Education is a Shared Experience
Working with teachers during this COVID era has created space for some conversations that have produced a few versions of the same conclusion: the shared experience of education is not assignments.
The concept of “shared experiences” can take so many forms. Is it shared across a district, grade level, or classroom? Does shared mean identical? Is “shared experience” really about accountability (i.e. common assessments, common lessons) or is it about shared culture and belonging?
Recently, as I coached social studies and science teachers to explore hybrid instruction (in this case: face-to-face learners coupled with remote learners joining virtually — all synchronous), the “shared experience” concept swirled underneath our conversation. Really, how can learners share an experience when they aren’t in the same space physically — (all face-to-face or even all remote)?
For example: How can we do a mineral unit with hands-on rock tests (scratching for hardness, etc.)? We circled the hyflex models, inquiry, and technology: Conduct a Nearpod with stops along the way for partners across platforms to interact with rock samples and ask questions that think like a scientist. Couple with a rally-coach style turn-and-talk and insert discoveries in the Nearpod.
Conduct a Nearpod (centers the remote learners-good for hybrid)
Stop along the way for partners (one face-to-face and one remote) to interact with rock samples (face-to-face learner) and ask questions that think like a scientist (remote learner).
Couple with a rally-coach style turn-and-talk and insert discoveries in the Nearpod. (emphasize discovery-inquiry as the shared experience)
It was just the first iteration. Many drafts will follow! But the conclusion: A shared experience is thinking like a scientist, not cookbook recipe labs. Thinking like a historian, asking questions rather than memorizing one set of answers (which typically is a single narrative).
A shared experience is inquiry, not assignments.
How would you answer the question? A shared experience IS… A shared experience is NOT…
