In his thought-provoking book “Creating Cultures of Thinking”, Ron Ritchhart asks the question “What would you like the children you teach to be like as adults?” This simple question has a very deliberate purpose, to cause educators to reflect upon what they are teaching and in their role in shaping a student’s future. Typical answers to this question include creative, happy, resourceful, resilient, critical thinker and innovative. Teachers rarely say I’d like my students to be an A student or a 7. We forget the grades and focus on skill and character.
In the wake of COVID-19, skill and character development have become buzz terms, more so than before. The need to explicitly teach children the so-called ‘soft’ skills is crystal clear. Schools are responding in part, by realigning or developing their Social and Emotional curriculum. Programs such as SEE learning and the Positive Education Enhanced Curriculum (PEEC) are being discussed regularly in school meetings, at interviews and online. Such programs aim to support our children in their ability to thrive, flourish and be better versions of themselves. A lofty goal indeed.
“One of the most common responses from groups is that in a culture of thinking, there is a sense of purpose to the learning.”
Ron Ritchhart, Creating Cultures of Thinking: The 8 Forces We Must Master to Truly Transform Our Schools
Encouraging students and teachers to see past the grades, however, is no easy task. Especially, when university placements are dependent on them. It is a mindset shift and taps into the individuals own educational philosophies. It also forces schools to examine their own cultures and priorities. This will undoubtedly involve revisiting their own mission, vision and values. Take a walk around your school, look at the walls, listen to what is being said. Are you prioritising grades or are you focusing on developing thinking and wellbeing? Are the students being challenged? Are they excited to learn? Are they developing new passions?
“We don’t become better because we acquire new information. We become better because we acquire better loves. We don’t become what we know. Education is a process of love formation. When you go to a school, it should offer you new things to love.”
David Brooks: The Road to Character
A pet peeve of mine is the overuse of the word ‘summative’. During my career, I have heard students referring to their summative assessment with fear and reverence. Teachers often plan units with the end in mind, prioritising success on the final assignment over skill and character development. Does success on the assignment reflect skill development? More often than not, the answer is yes. Is this growth in skill and character explicitly communicated to the student? Often the answer is no. This is an understandable omission, but how do we make the shift from a culture centred upon exam success to one committed to developing well-rounded and happy individuals?
This year we have attempted to start the culture shift. We have introduced the Positive Education Enhanced Curriculum (PEEC) and incorporated their lessons into our advisory framework. Moving the focus of our energies to value and character development. It is a long road, but one we are willing to travel. We know it is the right thing to do for our students and so we persevere.
As we tap into the world of Social and Emotional Learning and consider how best to implement the program; it stands to reason that we re-examine our values, our priorities and our way of doing things. This helps to form new goals and a new way of seeing things. How we measure the success of our advisory program is now being considered and we have had recent conversations with The Mastery Transcript Consortium, a non-profit organisation committed to providing an alternative method of measuring student success. One that focuses on skill and character development over passing the test. We are new to the conversation and I look forward to seeing where it will take us. Being able to clearly see the impact of our efforts will be rewarding and powerful and provide a great deal of motivation to both teacher and student.
The importance of tapping into student passion and interest whilst providing them with ‘essential’ worldly knowledge has again made itself known. If a student is not interested or engaged they will not learn. Whether a school focuses on succeeding on a test or on skill development is irrelevant. The learning process must inspire and generate ideas and curiosity. The path to mastery requires that students want to learn, that they enter a flow state and lose themselves in the process. And so whilst, I lose myself in the research process, I hope that our teachers lose themselves in the process of planning and delivering life-worthy learning.
Journeying
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