This article was originally published on 14 June 2023
Something every teacher will struggle with at some point in their career is expert blindness.
The term essentially refers to our inability to understand how a novice may interpret and understand new content we are delivering because to us it feels “obvious” and so we fail to appreciate that it is confusing for those hearing it for the first time.
While this is an area that has been written about extensively in terms of classroom practice, the issue of expert blindness in leadership has been explored less within education. But it is something anyone with a leadership component to their role should be aware of.
The risk of expert blindness in school leadership
Let us consider the information-rich position that leaders occupy. Leaders will typically be exposed to more information about the goings-on around school; for example, through middle and senior leadership meetings or lesson observations.
Leaders are also typically more au fait with school development areas, as they will continually refer to them in meetings and often will, in the first instance, have dictated such targets.
Furthermore, it is typically leaders who determine responsive actions - for example, if behaviour on corridors is too boisterous, leaders can decide to prioritise this issue and act upon it.
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Each of these factors automatically places leaders as (relative) experts, compared with their non-leadership colleagues. This instantly places most teaching staff at a disadvantage in understanding why different things are being prioritised, and why particular actions are being taken.
This develops the first disparity in understanding between leaders and non-leaders.
Explaining the decision making
The second, and arguably greater, issue is the expert/novice divide created through the research that leaders undertake into solutions to the identified problems.
Let us return to the example of boisterous corridors. In this situation, a leader may research alternative policies for out-of-lesson behaviour, such as silent corridors. They may also visit other schools to see how these alternative approaches work.
A leader would spend time poring over the different approaches and the theory underpinning these ideas, as well as any lived experiences of the approaches that they may have encountered.
Based upon all of this information, a leader will make a decision on the course of action for this issue. And by this point, the theory and alternative solutions are so well understood by that leader that they are almost second nature.
Yet they wouldn’t be second nature to any other member of staff who hasn’t conducted all of this research.
As such, when leaders are initiating new strategies or policies, it is important they realise that explaining why this course of action is being taken, with reference to the research behind it, could be useful to ensure that staff understand there is logic and prior thought behind a change in direction.
This does not need to be exhaustive - a 15-minute explanation in a staff meeting or through a brief email that explains the thought processes and background work would suffice. And given that the change may require teachers to carry out new work, it helps to ensure that the reasons for this are properly explained.
Putting it into practice
Take, for example, my introduction of a revision tutor programme. The purpose of this project was to improve the revision and independent study habits of students in key stage 3, to better prepare them for assessments and the requirements of KS4 study.
Prior to the launch of the programme, a meeting was held where not only was the pedagogy around the changes explained but also the purposes of the changes, the research stages and the rationale for this approach over others.
This was complemented by providing staff with an opportunity to raise any questions or concerns that they had, so there was complete transparency and engagement with the new plan.
So, as a leader, here are some key questions to ask yourself when embedding a new strategy, policy, pedagogy or even just when leading some CPD.
- Is the rationale clear and linked to information that staff will know or have awareness of?
- Is the theory well explained, and linked to clear sources of understanding that staff will have?
- Is the prioritisation clear and linked to information that staff are aware of?
- Have you explained, succinctly, the process you have gone through to reach this decision, including research and any visits to other schools that were conducted?
Overall, if you answer yes to these questions, not only are you going to be avoiding the expert blindness of leadership, you are also going to be significantly improving the likelihood of implementation being successful, through improved staff understanding and, in turn, buy in.
Nathan Burns is a head of maths and author of Inspiring Deep Learning with Metacognition. He tweets @MrMetacognition
