DW: Was it a course about TOC or a course that used TOC methods to teach other content? KS: It was a class on world cultures—basically a class on perspectives, which
of course this is so aligned with. We used methods derived from TOC to
advance the curriculum. Later I taught a critical thinking skills course that
was pure TOC. In that course I was teaching cause and effect as a skill. We
used concepts like the conflict cloud to analyze conflicts in real-life
situations.
DW: What evidence do you have that the kids were absorbing the concepts? KS: Here’s an example. One day I read to the students the section about the
hike from
The Goal , and then I gave them an evaluation sheet. I asked them,
“How is this relevant to real life? What’s the weakest link?” Stuff like that. It
wasn’t a test. I just wanted to know if they were getting it. That night I
looked at their answers and I realized maybe half of them got it and half of
them didn’t. So I went back the next day and I asked them again, “What
determines the strength of the chain?” I called on one boy—let’s say his
name was Mike—who I knew was struggling. He was rambling on and on.
He did not get it. And I did not know what to ask Mike to get the answer out
of him. So then I looked at my other students. And I knew if I called on John,
for example, who did get it, he would just tell Mike the answer, and that’s not
what I wanted. So I said, “No one can give Mike the answer. You can ask
Mike a question to help him think of the answer.” And that is when one of
my other students raised her hand. She said, “Remember when we were
doing the cloud on teach fast, teach slow? The problem of making sure
everyone understands but the fast ones don’t get bored?” That’s when I saw
what was happening. As the other students began asking Mike questions
designed to draw the answer out of him, I could see that everyone was
engaged. It was a wonderful example of cooperative learning. Because
everyone had to think. Even if they already knew the answer, they were
thinking hard about how to guide others to the answer.
