Teachers' Minds Matter

I've just started a new blog on teachers and mental health. Given that the focus of this blog is leadership and I felt that a separate blog would be more appropriate. My intention is to raise awareness of mental health issues within the education community to both support teachers and those who have to manage colleagues with mental health conditions.

Unlike this blog it is likely that the new one will have lots of small items rather than more extended discussions, however we shall see.

Over time please visit and I would welcome your ideas.

If children's education matters, then teachers matter, and if teachers matter then so do their minds.

teachersminds.blogspot.com
 

When 2+2=5 and everyone is right: managing conflicting perceptions

Bear with me on this one. I’m going to start with a diversion into science education but there is a reason as I believe what applies to children learning science also applies to leaders dealing with teachers. (If you want to avoid the details skip straight to the pudding in the last paragraph!)

As a science teacher I have always been interested in how children learn science and make sense of the world. There is evidence to suggest that children are capable of holding two (at a minimum) views of the world at any time, one being that taught in school and the other being the “folk” science from home, family and the community. Often these are at odds. I have had several experiences of where children have told me that their views are correct because their grandmothers told them it was the case, and that all we do in school science is add a veneer of knowledge which is regurgitated for tests and promptly forgotten for the rest of life. However the science educationist, Ros Driver, recognised that this cycle is breakable if science teachers create moments of cognitive conflict where a child experiences a phenomena that is so contrary to their folk science interpretation that they are forced to abandon this is favour of the mainstream science view. A great example is when children believe that a 1kg mass will fall more quickly than a 100g mass, and it is only when simultaneously released masses hit the floor at the same time that their understanding begins to change. This is known as the constructivist model of science learning.

The key points here are that the child’s version of science is real to them even if it  is totally at odds with the scientific orthodoxy (and before you ask I believe it is highly unlikely that the child’s view is the right one!), and the second is that cognitive conflict is a potential (and powerful) mechanism in shifting perceptions.

Now let’s get back to school leadership. I am sure I exasperate my team with my conviction that everyone believes they can be right and that this should be taken seriously. I know that doesn’t appear to make sense but if someone comes to you and claims they are doing more work than someone else then just telling them they don’t won’t change anything. In fact if you just tell them they are mistaken they may end up thinking that you are dismissive towards and now not only do they do more work than anyone else but also their head or line manager doesn’t care.

Our colleagues’ perceptions are real, they may not be objectively true, but as they are believed then their subjective truth is all important. Perceptions are shaped through a range of lenses, personality, emotions, current outlook on life, relationships with others, and so on. Misunderstandings find their origins in this; an objective truth is subjectively processed by individuals and often internalised in very different ways. Problems arise when the personalised interpretations are diametrically opposite and conflict is inevitable. In all of this we have to assume that all parties are acting in good faith and with integrity; the water is muddied significantly when lies are told.

So how to promote change then? Many only change when their views are shown to be demonstrably wrong. You need to engineer cognitive conflict. Simply correcting someone may only add a veneer of leader-directed “truth” without replacing or even just modifying underlying views. You may need to collect and present evidence, you may need to allow someone to observe a lesson, look at someone else’s books, go to another school for day, and if it is a significant issue it may require a significant action. Nevertheless if you want a fundamental shift then you will not achieve with simply correcting someone.

To cut a long story short. If you want to change the mind of an intelligent professional make sure your approach is better than simply correcting them. Acknowledge their concern, understand their perspective, find and present evidence to the contrary and lead them towards the interpretation that the evidence suggests. Even then this process must be personalized; do not assume that the process is generic, it must be tailored to meet the needs of the individual. This takes a lot longer than telling someone they are wrong but it is worth it. It also shows that you care (if you don't care then you're in the wrong game). Most people can cope with being wrong, mistaken or whatever, and will sooner or later accept the evidence, but what they won’t take is being called stupid.

Meeting, pre-meetings and bulletins

There are very few leaders in schools who won’t tell you, regardless of how long they have been doing the job that they are not constantly learning. The learning process is varied, reading, courses and so on, but still the most effective for me is reflecting on my mistakes. This may seem like a trivial topic to discuss but it is actually at the core of my current business and one that as you progress through leadership becomes increasingly important, that topic is meetings.

No-one ever taught me how to run meetings or how to get the most out of them so I have spent a lot of meeting time over the last 15 years wasting my time, the time of others and basically getting it wrong. I’m not claiming I’ve got it completely right yet but I’m doing it better than I ever have and achieving far more in less time.

To start with decide what your meeting is for. If it is simply information dissemination then you do need to ask yourself if that actually requires a meeting? Is your team blessed with the ability to read? If so take advantage of that skill! The sarcasm is aimed at myself because I can recognise that I have wasted a lot of time (and had a lot of time wasted by others) through meetings that are simply information sessions.

Since joining a new school I have changed the way I do my job. Whilst I have always met with members of my senior team I have now formalised this; I have set agendas and fixed time windows but the key element is what I do with the information. These meetings are very specific and linked to each colleague’s operational role, problems are discussed and priorities are identified. This is the forum to filter the noise and highlight what needs discussing with the whole team. I now produce a weekly SLT bulletin with set sections for each member of the team. This goes out before the SLT meeting, contains the key information and I highlight any matter that needs discussing. Whilst it takes time to produce the bulletin I suspect it is no more than the time wasted with information sharing in a meeting. A consequence is that colleagues recognise that their time is used far more productively and the important strategic discussions can take place. By identifying the discussion areas before the meeting also ensures that colleagues are prepared. You are also directing the discussion points and ensuring that time is not devoted to discussions that may be of no interest to some of the participants. One other point is that the bulletin is an excellent record and certainly reduces the load created by writing minutes.

 

Now looking back on my career I can see how I could have used this approach at middle leadership level. I have been a subject and faculty leader as well as a pastoral leader.  Pastoral leaders could meet up for 10 minutes every week with individual members of their team and run through key points. Collating these into a weekly pastoral bulletin (year groups or phases) will give an excellent overview of key information, waste less time and produce an excellent written record. Faculty and subject leaders should consider the same approach. I spent years as a Head of Science and in that time I could have saved huge amounts of time by meeting with the heads of subjects and collating their findings and deciding on the discussion points.

Some of you reading this (if you have got this far) may be thinking that the previous 600 words have been an exercise in stating the obvious but had someone held the obvious up to me 15 years ago I suspect my life may have been a little easier.

The Power of Pause

When I started thinking about this post I went straight to Google and started looking for quotes about “haste” and “patience”. I realised that I could quickly fill pages with pretty superficial aphorisms without getting to the heart of the matter. This is simple in teaching and leadership patience is definitely more productive than haste. Don’t get me wrong, there are times when I have to respond immediately, either in the classroom or the office, but these moments are rare. We do not “pause for thought” when a child has his hands around the throat of another child but when we are responding to a complaint, a staffing dispute, a change to the curriculum (for example), we do tend to have time.

Think about a Q&A in the classroom. A research study from a few years ago showed that the average “wait time” between asking a question and taking an answer was under a second. When observing lessons I look at this myself and it is still often the case that many teachers don’t wait long enough. The problem is that half of your class are being excluded from the activity because they are possibly still processing the question by the time someone else has answered it. I reached the point where if after waiting 5 seconds only half the hands went up then I’d rephrase the question and wait again. It may seem time consuming but it gave children the time to think, and in that time it increased the chance that they would get it right rather than feel pressurised to give a rapid answer that is wrong.

We are no different when a colleague asks you a question or brings a problem to your attention. Whilst it is unlikely that you will be asked “what is the name of the group of substances that we use to determine whether an unknown chemical is an acid or an alkali” you will get questions and problems thrown at you that require responses. You may think you have the answer, you may believe you are infallible, you may believe that you are wise and experienced and that “wrong” is not part of your professional profile. If that’s the case get out of leadership and enter politics. Otherwise consider the following.

The first tip is… WAIT! You do not know everything and getting it wrong in a split second is likely to do considerably more damage. Count to 10, or maybe 50. Lean back on your chair, look out of the window, whistle a little tune, but wait. Now multi-task whilst counting. When we take a decision in leadership we are having to weigh up a diverse range of issues. For instance a very simple problem which may provoke a knee-jerk reaction may raise a multitude of questions:

• Do you actually need to act?
• Do I need to consult?
• Is there more than one possible solution?
• Who will be affected?
• What are the possible consequences of your decision?
• How will colleagues, parents, children, governors react?
• Will the solution absorb resources (time, money and so on)?
• Is your solution legal?

There are sure to be more but this is a simple snap-shot of what you should be asking whenever you take decisions.

I now tell colleagues that I do pause, I do reflect and that they will have to wait. They know this before they come through the door. That way my ego isn’t at risk by thinking that my colleagues may perceive that I’m a little slow on the uptake! They also understand the way that I work and so the way I will consider their issue. They actually know that not only will I attempt not to get it wrong but that their problem is worth taking time over.

It is true that over time you will recognise that some problems will be similar to those which you have dealt with before and so finding a solution is made easier, but it is still likely to be unique and so will require and deserve attention.

It takes time to process ideas and formulate a response. We are all different and our processing time is different (and this is not about IQ), if we are in a race to make decisions then those who process quickly will come first but how often can we not wait five minutes to get it right? No-one will remember you as the school leader you made the right decisions in a split second or in 5 minutes, but you will be remembered as the impetuous fool whose knee-jerk reactions did more harm than good.

So here’s my pithy aphorism: Act in haste, make mistakes. Take your time, it should be fine.

Pick your shot: How cricket can help you make smarter leadership choices

Life as a school leader is marked by the need to constantly make decisions, the results of which can make or break a career. I liken this to the experience of a cricketer and this is a good place to start when considering decision-making in school leadership. Whilst not a perfect match the following analogy is worth considering. If you know absolutely nothing about cricket then I apologise for what may be totally unintelligible, otherwise stick with this and hopefully you’ll see the point.

It could be argued that the job of a batsman is to make runs but even before this the main job is not to lose his wicket. In cricket any delivery that is coming straight at your wicket must be played, however it can be played in two ways, either simply fending off the ball or hitting it to score runs. The analogy with school leadership is that there are some tasks that you have no choice about playing, these are the must-do tasks which cannot be avoided. Such tasks could include exam entries, exam analysis, schemes of work, curriculum statements, and so on. Other tasks may come your way that you don’t have to undertake, these are the shots you simply don’t have to play but there are three likely outcomes. Going for a big hit at a wayward ball may have several different outcomes, the ball may sail away over the boundary, you may simply miss the ball and look a little foolish or you may smack the ball skyward and get caught.

Here’s an exercise for you to undertake. Consider your role and list as many of the leadership/management tasks and decisions you undertake (including those you have to do and the additional tasks that you don’t actually have to). Now assign them to the following cricket analogies according to how you have responded up to now:

The shots you have to play

• Defending your wicket (not playing a shot, just stopping the ball knocking your stumps over).
• Defending your wicket but playing a shot (whether going for a single or the boundary).
• Have you ever been clean bowled?

The shots you don’t have to play

• Belting the ball over the boundary.
• Clipping the ball and being caught out.
• Flailing at the ball, missing and looking foolish.

A little story. In my first Head of Science role I decided that we had to have a drive on “science in society”. I got up in front of my department and espoused the virtues of the undertaking and genuinely believed that we should put this a long way up our list of priorities. So I expected everyone to produce worksheets, create opportunities to talk about applicable science and then put their findings in a shared file. When I got to the end of the year our results had improved (though not massively) and so I went to the file and found that the only work that was in it came from me. Though I still firmly believe in teaching science in an applied and relevant way I probably went about the wrong way, created loads of work for myself and ended up just looking a little foolish in front of my department. Which shot did I play?

So to summarise. Before you undertake a task decide whether you have to play the shot at all. When you’ve decided that ask yourself what type of shot you are going to play. Will you go for the boundary or just play defensively? Have you developed the skills and confidence to play a risky shot that may end in disaster?

The 6th P - Principles

Elsewhere in this blog you will find me espousing the 5Ps as a model for developing and planning lessons. I would like to add another please!

For some time I have placed values and character at the heart of my educational practice but only this morning recognised that there was a fundamental shortcoming in my 5Ps approach. Where did this blinding revelation come from? This morning I had the privilege of listening to Professor Bill Lucas (look him up and buy “Expansive Education” or “Educating Ruby”) and he was talking about a “split screen” approach when teaching, not only thinking about content but the character trait you also want to develop. This got me thinking, I had in my own teaching thought about the content and the thinking skills but never previously thought about explicitly planning for character traits or values. I realised that this should be easy to achieve yet could have a profound impact.

What would this require? In the simplest form it may simply be stating along with the learning objectives that “today we will also be developing our understanding of empathy” because the lesson would naturally do this anyway. The difference then being the explicit statement of intention and then hopefully an appraisal after the activity of how well the trait had been understood and developed. It may be more complex; the school may be focusing on a specific value that week, for example “unity”. You may need to adapt an activity to promote the activity and so would require more effort. I accept that this would take a little more but I believe that if you commit time and effort to developing character and values then it is more likely that a pupil will be successful in the long run.

And so back to the title. I already had 5Ps and so I really had to have another “P”, after all “5Ps and a V” would never do. Consequently I thought that “Principles” was close enough to summarise my intention and maintain the alliteration. So if you have found the 5Ps useful I would ask you to add the 6^th.

As with the others I would suggest that you consider some questions before constructing your lesson.

• What are our core traits or values?
• Does the topic lend itself to the development of a particular trait?
• Is there a particular trait I want to develop and can I adapt my tasks to reinforce this?
• How will I communicate and model the trait?
• How can I tailor my activities to allow the development of the trait?
• How will I know that pupils have understood my intentions and the trait I wish to develop?

And so now the 6Ps look like this:

Stating the obvious: get a notebook!

Some of the articles I’ve posted so far have been a little theoretical or abstract. From time to time I’ll be posting a “stating the obvious” article. So if you do find this obvious I’m sorry for wasting your time, otherwise I hope this is useful.

This may sound trivial but it isn’t, keep records. Get yourself a notebook, use it and be seen to use it. One of the problems with leadership is that the further you rise and the greater the challenges then the more balls you have to keep in the air at the same time. You will have some great ideas, you will have numerous meetings, you will hear things, you will read articles and spot resources, you will deal with difficult colleagues, parents and children, in short you will be inundated with crucial information and you are only human. I’ve been a head of department, a head of year, a union rep, an assistant head and a head and throughout each of these posts I have kept records (well at least after my first year of leadership - read on!).

Let’s start with a negative reason why you should have a notebook. When I first became a head of department a wily old deputy head told me to write down all the conversations I had, or at least those directly impacting on my job. This all felt a little too paranoid for me and so I ignored the advice. That same year I had a raft of problems with a Newly Qualified Teacher. I naively thought that my memory and integrity would be sufficient evidence in dealing with the issues but sadly that was not the case. The problem was of course that I assumed that the first problem with this member of staff would be the last. It was trivial and on its own was probably not noteworthy but two or three of these incidents later on I wish I’d noted them all down so that I had a clear evidence trail. This would have then made tackling the problem considerably easier. My advice, make a dated note of even trivia just in case you need to use it. You never know when you will need a conversation that starts with “we spoke about this on the …”.

There’s also a key psychological element to using a notebook as a running record. Your colleagues will soon realise that you do keep records and that even if your memory is flawed your records are not and that you can refer back to the notes.

This has worked to my advantage on several occasions. A member of my staff reminded me of a conversation from the previous year regarding a “promise” I had made about a future opportunity as if promotion would be guaranteed. My notes, though brief, from that meeting reflected the assurance that I would look at things but that was the extent of the promise. In a another instance a I had made notes from a series of meetings regarding our staffing structure and being able to keep referring back to concerns raised on certain dates or promises made was helpful.

So what goes in my notebook?

• Ideas and reflections
• Notes from meetings
• Pieces of information such as data, websites, addresses and so on
• Events
• Phone calls
• Plans for the future

Basically everything that impacts on my job!

Another little tip to consider. If you have dealt with a particularly difficult situation which may come back to sting you then make sure that you have shared this information with a trusted colleague. When this has happened I have signed my notes and had my colleague sign them as well.

I have experimented with different notebooks for different purposes, one for daily reflections and ideas, another for dealings with colleagues, another for phonecalls, but in the end I have found that a single book suits my needs better. I now have a collection of these acting as a log of thoughts and deeds for the last umpteen years. When leaving my last post I was able to copy pages of my notes for my successor as a commentary on key activities I had undertaken over the past couple of years.

I realise that this is not very deep but it matters. Value your notebook, protect your notebook, because there are times when your notebook is your only friend!