A Mindset NOT a Skillset
Every once in a while when you read or hear something… you can’t let it go. It might have not been a long article, blog post or speech… but rather a small quote that grips you and does not leave you… it resonates somewhere deep inside you…
It happened to me last week, when I followed Kim Cofino‘s tweet from her for an upcoming presentation “21Century Classroom“.
Slide 19 has not left me since then.
If a teacher’s mind is closed… they will have the excuse of “No Time”… “thanks for offering to help … but don’t have the time (to invest in learning something new) right now”. Is it time or priorities?
If a teacher’s mind is closed…they will blame it on their LACK of tech skills. It is too easy to say:
- “I am just no good at it”
- “I don’t know how”
- “You can do it much faster”
- “I am so far behind”.
If a teacher’s mind is closed…there is never the “right kind” of help available to them.
- Give them group help…they want 1:1 help (but never come through the open door or make the time to set a 1:1 session up).
- Offer them someone to co-teach , supporting them in their effort to teach THEIR curriculum… It seems an inconvenience when having to invest the time for collaborative lesson planning.
- They want no “extra” work (ground work done for them)… still want to retain ownership in lessons/projects..but don’t follow through or up.
- Give them written step by step instructional How-to-Guides, but they forget where they placed the paper or how to retrieve another digital copy
- A Merry -Go-Round scenario when teachers move on to the next kind of help they would need (and is offered, but to inconvenient to take advantage of)
If a teacher’s mind is closed…they will only hear what they want to hear. They will think that having their students use
- a Word Processor to type in pre-written chunks of text
- let them click around on websites to practice kill and drill math facts
- Edit a pre-made PowerPoint template with text
is technology integration.
If a teacher’s mind is closed…they already know (without ever being interested in reading about educational trends, experimenting or researching a new approach) that it would just not be worth changing or tweaking their repeated time-tested lessons plan of 5 years.
If a teacher’s mind is closed…they will use an incredible amount of energy fighting to prevent technology to successfully trickle into their teaching. There would be too much change, that their mind is not willing to deal with and absorb.
If a teacher’s mind is closed… there will be no successful technology integration…too many excuses…
It does NOT seem to be about the skills (or does it?)… it is about the MINDSET. Until that changes…
Here is Kim’s entire presentation
Oh my – are you sure you aren’t in my mind at the moment! In one repect it is comforting to know that I struggle with the same issues as others in the same position. One World indead, different countries – same problems
Excellent post. You have really hit the nail on the head. I look forward to using this as a reference in the future.
I think you’ve just outlined every possible excuse we’ve heard so far.
Reminds me of our talk at the Tortoni Cafe in Buenos Aires a year ago. Our questions then: are they really speaking another ‘language’? The language of resistance to change. How do we speak to them?
Oh yes, I imagine part of your answer, Silvia. We’ll talk it over coffee some day.
Keep up opening these kind of conversations in your blog.
I agree completely with this post. I have conducted PD training sessions on technology, and people whose minds are not open throw up their hands without even trying it.
Others who are open enjoy playing with the new technology and find ways to employ it in their classrooms.
An excellent synopsis of what most ‘closed mind’ teachers use as excuses for not expanding the learning opportunites for their students. I run across these on a daily basis, but have tried to ignore them and keep pushing (I try to stick to the positives). This hasn’t really worked and I believe the ‘work with the willing’ strategy is one I need to adopt. I just hate seeing the lost opportunites for the students. Kim’s message is much more powerful as she delievers it (I work at QA and was part of the PD) and her statement will be one I’ll be repeating often.
Is it possible we were at the same staff development session on Friday? The similarities are just too uncanny!
I agree with Kelly, I look forward to sharing this post with others. Thank You. Also kudos to Kim on the design of her presentation, awesome work. Wish I could have been there for it!
Totally agree! I went to a tech pro-d session last week with Will Richardson and was so inspired to try some new things! Meanwhile colleagues of mine insisted it was too much work. I finally realized why my aforementioned colleagues were not so fun to work with. Thanks very much.
Thanks for taking this post out of your drafts and sharing it with us. It is a good one. Obviously, from the comments here, many people can relate.
I have an example to share of a teacher with whom I work. She is an older teacher. She is the type of teacher who could teach any subject at all and you would want to take her class. Every project is engaging, hands-on, collaborative…she is amazing. She doesn’t NEED technology to be an incredible teacher. Technology is hard for her, and she really struggles with the skill sets involved. Yet that doesn’t stop her from having the laptop cart in her room almost every day. She doesn’t stop trying for one minute because she will do whatever it takes to reach her students. She is willing to let the students teach her (imagine that!). She does not have the skill set, but she most certainly has the mindset!
Wonderful post! I think you’ve described a lot of my fellow teachers!
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Thank you so much for adding your thoughts to this slide. You echo many of the sentiments I had when I was making the presentation. I use this statement every time I hear the excuses above – either you want to try to be flexible and learn something new or you don’t. It’s both simple and complicated at the same time. I’m so glad the statement rang true for you and for so many of your readers!
Ironic that I haven’t had a chance to really reflect on the presentations yet, but you (and a few others) are already picking up on key points. Another blog post in the making!
Fabulous post – I agree also! I think I’m constantly trying to find that one little nugget that for each teacher will get them to open their mind to these new ideas. I’ve seen it happen and it is amazing. Alas, it is few and far between.
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Wow! What a great post. I am struggling with all of these issues at my school currently. Thank you for putting my thoughts into words!
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