You Don't Know What You Don't Know!

Working in schools can be frustrating when the pace of growth and change feels slow.

So much so that we had to consciously take a step back and reflect on our expectations. What we recognised was that we were making assumptions about what we think people 'should' know based on our understandings. We were surprised! In reality we were falling into the tempting and often unconscious state of passing judgement. What we realised was that we don't know what we don't know! This simple but powerful statement has been invaluable for us as leaders of learning. It prevents us from stepping automatically into that space of judgement and recognises the reality that new learning is a process, is messy and takes time. We had to more authentically 'walk our talk' around the complexity of learning.

We now share this understanding that we don't know what we don't know with everyone that we work with...it has simply been gold!

As an educator, in what ways do you catch yourself making assumptions?