Am I REALLY understood? Intercultural communications challenges can be overcome.

https://www.crossculture.com/about-us/the-model/

Communication is never perfect. One of my improvement goals for the past 4 years has been the same – improve my communications. Listen better, be more concise, somehow minimize misunderstandings – there is ALWAYS room for improvement.

Having moved around a lot as a child, experiencing various US sub-cultures (inner-city, the South, Western cowboy country and living on a Navajo reservation) and then having the wonderful experiences of living, studying and working abroad (China, Australia, the Philippines, Egypt and Colombia) I have seen first-hand how people with different cultural foundations communicate in ways common to their cultural upbringing. When people from those various backgrounds come together, miscommunication and misunderstanding is common. Unfortunately, some give up on trying to learn new communication approaches and just power through with what they know, hoping that eventually they will be understood.

Richard Lewis, founder of CrossCulture (a consulting group) wrote about this in, When Cultures Collide, originally in 1996. He developed some very telling visual representations to illustrate how different cultures have different communication patterns. I highly recommend reading his book so that you do not misinterpret (and/or take offense at) the terminology that he applies for each visual. For example, my foundational culture (of course, within each culture there are definitely sub-cultural contexts) can make other cultures uncomfortable due to a confrontational/direct approach:

Lewis, Richard D. When Cultures Collide: Leading across Cultures; a Major New Edition of the Global Guide. Brealey, 2015.

This is a good description of how most Americans tend to communicate but I wouldn’t say this was as common on the Navajo reservation. Would an inner-city New Yorker have the same style as an Arizona cowboy? There are differences within cultures.

When I first studied abroad I had to adjust and understand that Asian communication patterns are far less direct:

Lewis, Richard D. When Cultures Collide: Leading across Cultures; a Major New Edition of the Global Guide. Brealey, 2015.

A similar overall pattern but far more nuanced, less of a peak with the tough talk and the absolute necessity to maintain “face”.

Being in Colombia this past year, I would say that communications often followed the “Spanish”pattern:

Lewis, Richard D. When Cultures Collide: Leading across Cultures; a Major New Edition of the Global Guide. Brealey, 2015.

Certainly, there is a far more emotional connection throughout that builds up, yet I would say the typical Asian ‘face-saving’ pattern exists here also in the manner of always maintaining and reaffirming respect. Machismo must be respected.

Now I will be moving to South Korea. Thankfully, my experiences working in a school in the Philippines with a large Korean population have prepared me for this (as well as my living in China and deep studies of Chinese culture and history) but it will still be an adjustment as you can see that Korean patterns are different from Chinese despite deep cultural similarities (namely a strong Confucian values alignment).

Lewis, Richard D. When Cultures Collide: Leading across Cultures; a Major New Edition of the Global Guide. Brealey, 2015.

So… what happens when you haven’t been understood? How can we minimize miscommunication? I believe that our basic human core values of respect, trustworthiness, fairness and caring must always stay at the center of our communications. The trick is learning what each of these looks like and how to express these appropriately in different cultural contexts. For example, some cultures respect loud, strong voices more than calmer quiet ones and for others it’s the opposite.

TIPS:

• Try to learn what it looks like or sounds like to show caring, respect and fairness with the people with whom you will be communicating;
• Learn what common trustbuilding measures are in the culture you will be communicating with AND how long it typically takes to establish trust;
• Be ready to humbly clarify and recognize that your approach may not be as effective as one which you will further refine with time;
• Seek trusted critical friends who can give you honest feedback on what they observe about how you communicate… and take that feedback to heart;
• Most of all, be patient. Be patient with yourself. Be patient with others. The pay off is better, more clear communication and stronger, positive relationships!

Good luck!

Education and Learning in 2021 – Time to refocus or time for radical change?

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  Our system effectively squeezes out creativity and real intelligence.
  Image credit:“Factory model schools” by Awantha Artigala

Tune in to any recent (over the past year) blog posts, keynotes or books from education thought leaders (see the end of this post for several that I follow and enjoy) and the same question is being asked – how do we leverage what the pandemic has shown us about learning and education systems to better deliver learning experiences? What do we keep from distance learning? What truths have been revealed and how do we act upon them?

The fact is, we have known about the structural problems with most education systems for quite some time. Huge inequity in access to education for all calls for massive change! Lawmakers have attempted to deal with inequity on a surface level but practices such as averaging grades, teacher-centered pedagogical approaches, a focus on culturally biased testing, increasingly irrelevant curricular foci, etc. have all exacerbated inequity.

I am blessed to be connected with and surrounded by educators who are committed to change for the better that addresses learning for and towards our future, incorporating student voice and choice and addressing equity issues. As much as I, personally, would love to see a radical shift the least we can do is refocus and put pressure on the points of resistance that keep most systems doing the same things year after year. So how and where should we apply pressure on these points of resistance?

1. We need to identify the resistance points;
2. we need to tailor the pressure to fit each point of resistance;
3. we need to celebrate and showcase the examples of new approaches that support deeper and more meaningful learning to highlight what success in education and learning looks like for the 21st century and beyond.

Points of Resistance:

• An exam / test-centred learning focus driven by an increasingly selective university admissions process;
• A common mindset amongst parents and many educators that the system they experienced works just fine – “nothing’s broken so why try to fix it”? (please feel free to make this a discussion and add in the blog comments below any other perceived points of resistance to real, meaningful, education reform)
• Institutional inertia
• Fear of the unknown – or, yet to be known fully

These are all related, of course, but the best ways to put pressure on these resistance points varies. For example, addressing institutional inertia often requires top leadership to make some personnel changes and for school boards to actively approach a future-ready plan with a crystal clear vision that goes beyond acknowledging a need for change but actively pursues comprehensively planning for that change. All points of resistance can be partially dealt with by celebrating and showcasing examples of new approaches that support deeper and more meaningful learning and that highlight what success in education and learning looks like for the 21st century and beyond. That is key to the mindset shift but mindset alone needs to go hand in hand with action plans that make connections between higher education and secondary education. Please share your thoughts on this – the more brains that tackle these issues the better we can be and see the change we need.

UNESCO’s competences framework, and other initiatives, attempt to break curriculum conservatism to bring about more dynamic approaches. The focus is on the skills, knowledge and attitudes that are needed for global citizenry in a complex world.

_{Hughes, Conrad, and Professor Abdeljalil Akkari. “Education Needs a Refocus so That All Learners Reach Their Full Potential.” The Conversation, 25 May 2021, theconversation.com/education-needs-a-refocus-so-that-all-learners-reach-their-full-potential-154649.}

There is no doubt that the past year, getting through a pandemic, has made even more clear that: Relationships matter most (start with the heart); one-size-fits-all teaching and learning experiences create greater gaps; technology gives us incredible potential to personalize learning and increase engagement and that tests and content do not matter near as much as they are measured!

SOME FAVORITE EDUCATION THOUGHT LEADERS – who are yours? (ALL of these great educators overlap in supporting meaningful, connected, future-ready education design and learning experiences)

• George Couros – leadership, innovation and Universal Design for Learning Principles – practical and immediate application and implementation strategies
• Homa Tavangar – leadership, innovation, global citizenship, DEI, BQI
• Will Richardson – leadership, technology in education, meaningful and substantive education reform, BQI
• Katie Novak – Universal Design for Learning principles and practical application of
• Bill Ferriter – PLCs, student voice in feedback and assessment, practical implementation strategies for meaningful learning
• Yong Zhao – impact of technology and globalization on education
• John Hattie – education research / education performance indicators, “Visible Learning”
• Jay McTighe – UbD founder and developer of backward planning, leadership, standards-based education reforms
• Michael Fullan – leadership, whole system change, pedagogies for deep learning
• Douglas Reeves – leadership, school change, accountability, teacher improvement
• Douglas Fisher – leadership, RTI, cultures of achievement, SEL impact
• Jennifer Gonzalez – research based instruction, student-teacher connectedness
• Catlin Tucker – blended learning guru

Giving Thanks!

It’s Thanksgiving Day for the USA and despite my regular habit of reflecting and giving thanks each day – today does always push me to go a bit deeper with my reflections. Considering I have been away from this blog for quite some time – now is fitting to restart. So… here’s a short Thanksgiving Reflection:

Reflecting on values – my own, the ones I see reflected in society and what I know are universal – and reflecting on diversity. Despite our many differences within families, societies and the world, we have much more in common than what separates us. It really says to me that those differences we have just make us more complete and stronger when we can see that our values are truly more universal than our differences.  Accept each other, love each other, and support each other to be the best version of who we are individually. It will only make us stronger together. Take care and Happy Thanksgiving for those celebrating today!

Our job: Preparing students for the future!

¨How can we prepare our students for life in the 21st Century? What do we need to develop in our students?¨

These questions are essential to how we develop as a school and support student learning with an appropriate focus on 21st century skills, including character development.

According to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), an innovative mindset is the key for developing pedagogies for powerful learning like you see, below:

From: http://www.oecd.org/education/ceri/innovative-pedagogies-for-powerful-learning-compilation-of-innovative-pedagogies.htm

So, how do we, as a school community, support these approaches to learning? First, we must follow some simple rules for 21st Century Learners:

1. Instruction should be student-centered – students must be given the opportunity to lead their own learning by, first getting the important contextual information, knowing what the learning goal is and then being allowed to explore how to meet that goal.
2. Education should be collaborative – students must be given opportunities to explore and build learning together AND teachers must have a work schedule that gives the collaborative planning time necessary to design real-world, cross-curricular opportunities.
3. Learning should have context – how does what a student learns connect with the reality of life outside the classroom? This question should drive all of our learning goals.
4. Schools should be integrated with society – we are all part of a learning community and we must interact with those outside of our immediate school community to learn best about the word and further develop 21st century skills (see below).

Read more about this, at: https://www.teachthought.com/learning/4-essential-rules-of-21st-century-learning/

In each classroom, it is essential that we continue to support student problem-solving. Teachers must not just give questions, ask students for answers and then tell students what the answers are. Teachers must push the students to solve problems independently once they are clear on what the learning focus is. Teachers giving students the tools to explore, helps promote an atmosphere of critical thinking and inquiry. Students must feel safe to take learning risks in a supportive, good character-focused environment so they can build the following, crucial, 21st Century Skills:

1. Critical thinking
2. Creativity
3. Collaboration
4. Communication
5. Information literacy
6. Media literacy
7. Technology literacy
8. Flexibility
9. Leadership
10. Initiative
11. Productivity
12. Social skills

From: http://www.battelleforkids.org/networks/p21

What makes up the most important life skills and social skills? They are all related to living a life of good character. This is where we must make sure that we are always incorporating Trustworthiness, Respect, Responsibility, Fairness, Caring and good Citizenship into our actions at school and outside of school. There is no easy method to developing globally aware, critically thinking students with good character and the skills necessary to be successful AFTER their school years end – it takes hard work! By using innovative learning strategies that build skills in an environment of good character in a clear, connected and meaningful manner we are setting our students up for success in the 21st Century!

We must all work together to contribute to and honor the traditions we value AND continue to move forward into the 21st Century!

What is your guide to the future?

Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay. Pixabay License. Free for commercial use. No attribution required.

Whether you are a trained educator, business-person, parent or other – you have a vested interest in the direction education is heading. Have you thought about your vision of the future? Have you thought about your vision for education? If you haven’t, whose vision are you following? (Here´s mine :])

Three discouraging developments:

• The ¨Helicopter parent¨ (from the 1980s)… has now evolved.
• ¨Intensive Parenting¨ from the 1990s and 2000s has further evolved to ¨The Lawnmower parent¨ (from several years ago) which has been taken a step further, to the now…
• ¨Snowplow parent¨. Thankfully, very much in the minority. These developments coincide with a disturbing growth in student anxiety. The parent urge to clear the obstacles for children is hurting them, in the long run.

So… let’s learn from this and look at how we can move forward positively.

A vision for 21st Century Learning:

No matter where or whom… there are some essential skills to develop that should drive education for the near-future. There are many educators who focus on the 4Cs, identified by the Partnership for 21st Century Learning, but there are additional ones, as well:

• Collaboration. This one of the 4Cs.
• Adaptability.
• Critical Thinking. Another 4C.
• Initiative & Entrepreneurship.
• Effective Communication. A 4C.
• Creativity and use of Imagination. Another 4C.
• Information Analysis (and access skill-building).

You can see more about how to prepare students to develop these skills at TeachThought.com. However, a key to success and a way to combat the discouraging developments with parents who try to clear the way for their children without truly preparing for the challenges of life is to focus on and support the development of a Growth Mindset. Students must learn to persevere by recognizing their weaknesses (and, even, embracing them), learning how to reflect on who they are, valuing the learning process more than the grade, and recognizing that it is through failure that we learn the most. It is important that we all acknowledge that we are not stuck with what we have… we can grow our skills and intelligence through focused effort. For more on growth-mindset versus a fixed-mindset, Develop Good Habits.com has a great summary. Carol Dweck is the Stanford research psychologist who has written the most on Growth Mindset.

As educators, how do we promote those 21st Century skills and build that Growth Mindset? Remember, we MUST build the capacity for our students so they can be independent, capable and successful.

1. Build collaboration at all levels of education and model it as educators!
2. Create learning opportunities in context!
3. Center the learning on the student – inquiry and critical thinking naturally occur when students drive their learning, guided by teachers who stay focused on the goals.
4. Make our communities of learning, true communities, integrated with the world (and stakeholders) around us!

These are not just my ideas. For a slightly deeper dive on these ideas go here.

It´s been almost a year since I wrote my last post… it feels good to be back!

Comments? Let’s engage!

Purpose, Connection, Real Life – Make a difference

Have you ever fallen and decided that THE WAY you get up will energize you, even if it looks silly to anyone watching?

No doubt – the important part IS the actual getting up but why not reflect, while you’re down on HOW you will get back up.

It’s not always easy to re-start writing / blogging. Especially, if you’re like me and you keep reading articles (from bloggers I highly respect and follow) that indicate that bloggers should make REAL / ORIGINAL contributions rather than reposting or regurgitating existing ideas. I truly enjoy the process of publicly reflecting on what I have read and sharing  my own thoughts… but…

I want to make a difference and not just post for the sake of posting.

Here are some cool posts by Bill Ferriter with a counter-perspective on blogging, more in line with my own thinking:

• More on the Role of Audience in Social Spaces
• Lessons Learned From a Decade of Blogging
• Three Tips For Novice Bloggers
• Audience Doesn’t Matter
• About Bill

It has been a long process and I have read and reflected on some amazing ideas that have now lead me to think about my own purpose – what my mission in life is – and how to realize it.

I have realized that I want to make a positive difference in the lives of others through making connections. Connections with people, ideas, places, paradigms, etc. Yes, it’s the educator, father and traveler in me. We are enriched by the connections we make – positive and negative. How can I facilitate these connections? By sharing, interacting, questioning and prompting others to reflect.

So, I came up with these steps that I will try (and, MAY be helpful for others):

• Take time:
  • For myself to recharge
  • Before answering
  • To re-center and be present with those that I’m with
• Think thoroughly before speaking
• Work on precise, concise messages
• Always try to consider the ‘bigger picture’ of what someone is saying or sharing and consider sharing connections that may help create a greater understanding
• Ask reflective questions and truly listen to the answers

What do YOU think? I would love to hear your thoughts and ideas.

I’ll still write about interesting apps and ideas that I come across in the interest of sharing something useful and helping others connect… for now… It just feels good to be ‘up’, again!

School… a place for learning?

From: http://missklohnsclassroom.blogspot.com.eg/2012/10/what-weve-been-up-to.html

It has been a while! Last post – beginning of July. Now, I’m in Egypt and pondering the same questions with new friends!!!

So… How do we bridge the gap between what we know is best and the constraints of the current system that we are in?

A system that is largely dictated by university/college and employer expectations and guidelines as well as parent perspectives on what education/classroom learning SHOULD look like. Is this fair? Can we change this? Is it already changing?

Then, I come across Will Ferriter’s post on a Will Richardson TEDx Talk. Both are worthwhile to spend some time digesting and reflecting on! What resonated to me is the idea that, when something happens that makes us want to learn more… we dive in deep for the sake of our own curiosity. How can we, as educators, create those events that make students want to learn more about what we are TRYING to teach?

We have talked long and often about the disconnect between what we know about how learning best occurs and how we ‘do’ learning. So, let’s work on connecting some of these concepts, within the constraints that we face, as we work on eliminating the constraints.

Here are some concepts we can immediately use to engage our students more (many of these can be hit by developing Project-Based Learning activities – see previous posts on PBL):

• Make it fun
• Make it with a real world application
• Make it relevant to young lives, now
• Make it social
• Make it for a real audience
• Make it challenging
• Make it from the ideas of our students!

Can’t help it REPOST – #CHARLESTONCHURCHSHOOTING

Typically, I don’t write a lot over the summer. I love trying to ‘catch up’ with all the reading I have wanted to do. That said, when I read this #CHARLESTONCHURCHSHOOTING; it resonated so much with me that I had to share it! Seriously!? Bill Ferriter has many great insights. This post, though, really gets to the essence of why I am an educator. Thank you William Ferriter!

REPOST: Teachers Are in Control: Myth-Busting DI, Part 4

Myth-Busting DI, Part 4

Here’s a repost from Edutopia that really captures the student experience for many traditional classrooms. It’s definitely something to think about! Click the link, below…

Teachers Are in Control: Myth-Busting DI, Part 4.

Reduce Conflicts… Increase your EQ

From: https://www.flickr.com/photos/hikingartist/
CC License – Attribution-NoDerivs 2.0 Generic (CC BY-ND 2.0)

Due to a fortuitous convergence of related articles I have been thinking a lot about Emotional Intelligence, whether we can change it for ourselves and how one’s EQ relates to interpersonal conflicts.

Unless you live in a bubble you’re likely exposed to POTENTIAL interpersonal conflicts on a weekly (if not daily) basis. I say POTENTIAL because we have a fair bit of control over whether these actually develop into conflicts. Having two teenage children, right now, I have been reflecting A LOT on how to reduce interpersonal conflict (that should give you a clue as to how often these potential conflicts develop!). Occasionally, conflicts at work also occur… So, I read a useful article on “Five Secrets for Mastering Conflict” published by the “VitalSmarts” folks who are behind Crucial Conversations and CrucialSkills. Skills for Change. Change for Good.

Essentially, before having a crucial/difficult conversation…

• Be truthful without being brutally honest. I like to call it compassionate honesty.
• Get your facts straight first and link them to your feelings… don’t just share your feelings without facts, it turns people off and causes them to tune you out, fast.
• Don’t listen defensively, listen with true intent to understand the other’s perspective.
• Take honest responsibility for how YOU have contributed to the situation.
• Instead of being afraid of saying something because you fear the costs, if things don’t go well, consider the costs if you don’t say what needs to be said and try to think positive about how the conversation could turn out if it goes well.

The possible problem with all this is that these skills directly relate to one’s Emotional Intelligence. So… if your EQ isn’t great, what do you do? Can an EQ be increased? The good news is, it can! It’s not easy but there are some basic, positives to get us going down the path to improvement. According to Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic in the Harvard Business Review, there are 5 key points to consider:

1. We CAN change our EQ but long term improvements require plenty of hard work and guidance/feedback. Luckily, our EQ tends to naturally improve with age.
2. Interpersonal Skills is the most coachable characteristic of one’s EQ.
3. To improve, we need specific and accurate feedback – like, 360-degree feedback and other specific, accurate coaching processes.
4. Since some techniques and processes are better than others, focus on the ones that are in the “cognitive-behavioral therapy” realm NOT the “self-esteem/confidence-building” realm.
5. Some people are simply more coachable than others… this is not a reason to give up! This is a reason to do a coachability pre-assessment to help initially map the journey and increase the effectiveness of the coaching.
   

   From: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emotional_Intelligence_2.0
   This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license.

The bottom line is, if you really want to improve, there are concrete ways to do it that can help you develop better interpersonal communication skills that can help reduce conflict. Here is another resource on improving one’s EQ:

• Key Skills for Raising Emotional Intelligence