Inevitable: Mass Customized Learning by Charles Schwahn and Beatrice McGarvey

My working notes...

Why do schools exist?

Ready for life? What are the spheres of learning?

FIN paper

Know, be able to do, and be like if they are going to lead a successful economic life…

Quality is defined by how this looks…

Organizational effectiveness model – Invevitable is – so business people and leaders “get it” quickly.

Education Research and Organizational Effectiveness – these two entities are synergistic!

Are your children (grandchildren) reaching their fullest potential? – great starting point!

This is cost-neutral. Start-up may be more, but otherwise MCL should be comparable to what we are doing now.

Pyramid of costs – x, 10x, 100x

Cost factor of products when they are in design, in production, and then in distribution—if you need to fix something…compare that to kids!

Strategic design – the work; implementing the design is the heavy lifting. Alignment, etc.

What is my leverage point in building understanding or implementing MCL? What are my next learning targets?

Book studies – next step for school boards…

Adjunct faculty on the internet

Sarah's Key by Tatiana de Rosnay

My friend Mary is so generous with her books! She handed me this one on my way to a family reunion, and it was the perfect inflight read. It's the story of how the French police rounded up Jewish families and children during the German occupation of World War II. It is a novel, but it's an accessible way to learn about the tragic events in this dark part of France's history. While it was hard to read of the hardships these people suffered, it doesn't go into these hardships deeply enough... What I mean is, it's a disturbing but somewhat shallow treatment. The author tells two stories, one old and one modern, and then brings the stories together. She has the annoying habit of drawing out and repeating phrases when I wished the story would just move on. One the plus side, the Parisian setting in the modern story was enjoyable and recognizeable. The characters were fairly flat and predictable... that was disappointing. Overall, it helped me learn about some interesting history, but I wouldn't recommend it as being particularly compelling or memorable.

Drive by Daniel Pink

Drive notes – Daniel Pink

Carrots and Sticks: The Seven Deadly Flaws

1.      They can extinguish intrinsic motivation

2.      Then can diminish performance

3.      They can crush creativity

4.      They can crowd out good behavior

5.      They can encourage cheating, shortcuts, and unethical behavior

6.      They can become addictive

7.      They can foster short-term thinking

From the flowchart on page 69:

Concentrate on building a healthy, long-term motivational environment that pays people fairly and that fosters autonomy, mastery, and purpose. Avoid “if-then” rewards in almost all circumstances. Consider unexpected, noncontingent “now that” rewards. And remember that those rewards will be more effective if:

1.      They offer praise and feedback rather than things people can touch or spend

2.      They provide useful information rather than an attempt to control

P. 174: “We’re bribing students into compliance instead of challenging them into engagement.”

P. 178: Offer praise the right way (Carol Dweck):

1.      Praise effort and strategy, not intelligence

2.       Make praise specific

3.      Praise in private – one on one

4.      Offer praise only when there’s a good reason for it

Page 194 – Peter Senge quote:

            “People with a high level of personal mastery are able to consistently realize the results that matter most deeply to them—in effect, they approach life as an artist would approach a work of art. They do that by becoming committed to their own lifelong learning.”

Page 73 – Behavior scientists Deci and Ryan: Human beings have an innate inner drive to:

1.      be autonomous,

2.      self-determined, and

3.       connected to one another.

And when that drive is liberated, people achieve more and live richer lives.

Page 79

Type I behavior is made, not born. These behavioral patterns aren’t fixed traits. They are proclivities that emerge from circumstance, experience, and context. Type I behavior, because it arises in part from universal human needs, does not depend on age, gender, or nationality. The science demonstrates that once people learn the fundamental practices and attitudes—and can exercise them in supportive settings—their motivation, and their ultimate performance, soars. Any Type X (extrinsically motivated) and become a Type I (intrinsically motivated.)

Pink’s 3 elements:

           

1.      Autonomy

2.      Mastery

3.      Purpose

The Motivated Student by Bob Sullo

My notes...

Page 33:

Every time we learn something new, master some difficult concept, or increase our level of competence, we are internally rewarded. When we achieve success, our brains release endorphins…that make us feel good. The natural reward for learning is the good feeling we experience when we accomplish something. Paradoxically, working for external rewards diminishes the power of the internal reward system already wired into us. When we externally reward students in the classroom, we devalue learning and interfere with the body’s natural mechanism for rewarding learning and achievement.

Students thrive on feedback, and letting them know how close they are to achieving individual or group goals is helpful. Because students are naturally driven to achieve, it is helpful for them to see their progress. Keep the charts and posters, but let the excitement of achievement be the reward, rather than contaminating the joy of learning with a movie, pizza party, or even worse, a homework pass… When you recognize and celebrate learning for its own sake rather than providing external rewards, you will support your students’ natural deire to learn.

Monumental difference between rewarding and affirming. Rewarding is externally imposed and unintentionally implies that hard work and learning are not valuable in and of themselves. (p. 34): Affirmation is a very different, powerful way to support the drive to achieve. Ask: How do you feel about that success? Say: You have every reason to be happy and feel proud of yourself. Congratulations. I’m happy for you. This is affirming.

By affirming rather than rewarding, we are helping our students discover that learning feels good and that we are there to celebrate with them. Let them OWN the experience first. Then ensure that they make the connection and support them in their natural desire to become increasingly competent.

Maintain your celebrations, but give up reward programs that diminish the joy and value of learning.

page 38

Quotes Maslow…

All behavior, from birth until death, is purposeful, engaged in so that we can meet five human drives:

1.      To survive and be safe and secure

2.      To connect and belong

3.      To achieve power and competence

4.      To be free and autonomous

5.      To play, enjoy, and have fun

The difference in need strength among our students highlights the importance of differentiated instruction.

Page 39: When we introduce fear into the educational environment, the need for safety and survival dominates the attention of our students, and they are less driven by the need to develop academic competence.

Page 40: Individuals with an especially high need for safety and survival tend to avoid taking risks.

Regardless of the strength of their need to connect, all students have some drive to belong and connect. Since students are driven by a social imperative, effective teachers structure their lessons so students can meet this need while engaging in rigorous academic work. Failure to offer students a chance to interact for long periods only invites off-task behavior that compromises learning.

…you intentionally provide some choice and autonomy within a structure that supports your teaching objectives and the highest academic standards.

Page 48 (summary)

As we live our lives, we encounter people and engage in behaviors that help us satisfy these needs that drive us incessantly. We put need-satisfying people and behaviors, as well as values and beliefs, into our unique internal world, the source of all motivation.

We can move beyond the carrot and stick model of external control psychology and intentionally create environments that will inspire more students to do higher-quality academic work.

Maybe use this process below to brainstorm our project goals with our partners:

Page 155

WDEP – Bob Bubbolding (1989) created this tool:

            W: Identify what you want

D: Determine what you are doing to achieve your goals (both now and in the future (p. 159)

            E: Evaluate your progress

            P: Plan how to maintain your success or improve your performance

Page 160- Remember that effective self-evaluation depends upon both a well-defined picture of what you want and an accurate perception of what is happening. You have to know exactly what you want in order to know if you are being successful. That is why it is necessary that you develop specific goals for yourself. Then, to self-evaluate in a way that promotes growth, you must be completely honest with yourself about how things are going.

What makes the WDEP process such a powerful tool (p. 161) is that it ensures our self-evaluation is conscious. Many people go through life without full awareness of what they want, what they need to do to succeed, if they are being as successful as they would like, and what plans they should make for future action. The WDEP process allows us to bring intentionality and consciousness to our lives. 

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie

I first saw this book in a booth at an Indian Education conference, and the title and cover art intrigued me. I read it in November 2010, and marveled at the author's ability to be funny and tragic simultaneously. It reveals so much of what I have seen during my many visits to our Indian reservations. After years of visits and hours of listening, I understand there are no simple answers to the problems there. This book brings many of the dilemmas to light in a poignant, sensitive, and sometimes harsh way. I especially enjoyed the illustrations in the book; they add to the authentic feel of the stories and definitely enhance the humor! I was so impressed with what this book has to say that I lent it to my good friend Pat. He also has experience on the reservation and I wondered what he would think about this book. He kindly gave me permission to share those impressions here:

 I finished Diary of a Part-time Indian yesterday and want you to know how impressed I was. While a bit of a struggle getting through all of the crude references, I felt that it was unfortunately fairly reflective of the age group and the issues they deal with. But more impressive, as you might suggest, was the theme of the book itself. It certainly paints an accurate picture of the reservation world. The author was very skillful at drawing out the comparisons--hope vs despair, pain vs love, change vs risk. In fact, each of these were relevant themes that made an impact on me. The whole discussion of a culture attached to the reservation yet in so doing depriving itself of any hope of betterment/improvement is worthy of debate. Do I deprive myself of hope by not risking, changing or leaving? I liked the author's point that we are all made up of tribes--subsets of a larger culture. That discussion alone gives some hope to such youth struggling with so many deficits. What are other tribes you are connected to that aren't so dysfunctional? I was very impressed with the theme that to nurture hope in that environment you have to leave (both Arnold and his sister left). I likened that to how when we left the pre-existence we did filled with optimism and hope, yet recognizing that to leave is both angst causing and risky. How many of our bro/sis are giving up on our own "reservations" of life now? The metaphor of alcohol representing Satan is worth discussing as well. He literally will lead us down to hell using any addiction, crutch, or vehicle we give him. Sin is indeed addicting.

Rarely do I finish a book with an interest in reading it again immediately. The more the author delved into the reservation world the more you wondered if Arnold would indeed escape its entrapment, hopelessness. I also appreciated the positive aspects of the Native culture--the connection with family, the ability to laugh, etc. I found it interesting, however, that he didn't mince words about reservations being concentration camps, about the curse of alcohol, etc. I look forward to one more quick read.

I have to admit that Pat's deep thinking made me feel like a lightweight! And it shows the value, too, of not just reading a book, but reflecting on its message and application to my life. I never thought about how this life presents us with our own "reservation" experiences! Very interesting thing to ponder. What is it in our lifestyle that is holding us back? So often we think that we can withstand temptation rather than fleeing it!

Like Pat, I appreciated the author's description of the positive aspects of the Native culture. I wonder if Alexie is saying that the only hope is to leave the reservation? Some believe their life's calling is to work to improve life there...not to flee it. I wonder, how does one retain the glorious aspects of one's culture and language if one leaves the tribe? Does one transplant it within a larger culture? And how often does the dominant culture choke out and persecute the transplanted ones? I keep thinking about the safety and security of the family unit, and how Native people view the family unit as much larger than we traditionally have viewed it...It's a wonderful wide web of aunties and cousins and adopted-in members, and everyone is connected. I know I am viewing this through my own limited lens, but it seems generous and open in a way that sometimes our dominant white European nuclear families are not. I love how the richness of the Native culture (and I realize there is not just one) has been opened up to me and enriched my thinking and life. I know my view is limited by my own culture, so I'm very grateful to the patient teachers who have helped me understand my limitations. Grateful, too, for honest authors who will give us an intimate view...

The Help

I had a day of traveling through airports and my sister Jane gave me the perfect traveling companion: The Help. It was a delightful blend of humor, history, very interesting and real characters, and poignant story. We're reading it in our book club, and I can't wait to hear what others thought of it. Two things I noticed...the author began and ended the book in the same house. I thought that was kind of cool, considering how the story spans several homes and years. The other thing I noticed is that it's a very feminine book. I know many women who have read it, but haven't heard of any man reading it. There is only one main male character, and we never learn what he's thinking. The story is told from three different women's point of view, and there is only one mail character that comes up much. So that was interesting...it describes a primarily woman's world from women's points of view.
When I really like a book a LOT, I tend to want to be in it til I'm done, despite what other things might be going on. I call this the addiction factor. I would rate this book as having an addiction factor of 9 on a 10-point scale. It's also a measure of the engagement of my brain in the story and this one was high. I also appreciated all of the wonderful philosophy and love and forgiveness that were shown by the characters. The courage was astounding. It was amazing to think, too, that all of this hatred and racism existed without question in Mississippi as recently as the 70's. I know it still exists, but this was very overt and violent without the benefit of protection of the law or system. Amazing...

Collected Wisdom and Seventh Generation: Native Students Speak About Finding the Good Path

South Dakota Teach For America uses two books to help orient their new teachers to life and school on our American Indian reservations. Collected Wisdom is teachers' voices, and Seventh Generation: Native Students Speak About Finding the Good Path has students' stories. Both of these books have helped me understand on a small scale the struggle and the pain of life as an American Indian today. There is also great hope and wisdom here! The hope comes from promising practices like supporting and honoring native languages and customs. These are both rich resources for anyone working in schools in South Dakota, whether or not they are located on a reservation. Both books helped me understand why there is such an urgency about preserving the Lakota Language and culture.

I read these books in the Spring of 2008, and in the intervening years have verified that these are accurate and hopeful resources for anyone wanting to understand better what they see on reservations.