My latest foray into the world of emerging challenges had me looking at “Mental Models” by Avi Luxenburg, which he based on the work of Peter Senge. Avi leads us through a great description and explanation of the way our experiences and upbringing create “filters” through which we view reality - our mental models. He extends this to discussion of how these filters, and the resulting assumptions we make in daily life, can impact those around us, and how they can colour the way we treat others.
As the discussion continues, Avi explains how we can begin to question our filters and assumptions, and improve our relationships with those around us by having greater understanding of the situation. This translates into practical advice we can use to re-frame and become aware of how our mental models influence our treatment of our students, our colleagues, and our families too. Educationally, the possibilities are huge - both for staff interactions with each other and staff interactions with students - and for a deeper understanding of the “big picture” and to plan for and implement educational change more successfully as a result. The possibilities are a better world for everyone (large scale) and a more understanding classroom (small scale). Because the re-framing of reality is something we do on an individual basis, if you decide to do it, it will work. The biggest downside to this plan is that you have to have buy in - you can’t just start “doing” this if you don’t choose to. The barriers are, ironically, people’s own mental models. Admitting that you might be perceiving reality imperfectly is admitting that you may have made unfair assumptions, and not everyone is able or willing to do this. This brings me back to thoughts of the importance of school leadership having a clear vision and the ability to communicate it effectively. My immediate thought is that the analysis of mental models and how they affect our perceptions and treatment of others is something everyone should learn more about. It could help the world become a more empathetic and compassionate place. I strive for both of these qualities in both my personal life and teaching life, as I think they’re central to being a good person. When I was in Grade 12, I helped organize a city-wide Anti-Racism conference for high school students. Our keynote speaker was an unassuming older gentleman, who happened to have survived Buchenwald Concentration Camp. I must have cried through his whole speech, which was gentle, forgiving, and incredibly inspiring. I wasn’t crying because his story was so tragic - which it absolutely was, no doubt about it. I was crying because he made that aspect of history real for me, and he transformed my understanding of reality. I felt like I could no longer trust my assumptions about the experiences and backgrounds of those I saw, for who would expect this kind looking man to have a tattoo on his forearm marking him as a survivor of one of the greatest atrocities in modern history? Since then, I have tried to carry this awareness into my reactions to inconvenience (I scrupulously pull over when an emergency vehicle is behind me, as I think about the person they are hurrying to save), in addition to how I perceive the behaviour of others - especially my students. Although I consider myself to be an extremely logical and skeptical person, I am absolutely empathetic and emotional as well - because I firmly believe in the importance of empathy and emotional connections to the health of a community and relationships. And community and relationships are central to my credo and the kind of learning environment I want to create for my students (and my own children). Our filters for reality vary depending on our experiences, our upbringing, and our cultures. Another word we might be able to use for mental models is prejudices. It is a pejorative term, linked closely to the active cousin of prejudice: discrimination. Self-awareness and rebuilding of mental models (or simply being able to recognize and refuse to act on our prejudices) is absolutely possible, as psychology has proven. Cognitive Behavioural Therapy is a powerful tool psychologists use to help people change their thought patterns, and through these changes alter their perception of reality (and their lives too). If, for example, you were crippled with anxiety at the thought of someone seeing your messy basement, you could use a “ladder of inference” in the form of a CBT worksheet to help you analyze your reaction, your assumptions, and the reality behind the situation as it exists separate from your filters. Avi explains Senge's argument that strong leadership - in the form of communities that possess a great deal of empathy and compassion for each other - is one of the best ways to affect sustainable, positive change. My gut feeling is that if we could teach these models and how to alter them to both our staffs and our students (and our politicians - not to mention those south of the border), then we could make a better, kinder community. We could create the kinds of communities that "grow and thrive together" (Avi's phrase), and we could, through empathy and understanding, change the world.
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Leslie McCurrachEnthusiastic Learner. Avid Gardener. DL Teacher. Archives
March 2018
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