Influencing Change & Vital Behaviors

After watching Dr. Cross's video I found that the data I thought was so important and that drove the changes I was trying to make in my classroom were actually not effective at all. She discusses in her video that only 20% of people will respond to education, this was such a crazy idea for me because I have always been told that the more information you provide the better, but maybe this isn't the case. Instead of just throwing facts and data at people we can make that information tangible, personalized, and interactive. By making these changes we will be more likely to get people to respond to the data we are trying to share and perhaps influence their behavior.

The second myth discussed in the video also stopped me in my tracks; In everything I have done involving changing behavior from getting my students to keep the classroom clean to plugging in their Chromebooks when they put them away has always been to change their attitude in order to change the behavior. It was shocking to learn that this process is actually backward, but in hindsight, I can understand why it works more effectively. When you are able to set the expectation you are then able to change the behavior and in turn the attitude which follows it.

The final myth discussed in the video talks about the use of social norms and people knowing what motivates them. I will admit I have fallen victim to this myth too, truly how many of us could say we haven't? I found myself relating to those who said that saving the environment would be a better way to influence people to re-use towels rather than showing how many people before had done the same. I found that this myth too was something I had backward, but am interested to see how I can use this information to influence change in my classroom and while implementing my innovation plan.

All of this brings me to the second video discussing the Six Sources of Influence. In the second video I was first shocked to hear the story of Jane and her situation growing up, her story drew me in and even made me what to get on board to try to change the world too. This feeling was only heightened when they showed all of the students spending all of their money after setting a goal to save it. If we are being completely honest, I saw myself in those kids at that moment and I can understand now after learning about the Six Sources of Influence how sometimes it isn't our fault how we behave, but that of the influences around us. The main point of this model as you see when the video continues is that you want to change the influences both minor and larger around people in order to influence change in their behaviors.

As I think about my innovation plan, which is to pilot e-portfolio usage in my 6th-grade classroom, I realize that there are three vital behaviors I need in order to get students engaged with their eportfolios. The first behavior is to model what I am looking for, next is to facilitate this process with my students giving them feed-forward and allowing them time to work on their own e-portfolio, finally, I need to share and discuss the student's e-portfolios with others to ask questions and share best practices. I am still thinking about how these behaviors can influence my students and exactly how I could measure the success of my plan.

If you would like to learn more about my innovation plan CLICK HERE!