This week I've been exploring using positive questioning strategies to drive professional development. Previous posts included: Professional Development from Inspiration, Not Desperation Positive Questions for Professional Development: Setting the Stage Positive Questions for Professional Development: Creating a Learning Vision Strategies for Exploring Positive Questions for Professional Development In today's post, I want to explore ways to translate insights into action. How do you move from creating a vision for inspired... Read more →

I've been writing and thinking over the past few days about using positive questions for professional development. First I looked at some questions for creating an internal and external learning environment and then I looked at questions to use in exploring what you want to learn. Today I'm thinking more about different strategies you can use to explore these questions. There are advantages and disadvantages to each. Frankly, I've found... Read more →

This week I've been exploring the power of positive questions in professional development. Yesterday I looked at some questions for setting the stage for learning. Today I want to propose some questions that can help us better define what we want to learn. Professional Development Action vs. Activity This is related in some ways to my earlier post on action vs. activity. I've found that it can be easy to... Read more →

This week I'm exploring how positive questions might transform our approaches to professional development. Originally I was going to start by playing with some questions about what to learn, but in thinking about the whole issue of professional development, it occurs to me how many of us may need help in setting up for ourselves a more positive environment around taking control of our own learning, especially when we work... Read more →

I've been thinking a lot lately about positive questions and their connection to professional development. Last week I talked about the power of positive priming and how brain research shows that when we have negative expectations for learning and development, we are less likely to learn from our experiences. I also discussed positive questioning and how reframing the questions we focus our brains on can lead us to better solutions... Read more →

Over on his Learnstreaming blog, Dennis Callahan writes about the difference between signing up for social media and joining: Having a social media account (e.g., Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin) doesn’t necessarily mean you’ve joined. It means you’ve signed up. It’s like signing up for the gym. You can say that you belong to the gym but if you don’t get on the equipment and exercise, what benefit is there to your... Read more →

Intuitively I've always understood that when we think we are stupid, we are less likely to learn. I'm well aware that my struggles with math throughout my lifetime began with a 3rd grade teacher who was convinced that girls couldn't work with numbers. But it's interesting to see how brain science now supports something many of us have experienced. From an article in Time Magazine on the optimism bias: Cognitive... Read more →

On Facebook yesterday, LaDonna Coy posed an interesting question: Noodling--what would happen if we were actually able to figure out what we want in life (instead of what we don't want) and then focus on it? What would that make possible? I've been doing a lot of reading in and work with appreciative inquiry lately and this is one of its key principles, called the Poetic Principle. In a nutshell,... Read more →

Long-time readers of my blog know that I'm an inveterate user and admirer of technology. I'm consistently drawn to its possibilities and have benefited tremendously from all that technology offers to us. But, during my recent social media sabbatical, I was reminded again of some of the more old-fashioned strategies for learning that served me well in the past. One of them was the power of physical writing, as opposed... Read more →

My older daughter graduated from college in May and has been working at her new job since June. Last night we had a conversation that got me thinking about how school does a really terrible job of preparing our young people for "the real world" by setting up some seriously unrealistic expectations. In school, we teach kids that: Life happens in a series of connected, time-delineated steps (courses, semesters) so... Read more →