Hello from Zermatt, Switzerland!
In the previous newsletter, I shared ideas on Organizing Factors — autonomy, relevance, and authenticity. These factors are a major part of practicing and performance, creating conditions that lead to more effective learning.
I also recently published a long-form essay on learning; here is the link: That’s How Learning Works?!?! A Comprehensive Model for Understanding the Learning Process.
This newsletter will focus on a few of the Social Factors — belonging, trust, and play. Humans are a social species, so these factors affect the rate and depth of learning; getting these right means more effective learning!
Here is Belcher’s Model for Learning (yes, I’m continuing to send this image in every email — returning to the same image with more information is how we create strong conceptual models! What do you remember from previous emails about the Model for Learning?)
Ideas
Humans are a social species, so social interactions form a fundamental part of the learning process. Although the Model for Learning focuses on the learning process for a single individual, the rate and depth of learning can be changed depending on the social interactions.
Belonging
Belonging is the feeling of being part of a group.
As a social species, we crave a sense of belonging to a group — so much that we will take extraordinary action to prove that we are part of the group. This action is understandable when we think about a group of humans living together in a harsh environment: If a person is not part of a group, the odds of the person surviving go way down. By being part of the group and contributing to the survival of the entire group, the person greatly increases their chance of living well.
Belonging affects the rate and depth of learning in a couple of ways:
- If the person does not belong to a group, the person will focus most (all?) of their energy on finding a group. Their learning will be focused on how the group interacts, leaving little space for learning other knowledge and skills. Think about the challenge of middle school: This is a time of intense social challenges, with students navigating old and new relationships. Without a sense of belonging to one or more groups, students seem to drift; their learning of the knowledge and skills in classes is greatly diminished. In contrast, a student with a strong sense of belonging can focus on both the group and the classes, leading to strong learning in every area.
- The group will have ideas about what knowledge and skills are important, which can affect the way a person in the group responds to different sets of knowledge and skills. Keeping with the middle school example, some groups are not focused on classwork; instead, a group may focus their time and attention on video games. That group of gamers is certainly learning, but learning to play the game may interfere with the learning in class. Belonging in this group means foregoing the learning in class — because the group does not emphasize the learning in class!
Trust
Trust is feeling a sense of safety and security with individuals and the group at large.
Another aspect of being part of a group is trust, which allows group members to become vulnerable to each other. We all have surface-level parts of our lives that we have no problem sharing, but there are more complex and challenging parts of our lives that require vulnerability to share. By sharing these more complex and challenging parts of our lives, we create trust — which then allows the group to become more cohesive and robust.
A phrase that describes the deeper level of trust is “psychological safety,” meaning that group members entrust themselves to each other. Psychological safety allows group members to have a high level of communication, resolve differences quickly and well, and take meaningful lessons from both failure and success. Having strong psychological safety and trust allows individuals in the group and the entire group to greatly increase the rate and depth of learning with the learning process, leading the group to great accomplishments. Think about the great accomplishments by groups in business, sport, or other fields — one of the common characteristics is strong psychological safety and a deep level of trust.
Play
Play is a space for curiosity and exploration.
Our superpower as humans is the ability to share the knowledge and skills embedded in our conceptual models. We have done this through oral storytelling, adding written languages over time. By sharing our conceptual models with each other we sharpen, change, and make new conceptual models — this is what drives forward every part of humanity.
One way to share conceptual models is through play, which creates a space for curiosity and the exploration of new and interesting ideas. Play can help people in a group be curious about new ideas, which then can help individuals or the entire group adopt practices that are better for everyone in the group. Another part is exploration; some new ideas are not great for the group and need to be discarded, but some new ideas are wonderful for the group. By exploring knowledge and skills in different domains, individuals and the group can figure out whether or not to incorporate the new ideas.
Stories
Here are a few stories about these ideas — I would love to hear your stories!
Story 1: Thinking about belonging takes me back to high school; my high school had about 425 students total in a small town in southwest Virginia. I always enjoyed learning through academics and found a group with the same academic enjoyment, plus I found other groups through sport: Football in the fall, basketball in the winter, and soccer in the spring. Looking back I realize how fortunate I was to be with my classmates in the groups (and the teachers and coaches); we pushed each other in every aspect, leading to many wins academically and athletically. The important point is not the wins, rather the important point was the pushing — belonging meant improving every day, which created the conditions for robust learning in many areas. I know not everyone is fortunate in this way, so I am forever thankful for my high school teachers, coaches, and classmates for the sense of belonging we created together.
Story 2: As a teacher, I’ve been a part of many teaching teams. I believe that teaching the same course means that we truly have the same course, with the same curriculum and assessments. Aligning the teaching team on the curriculum and assessments is challenging, requiring a high level of trust within the team. I have also been fortunate to be a part of some incredible teams at my schools, creating a high level of trust and psychological safety with the other team members. We had conflict around the ideas, but we worked through the conflict to create trust and psychological safety. These conditions helped us function as a true team, leading us to help students deeply learn the knowledge and skills in the courses.
Story 3: My wife and I have a 5-year-old and a 3-year-old, so our life is full of play. Our children use play with each other, other younger and older children, and us to explore the world: How does this work? Do I feel safe doing this? What are my boundaries for this? We have been traveling around Switzerland for a bit; one interesting part of the country is the playgrounds. The playgrounds are full of risk for children, presenting them with many opportunities to understand their boundaries and take appropriate risk. We have seen our children grow more comfortable understanding their boundaries — and pushing their boundaries — in the short time we have been here, which has been beautiful to see!
Questions
- To what groups do you belong?
- How did you find or create the groups to which you belong?
- How do individuals in the group and the overall group react to events or actions?
- What level of trust do you have with individuals in the group?
- How are you creating psychological safety for the group?
- What kind of play are you using in the group to explore ideas?
- How curious is the group?
- How does the group help you learn?
- If you are the leader of a group, how are you helping the group have belonging, trust, and play?
Learning happens best when we share what we are thinking, so I would love to hear your answers! Also, you can use these questions as conversations starters with friends and family — hearing their answers would be great!
If this newsletter resonated with you, please share on the socials and with someone who you think would also benefit; I would greatly appreciate any help in spreading these ideas!
Thanks for reading this newsletter — and all the best!
Nathan
