Change: By You and Me

Jane Goodall’s wisdom “change happens by listening and then starting a dialogue with the people who are doing something you don't believe is right” is a challenge, yet is a wise strategy for reasonable action given how many people in the world don't feel that they are heard or know where to start to make a difference. Stephanie Summerville's story of her unintended contribution to a change of mind should make us all be conscious that opportunities to trigger change are all around us, all of the time. This week a lovely international group of which I am a member had a very intense email discussion over the value and strategy of The Girl Effect. Is this a worthwhile effort? Does it diminish women? Is it an effective strategy to instigate global change, at a personal level? What do these sound bite videos help us learn anyway? Well, I say.... if we wait to create the perfect, politically correct, acceptable message, we'll never make any change. Google 'make a difference' that should inspire all of us. And if you are an aging baby boomer, thinking about what's next, check into Encore, helping us think about making what's next an opportunity for bliss.

OK for learners too

When I became an academic, I thought my job was to seek answers and make them public - the more people who had access, the more valued the work would be. I quickly learned that the rewards have been most traditionally situated in elitism and limited access: the more prestigious and expensive a journal, the more valued the published works. Peter Suber has given me hope for the realization of my naivety. I know this is not a new, novel, or revelatory idea, but he speaks so reasonably about Open Knowledge being a strategy for "testing and validation of knowledge claims." I want to go further in this thought. Considering the value of the learner's public sharing of knowledge, I believe we do them a disservice when we collect works, grade them, and discard or file them. Making work public does more for understanding our own thought processes, strengths, and weaknesses than any grade can do. Let's share the richness of our experience as educators, whose work is public, with our students and provide them opportunities to push their knowledge to others - and learn about themselves in the process.

Expert ... novice learners, do they know who they are?

When I started teaching adults many years ago, I did so with the assumption that (a) they wanted to learn and (b) they took a position that they were novices. Over the course of time, I have learned that not everyone wants to learn, at least not just for the sake of learning. And I have learned that learners are less willing/able and perhaps justified in taking the role of novice in a formal learning experience. For me, the shift of roles accompanied the increasing access to information that provides any or all of us to think we know something about a lot of things. Early in my career I looked at novice vs. expert learning and the processes and expectations (at that time) are very different. It occurs to me that perhaps it is useful to provide ways to help students determine their level of expertise (I don't think grades, degrees, certifications, or even portfolios truly accomplish this) and be more conscious of how we approach learning and teaching interactions given the perceptions if not truthful realities of learner expertise.

I have run across the Dreyfus Model that provides a framework for a continuum of how people think as they move along their degree of knowledge. In my recent work examining storytelling as instructional method, I found this interesting post about the ancient game of Go in which Sorin Gherman, a programmer, applies the Dreyfus Model to Go. This post interest me because Sorin uses stories to illustrate levels of expertise. In an informal conversation with a pilot a few weeks ago, I found that Southwest Airlines uses storytelling in the interview process to determine the level of expertise of potential pilots.

Oftentimes, faculty will have students reflect on what they have learned in a course, but it occurs to me that students don't get the benefit of the larger personal journey they are taking, or where they lie on a continuum of expertise. I don't believe that such continuum is empirical, measurable or finite, but after thinking about the Dreyfus model, I do think helping students see where they are in their ability to know is valuable.