My Coaches' Couch: You Don't Know What You Don't Know

Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know better, do better.

~Maya Angelou

I will always remember one of the most confident novice teachers I have ever worked with (we’ll call her Christine). During PLC meetings, Christine was always the first to offer a comment, and it was typically lengthy and full of detail. Her colleagues were patient, but I sensed they were controlling a strong urge to roll their eyes and sigh --- here she goes, again. Christine's confident attitude also permeated our post-observation conversations and most exchanges she had with her mentor. But here’s the catch: she was not doing a good job with teaching. From her perspective, she was delivering great lessons, but unfortunately, the students weren’t on board. She didn’t notice, however, that her instruction was missing the mark. Christine is a good example of the adage, “You don’t know what you don’t know.”

Although Christine is an extreme example, all novices go through a stage of blissfully blind ignorance, unaware of the multitude of factors influencing instruction. Thirty years ago, Noel Birch* developed a model describing four stages of learning that has become known as “Gordon’s Ladder.” With modification, the model can be a useful guide for thinking about how teachers’ move beyond the “not knowing what they’re not knowing” phase. Here are the modified stages:

Stage 1: Unconsciously Unskilled

We don’t know what we don’t know. We are unskilled and unaware of it. We see a version of this stage in the armchair expert. No one is more certain about how to teach well than someone who has never had a class of their own students. This stage of being unconsciously unskilled, unfortunately, is a very comfortable stage, because, “Ignorance is bliss.” Although it seemed implausible to me and her mentor, Christine felt very happy with her teaching.

Stage 2: Consciously Unskilled

We know what we don’t know. We somehow become aware of our shortcomings, and this recognition convinces us that we have much to learn. In contrast to the earlier blissful stage, this stage can be overwhelming. The teacher’s awareness of her own practice and its impact on students increases. There may be some feelings of guilt for the effects of past practice. The support of a coach or mentor makes a big difference in this stage. For Christine, a lesson that was undeniably ineffective opened the door for Christine’s mentor to help her see what she needed to focus on, and she started making progress to being skilled, the next stage on the ladder.

Stage 3: Becoming Skilled

This phase is characterized by increasing competence. We are trying the skills out, experimenting, practicing, and becoming more proficient. The skills become easier. As Christine worked to design instruction that was more student-centered, she noticed her students’ increased learning and she grew in confidence as a teacher.

Stage 4: Consciously Skilled

This stage represents a competent, reflective practitioner. The skill has become more automatic and can be explained to others. A teacher in this stage makes a great coach or mentor, because she can examine her own practice, share it, and support others in their journey through the stages. Because Christine’s mentor could accurately reflect on both her own and Christine’s practice, she was a valuable guide as Christine developed expertise.

An understanding of Gordon’s Ladder can be helpful as a mentor applies the GIR Mentoring Model when working with teachers. The first three phases (modeling, recommending, and questioning) are most effective when considered in the context of the teacher’s skills and her awareness of that skill level. For Christine, modeling wasn’t effective until she recognized she had room for improvement herself. Until then, she had a “that’s not the way I would do it,” attitude as she watched, which only served to confirm her ineffective practices in her own mind. Once she became consciously unskilled, modeling took on new importance, as did the recommendations, which were now more readily received. Similarly, mentor’s questions that had previously been met with textbook answers took on new importance when Christine became conscious of what she did not know. Considering teachers' level of consciousness of their skill can be a helpful guide as you use the GIR model.