I am sure many of you already know that Twitter can be a great way to stumble across
nuggets of information which help to shape how we view education. Many times, depending on who you follow, it is more of a reinforcement of our own philosophical approach to education. However, every once in a while something jumps out that gets you really excited about your “new” discovery. Usually, it is something recently posted, but sometimes it is something originally posted from years ago and it makes you wonder, “Where was I when this came out?” This humbling experience happened for me earlier this week and although it is was originally posted in 2016, I still found it very relevant and felt like I should share.
What I stumbled across was this illustration for the Learning Zone vs. the Performance Zone. I thought it was a great way to visualize the value of keeping an open mind to learning and being willing to try new things whether in a practice for a sport or classroom activity at school. In other words it emphasized we don’t have to be perfect all the time and need to relax and allow ourselves the opportunity to learn. So, I posted it on Twitter with a comment. Not five minutes later, and this is what is amazing about social media, the originator of the illustration responded back to me via his own tweet. Eduardo Briceño @ebriceno8 stated that he was glad I liked the illustration and then shared that the poster was inspired by his TedTalk “How to Get Better at Things You Care About.” How cool is that?
If you haven’t stopped to view the video yet, I would encourage you to do so right now. The distinction between operating within the learning zone as opposed to the performance zone is powerful mindshift. “Working hard” and “doing your best” are ideals we, as educators, believe are important and we typically hold ourselves to that standard. It is also the dominant message that we send to the young people in our class as well as our own children. I am ashamed to say that I was blinded by the idea of hard work and never really thought that it would get in the way of improving. At first it sounds counter-intuitive that working hard would be a hurdle to learning. However, if you our working hard at trying to be perfect all the time and not be willing to make any mistakes you are trying to operate within the performance zone instead of the learning zone. Operating within the learning zone means you are trying to improve, not be perfect, which means you must be willing and able to put yourself in situations in which you might make mistakes. The key is to be able to know when to operate within the learning zone and when to operate within the performance zone. This can be applied to any part of our life, but I will focus on education.
Most of us will agree that the young people in our classroom should be operating within the learning zone on a daily basis. This is the best opportunity they have for learning and therefore improving. Occasionally, during a summative assessment for example, they need to shift to operating within the performance zone in order to illustrate what they have learned. However, what I think needs to be emphasized is this same approach goes for the adults in the school as well.
As teachers, we can’t approach every day in the performance zone. That is to say, we can’t try to or expect to be “on” and “perfect” at all times. We need to be in the learning zone as well. We need to listen to what the young people are saying and adjust accordingly instead of trying to stick to our own timeline. We should be flexible with our thinking in order to put the young people we work with in the right situation to make connections instead of stubbornly following the lesson plan as scripted. Most importantly, we have to be willing to try something new, question ourself, make mistakes, and reflect. We are not performing on a daily basis we are learning as well and as a result we need shift our mindset to be in the learning zone. This learning extends beyond the classroom. We should also be operating in the learning zone when we are collaborating with colleagues and therefore be willing to share our mistakes. PLC time can look like this: reading an article and discussing, reviewing a video and reflecting, analyzing data and asking for help are all examples of operating with the learning zone. This, by the way, goes for administrators as well.
There are times that we should be operating within the performance zone, maybe during a small segment of your class when presenting new information or perhaps in front of parents at a Board Meeting, but the key is to know when to and then be able to alternate between being in the performance zone and in the learning zone. One example of this is to video a segment of one of your lessons (when you were in the performance zone) and then reflect on it during your PLC to analyze ways to improve the lesson (operating within the learning zone). If you find yourself working hard and doing your best to operate in the performance zone more often than when you are working to improve within the learning zone it is highly likely you are not going to grow as much as compared to if you flip that combination.
Quick Side Note
Over the last two years I have been posting on this blog as a way to reflect on what I have learned through the week. Although, I did try something new at the beginning of this school year and pulled back my posts to once a month. To my surprise, I found myself missing the forced reflection time each week and felt a monthly reflection is not nearly as effective as weekly reflections. Just saying.
This is the last post of the year, so I wanted to share the top four most viewed weekly reflections of 2018 and an extra reflection that wasn’t viewed as much, but one that I still thought was worth re-sharing.
Happy New Year!
Mike
(June 23, 2018)
(February 17, 2018)
(February 24, 2018)
(March 17, 2018)
(December 15, 2018)
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