We enjoyed this article by Dylan William: Teaching is not a research-based profession. And we think much of it applies to the challenges we face as facilitators.
Wiliam argues that we need to get away from simplistic pass-fail assessments of teaching. In a profession that seems to be more and more regulated and measured, we need to put more focus on a mindset of continuous exploration and development. Teaching cannot be a methodical application of best-practice – which we believe applies in spades to facilitation. He writes:
I do not think that teaching will ever be a research-based profession. Classrooms are just too complicated for research ever to tell teachers what to do. Teachers need to know about research, to be sure.. but also recognising that there are many things teachers need to make decisions about where there is no research evidence, and also realising that sometimes the research that is available may not be applicable in a particular context.
Time and again in our work, we find a process, a piece of wisdom or even a joke that seemed to go down brilliantly last time, seems to fall flat this time. Just when we think we know exactly what to do, we trip up. The trips are not marks of failure but signs that we – and those around us – are alive.
So we resonate strongly with William’s belief that:
…we have to recognise that teacher expertise cannot be put into words. The kind of knowledge that expert teachers have is more like the knowledge of how to ride a bicycle than it is the knowledge of how to solve quadratic equations. I can explain to someone how to solve quadratic equations, but I cannot explain to someone how to ride a bicycle. Each person has to figure it out for themselves. There may be guidance I can give, but there is no set of instructions that will be guaranteed to work.
Because of this, Willam says professional development cannot be allowed to be seen as merely remedial. There can’t be a gold standard for how we teach. We need always to be alert to new insights. People who come to our facilitator training are often already really good at their job – and still want to keep improving. Likewise even when training, we’re really excited to make new discoveries from our own, freshly-minted, mistakes. As William says
If… we accept that every teacher needs to improve, not because they are not good enough, but because they can be even better, professional development becomes welcome – it is just the way we become better.
Wise words – we think the whole article could be worth your time.
Thanks to our friend Ewan McIntosh for sharing Dylan William’s article, in his regular No Tosh newsletter.
(Photo by Alexander Andrews on Unsplash)