As tech coaches and integration specialists, it is our responsibility to act as change agents in schools and to bring teachers along on that journey with us. As any tech coach will tell you, this job has extremely rewarding days and extremely challenging ones. We constantly seek ideas and strategies to help us help teachers refresh their teaching practice. We try to change minds as a tech coach.
I’m a huge fan of the podcast Hidden Brain (check out my post about another episode on Design Thinking in Life). Hidden Brain uses, “science and storytelling… [to reveal] the unconscious patterns that drive human behavior, the biases that shape our choices, and the triggers that direct the course of our relationships.” It’s a great podcast for tech coaches (and anyone who interacts with people who have different backgrounds and beliefs… so everyone) to understand the way in which people think, react, and help you build relationships with all different types of people.
Last month I listened to an episode that immediately made me think of the way I work with teachers in my role as an integration specialist. The episode was all about Tali Sharot’s research that people change their mind based on feelings, not facts. You can listen to the full podcast below.
Change Minds as a Tech Coach
The particular references in the episode were made to the political election and the (non)relationship between vaccines and autism. However, the underlying research and points made in the podcast can definitely be applied to a tech coach’s approach to change the minds of teachers and administrators to deepen their integration of technology in the classroom. To change minds as a tech coach, we need to start by having a strong sense of empathy for teachers and their daily to-dos that never seem to stop piling up. We can appeal to their emotions by drawing on our own similar experiences. Consistently building strong relationships and trust with teachers should be a priority of every tech coach. It is our job to make them feel good about the changes that lie ahead of them so they will be more likely to believe in those changes themselves.
Now there is research to back up the incredibly insightful quote by the amazing Maya Angelou,
“People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”
How do you build strong relationships with teachers and help them change their minds about technology integration?