Dave Pollard on Dave Snowden

How to Save the World

Dave uses this story to illustrate why ABIDE works better than traditional approaches in complex situations::

Imagine organising a birthday party for a group of young children. Would you agree a set of learning objectives with their parents in advance of the party? Would you create a project plan for the party with clear milestones and empirical measures of achievement? Would you start the party with a motivational video or use PowerPoint slides? No, instead like most parents you would create barriers to prevent certain types of behaviours ("the bedrooms are off-limits"), you would use attractors (party games, toys, videos) to encourage the formation of beneficial, largely self-forming identities; you would disrupt negative patterns early to prevent the party becoming chaotic or necessitating the draconian imposition of authority. At the end of the party you would know whether it had been a success, but you could not define (in other than the most general terms) what that success would look like in advance.

In a very sensible post that refines for me one of the ideals I seek in the classroom (sigh…and am still seeking):  the evolving, extended improv or as they say in the improv biz, the Harold.  If I had my way schools of education would become places where we improvise content in the classrooms and there would be no specific learning objectives as such. Students would “perform” daily, honing their craft while making its content their own.  There is much more I wish to bring into my classroom from the world of improv, but the greatest tool is the sense of trust and direction one gets from the audience.  That’s what I want in the classroom.