It's About Learning

Creating Significant Learning Environments

We need to consider that most people are not intentionally or logically resisting change, they simply have been conditioned by our educational system to accepting the way their world is and unconsciously have a hidden competing commitment that prevents them from even seeing the opportunities that are being presented. The following is an excerpt from the soon to be published book on the Learner’s Mindset (Harapnuik & Thibodeaux, 2021) that explains why people will have a hidden commitment that hinders their growth and progress:

…Garnder Campbell also laments that when he points to an opportunity that new media, technology, or other emerging resources offer, too many educators fail to see the potential in these opportunities, and he shares the following exchange to highlight the missed opportunities:

Gardner: I say well I have a bag of gold. Would you like a bag of gold?
People: Where do you find time for bags of gold…oh no another currency to master gold… is that sustainable?
Garnder: Like no you spend it.
People: Well, what would you spend it on?
Gardner: What would you like to spend it on?
People: I don’t have time for your philosophical questions Gardner.
Gardner: It’s a bag of gold what part of that do you not understand?

This resistance to change or more specifically resistance to recognizing an opportunity should not be attributed to these educators’ lack of commitment to change or doing what is best for their students. Harvard researchers Kegan and Lahey (2001) suggest that most people are not opposed to change they are just unwittingly holding a hidden competing commitment that prevents them from seeing the need for change. These commitments are often grounded in beliefs or mindsets that have been held very closely and many will be routed in their childhood experience.

Since most people in the west have spent 13 years in K-12 education and assuming 7 hours a day for 180 days a year we have spent 16,380 hours in a school-based on the information transfer model, we should not be surprised by our deep routed fixed mindset thinking and our aversion to seeing the world from any other perspective. When you factor in another 4 years for an undergraduate degree, most teachers have spent 21,420 hours in a passive educational environment of information transfer, main lecture points, rubrics, individual competition, and standardized testing. Considering the thousands of hours most teachers have spent in this environment, we should not be surprised by their deeply rooted hidden commitment to maintaining this status quo. Shifting from the fixed mindset to the growth mindset, to the innovator’s mindset, or ultimately a learner’s mindset may seem straightforward but as Kegan and Lahey (2001) have found this type of change challenges the very psychological foundations upon which people function.

Kegan and Lahey (2001) suggest that you deal with or mitigate the limits of the hidden commitment to the status quo in the following steps:

Diagnose the competing commitment
Identify the big assumption
Testing and replacing the big assumption

It is possible to diagnose the competing commitment and identify the dominant assumption simultaneously by getting teachers to step back far enough to see how an authentic learning opportunity can create the context for the standards, curriculum, and assessment they are required to use. This change in focus is the first step, but it will be difficult because it is asking people to look at things from a different perspective while their hidden commitment to maintaining the system of education that they know is preventing them from seeing the opportunity. Replacing the big assumption happens when you equip teachers to create a significant environment where they can give their learners choice, ownership, and voice through authentic learning opportunities. This will start them down the path of embracing or adopting a learner’s mindset.

Moving to or adopting a learner’s mindset requires that one change their thinking about learning, their approach to helping learners learn how to learn, and changing the learning environment. One of the most significant challenges to adopting and living the learner’s mindset is that these three changes in our behavior need to happen cumulatively and in close proximity.

This change in mindset is not easy and there are several systemic, psychological, and practical challenges that must be overcome. Consider the following resources as you explore how to reinvigorate your learner’s mindset:

References

Campbell, G. (2010, May 3). No digital facelifts: Thinking the unthinkable about open educational experiences. [Video] Retrieved from https://youtu.be/lelmXaSibrc

Harapnuik, D. K., & Thibodeaux, T. N. (2021). Learner’s Mindset. Book in progress.

Kegan, R., & Lahey, L. L. (2001). The real reason people won’t change. HBR’s 10 Must Reads on Change, 77.

The Next Part of the Journey

Dwayne Harapnuik — January 27, 2014 — Leave a comment

This past weekend my older son Levi went away to Whistler for a training camp and coaching session with Todd Schumlick the PeformX Commencal Racing Team Coach. This was a big weekend, not only for Levi, but for my wife and me. Receiving coaching and direction from a highly acclaimed Canada and World Cup DownHill Racing coach was obviously the high point of the weekend for Levi, but for his mother and me the fact that Levi did this on his own — he drove up to Whistler, found the gym, met up with Todd, trained and learned all weekend and drove back – was also a big step in helping our son grow into a young man. The best part of the weekend for me was the talk I had with Levi when he returned. His answer to my question: What was the main thing that you took away from the weekend, confirm that he definitely is growing into an insightful and focused young man. The following highlights are copied directly from Levi’s PerformX Training Camp blog post:

I need to do it on my own.
Nobody can get stronger or faster but myself.
I need to put the time and effort into training.

In addition to recognizing that he is personally responsible for his success or failure he also recognizes that he has to do the work. Starting tomorrow, Levi begins a very focused nine week weight and cardio regime complete with monitoring his heart rate on the base building rides and also intense interval training. He will also be learning about and implementing a nutritional plan and rounding out his work by focusing on building his metal toughness by studying In Pursuit of Excellence. All this is on top of his final semester of grade twelve in which he has to complete English, Math and Biology 30.

Perhaps the most exciting part about this whole experience is that this is Levi’s choice, his commitment and his opportunity to move a few steps closer to his big dream. Witnessing your son start down the path of significant delayed gratification that leads to an extreme goal is exciting but it is also sobering. He recognizes that he needs to do the work on building his strength, skill and mental fortitude on his own and that he needs to put the time and effort into training, but I also hope he has learned that he is not alone. Todd is coaching him toward the World Cup podium but that doesn’t mean that our job as parents is diminished in any way. On the contrary, supporting Levi in this new journey will more than likely be even more challenging than what we have faced so far. Fortunately, we are not alone either. With our faith in God, the support of our family and friends and the fact that over the many years of changes and moves we have experienced Divine serendipity, I think that the next few years of Levi’s and the Harapnuik family’s journey will be interesting and exciting, to say the least.

In Intentional Parent commitment, growth

Would your mother let you do this at home?

Dwayne Harapnuik — December 6, 2013 — 2 Comments

If you have or had children who played with other children at their homes or in a other locations other than your own, the question “Would your mother let you do this at home?” is often used by the host or concerned parent as a gentle way to deter activities in children other than their own that they are uncomfortable with. For many of these parents who said this to the Harapnuik brothers their answer most often was…Yes!

The picture above is of the living room of our current home in North Vancouver and as you can see the traditional use of the living room has been supplanted by the Harapnuik brother’s bike repair shop. If you look beyond the obvious, these boys have too many expensive bikes (…and their road bikes aren’t in the picture), and try to understand who lives this way one might assume that this is just a bachelor pad and the boys are living by themselves or with other young males who have very different or unconventional priorities. No, my wife and I also live here.

You may then assume that this family and perhaps the parents don’t appreciate the finer things in life and are very tolerant of disorder. You would be wrong again because the picture below of our living room in our house in Texas clearly shows that we do have a taste for the finer things in life. Take a few minutes to view all the pictures of hour house in Texas and you will clearly see we do appreciate a fine home and that my wife is a wonderful decorator – Saddle Creek Estates house in Texas.

The picture of our boys using our living room as bike shop demonstrates just how committed their mother is in supporting their dreams and how much she believes in them. I often wax eloquently about creating significant learning environments but in this single act of allowing her boys to use a very special space in our/her home as their repair shop (we currently don’t have a garage) she is telling our sons that their dreams of becoming professional racers/riders are significant and that she will do what she can to help build the environment that will help them to achieve those dreams. For anyone who knows my wife Marilyn you know just how much she loves to have people over, so to give up this valuable meeting space is not something that she would do without significant motivation.

It is my hope that my boys appreciate the sacrifice and the commitment that their mother has made toward supporting them in their goals. It is also my hope that the modelling of support and commitment that a family needs to make is a value that my boys catch and bring to their own families in the future. My wife’s flexibility in our living space, her willingness to shuttle the boys and their friends up the mountain and then wait for them to ride down and then do this over and over again, and her modelling the commitment and sacrifice it takes to achieve very big dreams are key factors in being an intentional parent.

I have been writing about being an intentional father for the past several months and now I realize that without my wonderful wife’s commitment and support I would not be able to do what I do and I finally recognize I should be talking about becoming an intentional parent NOT just an intentional father. I have been talking the talk about being an intentional parent and my wife has been walking the walk or being an intentional parent. This is demonstrated so clearly by the answer to the question – Would your mom let you do this at home. My boys can answer – Yes she does and so much more.

In Intentional Parent commitment, dreams, environment, goals, support