passion-based learning

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Creating Classrooms We Need: 8 Ways Into Inquiry Learning

March 11, 2013 | 10:54 AM | By
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Flickr: Scratchpost

If kids can access information from sources other than school, and if school is no longer the only place where information lives, what, then happens to the role of this institution?

“Our whole reason for showing up for school has changed, but infrastructure has stayed behind,” said Diana Laufenberg, who taught history at the progressive public school Science Leadership Academy for many years. Laufenberg provided some insight into how she guided students to find their own learning paths at school, and enumerated some of these ideas at SXSWEdu last week.

1.   BE FLEXIBLE.
The less educators try to control what kids learn, the more students’ voices will be heard and, eventually, their ability to drive their own learning. But that requires a flexible mindset on the part of the teacher. “That’s a scary proposition for teachers,” Laufenberg said. “‘What do you mean I’m going to have 60 kids doing 60 different projects,’ teachers might say. But that’s exactly the way for kids to do interesting, high-end work that they’re invested in.”

Laufenberg recalled a group of tenacious students who continued to ask permission to focus their video project on the subject of drugs, despite her repeated objections. She finally relented — with the caveat that they not resort to cliches. In turn, the students turned in one of the best video projects she’d ever seen: a well-produced, polished video about Americans’ dependence on pharmaceutical drugs that was dense with facts backed up by students’ research. “And I almost killed this project,” she said. “There are vastly creative minds that are Continue reading →

FILED UNDER: Culture, Learning Methods, creativity, inquiry learning, passion-based learning, progressive education, Science Leadership Academy, SXSWEdu

Five Ways to Bring Innovation Into the Classroom

August 27, 2012 | 1:57 PM | By

For many schools across the country, today marks the first day of a new year. In addition to thinking about tools that help boost educators’ teaching practice, this moment might be a good time to pull back and think about some big-picture ideals, too. Here are a few to consider.

1.   INFUSE PASSION INTO LEARNING.

Nine Tenets of Passion-Based Learning. Educators who focus on integrating kids’ own interests and passions into the curriculum will see them flourish as learners. Educators can think about integrating such practices as showing relevance of what students are studying to life outside school, connecting with parents, and using digital media as a way to spark interests and spreading ideas.

2.   TRY SOMETHING NEW.

Jumping Into the 21st Century. For both veteran educators and newbies, the temptation to stick to what’s acceptable and what’s been done is hard to overcome. Educator Shelley Wright talks about how she took the plunge and redesigned the entire structure of her teaching practice. Her goal? “Changing to a student-centered, skill-based, technology embedded classroom,” she says.

3.   CONSIDER THE FLIPPED CLASSROOM MODEL. 

The Flip: Why I love It, How I Use It. Educator Shelley Wright shares why she’s decided to flip her classroom. “I don’t believe in assigning videos every night as a substitute for my own lecturing. To me, that’s simply the traditional classroom rearranged, not flipped. I use the flip when my students need to absorb a few chunks of new information to continue learning. I don’t use it to front-load information at the beginning of a unit. I think that can rob students of the experience of authentically building knowledge and skills as they encounter new Continue reading →

FILED UNDER: Culture, Learning Methods, creativity, Innovation, passion-based learning

How to Turn Your Classroom into an Idea Factory

August 20, 2012 | 7:00 AM | By

Brightworks School

Students building a cafe at Brightworks School in San Francisco.

By Suzie Boss
The following suggestions for turning K-12 classrooms into innovation spaces come from Bringing Innovation to School: Empowering Students to Thrive in a Changing World, published in July by Solution Tree.

How can we prepare today’s students to become tomorrow’s innovators? It’s an urgent challenge, repeated by President Obama, corporate CEOs, and global education experts like Yong Zhao and Tony Wagner. Virtually every discussion of 21st-century learning puts innovation and its close cousin, creativity, atop the list of skills students must have for the future.

If we’re serious about preparing students to become innovators, educators have some hard work ahead. Getting students ready to tackle tomorrow’s challenges means helping them develop a new set of skills and fresh ways of thinking that they won’t acquire through textbook-driven instruction. Students need opportunities to practice these skills on right-sized projects, with supports in place to scaffold learning. They need to persist and learn from setbacks. That’s how they’ll develop the confidence to tackle difficult problems.

How do we fill the gap between saying we must encourage innovation and teaching students how to actually generate and execute original ideas? The answers are emerging from classrooms across the country where pioneering teachers are making innovation a priority. Their strategies vary widely, from tinkering workshops and design studios to digital gaming and global challenges. By emphasizing problem solving and creativity in the core curriculum, these advance scouts are demonstrating that innovation is both powerful and teachable.

Across disparate fields, from engineering and technology to the social and environmental sectors, innovators use a common problem-solving process. They frame problems carefully, looking at issues from all sides to find opportunity gaps. They may generate many possible solutions before focusing their efforts. They refine solutions through iterative cycles, learning from failure along with success. When they hit on worthy ideas, innovators network with others and share results widely.

In the classroom, this same process corresponds neatly with the stages of project-based learning. In PBL, students investigate intriguing questions that lead them to learn important academic content. They apply their learning to create something new, demonstrate their understanding, or teach others about the issue they have explored. By emphasizing key thinking skills throughout the PBL process, teachers can guide students to operate the same way that innovators do in all kinds of settings.

Here are eight tips to borrow from classrooms where teachers are reinventing yesterday’s schools as tomorrow’s idea factories.

1.   WELCOME AUTHENTIC QUESTIONS.

Good projects start with good questions. Listen closely to students to find out what makes them curious. Instead of presenting them with ready-made assignments, invite student feedback when Continue reading →

FILED UNDER: Culture, Learning Methods, creativity, inquiry learning, passion-based learning

Lessons Learned: How a Progressive New School Adapts to Realities

August 17, 2012 | 10:17 AM | By

Brightworks

When we envision a well-rounded, progressive education for our kids, we think of a vibrant environment that nurtures students’ passions, provides structure for rich and deep learning, a place where kids can get their hands on projects that are meaningful to them.

That’s the goal at Brightworks, a small, K-12 private school just starting its second year in San Francisco: to re-imagine traditional modes of education so that curiosity and creativity hold sway over standardized tests and worksheets. But in the course of creating this space for students’ interests, the school has also had to refine some of its original ideas to make room for realities like assessments and how to group students.

Brightworks first opened last fall, billed as a progressive school that allows kids to follow their own passions. It’s organized very differently from traditional schools. Teachers are known as “collaborators” and the curriculum is centered on “the Brightworks arc,” which divides learning into three phases – exploration, expression, and exposition – based on a central theme. The students explore a theme, design projects around that theme, then present their work to the community. The idea is that these projects – such as building a wooden stage for a play they’ve written or using aerial silks to demonstrate kinetic energy – provide the context for learning core academic skills.

As with every experiment, the first year has provided plenty of opportunities for refining, according to founder and co-director Gever Tulley.

“It’s been a great year. We’ve had great moments and we’ve had hiccup-y moments,” Tulley said. Continue reading →

FILED UNDER: Culture, Learning Methods, Brightworks, creativity, experiential learning, Gever Tulley, passion-based learning, project-based-learning

Beyond Technology, How to Spark Kids’ Passions

June 28, 2012 | 10:38 AM | By

Flickr:ScratchPost

Amidst a sea of tech devices, and at a gathering of more than 18,000 educators interested in technology, a surprisingly human message rose above the noise at this week’s International Society for Technology in Education.

Kicking off the big event, where crowds overflowed from one packed room to another, Sir Ken Robinson, renowned author and international education adviser, proposed the idea that technology is not the only driver for learning.

“The problem now is resisting the notion that technology is the answer to everything — it’s clearly not,” Robinson said. “But what part of the equation does technology best speak to?”

Robinson, who’s been outspoken about the need to change the education paradigm, emphasized that educators shouldn’t be pushing (or be pushed toward) the gratuitous use of technology. He posed thought-provoking questions that got to the heart of what every stakeholder in education wants: what does it take to engage students — not just within a standardized curriculum, but in their own learning? What are the roles of technology in doing this? And what are the implications when it comes to implementing practices and policies?

“We should get rid of the words ‘curriculum delivery.’ It’s an art form to teach.”

In the hunt to find the next Holy Grail in education technology, Robinson said we may be losing sight of what teachers are best at.

“We should get rid of the words ‘curriculum delivery,’” he said, referring to the multitudes of tech platforms. “It’s an art form to teach, the judgement of what might work today may not work tomorrow.”

Teachers are the connective tissue in helping kids find not just subjects at which they test well, but what they’re passionate about, he said. “You often don’t know what you’re passionate about because you haven’t been introduced to it in the right way,” he said. “Teachers provide that stewardship we need,” he said.

For teachers, helping kids find their passion outside the confines of standardized curriculum and testing can be a messy endeavor, but worth the challenge. Marc Prensky, author of the book Continue reading →

FILED UNDER: Culture, Learning Methods, inquiry learning, ISTE 2012, Marc Prensky, passion-based learning, Sir Ken Robinson