it was possible, rather than hunches and intuition. Lots of people agreed and we started to hold conference days with a twist: teachers were welcome to present, along with leaders, academics, policy makers, and anyone with a stake in actually helping children to flourish and learn."
- Tom Bennett - Founder of ResearchEd
I was sitting on an airplane Friday. We had been sitting on the taxiway for a while, and I had fallen asleep. When we finally began taking off, I experienced the most interesting part of take off. It was likely exaggerated by my having been asleep, but it is weird. It’s the feeling that you are lying on your back and taking off vertically, in spite of the visual evidence that you are at a fairly low angle.
You have experienced the same feeling if you have ridden a roller coaster with twists or a Graviton ride at a carnival. It is the feeling that “down” has changed direction. It’s an odd feeling because if there is anything we think we know well, it is gravity. Gravity points down, and we have been feeling that for our entire lives.
Why does this happen? Well, since I’m a physics teacher who hasn’t gotten to teach any physics in a while, I’m glad you asked.
The answer is that acceleration is caused by external force. When the airplane is taking off, it is accelerating at a rapid rate, both requiring a lot of force and, through the magic of Newton’s 3rd law, exerting a lot of force. The back of the seat you are sitting in is accelerating and placing force against your back in the direction of that acceleration.
The rest of the effect is psychological. You are used to the most common force acting on your body pointing down, so when this greater force overcomes it (in a Graviton, they drop the floor out from under you, so you know the other force is much larger), you brain interprets that feeling as a shift in the direction of down. It’s not permanent. Once the forces stabilize again, you remember what direction down is, and gravity has not been changed, merely temporarily overcome.
“What does this have to do with an education blog?” I can hear you asking. Well, this brings me back to the reason I was on this plane. I was headed to New York to speak at a ResearchEd conference. ResearchEd is an organization that began in the U.K. but now operates in 19 countries to bring the evidence of educational research to the average teacher. Most of us weren’t exposed to the science of learning in our education degrees; and many still aren’t. Organizations like ResearchEd and Learning and the Brain exist to help those in the classroom apply techniques that have been shown to work rather than trying to figure it out through trial and error.
As teachers, we are pushed by MANY external forces. If you have been teaching longer than a week, you have had a fad pushed on you. Whether it is inquiry learning, catering to individual learning styles, skills-over-content teaching, personalized learning, gamification, Brain Gym, three-cueing, or alternative seating, you have been told a lot of things are “the direction education is headed.”
And, like the airplane seat pushing in one direction, it becomes easy to lose your understanding of what good instruction looks like. This is amplified even more if you have an administration or district that wants you to buy into the fads because it makes them look good or makes your school’s website more appealing. If you are a teacher who cares about doing a good job, you feel guilty every time a new thing appears because you think you have been doing it wrong until now. Then, you scramble to revamp your lessons, even those that work well already, only to have this experience again a couple of years later when the newest fad comes down the line.
There are a lot of teacher conferences and professional development seminars out there, but what makes Research Ed special is the value you get for a small amount of money. Registration for a one day event is only $45, making it accessible to a large number of teachers even if they were coming on their own, and they take place on Saturdays, so there is no need to worry about leaving your classroom and creating sub plans (because we all know that is harder than being at school). You hear from people who truly value research and evidence in education. When I pitched my session, I had to list the research that supported it. You can't get away with the phrase "research shows;" you have to be explicit about what research shows it.
In November, I had the honor of presenting at their conference in Denver, and this weekend, I presented the same session at ResearchEd New York. I actually got to meet Tom Bennett, which made me happy because we have been connected on Twitter for several years, and he gave an excellent keynote presentation at the end of the conference. Dr. Jim Heal of Deans for Impact and Meg Lee gave an amazing opening keynote as well.
Bad PD can get you all turned around, wondering which way is up and which direction gravity points. At best, a good teacher leaves feeling guilty. At worst, a good teacher become overwhelmed enough by the ever-changing initiatives to leave the profession altogether. Being at ResearchEd yesterday reminded me that gravity points down. Well designed, interactive direct instruction IS good instruction, even if it doesn't sound innovative to your district leaders. Using mini-whiteboard isn’t sexy, but it works. Engaging in formative assessment, spaced retrieval practice, cold calling, and working memory management isn’t photographable for your school website or yearbook, but it results in long-term learning and the flourishing of students.
ResearchEd is not the only organization out there, of course. Anyone who knows me knows that my heart belongs to Learning and the Brain, and I'll be speaking at their spring conference at the end of April. If you live near Maryland, the St. Andrew's School hosts Festival of Ed every year, another gem in the world of evidence based education training.
In general, teachers hate PD, but it's not because they don't want to develop professionally. It's because they do, and much of what is out there is PD doesn't facilitate that. The key is finding the good ones, the ones that aren't selling you a product or a fad, the ones that reset your equilibrium when the world seems unbalanced, the ones that give you practical, useful advice from an evidence informed lens. It exists. Get in touch with me at beth@thelearninghawk.com, and I'll help you find it.
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