I taught my share of courses as an educator - all levels of Biology, Ecology, Physical Science, and Botany. As you know, courses are the mainstay of any high school curriculum, they are arranged into logical sequences, and they are intended to build on each other. Courses are composed of units, and units are composed of lessons. All of this is part of the organizational hierarchy of schools and the structure that a school organization imposes upon learning.
As you know, you don’t need to take a course to learn. You don’t even need a teacher. But today’s schools are based on the assumption that both are required. It’s school, after all.
Before I proceed, I believe in schools and teachers. It's appropriate to recognize the high value both bring to kids and society. But I wonder about a system in today’s world where the learner's experience depends on someone else to tell them what they will learn, where they will learn it, how they will learn it, and how they will demonstrate understanding. This is especially ironic when considering that most schools see the development of lifelong, independent learners as an important goal.
I also believe that conventional school works well for many kids, their parents, and the community the school serves. However, I am equally convinced that school falls short for many students due to various factors - some outside the school’s control while others are within its sphere of influence. From my perspective, improving the school experience requires establishing an educational system that prioritizes choice and authenticity. Schools should offer learners the opportunity to personally shape and design their education and explore real issues and opportunities while benefiting from the guidance and expertise of professional educators.
To accomplish this, schools can begin by rethinking how they organize kids into spaces, time, and curriculum. It’s time to rethink what the concept of a course is. This can begin by making the fundamental shift from offering courses to students to involving them as co-designers of their learning experience.
So, here is how I see this being shaped.
The focus of the learning experience could be any traditional curricular topic associated with school, such as some aspect of mathematics, science, art, or physical education, etc. The experience should also push these traditional boundaries by including disruptive components such as entrepreneurism, artificial intelligence, and emergent technologies. An interesting collision of traditional curriculum and emergent trends and issues could shape the experience.
The heart of the experience would be composed of learning events: no more standardized lessons but experiences generated by educators and by students themselves. The experiences created by educators would support the discipline of study (e.g., mathematics + entrepreneurialism) and be of value to all students by supporting the development of a fundamental knowledge base. These might be considered core events of the experience. These could come from a pool that would include:
Seminars
Expeditions
Charettes
Open/Discovery/Exploratory events
Discussions/forums
Project time/Prototyping
Research/Ethnography/Discovery
Studio time with critiques
Consultation/mentoring
Assembly (as an entire group)
Beyond the core events, additional events could add depth, dimension, and interest to the experience that might be optional, with students required to self-select several that would inform their experience.
Students would also be required to design events supporting their specific experience but would be available to other students to participate in. It would be essential to expect students to develop the skills required to build the networks and connections that could serve them beyond school.
Events would be of different duration, and many could be developed with the help of experts (local, national, international) from various academic, corporate, and social institutions. In my opinion, learning opportunities should extend beyond the physical footprint of the school and expose students to rich opportunities to learn from a variety of people.
Students would have the responsibility, along with support from the teacher, to craft a learning sequence composed of a set of events from the larger pool of available options. They would be responsible for and have ownership of six components of the experience:
developing a compelling question of interest worthy of a semester or year-long program of study that they would individually or collaboratively address.
designing a process of study that includes a compilation of learning events.
the design of several learning events that would support their study that would require connecting with sources of expertise beyond the school.
the production of a final response, product, or solution (or all three) relating to the original question represented through multiple methodologies (both physical and digital) and shared beyond school. This could be similar to capstone projects that some schools offer.
identifying a program of assessment prominently featuring self-reflection.
serving as an advisor on another student’s learning experience.
Time would be rethought to enable participation in events; events could be face-to-face, synchronous online, or asynchronous following a collegiate HyFlex model. Students would be expected to participate in all three types of events over their program of study, and attendance at a physical location for a class period would not necessarily be the predominant application of time + learning + space.
Assessment throughout the experience would be focused on evaluating the progress towards the capstone and through iterative and collaborative improvement during the capstone development. Functional touchpoints would be created to evaluate the ongoing development of a learning portfolio associated with student progress to the capstone. Progress could be captured by students through a tool like Unrulr (see Garreth Heidt’s example of Unrulr) or other reflection methodologies.
Will this take some serious planning? Yes! But so what? That’s the good work of education and what is required to make a fundamental shift away from the expected status quo. Are there holes in my thinking? Probably, but it's a prototype, and what is important is getting ideas in place so they can be improved.
I believe that something like this doesn’t have to apply to all students in a high school. Typical schools are just too large for something like this to scale effectively. And it probably isn’t right for every student. But it’s right for some. Effective educational institutions excel by providing an array of experiences that cater to a spectrum of preferences – from the classical model of school to innovative experiences that foster unique connections between students and their world and, in the process, empower them to shape their school experience and educational journey actively.