Planning For It
Humility is a foundational skill for empathy, collaboration, and lifelong learning. As Rick Warren once said, humility is not thinking less of yourself, it’s thinking of yourself less. It is maintaining your self-confidence, but also acknowledging your limitations and the essential wisdom and contributions of other people. It is knowing humans are all in this together.
We are necessarily a collaborative species – who need to lean on each others’ strengths and step in to support each other’s struggles. By encouraging students to appreciate diverse perspectives and acknowledge their own limits, we can create a more inclusive and supportive learning environment.
Spark Interest
Humility is about recognizing our limitations and acknowledging the wisdom and strengths of others. To do this, we might need to set aside our biases or preconceived notions of others.
As an exercise, consider the following questions:
- Can you identify 2 – 3 things your students might know more about than you? What could you learn from them?
- What about your colleagues? Can you identify 2-3 things you could learn from your peers or colleagues – areas they have strengths that could complement your limitations?
Even those younger than us, or different than us, can teach us something, if we are open to it. How did it feel to reflect in this way? How might you carry this reflection into your classroom or school?
Learning Objectives
In this module, we will:
- Understand the meaning of humility (e.g.,the different types) and how it can influence students.
- Explore how humility can support students’ well-being, resilience, and success in school
- Investigate the various ways to create humble classrooms and help students to find their humility
Module Resources
This toolkit includes additional resources, including classroom lessons and practices organized by developmental level, staff meeting activities, videos, podcasts, articles, and professional learning opportunities, as well as supporting materials for group facilitation on the topics of "Humility for Adults" and “Humility for Students.”
Individual Exploration
In a world that often celebrates self-promotion and bravado, cultivating humility in students is more important than ever. Humility is not just as a personal virtue, but is a vital skill that can enhance collaboration, empathy, and resilience. Educators can play a key role in inspiring a new generation of leaders who will know their own strengths, but who will also lift each other up, listen actively, and grow together.
What is Humility?
In this first segment, learn about humility, how it is defined by researchers, how it develops in young people, and how it is related to other important virtues. [12:16]
Reflection
- What does humility mean to you in the context of teaching? How have you seen it emerge (or not emerge) in your classroom?
Why is Humility Important for Students?
In this next video, learn what researchers have discovered about how humility can benefit students. [9:05]
Reflection
- Do any of your students see humility as a weakness instead of a strength? How might you navigate this?
How to Cultivate Humility
In this final video, learn how educators can intentionally help students cultivate humility. [12:34]
Reflection
- In what ways does your classroom already support the development and expression of humility?
- How do you encourage students to practice humility in their interactions with each other?
- What changes could you make to encourage students to demonstrate humility more frequently in your classroom?
Links from Video
- Practicing Shallow vs. Deep Curiosity (Upper Elementary – College) Students learn about the differences between shallow and deep curiosity and develop questions that reflect both levels of curiosity. Students will engage in a conversational pair activity where they will practice connecting with each other as they use these two types of questions.
- Asking Powerful Questions (Upper Elementary – College) Students cultivate a curious mindset by learning how to ask powerful questions. Through a hands-on activity, they practice crafting questions that foster deeper curiosity and more meaningful conversations. (less than 30 minutes)
- Exemplars Who Inspire Intellectual Humility (Middle School – High School) Students learn about intellectual humility, consider an historian who demonstrated it, and identify ways to practice greater intellectual humility. (less than 30 minutes)
- Flow and Tell (PreK – High School) After checking in with their breath, body sensations, emotions, and thoughts, students take turns listening and sharing what they observe in the present moment. (less than 15 minutes)
- “The Guest House” Poem and Body Scan for Teens (Middle School – College) Share a poem that focuses on mindful self-acceptance, and lead students to pay attention to their bodies, noticing the physical sensations and feelings they experience. (less than 15 minutes)
- Looking for Gratitude in Schools (PreK-Lower elementary) Students take a silent walk around school, noticing people for whom they are grateful and then expressing their gratitude to those people. (less than 1 hour)
- What is Gratitude? (Middle School) Students define gratitude and the many forms it takes, and identify the intentions of someone who has acted in a caring way towards them, and how they benefit. (Multiple sessions)
- Seeds of Self-Compassion (PreK-Lower Elementary) Students build their self-compassion vocabulary by writing or drawing positive affirmations about themselves. (less than 1 hour)
- How Would You Treat a Friend? (High School – Adult) A brief writing exercise that will make you aware of the difference between the way you speak to your friends and yourself during difficult times, while encouraging you to be kind to yourself. (less than 30 minutes)
- Encouraging Awe and Wonder Through Questioning (PreK- High School) Students ask questions about a topic or skill—ones that may or may not be answerable—opening their minds to the awe and wonder of life. (less than 30 minutes)
- Finding Meaning Through Awe (Middle School – College) Students interview each other about an experience of awe, reflect on what that experience reveals is meaningful to them, and consider how to connect that meaning to their learning. (less than 30 minutes)
- Checking Your Perspective (Upper Elementary – High School) Partners explore perspective-taking, first with images, then by writing about imaginary scenarios with a partner – from both their own perspective and their peer’s perspective. After swapping their written responses, they discuss the similarities and differences between them and reflect on what they learned. (less than 30 minutes)
- Become an Admitter (Upper Elementary – Adult) Students or staff identify and celebrate times they were mistaken (“I was wrong”)–and then focus on listening (“tell me more”) to each other without arguing as they share differing opinions. (less than 30 minutes)
- Good Listening: A Path Towards Greater Humility (Upper Elementary – High School) Students practice good listening in their conversations and reflecting on what was said to cultivate greater humility. (less than 15 minutes)
- Mindshifts: An Intellectual Humility Reflection Tool (Upper Elementary – Adult) Students recognize the value of changing their minds and embracing intellectual humility. By reflecting on a time when they shifted their perspective, they practice open-mindedness and develop a deeper appreciation for intellectual growth and learning. (less than 30 minutes)
- Building Collaborative Classroom Norms (Middle school – High school) Students co-create norms that foster a welcoming class environment and ensure safe discussions among peers, and develop a personal goal to help implement the norms. (less than 1 hour)
Module Resources
This toolkit includes additional resources, including classroom lessons and practices organized by developmental level, staff meeting activities, videos, podcasts, articles, and professional learning opportunities, as well as supporting materials for group facilitation on the topics of "Humility for Adults" and “Humility for Students.”
A worksheet in which students reflect on what humility means, their experiences with humility, and choose a humility challenge.
Group Facilitation
Before facilitating groups, spend time in individual exploration in order to experience and embody the learning. And if you haven’t yet explored our introduction to SEL in California, make sure you explore those resources.
Module Resources
This toolkit includes additional resources, including classroom lessons and practices, staff meeting activities, videos, podcasts, articles, and professional learning opportunities, as well as supporting materials for group facilitation on the topics of "Humility for Adults" and “Humility for Students.”
A revisable, turnkey powerpoint slide deck to use for professional learning sessions on the topic of "Humility for Students."
A powerpoint slide deck with welcoming and closing activities to include in professional learning sessions.
A worksheet in which students reflect on what humility means, their experiences with humility, and choose a humility challenge.
“Humility is the first step towards learning. You can’t learn until you are humble enough to realize there is something for you to learn.”
Do you want to dive deeper into the science behind our GGIE practices? Enroll in one of our online courses for educators!
Comments