then asked if they wanted to take a harder or easier test (performance or learning goal). 67% of children who had been praised for ability chose the easier test. 92% of those who had been praised for effort chose the harder test.
A harder test was given to all children to examine how they responded to failure. Those praised for effort enjoyed the harder task and wanted to persist in the test more than those praised for ability.
Finally all the children took a test equal in difficulty to the first test. Children receiving ability feedback solved 0.92 fewer problems than they did on the first test. Children praised for effort solved 1.21 more.
By being aware of our communication in the classroom, we can encourage children to choose learning goals over performance goals. We can help them to persist longer and to enjoy overcoming challenges. And we can increase their performance in tests.
How can we get these results into our schools? I offer 2 ways:
I was surprised when I heard a surgeon talking about her work. She said she wouldn’t want to change the fact that people need serious operations. Her point was that having to deal with our mortality can cause us to ‘rethink’ our life and values. I agree, but I think it’s sad to wait for a life threatening moment before reflecting on how amazing life is.
I think this reflects a serious issue in our culture. A lot of us take things for granted so much that we never question how incredible our situation is! In the west we live a life only attained by kings and queens just a few centuries ago!
By cultivating gratitude we can become more aware of how lucky we are, get perspective, and take renewed pleasure in the essential things like running water, food, friends and sun.
You don’t have to wait till you lose your mobility, vision, family or friends to appreciate them fully now!
Education is so important because it is the children in schools today and in the future who will be dealing with our accelerating world! Self knowledge, confidence, resilience, curiosity, creativity, passion, teamwork, communication. These are what we need to be fostered and rewarded at school.
How will education change in the next 20 years? If we keep trying to catch up with change we’ll always be behind. Somehow we need to turn things around - unleash children’s incredible learning ability on the exponential changes and support, facilitate and guide the learning that occurs.
I’m pleased to announce I’ve finished a new article on coaching and learning! Please download and read how coaching can support learning.
Alan Morrish is a great teacher of improvisation. His teaching style is to introduce simple games and gradually complicate them. At all times he asks us to find our enjoyment, and to follow it. I began to use this idea in my life to see why it so powerful.
After some time playing with the idea, I can present some ideas that I’ve found useful:
Since reading about NVC, I’ve noticed that people often express their needs or wants hidden inside strategies. For example, someone might say “shut the door”, instead of saying “I’m cold, and I want to be warm”.
There are a few problems with presenting strategies to people:
* hiding my needs inside strategies is likely to make it harder to get them met.
* telling someone what to do is often met with resistance.
* the person with the strategy can get attached to their plan, and forget what they wanted to achieve.
For example, if A is feeling lonely and wants company:
A - Let’s watch a movie tonight (express need inside a strategy)
B - We watched one just the other night, I want to go out with Alan tonight.
A - You always see Alan, stay in tonight with me (is attached to the strategy).
B - What is the problem with Alan? (conversation moves further away from A’s needs)
If A felt able to express their feeling about their needs - instead of presenting a pre thought out strategy, it might be more like this:
A - I feel a bit lonely tonight, I want to have company (expresses needs).
B - OK, well I was planning to go out with Alan, do you want to come? (creates a strategy to fulfill A’s needs)
A - Can I bring a friend?
B - Sure, let’s meet at 8.
In this way B gets to fulfil A’s needs with their own plan, and A gets their needs satisfied.
Often we are not even clear about what we are wanting or needing! The strategy can just pop into our heads fully formed. Then all we want is for that particular plan to be fulfilled, even if it doesn’t actually get us what we want. By being aware of our feelings and expressing them clearly - we can become happier and more fulfilled!