WHAT IS POSSIBLE?
  • Welcome
  • The Aligned Leader Blog
  • Consulting and Coaching Opportunities
  • My TED X Talk
  • My Leadership Blog
  • Run Your Life Podcast Series
  • How PYP PE with Andy Has Helped Others
  • Good Teaching is L.I.F.E
  • The Sportfolio
  • Example Assessment Tasks
  • PYP Attitude Posters (printable)
  • Publications

LEADERSHIP, LEARNING, &  PErsonal Growth

No More Boxes, No More Limits on Learning

7/7/2014

2 Comments

 
Guilty myself of always referring to thinking inside and outside the box
I am now laying down a new law for myself and will police the space inside of my head and thoughts to ensure that I never use the phrase 'thinking inside or outside the box' again when it comes to the learning of my students or my own learning. It kind of struck me on the head when I was taking part in a #nbtchat on Twitter this morning. 

In the workshops that I lead when training PE teachers to deepen their practice, I always make reference to the importance of thinking both inside and outside of the box of physical education when designing the learning experiences they have their students engage in. This is a slide from a keynote that I have used in my last few workshops to emphasize the point that to be the best that we can be as physical educators, we must think both inside and outside the box of PE. 
Picture
As I said, I was struck with the thought this morning that this type of thinking is now wrong, at least in my opinion it is. When taking part in the #nbtchat, I saw the following tweet that was sent out by Dr. Matt Parker, a high school administrator from Waynesville High School in Missouri. I think that Matt brought up an extremely valid point and I completely agree that there is a need for flexibility and to constantly be willing to change things up when teaching and learning in order to be the best learners we can be. 
Picture
However, as educators, I feel that we should no longer use or refer to there being a box at all when it comes to thinking and learning. Simply put, the box reference to me implies that there are limits and constraints to our learning, which should never be the case. This was the tweet that I sent in response to Matt's. I was not trying to challenge Matt but to state my reflective point of view on the subject. 
Picture
As I said earlier in this blog post, I always referred to this box in the workshops that I have led in the past, but I will no longer do this. As educators, our ultimate goal should be to develop students who have nothing but open roads in which to navigate where their learning journeys will take them. This requires subject area boundary lines to be blurred at minimum or removed all together as learning should be very transdisciplinary in nature without any reference to limits at all. So I am doing away with the phrase thinking inside and outside the box from now on. No more boxes, no more limits on learning, especially when it comes to our own learning! Would love to hear your thoughts. 
Picture
2 Comments
Joey Feith link
7/14/2014 01:10:16 am

Andy, great post. We keep thinking of education based on what has been done and researched, which limits our imagination. Thinking of education as a structured, organized process, like a box, will only lead to us building a differently shaped box.

Reading this made me think of this scene from the Matrix: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uAXtO5dMqEI

It's not the box we must change, but rather accept that there is no box and change ourselves.

Reply
Kevin
7/27/2014 01:29:51 pm

This is a great post. I am currently taking a master's course dealing with art integration in PE. This post could not be more true in the situation that I am dealing with. I found this post very refreshing.

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    RSS Feed

    Author

    KAUST Faculty, Pedagogical Coach. Presenter & Workshop Leader.IB Educator. #RunYourLife podcast host. 
    Speaker. Husband, Father, Golfer #Physed #TedX

    Check out my about.me profile!
    Tweets by @andyvasily

    Archives

    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2021
    October 2020
    January 2020
    August 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    June 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    November 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012
    March 2012
    February 2012
    January 2012
    December 2011
    November 2011
    October 2011
    September 2011
    August 2011
    July 2011
    June 2011
    May 2011
    April 2011
    March 2011
    February 2011
    January 2011

    RSS Feed

    RSS Feed

Helping Kids to Achieve Their Best
  • Welcome
  • The Aligned Leader Blog
  • Consulting and Coaching Opportunities
  • My TED X Talk
  • My Leadership Blog
  • Run Your Life Podcast Series
  • How PYP PE with Andy Has Helped Others
  • Good Teaching is L.I.F.E
  • The Sportfolio
  • Example Assessment Tasks
  • PYP Attitude Posters (printable)
  • Publications