Dare to Explore. Exploration begins with a question; an act of wonder. Such curiosity makes the neurons, in our brain, fire resulting in many more questions. A few of these questions will converge to a single question or a few guiding questions, while others are left for a different moment in time. The search is on! Where do we begin to look for answers? Can we use a process to approximate a result or simply get started down the path?
I wonder what would happen if students composed questions, on their own? What if every teacher’s reaction to questions was, “let’s try and figure it out”? What would happen if we stopped limiting ourselves to learning what some author chose to put in a textbook, and we chose to step up and peer over the edge instead? Looked into the darkness and asked: What’s down there?
Witness Discovery. Discovery often elicits joy and bewilderment at the same time. Joy comes with the knowledge gained and completing a task. The bewilderment as the brain continues to process the newness and organize the lessons, of the experience. This often results in new questions and the need to see if there is more to be uncovered. If we dig a little deeper together, will we find more?
I wish we would stop compartmentalizing what students are supposed to know. I very distinctly remember a fourteen-year-old student stating, “This is probably beyond what I can understand at this point,” as we discussed the mathematics behind quantum cryptography. At fourteen you are not supposed to try and understand Hilbert spaces. My response? “Why not? You’re enjoying the learning process, and when you have an interest you will do what it takes.” His response? “True,” and then came the reflexive smile that momentarily touched his soul. Education and learning should make us feel more alive.
Dare to be. Know what lies inside of you. Dare to be present. Teaching a course, focused on collaboration and software development concepts, we would have check-in, for the first ten minutes of class. After check-in students would go to work on their assignments, often in pairs. For the next 35 minutes, I felt like I had no job. As they worked for a couple weeks, I realized that my job was to be present. The temptation was to answer E-mail, prep for another class, or grade assignments. However the most effective thing was to be available for questions, test some code, or listen to ideas.
I would like every student to know the joy of taking a journey together. Entering collaborative flow states lies at the core of divide and conquer, considering, expressing, and thinking about ideas, all in a dynamic fluid way. The team accomplishes more; we learn and grow to greater heights. We know we’re better connected to each other. We should gain a better understanding for who we are individually and for each other.