Critical Incident

Whenever you are striving to reinforce what you have learned, it can be helpful to review your attempts to implement the concepts, principles, or skills that you want to master. One process for conducting such a review is to complete a critical incident report. The process is as follows.

Recall an incident that provided you with an opportunity to apply what you have learned. Use the following questions to help you reflect upon the situation.
1. What was the situation?
2. What factors caused or contributed to the situation?
3. Where in the situation did you use the techniques/processes you recently learned?
4. Where could you have used your new learnings but did not? How come?
5. What can you learn from this situation that you can apply in the future to make the next outcome more effective?

Side By Side

My daughter emailed me this quote. The author was not identified.

"A great teacher never strives to explain his vision--he simply invites you to stand beside him and see for yourself."

Moving Through Change

There is no place to hide from change. However, we can choose how to deal with it. Change moves us into confusion. One way we deal with the discomfort of this stage is to hold onto what we know. In this case we continue to define competency according to what the past required. To move with change we need to redefine competency according to what the new circumstance requires. Gaining new competencies gives us a greater sense of control over our situation. This sense of control bolsters our confidence. As our confidence continues to grow we become more comfortable with our circumstances. Comfort can lead to complacency. We begin to coast. We either initiate a change to keep us growing or change will find us. Either way the cycle begins anew:

Change/Confusion/Competence/Control/Confidence/Comfort/Complacency/Change

Notes on Knowing

Education emphasizes knowledge. Students and teachers alike are judged by what they know. Following are some musings on knowing that provide a different perspective. I offer them as thought-starters.

We seek to control by knowing. We are limited by what we know. Knowledge locks us in to the past. We can only know what is or has been. Knowledge limits change, which limits life. To stay within the known is to remain in the past.

Knowledge brings clarity. We are unclear about that which we do not know. Growth involves change. This means having to venture into the unknown, which is unclear. Insight is clarity emerging from confusion. Questioning leads to certainty. Certainty eliminates questioning.

If you know what I am talking about, I am then simply reiterating what you already know. This reinforces stagnation. If what I share confuses you, then I have moved you into the unknown. It is from the realm of the unknown that growth emerges.

Our situation will remain the same if we continue to operate from the known. We will keep getting what we have always gotten. We may rearrange the furniture, even replace the furniture, yet we are still living in the same house. We must change houses if we are to live in a new place. By changing our minds, we change our lives.