by Terry Heick<\/strong><\/p>\nQuality\u2014you know what it is, yet you don\u2019t know what it is. But that\u2019s self-contradictory. But some things are better than others, that is, they have more quality. But when you try to say what the quality is, apart from the things that have it, it all goes poof! There\u2019s nothing to talk about. But if you can\u2019t say what Quality is, how do you know what it is, or how do you know that it even exists? If no one knows what it is, then for all practical purposes it doesn\u2019t exist at all. But for all practical purposes, it really does exist.<\/em><\/p>\nIn\u00a0Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance<\/em>, author Robert Pirsig talks about the evasive idea of quality.\u00a0<\/em>This concept\u2014and the tangent \u201cChurch of Reason\u201d\u2013heckles him throughout the book, notably as a teacher when he\u2019s trying to explain to his students what quality writing looks like.<\/p>\nAfter some struggling\u2013 internally and with students\u2013he throws out letter grades altogether in hopes that students will stop looking for the reward, and start looking for \u2018quality.\u2019 This, of course, doesn\u2019t turn out the way he hoped it\u2019d might; the students revolt, which only takes him further from his goal.<\/p>\n
So what does quality have to do with learning? Quite a bit, it turns out.<\/p>\n
A Shared Sense Of What\u2019s Possible<\/strong><\/p>\nQuality is an abstraction\u2013it has something to do with the tension between a thing and an ideal\u00a0<\/i>thing. A carrot and an ideal\u00a0<\/i>carrot. A speech and an\u00a0ideal\u00a0<\/em>speech. The way you\u00a0want\u00a0<\/em>the lesson to go, and the way it actually goes. We have a lot of synonyms for this idea, \u2018good\u2019 being one of the more common.<\/p>\nFor quality to exist\u2013for something to be \u2018good\u2019\u2013there has to be some shared sense of what\u2019s possible, and some tendency for variation\u2013inconsistency. For example, if we think there\u2019s no hope for something to be better, it\u2019s useless to call it bad or good. It is what it is. We rarely call walking good or bad. We just walk. Singing, on the other hand, can definitely be good or bad\u2013that is have or lack quality. We know this because we\u2019ve heard good singing before, and we know what\u2019s possible.<\/p>\n
Further, it\u2019s difficult for there to be a quality sunrise or a quality drop of water because most sunrises and most drops of water are very similar. On the other hand, a \u2018quality\u2019 cheeseburger or performance of Beethoven\u2019s 5th Symphony makes more sense because we A) have had a good cheeseburger before and know what\u2019s possible, and B) can experience a vast difference between one cheeseburger and another.<\/p>\n
Back to learning\u2013if students could see quality\u2014identify it, analyze it, understand its characteristics, and so on\u2014imagine what that requires. They have to see all the way around a thing, compare it to what\u2019s possible, and make an evaluation. Much of the friction between teachers and learners comes from a kind of scraping between students and the teachers trying to guide them towards quality.<\/p>\n
The teachers, of course, are only trying to help students understand what quality is. We describe it, create rubrics for it, point it out, model it, and sing its praises, but more often than not, they don\u2019t see it and we push it closer and closer to their noses and wait for the light to come on.<\/p>\n
And when it doesn\u2019t, we assume they either don\u2019t care, or aren\u2019t trying hard enough.<\/p>\n
The Best<\/strong><\/p>\nAnd so it goes with relative superlatives\u2014good, better, and best. Students use these words without knowing their starting point\u2013quality. It\u2019s hard to know what quality is until they can think their way around a thing to begin with. And then further, to really internalize things, they have to see their<\/em> quality. Quality for them based on what they see as possible.<\/em><\/p>\nTo qualify something as good\u2014or \u2018best\u2019\u2014requires first that we can agree what that \u2018thing\u2019 is supposed to do, and then can discuss that thing in its native context. Consider something simple, like a lawnmower. It\u2019s easy to determine the quality<\/em> of a lawnmower because it\u2019s clear what it\u2019s supposed to do. It\u2019s a tool that has some degrees of performance, but it\u2019s mostly like an on\/off switch. It either works or it doesn\u2019t.<\/p>\nOther things, like government, art, technology, etc., are more complex. It\u2019s not clear what quality looks like in legislation, abstract painting, or economic leadership. There is both nuance and subjectivity in these things that make evaluating quality far more complex. In these cases, students have to think \u2018macro enough\u2019 to see the ideal functions of a thing, and then decide if they\u2019re working, which of course is impossible because no one can agree with which functions are \u2018ideal\u2019 and we\u2019re right back at zero again. Like a circle.<\/p>\n
Quality In Student Thinking<\/strong><\/p>\nAnd so it goes\u00a0with teaching and learning. There isn\u2019t a clear and socially agreed-upon cause-effect relationship between teaching and the world. Quality teaching will yield quality learning that does\u00a0this.<\/em>\u00a0It\u2019s the same\u00a0with the students themselves\u2013in writing, in reading, and in thought, what does quality look like?<\/p>\nWhat causes it?<\/p>\n
What are its characteristics?<\/p>\n
And most importantly, what can we do to not only help students see it but develop eyes for it that refuse to close.<\/p>\n
To be able to see the circles in everything, from their own sense of ethics to the way they structure paragraphs, design a project, study for exams, or solve problems in their own lives\u2013and do so without using adultisms and external labels like \u2018good job,\u2019 and \u2018excellent,\u2019 and \u2018A+\u2019 and \u2018you\u2019re so smart!\u2019<\/p>\n
What can\u00a0we do to nurture students that are\u00a0willing to sit and dwell with the tension between possibility and reality, bending it all to their will moment by moment with affection and understanding?<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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