How to build legitimate teacherly authority - 4!

The importance of Active Open-Mindedness in a world of algorithms

I have talked about Active Open-Mindedness (AOM) in a previous blog.

AOM is the fourth and last of the capacities that underpin Life Skills, the Competencies and Character Qualities which along with Foundational Literacies, make up twenty-first century skills.  AOM underpins critical thinking and contributes to problem solving, both critical capabilities in the modern world.

Formal reasoning begins to appear around ten to twelve years old as interior senses mature making memory more reliable, also affording the delaying of gratification and the capacity to anticipate consequences.

Individuals begin to establish and internalise principles, using the reciprocity dynamic to determine which patterns are ‘good’ and which ‘bad’, which begin to define behaviour making it more stable and solid and creating an internalised foundation for making choices, in turn this allows the young person to persevere in the face of social pressure.

At this stage in their development young people begin to follow principles and principled people.  Being principled and having the capacity to teach how to develop in this way becomes another basis for teacherly authority.

AOM is a means of creating a principled stance through ensuring that the patterns that are observed in the world around us are well-founded and not formed through any of the many forms of bias that we are prone to.

This is important for all of us as adults but is essential for young people if we want to help them resist the inordinate pressures brought to bear by social media and their attention-capturing and manipulative algorithms.

This is a fight that we must win.

I will be offering a one-day program in Term 3 for those teachers interested in further learning about how to develop high levels of teacherly authority and join the small minority of teachers who have a lifelong impact on their students and whose students willingly do their best work.  Stay tuned.

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 concept and practice of teacherly authority.  Earlier blogs can be found here.

• To purchase a copy of Red Brain Blue Brain, Student Feedback or Why We Teach go here