September 10, 2008
Week 3 Reflections: AI and a big Q
Part One:
AI – Appreciative Inquiry
You become what you believe. Organizations become what their people believe. It’s amazing to think about but oh so true. The pictures of the future we hold in our minds, the thoughts that run through our heads, the labels were bear – they shape us and our future. So, appreciative inquiry, knowing this, turns us towards the positive. How can an evaluation do this? Through the questions it asks the people involved. What works, not what doesn’t. Let’s look at your best, not your worst. Then, let’s build on that. In education specifically we need to stop labeling people in negative ways, searching for problems to manage and “fix”. Instead we need to look for the strengths of people and programs, celebrate those and ask positive questions towards building on those strengths and positives towards a better, brighter future.
These are woven into AI’s eight principles. Questions are really interventions. Knowledge is shaped by experiences and conversations. Stakeholders co-author and direct the direction an organization or program takes. Collective imagination is key. Change requires large amounts of hope, joy and inspiration. Collectively we can bring out the best in individuals. We must model the change we envision. Freedom enables us to be better and perform better.
And then there are the 4-I’s of Inquire, Imagine, Innovate and Implement that are woven throughout the text. Taken from Discovery, Dream, Design and Destiny – Cooperrider and colleagues, 2003. Inquire about peak experiences, values and wishes. Positive stuff to engage people to share, open up and look at the past, present and future in a positive way. Next, imagine. You’ve already begun. Now take it another step. Let’s clarify that vision for the future. Innovate. What needs to be done to accomplish that vision. Pick your best vision and look at “what it might be” and how to get there. Choose wisely. Does it stretch and challenge while still being grounded? Is it” participative”, stimulating “intergenerational learning”? Is there a balance of “continuity, novelty, and transition”? Then Implement. Take action. But that’s not the end. As you implement, continue to inquire, imagine and innovate. Keep growing, expand your vision and shape the future.
The placebo effect. Is it real? Can it work in education? I believe so. You may have already heard this story, yet is speaks clearly to this topic. It was my first year in a new school district after moving away from my home town and eight years in a school system there. My past experiences had led me to believe we tend to live up to how people label and view us. So, I did not pour over student records and instead left everyone a clean slate in my mind and in my classroom. No preconceived notions, only expectations and hope. As the year began to develop I heard student conversations about reading groups. Which one was the low group? Can’t be this one because “Johnny” is in it. He never was before. Can’t be this one… “Sally” isn’t in it and she surely is a member of the low group. Could it be? Could it be that I’m not in the low group? And what if I am not? I could hear it in their voices and see it on their faces. What if? I thought it over and decided to run with it. The groups remained the same with no indication from me as to how to label them – which is the low group? Which “comes next”? Low group? Do we HAVE a low group? All of the reading groups were energized, “woken up” in a sense. There were no labels, no negative predictions for their reading future. What came from it was a collection of good, positive efforts that lead to amazing achievement gains. I am still stunned by the outcome when I remember it. These students were changed, not just academically, but in their very perceptions of themselves. Their parents saw it at home and wrote to me about it. It was the win win of all win wins! Huge reading gains – of which so much academically is built and huge gains in perceptions of self worth and capabilities – which can take you anywhere. All because they might not be in the low group. Our thoughts shape us.
Our thoughts shape us. My husband returned home after a year and a half away from home, a full year of it “boots on the ground” in Iraq. He came home a changed man. The families had been told about and given advice about how our loved ones would return to us. We were told, “The hard part’s over, they’re coming home. Right? Wrong! The hardest part is ahead.” How right they were. I came to see that a big piece of returning home and adjusting to living in such a different environment (from one environment to another where you adjust quickly or die, then back to another where people’s lives continue as if that other world doesn’t exist) plays out in a soldier’s mind. The thoughts that protected and saved me in this environment continue to play in the new, even when they are wrong or inappropriate or even dangerous. Simple things. Drive in the middle of the road. The IEDs are usually on the side. In East Peoria IL driving in the middle of the road means being pretty close to oncoming traffic, some of which are texting cell messages and not attending to much of anything else. Be alert. Always on guard. Don’t trust. No where is there a safe place to be. Don’t sleep deeply or well. The list could go on and on. After two and a half years with stalled progress I rang the bell. Loudly. Someone needed to do something. Enough is enough. So, three states later (there are no doctors in Illinois?) he was enrolled in a cognitive therapy program. What is it? What does it do? It retrains your mind and the thoughts that run through it. So, we are back to the beginning point. Our thoughts shape us. They do. I saw more progress in the course of a 12 session cognitive therapy plan than what we had seen in a several years. Think about the incident – daily incidents mishandled and misthought. What were you thinking? What thoughts were playing in your head? Were they right and true and appropriate here and now? What are right and true and appropriate thoughts? Think them. Break old thought habits and replace them with true appropriate ones. Because – our thoughts shape us. They truly do.
Part Two:
The big Q – Drum roll please…
And the project topic is… =?
I had more problems deciding on a topic for this class than any of the others. I have so many ideas to choose from! In the end, I decided on the one that I am most conflicted about right now, the one that holds the most impact for the future of our district in terms of tech right now and the one that I frankly am most interested in spending a lot of time with. It may not be one that “fits the mold” the easiest or the best - yet it is the one I personally and professionally will benefit from most by looking at closely. So, I feel settled in my choice and confident that what I learn from the experience is more important than “fitting a mold” to “doing it right”. And from the case examples we’ve been reading and discussing, I’m not sure there is a “perfect evaluation topic”. Just topics that are important and evaluations that evaluate them in the best ways possible.
Pam
