Charlatans, Hucksters, Practioners, Researchers, and Balanced

Presenters at ASCD come in all shapes, sizes and configurations. They hail from every state in America and points far beyond. I am going to share my taxonomy of ASCD speakers who provide professional learning at ASCD, and probably all over the world.

Charlatans and Hucksters: I can make folks LIKE professional development for a price.

These folks make their money presenting other people's ideas, stories, and experiences. They are hired guns who travel full time on the PL circuit. These folks are HIGHLY entertaining, have slick Power Points, and get everyone laughing and engaged.  They are usually dramatic, energetic and exude pseudo-passion. What they present is often out of date but an idea that still holds general appeal and status. An example of this is the speaker on "THE BRAIN" yesterday who taught about right brained and left brained people. Poppycock! I call "bullsh*&" on that one! http://www.oecd.org/edu/ceri/neuromyth6.htm  She had cool slides with tigers and lions and music that all basically said: kids don't learn when their scared, you need to build relationships, and kids like to be challenged.  Rigor, Relevance and Relationship....can we say Dagget? After reading REAL studies and books by great folks on brain research, rigor and relationship I just left early and annoyed.  There is NO DOUBT that she could be motivational and entertaining, but I found no BEEF. She handed out information cards that she wanted us to fill out, so she could contact us about bringing her PD to our school. Did I mention she made "redneck" jokes....

I hate to put this presenter under "charlatans and hucksters" because I liked him. He was old enough to be my dad, which doesn't happen often anymore. He sounded like my dad, complete with heavy East Coast (New Hampshire? Massachusets?) accent. The presentation was on GRIT. Though he said many good things, I feel he spoke from a kids are deficit mindset. I raised my hand every time he made a statement such as, "How many of you did chores growing up?" "How many of you were taught work ethic".....It sounded to me much like "How many of you walked five miles in the snow, uphill both ways to school every day? Damn kids today can't do anything." He had slides of over 50 things we have to teach kids to do today that we used to know how to do. It sounded very much like "white cultural norms" to me....Thank you, Ed Javius from Edequity.com. He did quote DWECK and HATTIE, which seem to be a REQUIREMENT in EVERY SESSION this year, but I think he got some of the implementation stuff wrong....I think his mindset is wrong. He runs a company SDE and pushed his books, booth and services. He has written a very clever title, which I own: "If the Horse Dies, Get Off". He was funny, engaging and his PowerPoint was BUSY, ACTIVE, and overdone. Music...zinging sounds...animations....He recommended some GREAT books...had some AWESOME quotes to share and was in many ways HIGHLY inspirational, but I left feeling like he wasn't quite on target and he was trying to sell me something. I feel harsh saying this because he made me feel so nostalgic and safe; he WAS everything I loved in my dad who I lost last year. My father was an educator, too. However, I would not follow his pedagogy...I'd die for the man but his ways were not the ways of the 21st century. This man made me feel like he was trying to bridge the pedagogy and be cutting edge, but he didn't quite make it. 

Practitioners: We did it; you can too!

These are passionate educators and administrators. These are people who know 'stuff' because they have done 'stuff'! They share about their class or their school. They share what they have tried, successes and failures. They exude passion and authenticity. Often appearing nervous, they warm to their topic. They are NOT professional presenters; however, their Power Points are always WOW and organized. These are people who are proud of their accomplishments! Great presentations of program, transformation, strategy and data are the norm from this group! I love practitioner sessions; they leave me thinking about transference, application and possibilities. They embody the term action research. This type of research shows how ideas work and what change can be brought, less on WHY.

Researchers: These are the facts!

Marzano would fall into this category. He has quartiles, percentiles, effect size, and huge sets of data. For me, he brings a big picture perspective. He shares data with no bias, emotion or anecdotal stores. (Ok, there was one story about his son and one pseudo-joke) By and large, he's got the BEEF, the straight scoop. Some people find him dry and static. Power Point slides are polished and perfect. My feeling is he presents to inform and not to entertain. He is KNOWLEDGE and RESEARCH. He's not going to "fire you up"; he's going to give you fuel to use in sustaining your knowledge base, which is the material that drives passion and gives programs sustainability, validity and reliability. Marzano's type of research tells what works and what it looks like with less focus upon the WHY.

Balanced: Been there DONE that...researched that...went back and did it again....refined my research...I still want to know more! Tell me what you think? INQUISITIVE SEARCHER

These are most likely academics based in universities. They have taught in some realm K-12 and moved on to university. However, they ARE not "ivory tower" folks. They are in classrooms all the time. They KNOW what is going on at ground zero. They respect teachers; they respect students; they love the craft and profession. They are insightful, thoughtful and based in the trenches and the muck of the messy world of the classroom. Their presentations blend the research and practice together and contain anecdotes, strategies, pedagogy and data.  Tomlinson is the queen of pedagogy and balance in my opinion.  Presentation style: we're sitting at the kitchen table talking together, no attempt to entertain or be overly amusing, simple (beyond simple) ppt slides

Brilliant Non-Educator: I am saving this for its own post!