"Not Knowing what you don't Know"

I recently had the occasion to recall the first time I heard the phrase knowing and doing gap. The expression was used with respect to what educators know and what educators actually do. The knowing and doing gap also pertains to leadership in education as well.

But, what if educators or leaders don’t know what to do?

It continues to be my experience that more often or not, it is not what an educator or leader knows that prevents improvement. Rather, it s a matter of not knowing what you don’t know that creates the real impediment to change or transformation.

Not knowing what you don’t know –

At the center of the knowing and doing gap is a huge assumption. That is, it is assumed that educators know what to do but for whatever reason, choose not to do – a deliberate decision.

It is here that the convergence of habits, mindsets, behaviors, capacity, conviction, and commitment collide. Add to these the values and beliefs of the individual and community and the conclusion of deliberate choice begins to make sense. Not so fast.

The aforementioned still requires an assumption.

This, as we know, is dangerous. Assuming that teachers and administrators know what to do is, from my perspective one of our greatest challenges. This is not about doing. This is not about character, integrity, or commitment. Rather it is almost all about knowing and then doing.

Knowing requires learning. In most, if not all cases, adult learning requires unlearning. Unfortunately, the longer we sojourn the more engrained our habits become. We are wired to learn. We never stop learning. We do, however, create and practice habits.

Habits form by doing. Doing requires practice. Overtime habits become routines. We like routines. I have them; you have them. We generally don’t put much thought into our routines. We just, well, do them.

We cannot readily accept that the performance to date of our school system is explained by the culture in which we live. To do so, minimizes at best our influence and therefore significance to unessential. I am not so sure we collectively understand this. Lamenting about students, their parents, this community, the administration, the teachers, the state and so on says more about our insignificance than anything else. Very sobering to say the least.

I don’t think or believe we are insignificant. I don’t believe you do either.

I don’t think or believe that our work is insignificant. I don’t believe you do either.

I do think and believe that we are at a point where we are ready to accept that our knowing and doing is in need.

To address this need, we are intensifying our efforts in human capital development (aka professional development). We must focus our learning on three core competencies – curriculum literacy, instructional literacy, and assessment literacy. The delivery system for this learning will be the creation of two Learning Develop Centers (LDC) – one for secondary and one for elementary that will be housed in a school. Staff will rotate in teams of 4-5 in daylong seminars that in format of 4 consecutive days at a time. Guest teachers will be recruited, interviewed, trained, and expected to teach during a teacher’s participation in the LDC.

Administration will also be expected to participate and fully engage in the LDC. In all, over a three-year period, each instructional division staff (including support and assistant teachers) will receive over 60 hours of intense training in the aforementioned areas. Suffice; the knowing what to do will not be in question.

To address the doing, we will increase the skill and knowledge competencies of all staff in the area of authentically measuring, monitoring, and assessing performance with the stated expectation of improving our work. Shifting from an evaluation model to an improvement model is critical to improving our doing. I am confident that we can address the knowing and doing gap – no more assumptions.