Mind the Gap: Creating Experience-based Learning Remotely

Is it possible to re-design the kind of experience-based learning we created together at CITYterm and in the Teaching for Experience workshop in a remote medium?

I confess I do not know, but I am really eager to try. And that is what Mind The Gap is going to do this fall.  Here is the link-https://mtgnow.org/

We just went live today with the website. Please feel free to pass this link around to whomever you think might be interested.

Since you read this blog (well, maybe you read it sometimes), you have some idea of the kinds of things we have learned about how and why some moments in our lives become experiences. And transformative experiences in many cases.

So, the new challenge is this--can you design an online curriculum, pedagogy and a collective of human relationships that will allow everyone involved to create an experience?  I have been very hopeful with some experiments lately, but it is such a different world to what I am used to whether I am working with students or teachers.

Here is one thing I think we have going for us from a learning theory point of view. It took me years of teaching and coaching to realize that the following phrase is deeply true--"Transitions are a time of maximum creativity." We will have to have a sophisticated understanding of the characteristics of transitions and why we sabotage that state of being so frequently, so unnecessarily.  This venture is all about the time of TRANSITION. Let's see what we can create!

Thoughts and comments welcome. I will keep you posted as this progresses. Share the website with your friends and colleagues.

Keep the faith..

The DKDK Project Goes to College!

Twenty-four years ago, CITYterm started experimenting with how early elementary school might be synthesized with college to create an educational experience that adolescents would actually be eager to engage in and would trigger an intrinsic motivation for learning. To that end, we mined (and stole) liberally from Reggio Emilia, Montessori, Waldorf and the Bank Street School of Education. 

The other major place we looked for engagement and intrinsic motivation was in the (tragically named) world of "extra" or "co-curriculars." My own expertise was in the world of athletics, but I soon found that theater, music, debate, outdoor education, service learning and countless other areas would yield great ideas for deciphering the mystery of engagement and motivation.

Why couldn't high school classrooms look more like those arenas?  Could you make a student's learning experience become integrated and overcome the fragmented world they inhabit that is partially responsible for generating the crippling levels of anxiety that students feel today? What we found was that they could, but you had to be extraordinarily precise in the skills and psycho-emotional dispositions you had students practice. And you had to be very flexible and adaptive in the way you used time and space. In other words, where and how does learning take place? And what makes it transformative?

Well, colleges have been experimenting with these ideas for a number of years now. For example, Ken Bain and his colleagues (that includes us!) at The Best Teachers Institute spend time designing what they call "Supercourses" that facilitate deep learning. 

While the DKDK Project has already been working with elementary, middle and highs schools to design and implement this kind of learning, we are exceptionally pleased to be partnering with a number of offices, centers and museums at the University of Chicago to share what we have learned in the college setting with teachers of every age group.

The DKDK Project goes to College in April 2020!

The DKDK Project, in partnership with The University of Chicago’s Office of Civic Engagement, Stevanovich Institute for the Formation of Knowledge, the Center for Teaching and the Smart Museum, is thrilled to announce the

Learning Beyond the Classroom Workshop

We invite educators from secondary, post-secondary and community-based settings to join us in Chicago for a two-day workshop focused on transformational teaching practices.

What participants can expect

Designed in collaboration with the University of Chicago’s Office of Civic Engagement, this workshop is an interactive seminar that asks participants to experience the benefit of deep learning, including place-based and experience-based pedagogical practices. Through hands-on sessions and seminar-style discussion, participants will explore ways to make the content of their course memorable, transferable and transformational for students. Participants in this workshop will experience model lessons which have been developed over several decades, as well as strategies for incorporating “guests” and other “experts” into classes as a way to deepen inquiry and engagement. This workshop will feature local community members connected to the Office of Civic Engagement and organizations working in Chicago. 

Registration

The workshop will begin on Tuesday, April 21, 2020 at 1050 East 59th Street, 3rd Floor  (9:00 am to 5:00 pm CST) and will conclude on Wednesday, April 22, 2020 (9:00 am to 3:00 pm CST) at 5737 South University Avenue.

The cost of the workshop is $750. This fee includes breakfast and lunch each day, as well as all instructional materials and activities associated with the workshop. Housing and transportation are not included. CPDU offered for public school teachers.

Apply via this google form. We will reach out to confirm your registration and share additional details. For more information, contact Erica Chapman at ericachapman@dkdkproject.org.

Download more information about this workshop here.

While I have been experimenting on transforming this blog into a book, there are still so many other things that are happening.  Nice to know we made some correct observations about teaching and learning 25 years (or so) ago, and that people are still interested in what we have been discovering in the last quarter century.

But, one of the things I am most happy about is the workshop below.

Please spread the word and pass this on to whomever you think might enjoy it.

And I will let you know when this blog transforms into a book (in a very different form it appears--so far).

Keep the faith

 

Announcing the Teaching for Transformation Workshop

June 15 - 19, 2020

The DKDK Project and The Hewitt School are thrilled to offer the Teaching for Transformation (TfT) Workshop. Designed for educators interested in deepening the learning experiences offered in their classrooms and their schools, TfT is a five-day workshop that explores the principles of transformational learning through active participation in a series of unique learning experience and small group dialogues.

The workshop will begin on Monday morning, June 15, 2020 and will end in the early afternoon on Friday, June 19, 2020. Sessions will take place at The Hewitt School’s campus on the Upper East Side of New York City.

About the Teaching for Transformation Workshop:

The Teaching for Transformation Workshop explores the following questions:

• ●  What are the characteristics of deep learning (as opposed to surface and strategic learning) and how can teachers facilitate deep learning?
  
• ●  How do skills and content work together to create transformational learning experiences?
  
• ●  What is the relationship between feedback and deep learning?
  
• ●  How can teachers effectively use transfer as a way of generating experience?
  
• ●  How does collaborative learning affect the depth of learning?
  
• ●  How can authentic, alternative assessment drive learning? 
• 
  
• Programmatic Highlights:
  

• ●  Session facilitators: ​Erica Chapman​ and D​avid Dunbar​ of the ​DKDK Project​ and Maureen Burgess, Assistant Head of School for Learning and Innovation, ​The Hewitt School
  
• ●  Seminar with​ Ken Bain​, renowned professor, educational researcher and author of ​What the Best College Teachers Do,What the Best College Students Do a​nd​ Super Courses (forthcoming)
  
• ●  Explore deep learning pedagogy first hand through place-based experiences that use New York City as a text
  
• ●  Enjoy New York City, including dinners and evening activities
  

The TfT approach to adult learning:
In order to facilitate deep learning experiences for our students, we believe we must first experience transformational pedagogy as learners. Therefore, TfT is designed not as a traditional workshop, but as an immersive learning experience that supports workshop participants in experiencing and articulating the principles of deep learning. To do this, we design TfT with the following premises in mind:

Learning is social.
Join a cohort of 15 to 18 educators from schools across the country. Consider your own beliefs about teaching and learning by entering into a rich dialogue new colleagues working in a range of disciplines and from a variety of schools.

Learning is active.
TfT asks participants to engage in collaborative, interdisciplinary learning experiences on-campus in in New York City and in seminar-style discussions. Over the course of the workshop, we move from practice to theory and back again, all the while refining our understanding of transformational learning.

Learning sticks when it is connected to a “need.”
Participants are selected because they are reflective practitioners interested in exploring specific aspects of their practice. Because we bring together a dynamic cohort who are each pursuing different lines of inquiry, no two TfT Workshops are the same; sessions are designed and redesigned based participant interests.

About the DKDK Project:
After fifteen successful years co-leading the Teaching for Experience Workshop, based on the work they did leading CITYterm (a semester program that served as a laboratory for transformational learning with students), Erica Chapman founded the​ DKDK Project​ alongside her long-time collaborator, David Dunbar. The​ DKDK Project​ is committed to refining our collective understanding of transformational learning - what it is and how it happens - alongside like-minded practitioners. Our goal is to support schools in creating the conditions necessary for both students and teachers to experience transformational learning.

About The Hewitt School:
Founded in 1920, The Hewitt School is a K-12 girls’ school located in New York City. Hewitt’s academic philosophy​ is rooted in four pillars: presence, empathy, research, and purpose. These pillars define Hewitt’s approach to educational innovation and effective learning.

Application process:
To apply for Teaching for Transformation, please complete an ​application​ by March 1, 2020. Applicants will be notified by April 1, 2020 if they have been accepted.

Applicants who apply by March 1, 2020 will be notified of acceptance into the June 2020 cohort by April 1, 2020. The cost of the workshop is $1875. Invoices will be sent out in April and are due by May 1, 2020. The workshop fee includes breakfast and lunch each day and two group dinners, as well as all instructional materials and activities associated with the workshop. Housing and transportation are not included.

For more information, contact Erica Chapman at ​ericachapman@dkdkproject.org​.