Whenever I facilitate Reading Apprenticeship professional development or talk to somebody about bringing Reading Apprenticeship to their campus, I am asked the same question: “How do we convince our colleagues to come to our workshop and to try this in their classes? How do we create buy-in across the disciplines?”
How, indeed! How do you engage any overwhelmed instructor in the enormous project of examining and modifying his or her pedagogical approaches? A psychology professor described his move from a lecture style of instruction to a Reading Apprenticeship style of instruction as “burning down a beautiful house that I had built by hand and that I enjoyed living in, and moving into a walk-up apartment.” Ouch! So how exactly do we sell this process to colleagues?
by Jana Bouc
In Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard, Chip and Dan Heath describe a framework for supporting change that begins with psychologist Jonathan Haidt’s insight that human beings are analogous to an elephant with a rider.
The “Rider” is our rational, analytical side — the person holding the reins who knows you absolutely should not eat that chocolate cheesecake. The “Elephant” is our emotional side, the part that says, “I deserve cheesecake! I’ve had a really rough week. Besides, studies show that chocolate is good for you.” If the Rider and the Elephant disagree, the six-ton Elephant wins — no contest.
Heath and Heath propose, then, that to support change, you’ve got to work with both the Rider and the Elephant. Direct the Rider by explaining what you are doing, why you are doing it, and where it will take you. Motivate the Elephant by creating emotional engagement, making change feel manageable, and creating a sense of community around it. Finally, Heath and Heath suggest shaping the path the Rider and Elephant will travel by tweaking any institutional/environmental structures that could better support the change.
All of us in the community colleges have to cope with massive change right now, and most people who are starting to introduce Reading Apprenticeship professional development to their campuses want to know how colleagues in other contexts have managed to shape those changes without being trampled by a herd of angry elephants.
For example, I wonder how the faculty at Renton Technical College made so much progress so fast? Could it be because their RATS [Reading Apprenticeship Teachers and Supporters] Review publication “rallies the herd?” In truth, we need to know not just what has worked, but why it did in order to adapt different strategies to our unique situations.
Stay tuned for posts showcasing successful Reading Apprenticeship implementation models from around the country — but in the meantime, think about it. What could you do on your campus to direct the Rider, motivate the Elephant, and shape the path for Reading Apprenticeship-oriented change?
Blog Contributor, Nika Hogan
Nika Hogan
Nika Hogan is Associate Professor of English at Pasadena City College (PCC) and the Reading Apprenticeship Community College Coordinator for the Strategic Literacy Initiative at WestEd (SLI). She has a B.A. in English and Women’s Studies from the University of Michigan, and an M.A. and Ph.D. in Multiethnic U.S. Literatures from the University of Massachusetts.
Her work at PCC and with Reading Apprenticeship is focused on developing pedagogical, curricular, and institutional approaches and structures that will maximize the retention and success of all students, especially those entering college at the “basic skills” level. She has been involved in many learning communities through PCC’s Teaching and Learning Center and is currently the Activities Director of a Title V grant designed to scale up those programs to a broad first-year experience pathway that will, if she gets her way, integrate both reading across the curriculum and reading across the community. She lives in Altadena, CA, with her partner, their three-year-old son, and two extremely under-disciplined terriers.
Tags: Change, College and Career Readiness, community college, Literacy, professional development, Reading Apprenticeship
