Theoretical Underpinnings
Meta-awareness and Self-talk

Another important aspect of needs analysis is the ability to question the meaning of what you and others do. When you read something and then ask yourself, "What was that all about?" "Why didn't I understand any of that?" You have engaged in an act of meta-awareness or self-talk. Meta-awareness is the process of becoming an observer of your own thinking and behaviour. You use it every time you think about what you will do next, how well you just did something or reflect on what others think of you. Of course we can 'turn off' our meta-awareness, if we didn’t we would never make any decisions or take any action. Unfortunately, some professionals turn off their meta-awareness and leave it off for the rest of their lives. As a way of helping to explain this concept, think about the following three levels of awareness.
1.
At the first level we simply respond or act without thinking too much. As serving principals, much of our skilled behaviour has become so ingrained that we are good at it without even thinking about what we are doing. Our behaviour at this level is simply habit - being who we are in the world – our spontaneous, unrehearsed selves.
2..
At the second level we might be forced to stop acting purely from habit and think about how to progress. This may be because the first position hasn’t worked or because the situation is novel, unfamiliar, threatening or urgent. In this situation we may try new ideas or seek more information. As the saying goes "when all else fails…read the manual!"
3
At the third level we stop and think about the 'why' we are doing something in a particular way and attempt to look at things differently – this may involve re-framing an issue or problem through engaging in self-talk. When we do this we become self-reflective and begin to focus on cognitive conflict and tensions. In such a scenario, we might begin to question our values and our beliefs (double loop learning) and seek to discover 'what we don't know we don't know'. At this level we are engaging personally in an action learning cycle (see the figure above).
Action Learning is a form of "learning by doing". Once targets have been set, they follow a spiralling process of "Plan–Act–Observe–Reflect". As goals are achieved, the process is repeated and then repeated again - as each target is achieved a new one is set and so on.

Planning:
What do I do now? What is going on? What am I missing? Why do I think this way?
Acting:
Set myself some learning goals and achieve them.
Observing:
Did it work? Am I better able to meet the needs of the situation?
Evaluating:
What have I learnt from this?

Action Learning is about moving toward the third level of awareness – where you actually stop and think or talk to yourself. This is central to principal needs analysis. The advantages of sustained engagement at this level, through action learning, is incalculable over the life time of the principalship. Individual principals and schools as organisations hold the potential to be profoundly different – and better – if they focus on the why of actions, beliefs and problems.


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