Permission Granted #Reflection

Photo by Paul MARSAN on Unsplash

This past week we had the opportunity to speak with Dr. Becker about her research and experience with Makerspaces. Dr. Becker summarizes her research in an Education Canada Live podcast and explains more about her experiences with Makerspaces in the article Make to Learn: Can Makerspaces Be More Than a Fad in Education?  Another important resource this week was an article written by Mitchel Resnick titled All I really need to know (about creative thinking) I learned (by studying how children learn) in kindergarten. While learning about Makerspaces this week I was struck with the similarities between Makerspaces, Design Thinking, Inquiry-based learning and Critical Thinking.

Comparing Makerspaces, Desing Thinking, Inquiry-based learning and Critical Thinking

Makerspace for education suggests that makerspaces allow for students to move beyond consumption to creation by presenting

readily-available materials  that can act as a provocation for inquiry, as well as modern technology and items to invent with

The Interaction Design Foundation describes the process of design thinking as a progression from empathizing to defining to ideating to prototyping and finally to testing (See my blog post “Design Thinking for Educators” for more information on design thinking). Inquiry-based learning focuses on investigation of an open question or problem using evidence-based reasoning and creative problem solving. As stated in All about inquiry-based learning: definition, benefits and strategies, inquiry requires that students move beyond general curiosity into the realms of critical thinking and understanding. Finally, Dr. Resnick describes the process of critical thinking as a process requiring 5 key elements: imagining, creating, playing, sharing and reflecting.

The common thread through all of these education strategies, concepts and skills is critical thinking. As a trained AVID teacher, I have built my teaching practice upon the goals of encouraging and facilitating critical thinking in my students. I personally use Costa’s levels of thinking with my students (depicted on the left), however Bloom’s taxonomy is another excellent resource for teaching critical thinking. As I continue learning and conducting research in pursuit of my masters degree in education, I am struck with how most, if not all, of the teaching strategies and new fads in education are just Bloom’s or Costa’s levels of question and thinking re-arranged and re-introduced within specific contexts. I can’t help but think it is more time-efficient and relevant to learn one process that covers everything rather than learning a handful or more variations that have the same foundation.

Encouragement and Permission

I believe two important pieces are often missing when trying to teach critical thinking: encouragement and permission. When I first started to ask my students to progress from first level thinking (gathering) to second and third level thinking (processing and applying) it was not very fruitful. It was not until I was explicit in teaching how to be a higher level thinker, consistent in my expectation to be a higher level thinker, and confident enough to release my own insecurities of being the ‘expert’ that my students began cultivating the skills necessary to be critical thinkers. Once these three obstacles were tackled, I could encourage my students to pursue their own unique thoughts and ideas and they could become the expert in the room.

It didn’t happen overnight, and it didn’t happen without extensive planning for guiding student learning, but I have found that encouraging students and giving them permission to follow their own interests, try something new, and extend their learning have been incredibly rewarding.

A great example among teachers came up this week in a staff meeting while discussing the move to online learning during the Covid-19 epidemic.  We have a very dedicated and passionate staff, and it has been a difficult week for many as districts try to clarify the expectations for teachers and for students. One teacher in particular was distraught about how we would remain fair and equitable with assessing the learning outcomes for students. Admin was unable to provide an answer to her questions, and then our vice principal did something quite profound. She admitted she did not have any answers as of yet, encouraged our staff that we are doing a great job, and gave us permission to not follow a set of guidelines or rules for the moment. This teacher (and I’m sure many others) has taken great pride in excelling at her job under regular circumstances and wanted a similar set of criteria to meet under these unique circumstances.  I am so thankful that we are being given the freedom to connect, encourage, teach, and assess our students as we see fit.  I believe what we will see are incredible learning opportunities for teachers and students that would not have otherwise occurred.  We are being encouraged to be creative, and by doing so we can learn and create more meaningful interactions and learning opportunities with our students. In essence, we are being encouraged to be critical thinkers and we are being given permission to make mistakes. Certainly, we will all make mistakes along the way, however we have learned from many of the ‘greats’ before us that failures are the pathway to success. Without encouragement and permission to fail, we will never reach our potential.

I’ve missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. Twenty-six times, I’ve been trusted to take the game-winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.

-Michael Jordan

Encouragement and permission are necessary to create the learning environment necessary to try new things and to, inevitable, fail along the way. It was quite a few years ago that I watched the TED talk “Kids can teach themselves” by Sugata Mitra but it has made a lasting impression on my teaching practice. The idea that students need a cheerleader has guided my teaching practice ever since. Encouragement and permission to try (and fail) are not enough on their own, but when enriched with critical thinking strategies and guided by dedicated teaching professionals students can become masters of inquiry, innovative design thinkers, and confident learners.