​

     LIVING LIFE WITH NO REGRETS

 

 

by Joanne Janicki

Journey into a different realm 

For many years, the task of going back to school to pursue graduate work hung heavily over my head.  Time passed and it seemed as though life always got in the way.  Family, career goals and day to day trappings never seemed to lend extra time for school.  When my youngest left for college, she took with her a lot of my excuses.  The waiting period between my degree in Physical Therapy (PT) and my Master of Arts in Education (MAED) allowed me the opportunity to chase after a degree that was worthwhile.  My earlier plans included obtaining an MBA to hone my managing and business skills or to continue in the medical field with board based certifications to improve my Physical Therapy skills.  What happened along the way was that I discovered that I did not enjoy the business side of therapy.  That realization prompted a career change and after 18 years in the medical field I now found myself working as a PT in the school system.  I have no regrets.  I knew this was where I belonged.  To me, the world of education was nurturing, inviting and challenging.  Everything that I try to accomplish while practicing PT includes education.  I discovered skills for engaging and motivating students in gross motor activities.  I learned to apply strategies to make meaningful changes in their life by teaching functional skills to improve independence.  I remove prompts and supports when my students are able to succeed on their own.  Over the past five years there have been many courses that have impacted my ability to improve my teaching, training and practice of physical therapy.   A few of these courses got into my head.  I thought about them at work, debated theory in class and in social settings and could not sleep some nights because I was so excited about trying out new ideas.  I discovered something that was meaningful and related to everything around me.

Adult learning

At the time I began this graduate program, I had just finished my certification to become a MOVE International Trainer (MIT).  I was comfortable standing in front of large groups with my scripted lessons, but I was not comfortable with the fact many left the training never hearing the intended message.  The first class I took, EAD 863, Training and Professional Development was a well needed introductory course that helped me to better understand my audience.  I have been presenting long enough to know when things are not going well.  Prior to this class I was winging it trying different techniques that worked with one group and the next time it did not work.  I really had no way of analyzing the good and the bad.  From this class, I took strategies that helped me assess my learners and present information to them that was appropriate and meaningful.  It also helped me assess how to follow up on and expand upon knowledge.  Through group collaboration, we developed a checklist of the vital components that comprise a successful presentation.  I used this checklist to observe a fellow teacher and later to assess myself.  The reflections allowed me to make changes in my own sessions to work toward improvement. The checklist provided a standard against which I could analyze the good and the bad; no longer winging it.  Jane Vella’s book, Learning to Listen, Learning to Teach affected the way I thought about my presentation style.  The idea of collaborating and listening to those that I teach made me rethink the way I teach.   As a PT, I often held an authoritarian view of things.  In my mind I have always been respectful to the learner, but in reality I never let the learner have input. It was hard to change what I was doing, it was hard to let them have a say, it was hard for me to give up control and accept the dialogue approach that Vella proposed.    Active Training, by Silberman’s was a book which opened my eyes to the audiences’ perspective.  Developing respect for people in each group seems like common sense, but it was a lesson that came late to the game for me.

The other class that greatly impacted my presentations was EAD 861, Adult Learning.   This class was theory intensive and the projects required group collaboration.  Working in groups with peers made it apparent that personalities and past experience play a huge role in collaborative work.  It took a lot of trust to work hours on a project and trust someone else to edit and submit the paper properly.  It also took respect and trust to let someone else edit and change your words.  I continued to learn that respecting fellow learners was the key that allowed my growth as a teacher.  The humility that Vella spoke of hit home when I realized my ideas were not necessarily the best ideas.  John Dirkx defines motivation as the process whereby goal directed behavior is instigated and sustained.  In my scripted presentations, I had my goals, but not everyone held those same goals.  Information cannot be shoved down people’s throats, they need to actively participate and relate the information to something meaningful.  This held true especially when teaching adults in optional, non-mandatory situations.  Connecting with learners by showing respect for their previous knowledge was a step in the right direction to encourage active participation.  Reading Vella’s principles for a second time in this class, led me to greater appreciation of her teachings.  It was apparent that patience and humility are important characteristics in a teacher.  One of Vella’s salient points was that dialogue was necessary and frequent dialogue was necessary to verify understanding.  Vella pointed out that affirmation is possible and necessary every step of the way and that a learner’s energy is much more available when they trust their teacher and are trusted in a learning site.

I discovered that there is no single theory of adult learning and no simple definition of the adult learner.  Adults bring with them a wealth of experience and have a lot of say in what they learn.  That means that my trainings have to be interesting and informative and something that people want to attend. Now able to understand the attributes of a self directed learner, I am able to focus a meaningful learning experience for those adults.     These classes taught me techniques to appeal to different types of learners and to allow for small and large group activities.  I also learned about barriers to learning and this information helped me to problem solve to eliminate most of the barriers for my trainings.   As a guide to future trainings, I plan on using Wlodkowski’s Motivational Framework for Culturally Responsive Teaching:

​

·         Establishing Inclusion:  Creating a learning atmosphere in which learners and teachers feel respected and connected to one another.

 

·         Developing Attitude:  Creating a favorable disposition toward the learning experience through personal relevance and choice.

​

·         Enhancing Meaning: Creating challenging thoughtful experiences that include learners’ perspectives and values.

 

·         Engendering Competence: Creating an understanding that learners are effective in learning something that the value.

​

These goals are my ideals and they all start with the word “creating” which is an inspirational way to start things.

A class that got into my head was EAD 860, Concept of a Learning Society.  This class used several texts and online information to highlight the experiences and views of individuals learning and working in society.  Reflection and journaling on the variety of resources led to a thought provoking semester on what is meant by the learning society.  The readings were chosen wisely and they demonstrate the variety of ways to think about learning.   ​Writing the short reflections taught me to carefully choose my words while considering fully covering my point of view without losing focus.  I would develop solid arguments only to read the critiques and then rethink the whole process.  Tensions were exposed between self directed learning and learning in a community.  The tensions were never frustrating, they were just different views.  It was well stated by Bateson in Peripheral Visions, "Experiences spiral through the life cycle, presenting the same lessons from new angles."  I read about some very successful educators and learners and discovered that these learners took ownership of their education, they were in control.  I allow my learners control it I connect my new information to previous knowledge.  I also enjoyed the book Better, by Atul Gawande.  He speaks of ingenuity as a quality that makes someone a positive deviance and that using creativity to solve problems is essential for success.   Besides creativity, Gawande shows us that we need to measure results since only by measuring can we make better observations.   Writing from a place of humility, Gawande reveals that we need to be honest with what we find out about our work. The book shares amazing stories about doctors using ingenuity to develop surgical techniques to save people. By breaking away from the same old routine they become a deviant in a positive light.  

Compelling Experiences

According to Merriam, “Learning is a process that brings together cognitive emotional and environmental influences and experiences for acquiring, enhancing, or making changes in one’s knowledge skills values and worldviews”.  This concept was highlighted in the course CEP 882, The Nature and Design of a Compelling Experience.  This course drew me in and did not let me go.  This was one of those classes that gets into your head. We studied forms of art that we found compelling and analyzed what made it extraordinary instead of ordinary.  The challenge in this course was designing compelling projects.  That was a lot of pressure!  But we ventured on this journey together as a class and critiqued and complemented until everyone had created a work of art; and that is no small feat.  This was by far one of my favorite classes because of the challenges and because of the use in everyday life.  As a presenter, I have the opportunity to deliver a lesson that is ordinary or extraordinary.  I learned many strategies to improve presentations through photography, language, music, architecture and fashion.  I learned what made things compelling and other things ordinary.  It opened all of my senses and touched on the emotional side of experiences. I learned how to create videos and interesting photographs. The projects and experiences were meaningful but I also had to consider that if I did not catch someone with the hook of a song or set the right mood, my message may never be heard. After this course, I have felt that I need to take on a stronger role of being the expert and being more persuasive and manipulative with my presentations.  By making my lessons more compelling they move people, bringing students to a new perspective, allowing them to see something differently, so that the idea is more powerfully felt.    My final project was a work of art series that focused on a personal trainer, Mark.  I knew that his classes were popular; I needed to expose what he did that made his classes extraordinary instead of ordinary.  I discovered that he used metaphors and analogies as an aesthetic component of language to create visual imagery and make the words come alive.  An ordinary experience would be hearing simple commands to move.  My artist, Mark, sets the mood, reads the room and challenges the students so that they can have some success and possible an extraordinary success.  Mark states that most of our happiness comes in little hits, the ordinary everyday occurrence of a good meal and a friendly smile.  The ecstatic occurrences of happiness are rare, but if we are never challenged to go outside of the ordinary, we never have the opportunity for the ecstatic happiness.  Most of the work he gives his students is well within the capacity then he will add one or two tasks that are challenging or risky.  These observations reinforced that I need to adequately challenge my learners to allow for risk taking and ecstatic occurrences.  According to Eisner, “The common function of an aesthetic mode is to modulate form in turn to modulate our experience”. Educators can successfully liberate the passion of learners by tapping into emotions.

Edit, Edit, and Edit Again

An important aspect of creating a compelling experience was the constant editing and questioning my own work.  Questions like “What do I want the audience to see? What feeling do I want to invoke? What is the mood?  Why am I using video, what are they seeing that is better than what they could read or hear?  Are there things in the presentation that are unnecessary- how can I still tell my story and not lose anybody because they lack focus?”  Each time through, I would see improvements that needed to be made, words that needed to be tweaked.  The word “compelling” was a lot to live up to.  This editing relates well to the teacher's role in presenting information.  We need to edit to create the right mood, put focus on the important message and grab the attention of the listener.  Vella states that praxis demands a hard look at content, the re-creation of it to fit a new context and essentially the testing of it to prove its usefulness.  Through editing and reworking the content, I am able to develop useful lessons. 

Motivation​

  CEP 802, Developing Positive Attitudes Toward Education was the best class I took for applying theory to my day to day job.  The course design began with small simple task analysis of learning situations and motivational problems and concluded with a semester long project analyzing the learning situation of my own student.  Behavior and educational strategies were introduced throughout the semester to allow me to build on previous work. I had the opportunity to work in a group and we used Skype and online live documents to collaborate.  The advice and suggestions from other teachers was greatly appreciated as they helped me write a plan for my student.  Strategies such as scaffolding, modeling, appealing to different types of learners and understanding rewards were all art of putting together a lesson plan to improve the student’s attitude toward learning. The experience of intense focus on one student as a subject led me to the realization that if you focus on a student and work hard enough to solve problems, gains are made.   

Reflection

ED 800, Concepts of Educational Inquiry was the introductory class to my masters program and I enjoy the variety of readings that were offered.  One of my greatest lessons from this class that was reiterated in every class afterwards was the need to reflect.  “Only when we write down our thoughts and our observations may we question and argue with ourselves about the things we say and do. As we write, we demonstrate the process of searching for solutions.”(Paley, Reflections of a Kindergarten Teacher).  Being back in school required journaling and this helped me clarify my thoughts and look at growth and change.  I also took the Teaching Perspective Inventory (TPI) several times and each time my teaching emphasis changed because new ideas opened my mind to different ways of presenting.  By looking at my scores, I could readily see areas that I highlighted and areas that needed my attention.  In Peripheral Vision, Bateson reveals how reflecting on and connecting with learning in the past, helps one make sense of new frightening situations. In order to understand change or something unfamiliar, it needs to be related to something already known.  Also, she proposes that as one experiences more, the same experience comes to have a different meaning.   “In all learning, one is changed, becoming someone slightly – or profoundly – different; but learning is welcome when it affirms a continuing sense of self” (p79 ).  Bateson highlights her theories as they are weaved through interesting stories of travel and teaching.  Reflection occurred frequently through my course of study as previously held ideas were shaken and replaced with new ways of thinking.

Conclusion

While all of the coursework has added to my growth as an educator, I think the most profound learning I take from this course is the need to be a keen observer of my own work.  I need to take the time to question previously held assumptions in the light of new information.  I have always included some pieces of educational theory in my presentations – but just to a point. Through learning educational theories and research, I now better understand where things may fall apart and possess strategies to fix them.  Successfully completing these courses took a long time but it was well worth the wait and is in no way the end of my learning.  I have renewed confidence to try new challenges that may face me in the future, perhaps opportunities that with allow for ecstatic happiness.  I have no regrets.