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INTRODUCTION to TMR

GREAT GIFT--especially for yourself!
TEACHING IN MIND
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Contents
Preface
Introduction
Reviews 
About the author

TEACHER THINKING
Beliefs
Metaphors
Values
Meaning

EDUCATION MYTHS
Curriculum 
Knowledge
Teaching
Learning

ARTICLES

WORKSHOPS  

MEDIA 

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“Once the classroom door closes, once the lesson begins, once the student steps toward the teacher asking for help, it is all up to the teacher, not the school. Good schools help; great schools help more; but great teachers are the far more precious commodity.” 
Peter Temes, President of the Great Books Foundation

There are hundreds of books, websites, and professional development workshops that offer answers to questions teachers have asked since the beginning of organized education. What should we teach? How should we teach? How should we organize knowledge? How should we assess learning? Despite this wealth of available answers, why are there still so many problems in education?

One reason is that individual teachers neither understand nor implement the “answers” in the same way. The ways in which those answers “fit” into teachers’ existing realities vary tremendously, resulting in widely differing behaviors. Even the words used in those answers—words such as teach, learn, understand, or know—have very different meanings in the minds of individual teachers.

The time has come to ask new questions! Teaching in Mind and Teacher’s Mind Resources begin with questions rather than answers. What can educators gain by focusing on what teachers already do and why they do it rather than looking for “answers” to how everyone should teach? 

Why does one teacher wait patiently as students think about a question while another pops in with the answer if one is not quickly forthcoming? Why is one teacher able to maintain discipline with no overt effort while another constantly reprimands students with little lasting effect? What sets Dead Poet’s Society’s John Keating or Jaime Escalante of Stand and Deliver apart from their peers? Examining why teachers make the choices they do offers significant insights into what occurs in classrooms.

What can be gained by asking those questions? As you’ll discover, your answers to these questions are the ones that really count. When individual teachers discover the unique ways in which they represent teaching and learning in their own inner reality, they have the opportunity to make reasoned choices. They can accept things as they are or change the only thing that is within people’s power to change—themselves.

Teacher’s Mind Resources and the companion book Teaching in Mind: How Teacher Thinking Shapes Education will:

Identify and explore the power you hold as a teacher.

Convince you that teachers are at the heart of meaningful change in the way schools educate our young. Reform efforts and the application of new educational theories are doomed to failure if teachers consciously or unconsciously withhold participation.

Help you become aware of the unconscious underpinnings of education, in terms of both individual and organizational beliefs, values, and metaphors.

Provide processes to help you reflect on the power you hold as a teacher so you may use it mindfully and wisely.

Here is a small sampling of what you will find here. Many of the topics already exist. Others will appear in the coming weeks and months.

1. An introduction to the various aspects of teacher thinking that shape the world of education. 

2. Discussion and examples of how a teacher’s beliefs and values influence that teacher’s perceptions and behaviors.

3. An explanation of the importance of metaphors in education. In what metaphors do teachers describe their work? Why is one teacher’s classroom a “zoo” while another’s is a “beehive”? What does that mean for students? What metaphors do you use and why is that important?

4. Discussion of institutional myths that have become so habitual that they are no longer noticed as decisions are made. You will see how these beliefs—“thought viruses”—inhibit creative change. 

5. Opportunities to recreate your ideal teaching environment and compare it with the present. Why are they different? How can teachers “inhabit” their ideal classroom?

6. An exploration of some of the “conventional wisdom” of education—beliefs about the purposes of education, knowledge, understanding, learning, teaching, curriculum, and standards. Are these beliefs based on sound research? If not, what can be done?

7. A call to self-reflection, along with processes that will enable you to explore your own thinking and the reality it creates—for both you and your students.

8. An opportunity to suggest other topics, ask questions, and engage in discussion with others in a mentoring environment.

Teachers have always had the ability to determine the tone and direction of a school, to create exemplary worlds within the classroom, and to scuttle reform movements that failed to fit their mental models. For too long, those actions have taken place without conscious thought or choice. It’s time for teachers to recognize and accept their responsibility in shaping education, to begin mindfully applying stress where the system is dysfunctional, and to take their rightful place as wise and compassionate experts and decision makers.

Note: Portions of this page were excerpted from the Introduction to Teaching In Mind: How Teacher Thinking Shapes Education. To read the entire introduction, click here.

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