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Have you ever been on the sharp end of a question like that?

It’s a bit ‘rude’, innit?

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BUT…that’s exactly the question (OK…I used the term ‘smarty-pants’ to convey the stress and intonation used…as well as some of the facial expressions I saw) that I have been asked in a number of conversations since I started:

…in the last few posts I have being doing:

• Is Hazırlık BROKEN?
• Is it our ‘Curriculum Thunking’ wot is BROKEN?
• Could it be our understanding of ‘Quality’…that is BROKEN, perhaps?
• So…Hazırlık is BROKEN! – Time to play…

(BTW – ‘hazırlık’ is the Turkish term for the English Language Preparatory Programmes run by many universities here…just so you know)!

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Perhaps, I should just remind those people what my dear friend Hannibal ‘does’ with rude people…

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I know, I know…I shouldn’t get upset by these types of questions. I know I have put myself in the firing line by popping my head out of the box. 

…just wait till I do the series on what actually happens in faculty departments!

The thing is that…this type of question started to be dropped into my in-box and the comments section of the posts before I’d even got to the second blog post. Some of them were not as rude…they were genuine questions, from genuine people…facing many of the genuine ‘problems’ that I was trying to draw attention to.

Questions like:

…fair enough!

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The thing is…these questions reminded me of the wonderful work of Peter Block (esp. his perspective-shaking book – THE ANSWER TO HOW IS ‘YES’).

For Peter, these types of questions are (usually) a defense against getting an ‘improvement effort’ started, a defense against change.

…so sad! …so true! …so common!

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Now, I’m not so sure that everyone who asks a HOW-question is running from the truth (or is trying to postpone actually doing something about a problem). However, Peter’s questions are used a heck of a lot by people in our hazırlık schools (and the guys that ‘control’ these schools with their ‘decision-making’) – especially those with those heady job titles we discussed.

Very few of these hazırlık stakeholders, for example, ask one of the ‘alternative questions’ suggested by Peter:

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…I wonder why, acaba? We’ll come back to this – promise!

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Instead, many hazırlık stakeholders (including LEARNers…and their parents) ask questions like this:

This question tells us a lot.

• Firstly, that these stakeholders are more interested in an ‘answer-orientated’ approach to ‘quality education’ – you know, ‘quick fixes’ or ‘magic bullets’.

• Secondly, that they have more ‘faith’ in others (esp. foreigners…and, even better, foreign consultants) than they do in themselves and their own abilities.

• Thirdly, that all it takes to ‘fix’ a problem is to do a bit more “alıntı, çalıntı and mış-gibi yapmak” (the Turkish translation for “borrowing, ripping off, and faking-it-till-you-make-it”).

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Silly…misguided…(and) just plain dumb!

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These people often jump to other questions (when they stumble onto a ‘solution’ they can ‘import’) – questions like these:

Mmmm…we were asking why so many Mütivelli Heyeti Başkanlar (Chairmen…and they are often ‘men’…of the Board) wanted to increase contact hours and class size!

Now, you know…

You see, many hazırlık stakeholders want the ‘cheapest’ version of the ‘quick fix’ possible – without really lifting a finger (for hazırlık that is…the Engineering Faculty can, as a rule, get whatever the bloody hell it wants). The question about length of time required kinda gives this away, too!

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…my favourite question is this one:

What were we saying about the blame game?

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…after all, it’s so easy to point the finger…when you do not really want to ‘fix’ stuff. Of course, we all want to give the impression that we…us…ourselves…have no trouble going the extra mile (to put LEARNing at the heart of our decision-making).

…it’s just THEM…THEY…those (bloody) OTHERS – that ‘stop’ us!

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And…if that don’t work, we always have the other…

…up our sleeves!

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The combination of a culture of blame (along with its sister culture – ‘CYA’) and our unquestioning worship of “how-to” pragmatism (constantly asking “how” – rarely “why”) basically means that most of our hazırlık schools are doing more and more about things that mean less and less – for both LEARNers and EDUcators!

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The first of Peter’s alternative questions (the one I promised to come back to) has much to do with my current theme:

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The question:

…is one for all stakeholders – teachers, administrators (including Rectors and the Mütevelli Heyeti), testing and curriculum specialists and LEARNers (no…they are not angels either). Rather than pointing the finger or passing-the-buck, this question asks us all to take personal responsibility for whatever might be ‘broken’ across our hazırlık schools.

Yes, ‘being’ truthful – before ‘telling the truth’!

Peter tells us that other questions can help us get to this question:

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…questions that recognise we need to ‘question’ our ‘purpose’ – and how well we might be meeting that purpose…and how far we believe (in our heart of hearts) that it is possible to create new kinds of LEARNing institutions (and workplaces) grounded on more positive values, such as respect, trust and listening…

…questions that require us to look at the reasons we have been putting off the ‘fixes’ all of us know are in the best interests of the individuals and communities that live, LEARN and work in our institutions:

…and commit to ‘do’ whatever it takes to make these things happen!

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Yes…even LEARNers…especially with LEARNers!

This is where you scroll back to the top…while I draft Pt 02 of 03!

I told you all (at the very start of this little series)…we’d come back to this!

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You know how to play, yes?

We pick an individual (or group)…and start pointing fingers:

…where to begin – with allthingshazırlık? 

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Even though we human beings have been playing this game for years…and (in education) we have elevated it to an art form – the first ‘target’ is usually the same!

TEACHERS!

I mean, come on!

They are all bloody lazy…been doing the same kinds of thing for years. They refuse to change…just look at how many of them are still not using technology in their classrooms. Shiriously, I mean…we offer them all these workshops and development opportunities…and they just sit there!

I guess it might be OK if they actually got decent results…but look how many of their students are failing all those lovely tests and exams we have developed for them.

That Jeff Bliss kid on YouTube (you know the one with the lovely hair) is so right…most teachers are just in it for the pay cheque…nothing inspirational, nothing that makes kids think…nothing!

Fire them all!

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You know what I really think! Don’t you?

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I did promise to uphold George Orwell’s advice in this series…

Yes, there are some teachers out there that are lazy and do not care (as in any profession)– they might even deserve to lose their jobs.

So, “deal” with them on a case by case basis – do not tar and feather a whole community for the sins of the few!

And, please…please…for crying out loud…do not believe everything you see in the blogosphere (esp. on this blog)…or anything from the so-called ‘EDUreformers’ (esp. if they owned a software firm…or still own a construction company)!

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Hang on a tick there, Tony! We are supposed to be playing the game…we do NOT apologise in this ‘game’!

Sorry, forgot meself there for a minute…well, if we are gonna play properly – we might as well start at the top.

Mmmm, where is the top, acaba?

• The SYSTEM (whatever that is) is ‘crap’!
• ADMINISTRATORS are ‘crap’!

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OK, OK…but we meant the ‘top…top’:

• YÖK is ‘crap’!
• The UNIVERSITY EXAM is ‘crap’!

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…didn’t you say something about the serenity prayer, earlier?

Let’s just stay with the easy stuff:

• RECTORS are ‘crap’!
• DEANS are ‘crap’!
• DIRECTORS are ‘crap’!
• DEPUTY DIRECTORS are ‘crap’!
• CHAIRS are ‘crap’!
• DEPARTMENT HEADS are ‘crap’!
• COORDINATORS are ‘crap’!
• LECTURERS are ‘crap’!

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Hang on…we work at a Vakıf University!

• The MÜTEVELLİ HEYETİ is ‘crap’!
• The MÜTEVELLİ HEYETİ BAŞKANI is ‘crap’!

Wait a minute…didn’t these kids study English at school?

• PRIMARY TEACHERS are ‘crap’!
• SECONDARY TEACHERS are ‘crap’!

And…what about all those ‘sweat-shops’ – parents paid them a bloody fortune?

• DERSHANE TEACHERS are ‘crap’!
• PRIVATE TUTORS are ‘crap’!

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Are we forgetting anyone?

• PARENTS are ‘crap’!

…all of them are ‘idiots’! And, there’s really something about all those ‘sonradan görme’ parents, you know…the ‘new rich upstarts’ – the ‘kültürsüz nouveau riche’ we all love to hate!

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Ahhhh, we forgot one group – a very important group!

• STUDENTS are ‘crap’!

…they are lazy, never want to do any work (let alone homework or those wonderful online practice activities we give them)…always on their bloody phones! All they want to know and ask is “Hocam, is this gonna be on the test?” …then get straight to Facebook or Instagram. We were never like that when we were younger…what’s wrong with them?

I mean do they not care about LEARNing…at all?

Sound familiar? Bet you have even said a few of these things yourself, yes?

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Oh, yeah – before we wrap up! And, what about those stupid books we have to use?

• PUBLISHERS are ‘crap’!
• TEXTBOOK SELECTION COMMITTEES are ‘crap’!

Selection what?

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Feel better?

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So, how much have we ‘fixed’?

If you knocked on the door of all of the 175+ institutions of ‘higher LEARNing’ (HEIs) we have here in canım Türkiyem, you’d be pushed to find ONE that would publicly disagree with the words of Jedi Quality Master Deming!

This is only natural!

Look at all the wonderful communications we find on their web-sites, the messages stuck on the side of buses and bridges, the huge one-page adverts we find in every ‘quality’ Sunday newspaper:

Oh, yes…and ‘DIFFERENT’…gotta be ‘DIFFERENT’!

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I mean afterall…what parent would want to send their darling, little Arca (or Ayşe) or Dogükan (or Ali) to a university that proclaims it wants to be a pretty ‘average’ school…or worse…is prepared to wash all its dirty linen in public – for the sake of student LEARNing!

Here’s an idea…

If you are planning to choose a university for the fruit of your loins over the next few months, why not visit and ask the schools to ‘define’ what quality means to them – seriously!

You never know…

…one of them might actually listen to you!

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If they do and tell you something like this…

or even…

…push them – ‘cos these schools do love their ‘smoke and mirrors’!

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If the school is ‘smart‘, they might say something like this:

…these universities are pretty good at the old ‘alıntı, çalıntı and miş-gibi yapmak’ business!

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If you do get a reply like this (miracles do happen – and there might be a ‘quality team’ out there that actually does their ‘homework’), ask them how they actually assess the needs of their students and how these needs are used to develop and renew the curricular they use – you know, to align what is ‘taught’ with what students are supposed to be able to do with what they LEARN…and keep on LEARNing after they graduate!

I dare you!

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If the school is an English-medium school (a HUGE ‘selling point’ for most Turkish universities), ask them how their departmental academics communicate with the hazırlık team (and ‘how often’) – to ensure that the ELL programmes at the university are relevant, meaningful and motivating.

While you are at it (and if you are feeling ‘naughty’)…you might even ask how many Deans or Heads of Department even know where the hazırlık building is…

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Then…ask them if their Senate or Mütivelli Heyeti (Board of Trustees) has any plans to:

1) Increase the number of contact hours that the teachers in hazırlık are expected to do each week!

2) Increase the average class size across their hazırlık programmes!

3) Increase the (sad, sad) salaries that most hazırlık teachers are paid!

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OK, that was a bit unfair of me…but, in my defence, my inbox is overflowing with mails from schools around the country since I started this little ‘dizi‘  - and they ain’t about pay increases, I’ll tell you that much!

However (and I will run down Atatürk Bulvarı…and pretty soon…İstiklâl Caddesi…naked - yes, in my birthday suit), if the Rector or Mütivelli Heyeti Başkanı (Chairman of the Board of Trustees) has not also (recently) told the Hazırlık Director at these schools to ‘get accredited’- and sharpish!

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Hey, just me…

…here!

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BTW…if I ‘disappear’ over the next few days, the first people who should be questioned are all those ‘educators’ that carry the heady title Mütivelli Heyeti Başkanı – especially the ones that have ‘interests’ in construction, furniture and paper-products, as well as anyone that owns a ‘dershane’ (yes, I know that’s a long list of suspects)!

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Don’t get me wrong…I am not against accreditation bodies or standards – quite the opposite!

I just get a little worked up when I hear schools throwing around terms like ‘Quality Assurance’…‘Excellence’…‘Highest Standards’…when what they are really concerned with is …

…rather than LEARNing – of both the student and institutional variety!

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You see…it doesn’t really matter what a university (or hazırlık school, for that matter) says about itself!

Sorry, to burst that little bubble, guys…

What matters (and I mean really matters) is what others say about how you ‘do business’!

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What did we say many teachers and students are saying these days…something about covering a curriculum that does not exist…something about Lise 6 or 7…

So, tell me again…how EXACTLY will increasing teacher contact hours…improve QUALITY and STANDARDS?

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For me…

For me…real quality is not about ‘faking-it-till-you-make-it’ by asking (and answering) dumb-ass questions…

…it’s about asking powerful questions:

…powerful questions that matter!

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For me…real quality is not about ‘prestige’ (or ‘beating’ the school down the road)…

…even our educational ‘giants’ screw up!

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For me…standards are critical:

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…but not when we regard them as:

…to be ‘ticked off’ on some silly checklist!

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Our ‘institutions of higher LEARNing’…need to ‘get real’…they need to ‘get together’ (across the ‘whole career’ of our LEARNers – not disciplinary lines)…they need to ‘get informed’ (and really inform ‘others’ – not engage in shameless self-promotion) about what matters in allthingsquality - more, they need to ‘get consistent’!

They need a new ‘perspective’ on quality…and this requires a wee ‘shift’…

or two:

or three…

or four…

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Just.. 

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But…but…Tony:

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Well, we have to get it right with allthingsquality…

…and you can take that to the IMF!

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But, hey…what the hell do I know?

My citation index in the field of allthingsengineering is pretty crap – and, worse than that…I’ve never owned a software firm…or…construction company!

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…ONE thing I do know…

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Ahh, I remember…we were discussing the importance of:

…and Hazırlık (ELL Prep Schools)!

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The two conferences I noted in Part 01 of this post were, in fact, a breath of fresh air – we rarely see ELT events with themes that touch on Curriculum or Quality / Standards. Many of our conferences (and we have a LOT of them here in Turkey, we do…ask the publishers who are hassled to foot the various bills) are often little more than PR vehicles for the schools that put them on. Far too many of them operate like a show n’ tell or pot luck gathering – fronted by the same big names, the same faces and the same themes.

Sorry…just

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Maybe a conference about technology is just ‘sexier‘ than a serious discussion on the challenges we face in the areas of curriculum and assessment…maybe what the conference pundits tell us is right – “all teachers want are practical ideas to take into the classroom on Monday morning…and to be kept amused for a few hours” (I really hate it when people say this – with a passion)!

Maybe, we do not want to take a closer look at how our institutions are doing business, what type of smoke and mirrors really come into play in our curriculum thinking or why our students are so switched off by what we are doing in our classrooms.

I’m not sure either!

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OK – coming back to the first of these conferences I mentioned. The idea of a conference centred on ‘a LEARNing Curriculum’ was just up my street – and the fact that the team at Beykent University (in Istanbul) went with this theme just made me feel chuffed to bits…

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One of my opening slides was this one:

Only an idiot would disagree with this!

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Luckily, there were none of them around at the Beykent Conference - at least none of them came to my session. It’s funny, isn’t it? How the people who really need to come to conferences are exactly the people who are usually absent!

The slide touched a few hearts (and minds, I hope)…I heard more than few saying how true it is…and a lot more bemoaning the fact that their institutions just did not ‘get’ this type of thunking!

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However, I also noted that these statements are a wee bit motherhood’ish – they sound great…but are of little value if we do not take a closer look at ourselves:

I asked the administrators and teachers that came to my session whether they felt that the curriculum framework they had in place at their schools was ‘golden’ – you know, something they could be proud of!

All but a handful admitted that they did not have a ‘curriculum’  per se (shock-horror) – many used the phrase “contents page of our textbooks” to describe their course outlines, syllabi and pacing documents.

This was not a surprise…of course! We all know this (again, even at some of the so-called ‘top’ schools)…it’s just one of those things we do not talk about very much. I mean, we have far more serious worries. Take, for example, the current pressures to ‘graduate’ all those false beginners that walk through our doors every September – when the conventional ‘wisdom’ (I use this word very loosely) goes something like this:

Only an idiot would insist that our prep programmes can do this – successfully!

But, we try…boy, do we try!

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Sure, everyone is banging on about the importance of the CEFR (‘irresistible force’ that it is) these days…but what happens when it hits an ‘immoveable object’?

Raymond is still winning…

…and the war on ‘LEARNing-by-gap-fill-exercise’ has definitely taken a ceasefire – across many schools!

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But, what happens when we bring these two facts of hazırlık life together – when we look at the consequences of placing unrealistic demands into a curriculum-free zone? I tried to highlight this by asking conference participants if we ELT professionals are guilty of the ‘twins sins’ that more and more of our primary and secondary colleagues are being forced to commit:

 Guess what they said?

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In the absence of an effective curriculum framework (or clear ‘purpose’), we continue to ‘do’ the simple past on Monday…‘do’ the past continuous on Wednesday…and finish the week on Friday by ‘doing’ the present perfect (as well as every single activity in ‘the book’)!

How we ‘do’ even one of these in a week is beyond me – and, what the hell does it mean to ‘do’ a tense anyways???

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And, then there’s the assessment…all the exams, tests and pop quizzes we tag onto this type of curriculum practice. Even though…in our hearts of hearts…we know:

…we weigh, we weigh, we weigh!

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It’s almost as if the only ‘strategy‘ we have to maintain our ‘quality standards‘ is the mantra…

…and, when this fails to get our students from A to B (actually, A1 to B2…in 9 months), the best ‘improvement‘ programme we can come up with is…

But, then…I’m jumping the gun on tomorrow’s post!

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…by Hazırlık I am, of course, talking about the university-level ELL or ELT ‘prep programmes’ we offer here in canım Türkiyem…so go to another blog, if you are not that interested in this kinda stuff…

Or not, if you work in the same ‘sector’ in another part of the world (and, there are lots of you – I know)!

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Now, don’t get me wrong…I am not asking the question in the title of this post to start another round of ‘finger-pointing’ or to pour petrol onto what is already the raging bonfire of …

…we tend to play when we talk about the ‘quality’ of English language teaching (and LEARNing) that our universities offer. We’ll come back to this little ‘game’ a wee bit later – if the truth was known it is perhaps this aspect of how we ‘do’ business (in our schools of ‘higher LEARNing’) that needs the most ‘fixing‘!

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I am asking the question…

…because at a couple of recent ELT conferences here in Turkey (one on Curriculum and another on Quality and Standards), I have been thunking and talking about George Orwell’s suggestion that…

…a ‘revolutionary act’ whose time has come!

Besides, our marathon conference season is wrapping up soon…I have finished me book (plug, plug, plug) and I needed to get back to me blogging!

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When we go to a lot of conferences, we do a lot of feel-good ‘sharing’…we network…we pick up a few ‘classroom McNuggets’…and occasionally we stumble across an idea or three that really makes us ‘thunk’ (and we hear a lot of back-door self-promotion…did you know the book is available on Amazon, too - and a lot of very lame jokes we have probably heard before – but that’s for another post).

Great stuff (except those last two)! But, we do not often hear people…

…enough!

…the REAL truth, that is!

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This is what I challenged myself to do in the last couple of sessions I have done at conferences. I wasn’t quite sure what type of response I would get…

In both events, I shared this image…

…John said this at around about the time I started teaching – yes, I am that old! The funny thing was that nearly everybody (in both conference rooms) agreed that it was STILL true TODAY…in canım Türkiye (and probably in many other countries around the globe)!

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Despite this fact, there were a few people that the question made a wee bit ‘uncomfortable’. Many of them jumped in to defend themselves by saying it was not their ‘fault’ (ahh, the power of ‘the blame game’) – they reminded us about ‘educational culture’ we have to live with and highlighted the change has (sadly) taken hold of Turkey over the last decade or so…

…I know many a US ‘educational reformer’ that would love to have the network of exams and tests Turkey has been able (so effectively) to put in place all the way from primary to post-university…and even ‘job selection’.

The Higher Education Council (YÖK) has even managed to put systems in place that…

8I find it’s best, with allthingsYÖK at least…to remember the ‘serenity prayer’:

…but I’m getting off the point!

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If we take the time to look (really ‘look’) at the challenges our hazırlık schools face (the ones that are more in our ‘circle of influence’), there are many things that need more than a bit of attention.

Take, for instance, the ‘feelings’ that many teachers have about the way they have to ‘do business’ in many of our schools (even the so-called ‘top schools’)…

How many of you know a teacher that feels like this from time to time…most of the time…and has to ‘break-the-rules’ (quietly…when no one is looking…to get some real language LEARNing done)? In the two sessions I did recently, almost 100% of participants did…and many said they felt like this themselves most of the time!

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I also asked if people had come across a phrase that many hazırlık students are using to describe their current pre-freshman ELL / ELT experiences:

…a ‘sweet’ turn-of-phrase but one that captures how many hazırlık LEARNers feel about how and what they are being taught, the way hazırlik schools treat them as ‘customers’ and how similar it all is to high school.

The bottom line is, of course, if our two key groups of stakeholders (teachers and LEARNers) are feeling, shall we say, less than satisfied with their experiences…we have to listen…heck, we have to do more than listen!

Teachers, especially those with families to provide for, might not be able to ‘vote with their feet’…but many hazırlık schools (especially those of the ‘vakıf’ or ‘foundation/private’ variety) are getting more than a bit worried about the recent upsurge of footsteps on the LEARNer side of things.

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Of course, I am not suggesting that every teacher and every student feels this way. We have some really good people in some really good schools that are doing some great things (many of them have been doing these things for years – and some of them have been connecting the dots between institutions more and more recently). I am taking about a general ‘state-of-the-nation’ challenge across the ‘sector’ – about the way we ‘do the business of ELL’ across the country in general. And, I’m guessing that many of these core challenges will resonate with my fellow bloggers in other countries.

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There are other areas - and I want to take a look at a few of them over the next few posts. BUT, I’m gonna need some help!

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What do you thunk? Is hazırlık ‘broken’? Where? In what ways? …and, how do ‘we’ fix it?

As an EDUcator (and, perhaps moreso, as a TEACHer EDUcator) I am not interested in surface or superficial LEARNing…I am interested in “real” LEARNing… deep LEARNing…transformational LEARNing (even).

I have never been a “fan” of educators or institutions that simply say they want to be “different” – I have always found that this perspective on LEARNing is more about “What’s NEW” rather than the more important consideration of “What MATTERS”.

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“Winning” has also never really interested me – though I must admit I hate “losing”!

COLLABORATION beats COMPETITION hands down – always!

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I have also always been more interested in LEARNing that “makes a difference” to the lives of LEARNers – and I push this little “envelope” of mine a little further and actually “define” LEARNing as anything that:

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This is perhaps why I struggle with the way some EDUcators over-emphasise “games” in LEARNing.8

The recent resurgence of games and their role in LEARNing (or to use the sexier, upgraded term “gamification” – the global, cultural phenomenon) and their impact on the brave, new world of technologically-enabled EDUcation (and ELL – English Language LEARNing) has really got me thunking over the past few months.

Just do a search on the term (yes, right now…on Google) and see how many “hits” you get.

It’s scary stuff…for a “word” that ain’t even in most dictionaries, yet!

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I was at an ELT Seminar recently (and why do we call them ELT…not ELL seminars, anyways) and witnessed something a bit “surreal”. A younger “digital cheerleader” and TEACHer I have seen on the “circuit” – did a session on “Gamification in ELT” – he got a half-decent crowd (buzz-words will always have that effect)!

Almost immediately – the first words out of his mouth were “TEACHers need to forget all their language syllabi – and teach English ONLY through games”…

You can imagine the response!

Rotten tomatoes whizzing past my ears (I like to sit in the middle row at seminars – all the “bad kids” sit at the back)…the room echoed with loud “Turkish tuts“…and quiet whispers of “Manyak…yaa!“

He didn’t seem to care…I got the impression that he was not a very good “listener”. He had a “speech” about a “sexy” topic…and he was gonna “deliver“! Mmmmm…

I did!

The thing is…and remember I’m pretty patient (tolerant, too)…he really annoyed me. Actually, the suggestion that “games” should “replace” solid LEARNing and TEACHing practice in the classroom…was the thing that got me!

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This is a job for “Super-Blogger”!

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My aim is not to get into the definitions, history and trends of gamification (that’s been done to death on many other blogs) – but, as ever, Wiki to the “rescue”:

Fair enough!

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The rationale for the “explosion” in gamification in both our leisure activities and workplaces is equally easy to get our heads around:

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I mean, come on, even Ben Franklin “got” it (way back in the day…really back in the day – in 1750):

…in matters of LEARNing!

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As an EDUcator, my “gut” tells me:

This is why I talked about “resurgence” – good EDUcators have known for years that “games” can and do help promote effective LEARNing.

The thing is, I also “know” that:

This is probably why I detest the phrase “EDUtainment” (especially when used to describe what TEACHer LEARNing opportunities “should” be “all” about)…but I (still) use it all the time when I speak to others.

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Yes, for me –

– but is should not be the “goal” of EDUcational experiences!

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I guess my challenge is that I am trying to reconcile myself with the notion of gamification at the level of “beliefs” or the fundamental “assumptions” that drive what I do as an EDUcator (or, perhaps, “how” I do it).

Like many thunking EDUcators (who operate in more “formal LEARNing contexts”), I still struggle with many of my beliefs…that’s the God’s-honest truth…especially when it comes to my own beliefs on informal LEARNing (or what is sometimes called “self-INSTRUCTion” or “self-TEACHing”) – even though I view myself as a very talented “self-TEACHer”!

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What do I mean here?

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It’s difficult for me (as a TEACHer) to separate my own intuitive assumptions about LEARNing from the stuff I am still LEARNing from the (emerging) “science” of good LEARNing and the notions that (rightly or wrongly) are functioning as the engine of change in EDUcation these days.

It is equally difficult for me to see the difference between what I have LEARNed (over years and years) about the “artistry of good TEACHing” (for myself, often by myself – by “failing”…a lot) and the things I have LEARNed (and continue to LEARN every day) from my interactions with those that I “LEARN” (OK – you know I mean “teach” there)!

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Whoa! Heavy!

What the hell has happened to the Tony we know and love?

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As I said, “FUN is a SERIOUS business” – but LEARNing is “seriouser”!

With this in mind…I thought it was time for me to “thunk” over what happens if and when I am confronted with “ideas” that could (eventually) remove or replace “formal TEACHing and LEARNing” (in a face-2-face institutional context)…that’s what some “gamification cheerleaders” are saying these days! That’s what my young “digital gamification cheerleader” was banging on about!

Especially, when we thunk about ELL…or even “Chinese Language Learning” (the other “disruption” that keeps me awake some nights), if it comes to that.

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I “know”, in my heart-of-hearts, that what Carl Rogers said:

…makes more sense in ELL than it might in “other” disciplines.

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Classroom interaction is a very “poor substitute” for immersion in the culture and the day-to-day happenings of an actual English-speaking environment (this is how I LEARNed Turkish – after dropping out of a couple of “courses” because the TEACHers were driving me up-the-bloody-wall)!

A pile of lessons on lexico-grammatical structures and skills-based strategies (in a very “artificial” classroom environment) can never match (blow-for-blow) the struggles of balancing life, study and work (not to mention a relationship with someone you fall in love with – and having to dance around the pitfalls of a “mixed-marriage-to-be”) on some distant shore…without your mum and dad to protect you!

As I said…this is how I LEARNed Turkish!

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What I keep coming back to is the basic “truth” that Language LEARNing is bloody hard work…but it’s hard work that can be made easier when there is a bit of “fun” involved…and when we hit the sense of “flow” that comes from engaging in “real” problem solving and the feeling of “success” that comes from solving those problems (feelings that are magnified when you know you did it…on your own)!

What I have just described there is exactly (maybe not word for word) what the gamification cheerleaders are saying about “doing ELL” through games!

At an intuitive level…I agree…but then again those bloody “belief-thingies” get in the way!

As such, I thought it might be a good idea for me to explore my own “beliefs” – and check out why it is that the term gamification (and the prospect of games replacing formal LEARNing) “scares” me so much.

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I believe:

• All students can learn…and, indeed, have the right to LEARN and be LEARNed by others. 

• LEARNing is (a lot) more than “knowing” – it is about doing something with what we know and our ability to continue to LEARN and grow after “formal EDUcation” is over. 

• LEARNing is a complex process that involves the whole person in a constructive, situated and collaborative exercise of sense-making. 

• LEARNers develop knowledge, skills and attitudes best when they are connected “to” and transformed “by” their LEARNing – in addition to “taking responsibility” for that LEARNing. 

I do…I really believe these things!

…and I can show you “evidence” of this…through what I “say” and “do” in my interactions with others! Hopefully, a few of those others (those that “know” me in the non-virtual world) will vouch for me on this!

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I also recognise that I (yes, even me) was “socialised” by my experiences within “institutions” and systems of “formal” EDUcation. This is why I mentioned the second point above. Many of my beliefs on LEARNing have been shaped by my LEARNing within these formal institutions – and by the fact that TEACHing plays an important role within the schools, colleges and universities that have made me the EDUcator I am today.

This having been said I do not subscribe to the view that dominates the way many of these institutions “do business” – this being that the “means” (TEACHing) are more important than the “ends” (student LEARNing and SUCCESS).

Hence, I also believe:

• The best EDUcational institutions maintain an unshakeable focus on student LEARNing and success in everything they do, they have a “living” mission (rather than one that is little more than “wall decoration” for visitors) and a “lived” educational philosophy (that they “walk” every day). 

• A focus on “student engagement” is also the key to successful LEARNing in “formal LEARNing environments” and that this engagement has two key components: the time, effort and other activities students put into their studies and the ways in which an institution allocates its resources and organises LEARNing opportunities to encourage students to benefit from such activities. 

• The primary role of EDUcators and institutions is to support LEARNers to achieve success – read that again (nuff said)! 

• TEACHing and LEARNing are two sides of the same coin – the LEARNing of students (in an institutional context) is largely dependent on the quality of TEACHers, the TEACHing they receive and the level of student engagement created by TEACHers. 

• The best institutions (and their TEACHers) do not simply “cover” their curriculum – they “UNcover” it by listening to their LEARNers, by hearing their LEARNers…and by adapting themselves and what they do to the reality of LEARNing environment in which they operate. 

• Curricular should be (a lot more) more than a “TEACHing plan” – TEACHers and institutions should conceptualise of curriculum as the expression of “educational beliefs in practice” and must think of curriculum in terms of the “whole educative process” (rather than simply “content” or a document that collects dust on a shelf somewhere)! 

• Many of the dispositions required for successful LEARNing are the same as the positive behaviours and dispositions that characterise effective TEACHing professionals (yani, the best TEACHers are also the best LEARNers). 

• Effective TEACHing is grounded on a multi-dimensional set of abilities: what teachers know and understand about LEARNing, how they prepare to TEACH, what they expect of students, what they do when they TEACH and assess LEARNing, how they treat students, and how they evaluate their own practice and improve as professionals. 

• Highly effective TEACHers help all students to identify their individual LEARNing goals, perform at their highest levels and achieve success. 

• Highly effective TEACHers view students’ strengths and weaknesses as opportunities for LEARNing – and (actually) encourage their LEARNers to “fail” (by modelling this themselves as “real” people – not as infallible “knowers”). 

• Great TEACHing involves articulating and generating enthusiasm for LEARNing and modelling the skills of a lifelong LEARNer. 

• TEACHing grounded on a ‘just-in-case’ model is not as effective as TEACHing at times when students need to and are highly motivated to LEARN (a ‘just-in-time’ model).

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Whoa! What the hell has happened to Tony, shiriously?

…why have you “kidnapped” him and replaced him with this “BOT-version”?

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My beliefs have been further shaped (nearly there, guys) by my own “imagineering about the future” – what I believe is important for the future of LEARNers as we race into the brave, new word of 21^st Century LEARNing (yes, I “hate” the phrase, too – but you get what I am saying).

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These beliefs are:

• Knowledge in the 21^st Century is expanding so rapidly (bla,bla,bla!) and, just as students can’t LEARN everything about a “discipline” (especially “language”) or even everything across a range of disciplines (trans-disciplinary LEARNing is the “way ahead”) during their school or university career, TEACHers can NOT (and should NOT) try to TEACH “everything”. 

• Facilitating “real” student LEARNing (that continues to “evolve” after “graduation”) must involve developing students’ critical thunking, independent problem-solving and performance capabilities (towards the same multi-dimensional sets of abilities that make for great TEACHers). 

• EDUcational institutions need to make technology integral to LEARNing and adopt new digital technologies to achieve TEACHing practices more appropriate to 21st Century LEARNing. 

• 20^th Century institutions will only survive into the 21^st Century, if they can adapt (and re-adapt) themselves by first creating and nurturing institutional cultures that are open and responsive to meaningful change and real LEARNing – the days of creating institutions for TEACHers and administrators are well and truly “over”, boys n’ girls! 

• To survive – schools, colleges and universities must realign their processes, policies and practices around the notion of student LEARNing (and put that LEARNing at the heart of their decision-making) – because “survival is not mandatory” and systems that place their “means” over LEARNer “ends” will also go the way of the dinosaurs!

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What is it about all these beliefs that might account for the “bad taste” that many of the current discussions on gamification leave in my mouth?

Many of them do, in fact, seem to support the “theory” that gamers and EDUgamers work with…

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Actually, after getting all those thunks on “paper” and re-reading them…

I suddenly feel very “naked”!

Is that part of the problem, acaba?

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Mmmmmm…

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Yes, you would thunk that, wouldn’t you?

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Especially if you had read my more “uplifting” post – LEARN to “SPEAK” English…in 15 hours (maybe even 2)! – a week or so ago!

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It’s funny, isn’t it, how we all respond to different types of “news” in such radically different ways:

…we don’t like so much!

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When I wrote that original post, I was still under the influence of all that “Christmas Cheer” we hear so much about – around this time of year!

BUT, in a darker corner of my grey matter…another “number” was hiding there …lurking …stirring - a much BIGGER number!

Besides, you have to admit…a title suggesting you can “LEARN a language in 15 hours” is gonna get you a lot more “hits” on your blog!

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THAT number!

Damn you…Anders…Anders Ericsson!

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WHO?

Hang on…just hold your horses, there! I thought the “10,000-hour geezer” was called Malcolm…Malcolm GLADwell?

Damn him…even moreso!

WHY?

Shiriously…I was not so “GLAD” or “WELL” when I first read about “that number”…really bummed me out (and all my summer LEARNing plans) a couple of years back!

Anders…is a decent bloke (have a look at his seminal paper – HERE – if you have a 2-hr commute in front of you).

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Malcolm (and “his dog” – yes, the secret is “out”) drew on Anders’ work with the “10,000-hour rule” in his book “Outliers” – he claims he wrote the book because he could not find a decent way to explain the careers of really successful people – people like Bill Gates or the Beatles.

But, we all know his dog wanted a lakeside property in Medina!

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Anyways:

The “rule” states that if you want to be really “GREAT” at something, you gotta invest around 10,000 hours to attain that “GREATness“!

…with the Lads from Liverpool, it was “playing time” in Hamburg!

…with Bill Amca, it was “programming” (though Steve Jobs may disagree)!

…with ME, it was going to be “classical piano”, “igloo-building” and “knitting”…all till that fateful Summer!

Damn you… Malcolm…Malcolm GLADwell!

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Those of you that know the blog…from back in the day…know that one of my very first posts was entitled:

How many hours does it take to LEARN English, Hocam?

Whoopsidaisies! …that’s the Turkish version.

Try this ONE…

Now, in that post…and remember it was one of my first…so do not give me a hard time about the poor quality of images (had only clocked up 25-30 hours by then)…I was trying to see if the “guided learning hours” (GLHs) suggested by ELT publishers and their textbook writers could, in fact, lead to GREATness in ELL for our LEARNers here in Turkey.

Those numbers (or “classroom hours”) were a bit like this (in terms of the main “CEFR Levels“):

A1 – 80-100 GLHs

A2 – 180-200 GLHs

B1 – 350-400 GLHs

B2 – 550-600 GLHs

C1 – 750-800 GLHs

C2 – 1000-1200 GLHs

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According to these “textbook experts” – all a LEARNer (wishing to become an “expert” in the English Language) has to do is “sit” in a classroom for a “maximum” of 1,200 GLHs (and by “guided” we mean…by a TEACHer…armed with nothing but a “textbook” – a CD player and a projector, perhaps)!

Yes, you would say that, wouldn’t you?

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I have said more…a LOT more!

And, to be fair, some textbook writers do say more…a few of them “add” (in very small print…in the TEACHer’s Book) that EL LEARNers do need to do a fair bit of “self-study” (whatever that is) – from the “workbook” no doubt!

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Could it be that Malcolm (and Anders) are “wrong“? Or…is it the case that those “pesky textbook writers”…and their “evil-doer approach” to marketing and flogging their “wares” have been leading us, well and truly, up the garden path?

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Let’s do “the Math”!

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Come on, Tony – you know all we ELL / ELT folk are a bit “thick” when it comes to the “old ‘rithmetic“!

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Not to worry…

ENTER stage left…

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Sarah Eaton, a wonderful ELL Consultant from Canada – and a fellow “Jedi blogger“.

I have mentioned Sarah a fair few times on allthingslearning - and she has often extended more than a helping hand to little ‘ole moi with my bouts of bloggery!

Sarah did a great paper on the time required to become “an ELL expert” – and published a version on her own blog (Literacy, Languages and Leadership).

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In her paper, she suggested a number of “scenarios” (you know how I loves me “mini-cases”):

Scenario #1: One 3-hour adult education course per week x 8 weeks = 24 hours

Scenario #2: One year of language learning in school = 4 hours per week x 12 weeks x 2 semesters = 96 hours

Scenario #3: 1 year of consistent, dedicated self-study (or homework) at 1 hour per day = 365 hours

Scenario #4: One year of total immersion in the new language (Assuming that in a 24-hour day, we allow 8 hours for sleeping per day) = 16 hours per day x 365 days = 5840 hours

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Sarah then applied the “10,000-hour rule” to each of her scenarios to see exactly how long it would take the LEARNers in these scenarios to achieve “expert ability” in a foreign language…like English:

Scenario #1 – Adult education classes – 416 courses of 24 hours per course. If you did 2 courses per year, you’d need 208 years to become fluent.

Scenario #2 – Foreign language studies at school – 96 hours of classes per year = 104 years to achieve fluency.

Scenario #3 – Dedicated self-study – An hour a day, every single day of the year = 365 hours per year = 27 years

Scenario #4 – Total immersion – Approximately 2 years

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Go to the image (at the very top of the post)

- YOU know what to “say“!

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Sarah does a grand job of fleshing out the ideas behind her numbers (and the complexities such numbers might “hide”) – have a look at the full paper HERE.

One of the things I like (at the end of her paper) is also how she “re-frames” the questions LEARNers should ask.

Instead of ASKing:

“How long will it take me to become fluent in English, hocam?”

…she suggests that LEARNers need to ASK:

“How do I get my 10,000 hours of study and practice to become fluent in English?”

Wonderful question! 

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However…

…is, basically (for both of us), that the “classroom” and all the GLHs on the planet are NOT going to help our LEARNers become “experts” in English or English Language LEARNing (perhaps…the more important of the two).

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Both Sarah and I also make the point that it is (kinda) impossible to accurately calculate the hours needed to LEARN a language - as ELL depends on factors such as the LEARNer’s language background, levels of individual engagement, the LEARNer’s age and motivation (even “gender” - yes, girls still do generally kick ass in the right environment), and the amount of study and exposure outside the classroom!

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…I also focussed on the quality of “TEACHing” (something many “commentators” often forget to mention) – another “inconvenient truth” here in Turkey (as in many other countries)!

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We all know, don’t we, that:

Especially, in matters of allthingsELL!

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We also know (don’t we) that “hazırlık” or “prep school” is about (a lot) more than “just” language LEARNing – university-level EL LEARNers also need to be helped to “de-tox” and focus on personal development, self-study (& reflection), self-assessment and “personal accountability” (in addition to classroom-based GLHs) to realise “effective language LEARNing“.

Not exactly what you might call a “piece o’ cake”…

This is especially the case if most of the recommended GLHs we are told about are given over to “grammar rules and transformation exercises” or are grounded on teachers “spoon-feeding” students discrete skills worksheets – rather than expert instruction in skills development from their TEACHers, meaningful reflection and self-assessment on the part of LEARNers and timely and focussed feedback.

The real problem is that 25-30 hours a week of being “trapped in a hazırlık classroom” for so many months is just “too much”  (many TEACHers would agree with this).

Sorry – to have to “pop” this little bubble – BUT…this is not an “effective way” to conduct the “business” of language LEARNing.

Hey, and we haven’t even got to the issue of “section or class size” – come on, can we really create  an effective language LEARNing environment for groups of 25+?

We (just) know ALL this – on a “experiential” and a “moral” level….in our heart-of-hearts!

OR….we SHOULD!

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We TEACHers (and institutions) need new questions for 2013…heck, we have needed these new questions for years! Yes, language LEARNing is complex…yes, it is tough…yes, it requires “effort“!

But, we ain’t gonna tackle these issues with more of the same-old-same-old - “bumping up” the number of contact hours in a given week, creating a 3rd “summer break semester” (or 5th “summer school module”).

I suppose we could consider – “dropping standards” to allow more students to get a “free pass” into freshman without fully evidencing the levels of language proficiency we know are required on English-medium academic programmes…

We could…but no-one would ever do “that”…would they?

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It is “collaborative effort” on the part of both TEACHers and LEARNers that will make the “real difference”…

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I hope it doesn’t take us 10,000 hours to work that little “secret” out!

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…could be applied to matters of LEARNing and TEACHing.

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Actually – as I was drafting (the original version of) this post, I (quite accidentally) discovered that Scott Thornbury is using a very similar title for his new e-book (to be published very shortly by The Round).

Scott’s idea is a pretty cool one - “re-engineering” a number of the core posts from his great ”A-Z of ELT” and helping those lovely guys at The Round realise their goal of creating more bridges between the blogosphere and the world of conventional publishing.

This is why I felt I (just) had to re-blog a new, re-imagineered version of this post – to lose the Xmas “feel” I went with originally!

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Scott’s book is already shaping up to be a great addition to our ELT Library -  you can get a “taste” (or a “tease”) by clicking HERE.

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…YOU guessed it !

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There is a bit of a problem with much of this “library”  of ours - a library that publishers have been helping us build up since the late 1970′s…a library that, I would argue, misses a great deal of the the “wood” for the “trees” (trees all those conventional publishers are busy “chopping down” on our behalf)!

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TEACHers do, of course, need books n’ stuff to help with their LEARNing.  

I’m not suggesting we should go all “Fahrenheit 451” on our favorite volumes and works of EDUliteracy. I’m saying perhaps we need a different “perspective” on how we look at the “business” we are in – and how we “do” that “business” around the globe through the books we read!

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Let me elaborate…with some BIG NUMBERS!

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Before we get to the numbers (and people)…let’s start with a question:

How many English Language LEARNers are there – on the planet?

A tough one - I know!

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Well, if David Graddol is even close to being half-right - around a third of the world’s population (yes, I said 33.33% of around 7,018,500,000 human beings) – are trying to LEARN English – right now!

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…give or take a million or so (and their dogs)!

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If you (as I have just done) also do a quick Google search for the acronym “ELT“, you’ll get around 37,800,000 potential bits of “bedtime reading”. However, when you do a similar search for “English Language LEARNing” – Google can only come up with around 1,910,000 pages for you to ignore.

And, “yes” - I know you can get just over 62 million pages of digital reading, if you use the acronym. But, then again…take a closer look at some of these hits – not all ELL “hits” are equal!

BESIDES…if you try “English Language Teaching”…the world’s favourite search engine will cough up 171 million results for you.

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Yani, almost three times as much “stuff” on TEACHing…than LEARNing!

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Now, this may not be much…when compared with the 252,000,000 results that you can potentially browse when you type the two little words “Justin“ + “Bieber“ (and do not even ask me what happens when you type ”Lady Gaga“)!

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…the point is…

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English Language TEACHing is BIG business…a huge “industry”…and we ain’t even touched on “textbooks” just yet!

An industry, for example, that nets the UK almost £1,500,000,000…every, single, bloody year! Not too shabby…not too shabby at all…just don’t get me started on global sales of the Top 50 publishers!

Let’s just say Amazon and Kindle have NOT delivered on their “promise”…yet!

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The BIG problem is…as my “birth-father” (the gossip is “working”) has noted:

Scott…and many of his mates…”get” this!

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TEACHers like Scott “favour dialogue over transmission” and recognise that the process of NOT trying to fill “empty vessels” on a 24/7 basis is best facilitated by ASKing questions.

This is why he has promised us a “question-driven” approach in his new book – and some of the “teaser questions” he’ll be looking at are:

• How do you achieve ‘flow’ in your teaching?
• What makes an activity ‘communicative’?
• Is there anything wrong with rote learning?
• Can you teach well without planning?
• Do rules help?

These are wonderful questions…and I’m sure many TEACHers will be very eager to read Scott’s ”answers”. 

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Fewer, I fear, will take the time to reflect on his ”questions for discussion” – many will totally miss the real point behind the book (IMHO).

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…am I thunking in such a dark & gloomy manner at the start of a bright NEW YEAR?

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Well, it’s quite simple really! I do not have much of a choice…the way things stand at the moment.

The ELT Industry is made up of “suppliers“ (who seek to push their wares into this “market” of almost 234,000,000 LEARNers) …and “providers” (institutional players like our schools, colleges and universities).

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Both of these sets of “stakeholders” have to be “seen” to have all the ANSWERS.

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If they were seen to be more about “LEARNing” (than being “LEARNed” and “expert”)…they might not make as much money or “get” as many students!

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Peter Block has been telling us for years that it is this “take” on ”what matters” that keeps luring us back to the Dark Side.

This “fascination” we have with allthingsanswers – drives our relentless search for the next “big thing”, “quick-fix” or “magic bullet”. The “obsession” we have with an “answer-orientated” way of doing “business”…prevents us from really “seeing” the (LEARNing) wood for the (TEACHing) trees we noted earlier!

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That “business” in ELT is still dominated by the interests (or “convenience”) of our INSTITUTIONS - the things…the fixes….the bullets we focus on are, more often than not, all about the TEACHing.

Very few of our institutions take the time to ask the questions we need to ask - probably because the questions themselves are just “too” important! Instead, our preference for “quick-fix” TEACHing recipes all too often does little more than advance the culture of “alıntı, çalıntı and mış-gibi yapmak” (the Turkish for “borrowing, ripping off, and faking-it-till-you-make-it”) – rather than meaningful attention to student LEARNing and SUCCESS.

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Now, around about 500 words ago, you probably got a very crisp mental image of “me” in your head – just another guy having a rant! Just another guy having a bitch an’ a whine – with no bloody “answers”!

Isn’t that the whole point…the whole problem?

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Well, to prove I do mean “well”…I want to challenge all our “ELT Institutions” with a few “BIG Questions for ELL…for 2013″.

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Your “mission”, should you choose to accept it, is to put one of these questions (every week) on the agenda of your regular “meetings” – and come up with your OWN answers…through your OWN conversations…with those that “matter” at your OWN institution!

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Let’s start with a couple of “easy” ones:

Why (all over the globe) are “lessons” always around 50-55 minutes in length – shirously, in every country?

Why are so many of our classrooms organised in rows that “point” at the TEACHer (in fact, why do we still have classrooms at all)?

Why (in many classrooms) do TEACHers do more “talking” than the LEARNers?

Why do so many institutions (and their TEACHers) still “ban” mobile devices and “smart phones” in the classrooms?

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This one still bakes the noodle of many an administrator:

Why do some institutions still believe that (relatively) untrained and inexperienced “native speakers” are better than qualified and experienced “local” practitioners?

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This one could keep decision-makers awake at night:

Why do ELT institutions (and TEACHers) still approach English Language Learning as something that can be “taught” or “delivered”?

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These ones might hit home for a few of them, too:

Why do so many of us (TEACHers) still complain that we do not have enough time to “cover” the material?

Why do so many schools operate with a curriculum that is little more than the “contents page” of a textbook?

Why do so many institutions allow publishers to select their themes and texts – rather than letting the LEARNers do it?

Why do so many institutions still work with the premise that “if we do not assess it, the LEARNers will not do it”?

Why do institutions still assume that students will LEARN more English if we test them more often?

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And a couple on TEACHer LEARNing:

Why do schools and universities still believe that TEACHers can “LEARN” from one-shot, one-way workshops (especially if they serve no other purpose but to keep TEACHers busy during holidays)?

Why does ELT (as a “discipline”) still LEARN so little from other disciplines?

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Hey…you never know…ASKing questions like these…might, just maybe, help us co-create a few ANSWERS…that help Google balance things a wee bit more in 2013!

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N.B: One of the most comprehensive discussions of trends in language education is presented by David Graddol, in his excellent monograph “English Next”. In this, he builds on his innovative analysis given in The Future of English (1997) – and also offers a great deal of insight into helping us understand where the “business” of ELT (and ELL) is going.

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Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change

(about my bloggery),

The courage to change the things I can

(with the timing of my bouts of bloggery),

And the wisdom to know the difference

(between “life” and “bloggery”)!

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I woke up this morning (yes, just too “old” these days to have not slept)…wondering whether I could manage the first post of 2013…or…

…go on a New Year’s Day “cruise” up the Bosphorus – with my family!

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Choices…choices…choices!

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My inbox was full (“choka” yani…) of those “2012 in Review” posts that those lovely “happiness engineers” (still love that job title) at WordPress have been preparing for us blog-heads over the past 24-hours.

At first, I thunked to meself, “no” it’s just too much to look at all of them!

Put family “first”! Must fight the “urge”….

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I am a simple man…with many “guilty pleasures“…and an issue or three with impulse control!

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I started to “read”…“the girls” (and Dexter) were, after all, still asleep!

It is quite addictive…it is…shirously!

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It was interesting to look at all the stats from some of my favourite bloggers…even found a few posts I had “missed”.

Those happiness engineers at WP had pulled out a couple of “tricks” that worked really well.

For example, they suggested an “excerpt” for the “ready-made post” they had gifted me:

About 55,000 tourists visit Liechtenstein every year. This blog was viewed about 310,000 times in 2012. If it were Liechtenstein, it would take about 6 years for that many people to see it. Your blog had more visits than a small country in Europe!

What the heck did my blog have to do with Liechtenstein? Never even been there…maybe I should, now!

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Put family “first”! Must fight the “urge”….

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Ne se….

The Bosphorus…and family “won”!

…as they should…always!

But, the little buggar…sorry, blogger on my left shoulder…kept whispering I had to “do” somethink!

SO…

Click HERE to see the complete report.

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Take care – have a wonderful “day off”!

I will…

]]> http://allthingslearning.wordpress.com/2013/01/01/acts-of-bloggery-over-2012-aka-confessions-of-a-blogger/feed/ 1 tonygurr Blogging sucks (sign) blogger Pirate 05 The THING is... Idiot (inside) BOTTOM Line Bad news http://allthingslearning.wordpress.com/2012/12/30/why-smart-goals-are-just-plain-dumb/ http://allthingslearning.wordpress.com/2012/12/30/why-smart-goals-are-just-plain-dumb/#comments Sun, 30 Dec 2012 12:46:22 +0000 Tony Gurr http://allthingslearning.wordpress.com/?p=5602 ]]> …especially for TEACHers heading into…

The New Year is “nigh”…and my inbox has been filling up with notifications to check out the latest “Top 10 List of 2012″ and…a few, just a few, posts on best practice in “goal-setting” for 2013.

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I say only a “few” posts on goals and targets because…well, it seems more than a few of us are more interested in “looking back” than “looking forward”. Maybe, that’s all part of the “quiet reflection” needed to get us to the “effective action” that Peter Drucker (and Shelly Terrell) were talking about this morning.

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Both Shelly and Uncle Pete are right – we can all “grow through REFLECTion”…

…it is “looking forward” and the “effective action” we plan for 2013 that is the key.

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This is why I was so keen to look at these posts on “goal setting” – especially, all that “SMART goal-setting” EDUfolk are talking about.

Now, if you are not up-to-speed on goal-setting – it’s all about PLANNING.

Horrid word!

But, in practice, many supporters of “goals” also try to flog their wares by telling us that the process of goal-setting allows us to:

…while also reminding us that:

Funny that! None of my dreams (ever) come with a deadline…

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The “SMART” version of goal-setting is all about doing that PLANNING – “RIGHT”!

Yani, if you do not “plan RIGHT”…you are “plain DUMB”!

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Am I really? Shirously? You’ll be “asking” for something soon…good luck with that!

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SMART is an acronym (an acronym we, in EDUcation, “borrowed” from the world of “busyness”).

“Busyness?” - yes, just hold that thunk for a second or three!

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…an acronym that is more fully spelled out in this way:

OK – …the “realistic“ is often swapped around for ”relevant” (and “time-bound” is frequently selected over “timely“)…but that’s just the small stuff we do not need to “sweat” too much!

Some “smartyER pants” have even done this:

…but you get the “BIG picture”‘ yes?

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Ne se…the “logic” goes like this: if we develop our goals or targets in line with the letters of this lovely little acronym, we will all become more “productive”…more “effective”…more “successful” (mış mış, yani)!

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For example, this is not a SMART goal:

• I will endeavour to ensure that I LISTEN to my kids and help them all “love” LEARNing in all its wonderful shapes and forms!
• I am gonna make sure that I “really, really” LEARN my kids how to SPEAK…this semester…in just 15 hrs!

Actually, on second thunks – that 2nd thunk ”is” pretty SMART!

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BUT…it is goals like this that really get an EDUmanager’s juices “flowing”:

• I will hit my weekly pacing guidelines EVERY day and ensure 97% of my kids pass their weekly grammar tests – and go on to ace the end-of-year proficiency examination (at the end of the year, yani)!

OK – the language might be a bit “off”…but the warm, tingly sensation that this SMART goal will give “rise” to will stick around longer than…

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RUBBISH!

…it simply does not work as the “manual” outlines…especially for TEACHers!

And, to add insult to injury…ends up being nothing more than “busywork” (..makes sense now, yes? Even if it was not just a couple of seconds) handed down from EDUmanagement to EDUpractitioners that, more often than not, allows the aforementioned manager to “tick” a box somewhere!

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I mentioned Pete Amca earlier…for a reason…two…actually:

…He was a lot SMARTer than many EDUmanagers these days - especially those that “read-a-book-and-tell-the-world” – or (worse) – “read-a-blog-post-and-jump-without-thunking”!

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This is why I “dropped” this whole idea of “SMARTness” in my goal-setting a few years back.

Nowadays, I sez this:

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A wee idea I “stole” from Mark Murphy - another “business” (not “busyness”) guy!

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Scary?

Not at all!

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Go on…have a “guess” what this little acronym stands for (don’t scroll down)!

I said…DON’T SCROLL DOWN! I asked nice…

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Now, check it with your “team” (or online PLN)…you have 3 minutes!

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Isn’t that first one so much better than “specific”?

I won’t mention “measurable“…promise! But, that “animated” one sounds kinda cool, too. Click HERE to take a closer look at all the others.

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We all know that…

Don’t we?

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We also “know” that:

…despite the fact that many of our institutions are doing their bestest to knock the “challenge” out of what we “do” – and the “creativity” of those that we do “it” with!

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This is why we need to bring the “H” and “A” together with the “R” and “D” - in all we do…especially in any goal-setting we might do for 2013-14!

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I think this is why I like Shelly’s (no….did not forget her) “30 Goals Challenge for EDUcators” – take a look…not a SMART goal in sight…but lots of “dreams”…lots of “inspiration”….and….lots of the RIGHT things to “do” across 2013…and into 2014, too!

Yes…some of them are “hard“, sure…but the HARDer the BETTER!

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This is (probably) the last post of 2012 for moi…yes, Nazli Hanim (aka the “missuz”) has just confirmed this!

So it is probably the right time to THANK YOU ALL for your continued support of allthingslearning…but, more importantly, to wish YOU and YOURS…nothing but the BEST as we step into 2013!

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Keep up the good fight!

If we DON’T…who WILL?