It seems that thanks to COVID19, educators, parents and students are in a rush. It seems the rush started moments after the decision was made to promote social distancing by offering remote learning. From quality learning in classrooms focused on deep learning we shifted into top gear. Packets of work were prepared, online tools rapidly expanded, new options for content delivery were examined and quickly deployed. We wanted to make sure that our students would be kept busy. Parents wanted their children to be busy.
In a very short period of time, great things have been achieved. The profession has shown itself to be full of creativity. Learning has continued. But maybe now is the time to reduce the pace. Learning is, after all, a marathon, not a sprint. Now we are beyond the initial phases of the transformation to online learning we can settle into a pace that is better suited for the long haul.
This will involve doing more with less. Packets of work invite a fast pace. This is the mode of learning many parents and teachers will remember well from their days of schooling. We all thought that the smart kids finished first even if this was never directly communicated to us. The goal was to get the work done, finish the worksheet and move on to the next. In most contemporary classrooms this is no longer the norm. Deep learning comes from a slower pace. It requires time for ideas to evolve. Questions and wonderings need to be shared and the process of learning is valued more so than the end product. Even once a question is answered we will want to investigate its origins and germination so that we may learn to replicate the process from which it resulted.
Doing more with less might also be everyone’s saviour in terms of managing the demands of an online workflow. In the typical busyness of the school day, time is the thing we are lacking most. In online learning, at least in these early days, it seems our objective has been to ensure every moment of the day is filled with something and this is requiring teachers to generate a huge quantity of content that parents are called on to deliver.
Against this trend towards doing more, in less time and at a faster pace is a trend towards slowing down and giving our minds time to catch up.
Once we realise that as described by Chris Lewis we are moving too fast to think, we can start looking for an alternate course of action. The obvious answer is to slow down, to pause, switch off and take the time we need to reset but doing this requires deliberate action. We begin the process by recognising that taking our time, slowing down and being deliberate in the processes of thinking is a pathway towards becoming more productive, more creative and more attuned to the world around us. In what seems like a contradiction in terms, the best strategy for coping with the rapid pace of our lives is not to speed up but to slow down.
In “Slow Looking” by Shari Tishman the reader finds an approach to slowing doing and taking the time needed to appreciate the finer details in the world around us.
"Slow looking is a healthy response to complexity because it creates a space for the multiple dimensions of things to be perceived and appreciated. But it is a response that, while rooted in natural instinct, requires intention to sustain."
For educators, the practice of slow looking will align well with strategies from the Visible Thinking movement. If you have used strategies such as “Looking Ten Times Two” or “Look and Look Again” you have experienced slow looking. By deploying strategies which require us to switch modes and adopt a more contemplative stance backed by deliberate efforts to notice things on multiple levels, we open our minds to new possibilities. When you use these strategies with your class you will notice a new depth of thinking emerges from your students. The initial conversation may well disappoint. Surface level thinking and seeing is ingrained and takes time and persistence to overcome. As the students begin to look more closely, to see more detail and notice more of the stimulus they are engaging with a change emerges. Gradually the students embrace the opportunity that slow looking offers.
"Tales from Outer Suburbia" by Shaun Tan is a beautiful piece of creative work by a master of the picture book genre. Each page has multiple layers of detail and meaning. It is a book that deserves time and slow looking. We can begin the exploration of selected pages using the slow looking strategy of “Looking Ten Times Two”. In this strategy, students are invited to look at an image quietly for at least thirty seconds allowing their eyes to wander before they stop and list ten words or phrases about any aspect of the image. The process then repeats and can indeed repeat again. With each new looking more detail emerges. The students deliberately look for details they did not notice at the first looking. After two rounds of slow looking, we invite the students to share their observations. As each student shares their notes, fresh ideas emerge and the discussion takes on a life of its own. Soon students are not just discussing what they saw in the image but are asking questions about the artist’s choices, the meaning of the image and their personal take-aways.
The process of slow looking is well supported by effective questioning. As we look slowly at a stimulus, what questions emerge? In the classroom, teachers know when to pause the learning and inject a question that encourages reflection. At home when we can’t be there we may need to find other means to achieve this goal. Perhaps we can provide our students with a list of questions not to answer but to ponder and reflect on. maybe we can arrange a video chat that is just about posing questions that spark dialogue. Maybe we invite our students to pause the video they are watching and reflect on some well-chosen questions. For parents who might be wondering about what questions to ask a link is provided to a list of possible candidates.
The strategies of slow looking are not restricted to the visual. Consider looking as a synonym for perceiving and you see its potential across multiple disciplines. Tishman provides numerous examples of “slow looking” in disciplines away from those most immediately associated with the visual and through senses other than our eyes. Consider the place of “slow looking” in science as an essential strategy for noticing what is taking place in an experiment or field observation. In music “slow looking” will allow the listener to notice subtle nuances in a piece and in literature “slow looking” encourages the reader to enjoy the language moves made by the author while the practice of slow looking is a valuable tool for the author to employ as they build descriptions.
Now is the perfect time to consider “slow looking” at home. Rather than looking to replicate the classroom environment we might ask, what opportunities for slow looking are made possible when learning is located in the home? What discoveries await the “slow looker” in the backyard? What might we notice about the plants, bugs, birds and animals that share our living spaces? What are the stories hidden in the family photo albums? How might a slow looking architect interpret the design of the spaces we have come to take for granted? What would “slow looking” reveal about the lives of our communities during these far from normal times? How might we see the meals we eat and the processes of preparing them differently if we choose a “slow looking” perspective?
'Slow Looking' is a highly recommended strategy and those looking to implement this in their classrooms or in their own lives should begin by reading Tishman’s book.
By Nigel Coutts
For further writing prompts that support Slow Looking- CLICK HERE
For "Questions that Encourage Deeper Learning” - CLICK HERE