RULE 17 MAKE MODELS BELIEVABLE

What learners are looking for in a model, in addition to guidance on the proper technique, is to be convinced it works. They want to see the beautiful loaf of bread emerge from the oven, or see the final price agreed upon after the negotiations, to understand not only how to perform the skill but what will happen if they do it right. When a novice violinist sees a model of how to hold a bow properly while playing a short piece of music, the clear strong sound of the music signals the results of using the proper technique. When we see a demonstration of a powerful teaching technique, we hope to observe that the result is 30 out of 30 students on task and learning. Even the most motivated among us have moments of doubt and need convincing. When your first loaf of bread emerges from the oven steaming hot and hard as a rock, you want to see that a beautiful loaf can emerge not just from a commercial-grade oven but also from a twenty-year-old relic like the one you bought at your neighbor’s yard sale. Seeing is believing. When people see that a technique or skill actually works, it can take away the excuses they might make for not trying.

That’s why we use a lot of video of outstanding teachers when teaching the techniques from Teach Like a Champion. Our hope is that showing the technique done expertly will not only convince participants of the impact the techniques can have on students, but it will also help teachers learn that technique as well. The key is not that the video has to be a flawless demonstration of a technique for it to be a valuable model; it has to be believable and authentic. If not, if there is any way for a teacher to poke holes in the technique—“Of course the teachers in the video are successful. There are two of them and only one of me!”—then the model is worthless. What we don’t want is for teachers to leave the workshop feeling like the model was great but “would never really work for me.”

Sometimes the doubt goes deeper. Practitioners want to see and believe that the technique being modeled will work in their exact context. If they don’t believe, they may not ever try it. You can see this phenomenon on the television show Nanny 911, or shows like it. On Nanny 911 the nanny comes in every week and uses the same techniques to create order in a disorderly household with previously unruly children. Presumably, the parents who participate in these interventions on national television have regularly watched the show. They have seen what the nanny does in other homes. So why haven’t they learned from the model? Quite likely they have decided that their children are different. Their children are the ones who will not respond to these techniques. They sometimes profess they have

tried everything and nothing works. In fact, some viewers buy in to this notion that there may be some children out there who finally bring the nanny down: each week the children’s behavior is described in new alarming detail, convincing viewers to tune in because Nanny might just meet her match. And so, each week Nanny not only tells parents what they must do to support their children (Be consistent! Give time-outs! Be calm! Use a behavior chart!); she shows parents that these methods actually work by modeling the techniques with their children. Only then do they believe it.

One way to make models believable is to ensure that modeling takes place in a context as close as possible to the context in which learners will perform. If they see that a particular technique works with a company that looks like theirs, they will have a hard time devising a reason not to try it. If possible, model for them in their own context. We call this push-in modeling. Let’s say you want to introduce a manager to a new meeting facilitation technique; nothing will be more persuasive than modeling with the manager’s staff in a meeting. If we apply this to teaching, having a struggling teacher go to a great teacher’s room is good modeling, but much more believable is having the great teacher teach the students of the struggling teacher. For the hold-outs and doubters, the ideal is to model exactly in their context—their classroom with their students. More important to learners is that they see themselves following suit than that the model itself is flawlessly executed. While capturing the perfect moment on video can open the door to learning, push-in modeling with a few bumps in it is often better.

Make Models Believable

Model in a context that is as similar as possible to the one in which the learner must perform.

In-person modeling is often more believable than models that are prepared on video.