
THE BIGGER PICTURE:
BUILDING
THOUGHT-FULL LEARNING
COMMUNITIES
“THE MIND, ONCE STRETCHED,
NEVER RETURNS
TO ITS ORIGINAL
DIMENSIONS.”
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES
SHIFTING MENTAL MODELS IMPLIES
THE UNKNOWN
Psychological risks of a new venture
Physical demands on time and energy
Intellectual requirements for new skills
and knowledge
“Faced with the choice between
changing one’s mind and
proving that there is no
need to do so,
almost everybody gets busy
on the proof.”
John Kenneth Galbraith
MINDSHIFT 1
FROM:
Genetic-based
Intelligence
TO:
Effort-based
Learning
MILESTONES IN OUR CHANGING
PERSPECTIVES ON INTELLIGENCE
Intelligence can be taught
Arthur Whimbey
1975
Theory of Cognitive Modifiability
Reuven Feuerstein
1980
The Human Right to Full Intellectual Luis Alberto Machado
Development
1981
Multiple Intelligences
Howard Gardner
1983
Emotional Intelligence
Daniel Goleman
1985
Learnable Intelligence
David Perkins
1997
Moral Intelligence
Robert Coles
1997
Success Intelligence
Robert Sternberg
1997
EFFORT-BASED LEARNING
“One’s intelligence is the sum of
one’s habits of mind.”
Lauren Resnick 2001
EFFORT-BASED
LEARNING
MINDSHIFT 3
FROM:
Transmitting
Meaning
TO:
Knowledgebased
Constructivism
“LEARNING IS AN
ENGAGEMENT OF THE
MIND THAT
TRANSFORMS THE MIND”
MARTIN HEIDDEGAR
LEARNINGS FROM BRAIN RESEARCH:
Meaning is not a spectator sport.
Knowledge is a constructive process
rather than a finding--humans don’t
get ideas, they make ideas.
It is not the content that gets stored
in memory but the activity of
constructing it that gets stored.
All learning is enveloped in emotions.
KNOWLEDGE-BASED CONSTRUCTIVISM
IN YOUR SCHOOLS/CLASROOMS, WHAT
MINDSHIFTS WOULD IT TAKE:
To show that students’ points of view are
valued?
To cause students to question their own and
other’s assumptions?
To challenge students with relevant problems?
To structure standards, units, and lessons
around big ideas and enduring concepts?
To engage student in assessing their own
learnings?
MINDSHIFT 3
FROM:
Compartmentalized
Subjects
“Things are more like they
are today than they ever
have been.”
DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER
“Insanity is continuing to do the
same thing over and over and
expecting different results.”
Albert Einstein
MINDSHIFT 3
FROM:
Compartmentalized
Subjects
TO:
Transdisciplinary
Learnings
COMPARTMENTALIZED SUBJECTS
Limit staff interaction.
Certain disciplines are perceived to be of more worth.
The disciplines, as we have known them, may no longer
exist.
Separation of the disciplines deters transfer and
produces episodic, compartmentalized, encapsulated
thinking.
Students are deceived into thinking they are
incapable of constructing meaning.
WHAT MENTAL MODELS WOULD
HAVE TO MODIFIED IN ORDER TO:
“De-compartmentalize” our
thinking and value transdisciplinary learning?
MINDSHIFT 4
FROM:
Knowing right
answers.
TO:
Knowing how to
behave when
answers are not
immediately
apparent.
Are we preparing our
students for a
life of tests
or for the
tests of life?
SELF-MANAGING:
Approaching tasks
with clear outcomes, a
strategic plan, and
necessary data.
Knowing one has the
capacity (Competence)
to make a difference
and being willing and
able to do so.
(Confidence)
IMPULSE CONTROL
Acting with forethought
and deliberation.
Take your time!
MANAGING
IMPULSE
“DON’T CALL OUT
IN ASSEMBLY IF
YOU LOSE A
TOOTH.
YOU WAIT
UNTIL ASSEMBLY
IS OVER.”
GAGE, GRADE 1
Clip
SELF-MONITORING:
 Consciously
evaluating the
quality of our own
thinking, strategies
and behaviors and
their effects on
others and on the
environment.
Clip
LISTENING WITH UNDERSTANDING
AND EMPATHY
Devoting mental energies to understanding
others’ thoughts and feelings.
Understand others!
THE WAY OF BEING WITH ANOTHER
PERSON WHICH IS TERMED
EMPATHIC…MEANS TEMPORARILY LIVING
IN THER LIFE, MOVING ABOUT IN IT
DELICATELY WITHOUT MAKING
JUDGMENTS……TO BE WITH ANOTHER IN
THIS WAY MEANS THAT FOR THE TIME
BEING YOU LAY ASIDE THE VIEWS AND
VALUES YOU HOLD FOR YOURSELF IN
ORDER TO ENTER THE OTHER’S WORLD
WITHOUT PREJUDICE…A COMPLEX,
DEMANDING, STRONG YET SUBLTLE AND
GENTLE WAY OF BEING.
CARL R. ROGERS
PERSISTING
Persevering on a task
even though the
resolution is not
immediately apparent.
Stick to it!
PERSISTING:
Failed in business, 1831
Defeated for legislature, 1832
Again failed in business, 1833
Elected to legislature, 1834
Defeated for Speaker, 1838
Defeated for elector, 1840
Defeated for Congress, 1843
Elected to Congress, 1846
Defeated for Congress, 1848
Defeated for Senate, 1855
Defeated for vice-president, 1858
Defeated for Senate, 1858
Elected President of the United States, 1860
Abraham Lincoln
MONITORING FOR ACCURACY
AND PRECISION
Desiring exactness, fidelity, precision
and craftsmanship.
Check it again!
SELF-MODIFYING:
Reflecting on,
evaluating, analyzing,
and constructing
meaning from
experiences and
making a commitment
to apply the learning
to future activities,
tasks, and challenges.
THINKING AND COMMUNICATING
WITH CLARITY AND PRECISION
Striving for accurate
communication in written
and oral form.
Think Clearly!
QuickTime™ and a
Cinepak decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
RESPONDING WITH
WONDERMENT AND AWE
Finding the world
fascinating, mysterious,
intriguing and phenomenal.
Awesome!
“The most beautiful
experience in the
world is the experience
of the mysterious."
Albert Einstein
WHAT MINDSHIFTS WOULD NEEDED
IN ORDER TO:
Value learning content not as an
end, but rather as a vehicle for
experiencing the joy of continuous,
life-long learning?
MINDSHIFT 5
FROM:
Striving for
Uniformity
TO:
Valuing Diversity
VALUING DIVERSITY:
Human beings are made to be different.
Every brain is uniquely organized so there are
no two people exactly alike.
There is nothing so unequal as the equal
treatment of unequals.
Interdependent learning communities are built
by valuing the resolution of difference.
WHICH COURAGEOUS ACTIONS WOULD
YOU HAVE TO TAKE IN ORDER TO:
Truly value and enhance each
learner’s uniqueness and
individuality?
MINDSHIFT 6
FROM:
External
Evaluation
TO:
Selfassessment
TRIANGULATION
Mastery Understanding
E.g. Standardized Tests,
Criterion Referenced Tests
Applied
Understandings:
E.g. Exhibitions,
Performances
Evaluation
Growth Over
Time:
E.g. Portfolios,
Journals
WHICH COURAGEOUS ACTIONS WOULD
YOU HAVE TO TAKE IN ORDER TO:
Have students, over time,
self-assess their growth of broad,
essential dispositions and habits of
life-long learning?
MINDSHIFT 7
FROM:
Motivating
Others to
Learn
TO:
Liberating the
Innate Passion to
Learn.
Children come fully equipped with an insatiable
drive to explore and experiment.
Unfortunately,the primary institutions of our society
are oriented predominantly toward controlling rather
than learning;
rewarding individuals for performing for others
rather than cultivating their natural curiosity
and impulse to learn.
Peter Senge
MOTIVATING OTHERS:
 While it causes considerable anguish
for adults, no one can compel a child
to learn. The gate of learning can
only be unlocked from the inside. We
cannot open that gate either by
admonition, argument or emotional
appeal.
WHAT ARE SOME KEYS TO UNLOCK
THE GATES OF LEARNING?
Posing provocative questions as invitations to inquire,
Presenting intriguing, perplexing phenomena,
Raising real and relevant problems to solve,
Working in collaboration with others,
Engaging all the senses,
Exploring content relevant to the learner,
Appealing to individual styles,
Using technology
Self-assessment
Modeling our own passion for learning.
FOREWARD MAPPING:
Sustaining Innate Zest for Learning
Curiosity and questioning
Constructing self-meaning
Being attracted to and intrigued by phenomena and mystery
Naiveté-remaining open to learning
Self-initiating--internal motivation.
Transparency of self--congruence between intention and action.
Sensory learning--intake through all senses.
Openness to feedback--innate desire to improve and achieve
Playfulness--finding humor and joyfulness
Faith in adults--turning for guidance, advice, modeling
Innocence--lacking prejudices, biases and corruption
"The pursuit of truth and beauty is a
sphere of activity
in which we
are permitted
to remain
children all
our lives."
Albert Einstein
WHICH COURAGEOUS ACTIONS WOULD
YOU HAVE TAKE IN ORDER TO:
Draw upon, engage and sustain
throughout the curriculum, children’s
innate capacities for self-directed
learning?
“I can’t understand why people
are frightened by new ideas.
I’m frightened of old ones.”
John Cage
(1912 - 1992)
SEVEN CURRICULUM
MIND SHIFTS
FROM:
TO:
1. Genetic-based intelligence
Effort based learning
2. Transmitting meaning
Knowledge-based constructivism
3. Compartmentalized subjects
Transdisciplinary learning
4. Knowing right answers
Knowing how to behave when
answers are not apparent
5. Striving for Uniformity
Valuing Diversity
6. External evaluation
Self-assessment
7. Motivating others to learn
Liberating the innate
passion to learn.
WHAT COURAGEOUS ACTIONS
WOULD IT TAKE TO MOVE FROM:
ESPOUSED
THEORY
TO
?
Chris
Argyris
THEORY
IN USE
OUR GREATEST CHALLENGES ARE TO:
 Think flexibly; be willing to examine
and modify our own perceptions.
 Remain open to continuous learning-having humility and pride in admitting
there is more to learn.
 Reclaim our knowledge of sound
educational practices.
 Remain focused on the larger vision.

“THE BEST WAY TO PREDICT
THE FUTURE
IS TO INVENT IT.”
ALAN KAY
APPLE COMPUTER CO.
AS WE EXAMINE AND EVALUATE
STANDARDS AND ASSESSMENTS:

How do these learnings help students
become the kind of people we’d like
them to become?

Why are these considered essential,
enduring, lifespan learnings?

How do they enhance our vision of
classrooms, schools, communities and a
world that are more thoughtful, caring
and compassionate places?
“Some people think you are
strong when you hold on.
Others think it is
when you let go.”
Sylvia Robinson
HOW
STRONG
ARE YOU
?