Open Books, Open Minds: A Model for Professional Growth
Newsletter
Two things I’ve learned from working part-time in an independent bookstore:
1. Bookstores attract unique and diverse readers.
2. Like a book, you can’t read a reader by their cover.
Two cases in point.
On one snowy Saturday, a senior gentleman walked in. He was sporting a Cornell University hat and a Jansport jacket.
“Do you have the book Nexus by Yuval Noah Harari?” We had copies of his other books, but not his newest. That was okay. He was already reading it on his Kindle. Taking the bait that he actually wanted to talk about this book rather than buy it, I asked him to share his insights.
He briefly summarized what he had read so far. Then he proclaimed, “There is a difference between information and the truth. Information is what we receive from the outside world. The truth is what we believe to be true.” The way he said it, I sensed this statement was irrefutable.
His interpretation countered with my own understanding of truth - objective reality. What he was referring to was a person’s beliefs. However, knowing my place as a bookseller, I kept my position to myself.
The next day, a quiet Sunday afternoon, another couple came in. The husband was wearing a “God + Guns |Trump” hat. I learned through informal chit chat that they didn’t follow the news. As they waltzed through the store, they were surprised by the titles placed in the Banned Books section. “Huckleberry Finn?” the wife asked incredulously. She resisted my recommendation of James by Percival Everett, a creative take on Twain’s classic. Race being clearly off the table, she landed on Fahrenheit 451. “I’m curious about this one. I’m gonna come into it with an open mind.“ Her husband, ignoring my suggestion of King: A Life (I am nothing if persistent!), found a collection of Native American stories.
These two anecdotes are examples of people likely blinded by their beliefs. Their apparent immunity to new information leads to a fixed mindset. To be fair, they were both curious about the world and enjoyed reading. But new information was not leading to new ways of thinking. For example, if I had shared with the first reader that there were criticisms of Harari’s historical accounting, there might have been some defensiveness. Both parties were making a decision to be less open minded about new information if it conflicted with what they already believed.
This is also our challenge as coaches and leaders helping educators engage in professional growth. How can we be effective? Is there a pathway we can follow to help clients be more open to new information in relation to their current beliefs?
For me, a pathway for professional growth is a map. When coaching, I appreciate a mental model to lean on as I co-navigate with a client toward a new level of understanding about their work.
Below is a draft of this model. You can see the specific steps I believe are most likely to lead to professional improvement in knowledge, practice, and self-directedness.
Next is an example of how I have applied this model during a coaching conversation.
From Theory to Practice: Supporting an ELA Teacher with Assessment
During a virtual workshop around formative assessment, a concern was raised by a high school ELA teacher. “My students aren’t doing their homework,” he confided. “They are using A.I. to complete the assignments. How am I supposed to grade that?”
When I heard this comment, I inferred a few beliefs this teacher was currently holding.
This teacher believed that homework should be graded.
This teacher was conflating formative assessment with homework.
I realized that the previous content around formative assessment didn’t clear up these misconceptions.
“I’d like to clarify something. Is that okay?” The teacher nodded. “Is it your understanding that homework has to be graded?” He paused, then nodded again.
I paused to think about my next response, then said, “My understanding of homework is that it’s not intended to be graded, but as an opportunity to practice what was already taught. Knowing what we have learned about formative assessment - that it can also be seen as practice and not something we evaluate - what are your thoughts?”
To clarify my coaching moves up to this point:
We were in the examination stage of the professional growth model.
I also resurfaced new information we explored previously.
Now I was inquiring into his current beliefs about assessment and grading, and guiding the teacher to examine new information in this context.
My invitation (“what are your thoughts?”) was followed by a moment of silence to allow him to process what was shared.
After several seconds, he responded. “I can see how homework may not reflect how my students are doing. If it’s not A.I., it could be their parents helping them too much with their work.” I nodded and admitted I could also be a bit too helpful when my own teenagers asked for support.
Sensing some openness in his thinking around this topic, I followed up with a question. “If homework may not accurately represent what your students know and are able to do, what might you do differently during class that could give you the information you need to be more responsive as a teacher?” This reflective question was offered to the entire group of teachers.
A number of ideas were posed. “Instead of sending work home, we could have the students complete an exit ticket about the skill taught before leaving class,” offered one teacher. Another teacher suggested having the students journal about their independent reading to start class.
At the end of our time together around formative assessment, I posted a three-question protocol for summarizing what was learned from the day.
“I used to think…”
“But then…”
“Now I think…”
The teacher with the homework question was the first to offer a response.
“I used to think that I needed to send work home most nights, and that I needed to grade what they bring back. But then I learned that formative assessment is practice and not graded. Now I think I can embed assessment as part of my instruction, to inform it.”
This represented his decision point. Similar to the bookstore customers, he could have chosen to maintain his current beliefs and continue with the status quo. But instead he chose to adapt his practice and revise his beliefs in light of new information.
What supported this shift wasn’t just the conditions for growth, such as our coaching conversation. A willingness by the teacher to be open to change was crucial. Still, having this model helped us increase the likelihood that improvement could occur. It provided a safe space to talk openly about our current understandings and consider new paths forward.
Try it: Use the tool linked here to plan out a future coaching conversation using the professional growth model from this article. Write for ten minutes prior to a session to set your intentions for reducing resistance and facilitating growth with a client.
Matt,
I love your line, "Like a book, you can't read a reader by their cover." So true and well stated! This is a powerful newsletter. You clearly demonstrate--through your thoughtful professional growth model--how our beliefs can expand and/or limit our thinking, teaching practices, and learning. Demonstrating how you helped a teacher to shift his beliefs about homework and whether or not it should be graded, was an excellent example.
I like the way you used your story from your bookstore to connect to the coaching session you shared.
Coaching was my favorite part of my different jobs.
I still try to use my coaching skills in my conversations with my student teachers.
Pulling them into setting their own next step goals and evaluating their own learning using the University rubric has been helpful to them and allows me to engage with them more as a coach than an evaluator which I believe is more productive and powerful in impacting their learning.
Take care, Matt!!