Tag Archives: education

Educational Theory in Practice

Posted on April 24, 2012 by ivonprefontaine

Where I work is a place that can bring me great joy. The word work is the wrong word actually. Since beginning this ‘gig’ 12 years ago, I refer to it as the place I teach and learn. I had two chances to interview for this role. Most of us only get one chance. I made the most of the second chance and the rest has been history.

What do I do? I teach and learn in a small school setting combining a traditional attendance model and home schooling. It was the ‘brain child’ of several families almost 20 year ago. They believed there was something of worth to take from both models and they helped to build a hybrid school.

I teach multi-grade junior high students three core subjects: English Language Arts, Social Studies, and Science while students attend each Tuesday and Thursday plus every other Monday. We provide complementary programming i.e. curling, food sciences, and archery. Students learn Math at home guided by their parents and with help from the teacher, in this case me. The home school component occurs on the non-attendance days and the teacher conducts regular home visits on those days, as well. Home visits help the child and/or parent with contentious Math concepts and build relationships with families.

This community uses a three-legged stool approach. Students, parents, and educators are all important contributors to the success and quality of learning and we all are learners on a journey together. Parents learn curriculum and teaching strategies assisting the learning of their children. They assist in the classroom on a regularly scheduled basis. Students grow to accept the learning journey belongs to them. They are companions in the learning enterprise and learning is with them. Teachers learn about the children and their families through open, honest conversation. What does each child need is a central question to the conversation. Most of all, the support needed for children’s success is in a community environment where we are partners and not adversaries. This is a relationship grounded in covenant as opposed to one centered on transactional contracts. We all commit and invest in something we dearly and deeply value.

I wanted to share this because we are an innovative educational project and some upcoming postings will share some of my experiences in this community of practice or learning organization.

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Posted in Community, Leadership, Learning Organizations, Progressive Education and tagged Communities of Practice, education, Learning Organizations, Progressive Education, teacher as transformer, transformative education. Bookmark the permalink.

Qualities of a Learning Community

Posted on April 19, 2012 by ivonprefontaine

What did the World Cafe events reveal? The concept of community, in some form, was the most repeated quality of what engaged people in their learning. There were many descriptors for a community of learning. One that stood out was the community of learning being safe. Safe learners feel comfortable stepping out of their comfort zone and stretching to learn. This could be called the “Goldilocks Paradigm.” Learning is not too hard causing arresting stress; not too easy allowing boredom to prevail; just right, adding to the edges of knowledge the student possesses.

One discussion led to an interesting revelation about the use of technology and what it contributes to a safe learning experience. As a strategy, it might be better suited for older students, but has potential across a range of ages and abilities from upper elementary and beyond. Video and audio files allow for use of pause and rewind, reinforcement of key concepts, time for mindful reflection and response, and opportunities for anonymous questions. The group was clear this should not replace the face-to-face interactions vital to learning, but could provide opportunities for interactions to develop in addition to the teacher-student relationship, such as valuable peer-to-peer connections. In an increasingly digital world, students and teachers can support each others learning outside the existing temporal and spatial restrictions associated with school as a building to attend on school days. School becomes more than a space and the online capacity expands the potential rather than diminishing it. Physical attendance coupled with other points of contact i.e. blogs, online forums, and video formats provide exciting potential for what a safe learning community can mean.

The conversation about community, learning, and the role of multiple points of contact in the learning community resonated with my own learning experiences. I use a variety of digital formats in my learning at Gonzaga i.e. electronic blackboard, wikis, and blogs. They reveal the reality that learning is not place- or time-focused. It is ongoing with multiple points of contact essential to the shifting landscape of what school is and can become. The Khan Academy is a useful Math resource for some students and Selman Khan, its designer, has employed self-directed learning features by Selman Khan in the design of this site. He makes use of the advantages discussed in our group-connections, time for reflection, and anonymity, and makes learning safe..

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Posted in Community, Leadership, Progressive Education, World Cafe Events and tagged community, education, Khan Academy, learning community, mindfulness, teacher as transformer, world cafe. Bookmark the permalink.

Paradox of Community

Posted on April 17, 2012 by ivonprefontaine

Several themes emerged in the World Cafe conversations about learning and an important one was community. The group used various connotations for community and qualities to describe community, but this theme resonated throughout the mindful and reflective conversations.

The concept of team often served as a corollary for community. Teams strive towards common goals in sports, business, or education. A component of successful teams is ‘shared vision.’ Rather than leadership being vested in a person or a small group of people in a hierarchical structure, successful teams have the anchor of a vision and share the values that support the vision. A critical first question in a learning environment would be “What vision and values energize learning?” The common goal and energy bring to life the acronym: Together Everyone Achieves More [TEAM]!

Humans share. It reveals who we are and what is important to us individually and allowing us to connect to the collective. We are affirmed as others listen. The World Cafe group suggested sharing was central to learning by revealing what is important and what is learned. The sharing may reveal gaps in learning or reveal more than one way to solve a problem and learn. Sharing in a safe environment, or community, focuses learning past the expert knowledge of one person, the teacher, and shifts it to the broader collective. Risks are more readily undertaken because there is support, and everyone can both teach and learn. We live in an increasingly complex world where the paradox of teacher and learner calls strongly for sharing.

The idea of connectivity arose several times. A complexity of today’s world is a burgeoning need to connect with others in both new and traditional ways. We face paradox as we seek community. Community is no longer defined solely by where we live, as in a digital world, connections are made across the globe and communities shaped in radical ways. This encourages different and emerging views of community: where we live, where we work, and, how we connect.

Community suggests paradox. The World Cafe group felt being face-to-face with others was essential at times, but suggested face-to-face might include digital platforms such as video conferencing or Skype. A benefit of on-line instruction is the ability to pause a video or audio file, reflect on material, take notes, and return to earlier points in the file. We cannot pause teachers in real-time to repeat exactly what was said, but we can in the digital world. Wise, prudent, and mindful use of technology serves learning if safely implemented. How do we use technology in traditional classrooms? What role can it or should it play in moving learning beyond the walls of the traditional and sometimes outmoded classroom?

Healthy, vibrant, and safe communities give time and space for solitude. A common criticism of school and classroom scheduling is the lack of reflection time for teachers and students. Busyness is the order of the day in schools and classrooms. Time is necessary for learners to process the reams of available information to connect it to subject matter and make it meaningful. We observed this in the four World Cafe sessions; there were times when the room was quiet, as people processed and reflected on the questions or comments. Community brings us together and, at the same time, paradoxically allows personal space and time.

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Posted in Progressive Education, World Cafe Events and tagged community, education, Educational Leadership, Progressive Education, teacher as transformer, transformative education, world cafe. Bookmark the permalink.

The Heart of a Teacher

Posted on April 13, 2012 by ivonprefontaine

A colleague from Gonzaga sent me this video and fit the World Cafe conversations about learning, the best environment for learning to occur within, and the changing face of education in the 21st Century.

The video is Heart of a Teacher. I apologize for using a link and not the video upload, but I did not have the latter uploaded yet and wanted to get this out there.

I need to add this is another first; there are three postings today.

What Was not Said at the World Cafe Events

Posted on April 7, 2012 by ivonprefontaine

I intentionally let the World Cafe Events and results lay fallow to provide reflective space so new ideas could emerge. What surprised me was it was not what was said explicitly, but what went unsaid—no reference to the importance of subject matter in learning and teaching was made. I considered this and arrived at possible explanations.

First, perhaps the group saw the area of expert subject knowledge as unimportant. This is the most unlikely assumption. There were educators in the conversations and I imagine they think this is important. Teachers train to deliver material in specific subject areas. I have a Physical Education major and a French minor. I chose those areas and, while I no longer actively teach either subject on a regular basis, I enjoy both and feel they contribute positively to my teaching. I cannot generalize my experiences or conclusions to the work of all teachers, but one still could see it as important to teachers, as professionals.

Second, it could be, in education, life-long learning is a given; by definition educators are life-long learners. This is also hard to generalize, but I can speak from personal experience. Currently, I teach Science, Social Studies, and English Language Arts in a multi-grade junior high classroom. I consciously chose to shift from earlier subject area training. To be personally successful and for student success, I actively and purposefully upgrade. There is evidence teachers serve as models of life-long learning for students when they engage in life-long learning themselves. A question here is, “What does life-long learning mean in this context? Is it different from other professions and work settings?” Defining life-long learning is hard to do. so my conclusions are, at best, specific to me and my experience.

Third, and I think the most likely explanation is based on the adage, “Students care how much you know as a teacher, if they know how much you care about them as people.” The ethic of care in education might be more important than it is given credit for. The World Cafe group acknowledged that mastery was based on meaningful and purposeful learning that prepared and motivated students to learn. Those observations suggest subject matter is important but, at the same time, a real focus on qualities such as communication, compassion, reciprocity, community, affirmation, mutualism, etc. require greater attention. It is easy to dismiss these characteristics as soft, but educational luminaries, Nel Noddings, Deb Meier, and Parker Palmer, have pointed out these are challenging and critical aspects of teaching and learning. Mike Seymour devoted the book Educating for Humanity to building healthy, vibrant, and truly democratic communities in schools. These purported ‘soft’ qualities build positive environments with relational trust and commitment only found in true community (a link to an article by Anthony Bryk) and suggests we should know students, their parents, and our colleagues. Engaging in and building caring, compassionate, and supportive relationships is hard work, but worthwhile. Why do we avoid this effort?

My reflections led to a hypothesis that teachers are expert in chosen subject matter and, when given choice, do continuously work at life-long learning. This means deep, mufti-layered, nuanced learning as opposed to superficial simple attendance to the latest fad. To make real differences, adults should care enough about students individually and collectively to reach and grow beyond themselves. This carries a responsibility with it that educators need to learn about students, their needs, and their environments outside school walls. That is relational and commits teachers, by the nature of a variety of choices, to be learners and co-creators of knowledge with students, families, and community.

Godly Play: A Setting for Eloquent Questions?

Posted on April 3, 2012 by ivonprefontaine

A question was posed about the role of eloquent questions and how they might apply to the concept of Godly Play. I chose to flesh out my thinking on eloquent questions in that context. Eloquent questions lead inquiry into what is important within a community and shared by a community, big or small. Access to the wisdom of past generations gained through questions posed by members of a group. Gadamer in Truth and Method suggested the prudence and eloquence derived from eloquent questions “gives the human will its direction, is the concrete universality represented by the community of a group, a people, a nation. … [Therefore, its] youth demands images for its imagination and for forming its memory.”

I am not expert on the concept of Godly Play, but the questions posed by children in that setting could be understood as eloquent questions. Eloquence, as it relates to language, suggests capacity to articulate questions about those things that are important and people are curious about in their lives. Yes, it could mean being persuasive and convincing, but I think as it applies to inquiry, eloquence has to do with articulating questions crucial to the existence and survival of the group. With this curiosity and wonder, children participating in Godly Play are encouraged to ask wondering questions and are provided with open-ended response time. This last description suggests there is time to consider answers and, over time, to reconsider them.

Gadamer proposed that prejudice guides understanding, but we are aware of the prejudice and the role it plays in understanding. An open-minded stance allows people awareness of their prejudices or personal agendas and not be attached to them. We stay open to accepting new evidence and there is a constant maturing of views and understanding of the world. This stance brings to mind the Buddhist concept of the Beginner’s Mind which Senryu Suzuki defined as “in the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities.” Children benefit from the beginner’s mind and constantly seek to make sense of the world while remaining open to the many possibilities the emerging world holds for them.

This openness and questioning stance leads to the prudence or wisdom that is important to the existence of the group, not only in its present form, but recognizable with each ensuing generation. St. Thomas Aquinas considered prudence in this sense as benevolent and based upon a supernatural good. The community hopes that the children, through their inquiry, will gain the prudence and wisdom to sustain the community through the rhetoric and the words they speak and the intent of their actions. Prudence is not driven by self-interest. That is deceit and cunning. Prudence takes the form of actions that would be well-intended and for the greater good.

Although I lack in-depth expertise in both eloquent questions and Godly Play, Godly Play does seem to encourage children to ask eloquent questions to better understand their community and grow with their community in a prudent way.

Table Poster Summary March 17, 2012 World Cafe

Posted on March 27, 2012 by ivonprefontaine

Attached is the summary of the Table Posters March 17, 2012 table posters world café event. I was able to share some of our experience over the past 2 months at the Servant-Leadership conference in Portland this past weekend.

I devoted a slide to some of the descriptors that emerged at our tables. These descriptors serve as a nexus for the servant-leader, mindful practice for all leaders, and the necessary building of community that is so vital in education today.

Last night, I was re-reading an interview with Parker Palmer conducted by Mike Seymour for his book Educating for Humanity. This line stood out for me: “The professional context in school allows very little reflective time for the important questions of selfhood and meaning.” This lack of time extends to adults and children in schools. Without caring and open conversations, the purpose of education remains a question unanswered. The questions about the purposes of education need to placed in the middle of our conversations, attended to carefully, allow spaces to open up for truly democratic participation to emerge, and not assume there are pat answers. That is what I have taken from our time together. There is so much gained from purposeful conversations framed around appreciative and eloquent questions. We took time and reflected on what we felt was important.

What can we do to extend these conversations? What can we do to bring these conversations to schools regardless of how they are organized? Children and adults will benefit from conversations that allow reflective spaces to take root and grow in their schools.

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Posted in Uncategorized and tagged education, Educational Leadership, eloquent questions, Leadership. Servant-Leadership, world cafe. Bookmark the permalink.

Servant Leadership — An Overview

Posted on March 14, 2012 by ivonprefontaine

Leadership came up several times in the first three World Cafe events including an explicit reference to servant-leadership which I feel it is a concept worth exploring. Serving and opening a path to leadership should have merit in education and I want to expand on the characteristics used to describe the servant-leader. I drew extensively from an article written by Larry Spears (2004) called Practicing Servant Leadership. Spears was the CEO at the Robert K. Greenleaf Center for Servant-Leadership. Its namesake, Robert Greenleaf, was the person responsible for developing and articulating servant-leadership.

A definition cited by Spears was servant-leadership “begins with the natural feeling that one wants to serve, to serve first. Then conscious choice brings one to aspire to lead. The difference manifests itself in the care taken by the servant–first to make sure that other people’s highest priority needs are being served.” Making sure people’s highest priority needs are served came up several times in our conversations. Words such as community, safe, listening, empathy, and compassion are a small sampler of descriptors provided in conversations. The following represent 10 characteristics attributed to a servant-leader, drawn from Greenleaf’s writings.

1. Listening: This can be broken into two parts. There is a deep listening to others, but also quiet reflection. Listening deeply to others represents compassion and quiet.regular reflection reveals wisdom.

2. Empathy: Through listening to others to understand, the servant-leader seeks empathy to accept and recognize special and unique spirits of those he/she listens to. Empathy calls for appropriate behaviour or acceptable performance from those being led.

3. Healing: The relationship between the servant and others carries an implicit message. There is a search for wholeness, integrity and completeness of the person. To be whole, one must feel listened to and served.

4. Awareness: Awareness is a disturber and awakener. The servant-leader is aware of both internal and external landscapes allowing for an integrated, holistic person to emerge. This awareness is a seeking to understand issues related to values and ethics.

5. Persuasion: This refers to the servant-leader using persuasive rather than positional power to make organizational decisions. Persuasion acts to build consensus rather than using coercion, manipulation, or power.

6. Conceptualization: This is the ability to balance the need to ‘dream great dreams’ and simultaneously remain focused on day-to-day functions of an organization.

7. Foresight: Allows the servant leader to learn lessons from the past, the immediate realities of the moment, and potential consequences that might arise in the future.

8. Stewardship: The rubric of servant-leadership is one in which all CEO’s, staff, and trustees act as stewards holding something in trust for the greater good of society. Stewardship is based on openness and persuasion rather than power and control.

9. Commitment to the growth of people: This is the responsibility to nurture the growth of each individual in a community. Members are allowed to reveal their gifts and, in turn, serve.

10. Building community: The servant-leader is aware of a shift from local community to large institutions to global networks as the primary shaper of human lives. This awareness calls the servant-leader to search for and identify various means to build and sustain community.

Greenleaf proposed the best test of the servant-leader is to ask, “Do those served grow as people? Do they, while being served, become healthier, wiser, freer, more autonomous, more likely themselves to become servants? What is the effect on the least privileged in society? Will they benefit or at least not be further deprived?”

When I consider the best test, I am inclined to further wonder, “Is the role of a teacher ideal to serve? Is the role of teachers, in whatever capacity, best defined by asking: do children in their care become healthier, wiser, freer, more autonomous, and more likely to become servants?” I include a vast grouping of people as teachers because many are called to serve and teach in various capacities. Parents and family members want their children to grow just as teachers in schools want their students to grow.