Written by David Bielik
Predictability and Risk
As educators, we intentionally gravitate toward predictability. In many ways, a learning environment needs to be predictable. We create routines to stay organized and help students organize their thinking (especially students with disabilities or trauma, for example). Keeping things simple and regimented provides stability and allows for easy repetition week after week, semester after semester. Not only that, but when we find something that works well, we stick with it, because many times those elements come from years of practice and success.
These routines, organization skills, and regimens are all important tools in the educational process. However, we often rely too heavily on what we’ve always done and what we already know and lose sight of the important role we play - to encourage risk-taking and create new opportunities to learn and grow. In essence, learning involves students taking risks and trying something they’ve never done before. If that is the expectation for students, educators and administrators must also be willing to take the same risks.
When talking about risk and predictability in education, it’s important to note that the two concepts are not mutually exclusive. You don’t need to choose one or the other. You don’t need to throw away everything you’ve done and worked so hard to create in order to swap it out for a completely new set of methods and materials. In fact, risk and predictability complement each other quite nicely and should coexist in a learning environment. We create a supportive, organized, and predictable environment that enables the ability to go out on a limb and try something new because there is a safety net waiting to catch us when we fall.
Risk Aversion and its Effects
At its most basic level, education requires trust. When educators take risks it shows students that teachers are leading by example and it creates a space where taking risks is an integral part of the learning process. If students can’t trust that educators are also willing to try something new, and make mistakes, how can we expect learners to get out of their comfort zones and learn something new? Modeling to students that you are willing to take a risk helps them develop a roadmap for trying something new, making mistakes, modifying practices, and trying something else as they strive towards success. In other words, it shows them that the experience and the struggle are as much a part of the learning process as the end result.
Taking risks in the classroom also encourages much needed creativity to the educational process. Creativity and risk go hand in hand. I taught high school mathematics for over 10 years, and I heard many times that “Math doesn’t change, so it must be nice to just use the same lessons year after year.” First of all, math does change, just look at the works of Georg Cantor and David Hilbert - but I digress! What’s more important is to realize that the way in which students access and process information changes from year to year, and certainly generation to generation, even if the information itself does not. Trying new things and gathering feedback is essential to ensuring that we are the best educators we can be and that we are helping our students reach their greatest potential.
Adopting New Methods to Inspire Change
As educators, time is at a premium, and trying something new can be very time consuming. Here are some ways that you can use that time efficiently and easily implement new methods and materials in your classroom.
First, make a habit of trying new things. As you are organizing your schedule/lesson plans, build in days where you specifically try something new. Also, tell students what you’re doing and let them in on the process and methods. In doing this you can include students in the evaluative process as well as the activity. This allows you to try something new without breaking your routine and it builds trust with your students.
Second, observe another educator and find something they do that you could try. This could be activities to try, but it could also be something as simple as how they greet students, what their posture is like during instruction, or words or phrases they use. Ask the educator about what you observed and why/how they’ve implemented that in their classroom. Then, you can try it out in your own classroom and see how it works for you.
Above all, remember that taking risks is difficult and messy, and, frankly, it doesn’t always go well. That’s okay. In fact, that’s the point! The goal is not for everything to always go well. The goal is to create a supportive and encouraging space where mistakes and failure are part of the process that leads us to being more creative, curious, successful, and dynamic human beings.