My teaching routines are in line with what yours were, but I would add a note about something really important: TRUST. Those first few student-led seminars were probably more awkward than the later ones because everyone in the room was establishing trust. You proved yourself to be trustworthy, and so did the other students, and so the conversations blossomed. Students sometimes come into a class with a long history of having been "burned" -- being *told* by a teacher that creativity matters and that their ideas have value, but then having their essay torn to shreds because it doesn't follow the "five paragraph brain death theme" structure and report back exactly what the teacher believes. Or even being encouraged to guess at questions aloud in the classroom and then mocked or belittled for their attempt. Many students come into every new class with every reason to be wary and untrusting, and without open, generous, accountable leadership (the type you describe yourself displaying), it can easily spiral into a cut-throat game of academic "gotcha" countered by fatuous platitudes -- and that's where learning goes to die.
I would argue that even asking questions is a form of play, as this forces interaction. I'm not a teacher by trade, but strive to teach through playful writing.
I'm sure you already know this Peter, but a child's hands are the gateway to brain development:
I have gone in the same direction in my cello teaching as your 'idea method.' Instead of teaching skills, I'm trying to facilitate students' understanding of concepts instead. It's a much more physically, musically, and intellectually versatile way to approach acquisition of skills rather than learning each individual skill
“Critical thinking is playing with ideas. We turn them upside down to see what happens, contrast them with other ideas to look for consistencies or contradictions, try them out on other people to get their reactions, and so on.” Excellent. Thank you Peter.
This was a superb article. I spent much of my medical career teaching evidence-based-medicine, and our styles have some common ground (although I wish I had been more like you, and less like me).
My mind wandered, as it often does these days. I speculated whether our loss of fluid memory with age is in some way linked to how we approach new ideas, and the scaffolding of current predictions of reality… with facts, or whether it’s linked to traits like openness. Possibly the metabolic costs of upgrading our models of reality become too great as our physiology degrades.
Further, the section on group identity caused me to reflect on the current educational trends (at all levels), to segregate by “identity groups” (primarily race, sex and “gender identity”). No wonder our once semi-tolerant society is becoming increasingly tribal divided and intolerant.
My son will (hopefully), be starting an Acton Academy in the fall, and it appears that many of the ideas you express are manifested in this model of education. I’m excited to see how that experiment plays out.
There was, more in your essay, much more, but those were two bits that resonated in a powerful way
I have shared your article with essentially everyone I know… and as of today, will be a paid subscriber. Thank you.
Dear Peter, I guess there are the inventive ideas about how transistors can be used to implement digital logic and also the ideas behind digital logic and binary logic etc. I would love to go in that route. Here is the problem, these are 2nd year University students and in the third and fourth years they need to go further into and build digital systems out of electronics. So the next year's Professors will probably crucify me for not focussing on the facts they need to know for the further levels of digital systems. So it seems to me to be a kind of systemic problem of engineering courses. However I'm going to really think deeply how I can talk more about ideas in the upcoming semester course I teach on digital systems. Thank you.
As with most of Peter’s posts there are two categories of discussion type for us to consider. One concerns the nature of effective pedagogy; the other concerns the incentives to bring about effective pedagogy.
We can sit here and talk for years about what might be effective pedagogy, and we can mostly agree on it, but that doesn’t mean it will be implemented, nor the details worked out. Not widely anyway. The incentives are not in our favor.
On the nature of effective pedagogy—yes, a lecture with a mix of thought provoking dialogue, Q and A interaction with the teacher, critical thinking activities, songs, games, competitions; letting the students grapple, build and create—all good, highly motivating and inspiring. Yes, critical thinking promotes learning. These are all good things to discuss; sharing stories of what worked and didn’t work. I agree.
I think the more important question is, how do we change the incentives so that more teachers will naturally want to use these more effective and other effective pedagogies?
How can we unleash far more experimentation into education, to work out the details of these concepts?
Right now we live in a monoculture of government-operated public schools. It’s stifling.
Some kids—maybe many kids—are suffering right now. Education is one of only a few ways for them to be lifted out from under the oppression, instability, poverty and suffering they are in. We have a duty to help them; and to not waste time.
So are we going to sit here and talk about pedagogy for years on end—maybe even decades, while they remain stuck? Or are we going to change the incentives to bring about the needed experiments? To quickly figure out what works best and for who?
Here’s an important excerpt from a book I read yesterday.
“We know that the education status quo is unacceptable, especially for disadvantaged youngsters….We should encourage bona fide experimentation…Can that happen? The more time I spend in this field, the more appalled I become by the argument that no reform should even be tried unless and until its proponents can prove in advance that it will work perfectly and will have no adverse consequences or unwanted side effects. Of course, the people who make that argument never apply the same standard of perfection to the present failing system. As a result, the system is allowed to continue engaging in education malpractice—while proposed alternatives are blocked. I am also wary of the odor of anti-empiricism that accompanies this stance, the whiff of ‘we don't really want to know whether this will work we're afraid to find out; hence we're better off ignorant.’ Nobody yet has found a foolproof formula for revitalizing American K-12 education. So let's be humble enough—and empirical enough—to try as many tantalizing approaches as we can.” Chester E. Finn, Jr.
So, does anyone have any good ideas for changing the incentives to bring about a great deal more experimentation and implementation of the ideas that Peter is suggesting?
I think reform will come only when we make it legally and financially possible for families to leave the public school system and send their kids to schools of their choice. If that happened, we would see all sorts of alternatives blooming. Already we are seeing increasing numbers of families choosing homeschooling.
This is very interesting Peter. In Australia we are seeing a fall in the number of students attending public schools. There's been little discussion of why, but you've got me wondering if there's something in there about flexibility in teaching styles.
I graduated from university with essentially a double major in history and political science, and minors in Economics and French (which I would only really learn after 4 years in Francophone countries). I then joined the U.S. Foreign Service which in those days seemed to have no effective concept of professional education beyond work experience. So that’s my sole basis of knowledge (though I would go on to earn a Master’s Degree in National Security Studies which was not a norm in my department). Would you recognize any current field of advanced study that could be taught at least equally well through apprenticeship programs? The Arts come to mind as perhaps already drawing on that model and perhaps Law. Diplomacy certainly could though I think it would mean having more people employed in order to accommodate the added time mentoring juniors.
Just read the article, thanks for the hyperlink. I love the idea and think we should make it work. I think that AI and technology will help by making memorizing impractical. My background is in information & knowledge management because I have always refused to develop my memory in favour of finding the details quickly somewhere else, and technology reinforces my approach from the start... I prefer focusing on harnessing the information, playing and testing ideas, sharing knowledge and maturing the ideas in a social context, engaging as many perspectives as possible. I apply this at work and a typical question from my boss, in concerned tone if the office politics are turbulent, is: "are you still having fun"? Back to the article, I can imagine a similar approach. I want my kids to be proficient at using technology to collect the information, and I want education to help them look critically at what they have collated, strong/weak information, gaps, comfortable/uncomfortable thoughts. I want them to be in a social environment where they can play different roles with the ideas, without judgement until they find their own foot. But we have ethics, social rules and ambitions to consider.
I love the idea of apprenticeship, but I have no clue how it can be organized when there are so many kids that would want to try the most high paying and less risky job... Probably many potential professional sport players and few in a fire department...
And certification is indeed essential in some areas, as is re-certification to demonstrate the knowledge/skills are kept up-to-date...
Buf, sorry for such a long post just to say that I totally agree but have no clue how to make it work and I am wondering if anyone is planning for it and maybe finding a country where to start making it a reality...
I completely agree... I am a lecturer and try, as much as possible, to promote a playful approach to learning, through outdoor play in particular and student decision making - having a say in what is covered in class and how it is delivered.
I do find this a challenge though and wonder what you think can be done about 1) that many students come with the expectation that learning happens through lecturer standing in front of group and transmitting information 2) that students are so afraid of providing a wrong answer when having a discussion that they end up giving no answer.
These are truly problems, and it is why the approach doesn't work right off. As another person noted in these comments, you have to build the students' trust--trust in you and one another--before they will actively participate. But there will be a few bold students who will help break the ice.
I was fortunate to be in an elementary school with a “Gifted & Talented” program. I feel even more fortunate that they saw something in me that I was invited to attend.
In an early session, we learned brainstorming. This skill has stuck with me ever since.
Our teacher gave us large sheets of white paper. She gave us a topic/prompt/problem and instructed us to write down ANYTHING that was related to it.
I remember the excitement in my little brain. I still get the feeling of “all cylinders firing” when I brainstorm today.
The f you’re like me, or know someone like me, you won’t be surprised to hear that my grades got worse in high school, when memorization was the norm. During that period I was put in a Special Ed class.
I know now that a lot of my “special” classmates were very clever round pegs that didn’t fit into square holes. Unfortunately, in that era, special ed was considered skid row for slackers, bad kids, and dumdums.
My wife and I watch our two year old daughter closely. Everything is play and encouraging curiosity. If she’s like my wife, she’ll likely thrive in a public school. If she’s like me, we will look for alternatives.
Thank you for your well thought out and well organized writing. It’s truly eye and mind opening.
Peter, just read the Psychology Today piece outlining your vision of the future of education. I hope it comes to pass with a massive uplift in career satisfaction for many. Speaking of careers, I just came across a four part series "The Surgeon's Cut" on Netflix that succeeded in conveying what it is like to be a surgeon from the inside out. With more opportunity to discover ourselves, and greater knowledge of potential choices, many of us likely would have pursued different paths. And far too many aren't able to get started.
Love what you wrote here. I spent 4 years teaching math in the classroom and this is precisely what I worked to facilitate in my courses. I wanted students to think their way through the problems and discover the formulas for themselves. I'd often remind them that regular humans came up with these formulas, no different than you or me. I wanted them to play the game of math, rather than learn the subject. Like you, I knew that by playing the game, they'd learn the subject. Isn't that the case for sports? And just about anything else we do.
What you said about giving the stage to students and taking a seat as a teacher resonated with me too. One way I accomplished that was by responding to students' questions with "I don't know, what do you think?" I reminded them that I'm just a human guy, not a calculator and not a computer or robot. I'm not a walking math book. In fact, given I'm not a math major or an education major, my only super power in teaching these students is that once upon a time one of my high school math teachers taught me how to THINK about math rather than memorize it. So I reminded them, "while I can probably figure it out, I don't really know the answers off the top of my head, so let's figure it out together."
I appreciate your work to create new models for how we can teach both large and small groups in this manner. I don't teach high school or middle school math these days, but I teach entrepreneurship at universities and I teach corporate employees how to reinvent themselves into first time entrepreneurs. In my current work, I also think about how can I create opportunities for my students and clients to THINK their way through, rather than just take instruction from me. I've devised activities and challenges that I could never create enough content to instruct 100% thus always leave plenty of room for thinking, ideating, and problem solving. The ideas you shared in this article will give me more options when working with small and large groups!
Keep up the great newsletter! I love the idea of professors like you having this opportunity to test ideas, share insights, and teach what matters most to you at any given time. It comes through your writing that you really enjoy this. If you are open to it, I'd love to interview you on my podcast, The School of Reinvention. You are, after all, reinventing education and the profession of teaching with your work. Cheers!
My teaching routines are in line with what yours were, but I would add a note about something really important: TRUST. Those first few student-led seminars were probably more awkward than the later ones because everyone in the room was establishing trust. You proved yourself to be trustworthy, and so did the other students, and so the conversations blossomed. Students sometimes come into a class with a long history of having been "burned" -- being *told* by a teacher that creativity matters and that their ideas have value, but then having their essay torn to shreds because it doesn't follow the "five paragraph brain death theme" structure and report back exactly what the teacher believes. Or even being encouraged to guess at questions aloud in the classroom and then mocked or belittled for their attempt. Many students come into every new class with every reason to be wary and untrusting, and without open, generous, accountable leadership (the type you describe yourself displaying), it can easily spiral into a cut-throat game of academic "gotcha" countered by fatuous platitudes -- and that's where learning goes to die.
I would argue that even asking questions is a form of play, as this forces interaction. I'm not a teacher by trade, but strive to teach through playful writing.
I'm sure you already know this Peter, but a child's hands are the gateway to brain development:
https://romanshapoval.substack.com/p/how-does-emf-affect-children
I'm launching into the world of online teaching as well!
Shameless plug (:
https://romanshapoval.substack.com/p/emf101preview1
Thank you for everything you do Peter.
I have gone in the same direction in my cello teaching as your 'idea method.' Instead of teaching skills, I'm trying to facilitate students' understanding of concepts instead. It's a much more physically, musically, and intellectually versatile way to approach acquisition of skills rather than learning each individual skill
Another nice source for this style of teaching:
Make Just One Change: Teach Students to Ask Their Own Questions https://a.co/d/0Jyqs4Q
“Critical thinking is playing with ideas. We turn them upside down to see what happens, contrast them with other ideas to look for consistencies or contradictions, try them out on other people to get their reactions, and so on.” Excellent. Thank you Peter.
Peter.
This was a superb article. I spent much of my medical career teaching evidence-based-medicine, and our styles have some common ground (although I wish I had been more like you, and less like me).
My mind wandered, as it often does these days. I speculated whether our loss of fluid memory with age is in some way linked to how we approach new ideas, and the scaffolding of current predictions of reality… with facts, or whether it’s linked to traits like openness. Possibly the metabolic costs of upgrading our models of reality become too great as our physiology degrades.
Further, the section on group identity caused me to reflect on the current educational trends (at all levels), to segregate by “identity groups” (primarily race, sex and “gender identity”). No wonder our once semi-tolerant society is becoming increasingly tribal divided and intolerant.
My son will (hopefully), be starting an Acton Academy in the fall, and it appears that many of the ideas you express are manifested in this model of education. I’m excited to see how that experiment plays out.
There was, more in your essay, much more, but those were two bits that resonated in a powerful way
I have shared your article with essentially everyone I know… and as of today, will be a paid subscriber. Thank you.
Thank you, Steve.
Dear Peter, I guess there are the inventive ideas about how transistors can be used to implement digital logic and also the ideas behind digital logic and binary logic etc. I would love to go in that route. Here is the problem, these are 2nd year University students and in the third and fourth years they need to go further into and build digital systems out of electronics. So the next year's Professors will probably crucify me for not focussing on the facts they need to know for the further levels of digital systems. So it seems to me to be a kind of systemic problem of engineering courses. However I'm going to really think deeply how I can talk more about ideas in the upcoming semester course I teach on digital systems. Thank you.
As with most of Peter’s posts there are two categories of discussion type for us to consider. One concerns the nature of effective pedagogy; the other concerns the incentives to bring about effective pedagogy.
We can sit here and talk for years about what might be effective pedagogy, and we can mostly agree on it, but that doesn’t mean it will be implemented, nor the details worked out. Not widely anyway. The incentives are not in our favor.
On the nature of effective pedagogy—yes, a lecture with a mix of thought provoking dialogue, Q and A interaction with the teacher, critical thinking activities, songs, games, competitions; letting the students grapple, build and create—all good, highly motivating and inspiring. Yes, critical thinking promotes learning. These are all good things to discuss; sharing stories of what worked and didn’t work. I agree.
I think the more important question is, how do we change the incentives so that more teachers will naturally want to use these more effective and other effective pedagogies?
How can we unleash far more experimentation into education, to work out the details of these concepts?
Right now we live in a monoculture of government-operated public schools. It’s stifling.
Some kids—maybe many kids—are suffering right now. Education is one of only a few ways for them to be lifted out from under the oppression, instability, poverty and suffering they are in. We have a duty to help them; and to not waste time.
So are we going to sit here and talk about pedagogy for years on end—maybe even decades, while they remain stuck? Or are we going to change the incentives to bring about the needed experiments? To quickly figure out what works best and for who?
Here’s an important excerpt from a book I read yesterday.
“We know that the education status quo is unacceptable, especially for disadvantaged youngsters….We should encourage bona fide experimentation…Can that happen? The more time I spend in this field, the more appalled I become by the argument that no reform should even be tried unless and until its proponents can prove in advance that it will work perfectly and will have no adverse consequences or unwanted side effects. Of course, the people who make that argument never apply the same standard of perfection to the present failing system. As a result, the system is allowed to continue engaging in education malpractice—while proposed alternatives are blocked. I am also wary of the odor of anti-empiricism that accompanies this stance, the whiff of ‘we don't really want to know whether this will work we're afraid to find out; hence we're better off ignorant.’ Nobody yet has found a foolproof formula for revitalizing American K-12 education. So let's be humble enough—and empirical enough—to try as many tantalizing approaches as we can.” Chester E. Finn, Jr.
So, does anyone have any good ideas for changing the incentives to bring about a great deal more experimentation and implementation of the ideas that Peter is suggesting?
I think reform will come only when we make it legally and financially possible for families to leave the public school system and send their kids to schools of their choice. If that happened, we would see all sorts of alternatives blooming. Already we are seeing increasing numbers of families choosing homeschooling.
This is very interesting Peter. In Australia we are seeing a fall in the number of students attending public schools. There's been little discussion of why, but you've got me wondering if there's something in there about flexibility in teaching styles.
I graduated from university with essentially a double major in history and political science, and minors in Economics and French (which I would only really learn after 4 years in Francophone countries). I then joined the U.S. Foreign Service which in those days seemed to have no effective concept of professional education beyond work experience. So that’s my sole basis of knowledge (though I would go on to earn a Master’s Degree in National Security Studies which was not a norm in my department). Would you recognize any current field of advanced study that could be taught at least equally well through apprenticeship programs? The Arts come to mind as perhaps already drawing on that model and perhaps Law. Diplomacy certainly could though I think it would mean having more people employed in order to accommodate the added time mentoring juniors.
Robert, I think you would enjoy my vision for the future of education, which involves apprenticeships for most: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/freedom-to-learn/201711/educations-future-what-will-replace-k-12-and-college
Just read the article, thanks for the hyperlink. I love the idea and think we should make it work. I think that AI and technology will help by making memorizing impractical. My background is in information & knowledge management because I have always refused to develop my memory in favour of finding the details quickly somewhere else, and technology reinforces my approach from the start... I prefer focusing on harnessing the information, playing and testing ideas, sharing knowledge and maturing the ideas in a social context, engaging as many perspectives as possible. I apply this at work and a typical question from my boss, in concerned tone if the office politics are turbulent, is: "are you still having fun"? Back to the article, I can imagine a similar approach. I want my kids to be proficient at using technology to collect the information, and I want education to help them look critically at what they have collated, strong/weak information, gaps, comfortable/uncomfortable thoughts. I want them to be in a social environment where they can play different roles with the ideas, without judgement until they find their own foot. But we have ethics, social rules and ambitions to consider.
I love the idea of apprenticeship, but I have no clue how it can be organized when there are so many kids that would want to try the most high paying and less risky job... Probably many potential professional sport players and few in a fire department...
And certification is indeed essential in some areas, as is re-certification to demonstrate the knowledge/skills are kept up-to-date...
Buf, sorry for such a long post just to say that I totally agree but have no clue how to make it work and I am wondering if anyone is planning for it and maybe finding a country where to start making it a reality...
I completely agree... I am a lecturer and try, as much as possible, to promote a playful approach to learning, through outdoor play in particular and student decision making - having a say in what is covered in class and how it is delivered.
I do find this a challenge though and wonder what you think can be done about 1) that many students come with the expectation that learning happens through lecturer standing in front of group and transmitting information 2) that students are so afraid of providing a wrong answer when having a discussion that they end up giving no answer.
These are truly problems, and it is why the approach doesn't work right off. As another person noted in these comments, you have to build the students' trust--trust in you and one another--before they will actively participate. But there will be a few bold students who will help break the ice.
I was fortunate to be in an elementary school with a “Gifted & Talented” program. I feel even more fortunate that they saw something in me that I was invited to attend.
In an early session, we learned brainstorming. This skill has stuck with me ever since.
Our teacher gave us large sheets of white paper. She gave us a topic/prompt/problem and instructed us to write down ANYTHING that was related to it.
I remember the excitement in my little brain. I still get the feeling of “all cylinders firing” when I brainstorm today.
The f you’re like me, or know someone like me, you won’t be surprised to hear that my grades got worse in high school, when memorization was the norm. During that period I was put in a Special Ed class.
I know now that a lot of my “special” classmates were very clever round pegs that didn’t fit into square holes. Unfortunately, in that era, special ed was considered skid row for slackers, bad kids, and dumdums.
My wife and I watch our two year old daughter closely. Everything is play and encouraging curiosity. If she’s like my wife, she’ll likely thrive in a public school. If she’s like me, we will look for alternatives.
Thank you for your well thought out and well organized writing. It’s truly eye and mind opening.
Peter, just read the Psychology Today piece outlining your vision of the future of education. I hope it comes to pass with a massive uplift in career satisfaction for many. Speaking of careers, I just came across a four part series "The Surgeon's Cut" on Netflix that succeeded in conveying what it is like to be a surgeon from the inside out. With more opportunity to discover ourselves, and greater knowledge of potential choices, many of us likely would have pursued different paths. And far too many aren't able to get started.
And thank you for your ongoing contributions to humanity.
Are there any of your old lectures online :)?
Love what you wrote here. I spent 4 years teaching math in the classroom and this is precisely what I worked to facilitate in my courses. I wanted students to think their way through the problems and discover the formulas for themselves. I'd often remind them that regular humans came up with these formulas, no different than you or me. I wanted them to play the game of math, rather than learn the subject. Like you, I knew that by playing the game, they'd learn the subject. Isn't that the case for sports? And just about anything else we do.
What you said about giving the stage to students and taking a seat as a teacher resonated with me too. One way I accomplished that was by responding to students' questions with "I don't know, what do you think?" I reminded them that I'm just a human guy, not a calculator and not a computer or robot. I'm not a walking math book. In fact, given I'm not a math major or an education major, my only super power in teaching these students is that once upon a time one of my high school math teachers taught me how to THINK about math rather than memorize it. So I reminded them, "while I can probably figure it out, I don't really know the answers off the top of my head, so let's figure it out together."
I appreciate your work to create new models for how we can teach both large and small groups in this manner. I don't teach high school or middle school math these days, but I teach entrepreneurship at universities and I teach corporate employees how to reinvent themselves into first time entrepreneurs. In my current work, I also think about how can I create opportunities for my students and clients to THINK their way through, rather than just take instruction from me. I've devised activities and challenges that I could never create enough content to instruct 100% thus always leave plenty of room for thinking, ideating, and problem solving. The ideas you shared in this article will give me more options when working with small and large groups!
Keep up the great newsletter! I love the idea of professors like you having this opportunity to test ideas, share insights, and teach what matters most to you at any given time. It comes through your writing that you really enjoy this. If you are open to it, I'd love to interview you on my podcast, The School of Reinvention. You are, after all, reinventing education and the profession of teaching with your work. Cheers!
This is great. Thinking about all the different ways to bring this into work.