TACTics Journal

A Publication for and by TOC for Education Practitioners

February 13, 2004

In this week’s issue:

Readers’ Response: The Delivery Cloud

(1) Barbara Riester

(2) Denise Meyer

(3) Cheryl A. Edwards

Connections

(4) 8th Annual TOCFE Conference

Editors’ Notes

(5) Kay Buckner-Seal, Cheryl A. Edwards

READERS’ RESPONSE: THE DELIVERY CLOUD

In last week’s TACTics, Danilo Sirias asked our readers, “How would you break this cloud?” Read

on to enjoy our readers’ responses.

 

A: In order to have effective delivery of content,
B: I must provide students with a sense of direction.
In order to provide students with a sense of direction,
D: I must present the big picture first and then explain the details.

On the other hand…
A: In order to have effective delivery of content,
C: I must create a sense of discovery (be Socratic).
In order to provide students with a sense of discovery (be Socratic),
D’: I must start with a detail and then build up to complete the big picture.

 

(1) Barbara Riester

Interesting discussion. When I took my initial Jonah training as a “business

person,” before TOC for Education existed, the Goldratt Institute taught

everything using a Socratic Approach. Eli firmly believed, and I agree, that

as the solutions were developed, the learning experience was much more

powerful” and exciting. Not being a teacher by trade, I had never heard of

the Socratic Approach, but once exposed to it, I realized it is perfect for

any discussion involving cause and effect ideas.

I am also a Red Cross Disaster Instructor, and the materials we receive (and

the teaching technique we are supposed to use) definitely represents the

first technique outlined by Danilo. However, I have found that for those

who are more “educationally advanced,” this technique is “boring.” If my

class is a group of college students, I do not need to “state” the same thing

three times!

The solution that has worked for me? …Varying the technique depending on

your audience. To do so means the instructor must feel comfortable with

either technique and quickly adapt to her audience. Sometimes this isn't

possible the first couple of times I teach a course, but the more

comfortable I am with the material, the easier it becomes to modify my

delivery method. In fact, changing the delivery method keeps me from

getting bored with teaching the same material multiple times!

 

(2) Denise Meyer

In regard to Danilo's cloud, I feel there is a deeper need for B. When I

have not begun with an overview of what we are going to do, the audience

feels like we’re playing a trick on them—like we are taking them for a ride

that we have decided on and they have no choice over. With a professor or

instructor, they feel obligated to go on that mysterious ride because of the

grade they want to get or approval from those who set up the class. I

believe the B of the cloud is something much deeper like: “Students have a

personal sense of purpose for the lesson.”

One way that I have broken the cloud is to build up enough of an interest in

what I'm going to say that they want to listen to me. To present the

strategies in such a way that they have lots of wonder as to how it is done

but [they] are not quite clear on what is being done. Usually that means by

presenting my introductory information in a cloud without telling them that

that is what we are going to learn. In other words, show them the power of

what I will teach through modeling. In other words, I don't show the

diagram with the wants, needs and common objective labeled; I just use it to

talk about the problem they are there to resolve. If I am effective in doing

that, they will want what I have to offer.

The way I have done that in the past is to preview my audience before the

session, ask about their conflicts, and do a generic cloud on their conflicts.

That generic cloud—if I have been careful in building it—hits them so square

between the eyes that they want to know more.

 

(3) Cheryl Edwards

Actually, Danilo, I do not believe there is only one “best” way to teach. I

think there are a variety of methodologies and, depending on the learner,

the learning environment, and material to be learned, the teacher must

select the best to meet the needs of the whole situation. What works in one

situation may not be the best in another. If that is true, then as teachers,

we should be constantly asking ourselves, “Is this the best way or is that?”

Which gets us to Danilo’s Cloud. Is it best to give the whole picture and

then break it into its parts, or is it better to start with a small detail and

build? I agree with Danilo, that as educators, we frequently face this

dilemma.

This is how I worked through the Delivery Cloud that Danilo presented. I

am not going to list all of the assumptions that I generated; only a couple of

the ones I can invalidate.

B/D

In order to provide students with a sense of direction we MUST:

Present the big picture first and then explain the details.

 

B/D Assumptions:

• There are no other ways for students to see the “big picture” besides

telling them and then explaining details. (Hmmm…really? Why?)

• We must explain the details after presenting the big picture. Why? Is

telling students the details really necessary for them to get the big picture

and a sense of direction?

Can’t we find a way to present the big picture (agenda, graphics, etc.) to give

a sense of direction, and then let them discover the details? Do we really

have to give them the details to provide them with an overall idea of the

concept to be learned?

C/D

In order to create a sense of discovery (be Socratic) we MUST start with a

detail and then build up to complete big picture.

C/D Assumptions:

• Students will only learn if they are allowed to build understanding—build

up to the big picture—the concept to be learned.

• A sense of discovery is in finding the details. (Hmmm…) Because, IF I

give all the details there is nothing left to discover? (Hmmm, Really?)

BUT is there more to discover? Couldn’t students learn through guided

discovery the “whys” behind each detail fulfilling the need for a sense

of discovery? In this case wouldn’t they be learning the basis for the

working of the process or the theory behind the concept? Isn’t that what

we really want—students who have the skills to understand rather than just

to memorize, students who are able to independently get to deep knowledge?

So, I think, based on these assumptions that I would solve the conflict by

presenting the students with a big picture, along with the necessary prior

knowledge, and after analyzing the whole situation I would continue with one

of the following that would be the most appropriate:

• Give the details and guide students through discovering the reasons

behind the details, helping them to build deeper knowledge. Or,

• give students a starting point (big picture) and send them on a voyage of

discovery to find the details and then guide them to use this new

knowledge to build toward an understanding of the concept/process.

If you’re teaching the cloud you’re teaching a process. IF you present the

basic cloud (defining the problem) aren’t you providing students with the big

picture, a sense of direction? They see the graphic and understand they are

learning a process to define and solve a problem/make a decision, etc. The

teacher can then Socratically guide the students toward discovering the

rest of the steps AND the “whys” behind each step. Would you agree that

discovering these “whys” is what makes the learning more than just

memorization? Learning is so effective that students have enough

knowledge of the concept to be able to use it in other situations whether in

academics, business or the latest disagreement with their best friend,

significant other, or child.

Letting the students find their own “ahas” creates more than a sense of

discovery it also provides motivation for and a love of learning.

CONNECTIONS

(4) 8th Annual TOCFE Conference

8th Annual TOCFE Conference

Location: Belgrade, Serbia

Dates: Thursday, May 20 - Sunday, May 23, 2004

Conference: Intercontinental Hotel in New Belgrade

Accommodations: Jugoslavija Hotel

If you would like to book rooms at the Jugoslavija Hotel, you can do that

through the Miross Travel Agency. The person to contact is:

Ms. Dobrila Puzic

dobrila@miross.co.yu

Miross Travel Agency

Svetogorska 4, Beograd 11000

Serbia

Tel/Fax: +381 11 33 44 945

+381 11 33 44 510

+381 11 33 44 529

EDITORS’ NOTES

(5) Kay Buckner-Seal, Cheryl A. Edwards

Thanks to all for sharing your perspectives on Danilo’s “Delivery Cloud” this

week. However, there are a lot of other assumptions that could be broken.

Won’t you please share your thoughts with us?

Send your responses, applications of the thinking processes, lessons,

announcements, and etc. by mail to: Cheryl A. Edwards, 2253 S. Hill Island

Rd., Cedarville, Michigan 49719, USA. Or send hyperlink to

cedwards@cedarville.net or kayseal@comcast.net.

This week’s TACTics includes a Cloud graphic, which can be seen in its pdf

version. Please note that the pdf version is attached, however you must

have Acrobat Reader to open the file. It is freely available for download from:

http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep.html. If you have the

Reader installed but still can’t open the file, drag it from this e-mail to your

desktop, launch the Acrobat Reader, and open from the FILE menu.

You may also view TACTics in its intended formatting, by visiting our web

site at www.tocforeducation.com. Click on “What's New.”