LEAD OUT METHOD
A BRIEF INTRO to
SOLVING the RIGHT PROBLEM.
Methods for working together come with theoretical knowledge, the failure of which to acquire dooms implementation. Simply copying how-to knowledge does not work.
Robert J. Caveney, SCHOOLIO founder
WOULDN'T IT BE NICE IF WE COULD SOLVE THE RIGHT PROBLEM?
THE RIGHT PROBLEM
Too many students are:
NOT YET ABLE to WILLINGLY engage in the learning
NOR ABLE to use the VERY AUTONOMY they need to learn and help each other learn in their own learning zones.
WOULDN'T IT BE NICE IF SCHOOL DISTRICTS COULD GET THE TWO (2) RESULTS WE ALL WANT?
1. EDUCATED
Ready for REAL-LIFE independence.
2. LEARNED
Mastered the official curriculum.
INCONTROVERTIBLE FACTS & LOGIC to keep us ANCHORED to the challenge before us.
KEY FACTS
We CANNOT FORCE a student to WILLINGLY ENGAGE in the learning.
The ONLY way for anyone to learn is IN-THE-ZONE.
If the challenge is too difficult, I can't learn it. If it is too easy, it is boring.
LOGIC
If students are EDUCATED for AUTONOMY & WELLNESS they become:
ABLE to WILLINGLY engage in whole-class, group-based and individual learning, and,
ABLE to AUTONOMOUSLY learn and help each other learn in their own learning zones.
HOW THE LEAD OUT METHOD GETS THE RESULTS WE WANT.
We'll start with:
1. EDUCATING for AUTONOMY & WELLNESS
2. LEARNING the official curriculum IN THE ZONE
And conclude with:
3. THEORY INFORMING CHOICES and ACTION taken throughout the school district.
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EDUCATING for AUTONOMY & WELLNESS
EDUCATING for AUTONOMY & WELLNESS
ADDRESSES THESE FOUR (4) OBSTACLES:
Instead of engaging or using autonomy to learn, too many:
- "Goof off"
- Attention span is too short
- Undiagnosed/misdiagnosed fill-in-the-blank: dyslexia, ADHD, etc.
- Stress (or even trauma): when the brain is in freeze, fight or flight mode, it is unavailable for learning.
The "SUM" of these four is the RIGHT PROBLEM:
Too many students are NOT YET ABLE to WILLINGLY engage in the learning NOR ABLE to use the VERY AUTONOMY they need to learn and help each other learn in their own learning zones.
Is it even possible to solve the RIGHT PROBLEM?
Historically, the belief was "NO".
Enter new science and techniques.
From PSYCHOLOGY TODAY (emphasis ours)
Neuroplasticity
Neuroplasticity is the brain’s capacity to continue growing and evolving in response to life experiences. Plasticity is the capacity to be shaped, molded, or altered; neuroplasticity, then, is the ability for the brain to adapt or change over time, by creating new neurons and building new networks.
Historically, scientists believed that the brain stopped growing after childhood. But current research shows that the brain is able to continue growing and changing throughout the lifespan, refining its architecture or shifting functions to different regions of the brain.
The importance of neuroplasticity can’t be overstated: It means that it is possible to change dysfunctional patterns of thinking and behaving and to develop new mindsets, new memories, new skills, and new abilities.
So yes, it is possible to solve the RIGHT PROBLEM.
And techniques are available to do so.
SAMPLE TECHNIQUES for solving the RIGHT PROBLEM
For each of the four (4) obstacles, we'll go
from UNREADY to READY for more autonomy.
FROM "goofing off" TO using the wise-part-within and the skill-of-the will
We lead students through a series of inner psychological exercises. Little by little but reliably (it really works) students become able to ask and better hear the wise part within that we all have. This functions to enable better choices.
Following through on a better choice, that is a little more difficult.
But as students discover not only do they have a will, but with the skill-of-the-will they can do just about anything, and experience success, it feels good. They want to do it again. It becomes a virtuous cycle.
Other exercises
Affirmations and re-framing "I won't _______" to "I will ______".
Goal setting, managing and achieving processes.
Disidentification exercises: "I have thoughts. My thoughts change all of the time. But I am not my thoughts. I am still me."
And, similarly for emotions. "I have feelings. My feelings change all of the time. But I am not my feelings. I am still me."
These and other exercises develop the independence that is naturally emerging.
FROM a short attention span TO focused attention
There are many techniques to strengthen attention span.
Here is one: GUIDED IMAGERY
Students are asked to close their eyes, listen to the sound in the room.
The educator then leads students through an imaginary trip to the beach, or the mountains, or another adventure.
Over the course of the 20 minutes there and back, students exercise their attention — on the story.
Upon "return" students are prompted, when they are ready, to open their eyes and write a beautiful story about their trip to the beach.
Students will often write in complete silence, for 30 minutes or more, as their mind is quiet and focused.
FROM undiagnosed/misdiagnosed fill-in-the-blank: dyslexia, ADHD, etc. TO addressed/mitigated.
Educators already have approaches for diagnosing and mitigating dyslexia.
ADHD is a big topic, too large to cover here. But ADHD is much better understood today than in previous years. It is known for example, that involving a student's interests goes a long way toward mitigating ADHD.
New opportunities with the Lead Out Method.
When school districts attempt to get students to learn AT THE SAME PACE (the WRONG PROBLEM), ADHD is exacerbated as interests are not involved and the challenges are not IN-THE-ZONE.
With the Lead Out Method, educators and students have freedom they didn't have before. As students use IN-THE-ZONE techniques the scientific conditions of learning motivation are activated. Students get in flow, lose track of time. And of course, allowing students to involve their own interests, especially helps students with ADHD.
FROM STRESS/TRAUMA TO Post Traumatic Growth + Greater Life Resilience
WITH STRESS or NOT — the SAME TECHNIQUES.
Why?
When a student is STRESSED:
The brain is less available for learning.
When a student IS NOT STRESSED, and WITHOUT TRAUMA — which is true for many students:
Wonderful.
But eventually, life is likely to "get you".
The same techniques used here can be positively applied to build resilience, resilience which allows life's bumps in the road to be just that, bumps in the road, versus a long, painful, and perhaps even debilitating experience.
New established science
There is a whole new branch of psychology — did not exist 25 years ago — called Positive Psychology.
Originating from the University of Pennsylvania, Positive Psychology is now widely taught in universities worldwide.
The basic idea
Wellness is not just the ABSENCE of disease, but the POSITIVE PRESENCE of wellness.
In other words, it's not enough to attempt to "get rid of" any mental issue, be it trauma, anxiety or something else — that by itself does not create wellness. It is necessary to create the positive aspects of well-being (in the brain). Then and only then does one experience actual well-being.
Instead of trying to get rid of anxiety (or any other mental issue), the idea is to build new neural pathways and networks.
The acronym guiding the techniques is PERMA: Positive Emotions, Engagement, Relationship, Meaning and Accomplishment.
As students are led through exercises to build PERMA, positive neural networks in the brain are formed. This is where students start living. Actually, this is where students become able to choose to live — one chosen thought and emotion at a time.
The exercises to accomplish this are very simple, often taking as little as two minutes or even 20 seconds.
There are writing exercises known to build what Dr. Nate Zinnser calls a positive "mental bank account". (See The Confident Mind: A Battle Tested Guide to Unshakable Performance.)
These new neural pathways form new habits of being.
The key is daily repetition — something which can happen quite reliably in a place called school.
In summary of Educating for Autonomy & Wellness
The science is in.
It is possible, as Psychology Today says (above) "to change dysfunctional patterns of thinking and behaving and to develop new mindsets, new memories, new skills, and new abilities".
And there are techniques available to accomplish that.
As Educating for Autonomy & Wellness proceeds, students are more and more ready for the very autonomy they need to learn and help each other learn in their own learning zones.
And, students become more well and happy.
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LEARNING the official curriculum IN THE ZONE
Notice, that throughout this section, the THREE (3) conditions scientifically proven to ACTIVATE learning motivation are implemented.
Students are using Autonomy to get Mastery (challenges in-the-zone) and as much as possible, Purpose (a good reason to learn something or students' own interests).
LEARNING the official curriculum IN THE ZONE
Highly structured.
The method takes responsibility that the official curriculum is not just covered, but actually mastered.
The school year is roughly divided into two parts:
- BEGINNING of SCHOOL YEAR — READINESS ASSURANCE
- THE REST of the SCHOOL YEAR — OFFICIAL CURRICULUM IN-THE-ZONE
BEGINNING of SCHOOL YEAR — READINESS ASSURANCE
READINESS in education is as QUALITY is to production and service.
Quality is readiness for the next step, whether the next step is adding value incrementally in production or a new learning challenge in education.
Learning readiness must be managed.
If not deliberately managed, students will be discouraged with challenges that are too difficult, or bored with challenges that are too easy.
Deming's quality method
To accomplish Readiness Assurance, the Lead Out Method subsumes the beautiful Deming Quality Method of Management.
Deming's method — not easy to learn — answers how to think about and take action to assure readiness to learn, daily, weekly and yearly.
READINESS REQUIREMENT: A LOVE OF READING AND CRITICAL THINKING
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LOVE TO READ
If a student doesn't love to read, or worse is reading poorly, the vast amount of background knowledge necessary for critical thinking won't be acquired.
Critical thinking requires something to think about: background knowledge.
Books expose children to more facts and to a broader vocabulary than virtually any other activity, ...
— Daniel T. Willingham, Why Don't Students Like School: A Cognitive Scientist Answers Questions About How the Mind Works and What It Means for the Classroom
To solve word problems in math requires an ability to read.
Further, if a student doesn't read well, how would they learn independently?
However, if a student is Educated for Autonomy & Wellness -and- CAN READ, that student can learn virtually anything in-the-zone WITH A BOOK.
The Lead Out Method is agnostic about what works to get students able to read and to love to read (phonics etc). The method cares that each student does learn to love to read — somehow — not what particular approach works for a particular student. The idea is to methodically identify and apply what works to get every student reading.
Deming's method supplies the "HOW' for getting that done.
The classroom: a "candy store" of books.
This may come as a shock to you, but if students don't have ready access to books, it is difficult to learn to love to read.
We have run the calculations. It is not just possible to get hundreds of books into each classroom, it can be accomplished affordably.
Books to take home and keep.
Free books for students to take home is very cost-effective.
See this study from Science Daily about students receiving free books.
Summer reading is key to maintaining or improving students' reading skills
The researchers' study found that summer reading is just as effective, if not more so, as summer school. McGill-Franzen and Allington compared their outcomes with studies on the impacts and costs of summer school attendance and found the summer reading program effect equal or even greater.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/07/100721112234.htm
Providing books was not just cheaper than summer school, it was equal to or even better than summer school.
Do you want students to read? They need books.
Make classrooms a "candy-store" of books, and provide books for students to keep, and students will read year-round.
CRITICAL THINKING
Critical thinking development becomes possible as students acquire background knowledge and increase their vocabulary.
Educators have many techniques for deep reading and critical thinking.
Here is one example: re-writing a sentence.
Students are given a sheet of sentences. In small groups of students, the challenge is to re-write a sentence, giving the exact same meaning, but using different words.
Accomplishing this is surprisingly difficult to do. Evaluating the meaning of the original, while comparing and contrasting the constructed sentence, involves and develops critical thinking.
Further, the exercise helps students synthesize, write creatively, add variety by not using the same words and enhance the overall impact of the writing.
(We learned of this technique and it's benefits through Sharon Cyrus-Savary, who experienced the exercise in a Jamaican elementary school.)
Summary of READING and CRITICAL THINKING
Reading and critical thinking are prerequisites for learning anything. Applying Deming's method answers HOW to manage the process of getting all students to read and think critically.
YEARLY: READINESS ASSURANCE FOR NEXT YEAR
Assuring readiness for next year's learning (at a minimum) is essential.
Without a way to assure every student is ready for next year's learning one cannot design a working school system.
Otherwise, as in today's school districts, too many students will leave one grade unready for the next.
Using Deming's method, assuring readiness to learn is surprisingly easy to do.
For example: to be ready for 6th grade math one does NOT need to master all of the math curriculum from K-5. 6th grade math involves challenges such as least common multiple, ordering mixed numbers on a number line, challenges which involve a series of basic math operations (addition/subtraction, multiplication/division, long division, all of the previous with decimals and the ability to multiply and divide fractions).
(If the curriculum is different, the readiness requirements will be different. However, we can state with high confidence that basic math is a minimum readiness requirement for 6th grade math.)
Go into any 6th grade class in a low-performing school and you will find too many students counting on their fingers.
Why?
The priority in today's school districts is NOT READINESS. Instead it is FOLLOW THE SCHEDULE in an attempt to get students (who are all different) to learn at THE SAME PACE.
Deming's method provides a systematic way to define, measure and assure readiness for each subject and each grade.
BENEFIT of READINESS at the BEGINNING of the year.
Once students have mastered the readiness requirements say:
"You're in 5th grade.
You are ready for 6th grade math.
Just saying, it's up to you. You might consider doing 6th grade math instead.
In fact, if you master this small list of X requirements in 6th grade math I will give you an 'A' in 5th grade math.
If you can accomplish those tasks, there is nothing you can't do in 5th grade math."
This fundamentally changes the "game" of school.
Many 3rd grade students can do 6th grade math.
SUMMARY OF READINESS ASSURANCE
The combination of LOVING TO READ, ability to do CRITICAL THINKING and mastering the READINESS REQUIREMENTS makes it possible to master the rest of the official curriculum.
Now, learning the rest of the official curriculum, in-the-zone, is possible.
THE REST of the SCHOOL YEAR — OFFICIAL CURRICULUM IN-THE-ZONE
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New opportunity — new challenges.
Great, students are able to use more autonomy; this creates new opportunities.
But HOW do we enable students to identify their own learning level so they can learn IN-THEIR-OWN ZONE?
If a 3rd grader can do 6th grade math, how is that planned and organized?
HOW does the school district ASSURE students are learning the official curriculum — now that students are working at different levels?
To accomplish this we need to design NEW processes and NEW accountability measures.
As a practical matter this requires exposing the official curriculum to students in such a way they can participate, along with educators, in navigating the official curriculum.
Somehow, the learning results need to rolled up and accounted for from classrooms, to schools to the district.
Even after after that is accomplished, how are educators and students to use such a system?
(We are getting a little ahead of ourselves here, as much of this designing work is properly placed in the Method to systems page, where the job is to translate the Lead Out Method into School Systems.)
FROM CHALLENGE to OPPORTUNITY:
Following is a powerful example of how to manage learning IN-THE-ZONE.
SCRUM: a LEAN/AGILE technique
This widely-used technique in knowledge-work sectors can be simplified and applied in classrooms.
SCRUM is easy to learn but difficult to master. As you will see it does solve a lot of problems in organizing the learning just right for individual students and groups of students.
DAY 1 of a 5-DAY SPRINT
In small groups, each student chooses challenges from the official curriculum: not too difficult, not too easy, just right, IN-THE-ZONE.
There is the possibility of involving one's own interests in accomplishing this learning.
Students then help each other break these challenges into "bite-size" tasks, which are written on to yellow sticky notes.
EVERY DAY for the rest of the SPRINT
Each student answers the questions:
- What did you do yesterday?
- What will you do today?
- Is there anything in your way? (If there is, students provide help or get help.)
For years, educators have sought a way to move from being the "sage on the stage" to the "guide on the side". With students busy, but occasionally needing help, this becomes more possible.
Notice also, students themselves are part of the solution to providing accountability.
EVERY DAY: LEARNING IN-THE-ZONE
Now, students move the yellow sticky notes:
- From the TO DO column to the IN-PROCESS column.
Students are now learning IN-THE-ZONE.
- Next students move the yellow sticky notes to the TESTING COLUMN.
Instead of waiting six weeks for a test, testing is built into the process.
- Lastly, students move the yellow sticky notes to the DONE COLUMN.
APPLICATIONS
While SCRUM isn't appropriate for all learning, it does have several practical applications.
SCRUM can be used in combination with Deming's method to accomplish the Yearly Readiness Requirements.
It can be customized to help manage the accomplishment of writing assignments.
It can be used for math, science and other subjects.
BENEFIT OF SCRUM: school district more organizationally intelligent.
Before, a small central planning department designed the ONE-SIZE-FITS-ALL learning schedule and tests,
Now, THOUSANDS of students are in the planning department.
The school district thus becomes more organizationally intelligent.
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THEORY INFORMING CHOICES and ACTION taken throughout the school district.
3. THEORY INFORMING CHOICES and ACTION taken throughout the school district.
Methods for working together come with theoretical knowledge, the failure of which to acquire dooms implementation. Simply copying how-to knowledge does not work.
Robert J. Caveney, SCHOOLIO founder
NEW PRIORITY: SELF-DIRECTED DRIVE
The priority of today's school district, conscious or unconscious, is FOLLOW-THE-SCHEDULE.
The reason to consciously be aware of and act upon the Lead Out Method priority of SELF-DIRECTED DRIVE is:
it is too easy to fall back on the previous FOLLOW-THE-SCHEDULE priority if one does not understand the new priority and why it is so important, which naturally leads us to the new CAUSE & EFFECT THEORY.
NEW CAUSE & EFFECT THEORY
What is the cause & effect theory for today's school districts? For attempting to get students to learn at THE SAME PACE?
The history is clear.
Raymond E. Callahan, documented, how in 1913 school leaders were forced to adopt Taylor's method in his book: Education and the Cult of Efficiency. The reason? The theory was that since Taylor's method was working so spectacularly well in agriculture, mining and manufacturing, that it must be effective in education as well.
The NEW CAUSE & EFFECT THEORY:
If students are EDUCATED for AUTONOMY & WELLNESS they become ABLE to WILLINGLY engage and ABLE to AUTONOMOUSLY use IN-THE-ZONE techniques to learn and help each other learn in their own learning zones.
NEW THEORETICAL KNOWLEDGE
Neuroscience, Positive Psychology, new methods such as Deming's method, and of course, the Lead Out Method.
NEW HOW-TO KNOWLEDGE
This is an ever-evolving set of techniques for HOW to educate for autonomy & wellness, for HOW to apply the science of learning motivation. Techniques such as SCRUM, Pomodoro (not covered here) and others.
Educators already have a vast number of techniques and exercises for HOW to combine educating with learning. We are very interested to see how much more effective they will be when used in a system aligned with Self-Directed Drive.
NEW ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE: ROLES & RESPONSIBILITIES
Today, teachers get the teaching schedule from the central planning department, but they do not report back to the central planning department, but instead to principals, who themselves have no control over the teaching schedule and tests.
With the Lead Out Method, principals have new responsibilities for Readiness Assurance and optimizing the environment to provide the the conditions that activate learning motivation. In fact, everyone involved in education has responsibility, commensurate with their level, for Readiness Assurance.
Educators have a new responsibility, educating, as in the original meaning, to lead out the student from within, so students can lead themselves more independently.
Students have new responsibilities as well, as they are now part of the planning department.
NEW MOTIVATION THEORY: INTRINSIC + INDEPENDENCE DRIVE
Whereas extrinsic motivation is predominant in today's school system (carrots and sticks), conditions to activate intrinsic learning motivation are now applied.
And, there is another motivation key to the Lead Out Method, the very powerful drive for independence, for autonomy.
NEW PROCESSES: GROUPS OF STEPS
If you can't describe what you are doing as a process, you don't know what you are doing.
W. Edwards Deming
Processes are where the "rubber meets the road", where theory gets applied, one step after another in order to accomplish the priority (self-directed drive) and implement the cause & effect theory.
New school systems are essentially, a series of nested processes which, the theory goes, will get the results we want. Run the school system, evaluate the school system, improve what needs to be improved, and run it again. Depending on the scope of the process, the cycle time could be daily, weekly, monthly or yearly.
SUMMARY of the LEAD OUT METHOD
The Lead Out Method gets the TWO RESULTS we all want:
1. EDUCATED: Ready for REAL-LIFE independence.
2. LEARNED: Mastered the official curriculum.
by addressing the RIGHT PROBLEM
Too many students are NOT YET ABLE to WILLINGLY engage in the learning NOR ABLE to use the VERY AUTONOMY they need to learn and help each other learn in their own learning zones.
with these TWO PARTS
EDUCATING for Autonomy & Wellness
LEARNING the official curriculum IN THE ZONE.
The Lead Out Method is a method, not a system.
The Lead Out Method needs to be translated into school systems (nested processes) that can actually be implemented in districts, schools and classrooms.