Triple Action RoundTable: A Practical Three-Entry Point Innovation

Abstract

Posternumber: 001 (Assigned by Journal editor)

Triple Action RoundTable: A Practical Three-Entry Point Innovation

Sue Gabriele

sgabriele@gemslearning.net

The Triple Action RoundTable is conceptualized to triple the power of the RoundTable to facilitate systemic school or social system renewal, or perhaps even increase its effectiveness to the third power.  It builds on the Display/Pickup paradigm.  The proposition is that, since learning and performance depend on criteria within the learner, the role of the teacher is display, and the role of the learner is pickup.  The Triple Action RoundTable acts at three entry points in the system.  I will explain first in the example of a classroom. The first entry point is the 30/30 RoundTable (RT), an activity that is used weekly to develop classroom subject matter.  Cued by a carefully designed RoundTable Guide/script, it allows about 30 people to give spontaneous learning reports in 30 minutes.  This is a bottom-up entry point, as it allows the views of all the students to be heard by the teacher, as well as each other.  The second entry point is the Triple Bottom Line (3BL).  Once the RoundTable is established to allow ongoing development of the users’ subject matter, an additional  topic, 3BL, is added.  3BL is an in-out-in innovation.  In other words, users are invited to reflect on their current goals and outcomes (in), and then think out of the box (out) to consider more comprehensive goals.  At the organization or institution level, 3BL might be the 3Ps (profit/budget, people, planet).  At the classroom level, 3BL might be student CAP development (cognitive/affective/psychomotor) or PIE (physical/intellectual/emotional).  Users then revise their own goals accordingly (in). The third entry point is TPO Thermostat Guide,  Here, the teacher uses a thermostat metaphor modified by TPO Theory.  TPO Theory explains that lessons (T=Things) must be designed around the needs/abilities of students (P = people) for best Outcomes (O).  This is a top down approach.  As the teacher manages classwork and students, he/she visualizes three TPO Thermostat system modes for optimal adjustment capacities.  Mode One: When class is not in session, the system is OFF.  This is the Planning mode, where windows/doors are metaphorically wide open to let in fresh air and ideas. In the next two modes, the windows and doors are metaphorically closed, to preserve the flow of heat/resources/energy, to maximize its distribution among users. Mode Two is ON: Manual for Delivering resources.  The teacher is actively displaying the subject matter, perhaps in a temporal audio and visual display.  Mode Three is ON: Auto, for passive Monitoring.  The teacher keeps the environment optimal as people work independently.  This mode is helpfully supplemented by ever-present display of subject-matter (on the walls of the classroom, in textbooks, etc.)  Zooming out to a wider view, the Triple Action RoundTable is a tool for whole system or systemic renewal.  Thus, it is used by all system members, in one of their existing meetings.  Since classrooms typically meet daily, the RoundTable can be held at least weekly for 30 minutes.  At other levels of educational system, RoundTables are proposed for use monthly in meetings – including meetings of faculty, parent/teacher-associations, grade-levels, departments, principals, superintendents, government-level educational policy-makers, and so forth.