Passion is a fire that burns anything in its
path
Teaching and learning is an extremely complex
human transaction. In schools today, we worry that too many students are not
experiencing positive learning experiences and therefore may become more of a
burden to society rather than a contributor to society. We try to take the best
lessons from research in improving our schools. Every state is currently
engaged in re-examining standards and anticipating a next generation of student
assessments.
As a result of federal leadership, increased focus is placed upon
creating rigorous teacher evaluation systems that are objective and
standardized. It is hoped that an increased emphasis on evaluation will
recognize outstanding teachers, direct mediocre teachers to professional
improvement and expel substandard teacher from the profession. These evaluation
efforts seek to identify a skills list that comprise the teaching process. This
complex analysis of teaching is likely to result in what I call a “paralysis of
analysis”. We may inadvertently create teachers that are so confused over
trying to do the right thing in their classroom that they lose that excitement
of engaging the student in thoughtful learning. Complex teaching frameworks and
extensive rubrics for evaluating teachers may cause teachers to think too much
about doing the right thing rather than focusing on learning and their
students.
A talented athlete needs to learn the
fundamentals of his or her sport but in the moment of competition they can
easily become ineffective if they focus too much on all of the fundamentals of
how to perform that sport. Outstanding athletes focus mentally on very simple
thoughts with a very concentrated focus to achieve peak performance. Teaching
is similar in that it is a complex practice that requires teachers to learn the
fundamentals. But every day in the
classroom teachers need to focus very intensely on a few simple thoughts in
order to be effective. Worrying about all of the fundamentals or a long list of
teacher evaluation standards may actually cause teachers to become less
effective in the transaction of teaching and learning.
Simple Mental Images
The two simple mental images that can be
powerful mental models for effective teaching are passion and perspective.
Passion evokes the emotions around learning and human interaction. We envision
schools as buildings but schools are really communities that involve large
numbers of students and teachers. The interactions between these large numbers
of people are complex. When passion is brought to these transactions, it has a significant ripple effect across a
wide community similar to throwing a stone into a quiet pool of water creating
waves of emotion that role through the community. Perspective has to do with
the broader vision of high-quality instruction. Effective teachers constantly
make adjustments in their instruction to adapt to the unique needs of students
in his or her classroom. Learning can only occur if it builds on student's
prior knowledge. If teachers have a clear focus perspective of what they're
trying to accomplish with good quality instruction, it will guide their
decisions on creating instruction that appropriately challenges students and
gives them an opportunity to learn deeply.
Passion
Humans are social animals. Our brains are wired
to respond to other humans around us. We use our senses of touch, smell,
hearing and most importantly sight to connect with other humans. We do not
connect on a logical, intellectual basis, we connect via emotions we innately
use this aspect of emotions when we communicate with an infant child. We do not
talk to a baby in rich colorful language using complex adjectives,
grammatically correct sentences or statistics to sway our argument. We
communicate with babies with nonsensical sounds and extreme fluctuations in
tone and pitch. We do this because infants respond to those sounds. For they
are characteristics of emotional laden communication.
Effective schools are not just about hiring
good teachers in putting students in the classroom. Schools are a community and
the emotions that one student brings to a classroom influence the emotions of
others. Teachers likewise communicate to students the importance of learning
when they introduce passion to their subjects and get excited about what
they're teaching. That enthusiasm is contagious and likely to build student
interest in that particular learning.
Learning involves emotion. Very little learning
can occur without emotional engagement, but also too much in emotion can cause
learning to shut down. Passion is that positive introduction of emotion that
enables us to connect to other individuals and to influence their learning.
Teachers can create a highly collaborative and positive learning environment in
the school when they evoke passion in communicating with their colleagues. When
teachers can approach their profession with enthusiasm and a positive energy
that we describe as passion great things can happen regarding the learning
transaction. Here are Guidelines for Passion-based Learning.
Perspective
Perspective is about a common direction moving toward high-quality
instruction. This perspective must be
simple so that teachers can constantly focus on moving instruction toward a
specific goal. The most successful perspective that I have seen in helping
teachers move instruction positively is focusing on rigor and relevance using
the Rigor/Relevance Framework . This framework
describes four quadrants of learning. Quadrant A is low-rigor and low relevance
learning - the basic facts and vocabulary that comprise foundation learning.
Quadrant B is the application of learning where students get the opportunity to
apply what they've learned often in hands-on activities deepening their
knowledge through application. Quadrant C is extending learning to more complex
problems. The reflects moving students from rote memorization to where their
challenged to analyze, to reflect, to create and propose original solutions. Quadrant
D learning is high rigor/high relevance in which students work through complex
real-world problems often designing unique solutions and presenting their work
to others.
When students participate in Quadrant D
learning they are more likely to be intensely engaged in the work and more
likely to retain the learning beyond the end of the semester. Students at any
age can move to levels of high rigor or high relevance. While all students need
to learn fundamentals they should not be held hostage to rote teaching of low rigor
and low relevant skills before giving them the opportunity to engage in
challenging applications of learning.
When teachers use the Rigor/Relevant Framework
this gives them a positive perspective to think about the levels of their
instruction. As they adjust instruction to meet the appropriate challenges of
their students, they can constantly reflect how they can increase the rigor and
relevance of their teaching. This perspective gives them a daily mental model
that they can use to improve the quality of instruction over time.
Summary
Passion is exciting and can cause people to
engage in their work more intensely. But if you approach teaching and learning
with only passion you might be perceived by others as a member of the lunatic
fringe. Perspective is powerful in giving teachers a mental model of how to
improve instruction. But perspective alone may leave you a lonely intellectual
in which you feel isolated from others that don't embrace that same
perspective. However, the combination of passion and perspective can create an
environment where high quality teaching and learning takes place on a daily
basis. Passion and perspective cannot replace learning the fundamentals of good
instructional practices, however passion and perspective can give
high-performing teachers and appropriate way to think about their daily work
and guide them to remarkable learning transactions with their students.
