Leaders and Learning

According to Kim B. Clark (Dean of the Harvard Business School from 1995 to 2005 and President of BYU-Idaho since then), no matter what we teach, how we teach can help others learn the critical skills society needs to provide leadership in families, communities and the nation. Leaders and learning are inextricably intertwined.

He shared his vision in a talk given last year at the BYU Law School Founders Day dinner that was recently published in the Clark Memorandum. Although he was talking about college students, his comments have meaning for businesses, families and anywhere else that people teach and people learn.

“Effective leaders set direction in times of uncertainty and challenge. They align people with that direction and motivate and inspire others to innovate. Leaders take effective action and do new things in times of change. In fact, the rate and pace of change and the degree of difficulty organizations and communities face today have few precedents in all of human history. This situation is not going to slow down or get easier. In this time of turmoil, commotion, and rapid change, we feel a need for more and better leaders.”

We can – and he would probably say must – create experiences that allow others to learn the things they need to learn in a way that also helps them develop skills that will allow them to make lifelong contributions to society. The things we learn may soon be forgotten; what we become as we learn will not be.

President Clark suggests five key characteristics of leaders.

• Integrity. Leaders put values into action by taking personal responsibility for all they do. They do not ask others to do what they do not do themselves.
• Energy. Leaders energize others by caring about them. They recognize value in others and create opportunities for them to grow.
• Inspiration. In an organization, leaders create meaning by sharing a vision of what is possible and by clearly establishing the larger purpose of the work.
• Wisdom. Leaders see beyond the horizon and help others recognize how to get there. They understand and practice the true principles that underlie success and teach those principles every way they can. They are great communicators. They teach in word and deed – especially deed.
• Courage. Leaders do hard things, set high standards, and uphold them. They make tough decisions, are often unpopular, and do the right thing even though the wrong thing may seem easier.

Because we learn as much from “how” we are taught as from “what” we are taught, the learning process must involve processes that teach not just the subject but that also develop the student personally. A parent who, for example, wants to teach his children about the importance of voting can merely expound on the importance of voting. However, the child who learns about voting by going with a parent to the polling place and who sees his parents vote will learn much more than just a civics lesson.

He talks about the BYU-Idaho Learning Model. This is a three-step process that forces students out of a passive-learner mode and into active learning. It also transforms teachers from mere “dispensers of knowledge” into “designers of learning experiences.”

1. Learners prepare personally and in small groups before formal class sessions.
2. Teachers (and learners) teach one another through discussion, by presenting ideas, by sharing the results of experiments, by teaching part of a class and in many other ways.
3. Finally, they ponder and prove by reflecting, discussing, keeping a learning journal, taking part in assessment and by getting ready to start the process again.

“Both students and faculty prepare to learn and to teach for every class. … [S]tudents are engaged in the learning process. They teach one another and take responsibility for their preparation and their learning. And there is much more work in teams, both before and after class.”

Finally, he talks about Peer Instruction – those learning experiences created by teachers that take students beyond just being taught to learning lifelong skills that allow them to become leaders.

• Peer interaction: Study groups and peer comparison that allows immersion into a topic and that allows assessment of what has been learned.
• Peer response: Case studies, paired teaching, and concept tests that deepens and integrates learning.
• Peer collaboration: Team projects and group assignments in class that help students learn to solve problems and to apply what has been learned.
• Peer feedback: Expanded evaluation of what has (or has not) been learned.
• Peer-facilitated instruction: Student-led instruction and student-directed lesson development.

He notes that those who have recently learned a difficult concept are often in a better position to teach the concept to someone who does not understand it. Often they’re even better at teaching it than those with much longer experience. This peer instruction not only helps deepen a conceptual understanding; it also helps students develop lifelong learning skills.

You can read more about the learning model at BYU Idaho on its website.

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