Towards a Minimalist Pedagogy
The world is just too damn complex; unfortunately much of the complexity is by design.
Learning, something so innate to life that it extends right down to the paramecium, has become so obfuscated with frameworks and organizing structures and competencies and skills and a whole bunch of other brilliant-on-paper but ludicrous-in-practice ideas that educators are often stumped about how they approach learning.
Imagine for a moment how the learner feels, trying to navigate not only the complex social dynamics of school, but also trying to make sense of which rules to implement when and what to focus on where.
I have worked in education long enough to fall in love with hundreds, perhaps thousands of concepts and ideas around epistemology and learning. Some of them I stick with and grow, practicing in a variety of ways and settings. Others I test and drop after a moment. As an educator, that is part of my role… to continue learning, playing, and testing a variety of ideas out.
It is great and I love it.
With so many concepts and ideas on the market, schools make decisions about which elements in learning they would like to focus on as an organization. However, there is always a certain amount of ‘framework creep’ as new ideas are added to the school’s planning process. Sometimes, it takes multiple pages just to describe the course using all the frameworks the school has adopted over time.
I have had it with such bureaucracy, particularly since the real impact of many of these planning processes, frameworks, outcomes and tables results in very little change to the quality of education delivered.
Perhaps it is time to go minimalist? With this in mind, I started to compile a list of strategies that those in the education world could use that simplify the process of learning. Here is a nice and short list to get us started. Or perhaps this list is 100% enough… that would be a truly minimalist way to work!
Holistic Scoring/Grading
While I am personally not a strong advocate for grading in general, it is a pretty common facet of most schools today. And to their point (pun intended), a grade can create starter for discussion, feedback, and reflection. In those respects it can be a really valuable learning tool.
Holistic Scoring is not a new concept. It is commonly used in the grading of essays and other writing, where the grader reads through the the essay and then provides a grade based on their overall feeling. It does not have the exacting standards of a rubric, and can be very subjective. However, it also is efficient and generally accurate.
A friend and inspiring teacher, Jesse Driver, shared with me a modification of this concept that I feel uses this in an excellent and minimalist way.
- A general descriptor is written describing each grade band. In the case shared below a 10 point scale was used. This scale is used for all projects, no need to redo a well thought out piece.
- At certain points (after a project, a unit of study, etc.) students are asked to reflect and self-select a grade that best describes their engagement in that area of study. The teacher does the same for each student at this point.
- Scores are then compared. The majority of educator and student scores will likely align, meaning both parties are in agreement with how the learning is progressing.
- Conversations can be had using this information. “Why do we feel differently about your learning progress?”, “What is stopping you from moving into the next band?”, “What changed from your past scores to your current scores?”
Such a system could be effectively the whole feedback system between students educators, the parents, and the school. These data snapshots are simple enough to do with greater frequency, and could free the educator from onerous rubric grading that takes vastly more time. With the free time perhaps more hands on work alongside students (which by the way is the origin of the word assessment: to sit beside) is possible.
The Golden Rule
Finding ways to create harmonious, safe, and constructive learning environments is a big part of being an educator. I have learned so many small hacks and strategies for building such environments. From using hooks to refocus attention to co-creating classroom codes of conducts, all have found a certain degree of success in creating healthy classroom spaces. However, once again I feel that simplicity here can create exactly what a classroom needs while still remaining operational.
Shaun McGurgan, a friend and educator, shared with me his minimalist view on classroom management:
“Treat others as you want to be treated”
Using the Golden Rule, Shaun feels you can address nearly all behavior management challenges found in a classroom. From students not sharing resources to disruptive behavior, Shaun zeros in time and time again on the one simple rule. You can hear from him in this (now quite old) interview on the matter:
Similar to the Holistic Scoring, by removing complexity in the process, you can really focus on the application and the conversations it brings about. As Shaun mentions, 99% of the behaviors that are flagged are owned by the students… they are aware of the consequences and just need a reminder. When such a rule breaks down, it is more a call to engage a bigger support system for the kids than that which an educator alone can handle.
Singular Focused Skill-Based Courses
When planning courses of learning these days so many hoops are presented to jump through. If you as an educator are jumping into a subject specific course, particularly with older students, you no doubt will have to align it to the approved standards of your institution, often targeting a multitude of learning outcomes and skills. The amount of work needed to get many classes up and running is significant to say the least.
One day I had enough of these box filling exercises and reduced a term long course of study to a focus on a specific skill or behavior. I did not worry about the learning outcomes, or how I was going to test a variety of skills throughout the term. I had been inspired by a book a colleague and mentor, Glenn Chickering, shared with me on engagement as a key to learning.
From that prompt I designed a course which I called “Systems Thinking Sessions”. I created a simple format, where we would vote as a class for a topic to explore for an hour in a manner of their choosing, followed by time to self-reflect on how engaged you were throughout that hour. Students could hold discussions, explore the internet, create mindmaps, write notes, whatever they felt would best keep them engaged in the topic at hand. Their final assessment of engagement was an honest look as to what kept their attention, and the modes they found most engaging.
I had the joy of running the class twice and both sessions were among my favorite courses I have been a part of. The topics were varied, but consistently deep and complicated. Take a look at some of the prompts used for discussion below. These were created by the students and votes were held each class to determine what we would be exploring:
In one of the courses, I was able to invite adults from the community. The turnout was low, but every adult who joined walked away with a common observation: “teenagers really have some deep thoughts.” — Maybe providing the freedom and space to have those was the part that was missing rather than a characteristic of teenagers?
The reflections each day demonstrated a depth and introspection into how each individual saw themselves as a learner. They recognized the need for quiet or dialogue, the power of an internet connected device to distract them, and how varied the perspectives and understanding was within their peer group.
The three above strategies are examples of what minimalism could look like in education: simple ideas that create a rough structure and allow for breadth and depth to grow organically out of them. In all cases it is really the human who brings the complexity of the real world to the mix. The strategies are simply placeholders to start from, pared down to a bare-bones functionality, with a great deal of freedom for both the learner and the educators to open up deep and meaningful learning.
What other ideas could you add to a minimalist pedagogy? How can we create learning organizations that take minutes or days to comprehend, but allow space for years of growth and development?
