June 25, 2024, and June 20, 2023
There is an energy crisis happening in education now. The crisis is impacting millions of young learners each day in schools across the country and much of the world. The crisis is empty classrooms across the U.S. and thousands of highly skilled educators seeking refuge outside the profession.
Unlike other energy crises, this one does not rely on anything other than how we teachers structure our classroom time. This energy crisis isn’t expensive to fix, nor does it take a long time to address. However, it takes a shift in practice and perspective—one that is decades overdue. Teachers whose energy is being drained by the chaos of recent years are finding deep wells of energy and student engagement when they shift to PULL new ways of learning that are profoundly student-centered and fundamentally adaptive.
A teacher’s role is vital to the success of happy and healthy students, but in recent times, teachers have expressed that the amount of work they are asked to complete by their supervisors is beyond what they can handle. Teachers fleeing the field of education is not a new phenomenon—it has only exploded in the past few years. Teachers feel that there is not enough time in the day to complete all of the work; they often arrive before the first bell and stay far after the last buses have pulled away.
This overwhelming feeling of too much work causes the kinds of burnout that are prevalent in education. The traditional systems of learning, built around antiquated ideas from the late 19th century by manufacturing consultants, like Frederick Taylor, have set the culture and mindset of PUSH. In a PUSH system, almost all of the responsibility lies with teachers: They have to read the learning standards, interpret them for their students, create and modify content, plan the pacing of content for 30 different minds, find ways to deliver content to all students at the same time, and finally, assess the content. This is all before teachers deal with classroom management, meetings, differentiation, paperwork, guidance, advisory, and administration. The roots of this PUSH system and its problems are described in detail in Todd Rose’s excellent book, The End of Average: Unlocking Our Potential by Embracing What Makes Us Different.
The culture of PUSH centers on teachers and their ability to hold everyone’s attention, provide all of the content, and find the right pacing for every child in the room. When working with elementary students, this means the teacher works with the same group all day, constantly moving through different content areas, always moving, assessing, and pivoting. For middle and high school teachers, this means using the “sage on the stage” model where they prepare the visuals and activities, and deliver the content several times a day to over 120 students.
PUSH education models are adult-centric. Historically, this model worked well in education because the teachers specialized in content areas and helped their students memorize information that students would need throughout their lives. Outside of school, students and adults could read to access new information, but new knowledge was hard to access and work was based on the production of mass-produced goods. A teacher’s job was, like a foreman in a factory, to push as much information as possible into their students, the ‘workers,’ before students left the classroom because knowledge was scarce and time in school was limited.
With the existential crisis of teacher shortages looming in every state, thought leaders and policymakers in education need to re-evaluate the models that are being implemented in classrooms around the country. Instead of relying on traditional PUSH-based systems, we must listen to what the stakeholders in education need.
What are the needs of our current teachers and students?
The most efficient, effective, and empathic way to move forward in all educational spaces is to transition our mental and instructional models from PUSH-based to PULL-based. This means removing the responsibility of all learning from the teacher and placing it on the main stakeholder, the student. In Agile PULL-based systems, teachers are respected with the autonomy to create their units that reflect the standards. They begin with developing Wide-Open Questions that capture students’ attention through the use of compelling and complex issues tied to real-life situations. Teachers then create a backlog, or list of assignments, resources, and opportunities for hands-on learning that students can PULL from. This means that teachers can mandate the use of content and skills, but students have real choice and autonomy in their daily learning. Finally, teachers work as learning guides instead of “sage on the stage” style leaders. In Agile PULL-based classrooms, students must use the knowledge they learned from completing the teacher’s learning backlog to find a solution to the Wide-Open Question. The students are responsible for building connections, researching and finding new information, and working together to solve complex real-life problems while the teacher is free to move between small groups asking questions and having the opportunity to personalize the learning experience. This solves two critical issues education is facing:
- Teacher burnout due to overwork and lack of autonomy.
- Student apathy due to lack of purpose and their passive role in PUSH-based classrooms.
An Agile PULL-based classroom is different from a PUSH-based traditional classroom in several critically important and consequential ways. In PUSH-based classrooms, students are often seated in forward-facing desks with the teacher leading a lesson from the front of the room. The conversation is often in one direction, and the teacher is often responsible for over 80% of the speaking, while students sit quietly, taking notes. We can visualize this by thinking of the teacher pushing content like water flowing from a hose into a bucket. The hose is doing all of the work, while the bucket sits retaining whatever water does not splash out the sides. The hose is not active in helping to collect more water.
PUSH-based classrooms are hard for teachers to manage. In modern classrooms, teachers often work with at least 30 students at a time, with different needs, levels of maturity, interests, and hobbies. For the teacher, this turns a simple lecture into a performance. They must keep the attention of 30 different brains that all function in different ways, while continuously pouring new knowledge out. It is a full-out exercise of stamina and showmanship if the teacher is able and willing to put out that much energy every day for months on end. Teachers not only need to know their content but put on a show that keeps students engaged. Otherwise, behavioral problems arise from all sides of the room. At the end of the day, teachers are exhausted from repeating the same lesson 5 times, performing, pivoting, and in their free time, planning and assessing.
In Agile PULL-based classrooms, there is an entirely different energy. Students are arranged in self-selected groups, where the diversity of learning styles and interests is highlighted and celebrated. Student teams are largely independent and work to solve the same Wide-Open Question. They have the autonomy to navigate their learning path. Students sit where they can work and focus on each other instead of where the teacher is in the room. The teams are talking, sharing, and brainstorming. Often an Agile PULL-based room is buzzing with hive-like energy. Work is being PULLed from the teacher-created backlog by each team at their own pace. The responsibility of learning has shifted to the students, who are now active in their learning, engaging each new piece of knowledge and finding ways to apply it. Through trial, failure, and reflection, they are responsible for their outcomes.
The role of the teacher is transformed as well. They are no longer responsible for putting on a three-ring circus, forcing content delivery, and desperately trying to reach all children at the same time. Teaching becomes fun again. The passion returns. Teachers have put in the work creating the unit, crafting the right Wide-Open Question, and curating sources of information and opportunities for hands-on application. When the students begin working, teachers get to do the part of the job they truly enjoy: building authentic relationships with each student, having genuine conversations, and helping kids develop their curiosity.
Teachers shift from the role of PUSHER of content to a facilitator of learning. In Agile PULL-based classrooms, teachers are free to meet with each student group, discuss what students are learning, and prompt students with questions that will challenge their understanding of content. Students that are struggling will get one on one time with a learning professional, while those that need a challenge receive personalized attention. Instead of running through a script of lecture accompanied by slides, teachers engage with students, help students learn how to communicate with each other, scaffold learning experiences unique to each group, and truly get to know each student. At the end of the day, instead of dragging themselves home depleted, Agile PULL-based teachers are recharged and energized. This is a result of the fundamental rebalancing of responsibility in the classroom. Teachers are treated like the professionals they are, given the autonomy and creativity to work with students, while truly participating in student learning journeys.
The people most vulnerable to our current energy crisis in education are those least able to defend or insulate themselves from it: our students. Luckily human ingenuity and imagination are more than sufficient to change this situation and address this crisis. It’s time for folks in education who want to improve how it works to consider a change in direction: less PUSH, more PULL.
