{"id":30392,"date":"2021-10-21T11:15:00","date_gmt":"2021-10-21T15:15:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tiie.w3.uvm.edu\/blog\/?p=30392"},"modified":"2024-08-31T05:15:05","modified_gmt":"2024-08-31T09:15:05","slug":"transferable-skill-deep-dive-foster-communication","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tiie.w3.uvm.edu\/blog\/transferable-skill-deep-dive-foster-communication\/","title":{"rendered":"Transferable Skill Deep Dive: Fostering communication"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n

What do you see when you look at this picture? (For real, I\u2019m not being sarcastic, what do you see?)<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

\"A<\/a><\/figure>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

I\u2019m guessing you said, \u201ccow.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

According to Douglas Rushkoff<\/a>, author of Team Human<\/a>,\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

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\u201cWhen shown a picture of a cow in a pasture, most Westerners will see a picture of a cow. Most Easterners, on the other hand, will see a picture of a pasture.\u201d<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Rushkoff refers to this as \u201cfigure\u201d and \u201cground.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

A shift in focus: from figure to ground<\/h2>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

When educators talk about transferable skills, we often focus on the figure – the student.\u00a0 We talk about assessment, measurement, and how students demonstrate these skills.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

What if, instead, we focused on the ground – the conditions in which students develop these skills? What if we started by talking about the ways in which educators can foster, nurture, and grow these skills?\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

This shift seems especially important given current conditions: students are struggling. Now is not the time for more assessment. Now is the time to nurture and grow students’ strengths.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

That is just what some teachers in the Two Rivers Supervisory Union are doing. TRSU uses the Essential Skills & Dispositions<\/a> framework as their transferable skills. Middle-level teachers there are doing a deep dive by reading more about each skill with two questions in mind:\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

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  1. What does it look like when kids are demonstrating this skill?<\/li>\r\n
  2. What teacher moves create opportunities for students to grow in this skill?<\/li>\r\n<\/ol>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

    Then they are committing to small steps to nurture that skill in their classroom.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

    What does it look like to foster communication?\u00a0<\/h2>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

    Let\u2019s use communication as an example. With the questions above to guide them, the teachers read all about communication<\/a>. Then they surfaced their answers on a Padlet. After discussing their responses as a group, each teacher committed to one specific next step to foster communication with their students. And finally, they brought examples of teacher moves and student work back to examine together and discuss.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

    First, let’s check our assumptions<\/strong><\/h3>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

    I reached out to educator and equity advocate Rhiannon Kim<\/a> to check our biases about our learners, and to glean some insight into what it means to foster communication. Here are some of her thoughts:<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n