The Complexity of Fostering Resiliency in Teacher Education

During a Master's presentation, a colleague (Nathanael Powell) pointed out that many students continue to not want to "struggle" or "learn through being uncomfortable" anymore.  The moment students are faced with tensions in their learning, they  no longer wantt to inquire or use problem solving skills to address the situation., hey just want the answer given to them. Some theorists have speculated that technology and its ability to provide instant gratification has encourage this process. While other theorists point at helicopter parenting-(in which parents hover and stop kids from experiencing and learning from failure) has also led to the inability of societal members and primarily our "Students" from learning to be resilient.

Resilience is one of those educational "buzz" words that describes a characteristic in which students when presented with failure can 'bounce back', learn and push forward in their goals.  Too be honest, I think there are many students that are resilient, maybe not in all aspects of the 7 C's (confidence, character,competence, contribution, coping, connection, control)  but are on their way to reaching a level which allows them to adapt to stress and adversity effectively.  What concerns me with the discussion of resiliency is that many teachers, parents, and other educational stakeholders do not have it themselves or those who do, do not model it.

In its professionalism, teaching is seen as an occupation that requires teachers to be perfect, smart and to never make mistakes. Teachers use to rarely admit that they were wrong, and many still don't. Vulnerabilities were never shown and many continue not to share personal triumphs and examples adversity and resilience. 
What becomes even more glaring is that Teacher education candidates are affected by resiliency in different ways:

a)  Because of the aforementioned ideas of why young societal members lack resiliency, many Teacher education candidates do not have skills in resiliency to be successful.  Some expect their mentor teachers to do everything for them, others become defensive when taking feedback, and some don't have the basic skills to survive the demands of a teaching day, far less a career.

b).  These teacher candidates perception of teaching being  squeaky clean, safe, and easy comes from the observation of Master educators who have had their fair share of adversity, but now are well oiled machines.  The vicious cycle of perpetuation leads to an unattainable idea of what perfection looks like.

c).  The third idea of resilience is the most alarming.  Many teachers remember their teaching experience and all the work, hardship and adversity they went through and expect their teacher candidates to be just as resilient as they were.  Though we do not state to our teacher candidates they have to be perfect and even though we know that they are a work in progress, we expect them to reach a level of perfection before we open the gate into the profession.  Those expectations at time can be so severe that some teacher-candidates quit, and we allude to their lack of resiliency as their failure.

d).  As a mentor teacher- finding that fine line or feeling that my student teacher is going through and finding that appropriate time to allow them to falter or that moment when stepping in would be more beneficial.  I know many will point out that being a good mentor is realizing these moments are difficult to define.

In the end, resiliency is an important characteristic that helps all individuals deal with those "That's Life" moments.  We as educators must not focus on resiliency and fostering it squarely within our students. We also have to look at growing and fostering resiliency in ourselves, future educators and adult societal members who have lost opportunities to experience these situations as children.  Our children are our future, but their role models are present, and if we presently do not model this integral characteristic, how do we expect them to learn, analyze, apply and synthesize this in their lives.  Modelling perfection and ease is not the purpose.  Share your trials and tribulations, success and failures, the messy, the complex and the misfortunes. In these vulnerable moments, our students will not just learn, but grow.

Field Study: Bringing to Life their Learning

We all remember our field studies in our formal education.  I remember my first Field Study to a Forest right behind my elementary school.  We were looking for what types of things lived in the forest.  I remember how excited we were to make connections to what we were learning in class and actually see these crawly creatures, plants and animals (small squirrels/birds) in the environment.  We could feel, sense, smell, touch and taste the environment which led to an even greater understanding of what we learned in class.  Sadly, many school districts are restricting the amount and types of field studies that can take place.

Planning a field study is an arduous task that involves lots of steps with an attention to detail.  From contacting places, to creating forms, to getting approval from the district, to your admin and then finally from parents- there is a lot that goes into the process.  Tack on transportation and finance issues and more importantly safety and prevention, and you will see that many teachers choose not  go on field studies because of work and responsibility that go along with it.  Nonetheless, are we removing an integral part of our students learning?  I would argue "Yes"!

No matter how much technology allows students to students to interact on a global level, they still need to go out into the community and learn about the physical world around them.  Field studies bridge the gap between theoretical knowledge and practical knowledge allowing the students to experience and engage in new levels of learning that maximize their understanding.  From Kindergarten to Grade 12, their initial curiosity gets the better of them and they become engaged with the activity at hand.  I wish that districts continue to allow students to engage in such meaningful learning experiences.  

Many teachers use Field studies in different ways.  Some will use them as an introductory activity, or during the middle of learning activities or at the end or culmination of their unit.  I wish as teachers we had more resources to create learning partnerships with local community organizations to use these resources not at one of these focal points, but all throughout our students learning.  Can you imagine allowing students to go to exhibit as an introduction, then again during their learning, and then at the end to synthesize it.  If this is too overzealous, I feel that teachers should at least have one field study planned for all major units in their class learning and development activities.

Students must learn to interact and apply what their learning to real life issues in their local community.  Bridging that gap is an important aspect of our teacher practice and using field studies as a resource makes it more achievable.  Finally our most vulnerable students may rarely have occasions or opportunities such as these and you will be providing those students an amazing opportunity to see something different to  what they have already experienced.

Field studies are fun, engaging, crazy but enlightening and allow students to learn outside of the normal learning environment.  As a teacher, I want my students to leave the classroom not only learning skills to be successful in working environments but more importantly, to give them experiences that teach them about culture, humanity, leadership and community.  Every time I walk into Science World, The Zoo or the Vancouver Aquarium I remember for a split second the wonderful experiences I had as a kid and realize that my teachers imparted the idea that learning takes place everywhere when they took me on those field excursions.

Professional Development Mindshift

As a teacher, I too often complain about Professional Development activities that take place at my school, and in my educational community.  For me, when I come to Pro-D events I may play on my Ipad, text on my phone, maybe even mark or do assessments during the presentation.  I awkwardly become my disengaged students in my classes, the students I sometimes get frustrated with.  I too at times may blame the presenter (death by Power-Point, no interaction, no voice/volume control), but as an adult learner I should know better right? Then the whole idea of teachers being overly critical of other educators as they present starts to sweep in.  Why am I being so judgmental?  I ask my students to open their minds to new learning opportunities, but close my mind off at some of these events.  I challenge my students to take risks, but judge the presenter as they take a risk sharing their ideas with my colleagues and I.  Walking out of a Pro-D event, I was asked if I had learned anything, and I answered "No"  (I sounded like my students or my son when he comes home from school).  I mean I had  already heard a lot about implementing technology in the classroom, but did I not hear something new?  Was there a question asked that did not deserve some inquiry?  Then I came to the realization that my Professional Development woes had nothing to do with Professional Development or its presenters, but with my learning and professional development mind shift.  Like other teachers, I continuously choose Pro D events that either fit my teaching area or offers some type of answer or skill set that is applicable to my teaching area or practice. 

 For example, when I taught physical education, I only went to Physical Education workshops.  What changed for me over the last year was this mind-shift that Professional Development can take place in any workshop if you allow yourself to open your mind to learning.  Not just learning about what you want or need to know! But to learn for the sake of just learning. I started to try different Pro-D development workshops, some that were further away from teachable areas.  I took one on literacy interventions (primary-based), I sat through one on Genius Hour, I sat through Science education Pro-D's and what I got out of it was that "there are a lot of amazing ways to teach and learn in classrooms".  I may not have agreed, or embraced some of the ideas being presented (as I do not teach primary or science) but the presenters made me think about what I can do to change my practice.  Watching a science Pro-D about integrating more hands on-lab time was truly amazing.  The presenter pointed out that Science should not be taught in class with just text books but that students should be using labs to explore and learn about chemistry, physics, earth science and biology.  It made me re-evaluate how I teach my classes- Were notes, Power-Point lectures, and videos the best way to engage my students when teaching Social Studies? or should I have them interactively learning historical concepts through drama, plays, re-enactments?  

This dialogue led to me re-shaping my views of who I was in the classroom and what I could be doing differently.  The presenters did not know, but they invoked inquiring questions that made me challenge what I was currently doing in my classroom.  I mean, I sat through one presentation that talked about the best tool's or apps on an Ipad and wondered "why was it so important to integrate Ipads in the classroom"?  From this question, I went many different ways from student-engagement, to its the new way to teach, back to is this really important to my practice?  I love technology, and I integrate it in the classroom as much as I can, but I find that my students learn more primarily through collaboration and class discussions.  Though many of my students can manipulate through computer software easily, and can create "mean" presentation programs that infuse pictures, music and video files, most of them only use technology to retrieve and find information easily.  

The thing is, I would not have thought about all of this and reflected about it if I had not gone to that Professional Development.  The value is not so much in the new resource or skill set as it is in the inspiration and knowledge of the educator who is passionate about their work.  By seeing their teaching practice I can confirm,retool and re-shape my teaching practice, in other words, I can professionally develop.  So the next time you are choosing workshops, choose something out of your comfort zone, try something new, and challenge yourself to be conscious as to how this workshop can reshape your practice. Open-mindedness, risk-taking, optimism and growth must be the values to change how you look at Professional Development.