I have a confession to make: If it weren't for Brian and Danny, I probably wouldn't have done any Tough Mudders after the Wintergreen event (and, yes, it pains me to say this). As Brian says in his most recent post, Impossible is Nothing, they have made me work harder than I ever expected or imagined I could. Knowing that they were working to improve motivates me to work harder as well.
In this way, one of the most amazing aspects of the journey that we're taking is that I'm starting to realize the benefits of peer pressure. Of course, we all remember the scare stories about peer pressure leading us into lives of crime and drug use, and I'm sure that we've all be asked at one time or another the question "If all your friends were jumping off a bridge, would you?" These kinds of scare tactics are well suited to warn us of the dangers of uncritically following our peers, but the experiences I've had with Danny and Brian have illustrated that there's a flipside to this - our peers can pressure us into being better than we were before. Brian spoke about this in his most recent post, and I'd agree whole-heartedly.
Often, in education, we think of the negative effects of peer-pressure and try to minimize their impacts (think in terms of anti-drug and alcohol campaigns). In fact, that mindset becomes so ingrained that we become averse to using peer-pressure to our advantage. In reality, this is a very powerful tool that we can use to help us teach or lead people. To illustrate, let me explain an educational initiative that I've used with several of my classes: the student-authored textbook. A few years ago I was talking with a mentor and friend about the fact that the textbook he was using in his introduction to education class was in something like its 11th edition even though it hadn't really changed all that much over time. Add into this the fact that the students didn't really seem interested in reading a VERY expensive textbook that was assigned to them, and I proposed ditching it entirely and having the students write their own textbook for the class. We created an outline for the new text that had around 70 individual topics to be written. The class enrolled about triple that number, so we figured we would allow three students to write on each topic and then the class would vote for the best one to be included in the "official textbook." Students were told to write about 1000 words on their topic, and were given three weeks at the beginning of the semester to write. The process worked wonderfully, and ended up with a book of about 200,000 words that covered each of the topics and was written in less than month. As you could imagine, the quality of writing was spotty, but the students bought into the project with gusto, and our research indicates that they learned the content as well as those who read traditional textbooks.
However, when asked about the textbook in focus groups at the end of the semester, students consistently stated that they felt it was important to take it seriously BECAUSE other students would be reading the materials. In essence, they didn't mind slacking off on a 1000 word assignment when the only audience was the professor (or a teaching assistant), but when confronted with the idea that their peers would read their work they felt pressure to perform at their best. This is the very nature of peer-pressure when used for a positive effect. The same process has been used in various settings, and the findings
are almost always they same: students raise their own expectations just
by the fact of having other students involved with their work.
Of course, we all know this in an abstract way, but as with most things it doesn't really hit home until it touches us personally. I knew that staying in shape was a net positive for my life. I knew that being physically active would benefit me in the short-, medium- and long-run. I knew that I was capable of being active. But these were all theoretical until I had peers who were pushing me to actually achieve those things. That's why the collaborative nature of Tough Mudders is great...it makes us work together. Our human nature makes us push ourselves based on peer pressure. That's a truly important lesson to learn when trying to get motivated for WTM, but it's an even more important lesson for us to learn in education - as long as we're leveraging that pressure for positive growth.
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| Image Source:
sillygwailo via Flickr
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Often, in education, we think of the negative effects of peer-pressure and try to minimize their impacts (think in terms of anti-drug and alcohol campaigns). In fact, that mindset becomes so ingrained that we become averse to using peer-pressure to our advantage. In reality, this is a very powerful tool that we can use to help us teach or lead people. To illustrate, let me explain an educational initiative that I've used with several of my classes: the student-authored textbook. A few years ago I was talking with a mentor and friend about the fact that the textbook he was using in his introduction to education class was in something like its 11th edition even though it hadn't really changed all that much over time. Add into this the fact that the students didn't really seem interested in reading a VERY expensive textbook that was assigned to them, and I proposed ditching it entirely and having the students write their own textbook for the class. We created an outline for the new text that had around 70 individual topics to be written. The class enrolled about triple that number, so we figured we would allow three students to write on each topic and then the class would vote for the best one to be included in the "official textbook." Students were told to write about 1000 words on their topic, and were given three weeks at the beginning of the semester to write. The process worked wonderfully, and ended up with a book of about 200,000 words that covered each of the topics and was written in less than month. As you could imagine, the quality of writing was spotty, but the students bought into the project with gusto, and our research indicates that they learned the content as well as those who read traditional textbooks.
Of course, we all know this in an abstract way, but as with most things it doesn't really hit home until it touches us personally. I knew that staying in shape was a net positive for my life. I knew that being physically active would benefit me in the short-, medium- and long-run. I knew that I was capable of being active. But these were all theoretical until I had peers who were pushing me to actually achieve those things. That's why the collaborative nature of Tough Mudders is great...it makes us work together. Our human nature makes us push ourselves based on peer pressure. That's a truly important lesson to learn when trying to get motivated for WTM, but it's an even more important lesson for us to learn in education - as long as we're leveraging that pressure for positive growth.
