We know better. You tell yourself you are going to exercise so many minutes a day, but something else takes priority. You do 15 minutes one day, nothing the next, and then feel bad again. You may be doing the same thing about your diet or some other behavior you want to change and you still keep going back to sabotaging yourself. Then you beat yourself up and continue this behavior over and over again.
The same thing happens to teachers with project-based learning. When a school decides to transform their traditional teaching to student-centered learning environments, it is best if the whole school buys in if it is to work. But… do the teachers say Yes and really mean Maybe?
“Maybe I’ll do the project when I have time.”
A teacher may be really excited as they design a project with other teachers, then they go back to their day-to-day grueling schedule and may never really jump head first into the projects. Excuses and questions like how do we fit a project in our schedule and meet the standards? Maybe a principal rallies behind the teachers to change teaching practice, but cannot find ways to squeeze in collaborative planning time. If everything depends on raising test scores, then the administration may prioritize direct instruction that focuses on teaching to the test. It’s very complicated. We all have good intentions but it’s all about data. Review your scores and other student information and disaggregate the data to identify which students are having problems and where there are gaps in learning. Projects don’t work if you don’t take the time to plan, review the data to determine your learning targets, and collaborate with other teachers to design a good project that will improve student achievement.
People sabotage themselves when they don’t believe they can change. It is easier to give up and go back to what they are used to. People don’t know what they don’t know. Change is not easy and for many scary. It takes initiative, time, practice, being okay about failing and trying again. A good project doesn’t always work. Teachers can learn and reflect on what works and what didn’t work and then use what they learned with the next project. Think why you might sabotage yourself or a project. Is it because you don’t believe projects will work for your students or that you are concerned about how you will develop and manage the project? Projects not only engage and motivate learners to want to learn, teachers find them rewarding. Change is tough, so take small steps and start with one project.
It is the dilemma, isn’t it? Change is hard and when the root culture supports staying in line instead of innovating (both explicitly, but even more so implicitly) it can be a daunting challenge – especially because first attempts are usually mixed – it takes multiple iterations to really design well…
It either takes a bold, confident teacher ( maybe even brash arogance of a good sort) or a supportive team culture to lift oneself out of generations of “that’s the way we’ve always done it…”
Thanks Barbara!