Practice Makes Permanent

Earlier this week I was engaged in a spirited discussion with a colleague on the topic of science education.  As with any discussion where both parties feel particularly invested in the topic at hand, the conversation included many examples, theories, and conjectures.  At one point in the conversation, this colleague said, “You know, practice doesn’t make perfect, it makes permanent.”  We were clearly both surprised with the profound nature of that statement, as the conversation literally stopped at that point for us to consider the immensity of what was said.  I’m still considering it today as I write this post.

No one would argue that practice has an impact on what we do.  Whether learning to drive, cook, or engage in a sporting event (my wife and daughter are catching up on Olympic results as I type), constant repetition trains the body, mind, and spirit to make certain actions effortless.  Malcolm Gladwell discusses the “10,000 Hour Rule” in his book, Outliers.  The idea here is that it takes 10,000 hours of practice to truly become an “expert.”  While Gladwell was focusing on those folks in society who are truly “world-class elite performers,” many would agree that a large time investment is necessary to train ourselves to accomplish key tasks. 

What’s interesting here is that this idea focuses on just how helpful constant repetition is.  But, what is missing is that practice doesn’t always lead to a positive result.  For instance, prior to making that profound statement, my colleague was explaining how he taught himself to play a number of musical instruments, including the flute.  He practiced constantly and at one point, was invited to attend a recital conference with some of the best flutists in the world.  Upon arriving he was about to play a piece with a number of others in attendance.  As they warmed up, he could not believe how much better they sounded than he did.  Though his hours of practice did make him an “expert,” they had made him an expert in playing the flute incorrectly.  In fact, he stated that unlearning errors in musical instrument play was much harder than initially learning how to play them.

We see the same thing in sports (that baseball star who is an excellent fielder, but can’t seem to unlearn his poor swing structure), conversation (adding in hundreds of “ums” and “likes” as we speak), and even writing (I can’t tell you how many times I write “occasion” as “occassion”).  In all these instances, practice does make us perfect, but perfect at doing the wrong thing.  So, inherently, practice doesn’t always achieve something good.

The key, of course, is practicing “correctly.”  And, as leaders, we must encourage both our students, and our colleagues, to not only build their skills through repetition, but to also be cognizant of the fact that just because you keep doing something, doesn’t mean what you end up with will be “right.”  

Beginning to make a move towards achieving this can be challenging, but there are a number of steps we can take to make this a more effective process for everyone:

Open Their Eyes.  Discuss with others that practice, by itself, isn’t necessarily a good thing.

Encourage Metacognitive Thinking.  When my colleague realized that he was the least prepared of the “exceptional” flutists, he had an epiphany.  These epiphanies must be made by others as well if they are to truly understand that we must practice correctly.  We can engage in a wrong process one thousand times and it will still be wrong.

Provide Support.  Nothing is worse than realizing that something you thought you did so well is something that you do so incorrectly (particularly if hours upon hours were spent getting to that point).  Provide colleagues and students the resources they need to break the cycle, and most importantly, help them “unlearn” what needs to be changed in whatever way you can. 

Share Successes and Failures.  We’ve all been there.  Talk about it, and listen to others.

Develop a Practice Protocol.  Schools can devise methods that will lead practice to truly be perfect.  These methods require three key parts. 

• First, mentors and experts must be on hand (or readily available) who can help correct errors as they arise.
• Second, constant opportunities for sharing and feedback need to be provided.  Even the seasoned expert can miss something from time-to-time.  Discussions and feedback sessions allow even the most hidden errors to be flushed out. 
•  Finally, time must be scheduled for stakeholders to practice.  Teachers and students are beyond overscheduled these days.  Expertise requires time to develop.  If we expect our colleagues and students to develop in a manner that allows them to truly become pillars of expertise, the opportunity needs to be provided for those pillars to be built.

It is a lofty goal to strive for correctness in all content and processes internalized.  But, it doesn’t have to be an entirely impossible one.  We know that practice does lead to better retention.  Now we just have to make sure that what becomes permanent really is productive.

The Problem With Adages

“If It Ain’t Broke. . .

. . . .don’t fix it,” or so the saying goes.  Lately I’ve been thinking a lot about adages, those sayings, like this one, that are ubiquitous throughout society and are supposed to be true universally.  Yet, as common as they are, many just don’t apply to education.  For that reason, as leaders, we must be careful how we use them.  Let’s look at this one as an example.

Most would certainly agree that portions of our educational system are broken, but a large number in our field work in buildings or districts that are somewhat “insulated” from the educational upheaval that we are currently experiencing.  This might lead some to utilize the “If It Ain’t Broke. . .” phrase as a mantra.  In other words, if things are working here, why change?

But, as with much of life, things are never that simple.  When educating by this mantra, we ignore what is going on outside the walls of our classrooms, buildings, and communities.  We ignore one of the most important characteristics of strong educational pedagogy, the necessity to help students become life-long learners.  After all, if things seem to be going just fine, why learn or investigate more about them? 

When some see trouble waiting in the wings they retreat from it, close their classroom (or building) doors and go about business as usual.  But, that does an injustice to the future leaders of society under our charge.  Things currently aren’t business as usual, and, likely won’t be when this crop of students enters the “real world.”  So, why ignore the ocean just because the water is fine in our little lagoon?  After all, all it takes is one big wave, and that lagoon isn’t quite as comfortable as it was.

So, what to do?  How do we get our colleagues to drop the adage and see the forest for the trees?

For starters, we have to get educators to see beyond the walls.  For some, a simple conversation will suffice.  For others, a trip out into the “real world” is a necessity.  We shouldn’t be afraid to reach out to those whose straits are direr than ours.  There is much that can be learned from forming partnerships with schools that might currently have it worse off than we do.  For one, those in better positions can provide assistance.  In addition, the future is a fickle creature, and we never know when a school of excellence will become a school in need.  By collaborating regularly and often, schools can begin to design action plans for those “just in case” scenarios.  Unfortunately, for a few of our colleagues, those blinders can’t (or won’t) be removed, regardless of the support provided.  Decisions must then be made.  Is this person a good fit for the organization?  Can they help in ways other than in their current role?  Would they be a better fit somewhere else?  While these conversations are never easy, educational systems, now more than ever, must always be proactive, and obstacles to this must be addressed.

Keep in mind that just because educators see the big picture, doesn’t mean students do.  So, as a group of forward-thinking learners and leaders, we must engage students in curricula that focus on current issues in and around the community.  What are some of the challenges the neighborhood/town/state faces economically, socially, ethically?  How can we work as a class/school/district to address these?  What partnerships can we make with organizations outside our building walls?  How can we put a plan in place to prevent these hardships from impacting us in the future?  Even the youngest of our students can engage in these types of explorations.  The more we prepare students for the challenges they are to face as adults, the better we’ve prepared society to fix the things that are (and are not yet) broken.

So, while “If it ain’t broke. . .” will likely remain an adage in the collective society, its “kernel of truth” doesn’t quite pop when it comes to education.   Instead, it promotes a false sense of security, one that, as educators and leaders, we can’t afford to have, for our students’ sake.

(Note: As I write this I’m reminded of John Kotter’s Our Iceberg Is Melting. If you’ve read this, you know how powerful it is.  If you haven’t, I strongly recommend this quick read as an enjoyable look into leadership and the problems with complacency.)

Learning and Leading

I had the opportunity this past weekend to attend the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development's Leader 2 Leader conference.  It was a fabulous experience where I learned much about my leadership style, strengths, and weaknesses.  It also gave me the chance to set "100 day goals" which I blogged about on the ASCD Edge site.  Check out the blog post below, and let me know what you think.

Learn to Lead, Lead to Learn

Talking Organization

I recently had the opportunity to compose a guest blog piece for Really Good Stuff's blog, The Teachers' Lounge.  I was asked to share my experience and expertise on materials management, something that I know a bit about.  When you have a few minutes, check out the post, and let me know what you think.



3 Tips To Organize Your Classroom

#NGSSchat Begins!

With the Next Generation Science Standards first draft being released to the public this Friday (the draft will be available at www.nextgenscience.org), we'll be holding a #NGSSchat on Twitter each Thursday at 8:00 p.m. to discuss the standards and their implications.  To get involved, simply log on to Twitter at that time and search for hashtag #NGSSchat.  Join us this Thursday for our inaugural session!

Hope to see you there!

Disney With Daughter: What Theme Parks Can Teach About Education

My wife, almost two-year old daughter, and I recently returned from a wonderful trip down to Disney.  Regardless of what you think about Disney as an institution, the similarities between the organization and a school system are tremendous.  So, it isn’t surprising that on the plane ride back, between singing the alphabet for the five hundredth time, and trying to teach my daughter that just because you can shake the seat in front of you, doesn’t mean you should, my brain was actively considering three very important lessons learned.

     1.        Regardless of how well you do something, someone will always do it better. 

Instead of taking that as a challenge, we should take it as an opportunity to construct new meaning.  Prior to our leaving for Disney, we thought we had a great plan for visiting the park with a young child.  As we found out, while our plan was “workable,” many other families had better plans.  So, rather than make up some sort of excuse as to why their plan wasn’t as good, or what advantages they had that weren’t available to us, we learned from them and adjusted our touring in subsequent days.

The same should be said of how we engage with our students and colleagues.  No teacher is truly an expert in all things, and to ever believe that we can’t learn from others is a dangerous thought indeed.  But, those who are better than us should be seen as teachers, not enemies, and it is important to approach a situation with a simple mantra: "I should leave this scenario knowing more than when I first entered it."

     2.        Prioritize.

Our schedules are packed, and recent regulations in many states make it appear that they will only become tighter.  No better example of this appears than when entering a Disney park.  There is only a set amount of time available to walk the park, and lots of outside factors impacting your time (food, weather, naptime, etc.).  So, it is important to think about your goals and focus on the priorities.  Is the goal to ride a certain attraction?  Visit a certain part of the park?  Be back to the hotel for a lunchtime nap?  These are important questions that must be answered, hopefully before you’re actually at the park.

Prioritizing in our classrooms or schools is no different.  What must be done to make sure students benefit the most from their time with us?  Who can assist with these tasks?  What can be delegated?  What constraints exist that might prevent us from meeting our goals?  The key is that we will never be able to accomplish everything we want to, but we can accomplish everything that is of the utmost importance.  And we should.  We owe it to our students, colleagues, and ourselves.

 3.        Have fun.

When you walk into a theme park with thousands of people, it can be easy to forget the sheer wonder of the place and focus instead on the stressors.  There’s a line just to get in?  How can this ride already have a 2 hour wait?  How much money did I just spend on that T-shirt?  Why is the bus taking so long to get back to the hotel?  While that type of thinking happens easily, and while that basic “disaster” mentality is likely a construct of our innate desire to always protect ourselves and those we love, it can deflate an experience very easily.  So, instead of focusing on what you can’t do, focus on what you can.  If all you get to is Dumbo, the teacups, and It’s a Small World, well, then rock on.

In our professional lives, we can’t forget this.  If we’re having a rough day for personal or work-related reasons, we must do our best to focus on the fun.  While recent data shows educators are less satisfied than we have been in the past, and while there is much to substantiate this feeling, our students are not to blame for this.  Whether we are classroom teachers, building or district leaders, or curriculum designers, our students shouldn’t suffer just because we do.  With all that many of them will be up against as adults, they deserve to have a little fun when under our care.

Talking Shop

A few weeks ago I had the opportunity to share a project I had worked on with students in the past.  The project, an open-ended student data collection experience, was featured in a recent issue of Science Scope (one of the National Science Teachers Association’s peer-reviewed journals) and attracted the attention of Lab Out Loud, a podcast organized by the National Science Teachers Association (NSTA) and moderated by two high-school science teachers, Dale Basler and Brian Bartel.  I had the opportunity to speak with them about the project, and what experiences of this type can do for education.  Rather than write the details here, when you have a moment, give it a listen and let me know what you think.

http://laboutloud.com/2012/03/episode-76-not-another-lab-report/