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.
*see
http://www.gordontraining.com/free-workplace-articles/learning-a-new-skill-is-easier-said-than-done/.
This week, you might want to
take a look at:
Video
resources to raise awareness about effective teaching:
Are
you working with teachers to create units?
This white paper provides an overview of Understanding by Design:
An
article about creating a community of writers:
Ideas for
igniting a sense
of wonder with informational text:
This
video highlights the value of small group work and partner talk – in this case
for checking scientific data:
