Hi Dianne and all, I'm still exploring the implications of asking, researching and answering my question, 'How do I improve what I am doing?' some 41 years after first asking it:
"The practical question, ‘How do I improve what I am doing?’
emerged before my awareness of its significance as a research question. I asked
the question in my first day as a science teacher in Langdon Park School, a
London Comprehensive School in 1967.
I felt a passion to help my students to improve their scientific
understandings. In my first lessons I could see that my pupils were not
comprehending much of what I was saying and doing. I did not feel my concern as
being grounded in a ‘deficit’ model of myself. I felt a confidence that
while what was going on was not as good as it could be, I would be able to
contribute to improvements. My imagination worked to offer possibilities about
improving what I was doing. I chose a possibility to act on. I acted and
evaluated the effectiveness of what I was doing in terms of my communications
with my pupils. I know that the idea, that individuals experience problems, can
be seen as working with a ‘deficit’ model. I think I would feel this myself if
other people talked about me as having problems! Yet I have no problem in
acknowledging for myself that there always seems to be something to improve in my practice."
I'm seeing both questions, 'How do I improve...?' and 'How did I achieve...?' as important in different phases of my educational enquiry. I continue to ask the first question when I feel that I could improve what I am doing. I ask the second question as part of the evaluation phase of my enquiry as I work at understanding the influences of what I am doing. I'm agreeing with Dianne that it is important to avoid working with a deficit model of oneself and others. I'm seeing the desire to improve one's influence as part of an evolutionary and inclusional approach to enquiry.
Love Jack.