The Secret Ingredient
I loved childhood visits to my Aunt Lil’s house in upstate New York. There was nothing like waking up to the mouth watering aroma of baking pies. With no kids of her own, she loved creating her specialties when we were in town. Nobody could make gooey apple pies like Aunt Lil. That’s because - she said with a wink - they had her “secret ingredient.”
Years later, my pies are just ordinary, and I wonder about her secret ingredient. She never told us. :’( Why not? Why was it so secret? What if she had shared it and we ALL could make amazing pies? Wouldn’t that be wonderful for everybody??
That said, I want to disclose the Secret Ingredient that makes Joyful Inclusion amazing. Just like with Aunt Lil’s pies, nobody benefits from keeping it a secret.
What is our secret ingredient? What is it that rekindles teachers’ joy.... that has kids asking “what do we get to learn today?” ....that has families curious about school happenings?
Well -- wink - wink -- you want to know our secret ingredient?
We can’t keep a secret!!
It’s Self-efficacy!
Another name for self-efficacy
is agency
or ownership of the
learning process.
Self-efficacy is the belief in one's ability to succeed in a particular task or situation. It’s a key factor in personal progress, since self-efficacious people set goals and take action towards achieving them. People with high self-efficacy are more likely to persist in the face of challenges, and they are more likely to achieve their goals.
There are a number of things that can help to increase self-efficacy, such as:
If you want to make personal progress, it is important to believe in yourself and your ability to succeed. Self-efficacy is the secret ingredient that can help you achieve your goals.
Without self-efficacy, learning is reduced to rote memorizing of information that won’t stick or be applied. What’s the point of that?
Self-efficacy is central to the Joyful Inclusion approach in three ways:
1. In the online professional development modules, teachers are invited to self-evaluate their own level of proficiency and then set goals for themselves to experiment with the strategies and approaches contained in each module. The supplemental resources were carefully curated to spark their creative problem solving. Teachers identify small ways they could improve teaching and learning in their classroom based on this month’s module. Then they self-reflect and share lessons learned with their learning team.
2. We establish the conditions for teachers to thrive, combining expectations and reinforcement from their Principal/administrator with coaching support from the district and/or a Joyful Inclusion Coach -- within a flexible, safe professional learning culture where teachers collaboratively grow their collective efficacy.
3. Ultimately, our commitment is that teachers will replicate what they learn about self-efficacy within their classrooms. The research is clear that students who have been empowered to be active (rather than passive) in the learning process are more likely to succeed. And student-centered learning is much more fun than teacher-centered learners. PLUS teachers experience the joy of watching their students become expert learners!
We’ve learned that our secret ingredient works in gradual ways, especially if teachers have become accustomed to being passive recipients of professional development workshops. At first, they sit and take notes as though they’re preparing for a test at the end. We tell them there’s no test. They don’t have to remember anything. We just want them to think about the topic -- let’s say how to collaborate -- and create one new way they will collaborate with their co-teachers or colleagues.
The fun of experimenting and then sharing how it went is contagious. Before we know it, teachers initiate brainstorming sessions about challenges and collaborate on new strategies they might try.
By this time in the school year, the aroma of sweet learning fills the air. Yes, it’s a hectic time of the year, teachers are scrambling to cover the last of the curriculum and wrapping up state testing. But it’s also time for everyone to pause to celebrate all the growth that happened this year -- growth in your teaching skills and growth in your students!
