by Lisa Forbes
Fred Hanna was a faculty member who trained me in my masters and doctoral work. This man was playful in his own way. He had a self-deprecating humor and never took himself too seriously. One time, I accidentally dropped some popcorn on the floor in the middle of class and mid-lecture, he bent down, picked the popcorn off of the floor and ate it as if it was a socially acceptable thing to do in front of 20 students.. Then he made a joke about me not feeding the animals during class.
From then on, I always made sure to pack popcorn in my bag to see if he would do it again and again.
Fred is also an extraordinary therapist who has loads of experience working with challenging clients. He’s worked with some of the hardest, most “resistant” clients and seemed to be able to respectfully break down their walls to create change in teens that most everyone else had written off.
Throughout my studies, Fred taught me his Precursors of Change model that he used to assess clients to understand their readiness for change. The precursors are seven prerequisites needed for change to occur. The more precursors the client demonstrates, the more likely they will be to change. Part of the therapist’s job is to assess clients to determine which precursors might need some attention. Once the deficient precursors are addressed, the client’s change process becomes more open and fluid.
The precursors model was established for working therapeutically with clients in a mental health setting but I think it applies to teaching too. I think there are people in any setting or discipline that are “resistant” or less likely to change and this precursors model provides some insight into expediting the change process.
Hanna’s therapeutic precursors to change are:
- A sense of necessity for change: recognized urgency for the importance for change to take place and that current conditions are not satisfactory.
- A willingness or readiness to experience anxiety: a willingness to experience and surrender to anxiety, difficulty, and discomfort that comes with change.
- Awareness of the problem: An awareness of the areas that are in need of change. Knowing that a problem exists and having a good sense of what that problem or issue is.
- Confronting the problem: a steady and deliberate willingness to confront the problem in order to change despite the tendency to avoid or escape it.
- Effort or will toward change: an effort or deliberate exertion of energy or resources used to solve the problem. It also involves a commitment and decision to change.
- Hope for change: having hope or an expectation that you can change. Hope sees the possibility of change, and motivates a person, knowing that change can be accomplished.
- Social support for change: Having social support and access to relationships that are dedicated to the well-being of the person. Such relationships make the change process more tolerable and can inspire each of the previous precursors.
I wonder if these same precursors can shed some insight on how faculty can demonstrate change and movement toward being more playful and utilizing play in their teaching. Using Hanna’s framework, I have adapted the therapeutic precursors for faculty attempting to change their teaching approach to include more of a playful pedagogy. Go ahead, take the self-assessment and see what precursors you might need to increase to advance in your journey to play in higher education!
For more information on the Precursors to a Playful Pedagogy – Self Assessment tool Lisa has developed, contact her directly via our About Page.
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