Week 1

Key learning

• How to use time lapse and imovie 
• Knowledge does not have a simple definition
• Good followership is just as essential as good leader ship

The video we made:

https://plus.google.com/u/0/113463555525844174967/posts/YjSSbYofPx8

21st Century Skills

This set of 21st century skills is published by the World Economic Forum (2015). Which of these skills do you think will be essential:

• For you on this programme?
• Your students as you change your practice?

What do you hope to achieve during the 32 weeks of this programme?

During the class session, we will ask you to fill in the form at tinyurl.com/learninggoalsTML, to summarise your three main learning goals for your Mind Lab journey. Since you might have already heard some good new ideas from others, your hopes may be a bit different than the reasons you originally added to the Post-its.

What is Knowledge?

For generations, we have pursued a "knowledge-based" curriculum that was developed at a time when access to information was scarce. Today’s digitally connected world offers unlimited, immediate and accurate information to nearly all the world’s questions. As answers to questions we already know provide little, if any, competitive advantage in today’s world it can be argued that education should now focus on stimulating and promoting the discovery of new possibilities.

An undercurrent of change driven by new teaching practices with proven success includes greater focus on functional skills, collaboration, creativity, understanding and evaluation of online data, social and cultural awareness, global connectedness and effective communication. This shift has seen acceptance of the sharing of learning outcomes and a move from ‘covering the curriculum’ to ‘discovering’ it.

‘The fact is that given the challenges we face, education doesn’t need to be reformed - it needs to be transformed. The key to this transformation is not to standardise education, but to personalize it, to build achievement on discovering the individual talents of each child, to put students in an environment where they want to learn and where they can naturally discover their true passions” (Robinson, 2009)

The Illusion of Knowledge

The Web is full of quotes attributed to various famous people. For example this one, allegedly by the late Stephen Hawking; “The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance, it is the illusion of knowledge.”

However there is no evidence that he actually said this. https://quoteinvestigator.com/2016/07/20/knowledge/

Always be careful of your sources when using 'quotes' from famous people - don't fall for the illusion of knowledge!.

Knowledge as Justified True Belief

The Greek word, ‘episteme’, refers to knowledge, and epistemology tries to identify the essential, defining components of knowledge. The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (SEP, 2017a) is one of the sources explaining that knowledge is a justified true belief. That source itself is an interesting one from the knowledge perspective since SEP has been designed so that each entry is maintained and kept up-to-date by an expert or group of experts in the field. All entries and substantive updates are refereed by the members of a distinguished Editorial Board before they are made public.

Social Epistemology in the Internet Era

Until recently, epistemology - the study of knowledge and justified belief - was heavily individualistic in focus. The emphasis was on evaluating individuals apart from their social environment. The result is a distorted picture of the human situation, which is largely shaped by social relationships and institutions. Social epistemology seeks to redress this imbalance by investigating the effects of social interactions and social systems. (SEP b, 2017)

The Internet has given rise to online collaborative tools for aggregating information disseminated among a large number of individuals who may not be experts on the topics they treat. A notable example is the free online encyclopedia Wikipedia. Wikipedia’s goal of making existing knowledge widely available is distinctively epistemic, so the question many want to raise is how well it can achieve its aim.

Can You Trust Wikipedia?

The question is of great practical importance, for on the one hand Wikipedia is one of the most widely used sources of information, while on the other hand there are pressing concerns about its epistemic quality. Since anyone can contribute anonymously to Wikipedia, there is no guarantee that writers of an entry are experts (or even know anything) about the topic at hand. Indeed, Wikipedia’s culture is sometimes said to openly deter experts from contributing. In addition, since contributions are anonymous or at any rate not easily trackable, contributors may vandalize pages or actively try to deceive readers by spreading false information.

Like most people, you might use Wikipedia only to satisfy your curiosity or as a mere starting point for in-depth research, and even according to SEP (2017b) Wikipedia may well be reliable enough for these purposes. Worries about vandalism and deception are in part alleviated by the fact that Wikipedia has several built-in features (such as disclaimers and discussion pages) to help readers assess the reliability of an entry. We hope you learn to use and check those functions.

Fallis (2010) has pointed out that reliability is not the only virtue that matters when it comes to sources of information. In addition, we care about power (how much information can be acquired from a source), speed (how fast the information can be acquired) and fecundity (how many people have access to the source). Wikipedia may well be less reliable than traditional encyclopedias but it is certainly a more powerful, speedy and fecund source of information.

And if you see something that is not true in Wikipedia, shouldn’t you go and suggest a change? .

Types of Knowledge

Banks (1993), in the context of writing about multicultural education, identified 5 types of knowledge.

Type	Definition
Personal / Cultural	The concepts, explanations and interpretations that students derive from personal experiences in their homes, families and community cultures
Popular	The facts, concepts, explanations and interpretations that are institutionalized within the mass media and other institutions that are part of the popular culture
Mainstream Academic	The concepts, paradigms, theories and explanations that constitute traditional Western-centric knowledge in history and the behavioral and social sciences
Transformative Academic	The facts, concepts, paradigms, themes and explanations that challenge mainstream academic knowledge. Transformative academic paradigms may replace mainstream paradigms or coexist with them
School	The facts, concepts, generalizations and interpretations that are presented in textbooks, teacher's guides, other media forms and lectures by teachers.

The following diagram is adapted from Banks (1993) and shows how these 5 types of knowledge interrelate.

The following quote from the article highlights the importance of knowledge construction by students. “An important goal of multicultural education is to transform the school curriculum so that students not only learn the knowledge that has been constructed by others, but learn how to critically analyze the knowledge they master, and how to construct their own interpretation of the past, present and future” (Banks, 1993, p.12).

References

Banks, J. A. (1993). The canon debate, knowledge construction, and multicultural education. Educational Researcher, 22(5), 4-14. Retrieved from: https://education.uw.edu/sites/default/files/people/faculty/banks/The%20canon%20debate,%20knowledge%20construction,%20and%20multicultural%20education.pdf

Fallis, D. (2010). Wikipistemology. In A. Goldman & D. Whitcomb (Eds.), Social Epistemology: Essential Readings (pp. 297–313). Oxford: Oxford University Press. Retrieved from http://14.139.206.50:8080/jspui/bitstream/1/2261/1/Goldman&Whitcomb%20-%20Social%20Epistemology%20Essential%20Readings%202011.pdf#page=308

Robinson, K. (2009). The Element: How Finding Your Passion Changes Everything. Penguin.

SEP. (2017a). Epistemology. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Retrieved 7th of November 2017 from https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/epistemology/#SEP

SEP. (2017b). Social Epistemology. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Retrieved 7th of November 2017 from https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/epistemology-so...

World Economic Forum. (2015). New Vision for Education: Unlocking the Potential of Technology. Retrieved from http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEFUSA_NewVisionforEducation_Report2015.pdf

Followership

Traditional research in leadership has largely relegated followers to the role of passive recipients or, at best, moderators of leader influence and behaviors. However, recent work in the area of followership has begun shifting this focus and emphasising the possibility that followers actively have an influence over leaders, in particular leader behavior. What do you think makes a good follower?

There is a growing body of work that makes clear that some followers can be more influential than others. For instance, Carsten et al. (2010) argue that while some followers may proactively challenge a leader's assumptions and provide information and feedback without being asked to do so, others may voice their opinions to their leaders without challenging them, and still others may follow their leaders and execute their orders without question. This suggests that proactive followers, who voluntarily become a part of decision making and challenge leader decisions or behaviors, should have more influence on leaders than passive or simply active followers.

Followership Styles

Kelley (1998) identifies two ways that people follow: 

1. Do they think for themselves? Are they independent critical thinkers? Or do they look to the leader to do the thinking for them? 
2. Are they actively engaged in creating positive energy for the organization? Or is there negative energy or passive involvement? 

Based on his two dimensions, Kelley found these five basic styles of followership.  

• Sheep are passive and look to the leader to do the thinking for them and to motivate them. If you are the boss and in your car on the way to work, and you’re thinking about what you’re going to get your workers to do and how you’re going to do that, then you’re dealing with sheep.
• Yes-people are positive, always on the leader’s side, but still looking to the leader for the thinking, the direction, the vision. If the leader asks them to do something, they’ve got the energy, and they’ll go forward with it. When they finish that task, they’ll come back to the leader, asking, “What do you want me to do next?” However, yes-people don’t see themselves this way. One of the things I’ve learned is that the different styles of followers will almost always put a positive spin on their style. Yes-people will say, “I’m a doer; that’s my job. The boss gets paid to think, and I’m the one who does the work.” But the rest of us would say there’s more to being a good follower than simply doing.
• Alienated followers think for themselves, but have a lot of negative energy. Every time the leader or organization tries to move forward, these are the ones who have ten reasons why the leader or organization shouldn’t. They are not coming up with the next solution, but are skeptical, cynical about the current plan of action. They have energy, they can think for themselves, they can be smart. But they are not moving in a positive direction. However, they see themselves as the mavericks, the only people in the organization who have the guts to stand up to the boss.
• Survivors sit on the fence and see which way the wind blows. Once they see where things are headed, they’ll get on board. They’ll never be the first on board, but they will never let the leader or organization leave without them. They see themselves as preservers of the status quo. Their internal dialogue goes something like this: “If I got all excited every time there was a new leader or a change of direction, my wheels would be spinning constantly. Leaders come and go. New visions come and go. If I just sit here and wait it out, I won’t have to do all that work.” So they do what they must to survive, but wait it out until the storms of change blow over.
• Effective followers think for themselves, are very active, and have very positive energy. They do not accept the leader’s decision without their own independent evaluation of its soundness. If they agree with the leader, they give full support. If they disagree, they challenge the leader, offering constructive alternatives that will help the leader and organization get where they want to go. Some people view these people as really “leaders in disguise,” but this is basically because those people have a hard time accepting that followers can display such independence and positive behavior. Star followers are often referred to as “my right-hand person” or my “go-to person.”

Authentic followership

If we say that we want out followers to be effective, what kind of characteristics do these followers have? Avolio and Reichard (2008) discuss what they call 'authentic' followership, and characterise it with the following features:

• Psychological Ownership - Sense of ownership, taking responsibility, going beyond the minimum to do what is required
• Trust - Admitting mistakes and encouraging their leaders to do the same, taking on challenges without being asked
• Transparency - Honesty, feedback and effective communication, putting the needs of the group above their own concerns

A Continuum Between Leadership and Followership

Leadership and followership are, of necessity, closely related to one another. Hollander (1992) notes that "the role of follower can be seen as holding within it potential for both assessing and taking on leadership functions. In addition to directing activity, these include decision making, goal setting, communicating, adjudicating conflict, and otherwise maintaining the enterprise". Crippen (2012) makes a further point, that not only do followers take on leadership functions, but that these roles are not fixed. “If a school is truly developing and growing and learning and is collaborative, then each person is leader and follower at various times.” 

References

Avolio, B. J., & Reichard, R. J. (2008). The rise of authentic followership. In R. E. Riggio, I. Chaleff, & J. Lipman-Blumen (Eds.), The art of followership: How great followers create great leaders and organizations (pp. 325-337). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Carsten, M. K., Uhl-Bien, M., West, B. J., Patera, J. L., & McGregor, R. (2010). Exploring social constructions of followership: A qualitative study. The Leadership Quarterly, 21, 543–562.

Crippen, C. (2012). Enhancing authentic leadership− followership: Strengthening school relationships. Management in Education, 26(4), 192-198. 

Hollander, E.P. (1992). The Essential Interdependence of Leadership and Followership. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 1(2),71-75.

Kelley, R. (1988). In praise of followers. Harvard Business Review, 66(6), 142–148.