Think About It - Seven (+1) Survival Skills for Student Success
Tony
Wagner has written and spoken extensively about the direction he believes our
schools should be going. He is currently a professor at the Harvard Graduate
School of Education and recently delivered this presentation in Chiang Mai,
Thiland, during which he highlights some of the key points from his last two
books, Creating
Innovators: The Making of Young People Who Will Change The World, and The Global
Achievement Gap.
His
lecture starts around 5 minutes into this video and ends around 34 minutes. A
question and answer session follows his lecture and runs from around 34 minutes
to 48 minutes.
When we are asked to watch a video like this one, with a wide variety of ideas and opinions being pushed at us very rapidly, it’s a natural tendency to grab onto an idea or two that support something we already believe. INSTEAD OF DOING THAT, pick an idea or an opinion presented by this speaker that makes you feel somewhat uncomfortable and try to examine why. What is there about that idea or point of view that bothers you and what does that say about your beliefs about education?
- Promote collaboration over individual achievement
- Focus on multidisciplinary/problem based learning over specialization
- Encourage trial and error learning over risk avoidance
- Stress creation over consumption
- Look for intrinsic rather than extrinsic motivators
Wagner states that technology has an important role in our schools but he also believes it comes with some serious drawbacks. Do you share his concerns about our students not knowing how to turn off their devices so they can strengthen their “muscles of concentration?” What can we do in our schools to help overcome this problem?
It was hard trying to find comments or topics that I did not agree with as I have been taking classes that have been talking about the shift we need to make in schools. We need to be more collaborative and work in groups, we need to be able to make mistakes to learn and need to get away from an extrinsically motivated learning environment. However,just because I believe we need to do this does not mean it will happen. The most challenging about education is getting everyone on board with the change. This is very hard to do. I do not think all educators are willing to let their students fail by trial and error. We are so programmed into giving grades and seeing how well we are doing compared to everyone else. As much as I would love to get away from grades and risk avoidance, I do not think it will happen. If we could change this, how would we go about it? How would we know how our students are doing? Will they still be assessed and if so how?
ReplyDeleteI've been thinking about how I want to use this course's project opportunity to improve my teaching. Your questions are ones I've been running through my head for a while, ever since I started working on using differentiation in my teaching about 5 years ago. I'm wondering if there might be a way to have each student have an online portfolio (maybe google sites) where they have a checklist of skills/standards that they have to learn during the year. They can also have a couple of personal goals. Then they have to use their class work, writing, quizzes, and projects as evidence of the skills/standards. My son's kindergarden class did something like this on paper last year, and he was not graded. We were able to see how he progressed throughout the year by looking at which skills he'd mastered and which ones he was still making progress on. That was more meaningful to me than a letter grade. Could we do this at a higher grade level? Would it be possible to use the technology tools we're learning about to make that happen? Would our schools even allow us to? I'm guessing we'd have to start by doing this along with grades, with the goal of gradually moving away from grades. What do you think?
DeleteI agree with all that Wagner said as well but it is hard to think how this can happen in our schools at this time. My school is an identified school and there is so much concern about test scores that I think we are missing the big concern about making our classrooms more inquisitive and less directed. I have done curriculum work this summer and there was really no focus on how to make our classrooms more inquiry based - we talked about it but it didn't make it into our planning at this time.
Delete"How will we know how our students are doing?"
DeleteDoing in what? Doing as compared to what? Is there a right or wrong formula or answer as to what students should and shouldn't be able to do or know and how well to do it? Our world and how we interact with it changes every second in this rapidly-evolving era so that we don't and can't know what it is we should be assessing! I think we CAN assess and evaluate without grades if we focus on 21st Century skills (flexibility and adaptability, inquiry, creativity, problem-solving, citizenship, etc.) and not concepts and standards. I think it's far more important to teach students HOW to learn and think than WHAT to learn and think. That is a major paradigm shift in public education that many would be uncomfortable with, especially those at the top who are making the decisions about "what" our students need to know and "how" we will "measure" if they know it.
To say that you "do not think all educators are willing to let their students fail by trial and error" may be true. But that does not stop any single on of us from yes, being willing to let our students fail by trial and error, then teaching and supporting them to think more complexly and deeply, generate meaningful questions, inquire, problem solve, seek a new or creative solution, and keep going by taking another risk until "fail" doesn't exist and "mastery" is achieved. A great challenge, indeed.
In response to the question of how to avoid isolation and barriers to communication, my elementary school is beginning to close the gap with goggle documents. Middle schools implemented weekly team meetings years ago, but it is slow coming to many K-5 schools. Today I established a weekly PLC time with my administrator and discussed having a template on google docs used by everyone and meetings notes for each of the 3 PLC meetings for everyone to view.
ReplyDeleteShe agreed and I am so excited to move our school forward in this manner. Now I need to become comfortable using this tool.
Great post, Dave.
ReplyDeleteI stumbled this post by Ewan McIntosh tonight that offered questions on our questions as educator -
"So many of the “essential questions” sought out in project-based learning (PBL, EBL, CBL, and all the other BLs) are not that essential. They’re certainly essential in terms of curriculum coverage. Check. They’re certainly essential in terms of accountability systems being satisfied with an “alternative” way of learning the stuff’ that’s needed for the examinations. Check.
But virtually every “essential question” I observed in almost every example given in workshops, keynotes, and spotlights at one of the globe’s most central education-calendar events was nothing but lower order. So busy are we with the plea to “do things that motivate and engage the passions of learners” that we’re not investing the time, energy, or, frankly, the intellectual effort in really thinking through what questions we want to be asking our young people."
http://getideas.org/getinsight/iste-essential-questions/
Along with this curated list of resources from cybraryman which offers a wealth of resources on questioning
http://cybraryman.com/questioning.html
Thanks for these links, Lucie. I recently finished up the training required to be a 4-H leader, and their philosophy is to have leaders work together with members (kids) in order learn something new by doing it. In the process, kids learn something new that matters to them, gain self esteem, become a part of a greater community, and build essential life skills. It's quite an organization! But I can't help making connections between this and what we've been talking about with using technology in our classrooms. We are trying to teach kids by giving them some control over their learning and allowing them to use the technology that is so much a part of their lives. As teachers, it's hard to step back and allow them to do that. We can control aspects of it, and we have to let other pieces (that we used to control) go. I'm thinking a lot about which pieces need to stay in place, and essential questions seem to be one of the most important. Done well, these guide us in our teaching and our students in their learning. If we have the anchor of these questions in place, we can work with our students to allow them to do something meaningful and personal to them that will result in all sorts of personal growth. It looks different from traditional classroom learning, but the outcome may be greater.
DeleteThe learning that students receive in 4 H is more genuine and applied that what we do in school the leack of grades can be the best motivator for real life learning. I like grades but they can take away from real learning. Teachers who are trained in Business and extra curricular activities have a great deal of positive pedagogy to share with other instructors and leaders. Many educators do not realize that business methods have changed drastically from the Carnegie and Ford models. business and education models do not contradict each other, they compliment and strengthen motivational concepts and positive Habits of Mind.
DeleteLucie--thanks for the links. They are very good. I liked the cybaryman's link to questions linked to Blooms taxonomy. I really enjoyed Ewan McIntosh's blog post you quoted and his interpretation of an essential question, his terms “Googleable / Not Googleable”, as well as his statement... "We want students, instead, to be using class time to collaborate and debate around the questions that are Not Googleable, the rich higher-order thinking to which neither the textbook nor the teacher know the answers."
DeleteI think he writes very provocatively and has some points similar to Tony Wagner: "knowledge is not important -- it's what you do with it".
I don't think either of them are saying we don't need knowledge because Tony W did say "content matters" but I think both say we need to change the education experience.
I am reading a book by Jamie Vollmer "Schools can't do it alone" (many teachers and community members are reading it over the summer and Jamie is coming to our district/town in Aug) where he states the prerequisites of progress are community understanding, trust, permission, and support.
Changes in education are not the responsibility of educators. It is the responsibility of us all--if we are to make lasting change.
As a health teacher risk avoidance is the crucial message of our curriculum. I know it is a different type of risk but the conflict of messages is what I am unable to envision. The idea of risk avoidance is a big hurdle for me. I can not really wrap my head around what failing often and early looks like in the classroom. Currently I encourage all ideas and questions but I know it involves more than this. I also expect all students to achieve a standard grade on an essay. Students do 3 or 4 drafts with only the best draft counting toward their grade. I have never turned down a student that wants to redo an assignment. Are any of things on the right track?
ReplyDeleteI plan to change the focus in my classroom to increase students capacity to create and innovate by promoting collaboration through problem based projects. I need more thought with the multidisciplinary aspect. Technology is crucial for this to occur. I will expect students to share and collaboratively work on these projects with students from other class periods (Google Docs, Google Presentation, Blogs, Prezi, You tube, i movie, etc.). The projects will be a new creation that influences their peers to change behaviors ultimately solving a health related problem. My biggest concern with technology is availability. We have computer labs that require sign-up. Of course these labs are shared by all.
I do think there are drawbacks to technology, availability being the primary drawback. I believe the cut and paste and texting generation contributes to students inability to write well. Though we use technology to create, I feel the constant instant entertainment of technology leads to some students inability to exert their own thought process and creativity.
I too agree with everything Tony Wagner said and was particularly interested in his comments about kids being addicted to their online devices. As someone who values time outside, I couldn't agree more that there needs to be more of a balance between screen time and nature time...or at least human to human contact time.
ReplyDeleteIn recent years I have observed how passive our students are and how they sometimes seem so disengaged. I am intimidated to figure out how to help students find their passion. I think having students work collaboratively is important, as is providing a platform for discussion, problem solving and sharing their ideas. That's not easy to do! Also, I think about the "introverts" who learn best on their own...how best to engage them so it's not painful or intimidating.
I too have spent a great deal of time trying to find my students passions, trying to take what they tell me they love (often video games and chat rooms) and help them go places and build on that. They love writing video game reviews and discussing the pros and cons of games.
DeleteIt feels like so many of my students are just trying to struggle with life outside the classroom and so they don't have the energy for life in the classroom or see how it can be relevant to them.
Those students who prefer to be alone are another difficult issue. It is difficult to teach students to 'speak up' when there are others who simply take ideas and their peers and drag them through towards the goal that they see.
Tess I too find it difficult to getting students more involved in school when their home lives give them no hope of the future or inspiration to do anything. It is difficult to get them to think differently from what their parents and family believe, that have happened for generations. I try hard to find what they enjoy doing and incorporate that in their learning in hopes that they will start to enjoy learning and find hope and inspiration in the world.
DeleteIt's interesting because since wirting my comment and wondering how the "introverts" fit in, I realized that I answered my own question to a point. I spent some time reading the blog posts and watching the videos of the other two posts a few days ago. I have been thinking about what people said, what was in the videos etc. and am just now getting back to write responses. Blog posts are the perfect scenario for shy or introverted people who need time to think. If the assignment is to respond in a few days or weeks it's flexible enough for all kinds of learners.
DeleteI agree. I think Blog posts and google docs are a great way for the reluctant student to take risks with what they might want to say. It allows for more flexibility as well. If this helps to build a students confidence then maybe they will become a more active member of a group in class. Collaborative skills are so important for students to practice. All students are an expert at something. It's our job to find out what that "something" is, and then to give them the opportunity to be an integral part of a whole...for their voice to be heard.
DeleteI also concur. For students that are reluctant to speak up in class, to risk being inarticulate, or "wrong", or not in agreement with the majority, posting can be such a relief. A chance to blurt it all out in a doc, then make the words into something concise, articulate, and exactly what they mean before posting it
DeleteTony said hat not all students need to take college prep classes, I disagree. College prep classes should provide critical thinking skills at the level that is appropriate for each student. We all went to college so we have a bettert perspective on how dumb some of the teasts and teaching methods are. With that knowledge we are better suited to change what does not work.. The worst problem remains that most will teach the same way they learned. Paradigms need to be broken and the pedigogy needs to change without depriving students the knowledge of how and why learning devoped historically. Doing it right is essential, but knowledge of different methods provides students with appropriate choices. Students will need to continue to be able to take teacher created tests as well as creating their own assessments.
ReplyDeleteSubconsciously and perhaps intentionally, I would like students to develop questions that are content based similar to what I think the question should be. I am ver tempted to tell them what I think the Big idea should be. Next year will be great for experimentation to see what will work to motivate students to develop learning. I will stick with some of the methods that have worked in the past while adding new strategies. An article in the Times Argus said many school principals ar failing and being fired due to overwhelming their communities with change. Teachers initiate many changes in instruction, we need to be careful to continue to provide the consumer based instruction while encouraging student initiative. I really liked the comment from the teacher who said Tony was lecturing to the consuming teachers. So many of our initiative do exactly what they tell us not to do.
I agree with Tony, but as a primary teacher, I struggle with letting 7-9 year old children loose! I guess the most important part is getting the kids to learn the basic skills and work on collaboration and just plain getting along and working together. When a child can't spell or type i just don't want them alone on the internet.
ReplyDeleteKrystal Norton also hit the nail on the head where kids are in the cutting and pasting mode and negatively affecting a kid's ability to write. The kids will produce some work and have no idea what they are saying!
I had a hard time finding points to disagree with in what I heard and watched. There is one point that still concerns me. The statement that 'knowledge is a free commodity'. Yes, we live in an age where most of us can access information at the touch of a button or click of a mouse, but what about those students who don't.
ReplyDeleteYes, many of our students have this access, but what about the ones who don't- is the gap between have's and have nots getting smaller or larger?
How do we help those students who are coming to school without the exposure that their peers have? Without the now added basic technology skills?
Great point. Another point that also concerns me. Not all students have access to technology. Even if there is a public library to access, they may not have transportation to get there.
DeleteEquity is a huge concern! How isolating when many of your classmates get to take out their own iPods to use in the classroom and you cannot? How defeating and self-esteem crushing when, even though you get to use a school iPod, you can't keep up with your peers who know how to easily use gadgets and tools without a second thought? We assume that "everyone" is using this stuff now, when in reality, especially for our population, many students are not able or perhaps even "faking it" to save face.
DeleteI agree completely. I just commented in a similar vain on this topic and then went back to read some others' thoughts. I think we need to always have equity on our minds. To be cynical for a moment, it is easy to listen to great ideas come out of the mouth of a white man employed at Harvard, but there are so many who don't fit that demographic.
DeleteI didn't find much to disagree with in Tony's presentation. However as a literacy teacher in a school where our test scores have not made the grade, I spend a great deal of time testing. These are mandated tests and I give at least one a month. This testing gets in the way of innovation and collaboration!
ReplyDeleteI also did not find much to disagree with. I really liked when Tony talked about rewording questions and having teachers ask the "right questions to promote critical thinking skills. I actually wrote that up and am going to put that in my classroom to remind me of how to ask high level thinking questions. I also find it hard to let kids loose in 3rd and 4th grade. I think you really need to let students create but at the same time teach them the foundations they need. I strongly agree with Tony's comments about knowing how to turn off their devices so they can strengthen their muscles of concentration. I even see it with my own children that they would be very happy being on the computer or playing a video game all day. Parents need to set limitations and make their children go outside, play and socialize. I plan on having the students let me know what inspires and interests them in the beginning of the year. That way I can gear projects around areas of interest where I will be able to see the students best work.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed Tony's presentation and I found myself making several notes in a traditional format on paper and pencil. At one point, I stopped and thought, "I could be typing this on my iPad." But, the scrap paper and pen were there and handy. My point in mentioning this is about balance. I take from Tony's information that we all need to find the balance in our life with ever changing aspects of our world. Change will be something we can predict vs. the next new piece of information or technology for example. We will never be faster than innovation if we continue to pursue an innovated culture...but, we will have the skills for conceptualizing how to handle each new situation and opportunity. Innovation sparks more innovation! Teachers can support students will the necessary balance. This is part of the work we need to do to help students work their muscles of concentration. Learning is different. Time is available to do these things if we are supporting creation. There will never be enough time to continually add more information to a lecture or handout to memorize. Students will need to discover and grapple with gaining knowledge to support important content AND then DO something REAL with it. It really is that simple...time is not a barrier here...traditional thinking can be a barrier.
ReplyDeleteThe digital divide is another topic I found interesting. I think Tony didn't have a response other than it will take time to close this gap...and smaller mobile device will help this. I think this is true. But, what to do in the meantime? In my district, conversations have been taking under serious consideration to form connections within the whole school community. How to ensure learning and technology extends beyond the school walls. Some thoughts involve one-to-one devices that students take home and can share and use with their families to have this access. I think Google Tools will highlight these opportunities for students! We have to have a plan for this, but I also see that it will continue to take time. This will not be a quick fix just yet.
There were so many things I jotted down...I also found myself thinking about how I will apply this information in my classroom. Specifically, I started thinking about how I will work with my colleagues to reframe my course outline and the expectations I have for myself and students. I even have a great idea for one of the first things I will ask students to do at the start of the year. Essentially, I will borrow some of the questions Tony mentioned about exploration, curiosity and passion. It is important to get to know students in order to form connections and develop relationships. I will use these question stems to take video clips of students to share with the school community. I think this would be a great thing to do as a school-wide opportunity.
Something I would like to explore would be...
I am curious about...
I have a passion for...
I think students could share their clips as part of our Teacher Advisory groups. What a nice way to get to know the group...oh, and students get to use technology too! It is great when it is embedded and seamless.
I found this to be a longer clip, but a lot of great info was shared. It was worth watching and I certainly refreshed my thinking about how I plan to start my year and learn with students. It is exciting to think about teaching a generation as Tony said who want more than money but rather know they changed the world and made a difference.
I wanted to echo and play off your pencil and scrap of paper comment. I read somewhere that professional writers have discovered that the best brainstorming still happens on blank paper with pencil or pen. For some it is that the electronic is too distracting, for others it is too limiting, and yet for more there are no margins for doodling, which actually helps the thought process.
DeleteThis digital revolution is fantastic, but let's not throw out everything in our rush to digitalize.
There are still authors, Howard Frank Mosher comes to mind, who still write on lined paper before putting anything on the computer. For them it is the first step in a process that has many steps. There is nothing wrong with making sure that students can effectively use paper and pencils. I think of the college board's SAT essay---it must be hand written (and that writing must be legible)with a #2 pencil. Students taking the SAT must also use cursive writing to copy a statement they must agree to. This is painful for some students as they have much less experience with a pencil than they have with a keyboard. I wonder if the College Board will ever enter the 21st Century? It took them years to add an essay component---I can only imagine how long it will take them to use technology to give the test!
DeleteI have much to agree with Tony Wagner's presentation and do worry about some students who have trouble focusing on the task at hand when using their laptops and mobile devices. I also think it is not just students but society in general (I do get nervous when I see people texting while driving). Aside from being a classroom management issue, I think that it is vitally important to provide students with inquiry based authentic learning experiences with 24/7 access to the tools and information they need. The collaborative nature of Google apps as well as wiki's and blogs are ways to help accomplish that as well as 1-1 laptop initiatives.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Tony Wagner that it is crucial to get children working together as a team and collaborating. I am finding that my kindergarten students are coming to kindergarten with a lack of social skills - they can't be polite and respectful to each other so it is even more challenging to get them to share ideas. They seem to struggle seeing someone else's perspective. We have also become so much more academic and have taken away some of the opportunities to have children work together to work out differences. I will be looking for ideas of some ideas to add more collaborative activities to use in kindergarten.
ReplyDeleteI found Tony's idea that students are not innovators to not sit well with me. I don't disagree that upon graduation, less students are innovators and/or students have had some or all of their curiosity killed. BUT. Not innovators? I think it is the fault of education and us as teachers that is the issue. One of the main threads from the US Now series comes back to me here - people are naturally cooperative and collaborative" and we "just have to give them the space in which to do it." How often are we giving our students the space, the information, the skills, the coaching to BE innovators? I would argue hardly at all. Even when schools are changing, and trying to shift to Tony's mindset, I still see what Lucie described above - people using the new and catchy labels on the same old learning and teaching methods and the same old information.
ReplyDeleteTony thinks innovation needs to be revived. And in some respects, he is right, but it is not DEAD because students don't have it. It is dead because we as educators do not create the spaces for students to BE innovators. We are so busy preparing them for standardized tests in the ways the books tell us to, cramming them full of curriculum, and then forcing them to regurgitate facts in web 2.0 enhanced projects that they have no TIME, SPACE, ENERGY, DESIRE, NOTHING left with which to be innovators.
This gets right back to Pink's theory that if we only give students the TIME and the PLACE they WILL BE CREATIVE! THEY WILL INNOVATE! We as educators just need to get out of our own ways and let students be a part of their learning process.
Erikka, I appreciate your passion and agree that innovation is not actually dead in students or teachers; however, I do not think it is only the schools/teachers that are a barrier to embracing Wagner's skills. I would argue it is still the elite minority who are required to innovate or have the time,space,energy to do so either in their workplace or chosen interest. We can argue about making the time, but many families I work with are struggling to get through each day and have parents with jobs which punish creativity. Trying to teach and balance the needs of my family and son with special needs leaves me less than passionate and innovative some days, and I am on your side about this. In addition, from my experience with younger students, I am not sure most people are naturally collaborative and cooperative at the level Wagner describes unless some very specific skills are modeled and practiced somewhere in their lives.
DeleteIf you are not a classroom teacher - and especially if you are not an intermediate grade elementary teacher in a school which has been "identified" in the past - then you might not be aware of the very real pressures and consequences of the testing culture in which we exist in public school. It is wrong for sure, but it is the students that suffer from the label "failing school" and the teachers who are forced to spend an inordinate amount of time "data collecting" and being trained in the next set of methods or curricular content as a result. That doesn't mean that we should put up and shut up, but I'm not sure it is as easy as "just getting out of the way" either. In fact, it involves (as Jamie Vollmer in "Schools Can't Do it Alone" describes well) changing from time being constant and learning being variable to learning being constant but time being variable. This is an enormous shift from the experience almost any adult has had and it is difficult to understand and even picture at times. But I know most of us who teach know it is what is right.
I think we don't allow classroom teachers enough time to collaborate and innovate solutions to these larger problems. As an example, I am in a district with great resources and I am treated as a professional, but I currently have to meet with four teacher leaders each in a different area (math, language arts, tech and science) once a month who act as pollinators - hopping from school to school and teacher to teacher trying to spread new ideas and resources among and between us. I respect these people for the most part, but I am unsure more "support" is better. It feels much more as though I am being checked to make sure that I am following with the latest initiatives of the district at worst and I am regularly left with an assignment I had only moderate control over choosing at best. Never once is someone there to tell classroom teachers what we can STOP being accountable for.
To innovate we have to make and learn from mistakes, we have to agree that things will not go smoothly or successfully at times. That is not well tolerated in a "data driven" culture. Most of my innovation and collaboration takes place on the weekends with a group of us who meet at school so that we won't be bothered, but that comes at a personal cost.
Collaborating using google apps, reading and responding to blogs, researching new ideas, developing a PLN outside of my own bubble are all ways to combat isolation and to become more comfortable and capable as I work toward genuine interdependent collaboration as a professional and as a member of our school's learning community.
We need people like you to continue to articulate these ideas so forcefully. Thank you.
As listened to Mr. Wagner speak I began to see and understand more of the direction that my school is moving toward. The problem is that as a school different sections are moving in this direction and others are left in isolation without much communications.
ReplyDeleteI could use Google docs, forms, groups and blogs in the classroom to have students gather information and collaborate together to learn about a topic, gather information, solve problems and create projects.
Within our Business Dept. my students could collaborate with other businesses classes to get information from them. For example an Entrepreneurship class could seek information from the Sports & Entertainment Marketing class as they do the marketing part of their Business Plan. I could also collaborate with other schools in and outside of Vermont. I am also working on skyping with former students who are in college majoring in Sports Management to have them share their knowledge with my current students.
Collaborating to create projects and gather information is the way of the business world today. One issue that I have is trying to ensure that the work load is divided evenly between the collaborators. The theory is that if the student is invested in solving a real problem that they will work harder. As we all know theory and practice don’t always match whether we are in the business or education world and we have individuals that do not carry their weight. Since we need to grade projects sometimes one student will do more work than his/her peers and they all receive the same grade. This is an issue that I would like to collaborate with and brainstorm solutions to with other educators.
I apologize for the "laterness" of this posting, I was in another courses all last week. Mr. Wagner does bring up some interesting points about the future of education or what he believes needs to be the future in education. However, with a major change in the way we educate and or the funding to do this, I do not know if it can happen in the next five or so years..... However I agree it does need to happen.
ReplyDeleteAs a history teacher, it was interesting to hear the discuss about knowledge and how we received it or who gain it in the past. Because knowledge can be receive by the Internet (now, so many people are gaining Internet connection), it is not just reminding facts and just placing their back on paper. The question is what do we do with this information.
As for Google tools and how it can assist with this educational revolution, I believe any Google tool that uses collaboration can assist in creating a more innovative future. With the educational community give more collaboration in students learning and least individual learning as was discussed in the video.
Many of us are in agreement that Wagner has some excellent points but how do we implement them in today's educational environment. This is the same environment that is nationally heading 180 degrees in the opposite direction. Even educators with varied philosophies see different needs and paths toward student learning. We have all been hit by the latest educational 'magic bullet' and are very suspicious of these innovations that are more often than not left by the wayside far before full implementation. We rarely even review the success/failure of these initiatives. Finally, go to the parents and community which did not get this style of education and you will find a lot of push back because this change is threatening. It makes them reassess the viability of their own education and the career/economic results that they achieved. Finally students have been taught to be the traditional consumers not creators of their education and want what they are familiar with. Add on to this the intense pressure around the grades and the competition for college entry and you have students who will initially rebel. In many ways this all represents the fear of the unknown...so what do we do?
ReplyDeleteFirst we all have to have the same discussion at the same time. All the above stakeholders have to be part of the same conversation and debate. They need to listen to Wagner and others and chime in from each with their own perspectives while simultaneously listening to the perspectives of the other groups. There will be no revolutionary change in education unless each of these groups has an ultimate ownership in the solution...oops this is sounding an awful lot like "asking the right question" and "defining the problem" and the answer would be through "trial and error" after much "collaboration and innovation!"
I would be interested in what you think?
Three things in particular made me uncomfortable. First the comment that the world no longer cares what you know but cares what you do with it (the skill and the will). It is the will to do it that I struggle with sometimes. This is related in large part to passion but it goes beyond that. How do we help students develop the will to persevere and focus even when it is frustrating and difficult? My personal kryptonite is the "shoulder shrugger" who barely engages.Technology can help because I am better able to tailor an assignment or allow for individual investigation on a topic of interest more readily. I think I am still reluctant to totally immerse myself in student centered learning however, and I am not sure why. I think it is because I still feel there is content that students need that they may not willingly investigate (which he mentioned). The second related comment that made me uncomfortable was that most of the time was spent collaborating in the innovative classroom. Last year I measured and graphed the percentage of time I was talking/addressing the class during each academic session for a month (with some help)and it was alarming at first. I worked on making sure I was addressing the class an average of 10 percent or less of the time under the idea that whoever is working is learning. Perhaps I could measure the collaboration time next year(yikes). I think collaboration is important, but I am not certain it has to occur the majority of the time nor am I sure I know what collaboration "looks like" all the time. Sometimes collaborating means working on your own to present and contribute to the larger goal too. the final comment "we need to give EVERY child an opportunity to lead through influence" made me stop and rewind. I have no idea how I make that happen within a year without some very contrived situations. I work hard to help students appreciate the skills/talents of each other and each child is recognized as the "go to" person for something, but what does "leading through influence" look like in fourth grade? Maybe it is just the jargon that gets to me. I was trained as a contructivist and I am slowly fighting my way through the "innovations" to maintain that approach, but those three comments made me realize how far away I have strayed if I am honest with myself.
ReplyDeleteTony Wagner makes the point that many teachers work independently and do not have the opportunity to collaborate consistently to plan instruction. However, in my 16 years of teaching, I have taught in a collaborative setting with a team of teachers. I am on the opposite end. I feel that it is critical that my students are provided the opportunities to collaborate, problem solve and innovate in a student-directed learning model. I believe that I am a better teacher because of the experiences I have been exposed to as a collaborative educator. My goal is to always strive to provide challenges to my students that will peak their interests to sustain focus and be creative and innovative collaborators.
ReplyDeleteI can understand how some teachers may not feel as comfortable letting go of the control of teaching content. It is not easy for teachers to teach in a student-directed model when they have so many required tests and content that needs to be taught, but providing these kinds of opportunities will better prepare students to be successful in a world that is demanding strong 21st century skills in the work force.
I would agree with most of what Tony Wagner discusses. As many of the comments have mentioned, the power of collaboration is paramount. Offering these opportunities to students on a day to day basis would be critical for the classroom teacher. It is also important for the professionals within the school community to have an opportunity to collaborate. Not just within a content or learning community but also across school functions as well.
ReplyDeleteMr. Wagner brings up excellent points of what our students will need to be like for the work force in the 21st century. I work in a school where doing well is NOT intrinsic and not valued by many students or their parents. I worry that I will not have what it takes to constantly challenge students with essential questions that will interest them and make them want to delve deeper and ask questions and innovate. This is definitely the teacher that I want to be, I am just worried that I might not so it well, but I guess I should live by the notes that I took that I felt were really important and one of the notes was "there are no mistakes or failures, only iterations."
ReplyDeleteMost resonant with me is Wagner's idea that one fundamental change that schools need to make to allow for innovation is to "look for intrinsic rather than extrinsic motivators." This is most difficult when our students are being nurtured in an environment and society where immediacy and instant gratification are the order of the day. (And specifically to my school's demographic - as Nancy said above - education, achievement, and fostering life-long-learning are not celebrated or valued at home for many students.) We are then falling into a trap of using technology as a motivator (crutch?) - kids "like" technology, they "get excited" when they get to use it, they think it's "cool" to "be social" while collaborating and learning. I fear a time when, instead of viewing technology as innovative, it is regarded as "easier" (a la worksheets - "just stick them on the computer to work").
ReplyDeleteI TOTALLY AGREE with the need to "unplug." It feels like there is so much pressure to incorporate technology so much and let it drive learning and inquiry and collaboration, as opposed to being one of many tools that can facilitate some learning as needed. I notice in my own practice/team/school that we are now more likely to turn first to incorporating/using technology when thinking about lessons and learning in the classroom, instead of a whole variety of modalities and options. Are we letting the teaching/learning process be dicated by the available technology moreso than purposefully placing technology as a supportive tool in our teaching/learning process?
I haven't watched the entire video yet, but something that struck me right in the beginning that made me a feel a bit uncomfortable was this quote:
ReplyDelete“knowledge has become a free commodity...now, suddenly, everyone has access to all of the information in the world at their fingertips”
I understand the sentiment and I understand the point he was trying to make - access to information has opened up exponentially, even in our very recent history. But I can't help but think about equity. And I think that the quote might have struck me as more true if he said:
“ **information** has become a free commodity...now, suddenly, everyone has access to all of the information in the world at their fingertips”
There is indeed an almost infinite (and sometimes overwhelming) amount of information out there that many (but all?) have access to, but it is different to have infinite information than it is to have access to the tools to turn that information into knowledge. We still live in a country that although public education is free, we still pay to live in a place that has (or has not) functioning, effective, funded schools. And those schools have differing levels of access to good teachers, technology, building improvements, paper and pencils. And as there becomes MORE AND MORE AND MORE of this endless stream of free information "at our fingertips," people (students, adults, anyone) need ways and time to sort through that endless information and create frameworks to turn that into knowledge. I don't know that I agree that this resource is completely free or that the playing field is truly leveled.
This isn't to say I am pessimistic about this all. There are certainly wonderful stories involving people in all income brackets accessing and benefitting from this new world of accessible information. And I absolutely agree with most of Wagner's ideas about these new innovations. But I think we still need to think about true equity and who might be getting left behind.
What makes me uncomfortable is how do we gets our students to agree/become aware of this "mucsle concentration" and that they are "addicted to technology" for the reason that it can affect their lives. The dangers it creates if they are in denial of this addiction...and I am talking about a handful of teenagers that can't put their devices down!!!! (they eat/watch TV/sleep/drive with them) Because this is a pretty new issue, how will this be handle and how can educators create ways to deal with this concerns?
ReplyDeleteI am also concerned about how often our young people are using technology in a compulsive way. The most recent state technology plan states that all school should be moving toward a 'bring your own device' environment. I can say that our high school moved there over two years ago and I have seen the way students work change. I often see students multitasking with their cell phone laying against their computer screen. We are beginning to see research about digital stress and the brain (http://www.edgalaxy.com/journal/2012/6/25/students-and-the-stress-of-multitasking.html). What is more concerning is that the brains of our students are still developing and won't stop until they are 25.
DeleteWhile it is difficult to argue with the goal of open access to the internet in schools. I think we need to be mindful of how students are using this access and we need to think about how we are going to teach students about the healthy use of technology.
I think its a real concern and kids will always navigate to distraction and entertainment. They also communicate with each other in different ways than when we were in school. As parents and teachers we have to start early with kids in modeling and holding high expectations for when and how to use devices in school as for parents, at home. It used to be a problem when kids would watch violent tv for hours, now the issue has moved to computers and mobile devices. I agree with Tina in that "teach students about the healthy use of technology."
DeleteI enjoyed listening to Tony’s lecture, and I mention lecture because I like that he acknowledges there is a time and place for consumption of knowledge - certainly not always or even often by lecture - and then what really matters is what students can do with their new knowledge. Agreed. I like his outline of the 7 skills that matter most for college, careers, citizenship and I agree that these are critically important skills. But in response to the prompt to pick an idea that makes me feel uncomfortable and examine what that says about my beliefs about education, I am bothered by the notion that teachers largely don’t support this kind of skill development and those who do are outliers and use technology to do it. I have been in this profession for a long time, in that time I have adapted and improved my practice over and over again by using new and newer and newest strategies that speak directly to the use of team work, problem solving, effective writing, risk taking, creativity, etc. And I have been in good company in my school. I have worked with some amazing teachers over the last 23 years who taught these same skills without ever using a document, spreadsheet or blog. Until a few years ago I didn’t use any technology in my classroom, and I would like to think that I managed to be an effective teacher without it. Clearly I believe I can be an even better teacher if I have the skills to use a variety of technology applications to promote the above stated skills for the 21st century. That’s why I’m here. I am not a resister to change, I have always said if there is one constant is education, it IS change. I remain open to change and to improving what I do until my last day in the classroom. But I do resist the notion that technology is always the best way to teach the 7 skills. Examining what that says about my beliefs about education, as a veteran teacher I have had the opportunity to learn about many approaches and strategies to teaching and learning, some have been stinkers and some have been really great. I threw the stinkers out and kept the really great ones. I think a really great teaching strategy that does not use technology is as good as one that does. One might say that I am the product of a different generation but I would like to think rather that I have learned through experience how to select the best tool for accomplishing a particular goal. By the end of this course I will have a wider selection of technology tools for use when my experience tells me that is the best tool for accomplishing a goal. I work with some young teachers who say they constantly use technology in the classroom because all of their lectures are powerpoint presentations (which bore the students to tears). This is nothing more than a fancy lecture and it does nothing to develop the 7 skills. But what if the STUDENTS created some of the presentations by researching content topics and bringing their own perspectives and photos and videos to the presentation? This is one way I see myself using online tools to encourage my students to collaborate with their peers and to innovate.
ReplyDeleteIt's hard for me to focus on one thing that makes me uncomfortable - it ALL makes me uncomfortable! Uncomfortable because I think we're getting so many things wrong (maybe I'M wrong here!), and uncomfortable because, even though some of the smartest minds in education are saying one thing, we're still doing the opposite. And uncomfortable because maybe that comes down to valuing adults over kids. That's hard to take, but is it true? Why don't we do some of these things, make some of these changes? If I think of these issues in terms of one of my own children, I become agitated (to put it mildly) at the thought that their needs might not be met because of an adult insistence on the status quo. But when I'm deeply involved in "the system" it becomes easier to see why we don't make these changes. Aren't other kids as valuable as mine? Is the problem really that our system is based in the Industrial Age or that it is adult-centered, not child-centered?
ReplyDeleteNice rant Sigrid!
DeleteThere is a lot to be uncomfortable about in regard to how our schools function and what instruction looks like. I agree with you that in general our schools aren't changing fast enough to meet the needs of our students or to prepare them for the world they will live in. I read once that practicing doctors are about 20 years behind the most current research. I don't think our schools are any different.
I think what makes a school seem more 'adult centered' is a school that is more 'curriculum centered'. Standardized test have encouraged very tight curriculum which doesn't take into consideration the child. It use to be that elementary schools were very kid centered because they didn't have tight curriculums. As students moved up through the grades our schools were more curriculum centered (less student centered). That has all changed with high stakes testing.
There are hundreds of books on change and change management. The public schools don't do it well. However, in our defense we have different interest groups telling us to emphasis different things. The government through standard testing is telling us that content is important and holding us accountable for this mission. On the other hand, researchers and academics are telling us 21st century skills is where the future is for our kids. So which is it? or is there a happy compromise?
However even if we could get a clear message about the 'right thing' to do. Public school cultures are funny things. In general schools are not innovators. We keep doing the same thing over and over and expect to get different results. We don't collaborate, problem solve, work in multidisciplinary ways, use trial and error, create or use intrinsic motivation. Oh wait those are the same skills that we are being told we need to develop in our students. Maybe we don't have the skills we need in order to teach them to our students. Change comes very, very hard to us.
So there is my rant!
I can relate very clearly to your rant Sigrid, I deal with it everyday in my work as technology integration specialist. I call myself a "change agent" but most days I feel more like a "sales agent" trying to sell the value of integrating technology into the classroom. I have found success in pockets with the teachers who understand that we live in a different world and our children will be expected to live and work in world that we can't even comprehend. But just having a few teachers isn't enough to change a system, we need change to happen from the bottom up (classrooms) and from the top where administrators, curriculum directors and board members all support a shift in the paradigm. I don't see the powers that be on board and therefore, I don't see significant change in the system. I can only find success one teacher at a time. But there is hope if everyone in this course sees and understand what "transformation" is all about and promotes it in their practice and models it for others, then we can be a movement for change. There's my rant!!!
DeleteI really enjoyed this video. I am seriously thinking about showing it to my high school class. I would be very interested in what their opinion of this video would be. This yea I am collaborating with another teacher from CCV. We are working together to get all student college or career ready. This video hits it on the mark. Thank you
ReplyDeleteThis is a very powerful speaker. I got going on my last post around many of these ideas. He structured his argument and points much clearer than I did. I am on the same wave length. Value...what is value....lack of something that others need! "There is no value in knowing more. Information is free. Skill and will is of value in the 21st Century."
ReplyDeleteThese are very powerful concepts that individuals are lacking. Curiosity, imagination, and innovation are three concepts that the arts are built upon. Students need the ability for trial and error. They need activities that end with critiques that build on the ability to develop critical thinking skills. I go back to say again that Google is a great tool to organize information in a time efficient process. Demonstrating and sharing with others takes a lot of time to do when creating lessons, units, or curriculum. Students need to have and take the opportunities to engage in creating something new and develop skills to have a rich and interesting life in work. The more districts wrap these concepts around overall curriculum from k-12, the more successful students will become at the end of their schooling. I end with a question to think about..."How often do we take the time to align our curriculum to others subject matters and how well do we understand each others content?"
It is difficult to find anything to disagree with Tony Wagner's lecture.
ReplyDeleteOne of the best things about my job is that I see the integration of technology as an opportunity to improve instruction. Yes good instruction with technology is good instruction but as a teacher moves technology into their instruction there is an opportunity to use the moment to change the way they teach. It can be a golden moment for a reset of practice in the classroom.
I've been very luck to have several teachers who are early adopters of technology and innovators in their classrooms. The process of working on projects that incorporate 21st century skills is a wonderful process. Teachers are almost always very excited about the level of creativity and collaboration that students have had to demonstrate. Rarely does a teacher not comment on how engaged students are and how much ownership they have for their own learning.
I love the exit conversations I have after helping a teacher develop and teach a unit. The common theme for these exit conversations is a concern over the loss of their own content area content. These units almost always take more time and are less centered on the content area content.
As Tony Wagner so clearly stated it is about the questions and not necessarily about the answers. So, what content area content can we afford to let go of or not cover as deeply to allow for the inclusion of the 21st Century skills that we all value? I don't believe that there is a right or wrong answer or that the answer is the same for every content area, teacher or even student. However as we move forward with these new skills it is a question we will be faced with over and over again.
I found this video fascinating because it does push the buttons of traditional education. Most of my public education was in the 60s and the amount of knowledge you knew was valued. Didn't every 5th grade need to memorize state capitols? My children graduated from high school in the 90s. It was important who got the highest SATs, made National Honor society, made honor role. But have things changed in schools today? Not really-we still have standardized testing and some teachers still teach to the test. We have government programs that say that schools will lose their funding or be closed if test scores are not high enough.
ReplyDeleteSo knowledge is not as important as what you can do with it. True, but don't you want your doctor to have a strong enough knowledge base so they can make quick decisions in an urgent need or emergency - something to "think about".
Now I have grandchildren just entering school. Wouldn't it be exciting if they can be be allowed to use their curiosity and in so will have a quest for learning and sharing.
I too, found this video fascinating as "traditional education" is being pushed. I think it is our jobs as educators to start educating our students on all the appropriate, positive uses of technology. So many times I feel as though we dwell on the negative and stress using safety with technology. Although, this is essential, sometimes we need to let our students loose. Students will be challenged and so will we as educators in the 21st century.
ReplyDeleteMr. Wagner thinks that students don’t know how to not-multitask, they don’t know how to turn off their technology and strengthen their “muscles of concentration”, “to sustain focus”. Well this is an uncomfortable opinion for me. It negates what he also talked about: finding what they are passionate about, having intrinsic motivation. You asked “What can we do in our schools to help overcome this problem?” I’d like to know: is it necessary to overcome it? If a student is passionate about something, they’ll focus. Maybe not on what we want them to, but they can do it. With such an information overload these days, maybe a sound bite is all someone needs to know about a topic. For example: The VT weather station says there’s a tornado in Oklahoma. Does Jackie need to know more about this?
ReplyDelete1. No, if she doesn’t know anyone living there, maybe that’s enough info
2. Yes, if she does know someone living there, maybe she needs to know a more precise location, and other details
3. Yes, if she’s interested in weather patterns or a related science
I think most students can sustain focus when they want to. When they aren’t interested in a subject, they can’t/won’t/don’t see the need. That’s a different matter, one of maturity. If, as adults, we can’t sustain focus on a topic, e.g. a baseball game, does it matter? Not unless the rest of the family are rabid fans, in which case the mature thing to do would be to enjoy their company, and wait it out. (or make them sit through a hockey game with you) Younger kids don’t necessarily have that kind of empathy.
Earlier, someone suggested the Habits of Mind http://www.instituteforhabitsofmind.com/ I am going to look into this tool more, perhaps rather than “sustained focus” our students need more self-discipline.
I agree with a business motto from the movie "Fail early and fail often". At first that sounds crazy but it is so right. I think that it is all to often when a kid in my class tries to make the perfect vehicle or perfect tower on the first try. They often try so hard that they run out of time to test it only to realize that their idea is not so good or could use a few changes after all. If we can teach our student to fail early they will learn from their mistakes, innovate their ideas and come up with even better solutions to their problems. I see room in my classrooms for improved collaboration amongst students. I am going to try an experiment during a project this fall. Traditionally students try to keep their project designs to themselves and it is only at the conclusion of the project that they see all of the other designs. This go around I am going to pause sometime in the middle of a project to allow each student to collaborate with their piers and share thoughts about each others designs. I am curious if this process with lead to even better outcomes.
ReplyDeleteAs a special educator, who works with a variety of teachers, I totally agree with Tony. In order for every student to be successful, there is a need to focus on their passions. Student do not learn or apply information if they are told to memorize or told there is only one way.
ReplyDeleteI am often asked by students that I work with "When will I ever use this in the real world?" To be honest, I rarely have an answer for them but talk to them about what they really love and help them answer answer it. But wouldn't it be nice if they felt safe asking their content teacher this and that teacher encouraging them to explore that.
Change is hard for everyone. Teachers want to stick to what they know and their teaching style. If we don't change the way in which we present and information, the student's won't want to take risks and think outside the box. Many teachers feel that students must be learning if they are getting good grades. Is this always true? We have conditioned them and us to think that if they are getting good grades they must be "consuming" the information and applying it. Not always!! I also feel that students in some classes are looked down upon because they ask questions like why or question the status quo. If we want true innovators we can't shut down the questioning or say that is just the way it is. Isn't that why we became educators, to allow students to learn and question?
For students to become innovators I believe we need to incorporate technology into classes. Sure there are concerns of becoming more reliant on the technology but you can still use the "old ways." Like Tony said there is a time and place for everything . So if you use a variety of teaching practices with and without technology, students will want to explore, take risks and ask questions.
Good grades = "knowing how to play the game of school" which can include learning. But much learning occurs in people who don't play school well. We need to give them multiple ways to demonstrate their learning.
DeleteWouldn't it be wonderful if our school made early release days about how to teach to these 21st century skills? That would send a powerful message about what what our school values as an institution and encourage people like me to take a step in the right direction. It's hard to change when one has to become an iconoclast to do it.
DeleteI agree with you Tedin! I feel that there is such a push for technology but no one really to show the way. I feel that we are sometimes pushed into something and then it is like sink or swim.
DeleteI like the idea of exploring how google tools can create collaborative learning environments in which students have more immediate access to one another's work and become more influential in supporting and providing feedback to their peers. When work is made public through a shared doc or presentation, I can see a great potential for this to promote accountability, leading by influence, and critical thinking through examining and learning from the work of peers.
ReplyDeleteI've been thinking a lot about the need for the right balance of private and public spaces to share work. I like that Google Tools gives you several options. Private options provide a safe environments to try things without fear of ridicule. But as your confidence grows, then it makes sense to move into a public space.
DeleteThis has the potential to make peer review in English classrooms much more effective- I am betting that my students will put more into reviewing products in their native element.
DeleteTony Wagner's book and presentations are very exciting for me because they REALLY challenge how I was taught to teach (and still teach). I can honestly say that I commit all 5 of his "ways that schools squash innovation" sins on a regular basis. I do this for lots of reasons- lack of time, large number of students, fear of off-task behavior if I give them more projects, my own experience with schooling, etc, etc. At the same time, I know that I need to start changing this and his list of "seven plus one" skills is exciting for me. What teacher doesn't want to be more effective and do a better job preparing students? Although this is a small start, I especially like the idea of students building collaborative presentations using Google tools. It will be interesting to try this in my AP classes, where students know "the game" very well and think that they WANT more traditional instruction...
ReplyDeleteTony Wagner is what he speaks of ... an innovator. His ideas of educational reform are exciting, invigorating, and driven by a passion to prepare our children for a rapidly changing world. What I find most challenging is that if our education system truly adapts to the mantra that the means is more important end, that more true learning & growth happen during the process than the end product, then we have to overhaul the kind of assessments we value most. Formal grades are often based on summative assessments, not formative. The formative is often invisible on the transcript or final grade. What if we put the value on the formative assessment, all the while expecting trial and error? What would our students say?
ReplyDeleteOr what would parents say?! It is a switch in thinking that I think that everyone is going to have to make. I feel that if we explain that in the end that we are assessing learning of that student and not comparing he or she to everyone else, there will be a change. We are so used seeing a number or a letter as it pertains to learning. I think that it would be nice to have a student report on their own learning and assess their strengths and weaknesses.
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ReplyDeleteThe video brought up a lot of important points, so I’m not sure where to begin. Certainly “Knowledge has become a free commodity”, and is constantly changing. So it’s no longer about what you know, but what you DO with what you know. What can you create? How can you make a difference? How can we help students in this process? Also, because now there is a “knowledge glut”, new skills are required to sort through all of it and use the information effectively and critically.
ReplyDeleteIn reading the responses, I checked out two sites that Lucie referred to around questioning. In the first one, the point was made that even when using project based learning, sometimes the “Essential Questions” are not that essential! This is something that we have talked about in our PLC this year on Project Based Learning, including the idea of questions that are “Googleable” or not.
I also liked the fact that he paired the 7 New Survival Skills with “Habits of the Heart”. Although technology is an amazing tool, it needs to be balanced with interpersonal skills.
Schools, even small schools, are much like big government...very difficult to change and that change comes slowly. Partially because we are tied into very large systems, even though we are a very small cog in that wheel.
ReplyDeleteJust think about how many times the "standards" have changed over the past 10 years. Do we have it right this time? Which direction do we swing next?
I think good teaching will produce good results, whether those results are measured as test results or critical thinking.
While what Tony Wagner says makes me a bit uncomfortable, it gets me fired up to try new things! Uncomfortable because he mentions "things" I do in the class, the tried and true methods that seem to work. Do I feel bad about doing them? Or can I think differently about what I do in the classroom? At the same time,what he says makes me want to improve my teaching skills and style. I love the idea of collaboration and problem solving. It is important to model this, especially when 5/6 kids would rather not collaborate unless it is with someone they choose....Working alone sometimes works better for us and the students. How do I model collaboration when I may not be doing it with my colleagues? Also, intrinsic thinking. I come up against this with 5/6 kids often, especially the ones who want to embark on independent research but have no idea what they want learn more about. They like the idea of research-good!-but can't come up with a single thing they want to know...how is that taught? I really loved this video because it pushed me to look at my teaching and classroom culture critically (yippee for critical thinking!)
ReplyDeleteYou make a good point about being uncomfortable, but also "fired up" to try something new. I often find that when something makes me uncomfortable, it's because I have been questioning it myself at some level. It leads me to explore the ideas in more depth, and analyze what I need to change, but also what I need to keep, what does "still work". I think it serves as a great catalyst for both reflection and change.
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