Heuristics. The practice of using mental shortcuts to make quick decisions, without stopping to think about the next course of action. We have collected a lot of information about the world and how we think things should be done. We develop set ways of working to make things easier for ourselves and get things done quicker based on our own judgements and abilities. In teaching, this can help us to make decisions about where a learner needs to make progress next, classroom management, assessment, lesson planning, explanations, delivery and so many more. These heuristics are great for solving quick problems where an immediate answer is required, these are decisions that we automatically make as practitioners almost unconsciously.

It follows, that as teachers, trainers and other educational professionals become more experienced, they end up using more heuristic strategies to inform their decision making. Experiences allow for teachers to have a sense that this has happened before, and so therefore have a set of strategies for dealing with it. For example, in my work as a further education teacher, I have found that students behaviours across the year fall into patterns and sequences, to the point where stress points can be predicted, and issues anticipated ahead of time. Or so I think. This is the problem with heuristics; they are often error prone and relying on them for decision making can lead to surprises and curveballs that no-one was expecting.

It’s almost a trade off – the speed of the decision made is positively correlated with the likelihood it is wrong. But if we do not use heuristics and treat every situation as if we had never experienced it before, this could take time and does not value the experiences or intuition we have as teachers. That’s why it is so important that we are aware of these short-cuts we use to make decisions, and constantly consider if they are true or if we have jumped to a conclusion. This is where diffractive practice becomes relevant.

In physics, reflection is a process where light, or sound waves are reflected off an obstacle, and is concerned with forming an objective representation of phenomenon. Whereas diffraction involves the spreading of waves when they encounter a barrier or opening. A more diffractive practice would be one that encourages the practitioner to move with the obstacles and openings that they may encounter in their practice. Given the wide range of changes, obstacles and opportunities that exist within education, this model could encourage practitioners to consider how they can develop their practice. In becoming a diffractive practitioner, Hill suggests three components of diffractive practice: becoming with the world, displacing and diffracting the selves who teach, and embracing difference, interference, and spaces-in-between (2017).

Becoming with the world involves a recognition that realities are a result of human and non-human entities interacting with one another, and that power emerges because of interactions between entities (Hill, 2017). In the context of heuristics, practitioners are using the information from the interactions they have with others to inform the decisions they are making. In considering these interactions, and the motives and viewpoints of the people we interact with, we can form a more reliable judgment of the usefulness of the interactions. If we consider knowledge to be the product of the interactions we have with others, we need to value these interactions and the role they play in forming our judgements.

Displacing and diffracting those who teach can be achieved through nomadic identity. This idea of a nomadic identity for teachers and educators suggests that the teacher can commit to multiple identities throughout the course of their practice. This may be a shift from teacher to learner in that knowledge can be co-constructed through interactions between teachers and leaners. This is of particular use within adult education, where learners come to education with a wide range of existing experiences and knowledge, and as a teacher it is our role to rephrase these experiences within the subject being delivered. In this way the ‘diffractive practitioner can be viewed as a displaced subject, occupying a variety of professional selves, travelling on a divergent path and setting up encampments along the way’ (Hill, 2017, p. 11). For every learner, as teachers we must try and work out the way that they learn best, and we achieve this through learning from them, about their experiences of what works for them and what doesn’t. Using heuristics, we can often forget the value of the learner and their experiences in shaping their learning. Therefore, if we are to use heuristics in decision making, there is a need to have a variety and breadth in the information we use to make decisions.

Reflective practice considers theory and practice, in a manner that extends, enhances, and disrupts practice through theory (Brookfield, 1995). Diffractive practice produces new phenomena and new possibilities for practice through embracing multiplicity, difference, and divergence (Hill, 2017). In heuristics, there is a risk that our decisions are guided through incomplete and incorrect information, that can result in placing learners, situations, and issues into generic ‘boxes’ to make quick interventions to solve a problem. Yet, through embracing the principles of diffractive practice, difference and divergence are important. There are often nuances to issues that quick decision-making misses or doesn’t account for, which can only be overcome through the embracing of difference and divergence from what we are expecting to happen.

Heuristics can be useful in decisions, but it is important to diffract on them, considering their genesis, and the issues that may arise from them, but ultimately move with them, to support well informed, quick decision making.

References

Brookfield, S. (1995). Becoming a Critically Reflective Teacher. San-Francisco:: Jossey-Bass.

Hill, C. (2017). More-than-reflective practice: Becoming a diffractive practitioner. Teacher Learning and Professional Development, 1-17.