{"id":3960,"date":"2018-11-02T08:00:30","date_gmt":"2018-11-02T13:00:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/braindevs.net\/blog\/blog\/?p=3960"},"modified":"2018-10-29T09:58:47","modified_gmt":"2018-10-29T14:58:47","slug":"avoiding-extremes-common-sense-in-the-middle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/avoiding-extremes-common-sense-in-the-middle\/","title":{"rendered":"Avoiding Extremes: Common Sense in the Middle"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Teachers feel passionate about our work. As a result, we can advocate exuberantly &#8212; occasionally too exuberantly? &#8212; for a particular position.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/braindevs.net\/blog\/\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/AdobeStock_92589224_Credit.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-3961\" src=\"https:\/\/braindevs.net\/blog\/\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/AdobeStock_92589224_Credit-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/AdobeStock_92589224_Credit-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/AdobeStock_92589224_Credit-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/AdobeStock_92589224_Credit-1024x683.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Advocates for (or against) Social-Emotional Learning can make zealous claims for their beliefs. Same for PBL, or direct instruction. Or for flipped classrooms, or traditional ones.<\/p>\n<p>Of course, given the variety of teachers, students, schools, curricula &#8212; and the variety of <em>societies<\/em> in which they all operate &#8212; we perhaps should hesitate to make absolute claims.<\/p>\n<h2>Today&#8217;s Shining Example<\/h2>\n<p>I recently rediscovered a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.edsurge.com\/news\/2017-12-12-how-teaching-using-mindfulness-or-growth-mindset-can-backfire?utm_source=Facebook&amp;utm_medium=ad&amp;utm_campaign=HE\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">marvelous example<\/a> of <em>comfort with the ambiguous middle ground<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>In this EdSurge post, Art Markman explains how <strong>mindfulness<\/strong> can help. And: how it might not help.<\/p>\n<p>He explains the benefits of a <strong>growth mindset<\/strong>. And: its potential detriments.<\/p>\n<p>When asked &#8220;if schools teach the way students learn,&#8221; he doesn&#8217;t scream &#8220;OF COURSE!&#8221; Nor does he bellow &#8220;NEVER!&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Instead, he offers this answer: &#8220;Sometimes, but often not.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>In other words: we&#8217;re not all spectacular successes or hideous failures. Contrary to much of the rhetoric you hear, we live somewhere in between.<\/p>\n<p>I hope you enjoy reading this interview. And, that Markman&#8217;s sensible example offers guidance on moderation and nuance.<\/p>\n<p>I myself look forward to reading more of his work.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Teachers feel passionate about our work. As a result, we can advocate exuberantly &#8212; occasionally too exuberantly? &#8212; for a particular position. Advocates for (or against) Social-Emotional Learning can make zealous claims for their beliefs. Same for PBL, or direct instruction. Or for flipped classrooms, or traditional ones. Of course, given the variety of teachers, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":3961,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[28,59,20],"class_list":["post-3960","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lb-blog","tag-methodology","tag-mindfulness","tag-mindset"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3960","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3960"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3960\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3964,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3960\/revisions\/3964"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3961"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3960"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3960"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3960"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}