Figure 2.4: An elementary student illustrates problems Australia needs to resolve.
When we gave these students the freedom to express their true feelings, their responses shocked us all; and we are worried about literacy and numeracy and getting through the curriculum? Upon seeing the responses, we quickly met as a team and instead of panicking, which we were doing on the inside, calmly agreed that these were problems and that we shared their concerns. Note that our anxiety came not from what the learners were feeling, but strictly our own concern about how we were going to have this level of conversation with these learners and how we could realistically help them arrive at a solution to such concerns. It seemed impossible. But we reminded the team that solution fluency is what you do when you don’t know what to do, and so to begin by defining the problem clearly.
The work the learners did that day inspired all of us. Once they were able to clearly state the problem, which is the define phase of solution fluency, they moved on to the second phase, discover. This phase is about researching, considering what one needs to know and to be able to do, and understanding what might have occurred in the past to cause this problem to exist. It also involves understanding what solutions, if applied in the past, might have prevented this from occurring and reflecting on whether those solutions are still applicable. The learners were so engaged in their conversation and research that we couldn’t get them to stop for lunch. They presented potential solutions to many of these issues and demonstrated to me once again that we dramatically underestimate what our learners can do. For example, one group chose to develop a solution to war. Think about that for a moment. As adults, which of us would sit down in a group and actively try to understand the problem of war and develop a solution for it (in four hours, no less)? In the end, the group's solution was to develop and evenly distribute a single global currency so that there would be financial equality among all nations. They presented solid arguments as to how this would solve the problem. Whether their solution was viable or not is immaterial. What matters is that because they found the questions relevant and were able to contextualize them, they demonstrated a deep understanding of and insights into many real-world issues and channeled these into considerable critical, analytical, and creative thinking.
If we had the courage to do so, we could expand this one conversation into an entire year’s worth of learning, and we could find many opportunities to apply the curriculum to the inquiry. Many of the schools I work with are doing just that, but it starts small, one lesson at a time, connecting the curriculum with relevance to the learner. Consider the problems the students listed in figures 2.1–2.4, and ask your students, as we did, what they feel are the most urgent problems in the world. Next, ask yourself how you can apply the answers you receive to your existing curriculum. The answers you develop could be your next unit of future-focused learning.
Microshifts of Practice: Context and Relevance Foster Connection
Using emotion to provide students with enhanced context and relevance for their learning is something you can easily do within the bounds of your existing curriculum. In this section, I describe three methods: (1) search the heart, (2) teach with technology, and (3) use student-designed assignments. Each section includes a specific activity you can use with students and reflective questions you can ask yourself about how your students responded.
Search the Heart
In this chapter, we discussed the elementary students who participated in an exercise at Melrose High School and the responses they had to what they felt were the most urgent problems in their country or the world that need immediate attention. This is proof positive that students care deeply about issues beyond what we may often assume to be their capabilities and concerns. What might your own learners be able to do?
For this microshift, you want to engage students in searching their hearts to increase their understanding of a problem and how to solve it. In so doing, your learners will establish the contextual understanding they need to make the content relevant to them.
Activity
Part of both understanding and solving a problem is having a deep awareness of why it is a problem in the first place. Pick a few topics concerning the world in general for the students to share in groups. Have them investigate the history of one or more global issues that humanity struggles with, and use the following questions to pinpoint why society has never been able to solve this problem. This entails students using both the define and discover stages of solution fluency, which you can read about in chapter 6 (page 75), as well as in Mindful Assessment (Crockett & Churches, 2017).
• Why do you feel we still suffer from these issues affecting our entire world stage?
• What actions have people and societies taken in the past, if any? Why have they not been successful?
• Who has responded primarily, and what have they been most vocal about?
• Who is in the strongest position to manage this issue most effectively and why?
• If left unchecked, what will this problem mean for us as individuals? For the community? For the world?
Next, have learners define one suggestion for a starting point to begin a change. They should be able to justify this choice either as a written response or orally to the whole class, whichever they think is best. Encourage them to explore what is possible as a best-case scenario by assuming that every resource they require to proceed is in place. This is a time for them to use the dream phase of solution fluency (Crockett & Churches, 2017) and imagine an outcome without restrictions or borders. The final stage is for students to work together to produce a theoretical timeline of events that begins at their starting point and continues to the fruition of their visualized outcome, highlighting all key points along the way.
Reflection
After you complete this activity with your students, take some time to reflect on and answer the following questions.
• What did students discover about these seemingly insurmountable issues in their research?
• How has the nature of these problems changed over time?
• How did they go about visualizing and designing their proposed outcomes?
• What did they learn about themselves and their ability to work together in this exercise?
Teach With Technology
Since the world has become interconnected through technology, and because technology is such a ubiquitous and highly integrated presence in our children’s lives, it’s increasingly necessary to involve technology in curricula by taking advantage of its abilities to foster collaboration, locate useful media and information, and develop creative solutions. We call technology we use in this way edtech, or educational technology (“Educational Technology,” n.d.); the term encompasses both hardware (devices) and software (applications and other programs).
It’s important to understand that integrating technology into your instruction doesn’t mean that technology is going to supplant you. It is simply a means to enhance your practice. As a teacher, you are still a classroom’s greatest resource, and having your students use digital devices in your classroom can provide you and your learners with an excellent teaching supplement that makes the learning more relevant for students
