The Master Teacher Blog

In a world of complexity, diversity, and conflict, we need every tool available to navigate our relationships, find our way through conflict, and understand the people with whom we interact. Fortunately, there is a long-standing, “tried and true,” dependable tool available to us; yet it is often ignored or rejected as too threatening to closely held assumptions, judgments, and biases.

That tool is perspective-taking. Perspective-taking is the ability to see things from other viewpoints, and it can help us to infer or otherwise understand another person’s feelings, thoughts, and views without having experienced them. With perspective-taking, we can accept that a person’s experiences, biases, and expectations may lead them to see situations differently.

Perspective-taking is present at some level in most effective communications and interactions. It is a precursor to empathy; before we can understand and relate to another person’s experiences and emotions, we need to be able to see from their viewpoint. When we understand another person’s perspective, what they are thinking and feeling, we are better able to relate to them and understand their needs. In the words of the late Steven Covey, “Seek first to understand, then to be understood.”

We might think about perspective-taking as having three forms. Perceptual/visual perspective-taking involves inferences about how another person sees, hears, perceives from their physical location. This is the lowest level of perspective-taking and develops earliest in children.  Conceptual/cognitive perspective-taking involves recognizing another person’s point of view, desire, attitude, and intentions. While the importance and utility of this type of perspective-taking seems obvious, its absence is at the heart of much of the conflict we experience in the world today. The third type, affective/social sensitivity perspective-taking, relates to identifying and understanding the feelings of others. This form of perspective-taking can be the most challenging and time consuming. It requires greater patience and understanding than the other forms, but it is also the most powerful form as it features empathy and engagement and often leads to greater levels of caring and deeper commitment.

While perspective-taking at its simplest level is teachable to early elementary school children, it is an important social skill for people of all ages. In fact, it may be more important today than at any time in recent history. Consider these benefits of perspective-taking:

• Improved communication and reduced misunderstanding. Clarity is the starting point for mutual understanding and trust building.
• Broader insight into how others view a situation or issue. It is important to recognize that there are multiple ways to view almost anything in life.
• Reduced bias, faulty assumptions, and misjudgment. Destructive conflict almost always has at its core assumptions, judgments, and biases that confuse and mask what is important and worth resolving.
• Revelation of mutual and conflicting interests to be considered and resolved. As we gain an understanding of how others view issues and situations, we are better able recognize areas of agreement as well as clarify where interests and motives may diverge. Consequently, we can focus on real issues and work toward worthy solutions.
• Greater empathy. Until we know how others view their circumstances, we are not in the position to accept, relate to, care for, or support them.
• Improved self-awareness. Learning how others view issues and circumstances can help us to better understand, evaluate, and appreciate our own perspective.

So, what are some strategies we can use to teach students to practice perspective-taking? Here are some places to start:

• Have students look at a picture of a person’s face and predict at least two thoughts the person may be having. Ask students to identify clues they used to guess the thoughts they propose. Discuss with students how observation can lead us to speculate but how knowing and understanding requires engagement. Speculating about what a person is thinking is better than nothing, but asking, listening, and seeking clarity is far more effective.
• Present students with a current issue or topic of disagreement. Follow with open-ended questions: How might there be variance in how someone in this circumstance sees or feels about what is happening? Why might there be more than one explanation for how people will react to an experience? What accounts for your perspective, and how might someone else see it differently?
• Engage students with case studies featuring conflict from history or lived experience. Coach students as they search for evidence of the absence of perspective-taking and how its presence might have led to the avoidance of conflict and tragedy.
• Model perspective-taking in real time. For example, we might seize the opportunity when a student or students are struggling to grasp another’s point of view. We might coach with questions such as: Why would they do/say that? How might they see the situation differently than you? What might they know that would help you to understand their behavior? What might you know that would help to resolve the situation?
• Coach perspective-taking when conflicts occur. Stop the action and ask, “What do you think the other person might be thinking/feeling? How could you find out? How might what you learn shift your thinking?”
• Invite students to identify misunderstandings and conflicts they have experienced and coach them to analyze how engaging in perspective-taking might have helped to avoid or mitigate the situation.

Perspective-taking may not be a familiar term, but it is an important social skill for our students to learn and practice. Taking time to teach and reinforce perspective-taking can reduce the number and intensity of conflicts in our classes while preparing students for a world in which understanding the perspectives of others is a “must-have” competency.

We want others to see us as wise and knowledgeable people. We aspire to have students, colleagues, and other people in our lives look to us for information and advice. Being a source of knowledge and wisdom is a worthy personal and professional life goal.

While knowledge and wisdom are not the same, they are related in important ways. Knowledge involves the accumulation, possession, and sharing of useful information. Wisdom extends beyond knowledge to include implications, nuance, context, and meaning. Knowledge demonstrates what we know. Wisdom often exposes what we may miss or have yet to learn. Knowledge is often temporal and may even lose its value over time. Wisdom becomes even more valuable and sought after as time passes.

In our personal and professional lives, we also want to be around and learn from wise people. In times of complexity, uncertainty, and unpredictability, wisdom can be a precious commodity. The question is, “How can we become wise?”

We have been trained in knowledge-building processes and have honed our practice over time. However, we may have given less thought to how to build wisdom. The good news is that we do not necessarily have to develop a new set of skills. In fact, wisdom is more likely to come from thoughtfully and consistently practicing familiar strategies and behaviors than building a new skillset. Consider these seven strategies as places to start:

• Practice deep listening. People often tell us much more than what they intend to convey in their words. What is not said may be as important as what is spoken, and what is repeated can signal what is most meaningful or concerning to the speaker. Notice nonverbal behaviors. When behavior and words are not aligned, there is more to explore and learn.
• Be curious. Ask meaningful questions. Questions are among the most powerful tools for uncovering hidden meaning, overlooked elements, and unconsidered opportunities. Consider the “why” and “why not” of challenges, confusion, and conundrums. Nudge yourself and others to think beyond what “should be” to consider what “could be.”
• Look for themes and patterns. When we step back and observe with distance, we can often see what is not visible up close. As we consider situations from other perspectives, we often discover what is driving the energy and motivation in the situation. Emerging themes and patterns can help us to develop insights to investigate and possibilities to pursue.
• Find time to reflect. Reflection is one of the most effective ways to engage in sense-making, insight-building, intentional learning. It is said that wisdom is the product of reflective alchemy. Reflection helps us to interpret what we have experienced, place it in a context, and focus our learning.
• Seek advice. Not all advice we receive is useful. However, having access to the perspectives of others gives us choices, allows us to evaluate alternatives, and presents opportunities for us to tap experiences beyond our own.
• Be coached. The best coaches focus on helping us to become the best we can be. They ask questions that lead us to question and reconsider. They help us to test our assumptions and examine our mental models.
• Find a mentor. Mentors play a slightly different role than coaches. Mentors are more likely to share their experiences and offer insights based on the lessons they have learned. Their contributions, like advice, offer alternatives to consider and can help us to avoid unnecessary mistakes and missteps, while providing underlying insights, understanding, and context for our consideration.   

Without question, knowledge and wisdom are important elements to pursue and develop. Knowledge gives us access to useful information. Wisdom tells us how to make sense of it. Or, as Jimi Hendrix puts it, “Knowledge speaks, but wisdom listens.”

Students rarely achieve beyond what they believe is attainable. Of course, perceptions about attainability are formed by multiple factors. Past performance with similar challenges, family expectations and history, relatively safe and supportive learning environments, and relationships with the teacher are among the most influential factors.

Many students are fortunate to come from families with high expectations and a history of academic success who instill success-building strategies and habits in their children. These habits and strategies have led these students to experience academic success and created expectations for future success. Through different means, other students have learned these as well as other skills and strategies that have led to success and are part of their approaches to learning. They expect to be challenged and to do well. Consequently, we do not have to invest significant time and effort in lifting their expectations and aspirations.

Unfortunately, many students do not have these advantages. They may not have a history of academic success. They may never have learned and practiced the skills and habits that could lift their performance and increase their ability to succeed in the face of significant challenges. As a result, they face at least two barriers. First, because they do not have a history of success, they may not believe success is possible. Second, they lack the learning tools necessary to lift their expectations and achieve at significantly higher levels.

Obviously, there are contextual factors we can influence. We can create a safe and supportive learning environment. We can hold high expectations for the achievement of our students and communicate our belief in their potential to succeed. We can also share our confidence and seek the support of families to lift expectations and provide encouragement and support when their children struggle.

We also need to consider the learning we are asking of students. Students need to see the value and utility of what they are learning. Content that students find interesting, skills that are important to them, and connections to the world beyond the classroom can motivate students to want to do better and be successful. There are also concrete steps we can take to help students build skills and lift their learning aspirations and expectations.

First, we must help students to see, experience, and believe that higher levels of achievement are possible. We can share examples of people with whom our students are familiar (and, ideally, whom they admire) who faced significant barriers and overcame difficult challenges to achieve unusual success. Beyond the success these people achieved, we need to share and discuss their journey, including challenges they faced, strategies they used to overcome barriers, and the roles of effort, persistence, and resilience.

Second, we can coach students to build a vision for what they might achieve. Without a sense for what could be and what they would like to have happen, little change is likely. At first, the vision might be modest and incremental. Regardless, it needs to be compelling to the student and worth working toward. There will be setbacks and temptations to abandon the vision, but without a vision there is no reason to invest.

Third, we can teach and coach students to build a plan of action. Starting where students are and identifying initial steps, commitments, skills, and strategies can create a sense of hope within the context of reality. For many students, creating a plan may be a new experience. In fact, they may not have solid models and examples to rely on, so we need to be ready to provide varying support, including explicit instruction, based on what students need.

Fourth, we need to encourage students to celebrate small wins and evidence of progress. To sustain commitment to their vision, students need to see connections between their effort and progress. Our feedback might focus on what actions and insights made a difference and led to that progress. If students fail to make a connection between effort and outcomes, they are not likely to persist. Our attention and encouragement as progress emerges can lead students to see even higher goals and deepen their commitment.

Fifth, we can coach students to become resilient. When students experience setbacks, we need to be ready to help them see the situation as an invitation to learn, not a judgement of their character or potential. Supporting students by giving them second chances and opportunities to revise and adjust their efforts can make a big difference. In the words of Winston Churchill, “Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.”

Sixth, as they experience higher levels of achievement, we can nudge students to continue to lift their aspirations and set even higher goals. No evidence is more credible for students than their own accomplishments, especially when they know they have been earned. Our goal is to have students build momentum that can carry them forward to achieve more than they expect and that leads them to believe in themselves and their ability to succeed.

Unless students believe they can do better, they have little reason to invest and persist when they struggle. However, by helping students to set a vision, even if it is a modest one, we can coach them to build the attitudes, skills, and habits that can lead to improvement and eventual success.

We know that feedback is among the most powerful learning supports we can offer to students. However, students are often reluctant (even resistant) to feedback, as it can feel like criticism, and implementing what they are told may seem as though it is beyond their skills and current capacity.

Consequently, we need to be thoughtful as we plan and deliver feedback to learners. Researchers advise that effective feedback must include five key elements; it must be timely, specific, actionable, objective, and goal focused. Unless feedback comes soon after a learning attempt, students can neglect to do anything with it or forget it entirely. Students also need to know exactly what behavior or actions we are addressing, and they need be able to take meaningful action in response. Effective feedback needs to be free of judgment. Finally, when our feedback is connected to a goal that is meaningful to the student, it is more likely to be accepted and acted on.

Of course, our students themselves play an important role in determining whether the feedback we offer is implemented in a meaningful way. The more often students receive quality feedback, the more open they often are to receiving it. However, we can move this process to the next level by helping students develop mindsets that prepare them to receive and act on feedback.

We might share with students that the highest performers in any profession use feedback to stay at an elite level. For example, the best athletes use feedback to gain an edge on their competition. Accomplished musicians and other artists seek feedback to constantly improve their performance. Successful companies also regularly seek feedback from customers to ensure that their products and services are the best they can be.

However, each of these consumers of feedback have important attitudes or mindsets about feedback that makes what they hear useful and helps them to improve. While the mindsets that high performers have regarding feedback might be slightly different, here are five feedback-leveraging mindsets that we can teach to and coach in our students.

I know that feedback is about my learning; it is not a judgment of me. One of the most challenging aspects of receiving feedback is that it can feel like commentary or criticism about who we are. We need to continually reinforce for students that feedback is intended to help them be successful. We need to be careful to always focus our feedback on the actions or behavior of students, not on their character, personality, or identity.

I can improve regardless of my current performance. Hope and confidence are key success drivers when learning is challenging. This perspective relates to what is called a growth mindset. We can teach students and share research showing that intelligence is not assigned at birth and is not unchangeable, but rather, with practice, effort, and commitment, anyone can improve. Equally important, the more we work to improve, the more progress we see.

I control the strategies and conditions necessary for improving. Learning strategies are key to whether students can effectively use the feedback we offer. We empower learning when we teach students strategies such as retrieval practice, interleaving, concept maps, deliberate and distributed practice, self-testing, and others. The more learning strategies students can tap to support their learning, the better able they are to utilize the feedback they receive.

I use feedback to connect my efforts to my goals. Student goal setting is a powerful tool for helping students to focus their attention and efforts, monitor their progress, and build their confidence. When we connect our feedback to the goals students have set and are working toward, we make their learning more efficient and support them to become increasingly independent learners.

I am empowered to ask questions about and clarify feedback I receive. Students are often reluctant to follow up and ask questions to gain a clear understanding of the feedback they receive. Yet, as students move beyond listening and begin to engage in the content and implications of feedback, they understand more deeply and take greater ownership of their actions. Rarely, if ever, should we provide feedback that is not followed by opportunities for questions and discussion.

Feedback is a powerful learning tool, but students must learn how to think about and use it in order for that feedback to deliver on its potential. These five mindsets are good places to start that process.

What if investing less than five minutes per day could change our outlook, help us to become more optimistic, and make us feel better about ourselves? And what if this same set of activities could also leave others with whom we interact wanting to be around and spend more time with us? It may seem fantastical, but it might be easier than we assume. 

The power behind this shift resides in two fundamental truths. First, we tend to find what we look for. When we seek and expect to find good in others, we see more of it. Discovering more good leads us to being more positive and optimistic. Second, when we share with others what we notice about the positive behaviors and characteristics they demonstrate and the difference they make, they feel better about themselves and us. The more that we notice the good around us, the better we feel. The more we share with others the good they bring, the better they feel.  

The good news is that we do not have to allocate significant new time or add demanding tasks to our daily routines to experience such a shift. What is important is where we focus and what we prioritize. We need to look for specific actions, interactions, and impacts to collect and share. In fact, noticing as few as two or three things a day and sharing our observations with others is enough to get started.  

How we share our observations also matters. Mentioning what we notice is good, but for real impact and staying power, we need to spend at least twenty seconds adding details, examples, and context, and describing their impact. In fact, the twenty seconds we spend acknowledging a person’s strengths and impact can make their day or week—and maybe even shift the direction of their life. 

So, what should we look for? Here are five areas to begin: 

• Note someone’s area of strength and tell them. Everyone has strengths, including some of which we may not even be conscious. Hearing about them—and how they impact others—matters. Even when someone notices and calls attention to what we already consider our strengths, that makes us feel good, and we may be inspired to invest even more.  
• Look for someone’s contribution and mention it. Every day, people do things that make life and work better for others. The action may be something with a high profile, or it may be barely noticed. Regardless, our world works best when people are willing to act in ways that benefit others. Having these behaviors noticed can make practicing them feel more significant and often encourages even more contributions. 
• Listen for a good question and reinforce it. Schools are places where questions abound. Of course, not all questions lead to inquiry and insight and initiate action. When we hear a good question, regardless of the status of the source, we need to treasure it. We also do well to share our gratitude for the question, why we believe it to be important, and where it might lead. Our reinforcement can provide their reinforcement to build the courage to ask even more important questions.  
• Watch for a unique insight and capture it. Like good questions, insights are not always easily recognized. Our attention and support might be the stimulus needed for someone to continue to examine important challenges and uncover important knowledge.  
• Reflect on what we appreciate in others and share it. Even during trying times, there are people around us whose care, support, and general presence we appreciate. However, we may not take the time to tell these people what they mean to us and why. Hearing that they are valued and make a difference can easily make their day and more.  

We may be surprised to find that others are often not conscious of the power of their actions and the difference they make. Our willingness to observe and share the impact they have costs us little beyond our attention and a few minutes, if even that, of our time. However, our pointing out that difference lifts its significance and amplifies its impact. Best of all, we will have made the lives of others better while also enriching ours. 

Talent is an often-overrated contributor to success. In fact, talent alone is not at all predictive of success. It can actually distract from and undermine success unless it is supported by other complimentary behaviors.

Certainly, talent can be a significant contributor to success, but assurance of success resides in the supportive behaviors, not in the presence of talent alone. Talent can be nice to have, to be sure, but it is not the most important element in achieving long-term success. The truth is that significant, long-term success can as easily be achieved without a special talent as it can be when talent is present.

Unfortunately, our excessive valuing of talent often ignores the behaviors that hold the greatest potential to drive success. The result is that people who believe they have talent can become overly dependent on their talent—to the exclusion of the success drivers that really matter. At the same time, people who do not necessarily see themselves as talented often lower their aspirations and expect not to enjoy significant success.

Our challenge is to teach students—regardless of whether they see themselves as talented—to practice the key behaviors that can generate success. In short, these behaviors can be practiced by almost anyone who wants to succeed regardless of their level of talent. Here are seven success-generating behaviors that we can teach to our students and coach them to practice:

First, listen carefully. While listening is a skill that is often taken for granted, people who practice deep listening set themselves apart. They hear more, understand more, and can respond with greater sensitivity and accuracy than most casual listeners. Listening is a skill and a habit, but it does not require special talent.

Second, be curious. Curiosity acts much like a radar to scan the environment. Curious people are often the first to notice emerging changes and issues. They ask questions that reveal important and useful information, and they are among the first to engage the unknown.

Third, be enthusiastic. Enthusiastic people are generally given encouragement, support, and opportunities not offered to reluctant or disinterested people. The absence of whining and complaining make enthusiastic people easier to work with and more desirable as partners and co-workers.

Fourth, be dependable. Keeping one’s word matters. Those who show up on time and when needed are valuable team members and co-workers. They engender the confidence of others. Dependable people often are given opportunities and responsibilities not offered to more talented, but less responsible individuals.

Fifth, focus on solutions. It is said that anyone can point out a problem. Those who are willing to face and solve problems are far more valuable to any team or organization. Understanding a problem is important, but solutions add value.

Sixth, always give your best effort. Perfection is rarely possible, but a habit of always doing one’s best paves the path to success. Mistakes are inevitable, but when they occur as the result of good effort, they are not cause for shame. Rather, they represent a starting place for new learning.

Seventh, appreciate others. Significant, lasting success is almost never achieved in isolation. Recognizing the efforts and contributions of others and sharing appreciation build teams, strengthen relationships, and demonstrate good character.

When students consistently practice these behaviors, regardless of whether they have a special talent, their path to success becomes clearer and their opportunities grow. Equally important, as students engage in these behaviors, they are also likely to discover special talents they did not realize they possess.

“God, grant me patience, and give it to me right now!” This statement may capture our sentiment in response to dozens of situations we face. This is a time of year when our patience can grow thin. We feel the need to move learning along, but not every student may be ready. Or we may be dealing with off-task and low-commitment behaviors that we allow to accelerate our frustration.  

When students struggle and fail to make the progress we expect, we can become impatient and press harder in response. Yet, our lack of patience often makes the situation worse. Students become anxious and unable to think clearly and work efficiently. The result can be a descending cycle of frustration and emotional upset, leading to even less learning.  

Admittedly, correcting some situations may require more than patience, but without it, progress is likely to be slow and other efforts to correct the situation will suffer. Our patience can offer reassurance and space so that our instruction, coaching, and encouragement can be effective. 

Equally important, increasing our patience can improve our mood, deepen our empathy, and strengthen our relationships. Increased patience makes us better collaborators and coworkers. Patience can also help us to be more successful in reaching goals and achieving long-term career success.  

However, patience is not just a matter of deciding to be patient. While some people have a natural tendency to be more patient, patience is a skill that can be developed and strengthened with strategy and practice. Of course, we also need to be patient with ourselves as we work to strengthen and expand our ability to listen, focus, and encourage our students and their learning. If patience is something we want to build, here are seven actions worth considering: 

• Practice pausing. The space between what happens and how we choose to respond is the door to practicing patience. The good news is that we don’t have to pause long. We used to think that we needed to count to ten in order to allow ourselves time to get hold of our emotions and craft a productive response. However, experts say that if we give ourselves just two seconds, our “gut” response will pass, and we will be able to avoid an emotional eruption. 
• Slow down. Practicing patience is most difficult when we are in a hurry. Rather than allow ourselves to feel rushed, we can consciously let go of our urgency and slow our thinking. Often, the simple act of slowing down allows us to better understand what is happening and how we are reacting. It can also help us to see options and opportunities that we otherwise are likely to miss.  
• Focus on breathing. Focusing on our breathing and choosing to slow the pace and deepen our breaths can break the tension and frustration we feel and allow us to think and make better decisions about what we need to do next.  
• Commit to listening. Listening is among the most powerful strategies for building patience. It shifts our focus from what we are feeling and what we want to do to giving our attention to someone else. When we are really listening, we also often gain new information about the other person and situation. Listening can dispel faulty assumptions, inform our understanding, and keep us from saying or doing things in our frustration that we later regret.  
• Be present. When we focus on what is happening and do not allow our attention to be elsewhere, we are more likely to pick up signals and clues that can help us to better understand the situation and what is needed. On the other hand, when we are preoccupied by what should be happening or needs to happen next, we can find it difficult to be patient and understanding.   
• Identify triggers. There are types of incidents, certain circumstances, or even people who are more likely to try our patience. We can keep track of situations in which we struggle most and search for patterns that may point to common sources of our frustration. Knowing the times, conditions, and people that can lead us to struggle can offer useful insights about where to place our efforts in circumstances when we need to prepare to be patient.  
• Practice acceptance. Being willing to accept circumstances as they are and not allow them to drive our impatience may be the most difficult strategy for practicing patience, especially if we have a strong desire to control. Yet, becoming impatient with things over which we have no control is a waste of energy. When we feel our impatience begin to grow, we can ask ourselves, “Is this something I can control or change?” If not, we might choose to accept the situation and let it go or find something else to focus on that will not lead to frustration and impatience. 

Growing our patience offers multiple benefits for us and others in our lives. When we free ourselves from frequent impatience, we recapture energy that we can allocate to other, more productive endeavors. Meanwhile, those around us are subjected to less tension and gain a more patient teacher, colleague, friend, or family member.  

When students struggle, it can be tempting to lower our expectations, especially when our thinking is that doing so will increase their opportunities for success. However, the opposite is true—expensively so. When we lower our expectations for the quality of work and learning students will produce, we risk setting in motion consequences that can be life limiting.  

While there are times and circumstances when lowering expectations might be contemplated for any type of student, multiple research studies have shown that lowering expectations disproportionately affects our most vulnerable students. The adjustment in expectations may be well intended. We may believe that it is best for students not to feel pushed and pressed to do work that is challenging or difficult for them, especially if they come from challenging life circumstances or have a history of struggle with academic learning.  

We might even believe that focusing on building strong relationships with students will lead to greater learning success than having high expectations for them. However, students need more than our warmth and caring. They also need to be exposed to interesting work, meaningful challenges, and opportunities to build competence and confidence in their learning. It is the right balance between high expectations and high levels of caring that lead to learning success.  

Importantly, the cost of lowering expectations can take many forms. Some costs are associated with the way in which students will come to view themselves. Other costs can be seen in skills not developed and competencies not gained. Still others can be found in negative responses to the experiences to which students are exposed. And some of the most expensive consequences are found in the limits and sacrifices students will face if they leave us not having learned what will be necessary for future success. Let’s consider five ways in which lowering expectations can be a costly decision.  

When we lower our expectations, students lower their expectations. In fact, our lowered expectations risk communicating to students that we not only do not expect high level work from them, but we also believe that they are not capable of meeting high expectations. This is a dangerous message. The most difficult student to teach is the student who believes they cannot learn. We cannot afford to communicate this message or otherwise contribute to such a perception.  

When we lower our expectations, we deprive students of opportunities to face and overcome difficult challenges, persevere, and build resilience. Yet, these are key life skills students need to develop for success in life. Further, while these challenges can be uncomfortable during the times when students face them, once successfully met, they can be sources of price and new confidence.  

When we lower our expectations, we deprive students of opportunities to develop critical-thinking skills and employ creativity to solve novel problems. Low expectations for learning often mean that the teacher does most of the thinking, creating, and problem solving. Yet, these activities are what can make learning interesting, meaningful, and challenging enough to invest in.  

When we lower our expectations, we are more likely to expose students to superficial and uninteresting content. We risk diverting students from learning with depth and full understanding. Absent useful application, meaningful purpose, and engaging activities, students learn and recall even less.  

When we lower our expectations, we risk disqualifying students from pursuing highly skilled, learning-dependent life and work roles. We dramatically increase the likelihood that they will struggle to find work for which they will qualify and which will provide adequate compensation to support them and their family.  

How can we communicate high expectations for our students? Here are five actions to consider:  

• Consistently present students with challenges at the leading edge of their learning and development. Students need to consistently feel our nudge for them to struggle and grow. 
• Take extra time to establish the purpose, implications, and details of concepts and skills. Focus on generating deeper understanding rather than limiting attention to the steps and sequence of completing an assignment or finishing a task.  
• Focus on progress. Reaching high standards may take time and multiple learning attempts. Success is often the result of processes, practices, and purposeful effort. These are the building blocks for our attention. 
• Frame coaching language around the inevitability of success. We might talk with students about “when” they succeed, not “if” they succeed.  
• Intervene quickly when students begin to drift and underperform. We need to approach that behavior as an aberration that needs attention rather than as a reflection of the student’s potential.  

Admittedly, holding high expectations for our students can be challenging. However, students rarely have the maturity and wisdom to consistently exceed our expectations. In many ways, the expectations we set and hold become the ceiling for performance and possibility for our students. We need to be certain that our expectations are high enough to protect their future. 

It goes without saying that we want our students to be motivated, take ownership of their learning, and practice persistence. Of course, we also want them to build knowledge and grow wisdom. However, these important elements of high-level learning do not usually happen by chance; instead, they emerge through the engagement of underlying elements that must be tapped and nurtured through the design of learning experiences, our instruction, and student responses.  

Unfortunately, in our desire to have students demonstrate these key learning elements, we can overlook the elements that lead to their development. Of course, some students will make important connections and build key skills and dispositions on their own, but it is a mistake to assume that most or all students will accomplish this task independently. Most students need our intentional focus and measured support to build the learning bridges they need to succeed.  

By designing learning experiences focused on underlying or driving elements, we can increase the likelihood that students will make connections and build the skills we seek for them. Here are five outcome examples and contributing drivers on which we can build: 

• Want ownership? Offer choice. The process of making a choice implies favoring one approach, activity, or object over others. As a result, we form a relationship with the object of the choice. When students are given meaningful choices in what and how they learn, they naturally take greater ownership of the result.  

Learning design: We might allow students to decide how they will approach a learning challenge, what materials they will use, and how they will demonstrate or document their learning.  

• Want students to gain knowledge? Encourage curiosity. Curiosity is how we learn much about life and the world around us. When what we learn is in response to something about which we are curious, we are also more likely to invest in learning and we are more likely to retain and use our new knowledge. 

Learning design: Students are naturally curious, but they may not initially be curious about what we want them to learn. However, we can stimulate curiosity by designing relevant questions that students find compelling, sharing a story or experience that students find engaging, demonstrating a useful application, or presenting a dilemma or mystery that students find difficult to resist.  

• Want to build wisdom? Support reflection. Memorization and repetition can increase recall, but wisdom requires a deeper process. When we reflect on an experience or learning activity, new insights and understanding emerge. When we connect new learning to what we already know, we are more likely to understand its significance, appreciate its value, and can decide where and how to apply it in life. 

Learning design: When we want students to develop a deep understanding or achieve new insights regarding what they know or have learned, we can have them pause and reflect. We might invite students to think about the significance of what they have learned and how it might inform the way they think about a circumstance or challenge. We can buttress their reflection by providing open-ended questions and encouraging students to ask their own questions, followed by discussion and analysis.  

• Want students to be motivated? Tap their interests. Interest takes various forms. It may emerge from a student’s natural inclinations, or it may reflect a student’s perception of utility or a useful purpose. Motivation is a willingness to invest energy and attention in response to interest. Engagement follows when motivation transitions into action. 

Learning design: We can begin new learning activities by tapping elements or experiences in which students are already interested. For example, we might draw on student interest in sports, technology, pop culture, or some other topic with which students already have a positive connection. We also might plan an activity or pose a question that will stimulate students to seek new knowledge or skills. Of course, we can build interest through extrinsic incentives or even threats of consequences for a lack of investment, but the impact will likely be temporary. 

• Want more persistence? Have students set goals. When we identify a goal, we create a focus for our efforts. Meaningful goals function as magnets for attention, energy, and effort. The presence of goals also supports students to measure their progress and achievement. When students focus on accomplishment of the goals they themselves set and own, they also become more persistent in their pursuit and more resilient in the face of challenges and setbacks. 

Learning design: Students may be unfamiliar and inexperienced with goal setting related to academic learning. They are more likely to have experience with learning goals that others have set for them. To stimulate and model goal setting, we might share with students how we set goals for our instruction or our own learning. We can also tap student goal-setting experiences in other areas of life such as athletics, the arts, video games, or earning money. The key is for students to set goals that are meaningful, challenging, achievable, and owned by them. We can provide support by providing feedback, coaching, and sharing evidence of progress. 

Building knowledge and wisdom, stimulating curiosity and interest, and nurturing ownership and goal-setting skills are key elements in our work with students. However, these outcomes are dependent on our attention to—and leveraging of—the underlying drivers that lead to their attainment.