Exploring ensemble pedagogy

Phillips Theological SeminaryTulsa, OK 5 March 2014!!!!prepared by Mary E. Hess

to begin

• what great work you’re doing! it’s a privilege to be able to see where you’re going, and what you’re seeking to do

• you’re in the middle of a difficult transformation, but at the growing edge of theological education

• we’ve planned a combination of presentation and collaborative learning to dig further into your work together, and to help plan for what is next

• in several instances we’ll be using techniques that are drawn from some of this literature, so that my hope is that you’ll come away with some additional pragmatic tools to use

Part one Ensemble pedagogy

What is “ensemble pedagogy”?

• more than parallel play, different from team teaching

• a metaphor for attending anew to the teaching/learning process in terms of integration, coherence and resonance

• a set of practices which draw their insight and inspiration from musical performance and learning

• still emerging!

elements of ensemble pedagogy

• adult learning

• shifting paradigms (epistemological, pedagogical)

• learning vs. instruction

• collaborative and integrative learning

• reflection vs. transfer

adult learning

shifting paradigms

learning vs. instruction (or ‘uncoverage’ vs. ‘coverage’)

collaborative and integrative learning

reflectivity matrix

[break]

Part two Phillips’ experience

Learning about Phillips’ experience with ensemble pedagogy: questions to ponder and a process to try out

a conversation process

• core public agreement

• one question in each of three rounds, the fourth round is one of ‘genuine inquiry’

• brief silence before each round, and between each person

• 3 minutes per question, timed reciprocally

core public agreement

• Speak for oneself; Use ‘I statements.’ Own and offer your thoughts and feelings honestly; avoid grand pronouncements or stating positions of others

• Practice respect in speaking and listening; accept that others may have different views, without needing to debate or set them straight

• Be brief in comments; honor timeframes and refrain from interrupting

• Listen carefully, especially when something is hard to accept; suspend judgment

• Respect confidentiality: After the conversation, do not attach names to comments made without permission

• Allow people to pass, or pass for now, if they are not ready or willing to respond to a question

Respectful Conversations project

(1) what in your experience as a teacher influences your perspective on the topic of ensemble pedagogy? (up to three minutes each)

(2) when you think about ensemble pedagogy, what matters most to you? (up to three minutes each)

(3) within your own perspective, what questions do you still wrestle with? (up to three minutes each)

(4) what genuine questions emerge for you?

shared harvesting

[lunch]

Part three Pedagogical practices

pedagogical practices

• animating/essential questions

• differentiating circles of ideas and concepts

• rubrics

• managing your own emotions

(1) animating/essential questions

• cause genuine and relevant inquiry into the big ideas and core content

• provoke deep thought, lively discussion, sustained inquiry, and new understanding as well as more questions

• require students to consider alternatives, weigh evidence, support their ideas, and justify their answers

• stimulate vital, on-going rethinking of big ideas, assumptions, and prior lessons

• spark meaningful connections with prior learning and personal experiences

• naturally recur, creating opportunities for transfer to other situations and subjects

Wiggins and McTighe

some examples…

• does the Bible support slavery?

• how can we provide solace in the face of suffering?

• who is on the Lord’s side (Exodus 32:26)

• can even these bones live? (Ezekiel 37:3)

• how shall this be? (Luke 1:34)

• where do you get that living water? (John 4:11)

• has God not made foolish the wisdom of the world? (1 Corinthians 1:20)

what essential questions are you asking in your curriculum?

(2) differentiate between…

• ideas and concepts central to understanding

• ideas and concepts important to know and to do

• ideas and concepts worth being familiar with

what is the ‘enduring understanding’ or the ‘central idea or concept’ that you want students to remember 10 years from now when they think about ‘vital communities,’ ‘vital conversations,’ or the ‘public good’?

(3) use rubrics for clarity of expectation

• rubric for ‘six facets of understanding’

• individual assignment rubrics

• critical incident questionnaire

how do the rubrics you’re currently using support your essential questions and enduring understandings?

(4) emotions and tensions of learning

• Kegan’s ‘4th order knowing’: internal languages and social languages

• Zanders' ‘art of possibility principles’

• Brookfield’s Skillful Teacher : issues of ‘impostership’ and the tensions of learning and resistance

Robert Kegan

• from complaint to commitment

• from blame to personal responsibility

• from ‘new year’s resolutions’ to ‘competing commitments’

• from ‘big assumptions that hold us’ to ‘assumptions we hold’

• from ‘prize and praising’ to ‘ongoing regard’

• from rules and policies to public agreement

• from constructive to deconstructive criticism

Rosamund and Benjamin Zander

• ‘giving an A’

• being a contribution

• leading from any chair

• rule number 6 (or, ‘Q-tip’)

• the way things are

• giving way to passion

• lighting a spark

• being the board

• creating frameworks for possibility

• telling the WE story

Stephen Brookfield

• ask what happened while you were away

• acknowledge the sacrifice and return the favor

• affirm and then share

• ground disclosure in description of your own shortcomings

• use language that is familiar and congenial

• wait to be asked

• find a group of peers with whom to practice reflectively

[break]

Part four Structural support

structural support: what is the impact of ensemble teaching on institutional life?

an appreciative inquiry process (first in silence, then shared)

gathering insights via post-it notes

what markers emerge as evidence of ensemble pedagogy becoming a shared practice? !

what structural support is necessary for the cultural change of ensemble pedagogy?

[break]

Part five What’s the next right question?

an exercise of harvesting…

a final CIQ

background resources

• Adaptive Action, Eoyang and Holladay (Stanford University Press, 2013)

• Art of Possibility, Zander (Penguin, 2002)

• Art of Teaching Music, Jorgensen (Indiana University Press, 2006) Teaching Alone, Teaching Together, Bess (Jossey-Bass, 2000)

• How the Way We Talk Can Change the Way We Work, Kegan and Lahey (Jossey-Bass, 2002)

• The Skillful Teacher, Brookfield (Jossey-Bass, 2006)

• Understanding by Design, Wiggins and McTighe (Pearson, 2005)

citations• illumination to John 1:1-14, St. John’s Bible (http://blog.seeingtheword.org/?tag=word-made-flesh)

• photo of the Crosswinds public school orchestra by Katherine Forss

• epistemological diagrams from The Courage to Teach by Parker Palmer

• image of Phillips Seminary (http://www.ktul.com/story/17129628/labrynth-prayer-walk-celebrates-seminary)

• essential questions list (https://www.authenticeducation.org/ae_bigideas/article.lasso?artid=53)

• graphic of enduring understanding (http://chronicle.com/blogs/profhacker/teaching-for-enduring-understanding/35243)

• complementary rules comic (taken from web 01/30/12: http://us1.campaign-archive1.com/?u=4d03b90f9fff26c211dc4eb54&id=77743fd6c4)

• For better or for worse comic (http://www.fborfw.com/)

• Bishop arrives for Pentecost comic (https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=396796340435345&set=a.301206246661022.68971.301201333328180&type=1&theater, 14 May 2013)

• Frazz education comic (taken off the web 050307, http://www.comics.com/webmail/ViewStrip?key=35221698-cc6f2f56d7-FF)

• all other photos by Mary E. Hess (http://meh.religioused.org/web/Home.html)

more info: mhess@luthersem.edu http://meh.religioused.org/web/Home.html

today’s readings