Knowing relationships!

The deepest forms of knowing come through relationships

In Why We Teach, I explore a teacher taxonomy where ‘Competent’ teachers deliver propositional and procedural knowing through a focus on curriculum and pedagogy, and who operate themselves within the same domains.  As noted last week this group accounts for about 60% of all teachers.

‘Motivated’ teachers value relationships, developing and modelling perspectival knowing as well as providing the environment and content for propositional and procedural knowing.

‘Enlightened’ teachers provide these three forms of knowing plus the most profound form, participatory knowing, which is of existential importance to young people. In consequence, students respond with their best selves willing to do their best work.

In the past a focus on propositional and procedural knowing was adequate, as other forms of knowing were developed by young people via religious and cultural means.  However, these means are no longer effective.

The school is the natural place to develop these deeper forms of knowing for two reasons.  There is no other obvious place to develop them and these forms of knowing come through deeper relationships between adult and child and these relationships increase all other forms of learning through deepening engagement of students (and teachers) and stimulating students (and teachers) to present their best selves and do their best work.

Already 40% of teachers get this.  We just need the other 60% to catch up.

John Corrigan is an expert in helping individuals to bring their whole of mind to their daily life and increase their effectiveness and the effectiveness of those around them. This expertise scales from the individual to the team to the organisation. At the core of this work is the practice of encounter.  Earlier blogs can be found here.

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