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Five Things to Notice in Your Classroom That Will Make Your Week

During the morning math lesson, Jonnie notices an elaborate spider web in an upper corner of the room and asks how spiders can possibly create something so beautiful and deadly. Later in the morning, Rogan proclaims that it’s magic how the sun creates a spectrum of color in the rainbow outside the window. Then, during the math lesson, Shondell suggests that the base-10 number system was invented because combined, we have ten fingers. Each of these comments might be considered off task and not part of the day’s academic agenda. Yet, they open possibilities for rich discussion and learning. We can ignore them, or we can seize the moment and explore with students the meanings and implications they introduce. Unfortunately, the pace and focus of activities playing out each day in our classroom make it easy to miss some of the most delightful, amazing, and important—but not on the agenda—happenings playing out before us. We tend to see what we look for and pay attention to. If we become too focused on what we planned and want to accomplish, we can miss or even become impatient with the unexpected, unscripted, and serendipitous around us. Yet, these spontaneous incidents can offer humor, pleasure, and stress release, if we pay attention and appreciate them. They also can add to student learning and make our work more satisfying and rewarding. Just because we didn’t notice something doesn’t mean it didn’t happen. Our attention and actions interpret for students what matters and what they should pay attention to. Of course, a lot happens simultaneously in classrooms. We can’t catch every comment and observation, then leverage them for learning. We also can’t always set aside the intended lesson and learning to take advantage of the unplanned. Still, recognizing teachable moments, meaningful inquiries, and surprising insights can transform the learning experiences of our students and make our teaching more significant and pleasurable. If we want to ensure capturing these serendipitous opportunities for learning, laughter, and lifting spirits that can lie hidden in our classrooms, there are at least five places we can look:

Watch for the off-hand comment that reveals a quiet sense of humor. Listen for the ironic observation; connections made between two seemingly unrelated statements, actions, or happenings; or a surprising twist on situations or relationships.
Listen for the surprising answer that reveals a creative perspective worth exploring, or a comment that suggests a novel application of information. Listen for questions, such as “Is this like…?” or “Might this be…?”
Pay attention to unanticipated questions that suggest a curious mind. We might find cues in questions, such as “Why?” “What if?” “Why not?” or “How might…?”
Notice questions that reveal a rich imagination. We may hear statements and questions beginning with “I wonder…” and “Could it be possible that…”
Be ready for comments regarding a detail or related issues that point to a gift for observation. Some students see what others miss or ignore. These students may not say much, but they see much.

Our noticing and valuing the unexpected, serendipitous, and humorous happenings in our classroom can create delightful discussions, compelling discoveries, and day lightening laughter. They can lessen our stress, lighten our mood, and lead us to appreciate the opportunity to work with such sensitive and gifted children and young people. In short, they can make our week.

September 30, 2022

Finding Success and Staying Sane with Difficult Students

The realization that we have one or more difficult students in our class raises our levels of anxiety and stress, tests our patience, distracts our attention, and challenges our skills. But this doesn’t have to be a source of worry and dread. Often, defiant, manipulative, or volatile students turn out to be bright, talented, and engaging. Though they can be frustrating one moment, they can be delightfully entertaining the next, and even sensitive and vulnerable the next moment. The progress and success these students will experience in coming months will likely be the result of how we view them, how we engage them, and how we nurture them. The perspectives we adopt, the choices we make, and the relationships we develop will have a powerful influence on what lies ahead. Each of these elements is within our control should we choose to employ it. Here are six perspectives and strategies you can adopt to make your work with your most challenging students successful while preserving your sanity. First, approach the situation as a valuable learning opportunity. You might ask, “What can this student teach me?” Become an observer and learner. The insights you gain and skills you develop will help you to become more successful with the student and prepare you to be even more successful with similar students in the future. Once you learn lessons, you’ll not have to relearn them. Plus, you’ll have additional strategies and approaches upon which to draw. Further, your engagement with and learning how to work with a difficult student can be more energizing when you see it as an investment rather than as a trial. Second, separate the student from their behavior. When you accept the student, even when they misbehave, it allows you to care for and even love them without accepting their behavior. You need to help the student feel your regard for them despite what they say or do, and over time position yourself as advocate and coach while they work to change their behavior. Third, understand that at some level the student truly believes the behavior works for them. Therefore, some students continue in unacceptable, even destructive behaviors despite consequences. Help students see and experience how changing their behavior leads to better results that serve their interests. Your challenge is to help them to see and develop alternative paths to meet their needs and achieve their goals. Only then will they consider abandoning their old behaviors. Fourth, recognize the skills supporting the students’ behavior. Many behaviors you find unacceptable depend on well-honed skills. With some imagination and creativity, they can redirect and reapply these skills in more acceptable ways. As examples, they can recast manipulation into the ability to influence and even sell. Defiant behaviors might be transformed into self-advocacy if supported by different strategies. Through talking with them and coaching them, they can learn to reframe and employ their skills in a positive direction. Fifth, commit to never purposefully embarrass or “corner” the student without a valid, face-saving choice. When you create these circumstances, you risk severing your relationship with them, and they might lash out more destructively. The resentment resulting from these experiences can last a lifetime, prohibiting you from ever reaching them. Rather, give the student choices. Provide opportunities for them to decide. Invite them to offer ideas and suggestions regarding how to resolve challenging situations. Sixth, emphasize the purpose and relevance of what you teach, while noticing and reinforcing the importance and value of the student’s efforts and strategies. When you ask students to learn a skill or study a topic, explain why the learning is important and share examples of how they benefit from what they learn. Reluctant and resistant learners often are more open and responsive when they understand the “why” behind what you ask of them. As the student engages, make it a point to notice where they concentrate their efforts and strategies. This allows you to provide encouragement and coaching for continued progress. Difficult students don’t make our work easy, but they provide surprising opportunities for us to grow and learn. They also offer some of the greatest occasions to make a lasting difference in the lives of young people who need us most. For more information and resources on managing behavior, check out our You Can Handle Them All… Courses Book App

September 23, 2022

The Secret of Generating Better Learning Outcomes

Our society applauds, respects, values, and compensates the final product of successful effort. We might think that preparing students for the “real world” means focusing attention on perfection and the final products students submit. While time allows for this focus, we must consider that our primary work is in helping students learn. For example, when new employees undergo training, often emerging ideas are refined and new products or services result. True ability focuses on learning growth, best processes, and progress toward success. Excellent processes create quality products. When preoccupied with students’ final products, we risk students losing perception, appreciation, and value for the learning process. Not surprisingly, copying someone else’s work and other graceless actions that fail to generate learning and build learning paths become the unimaginative and desperate options students consider. When focused on processes rather than preoccupied with results, learning accelerates, and students become more invested. Unless we help them to become aware of learning processes and how they lead to success, we risk students thinking that what matters most is the grade, not the learning journey. Here are four reasons to help students focus on the process as much as the destination. A focus on process:

Gives students permission to reflect on and learn from mistakes. Risks present less scary when students see them as part of the learning path.
Helps students see that learning emerges as the result of a journey. The destination may be a beacon for direction, but the journey to learning is what matters most.
Provides greater focus on what leads to learning rather external rewards. Approval and other symbols of success become a reflection of rather than the purpose for learning.
Offers students greater control over decisions, steps, and strategies that lead to learning. Students gain greater ownership of and gain increased sense of efficacy about their learning.

So, how can we help students increase focus on the processes of learning and be less preoccupied by grades and other symbols of accomplishment? Here are four strategies to consider. First, break down major assignments and projects when introducing them to students. For example, begin with students contemplating potential topics, generating questions worth exploring, or engaging in other generative processes. Students might develop draft outlines for the learning work they want to do and seek feedback from classmates and you to refine and clarify their work. Next, students might develop portions or drafts of their work to share for further feedback and suggestions. As the work unfolds, the learning journey can be captured in successive decisions, drafts, and other documents that tell the story from initial exploration to final presentation. Second, have students keep a log of their thinking, initial attempts, mistakes made, learning gained, and how what they have learned is applied to and integrated with their evolving work. This level of reflection helps students become more aware of their thinking and learning as the work unfolds. Their learning reflections also will fill with meaning and likely will be remembered long after the work is finished. Third, focus guidance, support, and feedback on the process of learning. When you focus engagement on what and how the student learns, you reduce preoccupation with grades, while valuing the learning journey. Your questions and observations about what students notice, how they adjust, and the difference their thinking makes in their learning provide powerful stimuli and foster focused influence for learning. Fourth, display learning journey evidence. Students might create bulletin boards, write blogs, or create graphic images with artifacts to document their learning journey. Posting, sharing, and documenting their learning journey sends a powerful message about the purpose and value of what they have accomplished without distraction from artificial symbols, such as grades. There’s no question that quality learning outcomes are integral to the long-term success of our students. However, learning outcomes result from decisions, strategies, and other processes that lead to the success our students deserve. Attention to the processes of learning inevitably leads to learning products that reflect the quality we seek.

September 23, 2022

Give Students a “Leg Up” to the Next Level of Learning

The future will demand more from our students than being able to follow directions, comply with expectations, and perform standardized tasks. Repetitive tasks and standardized processes increasingly can and will be performed by machines. The World Economic Forum recently projected that within eight years more than half of the tasks for which humans are paid will be performed by technology. Meanwhile, more than half of the jobs today’s students will hold do not yet exist. Learned skills that used to have a life cycle of three decades now have utility for five years. Future success requires constant learning and unlearning, adaptation and upskilling, curiosity and imagination, and confidence and grit. Workers proficient at managing standardized processes, applying learned formulas, and employing established protocols likely will find themselves falling short of expectations and at risk of being held back from success they seek. Meanwhile, opportunities for motivated learners possessing skills necessary to learn independently will fill the future. It is they who will take responsibility for growing their knowledge, will be curious and imaginative, will be prepared to test assumptions and question perceptions, and who will possess the courage and confidence to engage what is yet to be understood. Yet, the truth is that the schools most of us experienced and most students experience today were designed to prepare proficient students, not develop skilled learners. If we hope to make the transition necessary to prepare young people for their future, we need to change their learning experience. Four shifts can help us move beyond simply preparing proficient students to preparing skilled, motivated, independent learners. Here is how a student might describe learning experiences these shifts can highlight. Shift #1. I spend less time and energy doing what I am told and give more time and attention to taking responsibility and ownership for my learning. I have more choices in what and how I will learn, a stronger voice in my learning experience, and more control over the goals that guide my learning. I am open to receive more timely, descriptive, focused, and actionable feedback on my learning before a grade is assigned to my work. Further, because I have more control, I see more purpose and value in what I am learning. Shift #2. My learning is shifting from dependence on being motivated by and engaged in teacher directed activities and instead to giving more attention to building learning and problem-solving skills and strategies, making decisions about approaches and resources, and organizing and managing my work. Though making more mistakes than I used to, I am actively learning more from them. My learning involves more open-ended activities allowing me to plan, schedule, and monitor my work. Spending more time reflecting and adjusting my thinking and actions, I am learning to enlist the support of others by asking questions, tapping resources, and exploring perspectives other than my own. Shift #3. I spend less time waiting to be instructed and following directions and more time and energy dealing with ambiguity and figuring out how to solve problems. When I need help, my teacher is more likely to share potential models and suggest alternatives approaches than give me answers to the problem on which I am working. Not having a set-by-step process to follow can be frustrating, but it also gives me more control over my learning. Meanwhile, solving problems in this way gives me more confidence and pride than when I simply follow a given path. As a result, I learn more self-discipline and patience. Shift #4. I am less preoccupied with simply finding the correct answer and more committed to focusing on the best processes and finding the best path to an insightful and responsible outcome. I am discovering there is more than one way to find a solution, even though some approaches work better than others. I often must make multiple attempts, but I find I can learn a lot from what does not work. Focusing on the learning experience and process, I know if my work is good, the grade I receive will take care of itself. Of course, proficiency will continue to be important; it is just not enough to prepare students for their future. The good news is that we do not have to choose between proficiency and skilled learning. We can build proficiency while also nurturing skilled, independent learners.

September 02, 2022

Unlock an Unstoppable Force for Learning

There is little question that poverty can exert a heavy influence on student learning and school success. In schools across the nation, the level of poverty experienced by students nearly predicts achievement scores. Yet, a longstanding and growing body of research points to a school-based, culture-driven strategy consistently demonstrating power to overcome poverty’s influence on student learning outcomes. The power of this deceptively simple approach resides in the understanding that the nature of our commitment, effort, and persistence determines, or at least marks a noteworthy influence on learning outcomes. Commonly referred to as efficacy, 1970s psychologist Alfred Bandura popularized this construct. Recently, efficacy’s role in schools received renewed attention among researchers. Specifically, researchers now seek to examine the relationship more closely between what teachers believe about their collective capacity to influence student learning outcomes and its effect on student achievement. This strand of cultural research, known as collective teacher efficacy, recently yielded surprising and important findings. As early as 1993, Bandura concluded that the effects of collective teacher efficacy in a school could more than outweigh the negative learning effects of low socio-economic status. In the early 2000s, studies conducted by Roger Goddard (University of Michigan) concluded that collective teacher efficacy had a stronger relationship to mathematics and reading achievement than socio-economic status. Studies also show that when teachers create high levels of collective efficacy, parent relationships tend to be stronger and more positive. Even more recently, John Hattie’s meta-analysis of research on collective teacher efficacy concluded that it ranks at the top among the most powerful influences on student achievement. Obviously, this is great news for educators as this strategy has its roots in the school and is not dependent on families or even students. Thus, regardless of external school circumstances students face, the presence of collective teacher efficacy can powerfully and positively influence their achievement. Researcher and author Jenni Donohoo in her book, Collective Efficacy: How Educators’ Beliefs Impact Student Learning, describes six enabling conditions that support high levels of teacher efficacy. The six conditions are:

Advanced teacher influence. She describes advanced teacher influence as opportunities for teachers to participate meaningfully in important school-wide decisions.
Goal consensus. Donohoo notes when there is strong consensus on key goals that greater consistency and alignment of effort result, thus synergizing everyone’s impact. Interestingly, this condition, even by itself, shows to increase student achievement.
Teachers’ knowledge about one another’s work. This condition highlights the importance of collaboration, sharing, and mutual trust among staff members. Its presence also provides teachers with more frequent opportunities to learn from the effective practices of colleagues.
Cohesive staff. Cohesion does not necessarily mean that everyone always agrees, but it does imply an agreement on fundamental educational issues. Disagreements more likely inhabit tactics and methods for addressing important issues, not the issues themselves.
Responsiveness of leadership. This condition speaks to the importance of respect and concern demonstrated by school leaders, including protecting teachers from issues that distract from and compete with teaching time and focus.
Effective systems of intervention. These processes and practices ensure students receive timely, effective, responsive support when they struggle or need additional assistance to be successful.

Importantly, each condition identified by Donohoo as supporting collective teacher efficacy consist within the collective control of schools and educators. They do not necessarily require additional funding, waivers from regulations, or specialized outside expertise. However, they do require commitment, effort, and a strong belief in ourselves and our ability to make a difference.

September 02, 2022

Four “Mistakes” to Make in the First Weeks of School

We may think the best way to start the year is to have everything be smooth, predictable, and absent of any surprises. We plan, prepare, practice, and anticipate what will happen—we try to think of everything. Yet, while predictability and precision may feel comfortable and reassuring, too much focus on getting everything perfect can work against our long-term success as the year unfolds. In fact, some mistakes and missteps early in the year can create a path to greater success and satisfaction. The key is to use our experiences to inform our thinking, adjust our strategies, and learn key lessons. Rather than becoming preoccupied with perfection, we might consider making a few mistakes to gain important information, build understanding about what we may need to rethink, and open the door to some new behaviors. Here are four “mistakes” to embrace: Try a new engagement strategy with students, even if it does not work. Your effort may not work as you intended, but you are likely to gain important information about what your students might find more engaging. You may also discover that it was not the strategy that was the problem; rather, the students may not have been properly prepared, may have been reluctant to try something that was unfamiliar, or may just need to become more comfortable with classmates and you before fully engaging. Regardless, you will have gained information that can guide future engagement strategies and activities. Give students a little more responsibility than they can handle. At first, this mistake may seem like one to avoid. After all, the project or assignment involved may not have led to the outcome you anticipated and hoped for. Yet, by giving students a little more autonomy and accountability than they could handle, you now know their current capacity to handle responsibility. Your goal to increase students’ capacity to become more independent and self-leading must start where students currently are. The information you gain can guide you in where to focus your attention and build going forward. Let a lesson plan go in favor of something in which students are highly interested. It can be difficult to let go of the plan you have developed for the day. You want to stay focused and on track with instruction, and getting behind early can create pressure and stress. On the other hand, occasionally following the interests and passions of students can lead to insights and discoveries about them that can make future teaching and learning more effective. Further, you will have sent a message to students that their interests matter. You may even find that the serendipitous learning that occurs during the detour is as useful and important as what you had planned for the day. Take an evening or weekend day off, even though you have lots of work to do. Intentionally making this “mistake” may be difficult because we have deadlines and want to stay caught up on our responsibilities and tasks. However, research and experience consistently point to the benefits of taking breaks, refocusing, and engaging in non-work activities. We may feel as though continuing to press and push is what conscientious professionals do. However, doing so means that we cannot replenish our energy, clear our minds, and gain perspective. The year ahead will ask much; it is important to set a healthy and sustainable pace now. Of course, we want to avoid unnecessary mistakes, missteps, and setbacks. Still, mistakes can be the most productive learning experiences we encounter. The key is to understand that mistakes are opportunities to learn and move forward, not reasons to pull back and avoid risks.

August 19, 2022

Share Your Tips & Stories

Share your story and the tips you have for getting through this challenging time. It can remind a fellow school leader of something they forgot, or your example can make a difficult task much easier and allow them to get more done in less time. We may publish your comments.

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Seven Ways to Convince Students They Belong

In the rush to start the year, create routines, and begin the learning journey, it can be easy to overlook an important contributor to student success. We need students to focus, commit, and persist in their learning. We want them to feel safe and comfortable. We need them to take risks and overcome mistakes and setbacks. Yet, unless students feel as though they are accepted and belong, they are not likely to give their best effort. On the other hand, when students feel as though they are valued and part of a community, learning is easier, self-doubt is less of a distraction, and engagement becomes a natural process. Unfortunately, a sense of belonging that extends to everyone in our class does not just happen. Students who come with confidence, a record of academic success, and significant social capital may assume they belong and will require little reassurance. Other students who have experienced feelings of not fitting in, who have been excluded in the past, or who may just lack confidence will need more intentional support. The good news is that we can nurture a sense of belonging through many of the practices and procedures we engage in daily. However, we need to be intentional and strategic in our efforts. Here are seven ways we can introduce, build, and sustain a sense of belonging, regardless of our students’ backgrounds and past experiences: First, learn students’ names and pronunciation early. Knowing students’ names and saying them accurately sends a message of value and importance. Until we know and use students’ names, we are not likely to have a positive influence on whether they feel they are accepted and belong. Also, we need to be careful about assigning and using nicknames. Some students may come to us with and prefer a nickname, but we need to confirm this information. Second, include students in developing class rules and norms. When we allow students to have a voice in how the class will operate, what is and is not acceptable, and how they will treat each other, we send a message that they share ownership for the class. While we need to be in charge, what students think matters. Of course, students are also more likely to internalize and follow rules and accept norms for which they have had input. Third, frame the work of the class as teamwork. Certainly, learning happens one student at a time, but peer support and encouragement can also be helpful to the learning process. We can set shared goals and plan activities that position students to work together and support each other. Common enemies and shared purposes can be powerful forces to build a sense of belonging. Fourth, connect personally with each student. Listening to and observing students can provide a wealth of insights to begin conversations, offer encouragement, and inquire about interests. We can also notice and greet students outside of class in hallways, at extracurricular events, and in the community. Being noticed and recognized can be powerful messages of belonging. Fifth, model showing acceptance and valuing all students, especially students who may be marginalized. When we sensitively use students within an example, comment on a strength, and lift up their contributions, we send a message to other students about what we notice and value. Our modeling can give the student confidence and lead others to shift their relationship with them. Sixth, assume that all students can find learning success. What we believe about students matters more than we may realize. If we do not believe that a student is capable of success, we are less likely to continue to nudge and encourage their learning to ever-higher levels. We are more likely to accept less than their best work. Further, we need to focus on learning over grades. All students can learn, even though students may start at different places, some may need more time, and others may follow different learning paths. We need to respect each student’s learning, even though the nature and amount may vary. Seventh, do not tolerate ostracism. What we choose to ignore can send a message that is as powerful as what we choose to support. We must be proactive to avoid ostracizing behaviors and respond immediately when we sense or see it. Ostracizing behaviors can be more frequent among students at certain ages and stages of development than at others, but it is cruel and hurtful at any age. We need our students to focus, commit, and persist in their learning. There will be challenges and setback in the weeks and months ahead. When we assure students that they belong and will be supported and successful, they can give their full attention and effort to learning.

August 19, 2022

The First Week: Five Messages Students Want to Hear

The first week of school is filled with introductions, activities, expectations, reminders, instructions, and other attractions and distractions. However, everything that happens will be mined for meaning by our students. Our expressions and mannerisms, off-hand comments, and responses to questions matter. Even what we choose to ignore holds potential significance for students who are trying to figure out who we are, what we expect, and what they can expect from us. We must pay close attention to our interactions with and reactions to students in these first days. These experiences often set the stage for the year ahead. First impressions stick and can be difficult to change. Careless assumptions and untested perceptions can create separation and resistance that will require much time and significant experience to overcome. By the time the end of the first week arrives, students will have already reached many conclusions and sorted multiple key messages they believe they have received from us. Our challenge is to be intentional about the impression we want to make, thoughtful regarding the messages we want to send, and planful about how to convey these messages. Let’s explore five messages students would like to hear, as well as the evidence students might seek to support their interpretation of our messages. My teacher’s expectations are clear. Routines help students avoid uncertainty and confusion. Students seek clarity and consistency. They want to know what we expect from them and how to meet our expectations. Of course, students may occasionally test us to confirm that we mean what we say. However, they abhor being held responsible for something they were not told or shown. Our planning, preparation, and clear goals can give students confidence that we know what we are doing and our expectations can be taken seriously. My teacher is interested in and excited about what we will be learning. Our excitement can be contagious. Students are more likely to buy in when we enjoy talking about what we are teaching. The message becomes even stronger when we communicate that we want students to enjoy what they are learning, too. When we share insights, tell stories, and point out interesting details, we make learning more interesting and inviting. My teacher is interested in getting to know me. With so much to be done in the first days of the year, we can neglect to take the time to learn who our students are and understand how we can best connect with them. The activities and sharing opportunities we plan, the questions we ask, and the listening we do sends a strong message regarding our interest in our students. Inviting students to share more than their names and paying attention to their questions can yield valuable information about how to reach and teach them. Of course, we also can learn much about personalities and preferences by observing during discussions, during group work, and even during independent work times. My teacher is committed to my success. Students want reassurance that we believe they will succeed. In fact, students will do amazing things if they are convinced that we believe in them and their capacity to be successful. Our beliefs and attitude can instill hope and confidence, especially when reinforced with trust and opportunities for autonomy. Further, we send a powerful message of commitment when we share that we cannot be successful unless they are successful. My teacher has a sense of humor. We do not have to be comedians to enjoy and share humor. We might occasionally share jokes, but appreciating what is unexpected, serendipitous, unplanned, and funny can be just as important. Humor can help us connect with students, break tension, and reduce pressure. However, we need to be careful to avoid humor—ours and from students—that is disrespectful, hurtful, or discriminatory. Admittedly, the first week of school can be a busy, pressure-filled time. However, the investment we make to send messages that connect with and reassure our students can play a crucial role in setting the stage for a successful and satisfying year.

August 15, 2022

Five Characteristics Shared by Success and Failure – And Why They Matter

We might think of success and failure as two very different conditions. We typically seek to find success and avoid failure. Yet, they share several important characteristics that play common roles in determining life outcomes. Consider that success and failure are both temporary conditions. Failure only has to last until the next attempt and opportunity to succeed. Meanwhile, no successful person is guaranteed to remain successful. If we fail to attend to what led to success or do what is necessary to stay successful, it will pass. Further, how long success and failure will last is determined by learning. Failure can be overcome by reflecting, studying, and learning the lessons necessary to change the outcome. Success can be fleeting if we fail to continue to learn, adjust, and move forward. Additionally, the factors and margins that produce either success or failure can be small. In baseball, a few inches can separate a home run from a long out. In life, attending to or ignoring even a few details can determine whether an effort will be a spectacular success or an epic failure. We do well to remember that success may have resulted from small margins and failure may have occurred due to getting just a few things wrong. Importantly, success and failure are heavily influenced by internal factors. We may seek to blame timing, resources, and the actions of others for failure, and we may give ourselves primary credit for our successes. Yet, the factors that determine whether we succeed or fail are more often within us. Success and failure are heavily influenced by what we believe about ourselves, our commitment to learn, our willingness to persist, and our ability to maintain hope despite external factors. Finally, the definitions of success and failure are heavily influenced by perceptions: our own and others’. Achieving what is a key goal for us may be seen by others as insignificant and trivial. And what we may see as routine and natural accomplishments may be viewed by others as spectacular achievements. What may be seen as success by others can seem hollow and meaningless to us. So, what role can the shared characteristics of success and failure play in our work with students? Here are observations to consider and share:

Failure does not have to be permanent. Success is not always assured. Where students are today is only the starting point for what comes next.
Conditions may change and new challenges will emerge. Moving on from failure requires new learning, adjusting, and persisting. Staying successful requires similar commitment and actions.
Whether students fail or succeed, they need to pay attention to the factors that played a role. Of course, failure is often a better teacher than success.
When students set and achieve goals, they are successful, even if there is more work to do and even if others may discount the significance of what they have achieved.
Success or failure in the short and long term will be determined more by what students believe about themselves and their potential than by external factors and forces. Of course, the life forces and factors they confront may be more daunting for some students than for others.

We want our students to be successful. However, failure can be a good teacher, particularly for students who usually experience success. Our challenge is to help students understand the characteristics and realities of success and failure and their role in determining which outcome they will experience.

June 28, 2022

Virtual Reality in Education: Coming Sooner Than We Think?

Is virtual reality the next big wave in education? In some form, virtual reality has been around for a long time. However, many advocates believe that its time is coming and it has the potential to transform many aspects of how students experience learning. Virtual reality (VR) is typically defined as a computer-generated experience that immerses participants in what feels like reality. It has the potential to generate the experience of being in any place or circumstance in the world and beyond, without the expense and risk of being there. Students can travel under the ocean, scale the most rugged mountains, or experience the inside of the digestive system. While education-focused content for VR systems has lagged, change may be coming. Many experts believe this trend may be about to accelerate. Recent research using VR in the development of skills in the business world has shown significant impacts on learning. For example, a recent study by PwC Labs, a developer and provider of integrated technology for business, demonstrated dramatic learning results. Participants in VR simulation-based training learned at a rate four times faster than classroom-based learners. Meanwhile, lessons lasted a mere twenty minutes versus the hour-long lessons common in traditional settings. Additionally, the study showed learning retention rates exceeding traditional training approaches by more than 75%! Meanwhile, investments in global eLearning are anticipated to grow from $185.26 billion in 2020 to $388.23 billion in 2026. Of course, investments in eLearning, including VR, will lag in the education market since the immediate return on investment is not as great as in the industrial learning world. Nevertheless, the investment opportunity present in the post-COVID-19 education market will likely not be ignored for long, especially if the VR learning impact can be replicated in the K-12 and higher education environment. The pandemic has increased educator awareness of technology’s potential to support learning. However, to date, technology in education has largely been confined to delivering instruction in much the way it was presented without technology. Consequently, the impact has been uneven at best. What might we discover if we were to set aside the traditional instruction-driven learning model and ask how best to stimulate and nurture learning in our students? Might we discover new learning paths and strategies to build the knowledge and skills our students need to acquire? What potential might VR offer to assist our efforts? It seems that at the very least, we need to learn as much as we can about the nature and potential of VR and other forms of eLearning to support our young people. We need to avoid the trap of concluding that the often clumsy and halting efforts at virtual learning from the pandemic are indicative of what is possible. In his book Disrupting Class more than a decade ago, Clayton Christensen cautioned that almost all transformative innovations begin on the fringes of practice and are usually not very good. However, over time they become more stable, more impactful, and easier to manage. Eventually the innovation proves itself and becomes the dominant approach. It is worth considering whether virtual reality may have the pervasive impact on our profession and practices that it is beginning to demonstrate in a business environment. Now is a good time to look beyond the challenges of the past two years and learn all we can about the potential of eLearning to transform the experience of our learners. It could be an amazing adventure! The Research: Kern, M. A. (n.d.). How the metaverse can supercharge corporate skills training. Agadir-Group. https://agadir-group.com/how-the-metaverse-can-supercharge-corporate-skills-training/ PwC. (n.d.). How virtual reality is redefining soft skills training. https://www.pwc.com/us/en/tech-effect/emerging-tech/virtual-reality-study.html

June 27, 2022

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