Research School Network: ‘To be human is to be biased’ – implications for designing effective CPD Strategic Planning for CPD provision

One small but powerful nugget that challenged us, and has been ever memorable, was the phrase:

It certainly got us thinking.

Beware bias!

Cognitive bias exists for a reason – primarily to save our brains time or energy. It help us address four common problems, namely, information overload, lack of meaning, the need to act fast, and how to know what needs to be remembered for later.

The down side is that they have the potential to inhibit clear, rational thinking and judgement. In the context of our responsibilities within schools, bias will be ever present. We should do all we can to reduce its impact on teacher development and school improvement. It is a challenge as they unconsciously influence our behaviour even when we think we’re making decisions based on best intentions and our values.

However, with conscious effort we can strive to overcome their potentially limiting effect. By increasing our self-awareness, fostering transparent cultures carefully considering our choices, we can increase the likelihood of arriving at better decisions. I hope this post encourages greater awareness and is a starting point for enhanced self-awareness when it comes to bias.

Looking in to bias further I found this introduction in a post from LRN helpful:

How biases work:

…. and clearly this translates to interactions in the classroom between teacher and pupil/​student.

Bias and professional development

I’ve enjoyed (and been challenged!) by exploring cognitive bias further in the context of professional development. Conversations with blogs from others help refine my understanding – with Gary Jones (who presented an excellent session at researchED Ipswich about associated making professional judgements), David Weston during an insightful input to the Ipswich Teacher Development Trust CPD Excellence Forum earlier this year) and colleagues within our trust.

Cognitive bias is a potentially daunting aspect of psychology for the novice – a quick look at the Wikipedia entry for ​‘list of cognitive biases’ reveals 175 different biases …. way too many to hold on to for busy teachers and school leaders! However the five outlined below would be a good to start with in relation to designing effective professional development within schools.

1.The Ikea Effect

What it is: we place disproportionately high value on the things that we personally create or assemble.

It’s the reaction when someone questions whether the shelving unit you’ve researched, sourced, bought, collected in flat pack and toiled to assemble really suits the room! When we commit precious time and energy to systems, resources, programmes etc we are less inclined to be open to someone else questioning whether it actually is fit for purpose or as effective as it could be. A favourite research paper titled ​‘The IKEA Effect: when labour leads to love*’ outlines this effect in detail.

Guarding against/​overcoming it: be open to others’ feedback and prepared to accept that your idea might not be the best one on this occasion.

2.The Bandwagon Effect

What it is: you tend to believe things more when other people do

It is easy to go with the flow and follow others we know, associate with believe to be worthy of following. By doing this we can reduce the need to think for ourselves or engage in any personal reasoning on the assumption that those we are following have done this already. This effect goes some way to accounting for the prevalence of neuromyths within education – four outlined here and a great website from the Centre for Educational Neuroscience exploring ​‘neuro-hits’ or ​‘neuro-myths’? here.

Guarding against/​overcoming it: keep a critical eye to decisions, listen to your gut and consider if you are confident that you are not following others’ for ease.

3.Confirmation Bias

What it is: paying more attention to people or ideas that you agree/​have agreed with

Essentially starting with a conclusion in mind (rather than an open mind) and looking for evidence to support your initial thinking. Often difficult to see occurring, our mental labelling of practices, people and processes can be harmful and self-fulfilling.

Guarding against/​overcoming it: avoid starting with a preferred solution to an issue; make an effort to be open minded when considering something you have had previous experience of; before reaching a judgement, seek input from a range of people.

4.The Dunning Kruger Effect

What it is: unskilled people overestimate their ability and experts doubt themselves

Researchers David Dunning and Justin Kruger study which this effect is named after is another aptly titled paper – ​‘Unskilled and Unaware of It: How Difficulties in Recognizing One’s Own Incompetence Lead to Inflated Self-Assessments*’. They were apparently inspired to explore this effect after reading of the story of an inept bank robber McArthur Wheeler who believed that by covering his face in lemon juice he would be invisible to the bank’s CCTV cameras …. when arrested for this heist, he was baffled as to why his plan didn’t work. The impact of this effect is seen in motivation to improve – if I believe I am already good at something why should I try to change it? Inner Drive have written a summary of this tricky to manage effect which is available here (and is study #18 in their recent book The Science of Learning’)

Guarding against/​overcoming it: beware of claimed confidence of others; seek reflections of others when considering one’s own ability; harness and develop capacities in metacognitive regulation, namely planning, monitoring and evaluating progress and performance.

5.The Hawthorne Effect (note spelling as nothing to do with the spikey hedge plant!)

What it is: if someone knows that they are being observed or monitored, it can alter their behaviour

Named after an experiment at The Hawthorne Factory* in America in 1950s where owners, keen to find out how their staff could be more productive, observed them. Knowing that they were being watched, the employees worked much harder and productivity increased. When they were no longer being observed, productivity returned to normal rates. 

Guarding against/​overcoming it: make observations of others as discrete and low stakes as possible with a clear focus on feedback over judgement.

Summing up and next steps

With a reflective approach, an increasing self-awareness and a knowledge of the existence of such biases we can strive to ensure our decision making results in the desired impacts to address specific need.

Possible next steps might include:

• Click the links within this post for extra information, resource and more detail on specific biases*
• Find out more on these five and four more biases in Inner Drive’s helpful and accessible resource ​‘9 common thinking biases’
• Read Sarah Fiarman’s short and accessible paper ​‘Unconscious Bias – When Good Intentions Aren’t Enough’ and consider how this adds to your understanding and practice
• See how using the prompts within the explore phase of the EEF’s implementation guidance framework might mitigate against falling foul of bias (p6, 8, 16 and 17)
• Read the blog here by Buster Benson on his ​‘Cognitive bias cheat sheet’ …. a sneak preview of his intriguing summary diagram for you below: