Cultivating Trust

I am an advocate for using Twitter as a tool to expand an educator’s professional learning community.  I follow several teachers, educational researchers, and various subject-specific hashtags.  I even participate in a few twitter chats, which connect me with other education professionals around the country.  For more on this, please read my earlier blog post, Collaborating Like a Boss.

Although the topics of these Twitter chats vary, from technology integration to the 4Cs to personalized learning, I find myself referencing trust as a key component to success in almost all of them.  My most recent example was during a chat on mindset.  The discussion question asked how we can turn resistance or opposition into an opportunity to learn and grow.  Immediately I began to think in terms of a feedback loop, regardless of whether this loop is between colleagues, student peers, or a teacher/student relationship.  The ability to disagree respectfully, to give and take criticism, and thoughtfully apply feedback to our own point of view is essential to being productive members of a classroom, an organization, and our society.

When educators engage in a Professional Learning Community (PLC), we gather with our peers to publicly discuss our work.  PLC members must be willing to not only show our work but also be open to the possibility our version may not be the best it can be.  In this environment, trust needs to be present on both sides.  The person bringing forward his/her work has to trust the colleagues in the room.  They need to trust that their colleagues have something to contribute.  They need to trust that their work will be given thoughtful consideration and that the feedback given can be used to improve the product.  But trust is a two-way street.  The people giving the feedback have to feel that their opinions will be valued and considered.  They have to treat the situation and the person presenting with respect.  And, above all, they have to have demonstrated a willingness to engage in a discussion around possible solutions.  Sometimes we view feedback as criticism of the person we are instead of the work we produced.  This is particularly true when trust isn’t present within a group.  This environment isn’t mandated, it is built over time.

We cannot ask our students to engage in an effective feedback loop unless we have experienced it ourselves and work to cultivate the same level of trust within our classrooms.  We should be encouraging students to present ideas in a more raw form, at a time when feedback, opposition, or dissenting opinions can help to shape a more productive solution.  This strategy will not only produce better products in our classrooms but develop better problem solvers and creative thinkers.

As a bonus, it will also produce more thoughtful citizens.  Our schools have the ability to show students how to engage in a thoughtful debate of ideas that result in a better solution for everyone.