BECOMING A SKILLFUL TEACHER

1. BECOMING A SKILLFUL TEACHER Stephen Brookfield University of St. Thomas Minneapolis-St. Paul www.stephenbrookfield.com

2. Stephen’s ASSUMPTIONS • Sincerity of Our Actions NOT Correlated with Students’ Goodwill • Good Practice = Whatever Helps Students Learn • Best Teaching is Critically Reflective • Most Important Pedagogic Knowledge - How Students Experience Learning • Context Changes Everything

3. CRITICAL INCIDENT QUESTIONNAIRE (CIQ) • Most Engaged Moment • Most Distanced Moment • Most Helpful Action • Most Puzzling Action • What Surprised You Most

4. CIQ – How Administered • Last 5 minutes of last class of the week • Anonymous • Mandatory when possible • Frequency Analysis • Reported back to class • Negotiation not capitulation to majority opinion

5. Why CIQ’s? • Problems Warned Early • Ground Teachers’ Actions • Increase Student Reflectivity • Build Trust • Illustrate Diverse Methods • Model Critical Thinking

6. What Does it Mean to Teach Adults? • When have you been treated as an adult in a learning (or any other) situation? • What was it that someone did that made you feel you were being treated as an adult?

7. An Adult Approach • Respect • Research • Responsiveness

8. What is Different About Adults as Learners? • What (if anything) makes how you learn as an adult different from how you learned as a child or adolescent?

9. SNOWBALLING • Begin with individual reflection • Share with another person • Pairs join with pairs & share in quartet • Quartets join with quartets …. & so on SHARE … Emerging differences Questions & issues raised Contradictions revealed

10. ADULTS TEND TO… • Be More Self-Motivated • Need to See the Relevance & Application of Learning Early in the Encounter • Want Their Own Experience Acknowledged • Be More Tolerant of Ambiguity • Be More Aware of Power • Be Less Impatient with Slackers (Teachers & Students)

11. EMOTIONAL DIMENSIONS TO LEARNING • What are the strongest emotions or feelings you’ve experienced as a learner in class and what actions or events prompted these?

12. CIRCLE OF VOICES • Begin with a minute’s quiet thought • Go round the group & have each person speak their thoughts on the topic for up to a minute – NO INTERRUPTIONS ALLOWED • Move into open conversation – but you can only talk about what someone else said in the opening round

13. EMOTIONAL RHYTHMS OF LEARNING • Impostorship • Cultural Suicide • Lost in Limbo - roadrunning • Peer Supports

14. Student Engagement • In your experience, what does an engaged classroom LOOK, SOUND or FEEL like?

15. Chalk Talk • Facilitator writes a question in the center of the board & circles it • Whenever they wish people go to the board & write responses to question • Others draw lines between responses to show connections/differences • Facilitator adds responses as needed

16. ENGAGEMENT Learners’ Perceptions • Involved in some way • Different modalities used – silence/speech, small group/whole class, visual/oral, abstract/specific, teacher/student • Teacher modeling & scaffolding • Students provide frequent examples • Immediate feedback on progress • Participation in activities – responsibility for learning

17. MODELING • Modeling Particularly Important for Students Learning to Think Critically • When Teachers Talk Out Loud Their Assumptions Behind Thoughts & Practices • When Teachers Do Regular Assumption Audits - Say When Their Assumptions are Confirmed & Challenged

18. MODELING • When Teachers Use the CIQ to Check Their Assumptions in Front of Students • When Teachers Bring in Real Life Experience When Assumptions Were Confirmed & Challenged • In Team Teaching - When Team Members Take Different Positions and Clarify Each Others’ Assumptions

19. What Do Adult Students Look for in Us? • What would you like your learners, colleagues, reports to, or trainees to say about your practice when they were out of your earshot?

20. CIRCULAR RESPONSE • 1st person speaks up to 1 minute on her response to the topic or question • 2nd person (to left of 1st speaker) speaks for up to 1 minute - what she says must respond to, or build on, the 1st speaker’s comments. This can be a question about the previous comment or a disagreement • This process continues once around circle then moves into open conversation

21. TEACHER CREDIBILITY • EXPERTISE AT A HIGH LEVEL • EXPERIENCE OF REAL WORLD APPLICATIONS & TEACHING • RATIONALE: A THOUGHT OUT APPROACH TO WHY THINGS ARE ARRANGED THE WAY THEY ARE • CONVICTION: RE. THE IMPORTANCE OF A CLEAR UNDERSTANDING OF CONTENT & SKILLS

22. TEACHER AUTHENTICITY • CONGRUENCE OF WORDS & ACTIONS • FULL DISCLOSURE OF EXPECTATIONS & CRITERIA • PERSONHOOD VIA AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL EXAMPLES • RESPONSIVENESS TO LEARNERS’ CONCERNS • ACKNOWLEDGING ERROR

23. Resistance to Learning • Why Do YOU Resist Learning Something that Someone Else Says You Need to Know?

24. Students’ Most Frequently Reported Reasons for Resisting Learning • Apparent Irrelevance of the Learning   • Level of Required Learning is Inappropriate or Misjudged • Fear of Looking Foolish in Public • Fear of the Unknown & Difficult • Lack of Clarity in a Teacher’s Instructions • Personal Dislike & Mistrust of a Teacher

25. Students’ Most Frequently Reported Reasons for Resisting Learning • Fear of Cultural Suicide – ‘Not Cool’ • Too Much Effort – Too Difficult • Racial, Cultural, Gender Differences in Class • Poor Self-Image as Learners • Lacks Necessary Skills for Learning Task

26. Dealing with Resistance • What’s the best way to engage and respond to students who are resisting an involvement in learning?

27. NEWSPRINT DIALOG • Small groups put their deliberations on newsprint sheets – no reporting these out • Newsprint sheets posted around the room & blank sheets posted next to each sheet • Each participant takes a marker & wanders by herself around the room - she writes her questions, reactions, agreements etc. directly onto the sheets or onto the blanks posted • Groups reassemble at their postings to see what others have written

28. Post-It Appreciation • What did someone say or do today that you particularly appreciated? • Write on Post-It & Place on Board • Different Participants Read Out Examples

29. Further Resources from Stephen • Books that Emphasize Practice: • Teaching for Critical Thinking (2012) • The Skillful Teacher (2006, 2nd. Ed.) • Discussion as a Way of Teaching (w/ Stephen Preskill, 2005, 2nd. Ed.) • Becoming a Critically Reflective Teacher (1995) • www.stephenbrookfield.com

30. Further Resources from Stephen • Books that Emphasize Theory: • Radicalizing Learning (w/ John Holst) 2010 • Handbook of Race & Adult Education (w/ Vanessa Sheared et. al.). 2010 • Learning as a Way of Leading (w/ Stephen Preskill) 2008 • The Power of Critical Theory (2004) • All published by Jossey-Bass