Sociologist Adam Grant, in his book Think Again, lays out some great ideas to shift learning cultures in US schools
Changing culture is tough.
Have you tried it? Probably not.
But if you have, good on you. You know.
Shifting culture is especially tough in established institutions. Think about this:
- When was the last time a third-party candidate in the United States had a viable chance of election?
- How much have religious services really changed in the past 2000 years?
- Are most students still sitting in rows, listening to lectures?
Any leader who’s ever really tried to change a culture knows the challenges that s/he will face.
And in the end, most of us resort to the path of least resistance. “If it worked before, I guess it’s good enough now.” It simply isn’t worth energy.
Only, right now, it probably isn’t good enough.
Unless we refuse to change our standards.
But if we expect to grow and improve, we need higher standards. And if we have higher standards, we need to create a culture to meet those standards.
According to sociologist Adam Grant, the two keys to creating strong learning cultures are psychological safety and accountability.
This means people within a specific culture need to feel safe to take risks and even fail without worrying about consequences.
But those same people also need to learn and grow from mistakes without making excuses or repeating mistakes.
“Psychological safety is not a matter of relaxing standards, making people comfortable, being nice and agreeable, or giving unconditional praise,” Grant writes in his book Think Again. “It’s fostering a climate of respect, trust, and openness in which people can raise concerns and suggestions without fear of reprisal. It’s the foundation of a learning culture.”
He goes on to explain that, when people are punished for mistakes, they take fewer risks and limit their voice. “The pressure to conform to authority is real, and those who dare to deviate run the risk of backlash,” he writes. “In performance cultures, we also censor ourselves in the presence of experts who seem to know all the answers – especially if we lack confidence in our own expertise.”
“In performance cultures, we also censor ourselves in the presence of experts who seem to know all the answers – especially if we lack confidence in our own expertise.”
Adam Grant in Think Again
“Performance culture.”
I’m not sure there’s a more applicable example of “performance culture” than schools in America.
State testing to judge how effective teachers are.
Countless standardized tests to judge how “smart” students are.
AIR. MAP. GPA. ACT. SAT. AP.
Our teachers and students have become numbers.
And if those numbers are too low, jobs are at stake.
Graduation is at stake.
College admissions are at stake.
So we bite our tongue.
Teachers do it.
Students do it.
Risks are gone.
And with it, the opportunities to truly grow.
I see this in my classroom all the time. When I give a project, students want to know exactly what they should include, how it should be said, what the final draft should look like.
Because there’s a grade that goes with their learning (performance culture), and students won’t take a risk for fear of failing.
Overcoming this has its challenging.
Do we give feedback before a grade?
Should we grade initial submissions?
How often should students be allowed to revise?
If a student fails, what opportunities are there to rethink the content?
Can students, in the words of Grant, “take risks without the fear of being punished?”
And, yes, an F, D, even a C or B for some students is a punishment.
For your high-flyer with aspirations of going to a top-notch program after high school, a B is a punishment when that student could easily ace your test, but instead took a chance on a project and it didn’t turn out just right.
For the teacher who tried a new lesson and chaos ensued, a bad observation report or lower test numbers are punishments when that teacher could’ve simply demanded compliance and lectured to silence for 40 minutes.
Safety and accountability will help students and teachers take risks and grow.
A focus on numbers? Not so much.