Can You Ride a Bicycle?

I'm going to venture a guess that all of you reading this have learned to ride a bike. Countless hours and multiple attempts went into learning how to balance your weight, how to shift the handle bars, and how to brace yourself for the fall. And while hopefully we all learned through these failures to persist and keep plugging away, we may not have been aware of the neurological connections we were making.

The phrase 'it's just like riding a bike' took on a new meaning for today after viewing the video below, AND attempting to ride this bike myself.

 


You can only imagine how trying to ride this bike myself has completely changed my perspective on CHANGE! While I've always been aware that change is easier for some and more difficult for others, I never made the connection in the relationship between your brain and change. As individuals, we have taken years to master our craft or expertise. Yet, some leaders want us to change our thought process or actions over night. What they may not realize is that our brains are wired in such a way that we struggle to understand the change and how this will improve what we are doing.

Where this video really hit home for me is though the interactions I might have with students. We all have the opportunity to work with and mentor learners that have a wide variety of backgrounds.Many learners come with predisposed notions and beliefs about themselves. Whether it be parents, previous teachers, or friends, learners have been 'hard-wired' to navigate life according to these beliefs. As educators, we are not only tasked to teach them content, but also perhaps help them to 're-learn' who they are and what they are capable of.

And what the movie proved to me is that I must be patient in my working with learners. While I may want to move fast and have accepted changes, some learners have some 'un-wiring' to do to learn. My role is to continue to be supportive of them, their efforts, and the growth they are making. Each learner deserves the time they need to grow - after all growth is movement forward no matter how big or small.

I recently started reading 'The Leadership Challenge' by James Kouzes and Barry Posner. Although I'm a mere thirty pages in so far and very inspired to learn more about The Five Practices to Exemplary Leadership - Model the Way, Inspire a Shared Vision, Challenge the Process, Enable others to Act, and Encourage the Heart. These five practices must shape how we continue to evolve what education is really about. We cannot impact the brain without first impacting the heart.

Each one of us is capable of impacting our learners. Continue to inspire and model the way in what you do and how you interact with your learners. Help them to unlock the potential that exists within themselves. And remember that many already learned how to 'ride their bike!'

Learning - A Life-Long Skill

Over the course of the past few months, I have become perplexed by the vast conversations and movement regarding individualized learning. While much of what I've read or studied is directed toward K-12 student learning, I've started to ponder, "why is it that learning is not held in high regards in most higher education and professional settings?" For one reason or another, there seems to be a rather large misconception that compliance equates to learning! Furthermore, too many believe that learning is the ability to answer a question correctly. I would argue that answering a question correctly is simply acquiring knowledge. Learning goes much deeper than knowing answers.

"Learning is not an action...Learning is a behavior in which one continually seeks to grow by searching for answers to questions unknown!" This definition, which I created through modifying many other quotes, helps to lay the foundation for what lifelong learning ought to be for all professionals - educators, leaders, front-line staff, and all adults. While I am fortunate to work for a college that believes "NWTC is a cutting edge, life-long learning college that transforms, strengthens, and inspires," we must be aware that there is always room to grow. By breaking down my definition of learning, I hope to show how professional learning supports individualized learning for adults/employees.

"Learning is a BEHAVIOR..." 

I see behavior as a choice - a choice to acknowledge that I may not know all of the answers and that it is my responsibility to learn what I do not know. A choice to recognize that I am never done learning and will continue to learn and grow the older and wiser I get. A choice to seek out input from my teammates, professional resources, and conferences I attend. This choice only becomes a behavior after I repeatedly exhibit my choice and desire to learn. As I turn this choice and desire to learn into my behavior, I learn that I own my right to learn.

"Continually seeks to GROW..."
In his book, 'Personalized PD; Flipping Your Professional Development', Jason Bretzmann describes giving educators C.H.O.I.C.E. in their professional development and learning. The first C, Constant Progress, is essential to all learning experiences. Organizations and institutions of learning must recognize that all people learn at different rates, including professionals. The more we encourage educators and employees to continually seek to grow, the more freedom we give them to learn at a pace that is comfortable to them. While there are a multitude of variables that effect learning, perhaps none is greater than giving employees the ability to drive their own growth and learning through personalized professional development. Likewise, growth also means that we must be willing to reflect on where we have been and where we would like to go - to have a plan and action steps that will help us achieve our goals along the way. Meanwhile, organizations and institutions of learning must also support a resilient culture by allowing employees to fail forward - to learn from mistakes and use them as opportunities to grow!

"SEARCHING for answers to QUESTIONS UNKNOWN!"
In conjunction with continually seeking to grow, searching for answers also means that we will explore a wide variety of 'expert' resources - Twitter, articles, book studies, social gatherings, conferences, trade shows, eLearning, and much more! Our willingness to think outside of the box and be creative in finding solutions to our questions will inhibit our ability to grow from learning. This also ties directly back to learning as a behavior in which I am open to hearing and learning from a variety of sources. A monumental mind shift at all levels - management, supervisors, CEO's, presidents, employees - must occur to recognize that anyone can find answers to their questions at anytime, from anywhere!


As I continue to explore what I believe to be the Four C's that are fundamental to all learning experiences (Connect, Customize, Curiosity, and Collaboration), I come back to my definition of learning to remind myself that I must also be willing to grow and learn along the way. To truly have a growth mindset means I may not have all the answers, and I may not like the answers I get along the way. To impact the greater good though, I must be open to alternative ideas, suggestions, or guidance.

A Growth Mindset

Recently, I had the opportunity to attend the Higher Learning Commission's Annual Conference in Chicago. The conference, which focused heavily on accreditation for institutes of higher education, also included several breakout sessions on assessment practices. The last session I attended at the conference, "Using the Growth Mindset to Encourage Faculty & Staff Use of Assessment" was outstanding.

Led by Dr. Eric Haas, Psychology Faculty member at Maricopa Community College, the session provided great context for how instructors ought to approach learning and assessment at all levels of education. After providing data to show that anxiety surrounds assessment, as well as how a fixed mindset can sometimes be detrimental to learning, Dr. Haas provided a wonderful synopsis of the value of teaching every student as if they have a growth mindset.

In order for any educator to effectively teach students, we must all come to one fundamental conclusion: Assessment IS NOT the goal; it is a tool! Learning IS the goal! Learning, the process by which students grow, is at the fundamental core of what every educator does. Educators at every level often spend countless hours focusing on students that are far below grade level or ability. We work effortlessly to help them be successful, sometimes with success while others not so successful.

Either way, as educators we need to continually help our students see that the path to success is not always linear. There are failures along the way, bumps that impede our process, and obstacles to overcome. However, along the way we LEARN that we can persevere and make improvements on things we have already tried. Like the old saying goes, 'No Pain - No Gain". We must be willing to put in the hard work to help all of our students be successful, encouraging them along the way. Help them to see that they are capable of anything they want to put their minds to.

Ironically, Dr. Haas' presentation really charged educators with having a growth mindset themselves. How easy would it be to continue doing what you've been doing because 'that's way I've always done it'? We must be willing to admit that we do not know what we do not know. The only way to grow is to learn - learn how we can become better educators, creating a place for all students to learn and grow WITH us, not from us!

Do you have a growth mindset?

My sketch notes from HLC Conference 2016.