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Andrew Moulton
Internship 1 Dr. Stuart Carroll
Discussion Reflection on Eleanor Duckworths The Having of Wonderful Ideas
July 23, 2014

I must admit, I am a fan of Eleanor Duckworths The Having of Wonderful Ideas. I think she
does a nice job of presenting her softer ideas within the framework of Piagets hard-lined (who
would imagine a Swiss to be hard and rigid?) cognitive theories of development. In this intimate
article Ms. Duckworth credits her teacher peers for their intuitive knowledge of student
psychology, humbles herself before their experience, and then sets the stage for her own
suggestions that marries Piagets theories, observations of her peers teacher experiences, and
those of her own into an idyllic set of suggestions.
Eleanor begins her article with her life biography as this is the foundation for her beliefs. One
thing of import is that Ms. Duckworth is unique in that she has the benefit of having spent an
incredible amount of time just studying the subtleties of young people, so when she recommends
sensitivity, I found it hard to believe that a teacher with thirty students in his class could have the
time, or even the skill to respond to students as she would suggest. But on the whole, her
suggestions are easily incorporated into a day, complimenting whatever other curriculum
demands necessary.
This is the second time I have read this article. I still resonate with it. Wonderful ideas are all
around us, teachers need to be sensitive and courageous enough to allow students a little bit of
room for exploration, experimentation, and play. I like to think that I bring a lot of this
sensitivity, exploration, and play to my own work in the classroom. I have not intentionally come
up with unsolvable problems as yet, but I do try to encourage students to consider deeply the

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things they consider as fact. I like this idea of creating wonder in the everyday, and in designing
discussion protocol, desperately wanted to express this through authentic questioning.
I designed a discussion protocol which I hoped would elicit a student-driven discussion about the
main topics of transitional moments, sensitivity to children, the unsolvable question as described
in Hanks example, alertness, and the role of the teacher in cultivating these creative and
wonderful moments. In arriving at a decision, I considered asking each of them to take a moment
and generate a question from the reading that I would then collect, and answer in turn. But that
felt a little too one-sided. I also considered starting off with a game that I had come across in an
experiential education class that seemed to provide a space ripe for wonderful ideas, but decided
against it because the activity would not be a discussion in any sense of the term. I thought
deeply about the beginning. I wanted to start with their questions, their interests, because the
previous day I had felt unnecessarily and tastelessly steered toward conclusions that were
tangential to the main point of the article, and I feel that essentially this is what Duckworth is
driving at cultivating in the setting of a space ripe for wonderful ideas.
The questions I generated in sequential order were:
What are your questions? Where should we start?
Duckworth never defines what a ripe setting for wonderful ideas looks like, what do you
think a classroom would look like? What would it contain?
If, as Duckworth states, a child can raise the right question for themselves if the setting
is right, what then is the role of the teacher?
Does the idea of allowing students the space to cultivate wonderful ideas seem feasible?
Where are the holes?

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My group members were, from left in a clockwise direction: Kate, Mat, Stuart, Ana, and Nadja; I
was only familiar with Kates teaching history and to a lesser degree Stuarts. I knew from the
previous days group work that Mat was working in Secondary Education in the Congo. Ana was
working in primary. I knew very little of Nadja other than what she had presented in class with
regards to her name.
Leaving personal biographies and how they might or might not contribute to the trajectory of the
discussion aside for the moment, I began with a quick assessment in order to gain an
appreciation of where I should begin and of how much prior knowledge the group arrived with. I
asked them to cover or close their eyes and answer the following questions with an affirmative
thumbs up or negative thumbs down. Have you read the article? One person, unnamed, had
not read the article, three had, and the fifth signed a half-raised thumb to which I inferred meant
that he had read some but not all of the article. I had a good idea at this point where I should
start, but in order to be sure, I followed up with, Do you have questions that you have prepared
for this discussion? To which I received the reply (from the unnamed person who had not read
the article), wasnt that your job? Giggles all around, and we were off and running.
I chose my entry point strategically. I wanted to inform the person who hadnt read but not bore
those who had, so the first question I asked (also evaluative) was based on gathering everyones
thoughts and focusing them down on the more essential components of the article. Simply
enough, I asked, What are these wonderful moments that Duckworth is referring to? Kate
summarized quite aptly, Ana complimented and Nadja offered something that included Paiget. I
felt that there could be some room needed for explanation and asked for a summary of Piagets
work. That got Mat involved in the conversation. I had established a base of knowledge, a
platform, and jumped in with my first question that I hoped would also build on this base of

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knowledge, Duckworth never defines what a ripe setting for wonderful ideas looks like, what do
you think a classroom would look like? What would it contain? Stu came in with some ideas of
the visual components: posters, plants, Ana added group work in clusters of students, Nadja put
in windows and nice bight daylight, Mat complimented, and Kate summarized with a bit of a
snark in her tone of voice. Although I wasnt completely satisfied with what we had arrived at,
and I think Duckworth might have had very different ideas of what settings were composed of, I
let it go in favor of picking up on Kates skepticism and putting voice to it. She was a little taken
aback that I had picked up on the subtlety of tone, so I had to joke into making her feel
comfortable about raising her opinion.
Is it feasible? I mean, what exactly is the role of the teacher in all of this? If a child can raise the
right question for themselves, and that is all dependent upon physical development as Piaget
suggests, why bother expending the energy? We had arrived at discussion, everyone
participated, and much of it is too much of a whirlwind of emotions to pinpoint with certainty,
but I remember within moments that this discussion, this batting around of ideas resulted in Ana
popping up with a comment that she hadnt realized she had. She identified it in fact, as a
wonderful idea. We all giggled.
Transitioning to another complimentary topic, I brought out the idea of transitional moments,
How can we as teachers create more of these transitional moments? That discussion led me to
bring up Hanks story and the resulting aspects required to cultivate wonderful moments: a
willingness on the part of the teacher to accept student ideas, and an equal willingness to provide
a setting that suggests wonderful ideas.

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The skepticism of the group rose, and a wonderful idea came to me that I immediately posed to
the group: What is the difference between creativity and vandalism? Kate said that there was
always collateral damage to be considered in her fourth grade class. Expensive, hard to obtain
materials were often broken, both by accident and by force, it was inevitable, but it all came out
of her pocket, so she wasnt too sure that she could justify experimenting with, for example, the
projector. A bulb, perhaps, but something expensive not so much. Nadja mentioned that a lot
of it had to do with recurrence, if the student continually broke things, it was probably not
creative but destructive. Mat put in that a lot of it depended upon writing. It was scientific if
there was writing and reflection, destruction and vandalism if there wasnt. Everything depended
upon how it was framed.
Another opinion brought up that I want to highlight before I transition to the finale is that Mat
brought up that a lot of student work in a group falls by default to students prior and mostly
inadequate knowledge of a topic. Mat is in favor of lectures and structure, the dispersal of
knowledge, before the rather complex group work and often abstract, and time consuming
projects. The group response was mixed and as a whole arrived at a compromise. There needs to
be a balance in the classroom. Students can have some activities, but they also need lecture as
much as they need opportunities for the ah-ha moment. Most importantly, there needs to be a
take away message. Something easily grasped. We liked Duckworths idea of not cover[ing] a
topic but uncover[ing] it.
As a discussion leader I wanted everyone to feel included, well-heard, understood, and
challenged. Judging from the popcorn style responses, I believe I helped foster an equitable
exchange of original ideas that led to unexpected and unanticipated, even wonderful results.

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I wanted to weave my questioning into their interests; aware of my intentions of defining an
appropriate setting and of the role of the teacher, the realities of making space for wonderful
ideas in my peers classrooms, and should it be agreed upon, of the possibilities for incorporating
it into the classroom. I feel successful in this respect as well. Anas wonderful idea as well as
mine would not have arisen in a different, more teacher-centered approach.
I would have liked to have developed more critical questions prior to the discussion, but this is
an acknowledged weakness of mine. I am always super impressed with Nick and how he is able
to synthesize information to arrive at interesting and pivotal questions about a topic. I recognize
that my questions are rather simple and one-dimensional, but their simplicity allows for plenty of
play within the discussion, so Im ok with this handicap.
I think I know a bit more about my classmates, I think they know a bit more about me. I think I
balanced my comments with theirs rather nicely. Everyone, myself included, had about equal
speaking time. I did not dominate, but the discussion moved more or less in a manner that I had
predetermined, covering everything that needed space, paced nicely, but doing it on the students
own turf. I think this is a real skill that I have developed, a sensitivity akin to Duckworths
sensitivity that I channel from one of my most challenging and impressive undergraduate
teachers Bonnie Tai. Watching her compose a class was like watching meditation in motion.
In the end and after I had attempted to summarize to the rest of the class our discussion, I
thanked them all for their honesty and courageousness. I had had an amazing time and it
appeared that from their animated responses, the exploration of the article through our combined
knowledge had made for an interesting if not thoroughly spontaneous and unique experience.