Faculty often don’t realize that students need explicit teaching in how to reflect. It’s a skill that takes practice, especially after years of ingrained passive and rote learning patterns.
I’ve been having students use the systems iceberg to analyze the actions they want to change. It has moved them to similar reflections but is much harder to teach. I like this.
This reminds me of how we often talk about Gen Z and younger students as digitally savvy. But when it comes time to use that familiarity to look something up instead of emailing a professor, they freeze. We forget that they don’t use technology the same way we do. The same idea applies to thinking. We tend to assume it’s automatic, when in reality it has to be taught.
I was reading this and remembering completing my teaching degree, and a large % of my non-teaching and non-lecture time was on helping fellow students reflect on all aspects of their practice.
As an "older" person in the cohort (3rd oldest, but everyone saw me as Dad/older brother as I was in my early 30s...), the one question I had to field most from fellow students was "how" to do the critical thinking of reflecting on their practice.
The only way I could help them was to explain the process I use on myself from my previous decade and a half of experience in business (pre-career change) and how I had spent years developing an internal honesty to help myself 'grow' wherever I was working. Honest, not negative, not positive, not performative, but to be truly honest - that is a rare skill!
(We've all heard the line "I'm my own harshest critic! That doesn't help either as much as some people think it does!)
We can scaffold, we can lead, we can explain, but it is a process that each person is going to have to find a path for themselves. AI will pull from theories and papers and recognised academia, which will help, but the personal way I told my story helped the other students so much. That small lesson is one I took into my teaching, too. Reluctant pupils are easier to reach if the story is real and personal, and can be demonstrated to have value. Can AI do this?
I think we are in danger of losing that human element (that randomness of each individual) and how they need to see THEMSELVES.
I do agree that in education that we do a particularly poor job of this on the whole, especially as it is a cornerstone of our own practice!
Faculty often don’t realize that students need explicit teaching in how to reflect. It’s a skill that takes practice, especially after years of ingrained passive and rote learning patterns.
spot on!
I’ve been having students use the systems iceberg to analyze the actions they want to change. It has moved them to similar reflections but is much harder to teach. I like this.
The AI-ese of this piece is very distracting. I like the overall point, but read like a chatlog. Not this but that. endless bullets. etc
Here, Human + AI is more like mostly AI.
Perhaps AI Thinking Partners can provide an escape from the cognitive loop? https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:t4vhvpdv6ww3xtrfy6kekvdf/post/3me4slqguck2p
This reminds me of how we often talk about Gen Z and younger students as digitally savvy. But when it comes time to use that familiarity to look something up instead of emailing a professor, they freeze. We forget that they don’t use technology the same way we do. The same idea applies to thinking. We tend to assume it’s automatic, when in reality it has to be taught.
I was reading this and remembering completing my teaching degree, and a large % of my non-teaching and non-lecture time was on helping fellow students reflect on all aspects of their practice.
As an "older" person in the cohort (3rd oldest, but everyone saw me as Dad/older brother as I was in my early 30s...), the one question I had to field most from fellow students was "how" to do the critical thinking of reflecting on their practice.
The only way I could help them was to explain the process I use on myself from my previous decade and a half of experience in business (pre-career change) and how I had spent years developing an internal honesty to help myself 'grow' wherever I was working. Honest, not negative, not positive, not performative, but to be truly honest - that is a rare skill!
(We've all heard the line "I'm my own harshest critic! That doesn't help either as much as some people think it does!)
We can scaffold, we can lead, we can explain, but it is a process that each person is going to have to find a path for themselves. AI will pull from theories and papers and recognised academia, which will help, but the personal way I told my story helped the other students so much. That small lesson is one I took into my teaching, too. Reluctant pupils are easier to reach if the story is real and personal, and can be demonstrated to have value. Can AI do this?
I think we are in danger of losing that human element (that randomness of each individual) and how they need to see THEMSELVES.
I do agree that in education that we do a particularly poor job of this on the whole, especially as it is a cornerstone of our own practice!
Really enjoyed this Patrick. I didn't know about SFBT but am keen to find out more. Can't wait for your next piece
Fantastic! It really is a paradigm-shifting mindset. Perfect for parenting, leadership, relationships, and of course teaching!