When teachers and parents hear the term Common Core standards (CCS), a frequent tendency is to see the new standards as a simple upgrade. In fact, the CCS represent an entirely new operating system.
This is good news for the whole child movement. CCS focuses on an inquiry approach to education. Inquiry can't be done through direct instruction alone; it requires student cooperation, engagement, and persistence—all attributes drawn from a pool of social and emotional resources. Without addressing this aspect of human performance, the CCS will fail.
Many educators are nervous about the magnitude of the training task ahead. Even so, I don't think enough leaders recognize that becoming an effective teacher of CCS involves more than cognitive acquaintance with the new standards. Just as students will be asked to marshal more of their internal resources, a good CCS teacher will also need to be a whole teacher, able to interact easily with students, communicate well, inspire when necessary, and lead as well as teach. This is a skill set that relies on a teacher's own emotional competencies, including the flexibility to move with students through the uncertainty of an inquiry process.
What will be different? I can think of ten skills that most teachers will need to develop or improve for the CCS:
- Foster a culture of care. In inquiry-based education, attitude equals altitude. Without the consent and engagement of students, the process goes nowhere. Engagement begins when students feel safe, nurtured, respected, and listened to. Posting a list of norms on the wall of the classroom that instructs students to "keep their hands to themselves" or "raise your hand before speaking" won't be sufficient. Teachers will need to build trust before they teach. Elementary teachers should do fine; many high school teachers will have to reinvent themselves.
- Move from classroom management to people management. In a traditional classroom, based on instruction, teachers keep their eyes on the room and employ a standard set of tools to enforce discipline. The CCS emphasize construction—working together to figure out problems. In a student-centered system, self-discipline matters more than referral slips. That requires frank conversations with students, more praise than criticism, and the ability to see past faults in favor of supporting sustained effort.
- Redefine rigor. What if a student works diligently to solve a CCS math problem, but obtains the wrong answer? How does a teacher recognize and reward effort and persistence? In an inquiry-based system, the process of learning is just as important as the final result. This mandates a shift in the commonly