Prezentacja Debi Roberts - Konferencja TOC Elbląg 19-21.09
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Prezentacja Debi Roberts (Wielka Brytania) podczas I Ogólnopolskiej Konferencji TOC w Elblągu 19-20.09.2012. Zastosowanie Narzędzi TOC w edukacji, problemach wychowawczych, rozwoju osobistym, itp
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Prezentacja Debi Roberts - Konferencja TOC Elbląg 19-21.09
- 1. Debi Roberts MA Ed Uk Director TOCfE Head of Goldratt Social Applications Author – Story Telling for Better Behaviour Participation and Engagement Support Worker Tutor – residential home for traumatised teens
- 3. The Cloud
- 4. Is there WANTS something that NEEDS we have in What do I common….. What do I want? need? What would d b it be like if both our needs were met? c d# a What do they What do need? they want? copyright Debi Roberts 2010
- 6. Then …. Then that IF …… If this Copyright Debi Roberts 2012
- 7. Workers are exploited Should a large multi-national company set up a shoe factory in a developing country? NO: Workers not If workers lose their jobs they No strict paid a fair don’t wont have money for safety checks wage food or shelter Loss of identity. If industry closes people Workers have little lose their jobs bargaining power Developing country’s culture becomes eroded Country becomes over There is a lot of reliant on foreign competition for very few industry Western products and jobs Labour force is diverted culture are introduced away from producing to developing country food and subsistence Not that many jobs products for the country created Developing country Factory may take up becomes Westernised Work is highly farmland mechanised If a Corporation sets up a factory in a developing country
- 8. Obstacle IO’s Actions (to achieve IO) Does not know what veg he Knows what vegetable he He will ask Red and her mum if likes. likes they can help him Does not know how to Knows how to grow 1. Joins library to borrow books grow veg. vegetables on growing veg 2. Asks Red’s mum to help Does not have land for Has land for growing veg Rent land from woodcutter or growing veg. Red’s mum Copy write Debi Roberts 2012
- 10. 1. Do your children bicker? 2. Does the prospect of a long summer holiday resolving their squabbles fill you with dread? 3. Do you want your children to learn how to make responsible choices, and resolved conflicts peacefully?
- 11. Why does the wolf think to eat, he must eat Red? We need to imagine all the things the wolf might say that would make his behaviour seem ok to him. How he justifies his behaviour to himself. What excuses he has for the things he does. Copyright Debi Roberts 2012 His excuses are based on his assumptions.
- 12. The wolf wants …. d Red wants….. d# copyright Debi Roberts 2010
- 13. THE STORY OF TWO DONKEYS Copyright Debi Roberts 2012
- 14. WANTS NEEDS What does the wolf need? d b c d# What does Red need? copyright Debi Roberts 2010
- 15. Is there WANTS something that NEEDS we have in What do I common….. What do I want? need? What would d b it be like if both our needs were met? c d# a What do they What do need? they want? copyright Debi Roberts 2010
- 16. Do they have WANTS something in NEEDS To eat common that Little Red they both can To eat a Riding Hood agree on good meal wolf To live happily in the woods Little Red Riding Hood To look To take food after her to her grandma grandma copyright Debi Roberts 2010
- 17. d=Wants b = Needs To eat Little Red a = Common objective To eat a Riding Hood good meal wolf Do they share something they can agree on? They share a desire to Little Red live happily in the woods Riding Hood To stay Not to be alive eaten by the Big Bad Wolf c = Needs d# =Wants Copyright Debi Roberts 2012
- 18. copyright Debi Roberts 2012
- 19. To eat a To eat good meal Little Red Riding Hood Not to be eaten by To stay the Big Bad alive Wolf Copyright Debi Roberts 2012
- 20. The wolf he says he must needs To Eat a good eat Little meal Red Riding Hood To live because….. happily in the woods because….. Copyright Debi Roberts 2012
- 21. No words? No Problem! (To live happily in (eat LRRH) the woods together) (Eat a good meal) To live eat a good meal happily in the woods the wolf needs to To eat a because… good What had meal the he wolf must Assumed?. copyright Debi Roberts 2012
- 22. ‘Because’ We often say ‘because,’ when we are explaining why something happened. It gives a reason. Sometimes it gives an excuse for what is happening . Sometimes...... those excuses are to ourselves, they help us feel ok about what we are doing.
- 23. In order to eat a good meal I must eat Little Red Riding Hood because: 1. She is the only meal available 2. She would be a satisfying meal 3. ? 4. ? copyright Debi Roberts 2010
- 24. Student’s solution. The wolf can eat something else But what? Some students He could eat the rabbits may be happy that live in the woods But no living to stop here animal wants to be eaten Some students He could give up may be happy eating animals What would to stop here he eat? Some students may be happy He could become a to stop here vegetarian But wolves are carnivorous Yes wolves are carnivorous. This solution would be a life style choice. The Wolf wants to change his behaviour so he can live in peace in the woods. We all know what traditionally happens at the end of this story and we are trying to prevent the Wolf from hurting others and being chopped up. If it is possible for a meat eater to get protein from other sources then this might be an effective solution in this particular case. Copyright Debi Roberts 2012
- 25. copyright Debi Roberts 2012
- 26. Thinking win- win BBW WINS BBW LOSES LRRH LOSES LOSE - WIN LOSE - LOSE LRRH WINS WIN-WIN WIN-LOSE copyright Debi Roberts 2010
- 27. Win-win solutions Can you imagine how severe the world must seem if you believe that for someone to win, someone else must lose? It is truly a paradigm shift, a monumental moment, when a student understands that neither side has to lose and that both sides can in fact get what they need. copyright Debi Roberts 2010
- 28. Jasmine, the Dried Mango and the Big Bad Wolf copyright Debi Roberts 2012
- 29. ? Then.. If I add one apple IF …… to a pile of three apples copyright Debi Roberts 2012
- 30. Effect Ellipse – all items connected by an ellipse are needed to explain the effect. then this Sufficiency cause Sufficiency cause And this But also this If this Cause copyright Debi Roberts 2012
- 31. Jasmine, the Dried Mango and the Big Bad Wolf copyright Debi Roberts 2012
- 32. copyright Debi Roberts 2012
- 33. Ben How am I? How do I feel? I’m confused I’m in trouble and have been expelled from school I am conflicted I sold a mobile I I used a card that I had stolen from a found in a blazor to I want to protect blazor buy food my mum My mum is very depressed I stole a blazor and then set fire to it I miss my dad so much I was hungry and dad left us to live needed money with another woman
- 34. • “From the first session I felt supported. I have learnt a number of things that could and will hopefully help me such as the map (graphic organizer) we made to help me talk to school. I think this has helped me. This taught me dangers and effects of alcohol and binge drinking. These sessions have helped me with school, family and my social life around that.”
- 35. "Misbehaviour is an adult description of what is more accurately perfect behaviour given the conditions of the child's existence." Joseph Zornado, Inventing the Child: Culture, Ideology, and the Story of Childhood
- 36. Hana is 16 Penny is 14 Honey is 16 chronic behavioural problems severe socio-economic issues. regularly drank more than 20 units of alcohol a week They all are had been removed from their schools all placed in special educational units
- 37. Not drinking but thinking! Budget, lack of communication and co-ordination meant some identified constraints were ignored, (venue - room layout) however all other goals were achieved. We all had a great evening, the girls stayed till the end of the session, engaged in all activities and returned the following week!!
- 38. TOC can support us to expose those truths we shy away from
- 39. WANTS NEEDS To party all COMMON To have night fun To have a good life To be able to get up in the Not to party OBJECTIVE morning for all night school/work Copyright Debi Roberts 2007
- 40. WANTS NEEDS To be in to sleep on COMMON control of my own my life to sleep well and be rested. To do what I have always done Not to sleep OBJECTIVE on my own Copyright Debi Roberts 2007
- 41. …because….. Having people over every night usually means someone stays over. I don’t like being alone at night and I can’t sleep on my own. I don’t know how to go to sleep on my own. In order to… …I must….. 3 1 Why does the Have someone To have conflict exist? with me so I can people over It’s easier to do fall asleep every night what I’m familiar Have a with ‘good’ life 5 4 2 I’m not in control of my life Have the Not have energy for people over I’m scared of being other things every night alone and of the in my life dark In order to… …I must….. …because….. Having people over every night is tiring. It means I take a lot of alcohol and drugs which is no good for me. I can’t get up in the morning for school or work. I always spend a lot of energy manipulating people to stay over. never have any time just on my own
- 42. Book cover here
- 43. A = Overall Stress B = Hyperactivity and Attention Difficulties. Average Improvement from Pre-Post 1.6 1.4 1.2 1 Teacher Assesment 0.8 Student 0.6 Assesment 0.4 0.2 0 A B copyright Debi Roberts 2010
- 44. Perceived value of positive change after intervention by pupils and their teacher 35 30 25 Pupil 20 Teacher 15 10 5 0 A B copyright Debi Roberts 2010
- 45. copyright Debi Roberts 2012
- 46. Theory of Constraints Thinking Process Provide a set of simple rules known as the ‘Categories of Legitimate Reservation’ that allow us to scrutinize our own and other peoples thinking. Surfacing Legitimate Reservations Allowing Gentle Disagreement Without Argument Not a Challenge on the Person but the logic Creates a Joint Discovery between People Gains Mutual Understanding Improves Communication
- 47. Categories of Legitimate Reservation First: Clarity Second: Entity Existence The Effect Causality The Cause Third: Insufficiency Additional Cause Cause Reversal Predicted Effect Tautology
- 48. Using causality reservations to critique each other’s work Presenter Pick flowers take flowers to Red’s house and say sorry Objection from No, Red and her mum wont open the door to the wolf – students they will be too scared Teacher Can you re – phrase your objection so it becomes a question? Causality Do you think Red will be too scared to open the door to Reservation the Wolf? copyright Debi Roberts 2010
- 49. Carol Dwek Professor of Psychology at Stanford University ‘Fixed’ and ‘Growth’ mindsets copy right Debi Roberts 2012
- 50. Assumptions colour our interpretations and influence behaviour A structures s s u systems behaviours mindset m p policies t i procedures o n s copy right Debi Roberts 2012
- 51. SCARCITY MINDSET Win-win mindset copy right Debi Roberts 2012
- 52. TOC tools are like wheat You can do a lot of things with wheat it all depends on the chef
Hinweis der Redaktion
- Hello, First can I apologise and also thank you for your patience as I do not speak any Polish. I know this creates challenges for both of us but I hope we can enjoy this time together. As you have heard, my name is Debi Roberts and I wear several hats – I am the UK Director for TOCFE AND the Head of Goldratt Social Applications. I am an educational author and trainer and am the engagement and Participation Officer for three Youth Councils. When I am not doing all that, I also sometimes teach – I am the lead tutor in a tier 4 residential home for traumatised teenagers.
- Dolya’s husband wanted to present a basic training in TOC by introducing his students to the three basic TOC graphic organisers, the cloud, the branch and the ambitious target tree.
- We started our training with the ‘Cloud’. The cloud can be used to analyse actions, ideas and different points of view. It can also be used to resolve conflicts and find win-win solutions. It was widely regarded as a strategic tool used by businesses but he wanted to show its applications to education.
- Have you ever realised something and then understood it was the missing piece to something else? It suddenly seemed clear to me that I had spent my entire adult life up to that point, exploring theories and studying educational psychology and applications from neuroscience to education yet always feeling that I was not quite getting something very basic. I didn’t know what it was, I didn’t even know it was missing until I heard it ……The separation of wants from needs was my personal light bulb moment. I could instantly see how my students, my colleagues and myself ROUTINELY got trapped by our inability to separate wants from needs. These simple questions phrased in this way began to create what was to become a complete paradigm shift, AND IN doing so has allowed me to work both at home in the UK and abroad, helping people that many others felt couldn’t be helped. Which of course means it has had a significant impact on my life too.
- The branch helps users identify cause and effect logic. It can be incredibly basic
- Here are some notes from A level Geography
- The Ambitious Target tree is a graphic organizer used for planning and achieving goals. And will be explored in more detail in my workshop this afternoon when we will discuss the relevance of mindsets to education
- She then produced a piece of paper …. Ta dah! ‘Look a whole lecture, I didn’t miss a thing’. She had used the Branch tool and adapted it to her needs. She had written out a logical chain of events detailing the lecture from beginning to end. As far as she was concerned this was without doubt the most important learning tool she had ever come across.
- We took out an advert in a parenting magazine, ‘do your children bicker? Does the prospect of a long summer holiday resolving their squabbles fill you with dread? Do you want your children to learn how to make responsible choices, and resolved conflicts peacefully? …….the phone did not stop ringing. Those questions had resonated very deeply with a lot of parents. Our classes were fully booked in no time.
- We used a familiar fairy story as a vehicle to explore the tools – Little Red Riding Hood to review the tools
- We asked the class, what they imagined the wolf wanted? And what did Red want?
- Many times conflicts result from a person or group, or donkey, making assumptions about the best way to get what they need. Worse still, they make assumptions about the other person or group too. So, they proceed with an action (what they say they want) which, at some level they believe is justified, even though they may not have consciously thought it through, considered the consequences or checked with those it impacts, whether it is ok. That being the case, it is not surprising how many times in a day we find themselves conflicted or in a situation that we know in our hearts is unnecessarily difficult. When we are focused on getting what we want and it is causing a problem it is worth checking what need we are trying to satisfy by insisting on a particular course of action. It is important to do this because often they are not the same thing at all and sadly, by focusing on our want we put a lot of energy into something that isn’t necessarily what we need.
- However, despite this huge step forward, it’s likely that at least one of them is quite committed to getting what they want. How can we help the wolf commit to the common goal instead of perusing his original goal?
- Having run this session any number of times I can confidently tell you that most groups conversation at this point follows a similar pattern
- The group (AS NEARLY ALL GROUPS DO) decided that no living thing wants to be eaten (TOC IS THE MOST WONDERFUL TOOL FOR EXPLORING PHILOSOPHY) so they re-wrote the ending of this well know story. In their version, the wolf decides to give up meat so he can live happily in the woods with Red and her mum. He sets up a little vegetarian Bistro in the woods with their help having bought some land from the woodchopper. He grows all his own vegetables. When he has a surplus he sells them to the local school for their healthy eating programme. When the class rewrote the story they looked for a sustainable and long term ‘happy ever after’ which saw the wolf handing down his successful business to his children who, having grown up in the restaurant were each able to take on different aspects and support the bistro to flourish and grow into a chain of restaurants
- The group had learnt how to reflect on problems and find solutions that honoured both sidesWin-Win - enables both sides to satisfytheir significant Needs. The children can see that many times Problems are created by insisting on gettingWhat we want without consideration. Thinking Win-Win - shifts the focus from striving to get what we want, to striving to satisfy our needs.
- The first course over, we were pretty pleased with ourselves. The lad who was stealing reformed his ways, and a family at war over the bread they ate, resolved their conflict. What was most interesting to me however was the realisation the youngest girl in the group had made.
- Jasmine was 6 years old and initially as I said, I regretted having young ones together with older kids but she surprised me most of all – Jasmine could see that the Wolf had got into trouble because he had insisted on getting what he wanted. Jasmine now understood that what we say we want is not always what we need. Jasmine then learnt how to use another organiser to apply cause and affect logic to show the consequences of each character’s choices.
- As you’ll remember, a Branch organiser lets us consider the logical consequences of an action
- But just like life, its not as simple as that is it. Sometimes one thing doesn’t quite lead to another, sometimes we need supporting evidence and criteria to ensure the logic is clear and robust. When we learn how to do this we can sequence events so that we can; consider implicit information ( as my daughter Emma had done with her note taking) predict consequences and consider responsible alternatives.
- Jasmine considered the consequence of having something she loved. She loved dried mango, and because her mummy loved her, mummy always packed dried mango in her lunchbox. Because Jasmine loved mango so much, she couldn’t resist eating it before anything else. Dried mango takes a long time to finish. Jasmine can never finish her mango before the bell goes and before she can eat the rest of her lunch. A consequence of this is that she is very hungry. Dinner isn’t till much later and mummy does not like Jasmine to eat between meals. Jasmine recognized that being hungry when she came out of school meant she was also quite irritable. Being irritable meant that most afternoons Jasmine and her mum did not enjoy each other’s company!
- Jasmine learnt how to explore consequences but more importantly she learnt how to look at them so she could work out where in the chain the problem started. Jasmine came up with a solution (on her own) for a problem she had not recognized she had until she learnt this process. She could now see the effects of having what she wanted on the rest of her day. She decided to tell her mum she no longer wanted mango in her lunchbox. The decision to change was very simple for her.Do you think she would have been as happy to give up her mango if her mum or a midday supervisor had suggested it? Changing our behaviour is so much easier when we work out the consequences for ourselves. The course was so successful that we use the same programme today to teach adults as well as children. From these courses we had some pretty spectacular results. Parents whose children had attended wanted their kids to continue to benefit from these methods so I set up a Saturday school that would allow them to continue learning TOC but also allowed me to teach the other subjects that I loved so much…. Emotional intelligence through art, story telling, critical thinking, mind mapping and problem solving skills. I ran the school for a year and without intending to and certainly without advertising I became inundated with autistic children. Autism was not a field I had studied or had much experience of but I could see that many of these children were benefitting from learning TOC. They had a frame work to explore emotion and consequences which benefitted them in a very profound way. At around this time I decided I wanted to share these tools with young offenders and kids who were struggling with behavioural issues. I wasn’t sure how best to do this so decided to run a free workshop for professionals working in the field of conflict resolution. It was a great event not least because at the end, a young police woman approached me and said she was the lead for conflict resolution in the local area for the police and felt there was something here that could be useful to her, could she give me a ring. Not long after we spoke and she explained she had a budget that she had to use to create an alcohol intervention programme and did I think I could use these tools to create one for her? I said yes and then spent the next few weeks researching everything that I could find on alcohol and intervention programmes from Australia, America and Europe. Having used the tools myself now for a couple of years I was noticing how much clearer my thought process and analytical skills were becoming. I may not have been the first to draw the conclusions I was coming to, but I couldn’t see any other programmes that were based on what seemed so obvious to me – Using the logic branch I had come to see that when analysing behaviour, we start with an action (what someone did or said) and the consequences of that. However nothing ever happens in isolation. This might be the beginning of one branch, but its going to be somewhere in the middle of something else. I realised that using a Branch to work work backwards you get some pretty interesting results. let me tell you the story of Ben.Ben had been excluded from school at a critical point in his educational life for stealing and starting fires. It was quite cut and dried for the school, his behaviour had declined dramatically recently and he had several other misdemeanors chalked up against him. The school felt they had no choice but to implement an exclusion. On this occasion Ben had stolen a blazer containing a mobile phone and lunch card. He sold the phone, used the lunch card to buy himself lunch and burnt the blazer. Using the same cause and effect tool I had used with Jasmine, Ben. was able to untangle his story and see for himself the sequence of events that led up to his rather regrettable choices. Ben generated a time line that he would probably not have otherwise found words for and which sadly was not being brought out by those who were now making very serious decisions about his future.
- Mum and dad had just broken up. Dad had been having an affair and had chosen his mistress over his family. It was very raw for everyone. Ben had always enjoyed a cooked breakfast before school, prepared by his dad. As dad was no longer there, Ben preferred to sleep in and go to school without eating. Mum was on a very tight budget, with dad only providing the minimum allowance. To make sure money stretched as far as possible, mum no longer bought lunch cards instead preferring to make packed lunches for Ben and his sister.Ben who no longer eats breakfast, is always starving by mid-morning which is when he now eats his packed lunch. This leaves him without any food for lunchtime when he again is hungry. Ben wants a new phone, he is so angry that the things he had previously taken for granted were now not available to him. Like his mum, Ben was finding it very hard to deal with the pain of his father’s choices. A blazer with a phone that can be sold to generate funds plus a lunch card for a ravenous boy, mmmm, all Ben had to do now was get rid of the evidence - burn it! Using the graphic organisers it was easy for B to explain himself. Not only did he feel ‘heard’ but he was also able to consider the effects of his actions on everyone connected. Ben found it much easier to take ownership of his behaviour which made it much easier for him to work with the school as opposed to against the school. Using the same process, mum, whose self-esteem was on the floor, was able to reflect on her choices and re consider her options. She didn’t know the content of her son’s time line but using the same tools as Ben, mum considered some basic needs - i.e. at 14 years of age, Ben was burning enormous amounts of calories compared to her or his younger sister. She worked out for herself that not wanting to talk to her ex about money meant she was making decisions that were not working well for her children. Ben and his mum were able to work out what was going on for each of them and what they needed to do to move forward and it was very soon after that this fragile family got themselves back on track.
- Read slide
- I think is a wonderful quote don’t you ….?Anyway, this understanding that often we only look at a problem from a half way point seemed quite clear to me and influenced my thought process and how I was looking at designing an alcohol intervention programme.
- The drinking was seldom in isolation. The kids the police were worried about had any number of complicated and chronic issues to deal with, chronic behavioural problems severe socio-economic issues. regularly drank more than 20 units of alcohol a week and all had been removed from their schools and placed in special educational units, so the likelihood was the intervention would not be solely about alcohol but about life choices.
- My decision to incorporate a life skills type approach with everything I knew about emotional literacy and personal development together with really clear alcohol education worked very well. The programme was a success, and actually we reported our findings here in Warsaw in 2008.
- In terms of developing my practise – it give my absolute proof that toc can support us to expose those truths we shy away from as this next story shows…..
- She parties all night because the parties take place in her home. Hana lives with her mum and grandmother, both of whom are alcoholic. Her mum encourages Hana to have friends over every night and allows them to stay over. Although Hana loves having such a cool mum, she recognizes that she can't concentrate on her studies because she gets so little sleep. When she reflects on her mum’s encouragement of Hana’s regular parties, she considers that perhaps this may be how her mum ensures there is a free and frequent supply of alcohol in the house. This is very painful for Hana. Using the tools she is able to articulate for the very first time that having people to stay over is very important to her too. It meets a very basic need.Using the organizers over several sessions, she discovers that just as her mum was manipulating her friends in order to ensure a free supply of alcohol, she was encouraging them to get drunk so they would sleep over – she needed them to sleep over because ....she was unable to fall asleep if she was on her own.Hana had developed a chronic sleeping problem and had lacked an adult close enough to her to recognize this or who could help her. Although these were Hana’s words, they were still very difficult for her to hear. Using the tools, she articulated thoughts and ideas she had not previously been conscious of. Like Jasmine, she explored small areas of her life and uncovered problems she didn’t know she had. And just like Jasmine, she decided to take control of things and make changes. Hana realized she could no longer continue to live in the toxic environment that was her family home. Shortly after these sessions she was fortunate enough to secure her own accommodation. When I last heard of her she had started college and was on her way to becoming a plumber – the dream she identified for herself at the beginning of our sessions together. I won't pretend that it’s going to be all roses fro her because it’s not. Hana still has many obstacles to overcome however; in addition to her incredible inner resilience she now has some practical tools that will support her, even when those close to her can’t.' This work had such a profound effect on me I decided to embark on a Master’s in Education so I could truly study the impact of the methods I was teaching (particularly to autistic kids and those with behavioural problems)In doing so I was able to carry out a formal research programme over 12 months that investigated the impact TOC had on emotional literacy with children aged 10.This study was under the highly renowned Dr Margot Sunderland at her Institute for arts in Education and Centre for Child Mental Health.
- I received a distinction for my research which was subsequently published as a year’s programme for teachers by a leading educational publisher, however, I should probably point out that initially the subject matter was very irksome to my tutors - I was using what was to them a logic based business tool on a creative arts Masters. But my sense that I had developed way back when I started work with Galina Dolya, was that our thinking (logical or otherwise) is impacted greatly by our emotions which can be accessed just as effectively and creatively through TOC as through any other type of creative endeavour. The hypothesis of my research was that the students emotional literacy would be impacted particularly their empathy. I assumed this would be the case because the Cloud allows you to see the other sides good need whilst the Branch allows users to imagine what other people may be feeling.
- My data was conclusive – TOC did impact the emotional literacy of the group HOWEVER when I examined which component part was the most effected much to my surprise it wasn’t empathy but self-awareness.
- Furthermore the subjects ability to concentrate had been increased. Not the result I anticipated but hugely relevant to education.My research also highlighted additional areas of interest and development for me. The years experience and the data I had collected made it clear that other factors were at play when it came to emotional literacy. The first side road I was taken down allowed me to build a deeper understanding of Group intelligence.
- This has allowed me to share with teachers the importance of group intelligence to the behaviour in the class and the academic outcomes that are possible. Groups become an entity and can have higher or lower emotional intelligence than the individuals that make them up which can have an impact on individuals ability to make responsible choices. If you have 20 children in your class, then you have are 22 intelligences, the children, yours and groups. Group intelligence overrode individual intelligence time and time again in my research. One of the TOC activities I created to combat this and develop a higher group intelligence was very similar to the practise many teachers use at the beginning of term – creating classroom rules. However, in my version, we start with students considering why they come to school – (so we first get agreement that school is useful) then we consider what students need to ensure they can achieve well in school. When they start to write out their lists and compare them they are guided to notice that their friends need the same or similar things too; co-operation, respect, to feel safe, encouraged, to be heard, not to be disturbed, etc etc. Before you know it, students have reflected on ways they can take responsibility for their own learning as well as how they can be responsible towards others. This simple activity supports optimal group intelligence and provides you as the teacher with a charter / set of rules that everyone is aligned with because everyone agreed on them
- So the students in my research programme were shown how to use causality reservations and the rest, to support each other and to critique each other’s work in a way that let everyone develop (winwin) It was so much fun it felt like a game, in fact this became one of the most successful aspects of the programme because the children had to phrase their concern as a question, they did not make a statement against one another they merely asked for clarity. Rather than have children sulking or feeling shamed by being put down, they listened to their friends enquiries and when they couldn’t answer them sufficiently they knew they has just been helped to realise an area of improvement for them. The class loved this approach and were always excited to correct their errors and present again. What a difference that made to the class and their ability to work as individuals and as a group. I believe this was significant in improving the group’s ability to work together, to reducing stress and to improving their ability to concentrate.
- This lead me to my current interest – Mindsets. Mindsets is a term created by Carol Dwek and refers to the two mindsets she had identified that colour our perceptions. One is ‘fixed’ where people believe their skills and abilities are a fixed quantity and not much can be done about that, the other is ‘Growth’ where people believe there is unlimited potential to achieve. My work has led me to understand that there are two more and I will be sharing this information with you this afternoon in my workshop.
- The reason Dwek’s understanding of mindsets is so important, particularly to education, is that she discovered two filters through which students (and everyone else for that matter) experience ….. everything. These filters create a set of assumptions through which everything else is viewed and will unconsciously drive behaviour, decision making, life chances and ultimately your mental and physical health.
- However for a truly solid structure you need more than two points to build on – and this afternoon I would like to share with you two additional mindsets that I believe are equally important to education and which filter peoples perceptions and experiences in just the same way as growth and fixed mindsets do