What's Become Clear

I spent a lot of time thinking about what needs to change in schools, how we do school reform. I also spend a lot of time listening to books. Over the last several months I’ve listened to six books that make great connections for me. I’d recommend the following six books for every educator.

Drive – Daniel Pink
How We Decide – Jonah Lehrer
Talent Is Overrated – Geoff Colvin
The Talent Code – Daniel Coyle
Outliers – Malcolm Gladwell
The Element – Sir Ken Robinson

So what do all these books have in common? They all deal with motivation, learning, and great performance. Let me give you the Reader’s Digest version of what I took from these books, but please read them and let me know what you think their importance is.

First of all there is a common thread through the six that motivation and excellence are linked to interest. Individuals who have high intrinsic interest in what they’re doing are better learners. So for schools this means that we must allow students to have choice in what it is that they’re learning.  School reformer Phil Schlecty always said that teachers don’t know what their job is. He said, ” That a teacher’s job is not to teach kids. A teacher’s job is to create work that is meaningful and engaging to the student, whereby they learn the things that we want them to learn.” He’s right on target according to these authors. We have to give kids work to do, but it has to be meaningful and engaging to them.

The second thread that runs through these books is that there is no such thing as inherent talent. There are several studies that are referred to that show two things. One, and individual must spend approximately 10 years and/or 10,000 hours involved in the pursuit to become an expert. But time alone is not enough, the individual must also spend that time in what the authors referred to as, “deliberate practice.” That’s practice that focuses on improving each and every facet of the performance. By the way, the performance can be physical or cognitive, it doesn’t matter.

So what does that mean to us in schools? Well the sad truth is what we have students practice most often for 10 years and/or 10,000 hours, is passively being compliant. We ask them to sit in the seat, do what they are told, do it when they are told, and do it how they are told to do it. If they run into trouble we tell them to raise their hand and we will answer their questions, and solve their problems.

Our current system is designed to reduce the deficits that our kids have. We identify what they’re not good at and we try to raise them to mediocrity. What we should be doing is identifying what they are good at, and letting them become experts in that area. In the real world if you can shine at something you can be a success, in spite of your deficits.

Does that mean that we ignore their deficits? Absolutely not, but we should improve on those deficits as part of the deliberate practice they do in the area that they have a high interest. So they will become experts in an area with the supporting skills and knowledge necessary.

So schools, start figuring out how to create educational experiences that are, long-term, engaging to each and every student on an individual basis, and allow the student to become an expert in what rows their boat in the 21st century. – Steve Wyckoff

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This is a post about books that is a little different than I would generally post in a discussion about a book. I’m going to generalize about four different books.

How We Decide – Jonah Lehrer
Talent Is Overrated – Geoff Colvin
The Talent Code – Daniel Coyle
Outliers – Malcolm Gladwell

For me the interesting strand that ran through these books made me question a longtime belief that I’ve held. I was very much a believer in the research done by the Gallup organization that indicated that individuals had inherent talent. And that if an individual didn’t have that natural talent no amount of work would help them acquire it. At best they can only become mechanical at performing in that talent area.

But the research presented in these four books contradicts that thinking. And as they studied individuals who we’d been led to believe did miraculous things simply because of their innate talent, they found that that simply wasn’t the case.

There does seem to be some common elements that lead to great performances. There seems to be something very important about an individual who spends 10,000 hours in the pursuit of perfection. In addition it seems to be important that that 10,000 hours be accomplished within a 10 year period. But we all know somebody who has been on their job for at least 10 years, and has worked at it at least 10,000 hours, yet they are very average performers.

The third element that seems to be very important is the idea of deliberate practice. Deliberate practice is the practice of identifying specifically what the individual is doing incorrectly and working to improve on that specific area. Where most people fail to become experts is that they prefer to practice the things that are already good at, and neglect to practice the things that they’re not good at.

The example that they use in one of the books is that Tiger Woods will go out and hit a single shot hundreds of times on the off chance that he will need to make that shot once or twice in a season. Speaking of Tiger Woods, we have been led to believe that he  is just innately the best offer that ever lived. But when they actually studied his childhood, from the time he was old enough to sit in a high chair, his father had him watching his golf swing and talking to him about golf. And as soon as Tiger was old enough to stand he started hitting a golf ball under the tutelage of his father who was a golf instructor.

So what does this mean for schools? As I think about what our kids do for 10 years and 10,000 hours, and that they practice deliberately, the only thing I can consistently come up with is that they are taught to sit quietly and passively and listen to an adult. I’m not sure that that’s the behavior that we want our kids to be experts at. This certainly doesn’t mean that that’s the only thing kids learn, but for far too many of our kids they spin the 10 years and the 10,000 hours practicing just that.

Perhaps that’s why when high school dropouts or questioned they say that the reason they dropped out was because school was boring and irrelevant. And in the research,The Silent Epidemic: Perspectives of High School Dropouts report, they found that 88% of dropouts at passing grades.

So my suggestion read all four of these books and think about the implications for schools, our classrooms, and our practices. And by all means post a comment  below so I know what you think about this!

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