As schools and organisations move to remote education, there are potential gaps in our professional learning of which we should be aware. While many of us are discovering fresh opportunities for online and remote professional learning through podcasts, webinars and online courses, one of the most significant aspects of our professional learning has been curtailed thanks to social distancing.
Despite the best efforts to make professional development sessions contextually relevant and meaningful, we know that much of our best professional learning does not occur in this way. Instead, the most powerful professional learning occurs through the informal and often incidental conversations that we have with members of our learning community. Indeed, research by Daniel Wilson and others at Harvard’s Project Zero indicates that 80% of our professional learning comes from our informal conversations. These are the conversations that occur on the periphery of team meetings when colleagues share puzzles they are struggling with. They are the observations shared while waiting at the photocopier or the quick questions asked when colleagues pass in the corridor.
These informal conversations are also evident in more traditional professional learning experiences. Often the best learning we takeaway from a conference occurred not in the Keynote session but as a result of the opportunities for conversations with other attendees. Maybe it’s a chat over lunch as you reflect on the ideas presented and the questions that occurred to you while your mind wandered during a formal session. Perhaps it's the moment of inspiration that you share with a shoulder buddy while the keynote presenter moves between slides. Informal moments like these are difficult to replicate in an online setting where we bounce from meeting to meeting, session to session without the opportunity to incidentally interact in between.
Daniel Wilson et al. explored the nature of the informal conversations that result in professional learning and found particular types of conversations. Each of these conversation types played an essential role in building professional knowledge and competence. The conversation types are:
Stories – descriptions of something that happened in the past, an observation from a lesson just taught, a reflection on an interaction with a student, a tale that illustrates the culture of the place or changes which have occurred over time.
Provocative perspectives – a challenging statement of strong belief, a statement that is likely to elicit a response, stir emotions or create space for debate. A perspective that can shift a colleagues understanding or that enables the person sharing their perspective to gain fresh insights.
Puzzles – an explanation of a dilemma or problem that becomes a catalyst for empathetic sharing and collaborative problem solving
Eliciting questions – an expression of interest to learn about another person’s experience or perspective.
Probing questions – an expression to learn more about another person’s experience or perspective.
The second part of this research project linked the types of conversations with the forms of learning they are connected with.
Informational and operational learning was supported by stories and asking probing questions
Conceptual learning was supported by provocative perspectives, sharing puzzles, asking eliciting and probing questions
Reflective learning was supported mostly by sharing puzzles.
How might this knowledge help us fill the gap in our professional learning caused by social distancing?
The first suggestion is that we need to be deliberate in creating opportunities for informal conversations. One of the recommendations from Wilson’s research was that organisations consider the design of their physical spaces to encourage dialogue. Bottlenecks, doorways and places that cause people to congregate were found to enhance the occurrence of conversations that resulted in professional learning. One suggestion was to reconsider the design of doorways so that they might become a place where colleagues can comfortably engage in informal conversations. Social distancing means that we are encouraged to avoid such settings, to move quickly from space to space while minimising interactions with others. The challenge is to create opportunities for these informal conversations in our remote spaces. This might be as simple as opening a Zoom meeting ten minutes early to allow for conversation or avoiding scheduling back to back meetings so attendees can linger afterwards. Perhaps organisations can create virtual spaces that are open throughout the workday. A virtual staffroom where colleagues can come and go as they please and interact with colleagues as they might have pre-COVID19.
The second is that we now need to be monitoring our conversational patterns for the types identified above. Giving deliberate attention to this can help us identify the conversation types which might have been most impacted by social distancing. By being intentional in noticing the types of conversations which have become predominant in our socially distanced interactions, we can identify areas that might require some deliberate attention. Maybe we notice that there are fewer opportunities for colleagues to share puzzles. If this is the case, we might be concerned that there are fewer opportunities for reflective practices or that conceptual learning might be slipping. Alternatively, we might notice that there are fewer opportunities for staff to share stories and that as a result, operational learning is inhibited. Armed with this information we can make plans to either increase the learning type that is in deficit or look to create more opportunities for the types of conversation that support it.
In these times of uncertainty and change resulting from the COVID19 pandemic, our connectedness and the professional learning that this supports is more critical than ever. We can’t afford to miss out on the professional learning and support that occurs through incidental conversations but ensuring this does not occur, will take planning, creativity and desire to create opportunities for us to come together, even while apart.
By Nigel Coutts