Discussion on encouraging student-driven education-July 25th
Discussion on encouraging student-driven education:
Ed Moriarty, MIT Cambridge MA
Elizabeth Cavicchi, MIT Cambridge MA
Alicia Lopez, CIC Barcelona
Silvia Zurita, UPC Barcelona
Jonathan Dietz. MIT '73
Notes made using Otter AI and Chat GPT to summarize discussion:
Purpose of Education: Education should empower students to lead happy, healthy, productive lives. Overstressing students on irrelevant topics can be counterproductive.
Project-Based Learning (PBL): Sharing knowledge and experiences from successful PBL implementations will help other educators adopt similar methods. MIT project-based courses such as 2.00B Toy Design and 2.009 Product Engineering emphasize team and collaborative skills, as do K12 project-based learning exemplars such as NuVu Studioin Cambridge and High Tech High in San Diego.
Inclusive Coaching and Teaching: Emphasize inclusion, diversity, and collaboration in both educational and extracurricular activities.
Benefits of External Experience: Teachers with experience outside the educational system bring richer perspectives and can interact with students in more enriching ways.
Teacher Challenges: Balancing personal teaching limitations with the goal of implementing innovative methods can be difficult, especially when convincing other teachers.
Student-Centered Learning: Making student opinions matter and allow students to take ownership of their projects.
Expanding Teaching Methods: Embracing new teaching methods, such as hackathons and project-based learning, can inspire and engage students.
Structured Start: Starting PBLwith collaborative digital media projects, with applicability across the curriculum, can ease the transition into more complex hands-on projects, as well as faciltate sharing of projects with the wider community- see MIT Meche Youtube Channel.
Focus on Education over Training: Teachers should focus on education- the purpose, motivation and why of education, letting external resources such as online resources and peer mentoring to teach technical skills.
Woodie Flowers: The difference between training and education:
Relying on Student Capabilities: Trust students to take on leadership roles and support each other, reflecting a more collaborative learning environment. Encourage collaboration among students with different skills to lead and support each other in various projects.
Use of AI and Technology: Leverage AI, online resources, and collaboration platforms such as Chat GPT and Slack to remove barriers of language and geography, enhance learning and manage educational data
Creativity and good ideas generally come from the collision of ideas. Our most creative companies thrive on collaboration.
Yet educational institutions, especially in K12( High Tech High being a rare exception)- rarely-if ever- actively encourage collaboration between faculty. Why?
Planned Research Study-Excerpts from Informed Consent:
"...You have been asked to participate in a research study conducted by Prof. Kim Vandiver, Ph.D., Dr. Elizabeth Cavicchi, Ed.D., and Ed Moriarty from the Edgerton Center at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (M.I.T.)
You were selected as a possible participant in this study because you are a student, teacher, teacher-to-be, or community member, and you are interested to become experienced in building democratic relationships in a classroom, where students, teachers and community members discuss, debate, and initiate and carry out projects and activities.
PURPOSE OF THE STUDY
The purpose of this study is to create and research classroom experiences where students and teachers collaborate together in open-ended discussions and projects. Collaborators work toward mutual and shared respect, consideration and equality. The study aims to build democracy in the science classroom - and in the lives of students, teachers and the world.
Participating students will benefit by developing deep understanding of science topics, understanding others' viewpoints without imposing their own viewpoints, and evaluating the soundness of a reasoning. Students, teachers, and community members will be empowered to act and encourage democracy, value diversity of opinions, and become facilitators with insight and practical skills in democratic, participatory, and investigative education. Study participants strengthen the democratic roots of society as a whole, with potential to inspire and shape society...."
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