Habits

Our society has a great focus at the moment on habits. We look at habits of viewing, spending, social media use, eating, exercise and the list goes on. Companies use a lot of resources to try to get to the bottom of these habits so that they can get a competitive edge over their rivals.

In education, habits are just as important. Teachers have habits that have built up over many years of school experience. Whether that be the habits they witnessed as students which have been carried through into their teaching practice, or the habits they have built up over their years of practice. Whilst habits can be a comfort to us and those which work are worth keeping, the big challenge is how to develop new habits in a changing educational environment. The children have access to a range of tools as do teachers but pressure comes to play with regards to curriculum change and progressing through the levels is a challenge. Teachers face the problem of change fatigue or innovation fatigue.

So how do we address this sort of situation? How do we make change valuable to us? Taking small steps towards change is helpful, as is consistency and reflection. By being prepared to have a go and reflect on the progress of change we allow ourselves to develop new strategies. Strategies that might challenge us but allow us to maintain effective practice for the children we face each day. A quote that just came across my twitter feed illustrates it well. "The difficulty lies not so much in developing new ideas as in escaping from old ones." John Maynard Keynes

Today I watched two videos called "The Classroom Experiment" based on a program presented by Dylan Wiliam it is a great insight into the challenges of change but the rewards that come with persistence. I recommend the hour for each video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J25d9aC1GZA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1iD6Zadhg4M

Enjoy.

Ben Donnelly

#Habits