Tag Archives: help

The Purpose of Education is connection #500words

by

Join The DotsTo answer the purpose for education, I went one stage back, and looked at the reason for learning, as I would hope that the purpose for education is based upon this.

What is the reason for learning?

To ask lots, and answer more; to join the dots and make some of your own.

Learning should be a desire like an itch or scratch. Learning should be a driving force, a passion which is almost unquenchable. There should be an excitable agony knowing that you have only uncovered 1% of 1% of the world’s knowledge and understanding – there is so much already, and so much more to learn!

We hear toddlers exasperating their parents with endless ‘Why’ questions, but to me, that is fantastic. Without why, we wouldn’t explore new land, uncover hidden secrets, write new stories and songs, discover new tastes and live more interesting lives. The death of learning starts with not asking why. ‘Why’ should be encouraged all the time, even as adults!

There is a pleasure in watching friends solving a jigsaw. Working together on a shared aim, they work separately, but talking, sharing ideas, and looking to see if they can help each other out. Much of a jigsaw being built is social, and the satisfaction is not at the end when complete, but the pleasure of the journey; the small wins.

There is a tangible excitement to finding your own path, cutting your own way. No-one works better than on their own passions and interests – indeed, studies have shown that strangers can identify the difference between artwork which is commissioned and art which has been done for pleasure.

So if this is my belief as the reason for learning, what would I say is the purpose for education?

To encourage questions, to help uncover answers, to help with making connections, and to guide making their own.

I believe that we learn best when we are most interested in our learning; it follows that teachers and educators should be the ones that help to guide that interest to the most fruitful and beneficial point.

Education should equip children to uncover answers, but to enjoy that journey. Yes, it is good to find an answer efficiently, but it is just as important to discover things serendipitously, otherwise we will have a set of solutions but no contextual interest frame.

We as Educators should relish the opportunities to help young people make connections, using their ideas, enthusiasm and perspectives on life. We should encourage them to refine their focus, and allow their passion fuel their drive. We should help to link and connect things they are interested in (football) and things they aren’t (maths) in a way that helps them engage (league tables).

Our young people are standing on a diving board before the future. We don’t know how far the drop is, how deep the pool is or even, given the future conditions, if they can swim. The purpose of education, our purpose, is to help them make the best judgement possible. We can tell them that the water is deep, but if they don’t believe us, they won’t jump.

Stephen Lockyer, May 2012

(You can find out more about Purpos/Ed and the current campaign here.)

The Decision Book

by

The Decision Book by Mikael Krogerus & Roman Tschäppeler
(Profile Books, £9.99, 2008)

(This is the fourth in a regular series reviewing books outside of the realm of education, and looking at the impact they could have in a learning environment.)

Tagline
Fifty Models for Strategic Thinking

Lowdown
What a clever little concept that has probably made a fortune for the two writers. They have distilled a range of popular, pithy and scientific models to aid decisions. Cunningly designed as a notebook, it has the feel of something you might want to write elegantly in, or even scribble down notes.
It is hard to review this book individually, as there are such a range of strategies it is possible to examine, but as a collection it is actually very clever. A cursory glance will give you ideas for quick decisions, long strategic views, ways to look at implementing something from another perspective, and even ways of developing pros and cons. It is a little like an advice book, where you can dip into to get guidance, and is a brilliant springboard for kickstarting new thoughts on what could otherwise become quite a stale topic.
Schools being as they are, great ideas are regularly trapped under a myriad of blockades, worries and concerns, and it can sometimes feel like you are dragging an initiative behind you like a boulder, rather than bringing something useful and exciting to the table.
It is very easy for schools to develop a culture of decision-making which is hard to (in the best sense) ‘disrupt.’ Any new Head will dread the words ‘but we have always done it this way’, and while protocols help in ensuring nothing is missed, sometimes they can stifle momentum, enthusiasm and innovation. This book gives a range of ideas suited to all sorts of business models, but the mutinae of decisions that are made every day in schools across the country could well benefit from a fresh pair of eyes.
More importantly, some of these models could help to break the cycle of ‘choke’ which is all to regular an issue, where a decision has been delayed or ended in a stalemate, and is unable to progress. The enoromous danger here is bigger than the item in question – if no decision can be made regularly, how does that reflect the decision process as a whole?

The Management Angle
The central joy as an SMT is that you are charged with making the decisions no-one else wants to make. As Barak Obama said, ‘anything that ends up on my desk is a problem no-one under me can solve.’ We have all felt like that. A gut instinct can work incredibly well for much of the time, but does it give us enough of an evidence base to fight our corner?
I looked at this model in light of several key decisions that had to be made, and although at this point none of them changed my decisions, it really helped to clarify for me how I had innately come about my decision, and also, with more focus, the various implications my decision may have on others. While I wouldn’t advocate using new models all the time, it is useful to be familiar with strategies which are unusual for your normal mindset.

The Teacher Angle
Brainstorms are great for spilling out everything a pupil knows about a subject, but they tend to run into difficulty afterwards. How do you organise this information? How do you evaluate it? What gaps have you missed?
The opportunity to look at data a little differently can also produce more critical thinking within pupils, and certainly changes the emphasis from ‘how much do I know’ to ‘what can I do with what I know’, which in turn reflects a learning style from something fact-based to something skill-based. Many of these models would turn simple Q/A type activities on their heads in class, and can be used (as I have done) as a source of inspiration when you have a lesson objective, but find the method for achieving this to be awkward or ineffective. One strategy would be to examine a topic you have little enthusiasm for, and skim through the book. I would be surprised if you didn’t find something of use this way.

The Pupil Angle
Which child wouldn’t want to think better? In terms of personal growth, there is a genuine benefit and reward to teaching thinking skills to pupils, as they can then begin to apply them to a range of other problems. Informal studies have shown inside a classroom that while methods may lock into place, especially in Maths, it is when these methods needs to be transferred to a different, unfamiliar environment that cognitive ‘choke’ tends to occur. The key here would be to offer children tools to allow them to make transitions from method to practical use. Throwing  pupils a range of different scenarios is quite different to equipping them with an effective transfer strategy.

Best quote
“A person who wants to think outside the box is better off thinking inside a box.”

Ponder now
What is the biggest influence in how you make decisions? How much control do you have over this influence?