February 19, 2018

Social Construction of Knowledge

What is that?

In an Expeditionary Learning school, we believe that as learners our ability to construct new understandings comes from the opportunity to learn among a group of peers. The learner begins with an initial understanding and constructs, or builds, new understandings as they have experiences and conversations within a learning community. When we hear what others are thinking, it extends our own thinking.

Because we believe this is a powerful learning model, we use it every day intentionally within our classrooms. And we use this model when we work together professionally.

Friday of last week, we had a full day of learning together. We are increasing teacher leadership by sharing the role and responsibility of facilitating our professional development sessions.

In the morning, we started with drumming. We practice and live those important rituals as a staff for exactly the same reason we do them with kids. To build our sense of belonging and circle of safety.

Drumming is a fundamental form of human expression and a tool for developing unity.

We moved into a rich experience of unpacking the teacher transfer of Adventure Education. We know that it is the role of the teacher to support students in making the transfer of the learning experiences gained on Voyage into the classroom and other areas of a students' life. But what about the transfer a teacher needs to make to their own practice?

Here's the guiding questioned we grappled with...

Capitalizing on teacher leadership to facilitate our professional development session. Ms. Lisa guides us through this learning discovery.

Using a 'Chalk Talk' protocol - one we use with students too.
Without talking, each learner moves about the room and records their thoughts about the Outward Bound principle on the poster. While moving from poster to poster, the learner also reads the thoughts of others and can build on those, disagree, and write new ideas.

  

We don't make this stuff up!
We use the guiding principles from Outward Bound.
These are the principles that guide the work of
Expeditionary Learning schools.

Here's what the focus of each of these
 'Chalk Talk' posters were about:

Modeling What You Are Trying to Teach.

Gradually Stepping Back and Letting the Students Take Charge.

Breaking Down Complex Tasks Into Small Steps.

Working In Small Groups.

Picking Projects That Seem Impossible To Students And Then Accomplishing Them.

Joining Very High Standards With The Expectation That Everyone Is Going To Succeed And Help Others Succeed.

Changing The Context.

Doing a Minimum Of Instruction With A Maximum of Application.

When you first read these, they read like a list of good pedagogy for teaching in the classroom, right? And they are! But here's the surprising part, these are the practices used by Outward Bound instructors! These very practices are ones that teachers have adapted well to the classroom. Another whole level of transfer!

After the 'Chalk Talk' protocol, teachers worked in grade level teams to brainstorm how they currently do these practices and ideas for improvement.

We are more than grade level teachers - we are literacy and math specialists, instructional assistants, special education teachers, speech teachers, Performing and Visual Art teachers, and Physical Education teachers.
We know one teacher would never be able to meet all the needs of students.
We believe in Crew and we teach as a Crew. 

These 'anchor charts' of our thinking now live on the walls in the lounge to keep the learning alive in the coming days. We use anchor charts with students the same way. We can look back on this shared experience and continue to talk about how we are taking an idea to action.

In the afternoon, Ms. Pam facilitated a Love and Logic training.
Many of us have been using the 9 Essential Skills of Love and Logic for years, and always benefit from a refresher. Some of our staff is new to these skills - and we honor the belief that we have to support one another so we can all succeed.

We are always so thankful and inspired by our professional development time together. To be great educators, we need thoughtful time to learn and grow together. We also need the time to connect and build the relationships that build Crew, so we can provide that for our kids.