Discussion Reflection: The Having of Wonderful Ideas

8/10/2019 Discussion Reflection: The Having of Wonderful Ideas

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Andrew Moulton

Internship 1 Dr. Stuart CarrollDiscussion Reflection on Eleanor Duckworths The Having of Wonderful Ideas

July 23, 2014

I must admit, I am a fan of Eleanor Duckworths The Having of Wonderful Ideas. I think she

does a nice job of presenting her softer ideas within the framework of Piagets hard-lined (who

would imagine a Swiss to be hard and rigid?) cognitive theories of development. In this intimate

article Ms. Duckworth credits her teacher peers for their intuitive knowledge of student

psychology, humbles herself before their experience, and then sets the stage for her own

suggestions that marries Piagets theories, observations of her peers teacher experiences, and

those of her own into an idyllic set of suggestions.

Eleanor begins her article with her life biography as this is the foundation for her beliefs. One

thing of import is that Ms. Duckworth is unique in that she has the benefit of having spent an

incredible amount of time just studying the subtleties of young people, so when she recommends

sensitivity, I found it hard to believe that a teacher with thirty students in his class could have the

time, or even the skill to respond to students as she would suggest. But on the whole, her

suggestions are easily incorporated into a day, complimenting whatever other curriculum

demands necessary.

This is the second time I have read this article. I still resonate with it. Wonderful ideas are all

around us, teachers need to be sensitive and courageous enough to allow students a little bit of

room for exploration, experimentation, and play. I like to think that I bring a lot of this

sensitivity, exploration, and play to my own work in the classroom. I have not intentionally come

up with unsolvable problems as yet, but I do try to encourage students to consider deeply the


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things they consider as fact. I like this idea of creating wonder in the everyday, and in designing

discussion protocol, desperately wanted to express this through authentic questioning.

I designed a discussion protocol which I hoped would elicit a student-driven discussion about the

main topics of transitional moments, sensitivity to children, the unsolvable question as described

in Hanks example, alertness, and the role of the teacher in cultivating these creativeand

wonderful moments. In arriving at a decision, I considered asking each of them to take a moment

and generate a question from the reading that I would then collect, and answer in turn. But that

felt a little too one-sided. I also considered starting off with a game that I had come across in an

experiential education class that seemed to provide a space ripe for wonderful ideas, but decided

against it because the activity would not be a discussionin any sense of the term. I thought

deeply about the beginning. I wanted to start with their questions, their interests, because the

previous day I had felt unnecessarily and tastelessly steered toward conclusions that were

tangential to the main point of the article, and I feel that essentially this is what Duckworth is

driving at cultivating in the setting of a space ripe for wonderful ideas.

The questions I generated in sequential order were:

What are your questions? Where should we start?

Duckworth never defines what a ripe setting for wonderful ideas looks like, what do you

think a classroom would look like? What would it contain?

If, as Duckworth states, a child can raise the right question for themselves if the setting

is right, what then is the role of the teacher?

Does the idea of allowing students the space to cultivate wonderful ideas seem feasible?

Where are the holes?


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My group members were, from left in a clockwise direction: Kate, Mat, Stuart, Ana, and Nadja; I

was only familiar with Katesteaching history and to a lesser degree Stuarts. I knew from the

previous days group work that Mat was working in SecondaryEducation in the Congo. Ana was

working in primary. I knew very little of Nadja other than what she had presented in class with

regards to her name.

Leaving personal biographies and how they might or might not contribute to the trajectory of the

discussion aside for the moment, I began with a quick assessment in order to gain an

appreciation of where I should begin and of how much prior knowledge the group arrived with. I

asked them to cover or close their eyes and answer the following questions with an affirmative

thumbs up or negative thumbs down. Have you read the article? One person, unnamed, had

not read the article, three had, and the fifth signed a half-raised thumb to which I inferred meant

that he had read some but not all of the article. I had a good idea at this point where I should

start, but in order to be sure, I followed up with, Do you have questions that you have prepared

for this discussion? To which I received the reply (from the unnamed person who had not read

the article), wasnt that your job? Giggles all around, and we were off and running.

I chose my entry point strategically. I wanted to inform the person who hadnt read but not bore

those who had, so the first question I asked (also evaluative) wasbased on gathering everyones

thoughts and focusing them down on the more essential components of the article. Simply

enough, I asked, What are these wonderful moments that Duckworth is referring to? Kate

summarized quite aptly, Ana complimented and Nadja offered something that included Paiget. I

felt that there could be some room needed for explanation and asked for a summary of Piagets

work. That got Mat involved in the conversation. I had established a base of knowledge, a

platform, and jumped in with my first question that I hoped would also build on this base of


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knowledge, Duckworth never defines what a ripe setting for wonderful ideas looks like, what do

you think a classroom would look like? What would it contain? Stu came in with some ideas of

the visual components: posters, plants, Ana added group work in clusters of students, Nadja put

in windows and nice bight daylight, Mat complimented, and Kate summarized with a bit of a

snark in her tone of voice. Although I wasnt completely satisfied with what we had arrived at,

and I think Duckworth might have had very different ideas of what settings were composed of, I

let it go in favor of picking up on Kates skepticism and putting voice to it. She was a little taken

aback that I had picked up on the subtlety of tone, so I had to joke into making her feel

comfortable about raising her opinion.

Is it feasible? I mean, what exactly is the role of the teacher in all of this? If a child can raise the

right question for themselves, and that is all dependent upon physical development as Piaget

suggests, why bother expending the energy? We had arrived at discussion, everyone

participated, and much of it is too much of a whirlwind of emotions to pinpoint with certainty,

but I remember within moments that this discussion, this batting around of ideas resulted in Ana

popping up with a comment that she hadnt realized she had. She identified it in fact, as a

wonderful idea. We all giggled.

Transitioning to another complimentary topic, I brought out the idea of transitional moments,

How can we as teachers create more of these transitional moments? That discussion led me to

bring up Hanks story and the resulting aspects required to cultivate wonderful moments: a

willingness on the part of the teacher to accept student ideas, and an equal willingness to provide

a setting that suggests wonderful ideas.


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The skepticism of the group rose, and a wonderful idea came to me that I immediately posed to

the group: What is the difference between creativity and vandalism?Kate said that there was

always collateral damage to be considered in her fourth grade class. Expensive, hard to obtain

materials were often broken, both by accident and by force, it was inevitable, but it all came out

of her pocket, so she wasnt too sure that she could justify experimenting with, for example, the

projector. A bulb, perhaps, but something expensivenot so much. Nadja mentioned that a lot

of it had to do with recurrence, if the student continually broke things, it was probably not

creative but destructive. Mat put in that a lot of it depended upon writing. It was scientific if

there was writing and reflection, destruction and vandalism if there wasnt. Everything depended

upon how it was framed.

Another opinion brought up that I want to highlight before I transition to the finale is that Mat

brought up that a lot of student work in a group falls by default to students prior and mostly

inadequate knowledge of a topic. Mat is in favor of lectures and structure, the dispersal of

knowledge, before the rather complex group work and often abstract, and time consuming

projects. The group response was mixed and as a whole arrived at a compromise. There needs to

be a balance in the classroom. Students can have some activities, but they also need lecture as

much as they need opportunities for the ah-ha moment. Most importantly, there needs to be a

take away message. Something easily grasped. We liked Duckworths idea of not cover[ing] a

topic but uncover[ing] it.

As a discussion leader I wanted everyone to feel included, well-heard, understood, and

challenged. Judging from the popcorn style responses, I believe I helped foster an equitable

exchange of original ideas that led to unexpected and unanticipated, even wonderful results.


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I wanted to weave my questioning into their interests; aware of my intentions of defining an

appropriate setting and of the role of the teacher, the realities of making space for wonderful

ideas in my peers classrooms, and should it be agreed upon, of the possibilities for incorporating

it into the classroom. I feel successful in this respect as well. Anas wonderful idea as well as

mine would not have arisen in a different, more teacher-centered approach.

I would have liked to have developed more critical questions prior to the discussion, but this is

an acknowledged weakness of mine. I am always super impressed with Nick and how he is able

to synthesize information to arrive at interesting and pivotal questions about a topic. I recognize

that my questions are rather simple and one-dimensional, but their simplicity allows for plenty of

play within the discussion, so Im ok with this handicap.

I think I know a bit more about my classmates, I think they know a bit more about me. I think I

balanced my comments with theirs rather nicely. Everyone, myself included, had about equal

speaking time. I did not dominate, but the discussion moved more or less in a manner that I had

predetermined, covering everything that needed space, paced nicely, but doing it on the students

own turf. I think this is a real skill that I have developed, a sensitivity akin to Duckworths

sensitivity that I channel from one of my most challenging and impressive undergraduate

teachers Bonnie Tai. Watching her compose a class was like watching meditation in motion.

In the end and after I had attempted to summarize to the rest of the class our discussion, I

thanked them all for their honesty and courageousness. I had had an amazing time and it

appeared that from their animated responses, the exploration of the article through our combined

knowledge had made for an interesting if not thoroughly spontaneous and unique experience.

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Discussion Reflection: The Having of Wonderful Ideas