It’s hard to disrupt the systems that we have in place. For starters, the system follows the Industrial Era model with the intent to supply a standardized workforce. Also, the systems are entrenched in our lives to the point where schools are necessary to support life as we know it. Finally, as Dr. H says, “we do what was done to us – we teach in the way that we were taught” (Harapnuik et al., 2018, p. 108). Either way, we must admit that education the system barely moved, if at all (Harapnuik et al., 2018).
The best way to make any change is to teach by modeling.
This is because modeling is the main way that humans learn. In the video, Mother Nature’s Pedagogy, Peter Gray (2015) says, “Children are biologically designed to educate themselves through play and exploration. All we need to do is provide the conditions that would allow them to educate themselves.” Moreover, he observes that mixed-age children learn by observing and interacting with one another.
In What Babies Know About Physics and Foreign Languages, Gopnik (2016) notes that babies don’t just copy mindlessly, “they take note of who you are and why you act.” In other words – they make sense of the context of their learning.
Since modeling is such a pervasive learning method, it makes sense that we would model best practices in teaching as well.
How do we model self-directed learning?
Modeling-Based (Flipped) Professional Development at Rutgers University (McCammon, 2015) provided an “efficient and active learning environment.” To begin, the teachers recorded video lectures ahead of time that included all of the sit-and-get content (McCammon, 2015). Because they were not interactive, they were “60-80% shorter than live lectures” (McCammon, 2015). Some of the advantages of this include a self-paced learning environment and the ability of participants to review the information (McCammon, 2015). Another advantage is that because so much less time was devoted to lecturing, there was more time for active learning (McCammon, 2015). Instructors could use class time to ask and answer questions, encourage collaboration, and engage students in activities to demonstrate artifacts of their learning (McCammon, 2015). Finally, through modeling these activities, teachers had the opportunity to experience, observe, and interact with the material. Not only that but they now had a context for an engaging, authentic learning environment.
Modeling, COVA, and my PL
What I enjoy the most about my experience in ADL is that the program is authentic to me. Nothing that we do in ADL is “make work” as Dr. H frequently says. What he means by that is that we are doing work that is meaningful to our current job. Likewise, teachers need to be responsible for their own professional growth. That is, they need to grow in ways that are meaningful for their job.
In my Professional Learning, I intend to guide administrators and admin assistants to create an authentic, cross-department, professional goal. Then, they will use this goal to create an action plan to improve digital systems within and across departments. Finally, my team will coach them throughout the year as they work to meet their goal and make meaningful systemic changes. The ultimate goal is to devise systems that we can use to model a blended learning environment for teachers and students.
Ecosystems over Industrialization
“We must take our metaphor for leadership not from the machine but from the ways living systems organize. In living systems, growth is found in disequilibrium, not in balance. As leaders in educational transformation, our role is not to control but to enable the order to emerge naturally – and we are still learning how to do this well” (“Teachers Leading Their Own Professional Growth: Self-Directed Reflection and Collaboration and Changes in Perception of Self and Work in Secondary School Teachers,” 2006, p. 77).
References
Gopnik, A. (2016, July 30). Opinion | What Babies Know About Physics and Foreign Languages (Published 2016). The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/31/opinion/sunday/what-babies-know-about-physics-and-foreign-languages.html
Gray, P. (2015, January 30). Peter Gray: Mother Nature’s Pedagogy: Insights from Evolutionary Psychology. YouTube. Retrieved April 29, 2022, from https://youtu.be/G2BAJ_svbhA
Harapnuik, D., Thibodeaux, T., & Cummings, C. (2018, January 9). Dwayne Harapnuik Tilisa Thibodeaux Cynthia Cummings Lamar University. Learner’s Mindset….. Retrieved April 29, 2022, from http://tilisathibodeaux.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/COVA_eBook_Jan_2018.pdfMcCammon, L. (2015, April 15). Modeling-Based (Flipped) Professional Development at Rutgers University – Dr. Lodge McCammon. YouTube. Retrieved April 29, 2022, from
One of my friends has an 8th grader. I’ll call him Liam, but that’s not his real name. Liam was always a happy kid who loved school and saw relative success in class. Since the start of the pandemic, Liam’s grades and behavior really started to change. For starters, he already spent a lot of time on technology. Now, he spends almost the entire day using technology for games and at school. Also, his grades plummeted dramatically. When his grades started to tank, his parents removed all unnecessary technology. Unfortunately, he’s still not doing his work. He tells them he’s submitted it, but when they ask to see the assignment it is “magically” blank. Most worrisome are the changes in his personality. Liam doesn’t seem to have many friends. Also, he has become despondent and forgetful. For example, when his dad asked him to go get something from the kitchen, he watched Liam. Liam went into the kitchen, putzed around for fifteen minutes, and came back without the item his dad had asked for.
This is the story of so many students today.
Children look for meaning and connection and they lash out when they don’t get it. Some students lash out like Liam, exhibiting signs of apathy and depression. Still, other students exhibit straight-up aggressive behaviors, as demonstrated by the TikTok challenges. While some of these behaviors were common before the pandemic, this story has become too common. While there are a number of factors at play, I also think the pandemic woke all of us up a little to what really matters. What matters to our students? I believe that, at least in part, our students are railing against the industrial model of education. They want meaningful, authentic learning environments and experiences.
“Kids these days”
Kids today are different and have different needs than even I did not so long ago. For starters, they have access to and are inundated with information all day, every day. Because of this, they always question information – they are looking for context over answers. To our students, teachers are not experts, rather we are just another context (Thomas & Brown, 2011). Therefore, teachers can no longer look to the 20th-century classroom as a model for education. We must change.
Information in the graphic from 21st Century Education vs. 20th Century Education (Lewin, 2009). Created by Karin Stateler using Canva.
Change is hard.
On his visit to 60 schools, Lichtman (2013) learned that “we know what good learning looks like.” Schools are becoming and can become adaptive, relevant, permeable, dynamic, creative, and self-correcting (Lichtman, 2013). In fact, many schools solved problems on their own, only to be met with different problems (Lichtman, 2013). If schools work as a community, they might realize that someone else has already solved a similar problem that they have.
What’s keeping us from change?
Lichtman (2013) mentioned three factors that are keeping us from making changes in the classroom:
Our biggest anchors are ego and control. We are anchored by time, space, and material.
Our dams are treating content as more important than context. In this day and age, students can access information. How can we create a meaningful context?
Finally, we work in silos. Examples include our classroom, department, or school. These silos keep us inwardly focused. They also keep us from communicating and collaborating with one another.
We do hard things.
Image from What 60 Schools Can Tell Us About Teaching 21st Century Skills (Lichtman, 2013).
What we are doing isn’t working. We are trying to put square pegs in round holes. What should we do? We need to create significant learning environments in which students have a choice, ownership, voice, and authentic projects. That is, we need to move from the industrial model to an ecosystem model of education. We can use meaningful projects to teach the difficult, unknown, and messy (Lichtman, 2013). Through this, we can create self-evolving learners (Lichtman, 2013). Finally, we teach “students to meet whatever challenges crop up in the world in the next 30-50 years of their lifetime” (Lichtman, 2013). If we do this, we and they might create “self-evolving organizations that embrace constant change and the methodology of constant change” (Lichtman, 2013).
We need to be “preparing our students for their future, not for our past” (Lichtman, 2013).
Let’s stop talking and start doing.
References
Lewin, W. (2009, April 2). 21st Century Education vs. 20th Century Education. YouTube. Retrieved April 27, 2022, from https://youtu.be/HiD1UqLPrOg
Lichtman, G. (2013, March 21). What 60 Schools Can Tell Us About Teaching 21st Century Skills: Grant Lichtman at TEDxDenverTeachers. YouTube. Retrieved April 27, 2022, from https://youtu.be/UZEZTyxSl3gThomas, D., & Brown, J. S. (2011). A New Culture of Learning: Cultivating the Imagination for a World of Constant Change. CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform.
Applied Digital Learning at Lamar is such a dynamic program. For example, it is quite metacognitive because it forces us to walk the talk as it models the skills we implement with our Innovation Project. However, because the ADL program forces us to use higher-order thinking skills, I’m not always sure where it is going. Take my journey with growth mindset thinking as an example. In our first meeting, Dr. H said that the growth mindset by itself doesn’t work. Those words stayed with me throughout the program, even in the class on creating a growth mindset implementation plan. I thought, “Why is he making us create a plan for this if it doesn’t work?” I was very uncomfortable throughout the course of 5302.
This week we were tasked with reading two articles, one of which detailed the Ottawa Catholic School Board. In Case Study Report – Ottawa Catholic School Board (La Ferrière et al., 2016), the CEA shared “how the OCSB has transformed its classrooms into 21st-century environments that meet the needs of all learners.” Furthermore, the report detailed how “with the conversion of libraries to Learning Commons, increasing broadband, universal Wi-Fi availability and equitable Bring-Your-Own-Device (BYOD) policies, the OCSB has created a digital learning ecosystem focusing on collaboration, creativity, and critical thinking among” (La Ferrière et al., 2016).
Mindset shift
As I read this article and watched the accompanying video, Innovation That Sticks Case Study – OCSB (EdCan Network Le Réseau ÉdCan, 2016), I was struck by the fact that such a structural change was led by a mindset shift. A lot of teachers in the district talked about being comfortable with the uncomfortable (EdCan Network Le Réseau ÉdCan, 2016). For example, they detailed a shift in culture that encourages collaboration, risk-taking, and a growth mindset (EdCan Network Le Réseau ÉdCan, 2016). With this mindset shift, teachers felt more confident to take risks, move forward with their learning, and try innovative things with their students (EdCan Network Le Réseau ÉdCan, 2016). Students could feel this energy as well, as they were not only allowed but encouraged to fail and try again.
As I consider my plan for PL
“The driving force behind our Board’s success is the insight to lead with pedagogy and to support our pedagogical practices with technology. Our Board is able to leverage digital resources and technology with strong pedagogical alignment” (La Ferrière et al., 2016).
As I consider my professional learning plan, I know that one of my goals in my innovation proposal is to focus on improving digital processes. Therefore, my training focus will be to work with administrative assistants to develop their digital skills in transforming and innovating paperless workflows. This supports the framework described in Case Study Report – Ottawa Catholic School Board (La Ferrière et al., 2016) and is highlighted in the graphic below.
Framework for District-wide Level Change: 4 Pillars graphic
A culture shift, not a prescription
I am really starting to understand how the growth mindset fits into the big picture of ADL, creating structural change, and improving professional learning. The growth mindset is a culture shift, not a prescription. That is to say, you can’t just talk the talk of a growth mindset, you must walk the walk. Once we can get that culture shift all stakeholders might have comfort with failure and cognitive dissonance. With the right support in place, our teachers and staff will be open to the idea that the traditional model of “sage on the stage” is evolving and they will look to students as partners in learning (EdCan Network Le Réseau ÉdCan, 2016).
References
EdCan Network Le Réseau ÉdCan. (2016, May 19). Innovation That Sticks Case Study – OCSB: Risk Taking. YouTube. Retrieved April 20, 2022, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UAMcjUzdVnE
La Ferrière, L., Puentedura, R., & Fullan, M. (2016, May). Case Study Report – Ottawa Catholic School Board. EdCan Network. Retrieved April 20, 2022, from https://www.edcan.ca/wp-content/uploads/cea_ocsb_innovation_report.pdf
I’m as independent a learner and thinker as a human can get. Humans can be easy to manipulate and often seek confirmation bias, but that’s another story. However, I’m not sure I’m great at creating independent learners, yet.
We do what is done to us
When I started 5305, I excitedly blogged about my first idea for my Innovation Plan. In short, my plan focused on supporting what I saw as an area of nonconsumption – teaching and supporting administrative assistants with technology use. Then I met with Dr. H and my bubble burst. In my post Winds of Change, I explain how our meeting didn’t go as planned. He suggested a much broader idea for my Innovation Plan that involves going paperless as an office and district to model best practices for blended learning from the top down. After sitting with my cognitive dissonance, I not only accepted but embraced this plan to make meaningful change.
In this meeting, I talked to Dr. H about helping an admin assistant. The admin assistant had asked for support in creating a Google site for her boss. Instead of supporting her, I created and designed the site for her and just showed her how to edit what I had designed. When I proudly detailed that experience to Dr. H, he asked me why I did the learning for her. Deflated, I said, “I’m not sure.” Dr. H kindly replied, “We usually do what was done to us” (Harapnuik, 2021).
Rube Goldberg Machines
My mind immediately went back to middle school. You see, in the eighth grade, we were challenged with designing a Rube Goldberg machine. The moment I got the assignment, I drew a picture of my Self-Diffusing Night Light. When you light the candle it burned a string, and eventually, a cup would fall on the candle to snuff it out. Next, I excitedly showed my wonderful, mechanical father. When I arrived home from school the next day, my dad showed me the machine he built based on my design. He did most of it without me! I was happy to be done but disappointed that I didn’t get to build my design.
During my conversation with Dr. H, I realized that I had done the exact same thing to this admin assistant! I deprived her of the opportunity to learn and I kept her dependent on me for her learning.
The conversation with Dr. H has really affected me and I vowed to become better at creating independent learners, much like I want to be an independent learner.
Start with Why
As I think about moving forward and creating independent learners I consider the purpose of the Big Hairy Audacious Goal. To me, creating and sharing a BHAG is all about the Why and reaching the affective domain.
Like I said in my post What a Strange Machine Man Is! (2021), “You need to connect to someone’s affective domains first: Their values, motivations, attitudes, stereotypes, and feelings. It’s like the saying “Maslow before Bloom’s” – you need to meet people’s physical and emotional needs before you can reach their cognition.” Also, the BHAG sets the context for the course. By setting an overarching goal, you answer the question, “Are you preparing them for a test or are you preparing them for life?” correctly (Harapnuik, 2021).
Once you have your BHAG, you can align planning, delivery, and assessment. In this case, the intended curriculum goals represent what you plan to teach and the activities show how you plan to teach it, and the assessment shows what students achieved (Harapnuik, 2021). Finally, all of this should be viewed through the lens of specific situational and environmental factors.
Aligning outcomes, activities, and assessments
The beauty of the graphic is that it demonstrates how interdependent the outcomes, activities, and assessments are on one another (Fink, 2003). The model also helps us to see when we have integration and when we don’t (Fink, 2003). If we engage in the practice of creating solid alignment, there is a high likelihood that students will have a significant learning environment (Fink, 2003). As I consider how I’m aligning my outcomes, activities, and assessments, I recognize that I must avoid the four most common pitfalls mentioned in Aligning Outcomes, Activities, and Assessments (Harapnuik, 2021):
Systemic problems: Teachers are responsible for information transfer; our system is based on standardized testing.
Personal: “We do what was done to us.”
Looking for a quick fix to a complex problem.
Partial Perspective: We only assume the cognitive domain and not the affective domain (values/attitudes) or psychomotor domain (physical)
By applying this cohesive planning process, I hope to create a significant learning environment. In doing so, I will cultivate independent learners and thinkers.
References
Fink, L. D. (2003). A Self-Directed Guide to Designing Courses for Significant Learning. Jossey-Bass.
Harapnuik, D. (2021, February 24). Aligning Outcomes, Activities & Assessments: Learners Mindset Fundamentals. You Tube – Learners Mindset. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YsmbuD00Vfg
Stateler, K. (2021, December 4). What a Strange Machine Man Is! Cookies N Cache. https://karinstateler.com/?p=272
My favorite season in Texas is springtime. We are moving out of winter and the days are getting longer. Also, the weather isn’t unbearably hot yet. Plus, during springtime, a buzz lingers in the air – the feeling of summer vacation is just around the corner!
However, the biggest reason I enjoy spring is because of the Texas wildflowers. The diversity and beauty of Texas wildflowers are unmatched by anything I’ve ever experienced. Part of the joy is that they are temporary. In early April, the roadsides are dotted with purple-blue as bluebonnets move in. Next, come the varieties of paintbrushes in an array of colors. They are followed closely by Firewheel, which last throughout spring and summer. By this time, the bluebonnets are in full bloom and Texas families take the opportunity to take pictures with the state flower. During early May, the pink evening primrose delight with their temporary beauty – these flowers last only one day before they wilt and a neighbor blooms. In May, we begin to see members of the Asteraceae family: Brown-eyed Susan, Mexican hat, and coneflowers line the highway. Eventually, some of the earlier flowers start to die down, replaced by summer flowers that aren’t as vibrant but are more hearty and able to survive the summer heat and seasonal drought.
Unlike spring flowers, I was a late bloomer.
Or at least I’ve always thought of myself that way. As a child, my interests shifted rapidly; I struggled to land on a hobby or interest for long. For example, I played floor hockey and softball before I discovered cross country. Also, at different points in my life, I wanted to be a zookeeper, cure Alzheimer’s disease, be a famous singer, author books, study evolutionary biology in plants, and of course, teach science. Even as an adult, I hopped from job to job. I started my career teaching eighth-grade Intro to Physics and Chemistry to affluent children. Then, I took a year off to take a break. During this time, I worked in data entry. Next, I taught fifth-grade science at a Title One school. Honestly – this was probably the most rewarding job I ever had, and the one in which I learned the most. Then, I ended up at a mostly ELL, all-girls public school where I taught a STEM elective class to sixth through eighth grade. Finally, I ended up back in the district I started tackling my current role on the Digital Learning team.
At 41 years old, I decided to go back to school because I found the ADL program. I feel like I can finally see a path to my future, albeit a bit blurry. I never felt like I knew “what I wanted to be when I grew up.” Honestly, I don’t know if I’ll ever land on one thing. As soon as I begin to wrap my brain around a job or passion, a new door opens and pulls me in another direction.
Why did I change jobs so much?
When I reflect on Why, it’s hard to pinpoint. Each job change had slightly different reasons. For example, I left my first teaching job after my sixth year of teaching. During my fifth year of teaching, I had a banner year. I connected with my students so well and truly felt I had mastered “teaching.” Then, my sixth year of teaching fell flat. I wondered, “Should I even be a teacher? Maybe I’m not cut out for this.” I was no longer learning and growing in a way I wanted to.
Daniel Pink (Stephenson et al., 2010) shares that three factors lead to peak performance:
Autonomy: Self-direction “You probably want to do something interesting. Let me get out of your way.”
Mastery: The urge to get better at stuff.
Purpose: Making a contribution that is bigger than yourself.
I see this in myself. When I reflect on my itch to switch jobs, I notice a pattern. In all instances, I was lacking autonomy, continued growth, or a connection to a transcendent purpose. Much like plants, all learners – adults included – must have the right environment to be able to grow. How does this connect to learning philosophy?
It’s about learning.
“The pipe is more important than the content within the pipe.”
(Siemens, 2005)
“Our ability to learn what we need for tomorrow is more important than what we know today. Connectivism presents a model of learning that acknowledges the tectonic shifts in society where learning is no longer an internal, individualistic activity” (Siemens, 2005).
As I continue to explore learning philosophy, I think I’m landing on Connectivism. However, there’s a strong probability that will change over time, possibly rapidly. Because learning is as much about the environment as it is about a person and the environment evolves, I posit that learning theory must continue to evolve too. Humans learn in a similar way – inquisitively, always exploring their environment – but in a different context. As humans, we change our environment, so what we know about the environment changes. What was true has changed. As we become connected through technology, knowledge no longer exists in a vacuum. What we know exists in ourselves, in others, and in non-human appliances. Learning must be about creating a meaningful environment for knowledge construction that goes beyond what we see as capable now into a realm that explores what might be capable.
As I explore what I believe, I notice the importance of the evolving knowledge of the collective combined with the individual learner. I also notice the importance of creating an environment that encourages individuals to follow their passions, to know where to find the information, and where learners have autonomy, mastery, and purpose.
I have more questions than answers.
Questions I’m still exploring:
Where is the line between what benefits big business – humans as machines who become cogs in society – and how people really learn. What is the effect of this on how learning theory developed and continues to develop?
Where is the line between humans and technology? How might that evolve?
Where is the line between the individual and the collective? How might that evolve?
What “skills” or “knowledge” do all students need to have? Beyond number sense and literacy?
Do students need to memorize multiplication facts?
Do students need to know how to at least read cursive?
What is innate and what isn’t?
I think my beliefs about learning will continue to develop as I explore some of these questions in depth. However, I wonder if I’ll ever land on one learning theory forever, as I think that theories evolve as we need them to. Also, if you look at my track record, I don’t tend to hang onto one interest for eternity.
The right environment to flourish:
Regardless of the learning theory that you or I land on, I think we can agree that what we are doing now isn’t working. We must move from an industrial model of education that is about linearity, conformity, and batching (Robinson, 2010). That is, we must move to an agricultural model where human flourishing is an organic process (Robinson, 2010). We must also accept that we cannot predict the outcome (Robinson, 2010). Finally, we must just create the conditions under which learners will begin to flourish, and hope for wild, uncontrollable growth beyond what’s imaginable (Robinson, 2010).
Maybe I’m not a late bloomer. Rather, maybe – like all learners – I just thrive in the right environment. Maybe I just need the right conditions, and maybe those conditions are seasonal. Just like Texas wildflowers in the spring.
References
Robinson, S. K. (2010, May 24). Bring on the learning revolution! | Sir Ken Robinson. YouTube. Retrieved April 8, 2022, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r9LelXa3U_I
Siemens, G. (2005, January). Connectivism: A Learning Theory for the Digital Age. International Journal of Instructional Technology & Distance Learning, 2(1). https://jotamac.typepad.com/jotamacs_weblog/files/Connectivism.pdf
Stephenson, A., Park, A., & Pink, D. (2010, April 1). RSA ANIMATE: Drive: The surprising truth about what motivates us. YouTube. Retrieved April 8, 2022, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6XAPnuFjJc
You’re seated at a long table. Your seat is stiff, flat, and backless plastic colored a dingy blue. As you shift in the attempt to find comfort, the student-sized seat creaks in protest. The long table in front of you was cleaned with an unknown chemical that left behind residue and a faint odor that will make you nauseous over the course of the three hours you’ll sit at this cramped cafeteria table. You and your colleagues sit too close for comfort; your colleague’s breath smells faintly of coffee and cigarette smoke that she tries to hide with a heavy, floral perfume. (Notably, this doesn’t work.) Papers rustle and phones ding quietly as the speaker at the front of the room clicks to slide number eight out of infinity while they drone on in monotone.
A small beam of light captures your attention and you watch as tiny bits of dust shift in synchronicity. You remember watching a dust mote in a sunbeam like that in your home as a child while your cat lay in the warm pool of light at the bottom. A soft smile reaches your lips, but your colleague draws you out of this daydream when she taps on your shoulder to ask if you have another pencil. You dig in your bag to retrieve a 0.7 Bic mechanical pencil in lime green. When you hand it to her, you bump your phone and its lock screen awakens. The time is 8:33 am. You have been in this professional learning for three minutes.
It’s going to be a long day.
We’ve all been there.
As I conclude my 17th year in education, I can’t count how many professional development courses I attended where I learned about how to teach effectively that were presented in an ineffective way.
According to The Mirage (TNTP, 2015, p. 2):
“Districts are making a massive investment in teacher improvement – far larger than most people realize. Despite these efforts, most teachers do not appear to improve substantially from year to year – even though many have not yet mastered critical skills. Even when teachers do improve, we were unable to link their growth to any particular development strategy. School systems are not helping teachers understand how to improve – or even that they have room to improve at all.”
We overload teachers with professional development with the intent to help, but it is far from helpful (TNTP, 2015). And believe me when I say that teachers notice. A majority of teachers find the one-time workshop model of professional development useless (Gulamhussein, 2013).
What could effective PD look like?
According to Teaching the Teachers (Gulamhussein, 2013):
Professional learning is not a one-and-done deal. It should be significant and ongoing. During implementation, teachers need support to address the specific challenges of changing classroom practice. Teachers should participate actively in making sense of a new practice during the initial exposure. Modeling is effective to help teachers understand a new practice. Teachers should engage in content and/or grade-level specific learning.
Sit-and-get learning may still be incorporated into this new system of professional learning, albeit infrequently. To ensure that it’s meaningful, there are steps we can take to improve our presentation skills.
Improving Presentations with Story and Slidedecks
Simply put, brain science supports the use of stories to convey information. As Nancy Duarte (2013) shared, the structure of stories has been used for 1000’s of years. Even pre-literate cultures used stories to pass down morals, values, and lore. How do we know? Think about the story I told at the beginning of this blog. Could you picture it? Did you hear the seat creak? Could you feel and smell the room? Did you see the beam of light, the droning presenter, or a long-lost pet? Stories pass through our rational frontal lobe and connect with our “heart”, or rather our limbic system. The connection between stories and presenting – while groundbreaking in how it could shape presentations – is not new, but old. That is, we have a literal, uncontrollable physical reaction when we connect with a story.
Incorporating Story
How should we incorporate a story into a presentation? There are a few different models presented. In her TEDTalk Nancy Duarte Uncovers the Common Structure of Greatest Communicators, Nancy Duarte (2010) shares a few models for storytelling. One example she mentions is Aristotle’s Three-Act Play, the Hero’s Journey, and finally Freytag’s Dramatic Story Structure. All of these different varieties include important information to include in a presentation. For example, use a structure that includes a transformation. Also, be certain to include a resolution. Finally, use the hero archetype to connect to the audience. That is use your presentation to make the audience the hero of the story. Then you, as the presenter, guide, mold, and manipulate them like the mentor that you are.
Her greatest instruction is to “plant resistance between what is and what could be” (Duarte, 2010). Duarte (2010) suggested:
Modeling for the audience what you want them to feel.
Use of repetition.
Use metaphors and visual words
Incorporate familiar songs and scriptures
Draw on relatable experiences
Directly compare what currently is to what could be.
For the last turning point, a good speaker should review the call to action and describe the new bliss (Duarte, 2010). In fact, “people will remember the last thing you said more than the beginning or middle” (Duarte, 2010). This reiterates the importance of the call to action in your presentation.
YOU are the Presentation
“Bad slide presentations don’t require a presenter to be interesting, informative, or even present” (Gonzalez, 2013). On the other hand, good slide presentations act as a “visual background” to the presenter (Phillips, 2014). They don’t overshadow the whole purpose of the presentation, which is to hear the speaker.
Yesterday, I was on facetime with our good friends Chance and Brandi. They have a seven-month-old named Kinsely who is the most beautiful, perfect baby I’ve ever seen. (I may be a biased aunt.) When I asked them how they were, Chance said that Kinsley was “doing this weird thing” where she screamed any time they left the room without her. Immediately, I pictured a pinwheel. You see, in the video How Presentation Zen Fixed My Bad PowerPoints (Gonzalez, 2013), the presenter demonstrated as she edited her slides from a list of bullet points to images with meaning.
→→→→→
Images from How Presentation Zen Fixed My Bad PowerPoints (Gonzalez, 2013).
The best part is that I could share what I learned with my friends. I told them that she hasn’t developed object permanence. When they leave the room, her baby brain thinks that they no longer exist. Also, my metacognition allowed me to recognize that I learned this because the slideshow was more meaningful with imagery than the list of bullet points. I am anecdotal evidence that Gonzalez’s (2013) slideshow improvements worked! Finally, I ensured them that this was a phase as babies develop object permanence around eight months.
In his TEDTalk How to AvoidDeath by PowerPoint, David Phillips (2014) creatively demonstrated tips for a good slideshow. He said to keep your messages to one message per slide (Phillips, 2014). If there is more than one message, we only pay attention to one of them. Next, he said to include short, sweet bits of text and an image (Phillips, 2014). Regarding size, the most important part of your slide should be the biggest (Phillips, 2014). To demonstrate this, he changed the size of the heading and the body text, and my eyes followed the bigger item! He also said to use contrast to highlight certain parts of a table or slide (Phillips, 2014). Finally, he explained that the magic number of images or items to include on a slide is limited to six (Phillips, 2014). With six items, we just “see” them. After six, we must count the items to know how many there are. It was so fun to “watch” as my brain was tricked by his presentation. If you didn’t watch his video, find it here. It’s a must-see!
A New Bliss
What might it be like if adult learning looked like this? Maybe instead of a room full of colleagues learning the same information, you attend a brief meaningful introduction that lasts fifteen minutes. In that time, you are inspired by a story that pulls on your heartstrings and sets the tone for the day. Then you and a handful of colleagues discuss specific data and lessons in a guided PLC. Next, maybe you watch a mentor teacher teach a lesson that you need some help with. When you ask a question, she tells you to come back next period to teach the same lesson to the next group of kids. Then, she gives you feedback specific to you in a format designed by professionals. Finally, you end your day back in a PLC where you discuss and write to connect and reflect. Over the course of the next few weeks, a coach meets with you to continue to help you grow in specific, measured ways.
Meaningful, individualized professional learning is possible. The gap between what is and what could be is achievable.
References
Duarte, N. (2010). Resonate: Present Visual Stories that Transform Audiences. Wiley.
Duarte, N. (2010, December 10). TEDxEast – Nancy Duarte Uncovers the Common Structure of Greatest Communicators 11/11/2010. YouTube. Retrieved April 2, 2022, from https://youtu.be/1nYFpuc2Umk
Duarte, N. (2013, March 21). Nancy Duarte: How to Tell a Story. YouTube. https://youtu.be/9JrRQ1oQWQk
Gonzalez, J. (2013, September 16). How Presentation Zen Fixed My Bad PowerPoints. YouTube. https://youtu.be/vkrl1j0IW-c
Gulamhussein, A. (2013). Teaching the Teachers Effective Professional Development in an Era of High Stakes Accountability. Center for Public Education. https://www.dropbox.com/s/j13c5mk092kmqv9/Teaching_Effective_Professional_Developmt.pdf?dl=0
Phillips, D. J. (2014, April 14). How to Avoid Death By PowerPoint | David JP Phillips | TEDxStockholmSalon. YouTube. https://youtu.be/Iwpi1Lm6dFo
TNTP. (2015). The Mirage. TNTP. https://tntp.org/assets/documents/TNTP-Mirage_2015.pdf
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