To Sell is Human

To Sell is Human - The Surprising Truth about Persuading, Influencing and Convincing Others, by Daniel H.Pink, 2012

In this book Pink sets out how sales and the act of selling has changed in the last ten years, how it is central to everybody’s career and how we should best go about it according to research.

What do teachers need to sell?

"To sell well is to convince someone else to part with resources—not to deprive that person, but to leave him better off in the end. That is also what, say, a good algebra teacher does. At the beginning of a term, students don’t know much about the subject. But the teacher works to convince his class to part with resources—time, attention, effort—and if they do, they will be better off when the term ends than they were when it began."

What is the best way to influence people into doing something which is in their own interests? 

Pink cites a high school teacher, Ferlazzo, who says we should make a distinction between “irritation” and “agitation.” Irritation, he says, is “challenging people to do something that we want them to do.” By contrast, “agitation is challenging them to do something that they want to do.” He goes on to say that irritation might be effective in the short term but to move people fully and deeply requires something mor

Ferlazzo says. “It means trying to elicit from people what their goals are for themselves and having the flexibility to frame what we do in that context.”

Positive, negative or interrogative self-talk? Which is best? 

It turns out that Bob the Builder, with his "Can we fix it?" mentality was right! Three researchers—Ibrahim Senay and Dolores Albarracín of the University of Illinois, along with Kenji Noguchi of the University of Southern Mississippi— in 2010 gave participants ten anagrams to solve. "They separated the participants into two groups, each of which was treated identically except for the one minute before they tackled their assignments. The researchers instructed the first group to ask themselves whether they would solve the puzzles—and the second group to tell themselves that they would solve the puzzles. On average, the self-questioning group solved nearly 50 percent more puzzles than the self-affirming group."

How can reframing a group in a positive way, influence their behaviour? 

Researchers have found that simply changing the name of a game influences people into being more or less cooperative. 

"Something similar happened back in 1975 in three fifth-grade classrooms in the Chicago Public Schools. There a trio of Northwestern University researchers randomly assigned classrooms to three groups. Over a week, students in one group were told by teachers, janitors, and others that they were extremely neat—in fact, they had one of the neatest classrooms in their school. Children in the second group were simply used to be neat—told to pick up their trash, tidy their desks, and keep the classroom clean. The third group was the control. When investigators later measured the litter in the classrooms, and compared it with litter levels before the experiment began, the results were unmistakable. The neatest group by far was the first—the one that had been labeled “neat.” Merely assigning that positive label—helping the students frame themselves in comparison with others—elevated their behavior."

Clarify others’ motives with two “irrational” questions. 

Michael Pantalon, a research scientist at the Yale School of Medicine, is a leading authority on “motivational interviewing”, which is about changing people’s behaviour by not coercing them, promising them rewards, or threatening them, but by tapping their inner drives. And the most effective tools for doing this are questions. 

So suppose a pupil is not working studying hard for a test. Using Pantalon’s approach you’d ask her two questions:

Question 1. “On a scale of 1 to 10, with 1 meaning ‘not the least bit ready’ and 10 meaning ‘totally ready,’ how ready are you to study?”

After she offers her answer, move to: Question 2. “Why didn’t you pick a lower number?” 

According to Pantalon this is the question that catches everybody off guard. As your pupil explains her reasons for being a 4 rather than a 3, she begins to announce her own reasons for studying. “She moves from defending her current behaviour to articulating why, at some level, she wants to behave differently. And that, says Pantalon, allows her to clarify her personal, positive, and intrinsic motives for studying, which increases the chances she actually will.”

So what are the takeaways from this for primary school teachers?

1. Sell the “Big Picture” of why learners are going to benefit from a unit of work right at the start.
2. Talk to the learners about their dreams and ambitions and link these with the learning.
3. Switch “I can” learning statements from the positive to questions, e.g. “I can use persuasive devices in my writing to persuade people.” would change to “Can I use persuasive devices in my writing to persuade people?”
4. Label your class with the positive values that you hope to see in them, e.g. “You are such a respectful class, look how Bill respected Joe’s right to learn there.”
5. Use Michael Pantalon’s motivational interviewing two questions when having a dialogue about an aspect that you need to support a pupil to make changes in.

Talking to Pupils and their Parents about Learning

My school recently changed the format for our parents’ evening meetings so that the focus would be on the pupil, where they were in their learning, where we hoped they would get to at the end of the year and then a discussion around what help and support they needed to reach their target.

As our interview slots are only ten minutes long each, my colleagues and I discussed how to best make good use of the time. Several of us decided to share the agenda of the discussion with the pupils beforehand. For the part where we talked about what help they might need I made a diagram with a Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs in the Centre and a list of some of the things learners need in place to be in a good place to learn, e.g. being able to cope with worries, having had enough sleep, having had breakfast, having a feeling of success with their work. I went through the list with the pupils and then asked them to do a secret poll to find out how many people thought those items were an issue. Interestingly, many of the pupils reported not having breakfast or not having enough sleep. Then at parents evening, I had the chart on the desk so parents could look over it as we were talking about how to help the children. One child turned to her parent and said, “I don’t have five of those things!”

Overall the feedback from the new format meetings was good. A few parents worried how parental concerns could be raised when the children were present but they were offered alternative meetings if they needed to talk about that. But, more importantly, the majority of the pupils were buoyed up by the meetings, some came in telling me that they had breakfast for the first time in years others were desperate to get stuck into working on their targets. 

The next step will be to work with our learners on collecting the evidence that they are meeting their targets so that they can talk about how their learning is going with their parents and carers.

Graphic Recording

Having been inspired by “Zig Zag: the Surprising Truth about Creativity” (see my previous post), I wandered around the internet and found out about the world of Graphic Recording, which is using pictures to record talks and discussions. It turns out that people earn a living from doing this! It seemed like a technique which could be useful for school so I had a go at recording myself drawing a mind map on how to model the skills needed for the writing focus. You can see the results of my labour on my youtube video at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yHCqHRJJ3Qs

Technically it wasn’t too tricky. I needed to record myself drawing and then I used iMovie to speed the clip up x8. The hard part was trying to set up the paper and the camera at the right angle, ideally just over your right shoulder works (if you are right-handed). My next step would be to include a voiced over narration, here I just used a theme music which gets a bit wearing!

I think I could see this being used as a way to record learners showing their learning, for example to show how to multiply large numbers and then playing it back to them speeded up. 

Zig Zag: the Surprising Path to Greater Creativity

"Zig Zag: the Surprising Path to Greater Creativity" by Keith Sawyer

I loved this book! So much so that I'm thinking of buying the paper version even though I own it on my Kindle.

Keith Sawyer, PhD, is the Morgan Distinguished Professor in Educational Innovations at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill. His 2013 book Zig Zag identifies the 8 stages of the creative process, and contains over 100 techniques to enhance your own personal creativity. It is mainly research based. 

The eight stages he outlines are:

1. Ask  - finding the right question for your problem

2. Learn - practise deliberately

3.  Look - notice different elements connected to your problem from different contexts

4. Play - relax to allow your brain time to incubate your ideas

5. Think - try different techniques to vary your approach to the problem

6. Fuse - mash up your ideas

7. Choose - having generated a heap of ideas it is time to evaluate them to find the best ones

8. Make - draw it, link it to images, build it, make it concrete in someway and reflect on it

I found a lot of food for thought in this book, especially for teaching problem solving and writing. One part that I was very interested in was in the Make section where he talks about "Thinkering", which is thinking with your hands while model making. We had had a puppeteer in to work with the children with making shadow puppets. When we were doing our end-of-term learning showcase some of the children wanted to use shadow puppets as a way of demonstrating their learning; it was a real delight to see them working through their ideas and talk about how they could use them for their presentations. 

Having read the book, I am thinking for next year of using plasticine, model making and construction toys as an alternative to drawing or mind mapping to help pupils work through their ideas. So, watch this space! 

Connectives and How to Help Pupils to Use Them

Connectives 

A connective is a word or phrase that links clauses or sentences. They are important in writing as they join ideas together and act as signposts for your audience; they highlight different things such as the reason, the purpose, a contrast and so on.

The new job wasn’t very exciting, but on the other hand it was well-paid. (Here the connective “on the other hand” is used to introduce a contrasting idea.)

Remember that connectives can often be used as openers for sentences too, like this:

I sat outside and ate my fish and chips even though it was raining.

Even though it was raining, I sat outside and ate my fish and chips.

There are several problems for children when they use connectives but the main one is that they have had less exposure to the more ambitious ones, as they tend to be used in more formal spoken language and writing. So we have to help them with this.

Ideas to learn how to use connectives

Spot the Connective  Pupils have to highlight or underline connectives in a text, preferably ones useful for a writing genre you are studying.

• Challenge - set a time limit.  
• Differentiate - some pupils texts could include some already highlighted or clues.  
• Extend-  think of alternative connectives that you could use in their place.

Learning Grid Pupils work in pairs and throw a dice twice to get the co-ordinates for a square on a 6 x 6 grid. Each square has the beginning of a sentence with a connective and  they have to copy and complete it. Meanwhile their partner is having a turn. When they have finished each sentence they need to have it checked by their partner to win a point. Try to keep up the momentum by having each person writing whilst the other 

is throwing their dice.

• Challenge - let them know that randomly selected sentences will be shared during the plenary.  Set a time limit.  
• Differentiate - provide different versions of the grids with different levels of connectives.  
• Extend-  have some more open-ended sentences to allow pupils to be creative.

Random Picture  Pupils work individually 

or in pairs. The teacher selects a few images which are interesting and which may loosely fit in  with the writing theme. The pupils select a random card or lollipop stick with a connective on then the random picture is shown; you could use powerpoint or keynote to theatrically present these. The learners must make a sentence using their connective about the picture.

• Challenge - let them know that randomly selected sentences will be shared during the plenary.  Set a time limit.  
• Differentiate - provide different sets of connectives.  
• Extend- pupils could write a follow up sentence.

Blockbuster Grid This is similar to the Learning Grid but using a  game board based on the game show Blockbuster. Pupils work in pairs and take it in turns to choose a hexagon to create a path from either the top to the bottom or from the left to the right. Each time they can create and write a sentence using the given connective, they cover that hexagon and also block their partners way through it. The first person to cross the board wins.

• Challenge - let them know that randomly selected sentences will be shared during the plenary.  Set a time limit.  
• Differentiate - provide different versions of the grids with different levels of connectives.  
• Extend-  have some more open-ended sentences to allow pupils to be creative.

Resources:

Blank learning grid 

Blank Blockbuster grid

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0ByXOuoA27AedR2p0M012VDF1S1k
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0ByXOuoA27AedS1BvZmM0S09KRkE

Random Pictures presentation in Pages and PowerPoint

The Happiness Advantage

Shawn Anchor has done extensive research into what makes some people more motivated, efficient, resilient, creative, and productive. He has distilled his findings into his "seven principles" which form the backbone of his book "The Happiness Advantage". The principles are:

"THE SEVEN PRINCIPLES 

1- The Happiness Advantage— Because positive brains have a biological advantage over brains that are neutral or negative, this principle teaches us how to retrain our brains to capitalize on positivity and improve our productivity and performance. 

2-The Fulcrum and the Lever— How we experience the world, and our ability to succeed within it, constantly changes based on our mindset. This principle teaches us how we can adjust our mindset (our fulcrum) in a way that gives us the power (the lever) to be more fulfilled and successful. 

3-The Tetris Effect— When our brains get stuck in a  pattern that focuses on stress, negativity, and failure, we set ourselves up to fail. This principle teaches us how to retrain our brains to spot patterns of possibility, so we can see— and seize— opportunity wherever we look. 

4- Falling Up— In the midst of defeat, stress, and crisis, our brains map different paths to help us cope. This principle is about finding the mental path that not only leads us up out of failure or suffering, but teaches us to be happier and more successful because of it. 

5- The Zorro Circle— When challenges loom and we get overwhelmed, our rational brains can get hijacked by emotions. This principle teaches us how to regain control by focusing first on small, manageable goals, and then gradually expanding our circle to achieve bigger and bigger ones. 

6- The 20- Second Rule— Sustaining lasting change often feels impossible because our willpower is limited. And when willpower fails, we fall back on our old habits and succumb to the path of least resistance. This principle shows how, by making small energy adjustments, we can reroute the path of least resistance and replace bad habits with good ones. 

7-Social Investment— In the midst of challenges and stress, some people choose to hunker down and retreat within themselves. But the most successful people invest in   their friends, peers, and family members to propel themselves forward. This principle teaches us how to invest more in one of the greatest predictors of success and excellence— our social support network."

On reflection some of the possible implications of these for my primary classroom and my pupils are:
1- Happy students have brains ready for learning.
2- A Growth mindset and a discussion about how we can change how we view situations to improve our happiness are essential learning for pupils.
3- Remember to keep the focus positive for assessments and evaluations.
4- Have lots of discussions about finding the best way out of tricky situations and challenges; this has a strong link with the language of learning.
5- Start with small, achievable goals.
6- Start building good habits with one easy to take step.
7- Take teaching the pupils team work skills very seriously and help them to build up a community of learners.

Daniel J. Levitin , "The Organized Mind: Thinking Straight in the Age of Information Overload"

"Successful people are expert at categorizing useful versus distracting knowledge. How do they do it?"

Daniel Levitin is an American cognitive psychologist, neuroscientist, best-selling author, and also rather interestingly a musician and record producer who has worked with artists such as The Grateful Dead!

I really enjoyed the first half of this book where he explained how our brains switch from mind-wandering-type thought to more focused task-orientated thought regulated by different parts of our brain. He also talked about the problems of modern life and the costs of multi-tasking and too much choice.

I found this part useful:

"The most fundamental principle of the organized mind, the one most critical to keeping us from forgetting or losing things, is to shift the burden of organizing from our brains to the external world. If we can remove some or all of the process from our brains and put it out into the physical world, we are less likely to make mistakes. This is not because of the limited capacity of our brains— rather, it’s because of the nature of memory storage and retrieval in our brains: Memory processes can easily become distracted or confounded by other, similar items. Active sorting is just one of many ways of using the physical world to organize your mind. The information you need is in the physical pile there , not crowded in your head up here . Successful people have devised dozens of ways to do this, physical reminders in their homes, cars, offices, and throughout their lives to shift the burden of remembering from their brains to their environment."

He then went on to talk about the advantages of good old-fashioned notebooks and index cards. Having spent some time trying to use mind mapping software and failed, this really resonated with me.

"Imagine carrying a stack of 3 x 5 index cards with you wherever you go. When you get an idea for something you’re working on, you put it on one card. If you remember something you need to do later, you put that on a card. You’re sitting on a bus and suddenly remember some people you need to call and some things you need to pick up at the hardware store— that’s several more cards. You’ve figured out how to solve that problem your sister is having with her husband— that goes on a card. Every time any thought intrudes on what you’re doing, you write it down."

"For the 3 x 5 system to work best, the rule is one idea or task per card— this ensures that you can easily find it and dispose of it when it’s been dealt with. One piece of information per card allows for rapid sorting and re- sorting, and it provides random access, meaning that you can access any idea on its own, take it out of the stack without dislocating another idea, and put it adjacent in the stack to similar ideas. Over time, your idea of what is similar or what binds different ideas together may change, and this system— because it is random and not sequential— allows for that flexibility."

I am going to try this for my Summer projects and for the pupils' Learning Wall in the classroom next session.