Without sounding too obvious, the critical exploration of the values and norms that have shaped our world is essential to the continued progress of humankind.
In a new video offered by RSA Animate, Matthew Taylor explores the meaning of 21st century enlightenment that is well worth 11 minutes and 10 seconds of your time.
Specifically, what do the values that have shaped our world mean? Are they still working for us? Do they meet the challenges that we now face? Taylor argues that critical reflection on such matters is imperative if we are to continue to grow and thrive in a sustainable manner.
Empathic Capacity
What resonated most for me is Taylor’s observations on the importance of our empathic capacity. While the chain connecting inter-personal, communal and global empathy is complex, he suggests that “the stock of global empathy has to grow if we are to reach agreements which put the long-term needs of the whole planet and all of it’s people ahead of short-term national concerns.”
Clearly, if humanity is to thrive in a sustainable manner, we need to live differently in the 21st century. To live differently involves thinking and feeling differently. The powerful insights we are discovering about human nature, sustainability, civil society, inclusion, solidarity, often run counter to our intuition. This realization is what brought us to where we are today. But we are hardly finished.
Taylor suggests that “we are very, very bad at predicting what will make us happy and we are even bad at describing what made us happy in the past.” I have recently seen evidence of this in elementary school research on reflective thinking, wherein students are asked to write reflective essays and are unable to do so because (1) little time is afforded such a process; and (2) it isn’t being modeled very well (Beralt, 2010, under review).
Taylor theorizes that “21st century enlightenment should champion a more self-aware, socially embedded model of autonomy that recognizes our frailties and limitations. This does not mean repudiating the rights of individuals. Nor does it mean to under estimate our unique ability to shape our own destinies.” Instead, Taylor asserts “it is only by understanding that our conscious thought is only part of what drives our behavior that we become better able to exercise self-control… and distinguish between our needs and appetites, and our amazing human potential from the hubris of individualism that is the basis of self aware autonomy.”
Taylor goes on to cite Robert Kegan‘s notion that “successfully functioning in society with its diverse values, traditions, and lifestyles, requires us to have a relationship with our own reactions rather than be captive of them.”
What a concept.
Yes We Can
Yes, we can expand empathy’s reach. Civil rights, social media have further enhanced our ability to put our selves in other people’s shoes. Yet, has the process of widening human empathy stalled? Specifically, we should begin by exploring what enhances and diminishes our empathetic capacity.
If schools are to become intelligent communities, then we need to spend more time exploring how we come to know one another and how we can foster healthy public debate instead of unhealthy public disparagement.
The idea that “Education” (with a capital “E”) is the most valuable resource in our knowledge economy has become an airy cliche. Instead, Taylor argues that fostering empathic capacity is just as, if not more, important to “achieving a world of citizens at peace with each other and with themselves.”
This not to say a world of peaceful, empathic people will exist sans dilemma and contradiction. Instead, we as a human race should be willing to face these challenges and debate such substantive and ethical questions with knowledge and honor.
Remember:What we aim for can be as important to our well being as what we achieve.
The Role of Schools
How should schools focus on building empathic capacity of its students and citizenry? What role should teachers, administrators, citizens, parents, policy makers play in this discussion? What protocols should we adopt to foster and sustain such engagement?
This where I see the role of college’s of education leading. A college of education can do more than offer pedagogical blueprints. It can instead offer strategies, tactics, and forums for designing a sustainable future. Such a focus would require some retooling and rethinking but clearly the time to act is now.
Similarly, Taylor offers us a quote from Margaret Mead:
Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.
As such, I encourage you to collect the colleagues around you that are passionate and committed to equity, learning, and social responsibility and begin mapping your ideas for developing a deeper empathic capacity within our students.
In a post I wrote earlier this year, I spoke of the importance of empathy as a skill that needs as much attention as play and critical thinking. The following video featuring Jeremy Rifkin adds additional yeast to this argument as it offers further investigation into the evolution of empathy and the profound ways that it has shaped our development and society.
Rifkin notes that the growing scientific evidence that we are a fundamentally empathic species has profound and far-reaching consequences for society, and may well determine our fate as a species. The information communication technologies (ICT) revolution is quickly extending the central nervous system of billions of human beings and connecting the human race across time and space, allowing empathy to flourish on a global scale, for the first time in history. Thus, by extending the central nervous system of each individual and the society as a whole, this “communication revolution” will provide an evermore inclusive playing field for empathy to mature and consciousness to expand.
In what ways is this important for education?
Recognition that we are all in this together is a powerful concept–from cats and dogs, to children in Darfur, to bankers in Singapore. Recognition that each of our actions can have both a direct and indirect effect on each other is crucial in our flattened world. Empathy can help lower inhibitions and increase our sense of purpose as we seek to understand and feel what others are experiencing (emotive solidarity). The disadvantage of this approach in most school settings is that teaching students how to build empathy takes time and skill. I do not recall many opportunities for building empathetic skills in colleges of education, nor do I see it emphasized in any high stakes examinations. However, given the increased access to news and information and our increased ability to act and serve others in a crisis, empathy could be adopted within our current curricula frameworks as a form of social literacy–that is, the ability to read and understand people and situations.
Ultimately, learning how to empathize helps learners work more effectively with others and in teams. This in turn can lead to the development of such useful skills such as planning and organizing with others–a task that is essential in most social environments.
Reference:
Rifkin, J. (2010).The empathic civilization: The race to global consciousness in a world in crisis. New York: Tarcher/Penguin.
Here are my takeaways/notes from a May 2nd session titled Web 2.0: Research Issues, Results, and Future Directions hosted by Lynne Schrum and starring Chris Dede, Dan Hickey, Diane Jass Ketelhut, Donald Leu, and Allan Collins.
These reflections are my synthesized notes and not direct quotations. My hand/brain speed and coordination are no match for the rate of human speech, but, I do try. Enjoy!
• Web 2.0 = Rorschach test — there is no one right answer/definition. It’s what we make it. (Dede)
• Web 2.0 or interactive media permits creativity, collaboration, co-creating and sharing. (FYI)
• I used to believe in collective intelligence until I attended my last faculty meeting (Dede).
• New digital media are easy to use, but not easy to use well (Dede).
• New digital media requires fluency in their rhetoric/critical thinking skills (Dede).
• Web 2.0 redefines what, how, and with whom we learn (Dede).
• In most formal learning environments, new digital media is still an add-on (Dede).
• We should be using new digital media to support wisdom building (Dede).
• Wisdom includes*:
A cognitive dimension involving rich understanding of a variety of intellectual disciplines and fields
A practical-experiential dimension of sophisticated, pragmatic comprehension about how to act given the unresolvable questions, philosophic issues, and unavoidable problems (such as personal mortality) associated with everyday life (Baltes & Smith, 1990)
An interpersonal dimension of insightfully appreciating the interactions and contributions of diverse groups, cultures, and societies in shaping civilization
An ethical dimension encompassing what the ancient Greeks meant by “knowing and doing the good”
A metacognitive dimension of reflective judgment, awareness of the limitations of knowing and of how these limitations affect the resolution of ill-defined problems (Birren & Fisher, 1990; Kitchener & Brenner, 1990).
This definition draws from, but is more limited than, the concept of extraordinary wisdom delineated by Randall and Kenyon (2001).
• What should we as a society be investing in to support the development of wisdom in children and adults? (Dede)
• Achievement tests undermine achievement in schooling (Hickey).
• Participatory assessment offers a new way to examine student work that supports a student-centered approach. (Hickey)
• Social collaboration sites present a rich resource for exploring identity for teachers and youth. (Ketelhut)
• For many pre-service teachers, there is a reported incoherence between their online identity and their in-class identity. Specifically, their in-class identity conflicted with their online identity. (Ketelhut)
• When examing online identity issues, consider examining Kegan‘s (1996) model of psychological development consisting of six “equilibrium stages”: the incorporative stage, the impulsive stage, the imperial stage, the interpersonal stage, the institutional stage, and the inter-individual stage. (Ketelhut)
• The Internet presents a reading comprehension issue for learners. (Leu)
• The Internet presents a literacy issue. (Leu)
• If the use of the Internet is limited to educational technology courses, subject area specialists will defer responsibility for integrating it into their curriculum. (Leu)
• For new digital media to be taken seriously in education, it needs to be integrated into subject areas more completely, not as an add-on. (Leu)
• Online reading represents a problem-based comprehension issue. (Leu)
• Web 2.0 is a static construct; we should recognize it as New Literacies instead. (Leu)
• To advance this notion, teacher education must focus on pedagogy, skill development, and a health professional development diet. (Leu)
• It is important for all educators to consider: What should we be teaching in classrooms? (Collins)
• What is important to learn? (Collins)
• What about Web 2.0 or New Literacies fosters wisdom? (Collins)
• New digital media does nothing to promote morals or ethics. (Collins)
• Web 2.0 has insiders and outsiders. (Collins)
• School culture (closed) contrasts Web 2.0 culture (open). (Collins)
• Do social collaboration and social networking sites invite us to questions our identities? (Collins)
• Web 2.0 is making the equity problem in schools worse. (Collins)
• There will be a tremendous price to pay if we do not address this participatory divide. (Collins)
• Critical New Literacies include (Leu):
identifying important questions
locating information
critically evaluating information
synthesizing information
communicating information
[*The definition of wisdom cited above was pulled from Dede's 2009 Educational Research article: Dede, C. (2009). Comments on Greenhow, Robelia, and Hughes: Technologies that facilitate generating knowledge and possibly wisdom. Educational Researcher, 38(4): 261-262.]
Here is a collected list of notes culled from my first day reflections at the American Educational Research Association 2010 annual meeting in Denver, Colorado. Names appearing in parentheses are referenced at the bottom of this post. While I tried to capture speakers’ thoughts directly, most are paraphrased and filtered through my limited ability to listen and write at the same time. I apologize in advance for misrepresenting any of the speakers’ thoughts and ideas.
• Most schools are surrounded by fences. This is a loaded metaphor. (Ching)
• How should we define learning?
• Why does learning inside a school define learning outside of school? (Ching)
• How is learning outside of school relevant to school learning? (Ching)
• What role does technology play in learning outside of school? (Ching)
• Kids’ access to culture of participation is increasing. (Barron)
• Research suggests production activities using the computer build technical fluencies (Barron).
• There are multi-fold learning opportunities despite the myth of the digital native.
• Parents are a critical factor as learning partners (Barron).
• Given roles parents play in kids’ lives, there are significant experience divides (Barron).
• There are significant divides between the ways in which kids use technology as producers of content. (Barron, 2009).
• Production uses of technology depends on community that surrounds kids (Barron).
• In terms of the different forms and pathways of engagement with technology, parents can play several roles (Barron):
Teacher
Learning Broker
Project Collaborator
Resource Provider
Non-technical Support (consultant)
Learner
Employer
• How parents engage technology personally and professionally impacts kids’ use.
• For more information on informal learning research, visit http://life-slc.org
• Design Experiment Methodology reference: Brown, A. L. (1992). Design experiments: Theoretical and methodological challenges in creating complex interventions. Journal of the Learning Sciences, 2 (2), 141-178.
• “Science is built up of facts, as a house is built of stones; but an accumulation of facts is no more a science than a heap of stones is a house.” — Henri Poincare, 1905 (via Steinkeuhler)
• Examples of learning in out-of-school environments: Computer Clubhouse (Chapman) and Casual Learning Lab (Steinkeuhler).
• There is a tension between intentional learning (other directed) and interest-driven learning (self-directed). (Steinkeuhler).
• Research shows when students are allowed to choose reading material, reading scores are markedly higher on standardized measures associated with fluency and reading level (Steinkeuhler).
• Paradox: Out-of-school learning is always compared to in-school learning. (Sessums)
• Learning happens. Schools need to rethink time, space, and their purpose. (Sessums)
• Let students do more of the driving. (Steinkeuhler)
• Teachers need to play more of a designer and advocate role in schools. (Sessums)
• More research is needed around critical periods for learning (Kuhl).
• Research shows social context and social support are CRITICAL when it comes to knowledge acquisition and skill development (Kuhl).
• Given the critical nature of social context and social support in learning, the garbage-in-garbage-out rule is easily measured. (Sessums)
• The complexity of language use impacts a child’s language and knowledge growth and development (Kuhl).
• Imitative learning is powerful (Meltzoff).
• Imitative learning is closely associated with observational learning (Meltzoff).
• Shared or joint attention is a powerful learning mechanism before we formally acquire language (Meltzoff).
• Cultural stereotypes effect a child’s’ self-concept and learning ability (Meltzoff).
• Cultural stereotypes and self-concepts are effected by observation of and engagement with peers, parents, media, teachers, and mentors (Meltzoff).
• Stereotypes can be overcome with the help of peers, parents, media, teachers, and mentors (Meltzoff).
• Educational policy: How we choose what to do defines a course of action (Malcom).
• Educational policy is influenced by our ability to choose between alternatives, by our present circumstances, and by future goals (Malcom).
• Educational policy challenges (Malcom):
Over (and under-) interpreting research findings (looking for the silver bullet);
When research collides with conventional wisdom;
When research collides with politics;
When action is seen as too hard and/or too expensive; and
When it is unclear how to get from the present to a future informed by research.
• Educational policy is a blunt instrument (Malcom).
• The “work:” converting research into practice (Sessums).
• To get teachers to change how they conduct their classrooms requires a skilled expert to “tow them into the big wave” (Hickey).
• What are teacher practitioner’s learning about/sharing on Twitter? (Craft)
• How teacher practitioners are being educated about integrating technology into their curriculum varies (Sessums).
• Many technology integration courses are still focusing on teaching PowerPoint, Word, and Excel (1990s) (Sessums).
• The use of participatory media is limited in many colleges and schools of education (Sessums).
• Given an imitative learning model, many teacher practitioners are not being exposed to meaningful uses of participatory media (Sessums).
• Research suggests that most teacher practitioners are at the early stages of technology integration (Mouza, Hughes, Richardson, Niess).
• Reasons cited for limited technology integration include lack of resources, prescribed curricula, and practitioners/administrators being less open to innovative ideas (Mouza).
• What is effective technology integration? What does it look like? How should it be defined? (Sessums)
• What are we trying to achieve by integrating technology into the classroom? (Sessums)
• In what ways does participatory media transform teacher practice? (Sessums)
• Technology is still considered an add-on. It is not yet viewed as an essential part of the educational process in schools (Sessums).
• What will it take for parents, teachers, school officials to move beyond thinking of technology as a teaching tool? (Sessums)
