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What's the difference?

Thoughts on making a real difference in the lives of learners...

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Experiential Learning & The Hidden Curriculum:                           A Hot Dog Story

5/29/2018

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In my last post, I wrote about the winning combination of experiential and knowledge-based learning that I had seen in action accompanying our Senior High School Science students to the Bamfield Marine Science Centre earlier this month. What I didn’t talk about was what we used to call the “hidden curriculum” that was also embedded in the organization and execution of the trip.
 
In order to ensure a successful experience in May, bookings were made a year earlier and active planning began in earnest in September. One of the key enabling components to ensure that the trip was accessible for all interested students, was figuring out how our kids could raise the funds necessary to defray some of the costs. The students were an active part of the planning process, looking at various fundraising options and finally settling upon that tried and true proven money-maker – hot dog sales! Now, we all know that this is not the most healthy option, but as a once a week lunch alternative, nestled between two days of our nutritious hot-lunch programme, they decided to give it a go.
 
So, what did that mean for our students? It meant drawing up a business plan; researching the relative cost of hotdogs, buns, condiments etc. from various sources; setting up a work schedule; and, advertising this new service at school assemblies. It involved collaborative teamwork, commitment, and a strong work ethic, not to mention the mastery of cooking and assembling lunch; counting money and making change; and dealing with a highly demanding clientele.

Thanks to the perseverance and hard work of our students and Tyler Gilowski, their Science teacher, the business was an unqualified success! Over the next six months they raised over $5,000 and were able to cut the cost of the trip in half through their efforts.
 
So what was the takeaway in all of this? To begin with, instead of just putting their hands out for cash from Mommy and Daddy, they took ownership of the problem. They came together as a group, worked in concert for a common goal, and took pride in the outcome. Week by week, they kept their collective “eye on the prize” and by the time that the trip itself rolled around, they were a solid unit.
 
I saw the results of this hidden curriculum first hand when I joined them on their trip. They supported one another, worked together effectively in every task presented to them and kept one another engaged and included. There were no social cliques or conflicts. For all of their differences, they were united in a common purpose, no-one was just along for the ride. The rest of the not-so hidden curriculum – being away from home, living in a dorm, eating unfamiliar foods, spending long hours in transit on ferry and bus were all made far more manageable by the easy camaraderie that they had established over the previous months.
 
Next year, we adults might nudge their successors towards selling a more varied and nutritious menu to their peers, but at the end of the day it will be their problem to solve, their team to build, and their business to run.
 
And isn’t that what authentic learning is all about?

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Head and Hands: Getting Meaning out of Experience

5/15/2018

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There is probably no term more ill-used in education circles than "hands-on" learning. It has become a synonym for a wide variety of strategies such as: discovery learning; experiential learning; kinesthetic learning; learning by doing; constructivism; or exploratory learning - to name a few. The basic premise in many of these terms is that through exploration or discovery, a learner can engage in "problem solving situations where the learner draws on his or her own past experience and existing knowledge to discover facts and relationships and new truths to be learned". Or, as another school of thought states, "hands on learning is "gaining knowledge by actually doing something rather than learning about it from books, lectures, etc."

The implication in both these definitions is that modes of learning are an either one thing or the other. But the fact is, effective learning is always an "and" not an either/or. I think of it this way, the first time that I ever went to Paris, I had read about all of the highlights first and then experienced them in person. And, even as I was admiring Notre Dame, I still had my Michelin Guide clutched in my hand so that I could make sense of what I was seeing. That is the true value of experiential/hands-on learning, a delicate balance between knowledge and experience with the result being a far greater depth of understanding than either method could produce on its own.

Last week I had the pleasure of tagging along as our senior high school Science students traveled to spend four days at the Bamfield Marine Sciences Centre, which is perched high above Barkley Sound on the west coast of Vancouver Island. Reading over the itinerary in advance, I knew that there would be some great field experiences along the shore and out at sea in the Centre's research vessels. I noticed too, almost in passing, that sandwiched in between these excursions there were a number of labs scheduled as well. My first inclination was to conclude that the labs would be interesting "fillers" while we waited for the next on-site adventure. I couldn't have been more wrong. Rather than being diversions, these labs were an essential component of the learning process. For example, on the first day, students took part in both an invertebrate lab and a seaweed lab. In each case, through a combination of lecture/demonstration; the study of resource materials; and, practical hands-on experience, the students learned how to identify and classify different types of marine life found locally. Armed with this knowledge, the next morning found them out on the Sound in a research vessel dredging the ocean floor for specimens and the following day hiking to a nearby beach at low tide to look at life in the tidal pools first hand. At each stage, the students acquired, deepened and applied their knowledge and understanding of invertebrate life and the symbiotic relationship with aquatic plants and, eventually, plankton. This was experiential learning at its best. Solid preparation, acquiring key background knowledge, hands-on reinforcement in a laboratory setting and then practical, real world observation and application to gain a greater understanding of the local environment. 

I have spent the last 10 years living near the ocean, walking the shoreline, gazing into tidal pools and picking up and discarding shells. But all this time, I had been the classic tourist without a guidebook. I saw but didn't understand in more than a cursory fashion the living world around me. Many of our students were the same, but now that has changed. Information can be found in books, or online, and experiences can wash over us like the incoming tide. But, until you put them together, real knowledge and understanding generally remain just out of reach.


Want to really learn something? Do your homework first, and then be prepared to get your hands dirty. It's an unbeatable combination!

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    Author

    Dr. Jim Christopher is recently retired Head of Kenneth Gordon Maplewood School and Maplewood Alternative High School in North Vancouver. A parent, author and long-time teacher, and educational administrator across Canada, he has been actively involved in the drive to differentiate learning experiences to meet the needs of all learners.

    View my profile on LinkedIn

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