A teacher I know used to have her harp in the corner of her classroom and regularly played it for her students. From time to time I think about how lucky her students were to have this experience. One of the greatest contributions a teacher can make is to use their diverse skills, talents and strengths to enrich the lives and learning of their students.
Interestingly, Jane Kise in her book Differentiated Coaching: A Framework for Helping Teachers Change, suggests that a teacher’s strengths could possibility block one’s ability to differentiate their instruction. She argues that strengths build up a teacher’s beliefs about how students learn best. These strong beliefs can lock teachers into using practices and strategies that may not be in the best learning interests of all students.
Dr. Kise says, “when I have asked teachers about the students they have the most trouble reaching, or feel most helpless with, they describe students who don’t share their strengths. Teachers need to understand how their strengths drive their beliefs about learning and how those beliefs might affect students who are very different from them.”
For Dr. Kise, the art of professional development is helping teachers understand where their strengths and beliefs lock them into practices that limit their freedom to help students succeed.
What do you think about this?
