“Thought of the Week” for 15 January, 2001
EDUCATION SHOULD FOCUS ON PROCESS RATHER THAN OUTCOMES
A very different…explanation for why we become mindless [acting without thinking based on old assumptions] has to do with our early education. From kindergarten on, the focus of schooling is usually on goals rather than on the process by which they are achieved. This single-minded pursuit of one outcome or another, from tying shoelaces to getting into Harvard, makes it difficult to have a mindful attitude about life.
When children start a new activity with an outcome orientation, questions of “Can I?” or “What if I can’t do it?” are likely to predominate, creating an anxious preoccupation with success or failure rather than drawing on the child’s natural, exuberant desire to explore….
Throughout our lives, an outcome orientation in social situations can induce mindlessness. If we think we know how to handle a situation, we don’t feel a need to pay attention. If we respond to the situation as very familiar (a result, for example, of overlearning), we notice only the minimal cues necessary to carry out the proper scenario. If, on the other hand, the situation is strange, we might be so preoccupied with thoughts of failure (“What if I make a fool of myself?”) that we miss nuances of our own and other’ behavior. If this sense, we are mindless with respect to the immediate situation, although we may be thinking quite actively about outcome-related issues.
In contrast, a process orientation…asks “How do I do it?” instead of “Can I do it?” and thus directs attention toward defining the steps that are necessary on the way. This orientation can be characterized in terms of the guiding principle that there are no failures, only ineffective solutions.
Ellen J. Langer. (1989). Mindfulness. New York: Addison-Wesley. (pp. 33-34)
Comment:
To do something,
you must first be something
by Reg Harris
Copyright © 2001 by Reg Harris. All rights reserved. Updated October 4, 2007. All rights reserved. Apart from properly cited quotes and short excerpts, no part of this article can be copied or used in any form without written permission from the author. For permission to use, please contact me.
In 1972, I was coaching distance runners on the national track and cross-country teams for Tunisia, in North Africa. I was able to work with several world-class runners who were involved in a international competitions, including the 1971 Mediterranean Games and the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich, Germany.
Over the two years I coached in Tunisia, I became more and more aware that we really can’t control our future; in fact, we shouldn’t try to control it for reasons too detailed to explore here. I also realized something which I had known all along unconsciously: if you want to run a world-class time, you first had to become a world-class runner. In other words, you don’t focus on the outcome (a four-minute mile, for example), but on the process of becoming the kind of person who can run a four minute mile. Then the four-minute mile “happens” because it is the natural expression of who you are.
In our culture, and especially in our schools, we focus too much on the outcome and not enough on the process, the being and becoming. This is backward thinking. It is like focusing on the apples without paying attention to the tree. If you want the best apples you can get from a tree, you take care of it. You nurture it into a tree that produces the best apples of which it is capable as an expression of what it is, as the natural unfolding of its nature.
In schools we focus too much on the apples. Outcome based thinking emphasizes passing the test or getting the grade, rather than the process of learning and growing. In terms of the Heroic Journey, if we were to focus on the outcome, we would be assuming that the journey is less important than the outcome of the journey. We would be creating the impression that we can have the greater skill or the deeper understanding without going through the process of change. This is totally backward. The journey is everything. It is the journey which changes us, helps us to adapt, to assimilate, to understand, to grow. In the journey, process is all there is. The “reward” or outcome is the “fruit” of a changed or enlarged self. Ironically, if the journey is true, when we finish it, we don’t care about the reward because, in becoming the person to whom it happens naturally, we have transcended it.
In addition, when we focus on the outcome rather than the process, we open the door to shortcuts. When the end is the goal, it’s permissible to cheat on the test because the “A” is what is important, not the learning. It is permissible to copy or to do whatever is necessary to achieve the outcome. Unfortunately, we’ve become so steeped in this thinking that process-oriented thinking seems foolish. When I talk with my students about this, they often look at me as if I were deluded or naive.
Outcome thinking also creates other negative mindsets. For example, when we focus on outcome, we may look at a successful person, and say to ourselves, “I wish I could do that.” We look at the performance as if it were isolated, as if it sprang into being fully grown. We neglect the long journey the person took to get there. For example, several years ago, I watched a television documentary called “Endurance,” a program about the great Ethiopian distance runner and Olympic champion Haile Gebrselassie. I had seen Gebrselassie on television and was absolutely amazed at his strength, speed and endurance. Even though I have coached Olympic distance runners, I caught myself thinking, “He had to have been born with the physiology to run like that.”
I watched the documentary, and when it was over, I realized what I had already known. Gebrselassie had an incredible physiology, but he had worked incredibly hard to be able to run the way he runs. I also realized two other things. First, Gebrselassie was human—a gifted runner, certainly, but still a human. Second, after watching the story of his process of becoming a great distance runner, I thought, “That’s how it is done: first you become the person you want to be, and then the result will come naturally.”
I began to focus less on Gebrselassie’s incredible records (although his accomplishments were, at the time, unparalleled) and more on what he had done to become a runner who would set those records as a result of being who he was. Granted, he did have the physical equipment, but he honed that equipment with years and years of hard work. If I were still a young runner, I would be greatly encouraged because the question shifts from the outcome-oriented result (which may be beyond our current capacity to comprehend) to the process-oriented journey. When we focus on the process, life seems much more do-able.
I once had a young man in my ninth grade English class. One day, I heard him telling his friend that he would have a 4.0 this semester. He was actually failing my class, but somehow it didn’t register on him. I went back later in the period and showed him his grade, reminded him that he had not done a major project, that he had no points in independent reading, and that he had not done well on the tests. He seemed oblivious. Somehow he was thinking that if he just wanted the “A”, he would get it. He was focused on the outcome, rather than on becoming the kind of person who would achieve that outcome. When was the last time you heard a student say, “I want to become the kind of person who would earn an A in this class,” rather than saying “I want/need an A in this class”?
But I can’t blame students for that type of thinking. School, parents, the media―almost everyone―focuses on the outcome and, too often, the instant fix (the best curriculum, the perfect textbook, the clearest standards). The recent growth in high-stakes testing is yet another expensive result of this backward thinking.
The idea is that by focusing on outcome, on standards, we can somehow control the innately human process of learning. Just the opposite is true. In many cases, high-stakes testing has not stimulated teachers to teach better or students to look deeper into their own nature and grow. It has caused them to restructure their curriculum to match the results required by the test. We have standardized outcomes, as if children are products. We have pacing calendars to be sure that we have covered all of the material that will be on the test, as if children all learn at the same rate. This foolishness is the result of focusing on the the outcome, as if it exists apart from the child, and not the growth and learning processes that are at the heart of education.
Process thinking is “journey thinking.” It focuses on growing rather than having. Until we change the focus on schools from outcome to process, we can impose all of the tests we want, spend all the money we want, or increase the length of the school year as much as we want, and it won’t make much difference (except that testing companies will get richer, schools will get poorer and children will become less engaged).
Sadly, we are clinging to the vestiges of the “clockwork” universe as interpreted by the followers of Galileo and Newton. In this out-dated, mechanistic, reductionistic view, students are products produced through assembly-line education. The focus is on the product, not the the process, which is the journey.
The Hero’s Journey: To do you must become
“Thought of the Week” for 15 January, 2001
EDUCATION SHOULD FOCUS ON PROCESS RATHER THAN OUTCOMES
A very different…explanation for why we become mindless [acting without thinking based on old assumptions] has to do with our early education. From kindergarten on, the focus of schooling is usually on goals rather than on the process by which they are achieved. This single-minded pursuit of one outcome or another, from tying shoelaces to getting into Harvard, makes it difficult to have a mindful attitude about life.
When children start a new activity with an outcome orientation, questions of “Can I?” or “What if I can’t do it?” are likely to predominate, creating an anxious preoccupation with success or failure rather than drawing on the child’s natural, exuberant desire to explore….
Throughout our lives, an outcome orientation in social situations can induce mindlessness. If we think we know how to handle a situation, we don’t feel a need to pay attention. If we respond to the situation as very familiar (a result, for example, of overlearning), we notice only the minimal cues necessary to carry out the proper scenario. If, on the other hand, the situation is strange, we might be so preoccupied with thoughts of failure (“What if I make a fool of myself?”) that we miss nuances of our own and other’ behavior. If this sense, we are mindless with respect to the immediate situation, although we may be thinking quite actively about outcome-related issues.
In contrast, a process orientation…asks “How do I do it?” instead of “Can I do it?” and thus directs attention toward defining the steps that are necessary on the way. This orientation can be characterized in terms of the guiding principle that there are no failures, only ineffective solutions.
Ellen J. Langer. (1989). Mindfulness. New York: Addison-Wesley. (pp. 33-34)
Comment:
To do something,
you must first be something
by Reg Harris
Copyright © 2001 by Reg Harris. All rights reserved. Updated October 4, 2007. All rights reserved. Apart from properly cited quotes and short excerpts, no part of this article can be copied or used in any form without written permission from the author. For permission to use, please contact me.
In 1972, I was coaching distance runners on the national track and cross-country teams for Tunisia, in North Africa. I was able to work with several world-class runners who were involved in a international competitions, including the 1971 Mediterranean Games and the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich, Germany.
Over the two years I coached in Tunisia, I became more and more aware that we really can’t control our future; in fact, we shouldn’t try to control it for reasons too detailed to explore here. I also realized something which I had known all along unconsciously: if you want to run a world-class time, you first had to become a world-class runner. In other words, you don’t focus on the outcome (a four-minute mile, for example), but on the process of becoming the kind of person who can run a four minute mile. Then the four-minute mile “happens” because it is the natural expression of who you are.
In our culture, and especially in our schools, we focus too much on the outcome and not enough on the process, the being and becoming. This is backward thinking. It is like focusing on the apples without paying attention to the tree. If you want the best apples you can get from a tree, you take care of it. You nurture it into a tree that produces the best apples of which it is capable as an expression of what it is, as the natural unfolding of its nature.
In schools we focus too much on the apples. Outcome based thinking emphasizes passing the test or getting the grade, rather than the process of learning and growing. In terms of the Heroic Journey, if we were to focus on the outcome, we would be assuming that the journey is less important than the outcome of the journey. We would be creating the impression that we can have the greater skill or the deeper understanding without going through the process of change. This is totally backward. The journey is everything. It is the journey which changes us, helps us to adapt, to assimilate, to understand, to grow. In the journey, process is all there is. The “reward” or outcome is the “fruit” of a changed or enlarged self. Ironically, if the journey is true, when we finish it, we don’t care about the reward because, in becoming the person to whom it happens naturally, we have transcended it.
In addition, when we focus on the outcome rather than the process, we open the door to shortcuts. When the end is the goal, it’s permissible to cheat on the test because the “A” is what is important, not the learning. It is permissible to copy or to do whatever is necessary to achieve the outcome. Unfortunately, we’ve become so steeped in this thinking that process-oriented thinking seems foolish. When I talk with my students about this, they often look at me as if I were deluded or naive.
Outcome thinking also creates other negative mindsets. For example, when we focus on outcome, we may look at a successful person, and say to ourselves, “I wish I could do that.” We look at the performance as if it were isolated, as if it sprang into being fully grown. We neglect the long journey the person took to get there. For example, several years ago, I watched a television documentary called “Endurance,” a program about the great Ethiopian distance runner and Olympic champion Haile Gebrselassie. I had seen Gebrselassie on television and was absolutely amazed at his strength, speed and endurance. Even though I have coached Olympic distance runners, I caught myself thinking, “He had to have been born with the physiology to run like that.”
I watched the documentary, and when it was over, I realized what I had already known. Gebrselassie had an incredible physiology, but he had worked incredibly hard to be able to run the way he runs. I also realized two other things. First, Gebrselassie was human—a gifted runner, certainly, but still a human. Second, after watching the story of his process of becoming a great distance runner, I thought, “That’s how it is done: first you become the person you want to be, and then the result will come naturally.”
I began to focus less on Gebrselassie’s incredible records (although his accomplishments were, at the time, unparalleled) and more on what he had done to become a runner who would set those records as a result of being who he was. Granted, he did have the physical equipment, but he honed that equipment with years and years of hard work. If I were still a young runner, I would be greatly encouraged because the question shifts from the outcome-oriented result (which may be beyond our current capacity to comprehend) to the process-oriented journey. When we focus on the process, life seems much more do-able.
I once had a young man in my ninth grade English class. One day, I heard him telling his friend that he would have a 4.0 this semester. He was actually failing my class, but somehow it didn’t register on him. I went back later in the period and showed him his grade, reminded him that he had not done a major project, that he had no points in independent reading, and that he had not done well on the tests. He seemed oblivious. Somehow he was thinking that if he just wanted the “A”, he would get it. He was focused on the outcome, rather than on becoming the kind of person who would achieve that outcome. When was the last time you heard a student say, “I want to become the kind of person who would earn an A in this class,” rather than saying “I want/need an A in this class”?
But I can’t blame students for that type of thinking. School, parents, the media―almost everyone―focuses on the outcome and, too often, the instant fix (the best curriculum, the perfect textbook, the clearest standards). The recent growth in high-stakes testing is yet another expensive result of this backward thinking.
The idea is that by focusing on outcome, on standards, we can somehow control the innately human process of learning. Just the opposite is true. In many cases, high-stakes testing has not stimulated teachers to teach better or students to look deeper into their own nature and grow. It has caused them to restructure their curriculum to match the results required by the test. We have standardized outcomes, as if children are products. We have pacing calendars to be sure that we have covered all of the material that will be on the test, as if children all learn at the same rate. This foolishness is the result of focusing on the the outcome, as if it exists apart from the child, and not the growth and learning processes that are at the heart of education.
Process thinking is “journey thinking.” It focuses on growing rather than having. Until we change the focus on schools from outcome to process, we can impose all of the tests we want, spend all the money we want, or increase the length of the school year as much as we want, and it won’t make much difference (except that testing companies will get richer, schools will get poorer and children will become less engaged).
Sadly, we are clinging to the vestiges of the “clockwork” universe as interpreted by the followers of Galileo and Newton. In this out-dated, mechanistic, reductionistic view, students are products produced through assembly-line education. The focus is on the product, not the the process, which is the journey.