WALKING OUR ROADS OF
PRACTICE
Stephen Brookfield
Distinguished University
Professor
University of St. Thomas
www.stephenbrookfield.com
Stephen’s ASSUMPTIONS
• Sincerity of Our Actions NOT Correlated
with Students’ Goodwill
• Good Practice = Whatever Helps Students
Learn
• Best Teaching is Critically Reflective
• Most Important Pedagogic Knowledge How Students Experience Learning
• Context Changes Everything
CRITICAL INCIDENT QUESTIONNAIRE
(CIQ)
• Most Engaged Moment
• Most Distanced Moment
• Most Helpful Action
• Most Puzzling Action
• What Surprised You Most
WHY CIQ’s?
• Problems Warned Early
• Ground Teachers’ Actions
• Increase Student Reflectivity
• Build Trust
• Illustrate Diverse Methods
• Model Critical Thinking
QUESTION
• Horton & Freire both position themselves
as adult educators working in an adult
way with their communities.
• When have you been treated as an
adult? What was it that someone did
that made you feel you were regarded as
adult?
CIRCLE OF VOICES
• Begin with a minute’s quiet thought
• Go round the group & have each person
speak their thoughts on the topic for up to
a minute – NO INTERRUPTIONS
ALLOWED
• Move into open conversation – but you
can only talk about what someone else
said in the opening round
Engaging Our Learners
• “The teacher has to know the
content that he teaches. Then in
order to teach … she has first of
all to know … why the student …
really learns when the student
becomes able to know the
content taught” p. 57
QUESTION
• Horton & Freire both explore how
to draw participants into the
educational process so that they
are co-creators of what happens.
• In your experience, what does an
engaged classroom LOOK, SOUND
or FEEL like?
CHALK TALK
• Facilitator writes a question in the center
of the board & circles it
• Whenever they wish people go to the
board & write responses to question
• Others draw lines between responses to
show connections/differences
• Facilitator adds responses as needed
QUESTION
• “Knowing … from the point of
view of my body, my sensual
body .. is full of feelings, of
emotions, of tastes” (p. 23)
• What emotions and feelings
affect your learning? What
situations prompt these?
CIRCULAR RESPONSE
Individuals reflect on a topic for discussion
One person starts by giving her reflections on the
topic. Up to 1 minute allowed - no interruptions
Person to left of 1st speaker goes next - whatever
she says MUST somehow refer to/build on
previous speaker’s comments (can be a
disagreement or express confusion). Up to 1
minute allowed - no interruptions
Process continues leftwards around the circle with
people speaking in order until all have participated
Group moves into open conversation with no
particular ground rules in force
Quotes to Affirm & Challenge
Each participant brings in a quote she wishes to affirm, &
one she wishes to challenge, from the assigned reading
Quotes to affirm - resonate with experience, explain
difficult concepts clearly, add significant new
information, are cogently expressed, are rhetorically
powerful etc.
Quotes to challenge - immoral/unethical, poorly
expressed, factually wrong, contradict experience
Quotes are shared in small groups & each group chooses
ONE to affirm & ONE to challenge
In large group conversation the small group
communicates rationales for each of these choices
NEWSPRINT DIALOG
• Small groups put their deliberations on
newsprint sheets - no reporter is chosen to
report these out
• Newsprint sheets are then posted around the
room & blank sheets posted next to each sheet
• Each participant takes a marker & wanders by
herself around the room - she writes her
questions, reactions, agreements etc. directly
onto the sheets or on the blanks posted next to
them
• Groups reassemble at their postings to see
what others have written
MODELING
• “I think that it’s really impossible
to teach how to think more
critically by just making a speech
about critical thought. It’s
absolutely indispensable to give a
witness, an example, of thinking
critically to the students” p. 173
QUESTION
• What would you like your
learners or colleagues to
say about your practice
when they were out of
your earshot?
Circle of Voices
• Begin with a minute’s quiet thought
• Go round the group & have each person
speak their thoughts on the topic for up to
a minute – NO INTERRUPTIONS
ALLOWED
• Move into open conversation – but you
can only talk about what someone else
said in the opening round
Creating the Need for Learning
• “We cannot educate if we don’t start & I said
start & not stay – from the levels in which the
people perceive themselves, their
relationships with the others & their reality”
• “Then 1 of the tasks of the educator is to
provoke the discovering of need for knowing
& never to impose the knowledge whose need
was not yet perceived” p. 66
QUESTION
•How can we create
the need for knowing
and learning in our
own students?
DRAWING DISCUSSION
• Individually draw responses to the question.
Abstract is fine
• Small group members then come together
and each person explains their drawing or
collage to the other group members
• Group prepares a drawing representing the
conversation discussing individual drawings
DRAWING DISCUSSION
• One member takes notes so s/he can
interpret
• Each group displays its drawing w/ a
blank sheet next to it
• Participants wander & add
comments or drawing to postings
• Class reconvenes to debrief
Examining Our Experience
• “We have to create in ourselves,
through critical analysis of our
practice, some qualities, some
virtues as educators” (p. 158)
• Our formation as teachers is “a
permanent process … a critical
understanding of what we do” p. 221
Examining Our Experience
• “A good teacher is the teacher who … is
permanently aware of surprise & never,
never, stops being surprised” p. 66
• What is a situation in your practice that
puzzles or surprises you – something
where you’re not sure what is happening
or how to respond?
CRITICAL CONVERSATION PROTOCOL
• Storyteller tells the tale - no interruptions
• Detectives ask questions about story
• Detectives report out assumptions they
hear
• Detectives offer alternative interpretations
• Participants do an experiential audit (what
have we learned, would do differently etc.)
Umpire enforces ground rules throughout
RESOURCES from Stephen
•
•
•
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Books that Emphasize Practice:
Teaching for Critical Thinking (2012)
The Skillful Teacher (2006, 2nd. Ed.)
Discussion as a Way of Teaching (w/ Stephen
Preskill, 2005, 2nd. Ed.)
• Becoming a Critically Reflective Teacher (1995)
• www.stephenbrookfield.com
RESOURCES from Stephen
• Books that Emphasize Theory:
• Radicalizing Learning (w/ John Holst) 2010
• Handbook of Race & Adult Education (w/
Vanessa Sheared et. al.). 2010
• Learning as a Way of Leading (w/ Stephen
Preskill) 2008
• The Power of Critical Theory (2004)
All published by Jossey-Bass