VULNERABILITY

I identify vulnerability as an important element in many of my training and consulting settings.

vul·ner·a·ble   [vuhl-ner-uh-buhl]

adjective

1. capable of or susceptible to being wounded or hurt,  

2. open to moral attack, criticism, temptation,  

3.  open to assault; difficult to defend: .

In coaching training I describe that much more teacher growth is likely to occur in coaching and mentoring sessions than in evaluation or supervision. The reason is that a teacher will make him/herself more vulnerable in a coaching or mentoring setting. That vulnerability creates the opportunity to change and grow….defensiveness is low.

Similarly, in the classroom, teachers work to create an environment where students are comfortable being vulnerable. When a student will share his thinking or idea without certainty of correctness, leaning advances….the student is open to criticism.

When working with professional learning communities, I describe that PLCs move from meetings of individuals to franchises to teams as they develop trust and shared responsibility for students. In order for the trust to develop some members need to be vulnerable…. sharing a concern, an example of where they are not getting the student response or success that they desire. They are susceptible to being seen as ineffective.

This week I was working with state department of education leaders who were exploring ways for departments, who have previously functioned more independently, to become a team with a common focus on school improvement and student achievement. I shared work from Margaret Wheatley identifying the need to focus on the flow of information within an organization, the importance of rich and diverse relationships, and a common vision.

These leaders formed groups that identified what behaviors they would need to consciously practice in order to bring about an organizational culture that would produce the desired teamwork. Their lists included phrases like collaboration, improved communication, sharing, exploring options, etc. As I studied the lists I realized an underlying element that was required was vulnerability.

These department leaders would need to risk being open to each other, sharing information and resources, supporting others before the trust formed. Someone must be vulnerable for trust to develop.

David Peck writing in The Recovering Leader suggests that vulnerability is the job of leaders:

Leadership requires the courage to make yourself vulnerable before others you want to inspire or guide, and anyone with whom you intend to create something of lasting value. When you act authentically with those who are – or may be – important to you, they will reciprocate, and be moved to do their best work.

The greatest collaborations are based on shared vulnerability.

Teachers who are vulnerable with their students set the stage for student risk taking and learning. School leaders need to model the same for staff.

When we were children, we used to think that when we were grown-up we would no longer be vulnerable. But to grow up is to accept vulnerability. To be alive is to be vulnerable. - Madeleine L'Engle

Happy New Year to All!
I’ll share more pondering in 2012

MULTIPLIERS AND DIMINISHERS

Attending and presenting at the recent Learningforward Conference in Anaheim, CA, I had the good fortune to hear a keynote by Liz Wiseman the author of Multipliers: How the Best Leaders Make Everyone Smarter (Harper Business June, 2010 )

Along with Greg McKeown, Wiseman studied 150 leaders and identified two categories:

Multipliers: These are the leaders who inspire others to stretch themselves to deliver results that surpass expectations. They use their intelligence to amplify the smarts and capabilities of the people around them. When these leaders walk into a room they generate participation… ideas flow and problems get solved.

Diminishers: These leaders drain intelligence, energy, and capability from the people around them and always need to be the smartest person in the room. These are the idea killers, the energy sappers, they diminish talent and commitment.

Using five disciplines, which Wiseman and McKeown suggest are based on skills that we can all develop, multipliers generate twice the capabilities of their team than do diminishers.

1. The Talent Magnet: Attracts and deploys talent at its highest point of contribution.
2. The Liberator: Creates a climate of safety and ambition that both invites and demands people’s best thinking and work.
3. The Challenger: Defines an opportunity that causes people to stretch.
4. The Debate Maker: Drives sound decisions through rigorous debate.
5. The Investor: Delivers extraordinary results again and again without direct management.

Let’s explore just two of these disciplines as they apply to teachers and instructional leaders and coaches: Liberator and Challenger

In Wiseman’s presentation she discussed two teachers as examples of leaders who were multipliers. They maximized the capabilities of their students.

Liberators create an intense environment that requires students’ best. Thinking of these classrooms, I envision lots of problem based  approaches… especially REAL problems…often problems that the students have identified as worth solving. As a Challenger this multiplier teacher limits his or her help to just the right touch that keeps a student struggling but not giving up.

The diminisher teacher is likely creating a tense environment…perhaps trying to motivate effort more with grades and test. Telling students what they need to know or do to be successful. These teachers are unlikely to learn from or with their students.

Being a multiplier is a great goal for instructional coaches. Too often teachers perceive a coach as one who should have the solution to the teacher’s problems or the person who will take the student, fix him, and bring him back. If coaches take the role of problem- solver, they will become diminishers.  Wiseman suggests that diminishers give directions that feature “how much they know” (a Know-It-All)…a big mistake for coaches.

 She suggests that multipliers are Investors who give the ownership of the results to others and invest in their success…an ideal image for successful coaches.

ALTERNATIVE CERTIFICATES...DIGITAL BADGES

I recently read two articles that jogged my memory back to writing by the past president of the American Federation of Teachers, Albert Shanker.  He described how schools could function more like merit badges in scouting. Defining what a learning outcome or performance should be would then allowing students to work toward completion in ways and pace that worked for them. A scout who takes twice as long as another to complete the requirements for a badge receives the same badge and wears it with the same status as the one who earned it more quickly. As a teacher who always struggled with grading because “time was up”, his idea made lots of sense to me. 

In the October 10, 2011 Education Week, Allen Collins and Roy Pea wrote a commentary, The Advantages of Alternative Certifications for Students.

 Adults and students are acquiring knowledge and skills outside the traditional school or classroom but if they fail to enroll in a school or college program they receive little credit for their accomplishments.

Students could prepare for certification exams by taking online courses, listening to lectures or demonstrations online, reading books, getting tutored face to face or via the internet, or playing engaging games designed to support disciplinary learning and reasoning.

An exam system would publish “what’s needed to pass,” and learners could decide how to prepare.

What kind of options and motivations for learning could alternative certificates create? What if students could complete assessments when they were ready? Can we give students the chance to “test out of “units or whole courses because of independent learning?

Lynn O’ Shaughnessy wrote a blog titled Digital Badges Could Significantly Impact Higher Education.

Badges are earned through skills and knowledge gained in a variety of ways including informally, through one’s workplace, open courseware and other online classes, and even traditional colleges. The badge system would let you gather badges from any site on the Internet, combining them into a story about what you know and what you've achieved....This sort of badge collection may eventually become a central part of an online reputation, helping you get a job, find collaborators and build prestige.
So-called digital badges could end up breaking the stranglehold that traditional colleges and universities have enjoyed in awarding credentials. Digital badges could give Americans who earn them the kind of impressive credential that a college degree has conveyed without having to go through the time and considerable expense of earning one or more diplomas.

John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, HASTAC and Mozilla  announced a $2 million Digital Media and Learning Competition for leading organizations, learning and assessment specialists, designers and technologists to create and test badges and badge systems. The competition will explore ways digital badges can be used to help people learn; demonstrate their skills and knowledge; unlock jobs, educational and civic opportunities; and open new pipelines to talent.

U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan called the digital badges a "game-changing strategy”: "Badges can help engage students in learning, and broaden the avenues for learners of all ages to acquire and demonstrate—as well as document and display—their skills.

Technology can empower learners, We need to design the assessments and documentation strategies to support that empowerment. 
Hopefully, a first step might be finding ways for teachers to demonstrate their ongoing learning rather than collecting “hours” for recertification.