BECOMING A SKILLFUL TEACHER

Stephen BrookfieldUniversity of St. Thomas

Minneapolis-St. Paulwww.stephenbrookfield.com

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

CRITICAL INCIDENT QUESTIONNAIRE (CIQ)

• Most Engaged Moment• Most Distanced Moment• Most Helpful Action• Most Puzzling Action• What Surprised You Most

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

Why CIQ’s?

•Problems Warned Early•Ground Teachers’ Actions• Increase Student Reflectivity•Build Trust• Illustrate Diverse Methods•Model Critical Thinking

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?

An Adult Approach

•Respect•Research•Responsiveness

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?

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

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)

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?

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

EMOTIONAL RHYTHMS OF LEARNING

• Impostorship• Cultural Suicide• Lost in Limbo - roadrunning• Peer Supports

Student Engagement

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

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

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

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

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

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?

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

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

TEACHER AUTHENTICITY

• CONGRUENCE OF WORDS & ACTIONS• FULL DISCLOSURE OF EXPECTATIONS &

CRITERIA• PERSONHOOD VIA AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL

EXAMPLES• RESPONSIVENESS TO LEARNERS’

CONCERNS• ACKNOWLEDGING ERROR

Resistance to Learning

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

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

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

Dealing with Resistance

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

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

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

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

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