This is the problem Atul Gawande presents in Better: A Surgeon's Notes on Performance. There are so many times in the book when you could substitute "educator" for "doctor". Medicine, like education, is ultimately a system of human contact and human decisions, and every decision makes an impact on the life of another. Two professions that have become increasingly standardized, filled with bureaucracy, and influenced by profits. Yet both are still practiced at a personal level - doctor to patient - teacher to student - with traditions and knowledge handed down over centuries to make the next generation ... better.
Gawande presents stories from the world of medicine to illustrate his point that continuously improving our practice can be nearly as effective as seeking the miracle cure. For example, the clinic that has cystic fibrosis patients living nearly as long as their peers simply by innovating and holding themselves (and their patients) to a higher standard. Or how convincing health care workers in the the mid-1800's to simply wash their hands saved scores of lives.
How many of us in education are seeking the "miracle cure" today? Flipped classrooms, interactive whiteboards, zero tolerance policies, small class sizes, new standards, experiments in school governance, standardized testing - the list goes on and on. Gawande's question for us would be "Why throw out everything you've learned as a profession over the years?" Improvement lies within your own power to control, and you can improve the lives of the people under you right now instead of waiting for the miracle cure to help somebody else down the road. Improving practice works at the strategy & self levers (Frontier & Rickabaugh) as opposed to so many other innovations that sound better to the public but don't move achievement as far.
The chapter on innovation in childbirth translates well to education. You've heard of Apgar scores for newborns? Virginia Apgar's 1952 innovation allowed doctors and entire hospitals to be compared, driving standardization across the nation. Previously, OB's used various techniques to aid in childbirth, such as forceps deliveries, depending on the position of the baby. But since forceps deliveries and these other techniques are difficult to teach young doctors, C-sections became the industry standard. C-sections are easier to teach, answer nearly every complication that could arise (as opposed to the myriad of techniques OB's had to master), and are convenient to schedule. Likewise, standardized testing in education has given rise to pre-packaged curricula and pacing guides. Students spending weeks alone on devices drilling math facts. Students expected to all know the same thing at the same time because their age says they should.
So what is the solution?
1. Teachers must claim their role as researchers, because curiosity and research lead to innovation. The most important professional development teachers engage in is their daily work in the classroom. "I wonder why this group of students thought X?" Curiosity leads to a theory, an application ("I'll try this intervention"), gathering data to see if it worked, and then reporting the result to help others. That's research, and teachers do it over and over every day - we need to recognize and honor it because research is the foundation of innovation.
2. Teachers must refocus on basics of lesson design, because increasing impact is how our practice gets better. What do I want students to learn? How will students prove they learned it? What impact did I, as a teacher, have on this lesson? How do I know? Teaching = effectiveness. Learning = impact. There's a difference. (This book by Mike Schmoker and this book by Moss & Brookhart are great resources here.)
3. Innovation needs to be the norm in school culture. Administrators should do more than create a culture that merely "supports" pockets of innovation. A culture that expects transparent innovation as part of professional responsibility is what will set individual schools and systems apart.
It's easy to wait for the miracle cure - mostly because it's somebody else's job to discover it and tell you how to use it effectively. But getting better is a self-driven process that can make an impact now!
No comments:
Post a Comment