Designing Dynamic Curricula: Leaving Space for Students to Live, Love and Learn
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The document describes an undergraduate curriculum called "The World Today" that uses a "Live, Love, Learn" approach to curriculum design. It aims to develop students' skills through authentic, active learning experiences. Students work collaboratively in teams to research global issues. They are given choices in topic selection, task structure, and skill development. Evaluation of the course found that it provided an unusual learning environment that improved students' skills like teamwork and presentation abilities. While challenging, students reported gaining confidence and finding the experience intellectually stimulating. The explicit curriculum design allowed in-depth qualitative research on students' learning experiences.
Designing Dynamic Curricula: Leaving Space for Students to Live, Love and Learn
- 1. Dynamic Curriculum Design Leaving Space for Students to Live, Love and Learn
- 2. Dr Elizabeth Hauke, Principal Teaching Fellow Global Challenges Page: 2 Undergraduate courses that explore sustainable human development using the ‘Live, Love, Learn’ approach to curriculum design Cross faculty courses available to all undergraduate students for degree or extra credit Imperial Horizons Centre for Languages, Culture and Communication
- 3. Designing Dynamic Curricula 1. Our Approach – Live, Love, Learn 2. Skills and Decision Making 3. Example Curriculum – The World Today 4. Evaluation – Are We Moving in a Good Direction? Page: 3 Undergraduate research and enquiry based learning
- 4. OUR APPROACH LIVE Prior learning, individual and collective experiences are valued as a foundation for new knowledge and understanding of the lived world. Empathic engagement with others critically anchors learning to the real, messy, intricate needs of individuals and communities around the world. LOVE Pursuing challenging, active learning is vital to create independent, critical thinkers who approach complexity with confidence and self- awareness. LEARN Page: 4
- 5. Global Challenges All learning and assessment is tailored to the student and the topic AUTHENTICITY Explicit, practical, kinaesthetic, democratic, dynamic classes ACTIVE LEARNING Students make as many choices as possible to direct their learning STUDENT EMPOWERED Priority given to skill development and working processes rather than content PROCESS BASED Page: 5 We offer courses to all undergraduate years, all of which use the LIVE LOVE LEARN APPROACH
- 6. Global Challenges • 1ST YEAR: Library and empirical research • 2nd YEAR: Library and empirical research and real world problem solving • 3rd/4th YEAR: Library research, analysis and synthesis CURRICULUM DESIGN Page: 6
- 7. Leaving space for students to make choices DYNAMIC CURRICULA All our curricula are designed to allow students to create their own learning profile – they can pick a relevant topic, prioritise the development of a particular skill-set and collaborate freely with their peers and co-learners
- 8. Leaving space for students to make choices DYNAMIC CURRICULA Every choice that students make is linked to the development of a particular skill that is critical to the Live, Love, Learn approach – and to making independent, resilient and creative thinkers
- 9. SKILL MAPPING Page: 9 Building Resilience Thinking Handling Information Networking Maximising Creativity
- 10. SKILL MAPPING Page: 10 Developing versatility as a learner Time management and meeting deadlines Coping with uncertainty Dealing with work and study stress Establishing and maintaining a good work-life balance Managing your ‘learning fitness’ Independent learning Managing disagreements and understanding different perspectives Being generous to yourself Building self confidence in a range of settings Developing a real understanding of your strengths and weaknesses as a learner critical thinking independent thinking interdisciplinary thinking reasoning and formulating an argument thinking and imagining with compassion and empathy building on your own prior experience and your internal resources building on the prior experience and resources of others tolerating uncertainty, complexity and dilemmas close reading accessing a variety of sources evaluating the quality of different sources analysing data evidencing an argument respecting and understanding the ideas of others generating your own data using appropriate methods performing library research performing and designing your own empirical research team working collaborative working leadership communicating your ideas using a range of media meeting new people and forming new relationships learning from others problem solving thinking outside your discipline recognizing your unique and full potential developing radical and fearless vision divergent thinking creative working Imagineering writing speaking exchanging ideas asking good questions reflexive practice
- 11. SKILL MAPPING Page: 11 Building Resilience - Skills in this category help you to perform well in your studies and make you the best ‘learner’ you can possibly be. This category includes skills that build your ‘Learning Fitness’.
- 12. SKILL MAPPING Page: 12 Thinking - Skills in this category help you to develop advanced thinking capability. This includes independence of thought and critical thinking.
- 13. SKILL MAPPING Page: 13 Handling Information - Skills in this category help you to find, evaluate and analyse different types of information. This includes both library research where you evaluate information produced by other people and empirical research to generate your own data.
- 14. SKILL MAPPING Page: 14 Networking - This category includes communication, collaboration and team working skills.
- 15. SKILL MAPPING Page: 15 Maximising Creativity - This category includes skills that will help to make you an effective and fearless problem solver.
- 17. Students must work collaboratively in teams to investigate the key issues facing the world today. In teams the students must produce a wiki that details the issue that they have researched, covering four key topics – the current status of the issue, how the problem is measured, any uncertainties that exist and the likely future of the issue. The student teams have an embedded supervisory co-learner who is an ‘expert’ in learning and research. Page: 17 THE WORLD TODAY 1st Year, Autumn Term
- 18. Building Resilience – Thinking – Handling Information – Networking – Maximising Creativity – Page: 18 What is a global challenge? Student driven activity
- 19. Page: 19 Other Handling Information Tasks
- 20. Page: 20 Other Handling Information Tasks
- 21. Page: 21 Other Handling Information Tasks
- 22. Page: 22 Other Handling Information Tasks
- 23. Page: 23 Other Handling Information Tasks
- 24. Page: 24 Other Handling Information Tasks
- 25. Page: 25 Other Handling Information Tasks
- 26. Page: 26 Other Handling Information Tasks
- 27. How many decisions and choices are students really making in The World Today? Page: 27
- 28. The World Today – Choices and Decisions (session 1) 1. What is a ‘global challenge’? 2. What makes a good team? 3. How does diversity improve thinking and understanding? 4. How can the most diverse teams be formed? 5. What experience, expertise and interests do you have - how do they compare to your team? 6. What global challenge is your team suited to tackle? 7. Define your global issue and pitch it to the class for approval 8. Define the scope of your global issue 9. What relevant skills do you have – complete the self assessment and pick a skill-focus for your assessment 10. Set up a team page on your wiki and introduce yourselves with photos and a mini-bio 11. How should the wiki be organised? 12. How much work should I do for next week?
- 29. How many choices are individual and how many democratic? Page: 29
- 30. The World Today – Choices and Decisions (session 1) 1. What is a ‘global challenge’? 2. What makes a good team? 3. How does diversity improve thinking and understanding? 4. How can the most diverse teams be formed? 5. What experience, expertise and interests do you have - how do they compare to your team? 6. What global challenge is your team suited to tackle? 7. Define your global issue and pitch it to the class for approval 8. Define the scope of your global issue 9. What relevant skills do you have – complete the self assessment and pick a skill-focus for your assessment 10. Set up a team page on your wiki and introduce yourselves with photos and a mini-bio 11. How should the wiki be organised? 12. How much work should I do for next week?
- 31. IMAGE NAME 1 IMAGE NAME 2 Typical Topic Selection Page: 31
- 32. IMAGE NAME 1 IMAGE NAME 2 Wiki Set Up Page: 32
- 33. SKILL SELF ASSESSMENT Page: 33 Building Resilience Thinking Handling Information Networking Maximising Creativity Each skill group is rated using a Likert 1-5 scale
- 34. Are choices and decisions good or easy for students? Page: 34
- 35. KEY CONCERNS Page: 35 • High cognitive load (learning effort) • No traditional teacher/expert-student model • The content is messy and complex • Fine-grained continuous assessment of the learning process (including self and peer marking) – requires continuous effort and engagement However, these factors can all be managed and actually provide useful challenge
- 36. KEY CONCERNS Page: 36 Content Effort Work collaboratively Find own information Decide how much work to do Define own topic Complexity of material Quantity of material Sweller, J (1988) Cognitive load during problem solving: Effects on learning. Cognitive Science, 12 (2), 257–285.
- 37. The Research The World Today: a space for disorientation, self-reflection and re-orientation towards a future ripe for transformation • Ethnographic participant observation of a cohort of 51 students • Investigating how students engage with an unusual and challenging learning environment
- 38. The Research Why observational research? • Qualitative research to explore the ‘experience’ of learning • ‘Authentic’ evaluation to honour the values of the learning endeavour • Individualistic insight – understanding ‘everybody’ is understanding nobody
- 39. The Research Why observational research? • Qualitative research to explore the ‘experience’ of learning • ‘Authentic’ evaluation to honour the values of the learning endeavour • Individualistic insight – understanding ‘everybody’ is understanding nobody Ashton, S. (2010) Authenticity in Adult Learning. International Journal of Lifelong Education, 29 (1), 3-19. Kreber, C. (2013) Authenticity in and through teaching in higher education. London, Routledge.
- 40. The Research Why observational research? • Qualitative research to explore the ‘experience’ of learning • ‘Authentic’ evaluation to honour the values of the learning endeavour • Individualistic insight – understanding ‘everybody’ is understanding nobody Rose, T. (2015). The End of Average: How we Succeed in a World that Values Sameness . San Francisco, HarperOne. Rose, T., Rouhani, P., & Fischer, K. (2013). The Science of the Individual. Mind, Brain, and Education, 7 (3), 152-158
- 41. To increase reliability and validity of data, several data types were triangulated to develop each piece of analysis • Direct participant observation • Indirect observation of online collaboration • Interrogation of learning products • Initial and final learning reflections • Completed wikis Page: 41 Tempering the qualitative and subjective WITH TRIANGULATION
- 42. IMAGE NAME 1 IMAGE NAME 2 Indirect Observation Page: 42 Actions on Team Wikis IndividualStudents
- 43. IMAGE NAME 1 IMAGE NAME 2 Indirect Observation Page: 43
- 44. IMAGE NAME 1 IMAGE NAME 2 Indirect Observation Page: 44
- 45. IMAGE NAME 1 IMAGE NAME 2 Indirect Observation Page: 45
- 46. IMAGE NAME 1 IMAGE NAME 2 Indirect Observation Page: 46
- 47. IMAGE NAME 1 IMAGE NAME 2 Indirect Observation Page: 47
- 48. IMAGE NAME 1 IMAGE NAME 2 Interrogation of Learning Products Page: 48
- 49. “Finally, please write a short statement about your learning experience on this course. You might want to comment on working collaboratively with other students, structuring your own learning and researching topics independently or on developing particular skills or interests.” Page: 49 Interrogation of Learning Products FREE TEXT COMMENTS
- 50. I love this course. It made you think out of the ‘science’ box. I got to know a lot of new people and use my imagination, while still working hard as a group, getting your ideas out there. I really liked the part that made me think differently about how to solve a problem. Page: 50 Interrogation of Learning Products FREE TEXT COMMENTS
- 51. Page: 51 FREE TEXT COMMENTS Creating the timeline was an entertaining experience, it was great to see so many minds and ideas working together It has been easy working collaboratively with other students because everyone’s opinions were respected on this course. I am pleased with the progress made throughout the course. I believe my Imagineering and team working skills have improved in particular, especially understanding and supporting the ideas of others. My learning fitness has also improved dramatically throughout the course – I began the course having pulled an all-nighter and I haven’t done that since. I really enjoyed applying the skills back in my own degree course too. Skills such as organisation, thinking outside my discipline and group cooperation were greatly challenged and improved.
- 52. Page: 52 FREE TEXT COMMENTS This course also showed me how feed back isn’t necessarily criticism and should be taken on board in order to improve. Imagining the ‘ideal’ world was an exciting and intellectually stimulating part, making my mind race at 100 miles per hour. The course was really helpful as we have developed a variety of skills by doing something different than in our specialised course and broadened our horizons at the same time. The different tasks that we had to fulfil as well as the structure of the course was very interesting and I think that everyone enjoyed it. This Imperial Horizons course has provided me with an opportunity to work in a team, which is rare in my subject. It has allowed me to think creatively, while looking into the world’s pressing problems. By writing the wiki, I now know how to plan my work with good referencing. In these few weeks, I have met new friends and learned a lot from them.
- 53. Page: 53 FREE TEXT COMMENTS This course also showed me how feed back isn’t necessarily criticism and should be taken on board in order to improve. Imagining the ‘ideal’ world was an exciting and intellectually stimulating part, making my mind race at 100 miles per hour. The course was really helpful as we have developed a variety of skills by doing something different than in our specialised course and broadened our horizons at the same time. The different tasks that we had to fulfil as well as the structure of the course was very interesting and I think that everyone enjoyed it. This Imperial Horizons course has provided me with an opportunity to work in a team, which is rare in my subject. It has allowed me to think creatively, while looking into the world’s pressing problems. By writing the wiki, I now know how to plan my work with good referencing. In these few weeks, I have met new friends and learned a lot from them.
- 54. SOME FINDINGS Page: 54 Things I was looking for: • Students were able to make sense of the learning environment and reflect on how it was different to their core study • Students were able to reflect on their own progress with complex ‘soft’ skills – and value this • Some students were ready and able to engage with a ‘transformative’ experience
- 55. SOME FINDINGS Page: 55 Things I didn’t expect: • Students graded themselves lower for a range of skills at the end of the course than at the start • Combined with observations and comments from their final learning reflections this seemed to represent greater self awareness • Many students were encountering learning with a high cognitive load and less structured learning environment for the first time and it exposed the level of their skillset in new ways • Conversely, some students also found they could achieve things that they thought they were incapable of
- 56. SOME FINDINGS Page: 56 Things that would have passed me by: “At the beginning of the course I did not know how to break down such a big global challenge into weekly chunks, and this has helped my view/thoughts on tackling other issues outside this Horizons course. Also I feel I have gained confidence in speaking in front of a large group, as previously I had not really done this before. I have even been able to talk about uncertainties of whether aliens exist with no notes, which I am particularly proud of. I have loved learning in a group of people with mixed courses/backgrounds as ideas have really been able to be bounced around/off people which really aided learning and improved my experience.”
- 57. This evaluation and research was possible due to the explicit nature of the learning experience The Live, Love, Learn approach brings together a range of pedagogic and learning design tools that create this explicit experience for both students and staff We would like to see whether this could be embedded in other teaching environments to allow qualitative, individualistic, authentic evaluation to be carried out Page: 57
- 58. As a first step, we have set up a website detailing our approach, along with a KnowledgeBase to explore the theoretical basis and practical implications of the approach www.livelovelearn.education Page: 58
- 59. IMAGE NAME 1 IMAGE NAME 2 Thank You Page: 59 STUDENT FEEDBACK AND REFERENCES