My first post was about the need for failure
in the process of learning. It was also
my very first attempt at blogging and sharing my thoughts digitally. I want to follow my failure to where it
intersects with trust.
As I thought about my own schooling and my
new digital learning, I was struck over and over again by the seeming lack of
fear that I experienced in my learning failures. Swimming lessons aside, I rarely shied away
from a challenge and seemed to intuitively seek out the aid of others who could
help me. Please don’t think that I did
not experience frustration. It was
always there and tears were usually close behind, but it never stopped me for
long. Why not? Why do I have students who cannot get beyond
the frustration or the failure to the amazing learning that results?
I believe that a fear of failure, or looking ‘stupid’,
paired with a lack of trust is what holds so many of us back. Do we trust in our abilities? Do we trust the teacher to be there or will
there be a crisis that calls him/her away just when I need them most? Do we trust the classroom community to
understand our confusion or frustration?
Most importantly, do the teacher and my classmates trust me to learn
from the failure?
The last question can be asked by teachers,
administrators, parents, student, and ministries. Do the stakeholders of education trust that
each one will learn from mistakes?
As I
searched for 21st Century Education topic this week, I was
distracted again by technology. As I
looked for 21st Century skills, many of them focused on using the
Internet and social media as a means of engaging and collaborating. I came
across the article Teaching in a Participatory Digital World by Michele
Jacobsen (2010). Throughout the article
two ideas kept jumping into view: ENGAGED TEACHERS and TRUST.
Before reading on, have a listen to Dan Ariely as he talks about What makes us feel good about our work. It has implications for engaging teachers in 21st Century Pedagogy.
Jacobsen (2010) calls for teachers to be
engaged with professional development and the design of 21st century
engaging lessons. Technology is the tool
and the teacher’s own opportunities, passions and learning are the engagement
(for teachers). This is the first
article I have read that begins to look at the engagement of teachers in the
equation for engaging students. If you consider teacher engagement in the context of Professional Learning Communities, I wonder what the average level of teacher engagement is.
Trust, this is the one element that must be
there. Teachers need to work at gaining
the trust of their students, but they must also trust that the students will
use technological tools appropriately. Administrators
need to trust teachers and allow failure as teachers grapple with the emerging
pedagogy of 21st century learning.
They must also trust in the path of passion and learning that a teacher
chooses. In this way they can support
the engagement of teachers and then the development of engaging lessons for
students. Jacobsen (2010) calls for
educators to have “ . . .unrestricted and unfiltered access to online
communities and resources using reliable, mobile and powerful devices and
networks.” She places the responsibility
for the design and maintenance of school networks in the hands of school jurisdictions
and calls for trust to be given to principals teachers and students to think
critically and ethically when using the Internet without filters and firewalls.
The idea that I would allow my students
unfiltered access is absolutely terrifying.
But . . . If we do not engage
them in learning that reflects the true nature of the decisions and
consequences of the world around, then how can we expect them to understand the
need for protocols, for privacy, for critically choosing what to post on
Facebook and who to follow on Twitter?
Society is just now beginning to build policies, rules and legal laws to
deal with digital information and social networking. I think it would be empowering and democratic
to have the very people that will be bound by them, our current students, help
to negotiate them. What do you think?
Alberta Education. (n.d.). Retrieved from
http://education.alberta.ca/teachers/aisi/themes/21-century.aspx
Jacobsen, M. (2010). Teaching in a participatory
digital world. Retrieved May 6, 2013, from CEA:
http://www.cea-ace.ca/education-canada/article/teaching-participatory-digital-world
Hey Judy-
ReplyDeleteHere's the thing: with social media have taken off in the past 10 years, children had social chatrooms, blogs, and other types of media at their fingertips. They were able to share their lives with different people from all over the globe. However, this came about so quickly that there was not much time to teach these children how to effectively use these media outlets as educational tools, or how to use them effectively at all. Students took to posting whatever they felt necessary without thinking about the repercussions (bullying, predators, etc.). I think it is now up to the educator (and parents) to step back and monitor what our children are posting while teaching them the importance of using technology effectively.
There is so much technology out there that it is almost impossible to set regulations for our students. They will, in some way, always be able to tweet, blog, post about whatever they want to tweet, blog, post about. We can, however, monitor what they are posting while they are in our classes. And if we are able to gain the trust that you are speaking about, we might be able to have our kids post, blog, and tweet about the important things in life instead of the petty child-like ideas. Furthermore, as you mentioned, we as educators, must trust that our children are posting properly online. Until this mutual trust is formed we will continue living in a world of uncertainty with our students.
In my own experience I was somewhat hesitant to fail because of the fear of other students looking down on me for giving a "dumb answer", although after that fact I realized that I had valid points to add to certain discussions, projects, or whatever the task may have been. This is what directs us to lose confidence in our own abilities and knowledge, through my experience. I much rather direct my comments and opinions through assignments such as papers, projects; in comparison to open discussion. Developing classroom community and providing the students with positive feedback is also something that helped me break out of my shell. Sometimes you even see examples of teachers shutting students down, and not appreciating their efforts to provide their insight. This isn't true for all teachers, but in my placements I have observed some examples of this.
ReplyDeleteWith the amount of new technology emerging, keeping up with everything is something that is becoming tougher and tougher. The way I have been looking at technological use in the classroom is to provide students with new resources that may be useful to them. Not only bringing new technology into the classroom, but teaching students to properly use these technologies is something that I feel is just as important as the resource itself. This will hopefully coincide with new policies schools are trying to develop to eliminate things such as cyber bullying. Great post, interesting discussion that evoked some emotion from my past learning environments!
Travis Gibbons
Hi Travis,
DeleteThank you for sharing your own experience. I always strive for a safe community in my classroom, but it is easy to forget how easily classmates can impact self confidence.
Hey Judy,
ReplyDeleteThanks for your post! It is so great to see all your links and embedded video!
You pose an interesting question. “Why do I have students who cannot get beyond the frustration or the failure to the amazing learning that results?” That answer is complex. Failure and rejection work hand in hand. The article you posted states “Outside of formal schooling, almost all learning occurs in complex social environments…Teachers who design for peer collaboration and individual reflection on learning cultivate stronger learning outcomes.” Taking that first part – almost all learning occurs in complex environments – so does frustration and failure. Therefore, when you have certain results in those environments, perhaps they are mimicked in the classroom thus leading to anxiety towards success/failure.
Your comments on trust are interesting. We as a society are told so many different things. Trust your gut, trust your heart, trust logic... All the advice is given to benefit that person in the moment. The truth is, we trust others a lot more than ourselves at some point. Parents and guardians also put a lot of trust into the teacher.
Finally, you end on a great note implying that current students/youth that would be bound by new laws and possibly should help negotiate them. Of course, I agree! However, the cynic in me says – frankly that would never happen. The reasons are endless, however, it might boil down to decision makers not TRUSTING the competencies of the future generation. Sadly, I think it goes far beyond that into theories outlined by Michel Foucault. If you are interested, some key terms include: docile bodies, and power/knowledge.
Rox
I like how you have built on your first blog. Building resilience is of course a VERY big theme today. Indeed K to 12 teachers are expected to teach it. Does resilience require trust? I wonder. I agree with what you have said in your blog but still wonder what ultimately happens if there is no trust. The self-fulfilling prophecy? We fail and are failures? Or we are hit with obstacles and get right back up again because we internally believe in ourselves. There are examples where this is true. Why? How? Is it genetic OR can we teach it? I guess we need to trust that trying to teach resilience is a worthwhile endeavour. I think so. We will look briefly at Carol Dueck's work to see how different types of feedback can help.
ReplyDelete