By Dr. Harry Tennant
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Friday, July 29, 2011 Can you nurture students' enthusiasm?We would like to nurture the enthusiasm of students, children, coworkers and ourselves. An enthusiastic life is simply a better life. But enthusiasm is synonymous with intrinsic motivation. Intrinsic motivation comes from within. How can we build enthusiasm, intrinsic motivation, in others? We can't. Instead of "building" enthusiasm in others, we can nurture enthusiasm in others. Here are some ways.
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Wednesday, July 27, 2011 In praise of nerdsFull disclosure: I am a nerd. Nerds (geeks, hackers, propeller heads, etc.) get a bad rap. And by "nerds" I mean people who are intensely interested in, knowledgeable about and eager to learn about technology. The stereotype is that they are also socially inept. I have no defense for nor do I advocate the social ineptitude of myself and my fellow nerds. Here's what is admirable about nerds: they have an intense interest. Nerds will learn about and talk about and think about their intense interest all the time. Ok, the "all the time" part contributes to the social ineptitude aspect, and that's not so good. I praise nerds for their interest and enthusiasm about something of value. One of the greatest gifts a teacher, parent or mentor can give a child is an intense interest in something of value. An enthusiasm. Along with some social grace. Posted at 12:00 AM (permalink)
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Monday, July 25, 2011 Keeping aware of goals and progressDo you want to improve a habit? Here's a powerful first step: keep track of how you're doing it now. Let's say you want to make your explanations to your class more clear. How would you know? Ask your students a question like
Start with baseline scores. Now, as you attempt to improve the clarity of your explanations, your scores should go up. The approach actually accomplishes two things.
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Friday, July 22, 2011 How will student achievement be improved?Think of learning in school as an onion. 1. At the very center of the onion of learning is the question, what is the student doing? Learning can't be imposed on someone. It's something that we do for ourselves. So if learning is to happen in schools, it will or won't happen depending upon what the student is doing. Most importantly, the student must be paying attention to the situation or information in order to learn it. Unfortunately, the learning-by-osmosis theory doesn't work. If student achievement is to improve, it must improve here. 2. A layer out from the center is the learning activity that the teacher has designed. Much of the art of teaching happens right here at the learning activity. The learning activity creates the challenge and environment for students that will engage them in the process of learning so that they will do the real work, the learning, on their own. The teaching art at this layer is not only to engage students, but to engage them in the knowledge and skills that they are there to teach. While teachers and schools cannot control student engagement and hence, learning, they can nurture it. In this way, teaching is more like gardening than manufacturing. It is at this layer, learning activities, that schools and teachers have the greatest effect on improving student achievement. 3. The third layer from the center is where teachers determine how they will expose students to the knowledge and skills students are there to learn. Will they simply tell the students what they need to know? Telling is simplest in terms of preparation, but one of the least effective for learning because the student's role is to sit quietly and listen (or not). That student activity is unlikely to result in effective learning. Also in this layer, teachers decide how to parcel, structure, scaffold and model the new knowledge and skills as well as check for student understanding. Considering improving student achievement, this layer mainly represents an opportunity to mess up. If the students are overloaded with information, can't connect it to what they already know or are confused by disorganization, learning will be impaired. 4. The next layer out is, what to teach? These days, this is largely determined by state learning standards. It must also consider alignment with what students have learned in previous years and what will be expected in future classes and after graduation. This layer is extremely important and controversial. On one hand, there are those who insist that facts specified in learning standards are the goal of student achievement. On the other, many say that in the era of the Internet, facts are readily available but skills for problem-solving, critical thinking and creativity are where improvements in student achievement need to focused. And others say that while problem-solving, critical thinking and creativity are indeed valued skills, we can do little to teach students to be better problem-solvers, critical thinkers or be more creative. While this layer is very important with regard to improving student achievement, there is disagreement about the path toward improvement. 5. The next layer out is the general school environment. Is the school well equipped and well maintained? Are the teachers and staff friendly, welcoming, optimistic and non-threatening? Is it safe? Do students feel secure and valued? Improvements at this layer can do a lot to foster student achievement. Improvements at this level are strongly influenced by the school and district leadership. If a school is a mess, unfriendly, uninspiring or unsafe, only the school or district leadership can turn it around. Neglect at this layer can drag student achievement down. 6. The outer layer of our onion addresses the question, how is learning valued by parents and society? We can improve student achievement by enlisting the support of parents for learning. And we can improve student achievement where the culture generally celebrates learning, contribution and service rather than fame, consumption, leisure, pleasure and wealth. While one school is unlikely to change our culture, it does have the power to selectively shine a light on models that we hope students aspire to emulate. Continuous improvement toward higher levels of student achievement can and should occur at many layers surrounding the students. And while they are all important, let's keep in mind that it is most important to occur at the very center where the student is doing the learning. Posted at 9:20 AM (permalink)
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Friday, July 22, 2011 If there is a crisis in education, who's going to fix it?Let me say first off that I don't believe in the "crisis in education" talk. Is there need for improvement? Sure. There always is. And improvement is always important. But a crisis? I don't think so. But let's assume for the sake of argument that there is a crisis in education...in other words, there is an urgent need for improvement. I can subscribe to the notion that there is a need for improvement in education. In fact, I believe there is a need for improvement in every endeavor. Is the need for improvement urgent? Let's put it this way: there is always an need for improvement and if some urgency is attached to the effort to improve, it may happen more quickly. Where we go astray is when urgency becomes panic, and change efforts become irrational. So, let's accept that education (like everything else) needs to be improved and we think it's important enough to assign it high priority (we give the task some urgency). Who is best prepared to improve education?
The way to improve education as quickly as possible is to give the responsibility for improvement to schools and teachers, make improvement a priority as high as teaching itself and give them the tools to do the job. Posted at 12:00 AM (permalink)
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Wednesday, July 20, 2011 How to keep continuous improvement continuousEveryone knows how New Years Resolutions go...frequently they fizzle out by January 15. It's tough to change yourself. And it's at least as tough to change an organization like your school. If your goal is continuous improvement, of first importance is keeping it going, which is to say, keeping it continuous. There are two main risk times: getting over the initial hump, and keeping it going in the long term. Personal Goals: The initial hump
Personal Goals: The long haul Organizational Goals: The initial hump
Organizational Goals: The long term Make sure everyone involved understands the new process. That doesn't mean just telling everyone, but demonstrating it, practicing it and following up when the process breaks down. Institutionalizing a new process for change for the long term not only nurtures improvements, but it helps assure that the processes for continuous change continue without you. Continuous improvement is continuous. Even after you're gone.
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Monday, July 18, 2011 Student surveysIn order to determine the effectiveness of teachers and schools, we must learn from their students. The most obvious metrics of student learning come from testing students on content. While critically important, those aren't the only metrics. Another way to learn about effectiveness is to do periodic student surveys. Student surveys will not tell you how much the students have learned (tests tell you that and students aren't very good judges of their learning). However, students are the world's best experts on some other important information: their perceptions and their feelings. Here are some student feelings that can lead to changes to make teachers and schools more effective.
Notice that we aren't talking about replacing education with entertainment. It isn't worth having students be enthusiastic about their schooling at the cost of compromising learning objectives. But if we want students to be enthusiastic about their learning, we must measure their enthusiasm and discover what increases it and what decreases it. If you want to improve the student's emotional reaction to learning, you must first measure what it is. The only way to measure student emotions like these is to ask the students.
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Friday, July 15, 2011 School goal for continuous improvementLooking for a goal statement or mission statement for your school that emphasizes continuous improvement? Here's a candidate:
Here's why I like this goal statement.
How does this guide continuous improvement?
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Monday, July 11, 2011 Do lessHow could you do less today yet have better results?
It's a serious question. With a little thought you may come up with a lot of answers. Whether you do or don't, ask yourself the same question tomorrow and the next day, and every day for at least a week. The repetition will tell your brain, hey, this is important...I need to get to work on this! And then the answers will start popping into your consciousness. Here are some suggestions.
So, if you take this suggestion and repeatedly ask yourself how to work less yet have better results, will you end up working less? The answer isn't yes or no. The answer is that the question is irrelevant. You will become more focused on high-value work which is more fun. You'll be more engaged. You'll spend less time thinking about whether you're working more or less and spend more time working on those high-value tasks that are indistinguishable from fun! Ask yourself repeatedly: How could I do less today yet have better results? Posted at 12:00 AM (permalink)
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Friday, July 8, 2011 Continuous improvement and realismEdclick provides web-based applications for continuous improvement in education
Continuous improvement? Empowerment? Reduced workload? Teacher professionalism? Let me tell you about a teacher I know who can't control her class, is as interesting as a stump, doesn't get around to grading papers... Sure, teachers are people. Some are smarter, more motivated, more exciting, more insightful and more industrious than others. But here's the secret: poor performing organizations (schools, factories, fast food restaurants...) perform poorly because of the way they are run, not because the people in them are defective. The way to improve an organization is to improve the organization, not replace the people. If an organization improves because the people were replaced, it's because the new folks figured out how to improve the organization. Improving the organization means "improving they way we do things around here." It means improving processes, improving planning, improving goals, improving communcations, improving skills, improving leadership. It can mean all sorts of things and the particulars will depend upon the specific problems that need to be solved in an organization. To improve your organization, start with improving your own outcomes and your own efficiency. Accumulate small improvements. Work with others so that they can benefit from your improvements and you can benefit from theirs. Posted at 12:00 AM (permalink)
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Wednesday, July 6, 2011 Continuous improvement and workloadEdclick provides web-based applications for continuous improvement in education
Here's a suggestion for improving education: just make teachers work harder and work longer. And while we're at it, let's cut budgets, cut their pay and threaten them with dismissal if things don't improve. That approach, which I've heard from a number of politicians over the past year, is absent any actual ideas of how to improve education and demonstrates an appauling lack of respect for teachers. Let's agree that that is the wrong approach. In this respect, teachers are no different from those in other professions and other sectors of the economy. Provide teachers with an environment where their professional expertise is respected, where the administration is clearly focused on excellence and backs that up with inspiring leadership and where teachers are given the opportunity to improve their skills and their outcomes. Those elements improve motivation and performance. The history of industry over the past hundred years is a story of improved productivity and improved quality. The improvements didn't come from making workers work harder, but by making them more efficient and developing better tools and work processes. This was done while worker hours were reduced, not increased. The history of the improvement of service businesses has been a story of improved consistency and quality, not through working harder or longer but through better tools and processes. This can be done. This has been done. We know how to do it. Improvements to education that require teachers to work longer hours are going in the wrong direction. We want educators to have better outcomes while reducing their workload. We will work toward better outcomes and greater efficiency through one small improvement upon another, accumulating over time. Ask yourself: What small change could I make that would save me five minutes per day? Posted at 12:00 AM (permalink)
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Friday, July 1, 2011 Continous improvement requires empowermentEdclick provides web-based applications for continuous improvement in education
In the last post I said that improving education is everyone's responsibility. And there are many small steps that can be taken toward better education that don't require permission from anyone. We can just do it. Changes in policies and procedures...changes that require coordination with other people...are a bit more difficult. But they can be important and must be open for improvement. Everyone involved in education must have the power and obligation to advocate and implement improvements. That doesn't mean "no rules" or "chaos reigns." It means that the administration, department heads, teacher teams and the rest must be receptive to the idea that improvements can and will come from everyone throughout the school. It means that, rather than being resisted, these improvement advocates must be encouraged, taken seriously, changes must be tried and improvements must be retained. A culture of continuous improvement requires that change must be sought after and rewarded. It means that all must understand that the purpose of the school is not simply to educate the students but... The purpose of the school is to educate its students and continually improve student achievement and staff effectiveness. Posted at 12:00 AM (permalink)
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