Power of Protocols- Quotes, Questions and Comments
Power of Protocols
This book is power packed. The power lies in practice of these protocols. It has takenme time to understand the value of this book. It is quite interesting to view videos onlearner.org where protocols can be helpful tool to give direction to assessment tasks. Most of the protocols mentioned in this book which is a guide to facilitate conversations are quite simple and easy to use. It has helped me re-confirm themeaning of democracy. There is of course a structure required to facilitate a process .This book is a recipe to art of having healthy non-threatening conversations. By setting the tone and purpose of a conversation the task on hand gets accomplished
through the structure provided by each process. Here are few excerpts of procedures which have helped me connect well with my
team members/students/parents without losing hope and ensuring that students' success is at core for all.
Our colleagues’ values, standards, and methods are our business—as ours are their business—and the problems of practice are inescapably mutual ones. For this reason, we must give up our pervasive tendency to try to manage
these problems alone...
This was quite evident in almost all the collegial conversations. Problems that came across in collegial conversations were mutual. These were openly shared by one and all as we all tried to collectively find solutions instead of wrecking our brains on our own. It is an important element of collaborative effort needed to achieve a goal as a team as against single handed approach.
It is also because certain aspects of practice—as we explain below—cause us to overlook the problems that inhere in it; and it is our colleagues who are best situated to help us understand this limit on our ordinary perspective.
While working on a concept continuously we tend to overlook the flaws and with the help of of a Sarathi we can get a glimpse of what we have missed to look at a deeper level of learning. Arjun on the battlefield was clouded with ideas/fears and it is then
Krishna gave perspective to the task on hand.
“Let’s have more of the kind of faculty meetings we had that one time, when everyone got a chance to talk, and everybody’s ideas got heard and responded to.”
This is evident as a process in our triage meetings where we allow all participants to share their opinion in a structured manner. Each one feels heard and responded to.
When the facilitator encourages participants in a protocol to “hear all voices,”it is really a call to highlight a sufficient number of perspectives on the issue or problem at hand such that everyone can gain the possibility of new insight.
This is similar to a role of a teacher in class. In the allotted 45 minutes, teacher-facilitator plans the lesson delivery in such a manner which is giving various perspectives to the task on hand, problem solving tasks are best suited examples for this.
To solve a problem/to accomplish a task there are variety of roads which lead to successful completion. This strategy not only helps the person solve the task through his invented method but also gets a variety of options to keep in mind. All pairs address the same question, then discuss as a group what their sharing had in common and what surprised them.
Pair share is a way in which we moved our discussions around the topic on decision making through case studies. This a routine used and students made sense of the case study of a company using strategic thinking skills to make a turnover of desired amount in a given period of time. Subtle things like need of goal setting in a persons life, sharpening the saw, taking calculated risks and the ability to be a visionary are traits of a successful individual in life surprised the group. Learning was enriched by this process of shared reading followed by time to think, pair and share.
Fear and hope Protocol
Its effectiveness depends on the fact that people rarely undertake a new learning experience without harboring some (usually unexpressed) fears and hopes about what will happen. This protocol gets these into the open.
I happened to witness this protocol when there were some concerns about a given task on hand within team members and they hesitated to come open. We happened to use this protocol to list the fears and hopes and then address their need of receiving help in order to address the task on hand. With hand holding the team was able to embark on journey together. This made me understand fears appear in a persons mind when the person is not able to chart out a plan/ ask for help to accomplish the task on hand. Facilitator plays a crucial role in this conversation and needs to be unbiased and write negative comments on the list as many as possible
without being defensive. At the end when solutions emerged it did surprise the participants about the power of this protocol to address fears and hopes of a group.
Diversity Protocol
This protocol can be used to help participants become more aware of the various connections they have to others, and to understand the impact of personal identity on professional experience.
In my training sessions last year, I experienced the power of this protocol. It was aimed at knowing the various view points of the tasks from team members to join the dots and to understand the task and its outcome by ensuring that it was a shared learning experience.
Jigsaw Protocol
This protocol can be used to allow participants access to learning from a greater amount of text than time would permit had everyone read or viewed the same texts.
This protocol has been widely with many student groups in past. It has its benefits of being able to reach out to a larger text through careful manipulation of the task by breaking down the tasks into smaller groups and then forming expert groups to facilitate the process of learning. As a teacher, my struggle has always been to prepare the experts group. In absence of absolute clarity, the lead teacher has to ensure, the correct concepts reach home. This list will grow as I use the protocols and get better as using these to connect to individuals around me in unique ways.I know I need to invest more time in making the use of protocols so that it becomes a second nature in me to actually reap its benefits in all situations which I must admit is not the case. I have begun my journey but I know I have a along way to go.
Questions that I have for myself.
What processes will I need to set up in my team meetings to facilitate conversations
around topics so that team members are aware of these Protocols?
How will I enthuse the team of teachers with whom, I am working to make this a habit of mind? Will I need help to set this up as a process? From whom?
What change will I need to bring in my practices so that I am able to model this practice at all times?
I know that I have begun my journey and I will master this skill in time to come.
This book is power packed. The power lies in practice of these protocols. It has takenme time to understand the value of this book. It is quite interesting to view videos onlearner.org where protocols can be helpful tool to give direction to assessment tasks. Most of the protocols mentioned in this book which is a guide to facilitate conversations are quite simple and easy to use. It has helped me re-confirm themeaning of democracy. There is of course a structure required to facilitate a process .This book is a recipe to art of having healthy non-threatening conversations. By setting the tone and purpose of a conversation the task on hand gets accomplished
through the structure provided by each process. Here are few excerpts of procedures which have helped me connect well with my
team members/students/parents without losing hope and ensuring that students' success is at core for all.
Our colleagues’ values, standards, and methods are our business—as ours are their business—and the problems of practice are inescapably mutual ones. For this reason, we must give up our pervasive tendency to try to manage
these problems alone...
This was quite evident in almost all the collegial conversations. Problems that came across in collegial conversations were mutual. These were openly shared by one and all as we all tried to collectively find solutions instead of wrecking our brains on our own. It is an important element of collaborative effort needed to achieve a goal as a team as against single handed approach.
It is also because certain aspects of practice—as we explain below—cause us to overlook the problems that inhere in it; and it is our colleagues who are best situated to help us understand this limit on our ordinary perspective.
While working on a concept continuously we tend to overlook the flaws and with the help of of a Sarathi we can get a glimpse of what we have missed to look at a deeper level of learning. Arjun on the battlefield was clouded with ideas/fears and it is then
Krishna gave perspective to the task on hand.
“Let’s have more of the kind of faculty meetings we had that one time, when everyone got a chance to talk, and everybody’s ideas got heard and responded to.”
This is evident as a process in our triage meetings where we allow all participants to share their opinion in a structured manner. Each one feels heard and responded to.
When the facilitator encourages participants in a protocol to “hear all voices,”it is really a call to highlight a sufficient number of perspectives on the issue or problem at hand such that everyone can gain the possibility of new insight.
This is similar to a role of a teacher in class. In the allotted 45 minutes, teacher-facilitator plans the lesson delivery in such a manner which is giving various perspectives to the task on hand, problem solving tasks are best suited examples for this.
To solve a problem/to accomplish a task there are variety of roads which lead to successful completion. This strategy not only helps the person solve the task through his invented method but also gets a variety of options to keep in mind. All pairs address the same question, then discuss as a group what their sharing had in common and what surprised them.
Pair share is a way in which we moved our discussions around the topic on decision making through case studies. This a routine used and students made sense of the case study of a company using strategic thinking skills to make a turnover of desired amount in a given period of time. Subtle things like need of goal setting in a persons life, sharpening the saw, taking calculated risks and the ability to be a visionary are traits of a successful individual in life surprised the group. Learning was enriched by this process of shared reading followed by time to think, pair and share.
Fear and hope Protocol
Its effectiveness depends on the fact that people rarely undertake a new learning experience without harboring some (usually unexpressed) fears and hopes about what will happen. This protocol gets these into the open.
I happened to witness this protocol when there were some concerns about a given task on hand within team members and they hesitated to come open. We happened to use this protocol to list the fears and hopes and then address their need of receiving help in order to address the task on hand. With hand holding the team was able to embark on journey together. This made me understand fears appear in a persons mind when the person is not able to chart out a plan/ ask for help to accomplish the task on hand. Facilitator plays a crucial role in this conversation and needs to be unbiased and write negative comments on the list as many as possible
without being defensive. At the end when solutions emerged it did surprise the participants about the power of this protocol to address fears and hopes of a group.
Diversity Protocol
This protocol can be used to help participants become more aware of the various connections they have to others, and to understand the impact of personal identity on professional experience.
In my training sessions last year, I experienced the power of this protocol. It was aimed at knowing the various view points of the tasks from team members to join the dots and to understand the task and its outcome by ensuring that it was a shared learning experience.
Jigsaw Protocol
This protocol can be used to allow participants access to learning from a greater amount of text than time would permit had everyone read or viewed the same texts.
This protocol has been widely with many student groups in past. It has its benefits of being able to reach out to a larger text through careful manipulation of the task by breaking down the tasks into smaller groups and then forming expert groups to facilitate the process of learning. As a teacher, my struggle has always been to prepare the experts group. In absence of absolute clarity, the lead teacher has to ensure, the correct concepts reach home. This list will grow as I use the protocols and get better as using these to connect to individuals around me in unique ways.I know I need to invest more time in making the use of protocols so that it becomes a second nature in me to actually reap its benefits in all situations which I must admit is not the case. I have begun my journey but I know I have a along way to go.
Questions that I have for myself.
What processes will I need to set up in my team meetings to facilitate conversations
around topics so that team members are aware of these Protocols?
How will I enthuse the team of teachers with whom, I am working to make this a habit of mind? Will I need help to set this up as a process? From whom?
What change will I need to bring in my practices so that I am able to model this practice at all times?
I know that I have begun my journey and I will master this skill in time to come.