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#10 Making It Visible — Cultures of Thinking in Action

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10 mindsets thinking in Action EDI Sept 2024 2 days

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Why it Matters

As teachers, we all want to create powerful learning for our students. Even so, most of us must accept tests as part of our teaching and students' learning reality. The good news is that there is no trade-off between providing students with rich, powerful learning and making sure students are prepared for tests. In a large-scale study conducted in Chicago public schools, researchers found that the best preparation for tests, even tests of knowledge, is the regular engagement in learning opportunities that focus on developing understanding, are connected to student's life, have meaning for students, stress application, and involve communication of one's thinking and expression of one's ideas in the language of the disciplines ( 10).

What constitutes powerful learning? Too be sure, there are lots of qualities and ingredients we might consider, but in examining principle #9, we will focus on the central element of opportunities. The kinds of opportunities we create for our students are the prime vehicles for their learning. Walter Doyle ( 2) has said, "Students will learn what a task leads them to do, that is, they will acquire information and operations that are necessary to accomplish the tasks they encounter." Richard Elmore and Elizabeth City distill Doyle's statement further into one of the core principles of Instructional Rounds by stating simply, "The task predicts performance" ( 1). Agreeing with these sentiments, Fred Newmann concludes that we need to focus on the "actual intellectual demands" placed on students ( 11). Powerful learning opportunities have four key components ( 13): novel application, meaningful inquiry, effective communication, and perceived worth (see Exhibit 1). Furthermore, when the opportunities teachers create have these components, we find that they both engage and empower students as well as produce deep learning ( 14).

Of course, we always want our students to be engaged. Engaged students learn more ( 5). While many factors go into creating the conditions for engagement in the classroom ( 6), when it comes to the opportunities we are creating, it is useful to consider three specific types of engagement: engagement with others, engagement with ideas, and engagement in action ( 13). In engaging with others, we recognize that learning unfolds in the company of others and is a social endeavor. We learn in, from, and with groups. The group supports our learning as well as challenges it, allowing us to reach higher levels of performance. At the same time, learning demands a personal engagement with ideas. Whereas we might be able to receive new information passively, building understanding is an active process that involves digging in and making sense. We bring ourselves to the learning moment. Sometimes this is identified as cognitive engagement, to distinguish it from mere engagement in activity ( 3). It is cognitive engagement with ideas that leads to learning. Exploring meaningful and important concepts that are connected to the world often means students want to take action. Providing opportunities and structures for them to do so encourages students' agency and power while making the learning relevant.

It may be tempting to blame students for their lack of engagement. After all, it is their behavior (or lack thereof) that we are noticing. However, research by David Shernoff found that 75% of the variation in student engagement was attributable to differences in the classroom learning context while only 25% could be explained by students' own background characteristics ( 14). Furthermore, Shernoff and colleagues found that involving high school students in thinking led to greater levels of student reported engagement in classes ( 15). These findings mirror those of other researchers assessing urban middle school students' perceptions of their teachers. When teachers engaged students in independent thinking, students recognized this as useful to their development of understanding and autonomy as learners ( 16). The importance of deep engagement and thinking opportunities for all students was also a common theme among the teachers Mehta and Fine studied in their dive into deep learning ( 7). They found that teachers who promoted deep learning viewed thinking and engagement as a necessary part of learning and as something all students were capable of. This was in contrast to those teachers who failed to engage students in deep learning consistently. These teachers were more likely to view understanding, thinking, and engagement beyond the reach of their students.

What does it mean to empower our students? Once again, this is a broad concept that includes development of student agency, self-efficacy, self-regulation, voice, identity, independence, and initiative among other things. One way to bring in all these elements is to define empowerment as supporting our students to find their place in the world. As with engagement, many factors go into creating the conditions for empowerment, when it comes to the opportunities we are creating authenticity, connected, identity, and originality.

It's hard to feel empowered when you're just learning for a test, when all you were asked to do is reproduce answers, content, knowledge, or procedures that you have been shown. Moving beyond merely reproductive tasks to those that require an original response allows students to find their voice, share their insights, and show their new understanding ( 2, 7). Furthermore, empowering students requires us to move beyond merely teaching about a subject. We need to engage students authentically in the disciplines, focusing on the processes, the ways of thinking, and the ways of uncovering new knowledge and understanding in various fields ( 4, 11). When we do so, we encourage the development of identity ( 8, 7). Students come to see themselves as mathematicians, as scientist, as historians, as artist, as writers. In short, they learn to view themselves as powerful thinkers in learners able to create new knowledge and build new understanding in the varied endeavors in which they engage. Finally, when the opportunities we create are connected to who student are as individuals, connected to the community in which they live, and allow them to stretch into the world beyond, the learning that is done no longer sits outside of them but resides within them ( 6).

What It Looks and Sounds Like

Of course, there is no one way that promoting powerful learning opportunities will look and sound. There is ample room for individuals to add their own creativity and stamp on things. The list below is a sampling of ideas that might be useful to advance your practice.

Create tasks, projects, and units of instruction that will engage students in novel application, meaningful inquiry, effective communication, and which have perceived worth to the students (see Exhibit 1).

Use the "Head + Heart = Hustle" lesson activity to find out what is personally meaningful for students (or teachers or parents). For younger children, drawing is a means by which they can express what they know as well as what they want to know. Pay attention to what they verbalize as well.

Engage students in setting and evaluating their own learning goals.

Identify an audience for students' learning beyond just you as a teacher. How might your students' learning find an audience within the classroom, beyond the classroom, and beyond the school?

Ensure learning is authentic to the discipline, that is, students are engaged in the processes of thinking, problem-solving, decision-making, and knowledge creation that people in the discipline actually engage in as opposed to merely learning about the subject as an outsider.

Have students teach, explain, model, show, demonstrate their new learning to others.

Use project-or problem based learning to provide a context for student learning and allow them to develop their skills in context. Skills developed in this way are easier to retain and apply.

Involve students in the co-construction of the curriculum. This might mean bringing in students voices, interests, and questions to help shape a unit built more or inquiry than delivery of information. It might also take the form of attending to the clues found in students conversations and actions with regards to their interests and potential questions.

Focus instruction around generative topics. These are topics that are central to the discipline or domain under study, relatable and interesting to students, and pique the interest and curiosity of the teacher as well.

Use of discrepant events, "strange but true" facts, disequilibrium, or instances of perplexity to create novelty in the science or math classroom. This increases situational interest that increases student engagement and use of deep learning strategies to resolve.

Find opportunities and occasions for students to set their own directions and learning path to investigate something they want to understand and explore.

Use an investigative Case Based Learning (ICBL) approach to allow students to direct their own learning. Cases provide a meaningful context for learning, with a memorable anchoring experience on which to situate further learning. ICBL involves three phases - problem posing, problem solving and peer persuasion.

Have students generate their own analogies, metaphors, and similes to explain the concepts and ideas they are seeking to understand. Metaphorical thinking make new information more concrete and easier to imagine. When students generate their own analogies or metaphors, they are able to link the new material to what is personally relevant to them. Have students identify limitations of the metaphors as well.

Engage students in taking action by finding opportunities for students to take what they are learning beyond the classroom to make a difference in the world as advocates and/or change agents.

Attend to the issue of transfer directly rather than assuming it will just happening by employing the strategies of bridging and hugging.

Reflecting on Your Teaching

The questions below are meant to push your thinking beyond where you are currently. Perhaps they might even make you a bit uncomfortable. Pick a question or questions below that will help you better understand the effects of your actions, critically reflect on them, provoke additional questions, and/or help you think about future actions and possibilities when it comes to creating powerful learning opportunities that will engage and empower your students. If you find yourself merely explaining what you currently are doing, chances are you might be reporting more than reflecting, Select another question prompt that might take you deeper.

How might you help students to do a better job of productively engaging with others in your classroom? What skills or structures might you need to help them work on to do this more effectively?

Looking ahead in your curriculum, where might there opportunities for your students to engage in action? What might these look like?

What are the big ideas you want students to engage in this year? Why are these important to you? To the discipline? How will you help your students to see them as important?

Where, when and how are you currently allowing for student voice in the shaping of their learning in your classroom or at your school? Do you think your students would view these as significant opportunities to shape and direct their learning? How might they be further enhanced?

How can I tell if my students are developing the identity of a mathematician, scientist, artist, critic, writer (or whatever applicable identity) in my classroom? Where am I noticing it? Where might I look? What might I do to move it along?

What is a past assignment I gave or lesson I taught in which students' responses were largely reproductive? How might I bump that up so that it encouraged, allowed, and supported more of an original response from students?

Where might I make a lesson or unit more connected to the students' lives and our community?

Where and how might I take my students learning beyond the classroom?

How am I engaging my students in the authentic process of people in my discipline? What are these processes? Do my students see these processes a key part of what they are learning in my class?

Using Quick Data to Inform Your Efforts

Analyze a task or project from the perceptive of the students' "doing." Read through the task/project and make a list of the verbs that best describe what students will be required to do as they complete the task. Then, rank those verbs in order according to the amount of time students are likely to spend on each. Next, review and rate the tasks/projects in a unit based on the four elements of powerful learning opportunties: Novel Application, Meaningful Inquiry, Effective Communication, Perceived Worth. Click on the image below for further guidance.

Questions to Consider from the Quick Data:

What does the list of verbs describing what students will do in the task reveal about the task/project in terms of its learning potential?

What will students spend most of their time doing? How is this the same or different from other tasks students have been doing in your class?

How will these actions, identified through the verbs, help students develop understanding?

Where is this task or unit strongest in terms of the 4 elements of powerful learning opportunities? Where is it weakest?

Where might the task/unit be enhanced? How might you do so?

Do you think your students or your colleagues would rate the task similarly? What makes you say that?

Connection to the 8 Cultural Forces

(this section is still being developed)

Opportunities are the prime cultural force implicated by principle #9. In the lessons, activities, and units of instruction we design, we ensue that we embed them with opportunities to engage, to build understanding, to challenge misconceptions, to collaborate. We look for opportunities where we as teachers might step back so that students might step forward and assume greater responsibility for and direction over their learning.

Interactions. In any interaction we have we students, we can either encourage the student's initiative and control over their learning or we can rescue them by essentially doing the learning and thinking for them, simplifying the task, or providing solutions to their problems. Rescue denies students the opportunity to feel empowered as learners and send the message that adults don't have faith in them as learners. When we engage students with each other around ideas, we help them to develop rich understanding in a collaborative setting that allows then to explore ideas.

. One of the seven language moves is the language of initiative. Through our verbal interactions with students experiencing difficulty, we can convey to students that they are active, decision-making agents in the learning process: "How are you planning on..." "What are you wondering about?" "What did you decide about that?" or they can step in and rescue students by making these decisions for them: "What you need to do next is..."

Time. It does take more time to engage students in rich, powerful learning. However, this is time well spent as it an investment in learning that will stick, learning that will be used, and learning that helps students develop as learners and thinkers.

Expectations. We can't create effective create learning opportunities that empower our students unless we have an expectation for student empowerment as part of our teaching. When we expect our students to leave our classrooms as more empowered learners, we look for and capitalize on occasions for that happen.

. We use routines that regularly engage students with others, with ideas, and in action. This might include Making Meaning, The 3 Y's, and The 4 If's

Modeling. We are models for our students of what engaged and empowered learning might look like. Our interest in and curiosity about the areas we study in our class lay the ground work for engaged learning. Our goal setting, decision making, and initiative provide models of empowerment as a learner.

Environment. If empowerment is helping students to find their place in the world, students learning shouldn't be confined to the physical confines of the classroom or school. Be envisioning our learning taking place in the world, we help students see a larger context for learning. We also construct environments that are set up for engagement with others, ideas, in action.

"Learners must be educational decision-makers. Out of negotiation comes a sense of ownership in learners for the work they are to do, and therefore a commitment to it. Learning is an active process. Teachers can't do it for learners. Information may be imposed, but understanding cannot be, for it must come from within.
"

- J. Cook (1992). Negotiating the curriculum: Programming for learning

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#9 Engage & Empower - Cultures of Thinking in Action

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As teachers, we all want to create powerful learning for our students. Even so, most of us must accept tests as part of our teaching and students' learning reality. The good news is that there is no trade-off between providing students with rich, powerful learning and making sure students are prepared for tests.

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Why it Matters

Questions are drivers of inquiry, catalysts for changing our perceptions, vehicles for developing understanding, promoters of action, and opportunities to clarify our thinking . . . and, a major way that teachers interact with their students ( 1). There is evidence that shows that teacher questions consume between 10-20% of the time students spend in classrooms ( 2). However, research shows that more than 80% of all teacher questions only require students to recall facts ( 3). Such questions may help to test students' memory and build knowledge, but they do little to deepen understanding or engagement. In contrast, constructive questions focus on developing understanding while facilitative questions- such as, What makes you say that?-aim to make students' thinking visible (see Exhibit 1). Generative, authentic questions -those questions to which teachers do not already know the answer- are the least asked type of question despite evidence that they are positively associated with student engagement, critical thinking, and academic achievement ( 4).As classrooms become cultures of thinking, teachers tend to reduce the number of review and procedural questions asked while increasing the amount of facilitative questions ( 5).

If questions are important vehicles for learning, they shouldn't totally be the purview of teachers. Questions are one of the most powerful ways students express their thinking, enhance problem-solving, monitor understanding, and improve as active and autonomous learners ( 6). Across most disciplines, providing structures and opportunities for student questions is cited as essential for student comprehension, self-assessment of content and intellectual engagement ( 7). In addition, student self-generation of questions related to the material they are studying has shown to be more beneficial to recall than restudying of the material ( 12). Research suggests that once adequate conditions are established, students' questions improve both in frequency and in quality ( 6). Therefore, we need to provide students with both the structures and opportunities to ask and explore their questions. Unfortunately, student-asked questions, those focused on ideas and not the logistics of assignments, are too often few and far between ( 2).

Questions are also a major way in which we express and recognize curiosity.Fostering student curiosity and questioning involves creating opportunities for authentic problem solving and robust inquiry and creating a classroom culture where questioning is valued. Unfortunately, many of these conditions are all too rare in schools today. Many teachers tend to value answers, at the expense of encouraging students to ask good questions.

However, it is not enough to merely encourage students to ask questions more frequently. Research shows that the quality of questions is crucial ( 6).Therefore, it is important for teachers to model critical thinking and curiosity in their questions, specifically employing deep- level, constructive questions. Such questions ask students to explain and predict, apply learning across contexts, evaluate information, and wonder about the world around them. When student questioning is enhanced and coupled with high quality teacher questioning, both teachers and students become highly inquisitive learners who value questions as opportunities for exploration, active learning, and self-growth.

What It Looks and Sounds Like

Of course, there is no one way that focusing o questions as drivers of learning and thinking will look and sound. There is ample room for individuals to add their own creativity and stamp on things. The list below is a sampling of ideas that might be useful to advance your practice.

Plan units around generative questions, which can be the "legs" that drive learning. These could be essential questions, questions of inquiry, or debatable questions. To learn more what makes a question "essential" and how to craft questions with these characteristics see Exhibit 2 ( 8).

Model curiosity for your students and look for opportunities to ask authentic questions, that is, questions to which you don't already know the answer. Such questions model your own engagement with the content and send a signal that you are a learner too. When a teacher is curious and interested, it often sparks deeper engagement by students( 3, 7).

Use constructive questions to support students in building understanding. On the other hand, try to limit review questions. While these questions have a place in classrooms and can be useful in consolidating knowledge and information, they should not dominate the learning space. Likewise limit procedural questions by using simple directives. Instead of asking, "Does everyone have their pencil?" Direct, "Everyone, please get out your pencils." (see Exhibit 1 for a Typology of Questions)

Provide plenty of think time after asking constructive questions. This sends a signal that one is not expected to know the answer but to engage with the question. Use strategies like Think-Pair-Share or table talks to allow everyone to share their thinking.

Ask facilitative questions and use the reflective toss to focus on catching the meaning behind students' responses and pushing them to elaborate on their thinking. Asking a follow-up question such as, 'What makes you say that?' can encourage students to explain their thinking. Facilitative questions show that you are interested in students' thinking more just correct answers.

Encourage and support students asking questions of one another in class discussions rather than you dominating the discussion by being the only questioner. Some ways to do this include: Having students evaluate each other'sresponses. Use basketball questioning vs. ping-pong questioning ( 9). Include opportunities for students to ask questions to their teachers, one another, and themselves ( 10).

Teach students the difference between clarifying and probing questions. Encourage students to ask one another probing questions that force the learner to reflect and explain when giving peer feedback or advice. Name your own questions for students to provide a model.

Create a culture of questioning where questioning is valued, visible, and actively promoted. Encourage and invite students to ask questions that exhibit their curiosity and wonder. Honor these questions by incorporating them into the learning as much as possible. Have a place where such questions reside: a wonder wall, an inquiry notebook, or a google doc.

Help students to ask better questions using techniques such as the Question Formulation Technique (QFT) or through the routine Question Sorts.

Provide students with feedback on their questions or have them provide feedback to one another. Critical feedback can help students refine their questions and get better at asking higher-level questions ( 11).

Demonstrate the ongoing and evolving nature of questions in learning through use of question journals, documentation, the 5 Why's, or The Squid (another explantion of The Squid)

Provide plenty of opportunities for students to pursue the questions that they are most interested in and curious about.

Model self-questioning as a metacognitive technique for advancing one's own learning. Generate a list of questions students can ask themselves during each phase of a project or cycle of inquiry to help them evaluate, reflect on, and direct their learning.

Reflecting on Your Teaching

These questions are meant to push your thinking beyond where you are currently. Perhaps they might even make you a bit uncomfortable. As you will recall, living with and going deeply into questions and puzzles of teaching are part of what it means to be in the inquiry space. Pick a question or questions that will help you better understand the effects of your actions, critically reflect on them, provoke additional questions, and/or help you think about future actions and possibilities. If you find yourself merely explaining what you currently are doing, chances are you might be reporting more than reflecting. C onsider selecting another prompt that might take you deeper into examining your practice.

Where am I making use of generative, essential questions to guide my units of instruction? How do I keep these questions alive throughout our unit as beacons or guides for our learning?

What are examples of my most effective essential questions? What do I notice about what makes a good guiding, essential question in my subject area and with my students? What makes these engaging for students?

How am I using student questions in my teaching? What are other possibilities for doing so?

Where and how am I modeling my own curiosity?

Where do student questions live in my classroom? If someone walked into my classroom how would they be able to tell from the displays and documentation that I care about curiosity, inquiry, and questioning?

What is my pattern of questioning? Is it ping-pong style with me hitting every question back or are we playing basketball with lots of people involved? Where and how can I further encourage students to respond to each other's responses? Where and how can I do more to promote students asking questions to one another?

Do I give sufficient thinking time when I ask constructive questions so that students have a chance to develop their thinking? Do all students have an opportunity to share their response in some way?

﻿Reflecting on a particular lesson you have just taught or after an observation of a colleague's classroom:

What question did I/they ask that I thought was particularly provocative or useful?

What questions did I/they ask that sparked discussion and engagement?

What student questions about the content emerged in this lesson? Where were there opportunities for student questions to emerge? Where and how might I/they have made more room for students' questions?

Where and when did I/they ask follow-up facilitative questions? Is there a particular facilitative question that seemed to be effective?

Did I/they ask any authentic questions (ones to which I didn't already know the answer)? Where might I/they have done so?

Using Quick Data to Inform Your Efforts

It is often difficult to assess our questioning real time when we are in the midst of teaching. There are several reasons for this. For one, as teachers we simply ask a lot of questions. Our research found that teachers typically ask between 50-100 questions in a class period. Therefore, it just isn't possible to remember all of them. What we do tend to remember are those powerful or effective questions, because they resonate and register more. Consequently, we over estimate the overall quality of our questioning. The First 10 Questions is a process for collecting quick data on a school's collective question asking to identify the kinds of questions students' are experiencing.

The protocol for collecting The First 10 Questions is simple. A documenter, which could be a school leader, coach, or teacher or some combination there of, goes into a classroom and simply records the first 10 questions they hear. They leave the room and go to the next classroom, recording the first 10 questions heard. This process continues for the rest of the class period. It is generally possible to visit 8 to 12 classrooms in a single class period. Note: This process could be carried out to collect questions across the school, within a particular department, or a single grade level. Questions are then compiled and copied to be shared. Often questions are mixed up so that individual classrooms are not readily identifiable. The point is not to assess teachers but to get a sense of the school community's collective questioning. The questions are then shared with teachers as a snapshot of questioning to determine what can be gleaned about the kinds of questions our students are encountering.

Questions to Consider from the Quick Data:

What types of questions, using the typology of question types, are we asking our students?

Which questions from this data snapshot push and press students to think? What makes you say that?

Is there another way to frame a particular question to more deeply engage students?

What is the minimum required of a student in answering a particular question?

If you were a student encountering these questions what would you feel? What would you feel your teachers cared about?

Connection to the 8 Cultural Forces

Interactions. One of the major ways teachers interact with students is through questioning, dialog, and discussion. The types of questions we ask, signal to students our goals and objectives. Are we trying to review knowledge, construct understanding, or facilitate thinking? What balance between these objectives are we striking? In our interactions, are we trying to judge correctness ("good job," "you've got it," "well done," "that's correct") or are we trying to catch students' meaning and understand their thinking? Our discussions need to show we respect and value students' thinking and that we don't always feel we have to be at the center of the discussion.

Modeling. Just as we need to be the models of thinking we want our students to develop, so to must we be models of curiosity and questioning. When we ask authentic questions, model curiosity, display a desire for deeper inquiry, and engage in self-questioning, our students will learn to do the same.

Opportunities. To nurture students' disposition to be curious, we have to create opportunities for our students to question and inquire. Use students' questions to shape units of instruction. Create opportunities for students to pursue their own questions and lines of inquiry. Teach students how to ask good questions of guest speakers and each other. Create opportunities for students to give each other feedback that makes use of both clarifying questions and probing questions.

Time. Provide time for students to pursue their own questions through unstructured time, genius hour, twenty percent time, passion days, or personal projects. Give thinking time after you have asked constructive questions. Allow you and your students time to dwell in the questions rather than feeling every question must be wrapped up and answered within the class period.

Language. To encourage rich discussion and inquiry we must employ the language of listening. Use conditional language (under "language of knowing") in your questioning: "What might be happening here?" to signal you aren't looking for a correct answer but are exploring possibilities. Question starts and stems can be useful initially in helping students to generate, broader, more open, and deeper questions.

Routines. Don't expect students to know how to give good feedback using clarifying and probing questions. Use and practice routines like the Ladder of Feedback or to facilitate this. Use structures like the Question Formulation Technique (QFT) to help students learn how to ask better questions.

Environment. Document and display questions. Essential questions that guide a unit of study should be prominent for quick reference. Make sure that such questions are not just wallpaper, however. Refer to them often. Likewise, document and display students' questions to send a message that curiosity is a valued part of your classroom.

Expectations. Expect your students to be curious and teach for curiosity. Consider the questions students ask as important indicators of their understanding.

Principle #8: Questions drive thinking and learning

"Thinkers aren't limited by what they know, because they can always increase what they know. Rather they're limited by what puzzles them, because there's no way to become curious about something that doesn't puzzle you.
"

- Daniel Quinn, My Ishmael (1992)

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#8 Questions drive L & T - Cultures of Thinking in Action

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Questions are drivers of inquiry, catalysts for changing our perceptions, vehicles for developing understanding, promoters of action, and opportunities to clarify our thinking . . . and, a major way that teachers interact with their students ( 1). There is evidence that shows that teacher questions consume between 10-20% of the time students spend in classrooms ( 2).

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Why it Matters

Schools have tended to see learning as an individual endeavor built on compliance and competition, and punctuated by awards, prizes, and levels of attainment ( 7). This is particularly prevalent in the United States, where the "prescription for success was and is a blend of pioneer spirit, self-assertion, individual ingenuity, and individual effort" ( 17). Although this competitive and individualized view of learning has long been criticized by education reformers (Elmore, Meier), scholars (Brown, Palinscar, Boaler), philosophers and theorists (Bruner, Dewey, Vygotsky, Malaguzzi), some educators still voice concerns that too much attention on the group will lead to a loss of the individuality of each child ( 11). However, rather than seeing the individual and the group as two opposing forces or contradictory approaches to teaching and learning, it is more useful to think of the symbiotic and dynamic relationship between the group and the individual. This recognizes that the individual grows in their relationship with the group without being subsumed by it. As Jerome Bruner eloquently stated, "mind is inside the head, but it is also with others." ( 4. p. 87).

It is also useful here to make a distinction between the common use of group work or team assignments in which students produce a project or complete a task as a collective unit (often by merely dividing up the task) and the kind of true learning group, community of learners, or culture of thinking we are talking about here. The former is often a one-off task or experience whereas the latter is an ongoing commitment to the way the class operates. This kind of learning in, from, and with groups is situated within Vygotsky's ( 16) sociocultural perspective, which theorizes individuals gradually internalize new concepts, psychological tools, and skills that are first externalized in their social settings they experience ( 1 4).

What makes a community of learners or an effective learning group? Jerome Bruner ( 4) identified four factors at play in communities of learners: a) agency, taking control of one's learning, b) reflection, making the learning make sense, c) collaboration, sharing the human resources of all those involved in the mix of teaching and learning, and d) culture, the way of life and thought we construct, negotiate, and establish. In these factors we see a dynamic interplay between the group and the individual. Jo Boaler ( 3) identifies three necessary components of learning groups that promote high levels of achievement for all individuals and promote relational equity for all learners: a) respect for other people's ideas, leading to positive intellectual relations, b) commitment to the learning of others, and c) learned methods of communication and support. When classroom functions as a true learning group, adults and children alike feel that they are part of something larger than themselves and has meaning beyond the individual ( 11). In learning communities, learners develop intellectually, socially, and academically.
Intellectual Development
Learning how to learn, growing intellectually, and learning to think are effective developed in a social context ( 5, 8). Through the process of explaining, defending and discussing with one another, children make use of their peers' ideas as "thinking devices" which enable them to reflect on and transform their own thinking ( 17). When students learn alongside their more experienced peers, opportunities to "work together, brainstorm possibilities, pool knowledge and insights, conduct collective analyses, critique each other, and draw energy from a common goal" allows for deep learning to take place in a community of practice ( 10). Through talking to one another, students co-construct new knowledge and the "cognitive conflicts" that arise serve as the "power driving intellectual development" ( 12). Therefore, learning as a collective enterprise "build[s] on or extend[s], rather than replace, the work" of each student ( 11). Through working with others, students gain experiences that they would otherwise not have, including learning to "defend, negotiate and modify our ideas" ( 11).
Social Development
When learning is viewed as a collective endeavor and not an individual competition, students build their social and collaborative skills ( 19). Interdependence is a key component of communities of learning. As students share ideas and resources, they also assume a joint responsibility for learning ( 10). This creates a safe environment where students view one another as "allies" rather than competitors, thereby increasing engagement and academic achievement ( 15). When learning is a collective endeavor, students develop language and communication skills as well ( 18). As students work with their peers, they develop open-mindedness as they learn to "value the contribution of different methods, perspectives, and partially correct or even incorrect ideas" ( 2). Students also develop socio-emotional competencies, as they learn to ask probing questions to elicit their peers' understanding of concepts, as well as through working with others across different ethnic and class backgrounds ( 2). Students also learn to respectfully communicate with others who have opinions different from theirs through interactions, like structured debates ( 13).
Academic Development
Employing peer instruction, Crouch & Mazur ( 6), found students more actively involved in the learning, more self-directed, and attaining higher levels of achievement and master when compared to traditional didactic instruction ( 6). Similar findings were reported in studies with school-aged students, where collaborative learning led to improved problem-solving outcomes ( 1). In Boaler's study of secondary mathematics classrooms, she found heterogeneous grouped students who regularly worked collaborative (72% of class time spent in collaborative discussion) to solve conceptual mathematics outperformed students in traditional, tracked math classes ( 3). The key to their learning was that every student felt a commitment to the group's learning and those that struggled were not viewed as pulling the class down but providing an opportunity to teach, explain, explore and build understanding within the community. The collaborative nature of learning also allows for students' thinking to be made visible, as conversations reveal more information than written work ( 9). This provides an opportunity for teachers to collect and analyze data about students' learning that are useful in informing their next steps in instruction ( 9).

What It Looks and Sounds Like

Of course, there is no one way that making learning and thinking a collective endeavor will look and sound. There is ample room for individuals to add their own creativity and stamp on things. The list below is a sampling of ideas that might be useful to advance your practice.

Engage students in collaborative note taking by using the +1 routine , which allows students to share and build off of one another's ideas.

Provide opportunities for students to learn from one another and to share their expertise by using such as the jigsaw method, chalk talk, making meaning routine.

Have students talk to their neighbors or discuss in small groups before asking individuals too share in the larger whole-group setting. This allows times for both introverts and extroverts to develop their ideas. This may occur through, Think-Pair-Share, 1-2-4 All, Sketch Studio for non-written idea gathering or Chat Stations . All these formats allow students the chance to develop their ideas and learn from others in a less public space, which may facilitate quieter students having more confidence to share. Remember, the first person to share in a group often sets the tone for what will follow so giving students think and processing time can often assure a better start to a discussion.

Share, model, and promote "ice cream cone" more than "popcorn" conversations. In a "popcorn" mode, people "pop" or speak, when they are moved to. This often produces disconnected talk and ideas. In an "ice cream cone" conversation, people build on or stack ideas onto other's contributions to go deeper and explore ideas.

Make sure group tasks require interdependence among team members. If a task can be completed by dividing it into parts and assigning jobs to individuals, then it is unlikely to produce much learning.

Refrain from making comparisons among students or setting up structures that lock students into a track or pecking order that prejudges their abilities, motivations, and interests.

Encourage students to help one another, rather than view one another as competition.

Create displays that highlight the contributions of a diverse range of students to the group's learning and collective understanding rather than showcases of "best work" produced by individuals.

Provide structures, such as Ladder of Feedback or SAIL, and opportunities for peer feedback where students are able to take turns giving and receiving feedback on works in progress.

Document the group's learning that shows how our understanding develops through the contributions of everyone. Documentation, recording, drawing makes conversation tangilbe and easier to follow ( 27).

Set ground rules to support students' participation through establishing discussion norms, signaling the goals of the discussion to allow students to anticipate the kind of contributions that are relevant to and appropriate for that particular discussion.

Teach, model, use, and reinforce accountable talk to help students effectively engage in meaningful and respectful conversations that are mutually beneficial to both speaker and listener.

Utilize "vertical non-permanent surfaces" like "whiteboards, blackboards, or windows" to allow students to make their thinking visible to each other and to you. This strategy helps to focus the attention on the conversation., When learners broadcast their writing and make it available for monitoring by other members of the group, this encourages a joint focus of attention. ( 20)

Ensure that the physical set-up of the classroom allows for collaboration. A flexible design such that classroom furniture can be moved around can facilitate interactions among students and teachers can easily move around as well. ( 8)

Create tasks that provide multiple entry points and allow for multiple ways for students to demonstrate competence. The task should be "open-ended, allowing for multiple representation and have several possible solution paths". For instance, the task could ask for different strategies to solve a problem. Ask students to show the connections across the strategies to stretch them beyond what they already know. ( 8, 20, 21)

Engage students in group analysis, problem-solving, or experimentation settings in which understanding is built within the group through their discussion and exploration. Hold students individually accountable for their group learning through individual assessments of learning (e.g., individual report / reflection) and/or using assessment of individual effort to adjust grades.

Form heterogeneous ability groups. This would allow the novice student to learn from the more advanced student. The more advanced student will also benefit from teaching others. This also avoids a situation where more advanced students group together while a less ideal learning environment forms among the other students. ( 23)

Talk about the group's questions, insights, understandings rather than only that of individuals.

Model what active listening looks like and how to give effective feedback.

Discuss what types of interactions are useful and which are not in a group setting.

Teach students how to give constructive feedback with actionable steps rather than surface-level praise, and comments or facial expressions that aren't helpful.

Teach, model, and use clarifying and probing questions; focus on their role in gaining understanding of others and of helping them to advance their understanding.

Have students set group norms at the beginning of group formation (See Exhibit 1 for norm-setting protocol). This can set a strong foundation for effective team processes as students are held accountable for their behavior and it can also foster a safe learning environment for all

Have students revisit their group norms regularly and revise the norms if necessary. This would be important to help students monitor their own behavior in a group discussion and the students can develop a common language to discuss how they are working together. Students can start by discussing evidence how well the group thinks each norm is being followed. ( 24)

Observe individual students on their social skills when interacting with their group members and give them individual feedback. This has been found to improve relationships within the group ( 25).

Observe students when they are working in groups and be intentional about "assigning competence to low-status students". These are the students who are perceived to be less academically inclined or less popular. When these students demonstrate competence on an important intellectual ability, publicly describe what the student has done well and explain why this is an important resource for the group.' This would be important in modifying status effects to promote equity ( 26).

Name and notice when and how students learn from others, build on one another's ideas, draw others into conversation.

Reflecting on Your Teaching

These questions are meant to push your thinking beyond where you are currently. Perhaps they might even make you a bit uncomfortable. Pick a question or questions that will help you better understand the effects of your actions, critically reflect on them, provoke additional questions, and/or help you think about future actions and possibilities. If you find yourself merely explaining what you currently are doing, chances are you might be reporting more than reflecting. C onsider selecting another prompt that might take you deeper into examining your practice.

How am I teaching and supporting students in having rich, fruitful, and respectful conversations in my class?

Where, when and how do I provide students feedback on their participation in conversation?

How do I ensure all voices are heard in discussion and avoid gender, racial, perceived ability, or extrovert bias when I call on students?

What opportunities do students have to exchange and share knowledge?

In what ways am I modeling what it means to be a good listener, and what it means to treat others with respect and consideration?

In group settings, what am I noticing with regards to students asking one another task-focused questions, providing justification for statements they have made, considering more than one possible position before coming to a decision, eliciting the opinion of everyone, and seeking agreement before taking action? How can I teach, support, and reinforce these practices?

How might I adapt an upcoming task so that it affords more than one starting point, requires more than one solution path, and makes thinking and learning visible?

In thinking about an upcoming group task, does it require positive interdependence and individual accountability (e.g. individual report written at the end of the project)?

Where, when, and how am I providing thinking time before launching into group discussions? What am I noticing about the difference this makes to both who contributes and quality of those contributions.

How is space in the classroom utilized to facilitate student discussions? Do students have the option to move and move somewhere other than their desks? Are there flipcharts / poster boards / whiteboards available to students?

In what ways are students on their individual learning as well as progress as a group?

What routines and structures do I use to facilitate students' group discussion, problem solving, and learning? What makes these routines effective? Who are they not working for?

How do I make use of documentation to capture group learning? Where and how might I do more of that?

How do I prepare my students to work collaboratively with one another? What needs further reinforcement?

Can my students describe what makes an effective learning group and group discussion?

Where, when, and how do I ensure that students in my class work across different ability levels, ethnic groups, gender lines, and friendship groups?

Using Quick Data to Inform Your Efforts

Use Functioning in Groups observation checklist to identify the types of behaviors in which members of a learning group engage. The checklist could be used when students are working in small groups or during a whole class discussion. If used to track a whole-class discussion, not all of the behaviors are likely to be observed.

Questions to Consider from the Quick Data:

What interesting or surprising details do you notice?

What questions or reflections does the data evoke?

What possible factors contribute to students style of interaction?

What actions were most prevalent? Which were least observed? Why do you think this is so?

What skills/actions of group functioning need more attention, clarification, and practice? How will you do this?

How might you share the data back with the students?

Connection to the 8 Cultural Forces

Interactions Learning in, with, and through collaboration with others means that teaching and developing positive was of interacting in large and small group settings is key. We can't expect students to simply come to our classrooms prepared to productively engaged with others. This entails establishing a culture of respect with attention to both community and agency. When everyone feels responsible for each other's learning, learning for everyone increases ( 3). Students need to see one another as important resources in the classroom and actively seek help from others beyond the teacher.

Routines. Don't expect students to know how to interact, collaborate, listen, give feedback or even talk to one another appropriately and effectively at the beginning of the year. Use routines and protocols that help students learn these behaviors. Set norms for group learning. Revisit these norms often to check to see how they are working. Think-Pair-Share, 1-2-4 All, Sketch Studio for non-written idea gathering or Chat Stations are all useful structures for collaboration.

Opportunities. Create group worthy tasks that focus on the co-construction of understanding, group interdependence, as well as individual accountability. Such tasks generally address complex problems, issues, or projects and have several possible solution paths. They demand extensive interaction and discussion and cannot be completed through a divide and conquer strategy in which individuals merely paste their contributions on to one another.

Time. Teachers invest time in building students' interactive skills early in the year by explicitly teaching and debriefing group interactions. They deal with group conflicts immediately by teaching students how to solve problems for themselves.

Modeling. Through our interactions with students we model how to treat one another and thus build community in our classroom. Our students are always looking to us as the exemplars. Fish bowl observations allow us to formally model group interactions and make the implicit explicit. (See this example of a teacher introducing the Ladder of Feedback using the Fish Bowl technique).

Language. Many conflicts and misunderstandings occur through misinterpretation of what others are trying to communicate. Learning the language of listening, accountable talk, the language of feedback, and how to ask clarifying and probing questions, are helpful tools to avoid such miscommunication. Fish Bowl observations can be a tool for modeling such language moves.

Environment. The physical environment of the classroom and school must be set up in a way that facilitates students learning in, from, and with groups. Create flexibie spaces that can easily be reconfigured into campfires, watering holes, and caves as needed. Desks in roles communicates that learning is a solo endeavor in which one merely listens to and watches the teacher.

Expectations. Learning in, from, and with groups is the expectation of the class not the exception. Students come to expect that they learn through active discussion, that their ideas contribute to the whole, that they are not in the classroom as solo agents but as collective partners.

"Real learning does not happen until students are brought into relationship with the teacher, with each other, and with the subject. We cannot learn deeply and well until a community of learning is created in the classroom.
"

- Palmer (1993)

"If you want to go quickly, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.
"

- African proverb, cited by Dr. Ahmed Djoghlaf, Executive Secretary of the Convention on Biological Diversity on the Occasion of the Singapore Environment Lecture 2008

"[A community of learners] relies on the development of a discourse genre in which constructive discussion, questioning, querying, and criticism are the mode rather than the exception. In time, these reflective activities become internalized as self-reflective practices and foster children's growing theories of learning"

- Brown, Ann L. (1997). Transforming Schools Into Communities of Thinking and Learning About Serious Matters. The American Psychologist, 52(4), 399-413.

"Work together, brainstorm possibilities, pool knowledge and insights, conduct collective analyses, critique each other, and draw energy from a common goal."

- Halpern, R., Heckman, P., & Larson, R. (2013). Realizing the Potential of Learning in Middle Adolescence (pp. 1-24).

"in a school or classroom· functioning as a learning
group, adults and children feel like they are part of something larger than themselves that has meaning beyond what each individual has learned."

- Krechevsky, M., & Stork, J. (2000). Challenging educational assumptions: Lessons from an Italian-American collaboration. Cambridge Journal of Education, 30(1), 57-74.

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#6 Collective Learning - Cultures of Thinking in Action

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Schools have tended to see learning as an individual endeavor built on compliance and competition, and punctuated by awards, prizes, and levels of attainment ( 7). This is particularly prevalent in the United States, where the "prescription for success was and is a blend of pioneer spirit, self-assertion, individual ingenuity, and individual effort" ( 17).

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Why It Matters

"Learning is a consequence of thinking. Retention, understanding, and the active use of knowledge can be brought about only by learning experiences in which learners think about and think with what they are learning." ( 1). This very succinct and straightforward statement by Professor David Perkins perfectly sums up why we as teachers should care about thinking. To be sure, we can train people in various skills and get them to memorize information through rote practice, but real learning, that is, the learning we can use, apply, transfer, work with flexibly and retain for the long haul, requires thinking. It is thinking that builds understanding and promotes deep learning.

Whereas we often talk about knowledge in a possessive sense-that is, something we have or can lay claim to-understanding is "a matter of being able to carry out a variety of performances concerning the topic" ( 2). It requires us to go beyond the information given to produce something new. There are 3 key elements that underlie understanding, all of which are rooted in learner's thinking:

1. The integration of new knowledge with prior knowledge to form a coherent understanding of the topic at hand.

2. The development of conceptual schema to facilitate retrieval and application of information. These schemas are what helps make learning powerful. They aid in the retrieval of new information, the learning of new information, and the freeing of brain power when engaging in content. The more connections we establish, the more powerful our learning becomes ( 3).

3. Metacognition, or the thinking about how we think ( 4, 5). Our reflection on our learning can serve to "lock in" our learning, helping to solidify it, and enhance retention ( 4).

Incorporating these principles into teaching have been shown to be particularly important for learning and understanding as they help to organize information and provide structure to understanding( 5).

Engaging in thought-fueled learning allows students to be more sensitive to context and perspective, leading to more control over their experiences. Research by John Hattie reveals that thought-filled learning and metacognition are associated with above average effective sizes and thus more positive learning outcomes. These include such practices as reciprocal teaching in which the thinking process is externalized through conversation (effect size = 0.74), metacognitive strategies (0.69), self-verbalization (0.64), concept mapping (0.57), and comprehension strategies (0.77-0.58) ( 6).

Research has also shown that the regular use of thinking routines to prompt, support, and scaffold student thinking produces better learning outcomes ( 7, 8). However, it is not nearly enough simply to teach and use these thinking routines in the classrooms-- students must learn when to use them and be able to use them across various contexts. Research suggests that thinking strategies and routines are "most effective when students integrate and flexibly use reading and thinking strategies across a wide variety of texts and in the context of a challenging, engaging curriculum" ( 9). Overall, when teachers place the focus of the classroom on thinking and understanding rather than performance and completion, students will be able to engage fully with their learning and make it their own.

So, thinking matters, but what kinds of thinking are most useful in promoting deep learning and understanding? The Understanding Map identifies eight thinking moves that are central to the enterprise of building understanding: seeing, noticing, and describing what's there; wondering and questioning; considering different viewpoints and perspectives; reasoning with evidence; uncovering complexity; making connections; building explanations and interpretations; and capturing the heart and forming conclusions. We wouldn't necessarily engage in all of these in a single episode of learning, but over the course of a unit of instruction, it is certainly possible to make sure we provide students opportunities to engage in them.

Although thinking is central to the enterprise of building understanding, we shouldn't draw too sharp a line between understanding and knowledge acquisition when it comes to thinking. Thinking yields benefits in knowledge acquisition as well. Information-what we have heard, read, or seen- that does not make sense to us is quickly forgotten. Thus, understanding benefits retention. When new knowledge is connected to our prior knowledge, it is not only easier to recall but easier to apply. Engaging in self-questioning that takes one deeper into the content has been shown to be an effective study technique with results equal to self-quizzing ( 10). Trying to explain concepts to oneself or someone else, the central process in the Feynman Learning Technique, builds both understanding and knowledge ( 11).

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#5 Thinking - Cultures of Thinking in Action

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"Learning is a consequence of thinking. Retention, understanding, and the active use of knowledge can be brought about only by learning experiences in which learners think about and think with what they are learning." ( 1). This very succinct and straightforward statement by Professor David Perkins perfectly sums up why we as teachers should care about thinking.

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Interactions and the relationships that get built through those interactions are the prime cultural force implicated by principle #4. Our interactions must show a respect for and an interest in our students' thinking, their ideas, and what they contribute to the class community as a whole. It is important that our interactions be sincere, honest, and genuine. This often takes the form of being curious about our students and who they are. It also means approaching misbehavior from a frame of curiosity to try to understand the situation, what motivated it, and how it can be repaired rather than from a punitive stance. Take students seriously as important people who have something to contribute to the world.

Time. Teachers invest time in building quality relationships early in the year. Think of this as social capital that will pay off when the going gets rough or there is a need to troubleshoot or intervene.

Modeling. Through our interactions with students we model how to treat one another and thus build community in our classroom.

Language. When students misbehave, be wary of using words like "should" that carry judgment, and avoid language that assigns blame. Don't say you're "shocked" or "appalled," for example. Similarly, sarcasm, name-calling, and threats are unproductive and only serve to humiliate students. Watch your body language and tone to project both openness and caring. Use "we" to include yourself and create community wherever you can.

Environment. Make sure the physical environment has representations of ALL students' backgrounds, cultures, genders, neighborhoods, and sexualities in the visuals, literature, and examples in my classroom. Organize seating to facilitate community and communication. Can students see one another when talking?

Routines. Don't expect students to know how to interact, collaborate, listen or even talk to one another appropriately and effectively at the beginning of the year. Use routines and protocols that help students learn these behaviors.

Opportunities. Create opportunities for growth and challenge while providing support (i.e., be a Warm Demander). Press for thinking and push for quality. Allow students to take risks, try new things, exert control, and learn from their mistakes. Involve students in decision making and share power.

Expectations. Encourage students to live up to their potential and take responsibility for their actions. Communicate that you believe in students not just in the short term but also in the long-haul.

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#4 Feeling Known - Cultures of Thinking in Action

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Interactions and the relationships that get built through those interactions are the prime cultural force implicated by principle #4. Our interactions must show a respect for and an interest in our students' thinking, their ideas, and what they contribute to the class community as a whole.

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Why it Matters

Every school and classroom transmits messages about learning: what it looks like, how it happens, what is worth learning, what it means to be good in school, to be smart, and so on ( 30). These messages get transmitted through the behaviors, actions, and structures that we put in place. The messages we send through our actions become our story of learning or what Larry Cuban and others call the grammar of school ( 4). This grammar shapes the way we organize schools, conceive of the curriculum, and importantly the roles student and teachers are expected to play. For much of history, this has meant teachers as the authority and control figures delivering information to students as receptive vessels expected to follow directions and comply ( 22, 29, 9, 10). Schools remain the way they are partly because students and teachers have become socialized in the established ways of doing things and have come to see established practices as "necessary features of a 'real school'" ( 38).

To tell a new story and reshape the grammar of schools, we need to examine the role of the student and teacher (see Exhibit 1). As the Canadian researchers Berierter and Scardemalia ( 1) so eloquently note: The [cognitive] skills a student will acquire in an instructional interaction are those that are required by the student's role in the interaction. Thus, we must constantly be aware of the roles we are setting for our students. We identify four important dimensions on which this might happen: 1) toward more student agency and empowerment and away from total teacher control, 2) toward more student talk and more teacher listening, 3) toward more student problem solving and initiative and away from teacher rescuing, and 4) toward co-construction of curriculum and assessment. It is important to note that while this narrative is a departure from traditional school, it is not new. We see threads of all these ideas in the teachings of Socrates, the work of Freire and Malaguzzi, and the writings of Dewey and Foucault.
Toward more Student Agency and Empowerment and away from Total Teacher Control
Schools have traditionally focused on producing compliant and conforming learners within a power dynamic where teachers exert control and authority. While this system may make students easier to manage and schools more orderly, it has its cost when it comes to learning. When teachers hold all the power and make all decisions in the classroom, students' levels of engagement decrease significantly ( 39). In addition, such environments don't provide students the opportunity to develop as independent, self-regulating learners, capable of decision making and critical thinking ( 8, 35, 37).

In a culture of thinking, we envision students as more engaged and empowered learners ( Exhibit 2). To accomplish this, teachers must share power. This is accomplished as teachers gradually build students' capabilities and provide them with opportunities to exert greater control and choice over the direction and form their learning may take ( 3). Gradually releasing control to permit greater agency and choice to students helps students develop as responsible, independent learners ( 14). Thus, sharing power is not a zero-sum game. The teacher does not need to lose power for students to gain it. It is more a matter of developing students' capacity for self-direction, trusting them, and allowing them to take responsibility for their learning. When students have more autonomy over their learning processes, they develop a strong sense of "personal meaningfulness in the process and content,' resulting in increased engagement (12). Furthermore, having choice and being able to set one's direction is associated with positive feelings of "autonomy, motivation, and healthy functioning," which enhances one's intrinsic motivation ( 27, 31) as well as increasing "effort, task performance, and perceived competence ( 27).
Toward more Student Talk and more Teacher Listening
On average, teacher talk takes up 70 to 80% of all the talk done in classrooms ( 17). Teachers may dominate classrooms with their own talk for fear that a lack sufficient explanation on their part could lead to misconceptions among students, while others talk to ensure that students have all the information they need in order to complete a task or assignment ( 6). When teacher talk dominates in the classroom, students are "swiftly disenfranchised by hierarchical models of education" which "inhibits their curiosity and initiative" ( 25). Without opportunities to talk, not only are students unable to clarify their understanding, but also teachers lose out on the chance to monitor students' learning and intervene appropriately ( 7). The process of articulating one's thoughts facilitates the learning process. As a result, in many classrooms, teachers, rather than the students are doing most of the thinking ( 7). Through classroom discussions, students learn the norms of discourse and develop the skills to explain their reasoning, provide evidence for their claims, and respectfully critique arguments, all of which are the part of the democratic discourse in civic life ( 23). Increasing the amount of academic discourse in mathematics classrooms has been shown to improve learning outcomes for ELL and low-income students ( 18). When the learning environment promotes classroom talk, students are consistently explaining and justifying their thinking, encouraging deep learning that mere didactic instruction cannot achieve ( 13).

When teachers really listen to their students; students feel heard, cared for, and valued as individuals ( 32). Listening allows us as teachers to better understand who our learners are, their passions, and what they are curious about ( 26). This gives us information that could be useful and important for designing and delivering deeper learning experiences ( 26). "Listening is the zone in which inquiry happens, in which questions arise and tug at us and the seeds of ideas germinate" (Gillian Parrish in ( 34). When teachers listen, we are modelling "dialogue, collaboration, creativity and compassion" ( 34). When teachers take on the role of the listener they shift the ownership of learning to the students, allowing them to engage in deeper learning and develop the skills needed to become active members in the community ( 23, 28).
Productive Struggle
Princple #7 talks extensively about the importance of challenge to our learning, but the idea deserves mention here as well with regards to teacher and student roles. In order for students to develop a sense of initiative, self-efficacy, and resilience they must be given roles in the classroom that require those skills ( 1). By the same token, we as teachers have to be careful of assuming the role or rescuer in which we rob students of the opportunity to develop these attributes. Too many students today find themselves ill-prepared for the rigors of college and professional life as they have grown up in a culture of "safetyism", which has led to them becoming more fragile and less resilient ( 16). Very often, when teachers notice a student stuck midway through a task or assignment, they are quick to dive in to "rescue them" ( 36). This is because of a fear that students may perceive the "struggle" as a lack of support and the frustration they experience could push them to become completely disengaged ( 7). While it is true that teachers should create a supportive environment where learning is scaffolded within a zone of proximal development, overly protective practices or "helicopter teaching" is "counterproductive to building independent, confident, and creative students" ( 20) and may produce learned helplessness in which students lose their sense of agency and competence (Seifert, 2004). While students may perceive that they learning more from "hand-holding" or "spoon feeding" by the teachers; this is not necessarily true. Students often misperceive that they are learning more from didactic instruction, when they actually have a deeper understanding of the material when they are active participants in the classroom ( 5).
Toward co-construction of curriculum and assessment
Curriculum and assessment are two areas in which students-and sometimes even teachers-can feel disenfranchised by mandates and controls from outside the classroom. Often these are viewed as an immutable aspect of the grammar of schools put in place to perpetuate the status quo. Indeed, they can be quite effective at doing so. A different perspective is to view curriculum and assessments as flexible structures to which students can add their voice rather than as immutable scripts to which both teachers and students must adhere ( 15, 19). The idea of co-construction implies that both students and teachers contribute their ideas and evaluations to both the form and content of curriculum and assessments in a dynamic, creative interaction ( 21). Although some might refer to this as providing voice and choice ( 24), co-construction involves entering into a true collaboration with our students. By placing students in this new role of co-constructors, they have the opportunity to develop imagination, creativity, and originality. While the roles of students and teachers in co-creation are similar in that both bring ideas and meanings to the enterprise, they are different in that students' ideas may not always be directly contributed. Instead, they may come in the form of clues about the kinds of learning students are ready for. The "clues received from students help a teacher to be a mediator, an agent between curriculum and students" ( 19). Thus, teachers are still in charge of major decisions about the curriculum but are doing so based on clues they receive from students.

What It Looks and Sounds Like

Of course, there is no one way that beginning to change traditional students and teacher roles will look and sound. There is ample room for individuals to add their own creativity and stamp on things. The list below is a sampling of ideas that might be useful to advance your practice.

Provide opportunities for students to learn from one another and to teach others.

Allow students to lead discussions with their peers through structures such as Leaderless Discussion, Reciprocal Teaching, or The Harkness Method.

Actively build the foundation of skills students will need to direct, monitor, and control their own learning and then look for occasions when you can step back so that students can step forward.

Plan for occasions when you will actively listen to your students so that you can learn from their conversations. At times, this may mean refraining from interjecting and conversing so as not to change the conversation that is happening. Document and reflect on what you learned from the listening.

Pay attention to the clues students provide about their interests, passions, and questions. These do not always directly announce themselves, particularly with young children.

Use protocols and routines to help structure students' discussions with each other such as the Micro Lab protoco l.

Treat the curriculum not as a contract but as a guide. Look for opportunities to connect the curriculum to students' lives and interest while still achieving prescribed objectives.

Invite students into the assessment process by engaging in meaningful self and peer assessments focused on feedback and continuous improvement.

Use student-led conferences focused on students' learning as a reporting mechanism to parents and families.

Scaffold learning by using questions, prompts, or cues to guide students rather than providing them with direct explanations, which can discourage engagement, reduce exploration, and limit innovation ( 2).

Employ a flexible seating strategy to allow students more self-direction, greater collaboration, enhanced sense of community, and ability to determine and fulfill their needs.

Create time for student self-directed learning such as genius hour, choice time, or 20% time.

Make time for student questioning of themselves, ideas, and you. Expect questions by asking: "What are your questions?" rather than "Are there any questions?"

Work with students to find out how feedback can be useful for them by asking, "How are you using the feedback I'm giving to help you learn better?" "If they are able to answer the question well, the feedback is probably effective. If they are not able to answer the question, ask them what they would find useful."

Enlist students in helping you curate, design, and organize the learning space of your classroom so it belongs to them as well as to you.

Create tasks that are sufficiently complex to earn student attention and effort. If tasks are not complex, with little chance of productive failure, students will divide and conquer them. If tasks are more complex, students tend to talk with one another as they attempt to solve the problem ( 7).

Avoid stepping in to rescue students by solving their problems, making their decisions, or doing the thinking for them. Allow students to struggle a little; gives students tasks that allow them to experience productive failure. Allow them to wrestle with a problem, fail and try again.

Teach students what good discussions and productive group learning looks like by using techniques such as the fishbowl or by sharing videos of productive group work from previous years. Do this repeatedly over time and with practice, students will start to incorporate these behaviors.

Teach students to use accountable talk that focuses on listening and their own connecting ideas to others.

Move from teacher-centric language (I want you to do...) to student-centric language (Our goal here is for us to...).

Shift the teachers' desk away from the front of the room, as the teacher's desk is often seen as both a symbol of authority and a point of surveillance. Placing it in the front of the classroom (even if offset) can be symbolic of the teacher as transmitting knowledge rather than it being constructed together.

Use a flipped classroom model to change the role of teacher and class time is about the delivery of information and instead becomes focused on the discussion, exploration, and questioning of ideas.

Involve students in the direct communication with their parents about their learning, its progress, challenges, and plans rather than shouldering all of this burden yourself.

Reflecting on Your Teaching

These questions are meant to push your thinking beyond where you are currently. Perhaps they might even make you a bit uncomfortable. Pick a question or questions that will help you better understand the effects of your actions, critically reflect on them, provoke additional questions, and/or help you think about future actions and possibilities. If you find yourself merely explaining what you currently are doing, chances are you might be reporting more than reflecting. C onsider selecting another prompt that might take you deeper into examining your practice.

How am I soliciting, reviewing, and incorporating students' input and feedback when trying to improve my practice?

Where do students have a voice in meaningful shaping their experience, lives, and learning in your classroom and at your school? To what extent allowed to be decision makers in this process or are all ideas and suggestions subject to veto?

When was the last time a discussion in your class was mostly student-led? How did that go? Where do students need more supports, structures, language, or tools to take on even a greater role in leading the discussion? How will you do that?

In a typical class period with your students, how many minutes do you estimate are spent a) you talking to students, b) students responding to you, c) students engaging in meaningful dialogue with each other, or d) students working on their own? How might you get a more accurate measurement of these times?

How effective is the seating arrangement in your classroom in terms of facilitating both productive learning and student self-direction? Do you use seating charts to control students or have you developed guidelines that permit effective and organized flexible seating as an option for students in the classroom?

How do you engage students in creating classroom procedures, policies, norms and/or ways of being in the classroom? Do these play a meaningful life in the classroom or were they merely a beginning of the year exercise? Are these guidelines evaluated, reviewed, and discussed with regard to their effectiveness?

When a discussion isn't taking off during class, what strategies do you use to move the conversation deeper, to elicit more voices, and to get students talking to each other rather than through you?

How are you helping students to improve in their self and peer assessments? How often do they have an opportunity to practice these skills in a meaningful context?

Is it difficult for you to allow students to work through a challenges on their own? How might you offer support and encouragement through your questioning rather than by stepping in solving things?

Do you find yourself physically holding the text, turning the pages, and pointing to difficult parts as your reader(s) sits back, physically uninvolved?

Where and when was the last time you found yourself just listening to your students without intervening? Where was a time you wish you could have a "do over" so that you could be a listener rather than an interjector?

When you go over to a group of students working/discussing, is your first instinct to listen or to question?

At the end of your last class, who was working harder during the lesson, you or your students?

Using Quick Data to Inform Your Efforts

Use Conversation Mapping to create a visual snapshot of the flow of conversation in a discussion, capturing who participates, when, and how often. Begin by creating a diagram with all students' names as they appear in the seating arrangement (a table, circle, or rectangular arrangement is likely to work best and facilitate mapping). Be sure to include yourself on the map as well. When the discussion begins, you, a colleague, or even a student will draw a line inside the circle from the first speaker to the second speaker. Next, draw a line linking the second speaker and the third speaker, and so on. Gradually, you will create a continuous web of lines that show the flow of the conversation. If possible, you may want to number each contribution to show you the order in which people spoke. This process can also be done using various tech tools such as Equity Maps for the iPad or the Meeting Hog app for the phone (let's you track how long individuals talk). You might also want to consider making note of different conversation moves (connecting on, respectful disagreement, raising questions, bringing in new perspectives, ans so on) that students use or their use of accountable talk.

Questions to Consider from the Quick Data:

What interesting or surprising details, moments, or events from the conversation do you recall? Why were they interesting?

What is interesting, surprising, or confirming about looking at the conversation in this way?

What patterns, trends, or flows do you notice?

Was this a balanced conversation? an equitable conversation? a lopsided conversation? a rich conversation? a fruitful conversation? What makes you say that?

Did students listen to each other in the conversation as evidenced by how they built on, connect to, or recognized the contributions of others?

Who didn't speak? Why might this have happened? How might you help this student to find their voice and contribute a bit more?

Who dominated? Do you think these individuals were aware of their dominating the conversation? How can you help them to share the air?

Where were there productive moments of silence for individuals to reflect, compose, and organize their thoughts?

Where and when will your return this to your students for their examination and reflection?

Connection to the 8 Cultural Forces

Interactions. Through our interactions with students we establish roles for ourselves and for our students. The skills a student will acquire in any instructional interaction are those that are determined by their role in that interaction (Scardemalia). If student role is compliant worker and answer giver, they acquire the skills of compliance, work completion, and memorizer. If on the other hand, the students role is a curious, self-directed, reasoner, they will acquire the skills of questioning, self-manager, and evidence provider. Our interactions with students can also reinforce a traditional power dynamic or share power by developing students capacity to self-direct and manage their learning.

Time. We teachers frequently use up a lot of the air time in classrooms with our talk and questioning (up to 80%). As we listen more, invite student voices in, and encourage student ownership of discussion, teacher talk will become a less dominate force and a more equitable balance of time will occur.

Modeling. Many of the skills of self-direction and organization are taught through our modeling of how we do this. Some times this may be modeled in a think aloud, through a fishbowl demonstration, or in the way we organize a class.

. Our language of praise, feedback, community, and initiative all contribute to helping students take a more active role in the classroom, seeing themselves as capable learners, developing skills in self-direction, and promoting community. Accountable talk helps students learn how to converse in a community of learners.

Environment. Walking into a classroom, the physical arrangement of the furniture can sometimes tell us a lot about the power dynamics in the class. Where is the teacher's desk? How are desks or tables arranged? Are seats assigned and fixed for the entire day? Are materials accessible to students?

. For students to take more control of their learning, they will need tools and structures for doing so. Protocols such as Leaderless Discussion and Micro Lab help students develop skills in listening and directing their own conversations. Uses structures for peer feedback such as SAIL and the Ladder of Feedback, help students become better at self-assessment.

Opportunities. When students have opportunities to direct and manage their learning though personal inquiry, genius hour, 20% time, or some other avenues they learn to become more self-directed, passionate learners. As do opportunities for self and peer assessment.

Expectations. As teachers, we must have expectations for engagement in learning and empowerment as learners, expecting that students will develop these abilities during their time with us.

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#3 Role of T & Student - Cultures of Thinking in Action

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Every school and classroom transmits messages about learning: what it looks like, how it happens, what is worth learning, what it means to be good in school, to be smart, and so on ( 30). These messages get transmitted through the behaviors, actions, and structures that we put in place.

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Why It Matters

The question, "Who are our students becoming as thinkers and learners as a result of their time with us?" is an important question for us to be asking ourselves as educators and is central to the goal of creating a culture of thinking ( 1). We view a quality education as one that develops the thinking dispositions of our students ( 2). Dispositions go by many names: traits, inherent qualities, aspects of character, virtues, makeup, nature, and habits. By whatever name, dispositions constitute a person's character-both who they are and who they are becoming. As teachers, we seek to develop students who not only can read, but who do read. We want students who are not just capable of asking questions but who regularly do so. We desire students who not only stop and reflect on their learning when asked to do so, but who engage in this action spontaneously as they see the need for it ( 3).

Dispositions matter because they tie together observed abilities and skills with future potential and action. For instance, when we call someone reflective, it is because we have observed that behavior in the past and predict it will likely be the case in the future. Thus, dispositions bridge the ability-action gap, serving as a motivating force that propels action. If we have a disposition toward open-mindedness, we are more likely to spot occasions to be open-minded and to act upon those occasions by deploying our skills in this area ( 4). This motivation of action is precisely that makes the construct of thinking dispositions so compelling to educators ( 5).

As we have shown, nurturing students' dispositional development is an important outcome of education. The problem, though, is that dispositions cannot be directly taught. Transmission-style teaching, where students passively receive information about a valued behavior, is insufficient to develop dispositions, especially a sensitivity to occasions for the use of that disposition and an inclination toward its use ( 4). We can't merely teach a unit on curiosity, have a month devoted to "risk-taking," and then the next month move on to "balance." Simply filling the walls with pretty posters extolling the virtues of serial list of habits of mind is unlikely to have much effect either. As Alfie Kohn notes, "This seriatim approach is unlikely to result in a lasting commitment to any of these values, much less a feeling for how they may be related" ( 6,7). It is not enough for teachers to say what they believe in or what they want to happen in the classroom: students need to see it in action.

If dispositions cannot be directly taught, what do we do? The short answer, not the easy answer, is that we must enculturate them. That is, we must allow students to develop them through the culture. The culture of the classroom must inspire and encourage their development by providing models of the dispositions valued, rich opportunities to put them into action, and an expectation that dispositional development is a central, not just a peripheral, part of a well-rounded education. All eight cultural forces must be leveraged in such a way that they send the message that thinking dispositions, their use and development, are central to the mission of the group. As the psychologist Lev Vygotsky famously said, "Children grow into the intellectual life of those around them." When students are a part of a culture that sends messages about the value of thinking and that supports its development, then students tend to take on these values.

Culture lives in the messages we send and in the stories we tell. All schools communicate to students a story of learning: how learning happens, what is worthwhile to learn, what it means to be smart, how we recognize when learning has happened, the nature of knowledge, and so on. When beliefs about knowledge and the processes used to build understanding are regularly modeled, supported, and expected, then students come to take on and internalize these messages ( 17).

So what dispositions should we prioritize and promote? To be sure, many different lists abound from various sources: Habits of Mind, Intellectual Virtues, 21st Century Skills, the IB Learner Profile, and various lists of Thinking Dispositions. As positive and useful as these lists are, they tend to be rather long and can sometimes seem like a grab-bag of somewhat broad, nebulous, and at times overlapping items. Ron Ritchhart ( 5) analyzed many of these proposed lists to identify six dispositions that seemed to appear on almost everyone's list and were well supported by psychological research. These six include the disposition to be open-minded, curious, metacognitive, a seeker of truth and understanding, strategic, and skeptical. Of these, two have emerged as what we might call "master dispositions" when it comes to learning and thinking: curiosity and metacognition.

Susan Engel has called curiosity the engine of learning. She notes that children's questioning naturally drives learning outside the classroom but this drops off dramatically in the classroom. The frequency of episodes of curiosity (through questions, direct gazing, and manipulating objects) diminishes as students progress through elementary school. Her research concluded that pressure on teachers to cover content (finish the worksheet rather than have fun exploring the discipline) leads to discouraging curiosity ( 8). Neuroscientist, Dr. Matthias Gruber, used fMRI scans to better understand the effects of curiosity on learning. He found that curiosity puts the brain in a state that allows it to learn and retain almost any kind of information and makes the process more rewarding to the learner ( 9). It is not surprising then that curiosity, what some researchers call motivational giftedness, has been linked to academic success in schools ( 9,10, 11, 12). Promoting curiosity may be particularly valuable for traditionally under-served students (1 0, 11). While curiosity's link to learning and inquiry is well established, recent studies have shown a strong link to other outcomes, such as happiness, creativity, satisfying intimate relationships, increased personal growth after traumatic experiences, and enhanced individuals perception that their life had meaning ( 9).

Metacognition involves reflecting on, actively monitoring, and effectively directing one's thinking. Metacognitive processes aid retention and transfer while promoting deeper learning ( 13). Through metacognition students become self-aware as learners. They recognize how they are learning, their learning pitfalls, how they might to grow in their learning, and when to ask for help. This self-awareness leads to self-regulated learning and increased student motivation ( 14). Teaching metacognitive strategies, modeling them, and actively encouraging their use has been shown to greatly aid learning and academic performance. Evidence shows teaching metacognitive strategies can substantially improve student learning. John Hattie's seminal meta-analysis of education intervention measured the average effect size of metacognitive strategies at 0.69, putting it near the top of influential teaching practices ( 15). The Australian Teaching and Learning Toolkit reports an impact equivalent to 8 additional months of progress for students. This means students in a class where metacognitive strategies are regularly taught, demonstrated, encouraged, and supported can be expected to make, on average, eight months more progress over the course of a year compared to a comparable class of students not receiving such learning opportunities ( 16).

What It Looks and Sounds Like

Of course, there is no one way that the enculturation of dispositions will look and sound. There is ample room for individuals to add their own creativity and stamp on things. The list below is a sampling of ideas that might be useful to advance your practice.

Leverage the 8 Cultural Forces (present in every classroom) to create a culture that sends consistent, coherent, cohesive, and robust messages about thinking and learning. Be alert to mixed messages, and messages that communicate learning occurs simply through transmission, memorization, in isolation, or only for the gifted few.

Identify a few core dispositions of learning and thinking that you want students at your school to acquire. While you may use lists from various sources, try to identify just a few (say 3) that you really care about and think are important. Consider these dispositions as student entitlement. Establish where, when, and how students will have opportunities to practice and acquire these dispositions.

Be the image of a thinker and learner we want our students to be. This means you model your own curiosity, engagement, reflection, learning from mistakes, healthy skepticism, and so forth.

Encourage and appreciate student questioning and curiosity while providing time and space for them to pursue some of their curiosities.

Think aloud and verbalize your thinking as you work through problems and make decisions so students can see and hear it.

Provide instruction that challenges students to ask questions, probe assumptions, seek justifications rather than requiring students to passively take in information.

Allow students to spot occasions for thinking as opposed to over-structuring tasks that eliminate such opportunities. Encourage metacognitive conversations that invite students to identify the thinking they will need, plan appropriate strategies, monitor their progress, and reflect on outcomes (see Exhibit 1).

Make reflection on learning and teaching a regular part of the classroom.

Use thinking routines to scaffold and support students' thinking with an eye toward making the thinking itself routine.

Foster an intellectually safe classroom and encourage learning from mistakes.

Reflecting on Your Teaching

Reflect on what gets valued, shared, and celebrated in your classroom:

What kind of thinking do you wish were routine in your classroom? Why isn't it already? What can you do to make it more of a regular and necessary part of learning in your classroom?

Where, when, and how do my students get an image of me as a thinker and a learner? What is that image?

What dispositions do I wish my students came to my class already possessing? Why are these important to me? What dispositions do students leave my class possessing?

Who are my students becoming as thinkers and learners as a result of their time with me? What types of data might I need to collect to better answer this question?

Where and when in the curriculum are there opportunities for students to develop their thinking dispositions?

When was the last time I noticed, named, and highlighted students thinking and dispositional behavior? How can I help myself to do this more often?

Using Quick Data to Inform Your Efforts

Carolyn Taylor says, "Culture is about messages sent. These messages demonstrate what is valued, what is important, what people do around here to fit in, to be accepted, and to be rewarded" ( 18). These messages are mostly nonverbal in nature, living in the symbols, behaviors, and systems of a group or organization. The culture of a school then, might have very little to do with its goals or mission statement, which are largely aspirational. To understand the culture of a place, we need to look at what messages are sent. One way to do this is to conduct a "ghost walk" to identify what messages your school is sending about what the school community values, cares about, and thinks is important.

Questions to Consider from the Quick Data gained from a Ghost Walk:

What interesting or surprising details did you notice?

What questions or reflections did the ghost walk evoke?

What do you think students would say your school values, tries to promote, and celebrates based on the overall messaging you noticed?

What kinds of personal as well as school-wide changes can be made to enhance the message that your that school is a culture of thinking and you care about who students are becoming as thinkers and learners?

Connection to the 8 Cultural Forces

Expectations. Dispositional growth and development need to be central to our mission as educators and communicated to our students as an important outcome. It is preferable to focus on just a few dispositions that you really care about and want to make live in your classroom than a long list.

Modeling. Children grow into the intellectual life around them. We must surround our students with models of the dispositions we are after. This is not the kind of modeling that we announce and put on display for examination (though that has its place). This is the modeling of who we are as thinkers and learners. Do students see our passion, curiosity, mindful reflection, and so on? This kind of modeling cannot be faked or put on; it is who we are.

Opportunities. We must provide students with opportunities to engage their dispositions, to learn in the company of adults through their actions and efforts. Students will not develop curiosity if there is no room or opportunity for it in the classroom. We must give them the opportunity to spot occasions (awareness is a key component of dispositions) for thinking and provide scaffolding and structure only as it is needed.

Routines. The use of routines provides an opportunity for students to develop the skill component of a disposition. Skill+inclination+awareness of occasions are required in a disposition, so there is a role for developing skills. However, what is important is the use of the routines over time. Through their regular use, it is the thinking itself the becomes routine. Thus, students may develop the disposition to see and notice, to reason with evidence, and to wonder through their use of a routine like See-Thinking-Wonder.

Environment. Be ware of simply hanging up posters with a list of dispositions you have obtained from an outside source. While these may be useful, they might communicate to students, "Here is a list of things some outsider says I should care about." How might you create your own graphics and posters that speak to your class? How else might the physical environment be used to promote dispositional growth? For an example, take a look at the book Unnecessarily Beautiful Spaces for Young Minds on Firein which the physical environment is used to help foster dispositions of wonder, curiosity, imagination, and creativity.

Language. Through our language we can notice, name, and highlight dispositional actions when they occur in the classroom and thus draw attention to them and reinforce students' accomplishments. A simple, "Wow, I love the curiosity/reasoning/skepticism you all are displaying," communicates to students that dispositions are something you value and notice.

Interactions. In our interactions with students, we can give feedback on their development as thinkers and learners. We listen to and show a valuing of our students as engaged learners and thinkers.

Time. We must take the long view when it comes to dispositional development. As opposed to a skill that can be demonstrated and practiced, dispositions are the development of patterns of behavior.

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#2 Dispositions - Cultures of Thinking in Action

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The question, "Who are our students becoming as thinkers and learners as a result of their time with us?" is an important question for us to be asking ourselves as educators and is central to the goal of creating a culture of thinking ( 1).

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Activities to build school-wide cultures of learning.

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Leaning is an active Process, you need to be engaged to Learn and you need to be empowered to be engaged

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Why It Matters

The pressure of mastery for academic skills sometimes pushes teachers to focus on transferring information at a quick pace, rather than taking the time to fully immerse students in the journey of learning, allowing them to grapple with ideas, sort through ambiguities, and deal with complexities ( 16). What gets lost is the opportunity for deep learning and rich understanding of the material-the very things needed for long-term retention and robust transfer ( 15).

In a study comparing American and Japanese teachers, researchers found that American teachers tended to demonstrate solutions to mathematical problems, whereas Japanese teachers allowed students to grapple with the problems and allowed time for solutions to be developed( 9, 24). When teachers-whether in America, Australia, or any other country-demonstrate solutions or "proceduralize" learning, they take away the challenge of problems, consequently converting problem-solving tasks into mere exercises in which students apply procedures/rules to a problem without the cognitive challenge that leads to deep learning ( 2, 4, 16). In fact, evidence shows that teachers' tendency to reduce the challenge of tasks in order to make tasks more manageable for students is common practice ( 2, 3, 23). This simplification often removes the very struggle that promotes students' learning and engagement ( 17). It is the struggle that fosters deep learning and understanding ( 13, 25).

Teachers unlikely to challenge their students if they do not view them as capable of complexity. Instead, the opposite happens: teachers engage in over-scaffolding, dumbing-down, and simplify the learning. To be sure, much of this rescuing behavior is done with good intentions. Teachers and parents think that, by making the material "easy" to grasp, they are giving students the opportunity to be successful. These teachers often focus on work completion rather than learning, on product rather than process, and on the short-term rather than the long haul. In studies of how teachers respond to students' struggles, teachers who evaluated students' responses as simply right or wrong tended to adapt tasks in ways that reduced the complexity of the tasks and simply made it possible for students to "get" right answers. In contrast, teachers who focused on understanding students' thinking were able to build on that thinking and make adaptations that enhanced both task complexity and students' opportunity to engage with the concepts ( 3). In studies of parents who regularly intervened to "help" children by taking over and completing the task for them, researchers found it had a negative effect on children's persistence and engagement with the tasks ( 12).

Another driver of both teachers' reduction of challenge and students' fear of it is that too many of us simply do not see the benefits of learning from our mistakes. We may have internalized society's message that mistakes are failures that reflect badly on us and thus must be avoided at all costs. However, research suggests that academic struggle is necessary for growth. Making mistakes, but more importantly learning from them, helps with brain growth and connectivity ( 1). Some of the highest achieving people in the world are those who have struggled the most. Simply put: if we are not struggling, we are not learning.

Given many teachers' efforts to reduce complexity, it may come as a surprise to learn that students report that they actually like and value a degree of cognitive complexity as well as the feeling of being pushed and challenged-as long as it is accompanied with support ( 8, 5, 11, 17). More demanding tasks encourage students to seek out connections in their learning, which keeps them more intrinsically interested, engaged, and motivated ( 8). The flipside is that when students don't feel like they are being cognitively challenged, they are more likely to disengage. National studies confirm that lack of challenge is a reason for disengagement in the classroom ( 8, 21, 22, 26).

Additionally, challenge helps students develop a growth mindset ( 6). As students learn to overcome challenges, they come to seechallenges and setbacks as a natural step in the process of learning ( 7). One study of students in Chile found that students with a growth mindset were 3 times more likely to score at the top 20% of the test, while students with a fixed mindset were 4 times more likely to score at the bottom 20% ( 19). Not only is a growth mindset associated with better performance and learning outcomes, but it also affects students' perceptions of schools. When students have a fixed mindset, schools are seen as threatening places where students have to prove their intelligence. In contrast, when students have a growth mindset, schools are viewed as exciting places filled with challenge and growth ( 19).

What constitutes a challenging task versus a task that is just hard? There are many ways in which tasks might be made both challenging and engaging. Dan Meyer argues that it is perplexity, not real-life application, that engages students in mathematics ( 17). He says that perplexity is simply the stuff of being perplexed. It is something that piques interest, which makes us want to know more, that has a bit of both mystery and complexity to it. Creating cognitive conflict is another way to create the conditions in which students want to learn how to think ( 18, 20). In science, challengingtasks require students to 1) use knowledge to explain observable phenomenon; 2) reason with observations and data to construct or evaluate explanatory models or theory; and 3) use evidence to develop arguments ( 10). Yet another way to challenge students is by placing them in the Zone of Proximal Development, the difference between what a learner can do without help and what they can achieve with guidance ( 14).

What It Looks and Sounds Like

Of course, there is no single way this principle will look and sound. There is ample room for individuals to add their own creativity and stamp on things. The list below is a sampling of ideas that might be useful to advance your practice.

Emphasize the process of learning over the final product. When students understand how they can control, direct, and change their own learning process (through their use of strategies, study habits, etc.), the more they will understand that they have the ability to tackle challenges.

Teach students that their intelligence can be developed and that they can "grow their brains." This growth occurs when we stretch, push, and press ourselves in new learning situations, causing the brain to create new connections between brain cells through a process that changes the balance of available neurotransmitters and changing how connections are made ( 27).

See all your students as powerful, capable learners and thinkers. Students can tell when a teacher doesn't believe in them, so this must be genuine.

Use the Learning Pit Model developed by James Nottingham ( 18) to help students visualize the learning process and understand why challenge is a necessary part of learning. See Exhibit 1.

Plan instruction using the Learning Pit's 4 Stages of Challenge ( 18). See Exhibit 2.

Provide feedback that acknowledges effort and actions more than ability. For instance, you might begin a feedback session by saying: "Let's talk about what you tried, and what you can try next." This helps students understand that making mistakes is okay but that they can overcome them ( 7).

Use routines like " I used to think...Now I think " to communicate that our learning, our thinking, our understanding is always changing, growing, and developing.

Understand that not all failure is productive nor does it stem from the same source. Mistakes fall into three broad categories: preventable, complexity-related, and intelligent. See the Spectrum of Failure ( 28) in Exhibit 3.

Talk about your own embrace of challenge, showing your student how you are stretching yourself, trying new things, growing and learning.

Celebrate mistakes as opportunities for learning. Use a routine such as "My Favorite No" to make this a normal part of your classroom (see resources below).

Create tasks with "Low Threshold, High Ceiling, and Wide Walls" that allow students to naturally self-differentiate and find their own point of challenge (see resource section below for video example).

Scaffold learning when needed but don't over scaffold. Don't rob students of the opportunity to problem solve and experiment.

Encourage productive struggle and support risk-taking (see Exhibit 4)

Make sure every unit of instruction is filled with worthwhile learning opportunities that ask students to engage in novel application, meaningful inquiry, and effective communication and that are valued by students (see Exhibit 5).

Make prototyping, drafting, trial runs, and experimentation a regular part of learning so that meaningful, productive mistakes happen.

Use structures such as the Ladder of Feedback or SAIL to encourage revision and growing ideas.

Allow opportunities for students to continue to learn even after a summative test. This might mean using master quizzes that focus only on items students initially missed, reflective test analysis, peer-to-peer teaching (see "Allowing Test Retakes" in resources for more ideas).

Reflecting on Your Teaching

Reflect on what gets valued, shared, and celebrated in your classroom:

Does my response to student mistakes indicate that I see mistakes as a sign of failure or an opportunity for learning?

What is celebrated in my classroom: grades, progress, personal growth, something else? How so?

What image do I hold in my head of each of my students as a learner? How does this image get translated into actions? Do my actions communicate that I have confidence that they are the sort of person who can come up with relevant questions, opinions, reasons, examples, and comparisons?

When my students fail, do I seek to understand why or do I simply assume it can always be attributed to either a lack of effort or ability?

Where was the challenge, the stretch, the press in my lesson today? Were all students' challenged or just some?

How am I finding the point of challenge for all of my students?

In what ways do I have a growth mindset and where do I have a fixed mindset? Note: Dweck has indicated we are all a mix of both and no one is completely 100% one or the other.

Where and when do I give students time for structured, meaningful reflection on their learning? Is this meaningfully influencing how students approach their learning in the next round? If so, how? If not, why not?

What was the last big challenge I faced? How did I tackle it? When and how might I share this story with my students?

Do I inadvertently put a ceiling or cap on tasks and assignments so that students stop work and learning once they have reached that ceiling? How might I raise or lift the ceiling so that all students can find their point of challenge?

When students complete a task or assignment easily and quickly, do I simply give them something else to do or do I redesign the task so that it is appropriately challenging for them?

Do I tend to rescue students when they struggle or do I encourage their initiative by asking questions that will encourage them to do the thinking?

Using Quick Data to Inform Your Efforts

At the end of a week of instruction, ask student to complete an Exit Ticket reflection for you on Where's the Stretch? The Exit Ticket consists of the following two questions:

Where were you stretched this week in your learning by the lessons, activities, and learning that we/you did? Tell me about why you selected that particular moment/event.

Where did you stretch or push yourself personally? Tell me about what you did, why, and how you felt about that.

While only two questions, it will be important to give students enough time to reflect on the entire week of learning and come up with the two events and to write about a paragraph for each. If this is the first time using these prompts, you will need to talk about the idea of a stretch in one's learning: what it looks like, what it feels like, and why it is important to our learning. This might include a discussion of why challenge matters and how it feeds learning. We use the word stretch to try and capture the sweet spot of learning, when things are not too easy but also not so difficult that they become out of reach.

If you are new to using Exit Tickets, a key part of their success is that teachers have to show their students that the time students spend on them matters-that we as teachers read them and use them in our planning. This often means sharing our insights and learning, and what are planning to do with it, with our students after we have read them.

Some things to think about as you read through students' responses:

What interesting or surprising details do you notice?

How are students' responses similar to what you expected and what is different?

Do students' response reflect that they understand the concept of a "stretch" versus something merely being difficult or hard? What lets you know that? If they don't, where, when, and how will you revisit that discussion?

Do students understand the idea of stretching or pushing themselves and how they might do that? What lets you know that? If they don't, where, when, and how will you revisit that discussion?

Do students' reactions to their stretches indicate that these moments produced joy, a sense of accomplishment, and a greater sense of self-efficacy as learners?

What do you notice about the types of learning opportunities that produced a stretch? Are there some common factors or elements you are noticing?

What did you notice about student learning (either as individuals or as a group) in the stretch moments they identified as you were teaching? Were you aware students were being stretched? Had you planned on that to happen or not? Did you press into it? Were there ways you might have pressed into it even more?

Are there students who cannot identify a stretch? Why do you think this is? How might you model, support, and help them to do so in the future?

How will you share what you have learned with your students the next time you see them? How will you use this data in your planning?

Connection to the 8 Cultural Forces

Interactions In our interactions with students, we can show that we believe in them as capable learners able to solve problems and build understanding. This doesn't mean we are not helpful, but we avoid rescuing students or doing the thinking for them. In addition, we press students in their thinking to push and advance their understanding by listening to them, questioning them, and allowing them to respond with elaborated thinking. We don't get frustrated when students make valid learning mistakes, but celebrate them as an opportunity to learn. Our feedback acknowledges effort and actions over ability.

Opportunities. We create learning opportunities that challenge students and engage them in productive struggle. These may be opportunities to explore big complex issues or those that contain a curious case of perplexity that will engage them. We seek to find the point of challenge for all students by creating low-threshold, high-ceiling tasks that self-differentiate. We create opportunities for trial runs, drafts, and prototyping, where the point is to learn from initial efforts. We create opportunities for reflection on the struggles of learning and the opportunity to learn from mistakes.

. As more experienced learners, we model how we deal with mistakes, frustrations, and failures when we encounter them ourselves. We might look at historical and current models of learning through trial and error and mistakes, highlighting the process of learning as one of continual growth. The Learning Pit ( 18), provides a visual model of the learning process so that students come to expect a period of confusion.

. We use the language of trials, drafts, prototype, first runs, and so on to give students a vocabulary to talk about an important phase of learning. We also have and can use a language of feedback (clarifying, valuing, questioning, suggesting). We use a language of learning more focused on effort, progress, and the future than on grades, performance, and ability: "Let's talk about what you tried, and what you can try next." " Where was the stretch for you in this? "

. We use routines that focus on reflection, such as ESP+I , I used to think..., and My Favorite No, which embed the view that learning is continually evolving and includes struggle. We use routines and protocols to support peer feedback and prototyping, such as SAIL and the Ladder of Feedback. We use routines to help students explore complex issues and ideas, such as Tug-of-War or 4 Corner Debate.

Expectations. When we hold the belief and expectation that learning is complex, multi-faceted, iterative in nature, and contains challenges, our students will gradually come to see it in a similar way (see Principle #2, reference 17). We also must believe that people can grow in their intelligence, having an understanding of and expectation for a growth mindset.

Time. Creating and realizing opportunities for challenge does take more time than simply delivering content and expecting students to memorize it. But this time is an investment in students' deeper learning that produces both more engagement and better academic performance in the long-run.

Environment. When the walls of our classroom celebrate the messy, inchoate, evolving, and complex nature of learning through the display of prototypes, reflections, analysis, and ongoing learning rather than simply products, we reinforce the message that this is how we view learning and that the process is as important to celebrate as the product, perhaps even more so.

Principle # 7 Learning occurs at the Point of Challenge

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#7 Point of Challenge - Cultures of Thinking in Action

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The pressure of mastery for academic skills sometimes pushes teachers to focus on transferring information at a quick pace, rather than taking the time to fully immerse students in the journey of learning, allowing them to grapple with ideas, sort through ambiguities, and deal with complexities ( 16).

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8 Cultural forces that define our classrooms

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8 Cultural forces that define our classrooms

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Mindset 3 Old teacher and new teachers.JPG

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The Jigsaw Method Teaching Strategy - TeachHUB

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Knowing how to successfully complete part of a whole task is a crucial life skill all students should have. Learn about the jigsaw method teaching strategy.

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Accountable discussion empowers students to draw up arguments based on evidence. Students learn how to respect the views of their peers while strengthening their communication skills. They get practice in being good conversationalists, participating in conversations in a polite manner.

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Why It Matters

For teachers to be able to create a classroom culture in which students think, inquire, collaborate, discuss, take risks, and learn from mistakes, teachers need to experience such learning for themselves. The way teachers get treated as learners by their ministries of education, state-level education departments, district-level administrators, and school principals, will get mirrored in their classrooms. If teachers are controlled and dictated to, they will control and dictate to their students. By the same token, if teachers are encouraged to innovate, collaborate, and inquire, they will promote these same processes in their classrooms.

We know that when teachers have the opportunity to actively engage in meaningful discussion, planning, and practice, their teaching and student outcomes improve ( 1). In a randomized, controlled study conducted in schools serving low-achieving students, teachers in the treatment group engaged in active professional learning in which they were immersed in the types of learning activities and environments they would then create for their students. The impact on student outcomes was impressive. Students in the classrooms of teachers in the treatment group performed a full year ahead of those in the control group's classes on state tests ( 2).

A culture of thinking is a community that supports teachers' growth. Teachers need to "feel safe to be vulnerable, to admit failings or mistakes and to trust that their colleagues are giving feedback in order for them to improve" ( 3). When teachers are part of a culture of thinking, they are more likely to engage in rich conversations about learning, including the discussion of problems, strategies, and solutions. Learning then becomes an "ongoing, collective responsibility rather than an individual one" ( 4). This kind of authentic collaboration (see Exhibit 1) has a positive effect on student achievement ( 5, 6). Through collaboration, teachers are better able to reflect on their teaching practice, allowing them to assess if what they are doing works or if changes are needed ( 7). In a collaborative culture, morale improves and teachers report higher job satisfaction, which contributes to increased gains in student achievement. However, meaningful and sustained collaboration among teachers is too rarely found in schools ( 8, 9). Without time and opportunities to collaborate, discussions centered around student learning cannot occur. This inevitably leads to less teacher learning and a decline in the quality of instruction (1 0, 11, 12).

Risk-taking is necessary to drive innovation ( 13) and create a new story of learning in schools. To build a classroom culture that encourages student risk-taking, teachers need to demonstrate their own willingness to try new things. However, teachers tend to be risk-averse for various reasons, including the fear of being ostracized and the fear of public failure ( 13). Therefore, a supportive school culture that embraces inquiry and innovation is important in supporting teachers to feel safe enough to take risks. When teachers explore and experiment with new ideas that may not always work, students observe how their teachers react and adapt. This helps students learn the value of failure, to understand that learning is a lifelong process, and that mistakes are a natural part of that process ( 14, 15).

While school leaders need to be at the forefront of creating a culture of thinking in schools and break with old models of professional learning, teachers themselves must take an active role by respecting their colleagues, being open to new ideas, and approaching the act of teaching as inquirers. When both leaders and teachers see the creation of a culture of thinking as a mutual goal for themselves, then the adults in the school can grow, innovate, question, take risks, reflect, examine, inquire, learn from, and learn with one another (see Exhibit 2). Teachers are then able to create those same conditions for the students in their classrooms.

What It Looks and Sounds Like

Of course, there is no one way that a culture of thinking developed for teachers at a school will look and sound. There is ample room for individuals to put their own creative stamp on things. The list below is a sampling of ideas that might be useful to advance your practice.

Deprivatizing Teaching

Make formal and informal observation in each other's classrooms a common occurrence.

Use structures and protocols to facilitate teachers' observation and discussion. For example, use the Snapshot Observation Protocol to foster personal reflections based on classroom observation.

Engage in lesson study or Learning Labs to build a sense of collaborative planning, collective ownership, and communal problem solving.

Use Pineapple Charts or #ObserveMe signs to encourage teachers to open up their classrooms and invite colleagues in for informal observations.

Create a space in the school where teachers can share ideas, pose questions, etc. and not feel like they will be evaluated. This could also be an online space or in the staff room.

Shifting the Conversation

Focus more on exploratory and inquiry conversations that dig into the questions, mysteries, and challenges of teaching and learning. Honor the questions more than the quick answers (see Exhibit 3).

Ground conversations in evidence instead of anecdote. Get in the habit of creating and sharing documentation.

Use thinking routines and protocols to facilitate conversations and discussion among teachers.

Become great listeners as an entire faculty and develop skill at giving feedback.

Set norms for collaboration so that people will feel respected, valued, and listened to.

Prioritizing Time for Teacher Learning

Make sure most staff meetings are about learning and not logistics. This will ensure that they are more authentic and engaging. When information does need to be delivered, consider using emails or Loom videos instead.

Schedule adequate time for teachers to engage in ongoing inquiry, in-depth discussion, and meaningful engagement on at least a bi-weekly basis. Such groups are most effective with they engage teachers across departments and grade levels. Protect that time ( 16).

Ensure that learning is ongoing, sustained, and cumulative rather than episodic and disconnected. Make sure there will be something to show for all the time spent. How will teachers share their learning and learn from one another?

Don't confuse "working groups" or committees with "learning groups." The former is out to complete a job or task, to implement something. The latter seeks to develop understanding of a question, problem, or issue through investigation, action, and reflection.

Involving Teachers in Their Own Learning

Allow teachers to be co-designers of their own learning. Where and how can their questions, problems, and issues drive the learning? When can teachers make meaningful choices in the learning process?

Seek suggestions from teachers on a regular basis.

Involve teachers in setting agendas.

Create conditions for teacher leadership (see Exhibit 4)

Encouraging Innovation and Risk-Taking

Focus on mutual growth and improvement, rather than perfection.

School leadersmustmodel how they are also trying new things, making mistakes, and learning along the way.

Use the language of prototyping rather than implementing. A prototype is a first attempt carried out for the purpose of gathering feedback and learning from one's efforts. Implementation implies that something is to be fully realized.

Celebrate failure as a learning moment. Regularly engage teachers in conversation about productive failures or First Attempts In Learning: What is something new that you tried this week, and what did you learn from that first attempt? How will you use that learning to reshape or modify your next attempt?

Reflecting on Your Leadership

How am I, and the leadership team as a whole, modeling what it means to be a risk-taker, innovator, learner? Do we reflect on our mistakes and new learnings openly? Do we solicit feedback to facilitate our growth?

Where, when, and how are teachers currently observing their colleagues? How much is structured and how much is informal? How might these opportunities be enhanced and supported further?

What does collaboration look like at this school? Is it deep, meaningful, and generative? Or, is it cursory and mostly focused on work alignment?

﻿What are the current opportunities for teachers to drive, shape, and direct their professional learning? Do teachers make meaningful choices in their professional learning? Where and how can we provide more?

What are the norms, either informal or formal, that we have for our group interactions, discussions, and collaborations? If formally stated, are we holding ourselves accountable to these norms? If informal, what is working and what isn't? How might we benefit from formally articulating and discussing our norms?

Leaders control a lot of teachers' time through meetings and sessions. On what are you spending teachers' time? Is this time generative and focused on student learning?

Reflecting on Your Teaching

How am I tapping into the expertise of my colleagues to improve my practice? Where and when do I seek out feedback, use colleagues as a sounding board, or observe others I want to learn from?

When was the last time I took what I consider to be a real instructional risk in a desire to innovate, try something new, and disrupt the status quo? What did I learn from that? What supports do I need to have in order for that happen more often and to feel comfortable in doing so?

How often am I reflecting on my own practice to better understand the effects of my teaching and needs of my students? What structures have I found that help push my reflection deeper? What other structures (routines or protocols) might I try?

What kind of "teacher dialog" do I bring to the various groups in which I participate? How would I characterize our collective conversations in these groups? What can we do to better support each other in moving to more exploratory and inquiry conversations? (See Exhibit 3)

How am I growing as a professional this year? What am I getting smarter about through my own actions and efforts this year? We want our students to achieve a year's growth in a school year. Am I achieving a year's growth as a teacher in a year's time?

How am I making use of documentation? How do I use it for my own reflection to better understand my students' learning? Where and when do I share documentation from my classrooms with colleagues in an effort to really understand students' thinking and development of their understanding?

Using Quick Data to Inform Your Efforts

Construct a survey (download this template to create a survey that fits your school) to find out what kinds of professional learning opportunities (both informal and formal) teachers view as valuable, what they take away from each, how each might be improved, which have the most impact on teaching, and which impact the culture of thinking being created for teachers.

Questions to Consider from the Quick Data:

How does the data fit with what you expected to see? What is surprising?

What suggestions for improvement warrant more discussion and exploration?

How might you make more time for those opportunities that have the most value and impact?

Are there any opportunities that should be abandoned or rethought?

How will you share this data with the rest of the school to deepen the conversation?

Connection to the 8 Cultural Forces

Opportunities. The kinds of opportunities that we create for teacher learning are key in creating a culture of thinking for teachers. We need to ensure that we create opportunities for reflection, for sustained and ongoing inquiry into practice, for collaboration with colleagues within and across grade levels and departments, for observation, and for teacher voice and choice.

Time. We need to give adequate and sustained time for teacher learning. This often means rethinking our use of time and getting creative. What meetings are necessary? How do we rein in the work agenda so it doesn't impinge on time for learning?

Routines. Just as students benefit from structures to guide and direct their thinking and discussion, so do teachers. Using protocols can ensure that everyone has a voice and that important elements are addressed and discussed. Protocols help us learn how to interact in a respectful and focused way that benefits everyone's learning.

Modeling. The word "principal" means main or lead. In schools the principal is the main or lead teacher and learner. Their behavior and actions matter. All school leaders need to be models of risk-taking, reflection, acceptance, questioning, and inquiry. They need to model the thinking and behaviors they want to see in teachers. One way that leaders model is through symbolic conduct, that is, the message being sent through one's behavior. For instance, a leader who is not present at professional learning sessions sends the message that such sessions are not very important.

Interactions. A key component of rich professional learning is collaboration and interactions with our colleagues. As such it is often useful to start by setting norms for interactions so that people feel they are in a respectful learning space. Learning to listen in a generative way is an important component of this respect. We need our colleagues to challenge us, question us, support us, and reflect with us. Teaching can feel isolating, so we need to deprivatize teaching in order to ensure that we are learning with and from our colleagues.

Language. Using absolute language (is, should) may sound authoritative, but it shuts down exploration and inquiry. Using conditional language (might, could be) allows conversation to stay open and avoid early closure until the issue has been explored. We are accustomed to the language of "professional development," but what does the word "development" suggest? Do anyone really want to be "developed?" Perhaps a more useful phrase, that many countries use already, is professional learning.

Expectations. School leaders need to communicate expectations that teaching and learning are complex endeavors, and thus continual growth and learning as a teacher is the expectation. Too often ministries of education, state-level departments, district administrators, and schools communicate an expectation of compliance and mastery with top down directives. This often causes teachers to be risk-averse and eschew innovation or novel approaches. Instead, they play it safe.

Environment. The physical environment of a learning space communicates what kind of learning happens there. Is the room set up for collaboration or for paying attention to a single speaker? Where and how is the documentation of teacher learning preserved and displayed?

Mindset #1: Creating a culture of thinking for teachers.

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#1 A CoT for Teachers - Cultures of Thinking in Action

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For teachers to be able to create a classroom culture in which students think, inquire, collaborate, discuss, take risks, and learn from mistakes, teachers need to experience such learning for themselves.

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PYP inquiry cycle- let students ask questions

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PYP inquiry cycle- let students ask questions