Habits of Mind and Elephants: ACIFA Presentation

At the ACIFA conference 2013 I attended a session about habits of mind how they can be elephants in the room.  Presenters Rika Snip and Lorraine Leishman from Lethbridge College presented a followup to their ACIFA presentation in 2012. In the presentstion last year the presenters asked what are we trying to talk about? What isn't being said that should be? What are the issues everyone is aware of but no one is talking about?<br>
Elephants in the room require a lot of attention and are often a painful game. Like all games, there is an ending. Often at the end of the game there is an eruption and fall out. It is important to address the elephants early to avoid the eruption. <br>

The presenters addressed three "controllers" that they called baby elephants as they could be hiding behind the big elephant in the room. The baby elephants are personal kinds of habits. These elephants are difficult to recognize and to address because they are roles and positions that disguise a person's true personality and affect workplace as well as personal relationships. By addressing the elephant or habit of mind, you can break through the person's habit and have a more authentic interaction.

The presenters outlined three habits of mind or roles: Persecutor, Rescuer, and Victim. These are the three controllers in interactions between people. The victim habit is the hardest to break and the hardest to influence. A person who is in a victim habit role is resistant to solutions to problems and gives excuses for why she can't change. The rescuer tries to help the victim, and the persecutor perpetrates the victim's feelings of inadequacy. <br>

The presenters encouraged us to try to recognize these habits in the workplace and to try to avoid being part of the game. They iterated that these controllers are habits of mind, not people  and everyone may at some time be in the role of persecutor, victim, or rescuer. The handout depicted in the picture attached shows the habits of mind triangle with the actions and feelings involved.

Upgrading Online Conference May 30-31

Join us for a webinar, a day, or the whole conference! Register here

Are you interested in online delivery? Curious how to connect with learners from a distance? Whether you are part of the Anytime Online team, the Real-Time Online group, or just like to connect with your face-to-face learners in a virtual way, this conference has something for you.

We will have a multitude of webinars on Best Practices in Online Education, including teaching & learning, and development & administration in this third annual event co-hosted by Bow Valley College and NorQuest College. Some of the presentations include:

Keynotes

• Carmen Simon (formerly Taran) of RexiMedia showcasing research on how to use PowerPoint presentations effectively
• Tony Bates, President and CEO of Tony Bates Associates Ltd, discussing how to design online programs for adult learners, including the use of social media
• Tim Coates and Deanna Shostak of Alberta Education showing how to construct effective multiple choice questions in humanities and math/science

Presenters

• Travis Seaman RTOL instructor demonstrating best practices to promote learning in a Real-Time Online environment using Adobe Connect
• Lee Murray ATOL instructor focusing on basic exam structure and blueprinting

For other presentations and more details, see the Conference Schedule. And remember that we also have a pre-conference session on May 29th.

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WriteForward: What have we learned about writing?

Last week’s Share the Wealth session provided a great opportunity to discuss what we have been discovering about writing during the first year of the WriteForward project and to open up the conversations about writing here in CEFL. There were six main facts that I wanted to share with the group which are currently influencing our project work.

1. As a field, we have not defined what writing is. Our definition is influenced by our values and shapes the way we instruct.
2. Writing is individually situated and writing instruction needs to be learner-centred.
3. Writing instruction, practice, and assessment need to be authentic. This means that the learner can see how it connects to his or her life outside of the classroom.
4. Writing assessment approaches have been limited by the use of psychometric theory and the definitions of valid and reliable constructs. We need to rethink these in the context of writing.
5. Using technology for writing is part of being a literate Canadian. This means technology needs to be integrated into instruction, practice, and assessment.
6. Writing instructors need more professional development to understand how to choose writing assessments, how to interpret them, and how to integrate them into the instructional plans.

As a group on Friday, we just made it through a discussion of the first three points. We spent time contemplating what counts as writing; we approached this question as instructors and as readers and found that context played a huge role in how we define writing. Overall, an attempt at communication and expressing thoughts on paper were two common ways of expressing how we define writing. We also took time to think about what we value in writing. Again, context was key - what we value in a learner’s written assignment may differ than what we value in a co-worker’s email. In general, we talked about valuing the expression of thought and understanding, being clear, providing information, appropriate grammar and spelling, and use of voice or showing personality.

Current research encourages us as writers and writing instructors to collaborate and define writing locally - in a way that makes sense in our programs and classes with our instructors and learners. There is the acknowledgement that one size does not fit all and that we need to address this in order to best help our learners improve their writing. I’m glad that we had this opportunity to start this conversation within our department on Friday, and hope that we will make time for further discussions in the future. Thanks to everyone who participated!

For more information, please see our project website: writeforward.ca