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- Herausgeber: Crown House Publishing
- Kategorie: Bildung
- Sprache: Englisch
- Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2016
Written by a real teacher, who puts her ideas to practice in a real classroom, with real children; this book provides a comprehensive selection of step-by-step instructions, case studies, clean questions for SEN and examples of how to effectively introduce Clean Language practice within the classroom. It aims to improve communication and inclusion to develop a productive learning environment for students and teachers alike. It encourages children, teachers and parents to respect the others and their needs. This innovative new book gives teachers the tools on how to include effective clean questions in their lesson planning based on a mini-research project undertaken by Julie in her own classroom with her pupils to discover the benefits of using clean language in the classroom.
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Praise for Clean Language in the Classroom
What is Clean Language? Essentially, it’s a method of communication that removes all filters and prejudices, allowing the person using it to access and begin to comprehend the complex and unique metaphors that shape the perceptions of another human being. This happens through a series of questions that are asked in a particular way, alongside mindful and receptive listening to the responses they elicit; and, when done consistently, can result in astonishing levels of connection and understanding.
In this beautifully thoughtful book, Julie McCracken shares her experience of using Clean Language in classrooms and explains how an increased understanding of its potential has refined her practice over the course of a decade or so – teaching her to trust children’s resourcefulness; to listen, respectfully and without assumptions; to work with them to create the conditions in which they can learn best; and never to limit them through expectations.
Despite many magical moments, there is nothing fey or romantic about Clean Language in the Classroom. It’s a practical and methodological guide to a pedagogical approach which, as a parent whose son was lucky enough to spend two years being taught by McCracken, I can confirm is capable of producing incredible outcomes; not just academically, but in terms of the development of the whole child as a confident, thinking, curious individual, always looking for where his learning will take him next.
Helen Mulley, editor, Teach Secondary
I love this book for two reasons. Firstly, it is an accessible, humble and practical guide that uncovers a really powerful take on what I have always held to be one of the most important disciplines in a teacher’s classroom repertoire – the language used. Secondly, at a time when reductionist behaviour strategies driven by fear and control are the state-sanctioned formula for classroom relationships, Julie McCracken proves that a careful, subtle and humane approach to understanding what is going on in children’s heads is not only possible but highly desirable.
Ian Gilbert, founder, Independent Thinking
The power of effective questioning to transform learners’ understanding is undeniable. Julie’s book provides an outstanding guide for teachers who want to use questioning strategies that have become well established in therapy and counselling to promote deep thinking and reflection. Definitely one for every teacher’s bookshelf.
Richard Churches, Principal Adviser for Research and Evidence Based Practice, Education Development Trust
What’s so gorgeous about Julie McCracken’s book is not just the practical way Clean Language is introduced and used but also the stories of how children develop the skills to learn together in curiosity and collaboration. This is a wonderful resource for teachers and for their pupils – it brings together a simple tool, innovative applications and inspiring stories. It’s a must for any teacher looking to extend their own listening and questioning skills, who truly believes that children will learn what they see and hear.
Caitlin Walker, developer of Systemic Modelling, author of From Contempt to Curiosity
At last! Since I first heard Julie McCracken tell her stories of Clean Language in the classroom, several years ago now, I’ve been looking forward to the day she’d be ready to share them with a wider audience. This book delivers her infectious enthusiasm, her fascinating ideas and her practical tips for applying David Grove’s Clean Language. She’s used it with young children in dozens of classroom situations, as well as with her colleagues – and for herself.
Judy Rees, Clean Language coach, facilitator and trainer, co-author of Clean Language: Revealing Metaphors and Opening Minds
This book, which is by turns inspirational, funny, heart-warming and thought-provoking, contains all you need in order to absorb clean concepts and put them into practice in your classroom.
Just add curiosity and enough bravery to trust the children (and the process) so that you follow through with your first few clean activities, even when habit is pushing you to take over as ‘the expert’ in the classroom. You’ll soon find that this surprisingly simple yet profound approach really does provide the conditions for children to actively engage with learning, raise the level at which they think and reason, work out how to get past being stuck and develop confidence and self-belief.
Wendy Sullivan, Clean Change Company, co-author of Clean Language: Revealing Metaphors and Opening Minds
This book could – and should – transform the face of education. Julie McCracken has combined her in-depth knowledge of clean approaches and her extensive experience of applying these creatively and effectively in the classroom to achieve extraordinary results. The book is well-written and offers a wealth of tools and guidance. Teachers must read it!
Lynne Cooper, coach, facilitator and trainer, co-author of The Five-Minute Coach
During my career I have been privileged to work with many students who have genuinely enquiring minds. It is not always easy to know how to nurture an enquiring attitude – there is often much about formal education that seems to discourage curiosity. How heartening, therefore, to find that Julie McCracken has provided such a readable, practical guide to enabling schoolchildren and their teachers to use the simple yet immensely productive tools of Clean Language. Time and again within these pages Julie demonstrates how the astonishing capacity of young children for enquiry and self-management can be let loose, often by using just one or two questions. Naturally, given Julie’s professional experience and expertise, this book is concerned with schools; even so, its contents have the potential to inspire and be applied by educators at all levels.
Dr Paul Tosey, independent consultant, Honorary Visiting Fellow, Surrey Business School, University of Surrey
Clean Language in the Classroom is the first book to describe how Clean Language and Symbolic Modelling can be highly effective in education. It is written from first-hand experience and includes many inspiring examples of how metaphor is vital to learning and understanding. Julie McCracken’s trust in her pupils’ ability to self-organise shines through, with children as young as five using Clean Language questions for their own and their fellow students’ learning. The stories of how this approach helps students overcome their difficulties are heart-warming. We highly recommend this book, not only for teachers but for all educators.
James Lawley and Penny Tompkins, authors of Metaphors in Mind
The real beauty in this book is how Julie acknowledges just how big and profound the thoughts of a child can be. Any educator who uses these techniques with this attitude, and excitement about children being generators of big profound ideas, can’t not empower them.
Gemma Bailey, Director, NLP4Kids
For Ruby, Kameron, Kira and Max:
Don’t limit a child to your own learning, for he was born in another time.
Anon.
Contents
Foreword
Some years ago we were part of a team employed to support an underperforming school to turn itself around. Very poor exam scores and behaviour problems meant the school was one step away from being put into special measures by Ofsted.
To start with we wanted to find out how the school currently operated, so one of our team recorded 20 lessons to assess how the teachers taught. She reported that there were only two examples of questions asked to which the teacher did not already know the answer. This made the pupils’ answers either ‘right’ or ‘wrong’. The pupils had learned to play the game they called ‘school’ by trying to guess what the teacher was thinking, rather than developing the skills of learning to think and reason for themselves.
Compare this to Julie McCracken’s approach in Clean Language in the Classroom. Almost all of Julie’s questions can only be answered by the pupils themselves. She listens exquisitely to their answers, especially the metaphors they use. And she accepts whatever is said as an accurate description of their way of thinking – even if spelling a word is like ‘frying sausages’ or being able to read hard words is like ‘a little shiny tickly star in my neck’. Julie realises metaphor is vital to learning, and that once a child has a metaphor for how they do something, they will automatically look for ways to improve it.
This in itself is radical, but Julie goes further. She introduces the principles of self-organisation into her classroom. While following the curriculum, she encourages children as young as 5 to work out for themselves how they are going to do the lesson, decorate their classroom or create a school play. It takes a lot of trust in the pupils’ inherent creativity and their capacity to work collaboratively. This trust has evolved from the repeated experience of seeing children individually and collectively prove that they are capable of much more than is generally expected of them.
Julie’s book is packed with examples of using a ‘clean’ approach in education and making it central to all that she does. And while there are other methodologies that have a similar philosophy, her book is the first that describes how to apply the elegance of David Grove’s Clean Language and the artistry of our Symbolic Modelling to children’s learning in the classroom.
You may start out using this book simply for its clean techniques. However, if you persist, a clean approach may prove so valuable that it will form the basis of your whole pedagogy and become ‘just the way we do things around here’.
We wholeheartedly recommend that you apply Clean Language in the Classroom to see the difference it makes to your teaching and your students.
James Lawley and Penny Tompkins, London
Acknowledgements
In bringing this book to completion, I can’t begin to express my gratitude for the generous encouragement and support I’ve received from Wendy Sullivan, Marian Way, James Lawley, Penny Tompkins and Judy Rees. They have championed and challenged me: providing expertise, outstanding feedback and regular nudges (‘Where’s that book?’) through the age it’s taken me to write it. They have been sound mentors and remarkable role models. Thank you for sticking with me for the long haul, folks.
I thank Victoria Trott and Phil Swallow who inspired me to begin, Kylie McCracken for her wonderful illustrations, and Jonathan Way, Sonya Smith, Annabel Strachan, Robyn Strachan, Angela Addy and Ruth Huckle for reading and commenting on drafts. Marian also kindly contributed material for Chapter 19 on PE and Ruth for Chapter 20 on music. I thank Geoff Tuff for kindling the spark, for being Geoff and for sharing an infectious curiosity.
Thanks to Graham who has tolerated (for the most part) my long hours on the computer and provided food, drink and chocolate, to my family who have been supportive to the end and have accommodated my ‘little obsession’, and to Lynn, Lois and Jane for their steadfast support and encouragement. Their critical friendship has supported my development for years.
I send heartfelt thanks through cyberspace to Patricia Shepheard who has been (virtually) alongside me, through long nights into mornings, encouraging me on to the finish line, to Trevor who never once complained, and to my parents who have listened patiently on the phone for hours (days … weeks …) as I’ve reflected on ideas.
Writing this book has been a delight, an education and a pain. I’m indebted to the many people who badgered me to create it in the first place (you know who you are), to the many colleagues and clients who have influenced my thinking over the years, and to the trainers and authors whose ideas have informed and inspired me.
The staff at Crown House have supported me with patience, kindness and professionalism to bring this book to completion, for which I am deeply grateful.
Every one of you has taught me much about generosity of spirit and teamwork. Thank you.
Naturally, I would like to acknowledge the pioneering work of David Grove. Although I didn’t have the privilege of knowing him, he has left such a valuable legacy and the influence of his work permeates everything you will read here.
And finally my thanks go to the governors, staff and parents of St Peter’s School in Coggeshall who have encouraged and supported me, and most importantly to the children – co-creators – each one a reason for its existence.
Introduction
Learning is a private problem-solving process, the student’s problem being to create a personal understanding of the skills and knowledge to be learned.
Geoff Petty, Teaching Today (2009)
A speaker describes aspects of his spacecraft model while the group ask enquiring questions to elicit more detailed information about it from him. They formulate their questions carefully and wait for opportune moments to ask them. All the while they are listening to the questions of the others as well as to the answers. The group members notice, for each question, whether or not it’s effective in unearthing more information about the model.
Some group members offer feedback to fellow questioners, coaching them to improve their performance. The speaker offers feedback too, so that individuals know whether their question has challenged and opened up his thinking. The group discover more about the model and more about effective questioning – honing their skills in a collaborative effort.
When questions lead the speaker to ‘yes’ or ‘no’ answers, the speaker says so. The speaker then offers the questioner an opportunity to rephrase their question so it encourages further exploration. If the questioner can’t devise a more open question, group members offer suggestions.
The atmosphere is comfortable and supportive. No one is subdued or anxious about making unsuccessful attempts at questioning. They know their courage to have a go is held in high esteem by the group. The group ensures that everybody has the opportunity to contribute, taking account of individual interests and comfort levels.
As I sit across the room, apart from them, watching and learning, a question pops into my head and I ask it. The speaker, supported by a couple of others in the group, coaches me to improve the delivery of my question, which becomes more open and effective as a result. When I deliver the new ‘improved’ version, the speaker offers me the thumbs-up and some verbal feedback before he answers it, ‘Good question. It really made me think!’
This is clearly a collaborative learning group. Individuals support each other to develop skills and, in doing so, become more skilful themselves as questioners and as teachers and coaches of questioning. I notice they are beginning to distinguish levels of thinking, listening and questioning. For example, they are developing hierarchies:
When you ask about the cat’s tail you get more detail about the tail, but when you ask about the cat itself you have to think about the whole cat species and think what kind of cat. You may have to think about the whole animal kingdom!
They contribute to debates about particular questions – take the question, ‘And is there anything else?’ for example:
It’s a closed question because you can just say ‘no’ or ‘yes’ but it still really makes you think, doesn’t it? So it’s open because it makes you think … it opens your brain.
They’re excited by these conundrums. They muse about questions, their effects and their functions.
These people are 5, 6 and 7-year-old children in a mixed-age infant classroom. They had been using Clean Language for a year and were able to reflect on thinking, listening and questioning with aplomb. They had developed a high level of respect for each other’s views and were able to conduct collaborative learning activities independently, interacting confidently with the adults in class as fellow members of the learning team.
A visiting initial teacher training tutor, impressed by the way the children were able to grapple with ideas, observed: ‘It’s very easy indeed to forget that these are Year 1 and Year 2 children, as their thinking and articulation of it are at the level of older (junior) children … and that doesn’t happen by accident!’
I stumbled upon Clean Language in 2004 and could see potential for an approach, in education, that enables people to lay their thinking out clearly so they can examine it, work with it and share it with others. I could see the potential for myself as a teacher to understand more about my own thinking and learning processes, and those of others, and for my pupils to be able to examine their thinking and learning and their own strategies. We already aimed to do this in schools and a clean approach offered a way to do it more effectively.
Teachers work hard to develop independent and collaborative learning environments and know well the benefits for children. A clean approach can amplify these benefits. On the face of it clean questions are just questions – and simple ones at that – but this belies the depth of thinking and reflection your pupils will experience when you use them.
What is Clean Language?
Clean Language is a communication process developed by counselling psychologist David Grove in the 1980s and distilled into a model known as Symbolic Modelling by James Lawley and Penny Tompkins in the mid-1990s (see Chapters 5 and 6).
Clean Language is founded on listening and a particular kind of questioning, which uses ‘clean questions’, formed by taking a person’s own words and blending them with a question which has been designed to be as free as possible from assumptions about what the answer might be.
Clean Language supports teachers as facilitators of learning
Facilitating is not about transmitting content. Content is developed through the reflections and actions of learner(s), while learning facilitators influence to establish the climates conducive to this learning.
If you are going to use Clean Language to its best potential for you and for the children you teach, in addition to learning how to use it, you will need to develop an appreciation of why to use it and to consider the contexts in which to use it for maximum impact. The stories, transcripts, information and exercises that follow will help you, as will reflecting on your practice as a facilitator and reflecting from the perspective of a receiver of facilitation.
The questions
You are probably curious to know what the questions are. A list of the most commonly used questions appears below. The first four questions tend to be used most often. These form the focus of the seven week journey (see Chapter 2), so you will be equipped with a strong foundation, right from the start.
The bracketed ellipses (…) denote a person’s exact words, so their actual words will need to be inserted here when you ask one of the questions.
… and is there anything else about (…)?… and what kind of (…)?… and where/whereabouts is (…)?… and what happens next?… and then what happens?… and what happens just before?… and where does/could (…) come from?… and that’s (…) like what?… and is there a relationship between (…) and (…)?… and when (…), what happens to (…)?… and what would (…) like to have happen?… and what needs to happen for (desired outcome)?… and can (…) happen?There are around 25 additional questions suited to specific contexts which are used much less often and are beyond the scope of this introductory book.
Where can you use a clean approach?
In classes we’ve called Clean Language questions detail detective questions (DDQs for short), because when the children first began to use them they soon recognised that the questions elicit more detail in whatever context they are used: from observations of a simple leaf, to pondering experimental design, to a maths calculation, to a philosophical insight, to a social, emotional or behavioural issue.
Clean Language can be used effectively in a broad range of contexts and a clean approach can infuse your classroom with a learning buzz. The following examples will give you an idea of its scope.
Kathy would avoid work tasks using a range of avoidance tactics with her teaching assistant. One day she said she had a tummy ache just as they were about to begin the task. The teaching assistant, starting to tire of Kathy’s resistance to work, asked me to intervene. Clean questions revealed that she had a pain, right in the middle of her body, that came when she missed her mummy, and what needed to happen was for her to spend some time each evening with her mummy before she went to bed. What needed to happen for that to happen? To telephone and tell her mummy. I telephoned mum and relayed what Kathy had described. Mum had been busy for a while now but had pressed on with her project, despite feeling guilty about it. That evening she spent 20 minutes reading with Kathy before bed. They scheduled short enjoyable ‘together times’ every evening. Kathy’s tummy aches stopped, her spirits lifted and her work rate improved. You can see that without the questions we would have probably acted on our own mistaken assumptions – and the problem would no doubt have got worse instead of better.
Jim’s handwriting was uncontrolled and unreadable. The harder he tried, the shakier his handwriting became. He worked away at fine motor control activities, which were designed to help him, but matters just got worse. Control and fluency in handwriting needn’t be just about the hands, of course. One day I asked Jim if he knew any good hand-writers. He said that he did. I asked him to think of each one in turn to get a sense of what it’s like to be a good hand-writer. With the aid of a few clean questions, Jim identified some common attributes and demonstrated them by answering in actions rather than words. I could see that, for Jim, good hand-writers have a confident, relaxed state, which shows in the way they walk. I asked him to show me how a good hand-writer walks. Jim walked around the room with a kind of cool half strut, half swagger. He practised, taking a few circuits of the room to get into the groove of the ‘good hand-writer’ walk. Incredible as it seems, within 10 minutes he sat with a flourish and wrote like a good hand-writer. The improvement in his writing was stunning.
John was frequently frustrated. He jumped around the classroom and was often in trouble. Behaviour management helped to lessen the disruption and frustration but it was still a problem, both to him and the rest of the class. When the class modelled ‘what we’re like when we’re learning at our best’ he shared how he’s like a frog who has to jump from lily pad to lily pad to connect with the learning. When the rest of the class became aware of his needs, they were able to accommodate the jumping around and asked for him to do it in a corner of the class, out of their way. He cooperated with the request and began to jump without disturbing his classmates. The frustration was relieved and the behaviour became manageable.
A class of 5, 6 and 7-year-olds planned, practised and performed a Christmas play for their parents without any content input from me (or any other adults). Clean facilitation helped them to focus on what they wanted to have happen, what needed to happen in each practice session, what happened in each rehearsal, what had just happened (as they reflected on rehearsals) and what needed to happen next to improve performance. The children planned and produced all the scenery and props as well. It was clear that they were organised and on the ball throughout, and they gave a confident, flexible and polished performance. During the rehearsals I didn’t have to tell a single child to sit still and be quiet or to pay attention – not once (see Chapter 21 for more on this)!
A ‘low-ability’ maths set of 7-year-olds were struggling with mental calculations. They were practising using a mental number line. They’d had plenty of experience using physical, written and mental number lines during the three years they had been in school but most were still finding it difficult. I asked the few who were working confidently if they would be happy to share their thinking, so we could all know how they were doing it. I asked Clean Language questions to elicit their thinking processes.
What a surprise! Instead of conventional straight, left-to-right lines (e.g. 0 ____10), they were picturing number lines in much more creative and diverse ways. One child pictured a vertical ladder about 50 cm in front of his face with zero being the bottom rung and the other rungs representing numbers appropriate to the task (e.g. 1, 2, 3 or 5, 10, 15 or 10, 20, 30 and so on). Another child sensed not a number line but a series of numbers arranged, as if emerging from his tummy, in a curved, horn-like shape – the higher the number, the larger its size and the higher its location. A third child imagined a line like a long, straight strand of wool with woollen-ball numbers. She imagined a small fluffy kitten pouncing from number to number as she counted forwards or backwards, as though it were pouncing on a ball of wool. As she described it our hearts melted (it’s the cutest maths strategy I’ve ever come across!).
Those who were working less successfully shared their strategies too. Many of them pictured their mental number line running from right to left and were putting all their attention on trying to force it to turn around to match my left-to-right example, rather than using theirs to derive the answer. The children spent some time having a go at each other’s strategies, as if they were their own, and discussed which worked well for them and why, and which didn’t. Individuals then chose to take on the strategy that was most effective for them (I took on the bouncy kitten). Following this session their mental work became noticeably faster and more accurate, and their confidence and enthusiasm for mental work increased. In addition to any maths gains, these children had become more experienced at thinking about thinking through working metacognitively like this – a benefit for their learning in any subject area.
Why use a clean approach?
Ken Robinson and Lou Aronica (2009) show us the value of nurturing people’s innate nature and Carol Dweck (2007) promotes the application of effort to achieve success. Essentially this book is about neither and it’s about both. It’s about emerging innate nature and how you can facilitate that.
Clean Language can help your students to find out more about who they are and how they can be at their best and to experience the intrinsic motivation and curiosity that this naturally ignites. It helps get to the nitty-gritty to reveal what they know – because minds and bodies hold more information than you might at first imagine and Clean Language encourages that information to emerge.
Human beings are complex systems operating within complex contexts within their environment. Rarely will one discrete cause have a simple and predicable effect. Everything depends – there are so many variables. If I ask John to settle to his work, his response will depend on the nature of the work, the level of his understanding, the quality of our relationship, who is sitting next to him, his parents’ attitudes to this kind of work and to school, whether he had a late night last night, whether he has eaten lunch, whether he is hungry or thirsty, what is happening in the classroom around him, what happened just before, what he thinks is going to happen next, the noise level in the classroom, the temperature in the classroom, the space he has for his elbows, his current interests and a whole host of other things.
In teaching, we spend time and attention trying to adapt material to the individuals in our charge. There is a current focus on personalised learning, where children engage with lesson objectives, devise success criteria and monitor their own progress towards outcomes. Children actively and collaboratively assess their work and make improvements as they go. We ask them to share their strategies with each other and contribute to the class learning community.
We promote pupil voice in a variety of ways – by encouraging personal choice and decision-making in class, by supporting children’s representation on school councils, by helping children to express views on local and topical issues beyond school and more.
Yet despite our best efforts to engage children and promote independent learning, our attempts are almost inevitably framed within an adult-led paradigm which (paradoxically) works against the good intentions. A clean approach helps teachers to step beyond their own paradigms so they can appreciate those of their pupils and facilitate learning from within the children’s own frames.
With regard to motivation, for instance, Clean Language can help children (and you) find and model exactly what they need to motivate themselves. There are many models of motivation and one size does not fit all, but a clean approach offers a bespoke system for each learner, devised by learners themselves.
In the area of behaviour management, there are many successful, well-researched strategies but they don’t suit everybody or every context, and most work best with children who present the least problematic behaviour. When the strategies don’t work with an individual, then what happens? A clean approach can facilitate children to tailor their own solutions (see the example on page 23). As Janusz Korczak (1992 [1925]: 139) observes: ‘If the grownups only asked us, we’d advise them correctly … Why, we know better what bothers us; we have more time to think about and observe ourselves; we know ourselves better … We are experts of our own lives and affairs.’
We all interpret the world differently. The extent of these differences are not readily apparent in ordinary conversation but are often at the root of miscommunications when we are unaware that other people have different interpretations/meanings/perceptions, and we presuppose that other people’s interpretations/meanings/perceptions are the same as our own.
Practice task
Take a word – for example, ‘dog’.
What comes to mind for you when someone says the word ‘dog’?Ask four or five pupils what comes to mind for them when they think ‘dog’ (elicit the finer details).Compare their responses.You will find that everyone has a different interpretation of the word (e.g. size, shape, colour, location, movement, context, single, member of a pack, their emotional response and relationship to it). Some differences may be obvious, some subtle and some hidden until you draw out the fine details.
Knowing that we all have different models of the world, the challenge is one of communication. We so often imagine that we know what pupils (or colleagues) mean by the words they say or the actions they take or the attitudes they adopt (and vice versa).
So how does a teacher take account of individual differences when it’s clear they can’t actually know what the differences are? A clean approach works to unveil those idiosyncratic ways of thinking and experiencing so we can be aware of them in ourselves and in others. When we’re aware of them we can find more effective ways to connect. All good teachers do this in some measure but:
Without using Clean Language they are not able to prevent themselves from unintentionally ‘contaminating’ children’s thinking.Without using Symbolic Modelling (see Chapter 5) they won’t get beneath the surface of children’s thinking to the depth of idiosyncratic structures, processes and metaphorical thinking which underpin each child’s learning and not learning.Without embracing a clean approach (see the section on clean philosophy on page 20), they will find it difficult to work with the wholehearted trust of the children and the approach.1Embracing diversity
Clean Language has been effective in all sorts of ways: helping children with learning, conflict and behaviour management, thinking skills, creativity and confidence. Clean facilitation skills have increased my capacity to respond flexibly in the classroom and brought a renewed sense of the precious beauty of each class member and their unique perspective on the world. There can be no room for bemoaning inadequacies when you are delighting in the gift that is them.
The role of metaphor
The term ‘metaphor’ is used throughout this book to denote analogous descriptions generally (e.g. it includes similarities and comparisons such as similes). David Grove noticed that clients would naturally describe their experiences using the language of metaphor. They would describe one thing, their actual experience, in terms of another – for example, ‘like in a dark tunnel’. When he directed their attention to the metaphor, shifts and changes would often occur. They might notice a light at the end of the tunnel for instance.
Grove observed that when changes occurred in clients’ metaphorical representations like this, they were paralleled by changes in their ‘real world’ perspective. For example, a client who has noticed a light at the end of a tunnel may begin to feel more optimistic about his situation and behave more positively. How come?
What’s the link between the metaphors we use and our real lives?
When you stop to consider that many, if not most, of our concepts and our thought processes are metaphorical, then you can see how our perspectives, understandings and behaviour are intimately linked to our symbolic (metaphorical) representations.
If you think of learning as a journey, for instance, it may entail a starting point (a location) and an end point (a destination), which you may or may not reach. It might also involve turning points, difficult terrain, an easy ride, the possibility of getting lost, mapping, diversions and obstacles in the way of progress.
If you think of learning as networking (or as building a network), it’s different. A network can build from any starting point or from a range of starting points. It can grow in all directions. A network can become richer in both the number and the kinds of connections and may become complex. Networking may entail randomness, growth, cross-curricular working, cross-domain thinking and systems thinking, for instance.
If you think of learning as soaking up like a sponge, it’s different again – learning through effortless absorption perhaps? There is probably only so much you can soak up before you become saturated. And then what happens? Different metaphors have different implications for you as a learner.
Consider these other common metaphors for learning. What might they entail?
Learning as:
Filling a container with knowledge.Building a machine.Tuning a radio receiver.Programming a computer.Practice task
Pause for a few moments and reflect on your own metaphor for learning (if you have more than one, just focus on one for now).
What are the implications of holding this particular learning metaphor?How does this metaphor enable you as a learner?How does this metaphor constrain you?Does this metaphor serve you well?Practice task
Imagine you held a different learning metaphor (choose one of the examples given above or one you recognise in someone else – a pupil perhaps).
How might this metaphor enable you as a learner?How might this metaphor constrain you?Would this metaphor serve you well?Practice task
Now take on a third learning metaphor.
How might this metaphor enable you as a learner?How might this metaphor constrain you?Would this metaphor serve you well?Metaphors, then, are the essence of our thoughts, and the particular metaphors we use structure concepts in ways that constrain thinking. Lawley says: ‘And that is both a blessing and a curse. It allows us to take a certain perspective and think things through without getting overwhelmed by options. On the other hand, there will be things we will not see’ (personal communication, 2014).
These constraining influences usually go unnoticed, but by using Clean Language, children and teachers can become more aware of the structure of their thinking and build capacity to engage with it – what’s there becomes more apparent, so constraints become more tangible and can be addressed and appreciated.
How does awareness of the role of metaphor impact work in the classroom?
Maintaining an awareness of the role of metaphor in learning has important implications for working with children developing key concepts. This is because:
Children (and adults) often equate their metaphors with reality – not yet recognising them as representations of reality.Some metaphors are useful for some contexts and not for others.Some metaphors are more useful than others (in any given context).No one metaphor works well for all contexts.When children understand the nature of metaphor, they can create their own (i.e. for a concept or learning point) and not be reliant on the teacher’s or the ones they meet in books.
