The Triple Focus: A New Approach to Education

Do we need to reform education to teach young people to become more self aware, more in tune with others, and more knowledgeable about how we collectively interact, or do we need to reform education so that it encourages young people to do what they naturally are designed to do when in a supportive environment--connect with self and others?The concepts of "Dynamic Complexity" and "Social Complexity" are both shown not to be so complex when in the hands of young people. Rob Quaden's eighth grade algebra class illustrates "Dynamic Simplicity" with students mostly teaching each other Algebra as a result of social and emotional education being taught (or allowed) in conjunction with the subject matter. A case of "Social Complexity" is made simple by three six-year-old boys who easily understood how mean words lead to hurt feelings and hurt feelings lead to mean words and then providing ways to reverse the vicious "reinforcing loop."The authors stress the need for social and emotional learning in the classroom in light of the technology age where communication is reduced to words, letters, and symbols on a screen, devoid of nonverbal and paraverbal communication. However, as technology may be hampering young people's ability to effectively deal with interpersonal issues, technology gives young people unprecedented and immediate access to information about how adults and "experts" are profiting today from economic decisions that are causing social, cultural, and environmental issues that they will be responsible for cleaning up years later.Young people are clearly aware that they are being taught to be cogs on the wheel of special interest at the expense of social and environmental interest. Here is what a twelve year old, who was presenting on a wind turbine that was erected at their middle school as part of a sustainability project, boldly told the mayor and members of the town council. "We children are often hearing, `You are the future.' We don't have that much time. We need to make changes now. We kids are ready, are you?" Good question! How many students are allowed to make new discoveries or take risks in developing skills or interests that they know are for the benefit of all, such as the wind turbine project?If given space and support, students of all ages can show and even teach teachers and parents how to regulate self, feel for others (including the environment), and as a result, create sustainable systems that do their best to have groups include all individuals and have individuals in leadership include all groups. Even Senge sees that these soft skills are innate in humans. He says, "I believe one of the reasons we have survived so long as we have is our innate systems intelligence and our capacity to collaborate, our appreciation for what it takes to get things done together and for building community." Both Goleman and Senge use "The Triple Focus" to illustrate how this natural process of social and emotional learning can manifest and enrich the classroom experience and benefit other stakeholders, including the parents and the community when a student goes home and talks about how he helped out another student with Algebra or how she is involved in building a wind turbine at school to reduce the use of fossil fuels and pollution.

To Mr Senge and Mr Coleman,Thank you for your great introduction on this important topic and having it as a book. It is promising although lacking. I read it for a paper that I am writing on Systems Thinking in education. The inclusion of SEL was perfect in honor of the full system.The book is mostly very well written; it still seems to miss a crucial segment. I was hoping to turn the pages and get real examples of how and where it is working. I still personally believe in the importance of SEL and Systems Thinking in education. But we need more data, of the specific successes, with concrete examples, to make the point to the larger audience. The video of the three six year old boys reviewing play ground feedback loops was mentioned multiple times, almost giving the impression that it was the only example.Are you considering to have a follow on book? That would be marvelous. Can you please provide (many) more examples to show how well Systems Thinking and SEL are working for academic, individual and social betterment (through education of students, teachers, administrators and parents )? Can you please step forward from mostly theory to a plethora of concrete examples? If there are 1-5% schools which are implementing them, can you bring those to light? I feel that this is a nice high level overview to someone who doesn't know much about these topics. It may not be so convincing for those who come in unconvinced.. And for those who are familiar with the ideas or even the topics, it seems to swim (albeit beautifully) around the shore but not fully land nor deep dive into the ocean of knowledge to bring more. It still has many rich concepts that are waiting to be cultivated into real life stories.Please continue with the work, and help us parents, educators, systems thinkers, changers, leaders, students, expand our society to a better place.Many thanks.

This is the most important book on educational reform to be published in years. It proposes that we teach three kinds of thinking skills as early as possible: 1) How to be in contact with, think about and control the emotional self, 2) How to perceive, understand, empathize and respond to others, 3) How to see and understand both the social and the physical worlds as dynamic systems. With these skills in place early, children are prepared to participate in group activities and to absorb the academic curriculum which is common fare in most schools. Without them children are a bother to themselves and others. Although Goleman and Senge have taken the pragmatic position that this Triple Focus should inform school curricula beginning in nursery school, I advocate a more radical stance that this course of study should be required of every pregnant couple before the baby is born. If parents have a Triple Focus approach their children will learn it along with walking and talking. With luck we won't need this book in a generation or two. For now, read it, absorb it, get help if you have difficulty learning it on your own and practice it every day.

The book was interesting but lacked the eureka moments that are abundant in many of Daniel Goleman's EQ books. Less practical in its applications than other books I have read and by the end I wasn't sure I really had anything that as I parent I would change to help my children learn.

This is excellent for leaders in education anywhere in the world, especially headteachers. For anyone familiar and a fan of both Peter Senge and Daniel Goleman this is a great amalgamation, albeit brief and only on kindle.

Interesting book in the form of an essay in five parts. I felt that the authors spoke as though the reader understood the concept of systems based intelligence - a bit more information (like definitions) could have aided in the comprehension of the topic.I found Peter Senge's section the hardest to understand because of the lack of definitions.The only challenge I would raise with Daniel Goleman is of his suggestion to move much of the academic subjects to online learning so that there would be additional time allowed for the SEL framework they are proposing. I would have thought that the systematic approach would have been rather to incorporate the SEL into the everyday learning with potential for a start of day and end of day discussion - to move SEL into the system so to speak and to use it as the framework to bind the subjects together.(My Goodreads review)

Same stuff repackaged