Imagine this. You are asked to bake a cake. You are given some ingredients and a list of instructions for making the cake. You look down at the list, and then to the countertop. Surveying what is there you notice that the list says things like, "It would be best to use eggs." You look at the countertop and notice that there are no eggs. "So how many should I use, I have made cakes before and have used three eggs, but I am unsure of how fluffy you want your cake?" Then a deep voice, from nowhere imparticular says, "I am sorry, but the actual number of eggs that you need is confidential." You sit and ponder this. "Well, what about the amount of oil? You have oil here. This is good, but I need to know how much your particular cake needs." Again, the deep voice replies, "Yes, that information would be helpful, but our Adminstration does not feel that you need to know this. It is confidential. If we share this information, there are some who would be concerned that you have knowledge about oil measurements." This task begins to look increasingly daunting as you reply, "I have made cakes before, I understand the process, I know how high I can turn up the temperature before the cake burns, but you want a very specific cake, you hired me to make the cake for you, so why would you not want to give me all of the information needed, to ensure you get the best cake possible?" There is no response from the deep voice for a moment, and then without warning you hear "We want you to do the best that you can, with what you have been given. We know you will still be successful. We have faith in you and your ability." You scream out to the voice, "YES! Just not as successful as I could be if you give me all of the information!"
You deliver a half-baked, lop-sided cake, and you cannot help but to feel cheated because you know that you did not deliver your best cake. You think, "What I could have given them if they had just given me all of the information! What I could have done for you, your employees, and the company!"
Facilitators, trainers, educators, are seen as some of the best speakers and motivators in the world. Yet, it is a constant, on-going battle with red tape, which binds us from performing at full capacity! It is like telling a child to run as fast as they can, and then holding onto their jacket hood while they do so, and all while still expecting them to finish the race in first place. What is it with corporate culture? Do you really believe that you are doing a diservice to your employees when you provide vital information regarding performance to someone who can increase their productivity, customer service or time management? Is it so awful that someone who lives and breathes confidentiality (most external trainers and consultants will not publicly discuss fees, client lists, or curriculum content) would have access to private information in order to produce increased results for your company? Now the company is the little boy! They are allowing themselves to be dragged back to the starting line when they repeatedly do not allow the educator to DO THEIR JOB!
This type of mentality will always give you half-baked results. For the sake of your company people, give your educator the tools that they need to do the best that they can for you, your employee and company. Do not be the "drag" in the race, or the reason that they can only deliver a lop-sided cake.
Wednesday, December 23, 2009
Monday, December 14, 2009
Dumping Out the Drawers: A Learning Styles Wrap-up
Our greatest moments of enlightenment come in unsuspecting ways.
I cannot stand math, especially Algebra; it gives me anxiety attacks and all my life I have avoided it like the plague. Apparently, one has to have some basic understanding of Algebra to be able to receive a degree. Dang it! So, I have been attending tutoring sessions for the past month at a Sylvan Learning Center. Turns out, I never understood math-ever! Now I am working on problems that include “fractions” and something called “absolutes,” and I actually broke down and cried when the tutor explained them to me and asked me to do some problems to show my learning. Then she said something, which to anyone else would not seem profound, but to me it was an epiphany: “You keep trying to file everything into drawers; you want rules (really? me? Rebel1, wanting rules?!), and that is not what you need. You need understanding. Close the drawers and just understand it.” Wow.
I believe my math epiphany has application to what I have been doing to myself over the past fifteen years in training and development. I have soaked up every “technique” and “method;” I have gone to every certification program that I could afford ever on the lookout for the “one big theory” or idea, which would turn me into Ken Blanchard or Stephen R. Covey overnight. If I could just fill those filing cabinet drawers with enough information then somehow I would have the knowledge to come up with a new idea. I have “Six Sigma’ed” myself to death with the hope I might be able to know enough to make a difference. I understand now that no matter how much I put into those drawers no single-solution exists, and nothing fits neatly into a “rule.” For example, my beliefs about the all-important and necessary learning styles, which for me fell neatly into audio, visual, or kinesthetic drawers, have been turned upside down and the content scattered everywhere.
I believed that to some extent I had to teach to each learning style during the course of each class, but so much more needs to be taken into account! Now that I have really studied learning styles, I realize that the tools most facilitators use may be completely different from the ones that work for me. I also realize that the best part about what we do as training and development guru’s is not black and white, but is still up for negotiation. In reality an array of possibilities exist which I can bring into my classroom in order to understand my students more fully, but I do not have to go to my “filing cabinet” each time that I teach to decide what those will be. What I need to do is take all that I have learned by study and experience and develop my own principles and theories, because there are still so many yet to be discovered. Why limit myself to what is in those drawers?
I cannot stand math, especially Algebra; it gives me anxiety attacks and all my life I have avoided it like the plague. Apparently, one has to have some basic understanding of Algebra to be able to receive a degree. Dang it! So, I have been attending tutoring sessions for the past month at a Sylvan Learning Center. Turns out, I never understood math-ever! Now I am working on problems that include “fractions” and something called “absolutes,” and I actually broke down and cried when the tutor explained them to me and asked me to do some problems to show my learning. Then she said something, which to anyone else would not seem profound, but to me it was an epiphany: “You keep trying to file everything into drawers; you want rules (really? me? Rebel1, wanting rules?!), and that is not what you need. You need understanding. Close the drawers and just understand it.” Wow.
I believe my math epiphany has application to what I have been doing to myself over the past fifteen years in training and development. I have soaked up every “technique” and “method;” I have gone to every certification program that I could afford ever on the lookout for the “one big theory” or idea, which would turn me into Ken Blanchard or Stephen R. Covey overnight. If I could just fill those filing cabinet drawers with enough information then somehow I would have the knowledge to come up with a new idea. I have “Six Sigma’ed” myself to death with the hope I might be able to know enough to make a difference. I understand now that no matter how much I put into those drawers no single-solution exists, and nothing fits neatly into a “rule.” For example, my beliefs about the all-important and necessary learning styles, which for me fell neatly into audio, visual, or kinesthetic drawers, have been turned upside down and the content scattered everywhere.
I believed that to some extent I had to teach to each learning style during the course of each class, but so much more needs to be taken into account! Now that I have really studied learning styles, I realize that the tools most facilitators use may be completely different from the ones that work for me. I also realize that the best part about what we do as training and development guru’s is not black and white, but is still up for negotiation. In reality an array of possibilities exist which I can bring into my classroom in order to understand my students more fully, but I do not have to go to my “filing cabinet” each time that I teach to decide what those will be. What I need to do is take all that I have learned by study and experience and develop my own principles and theories, because there are still so many yet to be discovered. Why limit myself to what is in those drawers?
Tuesday, December 8, 2009
Major Mismatch on the Road Less Travelled
“A major mismatch between instructor styles and learners' style can lead to trouble. For example, suppose that learners prefer independent work and reading, but the instructor prefers group projects. Never rely totally on any one method, but try to vary them. If a student does not seem to be learning, consider whether his/her learning style might be at odds with your teaching style. Remain flexible and be able to change planned learning activities if students are having trouble in a given area.” -Susan A. Santo
Well, do I really believe this? Based upon what I have written already-no, not so much. Everyone has encountered someone with whom they mix like oil and water, and most of us can recall at least one educator who crossed our path that we just could not see eye-to-eye. Sometimes the facilitator gets on our nerves, smiles too much, or recently the comment was made in a training session that the instructors' voices were too "high pitched." It does not take much effort to find differences between the educator and the student. None of these were learning style issues; so I believe that learning style issues are just one small piece of the puzzle, which every educator is required to piece together in order to achieve success.
No, I do not believe that a difference in learning styles and teaching styles can lead to "trouble." My entire thirteen years of public education can attest to the falsity of this statement. I have had plenty of teachers with whom I did not connect, even though they were using my prefered learning style to teach. I also have had teachers with whom I completely connected who used my learning style, yet I still did not learn anything from them. Can we justify this as a learning style issue? Or is it a conflict of personalities, an inability to comprehend the material, or could it simply be a lack of interest all around? Is it the teachers' fault that I simply did not want to do the homework? And why do I feel like we should be speaking in hushed tones regarding such things? Perhaps I am afraid students will get their hands on this insider information and use it as another excuse for not applying themselves. "I got a D in the class because the teacher was not teaching to my learning style mom!" Yeeeaaa, that is just what I need.
Yes, an educator can use varying teaching methods to ensure that all students are included and actively learning, but can we really say that "trouble" lurks around the corners of every educational instituation because teachers are not using these methods? The reality is every educator is likely reaching some of his or her students, because the teacher will most likely be using a teaching style that is a refelection of his or her personal learning style. At least one student has to be on the same page. Then let us consider that millions of students have learned from styles that are not their own, and do you know what they call that? Adaptive learning! The student has adapted to the style the teacher is using. It might not be his own, but he stretches, and he reaches, and he can still acheive success. No, it is not easy, but the road to greatness never is.
Let's quit making excuses about learning and educating, and be cogniscent of individual learners themselves. Should learners be catered to because they have specific learning styles and teachers must bend over backwards to accomodate them, or should learning styles be viewed as another way to Build Relationships of Trust (BRT) and be used as a starting point instead of a defining point? Students will measure up when pushed to do so. I have seen students step outside their comfort zones and experience the growth that comes whenever they choose to change. I have placed students deep within a learning style that does not work for them, and I have seen those students struggle within that style, but most of them try. Each one of them still believes that he or she can achieve success. They were not told achievement would be limited because they were placed in the wrong learning style. So why ruin it for them now? Why coddle them only to discover that down the road they have to face the adverse effects of it any way? Why not encourage them to take the road less travelled? Those of us who have traveled it know that it leads to better places.
Resources:
Santo, Susan A. “Learning Styles and Personality”. The University of South Dakota. Updated: December 2007. May 26, 2009 http://www.usd.edu/~ssanto/styles.html Adapted.
Well, do I really believe this? Based upon what I have written already-no, not so much. Everyone has encountered someone with whom they mix like oil and water, and most of us can recall at least one educator who crossed our path that we just could not see eye-to-eye. Sometimes the facilitator gets on our nerves, smiles too much, or recently the comment was made in a training session that the instructors' voices were too "high pitched." It does not take much effort to find differences between the educator and the student. None of these were learning style issues; so I believe that learning style issues are just one small piece of the puzzle, which every educator is required to piece together in order to achieve success.
No, I do not believe that a difference in learning styles and teaching styles can lead to "trouble." My entire thirteen years of public education can attest to the falsity of this statement. I have had plenty of teachers with whom I did not connect, even though they were using my prefered learning style to teach. I also have had teachers with whom I completely connected who used my learning style, yet I still did not learn anything from them. Can we justify this as a learning style issue? Or is it a conflict of personalities, an inability to comprehend the material, or could it simply be a lack of interest all around? Is it the teachers' fault that I simply did not want to do the homework? And why do I feel like we should be speaking in hushed tones regarding such things? Perhaps I am afraid students will get their hands on this insider information and use it as another excuse for not applying themselves. "I got a D in the class because the teacher was not teaching to my learning style mom!" Yeeeaaa, that is just what I need.
Yes, an educator can use varying teaching methods to ensure that all students are included and actively learning, but can we really say that "trouble" lurks around the corners of every educational instituation because teachers are not using these methods? The reality is every educator is likely reaching some of his or her students, because the teacher will most likely be using a teaching style that is a refelection of his or her personal learning style. At least one student has to be on the same page. Then let us consider that millions of students have learned from styles that are not their own, and do you know what they call that? Adaptive learning! The student has adapted to the style the teacher is using. It might not be his own, but he stretches, and he reaches, and he can still acheive success. No, it is not easy, but the road to greatness never is.
Let's quit making excuses about learning and educating, and be cogniscent of individual learners themselves. Should learners be catered to because they have specific learning styles and teachers must bend over backwards to accomodate them, or should learning styles be viewed as another way to Build Relationships of Trust (BRT) and be used as a starting point instead of a defining point? Students will measure up when pushed to do so. I have seen students step outside their comfort zones and experience the growth that comes whenever they choose to change. I have placed students deep within a learning style that does not work for them, and I have seen those students struggle within that style, but most of them try. Each one of them still believes that he or she can achieve success. They were not told achievement would be limited because they were placed in the wrong learning style. So why ruin it for them now? Why coddle them only to discover that down the road they have to face the adverse effects of it any way? Why not encourage them to take the road less travelled? Those of us who have traveled it know that it leads to better places.
Resources:
Santo, Susan A. “Learning Styles and Personality”. The University of South Dakota. Updated: December 2007. May 26, 2009 http://www.usd.edu/~ssanto/styles.html Adapted.
Monday, November 30, 2009
Learning Styles: To Use or Not To Use...Is That Really the Question?
A learning style is the starting point for the learners...it is the baseline, but it is not a security blanket for their educational lives.
Although there are many arguments both for and against teaching according to students' learning styles, my take on this is that a learning style is another tool which gives educators the best chance of making lasting impressions. By teaching to learning styles at the beginning of a course, educators can create relationships of trust and "safe" learning environments. This bond of understanding once present gives students the security they need to succeed or even fail within that classroom.
There are several non-negotiable teaching principles that I learned while serving as a missionary back in 1996. These are principles that still guide every class that I teach today, and have found are vital to the success of any class or workshop. Some of these might sound familiar to you. The first is build relationships of trust or what I commonly refer to as BRT. I discover everything I can about the learners, their interests, what they want to be when they grow up, and yes, even their learning styles. I show empathy, and interest, and find common bonds between us. The more I know about them, the more I can anchor learning to the students' personal experience. I do this by building upon common beliefs. Past learning and behavior is the best indicator of future openness to learning and behavior. If I can get students to discuss past learning experiences whether good or bad, and if I can build upon past learning experiences, then I have my best chance of adding to the learning. I wish someone had done this with me and Algebra.
To use learning styles in curriculum development is not an all or nothing prospect. Understanding students' learning styles is one more implement for the toolbox. This understanding is the crowbar that prys limitations off learning rather than adding limitations as some might have you believe. The only time that learning style assessments are a hinderance is when the teacher gets bogged down with them. Once teachers evaluate and understand the students' "starting point" then they can move forward! Too many educators decipher the learning styles of a class then continue to stand on the starting line. They create a curriculum based on initial learning style assessments instead of taking the information and moving forward with it creating a living, breathing, ever-changing, evolving curriculum.
A curriculum such as this is one that encourages students' growth through activities and opportunities that promote both success and failure. It gives students a chance to stretch beyond their own learning styles, and it allows them to expand into new styles. Further, it allows them to adapt and evolve into well-rounded students and eventually productive citizens and members of the workforce. Show me an employer who asks, "What is your learning style so I might best be able to train you in this job?" I have yet to know of one. It is up to students to change their own learning styles, to adapt to new styles of learning placed before them, and to grow to a point where they eventually do not need any particular style to absorb new learning.
Like humans learning styles are always growing, developing, and ever-changing. Why then would we force ourselves to make a choice? Why would we consider teaching to learning styles an all or nothing prospect? We must have both to ensure that we can connect with our students, build relationships of trust, establish common beliefs, and ultimately create a life-long learner.
Rebel1
Although there are many arguments both for and against teaching according to students' learning styles, my take on this is that a learning style is another tool which gives educators the best chance of making lasting impressions. By teaching to learning styles at the beginning of a course, educators can create relationships of trust and "safe" learning environments. This bond of understanding once present gives students the security they need to succeed or even fail within that classroom.
There are several non-negotiable teaching principles that I learned while serving as a missionary back in 1996. These are principles that still guide every class that I teach today, and have found are vital to the success of any class or workshop. Some of these might sound familiar to you. The first is build relationships of trust or what I commonly refer to as BRT. I discover everything I can about the learners, their interests, what they want to be when they grow up, and yes, even their learning styles. I show empathy, and interest, and find common bonds between us. The more I know about them, the more I can anchor learning to the students' personal experience. I do this by building upon common beliefs. Past learning and behavior is the best indicator of future openness to learning and behavior. If I can get students to discuss past learning experiences whether good or bad, and if I can build upon past learning experiences, then I have my best chance of adding to the learning. I wish someone had done this with me and Algebra.
To use learning styles in curriculum development is not an all or nothing prospect. Understanding students' learning styles is one more implement for the toolbox. This understanding is the crowbar that prys limitations off learning rather than adding limitations as some might have you believe. The only time that learning style assessments are a hinderance is when the teacher gets bogged down with them. Once teachers evaluate and understand the students' "starting point" then they can move forward! Too many educators decipher the learning styles of a class then continue to stand on the starting line. They create a curriculum based on initial learning style assessments instead of taking the information and moving forward with it creating a living, breathing, ever-changing, evolving curriculum.
A curriculum such as this is one that encourages students' growth through activities and opportunities that promote both success and failure. It gives students a chance to stretch beyond their own learning styles, and it allows them to expand into new styles. Further, it allows them to adapt and evolve into well-rounded students and eventually productive citizens and members of the workforce. Show me an employer who asks, "What is your learning style so I might best be able to train you in this job?" I have yet to know of one. It is up to students to change their own learning styles, to adapt to new styles of learning placed before them, and to grow to a point where they eventually do not need any particular style to absorb new learning.
Like humans learning styles are always growing, developing, and ever-changing. Why then would we force ourselves to make a choice? Why would we consider teaching to learning styles an all or nothing prospect? We must have both to ensure that we can connect with our students, build relationships of trust, establish common beliefs, and ultimately create a life-long learner.
Rebel1
Monday, November 23, 2009
Welcome!
This blog was created for an Adult Education program course, but I have wanted to do this for a long time and now I have a valid reason to spend time doing it. I want it to be something of value to others in my field, and perhaps we can work together to change the face of education.
I have this recurring nightmare that educators are being held back from what they can accomplish, and I want to find ways to change that. I am a parent, I am the PTK (it's the same as a PTA-don't ask me, I didn't name it) President, and in my spare time I teach English to Korean students (elementary through high school) on-line in the middle of the night. I am the curriculum developer for the Personal Performance Academy course, which is my brainchild, to help students transfer classroom learning into applicable knowledge for real-world, real-life living. This said, I have done a lot of research, and I have seen all of the red tape that surrounds the world of education (I am NOT a fan of the word "policy" or the word "by-laws"; what horrible words). I think that as educators we often times allow ourselves to be reigned in, to be pulled back to what is comfortable for everyone else...but what is not necessarily comfortable for us. Yet, we allow ourselves to live with it.
A great lady by the name of Marianne Williamson once wrote:
"Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyone measure. It is our light, not our darkness which frightens us. We ask ourselves, "Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightend about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It is not just in some of us; it is in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others." A Return to Love: Reflections on the Principles of "A Course in Miracles," 1992 (Commonly misattributed to Nelson Mandela's 1994 inauguration speech)
If we never hold back, if we never let great ideas die (although they might get put away for a time when others are ready for them), our students will never hold back; they will give everything of themselves, and they will not play small and they will be the change that we want to see in the world. Education Rebels...are those who are not afraid to go rogue for the sake of their students. I do not think that it is any small conincidence that the acronym for Education Rebels is ER...because we have an educational emergency on our hands! And it is those of us who do not play small, that"dare to be different" who will resuscitate our country's education system!
So please contribute; add your ideas, your mistakes, links, efforts, successes, failures, what makes sense and what does not, and your desire to play big to our pages, and let's dare to do this together! I will add new research, my ideas about learning, the transference of knowledge, and ideas for creating a living and breathing, real-life classroom experience. Together, let's dare to do it differently!
Rebel1
I have this recurring nightmare that educators are being held back from what they can accomplish, and I want to find ways to change that. I am a parent, I am the PTK (it's the same as a PTA-don't ask me, I didn't name it) President, and in my spare time I teach English to Korean students (elementary through high school) on-line in the middle of the night. I am the curriculum developer for the Personal Performance Academy course, which is my brainchild, to help students transfer classroom learning into applicable knowledge for real-world, real-life living. This said, I have done a lot of research, and I have seen all of the red tape that surrounds the world of education (I am NOT a fan of the word "policy" or the word "by-laws"; what horrible words). I think that as educators we often times allow ourselves to be reigned in, to be pulled back to what is comfortable for everyone else...but what is not necessarily comfortable for us. Yet, we allow ourselves to live with it.
A great lady by the name of Marianne Williamson once wrote:
"Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyone measure. It is our light, not our darkness which frightens us. We ask ourselves, "Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightend about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It is not just in some of us; it is in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others." A Return to Love: Reflections on the Principles of "A Course in Miracles," 1992 (Commonly misattributed to Nelson Mandela's 1994 inauguration speech)
If we never hold back, if we never let great ideas die (although they might get put away for a time when others are ready for them), our students will never hold back; they will give everything of themselves, and they will not play small and they will be the change that we want to see in the world. Education Rebels...are those who are not afraid to go rogue for the sake of their students. I do not think that it is any small conincidence that the acronym for Education Rebels is ER...because we have an educational emergency on our hands! And it is those of us who do not play small, that"dare to be different" who will resuscitate our country's education system!
So please contribute; add your ideas, your mistakes, links, efforts, successes, failures, what makes sense and what does not, and your desire to play big to our pages, and let's dare to do this together! I will add new research, my ideas about learning, the transference of knowledge, and ideas for creating a living and breathing, real-life classroom experience. Together, let's dare to do it differently!
Rebel1
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